Summary
With a sprawling open world that is just begging to be explored, a lifetime’s worth of deep, interesting lore, and an abundance of possible character builds, there are plenty of thingsElden Ringdeserves praise for. It is aFromSoftwaregame, though, and these titles have built their reputation on excruciatingly difficult (but also very satisfying) boss battles.
Elden Ring’sbosses are no different. Intimidating and hard to beat, some of these creatures have stopped players in their tracks plenty of times. Thankfully, just like in any other Soulslike title, there are certain clever exploits, i.e. “cheeses,” that can turn these formidable bosses into dust in a matter of seconds. While some of the more hardcore fans will vehemently disapprove of using these in any circumstances, theycancome in handy for players who simply want to progress further.
Updated June 21, 2025, by Hamza Haq:All FromSoftware games eventually turn into a tug-of-war between the developers making their bosses harder and harder and the players trying to break the game with overpowered weapons and cheese strategies. Anything truly broken is patched out of the game within a month or so, but balancing is tricky, and there is no way to completely get rid of every overengineered strategy there is. With the release of the Shadow of the Erdtree DLC, aton of new weapons, spells, ashes of war, and other items have upended the status quo into something completely fresh once again. And with that come new ways to cheese bosses.
13Fire Giant
Toppling Over the Giant
The main philosophy behind cheesing bosses inElden Ringis to use the environment, items, and sometimes even the boss’s own attack moves to the player’s advantage. A lot of the time, these tactics go beyond what the developers intended, and making theFire Giantfall to his death from a tiny height is definitely not something FromSoftware wanted players to do.
In order to effortlessly kill the Fire Giant and progress in the story, all players have to do islure him onto a short, rocky hill near the start of the fight. Then, with the help ofranged attacks, they need to aggravate the giant enough so that heswings his weapon, throwing himself off the hill and losing all of his HPin a pretty hilarious manner. This process needs to be repeated in the second phase of the battle. That particular boss cheese method is bestdepicted in this video.
12Commander O’Neil
Infecting O’Neil With Scarlet Rot
Despite being an optional boss, mostElden Ringplayers will cross paths withCommander O’Neiland his archers, either by accident or whilefollowing Millicent’squest line. When encountered in early to mid-game, he can pose quite the challenge. As an overworld boss, though, he can be led away from the battle arena straight into theScarlet Rot-ridden swampland.
Just outside the arena, players will find a spot withthree Scarlet Rot geysers erupting in a coordinated pattern, one after another. In order to kill O’Neil without pressing the attack button even once, players should have himchase them around these geysers, which will erupt underneath him, dealing hefty damage right away, as well as slowly building up the Commander’s Scarlet Rot infection meter.Three or four eruptionsshould be enough to drain all of O’Neil’s HP.
11Draconic Tree Sentinel
Patiently Poisoning From Afar
Players getting obliterated by theDraconic Tree Sentinel (Capital Outskirts)at the gates of Leyndell should be happy to learn that there is a cheesing tactic that can take care of this particular boss with very little effort required on their part. All they need to equip themselves with is a lot of patience and thePoison MistIncantation.
This particular strategy was discovered by a popularSouls-focused YouTuber,Iron Pineapple. Itcan be seen in action here. All one has to do to kill the Draconic Sentinel is tostealthily position oneself behind the boss, and continuously cast Poison Mist at him. This spell will not aggravate the Sentinel, all the while dealing steady poison damage. The only drawback of this approach is that it can take as long as 15 minutes to kill him, due to Poison Mist’s low damage stats.
10Radagon of the Golden Order
Stop Radagon In His Tracks
This is quite an embarrassing exploit, seeing as it has to do with a phase of the very final boss battle inElden Ring:the fight againstRadagon of the Golden Orderand the Elden Beast. Looking at the game’s patch history and the pride FromSoftware takes in its boss battles, it is honestly quite surprising that it has only been patched in August 2022, nearly six months after the game’s release date.
It was a mechanical cheese that freezes Radagon’s AI, immobilizing him for the entire fight. To carry out this particular feat,players need to skip the pre-fight cutscene and sprint up to the boss before he manages to take a step in their direction. That should render him unable to move, making the rest of this phase childishly easy and allowingplayers to conserve their flasksand other resources for the Elden Beast.
9Elden Beast
Rock Slinging Away at the Greater Will
TheElden Beastposes a mighty challenge that wraps up the entire storyline, and although it isn’t the most difficult boss in the game, many players still find it quite difficult to beat, especially if they struggle to find the right tools for the job. Those playing a mage character can consider themselves lucky, though, as this class can deploy a spell that is arguably the easiest way to beat the Elden Beast.
ThisElden Ringfinal bosscheese method is reserved for players with an Intelligence-focused character build, as theRock Slingsorcery scales up with this attribute. The trick here is to aim at the Beast’s weak spot, which is a small, glowing point located on its lower torso.Repeatedly slinging rocksat that spot is a straightforward, low-effort way to kill the last boss inElden Ring,but one still has to remember to dodge the Beast’s own attacks between each sling.
8Maliketh, The Black Blade
Suffocate Maliketh With Rotten Breath
Compared to some other boss cheese methods listed here, this one requires a few extra steps on the player’s part. First of all, itrequiresRotten Breath, which is a Dragon Communion Incantation obtainable in exchange for aDragon Heartat theCathedral of Dragon Communion. This means that in order to be able to cheese Maliketh this way,one needs to have killed at least one dragonearlier on in the game.
Maliketh, the Black Bladeisextremely susceptible to contracting Scarlet Rot, and with a few well-placedRotten Breath blows, the infection will begin to take away chunks of his health on its own. Players will still need to show some skill by avoiding his attacks andmaking sure to keep the boss infected. With enough persistence, this is by far the easiest way to get rid of Maliketh.
7Mimic Tear
Unequipping All Weapons and Armor
This one is a simple, clever way to defeat theMimic Tearoptional boss. Moreover, it has nothing to do with actual combat. Players with strong menu navigation skills will have no trouble pulling off this cheesing strategy.
Seeing as the Mimic Tear will have the exact same equipment and skills as the player character upon entering the arena, the best way to nerf it is byunequipping all weapons and armor before starting the fight. Once inside, all one has to do isquickly put these items back onand tear apart the naked, defenseless Mimic Tear in a matter of seconds.
6Godskin Duo
Singling Out the Duo
ManyElden Ringplayers getting through the game for the first time find themselves getting stuck at theGodskin Duobattle in the Crumbling Farum Azula. While the Godskin Apostle and Godskin Noble are individual, optional bosses that can be encountered on multiple occasions throughout the game, fighting both of them at the same time is a mandatory ordeal for all those who want to see one ofElden Ring’sendings.
Luckily for players who don’t mind resorting to a little bit of trickery, the battle can be made much easier by preventing one of the opponents from reviving the other one. Either one of the Godskins is programmed to revive their fallen partner in less than a minute, but asReddit user Karolus2001 discovered, players can prevent them from doing so bybreaking the boss’s poise as he starts the revival process,effectively turning the rest of the fight into a much more manageable 1v1 fight. This requires precise timing, but it’s certainly easier than taking both Godskins on at the same time.
5Overworld Bosses
Gaining High Ground For An Elevation Advantage
As opposed to traditional, arena-based bosses, overworld encounters are characterized by the fact that players can get away from them at any moment, or stretch out the fight area by having the enemies chase them. This cheesing tactic applies to nearly every overworld boss, including the already-mentionedCommander O’NeilorDraconic Tree Sentinel (Capital Outskirts), or even theDivine Beast Dancing Lionin theShadow of the Erdtree DLC.
To easily gain a significant advantage over any overworld boss, all players need to do isuse ranged attacksfrom a high enough vantage point. Of course, it results in a very slow picking away at the enemy’s health, but in most cases, it virtually eliminates the chances of getting hit or even aggravating the boss in the first place.
4Starscourge Radahn
Leading The Red Lion General Astray
The battle againstStarscourge Radahnis one of the most exhilarating fights in the entire game. Summoning NPCs to aid the players and charging at the demigod feels epic, and so does the satisfaction that comes with defeating Radahn. The only problem? It’s an excruciatingly difficult encounter. Understandably, many players set out to find an easier way of handling it.
Players shouldcharge at Radahn to get him to follow them. The next course of action is togallop to the western end of the map, run up the hill and stop midway. Radahn is unable to hit the player there, but he’ll get aggravated enough to glitch further up the hill. Once Radahn gets climbing, the playershould then hop over to a nearby branchand watch as the boss hopelessly tries to reach them and inevitably falls to his death.This videovisualizes that particular strategy perfectly, courtesy ofMono RPG.
