FromSoftware’s Soulslike games are popular for a number of things, but the most prominent way they stand out is through their bosses. They create some very unique boss fights; some are insanely hard, while others are utterly glorious to gawk at. And to add to all their charm, pretty much every boss fight has an insanely well-organized soundtrack. Without a doubt, Elden Ring has all these bells and whistles.
When it comes to bosses, Elden Ring has over 200 of them; from small mini-bosses to mammoth fire giants, there’s a lot to fight and defeat. And most of them are quite hard to get through—so hard, in fact, that players sometimes have to take the help of others to get through them. But there’s one enemy in this game that’s even harder than some of the bosses.
Castle Sol of Elden Ring holds one of the hardest enemies in the whole game
When one starts playing Elden Ring, they have not even heard of Castle Sol. This is a place that sits miles away from where players start their game. To reach this castle, players have to defeat numerous bosses, and they have to find a way to reach the Mountaintops of the Giants.
Once there, they would no doubt feel refreshed. In an area completely covered by snow, they would be greeted by a bunch of golems. There would even be a large dragon somewhere—a dragon that causes ice storms. When players are done fighting or fleeing these relentless enemies, they will reach Castle Sol.
Now that this castle has significance in the story too, players definitely need to be here if they want to reach Miquella’s Haligtree. But getting through this castle is not so easy. In fact, this castle might be one of the hardest areas in the game.
From the moment players step into it, they will have to face some tough challenges. First, they would see two Guardian Lions waiting for them, and, you know, their breath does frostbite damage. Killing them can be tricky, but cheesing them is not hard. But once players reach the second grace,, the real challenge begins.
As they dealt with those flying hawks throwing literal grenades at them, they would see a bunch of spectral knights. And the hardest of them is that large, spectral banished knight. They come at you with a bunch of weapon combinations: swords with shields, dual swords, and much more.
Now their weapons are not the issue, to be fair. The issue is that they hit very hard, and it’s pretty hard to break their stance. Before players broke the stance of these knights, they would have sliced through most of the player’s health bar. And if one thinks they can run and get a brief respite to heal, well, these knights would simply teleport to the player and attack. Many players have testified, that the spectral Banished knight is a challenge on a whole another level. One fan even compared it to all of the bosses in the game by saying “This one enemy is harder than a lot of the bosses.”
The only effective way to defeat them is to parry. Grab a shield that can parry and just parry their every attack; otherwise, these spectral banished knights are sure to make your life a living hell.
FromSoftware loves scaring players with such hard enemies
Besides designing scary-looking hard bosses, FromSoftware is in love with designing some tricky ones to defeat smaller enemies. They have done this a number of times before; take the black and silver knights in Dark Souls 1 as an example. Once again, tank-light enemies are easy to parry.
They did a similar thing in Dark Souls 3 too. And there’s no doubt going to be a similar kind of enemy in Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree. An enemy that players would mistake for a typical run-of-the-mill kill but end up getting crushed.
