Ranking The Ringed City Bosses From Easiest To Hardest

The Ringed City added four new boss fights for players to experience, but do these guys live up the the Souls series' reputation of having some of the hardest bosses in gaming? Let's find out.

Ranking Dark Souls 3: The Ringed City Bosses From Easiest To Hardest
The Ringed City DLC for Dark Souls 3 is fantastic. One of the biggest reasons for this is the epic new boss fights that we got in this expansion. But which boss is the hardest to take down? This was very difficult to determine as 3/4 of the bosses here are extremely challenging in their own way. But after many deaths and contemplation, I have my rankings. So let's kick things off with the easiest boss in The Ringed City.

#4 Halflight, Spear of the church

Halflight, Speak Of The Church
Well, this was kind of disappointing. The only boss I find to be somewhat "meh' in The Ringed City, Halflight will be one of two things: a gank fight with an NPC, or a gank fight with an actual player. You see, if you enter the Spears of the Church covenant, you'll be able to fight players looking to progress in the DLC by becoming the actual boss in this fight.

Whether or not you're fighting another player, the boss is really just three normal guys in a room. The boss itself has a few cool magic attacks, such as spears that rise up from the ground and homing projectiles (similar to Lothric). Then there are two NPC painting guardians that throw knives at you and can actually heal the boss. 

I found that fighting another person was actually easier since they keep their normal health. That means, if you play your cards right, you could beat this boss in 4-5 hits. But this fight is more about the gank than anything else. Just keep those painting guardians in check and try your best to keep them from healing the boss and you should be totally fine. It shouldn't take you too long to beat this disappointing boss. 

#3 Demon Prince/Demon in pain/demon from below

Demon Prince
Now for those of you who haven't played the DLC yet don't worry, this is not a 3-on-1 fight. But damn, what an epic first boss to a DLC. You start off dropping down into a destroyed building where two demons lay: the Demon in Pain and the Demon from Below. Both demons have the same moves, but the way they operate is the key to defeating them. 

When one of them buffs, they will be extremely aggressive and come at you with tons of melee attacks. When not in this buffed state, they will bombard you with poison spray, poison explosions, and the occasional melee attack if you're close to them. This fight may be the closest From Software has come to making a 2-on-1 fight feel fair since the legendary Ornstein and Smough.

As long as you keep your greed in check and keep a good eye on both demons, you should get this first phase down in only a few tries. Once both are down I took a sigh of relief…only to see that the last one I killed has gotten up, screamed, and became the Demon Prince with all of its health back. 

What's great about this stage is that the boss' moves will depend on which Demon you killed last. One of them is more of a melee fighter; trying it's best to stay on top of you while occasionally stepping back to blast you with fire. This one certainly isn't easy, but it does have one or two attacks that can be heavily punished. But the second type of Demon Prince is much harder.

The second type of Demon Prince is much more projectile heavy. He can summon a huge ball of fire to just bombard you with flame balls for at least 5-10 seconds (but it'll feel like centuries). He'll spend a bit of time outside of your reach too by flying, so hitting when you can is absolutely a necessity if you want to stand a chance. 

I know what you're thinking: this boss sounds hard as hell! Why is he only #3? Well, like I said, the first phase isn't really that difficult once you kick the fear of being outnumbered. Then, the first type of Demon Prince is hard but very easily punishable. It's only the second type of Demon Prince that truly whoops you if you aren't perfect with your dodges and punishes. Plus, these next two bosses really are just hard as hell.

#2 Slave knight Gael

Slave Knight Gael
Who would've thought that the man that gave us access to The Painted World would be such a badass? As the final boss of The Ringed City (and all of Dark Souls), Slave Knight Gael is truly a beast. I use that term on purpose because the first phase of this fight is very reminiscent of The Orphan of Kos from Bloodborne (who I ranked as the second hardest boss in the Souls series). Gael runs around on all fours like a dog while using his giant sword to do consistent swipes at you, leap into the air to stab you, and he even has a devastating five hit combo that will obliterate you.

His moves are oddly timed. It is sort of reminiscent of The Nameless King in his moves. They are delayed just enough to where reacting too early is just as devastating as reacting too late. It doesn't help that he is pretty bulky too (or maybe I was just under-leveled or just the joys of NG+3), meaning that you'll need a lot of endurance for this fight.

Once you get Gael to a little less than 1/3 of his health, he'll regain some composure and fight upright. You'd think that this would make him somewhat easier but, you guessed it, it doesn't. While I can see how some people would find this phase easier than his first, I found it particularly harder. Gael's melee attacks gain fire to them as well as increased range, while still being just as fast as he was before. He also gains the boomerang magic spell as well as a crossbow that will shoot you way more than it should.

Despite how difficult this fight is and how much it may make you rage, Slave Knight Gael may be the best fight in Dark Souls 3. Its difficulty is fitting of being the last boss of the Souls series, and is really a lot of fun. I never really found myself too discouraged when losing to Gael, rather I had feelings of wanting to get better and fight this warrior again and again. But there is one more fight that I find to be the most difficult in this DLC.

#1 Darkeater Midir

Darkeater Midir
If there's one thing that we wanna do when playing a game set in a medieval time period, it's wanting to fight a big scary dragon. The Souls series has had many of this fights before; Kalameet, Sinh, Ancient Dragon, etc. So it only makes sense that the final DLC gives us the true dragon fight that was sorely missing in Dark Souls 3 (Ancient Wyvern in no way counts). From Software gave it to us in the form of Darkeater Midir, the only optional boss in The Ringed City, and damn is he hard to take down.

First off, you have to do several tasks before you can even get a chance to fight this guy. You gotta accept a quest from a hidden NPC. Then you gotta fight the dragon on a small bridge. Smack his left paw enough and he'll fall down, seemingly to his death (but of course he is not dead). After that, you have to find a hidden path in order to discover the boss room.

Once you're finally able to fight him, get ready to get bent. A lot. Midir is one of the bulkiest bosses in the series. He takes decent damage at his head, but everywhere else he is pretty heavily defended. He also hits like a truck. One false step can mean your instant death. His first phase is mostly consisting of staying on top of you and spamming an annoying fire blast on the ground. Midir also has a devastating mouth grab, strong charge attack, and a flying fire spray.

When Midir gets to a little less than 50% health, he'll perform a dark AOE blast that will one shot you. He'll gains several new attacks; such as a homing dark spell and the ability to use his dark AOE blast whenever he pleases. He'll be just as aggressive and perform many of the same attacks, so the sooner you get the timing for these attacks down the better. This is truly an endurance fight from beginning to end. Darkeater Midir is without a doubt my most difficult boss of the four new bosses.

That's our rankings of the four new bosses in The Ringed City DLC. Which boss gave you the hardest time? Let us know in the comments below! You can also check our review of The Ringed City DLC.

11 Comments

  1. Avatar photo

    no one wants to point out that this says you need to take a quest from a secret npc to fight midir, no you dont all you need to do is throw into the casim from the bridge and go down and fight him the only bc of getting to him is its behind a fake wall.

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      the only bs of finding him is hes behind a fake wall.**

       

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    Every boss is different for everyone. For exemple, I had a harder time fighting Lorian/Lothric than the Nameless King, which I found easy once you get rid of his wyvern. Same for Aldrich, once you know its pattern he’s very easy. Midir, I found him to be the hardest.

     

     

    But in Bloodborne, Defiled Chalice’s Amygdala and Watch Dog of the Old Lords are really something.

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    Midir was really hard and annoying at first. I probably died 20 times before even beginning to understand how to evade his moves, and TBH I also watched someone on YouTube do a sl1 no dodge no sprinting, which helped a lot. Eventually the fight is fun and its pretty much a test of how long you can survive without making a mistake and using every opening to attack him or to heal. I think Friede was the hardest boss in dark souls 3, yet I still have gael to fight

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      Friede was not that hard. You just had to kill Father of Ariandel first. Friede attacks were pretty scripted and not that hard to grasp. I liked to help other players with her.

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    If you have enough health you can survive Midir’s dark aoe explosion

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    Midir has got to be the hardest boss in the entire Souls series. The amount of health he has is crazy and his AOE attacks do way too much damage. However, just to clarify, you don’t need to take the quest from the NPC to fight Midir. You can fight Midir without ever talking to an NPC. The NPC does tell you about Midir and where to find him though so that’s probably where this confusion stems from.

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      You really think that Midir is more difficult than Sister Friede?? Or Manus, Father of the Abyss???

       

       

      I am confused… Midir’s only obnoxious mechanic was his flame breath directly underneath him since you have to move BEFORE he starts the cast or you WILL get hit by it. He is honestly a Kalameet clone imo… perhaps with a bit more HP.

       

       

      None of the bosses in this DLC were particularly difficult… Gael really just has obnoxious no-tell combos that you just have to guess and pray at.. Even with that, it only took me a few tries.

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    Personally, I didn’t have near as much trouble fighting Madir then I did Gael. Mind you, both were extremely hard and amazing fights but I spend roughly twice as long on Gael than the Abyss Dragon.

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      Interestingly enough I found Gael the 2nd easiest boss and cleared it on my second try, whereas i can say that darkeater Midir took me around 6 HOURS (of course me being a pyromancer had something to do with it since Gael actually takes dmg from my spells)

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  7. Avatar photo

    Midir is probaly one of the most fun bosses if you kill him using range weapons

    Reply

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