Summary
Lords of the Fallenis a gigantic game with a wide variety of areas to explore, from lands covered in ice and snow to the bottom of a torturous tower of pain.Not only does this game have multiple endings, but it also has unique bosses and rewards based on the ending the player is on the path to obtain.
Across the 30+ bossesLords of the Fallenhas to offer, there are some that are truly challenging, even in co-op. So, let’s go oversome of the most challenging bossesin Axiom (or the Umbral) so players know what to prepare for ahead of time.
Updated August 1st, 2024 by Jacob Buchalter:Lords of the Fallen (the 2023 version) is a massive improvement over the first Lords of the Fallen game, and that’s pretty widely regarded as fact among the Soulslike community. Their second attempt is a lot more polished, the combat is a lot tighter, and the overall story and aesthetics and a lot more appealing. Not only that, but the developers at Hexworks have proven that they care about their game, as Lords of the Fallen (2023) has been pretty steadily taken care of as far as balance patches, bug pixes, and updates are concerned. In general, the bosses in this game are pretty difficult, with some being a whole lot more difficult than others, especially for certain builds. So with that in mind, let’s take a look through all of the bosses offered in this game and see which ones are the absolute hardest to deal with.
Smite & Poison
Burn & Wither
1 Vestige Seed, 8 Umbral Scouring, & Remembrance of Pieta, She of Blessed Renewal
Starting things off with well, the first real ‘boss’ of the game, it’s Pieta.Pieta is not only the player’s best introductionto how boss fights will be in the remainder ofLords of the Fallen, but she’s also a very helpful NPC throughout the course of the game (she’s the onewho upgrades the player’s Sanguinatrix).
As a boss fight, however, she’s definitely a bit of a barrier for players new to this genre of games in terms of difficulty. If players rely on the parrying mechanic, they can easily Stagger Pieta 2 or 3 times before she transforms into her second phase, but if they don’t it can be a tad rough. Thankfully, even when she’s in her second phase, her moveset doesn’t change all that drastically, players will just need to chase her down a bit more often.
None
Bleed
1 Vestige Seed, 8 Umbral Scouring, & 1 Remembrance of the Hushed Saint
The Hushed Saint is an example of a subset ofLords of the Fallenbosses that seem to spend a decent portion of their boss fight being completely untargetable by players. While this is fine once or twice, it does get a bit more irritating as it pops up more and more throughout the game. However, the Hushed Saint is probably the least offensive example of this, since he’s only untargetable when hopping on and off his horse (or out of the water).
In general,the attack patterns of the Hushed Saint are not that difficult, but the damage he outputs for the level the majority of players tend to be when they reach this area early on can be brutal. Additionally, a lot of players also missed the mechanic of Soul Siphoning those Umbral Parasites (which the arena is covered in) right when he goes over them to knock the Hushed Saint off his own horse.
Fire
1 Vestige Seed, 1 Frostbite Salt, & Kinrangr Guardian Set
There are a lot of people who are comparing this game to something likeDark Souls 2. Both games seem to have a bit of a reputation for designing their difficulty around the concept of ‘pranking’ their players rather than just challenging them. Whether it’s old ladiespushing the Dark Crusaderoff cliffs, dogs around every corner, or the army of archers in every area,Lords of the Fallencan be a bit much at times.
Kinrangr Guardian Folard is a perfect example of this design philosophy. His boss battle almost seems intentionally designed to be as irritating as possible given that it has:
Smite
Wither & Poison
1 Vestige Seed, 8 Umbral Scouring, Harrower Dervla’s Rosary, 1 Dark Crusader’s Call, Ammunition Satchel, & Remembrance of the Unbroken Promise
Lords of the Fallen’sstory and lore can be a bit hard to parse at times, given all the religious worldbuilding, sanctimonious ‘fluff’, and lines about scriptures (honestly it’s very reminiscent of theBlasphemousgames) but there’s a lot of interesting lore to be found. In particular, the lore around the Unbroken Promise and his guardian knight, Harrower Dervla, is extra interesting.
For the first phase fight against Dervla, it’s a pretty standard battle. She uses a crossbow, and a sword, with attack patterns that are pretty easily read/parried. However, halfway through her fight, the boy chained to the altar behind her starts firing projectiles periodically that will get in the way pretty often. Once she’s down, phase 2 against the mutated fused form of these two tragic souls, AKA the Unbroken Promise, begins. There’s a lot more going on in this phase compared to phase 1, but other than those floating nails that home in on the player and the bolts that are shot unground before resurfacing under the player, most of the attacks are pretty easy to handle.
Poison (Immune)
Wither
1 Vestige Seed, 8 Umbral Scouring, Spurned Progeny Flesh, 1 Giant Eyeball, & Remembrance of a Spurned Progeny
Making giant-sized bosses in Soulslike games is something developers always attempt to pull off but rarely actually accomplish. They’re always at the very least atmospheric but it’s very rare that a giant boss is purely a delight to fight. However,the Spurned Progeny inLords of the Fallenis a lot of fun to fight, once players understand the gimmick behind one particular attack it has. Every other attack this thing has can be easily dodged or learned, but the massive fireball it’ll create partway into phase 2 seems to hit anywhere and will basically insta-kill most players.
To avoid this attack, just hide behind one of the upstairs walls in the ramparts of the arena. Do that and the fireball won’t hit. Once players know how to avoid this one specific attack, the Spurned Progeny is a pretty fun experience.
Wither (Tancred) & Bleed (Reinhold)
1 Vestige Seed, 8 Umbral Scouring, Tancred’s Key, & Remembrance of Tancred Master of Castigations and Reinhold the Immured
A lot of people inLords of the Fallenhave been getting lost and going down the wrong path for huge swaths of the game. For example, there are quite a few people who mistakenlygot the Pilgrim’s Perch Keyearly and committed themselves to reaching the end of its path. Additionally, there’s also a subset of people who somehow ended up at the bottom of the Tower of Penance before they ever reached Fitzroy’s Gorge. This game has a lot of different branching paths, but the difference in the damage enemies and bosses deal (and the health they have) varies greatly from zone to zone. In particular, if players end up at the Tancred, Master of Castigations boss battle before they have enough DPS, HP, or Defense, they’re going to be struggling.
As a bossfight, Tancred’s first phase is rather easy and pretty predictable for anyone who has fought all the other ‘Holy Knight’ type enemies in this game. A lot of basic stabs, wide slashes, and overhead slams. However, his second phase, Reinhold the Immured, can be a lot tougher and has a ton of health (especially in co-op). But, after a couple of attempts, players will realize how easy to read Reinhold’s attacks are, and as long as they approach it carefully the second phase isn’t all that bad.
Poison, Burn, Ignite, & Smite
1 Vestige Seed, 8 Umbral Scouring, Elianne’s Umbral Parasite, & Remembrance of Elianne the Starved
This next boss is one that players are least likely to see in their playthrough, as it involves a series of complicated steps (such as not cleansing any beacon) that lead to the Umbral ending of the game.
However, for players who are on the Umbral path, Elianne the Starved isn’t really found but more ‘triggered’. Essentially, when players have reached a certain step of the Umbral ending path, they’ll have the option to Soulflay Pieta in Skyrest. After doing this, it automatically transitions to this boss fight. But, while this is technically the ‘secret’ final boss for the Umbral playthrough, Elianne isn’t all that difficult and has a lot of reused moves pulled straight from Pieta’s boss battle (which makes sense given the context). Of course, the two fights aren’t 1-to-1, but they’re similar enough that players will go into the fight half-prepared already. Simply look out for the flurry of Umbral Orbs, make sure to have agood amount of Wither Defense, and this fight shouldn’t take all that long.
Soulflay (Immune)
1 Vestige Seed, 8 Umbral Scouring, & Remembrance of Judge Cleric the Radiant Sentinel
The reason the Judge Cleric battle is so high on this list, despite the patterns of both phases of this boss being relatively predictable, is that whenever the attacks do hit (especially in the second phase), they’re brutal. That and the fact that even if players know what attack is coming, some of the spells the Cleric uses cover such a wide area.
Granted, this is still one of the most well-rounded and seemingly beloved fights in the game in terms of combat, design, atmosphere, andrewards from her Remembrance. There’s really not much more to say other than that. Learn the melee patterns, be ready to react to the wide AoE spells, and don’t get too greedy.
Smite, Poison, & Wither
1 Vestige Seed, 25 Umbral Scouring, Lightreaper Flesh, The Lightreaper’s Umbral Parasite, & Remembrance of the Lightreaper
Ah, the ‘forced death’ tutorial boss of the game. Yes, technically the Lampreaper can be defeated in the tutorial, but the amount of time and effort that takes is absurd. More realistically, players will be killing this boss much later on in Upper Calranth, and it’ll still require a lot of work.
Not only is this a boss fight where players will be watching (and occasionally dodging) while the Lampreaper spends half the battle on its ‘dragon’, but it’s also one where players will want to do a bit of prep work before entering the arena to make the Umbral Parasite beneath the center grate of the arena accessible. In general, the battle against the Lampreaper is pretty fun, though he does move around constantly, and it’s pretty worthy of being a boss battle that’s built up for a majority of the game.
Wither, Bleed, Smite, & Poison
1 Vestige Seed, 8 Umbral Scouring, & Remembrance of the Sundered Monarch
And finally let’s go over one of the last bosses inLords of the Fallen, the Sundered Monarch. This fight is already being compared with stuff like the Vendrick fight inDark Souls 2, or even some of the boss fights in theDark Souls 3DLCs.
Overall, the general consensus on this fight is that, while hard, the Sundered Monarch is one of the most enjoyably challenging boss battles in the game. He has a much wider range of moves than most other bosses do, he doesn’t have any gimmicks that feel ‘unfair’, and his design and the lore around him are fantastic. Plus, given that the boss fight after the Monarch (for the Infernal and Radiantendings) is so incredibly unenjoyable, the Sundered Monarch looks even better by comparison.
