The number of main bosses in Elden Ring is generally considered to be around 16 in the base game. These main bosses are necessary to complete the game's story and reach an ending. The commonly accepted main bosses include:
- Margit, the Fell Omen
- Godrick the Grafted
- Red Wolf of Radagon
- Rennala, Queen of the Full Moon
- Rykard, Lord of Blasphemy
- Starscourge Radahn
- Draconic Tree Sentinel
- Godfrey, First Elden Lord (Golden Shade)
- Morgott, the Omen King
- Fire Giant
- Godskin Duo
- Maliketh, the Black Blade
- Sir Gideon Ofnir, the All-Knowing
- Godfrey, First Elden Lord / Hoarah Loux (two-phase fight)
- Radagon of the Golden Order
- Elden Beast
This list covers the bosses that are key to progression and required to complete the game, although there is some flexibility early on and some alternate bosses can be faced instead of a few on this list. Additionally, with the Shadow of the Erdtree DLC, there are 12 more bosses classified as main DLC bosses, of which only 3 are required to beat the DLC game's storyline, making the total main bosses count higher if including expansions. So, the base game has about 16 main bosses, and the DLC adds around 12 more, with a smaller subset mandatory to complete the DLC content.
