Every Soulsborne Game Ranked Easiest to Hardest!

Added: 2026-06-03

[00:00:00]I'm Billy S and today I'm revealing the results of my community poll ranking the Soulsborne games based on their difficulty. If you're interested in a poll based on which Soulsborne game is worst to best, check out last week's video in the top right corner. I asked each of my voters to tell me which Soulsborne games they had played, followed by an eighth place to first place ranking of their difficulty. After a lot of mathematics, I have the overall averages. And the closer a game's average is to one, the better, while the closer it is to eight, the um not better. So, let's jump right in with the easiest game in the series.

[00:00:38]At number eight, we have Demon Souls, which scored a total difficulty placement of 6.43.

[00:00:46]After accounting for all of the players that hadn't played Demon Souls and removing their scores, the overwhelming majority of voters still gave it the eighth place spot. So, how do you measure the difficulty of a Soulsorn game? It's different for everyone, but my personal metric involves taking a look at what the game asks of you to complete it, what areas you'll have to deal with, what enemies and bosses lie in weight. Do you have a lot of options to handle what's in front of you, or are you restricted in your approach? Demon Souls is a rather odd game difficulty-wise, though, because if we're just looking at a regular new game run, I can totally see it being eighth place. But it has one of the hardest New Game Plus runs in the series, which I know some diehard fans love to factor into their rankings. We did have seven people rank it the hardest game in the poll. After all, Demon Souls areas and bosses aren't that tricky if you know what you're doing. Many of the levels are more linear than first let on, and with a decently upgraded weapon, you'll be able to cut your way through just about everything and anything it can throw at you. The most you'll have to deal with are potential red phantoms thanks to the world tendency mechanic, assuming you don't know about suiciding in the Nexus to stay in soul form after beating a boss. And speaking of bosses, 90% of them are laughably easy with only a handful of genuinely tough encounters like Flame Lurker in his AoE's or King Alant in 1-4. They pale in comparison to the broken jank of the maneaters, though, whose AI is so royally screwed that difficulty flies out of the window.

[00:02:18]I also think that for the average Soulsborne fan, Demon Souls will come across as easier than the other titles because they're more likely to have played the other titles first. It's just a harder Dark Souls. And if you can beat that game, you can beat Demon Souls, no problem. And given we have such a large surge of fans come to the series over Elden Ring's release, it's no surprise they're going back to the older games.

[00:02:40]And after a moment of acclimating to the control scheme, breezing through them with ease. Still, even the easiest game in the series has its tricky moments.

[00:02:49]The swamp of sorrow, the prison of hope, the ritual path. Demon Souls may be in last place, but don't count it out.

[00:02:57]Maybe if it was more accessible to new players instead of being locked on the PS3 or PS5 without emulation, it might have more of a shot at landing higher on the list. Who knows?

[00:03:08]At number seven, we have Dark Souls, which scored a total difficulty placement of 5.37.

[00:03:14]While I certainly agree that Dark Souls is in the bottom half of the series in terms of difficulty, I am surprised to see it this low. After all, I was around when the original Elder Ring Exodus happened and people tried going back to Dark Souls only to get destroyed by a lack of omnidirectional lock-on dodging and a much slower game pace. But then I thought about how perfectly designed the difficulty is for the first half of the game up until the Lord Vessel. And that made me think, you know what, maybe this is an easier game. Parries are extremely easy to land with most parryable enemies, and the timings get ingrained in your mind. You have a lot of options for early game weapons and builds depending on your key stat. And if you can't be asked to hit stuff with weapons, you can just respspec into a magic build and watch the game play itself. But Dark Souls does have its obtuse moments in difficult sections that will leave you breathless. Walking into Nulondo ruins without a transient curse item and getting ganked by ghosts.

[00:04:11]Getting cursed by a basilisk with potentially no purging stones to heal the status effect. Trudging through the darkness of the tomb of the giants while the world's most annoying skelly dogs lurk in the distance. And the Anolondo archers are infamous. Boss fights can be tricky like Capra Demon's insanely cramped arena or Onstein and SMO's gank which became synonymous with difficulty.

[00:04:33]Bed of Chaos meanwhile is difficulty done wrong because it's a platformer but certainly bumps the meter up here. and four kings have had qualms from the community for years, even if I don't personally agree. But what counters the difficulty of these areas and bosses is the way in which you can break your character. To start with, you can kindle bonfires to get more early game estus than any other in the series. Add the right of kindling to the mix by killing pinwheel, and you can have an insane 20 Estus for areas once you've kindled the right bonfires. Shields are broken in Dark Souls, being fantastic defensive items that always help in a pinch, or stun enemies attacking you with the bounce back of their strike. Just get your poise up, get a great shield, and you can watch the credits roll. Poise is so broken. And Dark Souls has so many guides and tutorials with broken builds, easy shortcuts, glitches, and bugs galore. It is the most dissected game in the franchise. And with those layers peeled back, so too is the difficulty. I still think the stretch of Blight Town to Sense Fortress to Anolando is brutal in ways that future games could never, especially in the original release of Dark Souls with the horribly botched frame rates. But the fans voted and they claimed Dark Souls as the second easiest game in the series. Debate it in the comments.

[00:05:53]At number six, we have Dark Souls 2, which has a total difficulty placement of 4.55.

[00:06:00]I don't think it's a crazy suggestion to say that Dark Souls II is the hardest of the three early games in the series, acting as a melting pot of different ideas, with some working and some flopping. This is the game that has you slowly losing more of your maximum health with every death, which can only be mitigated with a specific item that is surprisingly hard to farm until the late game. Human effiges are your lifeblood, but new players will go through them like me in a white chocolate kind of bueno.

[00:06:29]Because Dark Souls II wants you to die more than any other game in the series.

[00:06:34]It literally has an achievement for dying for the first time. I cannot stress this enough. The King's Field is jumping out from Software with this one, and it's not even subtle. Enemy placement that will make you scream.

[00:06:46]Enemy aggro ranges that span the entire map, so you'll get swarmed no matter the location. Shockingly good tracking from enemy archers, so you're always getting sniped by something. There are tough to navigate levels with more than just enemies, traps, pits. You could even find the bonfire locked behind a door.

[00:07:04]And your prowess in combat, especially in dodging and healing, is affected by the adaptability stats so that you actively have a worse dodge roll at soul level one. Why do you think I had to take a big break from the Dark Souls II SL1 run for my members? It was driving me up the wall a little bit. I won't lie. And yet, I will say this, Dark Souls II has arguably more build variety than the first game with more weapon types, more effective magic, equipment that can affect your stats, and a plethora of early game souls to help bolster your level. They give you so many souls per boss kill, it's insane.

[00:07:40]I've always found that Dark Souls II starts tough, then gets incredibly easy while you're collecting the four great souls before getting hard again after you reach Dangleic Castle. There are some exceptions, of course. The Iron Keep is hell on earth for a new player, and that's not just because of the fire.

[00:07:56]Brightstone Cove Seldora is actually a nightmare to navigate if you don't know about holding a torch to keep the spiders away. And the Black Gulch, while short, is migraine inducing with its toxic poison [ __ ] I'd also be remiss if I didn't mention three words that make any fan of the series run in horror. Shrine of Ammana. Though to compensate, Dark Souls 2's boss roster is hilariously easy for a majority of the runtime. Ruin Sentinels, Smelter Demon, Looking Glass Knight, and Velstat are the only fights that come to mind as difficult to me in the main route of the game. Note how that doesn't include the final bosses or any of the great soul bosses. Thank god Dark Souls II's DLC picks up the slack with an extremely brutal trio of areas and bosses.

[00:08:44]Schulvver, Broom Tower, and Ellium Loys are some of the toughest DLC zones in the series, and the enemies and bosses found within will make difficulty enjoyers weep with joy. But once you realize that Dark Souls II is its own game, and playing it like any other title won't really get you anywhere, you can adapt and overcome. I personally would have it a few ranks higher myself because I think the difficulty veers into unfair a lot of the time, but then it's also the game I've died the most in over the years, so I think I might be a bit biased.

[00:09:14]At number five, we have Dark Souls II, which scored a total difficulty placement of 4.37.

[00:09:20]Once you've played one Dark Souls game, you've played them all. But my voters believe that Dark Souls II is the hardest game in the trilogy. And on paper, I can see exactly why. Dark Souls III amps up the speed from the older games, taking cues from Bloodborne about how to design its enemy and boss encounters. There are more basic enemies that act as mini bosses with tanky health pools and more complex move sets.

[00:09:43]From the early game, you've got Lothric Knights on the high wall, evangelists in the undead settlement, and the introduction of series staple, the giant enemy crabs that appear throughout the game. Areas are vast with multiple paths you can take at any given time. Undead Settlement, Crucifixion Woods, Irithlloreal Valley, Faren Keep. These base game areas are expansive and difficult to navigate at the best of times. Then you end the base game with Lothric Castle and the Grand Archives, which continue that trend while having higher level enemies to contend with.

[00:10:15]It's night and day compared to some of the older titles. Bosses are more complex, featuring dynamic move sets that change as the fights progress, forcing you to adapt to a faster speed and more intricate attack patterns.

[00:10:27]Reaction speed becomes more of a factor in playing Dark Souls 3. And that leaves less wiggle room for players who can't handle the pace change. From your part, though, you do have a lot of tools at your disposal to succeed here. The varied build variety of previous games continues, but now your weapons have weapon arts that can be fired using your mana bar. Some of these abilities are game changers, while others just give you a nice extra move or two for your arsenal. There are countless weapons for every occasion, and status effects are stronger than ever. I've always been fond of the Ithl straight sword you get from the Undead Settlement Outrider Knight myself. But decks builds will also have a good katana on hand, while strength builds have every flavor of bonk they could want. Shields are good in Dark Souls III, but not nearly as strong as they were in Dark Souls. Poise is more balanced in that sense. But to compensate, I think Dark Souls II has the best dodge roll in the series. I swear it might be a placebo effect, but you can dodge just about anything and everything with a good bit of timing as long as you aren't fat rolling. And with the game's upgrade systems being streamlined, you're always able to make some forward progression. The biggest challenge is the game's linearity.

[00:11:38]You'll always have to beat the Abyss Watchers to progress. No way around it.

[00:11:42]You'll always have to scour Faren Keep for those fire islands while poison saps your strength. It's brutal. And then the DLCs just amp it up even further.

[00:11:50]Arandelle may not be the toughest DLC to navigate, but the Corvian and Milwood Knights are deadly opponents. And pretty much everything regarding the Ring City is firing top 10 difficulty on all cylinders. But it's a fair difficulty in comparison to something like Dark Souls II, which often feels more trollish on its approach. And that fair difficulty often resonates with players. I don't think Dark Souls III could make it any further on this list because it does play like a beta version of Elden Rings gameplay and anyone playing the series backwards would slot in fairly comfortably due to those comparisons.

[00:12:23]But Dark Souls II did it first. It's also the game that has Udex Gundier as the first boss who is quite trivial to me because I played this game for a decade. But for new players, he is a brutal test of your skill and can serve as a gatekeeping roadblock. None of the other games gatekeep you that early on from immediate progress to such an extent. Ballsy play from soft. And you know what else is ballsy? That there are 73% of you watching my videos without parrying that subscribe button. I'm trying to reach 50,000 subscribers by the end of 2026. And we've had so many new people join the community recently.

[00:12:58]I would love to have you.

[00:13:01]At number four, we have Elder Ring Night Re, which scored a total difficulty placement of 3.73.

[00:13:07]Nightra is the game that benefits the most from my system of removing scores from voters that haven't actually played Night Rain because there were 67 voters that ranked Night Rain in eighth. Yet, once I went through all of the votes, 59 of them hadn't played the game, which makes sense. Most voters placed the games they hadn't played at the bottom of their respective rankings to make my life easier, but it did mean I had to do some extra work to figure out Night Rain's actual placement from those that did play it. And a healthy fourth place overall feels like the correct spot.

[00:13:41]Night Rain is a difficult game. There's no need to sugarcoat it. You are playing a rogue light where each run takes 40 plus minutes and failure is one bad fight away from kicking you back to the round table hold. Your experience in Elder Ring doesn't quite transfer over because you're specifically picking from a series of classes with your nightfarers. And while experimentation is encouraged, sticking with your classes build is always the safest play.

[00:14:05]Runs being random in terms of which bosses you face, which loot you find, and which points of interest spawn means you could have a fantastic run that goes your way because you found a great bow as an iron eye. Or you could have the worst run imaginable where you never get a weapon that fits your build or the relics you've equipped, leaving you in a bit of a spot of bother. Add on to this the shifting earth events that you're almost always required to interact with on day two due to the way they replace a ton of checks you'd normally have, and the challenge of needing to go from area to area, boss to boss, killing things quickly to get the best loot and the best runes, and you're looking at an absolutely brutal learning curve. The plus side is that once you've got your foot in the door with Night Rain, it gets a lot easier. It's a game that has a lot of strategy attributed to it. And if you're playing with friends, even better, because you can plan ahead in a voice chat to succeed at any given run.

[00:14:58]But if you're playing with randoms, it is a coin flip as to whether your teammates will be a help or a hindrance.

[00:15:03]For every fantastic player, there's another who will disconnect the moment they're down once. For every player that can support a team, there's another who will run off on their own and get knocked out by the first world boss they come across. In a multiplayer game, you are at the mercy of your team, and that is a level of difficulty that none of the other games can even come close to.

[00:15:23]Sure, you can choose to play Night Reo, but taking on the Night Lords on your own can be a difficult task. The Everdarks even more so, because these new endof run bosses are some of Fromoft's most diverse and detailed battles to date. They have MMO style mechanics and are made to take advantage of the game's multiplayer systems. They didn't intend for one person to fight Gladius and his three clones on their own. Didn't stop me from soloing Everdark Gladius, but that did take me 2 days of grinding. Then the DLC only adds in tougher fights and an even more complex map to explore. The Forsaken Hollow is filled with things to do, but none of the actual objectives feel meaningful enough to dedicate a full run to every time you jump in. and the elevation changes makes it extremely difficult to navigate. But again, once you know what you're getting into and once you've stockpiled a nice amount of relics and remembrance quest lines, you'll be able to play Night Rain with your chosen Night Farer to a much higher skill level. Plan for Night Lord weaknesses, get an OP relic effect for your starting weapon or buff your character skills. It's an entirely different skill set than what's required for any other game in the series, and that is why Night Rain deservedly lands this high. At number three, we have Bloodborne, which scored a total difficulty placement of 3.47.

[00:16:40]I've said it in the past and I will say it again. Bloodborne is an acquired taste. I've seen people on all sides of the difficulty spectrum when it's brought up. You have people coming from older games who are thrown off by the completely aggressive play style and change of pace who find the game insanely difficult. And on the other side of the coin, you have people coming from Elden Ring and Seeor who are used to being aggressive in combat. So sliding into Bloodborne's play style is like popping on a comfy pair of socks.

[00:17:06]So a solid third place overall is a fair placement when you keep in mind how divisive this game can be in that sense.

[00:17:12]In terms of difficulty, the biggest challenge of Bloodborne is the way it incentivizes you to attack, attack, and attack again. You can't let your foot off the gas because the moment you give an enemy or boss some leeway, they'll take a mile and make you regret it. This was also the first game to really punish players who tried to dodge backwards to escape an encounter. In Demon Souls, Dark Souls, and Dark Souls II, you could always dodge back from enemies because they never had move sets that could chase you down. In Bloodborne, most enemies attacks will push them forwards.

[00:17:45]So, if you dodge backwards to avoid them, you just end up in their line of attack regardless. Instead, it teaches you to dodge into boss attacks, which seems counterintuitive, but works wonders and has remained a bit of common knowledge all the way to Night Rain.

[00:17:59]Combine that with Bloodborne's rally system, where if you take damage, you can then hit the enemy you're fighting to regain a bit of health, and that aggression is just amped up to 11. Basic enemies can be brutal in Bloodborne. The werewolves in central Yarnham, the constant snakes in the forbidden woods, the winter lanterns are infamous, the giant squid guys in the DLC, and anytime you're facing another hunter is a test of skill. Unless it's the crow of Kanhurst, then it's just cruel. I do think Bloodborne's weapon system is geared to help the player, though, with there being a trick weapon for every occasion and every type of hunter. You can use the chalice dungeons to grind for blood echoes if you feel the game's being a little too difficult. And I'd argue Bloodborne's boss roster is on the easier side. Sure, we've got our Orphan of Cause, Father Gascoin, Shadows of Yarn, Gur, but we've also got Witches of Hemwick, the One Reborn, MGO's Wet Nurse, the Celestial Emissary. For every good boss, there's also a bit of a flop in the difficulty department. They do make up for it with a lot of Bloodborne's areas being expansive and tough to navigate. Forbidden Woods trips me up from time to time, but it trips the community up constantly. Central Yarnum has 50 different paths to choose from every time you reach a new crossroad. And with the way enemies are designed, it's so easy to get overwhelmed and surrounded, leading to a quick demise. And Bloodborne also gets knocked for its healing system, which uses consumable blood vials that if you're not an experienced player, you'll be running out of sooner rather than later. There's nothing more demoralizing than farming for blood vials because a boss or area you're in is just too strong for you to overcome. Nothing says difficulty like scurrying back to Central Yarn's farming route with your tail between your legs because ROM spiders decided to be extra cruel that day. It's no surprise that three of the top four games in this ranking are all titles that completely change how you play the average FromSoft game. Night Rain, Bloodborne, and Seedor. But the question is, did Seeor come in second place or first place? Let's find out with at number two, we have Elden Ring, which scored a total difficulty placement of 3.37.

[00:20:09]The voters have spoken and I'm very intrigued by this placement because I've got to admit, I can see the argument for Elder Ring in either direction. Starting with the easy aspects, it is by far the most varied game when it comes to build variety. You have access to Limbgrave, Calid, Leernia, and if you grab the two Dectis medallions from Fort Height and Fort Farro, Altus Plateau, and Mount Gelmir, too. This means you have access to every catacomb, cave, and vendor in those regions. So, if you have a specific build you want to aim for, all you need to do is put in a little research to figure out what talisman's, weapons, and armor you need and go nuts.

[00:20:48]Beyond that, the player freedom of being able to explore the entirety of the lands between means that the moment you get stuck at a particularly difficult boss, you can dip out, find some upgrades, level up, get a spirit summon or two, and come back when you're stronger. You only need two great runes to get into Lendell after all, and there are four great runes accessible, so pick and choose your battles. Elden Ring also plays like an upgraded Dark Souls III, complete with a robust magic system, an Ash of War system that allows you to tailor your weapon to the task at hand, and a simple upgrade system that keeps you on the up and up. You can summon in friends. There are countless online guides to help you out, and if you really need it, spirit summons exist.

[00:21:27]Elden Ring, more than any other game, has built a collaborative community that will come to your aid and make your life a little easier. But the fact that the game has all these ways of making it easier and it's still number two on this list says that the game's difficulty curve is still able to challenge players for the entire runtime. The main bosses that are given the most juice are brutal encounters that test all your skills.

[00:21:49]Marget is one of the toughest earliest bosses in the series and late game just about every fight is a battle of attrition as you fight for your openings and pray that your vigor is leveled beyond 40 so you can survive a couple of hits. You've got optional areas like Mogan Palace and the Halig tree whose enemies and bosses will kick your ass.

[00:22:06]And if all of that isn't enough, how about we hop into Shadow of the Tree, a DLC that is dictated by its own scaling system due to the Shadow Tree fragments.

[00:22:17]So no matter what level you enter, you will immediately be humbled and forced to work your way through the bottom rung unless you follow a guide to immediately grab enough fragments to mitigate that pain. And that's not taking into account that some of the toughest enemies and boss fights are also in the DLC waiting to fight you. The Consort, Bale, Midra, Mesma, Gaas, with enemies like the divine warriors and the cursed blades and Mesma's fire knights harassing you in their respective dungeons. Areas in Elden Ring are so intricately designed with the legacy dungeons being some of the best work FromSoft has ever done.

[00:22:50]Each with their own easier and harder areas to give you some levity. Nobody gets to the end of Elden Ring and thinks, "Oh, that was easy." But I do suspect that the difficulty of Elder Ring is enhanced by just how many people started with Elden Ring as their first Souls game. It's often said in the community that the first game you played is often the hardest because that's when your knowledge is at zero and you have no experience to draw from. For every subsequent game, you have a little extra boost to get you started and by the time you jump into Souls likes, you're a god gamer. But Elder Ring starts you as a real nobody. It's up to you to overcome that difficulty and become the Elden Lord.

[00:23:30]At number one, we have Seedor Shadows Die Twice, which scored a total difficulty average of 2.01.

[00:23:38]And was there any doubt here? Seedor has always been considered one of the toughest games in the series for the same reasons as Bloodborne and Night Rain. It's a game that takes the fundamental formula of FromSoft's tropes and twists it into something completely new. For Seedor, that means taking the aggressive nature of Bloodborne, but combining it with a focus on parrying as opposed to blind attacking. Your goal is not to just hit the opponent until they die, but to dance with your blades, blocking their attack combos until their posture breaks, and you can deal the death blow to their health. The game also has three different perilous attack types denoted by red kanji which will follow up with either a thrust attack, a grab attack, or an unders sweep. For the thrust, dash forwards a muri counter, assuming you have it unlocked. For the grab, jump away. And for the unders sweep, jump in place and kick the enemy in the head. But the kanji here is the same for all three types of perilous attacks. So, you have to actually read the animations of what you're fighting to know what attack is coming. Blocking willy-nilly won't help either, as you need to perfectly time your blocks to the blows dealt by your opponent, lest they break your posture. Someone should tell past Billy that. Always spam blocking in his footage. Am I right, gamers? The other major hurdle of Seedor is actually in how it's not an RPG like the rest of the games. You're not leveling up stats in the same way.

[00:24:58]Instead, you're using memories and prayer beads to raise your attack power and vitality, respectively, damage, and health. You have a few skill trees that you can unlock some extra moves or passive buffs that help your survivability, but you're not about to respspec into a new weapon class or anything. Your sword is your weapon from start to finish. You have to get good with Seiro's move set, and if you can't do that, you won't beat the game.

[00:25:21]Shinobi tools do ease the tension a little bit with many of them having hidden power against certain bosses.

[00:25:27]Animals are afraid of firecrackers.

[00:25:29]Airborne bosses can be taken down by shuriken. One boss is weak to a whistle that can stun them. If you find these options, your playthrough will be made just a little bit easier, but the learning curve of Seedor is so steep that it's very hard to plateau on the other side. It's funny because some of the best Seedor players now find the game too easy because once you master what Seedor wants from you, it's kind of hard to go back to playing badly. Even for me, someone who isn't that great at the game, I can tell my gameplay is still leagues better than in 2019 when I started. But I don't allow that to cloud my judgment of the game's difficulty, and neither do the voters. We all got our asses kicked by Guinea Chidor at top Ashina Castle until we learned the mechanics. And we all went on to go all out against the sword saint in one of the toughest battles in all of gaming.

[00:26:15]Seedor was so influential that it spawned its own subcategory of souls likes that focus on parrying over all else with nine souls being the biggest.

[00:26:24]And I'd say that rhythm parry difficulty is far tougher than dodging or shielding through a boss's move set from the other games. I'm with the community on this one. Sodor right now is the hardest game in Soulsorn. And feel free to debate in the comments below.