Elden Ring - 10 Optional Bosses You Shouldn't Miss
Eldritch is a sprawling, incredible game with tons to see. Yeah, folks, it's Falcon, and today in the game I rank the 10 best optional bosses in the Eldren Ring. Now this is, of course, going to entail a spoiler alert here. These are optional secret bosses that you can miss if you don't know where to look for them.
Start off with number 10. The spirit collar snail This unique encounter is found at the bottom of the roads and catacombs, and caught us totally by surprise. When you first enter the boss area, you're greeted by this gigantic ghostly knight that will crush you flat in a matter of seconds if you let him, but there's also something off about it.
The obvious tip-off is the name. I mean, the boss is called the Spirit Collar Snail, not the Ghostly Tree Knight. I know, sir, you are no snail, so obviously he is not the actual boss. If you find a little glowing area on the floor and attack it, the real enemy reveals itself as a weird, snake-like, snail thing that's actually responsible for summoning this guy.
After attacking, this creature teleports away and turns invisible again, so you have to hunt it down while this big guy is still attacking you. It is not possible. If you kill the ghostly tree knight, he's already dead, so the only strategy you really have is to just run around playing whack-a-mole with the weird snail thing.
It's actually not that hard of a boss. If you avoid the ghost night, it's just a really weird encounter, and even if you do start seeing these snails pop up more after the fight, it's a weird enough encounter that we wanted to include it here. And number nine is the star scourge of Radon. Yeah, you heard us right.
This guy is a shard bearer, basically the equivalent of a lord's soul in a Dark Souls game, and he's completely optional. If you don't want to fight this guy, you don't have to, and I can see a lot of players opting out because the first few times you try to fight him, he seems impossible. Instead of the standard run through dungeon fight formula you normally get for bosses, this guy's castle, the main castle, is completely cleared out.
Not a bad guy in sight. When you go inside, you're invited to join something called the radon festival, where warriors gather to try to take this gigantic duke down. So to fight him, all you have to do is agree to take part, take the elevator out the back, and there you're on the battlefield. And if your experience is like mine, basically what happens is you enter that arena, the guy shoots an arrow at you from across the map, and you die.
This guy's attacks hit hard, and just getting to him can be tough enough. Thankfully, you do get some help. There are summoning signs all over the place, and you can use those to call in some allies. Even if they don't last particularly long, their presence is pretty much essential for keeping this guy's attention off of you so you can do any real damage to him.
The most nasty thing about this fight is halfway through when he jumps up into the air and comes crashing down like a meteor. I'm not a fan of that. It's basically a gotcha because if you don't immediately start sprinting or jump on your spirit horse right away, it's instant death. It's probably my favorite thing about him, though, is that he's a gigantic monster but rides around on a little normal-sized horse.
It's ridiculous and it's just fantastic and weird, and I don't know what made them think of doing that. I mean, just look at the little horse go. It's great and number eight is the Godskin apostle for most players. The first time you'll encounter one of these freaks is at the top of the windmill village in the Altus region, and they make one hell of an impression.
He starts off really aggressively, spinning his weird cycle weapon and throwing magic at you. He's unique and weird looking, but it's not until you get him down to around 60 health that it really starts getting weird. That's when he reveals his crazy stretching torso, like he's fantastic, crossed with a leather face, and frankly, that's intimidating.
His grotesque appearance combined with his bizarre moveset makes this one of the most memorable encounters in the game. And number seven is "patchwork." We can't make a list like this without mentioning the Patch boss fight. He's a guy most soul players wouldn't mind having a chance to beat on for a while.
He's a nuisance and basically shows up in all of Frum's games, so of course he makes an appearance in Elder Ring as well. What makes this boss great is less the encounter itself, which is pretty simple, and well, it's more the surprise and presentation. I went to this random location called Merc Water Cave and obviously didn't expect a whole lot.
After you deal with a bandit ambush, you enter a suspiciously arena-shaped room with a chest sitting at the center. If you open the chest, the battle begins with Patches jumping down from a ledge accusing you of stealing, which in this case is accurate. You were just robbing them. A big shield, a little spear, which you should be able to easily bypass, By the way, once you get him to around 30-40 health, he gives up and instead offers to sell you some mostly overpriced junk.
He does have more tricks up his sleeve after this, but for now he's playing nice. This is another boss that isn't particularly difficult. It's just a funny little encounter with a returning classic character. And number six is the mimic tier, which is deep underground and it's possible to find it in the mysterious.
The lost city known as Nakron, the eternal city, This entire location is totally optional, but it's one of the coolest in the game, and as long as you're thorough, it's not too hard to actually find. Soon after entering, you start encountering these weird silver slime creatures that aren't terribly threatening on their own, so when you enter this area and see one, you're probably thinking there's not a whole lot to worry about, but this one's different.
Instead of just sitting in place and sometimes weakly attempting to poke you, this one transforms into a doppelganger. For both of you, it's got the same armor, uses the same weapons, and is even attached to the same ashes of war that you currently have equipped, so depending on your build, this guy might be really easy or a huge pain in the ass.
If you're an armored guy, that probably means the boss isn't too hard, but still a fun surprise. Not the hardest encounter, but one of the most unique. And number five is "worm face." What do we need to say here? It's a monster called "Worm Face." Of course, it is going on as lust. You encounter this thing guarding the minor er tree outside the capital in Altus.
