Ring Out Boss: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
A [[Sub-Trope]] of [[Puzzle Boss]], and often a [[Bullfight Boss]], the '''Ring Out Boss''' is a type of [[Boss Battle]] where the boss himself cannot be just defeated via damage, but has to simply be knocked or thrown back into a [[Lava Pit|dangerous substance]] or [[Spikes of Doom|obstacle]] to cause damage. Very much the Boss Battle type used when the hero fights the [[Implacable Man]] or a character with [[Nigh Invulnerability]].
There are two types of this boss:
* Type 1 is a boss which cannot be defeated by anything other than knock back, your attacks don't directly hurt said foe most of the time, or don't take them down for good, and you have to try to make it so instead of wearing down a health bar via lots of damage, that the impact from your attacks knocks them back into something dangerous to the boss.
* Type 2 relies on a bit more force, and actually picking up, carrying and throwing/dropping the boss into the deadly substance or obstacle.
A subtrope of [[Convenient Weakness Placement]], and very much a subtrope of [[Ring Out]], as that is the aim in one of these
May be a [[Breather Boss]] due to many, many cases having limited physical damage abilities against the player character, and relying on trying to send the player into the same obstacle they're weak against.
Occasionally a [[Bullfight Boss]] who has to be lured to charge into the dangerous substance/location.
{{examples}}
* The [[Super Mario Bros.|Mario series]] loves this. You've got [[Super Mario 64|Big Bully, Chief Chilly,]] [[Super Mario Galaxy|Topmaniac]], [[Yoshis Island|Roger the Potted Ghost (and Shy Guy cohorts), Big Guy the Stilted]] and a few others.▼
==Type 1==
▲* The [[Super Mario Bros.|Mario series]] loves this. You've got [[Super Mario 64|Big Bully, Chief Chilly,]] [[Super Mario Galaxy|Topmaniac]], [[
** Bowser himself in ''SMB3'' - though projectile attacks can also be used.
** Iggy and Larry from ''Super Mario World'', which you had to knock into the lava on a giant tilting platform.
** ''[[New Super Mario Bros. Wii]]'' is an inversion. Lemmy tries to ring ''you'' out. Also inverted with Big Bob-omb in ''[[Super Mario 64]]'', throwing him off the mountain will heal him.
** The larger Cataquacks that walk over the mirrors in Gelato Beach, in ''[[Super Mario Sunshine]]''.
* Bloomsday/Scumflower in ''[[Wario Land]] Shake It!''
** [[Older Than They Think|The Minotaur]] from ''[[Wario Land]]'', and Red Brief J. in ''[[Wario World]]''.
* The Sandopolis Act 1 boss in ''[[Sonic 3 and Knuckles|Sonic and Knuckles]]'' has to be knocked into a pit of quicksand. The pit kind of stands out in an otherwise featureless arena.
** [[Sonic CD]] does this kind of boss slightly differently- the boss of Quartz Quadrant is stationary and more or less invulnerable to Sonic's attacks- instead, his platform slowly wears away on the conveyor belt floor.
*** That's Quartz Quadrant, only mechanical and overly industrial in the [[Bad Future]]. As for another Sonic example, [[Sonic Advance Trilogy|Toy Kingdom]], where you pretty much evade his attacks, then hit, rinse, and repeat for a couple of minutes or so, trying to knock him into the bottomless pit.
* The Crocomire in ''[[Metroid|Super Metroid]]'' is this. Also, when it does finally fall into the acid pool, it has such a horrible [[Family-Unfriendly Death]] that some players genuinely feel bad for the poor thing.
* The video game version of ''[[Terminator]] 2: Judgment Day'' for the original Game Boy ended with a fight against the T-1000 where, akin to the movie, he was invincible but got knocked back when shot, so the idea was to knock him off the platform into the molten stuff below.
* Non boss example: In fourth edition ''[[Dungeons
** The majority of Defender powers are about forcibly moving the enemies around. With proper build, you can do this to ''[[The Juggernaut|the Tarrasque]]''.
* Inverted in ''[[Super Smash Bros.]].'': Bosses are the only fighters you have to beat with something other than a Ring Out. (Bosses that are counterparts to playable characters, such as Giga Bowser and [[That One Boss|Giant Shadow Bug Diddy Kong]], still have to be ringed out, with the exception of Dark Link.)
* The Chocobo Eater in ''[[Final Fantasy X]]'' is a subversion, as you could ultimately defeat it by depleting its HP if neither side can do enough harm for the [[Ring Out]].
* Once you'd beaten down Liquid Snake in ''[[Metal Gear Solid]]'' to the last of his health, it would slowly start restoring. The only way to beat him is to empty his life bar and then kick him off the edge of Metal Gear.
* The Corpser in the first ''[[Gears of War]]'' was fought on a precipice overlooking a lake of what looked like heated Immulsion. Your weapons could barely penetrate its hide, but they could cause pain. Your goal was to shoot its soft spots and force it to recoil in agony, eventually backing to the point where the precipice could no longer support its weight and collapsed, dropping the creature into the Immulsion.
* A slight aversion of type 1 occurs in ''[[Shadow of the Colossus]]'', as you force one of the bosses off a ledge, then proceed to stab it to death with much prejudice.
* The Warrior from the 2008 ''[[Prince of Persia]]'' can be defeated only by being knocked him out of the ring or into a trap every time you fight him.
** In the original (1989) ''[[Prince of Persia]]'', the skeleton on level 3 has no life bar, and therefore cannot actually be killed. The only way to defeat it is to knock it down into a pit (twice!).
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* The final boss in the Bad Ending path of ''True Crime: New York City'' has no health bar; instead you have to punch him across a subway car and use a finishing move to knock him out the rear door.
* A lot of boss fights in the ''[[Double Dragon]]'' series feature a convenient nearby pit (often with a conveyor belt leading into it) that you can knock the boss into if you don't feel like spending several minutes beating down his health bar. Beware, bosses can do the same to you.
* The final battle in the ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]: The Return of the King'' game is like this.[[Completely Missing the Point|Frodo fights Gollum "Neo vs. Smith" style]], with the objective being to knock Gollum off the edge into the lava.
* In ''[[The Matrix]]: Path of Neo'' game, in your first fight with Agent Smith he's invincible (as you are not yet "The One"), so you need to throw him into the path of a speeding subway car to beat him.
* Not exactly a boss, but this is one way to fulfill the [[Lord British Postulate]] vis-a-vie the otherwise invincible Sergeant Johnson in ''[[Halo]] 2''. In the first level, punch him into the airlock and off the space station into the void of space to kill the guy.
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* In the first [[Boktai]], you fight Muspell, who is very much a [[Bullfight Boss]]. While you can just attack him normally, dodging his charges to have him roll into the nearby lava will make the fight end a lot faster.
* A variant in ''[[Dawn Of War 2]]: Retribution'', one campaign scenario has an Ork Battlewagon that can't be killed effectively by any method other than the recommended tactic of leading it into explosives.
* Cyclops in ''[[Dark Messiah of Might and Magic|Dark Messiah]]'' can only be killed in a realistic amount of time by stunning them with the scenery (or a siege weapon in their first appearance), then taking out their eye. They ''can'' be taken out by mundane means, but it will take forever, and only mage spaming lighting spells has a real chance of doing it without cheating.
* [[The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword|The Legend of Zelda Skyward Sword]] has the first phase of the final battle with [[The Heavy|Ghirahim]]-he creates an aerial arena for you and he to fight on, and as can be imagined, you need to knock him to the ground.
** An earlier case would be Scervo, the [[Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot|robot pirate]] miniboss of the Sandship, who is fought on a narrow gangplank and must be gradually pushed back by your sword attacks until he falls off of it.
=== Examples of Type 2: ===▼
* Dangoro from ''[[The Legend of Zelda]]: Twilight Princess''.
** Partial example: Defeating Jahalla in ''The Wind Waker'' requires throwing the boss into spiked columns lining the arena before finishing off the poes that make up its body.
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{{reflist}}
[[Category:Boss Battle]]
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