Boss Monsters

Powerful enemies players have to overcome to reach goals in games.

This pattern is a still a stub.

Examples

Roleplaying Games quite often have Boss Monsters during the final part of a dungeon, adventure, or campaign. Not too surprising, in Dungeons & Dragons this is often some form of dragon but other unique monsters that appear as Boss Monsters are the devil Asmodeus, the demons Orcus and Demogorgon, and the evil goddess Lloth. The computer-based game Torchlight has Boss Monsters at the end of each of its eight levels, including Brink the Corrupted, Krag, Medea, and the final enemy Ordrak.

First-Person Shooters make regular use of Boss Monsters. The Doom series have various forms of demons, including Sabaoth, Spiderdemons, and Cyberdemons. Of the special infected in the Left 4 Dead series the Tank best fits as a Boss Monster. Although it is met randomly in some levels it is specifically used as a final challenge in the Rooftop Finale of the first campaign (Mercy Hospital) of the first game in the series. The immense final enemy players have to defeat in Crysis can also count as a Boss Monster.

Bowser is used as a Boss Monster in many of the games in the Super Mario series, and often met at the end of several different levels of the same game. Although the Tomb Raider series has many different Boss Monsters, in the first three games it uses a Tyrannosaurus Rex as Lara Croft's opponent at various points.

Relations

Can Instantiate

Achievements Game Element Insertion Challenging Gameplay Avatars Algorithmic Agents Levels Non-Player Characters Enemies Diegetically Outstanding Features Cutscenes

History

An updated version of the pattern Boss Monsters that was part of the original collection in the book Patterns in Game Design.

Acknowledgements

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