Last week I talked about the Bloodborne bosses in the dreaded Chalice Dungeons I had the least problems with. This week, I’ve finally psyched myself up enough to discuss what I think are the hardest ten bosses in the Chalice Dungeons. Take a deep breath, and let’s begin…

 

10-  Ebrietas Daughter of the Cosmos – Great Isz Chalice (Layer Three)

Ebrietas is notorious for causing players stress and strife in the Upper Cathedral Ward so her presence in the Chalice dungeon wasn’t well received. Ebrietas was an only a problem for me once her arcane attacks were introduced during the second half of the fight, here she begins to spit blood at your hunter which results in frenzy building up. If you don’t keep a very close on on your frenzy bar, this is likely to be the biggest hassle in this fight. As for her physical moves I found her attacks to be largely predictable and therefore had time to doge out of the way to safety. The arena is slightly smaller in The Great Isz Chalice which makes the fight more intense but stick to the same strategy you used for her sister at the Alter of Despair and she shouldn’t cause you to pull too much of your hair out.

 

9- Undead Giant (Ball and Chain) – Lower Pthumerian (Layer Two)

The standard version of this boss, the regular Undead Giant is one of the easiest bosses in the entirety of the chalice dungeons. However, for this list I decided to pick the Ball and Chain variant to represent this assailant because he’s the one I had the most troubles with. Like his two brothers this boss has a large bulbous growth on his body which when destroyed will take a huge chunk of his health and cause him to stagger, opening him up for visceral attack which will take away the majority of his HP. The main issue with this boss is that every time he swings his arms, the ball and chains on his back rotate around him 360 degrees resulting in you getting knocked off your feet almost every time he performs this attack. Once his health gets a little lower he gains a slam move which will cause a shock wave, knocking you to the floor. As soon as this move is over the force will once again send the ball and chains out like whips so the threats in this boss fight are everywhere. It’s unlikely that you’ll complete this boss fight without getting hit or dying, personally, it took me around three attempts accompanied with a lot of well-timed dodging.

 

8- Keeper of the Old Lords – Pthumerian Cursed Defiled Chalice (Layer One)

Initially this boss was going to be much higher up the list than he eventually ended up. Until I found a cheese tactic for the Keeper of the Old Lords I was sure that I would never ever beat this boss. By this point in my journey into the Chalices I had already come face to face with the Keeper of the Old Lords a few times, once as a boss and a few times as stronger foe in the chalices themselves. I’m not a huge fan of this guy. His attacks are very strong and once he’s applied fire paper to his sword I found him unbeatable. The Keeper of the Old Lords is very aggressive, with both strong physical attacks and powerful fire attacks that can reach you from a far distance away. After numerous attempts at being patient and not getting anywhere I searched the internet for a solution. The Keeper’s attack patterns means that he’s very open to visceral attacks and once I’d gotten my timing right I managed to kill this foe without him starting him second phase, as he spent almost the entire fight staggering to his knees.

 

7 –  Loran Darkbeast – Lower Loran Chalice (Layer Three)

With myself being such a fan of the fight against Darkbeast Paarl in the Darkbeast’s Graveyard in Yharnam I was quite excited to potentially face off against him again in the form of the Loran Darkbeast. There’s a reason that these two identical foes don’t share a name. the fight against the Loran Darkbeast is very unforgiving. Paarl wasn’t a sluggish foe but the Darkbeast is twice as fast if not faster meaning that he’s almost always on top of you. Constantly attacking and preventing you to run off and use a blood vials, Loran Darkbeast very quickly becomes very annoying. Using the same electrical bursts as Paarl and behaving in almost exactly the same way as his Yharnam counterpart it was frustrating to be killed over and over again when I found Paarl to be extremely manageable. The fight was testing and put me on the path to insanity. With powerful electric blasts and a severe lack of blind spots the Loran Darkbeast is one of the more challenging bosses that stands in your way to the Queen.

 

6 – Pthumerian Descent-  Pthumerian Ihyll (Layer One)

Having encounter the older version of the Pthumerian warrior it was to be expected that the younger version would be energetic and powerful. True to expectation, the Pthumerian Descent is extremely challenging. His posture itself is intimidating as he looms eerily over your hunter wielding a scythe which he can split into two to use as a boomerang. Being one of the fastest bosses in the Chalice dungeons, the Pthumerian Descent will keep as close to you as possible, (not letting you retreat to regain health or change your weapons) constantly avoiding both his attacks and his intimidating presence means you’ll need a high stamina bar to avoid him without breaking a sweat. This Pthumerian warrior uses a scythe and depending on your spacing in the arena will utilise it as either a close-range weapon or a ranged weapon in the form of a makeshift deadly boomerang. His combos are tricky to avoid and if only manageable if you die to him enough times for his attack patterns to be drilled into your head. This boss fight is one that becomes easier the more that you die to him. Once you’ve memorised his move set and seen all of his furious phases you’ll be much more prepared for the time you fight him and win.

 

5-  Forgotten Madman – Lower Hintertomb Chalice (Layer 2).

Any fight in Bloodborne is instantly made harder when you’re up against more than one foe. I had real problems with this boss because I hated every aspect of this fight. The arcane attacks, the hunter vs hunter set up, and the annoying second boss who shows up half way through the fight. The Forgotten Madman himself depends on either his powerful arcane blasts, A Call Beyond and the Augar of Ebrietas or his buffed Ludwigs Holy Blade. His arsenal of weaponry means that he’s a huge threat at both close range and distance. Although the long wind up time from the transformed version of Ludwigs Holy Blade opens him up for a visceral attack from your hunter depleting a chunk of his health. Once you’ve finally gotten the upper hand in the fight and the Madman’s health has been halved he’ll summon fellow hunter-boss the Madmans Escort. Here the fight becomes incredibly tricky and I found myself having anxiety riddled flashbacks to taking on the three NCP hunters in the Yhar’Gahual chapel. A tactic that worked well for me once I’d nailed the timing was to hit the The Forgotten Madman with a Shamans bone blade just as he summons his friend. The two of them will forget about you and fight to the death. That way, whichever Madman is left standing will be easy to pick off.

 

4- Headless Bloodletting Beast – Pthumerian Iyhll (Layer Two)

This boss is certainly one of the more intimidating of the bunch. This headless version is much more daunting to face against than the version we fight earlier in the dungeons, and until about half way through the fight they share the same move sets. This headless Bloodletting beast is hideously large, and his reach extends over the entire arena you fight him in, meaning that its almost impossible to escape from his attacks. Most of my issues in the first half of the fight came from dealing with the camera angle. If you have the camera locked onto him you’ll probably get motion sickness from watching the screen spin uncontrollably and, if you decide to leave the camera locked off him, his large body will block your sight and you’ll attack the air instead of the boss. If you manage to cope with that you’ll probably struggle next with the bloodletting beasts second phase. One you whittle him down to half health a long parasite will erupt from his neck and spit blood at you. Not only is this a nuisance in terms of avoiding more attacks, it allows the Headless Bloodletting beast to extend his reach even further. Many times, I had gotten this foe down to a slither of HP only for the parasite to lash out and clip me, killing me almost immediately. Once you’ve found the right tactic for facing this boss he becomes a bit more manageable. He still however, remains infuriatingly rage inducing.

 

3- Abhorrent Beast – Lower Loran Chalice (Layer Two)

Furiously fast and extremely agile this boss is not one to take lightly. Most players won’t have found the secret Abhorrent Beast in the main game and those who did probably found an easy way to cheese him for a quick death. In the Lower Loran Chalice with no nooks and crannies to hide in we’re out in the open and susceptible to his fast combos and strong attacks. His speed and constant combos means that you’ll find yourself constantly dodging away from him rather than attacking him. And when if you’re unlucky enough to get caught in his swiping combos or electrical attacks its hard to break away from them before dying. I found this boss to be one of the select few that really induced a rage into me, I couldn’t seem to learn its vast move sets and I found myself getting greedier and greedier in a futile attempt to eradicate this brute once and for good. Eventually, by summoning a NCP hunter and using him solely as a distraction I managed to very slowly chip away at the beast’s health until he was good and dead.

 

2- Watchdog of The Old Lords – Pthumerian Cursed Defiled Chalice (Layer Two)

The cursed defiled chalice is easily the worst chalice in the entirety of the game so it’s not surprising that the top few places on this list go to the monstrosities lurking in them. Having already faced a Watchdog of the Old Lords I wasn’t too nervous to face off against him one more time as I knew exactly what to expect. I was dead seconds after stepping into the boss room. With only half your health your Hunter is at a massive disadvantage when it comes to this fight. The Watchdogs fire bursts take over half your remaining health meaning this his stomping combo can be an instant killer if you don’t anticipate it and get out of the way in time. This hell hound also has a charge move which is almost always a one shot if you your health is low enough. The only way to easily beat his foe is to essentially avoid almost every attack and come with a plentiful stock of blood vials. With this boss being one of the last standing between you and the gold trophy at the end of the chalices however, it certainly feels like an unfair fight which tests your patience and your ability to deal with an extremely unfair challenge.

 

1- Amygdala – Pthumerian Cursed Defiled Chalice (Layer Three)

Even just thinking about this boss makes a deep-seated anger inside me bubble up. By the time I faced this boss I’d already been through hell and back fighting my way through the cursed defiled chalice with half my original HP and some of the worst bosses in the whole game so, by the time I reached the layer three boss, I was ready for the chalices to be over. Amygdala is the worst adversary you could dream to face in this environment. With a massive amount of health, eight gangly arms failing at you constantly, and a series of strong attacks Amygdala was the hardest foe I had to face on my way to the Queen. Because this boss is slow, facing off against her doesn’t appear too intimidating however, Amygdala is bulky and with your health being so low the only way to win against her is to be patient. Time your attacks, plan when you’ll move in, don’t get greedy or you’ll get hit. Amygdala has one blind spot behind her leg, but the damage you’ll do to her there is so pathetic that its worth taking the risk of hitting her head when she lowers it after an attack (which she doesn’t do too often). The first few moments of this fight are crucial, use too many blood vials in the first few seconds and you might as well give up and try again. On my winning attempt I spent nearly half an hour carefully planning my attacks and swearing profusely anytime one of her hands got too close to me. Once I’d beaten her I vowed to never ever return to this boss battle. Ever.

 

Phew! That’s the Chalice Dungeon bosses defeated, ranked and finally finished with! Let me know what you think and stay tuned for the reader-requested DLC boss ranking coming next Tuesday!