I’ve played every game From Software has released since 2009. And every other game inspired by those releases. It’s known as the Soulslike genre, Soulsborne if you’re nasty, but when it comes to the works of director Hidetaka Miyazaki, only a mad man like him (and his team of creature designers and artists) can invent such annoying fucking enemies I love to kill and hate to see. Especially in poison swamps.
So I’m going to give out some medals to the 3rd most, 2nd most, and the most annoying enemies to face in each From Soft game. And at the end, three medals for enemies that show up in multiple games, which is sort of the worst of the worst. Hell, this list is so competitive that the shark enemies from “Bloodborne” didn’t even make the list!
‘Demon’s Souls’ (2009)
Bronze Medal: Poisonous Giant Mosquitoes
Any area where these things are flying around and poisoning you is NOT going to be a fun place.
Silver Medal: Flipping Skeletons
Oh hey, 4-1 seems like a cool new place to enter! Surely there won’t be… (*skeleton warrior does eight backflips and slices you in half*)
Yeah these guys suck, and I hate how cool they are because they’re fast.
Gold Medal: Mindflayers
As if I had any other choice to make. This Cthulhu-wannabe is the bane of your existence if you choose to play “Demon’s Souls.” You get grabbed, your life gets sucked away bit by bit, and they’re tricky little bastards to deal with. The cramped corridors of the prison don’t help either. These games love enclosed jail cells, as we’ll find out later (“Dark Souls 3” takes this concept up a notch).
‘Dark Souls’ (2011)
Bronze Medal: Anor Londo Archers
There’s one in particular that is notorious for giving people a hard time, but really any silver knight with a big ass bow is out to get you. Hit scan… bam! Across the map and in the face for a headshot. Lethal accuracy, terrible placement for ultimate trolling, and of course they always have back-up around the corner.
Anor Londo is a real litmus test for players trying to conquer these games… and then they hit you with the hardest non-DLC boss right after you make your way through the entire level.
Silver Medal: Blow Dart Snipers
What is it with this game and ranged enemies willing to ruin your day and/or life? As if Blighttown isn’t already one of the worst places imaginable, these poison blow dart motherfuckers make the giant mosquitoes look tame in comparison. What a miserable level to suffer through.
Gold Medal: Bonewheel Skeletons
If you thought skeletons flipping around with curved swords was bad enough, Miyazaki personally put his thumb on the scale and doubled down on his cruelty.
They gave the skeletons wheels, made them FASTER, deadlier, and filled underground caves with them. Try getting to Gravelord Nito you doofus! You can’t because six of these guys are running your corpse over and over again.
These things can go straight to hell where they clearly came from. This clip shows them chasing you down, stun locking you, and draining life bars in a split second. Multi-hitting assholes.
‘Dark Souls II’ (2014)
Bronze Medal: Manikins
A frequent pick for the most hated enemy in “DS2” because of the bleed buildup. And the poison knives. And the fast hitting staggers. And the traveling in pairs. Earthen Peak sucks.
Silver Medal: Poison Statue Clusters
Black Gulch is that one area we all cannot stand. Dark, only the green glow of statues that spit acid at you. A place where you are guaranteed to get poisoned and then have to fight The Rotten. Just run away from them? Fight them and knock over every turret statue? Just book it for the one bonfire? It doesn’t matter — you can’t make this level go any faster and not feel its pain.
Gold Medal: Frozen Reindeers
This is the one enemy on this entire list that I personally have not defeated. I just refuse to even bother with this DLC. It seems downright insufferable and insane to attempt. Like, why put yourself through this? You can’t see, you have to fight these things, it just seems like a waste of money and time, honestly.
‘Bloodborne’ (2015)
Bronze Medal: Parasite Larva aka Maggots
Small, fast things in these games are always a deadly mix of annoying and constant. The ever present and ever persistent maggot will always nip at your ankles, and whenever you have to fight them, it seems like it’s the wrong weapon every time. They come in packs, jump up and do way more damage than is necessary, and I hate those god damn worms.
Silver Medal: Brainsuckers
It seems as though enemies who can grab you, and have i-frames through your hits, really piss people off. I wonder why being outright unfair and taking forever to deal with if you mess up slightly is so upsetting to players?
Gold Medal: Winter Lanterns
I legit cannot think of a worse enemy to put at the end of this game. Your skills, especially your practice parrying, are useless. These things just stand around, instantly build up frenzy on you, and have way too much health. A hazard warning that Miyazaki and co. intentionally place in the worst spots. Just to spite us! I hate these fucking things so much, you reading this have no idea the amount of blood echoes I’ve lost doing runbacks past these shitbags.
‘Dark Souls III’ (2016)
Bronze Medal: Demon Cleric
I had a lot of possible candidates for this bronze medal, like the rock lizards who roll up on your face, but the internet is really angry at the demon clerics. As such, I’ll opt to let the community declare why these shitheels made the list.
Silver Medal: Thralls
Again, small, fast, and aggressive enemies who interrupt and often overwhelm in large numbers do not lend themselves to great player experiences. This trend will not stop here, as “Elden Ring” would upgrade the thralls to imps, and shove those little shits into every dungeon.
Gold Medal: Jailers
These jailers do not just drain your health like their “Demon’s Souls” brethren. They reduce your TOTAL health bar, and then poke you with a hot stick. Being branded with no health bar is demeaning, humiliating, and psychotic. There’s no room to really get a backstab, and the moment they see you, the clock is ticking to kill each and every one of them. By far the worst enemy in this game — bar none.
‘Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice’ (2019)
Bronze Medal: Roosters
I couldn’t really come up with a great top three for “Sekiro,” so I will leave the comments below for better suggestions. And for possible cock jokes.
Silver Medal: Infested Monks
Resurrecting enemies are bad, but ones that require a late game upgrade to your sword and still are hard to kill really cement these teases as one of the dumbest encounters in the game. It’s one thing to have an enemy not have a sword to battle and deflect. It’s another for that gross ass centipede to get ya.
Gold Medal: Gun Fort Snipers
These guys are the Anor Londo archers on steroids. Laser beams are coming out of those sniper rifles, and, of course, you’re crossing rickety bridges over endless chasms. Hope you like your corpse being at the bottom of a bottomless pit! Pew, pew! You’re dead.
‘Elden Ring’ (2022)
Bronze Medal: Kindred of Rot
I think the DLC puts them over the edge for 3rd place — over many, MANY other options. But the mix of ranged and close quarters attacks combined with the fact that I just don’t like looking at them means they place in the top-three most annoying “Elden Ring” enemies to deal with.
Silver Medal: Imps
Everything I said about the thralls in “DS3…” Just triple it. Imps with spears, imps with forked hatchets, imps tossing fire, imps with bows, so on and so forth. Forever.
Gold Medal: Revenants
“Oh, but you can just hurt them with healing,” I hear you saying. But nobody runs a holy incantation build — get real. These are too big, too damaging, too fast, and too creepy. Look at these fuckers, ganging up on this poor YouTuber. That’s us every time we play this game! Whenever they show up, just turn around. It’s not worth the hassle.
‘Elden Ring: Nightreign’ (2025)
Gold Medal: Pot Throwing Trolls
Not a lot of different types of enemies in this game compared to its source material. But since a large majority of the time you’re just going from boss to boss, the only enemies that really get in the way of that are the absolute pricks launching explosive pots at you in the main castle. Yeeting blue fire is NOT cool, bro, so cut it out! Also, aren’t trolls supposed to be small — not as big as skyscrapers?
Overall Winners From Various Games
Bronze Medal: Any and All Seafood
Does not matter the size. Big or small. I’m talking about those giant enemy crabs, spitting lobsters, huge crayfish, evil prawns, and I’m sure in the next game, “The Duskbloods,” it’s going to be killer shrimp. Fuck all of these delicious creatures and their shells who protect their yummy meat.
Silver Medal: Basiliks
Do you hate being cursed? Blighted? Or having a meter fill that automatically kills you? Then avoid these frog things at all costs because they just hop around and spray toxic fumes into the air. That cloud will piss you off more than any amount of souls lost, and I hate their fake eyes. Like an orca. I don’t like looking at them, and I don’t like being around them.
Gold Medal: Dogs. Literally Any Dogs.
All dogs in From Soft games need to be patched out. Use mods to get rid of them. Big dogs, tiny dogs, fast dogs, slow dogs, boss dogs, any and all dogs. Get rid of them. The worst, in every game. They attack too fast, run around, travel in packs, and are just the most frustrating and annoying enemies to deal with in any video game.
Fuck you, Miyazaki and your love of dogs. They’re literally in every game! All the same, equally bad.
Image Credit: “Bloodborne,” From Software and Sony
Video Game Town 
Leave a Reply