Bosses in Salt and Sanctuary are powerful enemies that are difficult to defeat. They have unique drops and can be found all through out the game.
Bosses will have one or two large candelabras just outside of their arenas; these candelabras serve as a warning (though not every possible approach to every boss has a candelabra—be wary!). Also, the number of lit candles on the candelabra reflects the win/loss ratio of players who have fought the boss.
The bosses marked with an asterisk (*) are optional. I tried rearranging the order to make it more accurate but the site wouldn't carry over images or formatting. The bosses with asterisks are OPTIONAL but routing around them may be hard to do on your first run.
The False Jester and Kraekan Cyclops are marked with two asterisks (**), because they are the only bosses that become optional once the other is defeated.
Defeating the False Jester requires beating the Mad Alchemist and routing towards him.
The Kraekan Cyclops can be reached by going on the lowest level of the Watching Woods and jumping across the falling platforms. You will reach a house in the background, walk forward and you will see a small jump then a bigger jump. You should be able to survive the large jump. After this you will skip the Mad Alchemist and go directly into the Kraekan Cyclops boss fight.
All Bosses

The Sodden Knight |
|
Location | The Festering Banquet |
Drops |
|
Weakness | Strike / Fire |

The Queen of Smiles* |
|
Location | Village of Smiles |
Drops |
|
Weakness | Slash / Holy |

Kraekan Cyclops** |
|
Location | Sunken Keep |
Drops |
|
Weakness | Slash / All Elements |

The Mad Alchemist* |
|
Location | The Watching Woods |
Drops |
|
Weakness | Slash / All Elements |

The False Jester** |
|
Location | Sunken Keep |
Drops |
|
Weakness | Slash / All Elements |

Kraekan Wyrm* |
|
Location | Castle of Storms |
Drops |
|
Weakness | Strike / Fire / Lightning / Holy / Arcane |

The Tree of Men |
|
Location | Red Hall of Cages |
Drops |
|
Weakness | Strike / All elements |

The Disemboweled Husk* |
|
Location | Hager's Cavern |
Drops |
|
Weakness | Slash / Holy |

That Stench Most Foul* |
|
Location | Mire of Stench |
Drops |
|
Weakness | Slash / Fire / Holy |

The Untouched Inquisitor |
|
Location | Dome of the Forgotten |
Drops |
|
Weakness | Slash / Fire / Arcane |

The Third Lamb |
|
Location | Dome of the Forgotten |
Drops |
|
Weakness | Slash / Fire / Arcane |

The Dried King |
|
Location | Ziggurat of Dust |
Drops |
|
Weakness | Strike / Holy |

The Bloodless Prince* |
|
Location | Ziggurat of Dust |
Drops |
|
Weakness | Fire / Lightning / Holy / Arcane |

The Coveted |
|
Location | The Ruined Temple |
Drops |
|
Weakness | Strike / Arcane / Poison / Lightning |

Carsejaw the Cruel* |
|
Location | Pitchwoods |
Drops |
|
Weakness | Fire |

The Witch of the Lake |
|
Location | Siam Lake |
Drops |
|
Weakness | Slash / Fire / Holy |

The Unskinned and the Architect |
|
Location | Salt Alkymancery |
Drops |
|
Weakness | Unskinned: Elements. Architect: Physical |

Kraekan Dragon Skourzh |
|
Location | Crypt of Dead Gods |
Drops |
|
Weakness | Slash / Fire / Poison / Holy / Arcane |

The Nameless God |
|
Location | The Still Palace |
Drops |
|
Weakness | Strike |
Optional Bosses

The Unspeakable Deep |
|
Location | Prologue |
Drops |
|
Weakness | All Elements |
Can only be fought once per save file as NG+ will start you directly on the beach |

Murdiella Mal |
|
Location | Mal's Floating Castle |
Drops |
|
Weakness | Arcane + Slash |

Ronin Cran |
|
Location | Cran's Pass |
Drops |
|
Weakness | All Elements |

The Forgotten King |
|
Location | Crypt of Dead Gods |
Drops |
|
Weakness | King and Knight: Fire; Judge: Arcane |
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
False jester area must me updated because he should be guarding the brand who agrees
- Anonymous
A great way to Farm so you can prepare to Bosses is using Ray of searing on the dome of the forgoten santcuary, Just resto in the santcuary and use Ray of searing, the whispermans above Will die instantly to it
When get close enough to a boss and the camera starts panning over to it, you still get a few more moments to act before the game pauses and displays the boss name. I like to use those few moments to start casting my weapon-buffing spell. The spell won't get interrupted when the game pauses, and will finish as the camera pans back over to your character.
Basically, use all your longer-term buffs while standing on the candelabra, then prep your shortest duration buff, run towards the boss, and hit the "use item" button as soon as the boss music starts playing. (Obviously don't bother doing this if the boss fight starts with you a mile away from the boss anyway)
- Anonymous
I would say the tree of men snd the disemboweled husk are harder than the witch of the lake
- Anonymous
what a ****ing shitty boss design attacks with no build up enemies that can enter the arena and 2nd phases that add follow-ups to all of their attacks
- Anonymous
Excuse me, but I speak Spanish, can you tell me how I do damage from the strike?
- Anonymous
I am very happy that this community still seems to be somewhat active :)
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
This game has a crazy difficulty curve. Its difficult then it's not and then its difficult and then it's not.
I love it anyway.
It's almost like karma. You cheese the bosses, and some of them cheese you.
- Anonymous
I tried to correct the mandatory and optional bosses, but due to the sites coding I can't rearrange the pictures. I instead added an asterisk system which is explained at the beginning of the wiki page. Sorry for not editing sooner.
- Anonymous
are we going to ignore the fact that a good portion of the """mandatory""" bosses are in fact optional?
-Queen of Smiles
-Kraekan Cyclops or Jester (one skips the other)
-Stinky boi
-Gun bro
-Carsejaw the Pushover
- Anonymous
Following bosses are also optional
-The Queen of Smiles
-Kraekan Cyclops
-That Stench Most Foul
-The Disemboweled Husk
-Carsejaw the Cruel
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
Why isn't Carsejaw the Cruel in the "optional" section? I never beat him in my first playthrough and only fought him in my second because I wanted the Scharfrichter; I was already at the end of the game by then.
There are a lot of bosses in this game that are "optional". The only ones you cannot skip under any circumstances are The Sodden Knight, either 1 of the 2 bosses in Sunken Keep, (Queen of Smiles can be skipped, and so can be the Mad Alchemist if you take the drop down that leads to Kraekan Cyclops), The Kreakan Wyrm. Now, I never tried to finish the game without the hardlight and dart brand, but I know you can skip the whole Redshift road making Tree of man, Disemboweled Husk and That Stench most Foul optional. I dont think you can finish the game without Dart brand but I also never tried, so im assuming The Untouched Inquisitor, The Third Lamb and The Dried King are mandatory but if it can be skipped, either way is 3 bosses. Then The Coveted (as you can skip The Bloodless Prince by going through the Pitchwoods from the Far Beach Sanctuary), The Witch of the lake, The Unskinned and the Architect, Kraekan Dragon Skourzh and The Nameless God are all unskippable. So only 11 bosses out of 23 cannot be skipped. So that's more than half the bosses that are optionnal. What the "optionnal" section refers to here are more like "Hidden" or "Secret" bosses.
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
I skipped several on my first playthrough... Ronin Cran, Disembowled Husk, and The Stench Most Foul.
- Anonymous
I thought the bloodless prince, carsejaw and coveted were all optional. Also the cyclops and jester don't both need to be killed, only one. Can anyone confirm?
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
i only made to the untouched inquisitor and when i finish i went back to destroy the night axe guy and cant make it up a jump so i cant get up there to move on neither my jump where i can jump off the wall dosn't even work im suppose to get up there but how
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
I am ready for the nameless god pretty much. I just need to power level my gear to*****.
- Anonymous
This game is amazing ! I'm now on NG+ with paladin on strong/magic tree. I now defeated That Stench Most Foul and he was easy AF. I can't wait till' I reach Nameless God.
- Anonymous
I would love this game more if the bosses were a bit less confusing. They're like Bloodborne bosses in a Dark Souls game, having them be fast with a lot of attacks doesn't work well. I don't feel accomplished when I kill one, just relieved I don't have to keep wasting resources on fighting the jerk. I'm not sure what they were going for, but with an AOE on almost every melee, lingering hitboxes, heavy tracking, ability to stunlock and annoying Damage over Time, they aren't as fun as the rest of the game.
- Anonymous
Path of least Bosses:
Sodden Knight>Kraeken Cyclops>Kraeken Wyrm>Untouched Inquisitor>Third Lamb>Dried King>Witch of the Lake>Unskinned&Architect>Kraeken Skourzh>Nameless God
Path of Glitch:
Unskinned&Architect>Skourzh>Nameless God
- Anonymous
even in a glitchless, control mapping abuse (long jump, ladder trick, etc.) free run of this game, far more bosses are optional than simply the ones listed. The only bosses required, from what I can tell, are Sodden Knight, Kraeken Cyclops or False Jester, Kraeken Wyrm, Untouched Inquisitor, Third Lamb, Dried King, Witch of the Lake, Unskinned + Architect, Kraeken Dragon Skourzh, and Nameless God. Only 10/23 are required at minimum.
- Anonymous
There is a way to reach almost everywhere after killing Sodden Knight, using shift+jump... it takes a bit of skill but I've managed to arrive to the Witch without killing any other boss. Maybe you can reach even further.
- Anonymous
if you kill the kraekan cyclops you get the green key then you dont need to kill the false jester but if you kill the jester instead you dont need to kill the cyclops
- Anonymous
Technically speaking, the Stench Most Foul is an optional boss... as it's possible to complete the game without ever acquiring the Redshift Brand. There is another way to enter the Ruined Temple without it...
- Anonymous
The Hardest boss in my opinion was defiantly the Witch of the lake....
Someone seems to of messed with the Sodden Knight description and name.
- Anonymous
From what I've experienced so far, every boss' gold reward seems to follow this formula : "Base salt reward" + 10 = "Gold reward". Even Murdiella Mal follows this rule (0 salt + 10 = 10 gold).I don't know of any exception, but there might be one.
- Anonymous
Did you know the forgotten king,judge and knight are the 3 ''new gods'' if you go to the sencuary at the village of smiles you will see the 3 ''new gods'' they wear similar cloths as the forgotten gang.
- Anonymous
I can tell that "the coveted" and "carsejaw the cruel" are optional too, since I finished the game without beating them (there is often a way to pass a boss trought another way)
- Anonymous
Something like half of the bosses for the not optional category can be never fought without using any glitches. If you get dart brand and go to far beach you can get through woods and get to Witch of the Lake without fighting: The Queen of Smiles, one of (Mad Alchemist + False Jester / Kraekan Cyclops), The Tree of Men, The Disemboweled Husk, That Stench Most Foul, The Bloodless Prince and The Coveted. You don't have to use any glitches or anything, just take right path through the game...
- Anonymous
The game desperately needs a map, I fought the wyvern before I fought Smiles...I'm forced to look at wiki in order to know where to go, walking around in game is so boring when I can't find out what to do next.
- Anonymous
Funny how some bosses are like Dark Souls 1 bosses.Ronin Cran is like Knight Artorias.Murdiella Mal is a dark version of the Moonlight Butterfly.Carsejaw the Cruel is clearly Gravelord Nito with a minor difference on his vertical stab.And the Witch of the Lake is something that the Witch of Izalith should've been.
- Anonymous
You need to need the Cyclops battle cause I get almost one shoted and even if I doge roll he still hits me. If it dosent get fixed soon am reporting you guys
- Anonymous
Using the merchant set gives pretty solid arcane resist. I think I killed her at lvl 60 ish using a headsman's voulge 5. Currently 130 on NG+ and having a hard time with a northern cross maxed. Worth possibly putting points into prayer to get etherial intervention. Arcane defense ring will also help. While this fight is 95% dodging, having the defense to survive getting clipped by a few attacks will help immensely.
- Anonymous
Carsejaw, Coveted, Bloodless Prince, Stench, Queen of Smiles, and Husk.Also if you kill the Cyclops the Alchemist and Jester are skippable.
tree of men is missing the optional star
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