Hardest Dark Souls 3 bosses

2822 duels later, Sister Friede is still #1 in the Dark Souls 3 ranking, with Darkeater Midir close behind.

Sister Friede claims the top spot with 1466 ELO points across 65 duels, edging out Darkeater Midir by 8 points. Midir follows at 1458 ELO through 72 duels, while Slave Knight Gael holds third with 1450 ELO over 92 duels. The sharpest drop in the ranking separates third from fourth place: 101 ELO points divide Slave Knight Gael from the twin princes Lorian and Lothric, who sit at 1349 ELO. This gap marks the line between the DLC bosses that dominated players and the rest of the field. At the bottom, Ancient Wyvern languishes at rank 25 with 926 ELO, preceded by Deacons of the Deep at 965 ELO and Iudex Gundyr at 1003 ELO. The bottom three occupy a space reserved for bosses that barely challenged the community, with Deacons winning just 24% of their duels.

This ranking draws on 2822 duels judged by 38 players across 25 contenders, updated on 12 October 2026. The vote remains open: head to the Dark Souls 3 TopList to cast your own judgments on which bosses caused the most grief, and watch the standings shift as more players weigh in on their toughest encounters.

Updated on October 12, 2026

How this ranking is computed

Every duel won lifts a contender and every loss drops them, by an amount that depends on the opponent's strength: beating the leader is worth more than beating the last. It is an ELO, the same principle as in chess. Duels are not drawn at random — an adaptive entropy sort puts the least predictable match-ups first, which settles the ranking far faster than a full round robin. A worldwide ranking is only published past 30 completed plays. Known limit: a contender who has faced few opponents keeps an approximate score, and the bottom of the table moves more than the podium.

How our rankings are made →