How Many Dark Souls Bosses Do You REALLY Need to Kill?

Dark Souls contains 26 bosses overall. Killing all 26 is not needed in order to reach the game's ending, however, the game can be finished with way under the developer intended amount. Just how many can be REALLY skipped? And how few need to be killed?

This video elaborates on the minimal number of bosses From Software intended for the players to need to kill in order to reach Dark Souls' final boss – Gwyn, then explores and explains the discovered speedrunning posibilities to bypass most of them and lower this number through some fascinating skips and glitches. Finally, the remaining bosses and the potential to circumvent them is discussed. If you ever dreamt of finishing the game with least bosses possible, by the end of the video you should know exactly how many Dark Souls bosses you really need to kill and how :).

📷📆 If you want to catch some live Dark Souls speedruns or just have a chat about them, you can follow me on Twitch:

Special thanks goes to Kahmul for patiently answering my questions and also to rythin_sr and Cadarev for taking their time and providing me with feedback.

Homeward Wrong Warp video:
Force Quit Wrong Warp video:

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Chapters:
00:00 Introduction
01:36 Casual Requirements
05:46 Wrong Warp Reduction
08:37 Special Skips - Boss #1
11:43 Special Skips - Boss #2
16:45 Special Skips - Boss #3
22:03 What Can't Be Skipped?
24:55 Summary

[EVPointMaster]

"In order to skip killing Asylum Demon, we first have to kill Asylum Demon"

[ZombiesWerePeopleToo]

The editing in this video is extremely professional. One of the most underrated channels on this website.

[KarlCwpd]

I like how Gargoyles and O&S are the only bosses you can't skip that isn't Gwyn
the 2 bosses that gives first timers the most headaches

[icetiger-]

Everyone talks about ceaseless like killing him “drains” the lava. It doesn’t drain! It cools and hardens. You can even see it in the animation. It doesn’t lower, it just darkens and hardens into walkable ground.

[ElysianAura]

To anyone confused on why the gargoyles are necessary with the Sen's Gate Skip, you can't wrong warp down to Gwyn if you haven't rung the bells or beaten the four kings. One of the two serpents will bring you down there, and if you do Sif+Four Kings, you end up killing 1 more boss than Gargoyles+Quelaag skip.

[cjw]

There is a way to skip asylum demon similar to the iron golem grab glitch. When you jump attack the asylum demon and trigger the plunging attack animation on it, there is a chance that your character flies out if bounds to the top of the asylum. you can roll off the roof and get behind the door to the crow.

[I_am_Luke]

The 3 Dislikes are from the 3 remaining Bosses

[thesuntitan]

The production value is off the charts, I'm so glad I found this channel

[Rosielx]

Amazing editing, professional level and you can even feel the love behind it.

Btw, no need to kill Ceaseless Discharge in casual playing, you can jump through the lava and reach secret passage to Bed Of Chaos without any sort of glitch. I did this by accident in my first run because Ceaseless was unbeatable for me back then.

[JackQNielsen]

In recent months you’ve quickly went from a favorite speed runner to a straight up favorite of mine. Thank you for the high quality viewing while I bide my time awaiting Elden Ring

[MrDivinity]

Since people are probably wondering the same thing: You cannot skip ringing the bells (thus the requirement of killing gargoyles), since frampt doesn't appear if you don't. Getting to kaathe requires killing at least the four kings and Sif.

[Arbalesto]

Your videos are on another level of detail and craftmanship. I always throughly enjoy them. Thank you, kind sir. Godspeed on all your runs.

[SamsarasArt]

Before watching, I'm going to guess there's thirteen bosses that are required provided you aren't using glitches to skip bosses. Also this requires either being a thief or having the master key. Here's my list of what I feel are mandatory boss fights:

1. Asylum demon
2. Bell gargoyle
3. Quelaag
4. Iron golem
5. Ornstein and Smough
6. Seath
7. Pinwheel
8. Nito
9. Sif
10. Four Kings
11. Ceaseless Discharge
12. Bed of Chaos
13. Gwyn

I'm pretty sure you can avoid the rest of the bosses.

Post watch edit: turns out i was right. At least regarding casual playthroughs. And it's pretty wild how many skips and methods of skipping exist. Speedrunners are a fascinating breed and the amount of creativity on display is insane. This video does a great job explaining all of it so even casual players like myself can comprehend what's going on and why. I thank you for that.

[gamesux]

I feel like a lot of casual playthroughs also fought moonlight butterfly its kinda easy to reach, once you get into darkroot garden you just go in a straight line until the tower and youre there, at least i instantly found my way to it on my first playthrough

[frozeneevee]

When it comes to dark souls I usually just watch videos on the lore but it was really interesting hearing about how the game works on a technical level.

[GMPranav]

Excellent video as always. Every video just keeps getting better than the previous!

[muyleche_]

I fought the gaping dragon once on my first playthrough and have yet to find my way back to him since

[cainemattison]

This could be some of the best editing I’ve ever had the pleasure of viewing.

[dragosudrea]

At first I was like "Is this guy really going to tell me that I have to kill bosses to progress in Dark souls?"

Then I was like "This is one of the best DS videos ever"

[connorn]

Editing was god tier dude love to see it