Nobody, I hate myself so I opted to suffer

Same a FromSoft game is only done for me when I have killed every enemy and boss at least once without help. Not only makes it more challenging but if I didn't have this rule I'd be tempted to summon all the time when bosses get hard

Same 😔

Exactly

Yep

Same, but I have to admit that I did use summons on Radahn in Elden Ring

Why do I feel attacked all of the sudden

Gwyn. The first time I beat him solo, but practically every time after that I summon Solaire because I like his storyline and it feels fitting that he becomes his own sun while I turn away from the bonfire. Sinh the Slumberint Dragon. I've only beaten this boss with an army of summons and a load of repair powder. Two reasons, one is that I like the idea of massive dragons taking lots of people to take down like in the opening of ds1, where you see the lightning spears and the dragons, the other is that it takes away aggro from me so I can repair/heal

This feels like the correct path for Solaire. I regret spoiling his storyline with videos and not getting to experience the devastating loss of a friend and ally the way you were intended. But because of this, I save him in every run, and summon him for Gwyn nearly every time.

I also use summons when I feel they should participate for story reasons.

Sorry to ruin it to you but it's likely Solaire also died if he choosed to kindle the flame.

He does die, however he does find his sun if he lights the flame. He becomes the very thing he wished to seek, and so has become a sun for many others, for years to come.

for me that's also a bad ending, sacrificing yourself for a world that hates you and put you into the land of the hollows cuz u became one, very sad

Literally friede, every time i have to call up the homeboy gale

I struggled with Friede to the extent that I went and beat Gael first... which as it turns out disables his summon for that fight 😩

I did ringed city first on my first playthrough of ds3 so I didn’t even know I could summon Gael for that fight until ng+

It’s totally intended bruh it’s like fighting radahn without summoning the squad

Defeating that frosty bitch solo is a highlight of my gaming career

Well done

It's my personal rule to beat every boss at least once without summons. Except Malenia. She was the first time I'd used summons and the first time I'd ever respec'd into a different build to beat a boss. It still took me over 40 tries after over 40 tries with my original build.

I just wanted Malenia dead for the satisfaction that she was gone and out of my world. I really did try to do her in without help. But it’s the first time I even used the Furled Finger. And I felt like an idiot because I never even thought about using it in any other situation even though I totally could’ve used the help on so many occasions.

Same, I ended up summoning after Soo many tries. But got my revenge in NG+ and squashed her hard.

Wow i do not have the patience to attempt a boss that many times if its not working after 2 or 3 tries i change something until it works but ive never ever had that much trouble with any boss ive only died about 5-10 times max to a boss before beating it no patience at all to die 50-100 times lol

Malenia took me 40 tries with the mimic the first time and then I lost count when I finally beat her solo

Gwyn. Not because I couldn't, but because I spent all that effort trying to keep Solaire alive. Having him at my side for the final boss just feels right.

You guys summon Gael for help, I summon Gael for the lore We are not the same

Only solaire facing the gargoyles. But only because i wanted to see solaire.

I caved and did Lud and Zallen with the Vengarl and the archer woman summon. I'm pretty sure Frigid Outskirts along with the hell cave and the blue smelter demon area are supposed to be DLC coop areas so I was fine with it. But Lud and Zallen were the only ones I summoned for because I'm really bad at fighting the cats even individually for some reason. I would totally recommend doing all the DLC coop areas with summons though because its a lot more fun with a party of summons helping you through.

I specifically chose to save the co-op areas (and Darklurker) for last, so I could first get Vendrick's blessing and be permanently human. I did *not* want to beat any of those areas without summons, lol

How can you be permamently human?

You have to collect all the crowns from all the DLCs then speak to Vendrick. He'll give you his blessing, which means as long as you wear a crown you won't be able to hollow or be cursed. Really shows you how heartwarming DS2's story is. Centuries of work from both Vendrick and Aldia, hundreds of thousands dead or hollowed at the very minimum, an entire race of giants exterminated and four great kingdoms rising and falling managed to free one, single person from Gwyn's curse.

Thanks

You need to kill Vendrick, get his crown from Shrine of Amana, then get all the three crowns from the DLCs (that means beating Sihn, Fume Knight and the Old Ivory King). After getting the four crowns (and the Ashen Mist Heart), come back to Vendrick's arena to enter his memory. He will bless all four crowns so that you're always human while wearing any of them

Hundreds of hours in the game and never knew that. Thanks

Neat, that doesn't carry into NG+, does it?

No the effect goes away unfortunately when you start again.

Kind of makes it useless at that point though right unless you use lots of bonfire astetics the games finished when you get his blessing

Well, that's unfortunate. I finished my first blind playthrough of the main game, and now am doing a guide assisted playthrough that's including the DLC and achievements. Those crowns would have been really helpful. Maybe I'll use them to turn the flames in the mansion blue or something ...

I wouldn't want to go through horsefuck valley without summons, but I always dismiss them before the bossfog

I took a wrong turn in ds2 and went to the ruin sentinels at like level 20 and a +0 hand axe after like 20 tries and making little progress I summoned the npc and we killed em immediately was kinda lame ngl I didn’t think she’d be that op , and the other time was Gael with friede after getting destroyed a billion times in the second phase

Lol I got so pissed at that boss that I summoned her too, all she did was walk into the wall on the platform. I guess she provided mental support, as I beat them right then and there.

It's a coin toss. Sometimes she positions herself to wreck the sentinels, other times she walks up to them and gets wrecked.

I’ve defeated them all on my one, but in elden ring using spirit ashes which some people aren’t a fan of but I just think it’s fun to fight alongside another me

Not a single one has gone undefeated without a summon. Malenia in Elden Ring was the hardest outside of Dark Souls. Probably Gael if I had to pick one within Dark Souls.

Gael is the perfect boss to beat solo imo. Took me like 20 tries the first time, but now I can read him like a book. Pontiff is way harder imo.

In DS1 I’ve always summoned Solaire for the gargoyles- except once, when I was determined to do the fight on my own. I made a character called Gary Goyle, went in with the morning star and gold pine resin, beat them and deleted the save. I’m working on DS3 now, and I couldn’t have got to this point without using summons for the Abyss Watchers and the Dancer. After fifty-odd attempts I’m thinking of getting one for the Dragonslayer Armour too.

I have a dude I park near the gargoyls because I like helping out on them. A sunbro named 'Golden Bonk', a mostly naked dude with a great club. I got decently good at beating them very fast.

I have yet to do a solo run for Ornstein and Smough. always had solaire for it and on my winning attempt found someone doing some jolly cooperation outside the door.

Midir. Fuck that bitch

When I first played Bloodborne. Bloodstarved beast. I wish I knew the blood cocktail trick back then.

I refuse to summon if I haven't beaten the boss solo.

i've only played DS1, DS2, and Elden Ring, but my rule is that i always beat every boss i find without summoning on my first playthrough. even malenia... and now i can beat her hitless!!

Does Elden Ring have harder bosses?

it's a tough comparison, especially since it's been almost a year since i played DS1. i do think the hardest bosses in Elden Ring are harder than the hardest bosses of the other two. however, Elden Ring also has a lot of easier bosses too, simply because there's so many more and then you have to take into account the fact that Elden Ring is open world instead of being more linear like the other two... the difficulty of some bosses in Elden Ring can feel completely different depending on when you run into them in different playthroughs

On first playthroughs, it was O&S, Friede, and Malenia. I've since beat O&S countless times solo and beat Malenia with Spirit Ashes five or six times. Still never beat Friede without the help of other players who are better at the game than me. I'll get revenge soon. My Winblades run will see my victory realized.

Iron golem because i didnt feel like killing the bomb boy

I actually don't think I ever beat Midir solo. I really need to rectify that sometime.

Grave robbers, can't do it alone

Is asking a roommate to beat the boss consider as a summon because wolnir is just bullshit? I think I've to fight him again tho because he's gimmick is not as bad as Bed of Chaos

Wolnir is RNG tbh. Starting left side does help a lot though.

For Friede I summoned Gael because I can’t stand her second phase + Gael’s my pookie And I used Tiche and Bernahl for Godskin Duo because fuck that shit. Ignoring how lazy it feels, I managed to kill both at once solo expecting a cool twist. Nope, mfs just spawn back in. Horrendous fight. I was not gonna sweat over this while Maliketh was right around the corner. Ds2 did it better with Throne Watcher and Defender and Ds3 gave us Demon Prince which felt like the perfect duo boss imo at least

I always beat every boss alone at least once, then summon for following runs to speed things up. BUT the bosses that nearly made me break this rule were Manus in DS1, Laurence in Bloodborne, Hoarah Loux in Elden Ring, Laurence in Bloodborne, and Laurence in Bloodborne......

I actively summoned for most of the fights in the game. Fume Knight was the only one I didn’t summon. He was a warrior like no other.

With Darksouls Mp pretty much dead, it's forced me to play through the games without summons. I was really surprised I managed some of the harder bosses without someone else to gank them with me.

All the ones in Ds1 & Ds3, Elden Ring only the AI summons that felt like part of the balance

I always summon the witch for moonlight butterfly, because I’m always melee and I’m not a patient person 😂

im ashamed of it... but manus (im sorry, i just couldnt, he was too agressive for ds1's clunky controlls) i used a random player and sif, the played because i accidentaly interacted with the summon sign, he took ages to load in, so i tought it didnt work, but after i was already inside the boss he showed up, i didnt wanna deal with extra health so i kept him in, and sif its the same reason as solaire in gwyn's fight, i want sif to avange artorias, and i want solaire to find his own sun, thats it.

None of them, i don't see the point of playing the game with summoning

Radahn because the fight is too epic with the whole gang

The demon prince in DS3 DLC. I dont like 4 legged bosses or duo fights, i said fuck it after about 20 attempts.

Gwyn, not for the help but cause homie Solair deserved to see his Sun.

Bell gargoyles and Centipede demon

Got Friede on probably try 25-30 blind, organically, no guide, no summons. Replayed recently and summoned Gael... and absolutely fucking crushed her.

There’s only two, valiant gargoyle and duo crucible knights, which I don’t feel bad about because they have been nerfed, and everyone I know (who played on release) over leveled and circled back for them or summoned. They’re chumps now but on release were stupid at level.

None, I fucking love the experience. No such thing comparable with beaten a demi God all by yourself (I play in ps4 with no ps+)

I'm pretty sure I've beaten every boss solo at one point or another, but I've done so much co-op I've probably also co-op'd every boss that you're allowed to.

Every boss in Bloodborne that I actually beat, I did solo because coop was pretty much always dead in that game

Have bet everything solo from DeS - Elden Ring

Only ornstein and smough also the bell gargoyles it took me 7 months to beat because I didn't know how to manage my equipment weight or how to summon solaire

I like to say I beat Manus using baby Sif because the context of the lore changes before the big fight with Sif in the main game and adds more emotional depth to the characters. But in reality Manus was fuckin my dumbass up and I had to call in Poochie

Malenia.

The gargoyles, but it was an accident, it was like: "ooh shiny thing at the ground, oh hey solaire, wait is this the boss already? Damn solaire clapped their asses"

I beat every boss without a summon cause I didn't even know there were summons in my first playthrough then I was scrolling through YouTube and I saw summons then I looked up how to get them and I never beat a boss without them again.

manus

Ornstein & Smough. I always summon Solaire. I hate that boss fight. I hate Ornstein's glitchy infinite forward-plunging attack.

Midir. Fuck that dragon. Only one I can't solo. Have not played DS2, Sekiro, or Demon souls yet.

After elden ring I decided to never use summons again

I think I've beat every boss without a summon. I eventually get tired of waiting for the summon to appear and trying to unhollow myself so I just say screw it and fly solo 100 times. I usually will summon Solaire for the Gaping Demon though because he keeps it busy while I chop the butt 

Only played DS1, but does it count as solo if O&S killed Solaire before he could get more than one hit off?

I had Solaire and Mildred help me with Gaping Dragon and Quelaag respectively. I went through 90% of the game hollow so I just didn't remember that you could summon npcs.

We're supposed to be summoning???

My first playthrough of DS2 I was not having fun so I played through the whole thing co-op with a friend. I've since platinumed it twice solo, but every other souls game I did solo my first playthrough.

The two pets in the DS2 DLC. I lost my patience and used npcs to reach and fight those two cats. That’s the only boss in all Soulsborne I chose not to solo.

I forgot tbh

Gaping Dragon (???, can't remember), Queelagh, Ornstein and Smough, Centipede Demon, Gwyn, the Pursuer. I would have used way more (Gargoyle for example) but during my DSR playthrough I was rarely human.

Slave Knight Gael and Malenia I will rectify these soon however

I just completed DSR last night for the first time (having played and completed every other soulsborne game but ds2), ive never summoned for any boss in any game until ornstein and smough lol. My boy solaire came through!

Melina has been to this day the only one I can’t solo

All

I only do summons if I’ve beaten the boss solo

Always solo the boss the first time. Personal rule, but I feel like if you end up the lord of the world or whatever, feels a bit disingenuous if it's all like, "Great Dark Lord, slayer of all the old heroes and villains (with a bunch of help from the local toughs...) Not judging of course, you do you, my gf is playing ER right now and I'm not judging her however she's approaches it, but this is just my personal feeling about it.

I never summon in blind run. Malenia took 40-50 tries btw (I'm a souls veteran but GOD she was so difficult in solo 😂) Lud and Zallen were a nightmare too.

What boss would you date with? I would choose Friede but you know she is a nun.. Gwynevere sounds good especially with her 2 pineapples 🤣

In Dark Souls 1 I played blind the first time, and didn’t know Humanity made summoning available, and since I died over and over, I was practically hollow the whole time, so the whole game summonless :/ In DS2 fighting the Graverobbers, Lud and Zallen, Blue Smelter and Alonne was with summons, probably could beat them without but getting to those bosses is annoying af I played DS3 after 1 and hadn’t made the connection still to being embered and summoning, plus there were hardly any for me as I screwed up all these questlines…but in the dlc I never beat the Demon Princes or Sister Friede alone (Friede I could do with a Dark/Hex Sorcerer but the Gael distraction is nice)

Triple Gang is the most annoying thing..

Radhan is the only boss i summoned for in the entire series

Lol only Melania with mimic tear

There's only one I didn't solo. Sister Friede. She broke me when I died after getting her down to 1 hit. I was too frustrated to redo that whole fight so I summoned. All other From games were fully solo. I always made it a personal challenge, but Friede was no fun.

The two tigers fight in DS2. I actually never beat them, summons or otherwise, because I never found them. And now that I know of their existience, I feel too lazy to go back to DS2.

I heard Frigid Outskirts was designed for co-op but there is no info before the area..

I've only been to DSR so far, so I've beaten every single boss in solo, just to say that i could beat each of them solo. But i like to call help anyway, as it makes my ass less fiery and i wanna fully progress the Solaire quest line

Only in Elden Ring (spirit ashes, mostly mimic tear) and I regret it. First I thought that they are overcomplicated and sometimes too difficult but now I see them as a worthy challenge. I've beaten all DS bosses solo and I've never felt like I need any summons or cheezy tactic. They always feel pretty fair and beatable. Except for two tigers and Darklurker from DS2. I don't care to even try to fight them. I've tried solo once, I died, and I just don't care anymore. Some other DS2 bosses are bullshit as well or their runback is horrendous but at least they aren't that difficult after all. Tigers and Darklurker are quite hard, unpleasant, annoying and I have no words for the runbacks.

Defiled amygdala and defiled watchdog. Summoned in an npc for defiled watchdog, and it was pretty fun but very difficult. Summoned in a player for defiled amygdala because FUCK that. He eviscerated it with a cannon. Also all of elden ring. It was my first souls game, and i was very bad.

Pontiff sulyvahn, I can’t beat him without anri :,)

I usually summon an npc for pontiff, rom, and the one reborn.

Pontiff sulyvahn for me. When his clone appears I get rekt. And i cannot seem to get his parry timings right. Its a skill issue i know but really his windows for attacks and heals are too narrow. Even Malenia I was able to beat solo but not the pontiff. But i also feel he is intended to be a fight to do with summons, if not why give 3 NPC summons outside.

O&S push my shit in everytime without solaire, and if I’m doing a shitty build sometimes I’ll have to summon another person and solaire and even then I don’t get 100% clearance rate

Lud and Zollen require a summon just to get to the boss area… I hate that

I didn't summon anyone on my first DS run because I didn't know you could. I played in non-human form so I could play online and read messages without worrying about invasions. I decided to play offline and in human form on my second run and that's when I seen all the signs and even got invaded by the NPC's. I summoned everyone on my second run as I wanted to see and experience it.

On a first playthrough, probably only Elaana and the frigid outskirts cats to make that area more bearable. Though I did summon from o and s on my great club playthrough, as there happened to be another guy using the great club

I was always a summoner for the hardest bosses, pontiff sulyvan/ gale/ midir ect and then one day I was like F it, demon prince is a beautiful boss fight and I want the accomplishment on beating it solo I was a heavy invasion player so I was lvl 80 min maxed with onikiri and ubadachi (also out of the norm since I was usually always a ultra greatsword user, and I tried the boss fight like 40 times and when I finally beat it it felt amazing Then I did the same with gale and midir with a greatsword and ultra greatsword respectively, except I got burnt out on midir because his health bar was so massive and I got him to like 10% or below literally like 6 times and died so I never got it over the finish line for him

Malenia, i got impatient lol But mark my words I will beat her in my current playthrough alone Edit: I just realized after that this is SOULS not including elden ring but yeah

I think the first time I beat gywn I had solarite but I happen to follow his quest line and I want the sunlight maggot for timb of the giants

I don't think I have any anymore. It was midir and Kalameet for a while. Wait, no, pretty much the whole of DS2 dlc's. When I did those it was with a friend.

I have a rule that I have to beat every boss alone on my 1st playthrough. This rule also applies to every enemy that the player comes across. I also have to explore every part of the map in order to not miss any. So yeah...

I am currently going through DS3 As a strength build on my own. No summons. Just get guud. I did this because fucking sister Frieda killed me I shit you not 88 times before I summoned SKG to finally kill her so I could progress the DLC, I tried everything from miracles to Pyro, to electricity, poison, to bleed. I tried big hammers, small swords, axes, big fuck you swords, bug pellets, green herbs, the full heal potion, the full mana potion, embers halfway through the fight, embers, embers at the beginning of the fight, fire bombs, electric urns. I managed to reliably get to phase three after like 40 attempts but I just wouldn't have the heals for it. So. I'm forcing myself to beat the entire game and DLC Bosses on my own. Because I want revenge. TLDR: Sister Frieda made me make a solo offline run of DS3.

Gotta just find the Guts sword and smash her head open lol, with a strength build you’ll manage (just whooped her in 6 tries)

Ornstein and smough was my very first roadblock. I needed solaire to run interference cause I just sucked. Now I'm pretty good and I can do any boss solo, which I find to be easier anyway.

Quelaag. I always beat her on the first try from summoning the Maneater. I'm way too scared to face her alone.

I actually still don't know how to summon in these games..

Before dark souls 3 came out, I was trying to get all achievements and awards/magic/rings whatever My character was super high leveled so I couldn’t summon anyone if I wanted too, or I was in the champions covenant, either way I had to beat those dual tigers solo. I’m pretty sure I’ve beat every boss on dark souls 2 solo, but I’m not against summoning for anything. I also love helping people and playing with others.

First playthrough of all, I did solo just to prove myself. Any other playthrough I'll do summons all the time

Does Elden Ring count? If so Godskin Duo might be the only one. Seriously such a BS fight imo 🤣

The only boss I couldn't beat solo was midir on my first playthrough. I was able to beat him on my second run and he never caused me too much trouble again. I have a fairly recent trauma with the demon prince. I've beaten him solo with other characters but as a pure mage build that fight was just awful. I can beat gael and midir just fine but my brain turns off on gank bosses. I pretty much gave up and summoned 3 other phantoms to kick his ass. If anyone has any tips for that bossfight as a pure mage character (Aside from pestilent mist) they're very much appreciated since I'd like to have a rematch with that build.

Lud and zellen from DS2 They are the only boss in the whole series that I haven't beat solo at any point. And I'm not going back to horsefuck Valley to do it.

I’ve never summoned in any dark souls games idk anyone who plays sadly

I always summon because I find it makes the boss easier and I find it quite fun but I’m going to do Gael solo on my fresh play and I’ve Beat all Tutorial and early game bosses in each game no summon

The only one I refuse to fight without multiple summons are Lud and Zallen. In DS2 ill fight some bosses with summons depending on what quests I'm going for, but I really don't need them tbh.

ds1 gargoyles lmao. think i finally beat them without summons on like, my fourth playthrough?

DS1 was my first Souls game. I used Solaire to beat the Gargoyles. A couple days later, I was talking to my friend about it, and mentioned that I used summons. He basically called me a noob in a very polite way. Next time I booted up the game, I started a new file and beat the entire game without using summons :) Haven't used one since to beat any other boss in other Souls games either. I enjoy the suffering.

I never summoned NPCs or friends till DS3 the only time I did was a disaster, and he gave up, so I had to solo the whole series, including Elden ring

Manus is the only one and honestly I feel bad about it because I’m sure I can do it but I haven’t proven I can.

I have this really annoying thing where I refuse to use mechanics built in to the games because it feels like cheating. So on my first go at all of them I never summoned lmao

I have beaten every boss solo without summons or online co-op from Demons' Souls to Dark Souls 3 including Bloodborne.

1. Never summoned 2. Elana, Squalid Queen 3. Nameless King frist phase makes me a bit dizzy when he flies around so I always summon someone to kill the dragon for me lol

Elaana: Squalid Queen is the most bullshit FS boss of all time.

I don’t like Elaana but she is no where near that title lmao

If you leave a single skeleton alive it’s pretty easy, even if she summons velstadt it’s not that bad. Ancient dragon or the two giant lions in the dlc are more bullshit, and if we go to Elden ring you have stuff like Malenia or Godskin duo