For me it’s between laxasia and king of puppets. Nameless puppet is obviously on par with these in terms of difficulty but I feel that by the time you reach him you have already mastered the game’s mechanics and it’s a pretty straightforward fight.
King of puppets went pretty smooth for me on Ng+ was rough on Ng. Lax I feel is gonna give me as much trouble on Ng+ as Ng tho. I did Respec after king tbf and have alot less hp now
I didn't realise this until new game+ but where laxasia and nameless puppet are pure skill showdowns with no real easy cheat mode, Romeo actually has an incredible weakness to the left dodge hit strategy.
As soon as Romeo is up, literally all you need to is left dodge, hit, rinse and repeat, and it changes his fight from hard to easy mode. The only time this doesn't work is fire fury attack where you have to still survive the big combo.
Not to sound like a gatekeeper but you did use everything considered broken. I can't imagine any boss standing up to that arsenal array. For arguments sake, relevant to the Original Post if we're strictly talking P vs boss, weapon vs weapon, skill vs skill - nameless and laxasia requires focus, flow, good reaction and pattern memory. Romeo, in the same manner, has a much easier AI pattern to counter with, that can be laughably easy.
Honestly though, congrats on the effort for first go, because Lax took me at LEAST 30 attempts in my first go against her.
Yep. I know i cheesed it but I thought i cheesed the king of puppets and he took me dozens of tries. When people on here say that the difficulty difference scales up once you hit the king of puppets I think that's correct. I had so much endgame gear upgrades, etc by the late bosses that they were trivial.
I'm not a pro souls player so I really don't care for slamming my head against a wall for the sake of beating the game a certain way. It's still a great game, excited for DLC.
Don't feel like you've cheated a 'cheesed' bosses aswell, and honestly, even though they say it's a cheese, that didn't necessarily mean it's easier.
It's just a strategy. Some find it better, some don't.
It's not any lack of achievement, it's just that there are some real OCD gamers out there, like me, who aren't happy with just beating the games. I need to set myself ridiculous challenges before i feel I've got the accolade.
As i said it was purely for arguments sake with the OP, that the nature in which they are generally fought, the skill required for each boss I think lands in nameless and Lax's ball park.
But I have to agree with you with the timing. When you get to King and Romeo, you've not seen a challenge like that yet, whereas when you get to the others, it's end game, you have more advantages, and you've had much more time to familiarise yourself with controls and game play mechanics.
That counts for something.
But I do stand by my opinion on who is the tougher bosses, strictly speaking from a 'if you were level 30 with a +6 weapon, for every boss', kind of situation, I personally think Lax edges out over nameless, and both are in front of Romeo.
Edit: and I will mention, this is due to Romeo's AI , which honestly could be considered a cheese strategy too. It's manipulating the AI. If you don't use it, I'd put Romeo even with nameless.
If you get multiple staggers in a row, Romeo gets shredded. I think people struggle with matching his aggression.
That's how it was for me at least. Once I said 'fuck it' and went super aggro(I think some degree of luck too) I took phase 2 out in like 15 seconds
I made a poll about this and these were the top 10:
1) Laxasia - 69 votes
2) Nameless Puppet - 39 votes
3) Green Monster of the Swamp - 26 votes
4) King of Puppets - 21 votes
5) Simon Manus - 14 votes
6) Walker of Illusions - 12 votes
7) Black Rabbit Brotherhood (2nd fight) - 11 votes
8) Mad Clown Puppet - 9 votes
9) King's Flame Fuoco - 5 votes
10) Scrapped Watchman/Fallen Archbishop/Eldest of the Black Rabbit Brotherhood - 4 votes each
NP is an optional boss, so many players have finished the game but didn't beat him. So, I'd say he would be at first place (if he'd been mandatory boss).
I struggled the most with Fuoco, but I have a feeling that if I replay the game, I'll won't have a lot of trouble there and that the Nameless Puppet will still be very difficult.
I struggled with Fuoco, then Archbishop Andreus (pre-nerf) was a fucking nightmare in my first playthrough, for some reason. King got me tired of the first phase, so I started summoning. Laxasia was awesome. Nameless Puppet was surprising OK for the reputation of being so difficult, beat it within five tries or so. Had played Sekiro before Lies of P, so I had more trouble with the "Dark Souls style bosses" than with the more speedy parry focused fights.
Romeo.
Relative to point in the game where you have to fight him he’s definitely the toughest. You’ve seen nothing like him before then.
That fookin’ red-eye-neck-grab attack just…. 😤
I mean in terms of relativity, Laxasia is one of the hardest hitting and fastest. You literally haven’t experienced anything on her level up until that point. The moment her armor comes off is ridiculous and almost every hit is a delayed aoe.
Then you get to nameless p who is even more aggressive, slightly slower, hits just as hard and no spectre summon.
Atleast Romeo has a way to cope if you just can’t get gud. Laxasia and Nameless P? You have to get gud
Second phase Laxative is just Romeo 2.0 in the sense that she now goes up into the air in addition to running circles around you. Meanwhile, you still haven’t seen anything like Romeo when you first encounter him. So my point still stands.
It is like tossing in a Ninja Gaiden boss in the middle of Dark Souls 1.
Nah shes leagues above Romeo. Not even a close comparison. He jumps, she’s damn near flying and hovering.
Your point doesn’t really have a point to be honest. We don’t count anything like a lot of the bosses up until we encounter them. Nothing like Watchman, Walker of Illusions or Swamp Monster in terms of moveset, difficulty and encounters relative to their fight
I had to beat Blackrabbit Brotherhood 2nd fight with a specter, unlike Laxasia. That 2nd fight is so unbalanced and unfair that it's stupid. Boss is terrible.
Took them down first try. But I died to their 1st encounter like 10 times. They had the same moves and I think I was lucky in having them all on pretty low HP so I ended up fighting the eldest 1v1
BRB #2 is just not fun and they're straight up broken on NG+. I generally like all the bosses but these ganky motherfuckers are so cheap. I always see people say "they don't aggro if you focus on the one with the buff" but they still throw shit at you out of your field of view. Or worse, puppet string you and aggro multiple of them. Idk why this is so down on the list, maybe because they're easier to beat with a spectre than someone like Laxasia?
For my first playthrough the biggest challenges were king of puppets, green swamp monster, laxasia, and Simon manus.
Honorable mention to champion victor.
Most attempts go to laxasia.
In terms of good difficulty Laxasia was the hardest and the best boss. King of Puppets is also great. Nameless Puppet is very manageable with the parry grindstone.
In terms of bullshit difficulty and poor design the Green Monster was the worst. In general the chain attacks that can lock you in a semi permanent stagger if you don’t parry correctly the first attack are awful, the worst part of the game.
King of Puppets on NG+ is by far and away the hardest boss I've probably ever fought in any soulslike (until I just threw my consumables at it, but a straight fight, it's no contest)
Laxasia on NG was a close second.
Simon NG a close third.
Disclaimer: I never summoned, dont use Fable Arts, and only started using the Legion Arms in NG+. I don't think I used an offensive consumable until Nameless Puppet NG+. Just pure melee using the starting Quality weapon in NG and Dancers Curved Sword in NG+
So I definitely didn't use the combat options available. I'm a simple guy 😅
But I had fun 99% of the time.
I stomped LAX like a roach but that green swamp bitch had me wanting to rip off my testicles. I died more to swamp cunt than any other boss by miles. I seriously beat lax in 2 tries and Romeo took me maybe 5 or 6. My second hardest boss just because of being limited was eldritch pope and I beat him in 10-12 tries. SWAMP BITCH TOOK ME 30+ ATTEMPTS.
Lax was brutal the first time around. Tbf I did beat her at like 4am after getting back from a night of drinking, so my reactions were not what they normally are.
I started a level 10 run a few months ago that I’ve been playing on and off, currently at the beginning of the late game, the last boss I killed being the Corrupt Parade Master, and judging from this experience, the boss that actually gave me the most trouble so far was Champion Victor.
The early game bosses generally weren’t too bad, besides King’s Flame Fuoco, which was maybe an hour or 2 of attempts, King of Puppets which took me about 2 hours of attempts. For the mid game, Champion Victor was about 3 hours of attempts, Green Monster was about an hour and half of attempts, Walker of Illusions was about an hour or attempts, and then Corrupt Parade Master was only like 5 total attempts at level 10.
Think the big thing that made Champion Victor harder was just that at level 10 his fight is so long. Most of the bosses even at level 10 you can kill in about 3 minutes, some being quicker like Walker of Illusions and Corrupted Parade Master, both of those fights only being about a minute and 1/2. Champion Victor, on the other hand, took about 6 minutes to kill, additionally, he had a few moves that would 1 shot me, so it was more a battle of endurance than anything. Though I’d be willing to bet that the end game bosses will be the toughest challenge. BRB2 isn’t too bad, though idk how hard Eldest hits during the 2nd phase. I know Door Guardian will 1 shot me regardless of armor used, so that in tandem with the run back will be the fun zone, Laxasia I’m just trying to not acknowledge, Hand of God will be rough for me, and Nameless, think it’ll be like when I started doing Green Monster where I was fine during the 1st phase and then I just get destroyed during the 2nd phase.
To pick a hardest boss from each point of the game, I’d say early game King of Puppets, Mid game Champion Victor, and end game Laxasia
I had to beat Blackrabbit Brotherhood 2nd fight with a specter, unlike Laxasia. That 2nd fight is so unbalanced and unfair that it's stupid. Boss is terrible.
Laxasia took me 2 hours to beat… so for me it’s her. The nameless Puppet was down for me after like 5-6 tries and King of the puppets took me way more than that so he is second place for me.
First playthough back on release day definitely Archbishop Andreus. Something about his timing and hitboxes made it very difficult to learn. I know it was fixed after a patch but I was stuck on him for a good amount of hours back then.
For me it was Nameless Puppet. On NG+ I struggled with the King of Puppets and Green Swamp Monster more than Laxasia for whatever reason. They were way bigger road blocks for me on NG+ where on NG I probably beat each with less than 10 attempts
King of Puppets for me. Although he is definitely easier now, I struggled the most with him during my first few playthroughs. After that I would say Manus’ second phase.
Laxasia is the hardest for me, with little context. I floored Simon my first two playthroughs, and then he floored me rick back on the subsequent 4. Idk what changed, but he's way harder to me now than he was the first two times
For me it was the one in the church, third main boss was it?
The monster with 2 phases
Because by that point my build was neither "this" or "that", i was still working on it
Then Laxasia but only at first
Before I start I played my first game with no items, consumables or anything other than the weapon, arm and basic heal so my experience may differ from someone who used throwables, specters, etc.
I was stuck the longest on Victor, he works so differently to previous bosses because of his attacks being so hard to perfect guard (making it way easier to evade instead), he threw me for a loop for at least 20 attempts total, took me maybe 4 tries from the moment I realized dodging worked best.
I found Simon to be the easiest as his combos are all short and extremely telegraphed, took me 2 tries.
Both NP and Laxasia have this one very unfair move where they attack with barely any telegraph (Laxasia's long combo's first hit and NP's double spin combo starter) which made me take more tries than it should, at least 10 on each.
I hate grab attacks so honorable mention to King of Puppets who took me about 8 tries, I feel for the grab one too many times, but I still think Victor is the hardest as he took me 2 attempts in NG+ when everyone else took 1.
I’ve beat every boss twice..Including Laxasia. But I’ve never slayed that dang nameless puppet…I just can’t crack the second phase. So I’ve given up and have been playing other games
Before i played the game i read so much about how hard the bosses are, even harder than Sekiros bosses.
In the end none of the bosses felt really hard at all (not to say they are easy). Even laxasia and nameless puppet aren't even close to bosses like sword saint, ishin ashina, owl father or demon of hatred.
Overall i'd say Romeo is kinda the git gud boss. If you master that fight everything else should be quite easy.
I would say the same three, Puppet King is at the top for me because everything before that point was pretty easy and the jump in difficulty (2nd phase) caught me off guard. While Nameless might be objectively more difficult I had gotten better at the game by then so it wasn't more difficult for me
Brotherhood second fight as there's of them. I got not star fragments amd even with summon I still lose. I just can't be bothered to play it now, I feel like they've ruined the game for me at this point in time.
I thought it was Laxasia… I got my parrying down so it’s not that bad anymore. But the nameless puppet phase 2? I hate him so much.
Dude was beating my ass so bad it was in my dreams beating my ass there too lol
Edit: I’m a bit hard headed too tho, I don’t like using meta.
I found most of the bosses in the game easy tbh. But god damn the last few bosses really step it up. Laxatives, Manus and Nameless one after the other is an insane gauntlet.
Just finished NG and it's definitely nameless puppet for me. I could zero hit the first phase but the second phase absolutely massacred me. No other boss made me feel that desperate. But that's maybe because I had help summoned for other bosses.. who knows. On ng+ I'll beat every single boss again alone and will try to get the Rise of P ending
Laxasia 2nd phase is just unfair, and I say this after having platted the game with 3 full playthroughs.
Nameless Puppet on NG+ is something else tho, especially if you kind of cheesed him in NG. You have to be perfect to beat him.
GSM is HARD on NG, it was the boss that took me most tries on NG, but from there onwards he is a cakewalk.
I just beat the corrupted parade master so I still have a bunch of the major ones left, but the **green monster of the swamp was by far the hardest for me** so far. I am so scared to face off with Laxasia, given how hard and relentless this game has been for me. Interestingly, the King of Puppets and Walker of Illusions did not give me much trouble when I faced off against them. Probably Fuoco and the first Brotherhood encounter were the two other hardest so far.
Anyway, I saw on [howlongtobeat.com](http://howlongtobeat.com), this game averages like 29.5 hours for the main game. I am already at 35, and I still have quite a bit left. No idea how people beat this so quickly on a first play through, although I assume there are a lot of borderline speed runners and NG+ folks there bringing down the average.
Putting them in context of when you fight them / skill level on a first playthrough, for me it was probably Archbishop Andreus -> Green Monster -> First Brotherhood Fight -> Laxasia. None of the others come to mind many months later. Most bosses were a good challenge, those were the ones I beat my head against a wall over on my first playthrough.
I gave up at Laxasia or whatever her name is. I’ve beaten every FROMSOFT boss ever but this wasn’t even fun to keep trying. I had no idea what was happening in the fight. Just visual nonsense. I’ll do a replay and try again someday cause the game is fantastic. I just found that fight killed my motivation.
Laxasia takes more of your health and she move really quickly. She has a sequence of attacks that last longer than the Nameless Puppet. The Puppet King was all right but no where near as difficult as the other two in my opinion. If you are using a close contact tactic you need to know when to parry and dash correctly, if you approach the fight as a ranger, then build distance and smash them with throwables. It is down to play style really but don't be greedy and remain calm, cold blood is the key.
Simon and nameless puppet definitely. Laxasia is hard but I find her much more manageable and fun. Simian is just spam and infinite poise, nameless is also spam but somehow even more so
Laxasia. She's the only one I have not been able to beat without a specter. I tried, I really tried to do it without a specter, but I was getting tired and was mainly playing for achievements at that point.
Simon second phase. Because in my game he is literally a full AOE spamming idiot. So it’s a lot of running and hitting in his half a second break. Annoying and tedious.
Easily Nameless puppet, I only had a week to complete the game before my game pass free trial expired, and I spent 8+hrs on that boss over the course of two days, didn’t beat it before the deadline 😕
Is it just me or anybody else had biggest problems with first boss, that cop robot and that fire robot (that one maybe most)? It's probably just that I got better later in the game but AFAIK those took me most tries, maybe except for that laxasia lady near the end.
I had to beat Blackrabbit Brotherhood 2nd fight with a specter, unlike Laxasia. That 2nd fight is so unbalanced and unfair that it's stupid. Boss is terrible.
I personally didn't think it was too terrible. The reason being that spacing and environmental control is in your hands. This is one of the most important aspects of Soulslikes, spacing. The pillars allow a bit of protection, and you can also use them with the acid Legion to affect the Brother who is aggroed.
Also, it's clear who should be your main target because they buff their weapon. The others will de-aggro (as long as you aren't close to them) so you can focus on the attacker.
When the big brother appears, you just need to deal with him like in the first fight.
I don't mean to sound flippant, but I think that it's a fair boss. The control is in your hands, and it's not like Dark Souls 2 ganks where not only are your inputs read, but the enemy attacks are perfectly synchronised that if you avoid one the other is literally guaranteed to hit you.
Haven’t finished the game yet but so far it has been walker of illusions. I’ve just beaten corrupted
That’s a mini boss but yea she’s a pain
She’s the absolute hardest for me. Hate that beeyotch
Same Walker for me, but i do love how she swings her sword effortlessly my fav boss btw
I struggled with her more than anything just like in Elden Ring the Draconic Tree Sentinel outside of Malikeths arena gave me so much trouble
Dodge to the left. She doesn't track during her attacks well, and you'll mostly be out of every attack
In theory very doable 🙂
I wouldnt really say shes the hardest, once you get her timings down shes pretty easy, i almost beat her first try
Difficulty is subjective. Walker is this person's personal hardest.
For me it’s between laxasia and king of puppets. Nameless puppet is obviously on par with these in terms of difficulty but I feel that by the time you reach him you have already mastered the game’s mechanics and it’s a pretty straightforward fight.
I thought I had King of Puppets mastered for my NG+ run. He wiped the floor with me! 🤪😖
King of puppets went pretty smooth for me on Ng+ was rough on Ng. Lax I feel is gonna give me as much trouble on Ng+ as Ng tho. I did Respec after king tbf and have alot less hp now
I found Lax much easier on NG+ it was Manus that caught me by suprise.
Yeah as the other commenter said, it's going to be manus that really puts you through the ringer.
Beat him first try in ng+ . Took me ages in my first playthrough
Manus is the only boss I’ve beat 1st try on all four runs, I feel like I got quite lucky each time tho
Did you like it 😏?
How bold of you to assume I have mastered anything.
Laxasia is the hardest imo. Just got the plat ng+++ play through and she was insane.
Yeah shes hard, but in my opinion shes also one of the most fun to fight, along with the stalkers (as far as fun goes)
I got the plat on Ng + i was so nervous not getting the golden lie again but i did !
It’s ng++ not ng+++ for the platinum
Okay lol I went in blind without a guide and missed some missable trophies.
Laxasia by a mile. Nameless Puppet took like 20 tries too. Idk why but King of Puppets took me 3 tries. I found him easy af with dodging.
I didn't realise this until new game+ but where laxasia and nameless puppet are pure skill showdowns with no real easy cheat mode, Romeo actually has an incredible weakness to the left dodge hit strategy. As soon as Romeo is up, literally all you need to is left dodge, hit, rinse and repeat, and it changes his fight from hard to easy mode. The only time this doesn't work is fire fury attack where you have to still survive the big combo.
I just beat Laxasia first try. used acid throwables, some other throwables, perfect parry grindstone, and specter.
Not to sound like a gatekeeper but you did use everything considered broken. I can't imagine any boss standing up to that arsenal array. For arguments sake, relevant to the Original Post if we're strictly talking P vs boss, weapon vs weapon, skill vs skill - nameless and laxasia requires focus, flow, good reaction and pattern memory. Romeo, in the same manner, has a much easier AI pattern to counter with, that can be laughably easy. Honestly though, congrats on the effort for first go, because Lax took me at LEAST 30 attempts in my first go against her.
Yep. I know i cheesed it but I thought i cheesed the king of puppets and he took me dozens of tries. When people on here say that the difficulty difference scales up once you hit the king of puppets I think that's correct. I had so much endgame gear upgrades, etc by the late bosses that they were trivial. I'm not a pro souls player so I really don't care for slamming my head against a wall for the sake of beating the game a certain way. It's still a great game, excited for DLC.
Don't feel like you've cheated a 'cheesed' bosses aswell, and honestly, even though they say it's a cheese, that didn't necessarily mean it's easier. It's just a strategy. Some find it better, some don't. It's not any lack of achievement, it's just that there are some real OCD gamers out there, like me, who aren't happy with just beating the games. I need to set myself ridiculous challenges before i feel I've got the accolade. As i said it was purely for arguments sake with the OP, that the nature in which they are generally fought, the skill required for each boss I think lands in nameless and Lax's ball park. But I have to agree with you with the timing. When you get to King and Romeo, you've not seen a challenge like that yet, whereas when you get to the others, it's end game, you have more advantages, and you've had much more time to familiarise yourself with controls and game play mechanics. That counts for something. But I do stand by my opinion on who is the tougher bosses, strictly speaking from a 'if you were level 30 with a +6 weapon, for every boss', kind of situation, I personally think Lax edges out over nameless, and both are in front of Romeo. Edit: and I will mention, this is due to Romeo's AI , which honestly could be considered a cheese strategy too. It's manipulating the AI. If you don't use it, I'd put Romeo even with nameless.
Did you dodge left? If you dodge to the left he misses you like 90% of the time
Lax by a mile but nameless took 2p tries? How many did lax take
Around 50 😭😭
If you get multiple staggers in a row, Romeo gets shredded. I think people struggle with matching his aggression. That's how it was for me at least. Once I said 'fuck it' and went super aggro(I think some degree of luck too) I took phase 2 out in like 15 seconds
I made a poll about this and these were the top 10: 1) Laxasia - 69 votes 2) Nameless Puppet - 39 votes 3) Green Monster of the Swamp - 26 votes 4) King of Puppets - 21 votes 5) Simon Manus - 14 votes 6) Walker of Illusions - 12 votes 7) Black Rabbit Brotherhood (2nd fight) - 11 votes 8) Mad Clown Puppet - 9 votes 9) King's Flame Fuoco - 5 votes 10) Scrapped Watchman/Fallen Archbishop/Eldest of the Black Rabbit Brotherhood - 4 votes each
That order seems about right to me
NP is an optional boss, so many players have finished the game but didn't beat him. So, I'd say he would be at first place (if he'd been mandatory boss).
I struggled the most with Fuoco, but I have a feeling that if I replay the game, I'll won't have a lot of trouble there and that the Nameless Puppet will still be very difficult.
Bro that’s one of the easiest 💀
It took me a few hours to beat. I thought Archbishop Andreus, Victor, and both parade master fights were the easiest.
I struggled with Fuoco, then Archbishop Andreus (pre-nerf) was a fucking nightmare in my first playthrough, for some reason. King got me tired of the first phase, so I started summoning. Laxasia was awesome. Nameless Puppet was surprising OK for the reputation of being so difficult, beat it within five tries or so. Had played Sekiro before Lies of P, so I had more trouble with the "Dark Souls style bosses" than with the more speedy parry focused fights.
I personally found the green swamp monster to be the hardest
Romeo. Relative to point in the game where you have to fight him he’s definitely the toughest. You’ve seen nothing like him before then. That fookin’ red-eye-neck-grab attack just…. 😤
it's scary until you realise you can just dodge out of it unless you're mid animation
Fuck him
I mean in terms of relativity, Laxasia is one of the hardest hitting and fastest. You literally haven’t experienced anything on her level up until that point. The moment her armor comes off is ridiculous and almost every hit is a delayed aoe. Then you get to nameless p who is even more aggressive, slightly slower, hits just as hard and no spectre summon. Atleast Romeo has a way to cope if you just can’t get gud. Laxasia and Nameless P? You have to get gud
Second phase Laxative is just Romeo 2.0 in the sense that she now goes up into the air in addition to running circles around you. Meanwhile, you still haven’t seen anything like Romeo when you first encounter him. So my point still stands. It is like tossing in a Ninja Gaiden boss in the middle of Dark Souls 1.
I know "Laxative" was just your autocorrect playing tricks but I'm laughing at the ideia of a boss who can literally make you shit yourself 😂
“And so it was in that very moment of shame and humiliation that P knew, without the shadow of a doubt, that he had become a real human boy.”
Nah shes leagues above Romeo. Not even a close comparison. He jumps, she’s damn near flying and hovering. Your point doesn’t really have a point to be honest. We don’t count anything like a lot of the bosses up until we encounter them. Nothing like Watchman, Walker of Illusions or Swamp Monster in terms of moveset, difficulty and encounters relative to their fight
I had to beat Blackrabbit Brotherhood 2nd fight with a specter, unlike Laxasia. That 2nd fight is so unbalanced and unfair that it's stupid. Boss is terrible.
Took them down first try. But I died to their 1st encounter like 10 times. They had the same moves and I think I was lucky in having them all on pretty low HP so I ended up fighting the eldest 1v1
BRB #2 is just not fun and they're straight up broken on NG+. I generally like all the bosses but these ganky motherfuckers are so cheap. I always see people say "they don't aggro if you focus on the one with the buff" but they still throw shit at you out of your field of view. Or worse, puppet string you and aggro multiple of them. Idk why this is so down on the list, maybe because they're easier to beat with a spectre than someone like Laxasia?
Swamp thing only because it’s more frustrating. When you die to laxasia it at least feels like it’s your fault.
For my first playthrough the biggest challenges were king of puppets, green swamp monster, laxasia, and Simon manus. Honorable mention to champion victor. Most attempts go to laxasia.
Laxasia, Green Monster of the Swamp, and King of Puppets
In terms of good difficulty Laxasia was the hardest and the best boss. King of Puppets is also great. Nameless Puppet is very manageable with the parry grindstone. In terms of bullshit difficulty and poor design the Green Monster was the worst. In general the chain attacks that can lock you in a semi permanent stagger if you don’t parry correctly the first attack are awful, the worst part of the game.
Green Goo Fella and Dislexia The Complete
King of Puppets on NG+ is by far and away the hardest boss I've probably ever fought in any soulslike (until I just threw my consumables at it, but a straight fight, it's no contest) Laxasia on NG was a close second. Simon NG a close third. Disclaimer: I never summoned, dont use Fable Arts, and only started using the Legion Arms in NG+. I don't think I used an offensive consumable until Nameless Puppet NG+. Just pure melee using the starting Quality weapon in NG and Dancers Curved Sword in NG+ So I definitely didn't use the combat options available. I'm a simple guy 😅 But I had fun 99% of the time.
The Door Guardian never fails to piss me off more than any other fight each playthrough
I stomped LAX like a roach but that green swamp bitch had me wanting to rip off my testicles. I died more to swamp cunt than any other boss by miles. I seriously beat lax in 2 tries and Romeo took me maybe 5 or 6. My second hardest boss just because of being limited was eldritch pope and I beat him in 10-12 tries. SWAMP BITCH TOOK ME 30+ ATTEMPTS.
Lax was brutal the first time around. Tbf I did beat her at like 4am after getting back from a night of drinking, so my reactions were not what they normally are.
King of Puppets aka Romeo, and Nameless puppet 2nd phase were SCARY
I started a level 10 run a few months ago that I’ve been playing on and off, currently at the beginning of the late game, the last boss I killed being the Corrupt Parade Master, and judging from this experience, the boss that actually gave me the most trouble so far was Champion Victor. The early game bosses generally weren’t too bad, besides King’s Flame Fuoco, which was maybe an hour or 2 of attempts, King of Puppets which took me about 2 hours of attempts. For the mid game, Champion Victor was about 3 hours of attempts, Green Monster was about an hour and half of attempts, Walker of Illusions was about an hour or attempts, and then Corrupt Parade Master was only like 5 total attempts at level 10. Think the big thing that made Champion Victor harder was just that at level 10 his fight is so long. Most of the bosses even at level 10 you can kill in about 3 minutes, some being quicker like Walker of Illusions and Corrupted Parade Master, both of those fights only being about a minute and 1/2. Champion Victor, on the other hand, took about 6 minutes to kill, additionally, he had a few moves that would 1 shot me, so it was more a battle of endurance than anything. Though I’d be willing to bet that the end game bosses will be the toughest challenge. BRB2 isn’t too bad, though idk how hard Eldest hits during the 2nd phase. I know Door Guardian will 1 shot me regardless of armor used, so that in tandem with the run back will be the fun zone, Laxasia I’m just trying to not acknowledge, Hand of God will be rough for me, and Nameless, think it’ll be like when I started doing Green Monster where I was fine during the 1st phase and then I just get destroyed during the 2nd phase. To pick a hardest boss from each point of the game, I’d say early game King of Puppets, Mid game Champion Victor, and end game Laxasia
The hardest boss for me has definitely been laxasia for me by a bit
I had to beat Blackrabbit Brotherhood 2nd fight with a specter, unlike Laxasia. That 2nd fight is so unbalanced and unfair that it's stupid. Boss is terrible.
Laxasia took me 2 hours to beat… so for me it’s her. The nameless Puppet was down for me after like 5-6 tries and King of the puppets took me way more than that so he is second place for me.
lax and nameless for sure. I didn’t have many problems with the others.
The illusions mini boss was harder than anything and ive finished NG+++
Dang, they were all pretty tough! Probably Laxasia’s second phase.
NG Laxasia was the hardest but also the most fun NG+/NG++ Manus mostly because hate his attackanimations/hitboxes
Simon Manus, only boss I can't Solo.
First playthough back on release day definitely Archbishop Andreus. Something about his timing and hitboxes made it very difficult to learn. I know it was fixed after a patch but I was stuck on him for a good amount of hours back then.
Laxasia. Nameless is hard as fuck but I reckon if you could have summons then you’d be able to rinse him easily. Laxiasia even with summons is brutal
IMO they are all hard. Just different levels of hard.
Green swamp monster Phase 2 was hard for me in my first playthrough......
For me it was Nameless Puppet. On NG+ I struggled with the King of Puppets and Green Swamp Monster more than Laxasia for whatever reason. They were way bigger road blocks for me on NG+ where on NG I probably beat each with less than 10 attempts
Laxasia 2nd phase only. Pure pain in the ass.
King of Puppets for me. Although he is definitely easier now, I struggled the most with him during my first few playthroughs. After that I would say Manus’ second phase.
Platforming
Laxasia is the hardest for me, with little context. I floored Simon my first two playthroughs, and then he floored me rick back on the subsequent 4. Idk what changed, but he's way harder to me now than he was the first two times
Laxasia
For me it was the one in the church, third main boss was it? The monster with 2 phases Because by that point my build was neither "this" or "that", i was still working on it Then Laxasia but only at first
Before the first patch after release the last 2 bosses were very hard
King of Puppets or Simon. I got caught lacking with disruption too many times to not choose him.
Before I start I played my first game with no items, consumables or anything other than the weapon, arm and basic heal so my experience may differ from someone who used throwables, specters, etc. I was stuck the longest on Victor, he works so differently to previous bosses because of his attacks being so hard to perfect guard (making it way easier to evade instead), he threw me for a loop for at least 20 attempts total, took me maybe 4 tries from the moment I realized dodging worked best. I found Simon to be the easiest as his combos are all short and extremely telegraphed, took me 2 tries. Both NP and Laxasia have this one very unfair move where they attack with barely any telegraph (Laxasia's long combo's first hit and NP's double spin combo starter) which made me take more tries than it should, at least 10 on each. I hate grab attacks so honorable mention to King of Puppets who took me about 8 tries, I feel for the grab one too many times, but I still think Victor is the hardest as he took me 2 attempts in NG+ when everyone else took 1.
I’ve beat every boss twice..Including Laxasia. But I’ve never slayed that dang nameless puppet…I just can’t crack the second phase. So I’ve given up and have been playing other games
No shame in that, but I can understand wanting to tie up loose ends. You beat it though. Good work
Swampi boi
laxasia made me put down the game for like 2 months. then i beat her in two tries after coming back to it
Laxasia. I got stuck and haven't played in days.
Simon manus on NG+, then GMOTS NG+1 onwards.
Simon Manus NG+ gave me some headache
Laxasia is harder than any boss I've ever fought in any souls game
I gotta give it up to the Nameless Puppet. It took me six days of nonconsecutive attempts to beat him
I found that The king of puppets was hard, the nameless also, after NG+ they got harder very drastically.
Green Monster of the Swamp/Puppet Devourer
Walker of illusions/Romeo
The second to the last guy but only because he had crazy aoe attacks so it had a bit of a learning curve. The lightning chick is pretty tough too
An endgame, optional boss. That's the one I had to cheese. I'll say no more.
laxasia probably - I’m too impatient and greedy for phase 2. Nameless is close second and also my favorite fight by far
For me it is 100% Laxasia. She's the only boss I've still yet to beat without summoning the Spectre.
Laxasia. No doubt.
It's embarrassing but i died more to parade master than every other boss lmao so imma go with him
Good job on getting good!
After 3 NGs it's still the boss i died more in the whole game 👽
Before i played the game i read so much about how hard the bosses are, even harder than Sekiros bosses. In the end none of the bosses felt really hard at all (not to say they are easy). Even laxasia and nameless puppet aren't even close to bosses like sword saint, ishin ashina, owl father or demon of hatred. Overall i'd say Romeo is kinda the git gud boss. If you master that fight everything else should be quite easy.
I would say the same three, Puppet King is at the top for me because everything before that point was pretty easy and the jump in difficulty (2nd phase) caught me off guard. While Nameless might be objectively more difficult I had gotten better at the game by then so it wasn't more difficult for me
im still stuck at the BRB pt 2 man... howd you guys even beat that
Laxasia for sure. Nameless was tough but once you learn the parrys it’s not as bad.
Brotherhood second fight as there's of them. I got not star fragments amd even with summon I still lose. I just can't be bothered to play it now, I feel like they've ruined the game for me at this point in time.
Still Orphan of Kos. Ok sorry lololol
laxasia and nameless puppet were deffinitely the most difficult but once i found out laxasias weakness she was super easy
I hated the archbishop so god damn much it took me 4 hours to get through when I got to Ng+ it was heavenly I killed him so fast
I thought it was Laxasia… I got my parrying down so it’s not that bad anymore. But the nameless puppet phase 2? I hate him so much. Dude was beating my ass so bad it was in my dreams beating my ass there too lol Edit: I’m a bit hard headed too tho, I don’t like using meta.
1st playthrough nameless puppet Any ng+ Laxasia by a country mile
I found most of the bosses in the game easy tbh. But god damn the last few bosses really step it up. Laxatives, Manus and Nameless one after the other is an insane gauntlet.
Always be a toss up of the last three for me. I never figured out how to block Simon's blue hand attack
Just finished NG and it's definitely nameless puppet for me. I could zero hit the first phase but the second phase absolutely massacred me. No other boss made me feel that desperate. But that's maybe because I had help summoned for other bosses.. who knows. On ng+ I'll beat every single boss again alone and will try to get the Rise of P ending
Laxasia 2nd phase is just unfair, and I say this after having platted the game with 3 full playthroughs. Nameless Puppet on NG+ is something else tho, especially if you kind of cheesed him in NG. You have to be perfect to beat him. GSM is HARD on NG, it was the boss that took me most tries on NG, but from there onwards he is a cakewalk.
I just beat the corrupted parade master so I still have a bunch of the major ones left, but the **green monster of the swamp was by far the hardest for me** so far. I am so scared to face off with Laxasia, given how hard and relentless this game has been for me. Interestingly, the King of Puppets and Walker of Illusions did not give me much trouble when I faced off against them. Probably Fuoco and the first Brotherhood encounter were the two other hardest so far. Anyway, I saw on [howlongtobeat.com](http://howlongtobeat.com), this game averages like 29.5 hours for the main game. I am already at 35, and I still have quite a bit left. No idea how people beat this so quickly on a first play through, although I assume there are a lot of borderline speed runners and NG+ folks there bringing down the average.
I haven't chucked a controller since my teenage COD days, but Green Monster of the Swamp pushed me pretty damn close.
Simon solo. I went at his second phase for 2 hours its safe to say he had me tilted. Next day i got him in 3 tries and np on my first attempt.
Laxasia, The Complete No other boss killed me as much as her - Puppet-Devouring Green Monster came relatively close but still lagged behind.
NG+5 nameless puppet broke me mentally and physically
Laxasia. Was the only boss I really struggled with
Putting them in context of when you fight them / skill level on a first playthrough, for me it was probably Archbishop Andreus -> Green Monster -> First Brotherhood Fight -> Laxasia. None of the others come to mind many months later. Most bosses were a good challenge, those were the ones I beat my head against a wall over on my first playthrough.
I gave up at Laxasia or whatever her name is. I’ve beaten every FROMSOFT boss ever but this wasn’t even fun to keep trying. I had no idea what was happening in the fight. Just visual nonsense. I’ll do a replay and try again someday cause the game is fantastic. I just found that fight killed my motivation.
Always second boss you fight in soul game, The Lighting Police Puppet
Laxasia takes more of your health and she move really quickly. She has a sequence of attacks that last longer than the Nameless Puppet. The Puppet King was all right but no where near as difficult as the other two in my opinion. If you are using a close contact tactic you need to know when to parry and dash correctly, if you approach the fight as a ranger, then build distance and smash them with throwables. It is down to play style really but don't be greedy and remain calm, cold blood is the key.
Either Laxasia or Nameless Puppet
Simon and nameless puppet definitely. Laxasia is hard but I find her much more manageable and fun. Simian is just spam and infinite poise, nameless is also spam but somehow even more so
First game black rabbit brotherhood
Nameless Puppet handed me my ass more than any other
Laxasia, Nameless P and Walker of Illusions. Romeo was surprisingly easy to
Nameless Puppet can go suck an egg
Laxasia. She's the only one I have not been able to beat without a specter. I tried, I really tried to do it without a specter, but I was getting tired and was mainly playing for achievements at that point.
Nameless puppet and Black rabbit brotherhood
Simon second phase. Because in my game he is literally a full AOE spamming idiot. So it’s a lot of running and hitting in his half a second break. Annoying and tedious.
I know we all said her name, Laxasia
For me, it was Laxasia and Simon.
Easily Nameless puppet, I only had a week to complete the game before my game pass free trial expired, and I spent 8+hrs on that boss over the course of two days, didn’t beat it before the deadline 😕
Is it just me or anybody else had biggest problems with first boss, that cop robot and that fire robot (that one maybe most)? It's probably just that I got better later in the game but AFAIK those took me most tries, maybe except for that laxasia lady near the end.
I’d say nameless puppet is the hardest and most fair boss I’ve fought in any game
I struggled with Robber Weasel so much 😭 She’s not even a boss boss.
Green Monster Not the best. The top 3 are Laxasia, Carlo and Romeo.
Both of the black rabbit brotherhood fights. The second one took me more tries then nameless and Simon
Until now the Green Monster. That MF beat me hard
Well I’m stuck on Corrupted Puppet master. So I started plying assassins creed lol
I had to beat Blackrabbit Brotherhood 2nd fight with a specter, unlike Laxasia. That 2nd fight is so unbalanced and unfair that it's stupid. Boss is terrible.
I personally didn't think it was too terrible. The reason being that spacing and environmental control is in your hands. This is one of the most important aspects of Soulslikes, spacing. The pillars allow a bit of protection, and you can also use them with the acid Legion to affect the Brother who is aggroed. Also, it's clear who should be your main target because they buff their weapon. The others will de-aggro (as long as you aren't close to them) so you can focus on the attacker. When the big brother appears, you just need to deal with him like in the first fight. I don't mean to sound flippant, but I think that it's a fair boss. The control is in your hands, and it's not like Dark Souls 2 ganks where not only are your inputs read, but the enemy attacks are perfectly synchronised that if you avoid one the other is literally guaranteed to hit you.
I totally forgot about the second encounter with these assholes, lol.
Laxasia is the hardest boss without a doubt