History Main / ShieldedCoreBoss

* The final boss of ''VideoGame/SystemShock 2'' is against [[AIIsACrapshoot SHODAN]] in cyberspace, where she has an MCP-like shield around her head that has to be disabled by [[HackingMinigame hacking terminals]] in the arena. She can also fire at you through the shield, summon [[ProjectedMan holographic minions]] to attack you from the sides, and can even make parts of the floor hurt you. Depending on your choices up to this point, the fight can range from ThatOneBoss to AntiClimaxBoss.

* In ''VideoGame/PanzerDragoonSaga'' when attempting to destroy the ancient battleship Mel-Kava you are forced to enter Mel-Kava and destroy the control system for it's automated defences. The control system consists of a core with 2 layers of shield panels which revolve around the core in opposite directions to each other. Unlike many examples the shields are laser proof and can not be destroyed by any attacks the player can use so the player must time attacks to shoot through the gaps in the shielding when they line up. Due to the battle system being ATB based but the shields moving constantly regardless of turns careful timing is required.

** When Petetronic TurnsRed he delivers a ShoutOut to ''{{TRON}}'' by surrounding himself with rotating energy shields as you [[PlayingTennisWithTheBoss deflect his homing energy discs back at him]].

* The first phase of the FinalBoss of ''VideoGame/PersonaQ'', the spider at the top of the clock tower, protects itself with four of its legs. Each is tied to a specific element, has its own weaknesses, and attacks independently. The problem is, each leg regenerates on its own timer, so to get the maximum amount of time to attack the boss, the party has to carefully kill them all simultaneously, weathering the maximum amount of attacks per turn in the mean time.

** In ''VideoGame/PaperMarioTheThousandYearDoor'', the Yux enemies can generate Mini-Yux from themselves, which produce shields that can block all damage Mario and his partners can do. The X-Yux and Y-Yux create one mini-Yux per turn, meaning Mario or his active partner can destroy the Mini-Yux while the other harms the Yux directly. The Z-Yux, however, generates two per turn, requiring multi-target attacks, or else the Z-Yux will just create another shield as soon as the last one goes down. Grodus, the MadScientist who created these enemies, uses a similar system in battle, where he'll summon two Grodus X units per turn. Each Grodus X reduces damage to Grodus until four of them surround him, upon which they will negate all damage done to Grodus until at least one Grodus X unit is destroyed.

* The FinalBoss battle of ''FinalFantasyCrystalChronicles'' takes place in the sky, with only the boss's tail within attack range. Damaging his tail eventually brings the boss down to your level to strike directly, but only for a limited time.

* Ever since ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime'', most boss battles typically consist of using a newly-acquired weapon/tool from the latest dungeon to "stun" the boss and expose its weak point to ordinary sword strikes before the boss recovers from it; the entire process is generally repeated [[RuleOfThree three times]] before the boss dies.
* Two examples in ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaSkywardSword'':
** Ghirahim is the quickest example: In his final battle, you destroy the armor surrounding his core with Fatal Blows. Once he summons a large claymore as his weapon, the only way to finish him off is to chip away and shatter his weapon with repeated sword strikes, then deliver a thrust attack to his exposed core. Get thrown off rhythm and Ghirahim will simply repair the blade with a snap of his fingers.
** Koloktos covers its weak point by various means, and the battle proceeds primarily by using the whip to strip them away before striking the core. It goes up a notch when he TurnsRed, with Koloktos wielding [[MultiArmedAndDangerous six]] [[{{BFS}} gigantic swords]] while shielding its weak point with an iron grate. One strategy is to detach three of its arms with your whip, then pick up one of those giant swords to knock off its remaining arms, legs, and then smash through the grate and strike its core, which itself must be repeated three times to win the battle.
* ''VideoGame/MarioAndLuigi'' series:

* In ''VideoGame/PaperMarioTheThousandYearDoor'', the Yux enemies can generate Mini-Yux from themselves, which produce shields that can block all damage Mario and his partners can do. The X-Yux and Y-Yux create one mini-Yux per turn, meaning Mario or his active partner can destroy the Mini-Yux while the other harms the Yux directly. The Z-Yux, however, generates two per turn, requiring multi-target attacks, or else the Z-Yux will just create another shield as soon as the last one goes down. Grodus, the MadScientist who created these enemies, uses a similar system in battle, where he'll summon two Grodus X units per turn. Each Grodus X reduces damage to Grodus until four of them surround him, upon which they will negate all damage done to Grodus until at least one Grodus X unit is destroyed.

* From the ''VideoGame/MetroidPrime'' series:
** The Emperor Ing in ''Metroid Prime 2: Echoes'' provides two examples in one long battle: In its initial form, Samus must destroy its tentacles to expose its weak point for damage; in its [[SequentialBoss final]] [[OneWingedAngel form]], hitting its weak point with enough firepower prompts the boss to shield it with either Light or Dark energy, at which point the player can actually damage the boss with the opposite energy weapon.
** The gigantic war golem "Mogenar" in ''Metroid Prime 3: Corruption'' has four Phazon cores (in various locations) shielded by red energy orbs; the player must blast through the shielding and then deliver a strike at the core with their Hyper Beam. Mogenar can regenerate the energy orbs using fixtures located along the edge of its BossRoom, and regenerates all of them whenever any core is destroyed. It is considered one of the game's [[ThatOneBoss most difficult battles]].

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

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

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

* In ''VideoGame/YoshisIsland'', Sluggy the Unshaven's heart is an obvious [[AttackItsWeakPoint weak point]] (despite Kamek's SuspiciouslySpecificDenial), but hitting it requires getting through the surrounding ectoplasm, which regenerates.

* A boss in ''VideoGame/SuperMarioGalaxy'', Megaleg, is powered by a [[McGuffin Grand Star]] in a glass dome on its head, and the dome is surrounded by a cage. To beat it, you have to lead a Bullet Bill up to smash open the cage... at which point a spinning wall pops up to protect the dome. Sections of the wall can be destroyed with more Bullet Bills, but after a short time they will regenerate, so you need to lead a Bill though the gap before it closes. [[DungeonBypass Or you can do some fancy jumping to get the Bullet Bill to fly OVER the wall.]]

* The early-80s VectorGame ''StarCastle'' (pictured above) consisted entirely of piloting an ''{{Asteroids}}''-like spaceship to take out an enemy ship surrounded by three layers of rotating barriers. If one layer was completely destroyed, the enemy ship would counter by generating a new layer, and could also fire its own weapon at the player if it had an open line of sight between the openings.

* The last phase of ''{{Rez}}'''s third boss.

* In ''TransformersWarForCybertron'' Soundwave sends his cassettes to fight while he stays behind an energy barrier.
* ''{{Chrono Trigger}}'': In the final battle, you'll think that the main body is the centre 'pod'. It's not. The right-hand pod is the true core; when it dies, the others do. Thing is, you have to destroy one of the other pods first to get it to lower its defences (all attacks on it are ineffectual otherwise) while it tries to resurrect the dead pod.

* A boss in SuperMarioGalaxy, Megaleg, is powered by a [[McGuffin Grand Star]] in a glass dome on its head, and the dome is surrounded by a cage. To beat it, you have to lead a Bullet Bill up to smash open the cage... at which point a spinning wall pops up to protect the dome. Sections of the wall can be destroyed with more Bullet Bills, but after a short time they will regenerate, so you need to lead a Bill though the gap before it closes. [[DungeonBypass Or you can do some fancy jumping to get the Bullet Bill to fly OVER the wall.]]

* In ''{{TRON}}'', the Master Control Program protected its weak point from Tron by summoning a layer of energy shields; Tron could take out individual shields easily with his disc, but the MCP rotated the shield layer too quickly for Tron to make a successful shot; it was Flynn's HeroicSacrifice that paralyzed the MCP and allowed Tron to land a clean strike between the shields.

Some of these bosses can be [[NintendoHard very difficult]], depending on how much damage their shielding can sustain before it is disabled, and how quickly the boss regenerates it. In some [[ThatOneBoss extreme cases]], damaged (but not destroyed) shielding may even regenerate on its own, requiring the player to not only inflict damage to disable it, but to inflict damage quickly and continuously. On the other hand, some are [[GoddamnedBoss simply tedious]] if destroying his shield takes a long time and he doesn't otherwise pose much of a threat; in many such cases a player may opt to take some damage if it means getting some extra hits on the core while it's exposed.

* The desert BonusBoss "Kurt Zisa" in ''VideoGame/KingdomHearts'' only takes damage when he is stunned, but to stun him you have to attack and defeat the spells he's cast in battle first. Complicating matters is that each time his barrier is defeated he alternates to another attack pattern: One where he casts Silence on your party and attacks exclusively with his massive swords, and another where he's protected from physical attacks by a magic barrier and attacks exclusively via magic.
** There is also the [[Film/{{Tron}} MCP]] in ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsII''. [[DualBoss While also being harassed by Sark]], Sora has to hack through a barrier, presumably a firewall of some sort, and use a special ActionCommand with [[GuestStarPartyMember Tron]] to fire a beam at the MCP's core and delete it.

[[caption-width-right:350:Break down that wall!]]

** ''VideoGame/MarioAndLuigiPartnersInTime'': Princess Shroob cannot be damaged until you destroy the shield protecting her. The fight against [[spoiler:the ''elder'']] Princess Shroob extends this pattern one step further: You cannot damage her until having destroyed her crown, but you can't strike the crown without attacking her ''feet'' to knock her down first. In both cases, the princess recovers after taking a few hits, forcing you to start the process over.

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

[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/star_castle_9603.jpg]]