Elden Ring is nearing its one-year anniversary, and fans are starting to wonder what future DLC for the title will look like. While any new DLC is sure to add new areas and story, one of the major draws to this title and every Soulsborne game before it are challenging boss fights. When thinking of challenging FromSoftware DLC boss fights, it’s hard not to conjure up the grotesque image and harrowing screams of the Orphan of Kos, the final boss of Bloodborne‘s The Old Hunters Expansion. With so many challenging bosses already in the game, it may be difficult for Elden Ring to live up to the Orphan of Kos’ reputation for difficult DLC bosses.
Even so, difficulty is never something that Elden Ring developer FromSoftware has shied away from. Elden Ring DLC may not need its own Orphan of Kos boss fight equivalent, but there’s certainly nothing standing in the way should director Hidetaka Miyazaki decide it’s something he wants to pursue. There has been no information on any kind of Elden Ring DLC coming in the near future, but it is still interesting to take a look at what kind of boss could be more challenging than what’s already in the game.
Bloodborne’s Orphan of Kos
For those that may not have played FromSoftware’s nightmarish Bloodborne, Orphan of Kos is widely considered the most difficult boss in the entire game. Some even go so far as to call it the most challenging, or one of the most challenging, boss fight in the entire FromSoftware catalog. This strange creature earns that honor with its impressive damage and health, blinding speed, and unpredictable moveset, but the fight is also renowned as a culmination of all the themes Bloodborne tries to drive home.
When players encounter the Orphan of Kos, they witness its posthumous birth as the creature is expelled from the corpse of Kos, its presumed mother and one of the Great Ones that drive the story of Bloodborne. It is thin and misshapen, and wields its own placenta as a weapon against the player in combat. If all of this sounds horrific, then the Orphan of Kos is fulfilling its role perfectly. This game is full of cosmic horrors and unsettling themes, and the Orphan of Kos embodies all of Bloodborne‘s themes to the letter.
Elden Ring’s Own Orphan of Kos
By contrast, Elden Ring is notably less Lovecraftian, so its own challenging DLC boss would probably not be so grotesque. What it would need to elevate it to the same level of infamy as the Orphan of Kos is to be even more challenging than anything in the base game and encapsulate the major themes of Elden Ring all at once. In terms of challenge, it is mostly agreed that Malenia, Blade of Miquella is the most challenging boss in Elden Ring, so this new enemy would have to be even tougher than her. There’s already some contention about whether Malenia is harder than Orphan of Kos, so it’s quite horrifying to think of a boss taking things to the next level.
Elden Ring has a lot of themes, but one that players are presented with very early on and that persists throughout the entire story is ambition. The player’s Tarnished is “emboldened by the flame of ambition,” and every character they meet has their own idea for how the Elden Ring should be mended or altogether abandoned. Elden Ring needs to create a thematic enemy to challenge the Tarnished’s ambition, but what form that takes remains to be seen. Malenia stated that her brother Miquella is “the most fearsome Empyrean of all,” so he is one potential candidate for a DLC boss like this. Whether Elden Ring‘s Orphan of Kos takes the form of Miquella, an Outer God, or something else entirely, it will surely give players the challenge of a lifetime.
Elden Ring is available now on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
