The 10 Toughest Soulslike Games in 2025, Ranked Easiest To Hardest

With the Soulslike genre gaining popularity, developers have found new ways to induce rage from players. Back in the day, the Dark Souls series was infamous for its difficulty. However, the Soulslikes of today have bumped that difficulty up tenfold.

Right now, when you look at the hardest Soulslikes, you’ll find the list full of games not made by FromSoftware. Over the years, many new formidable developers have joined the genre and created unforgiving games. So, it’s the perfect time to find out which stands at the summit of difficulty. From Lies of P to Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, here are the toughest Soulslikes, ranked easiest to hardest.

Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon

Looking at the mechas, you might get the impression Armored Core VI is an action game, but it’s not. Every mission has meticulous enemy placement, and everything from the smallest robot to the biggest arachno-mech can turn your lights off. Enemies are stronger than you, and you can’t overpower them. As a result, you’ll always have to outwit them by dodging and delicately choosing opportunities to counter-attack.

However, Armored Core VI does provide some relief in its customization system. If you’re having trouble with an enemy, change your build. Install lasers instead of rocket launchers on your mecha, and Nine times out of ten, this will get the job done. Having said that, the mecha-centered gameplay will prove tricky for Soulslike veterans used to traditional RPG systems such as those in Elden Ring. But once you figure out the feedback loop, Armored Core VI becomes less difficult and more addictive.

Bloodborne

One thing that makes Bloodborne one of the toughest Soulslikes is its unpredictability. You’re walking down the stairs, and the next thing you know, you are dead because a guy from 200 meters away is shooting at you with a machine gun. Bloodborne also wants you to parry incoming attacks more than it wants you to block them with a shield. While you can profit massively off a parry, you’ll likely miss most of the time and receive massive damage instead.

Dodging remains the primary defensive option, so players used to blocking will find Bloodborne challenging. But once you master evading attacks, Bloodborne becomes a walk in the park. Bosses don’t have giant health pools, and enemy pattern recognition will become easier. You’ll eventually blast through the latter areas, and while Bloodborne is hard, there are more demanding Soulslikes out there.

Dark Souls 3

There can’t be a list of the toughest Soulslikes without mentioning a Dark Souls game. In this case, it happens to be the third installment. In terms of difficulty, Dark Souls 3 is comparable to the previous entries in this list. However, the boss fights are where it gains an edge over its predecessors. Specifically, one that stands out is the Nameless King, where you fight a dragon in the first phase and a giant tank of a man in the second. That’s just one example of the weird variety of enemies Dark Souls 3 throws at you.

Dark Souls 3 is, for sure, a tough game. Newcomers to the genre will find it more than challenging. However, Dark Souls 3 isn’t the peak of difficulty anymore. The genre has advanced so much since 2016, and there’s no doubt in saying that developers today have found insane new ways of making players rage. 

Nine Sols

In Nine Sols, you always need to have your thumb on the parry button. Enemies can chain combo attacks on you, leading to certain death situations. And just when you think you’re out of the woods, the giant hitboxes of the enemy attacks will reach you from afar.

Then you look at the bosses and they are doing all sorts of things. Teleporting, grabbing, and delaying their attack animations to fool you — it’s a literal bloodbath in Nine Sols. The AI is brutal, almost to the point that it’s hard for the sake of being hard. Every enemy is a skill check, and if you aren’t ready to master the mechanics, it’s best to avoid Nine Sols because it will put you in stressful situations.

Lies of P

Despite the steampunk setting in Lies of P, it’s comparable to Bloodborne in terms of aesthetics. However, where they differ is that most players will find Lies of P more difficult. Lies of P is fast-paced so you have to be quick with counter-attacking. Tons of special abilities like electricity and slash attacks are available, but they have long animations. For the not-so-hardcore players, these will prove difficult to perform.

Major upgrades remain locked behind boss fights. On top of that, leveling up also doesn’t make a big difference, so grinding isn’t an efficient option. Given how Lies of P limits your choices and makes learning the only path forward, it’s closer to the tougher side of the Soulslike genre.

The First Berserker: Khazan

Unlike some Souls games that have an easy way out, you just can’t cheese your way through The First Berserker: Khazan. For example, Elden Ring has overpowered weapons littered everywhere. Bosses like Malenia are insane if you fight them head-on, but you’ll always have ways to cheese them. That said, you’ll find no broken weapons in The First Berserker, and that’s why it’s ranked higher in this list.

Another reason why The First Berserker is so hard is because of stamina management. Khazan’s stamina drains so quickly that you can only attack three to four times before having to retreat. On top of that, blocking and dodging also consume so much stamina that you can’t figure out when to attack and when to defend. The punishment windows are tight, and timing is crucial. It also doesn’t matter how many upgrades you make, they won’t change a thing unless you learn the boss’ move set.

Nioh 2

In Nioh 2, you always need to be wary of your surroundings. All enemies have at least one grab attack that can insta-kill you. These enemies are usually hidden behind boxes or in a corner. If you are too hasty, you’ll never see them coming. Once you reach the end of a level in Nioh 2’s mission-based design, there will be a tough boss waiting for you. This is where things get complex.

Bosses have different sets of weaknesses, like Fire, Water, and Earth. Your build has to be based around this fact otherwise, you’ll be underhanded. There are segments where you’ll blast through quickly. Then, without fail, you’ll come across a boss that will take you upwards of two hours to beat. Nioh 2 is a very difficult Soulslike, but because the combat is so satisfying, playing feels like fun rather than punishment.

Hollow Knight

Hollow Knight’s combat loop involves attacking, dashing, and quickly platforming. All the usual things you’d expect from a platformer. The mechanics are simple but tricky to time. Once you learn them, though, Hollow Knight becomes fair, at least for the duration of the base game. It’s actually when you start playing the DLC that you realize how insane the difficulty spike is.

Specifically, we’re talking about the “Godmaster” DLC here. This DLC adds a series of boss gauntlets. You face both old and new bosses in sequence, but the leg pull here is that there are no checkpoints, so dying means restarting the entire thing from scratch. That gets more frustrating after you’ve just beaten two bosses that were ten minutes long each. With the DLC included, Hollow Knight is simply a nightmare. So much so that it wouldn’t be wrong to say this is the hardest 2D Soulslike ever made.

Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice

Parrying is your bread and butter in Sekiro. Parrying increases an enemy’s stagger. Once enemy “Posture” breaks because you repeatedly attack them, you can perform an insta-kill. But the Posture meter goes down extremely quickly, too. If you miss a parry or just don’t attack for a second, that bar will drop to zero. Then, you’ll have to repeat the entire process. 

Besides managing Posture, the protagonist’s health is low. Where you have to hit enemies a hundred times, it only takes three hits for you to die. Sekiro is ruthless in that regard. Put the hundreds of enemy attack patterns on top, and you get a game where you can’t cut any corners. Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice is a story of trial and error. If you are capable of learning from your mistakes, you’ll eventually win. If not, you won’t see the credits any time soon. In either case, it’s a hellish experience.

Elden Ring

If you summon NPCs, play in co-op, apply buffs, and use spells, Elden Ring becomes a walk in the park. However, if you rely on your skills alone, then it’s a different story. Ninety percent of mobs and bosses won’t give you trouble, but it’s those remaining ten percent that will annihilate you. Funnily enough, even that ten percent adds up to around 40 bosses.

Elden Ring‘s Malenia restores a chunk of her health each time she hits you. The Consort Radhan boss has broken afterimage attacks that are impossible to dodge. Basically, each boss has a broken mechanic hidden up their sleeve. Elden Ring is lenient in that there are ways to cheese every boss. But when it comes to skill-for-skill fighting, it is undoubtedly the toughest Soulslike of all time by a long shot.