History Main / DamageSpongeBoss

* The ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAuto'' series has a history with this: Sonny, the end boss of ''Vice City'', is different from your average mobster only in that he can take ''three rockets to the face'' before dying.

* TabletopGame/SentinelsOfTheMultiverse has three notable examples in different ways. Akash'Thriya is the conventional kind- she has 200 HP, while the average villain has ~80 and the average attack does 2 damage. Iron Legacy has compartively low health, but has a dizzying array of methods to block, redirect and heal from damage, making getting past his defences a slog. And Spite has massive amounts of healing, making it extremely difficult to make an attack stick. All three are likely going to be the longest fights in the game.

* Unlike most 2D ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog'' games, where they usually give out after 8 solid strikes, the bosses in ''[[VideoGame/SonicRushAdventure Sonic Rush Adventure]]'' have a ton of health -- for example, the very first takes ''20'' hits to defeat. As a trade-off, though, their weak points are vulnerable far more often, which makes them less of a pain overall.

** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIII'': Elvoret, the WakeUpCallBoss, is a relatively minor example. Albeit he has 3523 HP at the highest, at this point in the game, this is ''a lot''. Your measly physical attacks will deal around 50-60 damage per turn, and your magic will deal slightly more than 100. You pretty much have to rely on GFs and Limit Breaks if you don't wanna be stuck fighting the flying monster forever.

** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyI'': The Wizards (albeit not a boss, they are a fixed encounter). They have no special moves at all, but they are horribly ''tough''. They can soak up AND deal large amounts of damage. The first fight with them to obtain the Crown is a LuckBasedMission since random encounter logic decides whether you fight 2 of them or '''4''' of them.

* In ''VideoGame/MegaManZX Advent'' the final boss' first form is a giant [[OurDragonsAreDifferent three-headed robot dragon]] that has so much health it's not even represented by a life bar (according to the Mega Man wiki, calculating for individual buster shots it has a whopping ''486'' units of health). For comparison, most life-bars in the ''ZX'' and ''Zero'' series have 32 units individually, and so even bosses with three life bars only come out to 96 units. The trade-off is that he's also a StationaryBoss with a ''huge'' weakpoint that doesn't have long invincibility frames, meaning the fight is essentially all about burst-damaging him down while avoiding all the attacks he throws out.

* In ''VideoGame/MegaManZX Advent'' the final boss' first form is a giant [[OurDragonsAreDifferent three-headed robot dragon]] that has so much health it's not even represented by a life bar (according to the Mega Man wiki, calculating for individual buster shots it has a whopping ''486'' units of health). For comparison, most life-bars in the ''ZX'' and ''Zero'' series have 32 units individually, and so even bosses with three life bars only come out to 96 units.

** Tera Raid bosses in ''VideoGame/PokemonScarletAndViolet'' have their HP multiplied by an increasing factor based on the raid difficulty (we're talking about up to several ''dozens'' here). To give you an idea, boosting your Pokémon's offensive stat to the maximum ''may (and eventually will) not be enough to OneHitKill the hardest raid bosses'', whereas one-shotting an opposing Pokémon without any buffs is often easy to do in regular battles.

** ''The Lost Crowns Trilogy'' is chock full of {{bonus boss}}es whose health bar and resistances outstrip even the vanilla game's FinalBoss, with the exception being the Adventurer trio (even then, they have unreasonably high parameters for player-sized enemies).

* The last two {{Bonus Boss}}es of the second ''VideoGame/DigitalDevilSaga''. Whereas the two optional bosses before them, Shiva and Vishnu, have roughly 10,000 HP, [[spoiler:Seth]] has 23,000 and [[spoiler:Satan]] has 30,000. What takes this into Damage Sponge Boss instead of Fake Longevity is that they do indeed have interesting moves, especially [[spoiler:Satan]].

** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'': [[OneWingedAngel Safer Sephiroth]] is the last form of a SequentialBoss, and the FinalBoss of the game. While he qualifies as a Damage Sponge Boss due to his high HP, how high that actually is depends on how much you've done by the time you reach him. If any of your party members are level 99, you defeated any of the {{Bonus Boss}}es, or you used the [[BackUpFromOtherworld Knights of the Round Materia]] on any of his previous forms, Safer Sephiroth's maximum HP goes up for every one of those proverbial checkboxes you've marked off. It's designed to be a challenge no matter how many endgame sidequests you've completed.

*** The Monster Arena {{Bonus Boss}}es. With the exception of exactly two bosses, HP values ''start'' at six digits and only get worse. Going into battle with any of these bosses without a character that can hit for 99,999 HP or more in one turn is asking to fail.

** In ''Afterbirth'', [[spoiler:Hush and Ultra Greed]], are like this, due to having a special sort of DamageReduction. A GameBreaker of a run that would kill any and every other enemy and boss within a few seconds will still take a very long time to wear either of them down. In theory, a loadout that does less damage would kill them at about the same rate... except they also spawn ridiculous amounts of minions that could easily overwhelm you if you're not doing enough damage and, in the case of [[spoiler:Ultra Greed, ''heal him'' if you don't kill them]]. The skewed DamageReduction is particularly noticeable with [[spoiler:Hush, since you fight an unmodified version of the TrueFinalBoss of the original ''VideoGame/TheBindingOfIsaac'' as a warm up, and he generally dies in less than thirty seconds.]] You ''can'' kill them in a single hit with the Chaos Card and can easily beat [[spoiler:Hush]] if thrown correctly (throw the card directly at it from the bottom of the stage) '''[[LuckBasedMission if you have one]]'''.

** Although at least with the Spider Mastermind, the fact that its Triple Chaingun is a {{hitscan}} weapon does require you to put a little thought into not getting killed. But still, that only changes the strategy to "Shoot it until it dies, and don't wind up full of hot lead."

** This is due to how the games combat system handles boss stats. While regular enemies have static stats, bosses stats are a multiplier of your main character's stats. So the more you beef up your main character, the tougher the boss gets in comparison.

* The major difference between the difficulties in the first ''Franchise/MassEffect'' game was that on higher difficulties you had to spend more time sitting there on full-auto before anything died, leading to enemies taking comical amounts of punishment without the 'warp' de-buff or special ammo types.

* Subverted hysterically in the ''VideoGame/SaintsRowIV'' DLC ''Enter the Dominatrix:'' early on, main-game BigBad Zinyak appears with a healthbar ''three screenwidths long.'' He goes down with one shot.

* In ''E.D.F.: Earth Defense Force'', all bosses are big ugly damage sponges. The only one that goes slightly against type is a SegmentedSerpent exclusive to the SNES version, which is only vulnerable in the head.

** Also of note is Zygarde,specifically its [[GodzillaThreshold Complete Forme]], which it gains access to starting from ''Sun and Moon'' onward. In this forme, the only real boost Zygarde gets is that its HP is doubled (from an already great 108 to '''216'''), and a slight increase in Special attack (from a mediocre 81 to a passable 91). Outside of the HP boost, Complete Zygarde's stats are strong but overall quite underwhelming for a legendary. However, its insane amount of HP lets it perform a variety of roles, one of which is boosting its offensive stats and Speed to ridiculous proportions with Dragon Dance and/or Coil while having the bulk to perform it multiple times safely. Add in the fact it can use an unavoidable Ground-Type Attack with Thousand Arrows, and you've got yourself a ridiculous powerhouse. In fact, it was the first Pokémon in the Generation 7 Metagame Smogon saw fit to ban to Ubers.

** The Cyberdemon takes a lot of hits[[note]]About 400 bullets, 45-50 rockets or 150-200 plasma rifle shots. The BFG takes it down in only four blasts, but you don't have access to it during Episode 2 of the first game.[[/note]], shoots rockets which can one-shot you with a direct hit at 100% health, and is defeated by circle strafing and shooting. It led to the creation of the sarcastic "tip" of "[[CaptainObvious To defeat the Cyberdemon, shoot at it until it dies.]]" The same goes for just about every other boss in the original ''Doom'' games, including the Barons of Hell and the Spider Mastermind.

** There's another complication regarding the Cyberdemon in the first Doom game. When you first encounter him, the level there has a [[SuspiciousVideoGameGenerosity huge]] supply of ammo for your Rocket Launcher, which is (at that point in the game) the weapon with the most raw power. Problem is, the Cyberdemon is immune to splash damage, meaning that only the damage caused by the direct hit has any effect on him. If you opt to use the rocket launcher, the battle ends up being drawn out even longer. If you have a surplus of cells, it's far faster to whip out the [[EnergyWeapon Plasma Rifle]] instead. Thankfully when he appears again [[spoiler: in the secret level of episode 3]], you might've finally found '''[[TropeNamer the]]''' {{BFG}}, which makes the rematch [[CurbStompBattle a lot easier]].
** In its first appearance, you can get the Cyberdemon caught up on the building architecture. Then shoot through a tiny gap in the building. Safely [[CherryTapping pecking it to death]] with the pistol becomes tedious though.
** The Mother Demon in ''Doom 64''. If you thought the Cyberdemon's 4000 HP was huge, this one has 5000! If you did not collect the keys, [[OhCrap enjoy wasting a lot of ammo against a plethora of enemies before facing the Mother Demon.]] Fortunately, the spot where the Mother Demon is located respawns supercharge soul spheres. Unlike the Cyberdemon and Spider Mastermind, the Mother Demon is not immune to splash damage.

** The Cyberdemon takes a lot of hits, shoots rockets which can one-shot you with a direct hit at 100% health, and is defeated by circle strafing and shooting. It led to the creation of the sarcastic "tip" of "[[CaptainObvious To defeat the Cyberdemon, shoot at it until it dies.]]" The same goes for just about every other boss in the original ''Doom'' games, including the Barons of Hell and the Spider Mastermind.

* ''Every'' FOE and boss (except for the second stratum's, oddly enough) in ''VideoGame/EtrianOdyssey Untold 2: The Fafnir Knight''. Your biggest threat against them isn't their dangerous attacks killing you, but being worn down enough that you aren't able to put up with their attacks for 40+ turns.

** The [[WesternAnimation/{{Hercules}} Rock Titan]] in ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsI'', at least relative to the other bossess. Two of his three attacks are ridiculously easy to dodge, and battling him is more of a matter of time than difficulty.