Ranking Bloodborne's Bosses From Easiest to Hardest

To read our Demon’s Souls rankings, click here.

To read our Dark Souls rankings, click here.

To read our Dark Souls II rankings, click here.

The boss battles of Demon’s Souls and Dark Souls are known for being some of the most difficult, blood pressure raising encounters in videogames. Bloodborne is no different. The monsters of Yharnam will crush you, bite you, impale you, set you on fire, electrocute you, and smear you against the wall countless times during your hunt. This gallery of sharp-toothed, wicked monstrosities is huge and the majority of them are a pain to take down, especially when taking them on solo. Here you will find our ranking of the game’s bosses from easiest to toughest, though “easiest” is a bit of a misnomer when it comes to any Souls game. None of these battles are going to be a breeze but some will cause you less grief than others, so if you’re looking for some suggestions on when to use your precious insight—the currency used to call forth other players to help you in battle—you’ve come to the right place.

This list includes all the game’s mandatory bosses and most of the optional ones you can fight. The bosses that are deep within the Chalice dungeons, Bloodborne’s procedural dungeons, are not included in this list.

Spoilers on all boss battles ahead so turn away if you want each battle to be a surprise (you brave soul, you).

Javy Gwaltney devotes his time to writing about these videogame things when he isn’t teaching or cobbling together a novel. You can follow the trail of pizza crumbs to his Twitter or his website.

1 of 17 1. The Witch of Hemwick This is more of a battle of wits than anything else. She, and later her sister, move around an arena while they summon their minions to attack you. The fight is pretty simple once you figure out where the witches teleport; ignore their minions, run around and hit them until the sisters are both dead. Use the Beckoning Bell? No.

2 of 17 2. Cleric Beast Cleric Beast is probably the boss you'll fight first. He's intimidating, sure, but he goes down pretty fast if you've got enough Molotovs with you. Just run back and forth across the bridge, slashing at his ankles, and hurling those bottles at his face. When he jumps, keep rolling away from him until he lands. Use the Beckoning Bell? No.

3 of 17 3. Micolash, Host of the Nightmare Micolash, in spite of his late appearance, is actually one of the easier bosses in the game. He summons a couple of skeletons to fight for him and has a devastating physical attack, but both of these things are super easy to dodge. When he loses half his health, he disappears and you have to find him again and go through the same battle sans skeleton minions. Just sidestep his attacks, slash him once, and roll away until he's dead. Use the Beckoning Bell? No.

4 of 17 4. Moon Presence The Moon Presence is the final, secret boss of the game. If you've found and consumed all three pieces of The Umbilical Cord (ewwwww), after you beat The First Hunter you'll fight The Moon Presence, which actually turns out to be one of the easiest bosses in the entire game. It's a big monster that telegraphs its attacks, so you should have no problem dodging them and attacking its back. The Moon Presence does have one trick up its sleeves where it drains all of your health in a single attack, but you can restore it by simply slashing at the monster while it recovers from initiating the attack. Use the Beckoning Bell? No.

5 of 17 5. Celestial Emissary Like the Witch, this is a bit of an odd boss fight for a Souls game. You're essentially fighting waves of blue little gremlins until you find the one that's the boss. You'll know which one is the right one because the boss health bar will go down when you attack him. If you have a long reaching weapon, like Ludwig's sword or the axe, this fight won't be difficult. If you don't, simply stay on the move and thin the herd until you can attack your target. Use the Beckoning Bell? No.

6 of 17 6. Mergo's Wet Nurse Another late game boss that's relatively easy to bring down. Mergo only has a few telegraphed attacks so spend a couple of minutes familiarizing yourself with them and then attack her during her slow recovery period. Later she uses a special move where she clouds the world in a purple fog and dashes across the arena to slash at you. The best way to avoid this is not to dodge her attacks but to simply run around the arena in a circle. Use the Beckoning Bell? Maybe. Mergo has a lot of hit points, so if you need help bringing her health down more quickly you might want to call in some backup. Our reviewer found that summoning for this battle just complicated things, however.

7 of 17 7. Amygdala Amygdala is a pretty simple optional boss if you're patient and learn her patterns. Dodge her attacks and slash at her hands. When her head is in rage, attack it as well. Later on, she'll pull out weapons but it's the same strategy as before. Avoid ground slams and you should be fine. Use the Beckoning Bell? No.

8 of 17 8. Blood-Starved Beast This beastie is a bit deceptive. The fight seems relatively straightforward, a duel in a temple, but things go south when he starts spitting up poison clouds. Lead the beast between the pillars in the temple and focus on attacking its backside. Use the Beckoning Bell? Maybe. The Beast is a frustrating foe, but it can be felled by a single player as long as they have patience and can avoid the monster's face.

9 of 17 9. Rom, The Vacuous Spider This one is just gross. A giant slithering sack of eyes and hair, Rom himself is rather easy to kill if you can avoid his spider minions. Run past them, attack his belly, rinse and repeat whenever he teleports. Watch out though, those spiders bite hard and Rom's later-stage area attacks are a nuisance. Use The Beckoning Bell? Only if you need someone to distract the spiders.

10 of 17 10. The One Reborn The One Reborn is challenging not just because this putrid goliath is trying to barf toxic flesh at you but also because high above there are spellcasters taking shots at you. Take the casters out first and then run at the One's legs, slashing at them, before retreating into a nearby tower to avoid his cloud of puke (gross). Rinse and repeat until the monster is vanquished. Use The Beckoning Bell? Yes. The quicker those spellcasters go down, the better.