->'''Toadstool:''' "Mario! The chain! Aim for the chain!"
-->--''SuperMarioRPG''

A boss that is beaten by trickery rather than force.

Unlike most bosses, which have a [[AchillesHeel weak point]] ''somewhere'', the PuzzleBoss is entirely MadeOfIron (Or [[IntangibleMan Intangible]], or out of reach, or... you get the idea). To defeat it, you need to take advantage of one of two things.

One is to make use of some convenient feature of the arena. This may either directly damage them, or simply temporarily [[ForMassiveDamage expose their weak spot]] that they were keeping guarded. The first case especially [[FridgeLogic raises the question]] of how the player's rocket launcher/tripmine/lightsaber/fireball spell doesn't manage to do any damage no matter how many attacks you land, while the environment's often comparably lame hazard is instantly fatal.

The other is to wait for the boss to leave itself open to damage by virtue of its own IdiotBall. Most typically, this takes the form of an attack that if successfully countered -- ActionCommands optional -- leaves the boss temporarily vulnerable. Obviously, for gameplay purposes, the boss will seldom learn from this mistake. Hypothetically, it would make it interesting if a boss did learn, but tried out a new, equally foolish attack in the next phase.

Not to be confused with a TrickBoss, which is more about the boss's place in the story rather than the actual boss fight itself. When the puzzle is that the way to win is to not fight the boss at all, then it's SheatheYourSword.
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'''Examples:'''
* A few boss battles in Telltale's episodic ''SamAndMax'' series are puzzles in which the player must trick the boss into defeating themselves. Examples include:
**Brady Culture, defeated through a ''DuckSeasonRabbitSeason''-like puzzle.
**Myra Stump, defeated by causing her to inadvertantly move her microphone onto a wet patch on her desk, [[strike:electrocuting]] electrifying her.
**In the final episode of Season Two, [[spoiler:the Soda Poppers]] are defeated by causing them to blow out a candle. So the final puzzle involves the player having to bake them a birthday cake and placing the candle on the cake.
* Several [[BossBattle bosses]] in ''ShadowOfTheColossus'' are defeated in this manner. However, any point of exposed flesh on a colossus can be hit for a very, very small amount of damage.
** It isn't possible to kill a Colossus in this way, though. Even if you chip away at their health, they won't die until you've successfully destroyed all the magic glowing symbols on their body, which almost always involves some sort of puzzle.
* In the battle against the Shadow Queen at the end of ''[[{{Ico}} ICO]],'' she does nothing except emit waves that 1-hit kill you (which only the spirit sword and the 2 movable statues can protect you from) while hiding behind her shield. Every time you attack her, the shield weakens but the spirit sword is knocked flying from your hands by the shock, forcing you to retrieve it using the statues.
* Mad Jack's arena from ''DonkeyKong 64'' had switches that electrified the platforms.
** The puffer fish from the same game required Lanky to complete a boating course to activate lightning rods for each hit.
* ''SonicTheHedgehog'' stayed away from this trope for the first few games, but after discovering it, the designers seem to have positively ''adored'' it ever since.
** That is to say, the first game still wasn't completely devoid of them. Star Light Zone's boss is only reachable by standing on a lever as he drops a bomb to launch yourself up high enough, or perhaps using yourself to launch the bomb.
** ''SonicTheHedgehog3'' has the Carnival Night Zone Act 1 boss, invulnerable to your attacks. Defeating it is largely a matter of surviving long enough for it to accidentally kill itself with its own attacks.
*** There's more to the boss than that: you still need to keep hitting it at the right moment to make it open up and be momentarily vulnerable to the spiked top thing that it sends bouncing around the room which just deflects off it harmlessly if the weakpoint isn't exposed.
** ''[[SonicAndKnuckles Sonic & Knuckles]]'' is the Sonic series's ''king'' of Puzzle Bosses. Flying Battery Zone Act 2 had a mid-level "boss battle" that simply ended after it attacked several times, Sandopolis Zone Act 1 had a boss that had to be dumped into quicksand, and no fewer than ''four'' stages (Flying Battery Zone Act 1, Lava Reef Zone Act 2, the mini-boss of Death Egg Zone Act 2, and The Doomsday Zone) had bosses that were defeated by getting them to hit themselves with their own attacks.
** ''[[SonicTheHedgehog Sonic Adventure]]'' required Amy to knock Zero into an electric fence during her final confrontation with the robot, and Sonic and Knuckles to freeze Chaos 6 by throwing an object into its mouth.
** Technically, a mech walker battle in ''[[SonicTheHedgehog Sonic Adventure 2]]'' had an explosive canister in the center that could be shot to damage anyone in its vicinity, but it rarely proved useful. You were allowed to just wail on the enemy.
** The Dark Guardian in the hi-definition version of ''SonicUnleashed'' requires you to push boxes to an area, which will remove his invincibility temporarily. (In the Wii version though, he's the only boss that amounts to a plain old fisticuff fight, no exposing weak points involved.)
** Every boss in ''SonicCD'' is a puzzle boss.
* In a non-electric example, the first boss battle in ''Comicbook/{{X-Men}}: Wolverine's Revenge'' was against a mutant who healed faster than you could kill him using normal attacks (and if you did get his LifeMeter down to near zero, [[TheComputerIsACheatingBastard the computer would cheat]] to buy him healing time); you had to throw him against a fuel tank at one end of the room, which on the third iteration would explode, stunning him and letting you finish him off.
* Almost all of the bosses in ''LegacyOfKain: Soul Reaver'' were some form of Puzzle Boss. Rahab, for example, could be beaten if the player shattered the windows of the chamber and let sunlight in to fry him.
** In the case of Rahab, the game almost outright tells you to do this - if you bother to pay close enough attention to what the Elder God says when you come across the Drowned Abbey area, and a clue somewhere in either the game's voiceovers or manual, that of all the Brothers, Rahab is the most vulnernable to sunlight.
* In inverse, one boss battle in ''PiratesOfTheCaribbean: The Legend of Jack Sparrow'' requires that the players set fire to a ship's mast to cover their escape. Rather than using the arena to kill the boss, the players must use the boss to destroy the arena: The mast is protected by an indestructible (by them) steel plate, which the players can remove only by provoking the ship's captain into using his ultimate attack while nearby.
* Defeating Bowser in ''[[SuperMarioBros Super Mario Bros. 3]]'' requires that Mario simply stay alive as Bowser smashes the arena, until he's destroyed enough of it that he falls through the floor to his demise (though the traditional strategy of hitting him with enough fireballs/hammers still works).
** In the original ''SuperMarioBros'', there are two ways to beat Bowser. If you have the Fire Flower, you can just throw fireballs at him until he dies; if you don't, you have to get past him (either jumping over him or running under him) and touch an axe sitting just behind him, which will cause the bridge he's standing on to withdraw and dump him in the LavaPit.
** By now one in fact has to wonder if Mario would even be able to beat Bowser were it not for Bowser's tendency to choose terrible arenas or attack patterns.
*** ''Super Mario World'' Bowser lost to you throwing his own Mechakoopas at him.
*** ''Super Mario 64'' had you throw Bowser into bombs lining the arena (this one confuses this editor the most - these were clearly depiberately put there by Bowser, yet they serve no purpose other than to throw Bowser into them).
*** ''Super Mario Sunshine'' had you use FLUDD'S rocket pack to do ground pounds until the point that the hot tub Bowser is sitting in breaks apart. Yes, really.
*** ''Super Mario Galaxy'', perhaps in a throwback to Mario Bros. 3, had you defeat Bowser by having him smash into structural weak points on the artificial planetoid you're fighting on.
*** Ditto the final "Story Minigame" of ''Mario Party 5''. Yes, ''really''. And then after that stage, the [[SequentialBoss final stage]] had one of his attacks hitting the residue from another of his attacks to create something that could actually be used against him.
** And in a separate Mario example, in ''Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door'' you faced the Iron Adonis Twins - two Clefts made out of a metal that's literally impervious to all but an equally hard substance. You beat them by getting a Yoshi to spit one at the other until they're both KO'd.
*** Though they could also be damaged by any move that hit them into one another, such as Mario's Super Hammer attack.
** A rather frustrating one was the Shroob-omb Battle in ''MarioAndLuigiPartnersInTime'' where the order you defeat the Support Shroobs is vital to winning, but with no indication of such it became a real GuideDangIt moment.
*** Another Partners In Time example: Sunnycide has (probably) the highest defense yet in the game, until you free the Yoshis to make them push a boulder.
** Most Mario hacks generally stick to the regular bosses. But the main feature of Brutal Mario is facing off against bosses from a host of different games, many of them {{Puzzle Boss}}es.
** MarioAndLuigi Bowser's Inside Story has three bosses which generally follow this, Alpha Kretin, who you have to defeat by turning all the segments of him blue (and they can only be attacked by the brother who's colour matches said segment) and then defeating in his next form. Dark Star is invincible, but has it's defense lowered after you damage it's two flunkies and then hammer them back at it. Dark Bowser/Fawful Bug requires you to hurt Dark Bowser (1000 HP), then hit his stomach when he becomes giant, then eat the Dark Fawful Bug/Star Core, then as Mario and Luigi kill the legs and glasses, then attack the core of that. Oh, and you get to finish off Dark Bowser with five more massive punches to the face after all this.
* Most bosses in platformers like ''CrashBandicoot'' or ''KameoElementsOfPower'' require you to send an opponent's attack back at him, launch part of the environment at him or do something else to weaken him before you can actually launch a physical attack.
** Ripper Roo in the first two ''CrashBandicoot'' games, for example, is defeated by simply dodging his TNT/Nitro crates (tiles in the second game) and waiting until he hurts himself.
** Tiny Tiger from ''Crash 2'' is completely invulnerable and chases the player over nine floating platforms. Eventually several of those platforms turn red, and will drop after a few seconds. You have to make it so he's on the red one when he drops, or so he tries to jump a gap too big for him.
* Some bosses need to be tricked into eliminating their own defenses with their own attacks, either by reflecting them or with DeadlyDodging.
** The Reactor of the Halberd in ''{{Kirby}} Super Star'' can only be damaged with its own "reflector lasers".
** As mentioned earlier, ''[[SonicTheHedgehog Sonic & Knuckles]]'' used this extensively.
** A similar tactic will defeat Barbos from ''DonkeyKongCountry 3: Dixie's Double Trouble'' -- protected by two invincible spiny shields, the player must trick homing torpedos into hitting the shields.
* Quite a few bosses in the ''LegendOfZelda'' series require odd strategies and unique weapon usages to defeat them. Often the boss's defenses have to be weakened with a secondary weapon or tool, usually the one you just got in the dungeon, before more conventional attacks can be used to deal actual damage (as with the Helmasaur King from ''Link to the Past''; King Dodongo and Morpha from ''Ocarina of Time''; the King of Ikana Castle in ''Majora's Mask'', and Gohma from ''Wind Waker''). Other bosses (Agahnim, Twinrova, Phantom Ganon, Ganondorf himself in some incarnations) have to have their attacks reflected before they can be damaged, sometimes resulting in PlayingTennisWithTheBoss before the blast hits. The version of Ganondorf from ''Wind Waker'' can only be defeated by having the computer-controlled Zelda bounce Light Arrows off your Mirror Shield and then ''immediately'' attacking with the sword. Smog, from Crown Dungeon in ''Oracle of Ages'', is the most blatant example, involving a classic puzzle-like interface followed by a brief encounter with the real boss who is less capable of defending himself than normal foes.
* In ''NoOneLivesForever'', defeating an otherwise invulnerable Inge Wagner requires the player to repeatedly electrify a pool of water and lure her across it (taking advantage of the moments when Wagner would burst into her much-dreaded singing, which temporarily disabled the otherwise endlessly spawning goons in the level, was an available if not crucial option in accomplishing the first part of this maneuver).
* The original ''TombRaider'' had an alien boss which copied Lara's movements. Shooting at it caused Lara's health to go down as well, resulting in a simultaneous death. The only way to defeat it was to position Lara so that the alien, on their side of the room, walked into a pit. The recent "Anniversary" remake once again features the same boss, with the added complications of having to "cooperate" with the Dopplegänger in order to seal its fate.
** The second ''CrashBandicoot'' game on the GBA has a similiar, if not identical boss to said ''Tomb Raider'' foe in Fake Crash.
*** And so does the original ''PrinceOfPersia'' game with a battle against a ghostly copy of the Prince, which was earlier created by a magic mirror. It would mimic your actions, so attacking would cause it to strike you as well -- additionally, there was a red herring 'pit trap' nearby; luring the boss into it caused you to die as well. The only solution was to sheathe your sword, with the copy doing the same.
** In fact most ''Tomb Raider'' bosses are Puzzle Bosses. Examples: The Dragon of Xian in TR2, where you must put the dragon to sleep, then remove the dagger, causing him to revert to human form. Sophia in TR3, who is ImmuneToBullets, and you must electrocute her by shooting the fuse box(GuideDangIt ?). Dr Willard's OneWingedAngel spider form in the same game, which can only be temporarily stunned, until you have all the meteor fragments. The ghost and statue boss in ''Angel Of Darkness''. Finally, the first encounter with TheDragon in ''Legend'', which involves a lot of switches, electrical orbs, and a Tesla gun.
** Pretty much all bosses in ''Tomb Raider: Anniversary'' is a puzzle boss. An example is when you are fighting two centaurs that can turn you to stone. You must use a shield to reflect their spell and turn themselves into stone, then use the opportunity to attack them.
* Tanaka, the last Shofixti, in ''StarControl II''. Technically, not a "boss", since he is both optional and many times weaker than you, but important nonetheless. If you keep insulting him and running away, he'll realize you're not with the Ur-Quan, and give you the chance to perform a sidequest that will result in the Shofixti population being restored.
* Most ActionAdventure games tend to feature bosses like this. ''{{Okami}}'' had a spider boss which could only be harmed after tying its back to three floating hooks, a flaming skeletal monster that could only be damaged after the fires were put out, and a kitsune that could only be injured by using lightning strikes against it. ''StarFox Adventures'' likewise had a boss that can only be damaged by tossing explosive barrels at him.
* For that matter, Andross's first form in ''StarFox 64'' could be damaged without any tricky techniques, but would almost certainly win a war of attrition if the player merely aims for his weak spot and keeps firing. Either using Nova Bombs to counter his auto-hit inhaling attack or smacking his eyes would slow his rate of attack, and as a result one of the above tactics is nearly necessary.
** While not technically necessary, Mechbeth certainly qualifies. You can face him straight up in [[ThatOneBoss probably the toughest boss battle in the entire game]], while {{Mooks}} occasionally appear to harass your wingmen (which, unlike in most boss fights, actually ''do'' increase your score a little, but not enough to be worthwhile)...or you can shoot the eight switches to unlock the switcher box, then shoot that twice to open it up and switch the track, sending the entire train careening into the weapons factory and getting you a total of 51 points. Yeah, exactly.
** ''Command'' has no less than 3 puzzle bosses. One has to be hit on the upper half to change its course into the lava, one hides in pots, and the last one is quite literally a puzzle, you need to shoot it's 4 parts to match in the right color, matching another color results in attacks.
* Psycho Mantis in ''MetalGearSolid'' will dodge most bullets and melee attacks if fought normally, but switching controller ports or blowing away reflective items first makes him a bit easier to hit. Thankfully, players will get a hint about this one after long enough.
** [[spoiler:Vamp]] in ''MetalGearSolid 4'' continually regenerates from "death." [[spoiler: If you remember where his HealingFactor comes from, you should realize you have a [[ChekhovsGun certain item]] that can nullify it.]] He starts boasting after a while, giving you a hint.
** Screaming Mantis inherits many of Psycho Mantis's tricks. [[spoiler: And the counters to them are different this time around.]]
** Actually most of the bosses are half puzzle bosses since you either need to enable a certain strategy or defeat them way easier that way. [[spoiler: Famous example. Snake Eater's The End will die when the system clock passes some weeks.]]
** Also, The Sorrow from Metal Gear 3: The Snake Eater. The key to beating him is [[spoiler: the revive pill from Snake's inventory. If Snake dies, his inventory is still accessable and upon using the pill the boss fight ends, and the game goes on, since the boss is impossible to defeat. However, I forgot that do you need to take a fake death pill or does it work if you die during the encounter, but still...]]
* Every boss in ''Voodoo Vince'' is a variant puzzle boss, requiring you to find an environmental hazard to hit Vince with. As a magically animated Voodoo doll, he's immune to non-magical harm, and will, in fact, redirect it at the boss.
* ''[[LegoCrossoverGame Lego Star Wars II]]'' does this with the Rancor. Also done to an extent somewhat against Darth Vader in the first Cloud City level; the second time you face him, you have to use the gas vents in the carbon-freezing room to stun him before you can attack.
** Not just Star Wars, but other Lego games as well, most notably Lego Batman. Almost every boss is a Puzzle Boss!
*** Clayface in "You can Bank on Batman" has you blasting objects in the area with bombs to damage him, and for the final hit you must use a batarang to hit the little targets above him to hit Clayface with toxic gas.
*** "Two-Face Chase" has you using the Batmobile to first shoot Two-Face's armored van to disable it, then tow the boss over to a spotlight to hurt him.
*** "A Poisonous Appointment" has Poison Ivy, who rides in a giant plant. To get her out, you must wait for the plants to spit up Lego pieces, and use said pieces to build a bomb to blow up the plants. After that will you be able to hurt Poison Ivy successfully.
*** Man-Bat in "Zoo's Company" follows this to a T. After you beat him up a bit, you must construct a giant record player and play it to overload his hearing and bring him back down to earth, conveniently within melee range.
*** Penguin and Catwoman attack in tag-team style at the end of "Penguin's Lair." You have to construct a paddle to redirect his bombs to his machine, disabling it so you can hit it with batarangs and shock him.
*** Mad Hatter in "The Joker's Turf" is another obvious example, at one point you must hit switches to drop him into the toxic waste in the room, another you must switch partners when he mesmerizes you to attack him.
**** The Emperor had a similar trick in the Star Wars games - he'd always zap the player with Force Lightning, so you'd need to switch to the other guy and strike while he's distracted.
*** "Flight of the Bat" features a battle against The Scarecrow, whom tails you constantly. You must snag him with the Batcopter's tow cable before switching to the Batwing and blasting it with a torpedo.
*** Killer Moth in "In the Dark Night" suffers the same glaring weakness as Man-Bat -- only instead of a record player, you have a giant light bulb that you can turn on by building the generators in the room.
*** The Joker and Harley Quinn in "To the Top of the Tower" hide inside bells in the room, and can only be knocked free by ringing them. After you take down his Helicopter, you face him in melee, and like Mad Hatter he forces you to switch characters when attacking because of his electrical joy buzzer.
*** Commissioner Gordon in "A Surprise for the Commissioner" is a painfully obvious one -- after you hurt him, he retreats and sends a police truck after you. You have to use the crane nearby to pick an exploding teddy bear really) and drop it on the truck to get the boss to reappear.
* All bosses in ''NightmareCreatures'' are puzzle bosses. One needs to have a ceiling dropped onto it before it becomes vulnerable. Another one is unreachable, and must be killed by setting off ExplodingBarrels found in the stage. The final boss cannot be damaged, only stunned, and must be killed by decapitation while he's stunned.
* The final boss of ''SeriousSam: The First Encounter'' was a combination normal boss and puzzle boss. Ugh-Zan III had a lifebar, and he could be damaged normally -- until he was in the red, at which point he regenerated progressively faster the more damaged he was, making conventional weapons useless. The player has to bring his health down and keep it there while activating a large laser on a spaceship above, which does enough damage to kill Ugh-Zan before he can regenerate.
* The final puzzle of ''Escape From MonkeyIsland'' is disguised as a regular old boss battle against [[spoiler:a giant stone [=LeChuck=] ]] in the rock-paper-scissors-esque fighting minigame "Monkey Kombat." The player initially assumes that this fight has to be won in the same fashion as other Monkey Kombat games, but since both combatants regenerate health automatically, victory ''and'' defeat are both impossible. The one way to end it is to[[spoiler: irritate the enemy into slapping his own head by drawing three times in a row, crushing Ozzie Mandrill, who happens to be riding atop [=LeChuck=] and controlling him with the [[ArtifactOfDoom Ultimate Insult]].]]
* In ''{{Mega Man X}}6'', Gate can only be harmed by the fragments of his own energy spheres; you must destroy them at the appropriate time so that he is hit. As a side note, the fragments also destroy some of your platforms and there is a bottomless pit (instant death) at the bottom of the room (luckily your character can climb the walls). It's very difficult, [[spoiler:and makes the requisite battle against a weak and deranged Sigma afterwards rather anticlimactic]].
** Lies and slander. The real trick is to fire off a charged Yammark Option, and let the bugs kill the balls of death for you while you keep your distance as best as possible. Especially given the nightmare the rest of the game was, the endgame bosses were a joke.
* The Crocomire boss from ''Super {{Metroid}}'' forces you to keep shooting at its mouth when it's open in order to force it back onto some crumbling blocks and send it falling into the lava. Particularly nefarious because there's no boss life meter so it's hard to tell you're not really doing any damage, and because Crocomire keeps advancing towards you, essentially healing itself.
* Several boss monsters in the computer action RPG ''Dungeon Siege 2'' and especially in ''Dungeon Siege 2: Shattered World'', including the final mega-boss.
* Both bosses in the original ''{{Quake}}'' are Puzzle Bosses. Chthon, the big lava monster you fight at the end of the first episode, is only killable by lowering two big pillars level with Chthon's head and then hitting the button that triggers the lightning. In easy modes, only one blast is necessary to kill him, but on the hard modes, you need three of them. The final battle with Shub-Niggurath is particularly anti-climactic. There's a little pod thing that goes around the chamber [[MookMaker dropping off monsters for you to kill]] and at one point passes through Shub's sluglike body. Entering the transporter at that point warps you into her body and telefrags her.
** Quake IV has the [[spoiler: Stroylent creature]] that is immune to normal weapons. The way to defeat it is to [[spoiler: run across its chamber, using the pillars as cover from its claw attacks. Pressing the button at the far end of the chamber causes a chemical spray to irritate the creature so that it breaks a window and opens the way to a control room. Using the "feed" button in the control room causes the creature's stomach to rupture, killing it. The released gastric juices burn a hole in the floor - guess where you're headed next?]]
* The Crest Guardians in ''BraveFencerMusashi'' seem to be specifically designed to be beaten by the [[ElementalPowers elemental crest]] they guard: a fire monster guards the water crest, an ice monster guards the fire crest, etc. Apart from them, the FinalBoss can only be defeated through a strategy that is rather [[GuideDangIt annoying]] to figure out: while it is floating around between attacks, the player must [[spoiler: throw the Fusion sword at it and "Assimilate" it, temporarily shrinking it into a small, attackable orb]]. Consider that its vulnerable period lasts for about a second or less, [[spoiler: Assimilate has a charge time,]] and you'd probably never think to do it because [[spoiler: Assimilating an enemy usually kills it instantly, and like any UselessUsefulSpell, would be expected not to work on bosses. Which, apart from this one battle, it doesn't.]]
* Exactly one main boss from each game in the ''SlyCooper'' series: Muggshot in the first, Jean Bison in the second, and Octavio in the third. Muggshot is defeated with a strange setup involving mirrors and crystals which causes his guns to explode, Jean Bison must be lured into the inner workings of a logging plant, and Octavio is defeated by trapping him in tar, then [[WhenAllYouHaveIsAHammer punching him really hard]].
* In ''ChronoTrigger'', attacking Ozzie directly results in a counterattack against your entire party. To defeat him, the player must attack various switch mechanisms around the room until the last one opens a pit from under him.
** The next time you meet him, he subverts this by having the pit open up under your party instead, dropping you back a couple of rooms. Once you get back to him, he becomes an AnticlimaxBoss - a kitten walks up and hits the proper switch, opening the pit under him.
** Nizbel and Nizbel II have obscenely high defense until they are hit by Lightning-based attacks.
*** [[ForMassiveDamage Same thing ]]works on all dinos. What makes Nizbel special is that he will surprise you by "discharing electric energy" and zapping your entire team to get rid of the "shocked" status. So the real trick of the battle comes down to A: shocking him, and B: keeping the party prepared for his retaliatory shock.
** Heck, Lavos itself could be considered one by some standards. [[spoiler:The giant flipper-monster that made a dramatic entrance before the battle? Yeah, that's not Lavos's true form. Aim for the Right Bit.]]
** [[ChronoCross The sequel's]] final boss could be defeated by force; [[spoiler:however, this results in a [[ThisIsNotATrueEnding bad ending]]. Only by using spells of the six different elements in a specific order, ''then'' using a seventh, special element, could the boss be truly defeated. This proves to be quite difficult, because the boss's spells mess with the order, so you have to either hope that the boss uses elements that complement the sequence, or have characters fast enough to complete the sequence without being interrupted.]]
*** ''ChronoCross'' also features the BonusBoss Criosphinx. To defeat him, you have to respond to his riddles with an Element of the proper color. [[spoiler: The order of the colors to answer his riddles is the same order that is needed to activate the Chrono Cross to defeat the last boss. Of course, the game never directly tells you this so it is still a massive GuideDangIt.]] You can defeat him with brute force, but it's not easy.
* ''In {{Kirby}} and the Amazing Mirror'', the fifth boss can only be harmed by 2 abilities... and pushing him into the walls of his arena.
** A miniboss in ''Kirby Super Star'' can be harmed normally, but is invisible most of the time... unless Kirby inhales one of his attacks to gain the Paint power, which not only damages the boss, but also makes him visible for a while.
* With the exceptions of Necrogiant and Alastor, the bosses in ''{{Painkiller}}'' fall into this category. Detonating bubbles is needed to make Swamp Thing vulnerable, as is destroying Guardian's hammer. For Lucifer, the player needs to deflect meteors and later Lucifer's sword. In expansion pack ''Battle Out Of Hell'', all the bosses are of this category. For better or worse, in follow-up ''Overdose'' only the first of the three bosses was of this type.
* None of the Marine's weapons are effective against the Xenomorph Queen in ''AliensVsPredator''. Instead you must avoid her attacks while triggering the mechanism that will open the bay doors to Space, then make it to the a small room and close the door before the bay door opens so that you don't get sucked out into Space along with the Queen.
* In ''MegaMan and Bass'', it at first seems like Burner Man can't be damaged much by any weapon, including his weakness, the Ice Wall. However, if you push the Ice Wall ''into'' him, you'll notice that he'll be pushed by the Wall along the ground... and if he ends up landing on one of the spiked pits on either side of the arena by it, he's dealt massive damage.
** There's also the first castle boss who's weak spot is revealed when you stand on the platform.
* Film example in ''TheIncredibles'': in both fights against the Omnidroid, which can't be damaged by anything (except, Mr. Incredible realizes, itself). The first time, Mr. Incredible climbs inside the Omnidroid, and in its attempts to reach him the robot punctures itself several times until it hits its power core and deactivates. In the rematch, the Incredibles are able to claim the Omnidroid's remote control, using it to launch a detached claw through the power core.
* A lot of the bosses in ''Clive Barker's Undying'' are pretty much invincible until they run out of juice. Lizbeth goes invincible with her LimitBreak, and you have to wait for her to tucker out before you can take her head off. Ambrose gets all [[AttackOfTheFiftyFootWhatever gigantimous]], and you have to wait until he's distracted so that you can [[ForMassiveDamage hit his weak point for massive damage]]. Aaron is invulnerable until one of his spears gets stuck, at which point you rush in and finish him off.
* The penultimate boss of ''KnightsOfTheOldRepublic'' is six attack droids that continue to respawn until the player can destroy/reprogram the machines spawning them.
** And the FinalBoss uses conveniently placed prisoner Republic officers whom the boss can full-heal from, 8 times - but you can do it too, if you have the Drain Life power.
*** Even if you can't, you can still kill the prisoners by more conventional means. You more or less have to do one of these things, because you're very unlikely to win a battle of attrition against the guy otherwise. It's possible, but not likely.
* Shadow, one of the supervillains in ''FreedomForce'', will keep regenerating, even if she is killed. The only way to defeat her is by destroying the pillars in her subterranean lair, thus collapsing the ceiling and exposing her to sunlight.
* The Grinning Colossus in the freeware game ''YouHaveToBurnTheRope'' can only be defeated by [[spoiler:burning the rope]].
* The ''MetroidPrime'' series has a lot of bosses of the "reveal the weak point" variety, but ''Echoes'' has a few bosses that fall even more decisively under the PuzzleBoss heading. The Spider Guardian and Power Guardian both require you to simply navigate a morph ball course. [[spoiler:Also, Dark Samus becomes invincible to conventional attacks in her last phase. You can only damage her by using the Charge Beam to absorb the Phazon energy she launches in a particular attack and launch it back at her.]]
** "Simply" navigate? Simply? [[ThatOneBoss HAHAHAHAHAHA!]]
*** The Power Guardian can be trivially defeated by completing the course in reverse order.
* Giygas, the final boss from ''{{Earthbound}}'' (''Mother 2'') ends as a Puzzle Boss. His initial form must be attacked and weakened like any other boss, but to ultimately defeat him, you must [[spoiler:repeatedly use the previously nigh-useless Pray command.]]
* Similarly, in ''Mother 1'', the final boss can only be defeated by using [[spoiler:the now-existent Sing command]].
* And in Mother 3, you can only defeat [[spoiler:Claus]] by [[spoiler:not attacking him.]] A lot. At first [[spoiler: Lucas just can't attack, due to a sort of AngstySurvivingTwin thing]], but after that, [[spoiler: if you do attack, Hinawa explicitly says "Lucas, you stop fighting first."]]
* Quite some Bosses (and even a couple of common enemies) from the ''FinalFantasy'' series are puzzle bosses.
** A common enemy reappearing in various games is the magical pot. It talks and tells you to give him an elixir. Otherwise it will either be simply undefeatable or it will knock you out in no time, if you try just to kill him. (though, because he tells you how to beat him, you may argue how much of a puzzle it is).
** In ''FinalFantasyIII'' there are two enemies, which are either hard or undefeatable. Garuda can be defeated almost only by Dragoons - though there are hints by townspeople before fighting him. The final boss, [[spoiler:Dark Cloud]], can only be harmed after defeating her four guardians.
*** Garuda is very possible without Dragoons. Try Scholars. They kick his ass pretty hard.
** ''FinalFantasyIV'' features several, most notably Asura and Bahamut. Both are very hard -- Asura because she keeps healing herself, and Bahamut because his attacks are very powerful. However, both can be easily defeated by casting Wall on them, thus causing their moves to reflect onto the opposite side...At least, that's how it used to be. In the [[VideoGameRemake DS version]], while Reflect is still required for Asura, Bahamut's Megaflare will ignore Reflect and leave you in a world of hurt, meaning that your entire strategy is going to need an overhaul. Because of this, the book describing him in the Eidolon's Library is changed to match, this time suggesting that no warrior could defeat him, except possibly one capable of "rising to the heavens to deliver the finishing blow". Hey! Guess who one of the final party members is?
*** Don't forget [[spoiler:Dark Knight Cecil]], who is most easily defeated by not attacking.
*** Calcobrena, takes the form of six dolls, two sets of three. Defeat all of one set, and the dolls will combine into a giant, monstrous, and quite powerful enemy for a while, then turning back into the six dolls. If you don't feel like trying to wear down the big Calcobrena, you have to take out the last Cal and the last Brena in a fairly short interval without giving them a chance to become Calcobrena.
**** It doesn't help that when you have one or the other down to one, they love to use Self-Destruct to suicide on you and give the others an excuse to turn into Calcobrena.
*** In the DS remake, Golbez is kind of like a Puzzle Boss. He puts up a barrier that absorbs every element (even Rydia's Summons) except for one of them; you have to make one character use Libra on him to find out which one he won't absorb. Doesn't help that he changes the barrier every few turns.
** ''FinalFantasyV'' features a couple of puzzle enemies that can only be attacked in a certain state or such. Most notably is Gogo the mimic, who responds to regular attacks and spells with a powerful counterattack and the Flare spell, respectively. The solution is to simply wait, and he will eventually ''congratulate you for mimicking his doing nothing'' and surrender.
*** FFV also has Omega, a notorious ThatOneBoss who'll wipe the walls with you no matter what level you're at, UNLESS you know [[GuideDangIt the trick to beating him]], which makes him almost pathetically easy.
** ''FinalFantasyVI'' has some enemies that can be killed by draining all of their MP, like the Atma Weapon, energy given form with a ridiculously large amount of HP.
*** One bonus boss [[spoiler:Dragon's Den Skull Dragon]] ''must'' be defeated this way, else he just regenerates.
*** A lot of the dragon's den bosses are puzzle bosses. The Red Dragon can't be killed, only survived until he burns out all his life. Storm Dragon becomes nigh-unhittable, so bring characters with abilities that ignore evasion. And so on.
** ''FinalFantasyVIII'' features many bosses with special attack points or such which must be destroyed first. For example, [[spoiler:the aliens]] on board Ragnarok come in four colors and must be defeated in order of color or they'll regenerate in no time.
*** There is also a pair of optional bosses who can rapidly recover from any attack due to [[ElementalRockPaperScissors the power of earth]]. Casting "Float" on them prevents them from healing themselves.
** The Seymour fights, particularly Natus and Flux, in ''FinalFantasyX'' are basically puzzle bosses because of his set attack pattern and there are specific counters to all of his attacks. Sure, you could try to strong arm it, but that would require overleveling compared to the nearby monsters.
*** Also in ''FinalFantasyX'' is the mecha sicced on you at the base of Mount Gagazet. It has an array of very, very powerful attacks that can leave a player who hacks-and-slashes their way through tearing their hair out (especially since its HP is high and it is Armored, meaning it takes very little damage and thus you will have to survive a number of these attacks)...but there's a way to beat it very easily, though it's extremely counterintuitive. Have [[GlassCannon Tidus]] use his Provoke move, which will goad the monster into targeting only him--sounds incredibly stupid, given Tidus's low general survivability (seriously, why didn't they give that move to Auron instead?), but the catch is that once Provoked, the monster will ''also'' only use the move that deals percentage-based damage. That move is devastating combined with his other attacks, but if it's the only thing he uses, it means that he is actually incapable of killing even one party member, let alone the [[TotalPartyKill total party kills]] he is otherwise quite proficient at, turning the entire fight into a cakewalk.
* Pick a boss in {{Psychonauts}}. ''Any'' boss.
** Not quite. The Mega Censor is mostly defeated through sheer firepower.
*** Nope, even with him you must first [[spoiler: shut down the censors' valves, otherwise he will be regenerating health constantly]].
** The Den Mother from The ''Milkman Conspiracy'' jumps away when you get close. However, she throws exploding boxes of cookies (seriously), which you can pick up with telekinesis and throw at her. However, she turns out the lights, making the room go dark so you can't see her. What then? [[spoiler: Well, SHE can see in the dark, as she brags. And you happen to have acquired a power in this level that allows you to see through the eyes of those you use it on. Voila! You see yourself through the eyes of the Den Mother, and attack her that way.]]
*** Or, by using the Invisibility power (which is very useful for getting past her sentry) which you probably have by now, you can just prance on up to her and attack. You still need to use the special manuever for the second part.
** The Hulking Lungfish, the game's halfway-point boss, is defeated by [[DodongoDislikesSmoke making it suck up nails]] in its first half. In its second half, you must trick it into attacking clams with its lure, which clamp down on it and hold it helpless so you can pummel it.
** [[spoiler: Jasper]] in Gloria's Theater floats high up in the sky, and can again block your Psi-Blasts. However, he really hates the light. If you can find a way to blind him, you can attack him... [[spoiler: By using Levitation to ride a current of music from the orchestra pit, you can make your way up into the catwalks and use Pyrokinesis to light the candles powering the spotlights, which shine on his face and disorient him. Commence pummeling.]]
** TheButcher is invulnerable all over his huge body, except for his [[AchillesHeel tiny head.]] But his head is too high up to attack with anything, even your Psi-Blasts. [[spoiler: However, when he swings his meat cleavers, they become trapped in the ground, and their broad, flat tops are just wide enough for a nimble acrobat to [[ColossusClimb climb up them, up his arm]], and attack his head. In his second form, his cleavers are ''on fire...'' But a nasty juggler in the background is throwing spiked, flaming clubs at you that just so happen to make great ammo.]]
** The prototype Brain Tank is impervious to direct hits and Psi-Blasts, in only weak point being on its underside. And no, you can't get under it, it's much too small and close to the ground. [[spoiler: The here is to watch it before it starts its attacks. Sometimes it'll rear up enough for you to knock it right over with a blast.]]
** Black Velvetopia's boss fights tend to be ''somewhat'' straightforward. No special tricks are required for the first three luchadores, though they make things a load easier. Then you get to the fourth one, who is invincible unless distracted with a confusion grenade. The first part of the BullfightBoss is also fairly simple. DeadlyDodging doesn't even come into play and the only trick to it is that you can only damage the boss by telekinetically hurling the banderillas stuck around the ring at him. [[spoiler: The second half of the fight adds complications when you find yourself having to protect the bull, yank out the spears, use confusion on the ''matador'' to make him think ''he's'' the bull, and commence skewering]].
** The Nightmare minibosses in the Milkman Conspiracy can take attacks in any way but can only be killed by having a [[DodongoDislikesSmoke bomb thrown into a sort of mouth-thing that yawns open on their mid-bodies]] after they take enough damage.
* The entirety of Tecmo's ''Deception'' series is puzzle bosses, as every enemy must be defeated with a number of available "traps" (environmental hazards). The hero of the first game gets a sword that does pin-prick damage, but it's all puzzles from there.
* Done well in ''{{Aquaria}}'', where the Energy Temple boss can't be harmed by you (shooting him will only push him back). You can, however, damage him by shooting the trigger for a special energy beam generator while the boss is over the generator, thus sending a beam of pure energy straight through him. The catch is that the boss wises up to this after the first two times you hit him with the beam, and can't be lured over it again. The solution? Simply [[spoiler: charge up your shot, then trick him into sending his arm out to claw you. The arm then comes lashing out at you, right into the path of the beam. Simply fire, and...]]
** And again later in the game, when you fight Mithala (a beast 15+ times the size of the protagonist!) Your shots won't even push him back this time, and there's nothing that can damage the boss nearby. However, the boss regularly releases mermen that swim at you to attack you. If you [[spoiler: lure the mermen down to a pit at the bottom of the screen, they'll turn into poisonous, bloated mermen that you can drag around. The boss regularly does an attack where he sucks in water with his mouth, dragging you in to try to swallow you. If you place bloated mermen so the boss will swallow them when he next draws in...]]
*** Topped once again even later in the game, where you fight two monsters: an unstoppable juggernaut with hammers for hands, and a wraith who hovers around (and comforts) the first monster. The juggernaut is invulnerable to just about anything you throw at him. However, [[spoiler: he occasionally releases a special pink jellyfish from his head. If you eat this jellyfish in Beast Form, you get 1 special orange shot. It won't damage the monster, but it'll knock the wraith temporarily out of commission-- then, your normal Energy Form shot will cause loads of damage.]]
* In the origional ''{{Boktai}}'', the only bosses that this wasn't an option for were Hel and the Count. And even the Count could be killed just by [[spoiler: using the [[{{whatkindoflamepowerisheartanyway}} LUNA lens]] on the spinning swords!]]
* Tigris Cantus in ''TheWorldEndsWithYou'' has elements of this. You even get a phone message beforehand containing a cryptic hint at how to damage her.
** To elaborate, [[spoiler:initially, Neku can only harm her by knocking Taboo Noise into the [[PaintingTheFourthWall static at the bottom of his screen]]. After being damaged enough, she teleports between both screens and is fair game to both characters, but is invisible in the top screen until right before she teleports. After being damaged further, she steals all of Neku's pins and can only be harmed by Beat, but Neku can help out by stepping into her shadow, causing one of the clones she uses to block Beat to disappear every time he does so. Eventually she drops the Rhyme pin and turns almost completely invisible... except you can use Neku's shadow to estimate her position and make her visible by hitting her with the Rhyme pin.]]
** Vespertilio/Pterupus Canor also count. In the beginning of the fight, the giant bat noise will be shrouded in darkness, invincible to normal attack. [[spoiler: the Strategy? Use your partner to trash the gabbabats blocking the lights on the second floor of the stage to illuminate the place. With said lights on, Verpertilio will become vulnerable and eventually stunned, ready for a plummeling.]]
* Defeating [[spoiler:[=GLaDOS=]]] at the end of ''{{Portal}}'' requires you to redirect the missile turret fire with portals to hit her, and then to use the portal gun to shuttle the parts that fly off into a furnace. Then again, this is ''Portal'', so a puzzle boss is expected, if a boss at all.
* Virtually every boss in ''MS Saga: A New Dawn'' requires the player to memorize its attack pattern and use one of the game's shield spells to prevent it from using its strongest attacks. Doing so takes many bosses from virtually undefeatable to incredibly easy.
** The HELL you say. ''' '''Those fucking '' '''RAVEN REDS!!!!!!''' ''
* MegaMan 2, in addition to being the best example of the series, has a shining example of a PuzzleBoss. Wily's Castle, level 4. The boss is a number of laser turrets, who can only be hurt by Crash Bombs, protected by walls that can only be broken by Crash Bombs. Yes, you could bullheadedly blast through all the walls surrounding the turrets, but if you do that, you'll run out of Crash Bomb before reaching the last turret and make the fight {{Unwinnable}}. The solution, of course, is to use Item-1 to float up past the big glaring open areas underneath or above the less-shielded turrets, thereby bypassing the shields. If you do it that way, then you'll kill the last turret with your very ''last'' Crash Bomb,so don't screw up.
* The Giant "Metal Gear" [=DomZ=], the third boss of ''BeyondGoodAndEvil.'' A giant, bipedal cyborg, its only obvious weakness is too high off the ground to hit, and protected by a metal grate. It flinches if you attack its legs, but it seems otherwise imperturbable. [[spoiler: But what's this you hear? IncomingHam! [[CharacterWitness Double H]] bursts in, and you can instruct him to attack its other leg. When you both attack its legs, it falls, and you can dish out the hurt.]]
* ''[[HalfLife Half-Life]]'':
** The Tentacle required you to explore the silo activating fuel lines and turning on the power generator for the rocket motor above the creature's head, and then burn it.
** The first Gargantua had to be lured into a massive electricity generator and electrocuted, while later on in the game another Gargantua had to be lead into an open area where you used a tactical map to call air-strikes on it. While Gargantuas are susceptible to explosives damage, you don't carry enough to kill them.
** The final boss was immune to all damage until you destroyed the energy crystals around it, whereupon its head would pop open allowing you to shoot its exposed brain.
** Half Life: Opposing Force has a fight similar to the Tentacle Creature, where you have to activate the drainage system of a huge septic tank to flush the monster away.
* ''Prey'' had two examples:
** The Centurion takes minimal damage from conventional weapons, the way to defeat it was to hide in a corridor and wait for it to reach in to grab you, then activate the forcefield that will sever its arm as well as the cannon grafted on, allowing you to deal much more damage to the monster using its own weapon.
** The final boss has an impenetrable shield and the only way to hurt it was to launch mines from conveniently placed mine launchers around the arena and destroy them when the boss got near, momentarily disrupting her shield and allowing you to attack with conventional weapons.
* ''{{Doom}} 3'' had two bosses, the Guardian which is blind and relies on small floating demons in the arena to see, so you had to kill all of them and the Guardian will spawn more, revealing his weak spot for you to attack. The final boss - the Cyberdemon - could only be hurt by the Soul Cube, and the only way to use it was to kill the enemies that constantly spawned around the arena while avoiding the Cyberdemon's rockets. Once you have killed a sufficient number of enemies, the Soul Cube is fully charged and can be used.
* ''MegaMan: Dr. Wily's Revenge'' (don't remember it? It was on the Game Boy) gives you a weapon near the end of the game called the Mirror Buster, which does no damage on its own but can reflect projectiles back at enemies. Guess what the only way to damage the final form of the final boss is. Go on, guess.
* In ''KingdomHearts'', Hercules is normally invincible during his one-on-one arena duel with Sora, but can be made vulnerable by tossing barrels at him.
**Not to mention certain bosses in Kingdom Hearts 2, like Oogie Boogie (knock toys into the basket), Demyx (find a way to kill his clones and fast), and Luxord (Um... [[LuckBasedMission be lucky]]?). More may qualify, depending on how much you view use of Reaction commands as a requisite for being a puzzle boss.
* The FinalBoss of ''R-Type Final'' has elements of this. [[spoiler: Specifically, the Bydo core cannot be damaged by any of the player's weapons. Instead, the player has to launch the Force, which in the rest of the game results in attacking ForMassiveDamage. This time, however, it ''sticks'' to the boss, as the Bydo attempts to absorb it. Then, the player has to use a fully charged Wave Cannon attack to make the Force explode, resulting in a massive wave of energy that ''still'' doesn't kill the boss, but ''does'' irrepairably damage the Wave Cannon. The trick at this point is to avoid the enemy projectiles while trying to charge the Wave Cannon, which takes fully 90 seconds and results in a blast that kills ''everything''.]]
* The beholder at the end of ''{{Eye of the Beholder}}'' was supposed to be defeated by [[spoiler:using a special wand to push it onto a trap]]. Regular combat would kill it, but the beholder has several save-or-die effects that made it hard to do this before your whole party was gone.
* Most bosses in ''Adventures of Rad Gravity'', and they also are often GuideDangIt's. EG, the NighInvulnerable "Twinbots" on the planet Vernia. You have to use the Crystal Bombs to keep them from winding each other back up, so they self destruct. And the lava golem boss, where you have to shoot a pillar to make it launch lava bombs at him. The FinalBoss, Kakos, takes the cake as ThatOneBoss, where you have to zero-g manuever such as to trick his missiles into hitting him, like ''Sonic & Knuckles'''s PerfectRunFinalBoss, but worse.
* Several bosses in the ''SyphonFilter'' series, but most notably the final battle with Chance, TheMole, in ''SyphonFilter 2''. He wears full body armor that not only makes him ImmuneToBullets, but to the shrapnel and shockwave of ''grenade impact explosions'' as well(NoOneCouldSurviveThat in real life, even with a heavy-duty anti-bomb suit). And it doesn't hinder his movement either. The only way to defeat him is to procure the UAS-12 auto-shotgun from the helicopter, and use its blast to push him backward into the spinning tail rotor, which his [[ArmorIsUseless armor is useless]] against, resulting in a spray of HighPressureBlood, although no severed limbs.
** In the cutscene before the battle, Chance's head is uncovered (presumably to make him recognizable) and he isn't even shown donning his helmet. [[WhyDontYaJustShootHim Why don't they just shoot him in the head then?]]
** You have to use the same strategy with Rhoemer during a flashback sequence in ''SyphonFilter 3'', except you push him out of a plane, and he happens to have a parachute.
* ''GoldenSun 2'' has the Serpent, (whose entire scenario seems to be a ShoutOut to the Susanoo legend in Japanese mythology), who you ''can'' reach upon beginning of the dungeon. However, it has a nasty habit of regenerating ungodly amounts of HitPoints every turn. The solution? Scale the wall outside the entrance to get the Dancing Idol, which you can then use on the odd altar-slash-table things at the entrance, then go through the ''real'' dungeon (as opposed to the comparatively short puzzle involving [[TheLostWoods identical rooms]] with a plant that you must cast [[GreenThumb Growth]] on to find the right direction to move) and use your [[BlowYouAway Gale Psynergy]] to move plants off of holes in the ground to send beams of light down onto crystals in the Serpent's chamber. Each beam of light reduces its regenerative power one-third of its strength, with all four being needed to render the regeneration almost completely useless at 30HP per turn, as opposed to the 2430 per turn that it starts with - nearly seventy percent of its maximum health. Considering how weak your party is likely to be by that point in the game without LevelGrinding, you'll need to have more than just one or two lights on or it'll be practically invincible anyway. Even with all four lights, it's still [[ThatOneBoss annoying as hell,]] though thankfully having all four lights on removes one of its turns, reducing it to two actions per round as opposed to three.
* ''{{Castlevania}}: Order of Ecclesia'' has Wallman; attacking him the conventional way will only cause him to eventually drink a Super Potion that restores all of his HP, which the game states he has 9,999 of but he actually stops taking damage before he hits 0. The only way to kill him is to [[spoiler:steal his Glyph, which becomes visible and absorbable when he retreats into the wall.]] Making this fight harder than it sounds is his {{Bomberman}}-esque bombs, which explode into four-way explosions that will interrupt Shanoa's glyph-absorbing animation if she gets hit.
** You have to get Brachyura to destroy ceilings as you progress upwards through the lighthouse you fight it in, and at the top, you drop an elevator on it.
* ''MegaManBattleNetwork 2'' brings us Protecteros, the firewall to end all firewalls. In order to destroy them, you need to take down EVERY HP EVERY protectero in ONE HIT. Multi-hit attacks do NOT work, so no [[GameBreaker Gater-ing.]] Fortunately, another combo, Ultra Bomb, works quite efficiently - except for the protecteros that have 620 HIT POINTS (OMG) [[spoiler:You need Lifesword3 PA, Atk+20, Atk+30. [[{{GuideDangIt}} It's the only way]].]]
**ItGotWorse in ''Battle Network 3'' - the new PuzzleBoss (s) are the "numbers". Pay attention: You need to destroy all Number1s in one hit, then all Number2s in one hit, and finally all Number3s in one hit. This will take some thinking...
* Triti from ''TraumaCenter'' starts out as a huge mass of triangles, held in place by thorns. Trying to remove one section at a time will send legions of them out into the organ. The key is to take the thorns out in certain patterns, to prevent any respawning that you don't want.
** Specifically, when you remove a triangle, if there are two thorns next to each other and on the edge of the set of triangles, a triangle will spawn there if there is room to respawn. With some planning, Triti in Episode [[BonusBoss X-3]] of ''Second Opinion'' can be [[BreatherBoss easily defeated]] in less than a minute and a half.
** In a more archetypal 'weak-point reveal' boss, a single Deftera is a pair ofred and blue bodies that drift around the organ, creating tumors. While drifting, they're invincible. However, in the event that a red and a blue come in contact, they become a tumor and you can drain them. Rather simple, right up until every time after the first you come into contact with it when there's more than one of each color.
* Some of the ''JakAndDaxter'' games tried this. Klaww in the original game had to be defeated by dodging his thrown rocks and then using Yellow Eco to hurl fireballs into his crotch until he dropped the massive rock he was creating on his own head, and then the process had to be repeated. ALL of Jak 3's bosses had some element of this in them - a Precursor mech, for example, was entirely bulletproof but could be downed by dodging multiple energy blasts and the lightsaber it was wielding, waiting for it to create pillars for no real reason, then climbing them to repeatedly shoot a mine cart to fall on its head.
* The final boss in the old NES game ''Wrath of the Black Manta'' (a ''Shinobi'' ripoff) could only be defeated by using 4 of the 12 ninja magic spells you had in the correct order. I got to the final boss after a mere five hours of gameplay, but it took four more months to figure out how to defeat him.
* The Geb Queen from obscurish action game ''Sphinx and the Cursed Mummy'' is a particularly complex example. At most times, she is completely invulnerable, being surrounded by a glowing shield. There's an unreachable platform above her that contains two monster cages, holding {{Personal Space Invader}}s and a shielded crown. One of her attacks, however, is shooting blue magical spells that turn you into a frog. You ''have'' to be [[StupidityIsTheOnlyOption hit by said spells]], use the frog's extra jumping power to leap up to the platform, and press the buttons next to the cages, releasing the {{Personal Space Invader}}s. They'll attack the queen in the way they do, leaving her vulnerable to a strike. In later rounds, the queen starts [[FlunkyBoss summoning mooks]], who will kill the spiderlike enemies if you don't defeat them first.
* Iosa the Invincible from ''{{Iji}}'' is, well, ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin. You can damage her exoskeleton with your guns, but you're better off using the ceiling-mounted lasers against her. Once the exoskeleton is destroyed, you have to wait for an opening to knock her into the wall, which stuns her long enough to hack into and deactivate her nanoshield controller. Then the game [[GoryDiscretionShot cuts to black]], and you hear the Shotgun firing.
** Similarly the previous boss, the Sentinel, is a spherical satellite-like robot that throws explosive bullets and missiles everywhere, continuously tracks you and takes half of the damage from ALL of your weapons. The trick here is to kick it into one of the two electrical fences at the sides of the arena ForMassiveDamage (and a few of the next spoken lines change accordingly to how much damage you took and how soon you figured out the trick).
*** Alternately, NOT using the electropods grants you a Supercharge, but you have to know how to juggle it to minimize its use of the Nuke, which blows five of your Health units (or four, if you maxed out Health like you probably would on Ultimortal) straight to hell. The Velocithor does full damage to it regardless of all that armor, which makes it useful when the Sentinel's powering up the Nuke.
**A few bosses can be skipped entirely if you're needing that pacifist run. But you need to figure out how to do that.
* The Archmage in the Flash game ''Inquisitive Dave'' is beaten the same way as Claus above. Since [[spoiler:[[{{No Fourth Wall}} he was programmed into the game to fight you, just avoiding him gives him no reason to exist.]]]]
* ''MarvelUltimateAlliance'' has:
** IronMan's archenemy the Mandarin. After wailing on him for a while, he retreats to a safe balcony; follow him through a teleporter and the Ultimo up there will send you back. To prevent this, you have to lure a spider bot to a teleporter after which it will blow up on the Ultimo, allowing you to get up there.
** The Destroyer Armor, which gets its ultimate attack charging up if you dare to attack it. You have to go through the four warps and defeat the {{Mook}}s inside, after which you will stumble upon Loki's frozen body. Trick the Armor into unleashing said move on him and they both die.
* ''[[NicktoonsUnite Nicktoons: Globs of Doom]]'' does this with:
** [[DannyPhantom Cujo the Ghost Dog]], who was defeated by tricking him into lowering four switches for you and then running around as he mindlessly trips on some electric lines while chasing you.
** JimmyNeutron's mutated Girl Eating Plant. To quote Technus: "We have to find a way [[WombLevel inside that plant!]]" (And that way is to get to a certain spot where it will swallow you.) And the plant adapts as its giant roots will block the previous path you took to get to that area and leave open the next one after each round of whacking its innards. There's a reason why you have to get there in order to be eaten. (Hint: The name of the boss, the battle takes place in a mall and you're stuck with {{SpongeBob SquarePants}} and Technus. [[{{Crossdresser}} Go figure.]])
* Every boss in the indie physics-based platformer ''Gish'' is of this variety, usually involving employing some manner of object in the arena to find a way to kill them. Such examples include tossing a block at a fragile ceiling to cause a giant block to drop down and crush the demonic cat chasing you, or finding a way of breaking a bridge to dump the pair of gimp-masked fleshy titans into lava pits. The bosses all die in one hit, too, so the battles tend to be either extremely drawn-out or very short.
* In the first SagaFrontier game, the Ring Lord in Riku's scenario is only beatable unless you rack up a combo score of ten; this becomes nigh impossible once the Ring Lord gets bored with sitting around and starts stomping your party into the ground.
** Actually can be completely bypassed if you have a character with DSC and he/she can fully pull it off.
* A ''ton'' of bosses in ''{{Wild ARMs 3}}'' fall under this trope, and considering there are somewhere in the area of eighty story bosses, we do mean a ''ton.'' The first major one is Trask, who halves all elemental damage and nullifies physical damage...[[spoiler:until you cast a fire spell and then follow it up with an ice spell -- since heating and then rapidly cooling something makes it brittle, this makes him incredibly weak to physical attacks now.]] Some of these ''do'' fall under GuideDangIt (the spoilered method is referred to only in an easily-missed book in the preceding town), but for the most part, they're pretty easy and fun to figure out. Some other notable ones:
** Melody, the first time you fight her, has powerful magic and poison attacks...[[spoiler:but is constantly attacking Clive, because he just [[TalkingTheMonsterToDeath verbally ripped her a new one]]. Thus, if you manage to keep Clive alive, you can't lose.]] The rest of the time, she simply has a damage barrier that soaks up 350 points of damage.
** Malik is so fast that he can't be hit by bullets...[[spoiler:until you cast the [[UselessUsefulSpell Decelerate spell]] on him, making him extremely vulnerable.]]
** In every fight against the Schroedinger family, [[spoiler:you can set Todd's afro on fire, which acts like poison and quickly takes the most dangerous opponent out]].
** Janus, after absorbing a Guardian's power, seems incredibly quick, powerful, and downright impossible to beat...[[spoiler:unless you cast [[UselessUsefulSpell the status-buff-nullifying Eraser spell]], which erases all the status buffs the Guardian gave him and making him pitifully easy.]]
** Siegfried, being the game's main BigBad for 90% of it, is of course incredibly powerful and can also use the [[spoiler:[[MacGuffin Teardrop]]]] to heal to full HP if he takes too much damage...[[spoiler:which you can easily swipe from him by using the Pickpocket spell.]]
** The Hydra also has a heal-to-full-HP spell...[[spoiler:which can be brought down to an eventual 0 if you continually cast the fire spell on it, "cauterizing" its necks like the original myth.]]
** And then, of course, the final boss [[spoiler:Nega Filgaia]] has a whopping ''[[SequentialBoss ten forms]]'', all of which require some kind of unusual strategy to defeat. Whew.
*In Wild Arms 4 many bosses were Puzzle Bosses as well, especially the Brionac fights.
*** Like Hugo! Oh god...[[ThatOneBoss Hugo]]...
* Gnome's dungeon in ''TalesOfPhantasia'' seems to like this. First, there are little mini-bosses called Clay Idols that can't be damaged in any way, save for one otherwise-useless spell. Thankfully, you can just run past them rather than engage them. Then there's Gnome itself, which splits into four bodies when anyone gets too close to it, making it immune to every attack in your arsenal and going ballistic on your team. The trick is to keep away from him, avoiding the usual strategy of having the MeatShield Cless run up to the boss and wailing away at it. Either just sit back and let the casters destroy Gnome with their spells, or help them out with the long-range Demon Fang.
* The Rhino in a number of the ''[[SpiderMan Spider-Man]]'' games is a PuzzleBoss - his skin/suit thing is too tough for spidey to hurt, so defeating him tends to rely on directing his charging attacks into appropriately hard/zappy items.
* In Spider-Man 2: Enter Electro for the PS1, the final boss is (surprise) a supercharged Electro. In order to render him vunerable, you have to make him fire a bolt at a generator, damaging his power-up device. The fact that he doesn't stop falling for this is [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded]] by Spidey himself if the fight drags on for longer than necessary, and at the end he simply quips "This goes to show that good wins because...[[EvilIsDumb evil is dumb."]]
* Deliciously subverted in ''CardcaptorSakura''. Late in the first season, our heroes find themselves trapped in a magical maze. The "always go left" track doesn't work, if they try to cut the walls with their swords, they just grow back together, and if Sakura tries to fly above the walls, they just get infinitely higher. Just when it looks like all is lost, supporting character Mizaki-sensei appears, carrying a magical bell... which she proceeds to use as a hammer and ''bashes the walls down'', one after the other, in a straight line to the edge of the maze.
** Nonetheless, almost every [[MonsterOfTheWeek Card Of The Week]] would qualify as a PuzzleBoss.
* Some bosses in WorldOfWarcraft have elements of this. There are several fights where you fight two bosses at once, and unless they die right after the other the surviving one resurrects the dead one at full health. The best example of a PuzzleBoss is probably Heigan the Unclean in Naxxramas. The boss itself doesn't have much health or hit very hard, but he will periodically teleport away and force players to run through a room, avoiding geysers of slime.
** Almost all final bosses in the dungeons have some sort of gimmick that you must figure out in order to defeat them.
* ''KingdomOfLoathing'': the majority of the battles in the Naughty Sorceress's castle. Most of the earlier ones have insanely high HP, but can be {{OHKO}}ed by a specific battle item (most of which sort of make sense, in an {{Incredibly Lame Pun}}nish way). Then there's the shadow of yourself, which you must defeat [[spoiler:by healing yourself every turn]]. After that, you face the Naughty Sorceress's familiar; you must beat it with a familiar of your own of at least 20 pounds, with the five possible enemy familiars each being weak against a specific one of the other four. Finally, there is the battle with the Naughty Sorceress herself, which comes in three parts, one after another without any saves or time to change equipment between stages. The third is either an automatic win or an automatic loss, depending on whether or not you have [[spoiler:the Wand of Nagamar]] in your inventory. (Earlier you had to have it equipped, but since it's a fairly weak weapon this was changed so you can wage battle with a weapon of your choice.)
* Every bullet pattern in the ''TouhouProject'' games can be dodged with enough sheer skill (or just bombing), but many spellcards have small tricks to them that allow for easier dodging. One of the most popular is [[{{Miko}} Sanae]]'s "Bumper Crop Rice Shower" spellcard; it's possible to stay at the bottom and dodge the random bullets that fall down on you, but it's much easier to [[spoiler: place yourself directly on the spot from which Sanae spawns red bullets. If you angle yourself correctly, no green/yellow bullets will hit you, you can still damage Sanae, and you can easily rack up 2000+ grazes if you wait until it's almost over before finishing her off.]]
** Of course, the most infamous of these is Icicle Fall on Easy difficulty, which can be avoided entirely just by being right in front of Cirno.
*Virtually every ''LucasArts'' adventure game ends with one of those, which is obvious considering they are essentially entire puzzle GAMES:
**''ManiacMansion'': [[spoiler: Turn off the mind control machine, put on the radiation suit, pick up the Meteor, lock him up in the car trunk and send him off into space.]]
**''Loom'': [[spoiler: Trick Shadow into teaching you the destruction draft, then destroy the loom.]]
**The Secret Of ''MonkeyIsland'': [[spoiler: Splash LeChuck with root beer.]] Additionally, [[spoiler: Carla in the same game could only be beaten by mastering the game's insult sword fighting system and guessing the proper responses to her insults.]]
**''MonkeyIsland'' 2: LeChuck's Revenge: [[spoiler: Make a LeChuck voodoo doll and use it against him.]]
**''IndianaJones'' And The Fate Of Atlantis: [[spoiler: Trick Kerner and then Dr. Übermann into using the Atlantean god-machine on themselves.]]
**Maniac Mansion: ''DayOfTheTentacle'': [[spoiler: Use the bowling ball on the tentacles, then trick old Purple Tentacle into shooting Dr. Fred.]]
**''SamAndMax'' Hit The Road: While not technically the game's last puzzle, [[spoiler: Conroy Bumpus is defeated by locking him in a freezer.]]
**''FullThrottle'': [[spoiler: Retract the machinegun.]] Can't beat a Corley.
**''TheDig'': [[spoiler: Retract the bridge under the Cocytan guard dog.]] This one also had two OTHER puzzle bosses earlier in the game, first [[spoiler: the sea monster, defeated through high explosives and a very GuideDangIt skeleton puzzle]], and second [[spoiler: the first guard dog you encounter, defeated by reviving his buddy.]]
**The Curse Of ''MonkeyIsland'': [[spoiler: Get LeChuck to blow up the rum barrel you carefully placed in a position to bury him under tons of snow.]] [[spoiler: Rottingham]] in the same game is essentially defeated in the exact same way as [[spoiler: Carla]] from the original.
**''GrimFandango'': [[spoiler: Poison Hector's greenhouse's sprinklers with sproutella.]] Also, [[spoiler: Domino is defeated by essentially distracting him from the gigantic coral grinders headed his way.]]
* Some game (Mole Mania, or some similar title) for the gameboy was basically a standard puzzle / adventure game, where you could dig underground and push stuff (And that was about it). The game still managed to have bosses however, and thus all the bosses were puzzle bosses.
* No mention of ''PunchOut''? The whole series breathes this trope. While most of the early fighters like Glass Joe and Von Kaiser can be defeated through brute force and the occasional block/dodge, the rest of the boxers have different fighting styles that prevent you from just wailing on them, such as Don Flamenco relying on you to strike so he can block/dodge and then counterattack. Except for Super Punch Out, figuring out how to earn star punches was also a puzzle itself.
* Each of Alhazad's battles become this in the remake of ''WildArms1''. She (yes, [[ViewerGenderConfusion she]]) has two trios of drones that sheild her from physical and magic attacks. Destroying either of the trios results in her simply regenerating them. [[spoiler:The trick is to leave one of both Drones alive.]]
*The final boss of [[RocketKnightAdventures Rocket Knight Adventures]] cannot be hurt at all, with Sparkster being bound up [[spoiler:in an escape pod at the time]]. The boss is chasing after you in a [[HighAltitudeBattle High Altitude Battle]] that literally ends in flaming glory as [[spoiler:the final boss, the computer that controls the [[EvilMinions Pig Army]], burns up in re-entry.]]
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