[[FinalFantasyI http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/warmech_01.png]]
[[caption-width:248:These guys? Yeah, they're dead.]]
->''"Let's be very careful here. [[TemptingFate We don't want to see him...]]''[[RandomEncounters (pwooow, pwooow)]]'' Uhhh, [[OhCrap oh no! IT'S HIIIIM.]]"''
--> --[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XIicjQ54A9E "Final Fantasy (NES) RMSCRT part 17a of 19"]]

You're walking along on your quest to [[SavingTheWorld save the world]], when you run into a [[RandomEncounters Random Encounter]] with a [[NinjaPirateZombieRobot 50-foot-tall, three-headed, skeletal, radioactive fire-breathing demonic dragon]]. Okay, you're 12 levels higher than the average enemy here, so it must be only a LevelFiveOnix.

But what's this? It's still standing. Worse, it just took out four-fifths of your MagicKnight's HitPoints with one swipe of its claw, and that guy has armor with a permanent [[DeflectorShields barrier spell]].

[[LetsGetDangerous So you don't hold back the next turn]]. Your fighter scores a CriticalHit, your archer shoots from afar, your sorcerers use their [[CombinationAttack twin flare spell]], and your cleric [[TheMedic heals the whole party]].

But... that enemy is ''still'' standing after all this, and it just wiped out half of your party with its [[ILoveNuclearPower radioactive]] [[KillItWithFire fire]] [[BreathWeapon breath]]. This is supposed to be a regular enemy, but it might as well be a BossInMookClothing.

In other words, any regular enemy that would make you think it's a boss, but isn't. This isn't an actual boss that [[DegradedBoss shows up as a regular enemy later]]. This is just a regular enemy. Yet it's still as tough as a boss, or at least tougher than the enemies in that area.

In order to determine if a regular enemy qualifies, it must have ''at least two of the following traits''. It can be any of these traits, but it must have two or more.
* [[MarathonBoss It has A LOT more HP than a regular enemy.]]
** Can also have [[MadeOfIron extremely high defense]] or evasion (similar to a MetalSlime, and may even cross over with one) if such stats exist.
* It does ''a lot'' more damage than a regular enemy (moot if the protagonist is a OneHitPointWonder) and is quite capable of {{Total Party Kill}}s.
** Can also have attacks that are difficult to avoid (moot if it's a game where dodging is based on chance, like a turn-based [=RPG=])
* Requires ''a lot'' more strategy to defeat than a regular enemy. (The UselessUsefulSpell is almost certainly useless here, unless ReviveKillsZombie.)
* Has at least one of the following points, but one of the above must still be included to count.
** Has ''a lot'' of varied attacks compared to regular enemies.
** Has the ability to inflict many StandardStatusEffects on you, sometimes multiple effects at once.
** Has an entrance like a boss or mid-boss, but is not in a designated BossRoom (or has no LifeMeter appear).
** Does not respawn the first few times you meet it (assuming the game has respawns), but is still not in a designated boss area.
** Gives you either a lot of rewards for your effort or barely any at all.
** Appears by itself, or with a [[FlunkyBoss few small enemies that can be wiped out easily]].

Once in a while, TheOgre is like this.

Sometimes, this is confused with BonusBoss.

Compare with GoddamnedBats, DemonicSpiders, KungFuProofMook.

Contrast with MookPromotion.
----
!!Examples:

* One of the earliest and most notorious offenders is the enemy in the picture, [=WarMech=] (later translated as "Death Machine") from the [[FinalFantasyI first]] ''FinalFantasy'' [[FinalFantasyI game]]. He has as many hit points as the penultimate boss, and his attacks range from powerful regular attacks to literally [[NukeEm nuking the party]] on the spot.
** The UpdatedRerelease version was actually made ''worse'' - they doubled its hitpoints and it regenerates 100 hit points per round (due to its high defenses, even knocking off 100 hit points per round is something you won't do until much later than your first potential encounter with it). Some people find it more difficult than the FinalBoss (well, this was true in the original, but even more feel that way now).
** The Earthgift Shrine bonus dungeon has Abyss Worms. Higher Attack than the four bosses (and the four Fiends!), no magic weakness, and such a high M Def as to make your Mages practically useless. Good luck.
** The Brachioraidos is a recurring one in the series. Its looks and translated name have changed drastically with each installment, making it hard to notice. Its appearances in order have been
*** [[FinalFantasyVI FF6]] as the Brachosaur. Based on the brachiosaurus.
*** [[FinalFantasyVII FF7]] as the Vlakorados. Square stops caring what the monster is shaped like.
**** This one might be an inversion. Vlakorados isn't any more likely to kill you than any other local enemy, it just has unusually high amounts of HP is all.
**** Yin-Yang however is it straight. A two headed frankenzombie with two sets of HP, deadly poison and status effect attacks. He's not that hard to take down if you go all out, but if you treat him lightly you'll be against the ropes before you know it.
*** [[FinalFantasyX FFX]] as the Th'uban. This one breaks the tradition by being a bonus boss.
*** [[FinalFantasyIV FF4 Advance]] as the Brachioraidos. Not a random encounter but a roaming sprite.
** Later ''FinalFantasy'' games usually have Behemoth in this role. ''FinalFantasyIX'' had a giant dragon monster in a certain place that exists for the specific purpose of screwing you over if you don't heed the Moogle's warning. Adequate preparation (stock up on phoenix downs, equip everyone with Antibody and Auto-Reflect) can render these grand dragons quite beatable, and thus turn this early accessible area into a convenient high-speed level-up treadmill. (Doubly so if you realize the Grand Dragons are a multiple of level 5, and it's quite possible to have [[UselessUsefulSpell Lvl5 Death]] by then.)
** The Jackanapes from ''FinalFantasyV'' is an example of one of these. The first time you can encounter it, its attacks will do several hundred more points of damage then you can take(even at higher levels, it will still eat your HP quickly), and it's fast enough that you're almost certain to lose one or two party members before you can run away.
***Oh, and it can also dodge almost ALL of your attacks and magic, so [[strike: when]] if you are unlucky enough to meet one, you won't be able to fight it out.
***The Skull Eaters, [[KillerRabbit cute grey squirrels]] from the same game, are ultrapowerful versions of the harmless brown Nut Eater. You'll learn the difference between them quickly when the skull eater one-shots your Knight, however.
**** also are immune to most magical attacks and if hit by a magic attack SPLIT INTO 5 MORE
** Yans. Cute little lambs that proceed to Comet and Meteor you to death. Thankfully, they're only found in one optional area.
*** Not to mention that they could blow away characters or inflict Virus on them, which prevents those characters from getting experience. Taking a turn to cure Virus often resulted in at least one character getting either Snorted, Cometed or Meteored. Fun times.
** The Brachosaur from ''FinalFantasyVI''. It has in the neighborhood of 60,000 hitpoints, a special attack that does around 8000 damage, and can cast Ultima, which hits for around 7000 damage on each party character. To put that in perspective, that's about twice the hitpoints you'll have when you're at average game-beating levels. Brachosaur drops the [[GameBreaker Economizer]], however, so it's well worth the risk.
*** Also in ''FinalFantasy VI'', the Slagworm (a.k.a. the Hoover on the SNES version) could very easily fall into this category [[GuideDangIt for people who don't read a guide]]. Its attacks include Crush, which does a huge amount of physical damage to one party member, and Sandstorm, which deals a [[ForMassiveDamage massive amount of damage]] [[TotalPartyKill to your whole party]], and it counters most attacks with this. Sometimes it even counters with '''two''' Sandstorms. It also has HP on par with most of the bosses you've faced up to that point. So how does reading a guide make this any easier? Well, there's a very easy though non-intuitive way of beating it. [[spoiler: Just cast [[UselessUsefulSpell Death]] on it. Surprisingly, it actually works here.]] Or just equip Thunder Shields. Whatever element sandstorm counts as is partially absorbed by the Thunder Shield.
*** There's others. A Tyrannosaur has around 20K hitpoints and can cast Meteor. Mantodea's other stats aren't anything special, but its regular old attack can wipe out most characters in a single hit.
*** There's also the Fiend Dragon, found in the final dungeon. It's rare, but if you run into it, you have to deal with a monster that not only packs high HP and powerful magic, but also is the only monster in the game to have Heartless Angel, which reduces everyone's HP to 1. It then likes to follow up with South Cross, which also hits everybody, and will probably wipe out the whole party. Isn't that fun?
** ''FinalFantasyVII'' has Vlakorados, which is a semi-example - while its attacks aren't particularly powerful and it's susceptible to most [[UselessUsefulSpell status effects that bosses are immune to]], it has an absurdly high amount of HP (33,333 - in contrast, the second-to-last boss you fight in the game has 40,000) that it can easily take a half hour of more for an appropriately-leveled character to beat it to death.
*** The Unknowns in the Gelnika probably qualify too, as do the Ghost Ships in the Junon Reactor (which know an attack which removes a member of your party from the battle, and have to be morphed into items to stand a chance against one of the {{Bonus Boss}}es without using any exploits).
*** Also, the Midgar Zolom was probobly the toughest creature on the first continent; yet when you finally had the requisite power to defeat it, you really didn't get anything.
*** You could learn the Beta Enemy Skill off of it, which is incredibly useful for most of the game. You don't actually have to kill it to do that though.
*** If playing the game in total ignorance of what they are, it is extremely easy to bump into Ruby and Emerald Weapons and assume they are, whilst tough, at least beatable. Or at least somewhere on the same power rating as the other (plot-specific) Weapons encountered in the game. Instead, you need to spend about three weeks of hardcore level-grinding and preperation and then spend months racing chocobos to get Knights of the Round which is the only thing on the planet that stands even a vague chance of dealing them some damage before your entire party dies screaming. Oh, and remember that 2/3s of the party has to be dead when you meet Ruby and then resurrected later, if your main character survives his first attack (doubtful). They are easily twenty times tougher than the end-of-game guardian himself. Thankfully, they are also completely optional.
*** Don't forget Schizo as you approach the crater. A boss-level foe (I think it's an ACTUAL boss, even though it shows up like a random encounter) with 36,000 HP
** ''FinalFantasyXII'' had a whole slew of these called Rare Monsters. They showed up among the normal fights on the world map, but were boss-tough. Generally, though, they only came after you if you attacked them first.
***There's also Wild Saurian (which shows up in the ''first open area of the game''), the Werewolf (second area this time), Dive Talon (shows up early, but you can get a {{Disc One Nuke}} from it), and the Entites.
***The Elementals can count since they're usually of a much higher level then the players in areas they are found in, and will aggressively attack the player if they so much as whiffed even a scent of magic in their area. Even White Magic will cause them to go Aggro. They also are immune to all elements, except their own, [[ElementalRockPaperScissors which they of course absorb]]. They also take around 1/2 damage from physical attacks.
** ''FinalFantasyVIII'' has [[EverythingsBetterWithDinosaurs T-Rexaur.]] The game even tells you that "It's better to run if you encounter one".
*** They're pushovers if you junction [[UselessUsefulSpell Sleep]] [[ReviveKillsZombie to a weapon]], though. Quistis tells you this when you first go to the Training Centre.
** One Word: Tonberries. Loads of HP, and one lethal attack. However there is a trick to beating them. Usually their only attack (unless they have something else up their sleeve), ''Everyone's Grudge'', is based on the amount of enemies that the victim defeated. If you're finding yourself in a place chock full of Tonberries, just switch to a party that hasn't been used.
*** Oddly enough, the Tonberries in ''FinalFantasyVI'' (which were called Pugs in the original US translation) were much easier. You still had to have a fairly high level to beat them, but you were already close by the time you got to that part of the game anyway. However, they also punish you for level grinding, in that their main spell (which Strago can learn) is Step Mine. It does damage based on how many steps you've taken.
*** ''Everyone's Grudge'' in ''FinalFantasyXI'' is based on the amount of Tonberries killed, and only them. Since you can't exactly switch out for another character solo, there's a quest in the game that allows you to reset the "Tonberry Hate". You'll need it, as some BonusBoss Tonberries can use ''Everyone's Rancor'', which hits for 50 HP for every Tonberry killed. While ''Everyone's Grudge'' can be annoying most of the time, not resetting hate before facing a Tonberry with ''Rancor'' any time is suicidal.
** [[http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Category:Uragnites Uragnites]] in ''FinalFantasyXI'' hide in their shell the second you hit them, which has them acquire massive damage reduction and a powerful HealingFactor effect, and any further physical hits while in the shell will be countered with a deadly area poison effect. It's normally best to build TP and use a [[LimitBreak Weaponskill]] when the thing pops out again, while mages can just whack the shell once, then run away and nuke safely while it's in the shell, immobile. Even being level 75, one of these mobs at 30-ish take awhile to kill.
** Malboros have a lot of HP, and can inflict so many status ailments with ''one move'' that an unprepared party can wind up killing each other instead, if they aren't outright defeated by something like [[TakenForGranite Petrify]] or an Instant Death countdown.
*** Don't forget Great Malboros in ''Final Fantasy X'', particularly in the Omega Ruins. All encounters with Great Malboros in the Omega Ruins will be "Ambushed!" encounters; if you don't have First Strike in any of your characters' equipment, prepare to face anything from a mere normal attack to the dreaded Bad Breath, which will most likely inflict Confusion on your party members, causing them to kill each other and themselves.
*** Heck, ''Final Fantasy X'' has a lot of these enemies. In the final dungeon, about half of the enemies have either powerful party-hitting attacks, a lot of status immunities, the ability to inflict tons of bad status effects, or some combination of the above. And they all have over 40,000 HP.
** The {{Bonus Boss}}es from ''Final Fantasy VII'' may count, as they have the battle music of regular enemies...
** In some cases, Cactuars can be a pain. They typically have the maximum evasion rate and throw 1000 needles at your party. Then they have the nerve to run away. But if you defeat one, you're usually well rewarded.
** ''FinalFantasyIII'' has the Yellow Dragons. Harder than most bosses, but they can drop [[LethalJokeCharacter Onion equipment]].
*** There are also green and red dragons. both are stronger. The only thing stronger than red dragons is the final boss, and the Bonus boss added into the DS version.
** ''FinalFantasyIV'' for the DS in general has a lot of these, adding to the already [[NintendoHard Nintendo Hard]] nature of the game.
*** You may encounter a variety of dragons after you recruit Edge that possess a lot of HP and may have a nasty attack. One of the worst is the Thunder Dragon, which is slightly faster than your characters and uses a powerful attack. Good luck trying to revive your tank.
*** There will be instances where an enemy will have a party-hitting spell (whether it'd be a normal spell or a special attack). At first these aren't too dangerous, but then it gets ridiculous to the point where two of these can kill a party that's ''overleveled''. Oh, and they love to come in groups.
***Trap Doors in the Sealed Cave. They cast instant death spells that are 100% guaranteed. But they have a weakness: reflect their death spell back at them!
***Everything in the final dungeon. The last two floors are also applicable to the original version.
*** Right near the beginning of the game, Sand Worms. Which you can encounter between Mist and Kaipo. At a time when Cecil's your only party member. Sandworms can take about ten hits from Cecil at this point in the game, and can deal ~200 damage to him when he'd only have ~300 HP.
**If you're a ways into the game and you find a one-eyed floating bat thing, run. While their names are never really consistent (Ahriman, Doom-Eye, Blood Eye, etc), they have one thing in common, they have instant death attacks. Thanks to [[TheComputerIsACheatingBastard the computer being a cheating bastard]], the [[UselessUsefulSpell useless useful spell rule]] usually doesn't apply. This includes straight up instant death, a form of Russian roulette (never lands on the caster for some reason), and some form of death countdown attack.
** Don't forget to mention [[{{Final Fantasy X-2}} FFX-2]]'s trap monsters when you're heading to Vegnagun at the end of the game. Screw up on ''one'' note, get frustrated with the entire puzzle, and then try to go through the barrier thingy anyway? Yeah, bad idea. It was the only boss [[{{Liangnui}} I]] ever lost to in that game barring [[ThatOneBoss Angra Mainyu]].
***A lesser example is an enemy in the prior area called Ashura it has relativity high HP made all the more noticeable by its unbreakable barrier that prevents all physical damage (no critical health cat-nipped trigger happy gunner can save you) while you CAN escape it won`t help if it hits you with sign of Thanatos which does boss-level damage (well over a 1,000) and is the first sign thats its more trouble than its worth as it appears as a normal enemy.
* The Guardian from ''[[{{Castlevania}} Symphony of the Night]]''. They protect the room to Dracula (poorly, since there is the way below), but they are still really tough to beat (barring GameBreaker methods).
* Victory Armor from ''[[{{Castlevania}} Harmony of Dissonance]]''. It's a pushover when you meet it just before Death, but until then, watch out.
* Dr Salvador, Garrador, the Bella Sisters, JJ, Regenerador, and Iron Maiden from ''ResidentEvil 4''.
* The NES game Silver Surfer literally has this at the end of each stage that doesn't contain the boss. A regular mook which just happens to be a mini-boss, taking more hits than usual, and sending extra enemies out at you.
* Ishtar from the Final Chapter of ''LiveALive'' can be described as a random encounter miniboss.
** ''LiveALive'' also has one in the Prehistoric Chapter and one in the Bakematsu Chapter. They warn you by using the boss music when you encounter them, though- and there's a rather small chance that you'd run into them without knowing.
* ''DinkSmallwood'' had several kinds of larger monsters as bosses, all of which would appear as random encounters soon thereafter.
* Abyss Bat in [[SagaFrontier SaGa Frontier]]; granted that you have to wait around for him to show up, but he puts up quite a fight.
* ''{{FEAR}}'' has the tough REV mechas which appear occasionally, they fire barrages of missiles, have twin miniguns and can take several shots from the rocket launcher and/or particle beam weapons. And more frequently, there's the Heavy Armor soldiers, a form of EliteMook which has ultra-heavy PoweredArmor and usually carries either a Penetrator rifle (which damages you clean through your armor) a particle cannon, or a rocket launcher. Later expansions feature ones with [[GatlingGood miniguns]] and riot shields. ''Project Origin'' throws Heavies with laser rifles at you, too, who can kill you in a couple of seconds if you're out in the open.
* Hunters in the ''{{Halo}}'' series. Also to some extent the Gold Elites in the first game(which slice and dice your RedShirtArmy) and the Silver Ultra ones in the second. Especially in the Mausoleum, aka "Breaking Benjamin Room" MultiMookMelee.
** In the first ''{{Halo}}'' once one knows how to deal with them the hunters become ridiculously easy, especially evident on the hardest difficulty, where even the lowliest elite is a dangerous threat. Simply get close to the hunter, wait for it to try to melee, dodge and circle around to its back and put a single pistol or shotgun round into the exposed flesh ForMassiveDamage. Brought them down in a single stroke. They fixed this in the next game, where Hunters have an attack designed specifically to crush players standing directly behind them.
** Worst example: Brute Chieftains in the third game. They can take a ton of punishment, wield {{BFG}}s such as Fuel Rod Cannons, are immune to plasma grenade sticking (they just bounce off), and can turn temporarily invincible. Just about every other enemy (and many vehicles) can be taken out with a single well placed sticky, but not these guys.
*** TwoWords: Sniper Rifle.
* The Red Demon/Red Arremer from the ''[=~Ghosts 'n Goblins~=]'' series. Its dive attack is hard to dodge, and because of its HP, you have to dodge it a lot.
* The ''[[WildArms Wild ARMs]]'' series has many of these, which are usually farmed for experience points or rare items. The most infamous are the [[SpellMyNameWithAnS Hayonkonton/Hyulkonton/Creeping Chaos]], but there are others like the the Apeman Vargon and Jumbo Bearcat.
**Don't forget the Leprechaun. Only encountered it once, though. I think it was in the mines at Holst. Was absurdly weak to electricity, though. A few Hi-Sparks took it out quickly.
* The Amazee Dayzee in ''Paper Mario'' might just look like a sparkling Crazee Dayzee, but it has an attack power of 20 and a good amount of HP and could murder an unsuspecting player... [[MetalSlime If only it didn't flee so frequently]].
* The Archmage and the Berserker, enemies in the Container Yard of ''BreathOfFire 3'' are actually tougher than the final boss.
** Similarly, the Rider enemy in ''Breath of Fire 4'' is much stronger than the final boss, using the game's strongest spells on the party, and healing itself an absurd amount every turn. To add insult to injury, sometimes, when you are reviving party members frantically and in frustration of not being able to damage him faster than he regenerates, he actually heals you and allows you to escape.
** ''Breath of Fire 2'' already contributed the K. Sludge and the N. Rider to this trope. The former came in groups of three and packed a very effective Instant Death spell, and the latter can use all of the highest level spells in the game.
* The Alto Angelo armors in ''DevilMayCry 4''. Tough, fast and hard-hitting, almost always in packs with their Bianco Angelo lesser versions. Fortunately, there is an exploit to clean house fast, and paying {{Homage}} to [[StreetFighter Zangief]] with the [[SuperMode Devil Triggered]] [[RedRightHand Buster]] against them is always a satisfying payoff.
** And the Shadow monsters in the original ''DevilMayCry''. While not quite as difficult as the actual bosses (''most of which'' are ThatOneBoss), they qualify in every other respect and would be difficult bosses in most games.
**''DevilMayCry 4'' also has the Blitz enemies. Spends most of it's time encased in a lightning shield which hurts Dante/Nero should they melee attack them whilst it's up, leaving you to spam the weak ranged moves to get rid of the shield. They also love to teleport around the arena in a ball of lightning, are invincible whilst doing so, and will appear and strike without warning, [[FlashStep sometimes right in front of you]]. Thankfully in story you only have to deal with one at a time, but in the Bloody Palace survival mode, you have to deal with 2 at once. The only thing that makes these guys even slightly easier is that because they're blind they sometimes attack anything that fights in the room. Then if you take them down to a certain evel of health, but don't do enough damage to finish them them during their shield down phase, it TurnsRed and in addition to normal attacking at even greater speeds, will find great joy in trying to spear you with their horns, and [[TakingYouWithMe blow up with you]] impaled on them (thankfully, like all DMC grabs, this can be broken by [[SuperMode entering DT mode]]).
* ''{{Diablo}}'' and ''{{Diablo}} 2'' have Unique and Legendary monsters. They look like the other critters of their kind, but with a palette swap and often some aura or other visable powerup others do not have. They have way more HP, more striking power, and gain 1-4 enhancements, such as Cold Enchanted, which allows them to chill you when they hit and can grant Cold Immunity on higher difficulties, Extra Fast, Teleportation, and so on. Depending on how much the RNG hates you, you could enter Hell difficulty and run straight into something like a Cursed, Extra Strong, Holy Freeze Aura Enchanted, Stone Skin zombie, which is not fun for melee-types. They are almost always accompanied by "minions" who are less pumped up but still stronger then average mooks of the same type. These creatures have proper names that always follow this formula: [=*proper noun*=] the [=*adjective*=] eg: [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast "Rendflesh the Unholy", "Soulblight the Unclean"]]
**''{{Diablo}} 2'' also has Champions, which sacrifice the enhancements for the fact that every single monster in a group with a Champion will also be a Champion. The expansion allows Champions to be Possessed, Fanatic, Ghostly, or Berserkers as well.
*** ''{{Diablo}} 2'' had those two as intended features-- But there was one enemy no one ever intended. One of the random properties for the Legendary and Unique enemies mentioned above is Lightning Enchanted-- The monster hits with electricity, and if hit, sprays a wave of tiny, lag-inducing, homing sparks. Another property is Multi-Shot, which let archers and casters shoot several bolts. If an enemy ever showed up as Multi-Shot, Lightning Enchanted (MSLE), then the aforementioned homing sparks TRIPLED IN NUMBER. More then one player has instantly, accidentally died because a mis-fire off-screen hit one of these. And "ChunkySalsaRule" does not even begin to describe what happens if a Barbarian Whirlwinds into one...
**** Hey, you forgot when this happens to the scarabs, monsters that ''all already have the Lightning Enchanted quality''. [[HeroicBSOD YEAARGHGHBLBLBLBLE]]
*** As of patch 1.10, MSLEB has been fixed. Each individual property still apply, but no longer in tandem.
*** Almost as bad for Barbarians is the Immune to Physical property. They have only two ways to kill such a unique: weapons with elemental damage or a couple of level 30 skills. Sometimes an immune unique will show up before you have either.
*** The absolute worst thing, though? In hell difficulty, it's very, very unlikely, but still possible: An enemy that has both physical and magic immunity, in addition to the usual likely elemental enchantments. They're still killable, but are absolute nightmares for anyone who hasn't been runeword-abusing like it's going out of style.
*** Luckily, you can usually just park unkillworthy creatures somewhere out of the way, and most mandatory to kill creatures have no immunities. Except Hell Ancients. Good luck to all you single player single element sorceresses out there.
*** Oh yeah, and sometimes you can encounter multiple boss packs together that have their enchantsment work together to give you a smackdown not soon to be forgotten. You do NOT want to be near both an Extra Strong, Lightning Enchanted, Aura Enchanted (Fanactism) boss when there's something else nearby with Cursed and Aura Enchanted (Conviction). Hell Travincal is probably the worst offender, since you face three superuniques closely clustered together, all with two original preset enchantments and two additional random enchantments from hell difficulty.
*''{{Suikoden}}'' occasionally likes to toss high-level monsters onto the overworld map just to mix things up. This is usually accompanied by a change in battle music.
* ''WorldOfWarcraft'' has its own classification for such monsters: elite. While those monsters mostly show up in dungeons geared for a group of player capable to deal with them, but some of them are found in the open world and can quickly kill unsuspecting players. The three most infamous examples:
** Devilsaurs, T-Rex-like enemies that patrol an entire zone. Unlike other giant enemies, their movement isn't easy to hear, earning them a reputation of being ''sneaky''.
** Sons of Arugal, scoring bonus points for looking a lot like regular enemies in the same area, but being as tough as their brothers found in a nearby dungeon. Fortunately, their numbers were cut back somewhat in a patch.
** Fel Reavers, being seventy-feet tall mechanical constructs that blot out the horizon, sound like a freight train piling into a factory of tubas, and shake the landscape for yards around with every step. They seem about as stealthy as a sumo wrestler wearing full plate mail trying to tiptoe through a room of sleeping cats, but just you try and sit down and rest for a moment in the Hellfire Peninsula ''without'' experiencing that dread moment of looking behind you only to see an eclipse of black metal and green fire just close enough to ruin your day. As an aside, for a brief period during the beta, the Fel Reavers' models accidentally switched to that of a regular bear; with predictable results. [[EverythingsWorseWithBears More than a few lives were lost to the dreaded Bear Reavers.]]
*** Another classification of monster is "rare", which only spawn once every several hours, can (usually with the higher levelled ones) take a concentrated group effort to down, and act as mobile loot pinatas. Rares are distinguished by the smaller silver dragon around their portrait. Finally, you can combine both types into the "elite rare" class, which has a big silver dragon around its portrait and usually a necklace of player skulls around its neck...
** The Storm Giants that patrol Howling Fjord may also count. Thankfully, they have ''very'' loud footsteps, so you can at least hear them coming from a long way off.
* ''DungeonSiege'' has this to some degree: occasionally you'll see enemies lit by a PillarOfLight, with the same attack power but usually 3 times more HP than your average foe.
* ''Etrian Odyssey'', being a NintendoHard dungeon crawler, has a ton of these monsters, designated as "[=FOEs=]" (shorthand for [[FunWithAcronyms Fucking Overpowered Enemies]]) in game terms. First appearing on the second level, they appear as arrows on your map, and most of them look exactly like the normal enemies in the dungeon...but have vastly higher HP and attack power. Some follow set movement patterns, while others will rush your party when you get in their line of sight. Others, once they sense blood (such as the Wolves and Skolls) will actually ''join other [=FOEs=]'' mid-fight to make your life even more of a living hell.
** ''[[MemeticMutation Even on TVtropes, ]]'''[[MemeticMutation F.O.E!]]'''''
** The sequel, 'Heroes of Lagaard', in addition to haveing a F.O.E on the first floor, takes this one step further. A specific random encounter has 10,000 hit points, more than five times the number of hit points of the next strongest random encounter, and 3000 more than the strongest FOE the game has to offer. Said random encounter also has a multihit attack on your entire party what will usually OHKO any of the non-tank classes, as well as a skill that prevents you from using any of YOUR skills. Said random encounter also holds the dubious distinction of being the only FOE or random encounter in the game that is immune to Instadeath Skills (most Bosses are immune), and the ONLY enemy in the ENTIRE game that is immune to Stun. 'Boss in Mook Clothing', indeed.
* Wanna get your ass kicked in the BonusDungeon of ''ValkyrieProfile''? Right before the final BonusBoss, there's ''usually'' a normal battle PaletteSwap of an normal end game boss. Tough, but doable. However, there is a small chance that you will fight ''[[KillerRabbit hamsters]]'' instead. Normal looking, regular sized hamsters. Prepare to die.
* The obscure {{Platformer}} ''Scaler'' has Dragon War Beasts, enormous monsters with several attacks, [[PuzzleBoss they're only vulnerable after performing a certain attack]], and gobs of health. They're usually only found at the end of {{Multi Mook Melee}}s. However, there's ''also'' an [[SprintShoes extra-fast]], camoflauging monster with high defense and HP that shows up all over the place--it's [[DemonicSpiders very annoying]].
* In ''GodHand'', sometimes, when you kill an enemy, a demon jumps out. Now normally these are no rougher than the standard GiantMook, although they can really suck if you're low on health. But after Level Four, there is a chance that when you kill an enemy, one of the [[MultiArmedAndDangerous Four-Armed]] Demons will emerge. The first one you met in the game got its own cutscene. They have a beam attack, deal great damage, and carry a massive trident. If at all possible, ''run for your freaking life.''
* The elephants in ''TheWorldEndsWithYou''. They spam an annoying attack--a stomp creating a slowly widening shockwave--that can interrupt any attack. Easy enough for Neku to dodge, but you might have to actually start paying attention to the top screen so your partner doesn't end up making you die. Even if you're using the partner that can float in mid-air! The damn stomp ''[[WallBanger knocks him out of the air]]''!
* Too many enemies to name in the ''ShinMegamiTensei'' series -- fortunately, most of them have a ReviveKillsZombie way to defeat them, in an aversion of UselessUsefulSpell.
**A really [[TVTropesWikiDrinkingGame egregious]] example would be the rainbow-colored (the exact name escapes me at the moment) Maya in The Answer (Persona 3). It has ''high'' resistance to damn near everything except Almighty attacks plus can nuke pretty much any party member with Black Viper (single target Almighty spell). Woe unto you if it [[WeCannotGoOnWithoutYou hits Aigis]].
* ''Wizardry VI: Bane of the Cosmic Forge'', from a series known for random encounters sometimes being tougher than bosses, has a very, very low chance of the party encountering a Tyrannosaurus Rex in the final outdoor area of the game. It's unlikely you'll see one in six or seven games, but if you are that unlucky, it is game over. Nobody has ever successfully taken down a Tyrannosaur.
* The Gatling Groink from ''{{Pikmin}} 2.'' It uses a powerful bombing attack with a wide blast radius, capable of killing many of your Pikmin in a single hit. It can fire a long way and usually has a wide "territory," meaning it's capable of reaching your Pikmin almost anywhere. Your captains can't really kill it on their own, and it has a sheild that prevents it from being attacked from the front at ''all.'' To make matters worse, its health actually ''begins to regenerate'' once you "kill" it--so it'll just come back unless you have your Pikmin ''quickly'' take it back to your ship, which does it in for good.
** The Adult Bulbear from the same game deserves mentioning as well. Unlike most enemies, the Bulbear will ''actively pursue'' your Pikmin once it runs into them. It ''will not'' stop until it is killed, and it can take quite a beating. Finally, it does the same health regeneration thing as the Gatling Groink, so you have to take it to the ship quickly, or you have to do the whole thing over again. Also, it's likely that you'll have to deal with Dwarf Bulbears along with the Adult, which will only increase Pikmin casualties. And in order to get 100% completion you have to, at one point, defeat (I think) 3 of them without any Pikmin dying.
**The enemy placement in the underground levels is random every time you visit it, so the best way to defeat them is to just keep restarting until they spawn in a place that gives you a better strategic advantage.
** The groinks appear in some multiplayer levels as well, which allows for an admittedly rather cheap but still legitimate strategy: [[TheChessmaster particularly clever players]] can trick an enemy into leading their army past one of these.
* ''{{Mother 3}}'' - One word: Cattlesnake. It has more than twice as much HP as any other enemy in the area, and has a ridiculously high defense - characters that do 50 damage to other enemies will only do 10 damage to the cattlesnake. It also has an attack that can hit the whole party for 70-80 HP damage per strike - at a time when your characters will average about 140 HP. Before you first see one there is a sign warning you to keep your distance.
** Speaking of ''{{Mother}}'', the whole last area is Boss in Mook Clothing thanks to a lack of quality assurance. Unless you have a certain character, the whole place is impossible.
** Ghost of Starman in ''EarthBound'' starts with PSI Starstorm Alpha, which is guaranteed to kill Paula and severely injure the rest of your team. Then it counts down for a few turns and then follows up with PSI Starstorm Omega. Oh, and it usually has a few other mooks to clean up.
** Also of note is the Scalding Coffee Cup, which shows up in Fourside. They only have one attack, but it WILL knock out at least one of your party members. Couple that with the fact that, at that time, you only have Ness and Jeff in your party, you'll be running back and forth from the hospital a LOT.
** I'm not sure if this counts, but the "Department Store Spook" boss has the same sprite as the "Lesser" and "Senior" mook enemies.
* The ''BaldursGate'' series occasionally has monsters like this. For example, have you ever fought a GiantSpider at 2nd level? Because that poison will ''mess you up''. Try skeleton warriors, who look no different from the skeletons you've wrecked in mass numbers throughout the game, but have hit points like crazy and are some of the few {{Mooks}} to carry magic weapons and do damage like a small Mack truck! How about monsters like illithid, who are more dangerous to the party's MightyGlacier than the SquishyWizard because their primary method of attack goes after the mind and ignores hit points? And unless you have one of two unique items in ''BaldursGate II'', ''Beholders will destroy the party by blinking at you''.
* In ''{{Bioshock}}'', certain machinegun-wielding enemies in Apollo Square have as much or MORE health as the game's major bosses, but [[YouALLLookFamiliar are otherwise completely undistinguishable from the regular machinegun-wielding enemies who have much less health.]]
** Leadhead splicers are [[OrSoIHeard supposedly]] resistant to bullets, so other weapons should still be effective.
** The first spider splicer you meet has at least six times as much health as an ordinary spider splicer. This is because you only see one before you have to take a picture of one with the research camera, which gives you a damage bonus against them.
* The Big Eyes from the original ''MegaMan''. Sure, the game's NintendoHard, but these things are three times as tall and wide as Mega Man, take an immense number of hits to kill (20 buster shots), are immune to many of the boss weapons, and take off a third of Mega Man's health bar with one collision. Not to mention that they hop at Mega Man with impressive speed. The only way to get away from them is to run under them when they do an extra-big hop, which happens at random. It gets a ''bit'' easier when you get Ice Man's weapon, which freezes them in place for a few seconds, allowing you to either escape, or to switch to the P-Shooter and unload. Almost every ''Mega Man'' game since then had their own Boss in Mook Clothing, but none are as notorious as the Big Eyes.
** Ironically, the WarmUpBoss added to the [[VideoGameRemake remake]] ''Mega Man Powered Up'' is the Proto Eye, a bigger yet laughably easier version of the Big Eyes.
** Woodman's stage had the Hot Dogs, which took a lot of hits to kill even from the robot's weapons, and whose fire breath inflicted major damage and required precise jumping, which was hindered by the low ceilings.
* The [[SarcasmMode originally-named]] "Obsidian Enforcers" in ''[[RatchetAndClank Ratchet & Clank:]] Tools of Destruction''. A few of them show up in the last few levels, and although their attacks aren't any harder to dodge than the normal enemies of their type, they have approximately 1.65 metric boatloads of HitPoints. It's entirely possible to empty the entire ammunition supply of a level 1 [[InfinityPlusOneSword RYNO IV]] into one on [[NewGamePlus Challenge Mode]] and have it survive. They don't get a health bar like the other type of miniboss, either, which brings up the truly horrifying thought that maybe they were just intended to be ''regular enemies''.
* All over the place in MapleStory, as well as FluffyTheTerrible, as most enemies look either harmless, cute, or similar to another enemy. There are often also one or two much more deadly enemies in areas filled with more level friendly enemies. This would be a lot less egregious if there was a way to tell how strong an enemy is in-game other then letting it hit you.
* Of the many, many unique monsters in the {{Roguelike}} game ''Angband'', only [[TheDragon Sauron]] and [[FinalBoss Morgoth]] are mandatory {{Boss Battle}}s, and even they don't appear in specific {{Boss Room}}s on the levels they guard.
* The NintendoHard RPG ''{{The 7th Saga}}'' has a variant: ''every'' random encounter is like this. The bosses themselves are often significantly less likely to kill you than the random encounters in the dungeon that contains the boss.
* The Sootie family in ''[=~Star Ocean: Till the End of Time~=]'''s BonusDungeon Sphere 211. A single one can easily kill a level 255 party (which is downright absurd, considering the fact that the game's uber-BonusBoss [[ValkyrieProfile Freya]] can't even damage characters that the normal enemy Sootie Sister could kill in one or two blows), and they are a pain in the ass to even hit. DemonicSpiders much?
* The ''MightAndMagic'' series had this whenever you face a spellcaster. If it could cast certain spells, you were simply doomed. Namely, Meteor Shower (with which you could often kill your OWN PARTY with) and Shrapnel are two of the most deadly, and sometimes Death Blossom could also put you in a world of hurt.
** Don't forget Finger of Death which was a one hit kill, or Eradicate which literally destroyed one of your parties bodies so that they could not be brought back to life with the Raise Dead skill. You needed an even more powerful Resurrection spell to heal them.
**Or Dragon Breath from [=MM7=].
* In ''{{Digimon}} World Dawn/Dusk'', Once you beat what is essentially a massive final BossRush, you unnannouncedly unlock a trio of these, all in different areas. If you accidentally stumble upon one of these unprepared, even the weakest one can easily shred your ass with powerful attacks; especially if you wind up fighting multiples of the same Boss in Mook Clothing at the same time, which CAN happen. On the plus side, though, beating them nets a hefty sum of EXP.
* Wyverns in ''TheWitcher'' also qualify to this, as they're very tough and when you encounter them, even on the Easy level, they're hard to kill. Especially as they always come in packs of about 8.
** Let's not forget that they can drop right out of the sky, so when you think you're approaching one or two manageable enemies, you can suddenly find yourself surrounded, poisoned, knocked down and/or pained.
* In the final dungeon of ''PhantasyStar IV'', you may run into a [[http://www.pscave.com/ps4/enemies/prophallus.shtml Prophallus,]] uber-monsters that bear a striking resemblance to the [[http://www.pscave.com/ps1/enemies/darkfalz.shtml final boss]] of the original game.
** Phantasy Star II had [[http://www.pscave.com/ps2/enemies/pulser.shtml Blasters]] in the Bio Lab and Nido Tower areas. If you met one, your best bet was to either run or nuke it with every single bit of firepower you had. Meet two? Pray you can run, OR ELSE.
** In ''PhantasyStar IV'', the first SandWorm you fight (usually) is a boss. However, when you get your first vehicle and cross the [[BrokenBridge sand pits]], you'll encounter them as regular mooks.
*** The real kicker with that first sandworm is that it's an extremely difficult boss fight when you first get to where you can take the mission for it, often capable of killing or at least severely wounding a party member per round, before you have access to resurrection items-- and ''that one doesn't have all the regular Sand Worm attacks''. It can't use Earthquake, which will destroy an un-buffed party even twenty levels later.
*** No, the ''real'' kicker is that one of the types of little worms you fight in Motavia, if you leave a single one of them alive, will run off and summon [[MamaBear Another full-powered Sandworm]].
* [[ChainsawGood Chainsaw]] users in ''{{Scarface}}: The World Is Yours''. Bazooka and grenade launcher users, while also capable of {{One Hit Kill}}s, at least went down in one shot from the Desert Eagle or sniper rifle, usually with [[LudicrousGibs dismemberment]]. Chainsaw guys? Multiple shots, making them fairly [[ImplacableMan Implacable]] in the otherwise fairly realistic title.
* It's a good thing ''{{Avernum}} 5'' only does a mild version of this, because it gets used ''constantly''.
* The Shamblers in ''{{Quake}} 1''. NightmareFuel-errific Yeti-type monster with a ton of HP, resistance to stunning and explosive damage, and a lethal line-of-sight lightning attack, similar to the Archvile's flame attack in ''Doom II''. The spideresque Vores too, which appear as a sort of MiniBoss at the end of the second episode. Their homing exploding spiked ball attack is nigh-impossible to dodge.
** In my opinion, the Shamblers wrecked ''{{Quake}} 1''. Since only the Lightning Gun or the Perferator kills them before they can splatter you over the walls, it became a game of trying to conserve nails and batteries while killing every other damn monster with the SUPER DANGEROUS TO THE PLAYER rocket launcher.
*** Shamblers are fully killable with no (or minimal) damage with any weapon type as long as there's some cover around (and even without if you really know what you're doing), although the shotgun is a definitely a last resort.
* ''{{Fable}} 2'' sort of liked this one. The 'boss' fights were really just souped up mooks. That, or commonly encountered enemies later on.
* Examples from the ''{{Metroid}}'' series:
** The Black Space Pirates in ''Zero Mission''. You can usually just run past them, but there are two you ''must'' defeat in the final escape sequence. Trouble is, they're much, much harder than regular pirates. Bad enough under normal conditions; ''tragic'' if you barely scraped past the final boss, which is likely in a low-percent or 100% run. These two bastards caused more retries and general frustration than anything else in the game until a [[http://www.metroid2002.com/0/boss_tricks_black_pirates.php good AI exploit]] was found.
** In several games, Ridley has a pair of souped-up pirates as his guards. They're no real threat in ''Fusion'', but in ''Super Metroid'', they'll trash you easily if you don't know what you're doing. It doesn't help that Ridley is ThatOneBoss.
** And let's not forget the metroids themselves. They don't look like much, but they're a lot more agile than most enemies, are resistant to many attacks, and do a lot of damage fast once they latch onto you.
*WarhammerOnline loves this trope. Fighting a bunch of nameless mooks? Well odds are there will be one in that pack wandering around somewhere who is a champion which means many more HP and hits a lot harder. They also tend to be physically identical to the nameless mooks.
* Darknuts and Iron Knuckles in ''TheLegendOfZelda'' games are frequently like this, when they aren't used as bosses or mini bosses themselves. Both ''Twilight Princess'' and ''Wind Waker'' feature {{Multi Mook Melee}}s that end in fights against three Darknuts, and they're arguably more difficult than the final bosses. (However, in ''Twilight Princess,'' if you have the Magic Armor that [[MoneyForNothing eats money]], you're pretty well set.)
** Or ''Wind Waker'''s Magic Armor that eats magic, and a few blue or green potions...
** TwilightPrincess does use a Darknut as a miniboss, it's widely considered a BestBossEver, given that you can unleash your full arsenal of moves against it.
* The Alpha Sections in ''BeyondGoodAndEvil;'' not to mention that they're ''everywhere.'' While they do have a multitude of [[AchillesHeel weaknesses]] and [[ForMassiveDamage tricks]] that can be used to take them out easily, taking them head-on is almost guranteed to end in your ownage. They have mines, [[BeamSpam lasers]], and [[DropTheHammer hammers]] that deal ''tons'' of damage, and they have shields that make them ''extemely'' hard to hit. Luckily, you can sneak past them most of the time.
* The Game Boy RPG ''Robopon'' has--erm, well, quite a ''lot'' of them. Perhaps the worst offenders, though, are [[SprintShoes Move-type]] [[{{Mons}} Robopon]]. They use attacks that [[StatusBuff increase their speed]] to insane levels, making it almost impossible to land hits on them. To make matters worse, they generally have either high Attack or Defense, meaning they'll either pulverize your team into the ground in seconds or take what hits you ''do'' land on them and shrug it off like it's nothing. To make matters more insulting, when ''you'' [[PlayerMooks use Move-types]], they often end up gimped because TheComputerIsACheatingBastard and has access to better moves and equipment than you do.
* Some of the enemy monsters in ''MonsterRancher'' have a tendency to be much more powerful than other monsters, even of their rank--and it's not just the ones ''intended'' to be stronger, like those used for invitation matches. Enemy Gaboos in ''Monster Rancher 2'' tend to have ridiculously powerful moves, as to Golems--in ''any'' game.
* Dark Titans from SonicUnleashed. These [[GiantMook massive beasts]] are extremely strong, send out almost difficult-to-dodge shockwaves, have massive HP bars, and all their attacks not only send Sonic the Werehog flying, but actually keep him stunned on the ground for several seconds just waiting to juggle him to death at lower levels. It doesn't help that they almost never appear alone.
** It ''does'' help that they're too stupid to realize that their attacks hurt the other enemies as well as you, though.
* ''{{Fallout}} 3'': Deathclaws are exceedingly ferocious and can demolish even high-level players if they are caught unawares. Super Mutant Behemoths are considered the "bosses" of the game, as there is an achievement for killing them all, but players have proven that a Deathclaw can kill one in 1v1 combat.
**While not quite as lethal, the Mirelurk Hunters and Giant Radscorpions deserve honorable mention. They are much stronger than their weaker variants, come out of nowehere once you hit a certain level, will kill you if you haven't been upgrading your combat skills, and the Mirelurks take very little damage unless you {{Attack Its Weak Point}}.
**The ''Broken Steel'' expansion DLC adds Super Mutant Overlords, Feral Ghoul Reavers, and Albino Radscorpions. All 3 enemies have incredibly high boss-level health and massively damaging attacks. Even high level characters can find that an entire VATS cycle of high-end attacks that can kill all other enemies in just a few hits will barely scratch their health meter.
** The original Fallout had a single Deathclaw as an incredibly rare random encounter while traveling on the over world map; considering most of these random encounters are generally more of an annoyance than a challenge after awhile, any person playing Fallout for the first time was in for a slaughtering.
* These are so common in ''ManaKhemiaAlchemistsOfAlRevis'' that they actually get their own battle theme and a special icon in the game's PreexistingEncounters system. Early examples include the Bear, Owl Bear, Sword Geist and Shield Geist. You also get twice the normal AP for winning a battle containing one or more of them, so they can be worth the risk. Yes, the game gives this much fanfare to ''regular enemies that are much harder than the norm''. Appropriately, ''actual bosses'', by comparison, have a downright epic battle theme and look about as intimidating on the map as a red blob can.
* ''GaiaOnline'' gives us the Landshark, a monster that appears on servers with a particularly high population. It's also tough enough to take on whole groups of people twice as strong as the players normally found in the area it spawns in.
** At least until he was degraded to an optional boss who is only half a charge level stronger than the players usually in that area. To preserve the challenge, though, he can now only be attacked by someone whose CL is 7.0 or lower.
** Landshark's a BonusBoss and doesn't count. The Mask of Death and Rebirth, however, ''does''. And it's part of a TwentyBearAsses quest.
* In Wizardry V, there is an optional level. If you go down there, the enemy strength widely varies. You might get some ghosts, which do almost no damage and have very low HP... or you might get enemies like Dark Lords and Arch Fiends who have several times more HP than even the end game boss and spam the best magic in the game, including a spell that can kill your entire party at once if you're unlucky and another spell that does around 100 damage to everyone when triple digit HP is a big deal and healing is hard. They might attack you normally instead, in which case the target, if not killed by raw damage is probably instant killed anyways, and drained about 5 levels. They also spawn with lesser (but still powerful) demons, who throw in more firepower. Worst part is while you aren't technically required to go down there, it's the only way to get the best equipment in the game, which among other things gives you the magic resistance you need to not die in 1-2 rounds against... nearly any late game enemy. Especially the aforementioned end game boss. To be fair though, it does play the boss music to warn you... but it's still a random encounter, and you might not be able to escape.
* Slivers in ''TalesOfSymphonia'', a slightly less powerful version of the Sand Worm (also technically not a boss, but not encountered randomly and guarding one of the Devil Arms). They appear very rarely in the snow fields near Flanoir. ''Very, very'' rarely. Will probably be the last monster you need to complete your Monster Guide.
* The Bahamutt enemy in SuperMarioRPG straddles the line between this and SubBoss, as it is only encountered when summoned by Chester or Magikoopa (a ChestMonster and Boss, respectively). It has a unique sprite, packs stats that are stronger than most bosses ''fought in the final area'' and is one of two non-boss enemies to have over 1000 HP. Also, it has an attack that causes Fear, halving a character's Attack and Defense.
** PaperMario features the four anti guys. Take regular mooks, give them 12 attack (where par is 2 or so and your hp limit is about 30) and maybe twice that in hp. Oh, and in the second fight you fight three at once. At least [[BonusBoss none of the fights are mandatory]].
* From the ''{{Doom}}'' series:
** Arch-Viles from Doom II are the very epitome of Bosses in Mook Clothing. They have a very powerful flame attack that does heavy damage if you're in their line of sight when it finishes, and they can resurrect dead monsters as often as they like. Oh, and their toughness approaches that of a Baron of Hell, two of which showed up as the BossBattle of Doom's first episode before showing up as a DegradedBoss in various levels in Doom and Doom II thereafter.
** Mancubi are seriously tough and require a ton of bullets, shotgun blasts or rockets to kill. Their arms launch powerful fireballs that explode like rockets and do nasty damage.
** Hell Knights in ''Doom 3'' are that particular game's answer to the Barons of Hell.
** Bruisers in ''Resurrection of Evil'' -- take a Hell Knight, cross him with a Mancubus, and then stand the hell back.
* ''{{Quake}} 2 and 4'': Tanks, which themselves have an EliteMook variation, Gladiators, Harvesters, Iron Maidens(Q4), Stream Protectors, etc. One room near the end of Q4 is a MultiMookMelee with these types of enemies.
** The Super Tank, and the Hornet/Tankflyer, which may be considered {{King Mook}}s that reappear as {{Degraded Boss}}es.
** The ''Quake III'' Arena Mod "Hunt" subverts it a little by having no actual bosses. But out of the three types of monsters, the Titans are definitely the closest thing you can get. (though they are complete raving lunatics and will attack their own team, including other Titans). The best strategy for these guys is to snipe from afar or to hit them with the BFG. The mod itself is so customizable that it's simple to make EVERY SINGLE ENEMY like this.
** The Q4 version of the Gladiator was probably the worst regular enemy in that game. MadeOfIron, DeflectorShields, deadly Super Nailgun, and its railgun was alot more unpredictable and harder to dodge. And it only deactivates its shield when it's about to fire the railgun.
* Dactyls in ''TitanQuest'' only look a little different than other mooks in the dungeon where you find them, but they will paint the floor with your innards if you aren't expecting anything different. Then they'll do it again if you ''were'' expecting something different.
* ''{{Persona 4}}'' sometimes features random encounters ten levels above the norm for the particular dungeon they may be found in. These enemies will generally be able to kill anyone in your party in a single hit - and sometimes all of them in a single attack. Even then, there are encounters in which you'll be up against three or more enemies your own level who all cast high-probability instant party kill spells ''every turn''. Three guesses who developed and published the game.
* Though a staple in most rogue-likes, ''[[http://homepage3.nifty.com/rfish/index_e.html Elona]]'' has a particularly nasty variety of them. Adamantium Golems are green golems with incredible power, defense, health, and damage-adding abilities. Note that up until this point, golems merely advance in power consistently. Don't mistake them for being this game's Incredible Hulk, however, they are actually his much more indestructible rival/ally Wolverine. By the time you land a second critical hit, which seems the only thing that will actually kill them, they may've healed up the damage from the first. In the lower levels, mutants qualify, as mutants spawn with A) a random amount of limbs, and B) totally random equipment, 30% of the time it is magical in nature. Woe to the player who discovers a three-armed mutant with an enhanced weapon and shield. Both of these are encountered more rarely than other random monster spawns at the same level. If in a dungeon whose levels randomly generate, the best course of action to deal with an adamantium golem is to zap it with a rod of teleport, then flee up or down the stairs and come back. Note that for the truly unlucky, any enemy in the game may spawn as a random dungeon's "last floor boss," making the Addies more terrifying still. See also quicklings, simply replace the abundance of defense with speed.
** There is also the Shub-Niggurath, a rare spawn at about level 25+, who is pretty tough to kill. Luckily, they are only half-assed hostile, prefering to summon other creatures to do their bidding or hit you with mind-screw sanity-altering affects, as their name would imply. They only directly attack you if you engage them in melee combat. Their biggest danger comes from the randomness of their summons, as they may summon something that will mop the floor with you, even if you're to the point you can one-shot a Shubby. Like the golem mentioned prior. Still, that's an incomprehensibly rare occurence. More often than not they may even summon neutral or friendly NPCs who will help you fight them off. It's all chance when dealing with these, really.
* In ''{{Eternal Ring}}''(hmm, game's not on here) there is a secret area [[spoiler:that is reached by going back through the starting cave and hitting the door on the beach with a dark or light spell.]] Inside are rats that are easily one-shotted, floaty orbs that die in three pokes of a sword, but go on a (long)self destruct timer, and the werewolves. They take several castings of the weapon or dragon summoning spells (dragon spells are as big as it gets here), they take more than half my HP even now with their attacks, and I'm approaching the final boss after grinding about 10 levels in this secret map! There are giant fish dudes somewhere in here too. They're harder to kill, but don't move, and I can't find them anymore.
* Hunters in ''{{Prototype}}'' start off this way -- they're tough but manageable alone, but in groups, it's generally best to just get out of there -- but are demoted out of this status as you get more powerful. Shortly thereafter, the Leader Hunters step in to pick up the slack.
* {{Battle Stations}} features a few of these. When exploring, a higher level player may encounter such enemies as the Royo Skycutter or worse, the Hydra. These creatures are almost impossible to beat by players in the level ranges for which they appear.
* The Black Rabbite of {{Seiken Densetsu 3}} is just a palette swap of the conventional Rabbite. It's also the most deadly thing in the entire game.
* The Roguelike game ''{{Ancient Domains of Mystery}}'' has a number of these that, while rare, are extremely deadly. Liches are a good example; they are powerful spellcasters and can damage the player's stats. [[StoneWall Diamond Golems]] absorb every element and have very high defense. [[MightyGlacier Molochs]] will ruin primarily melee characters or characters with very low speed.
* {{Pokemon}}, in a way. While there aren't any unpredicted Boss In Mook Clothing opponents, at certain points in the games roaming BonusBoss Pokemon appear. Which is fine... unless you're training up a lower-level team when you encounter them. Ugh.
** On top of that, the Vs Seeker. While normally its just a simple rematch, your opponent can sometimes have Pokemon
** And a special mention goes out to Bronzor, and its evolution Bronzong. The ONLY super-effective moves are ground and fire, and almost everything else is fairly useless. They can be up to ''twice'' the level they were before, leading to a very sudden defeat if you didn't have a really strong Pokemon as backup.
*** And you can only have one of those super-effective types at a time. If it has the ability ''Heatproof'', Fire is blunted. If it has ''Levitate'', Ground won't touch it.
* ''MegaManBattleNetwork 3'' has an entire series of these in the form of the Omega Viruses. ''Every'' type of enemy in the game has a fourth [[UndergroundMonkey level]] of virus that is super-fast, super-powerful, and pack high HP (some Omega Viruses get up to ''500'' HP, about the same as an early-game boss). Some will even have additional effects added to their attacks (e.g., Mettaur Omega's shockwave now cracks panels). Thankfully, they're only found in set encounters late in the game.
* A few ''TouhouProject'' stages feature a "death fairy", a single normal-looking enemy with a health bar and attacks comparable to most boss spellcards.
* ''AceCombat'' games every now and then have random enemy pilots without the distinctive aces' callsign in the target display who nevertheless prove unusually hard to hit or shake off. It's one thing for clearly demarcated aces to give you grief, and another thing for no-names to come close to, say, Yellow 13's level.
** ''X: Skies of Deception'' plays with this in the mission "Operation X" that lets you go up against various GameBreaker superfighters. The mook part comes from how they are piloted by normal, un-codenamed pilots [[spoiler: except for Scarface One and ZOE Commander]]. Of course, since they are in GameBreaker superfighters...
* ''StarCraft'' deploys the 'Torrasque' in ''Brood War'', a monstrously more powerful version of the standard Ultralisk who has an insane number of hitpoints. To meet his threat, I usually attempt to defend my base with 8-10 bunkers filled with Marines, 4-6 Siege Tanks in Siege Mode and 3 or more Battlecruisers. Even using the Battlecruiser's Yamato Cannon to whittle down his health, I can still guarantee I will lose 1-2 bunkers and all their marines with every attack.
* The Stone Summit mobs in the elite dungeon Slaver's Exile (they've actually got good builds and balanced teams, and they all have resurrection skills, in addition to having all the usual monster perks like being almost half again your level and having effectively infinite energy) in GuildWars.
** For that matter, there are "boss-like foes", which is a fancy way of saying "a boss that doesn't have a [[ColorCodedForYourConvenience boss aura]] and whose skills you can't capture, but which has all the other traits of a boss" (including the double damage bonus Factions, Nightfall, and EotN bosses have).
* The Cyclops enemies in ''SwordOfMana''. They each have a 5% spawn rate in a single area on the correct day of the week. They are huge compared to most normal enemies, possess an enormous amount of HP, have very high stats, and will richly reward you with their high drop rate on aerolites. They're also a great source for leveling up weapon and magic skills.
* ''KingdomHearts 358/2 Days'' introduces a couple of these. Invisibles have had a major upgrade from the first game, but the game warns you ("Caution! A powerful enemy is near!") so they may not count. Living Pods, on the other hand... Crazy amounts of HP and they hit like a semi truck. What looks like an easy mission becomes a pain in the ass thanks to these guys.
* In the original ''HalfLife'', you'll encounter female assassins. While they aren't terribly hard, they do cloak and run very fast making them harder to kill than most mooks. This Troper usually keeps the best guns to use on them.
* A lone [[PaperMario Elite Wizzerd]] probably isn't tough enough to count (despite having both the "needs a lot of strategy to defeat", to some degree, and the "has a variety of different attacks" qualifications). Unfortunately, they generally come in groups of ''four or five''. A defense of 5 is almost insurmountable in this game, so you pretty much need to use defense-ignoring attacks (here's hoping you've got plenty of Star Power--Art Attack works well, but even from a full meter, you can only chain two of these). They have 12 HP each and have three different damaging attacks, one of which does 8 damage to one party member and one of which does 7 damage to ''both'' party members. They can also buff their attack or defense, become dodgy (attacks may miss), become transparent (attacks ''will'' miss), electrify themselves (deal damage if you try to attack them directly, '''heal''' themselves, and when only one remains, it will inevitably split into five, only one of which will actually take damage. And they only appear on the lowest levels of the Pit of 100 Trials, after you've likely worn out your items and star power fighting Piranha Plants and Dark Bristles on the previous stage and regular Wizzerds on the stage before that.
** Another one, wholly crossing over with MetalSlime: The Amayzee Dayzee. 20 HP (most of any mook in the first game, and tied for second-most in the second game, behind the Dark Koopatrol), ''20 Attack'', 1 Defense (in a game where any sort of defense score is notable), and their attack can also cause sleep. It also has an attack that has unintuitive timing to defend against, and definitely needs a lot of strategy to beat...because, due to its MetalSlime nature, it's likely to run away first chance it gets. Your best bet is to use Art Attack and focus on encircling the Amayzee Dayzee as much as possible, then, if you have a full bar of star power and either have Quick Change equipped or had Goombella out to start the battle, Rally Wink to give Mario another turn and Art Attack again. If you actually encounter one on the map (completely by chance), it's a lot easier because you can also add in a First Attack; of course, the first time you go through that area, you don't have Art Attack ''or'' Rally Wink, and 20 damage will be almost enough to kill you from full HP. And then on the return trip from said first journey [[spoiler:you have no partners]], and have to pray that it ''will'' run.
*SuperMarioRPG has several bosses in disguise
** The first is Mokura, which appears in Land's End. It appears randomly in the location as a cloud. While it does have the boss theme, considering that you can fight Mokura over and over for a hefty amount of experience doesn't quite make it a boss of sorts.
** Any of the treasure chest enemies you encounter.
** Bowser's castle has a surprise at the end of both enemy runs during the 6 door area.

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