Top 10 Hardest Video Game Dungeons Ever

Top 10 Hardest Dungeons in Video Games

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Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’ll be counting down our picks for the Top 10 Hardest Dungeons in Video Games. For this list, we’ll be looking at the most challenging indoor levels in video games, filled with a combination of enemies, bosses and puzzles to overcome. Let us know which video game dungeons gave YOU the biggest headache to complete!

This DLC turns Borderlands into an epic game of Dungeons and Dragons...oops, sorry, “Bunkers and Badasses”. Tiny Tina narrates this epic, role-playing adventure, and it sure does feature a whole lot of dungeon crawling. The titular dungeon offers a difficult challenge for the brave Vault Hunters, as they must fight through a horde of skeletons, wizards, dragons, and more fantastical beasts to reach the Handsome Sorcerer, an obvious reference to the main game’s antagonist. The enemies in this dungeon are brutally difficult, able to tear through shields and health in a moment. Luckily, there’s plenty of great loot to compensate.

“Pokémon Red and Blue” (1998)

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To become the Pokemon Champion, you have to go through the Elite Four and your rival, but before that, there’s Victory Road, which is less a road and more of a terrifying dungeon filled with some of the strongest Pokemon in the first generation of the series. Victory Road is intimidating because it’s one of the last challenges and a test for your Pokemon team, to see if they have what it takes to survive whatever the Elite Four (and your rival) can throw at you! If you can tackle Victory Road, you have what it takes to be a Pokemon Master!

“Angry Video Game Nerd Adventures” (2013)

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Featuring everyone's favourite internet Nerd, the game follows his adventures through a classic side scroller, with homages to other classic video games and other pop culture icons littering the many dungeons. But it is the level “Dungeons and Dickholes” that really takes the cake. It is littered with terrible traps, enemies, and...death bubbles! This dungeon requires complete focus and fast reaction times to shoot your way out of the situations it presents. It earns its name, and anyone who has to go through it will certainly become an Angry Video Game Nerd themselves!

This addition to the classic game from 1995 is one of the most difficult dungeons ever. It takes about an hour or two to beat this dungeon, and inside are some incredibly high level enemies and very few checkpoints, making it a test of endurance, skill, and fortitude. It’s an endgame dungeon, but even so it feels that the difficulty has been made much harder than anything else previously. And after all that, you come face to face with one of the hardest bosses in the game: Anise the Witch! The rewards you get, and the sense of accomplishment, will make this arduous test feel worth it… but it won’t erase the scars.

Originally intended to be an expansion to the second Elder Scrolls game, Daggerfall, Battlespire became its own standalone, and remains probably one of the less well known Elder Scrolls games to date. The entire game is a big dungeon crawl as you work to defeat Mehrunes Dagon and his Daedra in their attempt to invade Tamriel. It is a terrifying crawl through this dungeon as you deal with traps, deadly Daedra, and the frankly clunky controls and gameplay. Trapped and alone in this strange, demonic dungeon, the Battlespire can drive you insane and wish for just a little bit of sunlight and open world that the rest of the Elder Scrolls games are known for.

“Lufia II: Rise of the Sinistrals” (1996)

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Old school dungeons were rough. The Ancient Cave is one of the roughest. You have to overcome 99 levels with basic equipment and experience points, no saves, and without the ability to leave. The enemies get harder as you go down the levels as well, and the fact that there are nearly 100 of them makes this a truly terrifying prospect. Fortunately the Ancient Cave is an optional dungeon in the game, which is great, since this dungeon is likely to crush anyone who attempts it, but at least you’ll have something to brag about if you best it!

“Wild Arms 3” (2002)

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One of the largest dungeons in this game, and one of the most frustrating of all time. Seriously, it can take between 6-8 hours to complete this dungeon. You can’t save your progress, you can’t leave, and the enemies are ridiculously hard. The most powerful boss of the dungeon, Ragu O Ragula, is the strongest in the game, and he doesn’t appear until the very end. So if you fail the dungeons final trial, all that work, all that effort, could be for nothing. The sheer size, scope and limitations placed on the players in this dungeon make this one incredibly tough place to beat.

“Darkest Dungeon” (2016)

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This game brought back the classic grueling, dungeon-crawling feel to video games, and no place is that more apparent than in the Warrens. Filled to the brim with disgusting Swinefolk who can debuff your party with Disease, the third dungeon in the game is perhaps the most difficult. Beyond the constant debuffs, enemies like the Swine Skiver and the Swinetaur are brutal and can take down your party member very quickly if you haven’t prepared properly. The Warrens are reminiscent of some of the most brutal classic dungeons in video games, but this dungeon is able to polish the experience and make it more fun, somewhat.

“Dark Souls” (2011)

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In a game known for its difficulty, this dungeon may take the cake. It was truly a stroke of evil genius by the game developers to put this dungeon right next to Firelink Shrine, the main hub of the game. New players may take the wrong path and get their butts kicked at the entrance to the catacombs by some very powerful undead. Inside the dungeon is even worse. Necromancers constantly revive slain skeletons, meaning the only way to progress safely is to make a mad dash to the sorcerers and kill them, which can lead you straight into a trap. Beyond that, the dreaded wheel skeletons can be found at the end of the dungeon, ready to roll over you any chance they can get.

Water levels are frustrating and difficult in any game they are introduced in, but this one is infamous for its challenge. What makes this dungeon so annoying is that there are water levels you have to constantly raise or lower to access new areas, and a pair of Iron Boots you need to constantly equip or remove to either sink to the floor or rise to the surface. Navigation is difficult and clunky due to these issues, and it was so reviled that the area was modified in the remake of the game in 2011. Even so, this remains one of the most difficult and challenging dungeons of all time.