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Elden Ring, FromSoftware’s masterpiece, is a video game that honors the developers’ fame through a huge number of challenges, most of which are available in the so-called Legacy Dungeons.
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These special fortresses and areas represent the ultimate expression of Elden Ring’s characteristics, including level design, art style, narrative, and, of course, difficulty.
With demanding bosses, enemies, and even architecture, they’re the main threat to the journey of each player in the Lands Between and the Realm of Shadow, so here’s a ranked list of the hardest Elden Ring’s Legacy Dungeons.
9Raya Lucaria Academy
Easiest Faculty
| Location | Liurnia of the Lakes |
| Difficulty | Low/Medium |
| Recommended Level | 50/60 |
| Bosses | Red Wolf of Radagon; Rennala, Queen of the Full Moon |
Being the second Legacy Dungeon that most players will encounter, Raya Lucaria Academyis the easiest of the group despite its verticality and intricate structure.
Although it has many hidden chambers and shortcuts, it’s a straightforward dungeon that usually only catches you off-guard once. After you know its enemy placement and routes, the overall low health points and filler enemies will be effortless to dispatch.
Besides, it has one of the easiest Remembrance bosses in Elden Ring, but it can still prove to be a challenge for new players who aren’t used to FromSoftware’s style.
8Volcano Manor
The Blasphemous Path
| Location | Mt. Gelmir |
| Difficulty | Medium |
| Recommended Level | 60/80 |
| Bosses | Abductor Virgin Wheel & Swinging Sickle; Godskin Noble (Volcano Manor); Rykard, Lord of Blasphemy |
Filled with lava and tricky enemies, Volcano Manor is a challenging Legacy Dungeon whose difficulty is only dragged down by the bosses it contains.
Like the Academy of Raya Lucaria, it has a convoluted level design that can throw new players off. However, once you have discovered every path, the Godskin Noble boss fight is the only thing that can become a hard obstacle to surpass.
Apart from that, it’s true that most enemies are not that easy to avoid or defeat, but you will likely arrive at Volcano Manor above the recommended level, so not even the spectacle of Rykard can offer a substantial challenge.
7Leyndell, Royal Capital
Equatorial Challenge
| Location | Altus Plateau |
| Difficulty | Medium/High |
| Recommended Level | 80+ |
| Bosses | Godfrey, First Elden Lord (Golden Shade); Morgott, the Omen King |
Leyndell, Royal Capital is not only one of the most stunning locations in Elden Ring, but also one of the most balanced in terms of the difficulty it can pose for each player.
With many reappearing secondary bosses, such as a Valiant Gargoyle or a Black Knife Assassin, and with many new major ones, such as Godfrey and Morgott, the city offers a satisfying equilibrium between the familiar and the unknown.
At the same time, it features the largest and most complex map overlay of the Legacy Dungeons, so it has plenty of room to present challenges ranging from combat to platforming and exploration while always feeling fair and natural.
6Belurat Tower Settlement
Contained Hardships
| Location | Gravesite Plain |
| Difficulty | High |
| Recommended Scadutree Blessing Level | 3-5 |
| Bosses | Divine Beast Dancing Lion |
As the first Legacy Dungeon of the Shadow of the Erdtree DLC, Belurat Tower Settlement stands up as a demanding experience even for veterans of Soulsborne games.
With one of the hardest bosses in Elden Ring and many difficult new enemies, like the Spider Scorpions, the Horned Warriors, and the Gravebirds, Belurat is unforgiving at every step.
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If you rush and arrive with a low level of Scadutree’s Blessing, just getting to the Divine Beast Dancing Lion boss fight will seem like an impossible task, so it requires more preparation than usual.
5Crumbling Farum Azula
The Timeless Test
| Location | Mountaintops of the Giants |
| Difficulty | High |
| Recommended Level | 120+ |
| Bosses | Dragonlord Placidusax; Godskin Duo; Maliketh, the Black Blade |
Crumbling Farum Azula is the point of Elden Ring’s campaign when you realize the sheer scale of the title, but also when you discover how hard things can get.
Thanks to it being an end-game area, these ruins hold some of the most implacable adversaries of the game. Reviving enemies, dual bosses, a beheaded dragon that was once Elden Lord, a wolf that carries death in his hand… It has a lot going on.
It’s definitely one of the most beautiful locations in the game, but that beauty hides an incredible challenge from start to finish, sometimes even feeling unfair.
4Shadow Keep
Maze-like Trouble
| Location | Scadu Altus |
| Difficulty | High |
| Recommended Scadutree Blessing Level | 10/12 |
| Bosses | Golden Hippopotamus; Messmer the Impaler |
When it comes to the best Legacy Dungeons, it’s hard to deny that the Shadow Keep belongs to the conversation, especially since it makes you feel vulnerable in a way FromSoftware hasn’t managed to do in many years.
In a sense, it exhibits the formula’s best presentation, focusing on difficulty through every single element. With hard bosses, strong enemies, diverse ambushes, and an extremely confusing level layout, it forces you to relive the sensations of your first Soulsborne experience.
More often than not, you’ll wander its corridors, checking every corner, wall, and particle your eyes can see, because it will always have something coming up. It’s very tense, but it is a well-developed challenge.
3Stormveil Castle
Legacy Dungeons’ Debut
| Location | Limgrave |
| Difficulty | High |
| Recommended Level | 30/40 |
| Bosses | Margit, the Fell Omen; Godrick the Grafted |
Stormveil Castlehas been the graveyard of thousands of players’ playthroughs, facing you with an unexpectedly high challenge right off the bat while trying to teach you the basics of the game.
The fortress shares the common difficulty aspects of its counterparts, but, being the first Legacy Dungeon, everything feels even harder, primarily because most Tarnisheds will reach Margit much earlier than they should.
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If you add its massive horizontal and vertical size, its numerous elite enemies and branching paths, and the scarcity of tools to deal with its threats, it’s easy to see why Stormveil Castle is one of the hardest locations in Elden Ring.
2Miquella’s Haligtree
You Will Know Defeat
| Location | Consecrated Snowfield |
| Difficulty | Very High |
| Recommended Level | 120/150 |
| Bosses | Loretta, Knight of the Haligtree; Malenia, Blade of Miquella |
Just because of the existence of Malenia, Blade of Miquella, we will always find in Miquella’s Haligtreea prominent contender for the most difficult Legacy Dungeon in Elden Ring.
However, in addition to the bosses, the area itself gathers most of the game’s biggest threats, like the Giant Ants, the Leonine Misbegotten, the Revenants, the Kindred of Rot, and gravity. Tons of gravity.
Filled with scarlet rot, never-alone enemies, and a particular boss pattern that is surely responsible for the destruction of a considerable number of controllers, the Haligtree is a permanent menace to every player’s sanity.
1Enir-Ilim
Spiral Hell
| Location | After burning the sealing tree found in the Ancient Ruins of Rauh |
| Difficulty | Very High |
| Recommended Scadutree Blessing Level | 15+ |
| Bosses | Leda and Allies; Promised Consort Radahn |
The final area of Elden Ring’s DLC, Enir-Ilim, took FromSoftware’s cruelty to a new height, reaching a level of difficulty that wasn’t even seen in Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice or The Old Hunters from Bloodborne.
Being home to some of the hardest non-bosses enemies ever seen in the genre, alongside the hardest boss fight ever crafted by the company, the combination is just too merciless to comfortably bear.
Spirals of light from every direction, multiple Divine Beast Warriors harder than multiple bosses, a gank squad that will destroy your resolve, the cursed Gravebirds… It’s ungodly in every sense and rightfully the hardest Legacy Dungeon in Elden Ring.
9/ 10
Elden Ring
The 2022 action RPG by From Software joins the Souls-like subgenre by presenting one of the most punishing games in the field with grotesque, memorable bosses to keep you up at night. Inside a world built by Hidetaka Miyazaki and Game of Thrones writer George R.R. Martin, Elden Ring’s gothic landscape, unforgiving combat, and top-tier exploration will keep you invested well into the year.
