Bloodborne bosses

Fextralife’s boss index counts 17 bosses in the base game, 21 in chalice dungeons, and 5 in The Old Hunters. Some are optional. A glitch route that fights only Rom and Mergo’s Wet Nurse is not the intended progression.

Hunter's field tools

Base-game & DLC boss finder

17 base-game encounters and 5 DLC encounters. Required means the standard base-game story path. The final two Dream fights depend on your ending. Chalice encounters are excluded.

The two ending encounters keep their names and conditions behind closed spoiler disclosures. Expand each one only when ready; they remain included in the 22-encounter count.

Cleric Beast and Blood-starved Beast are each optional, but the standard route to Amelia requires one of their access routes. DLC story bosses are required only to finish the expansion; Laurence remains optional.

22 encounters

Bosses, progression requirements and sources
Encounter	Area	Route	Condition
Cleric Beast	Central Yharnam	Optional / conditional	Optional individually; its badge opens the emblem route to Amelia.Wiki
Father Gascoigne	Central Yharnam	Required	Opens the route to Cathedral Ward.Wiki
Blood-starved Beast	Old Yharnam	Optional / conditional	Optional individually; opens the workshop route to Amelia.Wiki
Vicar Amelia	Cathedral Ward	Required	Inspect the altar skull afterward to learn the woods password.Wiki
The Witch of Hemwick	Hemwick Charnel Lane	Optional / conditional	Optional branch; needed for the Cainhurst carriage.Wiki
Darkbeast Paarl	Yahar'gul / Old Yharnam gate	Optional / conditional	Optional; accessible from Hypogean Gaol or later Yahar'gul.Wiki
Shadow of Yharnam	Forbidden Woods	Required	Guards the route to Byrgenwerth.Wiki
Martyr Logarius	Forsaken Cainhurst Castle	Optional / conditional	Optional Cainhurst branch.Wiki
Amygdala	Nightmare Frontier	Optional / conditional	Optional Nightmare Frontier branch.Wiki
Rom, the Vacuous Spider	Moonside Lake / Byrgenwerth	Required	Advances the world to the Blood Moon.Wiki
The One Reborn	Yahar'gul, Unseen Village	Required	Opens the route toward the Lecture Building and Mensis.Wiki
Celestial Emissary	Upper Cathedral Ward	Optional / conditional	Optional; precedes Ebrietas.Wiki
Ebrietas, Daughter of the Cosmos	Altar of Despair	Optional / conditional	Optional; reached beyond the Celestial Emissary.Wiki
Micolash, Host of the Nightmare	Nightmare of Mensis	Required	Precedes Mergo's Wet Nurse.Wiki
Mergo's Wet Nurse	Nightmare of Mensis	Required	Complete other exploration before choosing an ending in the Dream.Wiki
Ludwig, the Accursed / Holy Blade	Hunter's Nightmare	DLC story path	Required to continue the DLC story; the DLC is optional for the base ending.Wiki
Living Failures	Research Hall	DLC story path	Required on the DLC story path.Wiki
Lady Maria of the Astral Clocktower	Astral Clocktower	DLC story path	Required on the DLC story path.Wiki
Orphan of Kos	Fishing Hamlet	DLC story path	Final boss of the DLC story.Wiki
Laurence, the First Vicar	Hunter's Nightmare	DLC / optional	Optional even within the DLC; requires Laurence's Skull.Wiki
Ending encounter - reveal spoiler Gehrman, the First Hunter Ending-dependent: fight only if you refuse his offer. Wiki source	Hunter's Dream	Optional / conditional	Open the spoiler disclosure in the encounter column for conditions.
Ending encounter - reveal spoiler Moon Presence Ending-dependent: refuse, consume at least 3 cords before defeating Gehrman, then defeat him. Wiki source	Hunter's Dream	Optional / conditional	Open the spoiler disclosure in the encounter column for conditions.

Explore Bloodborne bosses

Illustration of a brass lantern, field notes and an iron sword on a stone ledge — AI-generated field-notes illustration; not an in-game item or official artwork.

Illustration of a cloaked traveler facing a moonlit gothic cathedral — AI-generated site illustration; not an in-game screenshot or official artwork.

I used the boss index as a census and the progress-route page as an order, then stopped before assigning a personal difficulty score. Difficulty is how a weapon and a level meet a moveset. The pages linked from here say where the fight is, what it drops, and what the wiki lists as a weakness. They are community notes, not developer patch data.

How this section is split

The order page is a checklist for the main game and the expansion. Individual pages cover the fights people search by name: Cleric Beast, Vicar Amelia, Amygdala, Mergo’s Wet Nurse, Gehrman, the Moon Presence, and the Old Hunters bosses Ludwig, Lady Maria, Laurence, and the Orphan of Kos.

Chalice bosses stay in the chalice guide rather than forty thin pages. Living Failures is part of the DLC sequence even though it does not have its own URL yet.

Questions

How many bosses are there?

17 in the base game, 5 in The Old Hunters, and 21 chalice bosses, according to the Fextralife boss index.

Who is the first boss?

Cleric Beast is optional on the Great Bridge. Father Gascoigne is the required fight that ends Central Yharnam.

Sources checked 2026-10-24

DLC bosses Route