Look, let’s be real. If you’re trying to figure out the order of bosses in Dark Souls 2, you’re probably already a little bit annoyed. Unlike the first game, which had a relatively straightforward "go up then go down" vibe, or Dark Souls 3’s basically linear hallway, Drangleic is a total mess of branching paths. It’s a literal maze. You can walk out of Majula in three or four different directions right at the start, and if you pick the wrong one, you’re going to get flattened by a Heide Knight or a bunch of shirtless dudes with big sticks before you even know what hit you.
The "correct" path is a suggestion, not a rule. That’s the beauty of it. But if you want to actually finish the game without breaking your controller, there is a logical flow that the community—and the level design itself—tends to favor.
The Early Game Scramble: Forest or Tower?
Most people start with the Last Giant. He’s basically the tutorial boss, even though he's technically not in the tutorial area. You find him at the bottom of a massive elevator in the Forest of Fallen Giants. He’s slow, he’s grumpy, and he literally rips his own arm off to hit you with it. It’s classic Souls. Once he’s down, you usually pivot to the Pursuer. Now, the Pursuer is the first real "skill check." He floats. He’s fast. He punishes you for healing. Honestly, if you can beat the Pursuer, you can beat the rest of the game.
But here’s where the order of bosses in Dark Souls 2 gets wonky. You don't have to go there first. You could head to Heide’s Tower of Flame and fight the Dragonrider. He’s a joke. You can actually trick him into walking off the ledge if you’re feeling lazy. If you go that way, you’ll eventually hit the Old Slayer—who looks suspiciously like Ornstein from the first game—and the Flexile Sentry on a boat.
Wait, a boat? Yeah. The Flexile Sentry is in No-Man’s Wharf, which is a dark, miserable cave filled with things that hate light. It's a detour, but it leads to the Lost Bastille from a different angle. This is the first major "hub" boss area where multiple paths converge.
The Great Soul Hunt
To open the gates to Drangleic Castle, you need the four Great Souls. Or a million Soul Memory, but let's assume you're playing the way the developers intended. The order here is basically "pick a direction and pray."
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- The Lost Sinner: She’s at the bottom of Sinner’s Rise. Bring a torch. If you don't light the oil tracks outside her room, the fight is a nightmare because you can't lock on. She’s fast, she’s aggressive, and she’s one of the few bosses that feels like a genuine duel.
- The Rotten: Located in the Black Gulch. To get there, you have to drop down the big hole in Majula. Buy the Silvercat Ring or you’re dead. The Rotten is a giant mass of corpses. It’s gross. The fight is mostly about avoiding fire pits and not getting grabbed.
- Old Iron King: You’ll find him at the end of Iron Keep. This area is the bane of most players' existence because of the Alonne Knights. The boss itself is a giant lava demon. Pro tip: the hardest part of this fight isn't the boss; it's the tiny hole in the floor that you’ll inevitably fall into.
- Duke’s Dear Freja: A giant two-headed spider. You get here through Brightstone Cove Tseldora. It’s a long trek involving a lot of spiders and some weird wizards.
Mid-Game: The Long Road to the Castle
Once you’ve got those four souls, the order of bosses in Dark Souls 2 tightens up. The game stops being an open world and starts being a gauntlet. You head to the Shrine of Winter, open the door, and trek through the rain to Drangleic Castle.
First up: Twin Dragonriders. It’s exactly what it sounds like. One has a bow, one has a halberd. It’s a bit of a recycled fight, but it’s a warm-up. Then you hit Looking Glass Knight. This is one of the coolest fights in the series. He summons actual players (or NPCs) through his shield to help him. Fighting him in a thunderstorm feels incredibly epic.
After the castle, things get weird. You go down into the Shrine of Amana. Everyone hates Amana. It’s a beautiful water-filled cavern full of homing soul arrows that will hit you from three miles away. At the end is the Demon of Song—the "Semon of Dong" as the community calls it. It’s a frog with a face inside its mouth. Creepy, but not particularly hard.
Then comes Velstadt in the Undead Crypt. He’s a gold-armored tank with a giant bell hammer. Beating him gets you the King’s Ring, which is the "key" to the final act of the game.
The Final Stretch and the Dragon Problem
With the King's Ring, you can access Aldia’s Keep. This leads to the Guardian Dragon and eventually the Dragon Shrine. Now, here is a major point of contention regarding the order of bosses in Dark Souls 2: the Ancient Dragon.
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You don't have to kill the Ancient Dragon. In fact, most people shouldn't. He has a massive health pool and can one-shot almost anyone with his fire breath. But he gives you the Ashen Mist Heart, which lets you enter the "Memories" of the giants. This is mandatory. You go back to the Forest of Fallen Giants, enter the memory of a dead giant, and fight the Giant Lord.
The Giant Lord is basically a repeat of the Last Giant, but he’s in his prime. He’s easy to dodge—just stay behind his heels. Once he’s dead, you have everything you need for the final confrontation.
The Throne and the Queen
You head back to Drangleic Castle, to the Throne of Want. You’ll fight the Throne Watcher and Throne Defender. They’re a classic duo fight—one fast, one heavy. You have to kill them at almost the same time, or the survivor will revive the fallen one.
Immediately after (usually), Nashandra appears. She’s the final boss of the base game. She uses curse clouds and a big scythe. Honestly? She’s a bit of a letdown compared to some of the earlier fights. But if you’ve met Aldia, Scholar of the First Sin, throughout your journey and cleared certain requirements, he’ll appear as the true final boss after Nashandra.
What About the DLC?
If you have the Scholar of the First Sin edition or the DLC packs, the order of bosses in Dark Souls 2 expands massively. You should generally do these after the main game, because they are significantly harder than anything in the base Drangleic.
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- Crown of the Sunken King: Shulva is a pyramid-themed nightmare. Elana and Sinh are the big hitters here. Sinh is a proper dragon fight that actually feels good.
- Crown of the Old Iron King: Brume Tower. This houses Fume Knight (Raime) and Sir Alonne. These are arguably the two best boss fights in the entire game. Fume Knight is famous for having the highest "player kill" rate of any boss in the game.
- Crown of the Ivory King: Eleum Loyce. It’s a frozen wasteland. You end it with the Burnt Ivory King, which starts with a massive "war" between your recruited knights and his charred ones. It's pure spectacle.
The Secret to Not Losing Your Mind
If you're struggling, remember that Dark Souls 2 allows for massive amounts of sequence breaking. You can use Fragile Branches of Yore to unpetrify statues and skip entire sections. You can farm the Rotten over and over using Bonfire Ascetics to get the 1,000,000 souls needed to skip the four Great Soul bosses entirely.
But for a first-timer? Follow the path of least resistance.
Go Forest -> Heide -> Bastille -> Sinner.
Then go Gutter -> Black Gulch -> Rotten.
Then Huntsman’s Copse -> Iron Keep -> Iron King.
Finally, Shaded Woods -> Tseldora -> Freja.
This gives you a smooth difficulty curve. It lets you level up your Agility (ADP)—which you need to do if you want your rolls to actually work—and it ensures you don't walk into a late-game area with a +2 weapon.
The order of bosses in Dark Souls 2 is as much about your own comfort level as it is about the "intended" path. Don't be afraid to back out of an area if it feels too hard. There’s almost always another way to go.
If you're looking for your next move, go check your Soul Memory. If you're over 1 million, head straight to the Shrine of Winter in the Shaded Woods. If not, pick one of the four Great Soul paths you haven't finished yet—most likely Brightstone Cove Tseldora or the Black Gulch—and get to work. The Throne isn't going to claim itself.