“What defines a Soulslike?” is a question I would not dare to try and answer on IGN given the myriad viewpoints on it out there, but one oft-discussed feature of FromSoftware’s games at least is the “runback”, or the… well, run back to a boss after you’ve died to it, especially when there’s a significant distance or challenge involved. Not a lot of games have these. FromSoftware and Hollow Knight games have some heinous ones.
How heinous? Truly heinous, if the many internet threads and discussions complaining about some of them are any indication. But we wanted to know, which one is the worst?
We ran a poll on IGN last month where we asked readers to vote on the Soulslike boss with the worst runback. To populate our poll options, I consulted a number of sources. I asked our Soulslike experts here at IGN, I asked for suggestions on Bluesky, and I went back to several old Reddit threads in various Souls communities where fans lamented horrible runbacks to see what was complained about the most.
Interestingly enough, absolutely no one suggested anything that wasn’t either a Hollow Knight game or a FromSoftware game, which perhaps says something about how both of those games approach save points in relation to bosses. I asked IGN staff to think really hard if there were any other bosses from any other games we should add, and we came up with Umi-Bozu from Nioh, just to add some variety.
We then posted the poll on multiple articles connected to Soulslike games, and shared it around on social media asking our readers to vote. We acknowledge this is a rather unscientific poll, given that it was included first in an article explicitly about Bilewater in Hollow Knight: Silksong. That said…
IGN readers voted for Groal from Silksong as the Soulslike boss with the worst runback, at 16.2% of the vote.
However, it wasn’t an overwhelming victory. Coming in just behind it with 15.3% was “The entire Dark Souls 2 DLC” which we listed to include the Blue Smelter Demon, Lud and Zallen, and Sir Allone. Again, this is an admittedly unscientific poll – including three bosses in that one probably swung the vote a little bit, but when we asked around so many people mentioned either bosses from or the entirety of the Dark Souls 2 DLC it felt wrong not to group them together.
In third place with a marginally more scientific percent of the vote at 9.8% was Placidusax from Elden Ring and… yeah, that chunk of Crumbling Farum Azula you have to run through every time you fight him sucks! Close behind him was Bed of Chaos from the original Dark Souls, an already-frustrating fight compounded by a horrible runback regardless of whether you slog through lava or take the “short”-cut behind Queelag’s sister.
Umi-Bozu got the least amount of votes, perhaps suggesting that runbacks outside of Hollow Knight and FromSoftware games really aren’t that bad.
If you’re playing Silksong and haven’t gotten to Groal yet, great news: we have a walkthrough that will help you survive Bilewater in general, and if you’re adverse to using guides, we have a quick tip here that will make your runback to Groal… slightly easier. It’s still bad. In addition to our Bilewater guide, we have a detailed Wiki to help you through every step of your journey in Pharloom, so check it out before, during, and after Bilewater.
And if you’ve already beaten Groal and think our poll is wrong, please feel free to vote above. Percentages mention in this piece are accurate at the time of publication, but maybe there are some Nioh fans that really want to help Umi-Bozu out. Personally, after two straight nights of failing to climb a tower with nothing at the top of it, I’m regretting not having put Baby Steps in this poll somewhere.
Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. Got a story tip? Send it to rvalentine@ign.com.
