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* The climax of ''[[Half Life]] 2: Episode Two'' pits you against a small army of biomechanical tripods known as "Striders", several of which made your life a living hell in a certain battle in the original ''Half-Life 2'', and one of which was the ''actual'' boss of ''Half-Life 2: Episode One''. Oh, and this time they have Hunter support. This battle would be quite a bit harder if you didn't have {{spoiler|a car and a weapon that could [[One-Hit Kill]] them.}} Their machine guns receive a significant downgrade from the near-instakill they were in earlier installments.
** For that matter, the Hunters were introduced with one {{spoiler|nearly killing Alyx}}, and two or three of them was a boss battle early in the Episode. Two or three of them escort ''every Strider''. Fortunately, you have [[Car Fu|a weapon]] that can [[One-Hit Kill]] ''them'', too.
** There's also the Antlion Guardian--whenGuardian—when you first meet it (when you're instructed not to kill it, not that you can anyway), it has a poison attack. When you later actually get to kill it, this is missing, making it only a [[Palette Swap]] of the Antlion Guard. Not that it needs any help killing you all the same.
* The Cyberdemon and Spider Mastermind boss monsters of the first ''[[Doom]]'' game return in the sequels as regular level monsters (though they're just as tough as they were as bosses), while the final bosses are upgraded to multiple-stories-high monster-spawning buildings. ''Doom 3'' then ''promoted'' the Cyberdemon back to boss status.
** And in the original ''[[Doom]]'', the bosses of the shareware version (the Barons of Hell) become more common in the retail installments. Again, they're just as tough as they were as bosses, though the energy weapons (the plasma gun and the [[BFG]]) that you acquire later on make quick work of them.
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** Many of the early bosses from ''Lords of Shadow'' show up as [[Palette Swap]]ped recurring mooks by Chapter 2. The first boss shows up as a [[Boss in Mook Clothing]] as early as the second level.
* In ''[[Magic Sword]]'', the first dragon boss is reused as a [[Palette Swap]] [[Giant Mook]] midway through the game.
* In the sixth stage of ''[[Ghosts 'n Goblins|Ghosts N Goblins]]'', the bosses from stages 1-41–4 show up again as regular enemies that can be bypassed without fighting. They're no weaker than they were earlier, though.
* In ''[[Mega Man X]] 8'', various enemy reploids in the final stage use copy chips to turn into duplicates of Sigma, the heroes' recurring nemesis (and final boss of the first seven games). Fortunately, they only have access to Sigma's original body, not any of the nightmarish battle forms he loves to inflict on the player.
** The ''[[Mega Man Battle Network|Battle Network]]'' and ''[[Mega Man Star Force|Star Force]]'' games have Type B. After defeating a boss, they'll have a ghost version hiding on a specific tile somewhere in the Cyberworld / on the Wave Roads, usually in a dead end or a corner of a wide platform. Step there and a stronger version of the boss will appear to fight you. After you defeat it, an even stronger version becomes a rare random encounter, usually in the same area.
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* Fire Leo, [[That One Boss]] for many players of ''[[Viewtiful Joe]]'', reappears in the next chapter as a normal enemy called Metal Leo with severely reduced health and no fire attacks, thankfully.
* The regular assassins in ''[[Iji]]'' appear after you fight Asha. Their tactics are less showy and give more time between attacks but also gain an attack that Asha couldn't perform because he only has one arm. In fact, nearly every boss enemy or notable character is just a normal enemy with some backstory and an optional supermove (and more health).
* Some of the [[Mini Boss|Mini Bosses]]es in ''[[La-Mulana]]'' are reused this way in Hell Temple.
* The Knight in ''[[Wonder Boy in Monster Land]]'', in addition to having several [[Palette Swap|palette swaps]], also appears as a recurring enemy late in the game.
* ''Midnight Wanderers'', one of the three games forming ''[[Three Wonders]]''', has the flamethrower from the Terror Twins (Stage 2 Boss) and Dumpty (Stage 3 [[Mini Boss]]) reappear later as minor [[Mooks]].
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=== [[Real Time Strategy]] ===
* In ''[[Pikmin]] 2'', the Burrowing Snagret -- theSnagret—the boss of the third dungeon you visit -- appearsvisit—appears as a regular enemy later on in the game (and not that much later), and often in pairs. The Emperor Bulblax, which was the [[Final Boss]] of the previous game, appears also as a boss in one dungeon, but later on occur as mere mini-bosses and in pairs.
 
=== [[Role Playing Game]] ===
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** The [[Bonus Dungeon]] in ''[[Final Fantasy X-2]]'' has a lot of these. In the 100-floor dungeon, you encounter bosses on every 20th floor, and after beating the 80th floor boss, all the level bosses you've beaten thus far will start showing up as normal enemies beyond the 81st floor. Considering how incredibly powerful they are (the last two have over '''10 times''' the HP of the final boss!), it's generally a VERY good idea to run if you run into them, as they're NOT worth the effort to beat a second time.
*** Some bosses from earlier in the game also show up later. If you revisit the Floating Ruins in later chapters, you will occasionally encounter Boris, the boss from the first mission there. He has exactly the same stats as last time, therefore making him much easier to defeat.
*** Ultima and Omega Weapon, usually [[Bonus Boss|Bonus Bosses]]es, have been relegated to random encounters for this game. Surprisingly, Omega is the easier of the two.
*** ''X-2'' also has bosses from ''[[Final Fantasy X]]'' return as regular encounters. Because the mechanics of the games are so different, they can't be defined as Type A or B.
** ''[[Final Fantasy XII]]'' plays it straight with the Urutan Eater--reappearingEater—reappearing as the Emeralditan in the [[Bonus Dungeon|Nabreus Deadlands]] and Garuda, which reappears as the Garuda-Egi in [[Slippy-Slidey Ice World|Paramina Rift]], and inverts it with the Rogue Tomato, a level 3ish boss who reappears as a much bigger pain in the ass called the Deadly Nightshade, and the squad of five Mandragoras, initially an easy and fun boss fight and then later reappearing [[Guide Dang It|(if you can spawn them, that is)]] as regular enemies that are very good at making the gamer hate his or her life.
** ''[[Final Fantasy XIII]]'' has several enemies that count in this category, such as various Behemoths and Wyverns. Of particular note is the Juggurnaut, a giant mechanical monstrosity that can and will tear your team to shreds should you stumble into it early in the Pulsian underground. However, when they appear later, your party will be strong enough to turn them into scrap metal in about a minute.
*** ''[[Final Fantasy XIII-2]]'' has a couple cross-game inversions: The Immortal and Ochus were regular, if strong and rare, enemies in the first game, but are unique [[Bonus Boss|Bonus Bosses]]es here.
* ''[[Vagrant Story]]'' featured bosses that often become normal mooks with varied stat decreases. The Harpy and Lich both appear as mooks a few ''rooms'' following their boss arenas, though, unlike other examples in the same game, has their stats decreased.
* Many, many bosses in the original ''[[Lufia]]''. With the exception of the Sinistrals, you don't fight an actual unique boss until around the halfway point of the game.
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** Then again, both it and several other minor enemies received a [[Mook Promotion]] as guardians of the Crystals needed to activate Kazarov Stonehenge in Chapter 6.
** Additionally, if one goes by the most common hypothesis that the first game takes place ''after'' the second game, it's possible that one of the snakes simply [[Took a Level In Badass|managed to become really strong]] during the interval between the games, in which case the games invert this trope. But it's a matter of interpretation, really.
* The first ''[[Kingdom Hearts]]'' does this with the Behemoth Heartless; after appearing as the 'boss' of your second visit to Hollow Bastion, you fight more of them in the Hades Cup and the End of the World, only this time they're basically [[Giant Mook|Giant Mooks]]s. Stealth Sneak also appears as this in the Hades Cup but subverts this by being stronger than the original, and you face [[Dual Boss|two of them at once]]. This trope becomes quite [[Egregious]] in ''358/2 Days'', with most of the targets for missions becoming lesser enemies later on; one of the later missions involves defeating ''six'' mini-bosses.
* The Tyrannosaurus Rex looking Dinosaur from ''[[Dragonball Z]]: The Legacy of Goku'' that were immune to Kamehameha. Originally beating the first one took half of this player's Gameboy battery power, it took so long. After the first one, more Trex look alikes show up in later levels of the game, each time easier to kill as Goku gets stronger until he's too fast and strong for the dinos to even be worth the time.
* ''[[Adventure Quest]]'' does this a lot with war bosses, which in many cases end up in random encounter lists. This gets lampshaded in one quest where you have to fight Drakath the Undead Dragon, who it's likely the player has run up against at least 3 or 4 times before, and their character wonders, "Who keeps reanimating that dragon?"
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** The [[Dynamic Difficulty]] of the game scales all monsters to the [[Player Character]]'s level, with Normal enemies being slighly weaker than the PC; Lieutenants, slighly stronger; and Bosses, about as strong as your entire party combined (don't ask about [[That One Boss|Elite Bosses]]). Said first Ogre you encounter (at level 4-5) is a Boss, yet all subsequent Ogres are Lieutenants, so they are simultaneously stronger that the first one and weaker than yourself during all subsequent encounters.
** Same thing happens in ''[[Dragon Age II]]'': an ogre is the very first boss you fight in the game (twice), and even Flemeth comments on how impressive it is to beat one. The next ones you meet in the end of Act I are considerably less difficult. By Act III, Hawke and Companions will crunch them for breakfast.
** Heck, ''Origins'' did that with freaking ''High Dragons''. The Mountaintop Dragon is a boss so obviously overpowered that the game almost asks you "Are you really, really sure?" several times before you are allowed to fight it (and awards you an Achievement if you prevail). The [[Expansion Pack]] puts a High Dragon to guard the entrance to [[The Very Definitely Final Dungeon]]--whom—whom you rip apart before you even register its creature type. Twenty extra levels do make a difference.
* ''[[Crisis Core]]: [[Final Fantasy VII]]'' is full of these. Sometimes they're storyline bosses, sometimes they're mission-ending uniques.
* In ''[[Skies of Arcadia]]'', the executioner you face fairly early in the game appears reskinned as a mook in one of the climactic sequences. The original inspired nightmares, his green-painted cousins are easy meat, probably because you gained about 30 levels and now have access to Fina's wide range of healing powers.
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* The Great Jaggi is your first large Monster Hunt in ''[[Monster Hunter]] Tri''. The first time you encounter one wandering about Moga Woods (usually the very next day) is probably a bit of an [[Oh Crap]] moment. By the time you fight the Royal Ludroth, you're taking them on two at a time, and they're barely worth hunting anymore. Note that at this point, you're ''still'' fighting the weakest monsters in the game.
* ''[[Breath of Fire]]'' makes recurrent use of the trope in their early entries:
** Several of the less important, nameless and/or monstrous bosses in ''[[Breath of Fire I]]'' return later as [[Palette Swap|Palette Swapped]]ped mooks, most notably the trio of dragons serving as Ryu's trials and the Gremlin, [[Wake Up Call Boss|a rather memorable early boss]].
** ''[[Breath of Fire II]]'' makes the same reuse of boss sprites, though it doesn't limit itself with minor bosses, as guys like Shupkay, M.C. Tusk (end-of-arc bosses) and ''[[The Rival|Ray]]'' are among the degraded lot.
** ''[[Breath of Fire III]]'' and forward practically avert the trope almost completely. In ''III'', for example, the only example comes from 4 [[Mini Boss|Mini Bosses]]es from very early.
* Halfway through the first disc of ''[[The Legend of Dragoon]]'' you face a "Sandora Elite", an assassin who fights with kunai, earth-based ninjutsu and two [[Doppleganger Attack|ninja clones]] at his side. They become standard enemies in the [[Disc One Final Dungeon]], minus the dopplegangers.
* At least in the Super Famicom game, ''[[Dragonball Z]]: Legend of the Super Saiyan'', there are random encounter enemies late in the game that are palette swaps of Cui, Dodoria, Zarbon, and the Ginyu Force that are weaker or stronger than you originally fought as bosses.
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=== [[Shoot'Em Up]] ===
* Big Core in the ''[[Gradius]]'' series as a whole; they were the first game's [[Recurring Boss]] and came back for [[Boss Rush|Boss Rushes]]es in subsequent games. In ''Gradius V'', they've been reduced to regular enemy status, appearing frequently in Stage 1, 3, and 7 and getting killed pretty quickly.
** Another level boss Gaw appeared in ''Life Force'' at the end of Stage 5. It appeared in ''Gradius II'''s [[Boss Rush]] before becoming a pre-stage enemy for the bio levels in ''Gaiden'' and ''V''.
** The giant worm that was the first boss of ''Gaiden'' appears as an enemy in ''V'''s bio stage.
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* The first boss of ''[[Ray Storm]]'' returns as a [[Mini Boss]] in the Judgement and Emotion stages of ''[[Ray Crisis]]''.
* Yuyuko, final boss of ''[[Touhou Project|Perfect Cherry Blossom]]'', {{spoiler|is the Stage 1 boss of ''Ten Desires''. Justified in that she's [[Willfully Weak]]; she just wants to get in some practice with you before you go on the investigation.}}
** The fangame ''Concealed the Conclusion'' is full of those: Flandre and Mokou ([[Bonus Boss|Bonus Bosses]]es in original games) are stage 1 [[Mid Boss|midbosses]], Kaguya and Mima (originally [[Final Boss|Final Bosses]]es) are stage 1 bosses, powerhouses like Remilia, Eirin, Shikieiki and Yuuka are on stages 2-32–3, etc.
** Generally speaking, if a characters recurs they'll be showing up a midboss the second time. Though this can be a promotion if they went from a boss of an early stage to an EX midboss.
* In ''[[Raiden]] IV'', the twin [[Spider Tank|spider tanks]] from ''Raiden II'' return in smaller form in Stage 4, but then they are re-promoted to bosses in that same stage. The series' recurring jet boss, Ichneumon, becomes a regular enemy in Stages 5 and 6 of the Xbox 360 version.
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** Similarly, in the third game, the Missionary, which you first fight as a boss after one of them kills Harry, becomes a recurring mook in the cult's church near the end of the game.
** In ''Origins'', Caliban, the boss of the theater, becomes a mook in the outdoor segment almost immediately after you beat the boss version. Along with the giant versions of the dogs, these act as a very, ''very'' unsubtle hint that you should probably just be running from enemies on the streets now instead of wasting ammunition and [[Breakable Weapons]] fighting them.
* Los Gigantes from ''[[Resident Evil 4]]'' undergo an interesting form of degrading. When you first encounter one, El Gigante is a ridiculously powerful boss that you only manage to beat because you have lots of room to maneuver and (hopefully) a dog to provide a distraction. The second time, you lack this room, and you're expected to use the terrain to delay it long enough to escape. By the third and final time, you've got enough firepower to handle two Gigantes with relative ease -- andease—and since you retain your arsenal when you [[New Game+|start the game over]], from the second round on Los Gigantes are pushovers from the start.
** It kind of helps the 3rd time that you can {{spoiler|activate a lava pit and eliminate one of them quickly. In true RE tradition, [[Convection, Schmonvection]] applies.}}
** The Prototype Tyrants in ''[[Resident Evil 0]]'', although this is more of an inversion, as the game is a prequel.
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=== [[Turn-Based Strategy]] ===
* ''[[Fire Emblem the Sacred Stones]]'' has the Cyclops, fought as a regular boss previously, appear as a regular enemy in the Endgame and [[Bonus Dungeon|Bonus Dungeons]]s. It's as tough as before though; it's your party that's become stronger.
* ''[[Shining Force]]'' used this often, with several bosses on stages being a Minotaur, a Golem, a Witch creature, a Black Knight, etc., all of whom would appear frequently as simple mooks in later missions, once the team got stronger.
** ''[[Shining in the Darkness]]'' had the Kaiserkrab, the insanely hard-to-beat first boss. When it reappears as a mook, it's just as powerful but easier to beat, since you have two extra teammates by then.
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* The special zombies in ''[[Dead Island]]'' show up initially as bosses, complete with cut scenes showing shocked protagonist reactions. After couple of areas have been passed, they show up mixed in with regular zombies, as strong as they were before (stronger, in fact, as they level with the players). As they tend to have elements of a [[Puzzle Boss]] about them (disable the arms first, use ranged weapons, only attack from behind etc) it's usually best to mop up the mook before attempting to take them down.
 
== Non-game examples: ==
=== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ===
* After facing Ranba Ral (Gouf) and the Black Tri-Stars (Dom) in ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam]]'', the Mobile Suits used by them are soon adopted as Mass-production units by Zeon Mooks.
** Similarly, in ''[[Gundam Seed Destiny]]'', The Earth Alliance's powerful Mobile Armors such as the Zamzah-Zah and Destroy Gundam appear in greater numbers later in the series (and are usually killed ''much'' easier than the first one they faced).
*** The Destroy Gundam is most notorious in that when the emotionally-unbalanced Stella piloted the beast, it absolutely devastated Berlin and even when stopped, the machine was still largely intact. When they start mass producing it, they drop like flies. Granted, ZAFT did introduce new prototype suits, but you'd think they'd at least be able to match the original's damage.
* In ''[[Digimon Adventure]]'', Vamdemon ([[Dub Name Change|Myotismon]]) was the longest-lasting villain--12villain—12 episodes in his original form and two more as VenomVamdemon, which would be enough to make his arc the longest even on its own, but the five episodes immediately preceding his debut involved one of his minions stirring up trouble. {{spoiler|1=And even then he wasn't defeated, coming back in ''[[Digimon Adventure 02]]'' as BelialVamdemon/MaloMyotismon to serve as that season's ''[[Big Bad]]''.}} Cut ahead to ''[[Digimon Xros Wars: The Young Hunters Leaping Through Time]]'', and mass-produced Vamdemon clones are being slaughtered wholesale.
* ''[[Naruto]]'' looks like it may have these, since {{spoiler|Orochimaru!Kabuto did the whole "imperfect resurrection" thing on Itachi, Kakuzu, Deidara, Sasori, and Nagato}}.
** {{spoiler|In the end, it was a subversion, since Orochimaru!Kabuto revived many more legendary shinobi, and while we finally how badass the other shinobi from the past were, none of the aforementioned five had had degraded in any way. If anything, at least ''two'' of them were shown to be even ''stronger'' after their resurrection}}.
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{{reflist}}
[[Category:{{PAGENAME}}Degraded Boss]]
[[Category:Boss Battle]]
[[Category:Video Game Characters]]
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