While Elden Ring is actually quite accommodating to players of all skill levels, it's a simple statement of fact that some of its bosses - often fully optional - are some of the most punishingly difficult encounters we've ever seen in a From Software game.

Yes, that does include Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice as well! Elden Ring's free-form, sandboxy approach to progression and combat means that players have access to a far more varied selection of weapons, gear, and gadgets than is usual in first-party Soulslike titles. Conversely, this also means FromSoft is free to make things way more challenging than you'd expect.

Down below, we've assembled our list of the 10 hardest Elden Ring bosses with an appropriately to-the-point strategy guide on how take them down, with that in mind. Just don't expect to be able to do so easily.

READ MORE: The Best Elden Ring Character Builds to Take Into Shadow of the Erdtree

Top 10 Hardest, Most Challenging Elden Ring Bosses - And How to Beat Them

#10: Godskin Duo

About as punishing as they are disguisting, the Godskin Duo are a particularly nasty pair of godkillers who won't sneer at the chance of skinning a Tarnished or two, to boot. Dealing with the Godskin Duo is, therefore, appropriately challenging and annoying in equal measure... unless you know a particular trick.

Notably, the Godskin Duo is extremely susceptible to sleeping effects. By the time you've come across these bastards, you're bound to have access to Sleeping Pots in some way, shape, or form, and by far the easiest way of dealing with the Godskin Duo is to narcolepsyze them to death. Give it a shot, you can thank us later!

#9: Godfrey, First Elden Lord

While Godfrey is no pushover and is bound to challenge you early on, fighting the First Elden Lord is actually way, way easier and more enjoyable than most other encounters on our list. This only counts if, again, you know what you're about. So here's how to proceed!

Firstly, you're going to want to complete the Nepheli Loux questline - which is a can of worms in its own right, to be sure. However, if you do so, you're going to be able to summon Nepheli to help you out with Godfrey in the first place. By default, this makes the fight way more manageable as it draws attention away from you. With Nepheli at your side, make sure that you're not using Holy damage (as Godfrey is highly resistant to it), and focus on jumping away from his shockwave attacks rather than dodging.

The rest is mostly up to rhythm: you'll get a sense of Godfrey as you duke it out with him, just keep in mind the tidibts we outlined above!

#8: Astel, Naturalborn of the Void

With the situational Godskin pushovers and the fair-but-challenging Godfrey out of the way, it's time to deal with the truly hard encounters now. Astel, Naturalborn of the Void is the easiest of the hardest Elden Ring bosses, but that's really not saying much. This monstrosity will push you to the edge, for sure.

Here's the kicker with Astel: the alien creature is actually empowered by magic. Don't use anything magical against it, and lean heavily into physical damage types instead. Our recommendation is to go with ranged physical weapons, for the most part. Learn Astel's moveset by heart until you can safely and reliably dodge his hardest-hitting attacks, and then figure out what your best burst damage output is.

If you have it, take the Lion's Greatbow and Radahn's Spear with one or two Arrow Talismans.

#7: Dragonlord Placidusax

Placidusax is where things start to really get tricky. This laser-equipped god-dragon serves up horrendously punishing attacks with tiny evasion windows that will not let up. Make absolutely no mistake: Dragonlord Placidusax is a hard, hard fight.

Unless, that is, you've gone with a Faith-based build.

Spam-casting the Ancient Dragon Lightning spell is by far the easiest way to kill Placidusax is under a minute. This is so efficient and effective, in fact, that we outright recommend re-speccing to a Faith-based build if you just can't get through the fight otherwise. When your build is ready, equip the aforementioned Ancient Dragon Lightning, run underneath Placidusax, and spam the spell until the boss falls. Borderline cheating? Oh, yes.

#6: Valiant Gargoyle Duo

Valiant Gargoyles are monsters, there's no way around that fact. Look, taking one gargoyle down is a job unto itself, let alone having to deal with two of them at once. If that sounds like a bad time - and it ought to, if you've dealt with Elden Ring's particular brand of gargoyle - then we've got just the tips for you.

Here's the jig: you want to have a heavily upgraded Strike-type weapon with you. A club or a hammer of some sort, perhaps. You also want to have a decently upgraded Mimic Ash. Optimally, you'll also summon Luthel the Headless when the opportunity shows.

With all of that set up, your goal should be to roll between the gargoyles' legs and keep at least one of them away from you while you deal with the other. Getting sandwiched between them is essentially instant death, which is why we're recommending both a summon and a powerful Ash here. Though, now that we think of it, this is a good tactic in most fights, to boot.

#5: Crucible Knight Ordovis + Spear Crucible Knight

Oh good grief. This duo sucks particularly hard because, by the time you've reached these absolute bastards, you will have punched and died your way through one of the most ridiculously overbuilt dungeons in Soulslike history, avoiding chariots, enemies, traps, and oodles of other problems along the way. And, oh, look, now you've got one of the hardest duos in the game to contend with.

Hell, yours truly was stuck on these two for a good long while until I discovered advice posted by Redditor wickwiremr!

Notably, you want to grab the Greatshield Soldier Ashes to draw aggro away from yourself, and then slap the Crucible Knights with the Flame of the Redmanes Ash of War. This not only deals high amounts of damage due to the Knights' weakness to fire, but it also provides solid crowd control and breaks their stance in one go. Do it.

#4: Radagon of the Golden Order + Elden Beast

Oh, here's a tricky one. Arguably the narrative pinnacle of Elden Ring and the fullest realization of the game's gameplay and ontology into a coherent, playable sequence, dealing with Radagon and the Elden Beast is no mean feat. Sadly, the fight is annoying if you're not outfitted with a solid array of ranged magicks and weaponry.

Ideally, you're going to deal with these encounters with ample Holy protection, which should give you the best chance at surviving a few key strikes here and there. Another solid recommendation is to leverage Flame and Black Flame spells/items as much as possible. Radagon is weak to both of these spell types, while the Elden Beast remains susceptible to Black Flame, specifically.

Aside from this, just learn the enemies' attack patterns and be prepared to try, try again. Over and over and over.

#3: Mohg the Omen

You're going to hate fighting Mohg the Omen. Not necessarily because the fight's not fun - it arguably is. The thing about Mohg the Omen, instead, is that he is a powerhouse that punishes mistakes and missteps with extreme prejudice, and there's not much you can do to abuse in the fight, as Mohg is completely immune to all status effects, as well as being highly resistant to fire damage.

Neat, right?

Mohg the Omen is, thankfully, reasonably weak to pure physical damage types and can be stance broken with just a few good hits in. Further, you can leverage the Mohg's Shackle found in the Subterranean Shunning Grounds, on the Altus Plateau, to effectively immobilize him during the fight. That's about all you get for this one, really.

#2: Maliketh, the Black Blade

Good grief, Maliketh sucks, doesn't he? Not as a design point, mind: the fight is awesome. It's just that it's also devilishly hard to the point of feeling unfair unless you're perfectly in tune with the pacing of it. Which, obviously, you won't be for a good few dozen attempts as you learn the Black Blade's moveset.

There's simply no getting around the fact that you need to know all the ins and outs of Maliketh's combat style, we're sorry (happy?) to report. You will need to be able to abuse what few openings you get in this fight, quite simply, but there are some things you can do to make these openings as punishing for the Black Blade as possible.

Here's what you want: something that will dish out Scarlet Rot very reliably, something that deals ample amounts of Frost Damage, and the ol' trusty Mimic Tear. You want Scarlet Rot to eat away at Maliketh between attack openings, then to abuse these openings with solid amounts of Frost. The Mimic Tear will happily help you make the most of these opportunities... for a little while, until it dies.

#1: Malenia, Blade of Miquella

The pinnacle of this list was always going to be Malenia, of course. Agile, tricky, and deceptively hard-hitting, Malenia will make your life miserable until you have the fight well in hand, that's just the nature of her fight scenario.

Malenia's trademark Waterfowl Dance attack is the biggest problem in this fight, really. You will have to learn the song and dance of avoiding this attack, and we recommend doing so as early as possible. Alternatively, you could also stock up on Freeze Pots if you're brave enough: throwing one at Malena just as she's ramping up the attack will stunlock her for a bit!

Our recommendation for gear and tactics, aside from the stuff outlined above, is that you should invest in the ever-popular Bloodhound's Fang. This weapon will be able of reliably breaking Malenia's poise when she's not Waterfowling around; combine this with the classic Mimic Tear, and you'll have loads of opportunities to punish her attempts to one-shot you. Which, y'know, she still might do more often than not.

CHECK OUT: How Many Bosses Are There in Elden Ring?