Conquer Elden Ring in 12 steps
Elden Ring conquered the competition in 2022 and is probably still dominating the minds of many players due to its sheer amount of content. Everyone wants to become Elden Lord, or perhaps get that ending where we smear the entire world with poop. We won’t question anyone’s ambitions, so here’s a list of the mandatory bosses players need to kill if they desire to conquer the Lands Between.
Margit, the Fell Omen
Inside Stormveil Castle, players will encounter Margit, the most athletic old man the world of Elden Ring has ever seen. Don’t let his walking cane fool you, as he’ll definitely outrun and outmaneuver most newcomers.
He likes to shoot knives at players to nullify healing attempts, and he’ll later take out a huge hammer that can very easily kill players either by its sheer amount of damage output or by pushing them out of bounds. Margit puts up one hell of a fight and, like Gascoigne in Bloodborne before him, works as an excellent tutorial on how to deal with many of the bosses to come.
Godrick the Grafted
Despite his imposing look, the actual lord of Stormveil Castle puts up way less of a fight than Margit. He is a one-trick pony, one whose big special attack is, get this, attacks that are slower than we expect. Don’t laugh him off just yet, however, as these delayed attacks are a surefire way to catch many Elden Lord hopefuls off guard.
Godrick has a second form, but despite a pretty cool cutscene where he grafts a dragon’s head to his arm, he still sucks. His new fire-breathing capabilities only make him more predictable, so players shouldn’t have much trouble getting rid of him.
Starscourge Radahn
Ok, we have to admit that Radahn isn’t a mandatory boss, but please hear us out! This massive beast is one of four Shardbearers, and you’ll need to kill at least one of them.
The bad news is that Radahn might be the hardest of the bunch. However, the confrontation itself rocks so much harder than any of the other Shardbearer bosses that he’s the mandatory Shardbearer in our headcanon.
Unlike most bosses in the Souls series, Radahn starts the battle away from the player. That’s not a good thing, however. He’ll shoot players down with special arrows whether they’re on foot or on horseback. Players will have to dodge their way into Radahn’s vicinity, and that’s just when things begin to get hard. Radahn has a multitude of moves, all of them as dangerous as they are gorgeous. We don’t want to spoil players, and we know this will lead to a lot of deaths, but trust us when we say you’ll remember each failed attempt in a good way.
If players want to make Radahn easy, however, all they have to do is run around to use the many summons scattered around the area. It might take a while, but they’ll end up bringing Radahn down while players soak up all the glory.
Godfrey, First Elden Lord
The name Godfrey should strike fear in his foes, but this isn’t Godfrey. Not really.
This encounter puts players up against a mere projection of Godfrey, an enemy who has a big axe and little more. We could give you a few strategies on how to beat him, but the sight of this urine-colored ghost is probably more than enough to fill players with all the motivation required to beat him.
Morgott, the Omen King
Remember Margit, the first mandatory boss on this list? Well, he isn’t dead and his real name is Morgott. Also, his cane was just a contraption he used to hide his ultra-cool sword. Why didn’t he use it to strike us down when we were just babies at this game? We don’t know the answer to that question, but we know he will pay for that mistake.
Maybe after we die a few times, because damn, this dude is much stronger this time around.
What he lacks in the skill to come up with inconspicuous aliases, he more than makes up for in absolute savagery. Players better remember the fight against Margit, because that muscle memory will come in handy. Morgott also brings a whole new set of quicker and more damaging attacks. This is one of the hardest mandatory fights in the game.
Fire Giant
The Fire Giant is quite the endurance test.
The first part asks players to hit the Fire Giant in the ankle to make him fall to the ground and become more manageable. That’s easier said than done as, just like with Radahn, we have to dodge a bunch of long-range attacks before we can even hope to deal damage. He has as much HP as you’d expect from a giant, and he’s just as strong as a giant who’s mastered the arts of fire.
We advise players to get as much fire resistance as they can. Also patience, lots of patience. This one will take a lot to go down.
Godskin Duo
Remember Ornstein and Smough, aka the hardest fight in the history of the Souls series and perhaps of gaming altogether? This is that, and probably even worse because they both come back after dying.
It’s important to memorize the skillset of each member of the duo, and players should refrain from engaging both at the same time. The boss arena features various pillars that’ll help slow down the duo. These pillars will be the best friends of players who refuse to use summons, because yeah, nothing can beat the friendship of a good summon when it comes to this battle.
Maliketh, the Black Blade
Maliketh is the creature preventing living beings from having a normal death in the world of Elden Ring. Ironically, he easily kills players.
Malekith’s first form won’t cause anyone who got this far much trouble, but things might change once he reaches half HP. Malekith will pull out a huge sword, one which will cause players to continuously lose health after getting hit. Also, have we mentioned that he tries to hit players a lot? And that he has some messy and fast area-of-effect attacks? Maliketh will relentlessly try to cut players down, but luckily he doesn’t have all that much HP. Time your dodges carefully, don’t get greedy, and this one will turn out easier than expected.
Sir Gideon Ofnir, the All-Knowing
Well, there’s one thing Sir Gideon Ofnir, the All-Knowing doesn’t know, and that’s how he stands no chance against us.
This is probably the easiest boss in the game, barely above a regular enemy with flashy attacks and a boss-sized health bar. Once defeated, he claims that the player will never become Elden Lord. So guess what, that’s the second thing he doesn’t know.
Godfrey, First Elden Lord/Hoarah Loux
Remember when we told you about the Godfrey that wasn’t? This is the one who is.
Godfrey lives and breathes badassery in such a way that he has a huge lion companion and doesn’t even once bother asking it for help against the player. Get ready to dodge his axe and then run the hell away from the explosion that inevitably ensues whenever he hits anything.
Once his health gets low, Godfrey goes back to his original identity; a professional wrestler in a world where wrestling is not fake. He’ll begin chasing down the player, so be very wary of his grabs, as they’ll inflict massive damage.
Radagon of the Golden Order
Radagon looks like the remains of a red-headed Sephiroth porcelain doll from a store whose only clerk was an elephant. Still, he’s resilient and will kill players in no time.
Radagon of the Golden Order is Elden Ring’s version of the usual final human boss we’ve come to expect at the end of all games in the Souls series, and he’ll put up quite the fight. Despite donning just a broken hammer, this fierce warrior will destroy players with a combination of powerful close-quarter moves, area-of-effect spells, and even some damn sneaky teleportation moves.
Elden Ring’s Elden Beast
The Elden Beast plays as a second part to the fight against Radagon. It’s a completely different, uh, beast, so we gotta honor it its own entry. The Elden Beast feels less like a monster made by FromSoftware’s Miyazaki and more like one by Studio Ghibli’s Miyazaki. Meaning that it looks gorgeous, but its beauty serves only to mask the immeasurable contempt it feels towards life.
The Elden Beast proves to be a very unorthodox battle for a Souls game. This creature spends the entire time running away from the player so it can cast devastating spells from afar, turning most of the ordeal into a bullet-hell minigame. The Elden Beast is far from the hardest enemy in the game, but beating it will require some patience and a heart cold enough to murder one of the most beautiful creatures ever put in a game.
Related: How to get to Colosseums in Elden Ring on Dot Esports
