The Dark Souls franchise possesses many optional bosses. Very few of them can be considered pushovers.
If there is one single calling card that could encompass the entire Dark Souls series, it would almost certainly be a reference to boss battles. FromSoftware has gone from a relatively fringe developer to being one of the top AAA developers in the world in large part due to their willingness to craft lots of brutally challenging boss fights for their players to overcome.
Dark Soulsput this style of game on the map (although it all began with Demon’s Souls) and to this day many of the series‘ boss battles are legendary. However, that doesn’t mean that they’re all mandatory. In fact, FromSoftware likes to stash some of their most challenging bosses in areas that players don’t even need to find before finishing the game. Just because these bosses are optional doesn’t mean they won’t make for worthy challenges.
The Moonlight Butterfly’s difficulty is weighted heavily by the RNG that players face while fighting it on any given run. Between its laser beam attack and its charge-up AOE while perched on the arena’s bridge, this boss can easily wipe out a player’s health in a matter of seconds.
Maybe the hardest aspect of this boss is its arena: a thin stone bridge with doors at either end and the player trapped in the middle. It’s very easy to tumble off the bridge accidentally, and because the Moonlight Butterfly hangs around the fringes, locking onto it can throw off the direction of a dodge roll and send players falling to their deaths.
By the midway point of the Crown of the Ivory King DLC, around the time when they discover the Frozen Wastes, players will have already fought Aava, The King’s Pet. So of course, the next step is to fight the King’s other two pets at the same time.
Lud & Zallen can be found in the furthest reaches of the Frozen Wastes. When players get Lud’s health down to 50%, Zallen will appear. Zallen has a berserk attack that will regenerate its health and increase its damage. It’s a heck of a time, although not nearly as difficult as surviving the Frozen Reindeer that litter the path leading up to this fight.
The Capra Demon becomes a bit of a pushover once players know the trick to beating him, but prior to that, when they first wander into his painfully small arena, this boss can be a nightmare. Ask any Dark Souls veteran and they’ll tell you, it’s not just the Capra Demon himself, it’s the dogs.
Two of them, specifically, will charge players the second they cross through the boss‘ fog wall. It’s an immediate distraction from the boss, who also begins closing ground quickly but can get lost in the background.
