Elden Ring: Easy To Miss Bosses

Highlights

• Elden Ring’s open world encourages exploration and can lead to players missing out on hidden boss fights and quests.
• Several bosses, such as the Dragonkin Soldier and Godefroy the Grafted, require thorough exploration and backtracking to encounter.
• Malenia, the most challenging boss, is entirely optional and hidden behind a puzzle in the Haligtree.

Elden Ring has grown quite infamous, in part thanks to its open world take on Dark Souls games. Far less linear than its predecessors, Elden Ring players often receive very little guidance about where they should be going, what quests they should be completing, and even what bosses need killing.

This is often part of the enjoyment in Elden Ring, forcing players to explore the furthest reaches of the eerily beautiful environments. The downside is that players can end up missing out on some brilliant questlines, items, and boss fights. These optional fights are hidden gems and shouldn’t be missed.

10 Ancient Dragon Lansseax

Can Be Missed Without Thorough Exploration

• Location: Altus Plateau
• Runes: 60,000
• Drops: Lansseax’s Glaive
• HP: 9087

Dragon fights are a staple in fantasy, and Elden Ring is no exception. This dragon fight, however, is quite easy to miss despite appearing in two locations. Players can first be ambushed by Lansseax near the Abandoned Coffin Site of Grace in the Altus Plateau, but she retreats when her health is reduced by 20%.

Players can fight Lansseax again and in full at the Rampartside Path Site of Grace. She will launch her attack when players double back towards the eastern ridge. While players can circumvent the Abandoned Coffin encounter, reducing her health there lowers it for the Rampartside Path fight.

9 Dragonkin Soldier

Lake Of Rot Makes Traversal Challenging

• Location: Lake Of Rot
• Runes: 58,000
• Drops: Dragonscale Blade
• HP: 7655

From dragon to Dragonkin, there are two Elden Ring bosses with the name ‘Dragonkin Soldier.’ Both can be easy to miss, but the Dragonkin Soldier in The Lake Of Rot particularly stands out. In part, this is down to the fact that The Lake Of Rot itself can be tricky to come across.

On top of this, it takes some grim determination and a lot of Flasks of Crimson Tears to even make the trek through The Lake Of Rot. Should players make it to the Lake Of Rot Shoreside Site of Grace, they can then confront the Lake Of Rot Dragonkin Soldier.

8 Godefroy The Grafted

Requires A Lot Of Backtracking

• Location: Golden Lineage Evergaol
• Runes: 26,000
• Drops: Godfrey Icon
• HP: 12,419

Evergaols tend to be an obvious sign that there is a boss that needs fighting, but Godefroy’s Evergaol is tucked away and quite hard to find. It is located in the Altus Plateau, but players have to go quite far off the beaten path to find it.

Players need to head northeast away from the Evergaol, heading into the valley, before turning back on themselves and following the path through a tunnel under the main road. It is well worth making this lengthy excursion, as Godefroy drops the Godfrey Icon, a very useful talisman.

7 Dragonkin Soldier Of Nokstella

Hidden In An Innocuous Area

• Location: Ainsel River
• Runes: 12,000
• Drops: Frozen Lightning Spear
• HP: 4372

Another Dragonkin making the list, the Dragonkin Soldier of Nokstella is particularly hidden away. They can be found in the Ainsel River Well, which seems like any other cave system within the game.

The arena for the fight is tucked out of the way, past a normal seeming cave of ants, but this boss shouldn’t be neglected. It’s a highly engaging fight, set in a unique-looking arena, filled with charred bodies that crumble as players roll into them.

6 Night’s Cavalry

Can Only Be Encountered At Night

• Location: Various
• Runes: 2400-84,000
• Drops: Various
• HP: 1665-7246×2

There are nine locations throughout Elden Ring where players can encounter the Night’s Cavalry, seemingly a reference to the Nazgul in Lord of the Rings. They provide a unique scavenger hunt experience as each boss can only be encountered at night.

They can be found in Limgrave, the Weeping Peninsula, Liurnia North and South, Caelid, the Altus Plateau, the Forbidden Lands, Dragonbarrow, and the Consecrated Snowfield. The Consecrated Snowfield fight is a notable encounter, as it features two Night’s Cavalry, and they drop the Night’s Cavalry Armor Set. While it’s likely players will encounter at least one of these bosses by chance alone, finding all nine is a challenge.

5 Malenia

Requires Solving A Puzzle To Reach Her

• Location: Elphael, Brace Of The Haligtree
• Runes: 480,000
• Drops: Malenia’s Great Rune, Remembrance Of The Rot Goddess
• HP: 33,251

Malenia may be the most well-known boss in Elden Ring, as she has garnered a reputation for being the most challenging fight in the game. Despite this infamy, her fight is entirely optional and surprisingly easy to miss, as is the rest of the Haligtree, for that matter.

In order to even reach the Haligtree, players need to collect two halves of a medallion and solve a puzzle deep in the Consecrated Snowfield. Already difficult to find, the Haligtree is then a treacherous area to navigate, although that’s not a bad thing. Players will need all the preparation they can get before their battle with Malenia.

4 Putrid Tree Spirit

Found At The Edge Of A Barren Beach

• Location: War-Dead Catacombs
• Runes: 64,000
• Drops: Redmane Knight Ogha Spirit Ashes, Golden Seed
• HP: 18,144

There are three Putrid Tree Spirits that can be found throughout Elden Ring, but one is particularly well hidden. The most challenging of the Putrid Tree Spirits can be found in the War-Dead Catacombs.

These catacombs can only be reached after defeating Starscourge Radahn. Players can then make an arduous trek to the edge of the Wailing Dunes, where they can eventually find the entrance to these out of the way catacombs.

3 Lichdragon Fortissax

Part Of A Convoluted Questline

• Location: Deeproot Depths
• Runes: 90,000
• Drops: Remembrance Of The Lichdragon
• HP: 12,903

Even more well hidden than his draconic sister, Lansseax, Fortissax can only be fought as part of a convoluted questline, namely Fia’s questline. Fia is the deathbed companion at the Roundtable Hold. Players will need to defeat Fia’s Champions, give her the Cursemark of Death, talk to her three times, and reload the area.

Then players can interact with her corpse and choose to enter the Deathbed Dream and confront Fortissax. While it is an optional boss, it is required to complete Fia’s questline and to achieve the Age of the Duskborn ending.

2 Mohg, Lord Of Blood

Only Accessed Through Very Specific Requirements

• Location: Mohgwyn Palace
• Runes: 420,000
• Drops: Mohg’s Great Rune, Remembrance Of The Blood Lord
• HP: 18,389

Mohg, Lord of Blood, is a particularly challenging demigod boss to find. He is the end boss of Mohgwyn Palace, which proves quite troublesome to reach. Although it can be seen in the distance from the Siofra River Well, there are only a couple of very specific ways to actually get there.

Players can find a Waygate Teleporter to the palace in the Consecrated Snowfield. Alternatively, players can complete Varre’s questline, which involves invading other players’ worlds three times. While this does allow players to access Mohg earlier in the game, he can prove to be a challenging fight at this level.

1 Dragonlord Placidusax

Arena Is Hidden At The Bottom Of A Seemingly Fatal Drop

• Location: Crumbling Farum Azula
• Runes: 280,000
• Drops: Remembrance Of The Dragonlord
• HP: 26,651

This list starts with a dragon, and it will end with a dragon. Placidusax is an optional legend boss fight that is challenging to find, let alone to face! Near the Beside the Great Bridge Site of Grace, there is an edge with a very small and inconspicuous platform that players can drop onto, and another ledge below that…

Lying down in a particular cubby at the bottom of this drop then teleports players to Placidusax’s arena, where players can confront the Dragonlord. As challenging as this arena is to find, it is well worth it for the chance to face this imposing foe.