View source for Wolfpack Boss

{{trope}}{{Needs Image}}
What happens when the [[Quirky Miniboss Squad]] [[Let's Get Dangerous|gets dangerous]]? You get a Wolfpack boss.

In a typical boss fight, the player fights a lone, powerful target ([[Flunky Boss|possibly accompanied by a few regular]] [[Mooks]]). The pattern here is usually straightforward; if there are mooks, take them out quickly to lower the enemy's attack strength, then finish off the big guy.

A Wolfpack boss is a bit trickier. In this case, the player faces 2 or more enemy characters who aren't quite powerful enough to be bosses when alone, but attack together to overwhelm the player with multiple powerful attacks and abilities. Wolfpack bosses tend to be strategically different from other boss battles because the player has to decide which one to attack first, and has to deal with being attacked multiple times per turn.

One thing that can work in the player's favor here, unlike a normal boss fight, is that the going may get easier as the enemies fall one by one. However, it can also work the other way around, where killing one enemy just makes the survivors [[Turns Red|get angry and fight harder]].

The [[Psycho Rangers]] are a common example of this. Compare [[Dual Boss]]. Contrast [[Duel Boss]] where the boss takes your character out of your group for one-on-one. Relies on the aversion of [[Conservation of Ninjutsu]]. See also [[Doppelganger Attack]].

{{examples}}

* ''[[Serious Sam]]'' takes this trope [[Up to Eleven]]: There is a [[Boss Battle]], complete with a single big healtbar, against the [[One-Hit-Point Wonder]] frogs that can only [[Suicide Attack]]. [[Zerg Rush|They attack in large swarms]], as you can see for [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E7GybnNI0qA yourself]. After you think you're done with them, the next corridor unloads yet more hoppers at you.
* In ''[[Front Mission]]'', one of the levels pits the player against an enemy unit called "Hell's Wall", consisting of 6 enemy mecha that are more powerful than normal enemy boss units and, in fact, have better equipment than the player can possibly get at that point in the game. Factor in that it's an early stage and the player doesn't have a lot of deployable units, and you get a sure formula for [[That One Boss|Those Six Bosses]].
** Repeated again in ''Front Mission 3'' with Imaginary Number unit (either one-shot charater Griffith or the recurring Jared and Rosavia combo), and the Purple Haze UCS unit. Except for the Purple Haze unit in Alisa's scenario (in which the two Grapple [[M 1 Ps]] are packing a fist-type Melee weapon one level better than what you have), the others don't have better weapons or equipment than you.
* The [[Shoot'Em Up]] ''[[Area 88|U.N. Squadron]]'' actually has a boss called the Wolfpack Squadron. It consists of three enemy fighters that are each just a step above the game's Elite Mooks.
* The Axem Rangers, from ''[[Super Mario RPG]]''.
** From the same game, [[Bonus Boss|Culex]]. There are ''five'' different enemies in this fight, each of which are more powerful than most of the game's bosses.
* The Inspectors from ''[[Super Robot Wars]]: Original Generation 2.'' and ''[[Super Robot Wars 3]]''
* The Koopa Bros from ''[[Paper Mario (franchise)|Paper Mario]]'' put up a decent fight just by using special team attacks. Individually, they're just koopa troopas with a bit more health.
* The Schrodinger family in ''[[Wild ARMs]] 3'' probably counts. None of them are super-powerful, but you have to fight them several times, and a couple of the fights approach That One Boss territory.
* Several raidbosses in ''[[World of Warcraft]]''
** The straightest example is Priestess Delrissa in Magister's terrace, Moroes in Karazhan, Kael'thas Sunstrider (the Tempest Keep version) and Hex Lord Malacrass since they employ 4 fighters of different classes chosen randomly from set with each of them with their own abilities. Sartharion can be optionally fought this way for a harder fight but better loot. The Argent Coliseum is a slight variation since the team of enemy heroes have no defining "leader". The other multiboss fights (such as the Twin Emperor and the duo in SM Cathedral) are strong enough to qualify as [[Dual Boss]] since each of them are bosses in their own right.
** The Blood Prince Council in Icecrown Citadel has three vampiric undead elves, each with their own tricks. While they share a health pool, only one of them takes damage at a time, the vulnerable one gaining a massive boost to the abilities.** ''World Of Warcraft'' High Priest Thekal in Zul'Gurub with his two attendants Zealots Lor'khan and Zath. They, like the later encounter Romulo and Julianne, all have to die simultaneously or they resurrect each other. Of course then he has second phase with a Tiger [[One-Winged Angel]] form... And the Twin Emperors of Ahn'Qiraj. Healing each other, linked health, whole nine yards.
** The Illidari Council in the Black Temple and Council of Iron in Ulduar, which consists of several (4 in the former case, 3 in the latter) bosses fought at once. Each has separate abilities and requires specific tactics to deal. At least they don't have to all die at once, although in the case of the Council of Iron the surviving bosses grow stronger when other members of the Council die.
** The ogre council fighting along with High King Maulgar. Being more powerful than any of them, he may be considered as a [[Flunky Boss]], but his helpers are not mere adds. They are named, powerful, and require specific strategies to take down.
** Naxxramas has the Four Horsemen encounter (also a [[Puzzle Boss]]), where the four bosses fan out to the four corners of the room; your raid has to engage all four simultaneously AND keep them seperated to keep their respective abilities from snowballing into a very quick [[Total Party Kill]].
** Lor'themar and the other two Blood Elf bosses in Silvermoon, and as of Cataclysm, The Council of Three Hammers in Ironforge.
* The Ancients in ''[[Diablo II]]''. As a bonus, you have to defeat them all without teleporting back to camp. If you do, they reset and heal up, and the fight has to be done all over again.
* Several boss battles in ''[[Bionic Commando]]'' consist of an endlessly respawning mob of regular enemies. In Rearmed, they're led by a general who has to be killed to win the fight. The NES version has one too, but killing him doesn't end the fight.
* The [[Beat'Em Up]] ''Robo Army'' has a miniboss battle set against a squad of four recolored generic mooks with stronger attack.
* ''Aero Fighters 2'' has a battle against two Concorde plane look-alikes.
* Common trope in ''[[Final Fantasy]]'' games:
** [[Final Fantasy I]] has the Pirates and the [[Boss in Mook Clothing|Wizards]] that guard the Crown in the Marsh Cave.
** The [[Hopeless Boss Fight]] that opens ''[[Final Fantasy II]]''.
** ''[[Final Fantasy IV]]'' has the Mom Bomb, the Magus Sisters, and the Calbrena dolls.
** ''[[Final Fantasy VI]]'' has the Tentacles, the Three Dream Stooges, and the fights against the unnamed enemies immediately before the final part of the [[Final Boss]].
** [[Quirky Miniboss Squad|The Turks]] from ''[[Final Fantasy VII]]''.
** ''[[Final Fantasy XI]]'' is FULL of these. More than half of the major bossfights in the game involve a boss and his quite capable mooks (even if they're generic), or fighting a threesome or more of named mooks. The first major one the player is likely to encounter is a fight against three tonberries at once. The most famous one is Divine Might, where the player and 17 of their friends fight five bosses (and two of them have pets) at the same time. In all these cases, the strategies tend to involve sleeping or kiting the group while killing them off one by one.
** The Mandragoras in ''[[Final Fantasy XII]]''. They only have four-digit HP each (around the same as some random encounters in the same area) but there are five of them. and being a boss fight you can't just flee. The main difficulty is in chasing the little buggers down. Final Fantasy X has a triple boss.
* The Mad Midget Five in ''[[God Hand]]''.
* In ''[[Pokémon Mystery Dungeon]]: Explorers of Time/Darkness'' there is an area where the player and his or her partner must battle a pack of eight Luxio led by a Luxray. However, as the player character can recruit up to two additional partners to counter this.
** Also, later on, the player character and partner must fight  {{spoiler|Wigglytuff and the rest of the members of the Guild}}.
** And there's  {{spoiler|Dusknoir and the Sableye.}}
** There's also Kabutops and the two Omastars in Brine Cave.
** Don't forget Regigigas accompanied by 4 Hitmonlee and 4 Bronzong, and {{spoiler|Darkrai accompanied by Aggron, Arbok, Magcargo, Magmortar, Mismagius, and Rhyperior.}}
** Heck, the Monster Houses are basically a boss fight against a large number of Mooks, randomly picked from those in the dungeon.It can either be laughably easy if you have a move combo that can sweep the whole room, to nightmarishly hard (Expecially the ones that include Flying Pokémon, that can use Agility or Tail Wind to grant '''every enemy in the room''' one extra attack per turn.Including themselves.And can use it up to 3 times in the same turn.And will '''always''' use it if you're out of their other moves' range.
* The Action RPG ''Sacred'' has several of these as bonus bosses in it's expansion. Requiring you to kill thousands of regular mooks in a particular area. An all-day task in the single player campaign. Much easier in multiplayer. But instead of being several lesser enemies to make a hard fight, it's usually comprised of several boss enemies, such as dragons, and other bosses.
* ''[[Star Fox (series)|Star Fox]]'''s Star Wolf Team are pretty much this trope incarnate.
** Plus, the name (Star Wolf) and the team leader (Wolf) make them a [[A Worldwide Punomenon|literal]] '''Wolfpack Boss'''.
* In ''[[Jade Empire]]'' before you fight the Emperor, you have to fight a large amount of the elite royal guard, about 20 of them, 4 at a time. They are like the normal guard except faster, stronger, smarter and work together better
** And can be [[One-Hit Kill]] by Harmonic combos.
* In ''[[EverQuest II]]'', one of the ''Rise of Kunark'' raid bosses is one of these. Ludmila Kystov is the leader of an evil adventuring party; she has a mage, a bodyguard, a healer, and if you don't kill it beforehand, a giant mechanical snake.
* ''[[Knights of the Old Republic]]'' combines this with [[Puzzle Boss]]. Before you fight Darth Malak, you have to fight a bunch of elite droids that keep respawning if you don't shut down their individual [[Mook Maker]]s.
* The first boss in Data East's ''Sly Spy'' is nothing but a huge mob of mooks that attack you individually with punches, guns or bombs.
* In ''[[Dark Souls]]'', one of the hardest bosses is the Four Kings. As the name suggest, there are four of them although they do not all spawn at once. The fight begins with one appearing and attacking you followed by another appearing and attacking you about one minute into the fight. The most dangerous thing in ''[[Dark Souls]]'' is to get overrun and surrounded, making this fight very difficult if the individual kings are not dispatched before the next one begins attacking.
* In the first ''[[Splatterhouse]]'' the first boss battle is a room full of giant leeches ("boreworms") jumping at you from all sides. And remember to watch out for [[Last Ditch Move|the last one...]]
* The Bobbins Brothers from ''[[Plok]]''. The first battle against them is a [[Dual Boss]]. Then, you fight THREE of them in a flashback scene later on in the game.
** The Penkinos, as well, later on in the game. It'd be unbelievably easy if there were only one of them, but ...
* In ''[[Kingdom Hearts II]]'', the most difficult arena fight features 4 separate bosses: Cloud, Leon, Yuffie, and Tifa
** In the first game, you have to fight Lock, Shock, and Barrel in [[The Nightmare Before Christmas|Halloween Town]] before you can go fight Oogie Boogie.
** The first game also provides an optional boss battle with Wakka, Selphie and Tidus in the beginning of the game.
* Every battle against an enemy ace squadron in ''[[Ace Combat]]''. It's a perfectly justifiable trope when we're mostly dealing with normal fighter planes, but when the enemy is using [[Made of Iron]] superfighters like the Fenrirs or  {{spoiler|final Varcolac}} ...
** In particular, ''[[Ace Combat Zero]]'' and ''[[Ace Combat Assault Horizon Legacy]]'' feature quite a bit of ace squadron bosses (with ''Legacy'' taking after ''Zero'' in this regard).
* The ''[[Tales (series)]]'' tends to have this frequently, generally by having the [[Recurring Boss|recurring bosses]] gang up on you, and/or as a [[Bonus Boss]] fight against multiple characters from previous Tales games.
** In ''[[Tales of Destiny|Tales Of Destiny 2]]'', Barbatos teams up with two of the past bosses in the bonus dungeon. However, he doesn't move at all and seldom attacks until both of them are dead, [[It's All About Me|befitting of his character]].
** In ''[[Tales of Symphonia]]'', due to the nature of the combat system boss fights against multiple strong enemies at once tend to become [[That One Boss|Those Bosses]]. Examples include the Sylphs and the Winged Dragons. The [[PlayStation 2]] version adds epic group battles against three of the Grand Cardinals at once, and even {{spoiler|Kratos, Yuan, and Mithos as they were millenia ago.}}
** The Four Stars in ''[[Tales of Rebirth]]'' all get together for a final showdown towards the end of ''[[Tales of Rebirth]]''. Gets taken [[Up to Eleven]] in the bonus dungeon, where they show up again, but each with a clone in tow, turning it into a four versus eight battle.
** ''[[Tales of Innocence]]'' features Chien and his dogs, Cer and Ber. It's probably the hardest fight up to that point, given how difficult multi-boss fights in Tales games are in general.
** This is basically the entire premise of the Team Arena in the [[Play Station 3]] remake of ''[[Tales of Vesperia]]''. It includes battles against the three Schwann Brigade members (Plus Schwann if Raven's not in the party), the three Hunting Blades members (Plus Karol if he's not in your party), all four of the cameo characters simultaneously, and lastly, the five party members you aren't currently using.
** In ''[[Tales of Hearts]]'' Chalcedony, Peridot, and Byrocks team up after you fight each of them individually earlier in the story.
** Some of the later Trials of Graces challenges in ''[[Tales of Graces]]'' put you up against three or more previous bosses at the same time.
** While mostly fought in [[Dual Boss|pairs]], the Fauves from ''[[Tales of Xillia]]'' take you on three versus four at one point, and all four of them show up in the final Team Arena battle.
* ''[[Ōkami|Okami]]'' has two, one against a group of Fox Spirits, and a [[Bonus Boss]] of dogs.
* ''Police Emergency 911 2'' (yeah, just roll with it) takes this to its logical conclusion. One level ends with a dozen standard [[Mooks]] ganging up on you, and it's treated exactly like the normal level-ending bossfight. Which is more of a [[Multi Mook Melee]].
* ''[[The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past|The Legend of Zelda a Link To T He Past]]'' features the Armos Knights - where you must kill ''six'' identical golems, and the Lanmolas - three identical sandworms.
** In ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess|The Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess]]'' the [[Bonus Boss]] is merely a trio (quartet in later visits) of Darknuts. One Darknut is challenging. Three of them at once is bar none the toughest fight in the game.
** The Diabolical Cubus Sisters from ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass|The Legend of Zelda Phantom Hourglass]]'' are technically a quadruple boss.
* Some of the encounters in ''[[City of Heroes]]''. Romulus Augustus is an archvillain who brings three pets who are also of archvillain rank in his second appearance. Before you can fight Lord Recluse at the end of the Statesman Task Force in his [[A God Am I|powered up form]] you will have to deal with his four lieutenants, who are waiting shoulder to shoulder in your path. That still doesn't compare to the Lord Recluse Strike Force in which you fight two groups of 4-5 top-list heroes each before going up against all eight members of the elite Freedom Phalanx at once.
* ''Baten Kaitos'' triple boss of Giacomo, Ayme, and Folon. The best part? You fight them again later in the game (although they only get a few healing cards and aren't powered up since the first time). And then you get to fight them again without getting a break to heal. [[Sequential Boss]] on steroids.
** Origins also has one in the form of Valara, Nasca, and Hughes, though they're not nearly as bad if you know what you're doing.
* ''[[Dark Forces Saga|Jedi Academy]]'' features a triple boss battle, where you duel {{spoiler|[[The Rival|Rosh]] after he [[Rival Turned Evil|turns the the dark side]]}}, while at the same time also having to fight a pair of Reborn twins who back him up with Force powers and healing.
* The Prismriver Sisters of the fourth stage of ''[[Touhou|Perfect Cherry Blossom]]''
** The Fairy Trio attack together to make the final boss of ''Great Fairy Wars''.
* ''Chrono Trigger'', 3 bosses previously fought separately, Flea and Slash and Ozzie, are more formidable when they attack as a group.
** The battle against the six  {{spoiler|R-Series robots}} at once also qualifies.
* ''[[Digimon World]] 4'' has a few examples of this. A mid-game boss battle is against three copies of an early boss at once.
** The [[Final Boss]]'s first form can create up to three clones of himself by transforming copies of that boss.
** The Epsilon enemies are one of these in the game's [[Bonus Dungeon]].
* In [[Maple Story]] you fight [[Beyond the Impossible|up to 6 bosses at once with millions of hitpoints each]]
* ''[[Last Scenario]]'' has a triple boss and two quintuple bosses.
* ''Defenders of Oasis'' for Sega Game Gear had several, [["Wake-Up Call" Boss|rather difficult]] boss battles which almost required [[Level Grinding]]. The first was a group of three soldiers, which would later become a regular mook.
* Roughly half the bosses in ''[[Persona 3]]'' are like this. Bosses you encounter while dungeon-crawling will either be one enemy or three of the same enemy.
* ''[[Persona 2]]: Eternal Punishment'' has one of these consisting of a paramilitary unit led by {{spoiler|Police Captain Shimazu.}}
* In the ''[[Scott Pilgrim]]'' movie, Scott has to fight Lucas Lee's seven evil stunt-doubles at once.
* ''[[RuneScape]]'' has the Dagannoth Kings.
** In dungeoneering, there's also the Skeletal Horde and the [[That One Boss|Skeleton Trio]] bosses.
* ''[[Disgaea 2: Cursed Memories]]'': Baal is fought with 4 equally powerful clones of himself.
** The remake takes it further by making you fight ''eight'' copies of Pringer X, each of which are far stronger then Baal, and if you beat them, you get the option to make it so each one of them is stronger then all of five Baals put together.
* ''[[Heretic]]'' pits the player against three Iron Liches and three Maulotaurs for the final battles of the first and second episodes, respectively. The Shadow of the Serpent Riders expansion ups the ante by throwing ''five'' Iron Liches at the player at the end of the fourth episode, and ''eight Maulotaurs'' for the final showdown of the last episode.
* Literal example: By itself, the Fenrir in the first ''[[Etrian Odyssey]]'' is merely a powerful boss (in a game where ''every'' boss is [[That One Boss]] to some degree). However, if you don't take care of the nearby Skoll F.O.E.s before challenging it, they will quickly join the fight and cause even more trouble for you.
* The sniper family in ''[[Dead Rising]]''. Individually, they lack any special attacks (aside from, well, having sniper rifles) and are fairly vanilla foes. Working together, they can be an extremely annoying boss battle.
* Near the end of Boat 3 of ''[[Vindictus]]'', you return to the Perilous Ruins of the first boat to take on a bonus mission, which ends with one of the most evil '''Wolfpack Boss''' fights ever—Black Breeze and his two allies, three [[Lightning Bruiser]] werewolves who are quite content to chase you down and eat you alive.
** It's not too uncommon to face down two or more bosses at once at the end of an instance, particularly during the later quests on a boat. The very first [[Dual Boss]] battle you fight consists of two gnolls, one an archer and the other a melee type, both of which like to bullrush you. Then there are the brothers Emuloch from boat 2, as well as the goblin bosses from Boat 3...
* [[Muramasa: The Demon Blade]] offers a strange example with the Oomukade boss: Instead of having the usual long lifebar and the smaller one, his body is the long lifebar, while the other centipede that back it up are considered the short lifebar.
* The final [[Bonus Dungeon]] of ''[[Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones]]'', the Lagdou Ruins, ends with a battle against eight Draco Zombies.
* In the penultimate battle of ''[[Ys]]: The Ark of Napishtim'' you fight against both the [[Big Bad]] Ernst and his [[Quirky Miniboss Squad]] of fairies at once. The fairies can't be killed, only temporarily KO'ed.
* Ultrabox/ The Four Horsemen in ''[[Metal Gear]] 2: Solid Snake''.
** The Metal Gear Rays (3, 6, 12 or 20 of them depending on the difficulty)in [[Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty]].
* Half of the boss cast in ''[[Banjo-Kazooie]]'' consists of this type of boss (green alien crabs, golden frogs and wild bees). Averted in ''Banjo-Tooie'', where all bosses are full-fledged.
* [[MARDEK]] flash series has the World Saviors in the second and more so in the third game. While the group is [[Troperiffic]], they are far more dangerous than sub-chapter bosses at the time of encounter. As of the third game, the group consists of 1) a [[White Mage|support-healer]] opening the fight with mass shields and mass regeneration, then following with mass heals as necessary, 2) [[The Smart Guy|magic damage dealer]] with a nasty HP-drain auto-counter against melee attacks, 3) annoying melee [[Standard Status Effects]] dealer and last but not least 4) [[Dumb Muscle|a melee damage dealer]] who literally [[Turns Red]] if you decide to take him out last.
* Shredder and his clones become this if playing with multiple players in the ''[[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles]]'' arcade games.
* The Heretic Leader and his [[Doppelganger Attack|holographic clones]] in ''[[Halo 2]]''.
* ''[[Cabal]]'s'' third boss was a truck that hauled in [[media:cabaltruck 1490.png|several turret guns]], destroying the turrets would deplete the boss' life (Although defeating the truck would end the battle). A straighter example would be the fourth boss fight, which consisted of [http://arcade.svatopluk.com/cabal/cabal_15.png three turrets] that shot loads of bombs and the player had to down each of them.
* ''[[MadWorld]]'' has the Shamans, who are a [[Our Werewolves Are Different|literal]] and figurative take on this trope. Howard and Kreese, [[Large Ham Announcer|befitting]] [[Greek Chorus|their job]], lampshade this.
{{quote|'''Howard:''' These guys don't seem so tough!
'''Kreese:''' Y'know, Howard, not one on one, but when they fight as a pack, they can chew the balls right off of ya.
'''Howard:''' And you know this becauuuse...?
'''Kreese:''' Aw, Jesus, Howard, you just want to see my balls, don'tcha?
'''Howard:''' Have they been sanitized?
''(Kreese groans at this.)'' }}
* ''[[Night Striker]]'' has a ''literal'' wolfpack boss- a robotic pack of wolves. You face a constant stream of them until a timer runs out. Each wolf takes [[One-Hit-Point Wonder|one hit to die]], but you have to get that hit in fast before it pounces on you.
** And then there's also the last few stages, which give two to three of a previous level boss to fight. In fact, all the [[Final Boss]]es are this, with the sole exception of the [[Tactical Suicide Boss|rocket truck]].
* The [[Team Fortress 2|Engineer]] part of the [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1EFYzVvn3zc Octo-Heavy video] certainly counts
* Karumuna Bash and the mids from the [[Mega Man Legends]] series, the Mids get special mention because they fight differently depending on whether or not the area is filled with water, if it isn't they simply fire homing energy shots, if it is when you get down to the last Mid it becomes invulnerable until it attacks and starts leaving mini-mids which explode all over the place.
* ''[[Suikoden III]]'' was insidious enough to include a pair of wolfpacks right before the [[Final Boss]] fight. Yuber is accompanied by skeletons and hellsteeds, while Sarah is flanked by HorroBeasts and Azzodesses.
* In ''[[Xenoblade Chronicles]]'', the party gets jumped by a mob of High Entia assassins, who can be quite challenging if you aren't of a considerably higher level then them. They're also one of two groups of enemies you fight that are capable of using Chain Attacks, which can be rather painful when all six of them are still alive.

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