Ranking Nine Sols Bosses

Ever since Hollow Knight Silksong hit the scene and knocked my socks off, I've been on a real metroidvania kick. I played Ori & The Will Of The Wisps finally and thought it was incredible, gave Death's Door a shot and thought it was excellent as well, and then I decided to try out Nine Sols which was a much riskier bet. I never really loved the parry as a move, always preferring a standard dodge, so I was worried I'd be unequipped to handle Nine Sols' challenges. Thankfully, with one notable exception, I was able to manage and ended up adoring Nine Sols on so many levels. Its combat system had so much flexibility and a stellar flow-state once you got the hang of it, the platforming was surprisingly smooth and fun, the story was gripping and the characters were incredibly well-developed, the visuals are gorgeous, and most importantly, the boss roster was absolutely top-notch, especially past the halfway point. So let's go ahead and rank them:

C Tier 

11. Goumang

I was really hoping I'd love Goumang's fight more because her design is sick, and how she gets sent off is one of the most memorably morbid moments in the game. But as a boss, yeah, she's kinda weak. She's the only Sol boss with a single phase, and you don't even fight her for most of it. Instead, you spend the fight primarily fighting her jiang-shi footsoldiers, with her only periodically coming into the fray to revive them. The footsoldiers aren't especially fun to fight either, as they're slow to move and often overlap so it's easiest to just run away from them and snipe them from afar with the Azure Bow. It makes for a very dull encounter that doesn't feel especially satisfying to learn and conquer, only really carried by the framing around the fight.

10. Headless Xingtian

Right at the endgame, you can fight Xingtian a second time in an optional encounter and it's very much just... there. Really all this boils down to is Xingtian's fight again but in a larger arena making it way too easy to just smack him with charged attacks. The devs tried to compensate by having a bunch of falling rocks for you to dodge, and tossing in two enemies for you to deal with as well, but they feel like half-measures since they're both very easy to deal with. Especially since those two enemies can be quickly killed permanently. Still, this is a fight against Xingtian who I don't think has an awful moveset, so I'll still place it above Goumang who doesn't even have that going for her.

B Tier 

9. Kanghui

Kanghui was a fight I was dreading because it's yet another mook-based fight. However, I do think this is a much more fast-paced and enjoyable fight than Goumang's for a few reasons. First off, Kanghui is always open to being hit, so there's a risk-reward aspect to the fight. You can focus on shredding Kanghui's health bar as fast as you can letting the enemies build up, or you can focus on clearing the room of enemies at the cost of dragging the fight. Second, there's the fact that this fight is set in a much smaller arena so you can't just scrape through by running away from the mooks, you'll actually have to deal with the enemies this time. While this fight still doesn't exactly play to Nine Sols' strengths, these minor changes did make my victory over Kanghui feel just a bit more rewarding.

8. Xingtian

Xingtian is probably the most forgettable boss for me, despite the interesting story context. This is primarily because of Xingtian's very basic moveset which mostly just revolves around him hitting you a bunch of times with his big-ass hammer. However, there are two interesting wrinkles that did make this fight more enjoyable for me. Xingtian can stop and heal every once in a while which you'll need to disrupt with a charge attack or a talisman attack, so you have to make sure to be mentally ready whenever he pulls this out. And more importantly, this fight is fought in a tiny arena so you really have barely any room to dodge his attacks. Xingtian is a fairly slow boss but with such little room to move around, you are gonna have to parry his blows head-on which helps add to the challenge. I also found this fight to be a great opportunity to abuse the Skull Kick to leap over him which was pretty fun. Still not a super memorable fight, but not poorly-designed by any means.

??? Tier

7. Eigong

For as much as I was enjoying Nine Sols, I had this pit of dread in my stomach for pretty much the entire playthrough. Because I've heard nothing but horror stories of the game's final boss, Eigong. Many have called her the hardest metroidvania boss of all time, and consensus is split pretty harshly down the middle over whether or not her extreme difficulty elevates the game to another level or ruins it outright. And as you can probably tell, I'm unfortunately a bit of a fence-sitter in this discussion.

Eigong is a weird boss to talk about because I think all of her moves in isolation are expertly designed to test everything you've learned. There are moves that require the standard parry, the Tai-Chi kick, the Azure Bow, the double jump, and the Unbounded Counter and you have to quickly figure out what's the best tool for each situation. I also love how Eigong uses some of your own moves like the talisman against you, so it really feels like you're fighting your own mentor. Where things get tricky is the sheer amount of mixups and delays Eigong has in her attacks, meaning it's incredibly hard to actually predict what she's gonna do. Every time I feel like I've gotten into the flow, Eigong completely switches up her fighting style and one-shots me to death. Still, I did find Eigong's first phase pretty fun to learn regardless... but that's just her first phase.

Where the cracks really started to show for me was in her second phase where the sheer amount of mixups just got too overwhelming to handle. Half of her attacks are crimson so you'll need an insane level of foresight to nail those Unbounded Counters, and her big new attack is this screen-clearing wave attack with hitboxes that I just couldn't parse out. I didn't feel capable of managing any of this, and it didn't feel like the game had prepared me for such an unpredictable boss. It felt like I was forced to fight a superboss to even finish the story, a story I was extremely invested in and wanted to see the conclusion of. And no, the third phase doesn't count as a "superboss" since the True Ending is as much as mandatory if you care at all about the themes and characters. Eventually, I just decided to bite the bullet and switch the Story Mode right at the very end. And you know what? I had a great time. It was still difficult, but it did feel more in-line with the rest of the bosses. Just having that extra bit of breathing room really helped me see the good in Eigong's boss fight, though Phase 3 was still kind of absurd.

So this left me at a pretty odd place when it comes to ranking Eigong. This is a fight that I think has a lot of great elements and definitely had a lot more effort put into her than the gank and Xingtian fights, but the difficulty got to a point where I just wasn't having as much fun mastering her compared to most of the other Sol bosses. And while I did end up finding enjoyment out of Eigong's fight eventually, the fact that I had to crank the difficulty down to do so is a pretty serious mark against her. So, middle of the ranking she goes.

A Tier

6. Yanlao

Yanlao's entire chapter was one of my favorites in the game, it had a lot of fun platforming and the sniper sequence was exhilirating. And his boss fight kept up the momentum quite well, even if I think its best aspect is the presentation. I love the unique perspective of how the fight is shown through Yanlao's TV screen, and the music is this driving techno bop that really puts you in the flow of the fight. But even mechanically, this is a pretty fun encounter. Yanlao's claw only really has two attacks that are both fairly easy to deal with, a claw-grab that you gotta dodge and a spinning attack that you gotta parry. However, both attacks deal an absurd amount of damage and as the fight goes on, the arena starts shooting tons of lasers that make it harder to deal with the claw's moveset, so there's still a solid level of challenge here. Just a really fun boss all around, not much else to say.

5. Yingzhao

As far as first bosses in metroidvanias go, Yingzhao is definitely up there with Metroid Dread's Corpius as one of the best. With a fast movement speed, big-sweeping attacks you can't dodge, and a second phase, Yingzhao is the big skill check where the game tries to make sure you know how to parry before letting you move forward. After struggling quite a bit through the early-game, I was pretty worried this guy would be a wall for me... but I actually first-tried him. For me, Yingzhao's fight is the point where Nine Sols finally clicked and I entered into the flow state of parrying attacks, bouncing around with the Tai-Chi Kick, getting in hits when I could, and finding the right time to use the talisman. It really felt like I was playing a rhythm game, and the incredible cinematic flair and banger boss theme helped me feel even more like a badass.

S Tier

4. Jiequan

Jiequan is the point where Nine Sols jumps in difficulty, but it's also the point where the game gets really good as nearly every boss fight and area from here onwards is an absolute banger. Compared to some of the more flashy fights in Nine Sols, Jiequan is more of a standard 1-on-1 duel but it's a very well-crafted one. Jiequan has a lot of sweeping attacks that feel very nice to parry, a few overpowering crimson moves that pretty much demand the Unbounded Counter, and best of all, a very fun attack where he tosses a handful of spiked handbombs that you can parry back at him. Genuinely, the bomb attack alone made this fight for me, it was so fun to use his own weapons against him. Outside of the mechanics, this is yet another fight that really shines in terms of its setup as Jiequan is probably the most love-to-hate Sol of the bunch so you have extra motivation to take him down, and I personally loved the third-phase fakeout for how well it ties into his character.

3. The Fengs

The Fengs were a very important boss for me since they were what really got me to start abusing Unbounded Counters and stunning arrows. If it wasn't for these guys, I probably would've given up on Eigong sooner. Fuxi is such an aggressive foe that any opportunity I had to stun him was one I needed to capitalize on, and it made for a pretty engaging fight. Things got even better once Nuwa got involved, her various attacks synergize with Fuxi incredibly well and trying to balance her various snake projectiles with Fuxi's usual aggression was a ton of fun. And as per the usual, I also loved the presentation here with the whole fight being set in a raving club. I've seen people complain a lot about this fight, that Fuxi's hitboxes are jank or that Nuwa's projectiles are too intrusive, but I found most of this boss pretty intuitive and well put-together. As far as I'm concerned, this is a great example of a gank fight done well. 

2. Ji

Something I've noticed about Nine Sols is that I found it shines in aerial combat. The Tai-Chi kick is so fun and versatile, and parrying multiple attacks in the area feels so insanely good. So how about a fight that's just exclusively that? Ji's main weapon of choice are throwing knives that loop back around, so his boss will have you ping-ponging between boomeranging knives and it's so damn satisfying. That's not his only attack though, he has a lot going on, like a divination wheel that lets you choose what he'll do next, a threatening black hole move, and red waves that you gotta dash through. There's so much to juggle here but it all feels fair and readable, making for a fight that I thought was an absolute joy to conquer. Though of course, I can't talk about Ji's fight without talking about the setup and presentation. Ji easily had one of the best storylines in the game since you got to meet him early on, and his whole arc about accepting that Yi will finally end his immortal life gives this boss fight a lot of emotional weight, only amplified by the wonderfully dramatic boss theme. 

S+ Tier

1. Lady Ethereal

If you've paid attention to the rest of the list, this probably shouldn't be much of a surprise to you. Lady Ethereal has pretty much everything I like in a Nine Sols boss. Fast but readable aerial attacks coming from all directions forcing you to lock-in and parry it all like a badass, gorgeously haunting visuals and hands down my favorite music track in the entire game, multiple phases that build on the last without getting too overtuned, an emotional setup buoyed by one of the most tragic characters in the game, and on top of all that, it's a gank fight with coordinated attacks that flow together incredibly smoothly. The main concept of dealing with Lady Ethereal's clones as you try to find the real one feels like it could've been really annoying, but you're given more than enough time to smack a talisman on the real Lady Ethereal once you uncover her and the clones only ever get too overwhelming to deal with if you're not actively managing them. I genuinely can not think of a single thing I dislike about Lady Ethereal's fight, it all works. It's a perfect fusion of gameplay and presentation. Learning this boss was the most fun I had playing Nine Sols and I'd easily call this one of my new favorite boss fights of all time.