Vanilla SM bosses, ranked easiest to hardest

[dewhi100]

Metconst, how would you rank the vanilla SM bosses in terms of difficulty? I will abstain from offering my ranking for now, but I look forward to hearing your thoughts.

[UDtheAesir]

Excluding Mother Brain due to scripted fight...
#1 Ridley, he can soak up so much Supers and Missiles.
#2 Draygon if I choose not to do the Grapple Beam trick.
#3 Golden Torizo if I don't do the exploit, plus the guy's good at dodging Missiles and grabbing every other Super.
#4 Phantoon, can wear me down over time.
#5 Crocomire puts me in a unique position where I'd have to use charged shots to conserve ammo.
#6 Botwoon is good for wasting Missiles and Supers.
#7 Kraid puts up a decent fight but can be taken down with 4 or 5 Supers.
#8 Spore Spawn is predictable.
#9 Bomb Torizo, too easy.

[MetroidMst]

From weakest to strongest from a bad player:
Bomb Torizo
Ridley
Gold Torizo
Crocomire
Mother Brain
Kraid
SpoSpo
Botwoon
Phantoon
Draygon

My list is mostly comprised of my feelings when I'm speedrunning and the challenge of the boss from my perspective on that angle.

[Quietus]

Since they're all complete non events to experienced players, I'll base mine on someone encountering them for the first time:

Bomb Torizo
Spore Spawn
Kraid
Crocomire
Phantoon
Mother Brain
Ridley
Botwoon
Draygon
Gold Torizo

Interestingly, my list is vanilla order for the first five.

[jdlyga]

#1 Spore Spawn:  The fight is very predictable.  And while other bosses are shorter, I have the easiest time with him.  Plus, the music fits so well.
#2 Bomb Torizo: Putting this at number 2 just cause I typically take at least some damage from him.  Although it's not a hard fight.
#3 Draygon: With the beam trick, it feels like cheating.  But I usually miss a few times before I end up doing it right.
#4 Botwoon: He's not that easy, but he's not that hard either.  Just eats super missiles and poops out powerups once he's dead.
#5 Kraid:  The fight isn't that bad, but I always end up taking a ton of damage just from all the stuff flying around.
#6 Crocomire:  This fight is stressful just because you have to keep at it while conserving ammo. 
#7 Golden Torizo: He catches super missiles, ouch
#8 Ridley:  He's hard, but by the point I fight him, I just pump his guts full of lead and throw his no good keister off my property
#9 Phantoon:  I always hate this fight.  At the point I end up fighting him, I'm never quite prepared enough.

[Sapphron]

Are we talking strictly the vanilla game from a first player's point of view? If so, here's my list even though my opinion would be invalid in this setting. :bounce:
#1 Spore Spawn - Easy fight even without Morphing Ball. Somewhat of a threat.
#2 Bomb Torizo - Easy fight with Morphing Ball. Enrage state can be hard to dodge sometimes though.
#3 Crocomire - This fight is easy, just timing.
#4 Kraid - First real fight in the game, kind of a bullet hell if you aren't used to it.
#5 Botwoon - Some patterns can be hard to dodge early-on. Enrage state isn't hard to figure out.
#6 Mother Brain - Have enough HP to not even worry about killing her. Super easy.
#7 Gold Torizo - Throws supers if you don't know what to do with him. Plasma makes it simple however.
#8 Draygon - Swoops do a lot of damage and getting grabbed is really easy.
#9 Phantoon - Extremely hard fight, even now tbh.
#10 Ridley - Hard to predict, seems totally random.

[makazuwr32]

Let me add my 5 cents into rating:
10. Spore Spawn. Easier than this is only Charge beam Worm boss from M:ZM.
9. Bomb Torizo. Boss itself in vanilla is really easy but in some hacks it could become a problem. Still it is more intresting than Spore Spawn.
8. Mother Brain. Second part of fight is scripted, yes. But this thing still can kill you if you will not damage it enough times. Still if prepared this fight is one of the easiest in SM.
7. Kraid. Usual and rather intresting for first time Kraid. But not so hard.
6. Bowtoon. Only in its charge part if you spent all your missles you will have problems. Easy win (But krid is easier).
5. Crocomire. First real challenge that can become in many settings even better and harder. Most intresting after Goldie boss.
4. Ridley. Strikes hard and has lots of health but still it is usual Ridley that i've encountered in M:ZM and M:F. Nothing too uncommon exept damage numbers. Low percent M:ZM Ridley is harder.
4.0.1. Additionally i want to admit that low Norfair itself and Ninja Pirates especially are more tough and dangerous than Ridley itself.
4.1. Ridley (first encounter). This one is harder but possible to "kill" him. I wish that in some game this fight was a real one when you MUST kill him in order to start escape sequence.
3. Phantoon. Intresting and hard boss. Especially i like its rages when it is damaged with supers. Could be extremly hard in situations when you are without charge beam and/or low on missles/supers/hp.
2. Draygon. If you do not know tricks for fast killing of this shrimp it is extremly difficult and could bring down even great players. But Speed trick + grapple trick are placing it only onto second place.
1. Gold Torizo. Old Goldie is as for me the toughest boss in the whole game, especially in situation when you are low on hp or do not have charge beam (Yes in my very-very first playthrough of vanilla SM i missed charge beam and was fighting with this thing without it. I've died at least 50+ times before finally killed it with only 90 hp left (yes i've used all reserve tanks). That was such a pain...) Most intresting and decent boss.