History Main / ShieldedCoreBoss

** The Area 6 boss in ''VideoGame/StarFox64'' requires you to shoot three energy balls surrounding its energy core before it will take damage. After a short window of opportunity, it generates three large metal tendrils and closes its shell entirely; you must shoot and destroy the tendrils to open the shell, then repeat the process all over again.

* ''Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda'': Starting in ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime'', most boss battles typically consist of using a newly-acquired weapon/tool from the latest dungeon to "stun" the boss and expose its weak point to ordinary sword strikes before the boss recovers from it; the entire process is generally repeated [[RuleOfThree three times]] before the boss dies.

** For the FinalBoss of ''VideoGame/MegaManZX Advent'', you have to damage his [[DeflectorShields forcefield]] enough for it to disappear, then quickly get your hits in before it gets back up again.

*** The final boss also follows in the footsteps of the previous games, but takes it UpToEleven, having Bowser fight against Dark Bowser until he knocks the Dark Star Core/Fawful out of him, after which he needs to vacuum it up so the bros. can fight it. This in turn requires them to first destroy both of its glasses' lens so they can destroy its three legs (As the boss simply retract them if the Bros. attack while he can see clearly), then they can ''finally'' attack the core and deal some lasting damage. Failure to destroy it in a few turns requires you to repeat the entire sequence beginning from Bowser's part, but thankfully, its HP isn't that high.

* In the final stage of ''VideoGame/PokemonSnap'', [[spoiler: Mew]] [[FloatingInABubble floats around in a bubble of psychic energy]] that prevents you from getting a clear picture. You have to hit the bubble a few times with Pok%eacute;mon Food or Pester Balls in order to knock [[spoiler: Mew]] out of it, then hit her as well to get her to stop chasing after it long enough for you to try and get a decent shot. Then she teleports back into the bubble to start the whole process over again until you reach the end of the stage.

** A late-game boss battle in ''VideoGame/SuperMarioRPG'' is the gigantic sword known as Exor. His weak point is the skull on the hilt, but the game informs you that it is protected from attacks by his two eyes. You have to attack and disable at least one of the eyes before you can inflict damage on his weak point, and the eyes revive after a few turns. Due to a GoodBadBug the removable protection includes the ability to use [[OneHitKill Geno Whirl]] on the boss.

** The franchise-wide RecurringBoss Devils can only be attacked when their eye/core is open.

** Groudon from ''Pinball Ruby And Sapphire'' works similarly, frequently executing a shockwave attack that surrounds himself by pillars of flame that block the player's attacks until they can take at least one of them out.
* In ''VideoGame/Sonic3AndKnuckles'', Robotnik pilots a large stone golem as the boss of Sandopolis Zone Act 2; although it only takes one hit to dislodge the armor and expose Robotnik, the armor quickly snaps back into place, resulting in a limited opportunity to strike.

** Leviathan's Heart is encased in a hard shell that opens up for a short time when one of two adjacent organs is destroyed. They regenerate quite quickly and you are also constantly swarmed by {{mooks}} who make taking a good slash at the heart quite a pain.
** Nevan has an electrical shield that drops when all of the bats surrounding her are destroyed. And then you must instantly attack her at least once or else she'll immediately regenerate the shield to full.
** Sanctus has a regenerating force field you must destroy to damage him and constantly floats away when you try to close the distance. Overlaps with Tactical Suicide Boss, because the probes that spawn and orbit around him can be grabbed and used to pull yourself towards him - although sometimes he tries to rectify this by making them explode when you're near them.
** Urizen puts up a shield that Nero or Dante must destroy before he can be damaged. After some time, he will regenerate the shield and while it goes down easier, his attacks became more aggressive and hits much harder.

** In ''VideoGame/MegaManX6'', as long as the crystals on Rainy Turtloid's back are intact, the player cannot damage him.

*** There's also the fight against Fawful prior to it, which is a simpler case, as he starts off hiding in an invention of his that's completely impervious to damage, but landing enough hits will provoke him into using a powerful attack that overheats the machine, forcing him to leave it temporarily.
** ''VideoGame/MarioAndLuigiPartnersInTime'': Princess Shroob cannot be damaged until you destroy the shield protecting her. The second fight against [[spoiler:the ''elder'']] Princess Shroob extends this pattern one step further: You cannot damage her until having destroyed her crown, but you can't strike the crown without attacking her ''feet'' to knock her down first. In both cases, the princess recovers after taking a few hits, forcing you to start the process over.

** In ''VideoGame/MegaManZero4'', Zero can't deal any damage to the FinalBoss as long as the spike shield between them is up. That boss only lowers his shield when he's about to attack.

* ''VideoGame/AnotherMetroid2Remake'' has the Tester, a mechanical boss with turrets and two layers of shielding protecting its vulnerable core: four segments of armor plating that are immune to beams but vulnerable to missiles, and an energy shield that is immune to missiles but vulnerable to beams. Each segment of armor will eventually repair itself if not destroyed completely, but the inner energy shield is gone for good once you break it.

** In the first game, Mewtwo protects himself from the player's attacks with a ring of rotating psychic orbs; he regenerates them every time the player succeeds in inflicting damage, although as his HP drops, the barrier becomes progressively weaker, allowing some attacks to slip through.

* In ''VideoGame/Sonic3AndKnuckles'', Robotnik pilots a large stone golem as the boss of Sandopolis Zone Act 2; although it only takes one hit to dislodge the armor and expose Robotnik to a strike, the armor quickly snaps back into place, resulting in a limited opportunity to strike.

* In the final stage of ''VideoGame/PokemonSnap'', [[spoiler: Mew]] [[FloatingInABubble floats around in a bubble of psychic energy]] that prevents you from getting a clear picture. You have to hit the bubble a few times with Pokemon Food or Pester Balls in order to knock [[spoiler: Mew]] out of it, then hit her as well to get her to stop chasing after it long enough for you to try and get a decent shot. Then she teleports back into the bubble to start the whole process over again until you reach the end of the stage.

* ''VideoGame/ChronoTrigger'': In the final battle, you'll think that Lavos's main body is the centre 'pod'. It's not. The right-hand pod is the true core; when it dies, the others do. Thing is, you have to destroy one of the other pods first to get it to lower its defences (all attacks on it are functionally ineffectual otherwise, doing single digit damage) while it tries to resurrect the dead pod.

* In ''VideoGame/MightyNo9'', Dynatron will create an electric barrier around herself once her HP is reduced to half. This consists of six nodes, and when one is destroyed, the remaining nodes rearrange to form the next regular polygon down. The barrier is destroyed once less than three nodes remain and allows Beck to damage her. She can regenerate these nodes if Beck takes too long to defeat her though.

** In ''VideoGame/MegaMan7'', a giant pumpkin MiniBoss in Shade Man's level is modeled after a Russian nesting doll, with a small component being shielded by two outer layers. however, as a slight subversion, the Pumpkin ''can'' be destroyed in two different methods, one of which doesn't involve even touching its core; just concentrate fire on the outer layer.
** The FinalBoss in ''VideoGame/MegaManX8'' protects himself with multiple layers of shielding that must be broken to damage him, but as the battle wears on and he reveals his ultimate DesperationAttack, the player must do so [[TimeLimitBoss within a time limit]] to win the battle.

* The FinalBoss in ''VideoGame/MegaManX8'' protects himself with multiple layers of shielding that must be broken to damage him, but as the battle wears on and he reveals his ultimate DesperationAttack, the player must do so [[TimeLimitBoss within a time limit]] to win the battle.

* The Final Boss of ''VideoGame/MegaManZX Advent'' is like this, you have to damage his [[DeflectorShields forcefield]] enough for it to disappear, then quickly get your hits in before it get put back up again.

*** Eyesoar's central eye is protected by four smaller eyeballs orbiting around it. Link must shoot the Switch Hook into a gap between the eyeballs in order to stun the central eye, which will cause its entourage to scatter and leave it vulnerable to attack until they re-gather.
** In ''Seasons'', Manhandla's weak point is a red core within its body. To defeat it, Link must first destroy its maws and then break through its armor with the Magic Boomerang, after which he will only have a short time to attack the core before Manhandla's body regenerates.

->''The EYE is protecting Exor!!''
-->-- '''VideoGame/SuperMarioRPG''' informing us why we can't hit the boss's weak spot yet.

* Doc Ock in ''VideoGame/SpiderMan'' is protected by a sort of electric field that must be shut off in order to get close to him and do damage.

** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOracleOfAges'':
*** Pumpkin Head's true form is a small spirit hiding inside the jack-o'-lantern that forms its head. To harm it, Link must first destroy its body and then toss aside the Jack-o'-Lantern to reveal the spirit, then strike at it while it dashes back to the lantern. Pumpkin Head then reforms its body, and the process repeats several more times to defeat it.

** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOracleOfSeasons'': Manhandla's weak point is a red core within its body. To defeat it, Link must first destroy its maws and then break through its armor with the Magic Boomerang, after which he will only have a short time to attack the core before Manhandla's body reforms around it.

* ''Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda'':
** Ever since ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime'', most boss battles typically consist of using a newly-acquired weapon/tool from the latest dungeon to "stun" the boss and expose its weak point to ordinary sword strikes before the boss recovers from it; the entire process is generally repeated [[RuleOfThree three times]] before the boss dies.
** Two examples in ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaSkywardSword'':
*** Ghirahim is the quickest example: In his final battle, you destroy the armor surrounding his core with Fatal Blows. Once he summons a large claymore as his weapon, the only way to finish him off is to chip away and shatter his weapon with repeated sword strikes, then deliver a thrust attack to his exposed core. Get thrown off rhythm and Ghirahim will simply repair the blade with a snap of his fingers.

[[caption-width-right:350:Mr. Player, tear down this wall!]]

** The [[Film/{{Tron}} MCP]] in ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsII''. [[DualBoss While also being harassed by Sark]], Sora has to hack through a barrier, presumably a firewall of some sort, and use a special ActionCommand with [[GuestStarPartyMember Tron]] to fire a beam at the MCP's core and delete it.

See also FlunkyBoss, where the boss is protected by independent {{Mooks}}, who may need to be destroyed before you can engage the boss directly, and CoresAndTurretsBoss, in which the boss's presence is reduced to its (no pun intended) core elements: Something that attacks you, and something for you to attack.

** The desert BonusBoss "Kurt Zisa" in ''VideoGame/KingdomHearts'' only takes damage when he is stunned, but to stun him you have to attack and defeat the spells he's cast in battle first. Complicating matters is that each time his barrier is defeated he alternates to another attack pattern: One where he casts Silence on your party and attacks exclusively with his massive swords, and another where he's protected from physical attacks by a magic barrier and attacks exclusively via magic.

* ''VideoGame/ChronoTrigger'': In the final battle, you'll think that Lavos's main body is the centre 'pod'. It's not. The right-hand pod is the true core; when it dies, the others do. Thing is, you have to destroy one of the other pods first to get it to lower its defences (all attacks on it are ineffectual otherwise) while it tries to resurrect the dead pod.

* A few examples from ''Franchise/DevilMayCry'' series: