Boss in Mook Clothing: Difference between revisions

{{quote|''"Let's be very careful here. [[Tempting Fate|We don't want to see him...]]''[[Random Encounters|(pwooow, pwooow)]]'' Uhhh, [[Oh Crap|oh no!]] [[Don't Ask, Just Run|IT'S]] [[Hero-Killer|HIIIIM.]]"''|[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XIicjQ54A9E&t=4m34s "Final Fantasy (NES) RMSCRT part 17a of 19"]}}

 

 

For example, let's say you are playing an [[Eastern RPG]]. You're walking along on your quest to [[Saving the World|save the world]], when you run into a [[Random Encounters|Random Encounter]] with a [[Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot|three-headed, skeletal dragon]]. Okay, you're 12 levels higher than the average enemy here, so just give it a few attacks, and it should be over with.

* [[Marathon Boss|It has A LOT more HP than a regular enemy.]]

** Can also have [[Made of Iron|extremely high defense]] or evasion (similar to a [[Metal Slime]], and may even cross over with one) if such stats exist.

** Can also have attacks that are difficult to avoid (moot if it's a game where dodging is based on chance, like a turn-based RPG).

*** Tend not to miss, even in the games where you ''can'' improve your dodge chances.

 

{{examples}}

 

* The Guardian (also known as the Final Guard in later games) from ''[[Castlevania: Symphony of the Night]]''. They protect the room to Dracula (poorly, since there is the way below), but they are still really tough to beat (barring [[Game Breaker]] methods).

** And the Cthulhu when you first encounter it in the Marble Gallery. They only guard a way back to the entrance but they are very difficult at this point in the game. They are easy when you encounter them in the {{spoiler|Inverted Castle}} though, since this much later in the game.

** ''[[Rondo of Blood]]'' has a few. There is an armour type knight very similar to the later Guardian that can do heavy damage. In one level, there are ''two'' at once, in a tiny room with little breathing room. Better hope you have enough hearts to item crash!

*** In Stage 5, there is a painting that moves. If you get hit by it, it somehow catches you and then snaps in half, instantly killing your character. Just keep attacking it from a distance as it flies around the room or you're fucked.

** Or ''Wind Waker'''s Magic Armor that eats magic, and a few blue or green potions...

** ''Twilight Princess'' does use a Darknut as a miniboss, it's widely considered a [[Best Boss Ever]], given that you can unleash your full arsenal of moves against it.

* Blue Dragon, the Aquamantis homage from ''[[3D Dot Game Heroes|Three D Dot Game Heroes]]''. It does ridiculous amounts of damage and can take a few hits to boot. The good news is it rarely shows up, the bad news is it can show virtually anywhere.

 

* The Alto Angelo armors in ''[[Devil May Cry]] 4''. Tough, fast and hard-hitting, almost always in packs with their Bianco Angelo lesser versions. Fortunately, there is an exploit to clean house fast, and paying [[Homage]] to [[Street Fighter|Zangief]] with the [[Super Mode|Devil Triggered]] [[Red Right Hand|Buster]] against them is always a satisfying payoff.

** And the Shadow monsters in the original ''[[Devil May Cry]]''. While not quite as difficult as the actual bosses (''most of which'' are [[That One Boss]]), they qualify in every other respect and would be difficult bosses in most games.

** ''[[Devil May Cry]] 4'' also has the Blitz enemies. Spends most of it's time encased in a lightning shield which hurts Dante/Nero should they melee attack them whilst it's up, leaving you to spam the weak ranged moves to get rid of the shield. They also love to teleport around the arena in a ball of lightning, are invincible whilst doing so, and will appear and strike without warning, [[Flash Step|sometimes right in front of you]]. Thankfully in story you only have to deal with one at a time, but in the Bloody Palace survival mode, you have to deal with 2 at once. The only thing that makes these guys even slightly easier is that because they're blind they sometimes attack anything that fights in the room. Then if you take them down to a certain evel of health, but don't do enough damage to finish them them during their shield down phase, it [[Turns Red]] and in addition to normal attacking at even greater speeds, will find great joy in trying to spear you with their horns, and [[Taking You with Me|blow up with you]] impaled on them (thankfully, like all DMC grabs, this can be broken by [[Super Mode|entering DT mode]]).

** ''[[Devil May Cry]] 3'' [[Inverted Trope|inverts this]] with the Hell Vanguard. Initially, you fight him on level two as a proper boss fight. Some stages later, Hell Vanguards appear regularly in the middle of levels as if they're regular foes. In some instances, you fight two of them at once, and Hell Vanguards are not the kind of enemy you want to fight two-on-one. In Bloody Palace mode, there are levels where you can fight ''three'' of them at once. [[Nintendo Hard|When a game turns an earlier boss into an]] [[Elite Mook]] [[Nintendo Hard|for kicks, you know it wants to murder your ass]].

 

* In ''[[God Hand]]'', sometimes, when you kill an enemy, a demon jumps out. Now normally these are no rougher than the standard [[Giant Mook]], although they can really suck if you're low on health. But after Level Four, there is a chance that when you kill an enemy, one of the [[Multi-Armed and Dangerous|Four-Armed]] Demons will emerge. The first one you met in the game got its own cutscene. They have a beam attack, deal great damage, and carry a massive trident. If at all possible, ''run for your freaking life.''

** Similarly, the Sensei. Like demons, these samurai-wannabes have unique health bars and the first one got a cutscene. Deadly reach, pretty damn resilient and powerful. Consider them a [[That One Boss]] [[Final Boss Preview|Preview]] - if you have difficulty with them, their [[Old Master]], the Great Sensei, will eliminate you with very little effort.

* ''[[Bayonetta]]'' has the enemy duo known as Gracious and Glorious. While they don't have a huge amount of health or hit extremely hard, they make up for it in sheer speed: the two of them can easily hit and combo you, and it's difficult to keep pummeling them even after you've gotten some solid hits in because they can break out of your combos so easily. To make matters worse, it's ''impossible'' to use [[Bullet Time|Witch Time]] against them through normal methods. Oh, and expect to face off with Gracious and Glorious more frequently on Hard difficulty and above.

 

* Hunters in the ''[[Halo]]'' series. Also to some extent the Gold Elites in the first game (which slice and dice your [[Redshirt Army]]) and the Silver Ultra ones in the second. Especially in the Mausoleum, aka "Breaking Benjamin Room" [[Multi Mook Melee]].

** In the first ''Halo'' once one knows how to deal with them the Hunters become ridiculously easy, especially evident on the hardest difficulty, where even the lowliest Elite is a dangerous threat. Simply get close to the Hunter, wait for it to try to melee, dodge and circle around to its back and put a single pistol or shotgun round into the exposed flesh [[For Massive Damage]]. Brought them down in a single stroke. They fixed this in the next game, where Hunters have an attack designed specifically to crush players standing directly behind them.

*** By ''Halo Reach'' Hunters had reached some sort of boss in mook clothing nirvana. They take ridiculous amounts of ammunition to kill, are near impossible to get behind no matter how much you run, jump or even jetpack over them, their attacks are near one hit kill on Normal, and one hit kill by Legendary, they are faster, tougher, and quicker. The best bet is literally to sit as far away as possible and rocket spam them, which isn't always an option. Even going up behind them and shooting their exposed backs with the [[BFG|shotgun]] takes 3-4 hits on Heroic, and more on Legendary. And since they'll turn around and take [[Extreme Melee Revenge]] on you as soon as you fire once, and your shotgun is pump-action...Even plasma grenades are significantly reduced in effectiveness, because the Hunters can catch them on the shield.

** Leadhead splicers are supposedly resistant to bullets, so other weapons should still be effective.

** Then there is the matter of [http://bioshock.wikia.com/wiki/Rose 'Rose'] a spider splicer with several times more health than other spider splicers {{spoiler|She is the first splicer you see and is virtually unkillable in one encounter, only becoming vulnerable later after she lures you into a trap.}}

** Bruisers in ''Resurrection of Evil'' - take a Hell Knight, cross him with a Mancubus, and then stand the hell back.

* ''[[Quake II]] and [[Quake 4|Quake IV]]'' had the Tanks, which themselves have an [[Elite Mook]] variation, Gladiators, Harvesters, Iron Maidens(Q4), Stream Protectors, Heavy Hover Tanks(Tank plus Assault Commander from ''[[Duke Nukem 3D]]''), etc. One room near the end of Q4 is a [[Multi Mook Melee]] with these types of enemies.

** The ''[[Quake III Arena]]'' Mod "Hunt" subverts it a little by having no actual bosses. But out of the three types of monsters, the Titans are definitely the closest thing you can get. (Though they are complete raving lunatics and will attack their own team, including other Titans). The best strategy for these guys is to snipe from afar or to hit them with the BFG. The mod itself is so customizable that it's simple to make EVERY SINGLE ENEMY like this.

** The Q4 version of the Gladiator was probably the worst regular enemy in that game, other than maybe the Heavy Hover Tank. [[Made of Iron]], [[Deflector Shields]], deadly Super Nailgun, and its railgun was a lot more unpredictable and harder to dodge. And it only deactivates its shield when it's about to fire the railgun.

* Voltigores in ''[[Half Life]]: Opposing Force''. Giant Race-X monsters with ungodly health, incredibly powerful electrical attacks with area of effect damage, and the ability to self-destruct upon death. Late in the game, you come up against a massive horde of them, in a completely black sewer tunnel.

 

* [[Bujingai the Forsaken City]] has several [[Mini Boss|minibosses]] in the forms of [[Our Demons Are Different|demonic]] "Overlords" of Tears, Sin, Despair, and Pain. They look like basically any other demon, except for the facts that they're the only enemies aside from the final boss to have a counter meter like you do and that whenever you see one you're immediately trapped in that area.

* The Oblivion Knights in ''[[Diablo]] 2'' and the minions of Destruction in the expansion. The first acting a lot like a boss would: commanding large armies of minions while bombing you with powerful attacks and curses, while the second is powerful enough to take out a player character 1 on 1. Yes, both are normal creatures. God help you if you meet a unique variant (and you WILL). Luckily, they only appear directly before the boss battle of their respective acts.

** Interestingly in the first game, Diablo himself, the final boss of the game, is treated as a regular mook known simply as "The Dark Lord".

 

* ''[[World of Warcraft]]'' has its own classification for such monsters: elite. While those monsters mostly show up in dungeons geared for a group of player capable to deal with them, but some of them are found in the open world and can quickly kill unsuspecting players. The three most infamous examples:

** WANTED: HOGGER - Woe to any newbies who think he is just your average level 11 gnoll!

*** This low-level mob's fearsome reputation has been immortalized in the recent expansion. Not only is he a memory alongside raid and dungeon bosses you may fight during one encounter, he now has his very own statistic tracked by the game: Deaths by Hogger.

*** Hogger got so famous that he lost this trope. In Cataclysm, he was moved and is the new endboss of the Stormwind Stockade dungeon. This effectively turns Hogger into a [[King Mook]].

** Sons of Arugal, scoring bonus points for looking a lot like regular enemies in the same area, but being as tough as their brothers found in a nearby dungeon. ''And'' being ten levels higher than anything else in the area. Fortunately, their numbers were cut back somewhat in a patch.

** Fel Reavers, being seventy-feet tall mechanical constructs that blot out the horizon, sound like a freight train piling into a factory of tubas, and shake the landscape for yards around with every step. They seem about as stealthy as a sumo wrestler wearing full plate mail trying to tiptoe through a room of sleeping cats, but just you try and sit down and rest for a moment in the Hellfire Peninsula ''without'' experiencing that dread moment of looking behind you only to see an eclipse of black metal and green fire just close enough to ruin your day. As an aside, for a brief period during the beta, the Fel Reavers' models accidentally switched to that of a regular bear; with predictable results. [[Everything's Worse with Bears|More than a few lives were lost to the dreaded Bear Reavers.]]

** Garginox, the flesh giant in the Eastern Plaguelands. He patrols a single area for no apparent reason other than to screw players over. He's got nearly 28000 health and has dungeon endboss-like damage output. Worse, the area he's in is a questing area, and if you happen to be looking in the wrong direction, turns out he's much quicker and quieter than his mountainous size would imply.

* ''[[EverQuest]]'' was so full of this trope it had its own name: the dreaded undercon. Monsters way more powerful than their level (shown prosaically through the /consider command) indicated, many a newbie and soloer have died to undercons over the years. In the game's early days almost every mob was an undercon after level 20, meaning that unless a player was a dedicated solo class, they had to group to progress.

* ''[[Ultima Online]]'' had a fair amount of these. Their were a limited number of sprites for monsters and many monsters used the same sprite with a palette swap. For instance, one player could handily dispatch an air elemental. A team of experienced players could take down a blood elemental. An acid elemental was a sort of walking nuke and would occasionally kite a player into the wilderness where it would slaughter unsuspecting travelers and haunt the dreams of children until the server reset.

** Likewise, their were at least four different creatures that used the demon sprite, ranging from minor demons that weren't especially horrid, to the Balron (not to be mistaken for the similar yet totally distinct Balrog), which had one of the highest hit point totals in the game and could outrun a mounted player in a straight run. Which didn't stop someone from soloing them for fun. While riding a Llama.

* The Stone Summit mobs in the elite dungeon Slaver's Exile of ''[[Guild Wars]]''. Unlike the haphazard build of many enemies, these have strong and coordinated builds with multiple resurrection skills. On top of that, they possess all the usual monster perks like having effectively infinite energy and being almost half again your level, reducing the damage they take and increasing the damage you take.

** Expanded with the ''[[Guild Wars]]: Beyond'' updates. New questlines introduce new mooks throughout Cantha and Kryta who have the same perks as the Exiled Stone Summit.

* ''[[Kingdom of Loathing]]'' has the Baiowulf, which is an [[Randomly Drops|Ultra Rare]] encounter, and the only thing in the game which drops the [[Loot Drama|incredibly valuable]] Talisman of Baio. It also has triple the stats of any other encounter in the area. It's still a pushover if you're backtracking, but encountering it when you first unlock the area means you're likely to get beaten up by it.

* ''[[Perfect World]]'' seems to love dropping the occasional level 100 monster in relatively low-level areas.

** Players, when they set up correctly, and completely take you by surprise when you go in to attack, such as being able to murder your tanking setup in one hit, or having rendered themselves immune to flinching beforehand, meaning that when you attacked they could just turn and bring out the pain, or by using an item that allows them to change their move-set, but not their stats, allowing them to attack you in a way you didn't see coming.

** If you have yet to face a general, the characters from the original games rather than a created character, you may be surprised on how much damage they can take, dish out, and they don't flinch, you are in for one short but harsh lesson. Aside from their battle aura, you may fully mistake them for another player, meaning that they seem so very mookish.

 

* The Big Eyes (essentially 80's-style telephones on pogo sticks) from the original ''[[Mega Man (video game)|Mega Man]]''. Sure, the game is [[Nintendo Hard]], but these things are three times as tall and wide as Mega Man, take an immense number of hits to kill (20 buster shots), are immune to many of the boss weapons, and take off a third of Mega Man's health bar with one collision. Not to mention that they hop at Mega Man with impressive speed. The only way to get away from them is to run under them when they do an extra-big hop, which happens at random. It gets a ''bit'' easier when you get Ice Man's weapon, which freezes them in place for a few seconds, allowing you to either escape, or to switch to the P-Shooter and unload. Almost every ''Mega Man'' game since then had their own Boss in Mook Clothing, but none are as notorious (or stupid-looking) as the Big Eyes.

** Ironically, the [[Warmup Boss]] added to the [[Video Game Remake|remake]] ''[[Mega Man Powered Up]]'' is the Proto Eye, a bigger yet laughably easier version of the Big Eyes.

** [[Almighty Janitor|Yukabacera]] from the same game is literally one of these. He looks like an ordinary Tasen Soldier, but he is even faster than Iji herself (who is supposed to be the fastest moving person in the game, mind you), has plenty of HP (50 to be exact) and has weapons that could only be given to someone with a Tasen Stat of 10 and a Komato Stat of 10. (The highest level any stats can be) Kill him, however, and you'll not only obtain tons of ammo and nano, but the [[Silliness Switch|Scrambler]] as well.

 

** The Adult Bulbear from the same game deserves mentioning as well. Unlike most enemies, the Bulbear will ''actively pursue'' your Pikmin once it runs into them. It ''will not'' stop until it is killed, and it can take quite a beating. Finally, it does the same health regeneration thing as the Gatling Groink, so you have to take it to the ship quickly, or you have to do the whole thing over again. Also, it's likely that you'll have to deal with Dwarf Bulbears along with the Adult, which will only increase Pikmin casualties. And in order to get 100% completion you have to, at one point, defeat 3 of them without any Pikmin dying.

** The enemy placement in the underground levels is random every time you visit it, so the best way to defeat them is to just keep restarting until they spawn in a place that gives you a better strategic advantage.

** The groinks appear in some multiplayer levels as well, which allows for an admittedly rather cheap but still legitimate strategy: [[The Chessmaster|particularly clever players]] can trick an enemy into leading their army past one of these.

 

* The ''[[Rock Band]]'' games have these occasionally pop up in the forms of songs that are waaaayyy more difficult than their ranking indicates. The most infamous is probably the DLC song [[Dream Theater|"Constant Motion"]], which is ranked at tier 5 out of 6, but contains what is probably the most difficult guitar solo of any song in the game (of which there are over 1000).

** There's also [[Miley Cyrus|"Can't Be Tamed"]] which most players will probably dismiss as a cakewalk at first glance due to only being a Tier 3 and being a pop song, but the solo section is so difficult that it should at least be a Tier-4 category.

* ''[[Dance Dance Revolution]] Universe 3'' had Conga by Miami Sound Machine as a boss song, and the first license boss song in DDR. It's Oni chart is one of the most clustered charts in the series, that playing without a speedmod is suicidal.

 

** More standard examples of bosses in mooks' clothing include the Drolem (one of the earliest max-damage poison-breathers, and one reason you don't go past 2000 feet without poison resistance; also drops a pathetically small amount of treasure), the Greater Titan (summoning, lots of HP, high-damage melee attack), and the Great Wyrm of Power (as the description says, "[[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|it can crush stars with its might]]").

* Though a staple in most rogue-likes, ''[[Elona]]'' has a particularly nasty variety of them. Adamantium Golems are green golems with incredible power, defense, health, and damage-adding abilities. Note that up until this point, golems merely advance in power consistently. Don't mistake them for being this game's Incredible Hulk, however, they are actually his much more indestructible rival/ally Wolverine. By the time you land a second critical hit, which seems the only thing that will actually kill them, they may've healed up the damage from the first. In the lower levels, mutants qualify, as mutants spawn with A) a random amount of limbs, and B) totally random equipment, 30% of the time it is magical in nature. Woe to the player who discovers a three-armed mutant with an enhanced weapon and shield. Both of these are encountered more rarely than other random monster spawns at the same level. If in a dungeon whose levels randomly generate, the best course of action to deal with an adamantium golem is to zap it with a rod of teleport, then flee up or down the stairs and come back. Note that for the truly unlucky, any enemy in the game may spawn as a random dungeon's "last floor boss," making the Addies more terrifying still. See also quicklings, simply replace the abundance of defense with speed.

** There is also the Shub-Niggurath, a rare spawn at about level 25+ , who is pretty tough to kill. Luckily, they are only half-assed hostile, prefering to summon other creatures to do their bidding or hit you with mind-screw sanity-altering affects, as their name would imply. They only directly attack you if you engage them in melee combat. Their biggest danger comes from the randomness of their summons, as they may summon something that will mop the floor with you, even if you're to the point you can one-shot a Shubby. Like the golem mentioned prior. Still, that's an incomprehensibly rare occurence. More often than not they may even summon neutral or friendly NPCs who will help you fight them off. It's all chance when dealing with these, really.

* The Roguelike game ''[[Ancient Domains of Mystery]]'' has a number of these that, while rare, are extremely deadly. Emperor liches are a good example; they are powerful spellcasters and can damage the player's stats, [[Mook Maker|summon numerous monsters]] and cast [[One-Hit Kill|Death Ray]]. [[Stone Wall|Diamond Golems]] absorb every element and have very high defense. [[Mighty Glacier|Molochs]] will ruin primarily melee characters or characters with very low speed. Greater titans absorb every element, too, and shoot eternium quarrels (which hit ''hard'') from a distance. Great Karmic Wyrms cast spells, are ''also'' immune to all elements, and hitting them makes the player unluckier with each hit.

 

* One of the earliest and most notorious offenders is the WarMECH (later translated as "Death Machine", [[Grandfather Clause|then back to WarMECH]]) from the [[Final Fantasy I|first]] ''[[Final Fantasy]]'' game. He has as many hit points as the penultimate boss, and his attacks range from powerful regular attacks to literally [[Nuke'Em|nuking the party]] on the spot. There is also the distinct possibility that you can run into '''''TWO''''' WarMECHs at the same time, which is pretty much a death sentence.

** The Earthgift Shrine bonus dungeon has Abyss Worms. Higher Attack than the four bosses (and the four Fiends!), no magic weakness, and such a high M Def as to make your Mages practically useless. Good luck.

** The Brachioraidos is a recurring one in the series. Its looks and translated name have changed drastically with each installment, making it hard to notice. Its appearances in order have been:

* More examples from the ''[[Final Fantasy]]'' games:

** Later ''[[Final Fantasy]]'' games usually have Behemoth in this role. This could also be considered a meta-example the [[Degraded Boss]], as Behemoth debuted as a boss in ''[[Final Fantasy II]]'', but is a recurring ultra-strong "regular" enemy in the rest of the series. ''[[Final Fantasy IX]]'' had a monster called the Grand Dragon in a certain place accessible around Disc 1 that exists for the specific purpose of screwing you over if you don't heed the nearby Moogle's warning. Adequate preparation (stock up on Phoenix Downs, equip everyone with Antibody and Auto-Reflect) can render these Grand Dragons quite beatable, and thus turn this early accessible area into a convenient high-speed level-up treadmill. (Doubly so if you realize the Grand Dragons are a multiple of level 5, and it's quite possible to have [[Useless Useful Spell|Lvl5 Death]] by then.)

*** ''[[Final Fantasy V]]'' has a few "super" enemies like this. There's the above mentioned Jackanapes and Skull Eater, but also the Prototype (which has a couple of glaring weaknesses, but is very hard to hurt otherwise), the D.Chimera and a group of five Mini-Dragons. Also, at a later point in the game a moogle advises you to avoid a desert; heeding such advice awards you an enemy-free journey, but disregarding it sends you against another set of very powerful mooks. Super enemies in this game are usually characterized by exceptionally high defensive stats, forcing you to rely on otherwise unorthodox strategies.

** The Tot Aevis from ''[[Final Fantasy V]] Final Fantasy V's'' Merged World brings this trope to mind. The enemy itself appears in a plot related, but ultimately optional dungeon. While most enemies have between 2 to 4 Thousand HP, rendering them kill-able in a short time, the Tot Aevis has 33,000 HP, more than the boss of the dungeon that contains it. It can make use of a Wind Attack that targets all of the party, and has a single target attack which can inflict Petrify. The reward when killing it is 7ABP, more than the multiple enemy formations in the dungeon, second only to the boss, but otherwise gives nothing else, no EXP, Items, or Gil.

*** And then, there's the Intangir on Triangle Island in the World of Balance. It has auto-Vanish, a staggering 32,000 HP, absorbs all elements, and is immune to almost every status effect. Most of the time, it doesn't do anything, but if you try to get the Vanish off it so you can actually hit it, it'll smack your party with Meteor and disappear again. The only legitimate way to beat it is to cast Stop on it, beat on it, heal yourself after Stop wears off, and repeat as necessary. When you finally bring him down, he will hit whoever killed him with Meteor, which is a guaranteed kill if it connects. You gain no experience for beating him, but you do get a whopping 10 Magic Points.

**** [[Good Bad Bugs|The Vanish/Doom trick]] works well against the Intangir since it's already invisible, though it will still hit whoever casted Doom with Meteor.

** ''[[Final Fantasy XII]]'' had a whole slew of these called Rare Monsters. They showed up among the normal fights on the world map, but were boss-tough. Generally, though, they only came after you if you attacked them first.

*** There's also Wild Saurian (which shows up in the ''first open area of the game''), the Werewolf (second area this time), Dive Talon (shows up early, but you can get a [[Disc One Nuke]] from it), and the Entites.

*** Trap Doors in the Sealed Cave. They cast instant death spells that are 100% guaranteed. But they have a weakness: reflect their death spell back at them!...which you can't do without Augments thanks to how their spell works. If you're not playing the DS version, good frigging luck.

*** Everything in the final dungeon. The last two floors are also applicable to the original version. The really fun part? A lot of enemies in the final dungeon actually have the boss music playing during their fights. [[Lampshade Hanging]]?

*** What makes this particular encounter worse is the fact Sand Worms are fairly easy in the original versions that you're likely used to by now, and you may not have realized yet how much harder the DS version is. You will when that Sand Worm completely annihilates you.

** If you're a ways into a Final Fantasy game and you find a one-eyed floating bat thing, run. While their names are never really consistent (Ahriman, Doom-Eye, Blood Eye, etc), they have one thing in common, they have instant death attacks. Thanks to [[The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard|the computer being a cheating bastard]], the [[Useless Useful Spell|useless useful spell rule]] usually doesn't apply. This includes straight up instant death, a form of Russian roulette (never lands on the caster for some reason), and some form of death countdown attack. There is a trick for taking them down safely in ''FFIX'', though. If you do nothing before they use their Roulette attack, it will [[Hoist by His Own Petard|end up targetting themselves]].

* Ishtar from the Final Chapter of ''[[Live a Live]]'' can be described as a random encounter miniboss.

** ''[[Live a Live]]'' also has one in the Prehistoric Chapter and one in the Bakematsu Chapter. They warn you by using the boss music when you encounter them, though- and there's a rather small chance that you'd run into them without knowing.

* The Amazee Dayzee in both ''[[Paper Mario (franchise)|Paper Mario]]'' and ''[[Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door]]'' wholly crosses over with [[Metal Slime]]. It might just look like a sparkling Crazee Dayzee, but it has 20 HP (most of any mook in the first game, and tied for second-most in the second game, behind the Dark Koopatrol), ''20 Attack'', 1 Defense (in a game where any sort of defense score is notable), and their attack can also cause sleep. It also has an attack that has unintuitive timing to defend against, and definitely needs a lot of strategy to beat...because, due to its [[Metal Slime]] nature, it's likely to run away first chance it gets. Especially in ''The Thousand-Year Door'', where if you actually encounter one on the map (completely by chance) the first time you go through that area, 20 damage will be almost enough to kill you from full HP. And then on the return trip from said first journey {{spoiler|you have no partners}}, and have to pray that it ''will'' run. More than capable of murdering any unsuspecting player.

** Thousand Year Door provides a decent way to beat them once you get the Ruby Star and gain Art Attack. By concentrating loops around the Amazee Daisy, you can hit it for enough [[Armor-Piercing Attack]] damage to beat it (or at least leave it just one good hit away).

*** However, if you can beat the Anti-Guys, it makes Bowser feel like an [[Anticlimax Boss]].

** The Spunia looks a lot like [[The Goomba|Spinias and Spanias]] with [[Spikes of Villainy|some spikes on top]]...until you check its stats.

** ''[[Super Paper Mario]]'' features an enemy called Mega Muth, a white mammoth like creature found in Castle Bleck. ''Numerically stronger than the final boss,'' you have to fight ''a whole corridor full of these things.'' Luckily, they're slow and can easily be dealt with by throwing them at each other. But there's an even stronger subspecies in Flopside's Pit of 100 Trials...

* The Archmage and the Berserker, enemies in the Container Yard of ''[[Breath of Fire]] 3'' are actually tougher than the final boss. The Archmage even has a skill that revives ''your'' entire party. Why? ''So he can kill you again.''

* ''[[Wizardry]] VI: Bane of the Cosmic Forge'', from a series known for random encounters sometimes being tougher than bosses, has a very, very low chance of the party encountering a Tyrannosaurus Rex in the final outdoor area of the game. It's unlikely you'll see one in six or seven games, but if you are that unlucky, it is game over. Nobody has ever successfully taken down a Tyrannosaur.

* ''[[Mother 3]]'' - One word: Cattlesnake. It has more than twice as much HP as any other enemy in the area, and has a ridiculously high defense - characters that do 50 damage to other enemies will only do 10 damage to the cattlesnake. It also has an attack that can hit the whole party for 70-80 HP damage per strike - at a time when your characters will average about 140 HP. Before you first see one there is a sign warning you to keep your distance.

* The [[Nintendo Hard]] RPG ''[[The 7th Saga]]'' has a variant: ''every'' random encounter is like this. The bosses themselves are often significantly less likely to kill you than the random encounters in the dungeon that contains the boss.

* The Sootie family in ''[[Star Ocean: Till the End of Time]]'''s [[Bonus Dungeon]] Sphere 211. A single one can easily kill a level 255 party (which is downright absurd, considering the fact that the game's uber-[[Bonus Boss]] [[Valkyrie Profile|Freya]] can't even damage characters that the normal enemy Sootie Sister could kill in one or two blows), and they are a pain in the ass to even hit. [[Demonic Spiders]] much?

* In the final dungeon of ''[[Phantasy Star IV]]'', you may run into a [http://www.pscave.com/ps4/enemies/prophallus.shtml Prophallus,] uber-monsters that bear a striking resemblance to the [http://www.pscave.com/ps1/enemies/darkfalz.shtml final boss] of the original game.

** ''[[Phantasy Star II]]'' had [http://www.pscave.com/ps2/enemies/pulser.shtml Blasters] in the Bio Lab and Nido Tower areas. If you met one, your best bet was to either run or nuke it with every single bit of firepower you had. Meet two? Pray you can run, OR ELSE.

* It's a good thing ''[[Avernum]] 5'' only does a mild version of this, because it gets used ''constantly''.

* ''[[Fallout]] 3'': Deathclaws are exceedingly ferocious and can demolish even high-level players if they are caught unawares. Super Mutant Behemoths are considered the "bosses" of the game, as there is an achievement for killing them all, but players have proven that a Deathclaw can kill one in 1v1 combat.

** While not quite as lethal, the Mirelurk Hunters and Giant Radscorpions deserve honorable mention. They are much stronger than their weaker variants, come out of nowehere once you hit a certain level, will kill you if you haven't been upgrading your combat skills, and the Mirelurks take very little damage unless you [[Attack Its Weak Point]].

** The original ''Fallout'' had a single Deathclaw as an incredibly rare random encounter while traveling on the over world map; considering most of these random encounters are generally more of an annoyance than a challenge after awhile, any person playing ''Fallout'' for the first time was in for a slaughtering.

* In ''[[Fallout: New Vegas]]'', the game introduces a new enemy type known as the Cazador, which although very small and having the appearance of a much weaker enemy, the Bloatfly, can decimate low level players with its poison within a couple of hits and as nimble. Not to mention, they come in ''packs'' of up to five. They are often used to wall the low level player in, forcing them to take a specific route in order to level up first.

* In ''[[Wizardry V]]'', there is an optional level. If you go down there, the enemy strength widely varies. You might get some ghosts, which do almost no damage and have very low HP...or you might get enemies like Dark Lords and Arch Fiends who have several times more HP than even the end game boss and spam the best magic in the game, including a spell that can kill your entire party at once if you're unlucky and another spell that does around 100 damage to everyone when triple digit HP is a big deal and healing is hard. They might attack you normally instead, in which case the target, if not killed by raw damage is probably instant killed anyways, and drained about 5 levels. They also spawn with lesser (but still powerful) demons, who throw in more firepower. Worst part is while you aren't technically required to go down there, it's the only way to get the best equipment in the game, which among other things gives you the magic resistance you need to not die in 1-2 rounds against...nearly any late game enemy. Especially the aforementioned end game boss. To be fair though, it does play the boss music to warn you...but it's still a random encounter, and you might not be able to escape.

* Slivers in ''[[Tales of Symphonia]]'', a slightly less powerful version of the Sand Worm (also technically not a boss, but not encountered randomly and guarding one of the Devil Arms). They appear very rarely in the snow fields near Flanoir. ''Very, very'' rarely. Will probably be the last monster you need to complete your Monster Guide.

*** They also learn some really annoying moves. Fortunately, they're [[Mighty Glacier|so slow]] you can usually run away from them. But God help you against [[That One Boss|Lucian's Bronzong in Diamond/Pearl/Platinum]].

** Also, Ponyta. It's always encountered in grassy areas, usually where you expect Grass-types or, worse, Water-types (so that you're using Grass-type which is [[Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors|weak to Fire]]), has wicked high Defense for its level, and always has the move Stomp, which does insane amounts of damage for the low level Ponyta learns it at. Often decimates a low-level team you're trying to train up - and worse, is so fast it's hard to run away from.

** In ''[[Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire]]''/''Emerald'', there's a female Cooltrainer on Route 120 that most players tend to ''desparately'' try to avoid making eye-contact with when passing through the route for the first time. The reason why? She carries a Milotic. Ordinarily a powerful Pokémon, thanks to monstrously high HP and Special Defense stats, this one also knows Refresh, Recover, and Water Pulse. It's tough enough to take Thunderbolts to the face and shrug it off with Recover, and Refresh prevents you from wearing it down with Poison or Burns (and any status that doesn't get wiped triggers the Defense-Boosting Marvel Scale ability). Water Pulse causes Confusion at a relatively high rate as a side effect and it's damage is basically supercharged thanks to Same-Type Attack Bonuses and the rainy weather in the area. Basically, either the fucker goes down in one or two rounds, or you WILL get [[Total Party Kill|your party wiped.]]

** In ''[[Pokémon Diamond and Pearl]]''/''Platinum'', there is a Hiker named Alexander on Route 208, who you can't reach until you get Rock Climb, and that is the only right thing. He has a level 40 Probopass, with the moves Block, Thunder Wave, Sandstorm and Rock Slide. If you have anything that is not Fighting-type or equipped with a Fighting move, you'll have a tough time taking him out, because Probopass have [[Stone Wall|gargantuan Defense]].

*** In short, it is a monster which takes massive damage but stays alive and then does double the damage in return and doesn't let you switch to a monster which can handle it. There's a reason why this blue punching bag was the only non-legendary Pokemon who was considered too powerful to be used in competitive tournaments.

*** Wobbuffet's ''baby form'', Wynaut is ''also'' considered uber tier, due to the fact that it starts with Encore.

** Played more straight while at the same time being kind of inverted with Janine's Gym, where all of the Gym Trainers have Janine's Overworld Sprite.

*** Funnily enough, some of the "Mooks in Boss Clothing" are male.

* ''[[Mega Man Battle Network]] 3'' has an entire series of these in the form of the Omega Viruses. ''Every'' type of enemy in the game has a fourth [[Underground Monkey|level]] of virus that is super-fast, super-powerful, and pack high HP (some Omega Viruses get up to ''500'' HP, about the same as an early-game boss). Some will even have additional effects added to their attacks (e.g., Mettaur Omega's shockwave now cracks panels). Thankfully, they're only found in set encounters late in the game.

* The Cyclops enemies in ''[[Sword of Mana]]''. They each have a 5% spawn rate in a single area on the correct day of the week. They are huge compared to most normal enemies, possess an enormous amount of HP, have very high stats, and will richly reward you with their high drop rate on aerolites. They're also a great source for leveling up weapon and magic skills.

* ''[[Kingdom Hearts]] 358/2 Days'' introduces a couple of these. Invisibles have had a major upgrade from the first game, but the game warns you ("Caution! A powerful enemy is near!") so they may not count. Living Pods, on the other hand...Crazy amounts of HP and they hit like a semi truck. What looks like an easy mission becomes a pain in the ass thanks to these guys.

** ''re:Coded'' has the Eliminator, a [[Palette Swap|recolored Defender]] that randomly appears in System Sectors. They can block any frontal attack or magic? Not too bad, normal Defenders can also do that. They can also teleport around the sector, and have crazy attack power. What makes them truly evil is their shield attack, which fires a fast-moving homing burst that can inflict any of the status ailments in the game. Better hope that it is not [[Interface Screw|flip-foot]] or [[One-Hit Kill|Level 1 Defense]]...

* Harbinger, in ''[[Mass Effect 2]]'', randomly [[Memetic Mutation|assumes direct control]] of Collectors, making them into horribly powerful abominations with shields, armor, and the ability to launch explosive projectiles that can hit you even behind cover. And even if you kill him, [[Demonic Spiders|he'll just find another body if any are still present.]] Did we mention that Collectors appear in swarms, so that you're likely to see at least a couple of possessed ones per fight towards the end?

** Thresher maws. There's a few of them in the first game.

### They are heavily shielded and have a massive amount of HP, which means they take forever to take down, even with the Mako's explosion gun thingy.

* Anything that pops out of the white [[Mook Maker|Monster Gates]] in ''[[Rune Factory Oceans|Rune Factory: Tides of Destiny]]''. Thankfully, unlike other Monster Gates, they don't automatically summon monsters when you get near them. If you manage to destroy a white Gate, however...

* Anybody who expects the post-game [[Bonus Dungeon]] {{spoiler|Crossbone Isle}} to be as easy as the rest of ''[[Golden Sun: Dark Dawn]]'' is [[Difficulty Spike|about to be slapped in the face]] by ''everything in there''. Great Dragons are worst, since they're easily more difficult than most of ''Dark Dawn'''s bosses, and unlike bosses [[Oh Crap|tend to show up in groups]].

** The Shredder, which is found only in one room directly before the boss in the Ruined Dome area. It has about five times as much HP as any other enemy in the area, and has more defense, too. However, because it's rare ''and'' in an area directly before a boss, most players will simply zip through the room without encountering it, and won't go back to it until an NPC encountered later on specifically clues you in that it's there.

** The White Monk, found in the Sage's Tower, has far more HP than a normal enemy (over a thousand, which is more than most ''bosses''), and its attacks, although not ''too'' punishing, are still something you need to be careful of. However, one of its [[Randomly Drops]] items is a big defense-boosting equipment only otherwise obtainable through a ''lengthy'' [[Collection Sidequest]].

** The Salamander has the most HP of any non-boss encounter ''period,'' and its attacks are murderous. To make things worse, it's often flanked with bombs (just about any attack that accidentally hits them will make them explode; one alone will ''more'' than halve your HP), and you can encounter it ''barely halfway through the game.'' There's quite a disparity in levels between when you can first encounter in and when you're actually ''ready'' to encounter it. Thankfully, it resides only in the optional [[Bonus Dungeon]].

* The unique monsters in ''[[Xenoblade Chronicles]]''. All of them are tough enough to be considered bosses, and the sole distinguishing visual characteristic some of them have prior to being targetted is being slightly to ''much'' larger then the normal enemies in their vicinity. It's only after targeting them and seeing their level, odd name, and fancy info window that you can know for sure. They're also almost always aggressive, even if they're of a normally passive monster type, so one who has enabled the option to see monster info from a distance can potentially identify them in this manner, as well.

** The most jarring example is {{spoiler|[[Killer Rabbit|Despotic Arsene]], a level 108 bunniv that looks no different from the far weaker level 28 bunnivs in the same area, and is capable of smacking your party for over 10,000 damage (HP caps at 9999).}}

 

* The NES game ''Silver Surfer'' literally has this at the end of each stage that doesn't contain the boss. A regular mook which just happens to be a mini-boss, taking more hits than usual, and sending extra enemies out at you.

* A few ''[[Touhou Project]]'' stages feature a "death fairy"/"[[Doomy Dooms of Doom|doom]] fairy", a single normal-looking enemy with a health bar and attacks comparable to most boss spellcards. Notable ones are one in Stage 4 of ''Perfect Cherry Blossom'', one in the Extra stage of ''Imperishable Night'', and ''two'' in Stage 6 of ''Subterranean Animism'', all right before the boss.

** Speaking of fairies, Lily White in ''Phantasmagoria of Flower View'' is not too hard to evade on her own, but when you're dodging her attacks in the middle of a fight against [[Final Boss|Shiki]][[That One Boss|eiki]] in the midst of a Level 4 attack and a crapload of portals [[More Dakka|that spawn sticks whenever a bullet passes by]], you better have a bomb ready.

 

* ''[[Ace Combat]]'' games every now and then have random enemy pilots without the distinctive aces' callsign in the target display who nevertheless prove unusually hard to hit or shake off. It's one thing for clearly demarcated aces to give you grief, and another thing for no-names to come close to, say, Yellow 13's level.

** ''X: Skies of Deception'' plays with this in the mission "Operation X" that lets you go up against various [[Game Breaker]] superfighters. The mook part comes from how they are piloted by normal, un-codenamed pilots {{spoiler|except for Scarface One and ZOE Commander}}. Of course, since they are in [[Game Breaker]] superfighters...

** ''Joint Assault'' has AEGIS ships. They look like normal cruisers from afar but their twin SAMs have a much greater lock-on range than those on normal ships. Unless you grinded, you usually won't have unlocked long-range missiles to take them out with and they will almost always fire before you can, even going full afterburner.

 

* The Gekko from ''[[Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots]]''. Initially, they only appear in scenes where the goal is to escape (the first enemy you come across is a Gekko), but they can be fought and there are mandatory set-piece battles with them later in the game, most of which are before you get the game's specific anti-Gekko weapon.

** In ''Metal Gear Solid 3'', if you trigger an alert at the cliff near Groznyj Grad (by sniping the patrols in the base), helicopters will be sent after you. Unlike the earlier ones, these have powerful attacks and it's nearly impossible to hit them with rockets. Fortunately, these helicopters don't have to, and most likely won't be encountered.

 

* Dr Salvador, Garrador, the Bella Sisters, JJ, Regenerador, and Iron Maiden from ''[[Resident Evil 4]]''.

* ''[[F.E.A.R.]]'' has the tough REV mechas which appear occasionally, they fire barrages of missiles, have twin miniguns and can take several shots from the rocket launcher and/or particle beam weapons. And more frequently, there's the Heavy Armor soldiers, a form of [[Elite Mook]] which has ultra-heavy [[Powered Armor]] and usually carries either a Penetrator rifle (which damages you clean through your armor) a particle cannon, or a rocket launcher. Later expansions feature ones with [[Gatling Good|miniguns]] and riot shields. ''Project Origin'' throws Heavies with laser rifles at you, too, who can kill you in a couple of seconds if you're out in the open.

** Hunters ''do'' have one other weakness, if you're good enough to use it -- [[Car Fu|the car]]. Unfortunately, it gets worse in the final battle: the hunters are the ''escorts'' for your real enemy, a swarm of Striders.

 

* The lambent gunkers in ''[[Gears of War]] 3'' qualify. They have a lot more health than any other regular mook in the game with no apparent weak points, their ranged attack causes huge amounts of splash damage with an arc trajectory that often makes cover useless, they have pinpoint accuracy regardless of distance [[The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard|even when they can't see where you are]], and if you get too close, their far-reaching melee attack causes massive damage and completely ignores cover. The fact that they're capable of wiping your entire squad on their own is made even more annoying by how they are almost never alone.

 

* ''[[Final Fantasy Tactics]]'' has Red Chocobos, a somewhat rare enemy unit with a hard-hitting attack, Chocobo Meteor.

** Black Chocobos could also count. Regardless of them of having low HP and speed, their Chocobo Pellet does even more damage if you can't evade it. Dragons, Tiamats, and Behemoths can also be a pain.

*** It gets worse. The Baraius Hill rare battle. You get attacked by a team of dragons, tiamats, ''and'' behemoths at the same time. Accidentally getting the encounter is a valid reason for a reset.

 

* [[Chainsaw Good|Chainsaw]] users in ''[[Scarface]]: The World Is Yours''. Bazooka and grenade launcher users, while also capable of [[One-Hit Kill|One Hit Kills]], at least went down in one shot from the Desert Eagle or sniper rifle, usually with [[Ludicrous Gibs|dismemberment]]. Chainsaw guys? Multiple shots, making them fairly [[Implacable Man|Implacable]] in the otherwise fairly realistic title.

** Super Soldiers, at first glance, are just larger versions of the human troops the player has been slaughtering by the truckload throughout the game. Actually treating them as such results in the player's attack being interrupted with a grab, followed by some horribly damaging wrestling move and getting tossed across the room like a ragdoll. Oh, and they can follow the player up buildings like Hunters and have an innate virus detector that sounds an alert in under a second.

 

* Inverted in ''[[Aachi and Ssipak]]''. Two small mooks disguise themselves as the massive [[Big Bad]] to lure a [[Sociopathic Hero]] robot cop to their location. It works and the cop attacks them, only to be blindsided by the real villain.

 

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Boss Battle]]

[[Category:Video Game Characters]]