Top 10 Brutal Bonus Levels Only The Best Players Can Beat

Welcome to WatchMojo and today we’ll be counting down our picks for the top 10 brutal bonus levels to punish good players.

For this list, we’ll be going over the extra levels that, rather than rewarding skilled players with fun, instead seem to crank the difficulty up to 11!

If we miss out on any challenging bonus stages, be sure to tell us about your own brutal experiences in the comments.

After defeating the supposed final boss of “Cave Story,” gamers have the option of stopping in at a save point before jumping off the collapsing island the game takes place on. Within, a passage opens to the Blood Stained Sanctuary, an intense gauntlet full of spikes, blind drops, challenging enemies, collapsing ceilings, and several bosses, the second of which has four stages! In addition, the screen is shaking from the setting literally collapsing around you. Is it any wonder that this level is nicknamed “Hell?” Still, at least the song is a banger!

Most of these entries will focus on bonus levels from a single game, but in the case of the “Paper Mario” games, there’s actually a recurring punishingly difficult extra stage. The Pit of 100 Trials first appears in “Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door,” where the player must battle through 100 floors of increasingly difficult enemies with healing blocks or save points - although the option to leave is given every 10 floors. As if that’s not challenging enough,“Super Paper Mario” ups the ante by featuring not one, but two Pits of 100 Trials! Both feature rooms full of enemies who must be defeated in order to find the key and advance to the next room. The flopside trials are notably harder.

Most missions in “Destiny” require around 3 people to complete; for The Vault of Glass, you’ll need 6! Located on Venus, the Vault of Glass pits players against waves of difficult enemies, as well as a labyrinth that encompasses a stealth section, platforming sections, and two bosses. Players need to be at least level 26 to even stand a chance against most of the enemies. And if you’re playing on hard mode, good luck, because the raid is made even more unforgiving by preventing you from reviving your teammates; meaning that you have to complete the whole thing with one life. The game may be called “Destiny,” but fate doesn’t mean something’s easy.

Pretty much any area of any “Souls” game is bound to be ridiculously tough, but this beautiful section of “Dark Souls III” is also one that you won’t want to “praise,” regardless of whether it’s “sunny” or not. Not only is your way blocked by wyverns, but you also have to contend with some of the most irritating regular enemies in the game. For dessert, there’s the hardest boss in the base game – the Nameless King, who, when he isn’t using his fire-breathing mount to turn you into cinders, is thoroughly wrecking you with his lightning attacks.

The “Fire Emblem” franchise can feature some unforgiving strategy RPG gameplay, particularly on higher difficulties, as dead characters stay that way forever. But that last DLC level in “Fire Emblem Awakening” is hard regardless of difficulty you pick. Regular enemies are equipped with powerful, boss-level skills, which can make even grunts a challenge to take down. To make matters worse players must overcome 5 waves of these powerful adversaries, with only brief respites.

Many will try, but “only the best will reap its rewards.” This hidden level must be completed to unlock the feature’s menu, which can be used to input cheats. It’s just too bad, because it can sometimes feel necessary to use cheats to beat “Hectic!” Although not especially large, the stage is full of booby traps, many of which are placed on useful items. It also contains powerful enemies that will ambush you in the tiny rooms, giving you very little room to maneuver. Still, if you can keep your head and solve the puzzles set before you, you can escape “Hectic” with your life and the ability to cheat and reach more secret levels.

Bloody Palace is a game mode that recurs throughout the “Devil May Cry” series. The general idea is that the player must battle their way through a series of floors while fighting semi-random sets of foes until you reach the end. They’re consistently challenging, but the iteration in “DMC 4” is probably the most excruciating. Enemies in this Bloody Palace are mostly set; the twist, however, is that you start with a set amount of time and the only way to increase the amount you have is through defeating enemies quickly or stylishly. So not only do you have to defeat a gauntlet of foes, you have to do it quickly and look cool doing it! No pressure!

Progressive floors of increasingly difficult enemies are nothing new for our list, or for the “Legend of Zelda” franchise. “Breath of the Wild” arguably makes things easier on players, in some ways, by separating the “trials” into chunks which can be tackled fresh after departing the area. However, it’s still incredibly tough to get through for one simple reason: you lose all of your items, weapons, and armor whenever you go into it. While picking up weapons dropped by enemies is par for the course in “Breath of the Wild,” losing everything and then having to do a marathon battle against powerful foes will test even the most seasoned Hyrule veterans.

“Celeste” is one of the most charming and challenging platformers to come out in recent years, but some of its extra stages can be downright cruel. In order to unlock this final level, however, you have to get through all the rest of Celeste’s tough levels and your reward is the most difficult and longest chapter in the game. Featuring essentially every mechanic in the game, as well as introducing new ones to keep you on your toes, “Chapter 9: Farewell” also removes some of your greatest assets - like the ability to double dash in mid-air. This self-reflection and personal growth better be worth all the hassle!

Before we get to our top pick, here are a few honorable mentions:

Moving Platforms EVERYWHERE!

Challenging Platforming From Throughout the Whole Game, and Zero Checkpoints!

Timed, Ever-Changing Puzzles – That’s Fair

No Health Refills, Tons of Strong Enemies, and a Tough Boss? Consider Us Shaken and Stirred!

The area is called “Path of Pain” for good reason! A treacherous route full of instant death spikes, razor blades, and platforming designed to give you a migraine, the Path of Pain is an absolute nightmare for all but the most skilled “Hollow Knight” players. You’re going to die and die and die again, until you either “git gud” or quit out of frustration. Even the end of the platforming offers little respite, since you have to take on two of the powerful Kingsmould enemies at once. Rest easy though – once you beat Path of Pain, the entrance is sealed up, so you’ll never be troubled by it again.