Highlights

• Elden Ring's dragon bosses offer unique challenges and references to previous Soulsborne games, testing your skills and pushing you to improve.
• From the slumbering Elder Dragon Greyoll to the dangerous Flying Dragon Agheel, these bosses provide thrilling battles with unique mechanics.
• We've ranked these formidable foes based on how distinct their boss fight is, what strategies you need to conquer them, and the overall design of the encounter.

The Soulsborne franchise is no stranger to including dragon boss fights, making for some memorable gimmicky battles like the Ancient Wyvern from Dark Souls 3. With Elden Ring joining the fray and having a whopping collection of over 100 bosses, their dragon boss fights are some of the most challenging and heart-stopping.

From fire breathers to dragons spewing Scarlet Rot and Glintstone, Elden Ring's dragon bosses show that they've included many references from the previous Soulsborne games. These dragon fights prove to be the ultimate trial to test your mettle as a lowly Tarnished.

Updated February 27, 2024, by Marco Vito Oddo: Elden Ring took dragon-slaying to a whole new level by building its colossal boss fights around mounted combat. In addition, the reptilian menaces you find in Elden Ring all have unique attacks that mix things up and push you to improve yourself. Finally, since dragons ruled the Lands Between before the Golden Order, hunting down these beasts grants you unique loot with item descriptions that expand your knowledge of the game's lore.

The following two entries are not necessarily unique dragon bosses, but we wanted to acknowledge them before continuing with the ranking.

Lesser Dragons

While there are many Dragon bosses in Elden Ring, you'll also face several lesser dragons during your journey. You can find several lesser dragons in the Dragonbarrow region of Caelid, which respawn when you rest at any Site of Grace. There are also five dragons in Farum Azula who don't respawn but do not count as a boss battle. The Farum Azula dragons use lightning attacks, so it's best to be prepared to deal with it.

Magma Wyrms

The Magma Wyrm is a recurring boss that can be found in the Gael Tunnel in Limgrave, the Volcano Manor, and in Fort Laiedd. While they are indeed boss fights, there's nothing that makes them unique. For that reason, we are only ranking the special variants of the Magma Wyrm. All these three fights play the same, forcing you to fight a lava-spewing lizard in an enclosed space. The best strategy is to keep away from its mouth and wear equipment that grants you high levels of fire protection.

The Magma Wyrm's most dangerous attack swallows you and takes a huge chunk of your health. So, if the Magma Wyrm opens its mouth and starts to run in your direction, quickly roll sideways to avoid being grabbed.

12 Elder Dragon Greyoll

This slumbering dragon offers perhaps one of the most unusual boss fights in Elden Ring, mostly because she doesn't fight back at all. She can be found at Greyoll's Dragonbarrow in Caelid with her absolutely massive amounts of HP. Perfect for rune-farming, Elder Dragon Greyoll gives you the golden opportunity to earn nearly 80,000 runes.

However, Greyoll is not as defenseless as you think. Because as soon as she sees you, or you start attacking, she'll send all five of her babies after you. Whether you decide to battle all five baby dragons or chip away at Greyoll's massive HP from behind with a Bleed weapon, the reward at the end of the tunnel is well worth it.

Each minor dragon you kill near Greyoll takes 1/5th of her health bar. Depending on your skill and the tools you carry around, it might be faster to just slay the five lesser dragons Greyoll control than chipping away at her health bar.

11 Flying Dragon Agheel

Flying Dragon Agheel near Limgrave's Agheel Lake proves a challenging foe. But they are far from impossible to defeat. The difficulty is partly due to the groups of enemies dotted around the arena, but luckily, Agheel's fire breath can kill them and grant you extra Crimson Tear flasks as a reward.

It's advisable to fight Agheel on horseback in case you need to make a quick getaway. When Agheel lands and prepares to breathe fire, quickly gallop and position yourself by its feet or its neck. Although undoubtedly an exhilarating fight, Agheel is merely an appetizer for other dragon bosses to come.

10 Flying Dragon Greyll

If you've defeated Flying Dragon Agheel, then head to Dragonbarrow in Caelid to meet its close relative, Flying Dragon Greyll. Luckily, with the experience gained from the Agheel fight, this foe will be quite easy for you to deal with. They generally have the same move set, so the fight becomes predictable.

The key difference is that you fight Greyll on a bridge in contrast to fighting Agheel in the open space of Agheel Lake. It's recommended to use Torrent in order to increase your maneuverability and avoid fire breath attacks. Aside from the expected tail sweeps, jaw snaps, and claw stomps, this boss drops a cool 80,000 runes.

Since Greyll will remain on the bridge for the entire fight, you can drop a ranged-attack Spirit Ash on the nearby stones to have some support chipping away at their health. Latenna's Spirit Ash is perfect for this strategy.

9 Glintstone Dragon Smarag

Located in the Liurnia of the Lakes, Glintstone Dragon Smarag's mechanics aren't too dissimilar from Agheel's. As you can tell by its name, instead of breathing fire, Smarag discharges Glintstone-charged breath.

He can also shoot short Glintstone beams from his breath, as well as perform stomps and sweeping attacks with his claws. But those who are playing with a Faith or Intelligence build are in luck since there are cerulean scarabs scattered about the arena that can grant you additional Cerulean Tear Flasks.

8 Decaying Ekzykes

Found in the southern part of Caelid, the Decaying Ekzykes is a dragon boss that, as the name suggests, is literally rotting away because of Scarlet Rot. Instead of breathing out fire, Ekzykes emits rot, which proves deadly unless you dodge it.

However, this boss sometimes does a move where it unleashes a massive amount of rot that is virtually inescapable. Staying too long by its feet will cause it to perform a stomp or a tail whip, so quickly get a few hits in before diving out of there and going back in to repeat.

To avoid Ekzyke's deadly rot cloud, use Torrent to click jump on higher ground. There are many elevations around Ekzykes' arena to give you some freedom of movement.

7 Magma Wyrm Makar

Located in the Ruin-Strewn Precipice, Magma Wyrm Makar is a gigantic dragon boss equipped with an equally large sword. Wyrms are surprisingly fast in this game and prove even more terrifying when barreling down at you at full speed.

Like its brethren Theodorix, Makar can stand on its hind legs as soon as his HP is down to half. Makar shoots out fireballs from its maw and does a spin attack that deals massive damage. It can also bring its sword up behind its head and smash it to the ground for maximum destruction.

6 Great Wyrm Theodorix

Found in the Consecrated Snowfield by the Cave of the Forlorn, Great Wyrm Theodorix is difficult in and of itself, but the annoying bit is the multitude of enemies along the way, like land octopuses.

You can either deal with them or lead them to fight Theodorix, where they usually die pretty quickly. With a huge glowing sword, Theodorix stands midway through the fight and slams it down. It can also whip its tail around or twirl around on its tail while spewing magma.

5 Borealis, The Freezing Fog

What appears to be a dense cloud of fog quickly morphs into a boss fight once you hear the piercing dragon screech. Nestled in the Mountaintops of the Giants, Borealis, the Freezing Fog proves deadlier than the ice dragon from Game of Thrones.

At first, you have to dodge the random icy breaths, stomps, tail whips, and harsh landings. However, once you get its health down to a certain level, it'll perform a scream that releases an icy shockwave, dealing a ton of damage. Borealis's icy breaths become more widespread, and it behaves even more aggressively.

Defeating Borealis clears out the fog in the Mountaintops of the Giants, making it easier to explore the area and find all the secrets scattered around.

4 Ancient Dragon Lansseax

You may have a brief yet intense encounter with this particular dragon boss in the Altus Plateau near both the Abandoned Coffin and Rampartside Path Sites of Grace. However, once your initial scuffle concludes, you have to delve further into the area to have a rematch.

Watch out for its lightning sweeps and slams, as well as shock waves, fire breaths, and random lightning strikes from the sky. Luckily, once you defeat Lansseax, you will earn Lansseax's Glaive, a Dragon Incantation that imitates this powerful dragon's own attacks.

3 Glintstone Dragon Adula

Like Ancient Dragon Lansseax, Glintstone Dragon Adula will meet you for a brief fight when you first enter the Three Sisters region (where Ranni is) before disappearing and reappearing later on near the Cathedral of Manus Celes.

Adula is different from your average, run-of-the-mill dragon since it can summon a sword in its mouth, like the Red Wolf Of Radagon. It sweeps it in a wide arc, which releases a wave of shards that inflict frostbite damage. Adula can also spew out projectiles when it looks like it's about to breathe Glintstone flames.

2 Lichdragon Fortissax

Lichdragon Fortissax is only accessible at the tail-end of Fia's questline, wherein you traverse Deeproot Depths and enter her dream to find this dragon boss waiting. This boss is tough since it metes out a variety of lightning attacks.

It slams its lightning-coated claws onto the ground, causing lightning to surge out before returning. Fortissax can also summon lightning swords that it uses to either slam the ground or perform a sweep attack while airborne. Watch out for the murky yellow clouds that litter the arena because it causes a buildup that can kill you.

Lichdragon Fortissax can also inflict the nasty Death Light status effect. To avoid a painful death, bring some Death Blight protection, such as the talismans Prince of Death's Pustule and Prince of Death's Cyst.

1 Dragonlord Placidusax

One of the hardest optional bosses in Elden Ring, Dragonlord Placidusax is incredibly complicated to even get to in the first place. You will need to navigate to it by starting at the Beside The Great Bridge Site of Grace. With great bolts of lightning striking all over the place, Placidusax can release a great outflow of power that eats up so much of your HP.

When this boss disappears in a cloud of ash, be prepared for a sweeping attack followed by an electrified claw. This two-headed monstrosity spews out flames that quickly converge into a beam that can one-shot you. It can even summon a lightning rod on the ground before slamming its claw, causing a catastrophic explosion. Your dodging skills better be on point in this fight.