Elden Ring Boss Order: The Full Route Through the Base Game and the DLC

Elden Ring has 238 bosses and almost no signposting about which of them matter. The strict requirement is small: beat any two Shardbearers to reach Leyndell, then push the story to the end. Everything else is routing. This guide gives you the required chain, the recommended order by difficulty, the extra bosses each of the six endings demands, and — the part most boss order guides still leave out — the Shadow of the Erdtree route and how to get into the DLC in the first place.

If you have not started yet, the Elden Ring beginner roadmap covers the first ten hours; this page picks up from there.

Recommended boss order (base game)

This is the ascending-difficulty route. It will not match your playthrough exactly — the open world guarantees that — but it keeps you from walking into a fight ten levels early.

1. Margit, the Fell Omen — Stormhill, Limgrave. The game’s first real check. If Margit walls you, go explore Limgrave and the Weeping Peninsula for levels and a weapon upgrade; that is the intended response.
2. Godrick the Grafted — Stormveil Castle [Shardbearer]
3. Rennala, Queen of the Full Moon — Academy of Raya Lucaria [Shardbearer]. Also unlocks respeccing, so beat her before you commit to a build.
4. Rykard, Lord of Blasphemy — Volcano Manor, Mt. Gelmir [Shardbearer]. The Serpent-Hunter spear inside the arena makes this one of the easier Shardbearers.
5. Starscourge Radahn — Redmane Castle, Caelid [Shardbearer]. Required for the DLC.
6. Godfrey, First Elden Lord (spectral) — Leyndell
7. Morgott, the Omen King — Leyndell [Shardbearer]
8. Fire Giant — Mountaintops of the Giants. A difficulty spike that catches people off guard after Morgott.
9. Malekith, the Black Blade — Crumbling Farum Azula
10. Sir Gideon Ofnir, the All-Knowing — Leyndell, Ashen Capital
11. Godfrey / Hoarah Loux — Leyndell, Ashen Capital
12. Radagon of the Golden Order & Elden Beast — the finale

Two names deliberately sit outside this list:

• Mohg, Lord of Blood (Mohgwyn Palace) — optional for the base game, mandatory for the DLC. Do him before Farum Azula if you intend to play Shadow of the Erdtree.
• Malenia, Blade of Miquella (Miquella’s Haligtree) — entirely optional and the hardest fight in the game by a wide margin. Bandai Namco’s own player statistics put her at the top of the worldwide death count. Save her for last, or for NG+. See how to beat Malenia and how to reach the Haligtree.

All main bosses in story order

For reference, the same set arranged by where they sit in the narrative rather than by difficulty:

#	Boss	Location	Note
1	Margit, the Fell Omen	Stormhill, Limgrave	Gatekeeper
2	Godrick the Grafted	Stormveil Castle	Shardbearer
3	Rennala, Queen of the Full Moon	Raya Lucaria	Shardbearer · unlocks respec
4	Starscourge Radahn	Redmane Castle, Caelid	Shardbearer · DLC requirement
5	Rykard, Lord of Blasphemy	Mt. Gelmir	Shardbearer
6	Mohg, Lord of Blood	Mohgwyn Palace	Shardbearer · DLC requirement
7	Malenia, Blade of Miquella	Miquella’s Haligtree	Shardbearer · optional, hardest
8	Godfrey, First Elden Lord	Leyndell	Spectral
9	Morgott, the Omen King	Leyndell	Shardbearer
10	Fire Giant	Mountaintops of the Giants	Required
11	Malekith, the Black Blade	Crumbling Farum Azula	Required
12	Sir Gideon Ofnir	Leyndell, Ashen Capital	Required
13	Godfrey / Hoarah Loux	Leyndell, Ashen Capital	Required
14	Radagon & Elden Beast	Leyndell, Ashen Capital	Final

Shadow of the Erdtree boss order

The DLC is where most boss order guides stop being useful, so this is the part worth reading twice.

Getting in

1. Defeat Starscourge Radahn in Caelid.
2. Defeat Mohg, Lord of Blood in Mohgwyn Palace.
3. Interact with Miquella’s cocoon in Mohgwyn Palace to warp to the Realm of Shadow. That cocoon stays as the permanent entry point.

Do this before you finish Farum Azula. Nothing blocks entry afterwards, but it is cleaner to have the DLC open while you still have base-game progression left.

Scadutree Fragments set the difficulty, not your level

The DLC runs two progression systems that only apply inside the Realm of Shadow:

• Scadutree Fragments raise your damage dealt and damage negation.
• Revered Spirit Ashes do the same for your Spirit Ashes and spectral Torrent.

Neither carries over to the Lands Between, and neither has anything to do with rune level. A level 150 character at Scadutree +0 will be destroyed by a fight that is fair at +10. If a DLC boss feels overtuned, the intended fix is to go exploring and collect more Fragments — churches, minor dungeons, ruins and landmarks — not to grind runes.

The route

1. Divine Beast Dancing Lion — Belurat, Tower Settlement. The DLC’s opening legacy boss and its tutorial in “everything hits harder here.” Around Scadutree +1-3.
2. Rellana, Twin Moon Knight — Castle Ensis. The second legacy dungeon. Around Scadutree +5-7, Revered +4-5.
3. Golden Hippopotamus — Shadow Keep front gate. Required to advance Shadow Keep. Around +7-9.
4. Messmer the Impaler — Shadow Keep, Dark Chamber. Required. The DLC’s real difficulty check — guides describe him explicitly as a Scadutree gate. Around +10 or higher, Revered +9 or higher. If he feels impossible, that is the game telling you to leave and come back.
5. Midra, Lord of Frenzied Flame — Midra’s Manse, Abyssal Woods. Optional, mid-to-late.
6. Metyr, Mother of Fingers — Finger Ruins of Miyr, at the end of Count Ymir’s questline in Scadu Altus. Optional, late.
7. Bayle the Dread — Jagged Peak. Reachable early, but one of the hardest optional fights in the whole game. Leave him late.
8. Romina, Saint of the Bud — Church of the Bud, Ancient Ruins of Rauh. Required to open Enir-Ilim. Around +13 or more.
9. Promised Consort Radahn — Enir-Ilim, after the NPC gauntlet. The final boss of the DLC. Beat the Scadutree Avatar in Scadutree Base first if you can — it drops a talisman that specifically helps here.

The only hard sequencing FromSoftware enforces is that Messmer and Romina must both be dead before Enir-Ilim opens. Everything else above is difficulty optimisation, not a lock.

The six endings and what each costs

Beating Radagon and the Elden Beast triggers the ending — which ending depends on what you did beforehand. Full walkthrough in our complete endings guide; the extra boss requirements are:

Age of Fracture (default)

No extra bosses. This is what you get if you do nothing special.

Age of Stars — Ranni

The most involved, and the most rewarding questline in the game. Extra fights: Starscourge Radahn (to open Nokron), the Baleful Shadow, and Astel, Naturalborn of the Void. Full route: Ranni questline guide.

Age of Order — Goldmask

No additional bosses. Progress the story to a point, then run errands for Goldmask and Corhyn. The easiest alternate ending to secure.

Age of Duskborn — Fia

Extra fights: Valiant Gargoyles, Fia’s Champions and Lichdragon Fortissax. None are brutal; navigating Deeproot Depths is the actual obstacle.

Lord of the Frenzied Flame — Three Fingers

No boss requirement in the traditional sense, but it permanently overwrites your character’s fate and locks out other endings unless you undo it via Miquella’s Needle — which requires Malenia. Read the whole questline before you burn the door.

Blessing of Despair — Dung Eater

Requires beating the Dung Eater himself plus a chain of Seedbed Curse collection. Fiddly rather than hard.

Does boss order actually matter?

Less than in any previous FromSoftware game, and that is the point. Elden Ring’s open world is built on the assumption that you will wander, get flattened, go somewhere else, come back stronger. Almost every boss in the game is technically reachable at level 1, and people have beaten them that way.

What the order above buys you is a smooth difficulty curve instead of a jagged one. You will still die a lot. You will die less at the wrong moments.

The one place order genuinely matters is questlines. NPCs move and disappear based on world progression, not on a timer — push the main story too fast and you will silently lock yourself out of Ranni, Millicent or Sellen. If you care about endings, do the questlines before you burn the Erdtree.

FAQ

What is the minimum number of bosses to finish the game?

Two Shardbearers to enter Leyndell, then Morgott, Fire Giant, Malekith, Gideon, Hoarah Loux and Radagon/Elden Beast. Margit is effectively unavoidable on the way to Godrick. Everything else is optional.

Which two Shardbearers are easiest?

Godrick and Rennala, comfortably. Rykard is the easiest of the later ones because the arena hands you the Serpent-Hunter, which trivialises phase two.

Do I have to beat Malenia?

No. She is entirely optional and drops no required item — unless you are undoing the Frenzied Flame ending, which needs Miquella’s Needle from her questline.

When should I start the DLC?

Once you have Radahn and Mohg down and a fully upgraded weapon, typically around level 120-150. Do not wait until after Radagon; the DLC is more interesting when you still have base-game content to return to.

Is there a level requirement for the DLC?

No hard requirement, and rune level matters far less than Scadutree level. Enter early, sweep Gravesite Plain for Fragments, then start on Dancing Lion.

How many bosses are in Elden Ring in total?

238 in the base game by the standard wiki count, with dozens more in Shadow of the Erdtree. Most are field and dungeon bosses; only about 14 are main-story fights.

For everything else — builds, collectibles, questlines and the DLC — start from our complete Elden Ring guide or the Elden Ring hub. If you want a build that makes this route shorter, the four samurai builds and our hardest bosses breakdown are the natural next reads.

Verified against regulation 1.16.1 and current Shadow of the Erdtree routing guidance, July 2026.