History YMMV / SkulTheHeroSlayer

* MutuallyExclusivePowerups: Overlapping with PowerupLetdown -- Defeating the first boss can yield one of two unique items. The first, Unknown Seed, starts with no upgrades but every 10 HP healed (which stacks up quite easily as it comes with Spring), permanently increases Physical and Magical damage by 1% and at 300 health healed, transforms to give a permanent 40% Magic and Physical damage buff and summons the World Tree every 60 seconds for a large buff, making it a relatively good item. The second item, Elder Ent's Gratitude, comes with an unimpressive 30% Magic and Physical damage buff and a paltry 40 HP shield, and the item is permanently destroyed when the small shield breaks, making it one of the worst items in the game and almost always scrapped for gold.
* PowerupLetdown: Most skulls have a skill pool of ~4 skills, all Common skulls start with only 1 random skill out of their skill pool, and they do not get their second skill until upgraded twice to Unique tier at a total cost of 40 bones, usually taking quite a number of cleared levels and destroyed skull upgrades to get them. The 2nd skill is also totally random, and the bulk of skulls have skills that are clearly superior to others or have different damage types, possibly leading to the 2nd unlocked skill being the worst possible skill for the build that you have.
** Having a build that is totally focused on Physical or Magic damage, and then coming across a Legendary skull of the opposite type can lead to big letdowns.
** Every time a skull is upgraded to a higher tier, current skills are also upgraded, but a number of the upgrades change the basics of how a skill works, making it actually LESS effective in a lot of situations -- for example, the Carleon Recruit skill Squad Member Archer summons them at the exact spot in the air you activate the skill to do 3 attacks (the last one a piercing arrow that travels through all enemies), and can hold 2 charges. The 'upgraded' skill for the Carleon Sergeant can no longer hold 2 charges, takes 18 seconds to charge, and drops an AI archer on the ground that attacks nearby enemies, forcing you to have to drop it on the same level as any enemy (and making it useless against airborne enemies), and having it do significantly less overall damage against anything other than a single target.

* {{Tearjerker}}: [[spoiler:The First Hero's death. See the Woobie entry for more details.]]
* TheComputerIsACheatingBastard: The second boss, the Leiana Sisters, are a DualBoss, and [[KillOneOthersGetStronger defeating one of them will cause the other to heal for 1800 and power up for a second phase]]. If you plan around this (using the Grim Reaper full screen heavy hitting scythe skill, for example) and successfully execute a single attack that kills both of them at the same time? One of them FULLY HEALS and powers up for the second phase anyway.
* TheWoobie: [[spoiler:JESUS CHRIST, the First Hero. After losing his entire party on his first outing as an adventurer, he rises through the ranks as a top-tier adventurer, eventually slaying the Demon King. He sees the new one as different and tries to make peace, but when some creature posing as a soldier frames the young King for the death of his son, he goes mad with grief and declares war on the demons, not knowing his son returned to life as Skul. By the time Skul reaches him, he doesn't even recognize his own son and in desperation pushes his body to its absolute limit in a three phase boss battle where the final phase is him barely putting up a fight due to his exhaustion and injuries, and at the end of it all he dies, alone, thinking he failed Carleon and its people.]]

* AuthorsSavingThrow: The 1.6.1 update massively changes the boss looting mechanic, from a single item to select from(which almost always resulted in underwhelming loot since it drew from every item rarity) to a whole bevy of them, which now allows for the player to have a better chance of securing a good build as early as Yggdrassil.

* GameBreaker: The Berserker and Devil Berserker, if you level physical damage, attack speed, and bleed proc. It's berserk ability can churn out so much damage in such a short amount of time that it can kill the chimaera in less than five seconds.

* The same applies to the Rock Star/Super Rock Star and magic damage. Given that the Rock Star's ability increases its magic damage as it attacks, this can quickly lead to enough damage to melt basically every enemy instantaneously with the right items.

* AuthorsSavingThrow: The 1.6.1 update massively changes the boss looting mechanic, from a single item to select from(which almost always resulted in underwhelming loot since it drew from every item rarity) to a whole bevy of them, which now allows for the player to have a batter chance of securing a good build as early as Yggdrassil.

* BestBossEver: Most of the fights count, but special note goes to [[spoiler: The First Hero]], who boasts a staggering ''three phases'' when all of the other bosses have one or two. It's a drag-out fight to the death and if you have a sufficiently powerful build, it'll be an even fight the whole way through.
* MutuallyExclusivePowerups: Overlappiing with PowerupLetdown - Defeating the first boss can yield one of two unique items. The first, Unknown Seed, starts with no upgrades but every 10 HP healed (which stacks up quite easily as it comes with Spring), permanently increases Physical and Magical damage by 1% and at 300 health healed, transforms to give a permanent 40% Magic and Physical damage buff and summons the World Tree every 60 seconds for a large buff, making it a relatively good item. The second item, Elder Ent's Gratitude, comes with an unimpressive 30% Magic and Physical damage buff and a paltry 40 HP shield, and the item is permanently destroyed when the small shield breaks, making it one of the worst items in the game and almost always scrapped for gold.

** Every time a skull is upgraded to a higher tier, current skills are also upgraded, but a number of the upgrades change the basics of how a skill works, making it actually LESS effective in a lot of situations - for example, the Carleon Recruit skill Squad Member Archer summons them at the exact spot in the air you activate the skill to do 3 attacks (the last one a piercing arrow that travels through all enemies), and can hold 2 charges. The 'upgraded' skill for the Carleon Sergeant can no longer hold 2 charges, takes 18 seconds to charge, and drops an AI archer on the ground that attacks nearby enemies, forcing you to have to drop it on the same level as any enemy (and making it useless against airborne enemies), and having it do significantly less overall damage against anything other than a single target.
* {{Tearjerker}}: [[spoiler: The First Hero's death. See the Woobie entry for more details.]]

* TheWoobie: [[spoiler: JESUS CHRIST, the First Hero. After losing his entire party on his first outing as an adventurer, he rises through the ranks as a top-tier adventurer, eventually slaying the Demon King. He sees the new one as different and tries to make peace, but when some creature posing as a soldier frames the young King for the death of his son, he goes mad with grief and declares war on the demons, not knowing his son returned to life as Skul. By the time Skul reaches him, he doesn't even recognize his own son and in desperation pushes his body to its absolute limit in a three phase boss battle where the final phase is him barely putting up a fight due to his exhaustion and injuries, and at the end of it all he dies, alone, thinking he failed Carleon and its people.]]

* TheComputerIsACheatingBastard: The second boss, the Leiana Sisters, are a DualBoss, and [[KillOneOthersGetStronger defeating one of them will cause the other to fully heal and power up for a second phase]]. If you plan around this (using the Grim Reaper full screen heavy hitting scythe skill, for example) and successfully execute a single attack that kills both of them at the same time? One of them full heals and powers up for the second phase anyway.

** Defeating the first boss can yield one of two unique items. The first, Unknown Seed, starts with no upgrades but every 10 HP healed (which stacks up quite easily as it comes with Spring), permanently increases Physical and Magical damage by 1% and at 300 health healed, transforms to give a permanent 40% Magic and Physical damage buff and summons the World Tree every 60 seconds for a large buff, making it a relatively good item. The second item, Elder Ent's Gratitude, comes with an unimpressive 30% Magic and Physical damage buff and a paltry 40 HP shield, and the item is permanently destroyed when the small shield breaks, making it one of the worst items in the game and almost always scrapped for gold.

* CompleteMonster: The Alchemist encountered at the end of the third zone. [[spoiler: It makes his death at the hands of one of his own creations that much more cathartic.]]

* BestBossEver: Most of the fights count, but special note goes to [[spoilers: The First Hero]], who boasts a staggering ''three phases'' when all of the other bosses have one or two. It's a drag-out fight to the death and if you have a sufficiently powerful build, it'll be an even fight the whole way through.

* TheWoobie: [[spoilers: JESUS CHRIST, the First Hero. After losing his entire party on his first outing as an adventurer, he rises through the ranks as a top-tier adventurer, eventually slaying the Demon King. He sees the new one as different and tries to make peace, but when some creature posing as a soldier frames the young King for the death of his son, he goes mad with grief and declares war on the demons, not knowing his son returned to life as Skul. By the time Skul reaches him, he doesn't even recognize his own son and in desperation pushes his body to its absolute limit in a three phase boss battle where the final phase is him barely putting up a fight, and at the end of it all he dies, alone, thinking he failed Carleon and its people.]]