Bloodborne Bosses Ranked - The Hardest Bosses in Bloodborne
This is our full Bloodborne boss ranking, including bosses from the main game plus The Old Hunters DLC.
Bloodborne is, in this writer's very humble opinion, FromSoftware's greatest work to date. It's a cacophony of horrific monsters and somehow equally terrifying human enemies, all blended into one deranged mess that's going to push your talents to the absolute limit. In this Bloodborne boss ranking, we'll be outlining every boss in order of difficulty.
Bloodborne Boss Ranking
Below, we'll be compiling a ranking of all the bosses in Bloodborne. It goes without saying, but from this point on, there are spoilers for the bosses and multiple endings of Bloodborne!
In all, we'll be ranking the 22 bosses that feature in Bloodborne, and The Old Hunters DLC. We won't be including any of the Chalice Dungeon bosses in this list however, because that's a whole other can of worms.
- 22: Witch of Hemwick
- 21: Micolash, Host of the Nightmare
- 20: Cleric Beast
- 19: Celestial Emissary
- 18: Living Failures
- 17: The One Reborn
- 16: Vicar Amelia
- 15: Mergo's Wet Nurse
- 14: Shadow of Yharnam
- 13: Darkbeast Paarl
- 12: Martyr Logarius
- 11: Father Gascoigne
- 10: Rom, the Vacuous Spider
- 9: Lady Maria of the Astral Clocktower
- 8: Amygdala
- 7: Blood Starved Beast
- 6: Moon Presence
- 5: Gehrman, the First Hunter
- 4: Ludwig, the Holy Blade
- 3: Laurence, the First Vicar
- 2: Ebrietas, Daughter of the Cosmos
- 1: Orphan of Kos
22: Witch of Hemwick
Someone had to come last, and the Witch of Hemwick has that burden to bear. Found at the very end of Hemwick Charnel Lane, the Witch lives in a hall of what look haunting like experimentations, and appears as an old hunchback hobbling around the hall.
Truth be told, I don't actually mind the fight with the Witch of Hemwick. The fight comes last on this list because it's the easiest in Bloodborne, and not because it's the outright worst, as the summoning powers of the Witch and the pressure to race over to her as soon as she appears in the hall actually put a nice amount of pressure on the fight.
21: Micolash, Host of the Nightmare
Now Micolash is an annoying Bloodborne boss. The Host of the Nightmare takes the form of a simple human being, but a human being with a large cage wrapped around his head who can run far quicker than you can.
And that's why Micolash is so annoying, he keeps running away. Pursue him through corridors and up winding staircases, with undead skeleton soldiers rising all around you. When you've got him cornered in a room, he's really only got two attacks that'll give you any trouble, a massive area of effect one that you can't dodge, and an attack where a tentacle bursts forth from his hand.Both attacks can be one hit kills you on. Micolash, Host of the Nightmare just sucks.
20: Cleric Beast
Depending on which route you took in the Central Yharnam section of Bloodborne, the Cleric Beast could well be your first boss in Bloodborne. It's a massive, hulking mess of sinew and flesh that comes lumbering towards you on a bridge overlooking Yharnam.
I'm not ashamed to admit that the Cleric Beast put up a challenge for me on my first playthrough of Bloodborne. There's considerably little room for error on the relatively narrow bridge, especially considering the colossal size of the Cleric Beast, and the nature of its huge sweeping attacks.
19: Celestial Emissary
The Celestial Emissary can be annoying, but only if you go on the defensive. A whole fleet of smaller Emissaries will rise up from the ground in this boss fight, taking the form of little blue creatures with huge jelly heads that bob up and down whenever they move.
It's your job to seek out the one true Celestial Emissary among the crowd, and lay into it before the horde of creatures devour you. But then, surprise! One massive Celestial Emissary will rise up out of the ground to cap off the latter stage of the boss fight, and you've got to deal with this huge creature while fending off all the smaller Emissaries nipping at your legs.
The Celestial Emissary fight can get tough if you let the horde overwhelm you. As is often the case with the more intimidating Bloodborne bosses, it's really in your best interest to go on the offensive, laying into the crowd with reckless abandon before the herd of blue creatures overwhelm you completely.
18: Living Failures
Our first boss from the Old Hunters DLC! After you've made it through the winding staircases and dark corridors of the Research Hall, you're going to run into the Living Failures, which are, as their name suggests, literally failed attempts at creating Great Ones.
The Living Failures are a mass of large Celestial Emissaries, popping up one after the other from the ground. It's basically one giant game of whack-a-mole in an arena, with you racing around to try and put down the various Failures before their sheer numbers overwhelm you.
17: The One Reborn
If ever there was a boss that you took one look at and wanted to run the other way, The One Reborn is it. A giant black hole opens in the air above the arena, and a mass of skeletal bones and body parts drop out of the sky, forming into one creature(?) on the ground.
Now you need to try and beat the body parts that have somehow come back to life before you, while also being pelted with fireballs from the witches surrounding the arena. The One Reborn boss fight is very unpleasant, to say the least.
16: Vicar Amelia
Vicar Amelia represents a real turning point in Bloodborne. Heading into the final church of the Cathedral Ward to face the demonic vicar, the sun is just setting over Yharnam, but when you beat Vicar Amelia the sky turns dark, and nighttime can only mean that more crazy foes are roaming the streets of the cursed city.
The actual fight with Vicar Amelia can be a bit of a pain if you let the boss control the flow of battle. It's basically a fight where you need to get aggressive in order to survive, where all your instincts are screaming at you to get far away from the massive creature lumbering towards you. What a great battle.
15: Mergo's Wet Nurse
Mergo's Wet Nurse might well be the final boss of Bloodborne for you, depending on which ending you opt for after beating the boss in the Nightmare of Mensis. When you enter the arena there's a cot before you, with the crying sounds of a baby echoing around the arena. Head forward towards the crying, and Mergo's Wet Nurse swoops down to snatch up the cot, ready to beat you to a pulp.
The actual fight is a dance of blades around the arena, with Mergo's Wet Nurse darting towards you with multiple deadly swords in rapid succession. Aside from a phase where multiple wet nurses appear and try to stab you at once, there's really not that much to this fight that makes it a significant challenge, especially when you're approaching the end of Bloodborne.
14: Shadow of Yharnam
Arguably the first truly tough boss on this list is the Shadow of Yharnam. Or, as you find out when you enter the arena, the Shadows of Yharnam, because there's three of the hooded figures, each with different ways to slice and dice you with various weapons.
All three Shadows have a sword, but two of the robed figures carry ranged fiery weapons with which to strike you from afar. It's a really tough battle, because you're constantly having to keep an eye on where the other two ranged fighters are, while you're dealing with the one that's up close.
13: Darkbeast Paarl
Now this might be the most frightening and intimidating boss in all of Bloodborne. When the electrified boss rises up from the floor, with its skeletal limbs seemingly reanimated by lightning running through its body, all your instincts are screaming at you to run as far away as possible.
But backing off from Darkbeast Paarl will be your downfall. In a cruel twist, this fight is a lot easier if you stay up close and personal with Paarl, but it's still one hell of a tough fight to make it through alive.
12: Martyr Logarius
The final boss atop Forsaken Cainhurst Castle, Martyr Logarius is a boss that can run circles around you with both up close and ranged attacks. The boss wields a giant scythe, and the kingly figure that rises up from his throne atop the castle is easily a handful for anyone to deal with.
Martyr Logarius is a tough fight, because there's no real way of telling what he's going to do next. He could rush at you with a giant sweeping attack or summon a barrage of ranged attacks towards you, forcing you on the backfoot. You're going to have to be incredibly quick with your dodges and parries if you want to take down Logarius.
11: Father Gascoigne
While the Cleric Beast could be the first boss you face in Bloodborne, you can instead face Father Gascoigne as your first boss, which is an incredibly harsh move by FromSoft. The monster that was once a hunter starts off looking and acting a lot like you, but later on in the fight he forgoes his human form in favor of transforming into a huge wolf.
Father Gascoigne is a terror because he plays somewhat like you, with a big sweeping axe and ranged attacks with a powerful pistol, but he's better at everything that you can do. He's a quicker, stronger, more brutal hunter than you'll be for hours and hours to come in Bloodborne, and you need to be really quick with your dodges and parries to best him.
10: Rom, the Vacuous Spider
Rom the gigantic spider might seem harmless enough at first, and I actually felt slightly bad laying into the potato-shaped spider with relentless attacks. But that's before he summons in a horde of smaller spiders to help defend him, which is where the fight can become a real headache.
Beat all the spiders, and Rom will summon in more. Get caught in the midst of the sea of smaller spiders, and they'll pummel you to death. Get Rom down to two or one-third of his health bar, and they'll start sending ranged attacks at you, on top of you already having to deal with a sea of spiders. Yeah, this fight can go horrifyingly wrong very quickly.
9: Lady Maria of the Astral Clocktower
Directly after your fight with the Living Failures, you're going to run into Lady Maria of the Astral Clocktower. Lady Maria has a haunting similar resemblance to the Doll in the Hunter's dream, and she attacks with similar grace and elegance, launching bladed strikes towards you with stopping power enough to take you down in a single attack.
There's no disputing the boss fight with Lady Maria as one of the more rapid and reactive boss fights in all of Bloodborne, let alone the Old Hunters DLC. The two of you are going to engage in a storm of swords and scythe attacks, and it's certainly a tough boss fight to remember.
8: Amygdala
Amygdala is a lumbering, horrific creature that caps off the equally horrific Nightmare Frontier region of Bloodborne. This boss basically looks like a gigantic version of the tiny messengers you've seen on the floor throughout the game, but this one is the size of a large house and can squish you.
Amygdala has sweeping attacks with its long, spindly arms, while also using some sort of laser beam to make half the battlefield explode. Oh, and if you get it down to half health, it'll rip off one of its own arms to better beat you to death. Lovely stuff.
7: Blood Starved Beast
Can be Found at: Old Yharnam
Now this is one terrifying ferocious boss in Bloodborne. The very thought of it makes me want to lock myself in a cupboard and hide, because the Blood Starved Beast will rip you to shreds if you give it even half the opportunity.
Even by usual beastly standards the Blood Starved Beast is horrific. The deformed boss' very skin hangs off the back of it like some twisted superhero cape, and it'll lunge at you in desperation for your blood.
6: Moon Presence
Can be Found at: Hunter's Dream
The Moon Presence is the real final boss of Bloodborne, if you chose to defy Gehrman. Trouble is, you have to go through Gehrman before taking on the Moon Presence.
Appearing as a huge mass of tentacles with the mannerisms of the Blood Starved Beast, to say the Moon Presence is a handful is selling it short. It can cover the entire battlefield in the Hunter's Dream in a single leap, while also having a lovely ability that cuts your health right down, and prevents you from healing for a limited time.
5: Gehrman, the First Hunter
Can be Found at: Hunter's Dream
One of the three possible final bosses of Bloodborne is Gehrman, the First Hunter. Getting up from his wheelchair and suddenly changing in a split second into full hunter garb, Gehrman comes at you with a full scythe, and he's a handful for anyone to deal with.
What makes Gehrman such a difficult boss is that his attacks combine speed with raw power. He's basically a suped-up version of Father Gascoigne, but without the bit where he transforms into a werewolf. There's no doubting Gehrman as one of the more difficult bosses in Bloodborne.
4: Ludwig, the Holy Blade
Can be Found at: Hunter's Nightmare (DLC)
One of the first bosses that you'll come to in the Old Hunter's DLC is Ludwig, or rather, what remains of the man. The man that was once Ludwig has now become a deformed monster, devoid of all humanity, but that doesn't stop him from grabbing the holy moonlight sword in a cutscene halfway through the battle.
Ludwig is a terrifying monstrosity in Bloodborne, and I'd definitely listen to an argument that he's the hardest boss in the entire game. There's just so many attacks that you need to prepare for and recognize as soon as humanly possible in this boss fight, or you simply don't stand a chance.
3: Laurence, the First Vicar
Can be Found at: Hunter's Nightmare (DLC)
The boss that rounds out the Old Hunters DLC for Bloodborne is none other than Laurence, the First Vicar. You can basically think of him as a more ferocious version of Vicar Amelia, that also happens to constantly be on fire.
There's a good reason that this fight rounds out the incredibly tough DLC. It's a suitably climactic fight with a huge monster, where you feel like you're always fighting back for ground in the relatively small arena. Laurence is one tough boss fight.
2: Ebrietas, Daughter of the Cosmos
Can be Found at: Altar of Despair
I don't think there's any doubting Ebrietas as the toughest boss in the base version of Bloodborne. Simply put, Ebrietas has quite possibly the most health out of any boss in the game, but also hits like an absolute freight train, taking off more than half your health with even her more base attacks.
There's a reason that most people stand behind the Daughter of the Cosmos and try and cheese the boss. It's also tough to tell where Ebrietas is going to attack next, mainly because the monster doesn't actually look like it has anything resembling a head.
1: Orphan of Kos
Can be Found at: Fishing Hamlet (DLC)
And finally, we arrive at an absolute howler of a boss. The Orphan of Kos is an absolute nightmare to deal with in every sense of the word. It's rapid, with attacks that can knock you down in an instant, and it's incredibly hard to parry correctly, no matter how skilled you are. There's just no predicting this boss, no matter how you approach the fight.
Even if you're purely a dodging and not a parrying Bloodborne player, the Orphan is going to give even the best players a run for their money. Its attacks are so wide-ranging and deadly that just getting caught by one of them can ruin your entire run. In short, the hunters of beasts very often end up becoming the hunted at the hands of the Orphan of Kos.
And there we have it, our complete list of every single boss fight in both Bloodborne, and The Old Hunters DLC. If you have any thoughts on this list, please let us (politely) know in the comments below!