There aren’t many dragons in the Dark Souls series, mainly because Gwyn brought them to near extinction before the events of the first game, but on those rare moments when a dragon is encountered, it’s always one of the most memorable parts of the games they appear in.

Each encounter with one of the awesome dragons on this list is an epic and almost cinematic experience. It’s just the player versus a mighty dragon, and each victory is hard earned but totally worth it. The Souls series is amazing enough on their own, but the chance to fight terrifying dragons like Darkeater Midir makes the games that much more exciting.

10 Darkeater Midir

Kicking off this list is Darkeater Midir, an optional boss from Dark Souls 3’s DLC The Ringed City. It’s debatable whether Midir is the toughest dragon to face in the Souls series, but he’s certainly among the most intimidating.

Midir is descended from the Archdragons and was raised by the Gods of Lordran to fight the Abyss, which is already enough of a résumé to make players worried. Midir uses sweeping melee attacks and far-reaching fire breath, as well as devastating dark beams, and even though it might not seem like it, the best way to fight him is to stay near his head.

9 Guardian Dragon

Dark Souls 2 gets a bit of a bad rap. Many complained that the bulk of the bosses were just big guys in armor, and while that’s true, there’s still plenty of variety when it comes to bosses. Case in point, the Guardian Dragon.

The Guardian Dragon guards the way to the aptly named Dragon Aerie. While it isn’t a difficult boss fight, it does get points for the boss arena with the fight taking place in a massive birdcage.

8 Ancient Wyvern

In the strictest of terms, one could argue that Ancient Wyvern isn’t a dragon it’s a wyvern, but let’s be honest here, it’s a dragon. If it walks like a dragon and breathes fire like a dragon, it’s a dragon.

The Ancient Wyvern is a bit of a gimmicky boss. A single plunging attack to its head will kill it in one hit, but the gauntlet of enemies you have to get through to get to the point of being able to do a plunging attack makes up for the gimmicky nature of this fight.

7 Gaping Dragon

The Gaping Dragon is the first dragon that players encounter in the Dark Souls series and FromSoftware wanted to make sure this introduction was a memorable one. The Gaping Dragon has one of the most unique designs of any dragon in any media.

It has four legs and four wings but its most notable feature is its massive gaping stomach in the form of a hideous maw with the bones of its rib cage serving as teeth. It’s not the toughest boss in the series but it’s certainly memorable.

6 Oceiros, The Consumed King

Oceiros, the Consumed King is a unique dragon in that he wasn’t always a dragon. Oceiros was once the king of Lothric but he became obsessed with harnessing the power of royal blood and eventually turned his attention to more heretical methods and delved into the knowledge of Seath the Scaleless. As a result, Oceiros transformed himself into a dragon.

The lore surrounding Oceiros is deeply tragic when you put the pieces together but what makes the fight against him so memorable is the implications surrounding his invisible child Ocelotte. Oceiros carries Ocelotte in the first half of the fight but stops in the second half when he goes crazy. That combined with some unused game files imply a grisly fate for Ocelotte.

5 Sinh, The Slumbering Dragon

Say what you will about Dark Souls 2, but they did dragons right. One of the most awesome dragons in the Dark Souls series is the final boss of Dark Souls 2’s DLC Crown of the Sunken King, Sinh, the Slumbering Dragon.

Something that’s unique to Sinh is that all of the dragon’s fire breath attacks also cause the toxic status on the player, adding an extra level of difficulty. They didn’t just add in the toxic effect at random, it fits into the lore of the DLC, as Sinh had killed everyone in the Sanctum City with a poison fog.

4 Ancient Dragon

Not every dragon in the Souls series is out to kill you, some are there to help you. The Ancient Dragon from Dark Souls 2 is one such dragon. By speaking to it, the player receives the Ashen Mist Heart, which allows the player to enter the memories of giants.

The Ancient Dragon, however, can also be a boss but only after the player attacks him. If you decide to go that route make sure to be prepared because the Ancient Dragon has an insanely high health pool, larger than any other boss in the game.

3 Seath The Scaleless

A traitor to his own kind, Seath the Scaleless was born without the stone scales his brethren, the Everlasting Dragons, had, and as a result didn’t possess the same immortality they had. As a reward for betraying his king, Gwyn let him build an archive to research methods of attaining immortality.

Seath is one of those bosses that is easy to defeat but has heavy lore. Still, the fight isn’t a walk in the park. The most important thing to know when fighting Seath is that you need to break the Primordial Crystal at the back of the boss arena before you can do any damage on him.

2 King Of The Storm

The Nameless King boss from Dark Souls 3 is known to be one of the most difficult boss fights in the series, and a lot of that has to do with the giant wyvern the Nameless King is riding for the first part of the battle.

Found in Archdragon Peak, it isn’t explicitly named, though it can be assumed that the wyvern is named King of the Storm, and it only serves as the first half of the boss fight. Players can sometimes spend hours trying to defeat the King of the Storm and its far-reaching fire attacks, only to find the battle has just begun and now have to face a powered-up Nameless King.

1 Black Dragon Kalameet

Black Dragon Kalameet is considered by many to not only be the most difficult dragon boss in the Souls series, but also one of the most difficult bosses period. Thankfully, it’s an optional boss.

Even if you don’t want to summon help for this boss, you’ll still need help to be able to fight the terrifying dragon. To be able to officially begin its boss fight, you need to have Hawkeye Gough to shoot it with his bow to ground Kalameet and face it on equal terms.

NEXT: 10 Most Unique Bosses In Dark Souls History