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{{trope}}
{{quote|"''I find it funny that they don't even bother with the boss music this time. It's like they're admitting that he's old news by now.''"|vgfmak of [[YouTube]], on [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v{{=}}udERhQTBEV8 Wizrobe's 4th appearance] from ''[[The Legend of Zelda:
The boss in a video game, or on rare occasion VG series, who, after you defeat him/her/it, returns multiple times - but not as a boss, but as a [[Giant Mook|regular enemy]] (sometimes more than one appearing at once). Sometimes, the boss you fought is the "strongest" of the monsters; sometimes you've attained a new weapon which is [[Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors|particularly effective against that boss]], or just leveled up enough that you're able to take on [[Dual Boss|several at a time]]. In some games, later enemies will be [[Palette Swap|palette-swapped]] versions of the boss' sprite/model, and may actually be ''stronger'' than the original Boss form. This tends to be puzzling when the first one you face is said to be their ruler. Logic suggests that [[Authority Equals Asskicking|they should be the strongest of the lot]], but when you face their higher-levelled brethren later on, [[Fridge Logic|one wonders]] why ''they'' aren't in charge.
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There are two types of degraded bosses.
* '''Type A:'''The ones who appear after killing the first one, are indeed weaker versions of a said enemy.
* '''Type B:'''The ones who appear after killing the first one, aren't weaker at all. [[Underground Monkey|Sometimes even stronger]]. Although by then you're usually more powerful and well-equipped to deal with them more easily. A common version of this is for the first Boss of the game to reappear as a [[Giant Mook]] throughout the rest of the game.
See [[Recurring Boss]] for examples where they don't get degraded and instead develop new tricks to fight against the player.▼
▲See [[Recurring Boss]] for examples where they don't get degraded.
{{examples}}
==
=== [[Action Adventure]] ===
* The first ''[[The Legend of Zelda (
** ''[[Ocarina of Time]]'' also had pairs of Lizalfos presented as Sub-Bosses in the second dungeon, while you play Link as a child. Adult Link can take them out in two hits with the Biggoron Sword, and by that point in the game young Link has enough equipment and [[Hit Points|hearts]] to turn them into mooks. Stalfos are another example, as they also act as minibosses in their first encounter, but you also encounter them as regular enemies later. Then they are used as minibosses ''again'', with the added challenge of beating them both at once in a short time, lest they rise up again.
** Nearly every miniboss in ''[[The Legend of Zelda:
** Hardly unique among the Game Boy games. Many of the mini-bosses from early levels of ''[[The Legend of Zelda:
** Cross-game ''[[Inverted Trope|inversion]]'': Vire, a regular enemy from the ''original'' and ''Link's Awakening'', shows up as an extremely annoying (both in gameplay and in taunting Link) sub-boss in both ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Oracle
** An inversion in ''[[The Legend of Zelda:
** ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
** Multi-game example: Dark Link has taken many different roles, including, but not limited to, [[Giant Space Flea From Nowhere|surprise final boss]] in ''[[Zelda II:
** Two of the mini-bosses in ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks
** In ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword
* Happens twice in ''Onimusha''. Reynaldo, who is set up as a mini-boss but is quickly revealed to be a really tough (and regenerating/self-duplicating) mook. Then there's Volchiman, who you must first fight as ninja girl Kaede, who is significantly weaker than main character Samonosuke; later on you may encounter two Volchiman at once. However, there's also Marcellus, whose prototype you face first. The real deal is a much, much more difficult opponent - probably more so than final boss Fortinbras.
* Almost every single miniboss in ''[[
* One of the various mech bosses in ''[[Shadow Complex]]'' returns as a regular enemy at one point, but strangely still has his boss lifebar if you're near it. In the final boss fight you fight ''all of them''.
* Every enemy is introduced in ''The Haunted Mansion'' with a lot of fanfare, and you are put into a one-on-one match with them. As soon as you beat them, they begin showing up as regular enemies. Fortunately, [[Heroic Mime|Zeke's]] weapon gets powerful enough to accommodate for this.
* The Henchmen in ''[[King's Quest: Mask of Eternity
=== [[Action Game]] ===
* The Hell Vanguard from ''[[Devil May Cry]] 3'' returns in later parts of the game as a lifebar-less mook. However, all recurrences are as strong as the first one. Furthermore, on one occasion (Mission 17's Trial of the Warrior room), the Hell Vanguard "mook" taps into the [[Limit Break|latent "Devil Trigger" power]] and becomes even more powerful than the boss version. On the highest difficulty, all "mook" versions of the Hell Vanguard can potentially use the Devil Trigger power.
** ''[[Devil May Cry]] 4'' combines this trope with [[Cutscene Power to
* A twist occurs in the first two ''[[Ninja Gaiden]]'' games for the NES: the Malice Four from the first ''Ninja Gaiden'' appears in ''Ninja Gaiden II'' as mooks who are literal clones of the originals created by Ashtar. The clones are the same size as Ryu and are killed with a single strike like other regular mooks.
* Done both in-game and in-story in ''[[Ninja Gaiden]] II: The Dark Sword of Chaos''. The basic [[Mooks]] you first fight are in fact clones of the first boss of the original game. Clones of the games subsequent three bosses also appear, usually in [[Giant Mook]] form, though Kelberos comes back in full Boss form.
** The seventh generation ''[[Ninja Gaiden]] II'' The boss you face in the first chapter is Rasetsu, a large, literal [[Demonic Spiders|Demonic spider/Human hybrid]] who stands about 8 feet tall with 4 large bladed appendages protruding from his back. You also encounter another Spider Ninja Fiend in the second chapter, backed up by spider ninja Mooks. In the last chapters you end up slaying a couple dozen of them; sometimes in pairs. They are still as strong as the first encounter, but by then you're a lot stronger.
* The first encounter with the centaurs in ''[[Tomb Raider]]'' is considered a boss fight, due to the fact that they're the first Atlanteans you see in the game and their appearance is a [[Wham! Episode|shock.]] More centaurs are encountered later as regular enemies.
** The [[Video Game Remake]] changes this by changing the first centaurs into a [[Puzzle Boss]], and only the later ones act as regular enemies.
* In the indie title ''A.R.E.S.'', the Mini-Bosses from Stage 1 and 2 also show up as regular mooks by Stage 3. Thanks to upgraded weapons, they hardly even count as [[Elite Mooks]] anymore.
* Subversion/inversion: The Big Eye [[Giant Mook]] from ''[[
* Another inversion: Fritz the Firing Train in ''Iron Tank'' first appears as a [[Giant Mook]]-type encounter, ie without the ominous boss music, then later as a proper boss encounter.
=== [[Beat'Em Up]] ===
* Done a lot in old beat'em-up arcade games. Examples: ''[[Double Dragon]]'', ''Cadillacs and Dinosaurs'', ''Ninja Combat'', and ''Arabian Nights''. Often, the first boss you face will also be the first [[Giant Mook]].
** As does the ''[[Streets of Rage]]'' series with some of their boss characters. Lampshaded in Streets of Rage 2, with the weaker mook version of the boss "R. Bear" being called "[[Overlord, Jr.|Bear Jr.]]"
*** ''2'' takes it pretty quickly, too. After beating the twin robot bosses in Stage 7, the very first enemies you fight in Stage 8 are two more.
** Averted by the original ''[[Final Fight]]'' and its SNES sequels: the bosses are unique to each stage and none of them actually reappear once they're defeated.
** In the arcade version of ''[[Double Dragon]]'', the [[Elite Mook|elite mooks]] that appear near the end of Mission 3 and during the final battle in Mission 4 are all palette-swaps of Jeff, the Mission 2 boss (who was in turn, a head-swapped Lee brother). However, they're just as tough as the boss version of Jeff.
*** It also happens to Chin Taimei (Jeff's equivalent as the Mission 2 boss) in the NES version. In fact, it happens rather immediately, as the second fight in Mission 3 is against a group of three Chin clones.
*** In ''Super Double Dragon'', Steve and Jackson, the first two bosses, appear throughout the rest of the game as mooks. All of the previous bosses also appear in the final stage.
** In ''[[Knights of the Round]]'', Scorn (the first boss) reappears many times as an [[Elite Mook]] called "Tall Man." He's equally annoying, except he has less health.
** The ''[[Punisher]]'' arcade game also reuses the first boss Scully as a mook in the final stage.
** In the ''[[Alien vs
** In ''[[Undercover Cops]]'', generic, already-damaged clones of the first boss show up in the last level.
** Done in ''[[Violent Storm]]'', where clones of Dabel (but without the mask) appear as generic enemies near the end of the game.
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* In ''[[Bayonetta]]'', after you [[No Kill Like Overkill|completely brutalize]] a Cardinal Virtue ([[My Friends and Zoidberg|or a Golem]]), weaker versions will appear later in the game. Mostly during the [[Boss Rush]]. Clones of Temperentia in particular are fought four times throughout the game.
=== [[Fighting Game]] ===
* Krizalid from ''[[King of Fighters]]'' 99 reappears as one of Zero's allies in KOF 2001.
* Typically this will happen in fighting games if the endgame of the previous title in the series caused the main boss to lose their standing and are forced to fight against whoever took over to get it back. For the sequel, they will then become a playable cast member as they are considered a "participant" rather than the "organizer". Examples include ''[[Tekken]]'''s Heihachi Mishima between the first and second games (then again between the fourth and fifth games), Cervantes de Leon after ''[[Soul Series|Soul Blade]]'', and Gaia after the first ''[[Battle Arena Toshinden]]''.
=== [[First-Person Shooter]] ===
* In the second ''[[Marathon
* The Battlelord in ''[[
* The Serpent God and the Sumo in ''[[Shadow Warrior]]''.
* 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
* 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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** In ''[[Serious Sam]] 3'', the first scorpion monster is counted as a boss. It subsequently appears as a normal enemy and soon a smaller version of them also appears. The same goes to biomechanoid.
* The first boss in ''[[Will Rock]]'' is a huge Cyclop. From the following level onward you have to fight several other cyclops (their stone-spitting attack is different though). Then, the second boss, Hepheastus is later found as a [[King Mook]] on Mount Olympus. Several of them, actually.
* ''[[
* Plated Beetles, adult Sheegoths and Chozo Ghosts in ''[[Metroid Prime]]'' all first appear as mini-bosses, but later become regular enemies. The Sheegoth particularly feels degraded, as it was a quite hard to beat on the first time, but after you get the Plasma Beam, you can ''kill it with one shot without even waiting for it to expose its weak spot!''
** In ''Metroid Zero Mission'', there is a Dessgeega that you encounter early in the game as a mini-boss after acquiring the long beam and discovering the currently locked entrance to the [[Big Bad|Big Bad's]] lair. This miniboss turns out to be a common enemy in a later level.
** In ''[[Metroid: Other M]]'', you first run into the FG-1000 security drones early on in the game, where they function as a fairly tricky miniboss battle. Much later, you find a few more, but by that time, you can blast through them with a single charged Plasma Beam blast, without even having to wait for them to expose their weak point, much like the Sheegoth example above.
* In ''[[Halo]] 2'', Tartarus, the Brute Chieftain, is the game's final boss, with a one-hit-kill gravity hammer and an invincible forcefield that can only be brought down by Sgt. Johnson's particle rifle. In ''Halo 3'', Brute Chieftains regularly appear as [[King Mook]] [[Mini Boss|minibosses]]; they're armed with one-hit-kill gravity hammers and one-use invincibility shields that last for a couple dozen seconds.
* In ''[[
* After you fight {{spoiler|Jen}} in ''[[Prey]]'', you will face it again as summoned mook when you're fighting the Keeper. And after you fight the Keeper, you will then need to fight agains more Keepers to get out. Fortunately for latter case, the Keepers will not summon mooks and there are leech gun ammo around.
* The first boss of ''[[Descent]] 2'', aka the "Red Fatty", later returns in [[Palette Swap]] [[Giant Mook]] form, armed with Mercury Missiles and Phoenix Cannons. In the first game, Fusion Hulks are a palette swap of the first boss that have Fusion Cannons.
* Just about every boss in ''[[Painkiller]]'' was a unique one-shot, but the fan-made expansion ''Overdose'' abuses this to hell and back by taking the end-of-level miniboss from the first level of ''Painkiller'' and reusing him a grand total of '''over 50 times''', with more than a dozen showing up for each individual encounter.
* The Altered from ''[[Wolfenstein (
* ''Amsterdoom'' has this in every stage, with the boss of the area becoming a recurring type of enemy in the next.
* In ''[[Quake (
** In the second game, the Super Tank and Tank Flyer first appear as [[King Mook]] bosses, then as normal enemies, although they're just as tough as before.
* Inverted with the Uber Soldat in ''[[Return to Castle Wolfenstein]]'', as you first fight a prototype Mook version, then a tougher boss version.
* In the original ''[[Halo]]'', Zealot Elites were [[Boss in Mook Clothing]]-type enemies that were [[Lightning Bruiser|much tougher and more agile]] than normal Elites. In the second game, their shields were downgraded to the level of Major Elites and they only wielded Energy Swords, while their former stats (and then some) were given to the new Ultra Elites. ''Reach'' promoted the Zealots back to their former status and downgraded the Ultras somewhat.
* ''[[Blood]]'''s bosses, excluding the final one, all appear as regular enemies in the episode(s) following their boss fight, though only above normal difficulty. Each one also has a subordinate version of themselves that appears primarily in the episode they're the boss of.
* The ''[[Dark Forces Saga]]'' is rather fond of this trope. The Dark Troopers of the original game are introduced in this way, as are AT-
=== [[Hack and Slash]] ===
* ''[[Diablo]]'':
** The Butcher is an Overlord demon and a challenging boss early on, but later you can dispatch countless Overlords who are even stronger, albeit without the cleaver.
** Zhar the Mad appears halfway through the game as a boss. Dark mage type enemies resembling him are later found in the final Hell levels.
* Gorgons in ''[[God of War (
=== [[Mecha Game]] ===
* The final stage in ''[[Zone of the Enders]]: the 2nd Runner'' throws endless copies of Nephtis, the game's second boss at you, which you can cut down by the dozen with near impunity. Playing through the [[New Game
=== [[Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game|
* The MMORPG ''[[City of Heroes]]'' and its Villain counterpart do this as well in a few cases. Some specific missions have Boss or Elite Boss versions of enemies that are normally only minion or lieutenants normally, while in other cases Bosses are eventually downgraded to lower status. Villains can run into this as early as level 5 and the Lt. Blechley enemy, an Elite Boss version of the normally lieutenant-powered Council Vampyri. Heroes encounter this as well, although the most notable case doesn't come into play until level 45, where the dangerous Malta Gunslingers begin to regularly apply as lieutenants instead of their previous Boss counterparts. Justified as heroes don't even start to encounter the Vampyri until level 20, while villains encounter Lt. Blechley before level 10. At that stage in the game, he would be tough for a hero as well.
* Happens a lot in ''[[Dungeon Fighter Online]]'', with nearly every single boss you fight at the start of the game. Type B.
* ''[[Guild Wars]] Nightfall'', a powerful boss early in the game is a construct made of floating stone fragments called the [http://gw.gamewikis.org/wiki/Apocrypha Apocrypha]. In the final third of the game, identical creatures appear in large group as regular encounters, and are called "graven monoliths."
** And in Factions, the first mission on the mainland has you fighting a Shiro'ken boss at the end, while by the second to last mission, the Shiro'ken are essentially elite mooks.
* ''[[Mabinogi (
* ''Grand Chase'' has quite a few of these. The first is the Orc Warrior, who is degraded to a normal mook a mere two stages after his appearance as a boss. Then there's the Troll [Two stages again], Lich, Gorgos, and Paradom, although these appear as Mini-Bosses. The Hero Dungeon also has buffed versions of Gaikoz, Gardosen, Kamiki, Giant Stone Golem, and Basilisk as minibosses. Multiple at once.
* [[The Butcher]] in ''[[
=== [[Platform Game]] ===
* The boss of the first level in ''[[The Lion King (Video Game)|The Lion King]]'' video game is a hyena. They are demoted to "mere" borderline-[[Demonic Spiders]] in the Elephant Graveyard and even further to common [[Mooks]] in the later adult Simba levels.
* ''[[Castlevania]]'' games have been doing this since the beginning, when the first level boss, the Giant Bat, reappeared multiple times on the last level.
** The Giant Bat from the first game is echoed by the Armor Battler in ''[[Castlevania
** Several early bosses in ''[[
** ''[[Castlevania Aria of Sorrow|Aria of Sorrow]]'' loved this. The first four bosses become regular enemies later. There's even [[Palette Swap|more powerful]] versions of these enemies later on.
*** The Man Eater is an inversion. It's a regular enemy that shows up in the [[Boss Rush]] mode for some reason. ''[[Order of Ecclesia]]'' brings it back as a full-fledged boss.
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** The Stone Golem and Werewolf have also bounced between Mook and Boss status from game to game.
** ''Portrait of Ruin'' also uses a lot of degraded bosses. Many of the bosses from ''Rondo of Blood'' (Including Minotaur, Wyvern, Dogether, and Camilla's assistant Laura the catgirl) appear as normal enemies, as well as the aforementioned Slogra and Gaibon. However, the Werewolf and The Creature are back to being bosses again - but 2 of The Creature appear in the Nest Of Evil. And you better believe they're not degraded whatsoever despite not being the floor boss(es).
** The Dullahan enemy moves up from [[Mook]] to [["Wake
** The Giant Armor in Harmony of Dissonance appears as an enemy later on.
** Many of the early bosses from ''Lords of Shadow'' show up as [[Palette Swap
* In ''[[Magic Sword]]'', the first dragon boss is reused as a [[
* In the sixth stage of ''[[Ghosts
* In ''[[
** The ''[[Mega Man Battle Network
** In ''[[
** The recent gameplay videos for ''Rockman Online'' have shown old bosses such as [[Mega Man 5
** One of the Wily Tower bosses in ''[[
** After fighting {{spoiler|Botos}} in ''[[
* In ''[[
** There's also the fact that in ''Sonic Adventure 2'', Bigfoot troops showed up as the first bosses for the hero and dark side story archs. When they show up again in ''[[Shadow the Hedgehog]]'', they are reduced to standard enemies in the stage 5 and stage 6 options.
* ''[[Keith Courage]] in Alpha Zones'' brings many of the earlier bosses back several times, as palette swaps, two-at-once bosses, and infinitely recurring enemies.
* 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 ''[[
* Some of the [[Mini Boss
* The Knight in ''[[
* ''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]].
* In ''[[Spyro]]'' this happens on occasion. The best example would be Buzz, the first boss in ''Spyro: Year of the Dragon''. When he first appears you have to knock him in lava six times to kill him, and each time he gets out you have to dodge his roll attack (and the last two times he gets out he has a powerful fire breath). Cue the third boss, Scorch, who spits Buzz out as an egg. After being hatched, Buzz still has to be knocked into lava/acid, but only once to kill him this time, and you don't have to deal with his roll attack or fire breath.
* In ''[[
* In ''[[
* The Daemon mini-bosses in the SNES and Genesis game ''Warlock'' appear as regular enemies two levels after they're introduced. The player hasn't gained anymore power, and they have the same amount of health, these are still pretty much ''[[Demonic Spiders]]''. The only difference is that they are now skippable. The fact that this stage is ''[[That One Level]]'' doesn't help matters.
* The first Heckler fought in the Land of the Livid Dead in ''[[Rayman]] 3'' is clearly presented as a mini-boss, with a short cutscene introducing it [[The Worf Effect|scaring away the ghostly Teensies who wiped out all other Hoodlums without breaking a sweat]] and a unique theme playing during its battle, not to mention [[More Dakka|its crazy rate of fire]], [[That One Attack|very dangerous grappling attack that can potentially lock Rayman down until he dies]], large health bar and immunity to normal attacks requiring the Heavy Metal Fist powerup. A few more Hecklers are encountered in later levels as [[Elite Mooks]].
=== [[Rail Shooter]] ===
* Moz, the ninja boss in the first ''[[Time Crisis]]'' reappears as a [[Mini Boss]] in Stage 3-3, then as a mook during the [[Final Boss]] battle.
* The fourth archive of ''[[Child of Eden]]'' features the "running man" form of ''[[Rez]]'''s fourth boss as a sub-boss.
=== [[Real Time Strategy]] ===
* In ''[[Pikmin]] 2'', the Burrowing
=== [[Role
* The ''[[Final Fantasy]]'' series does this many times, in many ways.
** The Vampire is a boss early on in ''[[
*** This game also has palette swaps of Astos, an early boss, later in the game as more powerful enemies.
** After you defeat the first form of the emperor in ''[[
*** Almost every boss in this game appears as regular enemy. Some as soon as the dungeon right after the one they were a boss in.
** ''[[
** In ''[[
*** Also, after you beat Garula at the Walse Tower, you can encounter it again as a random encounter near the Walse Meteorite.
** ''[[
*** Not to mention the M-Tek Armors. You fight two of them as a boss when you first get Edgar (though two shots from Edgar's crossbow will kill them.) Then, in Sabin's scenario, they're all over the place in the Imperial outpost as forced and avoidable non-random encounters and easily fall victim to Sabin's Blitzes or Shadow's shurikens, especially after you get Magitek Armor Suits of your own (and you can use a Bolt Beam to attack their weak points for massive damage.) You can also find them on the Veldt, though Gau starts with their (useless) rage.
** Every single boss in ''[[Final Fantasy]]: Mystic Quest'', with five exceptions: the crystal guardians (and their [[Palette Swap]] counterparts in Doom Castle), and the final boss.
** ''[[
** The [[Bonus Dungeon]] in ''[[Final Fantasy X
*** 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
*** ''X-2'' also has bosses from ''[[
** ''[[
** ''[[
*** ''[[
* ''[[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.
** ''Lufia 2'' loves this as well. The general rule of thumb there is, "if the boss doesn't have any lines of dialogue and the game hasn't hit its 3/4th complete point, expect to see it in normal dungeons regularly later on."
* A few minor bosses such as the Desert Axebeaks in ''[[Legend of Mana]]'' are simply normal enemies with a boss-level hit point bar, although due to the game's level scaling system these downgraded enemies can eventually become more dangerous than their Boss equivalents.
* ''[[
** Any ''[[Mega Ten]]'' game with the recruitable demon mechanic will allow you to recruit, fuse, or otherwise obtain many of the bosses you fight after beating them at least once.
* In ''[[
* In ''[[
** All over the place with IOS game Dragon Quest Of The Stars. Even chapter bosses can later appear in other dungeons. Other bosses later receive upgraded versions of themselves. For example, after fighting the Restless Armour, you encounter the Infernal Armour as a boss. So far, Marquis De Leon and Barbatos are the exceptions.
* In ''[[
* ''[[
* ''[[
** Most Machine Mades are somewhat to significantly easier than their boss counterparts. The exceptions are Machine Made Mack and Machine Made Bowyer, who both have more HP than their "original" forms. Thus, the Machine Made Axem Rangers and Machine Made Yaridovich are Type A, while the Machine Made Mack and Machine Made Bowyer are technically Type B but effectively Type A because you're at a far higher level.
** The Machine Made Yaridovich has a unique evasion trick where it splits into four lesser [[Mooks]] and you need to pound away at them until the original Machine Made returns to the field. Like the original's Mirage attack, it gives your party more enemies to be assaulted by; unlike the original's Mirage attack, these enemies are easily dispatched by your party at its current strength.
** Unlike most examples of this trope, the boss music still plays while fighting Machine Mades, interestingly.
* ''[[
** ''[[
** A lot of bosses from P3 can be found as random encounters in P4. World Balance shows up again, but it's an interesting case; you find it as a random encounter ''way'' before you fight it as a sub-boss. Fighting it then gives you a version that resists physical attacks as well as all elements, but falls instantly to Hama and Mudo and only knows Ziodyne. Later on, you fight a powered-up version in {{spoiler|Nanako's}} dungeon, which still isn't as hard as the nightmare it was in the previous game. Here, the World Balance has a simple pattern (Mind Charge and then a -dyne spell) and has low HP for a boss.
*** The Magical Magus appears in the ''first level of the game'', and in P3, you didn't fight it until you got to the third block of Tartarus.
*** The Natural Dancer also makes an appearance. It only has two skills now; Navas Nebula (Physical attack, whole party, causes Exhaustion, which drains SP each turn) and Marakunda (Debuff, lowers defense of all enemies). It also picked up a weakness to ice, which it didn't have in the previous game.
* In ''[[
** Also the boss Thag the Impatient later returns as common Bandit chiefs.
** In ''[[
* The Giant Snake, a difficult [[Action Commands]] boss from the first ''[[
** 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
* 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
* 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.
* ''[[
* ''[[
** On level 4 you fight an enemy and minions as a mini boss for an optional quest. By level 6 these are normal enemies.
** On level 8 you will fight a mini boss in a certain room that due to timing and various other factors makes this the hardest fight in the game to get right at the time you get there. And it's just an optional quest mini boss with near zero plot importance. On the final level of the game you fight this exact enemy as a normal encounter with the same minions... and may even encounter it at the same time as another difficult enemy. Post game you will sometimes fight two at once and minions as a normal encounter.
** For that matter, post game you can fight bosses as normal enemies. Even the ones that actually were bosses.
* In ''[[Digital Devil Saga]]'' {{spoiler|Jatayu and Garuda are fought on the outside of the higher levels of the Karma Temple. After being defeated and going back inside the temple they can be encountered in random battles.}}
* Wendigo in ''[[
* The Barbarian Fighter and the Iron Golem from ''[[Summoner]]''. The first can be fought in a normal encounter practically right after you fight him as a boss, and the Iron Golem can be found as enemy before he's a boss, if you're a glutton for punishment and go wandering in the mountains.
* The first boss you face in the main storyline of ''[[Dragon Age]]: Origins'' is an ogre, which becomes a normal enemy later in the game (with more powerful versions at times.) Justified in that you're trying to ''re''take an area that's off to one side of the main battle, and the darkspawn would've just sent a strike force consisting of their normal troops to take it in the first place.
** 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]]
* ''[[Crisis Core]]: [[Final Fantasy VII]]'' is full of these. Sometimes they're storyline bosses, sometimes they're mission-ending uniques.
* In ''[[
* In ''[[
* The Lotus Assassins of ''[[Jade Empire]]'' get this hard. The first one you meet, you can't even fight - an NPC rushes in to defeat the assassin and says you wouldn't have stood a chance. Later, you fight a couple, but each is at the center of a boss fight. A couple of acts later, and you're taking on entire squads of assassins by yourself without breaking a sweat.
* Ascended Sleepers in ''[[Morrowind]]'' are Type B. Various named Dagoths encountered in the latter half of the main quest are modified Ascended Sleepers, but they're actually downgraded from the normal enemy (which only shows up at extremely high levels - it is in fact the highest levelled non-unique monster in the game). So it is quite possible to learn to [[Boss in Mook Clothing|hate]] Ascended Sleepers before knowing what they're actually called.
* The unfortunately named Prophallus in ''[[Phantasy Star IV]]'' is basically a ([[Boss in Mook Clothing|very powerful]]) variation of the ''[[Final Boss]]'' of the first game.
* ''[[Secret of Evermore]]'' had the Eye of Rimsala; the first is a boss about halfway through the game. The last dungeon area has one guarding most corridors, and the last [[Sequential Boss]] fight includes a segment where you take on three at once.
* ''[[
** The Kemaro mini-boss fight is a lesser example.
* Priel from ''[[Luminous Arc]]'' gets smacked with this ''hard''. In the first game, she's [[The Dragon]], and a royal pain every time you fight her. In [[Luminous Arc 2|the sequel]], her sprite is reused as a generic ranged [[Mook]] you'll see in the first five chapters.
* ''[[Star Ocean: Till the End of Time]]'' does this with nearly every single boss in the second disk. They don't wait for the player to get stronger before showing up again, nor do they get weaker upon being degraded, they just get a little ''stronger'' and show up as normal enemies from then on out.
** In the [[Bonus Dungeon]] of ''[[
* The Great Jaggi is your first large Monster Hunt in ''[[
* ''[[
** Several of the less important, nameless and/or monstrous bosses in ''[[
** ''[[
** ''[[
* 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.
* A few bosses in ''[[Shin Megami Tensei III
* In ''[[Dark Souls]]'', the Taurus Demon, the Capra Demon, Pinwheel and the Moonlight Butterfly can all be encountered as normal, respawning enemies later in the game.
** The Bell Gargoyles also reappear as non-respawning [[Mini Boss|mini bosses]] in Anor Londo, although they're smaller and [[Breath Weapon|breathe lightning]] instead of fire. They're also encountered individually, which makes them much easier to deal with.
* In [[Mass Effect 2]], an YMIR heavy mech is the first boss. As the game progresses, they show up frequently as [[Elite Mook|elite mooks]], sometimes in pairs. They're never easy, and in the harder battles (especially when they start out near the party, since they can absolutely shred [[We Cannot Go
** In the first game, the boss on Therum is a Krogan Battlemaster. You fight them later in the game, but they are much easier.
** The first Brute in ''[[Mass Effect 3]]'' counts as a miniboss, complete with arena-like setting and cinematic introduction, but others will be introduced later in the same mission with much less drama. Ditto for Banshee later in the game.
** Also in the third game, the Atlas Mech is counted as an outright boss when encountered during Priority: Sur'Kesh and [[Downloadable Content|Priority: Eden Prime]]. They become more common in later missions though.
=== [[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
** 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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* ''[[Darius]] Twin'''s final stage is this trope ''incarnate''. There are no normal mooks to be had...every last thing you run into is either a mid-boss or stage boss you've encountered prior. And they will swarm the screen to ''no'' end.
* Two variants occurs in ''[[Contra]] ReBirth''. The giant alien worm faced as the first boss of the game becomes "ammunition" for the penultimate boss (or [[Final Boss]] if playing on Easy), Uranian Devil Gaba / Jagger Froid, serving a similar purpose to the [[Recurring Boss]]'s appendages in the other games. On the same boss stage, another [[Recurring Boss]] that served as the [[Final Boss]] of ''Super C'' is reduced to mini versions on a [[Zerg Rush|stampede]].
* Several of the mooks in ''Fester's Quest'' are miniature versions of bosses from ''[[
* ''[[Space Invaders]] Infinite Gene'' is insane with this, with a hundred or so of these in the normal game (of 30 levels) alone. The degraded versions usually have less health, come with different enemies\obstacles each time, and they'll go away if you can't beat them in time.
* 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
** 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.
=== [[Survival Horror]] ===
* The survival horror game ''[[Silent Hill 2]]'' miniboss, the Doorman (or Abstract Daddy) appears as a common monster in a later level, albeit a smaller, weaker version of the original. The reason for this being, based off the most popular theory, that the psychological reasons for the original creature to exist are sort of "echoing" themselves. Or something.
** 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
** 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
* The [http://deadspace.wikia.com/wiki/Tripod Tripod] from ''[[
=== [[Third-Person Shooter]] ===
* Similarly, in ''[[Gears of War]]'', the minigun-wielding Grinders in the second game are functionally weaker versions of the first game's final boss, General RAAM, with less health and no Kryll Shield. ''Story''-wise they're two entirely different beasts (RAAM being an ascended Theron Guard while Grinders are big dumb Boomers), but gameplay-wise they're very similar.
* In the 2004 ''[[Transformers
* Hunters in ''[[Prototype (
* ''[[
* ''[[Max Payne 2]]'' has Kaufman, the much-feared leader of the Squeaky Cleaning Company hitmen, whose baseball cap and jacket set him apart from his jumpsuit-wearing lackeys. In the levels following his death, Cleaners wearing his outfit are only a little less common than the standard models.
=== [[Turn
* ''[[Fire Emblem:
* ''[[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
=== [[Wide Open Sandbox]] ===
* 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.
=== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ===▼
▲== [[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 ''[[
* ''[[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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** Sasori and Deidara do play this trope straight. When they are first introduced they were as powerful as a kage. When they are resurrected they are defeated by Kankuro and Sai.
=== [[Live-Action TV]] ===
* In ''[[Power Rangers SPD]]'', there was a three-tier [[Mook]] system: Silver ones cannon fodder, blue ones smarter and tougher, gold ones mega-badass. ''At first.'' The first Bluehead was actually the series' first [[Monster of the Week]]. They became much easier to deal with afterward being more [[Elite Mooks]] (though it never got to the point where the Rangers could beat them unmorphed.) Then there were the Orangeheads. The first one gave the Rangers a lot of trouble, clearly outclassing the two it fought at first and requiring the whole team to go all-out. The ''second'' one was powerful against but eventually fell to two Rangers. It was a while to the next one, but from then on, they were nothing special. Of course, as grunts of all tiers were summoned in ever greater numbers, it seems they just fell to the [[
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