Mirror Mook

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When you become your own worst enemy in a way you couldn't imagine...

The Mirror Mook is a type of Mook or other NPC that mimics the player in some manner - ranging from something as simple as copying or mirroring their movements, all the way to copying the player themselves. Particularly tough enemies of this kind are usually Mirror Bosses. While commonly implemented via generation or mass-production by an actual Magic Mirror, creation by someone with mirror-based powers or else coming from a Mirror Universe, none of these are a strict requirement.

Compare Evil Knockoffs, a common form of Mirror Mook, and Superpowered Mooks, some of whom may have the same powers as the hero. Sister Tropes include Shadow Archetype, Evil Twin and Evil Counterpart, as well as their many subtropes (e.g. Fighting a Shadow). Mirror Mooks may or may not be the product of a special Doppleganger Attack, and might also be mechanical in nature.

Contrast Mirror Match, which can occur in games with playable Mirror Mooks, and Mega Manning, which lets you copy mooks and bosses' powers. Mirror Mooks and Bosses are a common feature of games that employ Meta Multiplayer, with these NPCs/enemies representing other players in some manner.

Examples of Mirror Mook include:

Anime and Manga

• In Naruto, Pain has the ability to make doppelgangers of other Akatsuki members out of living people, which are essentially perfect copies of the targets aside from the percentage of chakra put into them.

Comic Books

• The Sonic comics by Archie Comics feature recurring foe Metal Sonic alongside various other mechanical copies of Sonic and the heroes.
  • The "main" Metal Sonic was constantly rebuilt and repaired; eventually, after the destruction of his v2.5 form, he was reconstructed and redeemed as Shard the Metal Sonic.
  • The Metal Series robots, a Five-Bad Band of Psycho Rangers consisting of mechanical Evil Knockoffs of the five main protagonists (including the seventh incarnation of Metal Sonic v3), were created to serve the Dark Egg Legion after Snively's betrayal.
• Sonic the Comic meanwhile has Metallix the Metal Sonic, who plays a similar role and is also actually one of several such Metal Sonic-type Badniks. This 'Brotherhood of Metallix' was created when Robotnik converted his old Egg Fortress base in the Special Zone into a Metallix factory, planning to use their labor to create the ultimate Metal Sonic. Naturally, they secretly went rogue and began building an Emperor Metallix in order to conquer Mobius themselves. The Metallix based on Mecha Sonic from Sonic & Knuckles was their creation, and there have also been Metallix replicas of Knuckles the Echidna and Porker Lewis.

Tabletop Games

• Dungeons & Dragons has the Aleax, an avatar of a deity sent to punish a specific mortal - the Aleax takes on the target's exact appearance, and carries identical equipment.

Video Games

• The Bomberman series tends to have Mecha Bombers appearing as a common foe, alongside some other examples:
  • Bomberman Quest has Shelterine, an enemy hidden in a well within the Forest Zone. It only moves when Bomberman moves, but in the opposite direction and at the same speed as Bomberman would normally, stopping occasionally to attack with waves in a short '+' or 'x' pattern.
  • Bomberman World has Hologra-Boms that appear on Planet Black and look like translucent Bomberman clones with yellow eyes. They move slowly and can throw bombs similar to Bomberman.
  • Super Bomberman marks the debut of the Mecha Bombers, with one sent by Carat Diamond and Dr. Mook to attack White Bomberman, as detailed by the manual and the accompanying prologue comic. The villainous Black Bomberman manages to intercept it, but is defeated and retreats to warn White Bomber, teaming up with him to defeat the villains.
    • Several Mecha Bombers appear as enemies on the fifth level, which is a replica of the basic stage most Bomberman PVP battles take place on - Bomberman must fight the Mecha Bombers one by one (or two by two if playing in co-op mode), and the first pair are even modeled after White and Black Bomberman! They use bombs and obey similar rules to Bomberman, e.g. they are only stunned by punched bombs, are unharmed by kicked bombs, and can collect and use the items that periodically appear. The first four are One-Hit-Point Wonders, while the next three go down in two hits.
    • The yellow Mecha Bomber that previously defeated Black is then fought as the fifth stage's boss, with 5 HP, the ability to kick bombs, and a set-limit of four bombs that boast an impressive Fire rating of 9!
  • In Stage 4-7 of Neo Bomberman, Mecha Bombers appear in a similar capacity - they are even called "Fake Bombers" (not to be confused with the disguise-savvy Fake Bomber rescued earlier in 4-2).
  • In Bomberman for the PSP, four Mecha Bombers are fought as the first bosses of the game in Bomber World.
• Kirby:
  • The first Kirby's Dream Land has "imposter" Kirbies in Mt. Dedede's Boss Rush, where Kirby must complete short levels each representing one of the four bosses fought; each level's boss door is blocked by a Gordo, which is destroyed (along with every on-screen enemy) by running into the "imposter".
  • Kirby's Dream Land 3 has the rare Batamon enemy, which heavily resembles Kirby and is usually found in inaccessible areas, with the exception of one in Cloudy Park.
  • Kirby Super Star introduces a sort of inversion in Tac, a cat-like enemy dressed in ninja garb who attempts to steal Kirby's Copy Ability; inhaling one grants the Copy power, which lets take on the appearance of any enemy he scans. This is actually quite useful for snagging boss powers more easily, and Tac can also do the same as a helper.
  • In Kirby & the Amazing Mirror, Shadow Kirby appears once in each of the mirror world's areas to attack Kirby using a random Copy Ability, and defeating him earns Kirby a random power-up, such as an Invincibility Candy or a 1UP. Near the end, it's revealed that Shadow Kirby was simply trying to protect his home world, and he teams up with Kirby to defeat the true Big Bad, Dark Mind.
• The Legend of Zelda franchise has among its many examples Dark Link and Shadow Link, two distinct recurring Evil Counterparts that frequently appear as enemies; Dark Link is more likely of the two to serve as a Duel Mirror Boss.
  • The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past has Green and Red Goriyas that mirror Link's movements in opposite directions; the red ones shoot fireballs if they make eye contact with Link, and can only be killed with arrows, making them tricky to dispatch. Koppis also appear in The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds.
    • The Game Boy Advance port-exclusive Bonus Dungeon has a set of Dark Links formed from the cursed components of the Four Sword as its final bosses, each with their own copies of the primary endgame items. All four will attempt to run at Link and slash at him, and each of them adds an additional attack to their strategy; the first one uses the Pegasus Boots, the second also uses a Hurricane Spin, the third adds a jumping down-thrust, and the fourth has twice as much health and can additionally fire sword beams.
  • The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening and its remake for the Nintendo Switch has Arm-Mimics, haniwa-like enemies that mirror Link's movements and require a sword stronger than the normal one to defeat them. Shy Guys from the Mario franchise (called Mask-Mimics in the original game) also appear as similar enemies, with their mask protecting them from frontal sword attacks.
  • Arm-Mimics make a return in The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages. Veran also summons four Arm-Mimic-like Dark Links during the final boss battle.
  • The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures has Shadow Link serve as a recurring enemy and Mirror Boss in Hyrulean Adventure. "Lesser" Shadow Links will either attempt to evade the player or else make trouble by using items, and one hit will defeat them and produce a large green Force Gem. "Boss" Shadow Links will attempt to fight the player using the same skills as them, and later fights will have him create up to three other duplicates; when the main Shadow Link has taken enough damage, he will jump away and begin to cycle through different colors, only taking damage from that specific color Link.
  • The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds also features Shadow Link in the StreetPass-linked Shadow Link Battle mode; after talking to Gramps to unlock the mode, receiving a StreetPass hit causes a Shadow Link representing that player's Link to appear in one of various locations around Hyrule or Lorule. The Shadow Link is computer-controlled and will have whatever items and gear were on hand at the time the profile was set up (done by talking to Gramps); its battle theme is based on that of Link's Shadow from Zelda II: The Adventure of Link. Shadow Links can also be generated at random, with the alias of the "sending player" given as Shade.
• The Super Mario franchise has various types of enemies that copy Mario or one of his friends.
  • In Super Mario RPG, Belome's second fight has him as a Flunky Boss that can eat the party and spit them out to create clones of them.
  • Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga has Tanoombas (tanuki-like Goombas) who can attack the bros by transforming into one of the pair and jumping onto them; the attack always targets the opposite brother (i.e. a Tanoomba turning into Luigi will always attack Mario), who must counter with their hammer.
  • Mario & Luigi: Dream Team has Antasma create a clone of Mario called "Dreamy Mario", a Doppleganger Attacking Mirror Boss that spawns several clones of himself to avoid direct hits and attack Mario in turn.
  • Paper Mario has Duplighosts, Bedsheet Ghost-like enemies who can transform into one of Mario's partners. The sequel, Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, introduces a named Duplighost as the boss of Chapter 3 that can also turn into Mario, and even manages to steal his body in the process and fool his partners into thinking he's Mario.
  • Super Mario Galaxy 2 introduces Cosmic Clones, who appear in certain sections of the various galaxies as well as any galaxy where a Clone Comet is orbiting. They mimic the appearance of Mario or Luigi and start spawning and following behind them as soon as they appear; Cosmic Clones disappear and damage Mario/Luigi if they make contact, and flawlessly copy their movements even if the terrain changes (e.g. copying jumps off platforms that disappeared by the time the Clones reach them).
  • Cosmic Clones return in Super Mario 3D Land, which also introduces Big variants. Only one appears at a time, and they are found exclusively in the Special worlds.
  • In the Nintendo 3DS version of Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games, Bowser and Dr. Eggman use the Phantasmal Fog urn to create copies of the cast called Fog Imposters, who aid the villains in their plot to stop the Olympics from happening.
  • The Bowser's Tower mode of Mario Party: Island Tour has the player face off against several "bubble" clones of the playable cast in minigames. They were created by Bowser, who was jealous of not being invited to the Party Islands and created the tower to have his own "party".
  • Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker has the Mummy-Me, which resembles a mummified Toad and acts similarly to the previously mentioned Cosmic Clones.
  • Super Mario 3D World + Bowser's Fury has Fury Shadows, who act similarly to Shadow Mario in Super Mario Sunshine. They form from a sphere of black paint and take the shape of Luigi, running away from Mario, and he must hit them three times with a jump or a magic paintbrush to defeat it and recover one of the Cat Shines.
• In NetHack and its many variants, you can encounter "player monsters" that represent NPC adventurers; there is one corresponding to each of the playable roles, and the game even refers to them with the rank title appropriate for their experience level. Player monsters have armor, weapons and other items similar to what a player would usually have, as well as cheap plastic copies of the Amulet of Yendor. Normally, almost all of them can only be encountered on the Astral Plane, the very final level of the game; the cheap plastic imitation Amulet is probably why they're stuck there.
  • Doppelgangers and other shapeshifters can imitate player monsters, with dopplegangers being the most likely culprits; the mass majority of player monsters encountered in the dungeon prior to the Astral Plane will usually be a doppleganger in disguise, with some notable exceptions (for example, wizards named Newt and Pug can be found imprisoned in the goal level of the Wizard quest). Reading a cursed scroll of genocide while confused will "reverse genocide" yourself and create multiple player monsters of the same role as you.
  • EvilHack has player monsters appear far more often far earlier in the main dungeon, which you can encounter starting around experience level 10. They are technically a class of monster distinct from how the player is defined in the game's files, and are kitted out in player-like gear that can reach up to "ascension kit" levels depending on how late they're encountered. Player monster hit dice and difficulty level roughly match that of the actual player, based on their experience level when the player monster spawns; they also have their role's abilities and traits (e.g. wizards and priests can cast spells, rogues can steal items from inventory, knights spawn riding either a horse or a warhorse, etc.)
    • While not all such player monsters are hostile to you, those that are covet the Amulet of Yendor and will attempt to steal it. If they steal it while on the Astral Plane, they'll attempt to sacrifice it to their own god, ending your game if they succeed.
    • A player character that dies may revive and turn into a hostile player monster instead of becoming a ghost in their "bones" file. Also, wishing for an artifact not tied to a specific role has a chance to summon a player monster as its current "owner", forcing you to fight them for it.
  • In NetHack brass, doppelgangers always imitate the player, copying their appearance, inventory (including artifacts) and attributes (but not spells). Any items it manifests in this manner disappear upon its defeat; it is possible to steal them via the #bereave extended command, but artifacts gained in this way revert to their base item, and the items will disappear once put on the ground.
  • Slash'EM Extended also has player monsters that spawn randomly, with equipment suited for their role, as well as player monsters potentially being created from bones files. Unlike most variants, they can actually be tamed, though they resist many of the more common methods.
  • In UnNetHack, the Aleax is changed from vanilla to behave more like it does in Dungeons & Dragons (mentioned in the Tabletop Games section above) - Aleaxi will spawn with erodeproof +0 copies of the player's equipment and weapons that they have at the moment of generation (artifacts will be converted to their base items).
• Dungeon Crawl:
  • Player ghosts are created upon the death of a non-undead player character, and can also appear inside randomly generated ghost vaults. Player ghosts have the max HP, AC and EV of the deceased character, as well as certain other traits: the base damage and brand of the weapon they had wielded, the bonuses from Fighting skill levels, their elemental resistances, and the ability to cast certain spells and see invisible. In very rare cases, if a ghost file isn't available, the vault ghost will instead be an actual "clone" of the player.
  • Mara, Lord of Illusions is a unique monster with the ability to make clones of any monster in the area - including himself and you. Said clone is essentially a player ghost with many of your character's spells, melee and defensive capacities, and any buffs you had active at the time.
• Caves of Qud has Arconauts and Graverobbers, mobs who are members of the Grazing Hedonists faction and tend to be mostly peaceful towards the player character. In addition, one of the random events that can occur is the appearance of a cryotube that contains an exact copy of yourself with your entire inventory inside.
• One arc in City of Heroes ends with the party fighting shadow versions of themselves in the lower level of Paragon City Hall. There are also story arcs in which you face off against clones or extradimensional counterparts of yourself, all of which (usually) possess the same powers and abilities as you.
• The Disgaea series has "Clone" Geo Panels that generate duplicates of whatever is standing on a matching color panel, be they allies or enemies. All of the generated clones are very real and will invariably attack your party; they retain the stats and Hit Points of the original, but you can't steal any of their equipment.
• Sonic the Hedgehog franchise:
  • Robotic versions of Sonic and other characters are recurring villains Mirror Bosses, with the most common one, Metal Sonic, being introduced in Sonic CD. Most Metal Sonic fights are at least race-like in nature (where Sonic must catch up to the mechanical menace to damage him), if not outright actual races for survival.
  • The first game has Rollers, spherical Badniks that roll down steep hills in a manner similar to Sonic (who hadn't yet gotten his trademark Spin Dash).
  • Sonic CD also introduces pillbug Badniks (internally called Dangos) that crawl slowly along the ground, and curl into a ball to roll towards Sonic upon spotting him.
  • Sonic Heroes has Shadow Androids, with one damaged android discovered after Team Dark (Rogue, Shadow and E-123 Omega) defeats a fake Eggman, causing Shadow to wonder if he was one himself. In Team Dark's ending, Rogue and Omega discover a room full of Shadow Androids in suspended animation tubes, with Omega prepping to destroy them and hopefully find the real Shadow.
  • Sonic Advance has a Mecha Knuckles as the boss of Angel Island.
  • Shadow the Hedgehog features Shadow Androids as enemies in Iron Jungle and Lava Shelter.
  • Sonic Mania sees the return of Dangos as well as Metal Sonic. During the first phase of the multi-stage boss fight against him in Stardust Speedway Act 2, Metal Sonic will reprise his tactics from Sonic CD at first; the second starts upon reaching an Eggman-shaped generator that Metal Sonic hooks himself up to. The generator produces smaller Silver Sonics (based on the Mirror Boss from Sonic the Hedgehog 2) that can Spin Dash at the player; they must Spin Dash into the curled-up robots to send them bouncing around the room and into Metal Sonic. (In Sonic Mania Version 1.04 onwards and Sonic Mania Plus, destroying the Silver Sonics also produces energy balls that can damage the generator.) The chase then resumes as it did in the first phase, with the final phase being different depending on the version: pre-1.04, he reprises his final fight from Sonic CD, while in post-1.04 and Plus versions Eggman tosses him the Phantom Ruby, which he uses to become Giga Metal (a form based on his boss fight in Knuckles' Chaotix).
• In the Hordes of the Underdark module to Neverwinter Nights, there is a hall of Magic Mirrors, with most giving the player items and/or various kinds or gold. One of them creates a mirror copy of you that attacks the party, though this is rarely a difficult fight due to only one copy being made. If you destroy the mirror instead of looking into it, it spawns two copies of your character, which may possibly be a glitch.
• The "Labyrinth" in Vindictus features increasingly powerful doppelgangers as the end bosses on each floor (for a total of 5 encounters).
• The Golden Swordsman in Tales of Xillia combines this with Doppelganger Attack in an interesting way: he creates a copy of himself once after you run down his HP for the first time, then again once you run down the HP of him and his clone, resulting in the last phase being fought against three equal-strength clones of him; what qualifies them for this trope is that the duplicates possess distinct fighting styles based off of those of your party members.
• The Mega Man franchise has numerous examples:
  • The Sniper Joes are recurring enemies in the "Classic" Mega Man games whose base design is borrowed from Proto Man.
  • The Copy Robot is a duplicate of Mega Man that is fought as the second stage boss of Dr. Wily's manufacturing plant in Mega Man 1.
  • Mega Man 3 has a trio of Holographic Mega Men (a Copy Robot and two holograms) as the bosses of the third Wily Castle stage, though they only copy his appearance and Mega Buster.
  • In the updated remake of the first game, the Copy Robot appears as part of the Boss Rush in the third stage of Dr. Wily's plant, and instead copies whatever character the player is currently using. There is also "Mega Man?", another Mega Man duplicate built by Dr. Wily who takes the place of whatever Robot Master the player currently controls in the aforementioned Boss Rush (since the Copy Robot is always fought after the other Robot Masters).
  • Mega Man 9 has Shadow Mega Men and Shadow Protomen, shadow-like enemies that appears to be holograms of the heroes. These Shadow copies appear in Plug Man's stage behind the player if they walk in front of certain panels on the wall; they move faster than Mega Man and Proto Man and will attempt to inflict Collision Damage by running into them. However, their jump is lower, they can't shoot at you, and they can often be tricked into running off a ledge or into spikes (which instakills them).
  • Mega Man Battle Network 4 has MegaMan DS (Dark Soul), created when MegaMan.exe was forced to use Dark Chips to defeat ShadeMan. It is fought twice in the late game: first as a creation of Duo.EXE from the darkness in MegaMan's heart as a test for humanity, and again in the Bonus Dungeon Black Earth as a Bonus Boss. In both fights it mirrors his battle style, Navi Customizer programs, chips, and HP.
  • Mega Man Battle Network 5 has Dark MegaMan.exe, who is also fought twice. In the first instance, he is actually MegaMan himself, turned fully to darkness by Nebula, and must be fought at the end of End Area's first half, returning to normal after. He is also found in Nebula Area 6 as a Bonus Boss if the player defeats all the DS Navis in two minutes or less. In both fights, Dark MegaMan can use all the battle chips and Program Advances the player has used to that point.
  • In Mega Man Battle Network 6, Mega Man is consumed by the version Cybeast and goes on a rampage, forcing Lan to use either SpoutMan (Falzar) or HeatMan (Gregar) to bring him to his senses. After recovering, Mega Man gains the Beast Out ability. Later, he can fight a copy made of leftover data as a Bonus Boss in the Graveyard.
• Mother 3 has the Zombie Man and Zombie Lady, who bear an eerie resemblance to Claus and Hinawa...
• In the first God of War, Kratos is trapped in a psychological void where demonic doppelgangers attack phantoms of his family - both were created by Ares in an attempt to break the would-be Godslayer, forcing him to keep them at bay for as long as possible.
• Spectres from XCOM 2: War of the Chosen can use the Shadowbind ability to incapacitate a soldier and spawn a Shadow with the same stats and equipment.
• Dig Dug Arrangement has purple Taizo-like enemies that can dig around the stage, and will even attempt to inflate and pop the player(s)!