8 of the Best Dark Souls 3 Bosses

2. Pontiff Sulyvahn

Oh man. As you’re working your way through Irythill of the Boreal Valley, seeing connections to Anor Londo and secretly hoping you may even reach the city from Dark Souls your path is ultimately blocked by Pontiff Sulyvahn, yet another character that by this point in the game you want to meet purely down to the amount of lore afforded to him. Upon entering his chamber you can spot him across the hall, slowly walking towards you while brandishing his dual swords imbued with fire and darkness respectively. That opening in itself suggests this will be an ordeal but once the combat begins a lot of players will be overwhelmed with the unrelenting aggression that the Pontiff shows. You get the feeling purely through the gameplay that he genuinely has a desire to stop you reaching Anor Londo which is waiting beyond him. He wants to stop you reaching Aldrich whom he has served for so long and helped consume a God and he’ll try his best to achieve that end. The first couple of times I took him on I died incredibly quickly, the long combos and seemingly unavoidable quick attacks that he performs feel insurmountable and it was only a few tries in I got the hang of the battle. The combat flow is perfect here, a constant back and forth nicking health of him here and there until phase 2 begins. It’s here that Sulyvahn creates a shadow clone of himself. Scary right? Unfair? Ridiculous even. Yet amazingly the slows the pace down, rather than being absolutely munched by the pair of them shadow Pontiff telegraphs the real Pontiffs attacks meaning you now know what to expect, Sulyvahn also becomes less aggressive than previously and with the aforementioned strategy the battle becomes easier to stomach. It’s a good fight, everything you would want from a Souls boss.

1. Nameless King

I bemoaned the lack of optional content on offer in Dark Souls 3 and while I maintain there could stand to be more my word is the Nameless King something special. The fight in and of itself is potentially the most difficult in the game and that’s not even the best bit. Once you ring the bell in Archdragon Peak the King will reveal himself, entering the arena on a motherlovin’ dragon who turns out is not just his personal taxi but also the first phase of the battle. In addition to the Nameless King hurling lighting at you from afar you also have the small issue of killing the dragon that he rides, needless to say this can prove quite the tricky affair and is a whole boss all on its own. Once you do manage to down the beast you immediately enter combat with the King himself after imbuing himself with the soul of the dead dragon; drawing elements of the encounters with Gwyn, Artorias and Ornstein from Dark Souls. It’s a hellacious bout with no respite between the dragon phase and this one and ultimately puts all your skills to the test. What I really love about this though is the fact that we have potentially answered one of the biggest mysteries of the original game. Throughout Dark Souls Gwyn’s firstborn is often mentioned as a God of War who has been expelled from the annals of history for reasons unknown as was his identity. All evidence found upon his death and the soul received point to the Nameless King being that very same person. To potentially finally have an answer regarding one of the most intriguing points of lore from 5 years ago is incredibly satisfying, as with a lot of Dark Souls lore everything is open to interpretation but for me at least I am happy that this has finally been put to rest.