Summary
- Exploit Gyoubu Oniwa's ignorance of gravity in Sekiro for an easy win - a fun cheese tactic.
- Trick the Bloody Crow of Cainhurst in Bloodborne to bleed to death with his own attacks.
- Beat Dragonrider in Dark Souls 2 by creating a hilarious ring out scenario - comically easy.
FromSoftware's library, which comprises Elden Ring, Bloodborne, Sekiro, and all things Dark Souls, is known among players for being one of the most nightmarishly difficult collections of games ever. Despite some really challenging level design choices at points and a few nasty traps, that fame is mostly earned because of the bosses in these games.
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Only choose to fight these bosses if you're up for a challenge.
They're some of the most violent, unpredictable, and lethal to ever show up in a game, but some of them have some absolutely ludicrous weaknesses that, say, anyone reading an article online could totally try out to beat some of the (seemingly) hardest bosses in FromSoft's catalog. These FromSoftware bosses are very difficult, but they all feature a cheesy exploit that can make them a cake walk.
10 Gyoubu Oniwa Meets The Chasm Of Death (Sekiro)
He Doesn't Understand The Gravity Of The Situation
Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice
- Released
- March 22, 2019
WHERE TO PLAY
- ESRB
- M for Mature: Blood and Gore, Violence
- Genre(s)
- Action RPG
- One of the easiest cheeses to perform, and it's funny as hell.
Outside of the hardest bosses in Elden Ring, Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice might just be the most challenging FromSoftware game overall. Unlike most other games in the series that greet players with a boss that's challenging but easily beatable once players know the ropes, Sekiro doesn't perform those kinds of favors.
Gyoubu isn't a regular boss; he's a fast-moving target and a devastating attacker on horseback. He can prove a nightmare for many players, but luckily, he doesn't seem to care much about gravity. When taken to a chasm situated on the edge of the boss area, players can bait Gyoubu into lunging at them, causing him to fall to a quick and easy death.
9 The Bloody Crow Of Cainhurst Is Too Deadly, Even For Himself
Talk About A Double-Edged Sword
Bloodborne
- Released
- March 24, 2015
WHERE TO PLAY
- ESRB
- M for Mature: Blood and Gore, Violence
- OpenCritic Rating
- Mighty
- The Crow's greatest strength is also his most glaring weakness.
The Bloody Crow of Canhurst is by far the strongest hunter in Bloodborne. He can dispatch any other hunter with ease, courtesy of his hilariously overpowered blunderbuss and his even more overpowered two-handed katana. There's one problem, however; his Katana will also damage him.
As such, stepping into his vicinity, getting him to draw the sword two-handed, then walking a few steps back will cause him also to move back, all while gradually losing HP. Players who are patient enough will see the Bloody Crow bleed himself to death, thus avoiding one of the game's trickiest battles.
8 Just Don't Play Bloodborne, And The Bosses' Brains Will Melt (Bloodborne)
Patience Is The Way
- Doing nothing is boring, but it gets the job done.
Upon release, Bloodborne's new playstyle made it one of the most challenging games in FromSoft's history. Players who didn't shut down the console for too long, however, would find out that the game was getting easier; perhaps too easy, even.
That's because, at launch, Bloodborne had a glitch that would cause the boss AI to simply stop functioning properly for players who didn't restart the game for too long. Say, anyone who didn't restart the game for over one day would find a version of Yharnam populated with bosses that would behave slowly and barely even attack. The glitch has since been fixed, naturally, but it remains one for the history books.
7 Just Take A Step Back Against The Dragonrider (Dark Souls 2)
The Most Dark Souls 2 Boss Of All Time
Dark Souls 2
- Released
- March 11, 2014
WHERE TO PLAY
- ESRB
- T for Teen: Blood and Gore, Mild Language, Partial Nudity, Violence
- Genre(s)
- Action RPG
- Anyone can do it, but it will make players feel like pros.
- It is absolutely hilarious.
Dark Souls 2 caught a lot of criticism because most of its bosses are simply "dudes in armor." That's never truer than with the Dragonrider, a boss that players likely wouldn't have much trouble defeating normally, but it's so much fun to kill the "wrong" way.
Interestingly enough, players face the Dragonrider in an arena straight out of Soul Calibur, one where they can win by ring out. The best part is that players don't even need to push the Dragonrider out of bounds. They just have to let the Dragonrider come to them by doing one single backstep in a specific direction, which will always cause the Dragonrider to fumble his attack and fall to his dumb death.
6 Destroying The Stray Demon With Poop (Dark Souls)
It's Fine, There Are No Witnesses
Dark Souls
- Released
- September 22, 2011
WHERE TO PLAY
- ESRB
- M for Mature: Blood and Gore, Partial Nudity, Violence
- Genre(s)
- Action RPG, Soulslike, Adventure
- About as dirty as it gets.
The Stray Demon looks just like the Asylum Demon, the very first boss players face in Dark Souls. One popular strategy against the Asylum Demon involves picking the firebomb as the starting gift from the outset, then bombing the hell out of the demon. That will not work with the Stray Demon, as this monster simply has a lot more HP than its counterpart.
A similar—and way funnier—approach players can take, however, is to bomb the Stray Demon with something; something much worse. Players can find a safe spot that the boss will never reach in the corner of the map, then literally fling poop in the form of dung pies at this boss until it perishes from the status ailments accrued from so much exposure to so much crap. The funniest of all is that this isn't even the nastiest version of this cheese tactic.
5 Disposing Of The Capra Demon In An Even Crappier Way (Dark Souls)
He Definitely Had It Coming
- Like a drone strike, but against a demon.
The Capra Demon is easily one of the most nightmarish bosses in the first Dark Souls, and, because he shows up relatively early on, is likely the one responsible for most players' core memories of Souls-related frustration. Players would forever be grateful for not having to even look at this thing again, and in that sense, there is good news.
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Players just have to gather enough dung pies—a rather common non-commodity in the game—and fling them over the wall of the boss' arena. The Capra Demon's health bar is visible, but not its ugly face, so players will know if they're hitting it. At that point, just keep on launching those dung pies and wait for the boss to perish from the averse effects of being struck repeatedly with poop.
4 Cheesing Mohg By Burying Under The Ground (Elden Ring)
There's No Shame In This Game
Elden Ring
- Released
- February 25, 2022
WHERE TO PLAY
- Not the most knightly way, but Mohg's also not into playing fair, so this simply evens the field.
Some Elden Ring bosses are so challenging that they might give players the urge to dig a hole and bury their heads in the dirt just to avoid the shame of telling their friends that they're forty attempts deep against one boss with little to no progress made. The good news is that players can actually do that in-game, and it works wonders for defeating a tough boss.
There's a glitch in Mohg's area that allows players to plunge into the ground and somehow instantly kill all enemies in that area—Mohg included. Best of all, this is the hardest version of Mohg in the game, and also the otherwise optional boss players who need to kill to gain entrance to the Shadow of the Erdtree DLC. As such, this is a pretty excellent cheese to learn.
3 Prep Work Makes The Dream Work Against The Mimic Tear (Elden Ring)
Sometimes Players Should Be The Worst Version Of Themselves
- Ridiculous, but incredibly efficient.
The Mimic Tear is, by far, the best tool anyone can pick up in the history of FromSoft games. It's a type of Spirit Ash that, as the name suggests, copies the player by creating an avatar equipped with exactly the same gear that they're using. It was nerfed, but even after the nerf, it remains a fantastic ally. The problem, however, is that players will at some point have to fight the Mimic Tear themselves, meaning that players will be up against what they think is the most lethal combo of weapons, skills, and armor they can put together.
The simple solution is to remove every single piece of equipment right before triggering the fight, which will have players fighting a naked and essentially useless version of their character. Players will be naked as well, but this version of the Mimic Tear will be so weakened that players will have all the time they need to re-equip everything and kill this clone in four to five swings.
2 Make The Demon Of Hatred Die A Looney Tunes-Worthy Death
Blinded By His Own Hatred
- Like poetry, it rhymes and is easy to perform.
- Teaches some sort of lesson, probably.
The Demon of Hatred is one of the optional end bosses in Sekiro, so anyone who has any experience with FromSoftware games will know immediately upon entering his arena that this is about to be trouble. The Demon of Hatred is one of the toughest bosses in the game, but—whether accidentally or not—he has a built-in flaw that does his name justice.
If, instead of fighting this creature head-on, players decide to place some precise jumps and do some Spider-Man action over the boss, they can quite easily cause The Demon Of Hatred to blindly run after them and fall down a chasm just like it would in a cartoon. How beautiful is it that a game as hard as Sekiro begins and ends with a boss players that can cheese in the exact same way?
1 Become A Tank Against Radahn
Against Such A Foe, A Simple, Clean Win Counts As A Cheese
- Not very funny, not particularly fun, but a great way to deal with an even greater problem.
Promised Consort Radahn, who players often refer to as "Prime Radahn," is arguably the strongest boss in the history of FromSoft games. There's no magic hole in the ground players can make use of to have him fall to his death, nor does he care about dung pies.
The only way to easily and safely beat Radahn is by getting a Heavy Shield capable of negating his damage, a powerful weapon they can use to poke Radahn even when the shield is up, and the Greatshield Talisman, which will allow players to retain as much stamina as possible while blocking. This way, players come as close as they can get to an armored vehicle, an anomaly in this series that's capable of both dishing out enormous amounts of damage while losing little to no HP. There are two shields that work best for this task. The Black Steel Greatshield, found in the Fort of Fog, which can be infused with Holy to negate all of Prime Radahn's Holy damage attacks, and the Fingerprint Stone Shield, found in the Cathedral of the Forsaken, which can be fully upgraded to negate Promised Consort Radahn's physical attacks.
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