Much like the source novel Journey to the West, where the Monkey King Sun Wukong must overcome 81 trials to complete his adventure, the Destined Hero in Black Myth: Wukong must conquer over 80 boss fights to fulfil his destiny .

With so many boss fights to tackle – all of which you can learn the best strategies to beat in IGN’s Black Myth: Wukong guide – we figured it was time to rank the hardest boss fights in the game. With so many to choose from it was hard to whittle down the list of 25, but ultimately these are the bosses that pushed us to nearly break our controllers.

25. Mad Tiger

Okay, Mad Tiger is one of the easiest bosses on this list, but he’s still no cake walk if you’re not a ninja monkey ready kick ass. There’s no finesse to fighting Mad Tiger, – the big fella charges straight at you and can take big chunks of your health if he lands a hit, so time your dodges to perfection and then attack. Simple. Well, kinda.

24. Wandering Wight

The Wandering Wight is an early optional boss that just sort of wanders (hence the name) around the first area of the game. What gives the Wandering Wight a spot on this list is not so much the fight itself but how he’s just just sort of there, so much so you might mistake him for a regular, tough enemy until you attack and realize he has a boss health bar.

It’s therefore likely you’ll die at the hands of the Wandering Wight on your first couple tries, but he’s a sign of things to come. Boss battles in Black Myth: Wukong are sometimes hidden but often they’re very much in plain sight and can happen at any time in the game. Don’t say we didn’t warn you!

23. Kang Jin Star

Kang Jin Star is an unassuming boss at first. Her glowing eyes are kinda weird but surely she can’t be that dangerous, right? Oh holy shit, she can turn into a giant dragon that spits lightning death from the skies! In fact all of her lightning attacks deal a ton of damage, and because she has both long- and close-range attacks it’s actually pretty tricky to land a decent hit on her.Plus, like Black Myth’s other lightning-based bosses, her attacks are rapid-fire so you better nail your timing, otherwise you’ll get hit by a thunder blast that’ll fry Monkey’s fur in a flash.

22. Supreme Inspector

When I first saw the Supreme Inspector I mistook him for a giant rooster but the reality is much worse – he’s a winged man with a hand for a head, and it’s every bit as gross as it sounds. He – it? – is tough too, and has a bunch of attacks that slowly chip away at your health unless you’re able to quickly stun him. And watch out for his burning ring too, which by the way, you can blow away with the Plantain Fan.

21. Zhu Bajie

This adorable warthog carries a rake and looks like something from a Disney movie, but he’s actually a ferocious little shit. He wallows in a giant pool of mud, which makes it really hard to move around and dodge his attacks. Worst still, he ditches the cuteness for the second phase of the fight, transforming into a grotesque boar that gouges with foot-long tusks. Survive that and the final part of the battle sees him melting into the mud and charging you down as a huge amorphous rhino thing that does massive damage. No thank you.

20. Red Loong

Despite ditching its human form and going full dragon right from the start, Red Loong is the easiest of the dragon bosses. Like Kang Jin Star and the other dragon bosses, he wields devastating lightning attacks but it’s his speed you really need to watch out for. Keep dodging and focus attacks on the bells on its back to stun him temporarily, giving you a few seconds to tear him a new one.

19. Black Loong

What do Red Loong and Black Loong have in common? Apart from being a giant pain in the butt when it comes to fighting them not much, but one is a long slithering dragon and this guy is a chubby pig-man with a dragon head.

Dual-wielding lightning maces, Black Loong is an optional boss in Chapter 2 but trust us, you should level up before you even think about challenging him. His electrical attacks are more than just visually stunning and do heavy damage whether you’re close or far away, so dodge through his attacks, roll up behind him and stick your staff where the sun doesn’t shine.

18. Whiteclad Noble

Whiteclad Noble is the first multi-stage boss in Black Myth: Wukong, so just when you think he’s down he gets right back up again. He also looks like an old man first time around, but then comes back as a crazy-looking half snake man thing. Shudder.

The key to beating Whiteclad Noble is patience – rushing head on is almost a guaranteed death wish, but dodging his attacks from afar and waiting for the right moment to strike is a sure-fire way to put him down… twice.

17. Tiger Vanguard

Whereas the last tiger boss was all brawn and not much else, this guy has bags of style. Tiger Vanguard is a badass tiger martial artist who you fight in a pool of blood. Yes, it’s as cool as it sounds. Hed hits harder and faster than any of the bosses you’ve previously met too,so make sure you have strong gear and a load of buffs to help in the fight.

16. Emerald-Armed Mantis

Have you ever played against someone in a fighting game like Tekken that just button mashes and seems like they never give you a chance to actually press a button yourself? That’s kinda like what it’s like fighting the Emerald-Armed Mantis. This boss attacks extraordinarily fast and is extremely aggressive, granting you precious few opportunities to turn the tables and land hits yourself. Fortunately, all of your spells work great here: Immobilize can stop it in its tracks, giving you opportunities to stagger, most of its attacks can be reflected with Rock Solid, and Pluck of Many allows you to overwhelm it with clones that can all deal big damage.

15. The Duskveil

If The Duskveil was a member of your family, it’d be the creepy relative no one wants to sit next to. I mean, look at it. No thanks. This skeletal, Wendigo-like monster has ferocious, unrelenting attacks that make this boss fight far more challenging than it has any right to be. His wild swings and combos are difficult to read too, making him a particularly tricky boss to get the better of. Also, every attack, particularly in the second stage, has some kind of twist to it. Dodged his swing? Doesn’t matter, the spikes that shoot out of his arms will tear you to shreds while you’re busy feeling smug.

14. Cloudtreading Deer

Honestly, it’d be great if you could just leave the Cloudtreading Deer well alone. It’s just there, minding its own business in the middle of a grassy field. But he stands in the way of the Destined One becoming a legend, and so, it must die. This four-legged giant hits like a horse — literally, its hind legs kick out with enough force to break your spine in a split second. What makes it extra challenging though is the fact that the first phase has you dealing with potentially getting frozen by its frost enhanced attacks, and the second phase switches gears to force you to handle poison, so you gotta be prepared to deal with both status ailments.

13. Stone Monkey

Unlike some bosses on this list, Stone Monkey isn’t what you would usually call a two-phase boss. Rather, it’s a boss that evolves into the Great Sage’s Broken Shell. And while its second form is the more formidable of the two, the Stone Monkey is no pushover either. For starters, he’s more than twice the size of our furry hero and is super aggressive too, but his attacks are crude and can be dodged fairly easily. He’s way tougher after he becomes The Great Sage’s Broken Shell, and his ranged attacks like the ring of fire are nasty. What is it with this game and burning rings?

12. Yellow Wind Sage

Okay, this guy looks freaking scary. He’s properly huge and carries around a Bhudda head the size of a SUV. The Yellow Wind Sage will be a proving ground for a lot of players, as it’s the first properly tough boss in Black Myth Wukong. Wandering Wight was tough for an early optional boss that just wanders around, the Whiteclad Noble was tough because it’s your first time having to pace yourself for a two phase fight, but The Yellow Wind Sage is difficult in just about every way. It hits like a truck, it varies up the timing of all of its attacks to make the difficult to dodge, and if you don’t have the Wind Tamer Vessel, you’ll have to deal with encroaching sandstorms throughout the second phase as well that make it even harder to land hits on him.

11. Captain Wise-Voice

We’d shake this guy’s hand for having such an awesome name if he wasn’t such an asshole. Captain Wise-Voice is a weird looking thing, with horns and arms and legs sticking out in every direction. It’s insanely tough too with even your strongest attacks barely touching his health bar.

But the real thing that makes this battle difficult is the fact that he can shrink your maximum life bar by half, giving you a smaller margin of error and dramatically reducing the effectiveness of your healing gourd. Oh, and don’t forget that about the laser that shoots out of its metal-orb-brain-thing. So yeah, great name, and also one of the toughest and most annoying bosses you’ll encounter.

10. Yellowbrow

Now we’re in the top 10, things are starting to heat up. While many might mock Yellowbrow’s big, bushy eyebrows, we’re going to give him the respect he deserves because, frankly, he’s a dick.

Armed with an electric mace and an ornate flask, Yellowbrow has hard-hitting area-of-effect attacks that send shockwaves across the entire arena. But the real challenge comes later, when Yellowbrow turns to solid gold, making him practically impervious to attacks. It’s a long and grueling battle, compounded by the fact that his attacks take chunks out of your health while it feels like you’re barely even hurting him, no matter how good your build is.

9. Yaksha King

Welcome to one of the hardest fights in the whole game. The Yaksha King wields two extremely large blades, which sprout out of his arms and grow bigger as the fight goes on. His movements are weirdly timed, which means it can be tough to build up a rhythm and timing your dodges. Even worse, a single hit is enough to take a good chunk of your health, so good luck surviving for more than a few minutes.

The Yaksha King excels at close-quarters combat, which is bad news because you have to get right in his grill to do damage. Between sharp area-of-effect attacks that force you to dodge backwards, and large swings of his sword arm, the Yaksha King is a battle that requires precision and patience to come close to beating.

8. Cyan Loong

Do you always pick a fight with fishermen sitting peacefully by the edge of a lake, waiting for the next bite? If so then Cyan Loong is right up your alley. This optional boss is a large, sword-wielding dragon swordsman who can fly through the air – majestically I might add, he really is a sight to behold. His sword strike is also hard to dodge, meaning the window to land a good hit is small, so don’t waste your opportunity to hit him when the arise.

Like the other Loong fights, Cyan Loong also has electrical attacks, giving him a deadly edge both close- and long-range. Despite all that, he’s still not the toughest Loong fight in the game…

7. Bishui Golden-Eyed Beast

But before we get to that, this fearsome Yaoguai is a fiery berserker whose nonstop attacks means you’ll be spending more time dodging than hitting. Similar to The Duskveil, Bishui incessantly comes at you with his mighty fists and fire breath, leaving you with hardly any breathing room. Honestly, this guy never gives it a rest and it genuinely feels like there’s no opening to retaliate. But if you fancy having a little fun with this hot-headed monster, bait him into a nearby ice cave to cool him off. This changes his fire attacks to ice, which are much easier to deal with.

6. Yellow Loong

And here he is, the hardest Loong in Black Myth: Wukong. Like his peers, Yellow Loong has wildly tricky attacks that are tough to dodge, but that’s not the main reason you’ll struggle. During his second phase, Yellow Loong will constantly make it seem like you need to dodge, only to hold his attacks a few seconds before the real swing of his halberd comes. If you haven’t mastered dodging then you’re gonna be stuck on this brute for hours.

5. Yin Tiger

If you thought Tiger Vanguard and Mad Tiger were tough, you haven’t seen anything yet. Yin Tiger is a giant tiger-headed warrior who carries a greatsword the size of a bus. No, seriously, look at that thing.

The duel that ensues is a total epic and, unsurprisingly for the number five on the list, is also one of the hardest fights in the game. Yin Tiger’s large swings are fast and hit like a truck – a common theme for Wukong’s best boss fights – but Yin Tiger’s speed is what sets him apart from similar bosses. His ability to disappear then reappear out of nowhere makes this challenging boss fight also one of the best in the entire game, and trading blows with Yin Tiger feels like pure kung-fu cinema. It’s hard but man, it’s so good.

4. Scorpionlord

Scorpionlord is a giant scorpion-man. Yeah, count me out. Like the nasty little arachnid he’s based on, Scorpionlord’s giant tail, topped with a poisonous sting, is his deadliest attribute, and he’s able to swing it to hit you. He also has a single giant pincer, but while he might only have one it’s powerful enough to pop your head like pus-filled pimple, so don’t let him get a grip.

That’s easier said than done because Scorpionlord is aggressive with a capital AARGH, and if you make a single mistake you’ll be severely punished.

3. Hundred-Eyed Daoist Master

Hey, you know what? Screw the Hundred Eyed Daoist Master. This half-centipede abomination not only murders a spider-mom in front of her own daughters, his second phase becomes nearly impossible without the help of a sacred side-quest item. Armed with magical abilities, poison breath, a giant sword, and a bad attitude, Hundred-Eyed Daoist Master is one of the hardest bosses in Black Myth: Wykong, and that’s saying a lot because you literally get help from giant spiders when you fight him.

2. Great Sage’s Broken Shell

Some of the best boss fights in video games are ones that tell a story through gameplay and mechanics, and that’s exactly what the final boss battle –not counting the true ending – of Black Myth: Wukong does so effectively. It’s a passing of the torch between the empty shell of the old Sun Wukong and the Destined One.

The fight begins with you fighting what is essentially just a husk of Wukong, but as the fight continues more of the old Wukong starts to return to the Stone Monkey, until eventually you’re fighting a near carbon copy of the Monkey King, who uses all of your own abilities against you, to great –and often amusing – effect. During our playthrough there was a moment where I tried to take a sip from my flask, only for the boss to immobilize me mid-drink, before slowly walking over, grabbing the flask and drinking it himself. It’s one of the coolest moments of any boss battle in recent memory, even if its appeal does wear thin after you’ve been stuck for hours on end without a way to skip the animation.

1. Erlang, the Sacred Divinity

Finally, we’ve made it to the hardest boss in Black Myth: Wukong. Erlang, the Sacred Divinity, is the, shh, secret final boss of the entire game, but you probably also recognise him from the tutorial boss from the opening cinematic. But this isn’t a tutorial anymore. As the final, final boss, Erlang comes at you full power, summoning huge weapons while remaining relatively unharmed thanks to his durable shield. Since Erlang summons numerous, gigantic weapons beyond just his spear, it’s hard to predict his movements; he might summon a giant ax to pummel you into the ground, a giant lightning sword that deals massive area-of-effect damage. He can even take a swipe at you as a freaking tiger.

Erlang has a near limitless arsenal of weapons and spells, and it’ll take a level of cunning on your part to counter, dodge, and survive all of them, which is why we’ve ranked him the hardest boss in Black Myth: Wukong

That is our list of the top 25 hardest bosses in Black Myth: Wukong. Game Science went above and beyond to craft epic, and difficult fights to pit against our Destined Hero, but overcoming each fight also comes with immense satisfaction, and some really great loot. So it’s worth steeling your resolve to try and defeat all the bosses in Black Myth: Wukong.

If your favorite boss isn’t on this list, let us know which ones we missed in the comments. And be sure to check out our Black Myth: Wukong guide for tips on how to defeat these enemies if you’re feeling stuck.

All image credit to Game Science.