Elden Ring is being lauded as the greatest game of all time, with a Metacritic rating of 97%. It's also been prompting fans to ponder: how many bosses are in the game and how am I going to beat them all?

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These are just a few of the questions you might have about the epic adventure you're about to embark on, and its mysterious and alluring world, created in collaboration with Game of Thrones novelist George R. R. Martin. Prepare to explore a vast kingdom resplendent with castles, dungeons, and caves, and populated with trolls, monsters and fire-breathing dragons.

As you've probably already ascertained, Elden Ring is a huge game that will take an awfully long time to complete, even if you don't get distracted by all the non-main story elements.

And it will be tough if you decide to take on the various bosses of the game head-on. Speaking of which, here are all the bosses currently included in Elden Ring at launch - all of which are sure to put up quite the fight.

How many bosses are in Elden Ring?

There will be more than 50 bosses in Elden Ring, although the exact number remains a bit of a mystery, as the game is so big that nobody has been able to find them all yet.

Over 50 of them that have been discovered by those who have been able to play the game early, though, so that gives you a rough idea of what to expect. With many bosses hidden away and not part of the main story, there is no telling how many will be discovered when all is said and done - it will be a long time before they have all been conquered.

Top tips for taking on Elden Ring bosses

Every boss is going to be different, and there will be no hard and fast rule that will work against them all, but there are some key things to keep in mind.

Reviewer Giovanni Colantonio noted in his Elden Ring write-up for Digital Trends, "battles are all about evading an enemy’s ferocious attack patterns and waiting for the precise moment to strike."

If you aren't sure that your reflexes and swordplay skills are up to the task of taking on those 50+ Elden Ring bosses, Colantonio's review suggests that spending your skills points on magic could be the way to go.

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He said, "spell-casting gives players more flexibility when tackling tough fights. [...] New players can essentially create their own set of training wheels through magic, while veterans can ignore the systems entirely and focus on traditional slashing and parrying."

So if you want to give yourself the best possible chance against those tough Elden Ring bosses, it might be worth picking the sorcery-obsessed Astrologer class at the start and building a magical character that can help you out of tight spots.

Plus, there is co-op in the game so if things do get too tough, rope in a friend and try to take on the foe together. It can still be a tough battle but you have a far better chance at emerging victorious if you have someone to fight by your side.

Bosses are part of the main story but they can also be stumbled upon outside of that in all manner of places - making a hasty exit and coming back once you have more firepower is definitely a smart play and one that we will be using frequently when we get started.

But what else can you take advantage of to make a brutal encounter a little simpler? Well, as we touched upon early, magic will be key! "Ashes" are things that can be attached to weapons that will give them a power boost, while there are various spells and summons you can try out to give you an edge. A lot to think about, but any way to make some of these fights easier is something we will take as some are guaranteed to be as brutal and as difficult as boss fights can get.

But above all, the thing to keep in mind with boss fights is something that is key to many across all sorts of games - patterns. Bosses will have attack patterns, pretty scary ones, that will be coming your way and a large part of staying alive will be down to how well you can remember what is coming and when.

Be ready to die a lot if you take a boss on, and remember that practice and patience will be key. These bosses are tough, but they can all be defeated - it may just take you a while to learn the pattern and how to work around it!

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