Puzzle Boss: Difference between revisions

* Just about every boss in the ''[[God of War]]'' series is this, starting with the Hydra, which you defeat by pinning the smaller heads to the deck before impaling the main head on a ship mast. Another is a giant Minotaur that is defeated by stunning it with [[Action Commands]] before using a cannon that fires flaming logs to break his armor. They show up frequently in the sequel as well, the greatest example of which involves trapping two of the fates in between dimensions by hurling them into a mirror and then shattering it, as well as pinning down Clotho's hands before using a pendulum to stab her in the head. There is also the Colossus of Rhodes, who is only defeated via draining Kratos' godly energy that had been transferred into it. The final bosses of each game, Ares and Zeus, are fairly straightforward fights, as are Theseus, the Barbarian King and Eurayle in the second game.

* In inverse, one boss battle in ''[[Pirates of the Caribbean]]: The Legend of Jack Sparrow'' requires that the players set fire to a ship's mast to cover their escape. Rather than using the arena to kill the boss, the players must use the boss to destroy the arena: The mast is protected by an indestructible (by them) steel plate, which the players can remove only by provoking the ship's captain into using his ultimate attack while nearby.

** In the original ''[[Super Mario Bros. (video game)|Super Mario Bros]]'', there are two ways to beat Bowser. If you have the Fire Flower, you can just throw fireballs at him until he dies; if you don't, you have to get past him (either jumping over him or running under him) and touch an axe sitting just behind him, which will cause the bridge he's standing on to withdraw and dump him in the [[Lava Pit]].

** ''[[Super Mario World (video game)|Super Mario World]]'' Bowser lost to you throwing his own Mechakoopas at him.

** Even in ''[[Super Mario RPG]]'', where almost all other bosses and enemies are battled in traditional turn-based RPG style, Bowser is defeated by attacking a chain and dropping the chandelier he's standing on.

** Most Mario hacks generally stick to the regular bosses. But the main feature of Brutal Mario is facing off against bosses from a host of different games, many of them '''Puzzle Bosses'''.

** ''[[Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story]]'' has three bosses which generally follow this, Alpha Kretin, who you have to defeat by turning all the segments of him blue (and they can only be attacked by the brother who's colour matches said segment) and then defeating in his next form. Dark Star is invincible, but has it's defense lowered after you damage it's two flunkies and then hammer them back at it. Dark Bowser/Fawful Bug requires you to hurt Dark Bowser (1000 HP), then hit his stomach when he becomes giant, then eat the Dark Fawful Bug/Star Core, then as Mario and Luigi kill the legs and glasses, then attack the core of that. Oh, and you get to finish off Dark Bowser with five more massive punches to the face after all this.

* [[Chrono Cross|The sequel's]] final boss could be defeated by force; {{spoiler|however, this results in a [[Bad End|bad ending.]] Only by using spells of the six different elements in a specific order, ''then'' using a seventh, special element, could the boss be truly defeated. This proves to be quite difficult, because the boss's spells mess with the order, so you have to either hope that the boss uses elements that complement the sequence, or have characters fast enough to complete the sequence without being interrupted.}}

** ''[[Chrono Cross]]'' also features the [[Bonus Boss]] Criosphinx. To defeat him, you have to respond to his riddles with an Element of the proper color. {{spoiler|The order of the colors to answer his riddles is the same order that is needed to activate the Chrono Cross to defeat the last boss. Of course, the game never directly tells you this so it is still a massive [[Guide Dang It]].}} You can defeat him with brute force, but it's not easy.

* With the exceptions of Necrogiant, the bosses in ''[[Painkiller]]'' fall into this category. Detonating bubbles is needed to make Swamp Thing vulnerable, as is destroying Guardian's hammer. Alastor's statues can heal him and make him invincible—and can't be dealt with unless they're doing so. Then there's your [[Playing Tennis With the Boss|tennis date]] with Lucifer. In expansion pack ''Battle Out Of Hell'', all the bosses are of this category. For better or worse, in follow-up ''Overdose'' only the first of the three bosses was of this type.

* None of the Marine's weapons are effective against the Xenomorph Queen in ''[[Aliens vs. Predator]]''. Instead you must avoid her attacks while triggering the mechanism that will open the bay doors to Space, then make it to the a small room and close the door before the bay door opens so that you don't get sucked out into Space along with the Queen.

** ''[[Dark Souls 2]]'' has one that might qualify as a [[Moon Logic Puzzle]], which makes sense given how notoriously [[Nintendo Hard]] the franchise is. The boss of the Earthen Peak is Mytha the Dark Queen, an undead lamia who carries her severed head and uses it [[Epic Flail| like a flail]]. What makes the boss fight dangerous, however, is not Mytha’s attacks, but the arena, where you have to fight her knee deep in poisonous sludge. This will force your character to fight with a continual Poison debuff, meaning you’ll spend far more time trying to avoid Mytha and healing yourself than making any offensive actions. And even if you ''do'' wound her, the poison heals her! In order to even stand a chance you have to drain the sludge, but how do you do that? {{spoiler| Simple, you go to the bonfire, light a torch, climb onto a ledge near the bonfire (that clearly does not lead anywhere) up to where the hub of the windmill is (which is obviously made of metal) and set fire to it. Which destroys the windmill and disables a pump mechanism that prevents Mytha’s lair from draining. The chance of figuring this out yourself [[Guide Dang It|is very slim]], there’s no NPC that can tell you this and the windmill has no button prompt at all unless you are actually holding a lit torch. Still, when you figure this out, it makes the battle with Mytha much easier. Not easy, mind you, easier, this is still Dark Souls.}}

* The Dragon God in ''[[Demon's Souls]]'' can only be defeated by taking advantage of the environment to avoid its attacks long enough to fire a pair of huge ballistas into its shoulders. Once that's done the near helpless dragon can be killed with a few blows to the face.

 

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