As any Resident Evil fan will tell you, Capcom’s iconic survival horror franchise has been struggling to keep things consistent of late. There have been incredible main series entries, super questionable spin-offs, and everything in between. We’ve seen a dramatic paradigm shift from slow and suspenseful survival horror to all-out guns-blazing action, and long-time players aren’t really sure where they stand just now.
Regardless of how you feel about the earlier Resident Evil titles versus the later TPS-tastic ones, we can probably agree that the series is at its best when it’s bringing us huge, hideous, challenging bosses to face off against. Here are our picks for some of the most difficult the series has ever seen.
Updated October 19, 2021 by Josh Davison: Capcom’s Resident Evil series has undergone something of a resurgence with the recent releases of Resident Evil 7, Resident Evil 2: Remake, the Resident Evil 3: Remake, and now Resident Evil: Village. Each of these releases was acclaimed to varying degrees and widely loved by audiences. Village has added new memorable characters and dimensions to the Resident Evil series, and it has particularly delightful and difficult boss fights that pushed protagonist Ethan Winters to his absolute limits. The monsters of Village were no slouches in the slightest, and they could easily end Ethan if he’s not on his toes.
16 Yawn (Resident Evil) Poisoned The Player And Covered The Room
It’s one of the most popular and overused horror tropes in the genre: if you think you’ve killed the villain, you haven’t. Not the first time around, anyway. Resident Evil doesn’t really tend to reuse its standard bosses, but Yawn the snake would have to be one of the exceptions, wouldn’t it?
The original trilogy’s tank controls are infamous for making combat a major pain. A gigantic foe in a confined space was a bad, bad time, even if the first battle was mercifully short. The later battle in the library, where the beast was finally killed, wasn’t any more enjoyable. Not as difficult as the rest of the battles on this list, perhaps, but (very) far from intuitive.
15 Heisenberg (Resident Evil: Village) Thrusts Classic Tank Controls On Ethan
Heisenberg pulls a bit of a bait-and-switch on Ethan Winters. The opening hours of the game imply some connection between Heisenberg and the werewolves, but Heisenberg’s true talent is his Magneto-like mastery of magnetism and the creation of cybernetic monstrosities. He’s more Victor Frankenstein than Wolfman.
His boss fight involves pulling together a giant metal beast and trying to destroy Ethan that way. Ethan uses a tank to fight this creature for the first stages of the fight, forcing Ethan to adapt the tank controls of the early Resident Evil protagonists. This fight concludes with Ethan having to dodge vast area-of-effect attacks on his feet before Heisenberg finally goes down.
14 Infected Bat (Resident Evil 0) Came With A Host Of Smaller Friends
This series really does have a monopoly on the market of irritating giant animal bosses, doesn’t it? Prequel Resident Evil 0 sets the scene for the viral outbreak of the original, sending Rebecca Chambers and Billy Cohen on the ride of their lives. The giant scorpion was one thing, but this malevolent mammalian monster really takes the cake.
On paper, it’s not such a difficult fight, and some players don’t have any issues with it. the problem is that the bat, of course, has wings, in a time before it was convenient to aim at flying enemies in a Resident Evil game. It can deal a surprising amount of damage with its far-reaching moves, too, and there’s a lot of potential for being stunlocked if you aren’t careful. Those teeny bat mobs do nothing to help proceedings either.
13 Marguerite (Resident Evil 7) Is Both Tough And Downright Terrifying
The franchise has lost its way a little, true, but Capcom hasn’t entirely forgotten its survival horror roots. Resident Evil Revelations, along with its sequel and Resident Evil 7, represented solid attempts to marry to the action-centric and creeping horror styles of Resident Evil together.
Speaking of creeping horror, Resident Evil 7 delivered a lot of in-your-face thrills and chills with its first-person perspective. The final showdown with Marguerite was a great example, a pitched battle with Jack Baker’s now-mutated wife in the greenhouse. She’s very mobile, able to scuttle around on the walls and launch surprise attacks from all directions. She’s also able to spawn more enemies, which adds another dimension to the fight. Even so, this encounter takes place quite early in the game and there’s a lot worse to come.
12 Tyrant: T-002 (Resident Evil) Is The First Big Bad And Has A Time Limit
The Tyrant’s going to crop up more than once over the course of this rundown. After all, these things are among the most formidable and imposing enemies in all of Resident Evil’s confusing and terrifying repertoire. Firstly, we’ll take a look at the original Tyrant, the one that (briefly) ‘killed’ infamous series villain Albert Wesker himself.
Just before escaping the mansion, our intrepid heroes tangle with this abomination on the helipad. At this stage, it’s in its Super Tyrant form, which isn’t a good time for anyone concerned. Its damage output, the confined arena and the wait for the rocket launcher combine to make this last battle quite daunting, though the rocket launcher makes things much more manageable.
11 Nemesis 2nd Final Form (Resident Evil 3 Remake) Pushes Jill To The Limit
Nemesis is the only real boss in the Resident Evil 3 remake. Fortunately, the beast mutates enough to make each bout interesting. If your first playthrough is on Hardcore, then this bout will take everything you have in your arsenal.
The game is merciful enough to throw some ammo at you, but you'll usually be down to your last few bullets before defeating this enemy, and that's if you're accurate. Subsequent playthroughs with unlocks from new game plus make the fight a little easier.
10 Moreau (Resident Evil: Village) Rains Acid Down On The Arena
Moreau is the pathetic, self-loathing head of Mother Miranda’s village. He is a hunched-over and sickly thing that is picked on by the likes of Dimitrescu and Heisenberg. However, he transforms into a gigantic fish-like monstrosity when pushed to his limits.
There is a lot of dodging Moreau’s attacks before Ethan can take him on directly. Even when the fight comes, Moreau is a tough beast to deal with. He slowly chases Ethan and soaks up any damage that the beleaguered man can dole out. After taking enough punishment, Moreau begins vomiting acid to rain down on the area, and this can put an end to Ethan’s quest quickly.
9 Verdugo (Resident Evil 4) Is The Boss You Don't Kill
That’s right, friends. It’s Salazar’s dreaded ‘right-hand man.' If you don’t know this thing by name, perhaps ‘that Xenomorph-looking thing that chases you around while you wait for the elevator to unlock’ will refresh your memory.
For inexperienced players, this is an enemy you aren’t really supposed to defeat per se. Your goal is simply to survive its onslaught until the timer has ticked down and then escape. It’s a super tense encounter and certainly very difficult the first time. If you don’t have the right strategy, it can seem all but invincible. However, if you freeze it with one of those handy liquid nitrogen tanks and then hit it with the rocket launcher, it will immediately die. A real mixed bag, as far as difficulty goes; perfect for the middle slot of our list.
8 Super Tyrant 'Mr. X' (Resident Evil 2) Has An Insta-Kill Attack
The next Tyrant we’re going to meet is another Super variant: the final boss of Resident Evil 2, good old Mr. X. It’s a lengthier, more daunting battle than in the previous game.
As you’d probably surmised from previous encounters with this charming fellow, Mr. X won’t go down quickly. He pops up during your escape from the laboratory, and you go at it as the building collapses around you. It’s more a battle of endurance than anything else, as the Super Tyrant has a lot of HP and deals a great deal of damage.
7 U3 (Or “It”) (Resident Evil 4) Is Tougher Than His Name Implies
Sometimes, Resident Evil goes to great pains to give its ghastly monsters inventive and exotic-sounding names. Other times, it simply calls them “It” and clocks off for the day. Creative name? Perhaps not, but this thing ticks a lot of the boxes needed for one of the most challenging Resident Evil bosses ever.
The first part of this battle takes place in a cramped series of cages, in which little puzzles must be solved against strict time limits to prevent insta-deaths. Once you’re out and into the arena, this creature takes a lot of punishment (expect to lose a lot of ammo), moves unpredictably and has a lot of range on its powerful lunging attacks.
6 Mother Miranda (Resident Evil: Village) Is An Intense Fungal-Powered Challenge
Admittedly, Mother Miranda doesn’t pose any unique challenge in the grand scale of Resident Evil games. There is the regular task of resource management and avoiding her sweeping attacks, but there’s nothing especially unfair about Miranda. She is just a genuinely tough and frustrating boss, and it doesn’t take long for her to dismantle Ethan if he isn’t careful.
She can take a lot of damage too, and she spends much of the fight flying through the air with her black angelic wings. She controls the very battlefield thanks to her command of the megamycete, and that leaves Ethan at a strong disadvantage.
5 Queen Leech (Resident Evil 0) Is A Boss Battle And An Escort Mission
The survival horror format of the series makes first playthroughs especially punishing. You never know what's coming next so you cannot possible know how to prepare for it. It is very easy to end up at the last battle lacking sufficient ammunition. Many gamers found themselves in a similar situation in Resident Evil 0 while facing off against Queen Leech. Fortunately, an exploit allows you to defeat the boss from a safe spot. Were it not for this, many probably would have given up or started the game over from the beginning.
4 Nemesis (Resident Evil 3: Nemesis) Is Still An All-Time Tough Boss Monster
Even though Resident Evil 3's remake has been out for almost a year, fans of the 1999 original are still spending plenty of time going face-to-face with one of the series’ most iconic big bads, Nemesis, in the original PS1 classic.
We don’t need to remind you just how terrifying this guy really was. Somebody with an affinity for waving rocket launchers around isn’t generally the kind of guy who’s open to settling disputes amicably, but Nemesis takes that concept to a whole new level. He crops up eleven times throughout the course of the game, has three different forms and can be very tough to escape, let alone defeat. The final boss is a tricky, puzzly, eyeball-y nightmare.
3 The T-078 (Resident Evil: Code Veronica) Is An Unfair Fight On A Plane
Ah, yes. Better known as simply the ‘plane Tyrant,’ this particular beast has swiftly ended many a Resident Evil: Code Veronica run. It manages to combine various elements of difficult Resident Evil bosses into one infuriating, sometimes downright unfair fight.
For one thing, Claire Redfield has absolutely nowhere to run to in this encounter. For another, the player might well be scrabbling for ammo, leaving them all but defenseless. In a blind playthrough, this curveball of a boss comes out of nowhere at all and could potentially doom your entire run.
2 Nemesis' Final Form (Resident Evil 3 Remake) Can End Jill Immediately
The thing that makes Nemesis' final form so intimidating is how difficult it is regardless of how many times you have already beaten the game. Unlocks that increase your health and inventory do little to help when the beast can take you out in just a couple of hits. On the hardest difficulty, there is almost no room for error, and bonus weapons like the Infinite Rocket Launcher do almost nothing. You have to use your pistol and be as accurate as possible to shoot its weak spots before using the rail gun to destroy it once and for all.
1 Derek Simmons (Resident Evil 6) Is A Multi-Stage Boss Nightmare
The dreaded ‘Plane Tyrant’ might be a lot of players’ first pick for the number one slot, but for our money, that darn Derek Simmons from Resident Evil 6 just squeaked in there to take the top spot. How? The simple fact is, no boss in the series is (arguably) as persistent, as powerful, and unpredictable as Simmons.
In a climactic battle at the end of Leon S. Kennedy’s campaign, the conniving villain adopts various forms as his mutations worsen. From a four-legged flaming horse-beast to an enormous and powerful creature that resembles a dinosaur, to a vast insect, each of his forms is strong and intensely resilient. They require varying strategies to take down, a battle unlike anything the Resident Evil games had brought us up to this point.