What is the best Elden Ring boss order? Elden Ring is packed with bosses, ranging from secret, optional side bosses to iconic main enemies that define the game’s story. While there are so many memorable encounters buried in every corner of the soulslike game, there is an Elden Ring boss order that you do have to follow in order to reach each of the endings – a must for any true FromSoft fan, let’s be honest.
With Elden Ring being an open-world game, it can be hard to determine what the optimum boss order for the game is. You can technically visit most of the Elden Ring map locations whenever you want, but parts of Caelid and Leyndell, the Royal Capital, are high-level areas that will absolutely beat you to the ground if you visit them too early. So, after making our way through the Lands Between, beating the game, and dubbing it one of the best games of all time in our Elden Ring review, we have come up with our recommended Elden Ring boss order. Be warned that if you want to keep spoilers to an absolute minimum for your playthrough, it’s probably best to click away now and bookmark this guide for later. Either that, or scroll down the list below very carefully.
Elden Ring boss order
While you technically only need to defeat a small handful of Elden Ring bosses to actually make it to the game’s ending, that really isn’t advised. Not only would you miss out on some epic moments (every main boss battle in Elden Ring is well worth doing) but you will probably be horrifically under-leveled and without the best gear.
Below is a full list of every main boss fight you should take on in order to complete the main storyline of Elden Ring, starting from the first encounter through to the final showdown. The table also includes information on their location and any extra useful notes.
One final thing – you technically don’t have to fight all four of the bosses that carry a Great Rune, as only two Great Runes are required to advance the story. However, they are all excellent boss fights and we encourage you to take them all on.
The recommended Elden Ring boss order is:
| Boss | Location | Notes |
| Soldier of Godrick | Fringefolk Hero’s Grave | |
| Margit the Fell Omen | Stormhill, Limgrave | Required to reach Godrick |
| Godrick the Grafted | Stormveil Castle, Limgrave | Rewards you with a Great Rune |
| Red Wolf of Radagon | Academy of Raya Lucaria, Liurnia of the Lakes | Required to reach Rennala |
| Rennala, Queen of the Full Moon | Academy of Raya Lucaria, Liurnia of the Lakes | Rewards you with a Great Rune |
| Royal Knight Loretta | Royal Moongazing Grounds, Liurnia of the Lakes | Required to access Ranni’s quests for the Age of the Stars ending |
| Godskin Noble | Volcano Manor, Mt. Gelmir | Required to reach Rykard unless you complete the Volcano manor PvP quests |
| Rykard, Lord of Blasphemy | Mt. Gelmir | Rewards you with a Great Rune |
| Starscourge Radahn | Redmane Castle, Caelid | Rewards you with a Great Rune and is required to access Shadow of the Erdtree DLC |
| Draconic Tree Sentinel | Capital Outskirts, Leyndell | |
| Godfrey, First Elden Lord | Royal Capital, Leyndell | |
| Morgott, the Omen King | Elden Throne, Leyndell | |
| Mohg, The Omen | Shunning Grounds, Leyndell | Required for Lord of Frenzied Flame ending and to access Shadow of the Erdtree DLC |
| Fire Giant | Forge of Giants, Mountaintops of the Giants | |
| Fia’s Champions | Deeproot Depths | Required for the Age of Duskborn ending |
| Astel, Naturnborn of the Void | Grand Cloister, Lake of Rot | Required for the Age of the Stars ending |
| Godskin Duo | Dragon Temple Altar, Crumbling Farum Azula | |
| Maliketh, the Black Blade | Crumbling Farum Azula | |
| Sir Gideon Ofnir, the All-Knowing | Leyndell, Ashen Capital | |
| Godfrey, First Elden Lord / Hoarah Loux, Warrior | Leyndell, Ashen Capital | Two-phase encounter |
| Radagon of the Golden Order / Elden Beast | Elden Throne, Leyndell, Ashen Capital | Final boss fight, two-phase encounter |
If you’re looking for tips on how to beat a particularly tough boss, then have a look at this video from ‘Boss Fight Database’.
With regards to the various mini-bosses that punctuate the Lands Between, it’s best to prioritize those which drop useful items you might want to use. For example, Leonine Misbegotten (Castle Morne, Weeping Penninsula) drops one of the best Elden Ring weapons for Strength/Dexterity builds – the Grafted Blade Greatsword.
Who is the final boss in Elden Ring?
The final Elden Ring boss is the Elden Beast, an enormous mystical creature you face immediately after defeating the penultimate boss, Radagon. The Elden Beast is said to be the living embodiment of the Elden Ring, and is awoken when you kill Radagon.
Radagon’s body is absorbed by the Elden Beast and is transformed into the sword it wields during the boss fight. Elden Ring’s remarkable storyline culminating in a god-like kaiju battle makes for a grand, monumental ending. Should you falter, then you’ll unfortunately have to run it back and fight Radagon all over again – it took us several attempts to say the least.
You can watch the two-phase encounter featuring Radagon and the Elden Beast below if you want to prepare for the battle, or just relive the moment if you’ve taken them on already:
How many bosses are there in Elden Ring?
When all the mainline bosses, optional bosses, min bosses, secret bosses, and variants are taken into account, the base game of Elden Ring has 238 bosses for you to defeat. However, now that the Shadow of the Erdtree expansion has arrived, a further 42 red bar bosses can now be fought.
That brings the total number of Elden Ring bosses up to 280.
If you’re looking to slay every boss in the game, this incredible tool from Map Genie will help you track your progress and locate all the Elden Ring bosses. It’s a great resource, and we recommend having it alongside you for your playthrough – as well as this guide, of course, and our Elden Ring walkthrough.
Who is the hardest boss in Elden Ring?
The hardest boss in Elden Ring is Malenia, Blade of Miquella, and it’s not even close. While she isn’t quite the hulking monstrosity you’d expect from the game’s most difficult encounter, she is probably the most agile alongside Maliketh. Oh, and she heals every time she hits you while applying rot – yeah.
Malenia also boasts two phases, so once you’ve finished weaving in enough hits to whittle her down while dodging her acrobatic combos, expect the encounter to get even trickier. In phase two, she heals even more, sprouts wings that make her more evasive, and even sends clones after you as part of her expanded ability kit.
During our time in the Lands Between Malenia has been a consistent thorn in our side, regardless of which build we’ve opted for. While we wouldn’t place Malenia as the toughest FromSoft boss to date – that accolade still belongs to Sekiro’s Isshin – she is comfortably in the conversation for the top three.
Elden Ring is truly one of the best RPGs to ever grace Xbox and PlayStation consoles, and fighting its majestic bosses in this order will help you reach the end of its amazing story. If frustration takes over and you find yourself short a controller, then be sure to find a replacement through our best PS5 controller and best Xbox controller guides. It is what it is.