Finding Your Way Through The Hardest Encounters
I spent about forty hours just memorizing Malenia's attack patterns last year. My hands still remember the exact timing to roll through her waterfowl dance if I wait one frame longer than instinct tells you. That's the thing about Elden Ring's boss roster - it doesn't care how experienced you are. The game treats a forty-hour veteran and a brand new player exactly the same when Radahn starts pulling planets out of the sky. Most people approaching a Tutorial For Elden Ring Boss Top 10 are looking for a ranked breakdown they can use as a roadmap. They want to know what to expect before they commit three failed runs to a single fight. Fair enough. Here's the honest version of that list, written by someone who's actually sat through every one of these encounters at least twice.
The Top Ten Bosses You Should Beat in Order
1. Margit, the Fell Omen - This is your first real gatekeeper. Most guides tell you to run past him and come back stronger, but that's not always practical when you're on a playthrough pace. The trick nobody mentions is that his staff swipe has a longer recovery than it looks. If you dodge toward him instead of away, you'll usually be behind his animation by the time it ends. I wasted two days hitting the back of his animations because I kept rolling away from everything. Turning that habit around cut my death count in half immediately. 2. Godrick the Grafted - Phase one is straightforward. Phase two is where people start throwing controllers. His aerial dive is telegraphed with a very specific sound cue - that high wind noise. If you hear it, you already know where he's landing. Just don't stand under him. The second phase also introduces his dragon head grab, which most players panic roll out of range of and end up walking back into his other attacks. Stand your ground and punish when he finishes the grab. It comes out slow enough that you get three good hits in. 3. Rennala, Queen of the Full Moon - This fight has two distinctly different problems. The first phase is a simple magic duel where positioning matters more than anything. Stay close to her to limit your exposure to her projectiles. The second phase is where people stall out because they treat it like a DPS race. It's not. Her summons are the actual threat. Kill the students first. Every single one. The more she has on the field, the less room you have to breathe, and her healing window becomes impossible to read. I've seen people lose to Rennala after beating stars like Radahn and Malenia, so don't sleep on this one.
4.Starscourge Radahn - This fight is chaotic by design and that's intentional. The gravity well pulls you in constantly, so rolling is almost always the wrong move once the second phase starts. Standing still and attacking or using a Torrent-based strategy is better here. Actually, let me be clear - riding Torrent through this fight is completely viable and many players consider it the intended way to handle the later stages. I used a spear build on foot for my first run and died about twelve times in phase two before realizing the horse changes the entire spatial dynamic. With Torrent, you can kite his gravity magic while chipping away at his health bar without being yanked into a million hit combos. 5. Morgott, the Grace-Given - He shares moves with Margit but has significantly more health and a second phase that adds area denial tools. His stick jabs are faster than they look, and if you get tagged by a combo, you're usually looking at thirty percent of your health gone in a single sequence. Use a shield if you're struggling with his tempo. The holy damage builds up fast though, so a high-damage build can end this quicker than a defensive approach if you're comfortable with the risk. 6. Mohg, Lord of Blood - This boss is honestly just a resource check more than anything else. His blood flame incantation and the area denial in phase two punish lazy play. Bring a Flamedrake Talisman+2 and a Sacred Relic Sword, or just bring the right consumables. The counter is straightforward - use Purifying Milking Bottle before the second phase starts if you can manage it. I fought this boss in a run where I'd been ignoring status resistance items entirely and walked in unprepared. Lost eight times in a row before I remembered this fight has a specific weakness.
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7. Malenia, Blade of Miquella - I mentioned her earlier but let me expand. She has two phases and both punish aggression. The waterfowl dance in phase one is the most iconic attack in the entire game for a reason - it wipes players who aren't prepared. The workaround is simple: stand behind her during the windup and wait. If you position correctly, you can avoid the entire animation. In phase two, her scarlet rot accumulation means every hit you take is a ticking clock. Run away from groups of enemies she spawns and focus on her. Do not get greedy with your attacks. 8. Rykard, Lord of Blasphemy - The Serpent Helm weapon is essentially a cheat code for this fight. It deals fixed damage that ignores his health bar in phase one, which means you can bypass the entire first phase and go straight to fighting him as a man. I know this feels like skipping content but it's mechanically sound and saves a massive amount of time. If you don't have access to that weapon, it's a normal HP-sapping fight where staying close and attacking his exposed head works consistently. 9. Maliketh, the Black Blade - This is where the difficulty spikes noticeably for most players. His speed increases dramatically in phase two and the damage output becomes serious. The key here is patience. Don't trade hits with him. His combo chains are designed to overwhelm players who try to fight fire with fire. Use ranged attacks in phase one to chip away, then prepare for a brutal close-quarters fight when he transforms. Runescape buffs help a lot on this one.
10. Radagon of the Golden Order / Elden Beast - These are technically separate fights but the game treats them as one continuous encounter, so I'm counting them together. Radagon is a test of everything you've learned so far - he uses fire, holy, and physical attacks in rapid succession. The second phase against the Elden Beast is mostly a knowledge check. This boss has almost no physical resistance and is extremely vulnerable to physical damage. Bring a physical-heavy build and a decent shield. The Holy Blossom Attack is the main thing to watch for - it's an AOE that can wipe you if you're caught in it. Move perpendicular to the indicator, not away from it.
What These Fights Actually Teach You
There's a pattern running through every boss on this list that most players miss on their first complete run. Early bosses like Margit and Godrick are about learning your tools - the shield, the roll, the weapon skills. Mid-game bosses like Rennala and Morgott test your adaptability. Late-game bosses test everything at once. Malenia doesn't just require good timing, she requires good spacing, resource management, and emotional control when you mess up. The hardest lesson this game teaches you is that most deaths happen because of one repeated mistake, not because the boss is unfair. I tracked my deaths across a full playthrough and roughly eighty percent of them came from the same three mistakes: rolling directly away from attacks, standing still during AOE warning indicators, and trying to land an extra hit when I should have disengaged. Fix those three things and you'll beat more bosses faster than any build optimization ever will. Another thing worth noting - summoning spirits is not a crutch. Using them strategically changes the entire matchup. A lone boss becomes manageable when you have a Spirit Calling Bell and some ashes to distract it. The Black Knife Tiche spirit is particularly strong against most bosses on this list because of its death blight buildup. I solo'd Margit on my first run using only the Wolf Ash, and that changed how I approached every fight after that.

Level recommendations matter less than people think. A +7 weapon with the right ash of war beats a +13 weapon with poor timing every single time. Don't get stuck grinding sites for level investment when a well-timed roll would solve the problem. The game is punishing by design, but it's fair. Every boss has a pattern. Your job is just to learn it.