Flunky Boss: Difference between revisions

[[File:macktheknife.png|link=Super Mario RPG (Video Game)|rightframe|I wonder which one's the boss?]]

{{examples|Examples:}}

* Queen Gohma in ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (Video Game)|The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time]]'' summons its babies (although it's so easy you usually kill it before it even gets to do it), and Odolwa in ''[[The Legend of Zelda: MajorasMajora's Mask (Video Game)|The Legend of Zelda Majoras Mask]]'' summons hordes of moths.

** Armoghoma works pretty much the same way in ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (Video Game)|The Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess]]'', but this time it drops at least ten times as many eggs at once. They are easily killed with the Spin Attack, however, often even before they hatch.

** Frustratingly done with Molgera in ''[[The Legend of Zelda: theThe Wind Waker (Video Game)|Wind Waker]]''. The boss will summon sand worm-things all the time, constantly jumping at you. The best plan is to ignore them...but you CAN'T, because your locking system automatically locks to the closest things to you, thus forcing you to get even closer to the boss who is in quick sand, trying to swallow you.

* ''[[Bubble Bobble (Video Game)|Bubble Symphony]]'' has a giant [[Space Invaders]], who has updated sprite versions of the invaders as well as the UFO. The UFO also has eyes on its top.

* ''[[Star Wars: theThe Force Unleashed]]'' has a fair few, but while the henchmen can be annoying, they are actually helpful, as the player regains health from killing enemies. Bosses who fight alone are considerably harder, due to there being no way to regain health during the battle.

* In ''[[X -Men Legends]] II,'' Holocaust is backed up by ''hordes'' of [[Mooks]], and will occasionally suck the life out of one to recharge himself.

* Many, many boss battles in ''[[Cave Story (Video Game)|Cave Story]]'' are of this type. The battle with the Undead Core actually has ''two'' levels of this, as one of the flunkies is itself a [[Mook Maker]].

* The [[Warmup Boss]], first real boss, and final boss of ''[[Beyond Good and& Evil (Videovideo Gamegame)|Beyond Good and Evil]]'' are all Flunky Bosses. For the first two bosses, the flunkies essentially serve to give you something to do while the boss readies its attack--theyattack—they consist mostly of harmless, low-power [[Mooks]]. In the final boss, you get hit with multi-stage, [[Shapeshifter Guilt Trip|guilt-tripping]] baddies that do manage to pose a serious threat, and must be utilized to both attack the boss and to advance the fight in general.

* Every boss in the ''[[Nicktoons Unite!]]'' series but the final boss of the fourth game, ''Globs of Doom'', is this. Though the second bosses of ''Nicktoons Unite'' and ''Globs of Doom'' ([[SpongebobSpongeBob SquarePants|Plankton]]'s [[Giant Enemy Crab]] mecha and [[Invader Zim|GIR]] gone crazy and stuff again respectively) are of the "sit back until you kill their mooks" variations. Hell, [[The Fairly Odd ParentsOddParents|Mr. Crocker]] even shouts out for "guards, GUARDS!" or that he "wishes for ASSISTANCE!" when summoning enemies.

* Natia in ''[[Bomberman (Video Game)|Bomberman Hero]]'' falls somewhere between this and [[Dual Boss]]--or—or more likely, combines the two. The first time you face her, she's accompanied by Cronus, who seems to be on equal footing with her, but must be defeated before you can damage her (although she'll float around and be a nuisance during the Cronus battle unless you hit her platform with a few bombs, fitting this trope. The second time, she again has an equal in the form of a second Natia, but the trope applies in full force as an endless supply of miniature Cronuses will fall from the ceiling and try to interfere with your battle.

* Most of the bosses in [[Transformers: War for Cybertron]] do this. The most notable is the boss fight against Soundwave in the Autobot campaign. He hides behind an energy shield while activating automated turrets and then sending out one of his familiar minions (Frenzy, Rumble, and Laserbeak) to attack you. Taking out the minions is the key to beating him, as the only time he leaves the safety of his energy shield is to retrieve the body of a fallen minion.

* The third Greater Fiend in the [[X BoxXbox]] version of ''[[Ninja Gaiden]]'', Marbus is interesting about this. The first time you enter his realm, he taunts you, but rather than fight, summons a previously killed boss to fight you (Yep, he's a [[Flunky Boss]] that uses ''other bosses as flunkies''). You kill the boss and leave with a plot coupon, then return to face another previously defeated boss, then he just gets ticked off and finally attacks you, while summoning a seemingly infinite stream of lesser fiends in groups of three.

* ''[[Batman Arkham Asylum|Batman: Arkham Asylum]]''. Pretty much all of 'em except [[Advancing Boss of Doom|Killer]] [[Marathon Boss|Croc]].

* In ''[[Castlevania (1986 (Videovideo Gamegame)|Castlevania 1986]]'', you don't have [[FrankensteinsFrankenstein's Monster]] without his [[Invincible Minor Minion]], Igor, who only serves to distract you and throw additional fireballs at you while you're busy trying to whip Frank's head.

== [[Beat 'Em Up]] ==

** In ''[[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Turtles in Time (Video Game)|Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Turtles in Time]]'', the player can toss flunkies towards the screen. This is the only way to defeat one of the bosses in the SNES version, who takes up a first-person view of the action.

* In the [[Scott Pilgrim (Videovideo Gamegame)|Scott Pilgrim game]], the first two bosses are always examples; Matthew Patel has his [[Ninja Zombie Pirate Robot|demon hipster chicks]] and Lucas Lee can summon skateboarders. Other bosses spawn enemies too, but only when in co-op mode, to keep the game balanced.

== [[First -Person Shooter]] ==

* A couple of bosses in ''[[BioBioShock Shock(series)]]'' do this, among them the [[Camp Gay|foppish Sander Cohen]] who calls on a troupe of dancing spider splicers to mince you for him, as well as the [[Big Bad]] {{spoiler|Atlas aka Fontaine, who summons waves of splicers and even security bots at various stages of the final battle.}}

* In ''[[Doom (Video Gameseries)|Doom]] 2'', there's a Spider Mastermind (though at this point it's a [[Degraded Boss]]) surrounded by several Arachnotrons, and in a later level two Spider Masterminds with a swarm of Arachnotrons in sight. Since it's Doom, you can usually get the two monster types to kill each other.

* The Guardian Of Hell in ''[[Doom (Video Gameseries)|Doom]] 3''. The Guardian itself is blind, and uses flunky Seekers to see. Guess what has to die first.

* The final gunfight with Alec Trevelyan in ''[[GoldenGoldenEye Eye Wii007 (Video2010 video Gamegame)|Golden Eye Wii]]''. He isn't much of a threat by himself, as he simply follows a preset path, stopping behind cover to blaze away at Bond. The real threats are the minions (and, eventually, {{spoiler|the helicopter}}) he summons as backup, who have ''real'' AI, grenades, and endless reinforcements waiting in the wings.

* ''[[Halo]]'': The Prophet of Regret and his Honor Guards, and Tartarus and his Brutes. In ''[[Halo: Reach]]'', the Field Marshal is accompanied by a trio of Zealot Elites, which themselves are [[Boss in Mook Clothing|bosses in mook clothing]], making this a borderline [[Wolfpack Boss]] fight.

* The final boss battle in ''[[Quake (Video Gameseries)|Quake]]''. In fact, the boss (Shub-Niggurath) has no attacks of her own, so once you defeat the minions, you're home free.

* Most of the bosses in [[Borderlands (Video Game)|Borderlands]] {{spoiler|(aside from The Destroyer)}}, fight alongside generic [[Mooks]]. This can become very annoying for lower level players, but the mooks also serve as easy second winds.

* [[Tron 20|Tron 2.0]]: When Jet's fighting Thorne in the Progress Bar to protect Ma3a, the User-turned-Virus summons a small army of Z-lots to attack, forcing the player to deal with those, potentially having to leave Ma3a open to an attack.

* ''[[RunescapeRuneScape]]'' has TzTok-Jad, the second most powerful attackable monster in the game. Not only he's only reachable after you progress through sixty-something waves of enemies, which is enough for most players to run out of supplies during, but also he does indeed summon four little healers when he falls to half HP. You get the arguably best and definitely the most unique cape in the game for defeating him, at least.

* Most bosses in ''[[Guild Wars]]'' have several standard enemies with them. Zoldark the unholy is a clever variant- His defense in insanely high, but he has no direct attacks, only being able to power up his flunkies and ([[Cast Fromfrom Hit Points|by damaging himself]]) revive them. [[Puzzle Boss|Figure it out]].

* ''[[Psychonauts (Video Game)|Psychonauts]]'' has the Mega-Censor from the stage "Sasha's Shooting Gallery", and Jasper from "Gloria's Theater". The Hulking Lungfish mid-game boss may also count--shecount—she spits crawdads and sucker fish at you, but their threat level is so tiny as to almost be nonexistent.

* ''[[Shinobi]]'' for the [[PSPlayStation 2]] plays with this one - every single boss functions this way, and while the player ''can'' ignore the minions and go straight for the boss [[Boring but Practical|and still win]], experienced players will wait around for minions to spawn and use them to build kill combos, as doing this will allow them to kill all but the first two bosses (yes, even the final boss) ''in a single hit''.

* One of the bonus challenges for Tesrat the Hedgeroid in ''[[Mega Man ZX (Video Game)|Mega Man ZX]] Advent'' is to deliver her the finishing blow by knocking one of her rat minions into her.

* Splash Woman from ''[[Mega Man 9 (Video Game)|Mega Man 9]]'', whose singing summons fish that attack Mega Man.

** And if she counts, so do ''[[Mega Man 4 (Video Game)|Mega Man 4]]'s'' Snake Man and his snakes as well as Hornet Man and his swarm of bees (also from ''9''). There's a fine line, though, between "flunky" and "projectile" in these cases; Splash Woman's fish just zoom straight across the screen. Hornet Man's bees will at least chase you around the room.

* Used quite a fair bit in the ''[[Wario Land (Video Game)|Wario Land]]'' series, where usually, the enemy has to be used as ammunition against the boss. ''The Shake Dimension'' has some pretty odd examples though, such as the fourth boss which summons various mooks, then causes a mini hurricane that sends them flying at your character (or into the wall and the fifth boss, which has to be fed one or two mooks before spitting out a bomb which can be used to hurt said boss ([[Feed It a Bomb]]).

* Most ''[[Klonoa (Video Game)|Klonoa]]'' bosses have flunkies, because you need to throw mooks at the boss to damage them. The one exception is the first phase of Polente the Hatchling, but that's because you can't use the ring what so ever.

* The Queen at the end of episode 4 of ''[[Duke Nukem 3D (Video Game)|Duke Nukem 3D]]''. It's bad enough that you have to fight her underwater and she's 2000HP tougher than the other bosses, but her constant laying of Protector Drones ([[Demonic Spiders]]) makes her into [[That One Boss]] (or, if not, very nearly does).

* [[Super Mario 64 (Video Game)|The Whomp King]] in ''[[Super Mario Galaxy 2 (Video Game)|Super Mario Galaxy 2]]'' actually now has the ability to summon smaller Whomps called Whimps.

* ''[[Spelunky (Video Game)|Spelunky]]'''s only boss spawns enemies every second time it crushes through the floor. The enemies often materialize off-screen (where they become inactive), thus making them a threat only once the player tries to reach the exit.

* The [[Recurring Boss]] Empress Bulbax in ''[[Pikmin]] 2'' is a [[Flunky Boss]] in her second and third appearances. She continuously spawns Bulbax Larvae. While incredibly fragile (a single punch from one of your captains will turn them into slime), they are capable of instantly killing your Pikmin, and they're a nuisance to deal with.

* The grand finale of ''[[Nethack]]'' features this over the final five planes; the Elemental Plane Of Air and the Astral Plane are by far the worst. Theoretically, the [[Horsemen of the Apocalypse|Riders]] are supposed to be the bosses, but the bigger problem is the sheer volume of [[Mooks]] and [[Mook Maker|Mook Makers]]s.

== [[Role -Playing Game]] ==

* There are many, many instances of this in the ''[[Final Fantasy]]'' series. For example, Hidon in ''[[Final Fantasy VI (Video Game)|Final Fantasy VI]]'' and the battle with Sin immediately after you [[Get Onon the Boat]] in ''[[Final Fantasy X (Video Game)|Final Fantasy X]]''.

** A LOT of bosses in ''VI'' do this. The Marshall miniboss you fight to save Terra VERY early in the game has two Lobos with him, Vargas has two bears who you have to kill before you fight him directly, The boss of Zozo will occasionally summon four or five Iron Fists. And don't forget the MOTHER of all flunky bosses that makes a great deal of ''[[Final Fantasy VI (Video Game)|FFVI]]'' players wanna kill themselves: Wrexsoul.

** ''[[Final Fantasy IV (Video Game)|Final Fantasy IV]]'' has the CPU with heal and hurt orbs.

** ''[[Final Fantasy VIII (Video Game)|Final Fantasy VIII]]'' has a miniboss that throws its minions at you for extra damage. Killing them before it removes this attack.

** Several of the Lucavi in ''[[Final Fantasy Tactics (Video Game)|Final Fantasy Tactics]]'' summon a few Ultima Demons with them when they fight Ramza's party, including the [[Final Boss]].

** ''[[Final Fantasy Tactics a 2 (Video Game)|Final Fantasy Tactics a 2A2]]'' has few true bosses, but the second, Lord of the Flowsand, and lots of ''Marks'' (quest targets that are a bit stronger than the average enemy) have mooks that keep getting replaced until the boss dies.

** A small list of bosses from ''[[Final Fantasy XI (Video Game)|Final Fantasy XI]]'' that like having buddies: Jailer of Justice, Vrtra, Jailer of Love, [[Nigh Invulnerable|Absolute Virtue]], Pandemonium Warden... there's also [http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Pulling_the_Strings one fight] where it's actually ''recommended'' to only kill the flunky, as fighting the boss will probably get you killed.

** It would probably be easier to list the bosses, [[Bonus Boss]] or otherwise, that ''didn't'' have mook minions in ''[[Final Fantasy XII (Video Game)|Final Fantasy XII]]''. Notable examples include Adrammelech and Zeromus, both of whom come equipped with almost-infinitely spawning (that's ''spawning,'' not respawning; ignoring them may lead to over a dozen on the battlefield at any given time), status-effect-spewing undead that can easily overwhelm the player, and Zalera, who has the gall to be ''invincible'' so long as his minions are on the field (oh, and that fight has a time limit on it as well).

*** ''[[Final Fantasy XII Revenant Wings (Video Game)|Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings]]''. Every boss in the game, many with unlimited, [[The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard|summon gateless]] minions. It is an RTS, though.

** ''[[Final Fantasy V (Video Game)|Final Fantasy V]]'' had the Dragon Pod with its Dragon Flowers. All the Dragon Pod will do is summon Dragon Flowers, which will use status effect-laden physical attacks. The battles becomes much easier once you get the summon Golem, found in the same dungeon.

** The segment where you had to fight the Guado and [[Final Fantasy X (Video Game)|Seymour]], especially since they gave him buffs when they died (usually via [[There Is No Kill Like Overkill|Valefor's Overdrive]]). The boss immediately following (with the stupid giant and two Guado) was nearly as frustrating solely if you're out of the aeons' Overdrives.

** ''[[Final Fantasy VII (Video Game)|Final Fantasy VII]]'' has two bosses that will revive their baddies. Attacking them will be a waste of time.

** ''[[Final Fantasy XIII (Video Game)|Final Fantasy XIII]]'' has two bosses (the final boss in Palum Polum and {{spoiler|Barthandelus}} where you're basically forced to kill the minions (you can kill them regularly, but they are nearly invulnerable and you face 5 enemies hitting you hard, making it very complicated)

* ''[[Kingdom Hearts II (Video Game)|Kingdom Hearts II]]'' has Demyx. His weapon is a sitar, but while it's not as threatening as a sword, he uses it to conjure up watery clones of himself. There are a couple of ways he can do this-- thethis—the first isn't so scary. He'll usually just summon two or three of them, and they 'might' attack you--butyou—but most of the time, they float around aimlessly, basically just getting in your way as you're fighting him. You can even use the clones against him to attack him. Sounds like a good deal, right? Until he summons about fifty all at once, and you have to defeat all of them in forty seconds or less, or it's an instant game over.

* ''[[Super Mario RPG (Video Game)|Super Mario RPG]]: Legend of the Seven Stars'' loves these. Mack, Punchinello, Booster, Jonathan Jones (who converts to a [[Duel Boss]], challenging Mario to a one-on-one fight, when his flunkies are dead), Belome II, Megasmilax, Czar Dragon, Exor, and Smithy himself.

** ''[[Mario and Luigi Superstar Saga (Video Game)|Mario and& Luigi: Superstar Saga]]'' also features a few of them. The most interesting example are beans spit at the plumbers. If you jump on them with the [[Action Command]], they roll back and turn into mooks. If you jump ''over'' them, they just roll offscreen. If you don't jump, you get hit, obviously, but that also prevents them.

** ''[[Mario and Luigi Partners In Time (Video Game)|Mario and& Luigi: Partners In Time]]'' and ''[[Mario and& Luigi: BowsersBowser's Inside Story (Video Game)|Bowser's Inside Story]]'' have quite a few of these boss battles, the former including Sunnycide and General Shroob, the latter including Dark Star and Junker. In most cases you have to use the mooks to weaken the boss enough to attack it, although in some cases they're just for annoyance.

** Shows up in ''[[Paper Mario (Video Gamefranchise)|Paper Mario]]'', where most of the (main) bosses after Tubba Blubba are Flunky Bosses who are significantly more deadly if the player ''doesn't'' kill the mooks first, making area-of-effect attacks important. Most noteworthy of all would have to be [[That One Boss|Huff N. Puff]], who spawns small cloudlike creatures every time he is attacked based on how much health the attack cost him - more damage, more mooks. These mooks, if not immediately dispatched, will either attack Mario on their own, combine with any one of Huff N. Puff's special abilities to make them stronger, or simply be sucked up by the boss himself, replenishing his health.

** ''[[Paper Mario: theThe Thousand Year Door (Video Game)|Paper Mario the Thousand -Year Door]]'' has an interesting variant with the pirate king Cortez. He starts off as a single opponent wielding four weapons. When he's defeated in phase one, he drops his weapons on the floor and switches to a serpentine form. When phase two is beaten, Cortez raises the weapons off the floor, and you now have ''five'' targets to worry about. The weapons can be knocked out, but they revive after two turns (unless Flurrie blows them completely out of the battle, the preferred choice since each weapon deals decent damage, one hits both Mario and his partner, and one inflicts status ailments).

* ''[[Chrono Trigger (Video Game)|Chrono Trigger]]'' also has quite a few. The Guardian, Giga Gaias, most of Lavos's forms.

* ''[[Etrian Odyssey (Video Game)|Etrian Odyssey]] 2'''s first stratum boss is the Chimera, aptly subtitled "Lord of the Beasts". After a few turns, a massive flock of Slaveimps come to his cause, either casting Heal or Aura (an attack-up spell) on their master. If the Chimera dies, one still has to knock out any Slaveimps that made it into battle, but if there are any still trying to reach the battle, they disappear if the battle ends without them.

* The second ''[[Golden Sun (Video Game)|Golden Sun]]'' game has a few of these; Briggs, Moapa, and the Star Magician come to mind (who are accompanied by Sea Fighters, Knights, and "Ball monster" minions, respectively).

** Given what the Star Magician's flunkies can do (''Heal 1000 damage?! Reduce your attack damage to two digits?! [[Golden Sun: Dark Dawn (Video Game)|Eat your Djinn?!]]''), the Star Magician is also [[That One Boss]] for many players. Essentially, the easiest way to beat him is to continuously defeat the mooks he summons and hope that he uses his "non-Mook-making" attacks.

* ''[[BaldursBaldur's Gate]]'' series has a couple of these: The solution is elegant in its simplicity. Fireball.

* Oddly, this happens only once (thus far) in the ''[[Fallout]]'' franchise, and even then only for one of four possible endings. ''[[Fallout: New Vegas]]'' has three factions one can choose to side with: [[The Federation|the New California Republic]], [[The Chessmaster|Mr. House's Independent New Vegas]], and [[Politically -Incorrect Villain|Caesar's Legion]]. They can also opt to use a security backdoor called Yes Man to [[I Can Rule Alone|steal Mr. House's robot army, and by extension, city, for their own]]. Players who side with the NCR, Mr. House, or Yes Man will have to break the Legion to ensure the city's survival, pitting them against the par-for-the-course [[Made of Iron]] Legate Lanius. The NCR is spared because both House and Yes Man are dependent on NCR tourism for economic stability and want to simply muscle the NCR out of Vegas, not massacre them. A Legion player has the opposite viewpoint, wishing to strengthen the Legion's hold on the city and break the morale of the NCR. As a result, Legion sympathizers fight General Lee Oliver, or more accurately, the squad of [[Elite Mook|Veteran NCR Rangers]] guarding General Lee Oliver. Expect the peak of Oliver's involvement to be his unimpressive armor and weaponry going off, unnoticed, in the background while you do so.

* The Orb Of Undead from [[BaldursBaldur's Gate: Dark Alliance (Video Game)|Baldurs Gate Dark Alliance]], the only "attack" it has is to summon an army of skeletons and fly out of the players reach, but once you kill all of it's minions it will come back down to resummon it's army.

* ''[[Saga Frontier (Video Game)|SagaSaGa Frontier]]'' is very fond of these types of fights, typically surrounding some bosses with upgraded versions of normal enemies from that dungeon, and even one of the [[Final Boss|final bosses]] gets this treatment. To make matters worse, the bosses frequently unleash powerful attacks upon the party when all the flunkies are killed. In the case of Master Ring, one of the game's seven final bosses, killing all nine of its powerful companions causes it to unleash the Revolution9 attack, arguably the most powerful attack in the game, which deals catastrophic damage in addition to giving the boss a substantial defense buff.

* ''[[Star Ocean: theThe Last Hope]]'' has Tamiel, Armaros Manifest, and Kokabiel. All of them summon new minions on a regular basis, but the latter of the three is particularly notable for having literally ''dozens'' of extremely low HP minions that make keeping the actual boss targeted a pain, on top of swarming you to the point where you where you can barely even move if they aren't wiped out by some manner of area attack quickly ([[Invincible Minor Minion|Some of them are invincible]], though). The boss is also only vulnerable while creating a new batch of minions.

* ''[[Romancing Sa GaSaGa]]'' [[That One Boss]] Ewei definitely fits this trope, and maybe a few others. Here's why: He has 2 beastmen of 3 different varieties that assist him in battle, and respawn the second turn after they are defeated, they act as a shield for Ewei, and to add insult to injury he uses A powerful Terrology Spell to negate most of the damage dealt to him and 2 types of Attack all spells that can prevent using magic or attacking normally, in addition he can heal himself. The only possible way to defeat him is to have an Archer know Rain of Arrows or a Hand Axe user use Rolling Slash to injure both Ewei and his beastmen and have one character equipped with the Amethyst (Negates his Demonology spells) in addition to the Opal (Negates Terrology Spells).

** Oh, and to even deepen the wound there is a unskippable amount of dialogue in a scene 3 Minutes and 22 Seconds long before fighting him every single time, you cannot escape from the battle which makes him an even worse offender than Miguel from ''[[Chrono Cross (Video Game)|Chrono Cross]]''. So if you lose and have a Quicksave outside of Ewei's lab you have better do something to kill time until the actual battle starts. The dialogue is automated so at least you don't need to keep pressing the action button.

* ''[[Dragon Quest VIII (Video Game)|Dragon Quest VIII]]'' features Don Mole, who is basically [[No Celebrities Were Harmed|James Brown in mole form]], who fights with the support of four "Soul Moles."

* ''[[Earthbound (Video Game)|EarthboundEarthBound]]'' has enemies that can call for help in the middle of battle to overwhelm the party; bosses usually do this. However, if the party is strong enough, they can keep killing each newly summoned minion over and over again, and then beat the foe that was calling for help to break the chain and gain a ton of experience points. Works even better if the foes that call for help summon other foes that are exactly like it.

** Speaking of Earthbound, ''[[Mother 3 (Video Game)|Mother 3]]'' has the Jealous Bass, which starts the fight with two flunkies. It uses them in a "jam session attack" which hits a character quite hard. FOUR TIMES. Even better, when you kill the flunkies, Jealous Bass increases his offense by over 20, allowing him to do pretty much what he was already doing. Combine this with the fact that you only have 2 party members, and only one of them has PSI "magic"...

* The boss battle with Minamimoto in ''[[The World Ends With You (Video Game)|The World Ends With You]]'' has him summoning Taboo Noise every so often, and then challenging you directly after you defeat a few waves. He also [[Shapeshifting|hops back-and-forth]] between [[Bishonen Line|human form]] and [[One -Winged Angel|Noise form]] during the fight.

* The first ''[[Xenosaga (Video Game)|Xenosaga]]'' game has one of these, a powerful Gnosis flanked by two smaller helpers. It gets faster as its flunkies die, to the point that it's practically attacking ''between'' each of your party members' attacks when both minions are dead.

** There's also the Sufal Mass in ''[[Xenogears (Video Game)|Xenogears]]'', which falls squarely in the "kill all my babies and I'll tear you apart" category; and also Fis-6, whose medic flunkies are easysauce when one considers they're mere humans and your party is composed of [[Humongous Mecha|Gears]].

** Another one of these is in ''[[Xenosaga (Video Game)|Xenosaga]]'': the twist is that {{spoiler|putting the minions to sleep will cause their commander to ''shoot them and cause damage''.}}

** From the same developers, ''[[Avernum]]'' and ''[[Avadon]]'' have a lot of these, too, although they're generally less likely to be summoners. The latter game has a particularly odd variant in [["Wake -Up Call" Boss|Zhossa Mindtaker]], who never attacks you directly during his first fight, instead calling it a "game"--you—you earn a point every time you drop a flunky's HP to 1 and force him to heal it, he'll earn a point if his flunkies kill you and he devours your corpse. (And yes, that's pretty much how he phrases it.) Earn enough points, and he'll eventually flee, leaving his flunkies to die.

* Just about every one of the Desian Grand Cardinals from ''[[Tales of Symphonia (Video Game)|Tales of Symphonia]]''. Magnius just has some generic Desians, Kvar has the Energy Stones, Forcystus has the Exbones, and the second battle with Pronyma features the Idun. Also the Ktugach with its Ktugachlings, the Adulocia with its Amphitra, the Toize Valley Mine Defense System with its Orbits, and the Gatekeeper with Angel Swordians.

* A lot of bosses in ''[[Tales of Phantasia (Video Game)|Tales of Phantasia]]'' come with several mooks ([[Actually Four Mooks|out of nowhere]]) to aid them. Some of the bosses (such as Dhaos in the past) may even be helpless while their minions are still alive.

* ''[[Persona 4]]'' has Shadow Yukiko and Shadow Kanji, as well as the God Hand. Even some ordinary [[Mook|Mooks]]s can summon minions.

* Lots and lots of the bosses in ''[[Dragon Fable (Video Game)|Dragon Fable]]'' have a couple of minions, usually one of the standard monsters from the quest up to that point. Luckily, only one boss so far has figured out how to respawn them, and his flunkies aren't good for much but [[Cherry Tapping]] you.

* ''[[Devil Survivor (Video Game)|Devil Survivor]]'': Absolutely every goddamned boss in the goddamned game.

* ''[[Dragon Age]]'': The combat system is largely biased towards gang-ups, flank-attacks and back-stabs, so a boss who fights alone would normally be very easy to defeat. Therefore, most of the bosses in the game are accompanied by [[Mooks]], and some even by a massive swarm of mooks (though [[Anti -Grinding|never endless]]). Bosses who fight alone are rare, and when they do they are usually extraordinarily over-powered to make up for their numerical inferiority. Many bosses are made ridiculously easier to defeat if you can somehow draw their mooks away and take care of them first.

* [[Demons Souls|Demon's Souls]] has Phalanx, the [["Wake -Up Call" Boss]] which can only be harmed by killing the living shields that surround it.

* ''[[Skies of Arcadia (Video Game)|Skies of Arcadia]]'' does this, most notably with a number of the bonus Wanted battles. Gordo is first but his 3 chef pirates don't get brought back or replaced when defeated. Then you have Lapen (spike drones), Daikokuya (bodyguards) and Lord Zivilyn Bane ([[Mook]] Zivilyn Banes). These three will summon replacement flunkies a set number of times but do stop eventually so you can feasibly kill them all and then focus on the boss.

* Dry Bowser from ''[[Mario and& Sonic Atat Thethe Olympic Games (Video Game)|Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games]]'' has three Dry Bones with him.

== [[Shoot 'Em Up]] ==

* The Cave Ceiling boss in the horizontal scrolling [[Shoot 'Em Up]] ''[[Area 88|U.N. Squadron]]'' (SNES version). It's this large moving machine on the ceiling whose [[Attack Its Weak Point|weak point]] can only be attacked from below, and its downward flamethrower attacks shouldn't pose much trouble. The problem? There's a conveyor belt on the floor where homing missile launchers AND upward-firing flamethrowers will come in from both sides, making your life a ''[[Nintendo Hard|living hell]]''. Unsurprisingly, its [[That One Boss]].

* Nearly half the bosses in ''[[Hero Core]]''. Notably, the Reaper Drone takes this trope to its logical extreme, being able to use its flunkies as both shields and weapons ''simultaneously''. The Grand Mother is also this on multiple levels, as it spawns Mothers, which are themselves [[Mook Maker|Mook Makers]]s. The Guardian also has statues in his room that come to live once you damage him enough, and the Liquid Metal Processor can only be harmed after its flunkies are destroyed.

* The jet bomber boss in the ''[[Raiden]]'' series sends waves of mini-jets after you, and the [[Base Onon Wheels|mobile fortress]] boss in the second game can spawn turrets.

* ''[[Assassin's Creed]]'': Most bosses (targets) have guards with them, although in many cases they can be bypassed through smart stealth/surprise. Played completely straight with {{spoiler|Al-Mualim}} and his [[Ancient Astronaut]] [[Phlebotinum]] which allows him to teleport and summon ghostly versions of himself and your other targets... or are they? The sequel inverts this with Ezio uses the same (or a similar) piece of [[Phlebotinum]] against the ''Pope'' and the [[Magic Staff|Papal Staff]]. ''Brotherhood'' uses this too with the final battle with {{spoiler|Cesare Borgia}}, where mooks will appear to aid {{spoiler|Cesare}} in every phase... for all the good that does, as he's immune to counter kills or kill streak executions unlike {{spoiler|[[Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep"|Il Carnefice]]}}. (In contrast, [[Praetorian Guard|Papal]] [[Elite Mook|Guards]] are immune to counter kills but ''not'' kill streaks, which actually makes them more survivable on their own.)

** Actually exploitable in ''AC2'' once you get the Poison Blade -- timeBlade—time the injection just right and get out of sight, and in his death throes the poisoned bodyguard may inadvertently kill the target for you, as several players have proved in gameplay videos.

** Ironically, ''Brotherhood'' essentially makes Ezio himself a Flunky Boss -- fromBoss—from late-Sequence 4 through Sequence 8 and in post-story free-roam, he can summon Assassin apprentices to make kills for him or to fight alongside him in Open Conflict... but if the player is not pressed for time, it's usually to make kills for Ezio.

* In ''[[Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots]]'', [[Amazon Brigade|Crying Wolf, Screaming Mantis and Raging Raven]] are all examples. However, the first two would be laughably easy were it not for the regular enemies, while the latter is actually easier ''because'' of them.

== [[Third -Person Shooter]] ==

* Shows up several times in ''[[Max Payne (Video Gameseries)|Max Payne]]'' of all games, with a number of subversions:

** There are various Mooks conveniently loitering along the path of your pursuit of Vinnie Cognitti, who function in much the same way. (The level where you take on B.B. is similar, but he barely counts as a boss seeing as this is the level when you get the [[Infinity Plus One+1 Sword|Jackhammer]].)

** The closest thing to a completely straight example are the Trio, three [[Mini Boss|Minibosses]] / [[Giant Mook|Giant Mooks]]s spread across the level who have a couple of regular enemies lurking nearby. In the PC version you don't trigger the "[[Mini Boss]] defeated " flag until you kill these Mooks as well, not that you're likely to notice.

* Every [[Boss Battle]] in ''[[Eat Lead: theThe Return of Matt Hazard]]'' includes flunkies, except the ones that are [[Quick Time Event|Quicktime Events]].

* Zeta Prime from ''[[Transformers: War for Cybertron]]''.

== [[Turn -Based Strategy]] ==

* Every boss comes with some sort of back-up in ''[[Disgaea (Video Game)|Disgaea]]'' because 10 on 1 generally isn't much a fight. A few notable examples are: Hoggmeiser, who comes with a group of monks who do nothing but stand there, appropriately all called "Meat Walls", Maderas, who comes to battle with a group of Succubi (it has to do with the plot.) and the big bad {{spoiler|Vulcanus}} who brings a small army into battle with him! The good news is that most bosses don't start moving around for the first few turns.

** The final boss of ''[[Disgaea 4: a Promise Unforgotten (Video Game)|Disgaea 4 aA Promise Unforgotten]]'' starts off with back-up units, summons more on each turn, and also gets powered up based on how many of them are on the field. Fortunately, he's the first boss in the history of the series where defeating him also results in the defeat of all his minions.

* Every boss fight in ''[[Prototype (Videovideo Gamegame)|Prototype]]'', as the "use them for health" variant. Soldiers and human infected are a complete non-threat to Alex, only existing as a health bonus. The fight against Greene takes it up a notch by using hunters, who are genuinely threatening in their own right, but still exist mostly as a health boost for Alex.

* Technically every boss in ''[[In FamousInfamous (Videovideo game Gameseries)|In Famous]] 1'':

* In ''[[Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas]]'', {{spoiler|Big Smoke}} calls constantly Vagos until you kill him.

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