Every Souls Game Ranked By Difficulty

“Elden Ring” isn’t an easy game by any means, but compared to the rest of FromSoft’s catalog - it’s the easiest by a long shot. This is because of the game’s open-world aspect, which means you can spend hours exploring and gearing up before you face any of the main bosses. As such, it has more tools to play with and builds to optimize than the rest of their games. If you decide to build a hardcore, purely melee character then its difficulty goes up massively. The vast majority of players will opt for different builds, however, hence making this the most accessible Souls-like. The summons can also be super powerful, and are always an option if you find a boss particularly frustrating. Its only DLC, “Shadow of the Erdtree”, is significantly more challenging than the original game, as is traditional. If you enter under-leveled, don’t use summons, and don’t have an endgame build, then this expansion is going to wipe the floor with you.

This is the most fluid entry in the Souls trilogy, and easily the most accessible of the three. “Dark Souls III” has the most generous iframes of a Souls-like, an amazing level of build freedom, and overall is the most polished game in the trilogy. These reasons, and more, are what makes it a fan favorite. It also has some of the most memorable boss fights, like the epic faceoff with the Nameless King, Midir the dragon, or Sister Friede from the “Ashes of Ariandel” DLC. It’s one of the shortest entries on our list, but its quality makes it much more replayable than other Souls games. If you find the base game too easy, then both the DLCs are worth playing, since a lot of players find them unreasonably challenging. The Ringed City introduces one of the most beautifully designed cities in a video game, and both DLCs come together to give the series a masterfully crafted finale.

This is, hands down, the most broken game ever released by FromSoft. It’s famous for being the only Soulslike which Miyazaki didn’t direct, and this makes it the weirdest feeling one. The enemy placement is brutal, your max health is constantly decreasing, and your dodge needs upgrading. It also has three separate paths to follow, making it hard to simply navigate. It boasts an incredible 41 bosses in the base game, almost double the amount its predecessor had. Thankfully, since it's a fundamentally broken game, there are hundreds of hilarious glitches you can abuse to make the game easier. When it comes to DLCs, the difficulty goes up considerably, with “Crown of the Ivory King” taking you to the Frigid Outskirts, where you will be surrounded by a snowstorm, unable to see where you’re going.

This game brought FromSoft a massive amount of popularity, which was completely justified. It includes exceptional boss design, and a detailed, interconnected map, but suffers due to its age. It was one of their earliest titles, meaning it lacks the same amount of polish as the games that came after. For a lot of people, this was their first exposure to the format, thus many will remember it as the most challenging. You also won’t unlock fast travel until half-way through the game, and it’s very limited. Its expansion also shines, with “Artorias of the Abyss” being phenomenally well designed, and is only accessed via a hidden portal added to the base game. It blends into the world magnificently, and has some of the greatest boss fights hidden away, setting a high bar for future DLCs.

“Bloodborne” is one of the most unique Souls-like ever made, and is considered by many to be FromSoftware’s greatest game. Its setting is a wonderful gothic-Victorian city, and requires players to properly learn the streets to navigate the sprawling map. The combat encourages aggression, and forces you to be constantly putting pressure on your opponent. For example, when you take damage you have a brief window of opportunity to regain it by hitting back. Its enemies are fast, and parrying them is an absolute challenge. Not a single shield exists, forcing you to roll. Alongside this, you can’t roll unless you’re not locked on, making it the only Souls-like that doesn’t bait you into locking on, which is an extremely useful habit to develop. Its DLC, “The Old Hunters”, is also mind-blowing. Every FromSoft fan is familiar with Ludwig, and he’s generally regarded as the best boss they’ve ever designed, that only the Sword Saint can compete with.

“Demon’s Souls” was released in 2009, and was initially a commercial failure. After a few months, it started to gain a fanbase, and things eventually snowballed into where things stand today. It’s the oldest and slowest of the series, but is still brutal. It features no bonfires between bosses, so every time you die you need to replay the entire level again. It also has the most punishing world design, with the unique “World Tendency” feature, that shifts the difficulty of enemies depending on its value. Healing items also don’t replenish, and after death, you enter Soul Form, with 50% of the health, and you can only leave when you defeat a boss or consume an item. If this sounds too brutal, the 2020 remake is generally considered easier, featuring many quality-of-life improvements and making the movement significantly more fluid. It also includes higher frame rates and much better graphics, which make navigating darker zones much less challenging than before.

Few bad things can be said about “Sekiro”, it has one of the most perfect combat systems in gaming history, which sees players take on the role of Wolf, who must fight to protect his master. Sekiro has only one build available - and that’s the build of a powerful shinobi. It’s unique since the build is extremely strong right from the start. So, if you know what you’re doing, you won’t ever need to grind for upgrades. Unfortunately, getting to that point requires overcoming one of the steepest learning curves ever put in a game. If you’re thinking about side-stepping the difficulty, think again, because cheese is barely an option in this title. Once mastered, the combat provides more freedom and creativity than any other Souls-like, with every player developing a unique style.



Do you think there are any harder Souls-games made by companies other than From Software? Let us know in the comments!