The enemies and bosses found within the lands covered in the Deep Fog. Head back through here for other character pages. Unmarked spoilers ahead.
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Boletarian Palace Enemies
Dreglings
Soul-starved slaves who were meatshields in life, they are poorly equipped with only a broken sword and a "shield" made of wood shavings. They mindlessly attack men for their souls.
- Flaming Sword: Some of them wield broken swords covered in fiery Turpentine. They are often placed near explosive barrels.
- The Goomba: The weakest sort of cannon fodder in the accursed land of Boletaria, and can be easily parried, backstabbed or otherwise killed. Even so, they're not entirely helpless: they have a nasty tendency to gang up on you and are partial to launching deadly ambushes as well.
- With This Herring: They were expected to go into battle and die, so they were equipped with armor made of bits of wood, along with a makeshift shield and a sword so rusted and broken that its cutting edge has long been gone.
Boletaria Soldiers
The soldiers of Boletaria who loyally served King Allant XII, they continue to serve him devoid of souls. The most basic variant wields a sword and shield, but there are others using different weapons as well.
- Kill It with Fire: Every variant except for the crossbow users are capable of throwing Firebombs.
- Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me: Sans the crossbow wielders, all of them wield a rather sturdy Soldier's Shield.
Hoplites
The demonic reincarnation of Long Bow Oolan's soldiers, who serve her demon form Phalanx as they did in life by shielding her with their bodies.
- Blob Monster: Featureless purple-black blobs with a greatshield for a "face".
- Bottomless Magazines: No matter how many javelins they throw, they always have more.
- Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me: They are nigh-invulnerable from the front, necessitating back-attacks.
- Piñata Enemy: They are prone to dropping shards of Hardstone and Sharpstone for upgrading. Quite handy early game when said items are hard to come by if one is willing to do some grinding.
- Undying Loyalty: Even as demons, they serve Long Bow Oolan faithfully.
- Weak to Fire: They are extremely weak to fire. Even an unupgraded weapon, if imbued with fire, can kill them in a few hits.
Blue-Eye Knights
Demonic Knights who serve King Allant XII. Wearing full black platemail with glowing eyes, they are intimidating to new players.
- BFS: There is a variant that foregoes its shield for an enormous claymore. Their standard Knight's Sword isn't very small either.
- Heal Thyself: If low on health and left alone, they will often retreat to munch some grass and regain health.
- Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me: Unless they're attacking, they're almost always turtling behind their quite sturdy Knight's Shield.
- Power Glows: Their eyes glow blue, and their swords will also gain a blue aura when they do their heavier attacks.
- Shield Bash: One of their main attacks. Doesn't do much damage but ruins your stamina if it connects with your shield, setting you up for another attack.
Red-Eye Knights
Elite demonic knights who serve King Allant XII. They wear the same full black platemail as the blue-eye knights, but are rarer and have red eyes.
- Achilles' Heel: They are very weak to magic.
- Beef Gate: There is one placed in the very first level, guarding a gate that won't even be openable until much later in the game.
- BFS: The second variant two-hands an enormous Greatsword.
- Boss in Mook Clothing: Early on at least. They are more than capable of one or two-shotting a new character.
- Heal Thyself: Like their blue-eyed cousins, they can heal themselves by eating grass.
- Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me: Also like their blue-eyed cohorts, the spear-wielders carry a sturdy Knight's Shield.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: They look intimidating for a reason.
Attack Dogs
Soul-starved dogs employed by Boletaria's troops as a type of footsoldier. They are fast and aggressive.
- Attack! Attack! Attack!: Their modus operandi. They don't really ever stop attacking.
- Goddamned Bats: Not very strong individually, but they show up in numbers.
- Zerg Rush: You will never encounter an attack dog alone unless you're playing extremely carefully or have the Thief's Ring on.
Fat Officials
The demonic remnants of Boletaria's royalty, they order around the soldiers and knights and wear distinctive garb.
- Bad Boss: They don't treat their underlings well. The Fat Officials in Stone Fang Tunnels are basically slave masters while the Fat Official you tail in the Inner Ward of Boletaria Palace lets one of his Mooks get crushed by a gate and later flees to the fog gate to hide behind the large ensemble of soldiers outside.
- Bait-and-Switch Boss: You tail one through the entirety of 1-3, but by the time you catch up to him, he gets killed by The Penetrator.
- Fat Bastard: They're all quite portly, and are definitely not nice.
- Giggling Villain: They're always laughing. They sometimes even laugh as they die.
- Glasgow Grin: They all sport permanent rictus grins in the original game.
- Karmic Death: The Fat Official you spend most of Inner Ward chasing is offed by The Penetrator for no apparent reason. Given how he was a Bad Boss who let a Mook get crushed by a gate for no discernable reason earlier on, it is well deserved.
- Mook Lieutenant: They appear to command the various mooks you encounter throughout Boletaria and Stonefang.
- Playing with Fire: All of them can cast both the Flame Toss and Ignite spells, depending on your proximity to them.
- Weak to Fire: Ironically, despite their Playing with Fire spells.
- Whip of Dominance: The Fat Officials are cruel Mook Lieutenants who order around the Mooks and Elite Mooks, and one of their rarer variations has them armed with a riding crop. It doesn't do much damage, but has good range and it greatly saps stamina if it hits your shield.
Imperial Spies
The most dangerous of Boletaria's ranks, the spies are highly trained assassins wielding daggers, throwing knives and claws along with dangerous martial-arts techniques.
- Devious Daggers: They're spies who can turn invisible and all wield daggers. They can throw kpinga
to boot. - Highly-Visible Ninja: They're dressed in completely white robes and have a tendency to ostentatiously leap down in front of you. They still have ninja skills in combat.
- In the Hood: A grey hood to be exact, giving them a distinct Altair-like look.
- Invisibility Cloak: They may temporarily turn invisible due to their use of the Thief's Ring.
- Wolverine Claws: They wield a claw weapon as well, which can cause bleeding.
Stonefang Tunnel Enemies
Scale Miners
Once the living miners under the rule of the Burrow King. After the demon takeover, they lost their humanity and mindlessly continue working as they did in life, devoid of their souls.
- Achilles' Heel: They are very weak to magic and piercing attacks, but No-Sell pretty much anything else.
- BFS: One variant wields a half-forged blade that is still red-hot and deals fire damage.
- Dishing Out Dirt: Some of them can hurl enormous boulders that they pick up from the ground.
- Good Old Fisticuffs: The weakest variant of them wields no weapons, and attacks with their scale-hardened fists.
- Mighty Glacier: They all hurt if they hit you, but can't usually move faster than a walking pace.
- Money Spider: One variant wields a sack full of ore as a weapon. They only spawn once per playthrough and drop valuable upgrade materials.
- Our Dwarves Are Different: They're essentially this setting's equivalent of dwarves, being a nonhuman race who live in mountains and base their civilization around mining, but they're scaly lizard monsters rather than your standard fantasy dwarf.
- Was Once a Man: They all used to be human, but succumbed to the demons and became lizard creatures instead.
Fire Lizards
Fiery demon lizards that inhabit the upper reaches of Stonefang Tunnel.
- Kill It with Fire: Practically made of fire and lava, they deal damage just from touching you.
- Rubber Man: Oddly stretchy and pliable, as though they were made of rubber.
- Touch of Death: Can hurt you just by touching you thanks to their fiery bodies.
- Exactly What It Says on the Tin: It's a lizard that's on fire.
Bearbugs
Stone and lava beetle-like creatures that come in several different sizes. Characterized by their stone-like, nigh-impenetrable hide.
- Achilles' Heel: They are only weak to magic or poison/plague. Everything else is an annoyance to them.
- Action Bomb: The large and giant variants charge up and explode upon dying. The giant variant's explosion is so big that it can cause the framerate to dip!
- Hell Is That Noise: If you hear the buzzing of wings, you are about to be set upon by a group of the flying variant.
- Stone Wall: The small ones not so much, but the large and especially giant Bearbugs are this. If you have no source of magic damage, you are going to be spending a long time whittling away at their titanic health pool and airtight defense.
- Ugly Cute: Oddly adorable for what are essentially lava-beetles, thanks to their stubby legs and rotund frame.
Rock Worm
Worm-like creatures with a stony exterior, much like the Bearbugs. Also like the Bearbugs, completely capable of internalizing magma and using it.
- Attack Its Weak Point: Their bodies are nigh-invulnerable, so you have to hit them in the head to do decent damage.
- Jump Scare: They have a tendency to pop up from the ground as you approach, accompanied by the loud noise of the earth shifting to let them out.
- Lamprey Mouth: They have a distinct sucker-mouth with five nodules around it.
- Magma Man: They are capable of spewing lava out of their mouth. There is a variant that only appears in one location that will spray it into the air instead, coating the entire area around it with lava.
Tower of Latria Enemies
Mind Flayers
Squid-like beings wearing white robes, they act as the jailers of the Prison of Hope, ensuring the prisoners never escape. They are very proficient in magic.
- Cthulhumanoid: They're octopus-headed people with a propensity for spell-casting, much like their inspiration from Dungeons & Dragons.
- Demonic Spiders: Especially to new players, as they can fire a stun projectile which is hard to avoid and precipitates an extremely powerful tentacle stab.
- Hitbox Dissonance: The sonic boom attack they use at close range has a very janky hitbox that lingers long after the animation is over.
- Soul Power: Capable of firing a Soul Ray as a projectile, which does large damage.
- Squishy Wizard: Not particularly strong on the defensive front, and easy to stagger. However, their offense is terrifying, meaning stealth is advised.
Prisoners
The soul-deprived prisoners of the Prison of Hope. Nearly mindless, some will attempt to worship you, others will strike from the shadows. Serves mostly as a distraction, but can be fatal if they block your way from escaping.
- Attention Whore: Ignoring the unarmed variant for too long results in them punching you.
- The Goomba: They don't really differ much from the Dreglings, as they are weak and their only advantages are numbers, the element of surprise and their variety in weapons.
- Helpful Mook: The Prisoners in the arena of the Fool's Idol. While they will attack you, they are merely a distraction. One the other hand, they only worship the real boss, not her clones, so the direction they are looking at betrays her real location.
- Living MacGuffin: Of a sort. A total of eight of them magically hold the Old Monk's giant, heart-shaped demon forge womb in place. With them gone, the thing plummets with nothing to support it.
- Noodle Incident: How did some of them get stuck in those iron maidens without dying?
- Poisonous Person: Some of their knives are slathered in poison.
Man Centipedes
One of the Old Monk's artificial demons, these man-faced bugs live in the swamp surrounding the tower, along with inhabiting the monk's heart itself.
- An Arm and a Leg: When low on health, the large ones lose their tails and become quicker, but lose their tail stab attack.
- Big Creepy-Crawlies: Ayup. Enormous, nasty centipede creatures.
- Body Horror: Giant centipedes with several human faces locked in a permanent scream expression. The large ones have a total of six(!) faces.
- Hollywood Acid: They can spew acid that corrodes your gear if it connects.
Gargoyles
Another of the Old Monk's artificial demons. These are stone statues brought to life via the infusion of a human soul. Able to fly, they either fight with a rapier or snipe with a crossbow.
- Giant Flyer: They're twice as tall as the player character and made of stone, yet somehow able to fly.
- Good Bad Bugs: Their pathing AI is rather spotty, and occasionally they'll do a complete 180 and fly away from you instead of towards.
- Money Spider: They always, always drop either an Unknown Soldier's Soul or Unknown Hero's Soul, making them good for farming.
- Royal Rapier: Not really royal, though they do wield a quite powerful Spiral Rapier.
- Taken for Granite: Not that it slows them down at all.
Prisoner Hordes
An enormous ball of mashed-together corpses and limbs, it functions as an optional miniboss for the first two stages of the Tower of Latria.
- Body Horror: At least a couple dozen bodies, all mashed-together with several limbs sticking out, some for walking and some for slashing with swords. Notably, they also fade into a shower of blood when killed, unlike every other enemy that fades.
- Multi-Armed and Dangerous: Getting too close causes it to reveal several limbs, each armed with a blade.
- Soul Power: At long range, they can fire a quite powerful Soul Ray projectile. However, it has a long charge-up time and is heavily telegraphed by a loud, high-pitched noise.
- Unique Enemy: There are only two in the entire game. They do respawn, however.
- Weaksauce Weakness: They can both be cheesed with bows, if you've the patience.
Shrine of Storms Enemies
Silver Skeletons
Silver-blue skeletons inhabited by the spirits of the Shadowmen of ages past. Even in death, they continue to protect the Shrine of Storms from intruders.
- Improbable Aiming Skills: The bow-wielders' arrows will actually curve to track you.
- Rolling Attack: The moment the sword-wielders spot you, they will roll quickly to your position, which harms you if you aren't blocking.
- Sinister Scimitar: Well, Falchion, but close enough.
- Soul Power: The bow-wielders' arrows are enchanted with magic.
- Undying Loyalty: To the shrine itself. Being dead doesn't stop them from defending it one bit.
Gold Skeletons
One step up from the low-rank silver warriors, the gold skeletons guard the cliffsides of the shrine, ensuring that those they fight fall to the depths below.
- BFS: They wield absolutely enormous cleavers. They're as long as the skeletons are tall, and can easily chew through your stamina.
- Cool Sword: That said, the cleavers are also very well-designed, with a handle near the top to make them viable to use as a blocking instrument.
- Fake Ultimate Mook: Due to being gold and having the largest weapon of them all, you could be forgiven for thinking the Gold Skeletons are the strongest of the skeleton enemies. However, they are susceptible to stunlocking and when taken away from their advantage (the cliffside they can knock you off of) they aren't very difficult. While they are very damaging, they are still outshined by the much more nimble Black Skeletons.
- Mighty Glacier: They hit hard and swing strong, but don't move or swing very quickly.
Black Skeletons
The elite of the Shadowmens' ranks, these black skeletons wear ornate armor and wield dual katanas.
- Dual Wielding: Katanas, and woe betide you if they land a hit.
- Katanas Are Just Better: The best even, in this case. They have a chance to drop them too.
- Lightning Bruiser: In contrast to their gold counterparts, the Black Skeletons swing fast and move at a decent clip. At Pure Black World Tendency, Black Phantoms of them spawn.
- Rare Random Drop: The Black Skeletons in 4-2 are the only enemies that have a chance to drop the Pure Bladestone. Exacerbated by the fact that Pure Bladestone's drop rate is subject to a severe, but avoidable bug.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: Glowing red eyes and sinister black bones should be a good warning to new players to stay away.
Storm Beasts
The offspring of the Storm King, these flying manta ray-like creatures are normally passive, but will fire large barbs when you approach. They are one of the only sources of Cloudstone.
- Demonic Spider: To some players, their constant bombardment of crystal barbs and inability to be harmed by anything but ranged weapons or magic makes them very, very annoying to deal with.
- Giant Flyer: Huge, flying manta rays.
- Glass Cannon: Their sting projectiles hurt, but they can only take one good arrow shot before they're down.
- Homing Projectile: The enormous barbs that they fire will home in on you slightly.
Reapers
The physical embodiment of death itself, these scythe-wielding sorcerers are the source of the Shadowlurkers past the Adjudicator's Archstone.
- The Grim Reaper: An homage to the cloaked, scythe-wielding skeleton itself.
- Keystone Army: Kill the Reaper, and every Shadowlurker in its vicinity dies with it.
- Sinister Scythe: To complete the reaper motif, they wield one.
- Soul Power: They can use a strong Soul Arrow attack at range.
- Touch of Death: They're reapers, so of course they have this ability.
- Weak to Fire: Oddly weak to fire attacks, though strong against magic.
Shadowlurkers
Tall, translucent beings that appear to be made of water. They are summoned and controlled by the Reapers, and can utilize strong magic and melee attacks.
- Critical Hit: The "female" variant will do this to YOU if you let them get behind you.
- Energy Weapon: The version with a purple eye-light can fire an enormous soul beam, which will devastate you if it hits.
- Good Old Fisticuffs: The normal variant is unarmed, fighting you with its fists.
- Keystone Army: They will continue to resurrect after death, and will only die permanently if you kill the Reaper controlling them. Often, however, you will have to kill several before you can even reach its Reaper commander.
Phosphorescent Slugs
Large slugs inhabiting both the Shrine of Storms and Valley of Defilement. A good source of Sticky White Stuff and Suckerstone.
- Poisonous Person: They can spit a glob of poisonous fluids at you.
- Unique Enemy: One of them sits all alone, and drops a set of Dull Gold Armor when killed.
- Zerg Rush: Once you destroy their nest to claim the Large Sword of Moonlight, they'll all be on the ground waiting.
Valley of Defilement Enemies
Depraved Ones
Short, dirty looking humanoids inhabiting the Valley of Defilement, they come in Knife-wielding, flaming pole using, and Shaman varieties.
- Carry a Big Stick: One variant has a flaming pole as a weapon.
- Playing Possum: You'll occasionally find what is seemingly one of their dead bodies. Its not dead.
- Poisonous Person: Some of them can inflict poison damage and the Shaman variant has access to the Poison Cloud spell.
Giant Depraved Ones
Giant versions of the Depraved Ones wielding massive clubs. They hang around the swamps of the Valley, killing all who trespass in their diseased home.
- Carry a Big Stick: They usually carry giant clubs and can bash the brains of a player out.
- Giant Mook: As their name shows, they are huge, much stronger versions of the Depraved Ones.
- Lightning Bruiser: Surprisingly fast for their size.
Plague Baby
Seemingly reanimated fetuses or infants, they live in the swamps nearby Maiden Astaea and Garl Vinland.
- Enemy Civil War: Oddly, they will attack any Depraved Ones you knock into their waters.
- Poisonous Person: Can inflict plague.
- Undead Child: And they look absolutely disgusting.
Boletarian Palace Bosses
Phalanx
- And I Must Scream: Her reflection is a completely helpless blob.
- Blob Monster: Yahtzee Crowshaw described it as "a giant, slow-moving cow pat".
- Bow and Sword in Accord: Subverted with the actual boss battle, but fights this way when you encounter the Black Phantom form of her human self in 1-4.
- Dirty Coward: As a human, she was an archer who stayed far away from battles and had soldiers as meat shields. Her demonic reflection is a weak blob that spawns and completely relies on Hoplites to protect her hide. The weapon made with her Demon's soul is also a coward's weapon: a spear designed to destroy an enemy's equipment rather than fighting with skill.
- A Fate Worse Than Death: For her cowardice in life, her reflection became a helpless blob that completely relies on her Hoplites.
- Flunky Boss: Phalanx herself won't attack you, but the Hoplites protecting her will.
- Keystone Army: Her Hoplites are this. Kill her, and all remaining Hoplites go down instantly.
- Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me: Any Hoplites that are nearby will cling to her body and form a protective shell of shields and spears.
- Weak to Fire: Primarily vulnerable to fire damage.
- Zero-Effort Boss: Even if you wipe out all of her Hoplites before going after her, she will never attack.
Tower Knight
- Achilles' Heel: Literally! He'll fall over and be defenseless should you hit both of his heels enough with hard enough strikes. (If you can only deal Scratch Damage against him, you can kill him after about ten minutes, but his armor will only crack after a while and he won't fall down.)
- Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: For whatever reason, the Fog increased his physical size to several stories tall.
- Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me: Played straight if you decide to attack from the upper levels of the arena. His gigantic tower shield completely blocks all damage, so you must attack from behind.
- Shield Bash: If you attack up close, he might slam his shield on the ground as an attack.
- Tin Tyrant: Is completely encased in a massive suit of armor and the despot of a tower.
Penetrator
The demonic reflection of the Knight of the Lance, Metas, a Knight of the Round Table of Boletaria. As a human, he wielded a straight sword longer than most spears. His demonic reflection, however, takes the form of an exceptionally tall knight in sinister dark colored armor.
- Bad Boss: He personally disposes of the cowardly Fat Official you were chasing until then for seemingly no reason.
- Bait-and-Switch Boss: That Fat Official you've been trailing? Yeah, you won't be seeing much of him, all thanks to the Penetrator himself.
- BFS: His weapon is a longsword with great reach.
- Establishing Character Moment: How does he enter? By impaling the Fat Official you've been chasing for the entire level and tossing him aside like a ragdoll.
- Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: A hobby of his. During the with him, he can and will attempt this, with his sword glowing before the attack. If it lands, you're almost certainly dead.
- Names to Run Away from Really Fast: He demonstrates how he got it at the start of his introduction. He can do the same to you if you're not careful.
- Nonindicative Name: Not "Penetrator", which is certainly appropriate enough, but Metas' title in life, the "Knight of the Lance". His weapon, while very long and pointy, is a sword, not a lance. It could be dismissed, except that the Tower Knight does wield an actual lance.
- Sword Lines: In the original, his long sword leaves light trails in the air, possibly to make it easier to see as it's quite thin.
- Tin Tyrant: Not to the same extent as the Tower Knight, but very much a qualifier, as he is a murderous, fully armored knight.
False King Allant
Voiced by: Peter Marinker (English; original and remake), Katsuhisa Houki (Japanese; remake)
A demonic doppelganger created by the real Allant to rule Boletaria in his stead and spread the Deep Fog. The reflection wields a false duplicate of the Soulbrandt, and his Demon Soul is used to reforge the Demonbrandt and Soulbrandt into the Northern Regalia.
- Actually a Doombot: The name above his life meter reads "Old King Allant", but defeating him or keeping Ostrava alive through the previous three segments reveals that he's a demonic duplicate of the real Allant.
- Badass Longcoat: White with gold trim and epaulettes.
- Boss Remix: His battle theme is a less-hectic, pipe organ version of the intro theme.
- Cool Sword: The aforementioned Soulbrandt.
- Easy Level Trick: While one of the hardest bosses in game, if not the hardest, if you have the Thief's Ring and the Poison Cloud spell, you can actually poison him to death without even aggroing him at all (the ring cuts the range at which you aggro an enemy in half, and the spell is the only reliable way to instantly poison a boss, and has a surprisingly far casting range and AoE). It will, however, take forever, and multiple casts of said spell.
- Final Boss: While he can technically be taken out anytime after killing any one Archdemon, he is clearly intended to be fought last. He's the demonic doppelganger of the king of Boletaria, the one responsible for reawakening the Old One, resides at the end of the game-spanning Boletaria Palace, is the only Archdemon to have a level proceeding the fight, and is built up repeatedly by NPCs. His fight is also the most challenging in the game and the only Archdemon who isn't a gimmick fight, being instead a pure test of skill. So, while not technically more a Final Boss than any other Archdemon, he fits in every other way.
- Having a Blast: When he sticks his sword into the ground, he starts charging up a huge explosion. You can either get as far away from him as you can, or try to hit him as hard as you can to stagger him out of it.
- Level Drain: The Soulsucker spell. If he grabs you, you lose a Soul Level.
- Light Is Not Good: He wears white clothing and a pair of energy trails coming from his shoulders can resemble ethereal angel wings. He is a demon working for a tyrant.
- Lightning Bruiser: The fastest and most dangerous opponent in the game, although not as relentlessly aggressive as Flamelurker.
- Magic Knight: His deadly sword attacks are enhanced with wind magic and he's capable of unleashing devastating blasts, as well as sucking out your souls.
- Neck Lift: Does this to you if you happen to get hit by his Soulsucker spell.
- Razor Wind/Sword Beam: One of his most common attacks at long range.
- Resistant to Magic: Another factor that makes him one of the hardest bosses in the game; magic is a complete Game-Breaker for most of Demon's Souls, but the False King has extremely high magic defence (217, his highest defensive stat), to the point that you're better off using pretty much anything else.
- Stab the Sky: This indicates that he's about to do a series of dash attacks.
- Videogame Dashing: His primary method of horizontal movement. Always followed by a slash or Razor Wind.
- White Hair, Black Heart: He's a demonic replica of the real Allant and has his white hair. Of course he's going to have a black soul.
Stonefang Tunnel Bosses
Armor Spider
A mysterious Demon spider that casts fire magic and is strong against it, but is weak towards other kinds of magic. It is the possible source of Spiderstone found within the Tunnel.
- All Webbed Up: Can fire web shots that will slow you down if they hit.
- Boss Corridor: Subverted in that it's actually part of the boss room.
- Breath Weapon: Has a variety of fireballs at its disposal.
- Exactly What It Says on the Tin: It's called the Armor Spider. It's a Giant Spider. It's covered with armor.
- Giant Space Flea from Nowhere: Every other named boss in the game is either stated or speculated to be a corruption of a human character, a revived form of a long-dead being, a manifestation of a mythical being, or an artificial monster. The Armor Spider, however, is simply that; a gigantic armored spider.
- Giant Spider: It's a spider, it's gigantic, it'll give any arachnophobe the shakes. Factor in the size of its legs and it's among the larger beings in the game.
- Playing with Fire: It spits fireballs at you, either a single large one, or barrages of three.
- Stationary Boss: The spider doesn't move from its position- the main problem is getting to it as it shoots fireballs and entangling webs down the corridor leading up to its chamber.
Flamelurker
A Demon trapped within the Tunnel, along with the Dragon God. Its origins are shrouded in mystery but regardless of where it came to be, it remains a major threat.
- Easy Level Trick: Having issues dodging his attacks or hitting him with magic thanks to his relentless attacks and dodging habits? You can lure him to the leftmost corner of the arena next to where you enter the boss room and, with some very simple maneuvering, position the remains of a giant ribcage between you and the Flamelurker. Not only can he not find a way around it, opting to keep running into it instead of going around it, but you can cast spells/shoot arrows at him with impunity since, well, it's a ribcage full of openings.
- Incendiary Exponent: Everything it does creates blasts of flame.
- Lightning Bruiser: The fastest and most aggressive boss in the game.
- Megaton Punch: Often, and often combined with Having a Blast.
- Playing with Fire: It's a flame demon with flames all over its body that attacks with blasts of flame, natch.
- Turns Red: Damage it enough, and the flames surrounding it become more intense and its attacks become more aggressive.
- Wake-Up Call Boss: If you've been playing the game in order (1-1, 1-2, 2-1). He isn't stationary like the Armored Spider, and is much faster than the Phalanx and Tower Knight, while hitting harder than those 3 bosses, so you must use other methods besides a shield to survive his attacks. Ironically enough, clever usage of the thief's ring and poison cloud can actually make this the easiest boss in the game, as you can literally stand right behind him without him even knowing you're there.
- Weaksauce Weakness: The Flamelurker is considered one of the three hardest bosses in the gamenote and often considered the hardest because of his relentless aggression, but he's cripplingly weak to magic damage, to the extent that it almost trivialises him.
Dragon God
- Boss Corridor: He even lets out a roar the first time you enter it, just so you know that he means business.
- Breath Weapon: It's a gigantic dragon; the scorching flames go without saying. Even after you pin it down with the ballistas and render it mostly helpless, the little puffs of flame escaping its maw can damage you when you run up to its face to kill it.
- Final Boss Preview: If you kill the Vanguard at the end of the tutorial, he will be waiting for you at the bottom of a flight of stairs, more than willing to send you to the Nexus. And he does so in a cutscene, with no hope of survival from you.
- Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: This is the only way you can win his boss fight- by nailing it down with a pair of giant ballistas so it can't move before you beat it to death.
- The Juggernaut: The Dragon God is too strong to fight like other enemies. Its attacks kill you instantly and you have to pin it with ballistas just to get close enough.
- Kaizo Trap: After you've hit it with both bolts, it is pinned down with almost no health remaining and no ability to move. At this point, killing it seems like largely a victory lap, but you do have to be careful as the hot air it breaths out can still hurt a lot and potentially kill you.
- Megaton Punch: Puts you on the receiving end of one, should you beat the Vanguard. If it spots you during the boss battle, it will do so again.
- One-Hit Kill: It will kill the player with a single blow if it sees them.
- Puzzle Boss: By comparison to every other boss in the game. You can't even get close enough to attack it without pinning it down first, for which you will need two huge ballistas, and you have to switch between clearing out debris and hiding behind pillars so he doesn't annihilate you.
- More Teeth than the Osmond Family: It has two sets of teeth.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: Its eyes are normally glowing yellow. When they turn red, it's spotted you!
- Rent-a-Zilla: This dragon is massive, far bigger than the comparatively puny red and blue dragons from Boletaria Castle. Fortunately the arena it's in is too small for it to be able to move around in.
- Roar Before Beating: If this happens, get back behind a pillar quickly, it's about to spot and instakill you if you don't.
- Stationary Boss: Even before you pin it down, it doesn't budge an inch from its position clinging to the wall above a pool of lava. It may not even be able to move anywhere in its cramped prison.
- Stealth-Based Mission: In an Unexpected Gameplay Change, the Dragon God is essentially this. If it sees you, it will try to punch you and that punch WILL kill you if it connects. The boss essentially consists of ducking from pillar to pillar while avoid the Dragon God's vision. To complicate things, multiple fallen pillars are in the way and must be broken to continue. You can either wait til the boss is looking the other way to dive in, land some blows, then return to safety, or you can repeatedly hit them with free aimed spells (the telescope is useful for aiming). After you activate both crossbows on either side of the arena, the Dragon God is (mostly) helpless to stop you from finishing it off.
Tower of Latria Bosses
Fool's Idol
A demonic marionette created by the Old Monk with the soul of his wife to trick the prisoners into believing the Queen was still alive.
- Adaptational Attractiveness: Aside from the general increase in graphical detail, the remake version actually passably looks like a living woman, compared to the original which was clearly a mannequin.
- Cute Monster Girl: In an Uncanny Valley sense; it's a relatively-convincing mannequin replica of a beautiful woman.
- Death Is Not Permanent: At least not until you kill the prisoner that endlessly resurrects her.
- Doppleganger Attack: Will summon clones of herself every time she exits a teleport.
- Glass Cannon: Can kill the player very quickly, but has very little defense or health.
- Easter Egg: The book she's holding appears to be a copy of the Book of Kells, based on the pages that are visible.
- Energy Weapon: Her main attack is spamming soul arrows.
- Evil Laugh: She constantly gives off a creepy giggle.
- Flashy Teleportation: She can disappear into glowing golden particles then reppear somewhere else between attacks, reentering at the same time as some clones, which arrive at the exact same time she does, which makes it even harder to keep track of her among her doppelgangers.
- Flunky Boss: In addition to her clones, there are several prisoners in her boss room.
- Multi-Armed and Dangerous: For some reason, she was made with two pairs of arms, holding a book containing some of the Book of Kells in her upper right hand and a rather thickly rolled scroll in her lower right hand.
- Recurring Element: The prototype of a recurring boss type in the Souls series (a Squishy teleporting magic-user who creates clones of itself) which also includes Pinwheel and the Crystal Sage. Surprisingly, she's probably the most advanced version of this particular archetype, with several additional elements to deal with such as her army of worshippers, paralyzing traps and that one guy who keeps reviving her until you stop him.
- Punny Name: She's a False idol.
- Squishy Wizard: Relies very heavily on her teleportation and flunkies to maintain distance from the player, because things get very messy if an opponent can get in close. She has the second-lowest health of any required boss, and nearly half as much defense. It's not uncommon for experienced players to down her before she can even move from her starting position.
- Trap Master: She's a fan of trap runes that cause momentary paralysis.
Maneater
A gargoyle-like chimera Demon created by the Old Monk. It has a man's face, a muscular body, wings, and the tail of a serpent.
- Dual Boss: Just when you think fighting the Maneater isn't so hard, the second one sweeps in to make your life hell.
- Easy Level Trick: If you have a bow, you can literally stand all the way to the right of the fog gate and snipe the first Maneater to death, leaving you to only fight one (the second is just out of range of even the White Bow with a certain ring equipped).
- Energy Weapon: If the snake tail is intact, it can fire three green soul arrows that will home in towards a target.
- Glowing Eyes of Doom: The very first thing you're going to see when facing the Maneater is a pair of eyes shining in the darkness rapidly advancing to your position.
- Lightning Bruiser: Can take a beating, dish out damage like nobody's business, and they're able to fly around the bridge you fight them on.
- Make Me Wanna Shout: Its sonic wave attack.
- Megaton Punch: Serves as its most basic attack, and it can make a combo of strong punches.
- Mix-and-Match Critters: Like most everything else in the Tower of Latria, the Maneater is one of the Old Monk's artificial Demons.
- Status Buff: Power Boost, the upper body of the Demon will glow yellow, signaling a significant increase in damage. It can only use this if its snake tail is still attached.
Old Monk
The husband of the late Queen, he was exiled for unknown reasons. During his exile, he came across a Golden Robe, which imbued him with Demonic power. He eventually returned to Latria, and using his newfound power, overthrew his wife and her family. He transformed the Tower into a combination of prison and Demon factory.
- Bait-and-Switch Boss: Rather than fighting the Old Monk himself, you fight a Black Phantom he summons with his last breath.
- Body Horror: The Old Monk has withered away to an emaciated corpse.
- Demonic Possession: The Golden Robe was in truth the one controlling the Old Monk.
- Duel Boss: The fight is against a Black Phantom, sometimes another player.
- Energy Weapon: Comes with an endless supply of Homing Soul Arrows.
- Grand Theft Me: Try to Summon or get invaded? He intervenes and sends them to the top of the tower to control them.
- Turns Red: The more damage he takes, the more Homing Soul Arrows he fires at a time.
- Wolverine Claws: The weapon of choice for the AI Black Phantom when another player can't be summoned.
Shrine of Storms Bosses
Adjudicator
The first stage in the ritual that the Shadowmen performed to appease the Storm King required the dead to be judged by the Adjudicator. It is a large, blubbery creature with a reptilian tongue. It wields a pair of giant cleavers, the left one of which is broken. Atop its head sits a crown with a golden crow on it.
- Attack Its Weakpoint: It has two weakpoints: the broken cleaver in its belly and the golden crow on its head. The crow is what can actually get damaged, and the cleaver can get struck by melee players to make the creature fall down and put the crow in reach.
- Body Horror: More out of grossness than out-and-out horror, the Adjudicator is obscenely morbidly obese.
- Dual Wielding: Subverted. The Adjudicator has a Cleaver in each hand, but one is broken. You can see the broken half impaled in its stomach.
- Fat Bastard: The Adjudicator is so obscenely obese.
- Kung-Shui: It's able to break the floor above it with its tongue.
- Mighty Glacier: It may be incredibly slow, but it's attacks pack quite a punch, and the non-weak parts of him are very, very resilient.
- Noodle Incident: Just how did the Abjudicator get its own weapon stabbed into its body?
- Overly-Long Tongue: That is uses to knock you off the higher platforms in the boss room.
- Pivotal Boss: It's a large opponent in a small room. There won't be much moving for it to do.
- Weaksauce Weakness: Much like the Vanguard, its attacks can be avoided by circling it clockwise while staying close to it. Since it doesn't have the shockwave that the Vanguard does, it's less of a threat.
Old Hero
The second stage in the ritual that the Shadowmen performed to appease the Storm King was that the dead who passed judgement be laid upon an altar during a storm and be purified. The Old Hero, also known as the Searcher of Storms, was potentially the only one to not go through with the ritual after having fallen out of favor with his clansmen. His body is found chained to a wall overlooking the shrine, forced to "watch" as more worthy warriors were honored. After the Deep Fog spread to the Shrine, it touched the spark within the Old Hero's decayed body, allowing him to emerge from it in a soul form. During life, he was a blind warrior who, with the help of his crystal sword, spent his life surviving by luck and an acute awareness of his surroundings. His Demon form also has these limitations.
- Born Lucky: He was noted to survive danger through the help of sheer luck. Counts as Gameplay and Story Integration, too, since his sword that you can make with his boss soul increases item drop rates, making it an attractive choice of off-hand weapon for farming.
- BFS/Sinister Scimitar: An enormous curved sword made of crystal. Once you kill him, you can use his soul to create it.
- Do Not Taunt Cthulhu: While the safest strategy is attacking from a distance, shooting him with arrows in rapid succession will alert him to your position, making him charge right at you.
- Facial Horror: His lips were ripped off at some point when he was alive. An unused texture still in the game files shows him with his lips.
- The Fool: As noted above, he relied heavily on his luck to stay alive. His fortune will rub off on you if you make his weapon. Despite the sword's crappier damage output compared to the weapon used to forge it, ore farmers will make and use it due to the fact that it doubles your Random Drops.
- Handicapped Badass: He's blind, but it never stopped him in either life or death.
- Unskilled, but Strong: His basic attack pattern is "walk a few steps, then take a swing at the first sound you hear", and BOY does it pack a punch if it hits.
- Weaksauce Weakness: His method of following the nearest sound can be used against him if you bring the Demon Prank spell along. Using the Thief's Ring (found earlier in the level) will make him unable to hear you moving about.
Storm King
The last stage in the ritual that the Shadowmen performed to appease the Storm King was that the purified body be set upon a final altar for the Storm King to consume. The Storm King is a rather massive version of the regular Storm Beasts encountered. It leaves part of the fighting to its minions, and will only step in after each wave of minions is killed.
- Airborne Aircraft Carrier: A living, breathing fantasy version of one. It is the source of the Storm Beasts, who are its spawns, and in its introductory cutscene it is depicted flying into the area carrying smaller Storm Beasts on its back, which proceeded to take off to soar in the skies and attack the player as the boss fight begin.
- Eldritch Abomination: It's a creature of pagan belief magically given physical form.
- Flunky Boss: You have to kill quite a few Storm Beasts before the Storm King itself appears.
- Flying Seafood Special: It's a gigantic flygin stingrayesque creature.
- Giant Flyer: Possibly the single biggest creature in the game, although getting an exact sense of its scale is a bit difficult as it never descends low enough for you to get near it. It may even be bigger than the Dragon God.
- Kill the God: What fighting him essentially entails should you win. The Storm King is the Shadowmen's pagan god - and you get to kill the Fog-spawned physical manifestation of it in all its flying divine/demonic glory.
- Macross Missile Massacre: The small ones shoot barbs at you. The Storm King hails them on you.
- Physical God: The Storm King is the pagan god of the Shadowmen, given a physical form by the Fog of Doom.
Valley of Defilement Bosses
Leechmonger
The demonic reflection of the fallen Risaia of Istarel, one of the wards of Maiden Astraea. After she met her death at the hands of three Giant Deprived Ones, Risaia's body fell into a mass of leeches, which feasted upon it. The Fog touched the soul-enhanced leeches, creating the Leechmonger.
- Easy Level Trick: when you enter the Leechmonger's boss area, you're situated high about it on a platform circling around the boss arena where it can't get at you, the boss itself rooted in place. While fire spells can't reach it all that well unless you drop onto a lower platform (which is puts you at risk of projectiles), there literally is nothing stopping you from staying up there and pelting it with fire arrows, which (thanks to the Leechmonger's glaring weakness to fire) will burn through his health far faster than it can be regenerated.
- Healing Factor: Will rebuild itself with more leeches and recover HP in the process.
- Stationary Boss: It's trapped in the middle of a round well-like arena and if you descend to the bottom to fight it in melee it just pivots on the spot to swing at you. It doesn't appear to even have any legs.
- The Worm That Walks: It's a massive legion of leeches. Although it doesn't "walk" anywhere.
Dirty Colossus
A mysterious golem made from the corruption inhabiting the Valley. Faceless, asymmetrical in build, covered in "armor" made of broken shells and wood. Its right "hand" is an infected growth, and its left is a void which fires out flies. Some speculate that it is the demonic reflection of Vito the Moonlight Knight, one of Astraea's wards.
- Bee-Bee Gun: Sorta. Its primary method of attack is shooting swarms of flies from one of its fists.
- Easy Level Trick: You can stand behind the first torch past the boss gate and pelt the Colossus with fire arrows with impunity, since as long as you're firing at it, it will prioritize hitting you with fly swarms rather than getting close enough to physically stop you from doing so. And on the off chance you do get hit? Just walk into the flames to burn them off and resume firing.
- Spikes of Villainy: Its entire upper-right side, including what passes for its right "hand", is a mess of dirty jagged spikes that look like some kind of chitin.
- Weak to Fire: Like the Leechmonger, the Colossus' fire defence is extremely low, meaning some Turpentine on your weapon will make quick work of it. Also, there are torches stationed around the arena you can use to briefly set yourself on fire if you get swarmed by its flies to get them off, which considering that they drain your helf for 15 seconds if you don't, is probably a good idea.
Maiden Astraea and Garl Vinland
Voiced by: Clare Corbett (Saint Astraea, English; original and remake); Josh Cohen (Garl Vinland, English; original), Dino Kelly (Garl Vinland, English, remake), Fumiko Orikasa (Saint Astraea, Japanese; remake), Ryota Takeuchi (Garl Vinland, Japanese; remake)
The Sixth Saint of the Church, Astraea set out on a pilgrimage to find the Valley of Defilement. Upon reaching the Valley, Astraea took pity upon the abandoned masses. She and her closest bodyguard, Garl Vinland, set off to help bring comfort to those awaiting their death. When the Fog arrived, Astraea's faith shattered. She wholly accepted the Fog, becoming a Demon martyr. Despite the rest of the clergy and the Church turning against her, Garl stood by her side the entire time.
Once the player starts Selen's side quest, Garl is encountered as a Black Phantom.
- Anti-Villain: Both are a TypeIV. Astraea is an Archdemon that has to die, and also the best thing that ever happened to the Valley of Defilement. Garl Vinland is ruthless against Astraea's foes, but he loves her and wants to protect her with his life.
- Atop a Mountain of Corpses: Maiden Astraea spends the entire fight sitting at the foot of a pile of bodies.
- Bad Powers, Good People: Maiden Astraea uses her powers to help the abandoned and ultimately poisons and summons demons to protect them.
- Bling of War: Garl wears a full body set of Dark Silver Armor and wields a Dark Silver Shield and the Bramd war mace. His reasons are justified, as all his equipment is enchanted to resist magic, bleeding, poisons, and the plague.
- Bodyguard Crush: Garl is implied to have one towards Astraea, if they aren't outright lovers.
- Boss Banter: Subverted, since the protagonist doesn't talk, but both Maiden Astraea and Garl Vinland have plenty to say.
- Childhood Friends: Lore notes and item descriptions mention Astraea and Garl having known each other since she was a young girl.
- Dark Is Not Evil: They dwell at the bottom of the darkest, most disgusting area in the game, surrounded by poison water, mutant fetuses, and rotting corpses, but they're the most sympathetic bosses you fight against.
- Driven to Suicide: Should you defeat Garl first, Astraea will commit suicide. Should you defeat Astraea first, you can either kill Garl as well, or start to leave the area. Garl will then commit suicide out of grief.
- Easy Level Trick: There are a few ways to tackle the fight that put you in danger. You can take out Garl Vinland one-on-one (or with summons), run past him and try to take on both Astraea and a very pissed-off Garl at the same time, or dash to Astrea and wail on her while facetanking Garl's attacks, which is possible even while wearing light armor if you have some Dark Moon Grass. However, if you have higher than average stats with ranged weapons you can go up and to the right ramp of the arena vs. the downward slope leading to the actual bosses. Up there is a perfect place for you to continue a common trend shared with all the bosses in the valley and simply wail on Astraea with arrows. Because she never moves from her spot and only attempts to continuously heal herself, and Garl freaks out but mostly just stands in place watching you, you can fire on her with impunity until she keels over as long as the amount of damage you can deal with arrows outstrips her healing speed.
- The Faceless: Garl Vinland, though artwork of him without his helmet can be found in the official guidebook, where, surprisingly, he's a Long-Haired Pretty Boy.
- Impaled Palm: In Astraea's official artwork, her hands are bleeding down her clothes, implying something like this. Interestingly, this gives her otherwise-white priest robes the red trim common among Final Fantasy White Mages, a role which Astraea herself fits very well. It also draws paralell to Stigmata, fitting of her role as a kindly saint.
- Healing Factor: Maiden Astraea will gradually heal herself as she takes damage, which can be particularly bothersome if you decide to use a bow to attack her. Garl prefers the use of healing miracles rather than a gradual approach.
- Kaizo Trap: It's possible to catch and die from Plague while waiting for Astraea to exhaust her dialogue and kill herself out of grief if you kill Garl first.
- Lady and Knight: A tragic Anti-Villain example.
- Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me: Garl Vinland's Dark Silver Shield, which has high Magic Defense.
- Meaningful Name: Astraea is the name for the ancient Greek goddess of innocence.
- Nice Guy: Both of them are compassionate, gentle people who aim to make the Valley of Defilement a better place for everyone in it and were both horrified to realize Astraea had been serving a God of Evil. Unfortunately for both of them, it doesn’t save Astraea from the player having to kill her for her Demon’s Soul.
- Nominal Villain: Maiden Astrea is one of the five Archdemons who have inherited the largest pieces of the slumbering Old One's Soul. However, while the other four are either giant destructive monsters or legendarily evil men, Astraea is a literal saint who, after discovering that the God she believed in was a lie all along, had accepted the Old One's demon soul and has since used its powers exclusively to care for the sick and the downtrodden of the Valley of Defilement. She will not even fight you when you come to claim her soul (her fanatically loyal knight Garl Vinland, though, will).
- Not-So-Harmless Villain: Astrea will not move from where she's sitting and largely depends on Garl to protector (and protect her he definitely will). Do not let that mislead you into thinking Astrea is harmless. If you attempt to run past Garl to kill Astrea, she will readily use the very powerful Wrath of God miracle which will not only do heavy damage but knock you backwards onto your ass, which will have the dual effect of allowing plague to build up while you are stunned and allow Garl to catch up to commence beating you up again.
- Sad Battle Music: Their boss theme, which makes you feel even worse for killing them.
- Significant Anagram: Rearrange the letters in Astraea's name and replace two a's with another e, and you get "Teresa," as in Mother Teresa of Calcutta.
- Softspoken Sadist: Garl's voice is rather calm and low in tone. While the sadist part is mostly subverted, he has his share of morbid one-liners...Garl Vinland: "Plunge to your death... And let the acid melt the flesh from your bones!"
- Stone Wall: Garl basically never goes on the offensive against you, instead opting to block the path to Astraea with his shield raised and swat you away when you come close.
- Together in Death: Quite literally. The player only needs to kill one of the two to win the boss fight, as the other will commit suicide upon the death of their companion.
- Undying Loyalty: Garl to Astraea.
- What the Hell, Hero?:Garl Vinland: "We live humble lives. Leave us be!"Maiden Astraea: "This is our home. We have done no harm to you!"
- White Mage: Astraea is a very rare boss version of this trope, preferring to rely on her Healing Factor and only joining in the fight if you somehow got past Garl and attacked her without killing him first.
Optional Bosses
Old King Doran
Voiced by: Chris Fairbanks (English; original), Sean Barrett (English; remake), Mitsuaki Hoshino (Japanese; remake)
The founder of Boletaria, Doran is also known as the Last Hero and the Everlasting One. After his death, he became a demigod and was charged to protect both the royal family and their greatest treasure: the Northern Regalia. When King Allant sought out the Old One, he went to the mausoleum and split the weapon into its two halves: Demonbrandt and Soulbrandt. Allant took the Soulbrandt for his own, leaving the Demonbrandt behind. Doran wields a spectral replica of the Northern Regalia and still wears his Ancient King's armor, although the bronze armor has long since turned green from oxidization.- The Adjective One: Everlasting One, in this case.
- All-Powerful Bystander: He's a great hero and demigod, possibly strong enough to give any Demon what for. Instead of that, he spends the whole game guarding the family mausoleum.
- Authority Equals Asskicking: The first king of Boletaria is a mighty swordsman.
- Boss in Mook Clothing: He may not look like much, but he's got a lot of health and can one-hit kill you very easily, making him a very tough fight.
- Cool Helmet: It's an all-encompassing mask of a stern bearded man wearing a crown.
- The Faceless: Unless you count the face of the mask he's wearing.
- Non-Lethal K.O.: You don't need to kill him to get the Demonbrandt, as he'll concede and stop fighting if a set portion of his health is drained. That said, all of his loot only drops if you managed to piss him off enough to get him to fight you for real, and then kill him.
- Optional Boss: You can easily complete the game without even seeing him. Impressing him with your mettle will get you the Demonbrandt. Killing him gets you his armor and a powerful ring.
- Power Echoes: He's an immortal and peerless warrior, and his voice echoes to reflect it.
- Ye Olde Butcherede Englishe: Has a very old fashion speech pattern. Expect to hear a lot of thous and thines when talking to him.
Red and Blue Dragons
The "pets" of the False Allant that he brought with him to Boletaria. They make their roost among the mountains beside the Cliff Pathway, using the Palace as their feeding grounds. Their only appearance is in the Boletarian Palace world, and they disappear until the next playthrough once the False Allant is killed.
- Breath Weapon: Three guesses.
- The Dragon: Both literal and played straight with the Blue Dragon, as he's your last major obstacle before False King Allant.
- Optional Boss: You do not have to kill them, but that will make your life much easier.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: The red dragon stands at its nest in an attack position, searching for prey to torch. The blue dragon, meanwhile, is taking a nap and won't bother you, although its tail is twitching and will slam into the ground if you approach it. While the red dragon will hound you for the first half of the Boletarian Palace, the blue dragon will only attack once you reach the King's Tower.
Vanguard
A large Demon with a rather Cthulhu-like appearance, a horned head, and three eyes. It wields a massive battle axe. A weaker version is faced as the boss of the Tutorial area, while the stronger version is faced in the Shrine of Storms.
- Body Horror: In the 2020 remake, patches of its skin appear to be covered in pustules/tumors, with limp, fleshy tendrils growing out of them.
- Degraded Boss: Appears a second time as a miniboss in the Shrine of Storms. The miniboss version is actually stronger, but it still counts as degraded because you're much stronger than when you first fought it.
- Early-Bird Boss: Why the one in the tutorial is nominally a Hopeless Boss Fight- it's not very strong, but you're pathetically weak.
- Ground Pound: prone to hovering up into the air with its tiny wings then crashing down to create shockwave.
- Heads I Win, Tails You Lose: If you defeat the tutorial one, you're killed by the Dragon God in a cutscene shortly thereafter, because you have to die for the plot to get started.
- Hopeless Boss Fight: That you can win, if you are good enough. Your reward for this is to be taken to a truely hopeless boss fight.
- Fat Bastard: It's an evil and very portly demon.
- Stationary Boss: The one at the Shrine of Storms never leaves his spot.
- Too Many Mouths: In the remake, it's design is updated that it has a large toothy maw on it's back, between it's wings.
- Warmup Boss: The Vanguard is a very simple opponent with a predictable and easy to learn attack pattern. However, the one in the tutorial will still hit hard enough to potentially One-Hit Kill the unleveled starter player and is tough enough to take many, many hits to defeat, so it still shouldn't be taken lightly. It's only this trope instead of a Wake-Up Call Boss because you advance the story even if you lose.
- Weaksauce Weakness: All of its attacks (save the ground-pound shockwave) can be avoided by circling it clockwise while staying close to it.
Primeval Demon
Gigantic maggot-like newborn Demons, they only appear in worlds where you have a near-Black or Pure Black World Tendency. Only five can be encountered in each playthrough of the game. Their Colorless Demon's Souls are described as "powerless" and are used to upgrade certain legendary weapons.
- Metal Slime: The reason you want to kill them is so that you can pilfer the Colorless Demon Souls from their bodies, which can be used to upgrade special weapons.
- Zero-Effort Boss: A welcome thing in Boletaria, given what everything else does.
Below the Nexus
Fallen King Allant
Voiced by: Peter Marinker (English; original and remake), Katsuhisa Houki (Japanese; remake)
The deteriorated form of King Allant, a result of the deaths of the Old One's Archdemons. His depression led to the reawakening of the Old One, Allant playing off his personal suffering as belonging to the world. In the end, he wishes the world destroyed as an escape from his suffering. Even in his horrific state, he clings to the Soulbrandt.
- And I Must Scream: Cut off from the souls that fed and empowered both he and the Old One, he's reduced to a hideous malformed thing that can do little more than crawl around and wallow in despair.
- Big Bad Duumvirate: While technically subservient to The Old One, Allant is the one responsible for reawakening it and plunging Boletaria into the fog. His doppelganger is also ruling Boletaria on his behalf.
- Body Horror: He has devolved into a grotesque, toad-like thing due to his lust for power.
- Death Seeker: He was ready to die before the game even began. And was ready to take the world with him.
- Despair Event Horizon: He implicitly crossed this a long time ago, falling into a deep nihilistic depression that led him to willfully abandon his humanity and plunge the world into chaos by bringing forth the Old One.
- Despair Speech: Pretty much lays it on you once you meet him face to face. It's about all he can do at that point."Surely you have seen for yourself, the pain and suffering that fills this world! But God is merciful, and so created the Old One, a poison to fight the poison. The Old One will feed upon our souls, and put an end to our tragic realm of existence. You fool. Don't you understand? No one wishes to go on..."
- The Dragon: To the Old One. He awakened it to begin with, and in order to lull it back to slumber, you have to eliminate Allant first.
- A Fate Worse Than Death: By the time you reach him, Allant's been reduced to such a helpless and pathetic creature that death would be a blessing. Although considering his nigh suicidal attitude, he considered death a blessing even before undergoing his hideous transformation.
- Laser-Guided Karma: After profiting for so long through the soul arts, Allant is morphed into a grotesque, weak, toad-like creature by those arts. Even better, it is all due to the player slaying the Archdemons, who were providing a steady stream of souls for Allant and the Old One.
- Post-Final Boss: Is technically the final challenge you face in the game, but he's a helpless pathetic blob that poses less of a threat than almost anything you've killed to get to this point.
- Shut Up, Hannibal!: The player silences his endless speeches of the futility of existence permanently.
- Straw Nihilist: He summoned the demons in the first place because he saw life as meaningless.
- Zero-Effort Boss: He can kill you if you do nothing, but he is still pathetically and intentionally easy, and you are supposed to beat him untouched with not much trouble.
The Old One
An ancient being, almost as old as the Maiden in Black, which appears as an enormous tree. Its origins are unknown, its will is unknown. The Old One is the source of all Soul Arts.
- Almighty Idiot: The Maiden in Black treats it as one would a child, acting as if you're basically a new toy that's caught the Old One's interest, and lulling it to sleep like one would a rambunctious toddler. And if you don't get in her way, it works completely.
- The Adjective One: It has no name or formal title. It is simply called "The Old One."
- Big Bad Duumvirate: The cause behind the Colorless Fog, the spread of the demons, the fall of Boletaria, and the slow death of the world. However it displays little will of it's own, and King Allant was responsible for reawakening it and using it to wipe out Boletaria.
- Botanical Abomination: The form we see it take looks like a mass of trees and brambles. It's ancient, it's powerful, it looks like a great tree but is capable of moving like an animal, it devours souls, and its motives are completely unknowable.
- Complete Immortality: The Old One can't be killed, only lulled back to sleep.
- Generic Doomsday Villain: The fact that it can make humans its servants at least indicates it is sentient, but that is the only thing that can be said it in terms of character. Outside of that it simply exists as the source of the calamities in game.
- God Is Evil: The Old One is the true source of miracle power in the the fog. Freke claims this means the God that Saint Urbain and his followers worship is the Old One, but Allant claims the Old One is itself a creation of God sent to wipe out humanity as punishment for misusing the Soul Arts.
- The Unfought: Regardless of your choices, you don't fight it.
- World Tree: It resembles a gigantic mass of tangled vegetation.
- Your Soul Is Mine!: Its modus operandi is to devour mortal souls.
