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Elden Ring throws well over 200 boss-tier encounters at you across the Lands Between, but the number you actually have to beat to reach an ending is small. Independent boss trackers and wiki counts land in a tight range: only 13 of the base game’s 238 bosses are actually necessary to beat the game, while the rest are optional. Some older breakdowns round that to twelve depending on whether they count a boss fought twice as one entry or two, but the gap between “required” and “everything else” is the real story. FromSoftware, developed and published by Bandai Namco, never tells you this directly — the giant health bar looks the same whether the fight is mandatory or a detour, which is exactly why the required list gets inflated in most guides.
TL;DR
- Roughly 12 to 13 bosses are truly mandatory to finish the base game — everyone else, including some of the most famous names, is optional.
- Radahn and Rykard are alternate shardbearer routes, not extra requirements — you only need two of the shardbearers, not all of them.
- The regional order is flexible by design, which is the exact reason strict linear walkthroughs go stale after a patch or a build change.
- Most infamous “walls” (Margit, Radahn, Fire Giant) are gear or exploration problems, not pure skill checks.
- Shadow of the Erdtree runs on Scadutree Blessings, not character level, so base-game leveling logic does not carry over.
| Boss Category | Examples | Do You Have to Fight It? |
|---|---|---|
| Shardbearer, required path | Godrick, Rennala, Morgott | Yes, if you take the default two-Great-Rune route into the capital |
| Shardbearer, optional alternative | Radahn, Rykard | No — you need to defeat two shardbearers to enter Leyndell, and beating Radahn and Praetor Rykard is also an option |
| Field / legacy dungeon bosses | Most catacomb, cave and hero-grave bosses | No, purely for runes and items |
| Remembrance bosses | Malenia, Mohg, Godskin Duo | No, unless the specific weapon or ability tied to them is what you want |
| Final gauntlet bosses | Maliketh, Godfrey/Hoarah Loux, Radagon, Elden Beast | Yes, no way around any of these |
Elden Ring Boss Order by Region
The route most players follow starts in Limgrave, pushes into Stormveil Castle, then Liurnia and Raya Lucaria, before the two-Great-Rune checkpoint opens Leyndell. From there it’s the Mountaintops of the Giants, Crumbling Farum Azula, and the endgame throne room. That’s the backbone, but it is not a fixed corridor — Elden Ring is built as an open world, and you only need to acquire two Great Runes to access the Altus Plateau, then defeat the Great Runebearer in Leyndell to unlock the doorway to the Erdtree, before traveling to Crumbling Farum Azula and returning to Leyndell to fight the final bosses. Everything between those checkpoints — Caelid, Nokstella, Mt. Gelmir, the whole of the optional legacy dungeons — is filler you choose to add, not filler the game demands.
That flexibility is exactly what breaks linear, numbered walkthroughs. A guide written around “kill Radahn before Mountaintops” assumes you picked the Radahn path over Rykard, or that you’re strong enough to fight him at all — rune farming and gear checks matter more here than step order. The table below is the honest mandatory list plus the handful of optional names every guide mentions, so you can see which is which at a glance.
Note
Radagon and the Elden Beast are fought back-to-back with no bonfire in between, so treat that pair as one long fight when you plan flasks and buffs.
| Boss | Required? | When to Go | What It Gives |
|---|---|---|---|
| Margit, the Fell Omen | Yes | Stormveil Castle approach, early Limgrave | Access to Stormveil, Margit's shackle drop |
| Godrick the Grafted | Yes | End of Stormveil Castle | Great Rune of Godrick, Site of Grace |
| Red Wolf of Radagon | Yes | Inside Raya Lucaria Academy | Gateway to Rennala |
| Rennala, Queen of the Full Moon | Yes | Top of Raya Lucaria Academy | Great Rune of Rennala, full respec access |
| Radahn, Starscourge | No — alternate path | Caelid, only if skipping Rykard | Great Rune, Radahn's Remembrance |
| Rykard, Lord of Blasphemy | No — alternate path | Volcano Manor, only if skipping Radahn | Great Rune, Rykard's Remembrance |
| Godfrey, First Elden Lord (Golden Shade) | Yes | Leyndell Royal Capital, Altus Plateau | Progress toward Morgott |
| Morgott, the Omen King | Yes | Leyndell Royal Capital throne room | Opens the path to the Mountaintops |
| Malenia, Blade of Miquella | No | Miquella's Haligtree, entirely optional | Remembrance, unique katana line |
| Mohg, Lord of Blood | No in base game | Consecrated Snowfield or Leyndell sewers | Required only if you want to enter Shadow of the Erdtree |
| Fire Giant | Yes | Mountaintops of the Giants | Lights the Forge of the Giants |
| Maliketh, the Black Blade | Yes | Crumbling Farum Azula | Rune of Death, opens Ashen Capital |
| Hoarah Loux, Warrior (Godfrey second phase) | Yes | Leyndell, Ashen Capital | Progress to Radagon |
| Radagon of the Golden Order | Yes | Elden Throne, no return trip possible mid-fight | Leads directly into the Elden Beast |
| Elden Beast | Yes | Elden Throne, immediately after Radagon | Ending cutscene, game completion |
Step-by-Step: Elden Ring Progression Route
Follow this sequence to get it done fast.
-
1
Clear Stormveil Castle
beat Margit if you meet him, then Godrick, to get your first Great Rune and open the wider map.
-
2
Push through Liurnia to Raya Lucaria
take down the Red Wolf and Rennala for a second Great Rune and a free full respec.
-
3
Pick one shardbearer detour, not both
Radahn or Rykard gets you the two Great Runes needed for Leyndell; the other can be skipped entirely.
-
4
Fight through Leyndell Royal Capital
Godfrey and Morgott gate the road to the Mountaintops of the Giants.
-
5
Clear the Mountaintops and Crumbling Farum Azula
Fire Giant and Maliketh open the Ashen Capital and the endgame.
-
6
Finish the throne room gauntlet
Hoarah Loux, Radagon, and the Elden Beast in one continuous run to the credits.
Where Players Get Stuck: Elden Ring Dead Ends
Three spots account for most of the “I’m stuck” posts, and in nearly every case the actual problem isn’t reflexes.
Tip
Before any of these three, back off and spend a session on rune farming for a weapon upgrade or two rather than pure character levels — past the early soft caps, a stronger weapon or the right talisman usually closes the gap faster than raw levels do.
| Dead End | What Players Blame | What's Usually Actually Wrong |
|---|---|---|
| Margit, the Fell Omen | "I'm bad at the game" | Too few flasks, no Spirit Ashes summoned, or arriving without exploring nearby Limgrave caves for gear |
| Radahn's arena | "This boss is unfair" | Fighting him at a level meant for a mid-game open-world boss instead of finishing Caelid and Liurnia first |
| Fire Giant gauntlet | "The second phase one-shots me" | Not using Torrent's mobility fully, missing the climbable leg mechanic, or skipping the Mountaintops for extra levels and talismans |
Shadow of the Erdtree Boss Order and Scadutree Blessings
Shadow of the Erdtree is not something you can walk into whenever you feel like it. Players already need to have killed Radahn and Mohg just to enter the Realm of Shadow where the DLC takes place. That access requirement alone explains why Mohg — optional in the base game story — effectively becomes mandatory for anyone planning to play the expansion.
Once inside, the entire logic of “out-level the area” stops working. Shadow of the Erdtree introduces an entirely new progression system separate from the base game’s Rune Levels, built around gathering Scadutree Fragments and Revered Spirit Ash scattered around the Land of Shadow. Character level and stats still matter for damage and equip load, but the DLC’s own difficulty curve is tuned around how many Fragments you’ve spent, not what number is under your HP bar.
The maximum level for the Scadutree Blessing is 20, achieved by consuming every Scadutree Fragment, meaning players deal 80% more damage and take 40% less damage than they would at the start of the DLC. The catch is that a fixed regional order stops mattering as much as it does in the base game — Fragments are scattered off the beaten path, often near mini-boss encampments, so the “correct” order in the Land of Shadow is really whatever route lets you sweep the most Fragments before you hit the next required boss, not a memorized boss list.
Required Fights to Reach Shadow of the Erdtree
Killing Mohg and Radahn in the base game is the actual gatekeeper here — no amount of DLC exploration opens the door without both.
Required Bosses Inside the DLC
Estimates on how many DLC bosses are truly mandatory for progression vary by tracker, but Shadow of the Erdtree adds over 40 named bosses, with roughly 11 main bosses required for progression — treat that as a working number rather than gospel, since counting conventions differ between sources.
Common Misconceptions About Elden Ring Boss Order
Myth: You Need to Kill Every Shardbearer
You don’t. The game only checks that you’re holding two Great Runes before it lets you into Leyndell proper — beating both Radahn and Rykard is extra effort for extra loot, not a requirement.
Myth: Malenia Is Mandatory
She’s one of the most talked-about fights in the game precisely because she’s optional. Nothing in the main story path forces a trip to the Haligtree; you go there for the Remembrance and the challenge, not because the game demands it.
Myth: There’s One Correct Route
Because Great Runes, the shardbearer choice, and Fragment placement in the DLC are all flexible, any “definitive” numbered order is really just one person’s preferred path. Your actual constraint is gear and damage output, not a checklist.
Our Take: Is There One Correct Boss Order?
Our Take
No single order is “correct” — the game is built around checkpoints, not a script.
The honest answer to “what’s the right boss order” is that Elden Ring only cares about a handful of checkpoints: two Great Runes, two shardbearers in the endgame gauntlet, and enough Fragments in the DLC to survive it. Everything else is a route you build for your own build and patience, and treating a stranger’s numbered list as gospel is how people end up stuck on optional fights they never needed to take.