| 1 | Examples of BossInMookClothing in [[RolePlayingGame Role-Playing Games]]. |
| 2 | |
| 3 | These [=RPGs=] have their own subpages: |
| 4 | * BossInMookClothing/FinalFantasy |
| 5 | * BossInMookClothing/{{Pokemon}} |
| 6 | |
| 7 | ---- |
| 8 | !!Examples: |
| 9 | |
| 10 | [[foldercontrol]] |
| 11 | |
| 12 | [[folder:#--F]] |
| 13 | %% |
| 14 | %% These examples are alphabetized by game title. Please add new listings in the correct space. |
| 15 | %% |
| 16 | * In ''[[VideoGame/DotHackR1Games .hack]]'', using [[LimitBreak Data Drain]] on an enemy turns it into a level zero critter. Except for The Guardian, which then turns into The Bracelet, a lv90 monster that has every top tier non-summon elemental spell in the game, and sometimes manages to cast ''two spells at the same time''. Many a player thought it'd be safer to defeat it with physical attacks. Hoo boy, were they wrong: his basic attack is fast and strong enough to kill any character other than [[spoiler: Helba]] in a matter of 2 to 5 seconds. |
| 17 | * ''VideoGame/SeventhDragon III: code VFD''[='=]s post-game dungeon. You know how throughout the game, there are dragons as PreexistingEncounters that are somewhat more powerful than the RandomEncounters within the same area? Well in this dungeon, ''all random-encounter enemies are dragons!'' And the dragon battle music from Chapters 6 and 7 plays for these encounters rather than any random encounter theme, just to hammer the point in. |
| 18 | * ''VideoGame/{{Albion}}'' brings us The Fear (article included in the German version), and the Animal, as boss fights halfway through the second major dungeon in the game. They are quarding a key and a passage to the next level respectively, and have a lot of buildup to their respective fights, with the characters actually commenting on them. The Animal especially is considerably powerfull and fast, and can deliver massive blows and critical hits. It's a standard enemy in all dungeons. In fact, the one you first fought is actually a lot WEAKER then all later variants. Thankfully, being supernatural creatures, means that they can be instantly removed from the field with a spell that is unique to the caracter who joined you prior to first encountering them. |
| 19 | * ''VideoGame/BatenKaitos Origins'': |
| 20 | ** After defeating [[ThatOneBoss the bird boss]] you have to saunter away from the crash site and run right into the Alraune. For starters, the flower has a ton of HP, capable of swallowing your strongest attacks for several turns. It's quite fond of 'Poison Breath', which hits all three characters hard and is likely to poison at least two of them. Its normal attacks are no slouch either, and the Mirabilis it comes with hit just as hard. Unless you're loaded for ice or fire, the damn thing can and will rip you apart. Just to add insult to injury, the overworld sprite appears in a very cramped location, making it tricky to dodge. Probably the best way to handle a party with one of these is to assemble Blazing Glacial Queen, but good luck keeping [[GlassCannon Guillo]] alive long enough to pull it off. |
| 21 | ** The Herculean Dragon from [[TheVeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon Tarazed Core]]. Its attacks don't hit particularly hard (by this game's standard, at least) but that's small comfort when the damn thing buffs up its defense and heals itself faster than you can damage it, turning a quick battle into a drawn out slugfest. Not even [[GameBreaker The Apotheosis]] can kill this thing easily. |
| 22 | * ''VideoGame/BetrayalAtKrondor'': Pantathians. You only fight them a handful of times, but every time you do they are among the most difficult combats in the game, sporting twice the health of most normal enemies, loaded with tons of nasty, hard-hitting spells (including insta-freeze spells like Grief of 1000 Nights), and also capable of melee combat. One fight in Chapter 6 has you facing ''five'' of them at once (luckily it's an optional combat, though you may not realize it at the time). This doesn't apply to the Pantathians in chapter 8, however, who, due to GameplayAndStoryIntegration, have virtually no spells or offensive capabilities. |
| 23 | * ''VideoGame/{{Bloodborne}}'': |
| 24 | ** NPC Hunters in general can qualify for this. Since they are created using the same character creation system as your own character, they, too, have character levels, which of course limits just how powerful they can be, and they do not get stronger over NewGamePlus games, either, but those are weak comforts since [[TheComputerIsACheatingBastard NPC Hunters do not play according to]] [[MyRulesAreNotYourRules the same rules as you]]. For starters, they have unlimited usable items, tools and Quicksilver Bullets, which allows them to spam their guns and spells however much they want. (They've thankfully got a much more limited stock of Bloodvials than you do, though.) Some encounters, however, stand out: |
| 25 | ** Upon entering Old Yharnam, an old coot on top a tower warns you that, if you proceed further into the hamlet, then he's going to have to hunt you down. No biggie, right? Yes, it is. Especially when he opens fire on you from atop of his tower with a ''[[GatlingGood Gatling Gun]]!'' Meet Retired Hunter Djura. So, you struggle your way to his tower and climb it, really looking forward to tearing that gun-reliant coward a new one... Yeah, well, Djura is ten times as deadly at this distance, so have fun with that. The fact that you fight him [[NotTheFallThatKillsYou on top of a tall, narrow tower]] does ''not'' improve matters, though this also means that you can subject him to a DisneyVillainDeath, ''if'' you know what you're doing. Thankfully, Djura's fight is skippable, though if you want his gear you'll have to fight him. |
| 26 | ** When you enter [[AcademyOfEvil Byrgenwerth]], you're confronted by Yurie, the Last Scholar. She's a wizard-type Hunter. The [[SquishyWizard squishy kind]]? Yes, but since she's also ''maximum level'' you won't notice that fact. What you ''will'' notice is that she's got [[CombatTentacles Augur of Ebrietas]] and ''[[BeamSpam A Call Beyond]]''. The former makes close quarter combat with her risky while the latter makes long distance combat a death sentence, with each one of the Call's dozen-or-so projectiles causing a small explosion on impact with any surface, and it's powerful enough to one-shot you with just a few grazing hits. Up close she also uses a fully upgraded Threaded [[SwordCane Cane]] and a Rosmarinus, an unblockable sidearm which saps your health within its AOE. Going on [[AttackAttackAttack a relentless offensive]] and praying for a miracle is honestly your best bet. |
| 27 | ** Once you've triggered the Blood Moon phase of the game and venture into Yahar'gul you may encounter three Hunters within the Hypogean Gaol, essentially making this a WolfPackBoss in Mook Clothing. One of the Hunters is armed with a [[WolverineClaws Beast Claw]] and a Hunter Pistol, the second is armed with a Threaded Cane, a [[FireBreathingWeapon Flamesprayer]] and a [[ShockAndAwe Tiny Tonitrus]], and the third is armed with a Rifle Spear and ''a [[ArmCannon Cannon]]''. Both of which have ''unlimited ammo''. And these three Hunters are aggro-linked, meaning that if you provoke one of them, the other two will be on your throat faster than you can say "Paleblood." The only mercy in this encounter is that the Hunters do not respawn, so as long as you manage to kill one of them, he'll remain dead for your next attempt. |
| 28 | ** The Bloody Crow of Cainhurst only appears at the end of [[CoolOldLady Eileen the Crow]]'s questline once the Blood Moon has risen. Like Yurie, he's a maximum level Hunter, but unlike her, he's got a ''huge'' healthpool, fully comparable to some bosses, two Blood Vials to restore his health with, and three out of his four armor pieces are the Cainhurst armor set, which have some of the highest raw defenses in the game. The weapons the Bloody Crow uses are the [[KatanasAreJustBetter Chikage]] and a [[HandCannon Repeating Pistol]], both of them fully upgraded and both of them some of the highest damaging weapons in the game, making him capable of killing you in two-three hits with either one of them, a fact made ''even worse'' by the items and tools he uses: Numbing Mist, which [[AntiRegeneration disables your own ability to use Blood Vials]], and the Old Hunter's Bone, which enables him to use [[FlashStep the art of Quickening]], which he does so often it borders on TeleportSpam. Finally, unlike all other NPC Hunters, the Bloody Crow ''gets stronger with each NewGamePlus run,'' going from roughly 3100 HP in a New Game, to a whooping ''9000'' on a NG+ run and capping off at a massive ''13000 HP'' on [=NG+7=]. |
| 29 | ** Upon entering The Hunter's Nightmare, the first area of the DLC, the player is almost immediately confronted with an Old Hunter swinging a [[{{BFS}} huge slab]] of a WhipSword around and being a general menace. [[BeefGate He's quite challenging for the level you're likely at when you first enter the DLC]]... unfortunately, he also happens to be a regular, respawning mook in this area and there are both [[SinisterScythe Saif]] and [[CarryABigStick Hammer]]-wielding variants of him. What's worse is that there are also [[RedEyesTakeWarning vermin-infested]] Old Hunters who are many times stronger than the base versions. Thankfully, the vermin-infested ''do not'' respawn. |
| 30 | ** Moving out of the "enemy Hunters" category of boss mooks, venturing further into The Hunter's Nightmare you are soon sure to run afoul the Nightmare Executioners, hulking {{cthulhumanoid}}s either wielding axes made from broken church bells or {{Arm Cannon}}s. And if you don't finish these guys off really fast, they [[TurnsRed empower themselves]] so that their axes leave lingering shockwaves that both disrupt your LifeDrain ability ''and'' effectively double the Nightmare Executioners' damage output. Getting into a straight-up fight with one of these guys is ''never'' considered a good idea, no matter what level you're at. |
| 31 | ** In the Fishing Hamlet, the last area of the DLC, another unwelcome hulk of an enemy pops up in the form of the [[SharkMan Giant Fishmen]]. Aside from the fact that they've got a very dangerous grab attack and a lunging attack that puts them square into the LightningBruiser category, there's also an even tougher variant that's armed with an {{Anchor|sAway}}. Oh, and if you go down the Fishing Hamlet's well (which is where the Rakuyo, one of the best weapons in the game, is found) you get to fight two of them at once. This fight is considered harder than most actual bosses in the game, though if you're sneaky enough you can set them on each other. |
| 32 | * ''VideoGame/BreathOfFireII'' 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. |
| 33 | * The Archmage and the Berserker, enemies in the Container Yard of ''VideoGame/BreathOfFireIII'' are actually tougher than the final boss. The Archmage even has a skill that revives ''your'' entire party. Why? ''So he can kill you again.'' |
| 34 | * The Rider enemy in ''VideoGame/BreathOfFireIV'' is much stronger than the final boss, using the game's strongest spells on the party, and healing itself an absurd amount every turn. |
| 35 | * The Iron Maiden from the DS remake of ''VideoGame/ChronoTrigger'' is one of, if not the strongest, mooks in the entire game. For starters, it has a whopping 10 000 HP. It begins the battle with plain lasers and missiles, occasionally stealing your magic as a counter. But once you drain enough of its' health with your most powerful spells, the deadly robot will perform a move called "Power Increased", after which your magic will only serve to heal it. And chances are, you physical attacks are not nearly strong enough to deal decent damage. All the while Iron Maiden will spam Attrition, a move cutting your party's HP in half, and after a while will decide to self-destruct, which may very well destroy you as well. Oh, and at one point you'll also have to face ''two'' of these at once. The AchillesHeel of this behemoth? It's extremely susceptible to Magus's Black Hole, [[NotCompletelyUseless but why would you ever use this generally terrible spell to begin with?]] |
| 36 | * The Highwayman from ''VideoGame/ChronoCross'', which at first just seems to be a scripted encounter. Then you find out it's got a mountain of health, sizeable defense, and an attack that blinds the whole party. |
| 37 | %%** The Beebas as well, when you first fight them. |
| 38 | * The Boreal Brutes from ''VideoGame/CodeVein'' are huge, hulking abominations that can take more damage to down than some ''bosses'', have the ability to armour themselves with ice that reduces all damage to them by 90% until you melt it with fire or shatter it with a hammer, attack with brutal, massively-damaging combos that keep you constantly on the defensive, can roll at you with blinding speed that can almost one-shot you or hurl gigantic ice pillars that ''explode,'' and are almost completely impossible to stagger. Oh and while not ''actually'' immune to being backstabbed, it moves so fast that, combined with the flakey hitboxes for backstabs, it might as well be. The hardest fight in ''the entire game'' (and as a SoulsLikeRPG it's [[NintendoHard not an easy game to begin with]]) is generally agreed to be a miniboss encounter against [[DualBoss two of them at once]] in the Depths map ''Silent White.'' |
| 39 | * In ''VideoGame/CrossEdge'', Lujit, a teensy pink dragon, straddles the line between this trope, DemonicSpiders and BeefGate. You can most likely meet in a dungeon where your party is at most level 40. His level? Level 120. WAAAAY higher than THE TrueFinalBoss. To make matters even worse, Lujit has both Parry and Perfect Barrier, which allow it to dodge both physical and magical attacks respectively when its HP hits 25%, meaning that the only way to damage it past that point is EX Skills. Good luck surviving long enough to use those. His attack of choice. A-Fear. Yes, the Big Bad's ultimate attack, and you can die from it this early. And to a little pink dragon no less. Lujit, however, ''can'' be easy provided you get him with a group of enemies, since you can kill them to get SP for the EX Skills. If you see him alone, however, run. |
| 40 | * ''VideoGame/DarkSouls'': |
| 41 | ** The Black Knights. Non-respawning enemies who appear slightly off the beaten path, they have a lot of health, defense, and are very hard to defend against with fast, powerful attacks. Defeating them may net you a DiskOneNuke. Even if you don't, you can meet them again in the [[TheVeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon Kiln Of The First Flame]] as respawning enemies, where they often become [[PinataEnemy farming targets]]. |
| 42 | ** Titanite Demons, also known as Prowling Demons. They are gigantic (in a game where size is a very good indicator of a monster's strength), there's only a handful of them and they don't respawn (except for one), and they are devastatingly powerful. Cruelly, the first one you encounter will be the one beneath the Undead Parish (unless, of course, you find the one in The Catacombs first), who is in a humongous room that allows you to take advantage of his slow, telegraphed attacks. The rest? They're all in tight, cramped areas. |
| 43 | ** If you return to the Undead Asylum after the tutorial, you'll find out that Oscar wasn't kidding when he said he would Hollow soon. He's not quite as tough as a Black Knight, but he's quick, smart, and leaves very few openings to attack. Adding to that, his sword deals magic damage, which means you can't just turtle through his attacks. Killing him nets you a very nice shield. |
| 44 | ** Royal Sentinels in Anor Londo. Regular Sentinels are nasty already, but Royal Sentinels are brutal. They have all the power of the Sentinels, but even more HP and the ability to use the Wrath of the Gods and Heal miracles. Wrath of the Gods will knock you flat on your ass if you're in range, and they love to use Heal just when you're about to finish them off. To add insult to injury, they spawn in the hall right before [[ThatOneBoss Ornstein and Smough]], meaning that while you're trying to summon your co-op partner, they'll be smashing around trying to wear you down. |
| 45 | * ''Videogame/DarkSoulsII'': |
| 46 | ** Heide Knights are the sequel's answer to the Black Knights. They aren't as big or strong, but they are more agile. They also have several attacks that come out instantly, including one that attacks ''behind'' them and causes them to do an instant 180, making them almost impossible to backstab. One can be found in one of the game's earliest areas. Defeating this one nets you a decent sword for the early-game that can still be viable in the end-game if it's properly upgraded. Thankfully, they aren't hostile until you attack them first... except for the ones added to Heide's Tower of Flame in ''Scholar of the First Sin'', who wake up and start patrolling once the boss is defeated. |
| 47 | ** Ogres as well. Each is an elephant-sized cyclops with a slightly dopey looking face, but they hit like a truck and are a ''lot'' faster than you'd think something that big would be. They also have a grab attack that is almost guaranteed to kill you, as it causes bleeding. Fortunately, most of them don't respawn. '''Most''' of them. |
| 48 | ** The Flame Salamanders underneath the Forest of Fallen Giants. They hit hard and have massive walls of HP, as you'd expect. They also launch hard hitting and terrifyingly accurate fireballs in bursts of three. To make things worse, they're also fast, and have a nasty diving tackle that makes them difficult to escape from. On the bright side, the area they're in is completely optional...unless you want to do the ''Crown of the Old Iron King'' DLC, since the key to access it is hidden there. |
| 49 | * ''VideoGame/DarkSoulsIII'': |
| 50 | ** The Black Knights from ''VideoGame/DarkSoulsI'' return, almost identical to their predecessors. Most of them respawn this time. |
| 51 | ** Outrider Knights. Part knight, part beast, wielding [[KillItWithIce frost weapons]] and packing a frost breath attack. There are only three in the entire game. Two of them drop the aforementioned frost weapons, while the third drops their armor set and is also guarding a powerful sorcery. |
| 52 | ** There are two enemies with not only boss-level health and damage, but other boss characteristics (such as dropping a boss soul) but who are still not ''technically'' qualified as bosses for mostly aesthetic reasons (no fog wall, boss theme, or "Heir of Fire Destroyed" victory message), making them near-literal versions. The first is the [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Fire Demon]] found in the Catacombs of Carthus: a huge demons wielding a giant axe similar to the Taurus Demons from ''VideoGame/DarkSoulsI'', but stronger and with fire-based attacks. The second is the Stray Demon in Farron's Keep, which is the same as the Stray Demon from ''VideoGame/DarkSoulsI'' with the addition of a grab attack and a ranged boulder-spitting attack that is impossible to dodge. There's also a second Fire Demon in the Undead Settlement, which is identical to the one in Carthus in all ways other than that it doesn't drop a boss soul. |
| 53 | ** Sulyvahn's Beast is a giant three-eyed crocodile-dinosaur monstrosity that [[GiantSpaceFleaFromNowhere materializes out of nowhere]] on the bridge towards Irithyll. It attacks ferociously with fast bites that deal massive damage and can also charge at you with its mouth open and grab you with it, [[OneHitKill killing you instantly]]. Should you choose to flee into Irithyll, it will later drop down as you pass through the swamp below, forcing you to fight it [[MuckingInTheMud while wading around in the muck]]. In other words, you'd better kill it on that bridge. Later on there is an area hidden behind an illusory wall where you fight ''two'' of them! Even though it's pretty easy to aggro one at a time, either one of them is even tougher than the one on the bridge, and they even seem to have smarter AI. |
| 54 | * ''VideoGame/DarkestDungeon'' defines bosses as the targets of a quest that you have to kill to finish. However, it has a fair share of wandering strong enemies that can show up in nearly any expedition to give you a hard time. They technically don't count as bosses as they don't have specified missions for them, but they're so tough they might as well be one. |
| 55 | ** The most infamous is the Collector, who can show up ''anywhere''; most other wandering bosses have gimmicks that influence when you encounter them, but the Collector has none of those. While its own offenses are poor, it's a FlunkyBoss that repeatedly summons adds that get between it and your melee attackers, and will make your life difficult with a mixture of damage, healing, and defense. |
| 56 | ** The Shambler is designed to punish players who neglect their light levels; if you seek it, it can be called forth from special altars. It will always surprise your party and reshuffle their positions, forcing you to waste a turn getting everyone back in formation. It has low direct damage but it gleefully spreads Blight, Bleed, and Stress across your entire party -- and its CombatTentacles quickly stack buffs and must be killed before they're too strong to eliminate. If you flee the Shambler, it will forcibly replace your next random encounter, so the only way to be truly rid of it is when one side dies, or you abandon/complete your quest. |
| 57 | ** The Crocodilian is encountered in the marshy, swampy Courtyard, introduced in the aptly named Crimson Court DLC. This lump of pure HitPoints and killing intent will abuse position swapping to duck in and out of attack ranges, and its Apex Predator attack is almost a guaranteed critical hit. This enemy is encountered and fought repeatedly during your Courtyard expeditions, and it always likes to guard chests containing keys that are important for progression. |
| 58 | ** The Fanatic has a chance to appear in any dungeon if any of your characters is infected by [[OurVampiresAreDifferent the Crimson Curse]]. Like the Hag boss, he can snag one of your four party members to burn them at the stake, dealing constant damage until that person is at [[LastChanceHitPoint Death's Door]]. All the while, he'll be dishing out damage and stress to the rest; even more so if you actually destroy the pyre, at which point he starts hitting the whole party at once. Like with the Shambler, once you encounter the Fanatic, he will replace all encounters until either of you die or you abort the mission. |
| 59 | ** The Thing from the Stars is another wandering boss that has moderately high HP and strong offenses. But once it falls to half health, it gets a surge of PROT and constantly removes DamageOverTime effects, while summoning adds that threaten to blow up your party. The one saving grace is that the game will inform you of where the Thing is lurking if you do not wish to face it. |
| 60 | * ''VideoGame/DemonsSouls'' features at least one kind of super-nasty enemy in every world, and most of them have the ability to instantly or near-instantly kill you if you make a single mistake fighting them. Usually the dangerous enemies are Black Phantom variants of existing ones, easily distinguished by their black and red glow. The Boletarian Palace has red-eyed knights who can very easily break through your guard. The Tower of Latria has Mind Flayers, who can blast you from afar with strong magic projectiles, and shoot a paralyzing burst of electricity that lasts just long enough for them to walk up and slaughter you. The Shrine of Storms has four kinds of skeletons- long sword wielders that roll up to you and break your guard with overhead slashes, archers that fire magic arrows, golden-armored skeletons with huge swords, and black-armored ones with dual katanas. The katana skeletons are the meanest by far, since they swing their swords in such wide arcs. If you encounter a Black Phantom katana skeleton and try to block its leaping attack, you'll get to watch both your stamina and your health drop to zero in a heartbeat. |
| 61 | * ''VideoGame/TheDenpaMen'' series has several. In the first game, if it looks like it's going to kick your ass, [[TotalPartyKill it probably will]]. There are many, many offenders (Golems, Windbugs, Dragons when at low levels), but among the worst offenders is the notorious Hydraplant. It attacks twice per turn, has tons of HP, can breathe various stat-affecting gasses, and absolutely ''loves'' to spam an Earth-type hit-all attack that can easily decimate all but the sturdiest Denpas in your party in one go--let alone ''two'' of them per turn! And they have ''upgraded versions.'' In the sequel, Hydraplant got a ''massive'' downgrade, but Windbugs and Golems retain many of their former glories. Golems were even ''made stronger,'' since they're no longer weak to Light and Water-type attacks. |
| 62 | * ''VideoGame/DigimonWorldDawnDusk'' feature three Digimon per game, which appear in certain locations after the player beats a lengthy BossRush. The weakest of them is strong enough to wipe the floor with the strongest opponents from the boss rush. They also are extremely fast, so if you happen to run into two or three of those in one battle while unprepared, it is almost guaranteed that you'll see your whole party fall without even assigning a command. |
| 63 | * ''VideoGame/DragonQuestIX'': Several grotto monsters are reskins of previously encountered bosses (including grotto bosses), and have the stats to match. Uncommon colds and scarlet fevers have far too much HP for living diseases with an irksome tendency to paralyse most of your party, slugly betsys are great big tanky casters that drain MP and revive their dead, alphyns are mutant lions that attack twice and whose spells go critical half the time... |
| 64 | * ''VideoGame/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. The third game does away with the pretense and gives them the same onscreen health meters as normal bosses. |
| 65 | * ''VideoGame/{{EarthBound|1994}}'': Final Starman in the Cave of the Past. Capable of ''spamming'' [[TotalPartyKill PSI Starstorm Omega]], which deals over 700 HP of damage to the opposing party (and ''only'' Ness even has that much HP when you encounter it); Brainshock Omega, which confuses everyone in the party; and [[ShootTheMedicFirst Healing Omega]], which fully revives any defeated enemy. Oh, and they start out with maximum PSI shields, which completely deflect PSI attacks. Couple that with the fact that they usually appear with Nuclear Reactor Robots (which spend their turns healing enemies to full health ''and'' explode when you kill them) and the {{Demonic Spider}}s that are Ghosts of Starmen, and you have a TotalPartyKill waiting to happen. |
| 66 | * ''VideoGame/EldenRing'' has a very simple rule of thumb: if you run into a enemy that's merely an upscaled version of a regular animal, ''run''. For some reason, oversized bears, crabs, and prawns (plus octopi and giant rats to a lesser extent) are some of the deadliest and most violent encounters you can have in this land full of undead and freaky monsters. And despite being more aggressive and dangerous than some actual minor bosses, they're never treated as anything more than a bigger-than-average mob, often dropping nothing but basic meat and respawning like any other random monster. |
| 67 | * In ''Franchise/TheElderScrolls'' games: |
| 68 | ** Vampire ancients from ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIIDaggerfall Daggerfall]]'' attack much more aggressively (and accurately) than any other enemy in the game. They attack with high-level shock magic [[CycleofHurting that can instakill even high level players in one or two hits and frequently paralyzes you, preventing you from moving or fighting back.]] Combine this with the fact that [[CharacterSelectForcing they can only be killed by characters who specialize in magic]][[note]]Spell Reflection and shock-resistance magic spells are the only way for even high level characters to survive their high damage output, but the casting cost for these spells is so high that the only way to afford them is by selecting a class with the increased magic perk during character creation.[[/note]], and the fact that one of them is guaranteed to be encountered in a required storyline quest, and you have one of the most difficult mooks in video game history. |
| 69 | ** ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIIIMorrowind Morrowind]]'': |
| 70 | *** Many "Dagoths" appear identical to generic Ash Ghouls, despite being much more powerful. |
| 71 | *** Other Dagoths share the appearance of Ascended Sleepers. Despite being "unique" named foes, they are actually ''weaker'' than the generic Ascended Sleepers, who are high-health spellslingers that pile tons of damaging effects on you. Fortunately, they're very rare, only appearing naturally once you're over level 20. |
| 72 | *** Dremora Lords appear identical to standard Dremoras, at least until they move to cast a powerful offensive spell or whip out a powerful Daedric or Ebony weapon. (Standard Dremoras cannot cast offensive spells and typically carry Dwemer or Dreugh weapons.) |
| 73 | *** Diseased and Blighted creatures appear identical to their standard counterparts, despite packing a bigger punch and having the ability to spread crippling diseases to you. |
| 74 | ** ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim Skyrim]]'': |
| 75 | *** Dragons, with the exception that their appearance as random encounters is triggered by the plot rather than by character level. |
| 76 | *** High-level draugrs (overlord and deathlord flavors) are definitely this. Once you reach a high-enough level, these draugr which previously served as an area's boss now becomes a mook, and they're still every bit as tough as they were before. This is especially true for the ones wielding Ebony Bows, which can easily snipe you from a huge distance and take out a massive chunk of HP, even at high levels. |
| 77 | *** Giants and mammoths. Sure, giants look intimidating, but they are encountered out in the wild as soon as you reach the Whiterun plains (so possibly long before you even reach the double digit levels) and seem to be quite common, so a new player is likely to take them for a FakeUltimateMook... [[ATwinkleInTheSky and get forcibly enlisted into the Skyrim Space Program]]. At high difficulty levels, especially Legendary, even a high-level player with maximum armor would do well not to underestimate the giants' crushing blows. Mammoths are even worse, because while they don't hit quite as hard, they have more health and most importantly move and attack much faster. A low-level player can conceivably kill a giant by peppering it with shots or spells from a distance and avoiding its enormously strong, but telegraphed attacks. Not so with mammoths. To make matters worse, they are commonly found in groups, so attacking one giant or mammoth is likely to pull at least one or two more to you. At least both are quite valuable kills to compensate - giants drop over 100 gold and occasionally valuable items. Mammoths drop fairly valuable ShopFodder, but most importantly they are the most common creature in Skyrim to have a Grand-quality White Soul, invaluable in Enchanting. |
| 78 | *** Silver Hand bandits in the Companions questline. While they're essentially repurposed normal bandits with Silver weapons, they are ''not'' TieredByName and are all simply identified as "Silver Hand". As such, you'll also have no way of telling how strong they are until someone strikes the first blow, meaning that every Silver Hand mook you fight may either go down in two hits or kill ''you'' in two hits. |
| 79 | * The ''VideoGame/EpicBattleFantasy'' series: |
| 80 | ** The third game introduces the Monolith enemy class, which is nigh-unanimously considered ridiculous by any reasonable standard. All three of them have a ton of HP, resist virtually everything, and have incredibly overpowered attacks. They can also buff the entire enemy party in a game where UselessUsefulSpell is largely averted. Your one saving grace is that they are not fully resistant to Syphon, but good luck pulling it off. |
| 81 | *** Viking Monolith has an attack that hits the entire party and inflicts the dangerous freeze condition at an obnoxiously high rate. Oh, and it can cause instant death with another attack. |
| 82 | *** Ancient Monolith loves to pull out a move that heals 100% of the HP of the entire enemy party, including itself, right when you're on the verge of finally killing the damn thing. It can also dispell your buffs and inflict stun. |
| 83 | *** Cosmic Monolith can, and ''will'', abuse its Doomsday attack that nails the whole field for upwards of 10,000 damage. In the third game, this includes itself, which ''heals it''. And while in later games, Doomsday no longer hits the Monolith itself, it can now pierce through your Dark resistance, and the Monoliths also gain a devastating physical attack if they get Syphoned. Cosmic Monoliths proved so notorious that the fourth game only made them available in the DLC as an OptionalBoss with their own unique battle music - an honor shared only with the FinalBoss. Their status as this trope is even lampshaded in the fifth game, where they return as regular enemies: after you beat the first one you come across, Anna remarks that such a strong enemy must have been a boss and [[TemptingFate it's a good thing you won't run into any more of them]]. |
| 84 | ** From a third game on, [[GiantMook Giant Mooks]] started to appear. They have much more health and stronger attacks than their smaller versions, and they can also [[MookMaker summon their smaller counterparts]] at will. |
| 85 | * In ''VideoGame/EternalRing'' 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 dragon summoning spells (dragon spells are as big as it gets here), and they take more than half the HP of a character who's already able to take on the final boss. |
| 86 | * ''VideoGame/EtrianOdyssey'', being a NintendoHard series of dungeon crawlers, has a ton of these monsters, designated as "[=FOEs=]" (officially short for [[GratuitousEnglish Field-On Enemies]] in Japan, [[GratuitousLatin Formido Oppugnatura Exsequens]][[note]]roughly, "ancient and terrible nature warriors"[[/note]] in the USA, and Foedus Obrepit Errabundus[[note]]"the vile, wandering one sneaks up"[[/note]] in Europe, though fans like to call them "[[FanNickname Freakishly Overpowered Enemies]]") in game terms. |
| 87 | ** First appearing on the second floor of the first stratum of [[VideoGame/EtrianOdysseyI the first game]] (Emerald Grove), F.O.E. 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 in Emerald Grove itself) will actually ''join other [=FOEs=]'' mid-fight to make your life even more of a living hell. |
| 88 | ** ''VideoGame/EtrianOdysseyIIHeroesOfLagaard'', in addition to having a F.O.E on the first floor, takes this one step further. A specific random encounter in the final floor 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. If you're particularly unlucky, this also appears as an ambush while harvesting. ''In pairs''. The ''Fafnir Knight'' remake retains this random encounter in all its overpowered glory, and made it ''stronger'', with over 30,000 HP, and a DesperationAttack that can destroy the party when it approaches death. A quest needs you to ''hunt one''. One of the guaranteed ways to get it to spawn also gives that enemy ridiculous ActionInitiative. And there's a ''conditional drop'' to boot. |
| 89 | * Summoners in ''VideoGame/FableI''. The only saving grace you'll get from them is that they appear near the end of the game and you'll never fight more than two at once. That's where pleasantries end: they can't be staggered, have a fair share of unblockable attacks (including a ranged, area-effect one that additionally - a rarity - turns off friendly fire), always appear with a few [[GoddamnedBats Minions]] and have tons of hp. If you manage to kill it, it explodes after a few seconds. |
| 90 | * In the ''VideoGame/{{Fallout}}'' series: |
| 91 | ** 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. |
| 92 | ** ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 3}}'': |
| 93 | *** 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. |
| 94 | *** 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 AttackItsWeakPoint. |
| 95 | *** The Yao-Guai, when first encountered, can be like this due to its ludicrous speed and raw, unstoppable power. Your only hope before you can easily kill them through over-leveling is to catch them as far from you as you can and shoot them in the head as many times as possible before they close the gap between you and them. Due to being able to run into them before finding the shotgun, they can be horribly brutal, nearly impossible to kite, and sometimes come in ''pairs.'' They're also quite capable of taking a full mini-gun burst if you aren't skilled enough. Yao Guai and Deathclaws are the single biggest reasons to find and craft a Dart Gun as quickly as possible. The weapon cripples the legs of anything it hits, and a Yao Guai or Deathclaw with crippled limbs, in addition to being a great deal slower, also cannot ''lunge.'' |
| 96 | *** ''Point Lookout'' has the Swampfolk. They look like normal (if slightly deformed and deranged) people, yet their attacks hit for much more than you would suspect. This is because they, like Deathclaws, have the ability to ignore your damage resistance. But unlike Deathclaws, they do not have sharp claws or other special abilities, only regular double barrel shotguns and lever-action rifles. These guns, like Overlord Tri-Beam Lasers, do an extra 35 points of unblockable damage but the shotguns are worse. A meat shot with all nine pellets does a total of '''315''' points plus the 85 points of the shot. The developers have said that they made the Swampfolk so strong because they wanted ''Point Lookout'' to be the hardest DLC and also because they wanted to create the "Lovecraftian" feeling of having to run and hide from mysterious enemies; instead of just running in and slaughter everyone with your minigun. The aforementioned Reavers are also a common occurence. Swamplurks look like a palette swap of the base game's Mirelurk Kings, but have almost twice the HP, twice the melee damage, and spit armor-eating acid that does as much damage as a Deathclaw. |
| 97 | *** 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. They can appear in any location where their lesser brethren spawn, even if you had been there at a lower level. As early as Level 13, in fact. Also Overlords do 40 extra points of extra damage to their Tr-Beam Lasers. Not per shot, no that'd be too easy, it's ''per laser beam''. That's 120 unblockable points plus the extra 75 for hitting and it's only against the player. |
| 98 | *** Sentry Bots have the same HP as Deathclaws, with even greater damage resistance and no weak points, and possess highly damaging weaponry in the form of a Minigun or Gatling Laser and Missile Launcher. They also largely [[LevelScaling replace the lower-grade robots at high levels]]. Once you're leveled up and have the proper weaponry, though, they become more of {{Fake Ultimate Mook}}s. |
| 99 | *** The Overlords and Albino Radscorpions are at least used ''like'' bosses, in that you rarely fight more than 1 than a time (2 or maybe 3 at once in certain very specific situations, including Vault 87 if you're above Level 20, and GNR Building Plaza at Level 15+). However, there are multiple free-roam dungeons(e.g. Red Racer Factory, Franklin Metro Utility, and Dunwich Building at high levels) and one main plotline mission (Presidential Metro) near the end of the game where you're expected to fight ''several'' Feral Ghoul Reavers ''at the same time''. Each individual Reaver is about half as tough as a Behemoth, and hits almost as hard. |
| 100 | *** Worse, there are certain places where these enemies can spawn regardless of player level, for example, you can encounter an Overlord outside GNR as early as Level 6. And God help you if you run into a Reaver in the Metro tunnels at that level. |
| 101 | ** ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'': |
| 102 | *** The game dropped the Dart Gun and made the Deathclaws more numerous and resilient, turning them into outright DemonicSpiders. Fortunately, they only appear in specific locations as opposed to random encounters. |
| 103 | *** The [[WickedWasps Cazador]], although very small and having the appearance of a much weaker enemy, the Bloatfly, can decimate low level players with its poison and agility within a couple of hits. They come in ''packs'' of up to five, and are often used [[BeefGate to wall in low-level players]], forcing them to take a specific route in order to level up first. |
| 104 | *** Infamy with the Legion, which is likely to happen early on, will cause them to send Assassin squads after you that are [[MadeOfIron much tougher]] than standard Legion mooks, even the less armored ones, and at higher levels they wear Centurion armor (with higher Damage Threshold than the FinalBoss) and carry DT-ignoring chainsaws, super sledges, thermic lances (which also ignore armor), marksman carbines, and anti-materiel rifles. |
| 105 | *** ''Old World Blues''' Robo Scorpions attack in large groups, [[LevelScaling scale to your level]], can take more punishment than a tank, and are armed with very damaging stinger lasers. |
| 106 | *** The Courier's Mile area in ''Lonesome Road'' has Irradiated Marked Men, who have more HP than Deathclaws, and since they're ghouls, the high radiation in the area regenerates their HP, faster than the normal Marked Men. They are also heavily armed and come in groups. |
| 107 | *** the Alpha Male and Matriarch variants of Deathclaws [[LightningBruiser are twice as fast as and have 50% more HP]] than the vanilla version, and deal up to 300 melee damage (Normal difficulty), which means a OneHitKill to most characters. The ''Lonesome Road'' Deathclaws, since they scale to the player's level like most DLC enemies, become even more lethal than the Alpha Males at high levels, able to OneHitKill nearly any character. |
| 108 | *** At the end of Veronica's companion quest, depending on your skills and dialogue choices, you may have to fight a group of rogue Brotherhood Paladins, who are decked out in the almighty T-51b power armor and wield some of the game's most powerful weapons, including the potentially OneHitKill Gauss Rifle. Their stats also scale to the player's level. |
| 109 | ** ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 4}}'': |
| 110 | *** In general, a skull next to an enemy's name indicates that they are much stronger than you, and probably qualify for this trope, if they're not a KingMook. |
| 111 | *** PoweredArmor Raiders can be encountered rather early on while you're still stuck with a weak pistol, sawed-off shotgun and/or hunting rifle, usually wield heavy weapons such as the Fat Man or Minigun, and take many hits to break through their armor. Worse, at high levels, attacks on settlements may involve multiple Power Armored Raider EliteMooks. |
| 112 | *** On the higher difficulties, you will frequently encounter "Legendary" enemies, who have beefed-up defense and attack stats, sometimes being tougher than the game's actual bosses, and will [[TurnsRed "mutate"]] and [[MultipleLifeBars gain a second life bar]] if not quickly finished off. |
| 113 | *** Assaultrons, though rare, are the game's most dangerous robotic enemy. They are [[LightningBruiser extremely fast and durable]], hit very hard with melee attacks, with higher level variants using electrified hands or blade arms, and have a scorching {{Wave Motion| Gun}} EyeBeam as a ranged attack, which will [[OneHitKill instantly]] [[ChunkySalsaRule vaporize]] the Sole Survivor if it makes direct contact. If their legs are destroyed, they will continue to pursue by crawling. At low HP, they can [[ActionBomb self-destruct]] in a deadly explosion, which the Legendary variants always do when defeated. |
| 114 | *** Mirelurk Queens are as large and durable as Super Mutant Behemoths, and worse, spray long-range [[HollywoodAcid corrosive acid]] that ignores armor and quickly drains your HP. |
| 115 | *** As if the other varieties of Deathclaws weren't bad enough, the rare Mythic Deathclaw is the toughest non-Legendary variant. They are at least as strong, fast and enduring as ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'''s Legendary Deathclaw, and also level with the player, meaning they never lose the skull tag on their name and are immune to the Awareness and Wasteland Whisperer perks. |
| 116 | *** ''Far Harbor'''s Fog Crawlers have LightningBruiser stats that make Deathclaws seem like base Mirelurks, are able to very quickly get into InstantDeathRadius range, and have a ShockwaveStomp that causes major damage well above ground level. The Enraged versions have astronomical Damage Resistance that makes them nearly impervious to non-armor-piercing weapons and able to take multiple mini-nuke blasts without breaking stride (even the Mysterious Stranger [[ScratchDamage only puts a dent in its HP]]). One story quest has a mandatory confrontation, which may as well be an outright boss battle. Atom help you if you encounter a Legendary variant, especially [[{{Superboss}} Shipbreaker]]. |
| 117 | *** The aforementioned Sentry Bot, which was already plenty dangerous enough in previous games, gets a massive boost in ''4''. It's bigger, tougher, more heavily armed (minigun, rocket launcher and occasionally ''dual mortar'') and if you manage to damage it enough it'll rush you in a suicide attack that has the power of a [[OneHitKill mini-nuke]]. And if it's a legendary variant even triumph can kill you, since it explodes on death with the power of '''two''' mini-nukes. Running starting to feel like a great option? Sorry: the Sentry Bot is faster than you and can climb obstacles better. Its only weakness is that it overheats every now and then and needs to pause and vent, which is when it [[AttackItsWeakPoint becomes vulnerable]]. But you have to survive until that happens, and it's easier said than done. |
| 118 | [[/folder]] |
| 119 | |
| 120 | [[folder:G--M]] |
| 121 | %% |
| 122 | %% These examples are alphabetized by game title. Please add new listings in the correct space. |
| 123 | %% |
| 124 | * ''VideoGame/GenshinImpact'': Local Legends that can be found in Fontaine and Liyue (one at Chenyu Vale) resemble {{Elite Mook}}s, tricky but manageable with a good party setup. Many unsuspecting players found out the hard way that they have as many as ''three million'' hit points and can pull off a near-OneHitKill on even the tankiest characters (that being said, many of the underwater ones are {{Puzzle Boss}}es that can be taken down relatively quickly by absorbing powers from the right creature; no such luck for their land-based counterparts, though). The most extreme examples are Rocky and Liam, who are by all outward appearances [[GoldfishPoopGang Treasure Hoarders]] who are nonetheless capable of the above feats. Defeating each Local Legend for the first time nets an achievement. |
| 125 | * Despite being relatively easy overall, ''VideoGame/GoldenSunDarkDawn'' has a BrutalBonusLevel, and nearly everything that lives there is tougher than most of the game's bosses. Great Dragons are generally considered the worst of the bunch, and they like showing up in groups. |
| 126 | * In ''VideoGame/Haven2020'', the Shifuta, a GiantSpider-type enemy found in Rust-heavy areas, is far more resilient than standard mooks, along with dishing out massive damage, and can dodge and counter attacks if you use the wrong type when the enemy is in a particular stance, or your timing is slightly off. |
| 127 | * A feature of every dungeon in the ''VideoGame/HyperdimensionNeptunia'' series is at least one Risky Foe. These are identified by an orange dot and the minimap and will wait for you to start a fight, but are typically much stronger than the next few bosses you'll encounter after they first appear. It's worth coming back to defeat them later, though, as they're typically linked to sidequests and (depending on the game) are connected to some sort of progression system. |
| 128 | * In ''VideoGame/KartiaTheWordOfFate'', it's the Fynus phantoms that show up at the final stages of the game. Where before your characters were immune to the enemies and could wipe out even the toughest enemies in 3 or 4 hits, the Fynus have defense ratings so high that if you don't the Pair rune equipment, top tier arena or Level 20 phantom equipment, they're immune to attacks from all but your strongest physical characters (Toxa, Kun, Lacryma and Alana) using the best non-Pair rune crafted weapons. Additionally, the Fynus are strong enough to harm all but your most heavily, mundane armoured characters. The final bosses in comparison are easy to beat. |
| 129 | * ''Franchise/KingdomHearts'': |
| 130 | ** The [[MetalSlime Black Fungi]] from ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsI'' count. They have low HP, but absurdly high defense, they don't flinch at your attacks, they release poisonous gas which will do pretty sizable damage to your party, and they spend about half the time encased in stone so you can't even hurt them. |
| 131 | ** ''VideoGame/KingdomHearts358DaysOver2'' 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. |
| 132 | ** ''[[VideoGame/KingdomHeartsCoded re:Coded]]'' has the Eliminator, a [[PaletteSwap recolored Defender]] that randomly appears in System Sectors. They can block any frontal attack or magic? Not too bad, normal Defenders can also do that. They can also teleport around the sector, and have crazy attack power. What makes them truly evil is their shield attack, which fires a fast-moving homing burst that can inflict any of the status ailments in the game. Better hope that it is not [[InterfaceScrew flip-foot]] or [[OneHitKill Level 1 Defense]]. Eliminators will also TeleportSpam to stay within attacking distance of you. If you're fast and lucky enough, you may be able to reach a door before you get killed.... only to find out that ''[[SuperPersistentPredator the blasted things actually follow you from room to room]]'', something that ''no'' other enemy in the game is capable of doing. |
| 133 | * Ishtar from the Final Chapter of ''VideoGame/LiveALive'' can be described as a random encounter miniboss. |
| 134 | ** ''VideoGame/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. |
| 135 | ** Kyokushin No. 1 in the Near Future chapter. For starters, [[WolfpackBoss they always appear in groups of three]], and they use several powerful attacks, such as Wheelie Kick and '''Cow Killer''', the latter of which can (and will) one-shot you. Oh, and they have high HP, defense, ''and'' evasion! Have fun. |
| 136 | * The Nazgul in the GBA version ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'' The Return of the King. They spawn alone or in a group of 2 or 3 if the Eye of Sauron on the upper right corner fills all the way, which means they can be faced very early in the game. They are easily the strongest enemies in the entire game, being tougher than even the Witch King, their own boss. Not only do they have a very high HP, they also have a ridiculously high defense, causing almost every attack against them fail, unless the player is of extremely high level. Top it off with the extremely high damage their long reach attack does and you'll find any attempt to melee them is [[TooDumbToLive suicide]]. Their drops are not exactly worth the effort for "killing" them either, running away from them is usually the best option. However, at max level, they are the only enemies in the game to provide any challenge. |
| 137 | * These are so common in ''VideoGame/ManaKhemiaAlchemistsOfAlRevis'' that they actually get their own battle theme and a special icon in the game's PreexistingEncounters system. |
| 138 | ** 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. |
| 139 | ** A series of random enemies in the bonus dungeon are ''tougher than any {{Superboss}} in the game''. They have levels of health normally reserved for bosses, more than enough power to KO your team, tend to gang up, and are ''much'' faster than regular enemies on the field map, so good luck running past. To top it all off, only a critical hit can deal significant damage to them. And by "significant," we mean "[[ScratchDamage more than one point]]". Fortunately, [[ItemCrafting there are ways]] [[UselessUsefulSpell to compensate]]. |
| 140 | * ''VideoGame/MarioAndLuigiDreamTeam'': |
| 141 | ** Pi'illodactyls. They randomly spawn as a background enemy in battles on Mount Pajamaja or Somnom Woods (the latter of which gets their stronger recoloured "R" versions), and can be mostly ignored. Except when you hit them with a Taunt Ball to bring them into the foreground, you realise the hard way they've got about three times the stats of anything else you fight in the area (except the boss), have about three or four hard to dodge attacks that can do plenty of damage and can theoretically wipe out your entire group. They're even harder than foes you fight about 10 hours later! Have fun. At least they get rid of other enemies in the area. |
| 142 | ** The golden beanie you fight in the dream world is this even more so. Has EXTREMELY hard-hitting attacks that are hard to dodge and can wipe you out in one turn (especially the charge that requires you to use a hammer), has a boss chase sequence, more HP than any regular enemy in the game, and absurdly high defense. Plus they have [[CowardlyBoss an annoying habit of randomly fleeing in battle]] and there's no expert challenge reward for beating them. At least if you do win, they give you 4000 EXP, tons of coins, and as a reward either a DX bean or special gear. |
| 143 | * In the ''Franchise/MassEffect'' games: |
| 144 | ** ''VideoGame/MassEffect1'': |
| 145 | *** [[SandWorm Thresher maws]] can be defeated quite easily once you have them entirely figured out, but you need to make good use of the rocket launcher and machine gun of your vehicle to take them down and they can destroy it instantly when they erupt right from under it. Two hits from their acid spit also can destroy the Mako. A Thresher Maw actually [[spoiler:appears as a full-fledged boss in ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'' in Grunt's loyalty mission]]. |
| 146 | *** The nameless Krogan Commander, who has two lines at best and is not much different than a normal krogan, but just catches the party at the right range to make him a very nasty encounter. He serves as a final boss for the level despite his build as a mook. If you forget to switch to anti-organic ammo (because you've been fighting synthetics all mission) he's even harder. |
| 147 | ** ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'': |
| 148 | *** Harbinger would be a literal example, but is not actually that particularly difficult. He randomly [[MemeticMutation assumes direct control]] of Collectors, making them a lot more stronger and durable than normal and adds the ability to launch explosive projectiles that can hit you even behind cover. And even if you kill him, [[DemonicSpiders he'll just find another body if any are still present.]] Usually you have to kill him three or four times in a single fight with Collectors. In almost every fight with Collectors. |
| 149 | *** The Scions can be quite tough nuts to crack as well with their very powerful ranged attack than can disable your shields on a single hit. Made worse by the fact that they usually appear together with big swarms of Husks. |
| 150 | *** Then there’s the YMIR Heavy Mechs, which carry boss-level weapons in machine gun turrets and rocket launchers. In addition they have two layers of protection, just like an actual boss. The only reason they’re not counted as actual bosses is because they show up too frequently, and often alongside other enemies. |
| 151 | ** ''VideoGame/MassEffect3'' adds the Banshees, which are probably the prime example of Bosses in Mook Clothing in the entire series. They are presented as rare but regular enemies, but are easily the strongest and most dangerous of all Husk forms. Made from Asari with a rare genetic anomaly, they are not only very tough and durable but also possess extensive biotic abilities which allow them among other things to cover medium distances almost instantaneously to pop up right next to you. Oh yeah, and they have an instant-kill melee attack. To make things even worse, they usually appear in groups of two or three. Accompanied by swarms of lower Husks. |
| 152 | ** ''VideoGame/MassEffectAndromeda'' has conditional [=BIMCs=] in the form of the Kett Berserker. Depending on choices the player makes mid-game, they may only have to fight one, or several through the end game. Berserkers are ''the'' toughest recurring enemy in the game par none, and can heal themselves, on account of being [[spoiler:krogan in a perpetual state of blood rage]]. Though as a saving grace, their attacks aren't very dangerous. |
| 153 | * In the ''Franchise/MegaMan'' games: |
| 154 | ** ''VideoGame/MegaManBattleNetwork'': You can rematch some powerful versions of certain bosses a RandomEncounters once you meet the right requirements (varies between each game, but in the [[VideoGame/MegaManBattleNetwork6CybeastGregarAndCybeastFalzar sixth]], it involves finding the boss' first upgraded form, which is technically PreexistingEncounters in [[GuideDangIt inconspicous places]]). |
| 155 | *** In the [[VideoGame/MegaManBattleNetwork3WhiteAndBlue third game]], there is a 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. |
| 156 | *** There's also the Scuttlest. Normally, the Scuttles are DemonicSpiders, even being a spider. Their traits are elemental gimmicky attacks and an aura that needs to have 100 damage done in ONE GO before they can get damaged. Enter the Scuttlest, which usually comes with the Scuttles, and might even come along with the Scuttle Omega which is even worse. It has an insanely powerful beam attack that goes through and might BREAK every obstacle, has hp from 200 to 400, their aura takes 200 damage in one go to destroy (a trait only shared by the proper {{Superboss}}, Bass), the aura can come back AND their attack deals 200 damage (300 for Scuttle Omega), which is lethal as far as Viruses go and hard to dodge as the laser takes a whole row and you're likely dealing with the other Scuttle's attacks, and it also means if you have the LifeAura, which puts you on common ground with them, it'll go away instantly with a single attack, so you have to actively dodge them even with the GameBreaker defense chip. |
| 157 | ** In ''VideoGame/MegaManLegends'', you can run into a Boss in Mook Clothing while exploring the tunnels connected to the subgates. After going through a bunch of rooms with nothing but [[DeathTrap Death Trap]]s, you enter a room. Immediately, there is a crashing noise that's almost louder then the 'Bee-Boop' warning sound. After you run for your life, you get to a big room to see an upgraded version of the very first boss in the game. However, there's a big difference - the first boss had one drill; this thing has TWO. Due to the somewhat cramped quarters, its smash attacks are difficult to dodge, and they take a good chunk of your life bar away. Not only that, but it also can [[RocketPunch fire both drills at you]] all the way across the one large room if you get too far away, and it takes a ton of punishment before croaking! Thankfully, this is a unique Reaverbot only found in that one area. |
| 158 | ** ''VideoGame/MegaManXCommandMission'' has the Meltdown. If you play the game with frequent backtracks to Gaudile's Laboratory to [[LevelGrinding grind]] in the Eternal Forest, you might run into one at a moderately high level. However, if you play the game straight through, you'll start running into them in Chapter 7's Vanallia Desert. They have absurdly high HP, Armor, and Shield stats compared to other enemies, and have a [[OneHitKill One Hit]] TotalPartyKill that they unleash after three turns in the form of a [[NukeEm nuclear explosion]] that deals 9999 damage to your entire team. It's strongly advised to just run (meaning Zero is a bad choice to have in the party, as he hardly ever runs). |
| 159 | * The ''VideoGame/MightAndMagic'' series gives some spellcasters spells that can doom a party. Meteor Shower, Shrapnel, Dragon Breath, and sometimes Death Blossom are especially deadly; Finger of Death is a OneHitKill; and Eradicate leaves teammates DeaderThanDead. |
| 160 | * Some of the enemy monsters in ''VideoGame/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 do Golems--in ''any'' game. |
| 161 | * ''VideoGame/{{Mother 3}}'': |
| 162 | ** Cattlesnake. It has more than twice as much HP as any other enemy in the area (it has almost 800 HP, and the nearest enemy in the area in terms of maximum HP only has around ''250'' HP), 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, [[LampshadeHanging there is a sign warning you to keep your distance]]. |
| 163 | ** Cattlesnakes are a threat in Chapter 4, when you have only two underleveled characters, but by Chapter 5, your now-fully-assembled party can eat it for breakfast. There's no reason to, however, because their experience yield is as much as ''other, easier to defeat enemies in the area'', or at least don't yield enough experience after dying. |
| 164 | ** The volcano enemies in Fire Mountain before Saturn Valley in ''VideoGame/{{Mother 3}}'' are also this. Entering the dungeon means that you face enemies that chop off half of your HP with each shot, at ''your entire party''. And please don't get started on '''[[ThatOneBoss New Fassad]]'''...if he doesn't murder you, the enemies will. |
| 165 | * ''VideoGame/MuramasaTheDemonBlade'': |
| 166 | ** Onis and horse and bull demons, with huge amounts of hit points, high [[NoSell combat resistance]] and plenty of attacks that can instantly break your sword. The green ones are even worse, as they take longer to stun than the red or blue ones. |
| 167 | ** One of the [[BonusDungeon Enemy Lairs]] require you to fight four onis at once, and Total Pandemonium/Night of Absolute Chaos makes you fight five, all with boss-level health. Good luck with that. |
| 168 | [[/folder]] |
| 169 | |
| 170 | [[folder:N--S]] |
| 171 | %% |
| 172 | %% These examples are alphabetized by game title. Please add new listings in the correct space. |
| 173 | %% |
| 174 | * ''VideoGame/OctopathTraveler'': Of the many [=NPCs=] that you can interact with, the ones that make the best allies can also serve as enemies powerful enough to put some of the bosses to shame when challenged with Olberic or H'aanit, who must fight all challenged [=NPCs=] alone. Every town and village is host to at least two or three such characters. |
| 175 | * ''Videogame/{{OFF}}'' has the Pastel-Burnt, which from outside battle looks just like any regular old Burnt, and confronts you like one. He also looks quite similar to most of the Burnts in the area, and has similar attacks. The difference lies in the HP: It has tons and tons and ''tons'' of HP, which never seem to run out, perhaps more than one of the earlier bosses. Many lose a couple add-ons to this one after underestimating him, and get confronted with an enemy who [[WhyWontYouDie simply refuses to die]]. He also has a few [[MookMaker mook-making]] tendencies which can be taken care of with the add-on you got earlier, but will be your end if you don't. |
| 176 | * ''VideoGame/{{Opoona}}'' is ''full'' of these, as part of the game's general love of toying with the SortingAlgorithmOfEvil[[note]]As much as can be done without throwing off the game balance, anyway.[[/note]]. Although many areas have enemies in them who are stronger than usual, here are the most fitting candidates, in order of doomitude: |
| 177 | ** The Shredder, which is found only in one room directly before the boss in the Ruined Dome area. It has about five times as much HP as any other enemy in the area, and has more defense, too. However, because it's rare ''and'' in an area directly before a boss, most players will simply zip through the room without encountering it, and won't go back to it until an NPC encountered later on specifically clues you in that it's there. |
| 178 | ** The White Monk, found in the Sage's Tower, has far more HP than a normal enemy (over a thousand, which is more than most ''bosses''), and its attacks, although not ''too'' punishing, are still something you need to be careful of. However, one of its RandomlyDrops items is a big defense-boosting equipment only otherwise obtainable through a ''lengthy'' CollectionSidequest. |
| 179 | ** The Salamander has the most HP of ''any'' non-boss encounter, and its attacks are murderous. To make things worse, it's often flanked with bombs (almost any attack that accidentally hits them will make them explode; one alone will ''more'' than halve your HP), and you can encounter it ''barely halfway through the game.'' There's quite a disparity in levels between when you can first encounter in and when you're actually ''ready'' to encounter it. Thankfully, it resides only in the optional BonusDungeon. |
| 180 | ** Deadliest of all is the terrifying Apocalypse II, found only in one small room in the VeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon. It's insanely fast, and bombards you with laser attacks that knock off massive chunks of HP. Its defense is maddeningly high, and its HP is far too high for what its defense is at. And you have to beat it in under 2 minutes. And it's likely that you'll fight more than one at once, when one alone is more than enough for a TotalPartyKill. Thankfully, it does give out heaps of experience, and brings you closer to HundredPercentCompletion. |
| 181 | * ''VideoGame/PaperMario'': |
| 182 | ** The Amazee Dayzee in both ''VideoGame/PaperMario64'' and ''VideoGame/PaperMarioTheThousandYearDoor'' wholly crosses over with MetalSlime. It might just look like a sparkling Crazee Dayzee, but it has 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. Especially in ''The Thousand-Year Door'', where if you actually encounter one on the map (completely by chance) the first time you go through that area, 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. More than capable of murdering any unsuspecting player. ''The Thousand-Year Door'' provides a decent way to beat them once you get the Ruby Star and gain Art Attack. By concentrating loops around the Amazee Daisy, you can hit it for enough ArmorPiercingAttack damage to beat it (or at least leave it just one good hit away). |
| 183 | ** The first ''VideoGame/PaperMario'' features the four Anti Guys. Take regular mooks, give them 12 attack (where par is 2 or so and your HP limit is 50, though you're more likely to have 30 or so) and maybe twice that in HP. Oh, and in the second fight you fight three at once. At least [[OptionalBoss none of the fights are mandatory and you can skip the second fight if you answer the questions correctly]]. However, if you can beat the Anti-Guys, it makes Bowser feel like an AntiClimaxBoss. |
| 184 | ** The Spunia looks a lot like [[TheGoomba Spinias and Spanias]] with [[SpikesOfVillainy some spikes on top]]...until you check its stats. |
| 185 | ** A lone Elite Wizzerd in ''The Thousand-Year Door'' 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 [[WolfpackBoss groups of]] ''[[WolfpackBoss four or five]]''. A defense of 5 is almost insurmountable in this game, so you 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. |
| 186 | ** ''VideoGame/SuperPaperMario'' features an enemy called the Muth, a mammoth like creature found in the Gap of Crag. It looks like a regular enemy, but boasts a high attack and 100 HP in a game where that is far above the standard maximum health. Castle Bleck has a white PaletteSwap called the Mega Muth. ''Numerically stronger than the final boss,'' you have to fight ''a whole corridor full of these things.'' In fact, [[ExpositionFairy Tippi]] outright compares them to gods. Luckily, they're slow and can easily be dealt with by throwing them at each other. And there's an even stronger subspecies in Flopside's Pit of 100 Trials called the Dark Muth. |
| 187 | ** ''VideoGame/PaperMarioStickerStar'': |
| 188 | *** One sidequest has a Toad who gets beaten up once in each world. While most fights involving him are special, long time fans should be suspicious when a duo of regular-looking Shy Guys are beating him up. Rest assured, they are a CallBack to Anti Guy and give themselves a massive stat boost when the fight starts, being one of the few, if not only, regular enemy fights to exceed 100 HP. |
| 189 | *** The enemies that beat the toad up in World 2 are five paragoombas. As soon as the battle begins they merge into a 5-Fold Paragoomba which has 40HP (more than any other non-boss or miniboss at this point) and is capable of dealing a lot of damage for that point in the game. |
| 190 | * In the final dungeon of ''VideoGame/PhantasyStarIV'', 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. |
| 191 | ** ''VideoGame/PhantasyStarII'' 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. |
| 192 | ** In ''VideoGame/PhantasyStarIV'', 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. 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. The kicker is that one of the types of little worms you fight in Motavia will run off and summon [[MamaBear another full-powered Sandworm]] if you even leave one of them alive. Surprisingly though, Sandworms do provide a hefty amount of Experience points, despite their difficulty, if you pull off the right combinations you can just set a Macro based off of that turn to toast it every time. |
| 193 | * ''VideoGame/RakenzarnTales'' has a rare encounter in the first region's overworld or Gallamus Plains in the form in the form of an allosaurus. It's significantly stronger than the first several bosses and it's advised to run from it until you've at least cleared the region and gotten stronger equipment. |
| 194 | * ''VideoGame/{{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. |
| 195 | ** Near the end of the second game, the Marvel Lab where Dr. Don and his assistant Sam take refuge contains a special group of Robopon in a certain room that appear at random. Defeating them may get you a medal that can be used at Play-Land to play extra minigames. The main problem is that the group is highly leveled and will wipe the floor with you the first time you run across them unless you come prepared. There is a Dragon Robopon in the past version of Delica Castle that is the same type of battle. |
| 196 | * In ''{{VideoGame/Robotrek}}'', normally you can see enemies on map. However, there are enemies that are invisible you can encounter. Practically ''all'' of them are deadly when you first encounter them. They do, however, leave behind a lot of the game's equivalent of experience points if you beat them. |
| 197 | * Anything that pops out of the white [[MookMaker Monster Gates]] in ''[[VideoGame/RuneFactoryOceans Rune Factory: Tides of Destiny]]''. Thankfully, unlike other Monster Gates, they don't automatically summon monsters when you get near them. If you manage to destroy a white Gate, however... |
| 198 | * Abyss Bat in ''VideoGame/SagaFrontier''; granted that you have to wait around for him to show up, but he puts up quite a fight. |
| 199 | * The Black Rabite of ''VideoGame/TrialsOfMana'' is just a palette swap of the conventional yellow Rabites, which themselves are among the weakest enemies in the game. The Black Rabite, however, is the most deadly thing in the entire game. |
| 200 | * The Desert King, a breed of large, vicious sand whale randomly encountered only during Agan's Rite of Ascension in ''VideoGame/SandsOfDestruction''. You're playing as Agan alone, which makes it difficult enough, but it can [[TakenForGranite turn you to stone]] and nullifies fleeing (even including Agan's Quip), in addition to being tough and hitting just as hard as it takes. |
| 201 | * Too many enemies to name in the ''Franchise/ShinMegamiTensei'' series - fortunately, most of them have a [[OutsideTheBoxTactic Outside-The-Box]] way to defeat them, in an aversion of UselessUsefulSpell. ''Most''. |
| 202 | ** ''VideoGame/Persona3'': |
| 203 | *** The rainbow-colored Maya in The Answer. It has ''high'' resistance to damn near everything except Almighty attacks plus can nuke any party member with Black Viper (single target Almighty spell). Woe unto you if it [[WeCannotGoOnWithoutYou hits Aigis]]. |
| 204 | *** The Avenger Knight, also from The Answer, will teach you not to mess with the tiny, red Shadows. Insanely high HP, blocks light and ''bounces back'' dark, reflects Aigis' physical attacks, and has no weakness. It also hits like a truck with strong Zio (electric) and Slash attacks. |
| 205 | *** Jotuns come with ridiculously high defense. Even if you're exploiting weaknesses the whole time, it'll take a while to kill one. When you finally encounter one as a boss, it absorbs all damage except for one type. |
| 206 | *** ''The Reaper''. This thing plays the regular encounter theme in ''Persona 3'' and ''Persona 5'' but he has the same HP as a mid-endgame boss, and if you are low leveled enough or unprepared he can party wipe you with nearly every element imaginable. |
| 207 | ** ''VideoGame/{{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''. Despite the fact that it's relatively forgiving for an Atlus game, if the AI lines up just right then a normal encounter you've blown through 20 of in that dungeon will suddenly become frighteningly competent and cause a near total party wipe, even on easy. |
| 208 | ** ''VideoGame/DevilSurvivor'': |
| 209 | *** There is a particularly annoying team. The Leader: Some Magic-prominent reviver/healer. The other two? Berserkers. Who always have ''Endure'' as their one of their abilities, which allows them to always survive an attack [[LastChanceHitPoint with 1 HP left.]] Needless to say, it's almost impossible to take down even one Berserker AND kill said leader before one is revived, and the leader gains almost perfect defense again. |
| 210 | *** There's also the Decarabia. Offensively, they're decently strong with their fire spells, but nothing special. Defensively, on the other hand...they have Shield All which they abuse often, and have Sacrifice, giving them health and mana should they kill one of your demons or team leaders. Pair them up with two strong fighters, like Berserkers, and you have a group of monsters that are difficult to hit, deal high damage, and will end the fight with full health. |
| 211 | ** ''VideoGame/DigitalDevilSaga'': |
| 212 | *** There is a complete reversal of this with the final [[{{Superboss}} secret boss]], who is is the [[spoiler:Demi-fiend]] from Nocturne. His random encounter music plays during the battle, giving the impression that you're just a random bunch of mooks for him. And if you're not prepared, you ''are''. |
| 213 | *** Samael in the [[TheVeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon Karma Temple]] and Anahata Waterways. A Samael in this game has more than a thousand HP, [[NumberOfTheBeast 666]] MP, resists Physical, [[NoSell voids Earth]], repels Electricity, Expel and Death, and has some nasty skills like Vanity and Revelation. Two of them can appear as reinforcements if you defeat an enemy encounter in the waterways, but Samael is typically alone. |
| 214 | *** You can alternatively run into a pair of [[NighInvulnerable Arahabakis]] in the Manipura Waterways as reinforcements if you defeat an enemy encounter there. Special note about the Arahabakis, they ''null everything except for [[NonElemental Almighty]], [[KillItWithIce Ice]], and [[LightEmUp Expel]].'' Second, they can use [[ThatOneAttack/ShinMegamiTensei Gate of Hell]], which deals massive Physical damage to everyone and has a chance to [[TakenForGranite turn you to stone]] [[NoSell if you are not immune to either death or Physical]]. And if everyone voids Physical? They don't use it and use skills like Last Word instead. |
| 215 | ** ''Digital Devil Saga 2'', the [[VideoGame/DigitalDevilSaga first game's sequel]], includes Narasimha and Parvati in TheVeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon and they are always alone. Narasimha repels Physical attacks and guns while Parvati repels elemental magic, plus they can [[RandomDrops randomly drop]] key items that are required to fight [[OptionalBoss Vishnu and Shiva respectively]]. Narasimha also packs [[ThatOneAttack/ShinMegamiTensei Gate of Hell]] and he will use if given the chance to. |
| 216 | ** ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiStrangeJourney'': |
| 217 | *** The game has a system of special battles in which you use a special visor to find rare demons and battle them. Most of the encounters found this way are quite strong, but drop valuable remains which can either be sold for a lot of money or used in high-end weaponry. However, every now and then, horrifically overpowered demons pop up. The finest examples are the Fiends, but there are plenty of others who occasionally come up with a hankering for your guts. |
| 218 | *** One very-often-deadly example: You're level 17, you just got the Enemy Search app, and you're happily wandering around Sector Bootes to test it out. Oh, hey, there's one! An unknown, but that storyline Enemy Search was just a Fomorian, so it probably won't be too ba- ''*level 27 Kishin one-shots the hero with Zan-Ei*'' |
| 219 | ** ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiIV'' also has the Fiends appearing as possible random encounters. However they are only found in a few locations, are exceedingly rare, and when one is around [[MissionControl Burroughs]] warns you. So it's more of an example where you will have to deliberately be searching for them to most likely find one. |
| 220 | ** ''VideoGame/PersonaQShadowOfTheLabyrinth'' has the style of ''VideoGame/EtrianOdyssey'', which means there are large FOE shadows in each dungeon. All of them have much more HP than any other shadow and can act twice per turn (although they have a chance to waste an action). |
| 221 | ** ''VideoGame/{{Persona 5}}'': Using your Third Eye ability lets you see how strong an enemy is compared to you before engaging it. If the enemy you scan is colored red, it's several levels higher than you and will likely make you regret thinking you could take it. |
| 222 | * The Sootie family in ''VideoGame/StarOceanTillTheEndOfTime'''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 {{Superboss}} [[VideoGame/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. |
| 223 | * ''VideoGame/StarOceanTheSecondStory'' has this at many points of the game. In many dungeons there will be enemies that will instantly petrify your party, and will require constant stunning to prevent the group-petrifying attack. Attacking so often the enemy can't do anything is a major tactic for most enemies. In the bonus dungeon, most of your characters will have a Star Guard, equipment that upon a successful block, will do an attack which releases multiple attacks that can do 9999 damage a piece, and even then, you will die if not careful. |
| 224 | * ''VideoGame/{{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. |
| 225 | * ''VideoGame/SuperMarioRPG'': |
| 226 | ** The Bahamutt enemy 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. Finally, it has an attack that causes Fear, which halves a character's Attack and Defense. |
| 227 | ** A ChestMonster named Box Boy resides in Bean Valley. It packs really high HP, Attack and Defense at the point in the game you face it, a strong single-target magic attack knows as Blast, an attack that causes Fear, and an insanely powerful Carni-Kiss attack that can deal around ''90 HP more damage than your characters have''. It's also immune to fire, ice, and thunder magic. Alone, it's a force to be reckoned with, but it also has the need to summon a Fautso in every battle, which also has an immunity to fire and thunder (but not ice) and can use Boulder, a powerful non-elemental magic attack that hits the entire party; and Aurora Flash, which puts your entire party to sleep. Have fun with this boy. |
| 228 | ** All four chest monsters can be considered this, though there's only one of the other three types... but they respawn if you leave the area. There's Pandorite in the Kero Sewers, Hidon in the Sunken Ship, and Chester in Bowser's Keep in addition to Box Boy. All of them except for Pandorite also spawn special enemies that are rather tough. Luckily, the Chests are weak to Jump. |
| 229 | ** Mokura is nearly an OptionalBoss (it uses the boss music and is one of the only enemies to have in-battle dialogue), but is morese this trope. In the late-game area Land's End, there's a chance that a greenish cloud will spawn on many screens, and touching it enters a battle with "Formless", an invisible enemy immune to physical attacks. Hitting it with any magic attack will reveal it as Mokura and allow it to be damaged normally. Mokura has higher HP than anything else in Land's End, uses powerful magic like the single-target Electroshock and multi-target Solidify, and gives a good amount of experience each time it's defeated. |
| 230 | * The Cyclops enemies in ''VideoGame/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. |
| 231 | [[/folder]] |
| 232 | |
| 233 | [[folder:T--Z]] |
| 234 | %% |
| 235 | %% These examples are alphabetized by game title. Please add new listings in the correct space. |
| 236 | %% |
| 237 | * ''VideoGame/TalesOfSymphonia'': |
| 238 | ** Slivers, 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. |
| 239 | ** The second (optional) Card Key in the Iselia Human Ranch in [[VideoGame/TalesOfSymphoniaDawnOfTheNewWorld the sequel]] is guarded by a group of tiny leeches...with ridiculous amounts of HP that they constantly heal, and that deal a ton of damage. If you don't have very strong {{mons}} with you, you are certain to get [[TotalPartyKill party wiped]] unless you use the run command. If you do have very strong {{mons}} with you, you are ''almost'' certain to get party wiped. |
| 240 | * ''VideoGame/TheiaTheCrimsonEclipse'': In the Extremordeal, the Archdragon looks like a mid-tier symbol encounter, but when encountered, it turns out to have boss-tier HP and more party-wide DPS than [[spoiler:Azaros and Rejina]], the ''actual'' final boss of the dungeon. |
| 241 | * Dactyls in ''VideoGame/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. |
| 242 | * ''VideoGame/TokyoMirageSessionsFE'': Touching the uncommon purplish-black Mirages (as opposed to the regular red ones) leads to Savage Enemy Encounters, which consist of Mirages you'd face in any dungeon, only scaled up in levels, stats and sizes. Any given set of Savage Enemies starts out being 6-7 levels higher than your highest levelled character, and when you approach that set's level (i.e. when you're two levels away), the game will switch to another higher levelled set. Even if you know what you're doing, these battles can take forever and there's the very real chance that one or more of your party members will die. As if that wasn't enough, you can't get a First Strike out of these encounters. You also need to win 10, then another 10, then 80 of these encounters to get certain achievements. On the bright side, they give out Detritus, which you can exchange for stat-boosting items. |
| 243 | * ''VideoGame/ValkyrieProfile'' has several examples. |
| 244 | ** Dragon Zombies and their {{Palette Swap}}s have huge amounts of HP and nigh-impenetrable defenses. Most of the time, the only way to defeat them is by equipping the [[WeaponOfXSlaying Dragon Slayer]] weapons. |
| 245 | ** The {{Palette Swap}}s of the Hel Servant boss, the "Eye" monsters hit hard, possess a nasty array of spells and attacks and will revive each other to full HP if encountered in groups of two or more and if they're not killed in the same turn. Thankfully, there are only one to two "Eye" encounters in most dungeons. |
| 246 | ** In the final area of the [[BonusDungeon Seraphic Gate]], before the final {{Superboss}}, there are several {{Palette Swap}}s of end game bosses. Among them, the [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast Carnage Beast]], a PaletteSwap of Fenrir, stands out for its ability to cast [[ThatOneAttack Frost Bait]] both at the beginning of a battle and at low HP, usually doing 50,000+ damage even with a well-equipped party. |
| 247 | ** Right before the final {{Superboss}} of the Seraphic Gate, one of the encounters is ''usually'' a Loki Shade, a PaletteSwap of an end game boss. Tough, but doable. However, there is a small chance that you will fight ''[[KillerRabbit Hamsters]]'' instead. Normal looking, regular sized hamsters. Their small size means most attacks will simply whiff over their heads, and they possess an array of devastatingly powerful spells and attacks, including [[ThatOneAttack Furry One]], which unleashes a stampede of hamsters on your hapless party for a lot of damage. Prepare to die. |
| 248 | * The Hollywood [[AbsurdlySpaciousSewer sewers]] in ''VideoGame/VampireTheMasqueradeBloodlines'' are infested with monsters, worst among them a chimeric creature [[HumanResources formed]] from three people fused together in a quadrupedal form. They have a huge reserve of health, move quickly, and hit like a dump truck. The [[DegradedBoss first one]] is fought alone in a BossRoom. Later, they can ''gang up on you.'' |
| 249 | * Anyone who got any ways into the story of ''VideoGame/VanguardBandits'' will remember the horrors of the Sharking. Each one is nearly a match for your strongest units and they will outnumber you. In-universe, they were designed to kill ''pilots'', and everyone is horrified to see them. |
| 250 | * This happens in the [=SegaCD=] game ''VideoGame/{{Vay}}'' near the end, since Creator/WorkingDesigns "adjusted" the difficulty to the point where killing a dragon enemy was boss level difficulty and yet would when killed only give the experience of a weak enemy. |
| 251 | * The ''VideoGame/WildArms'' 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. |
| 252 | ** The Leprechauns in the second game's Holst Mine have 2500 HP when every other non-boss enemy until then has had maybe 200, tops, and your party members are probably still barely breaking triple digits in damage without spamming ARM attacks or exploiting elemental weaknesses. |
| 253 | ''VideoGame/WitchHunterIzana'': The omega enemies are basic enemies. Basic enemies with their stats turned so far up that they will put you in the ground unless you are at the end game. Expect to get the achievement for your first bad end if you try your luck. Thankfully they have a different sprite, and guard the ultimate equipment. |
| 254 | * In the ''VideoGame/{{Wizardry}}'' series: |
| 255 | ** 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. It ''does'' play the boss music to warn you, but it's still a random encounter, and you might not be able to escape. |
| 256 | ** ''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's probably game over. |
| 257 | * The elephants in ''VideoGame/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 ground stomp ''knocks him out of the air''! |
| 258 | ** And '''''[[SerialEscalation then]]''''' they supercharge one and set it as a {{Superboss}}. |
| 259 | ** The final two Pigs, Pig Butoh and Pig Mazurka, are the toughest Pigs by far. The former is the only Pig who actually attacks you, and is quite powerful. Beating him unlocks Pig Mazurka, the king of the Pigs. He's a Flunky Metal Slime who uses the Frogs he attacks you with to get away. Oh, and for both fights, you're limited to Gatito and Unbranded pins only. Oh, and your reward for beating them besides unique pins? The chance to fight the strongest {{Superboss}} of them all: [[spoiler:Panthera Cantus]]. |
| 260 | * The unique monsters in ''VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles1''. All of them are tough enough to be considered bosses, and the sole distinguishing visual characteristic some of them have prior to being targeted is being slightly to ''much'' larger then the normal enemies in their vicinity. It's only after targeting them and seeing their level, odd name, and fancy info window that you can know for sure. They're also almost always aggressive, even if they're of a normally passive monster type, so one who has enabled the option to see monster info from a distance can potentially identify them in this manner, as well. They have a [[AutobotsRockOut unique battle theme,]] so if you [[BackgroundMusicOverride suddenly hear it start up]], '''run'''. |
| 261 | ** The most jarring example is [[spoiler: [[KillerRabbit Despotic Arsene]], a level 108 bunniv that looks no different from the far weaker level 28 bunnivs in the same area, and is capable of smacking your party for over 10,000 damage (HP caps at 9999).]] |
| 262 | ** The worst example of how powerful these can be is [[spoiler: Magestic Mordred. It has almost equal stats to something 29 levels higher then it and it's gigantic. It's got multiple dangerous attacks that can cause status conditions and do a lot of damage. In terms of its level it's stronger then the Unique Monsters in the next area of the game and is as high in level as the boss of the area when you have to visit that same area again. It wouldn't be a surprise to think it's a boss in itself.]] |
| 263 | ** Nearly every area in the game will have otherwise-regular monsters wandering around that are usually thirty levels above the party's level when you first enter that area ''at the very least''. At least you'll know where to go when you need to level grind later. One that has become a staple for the entire series is a giant Level 70+ unique KillerGorilla that wanders a circuit around the game’s first wide-open area, set intentionally so that inattentive players may have it walk in on them while fighting more level-appropriate enemies. |
| 264 | ** ''Future Connected'' adds Fog Beasts, which are monsters that have been corrupted by the Fog King and are several levels higher than normal enemies in the same area, and just like Unique Monsters they also drop Arts Coins. Fog Beasts also have a mechanic that raises any enemies level closer if they're closer to them, making them very dangerous to fight. There's also Unique Monster versions of these enemies. |
| 265 | * ''VideoGame/XenobladeChroniclesX'' keeps up the tradition with the Tyrants, which function much like those in the first ''Xenoblade''. Most of them are at least kind enough to be the same level as the other indigens in the area, and not all of them attack on sight or proximity. The game also continues the tradition of having indigens thirty levels higher than your party at the time you first enter the area. Nothing like getting smacked for 7,000 damage by a level 50 Immortal Inctus when you're trying to fight level 8 Scirpos. Given the limited multiplayer elements of the game, you can even see just how many other players have lost in battle against them. Sirene the Lost, a humble Level 13 Lepyx[[note]]a normally-docile giraffe/slug creature[[/note]], has a gold crown next to her name, meaning over ''300,000'' players have fallen to her. |
| 266 | * ''VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles2'' carries on series tradition. This game's Unique Monsters generally have so much HP that a fair fight requires your party to be several levels higher than them and a tombstone shows up where they were originally if they are defeated for the purposes of rematches. And also in series tradition are the monsters that are 30+ levels higher than you when you are first in the area. One of the most difficult Unique Monsters early game is the Walker Trap, partly due to it's incredibly high amount of HP at Level 26 as well as the amount of damage it does with one of it's arts (Which hits anything in a straight line). It's also a Driver which means block rates are much higher than a typical monster. This isn't even getting into the worst part which is when you take 50% of it's HP down where it will then go enraged and uses an attack that heals itself. |
| 267 | ** The prequel DLC game, ''VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles2TornaTheGoldenCountry'', shares a similar set of Unique Monsters that can challenge the player, though there's not as many due to the games comparable short length. The big difference between the Unique Monsters (and some bosses) in this game compared to the base game is that certain elemental orbs will put them in a state where their stats increase dramatically, and only destroying the orbs via a chain attack will revert the monster to its weaker state. This is likely to counter balance the fact that elemental orbs are much easier to place on enemies in this game, so the player will be required to set up a full burst and chain attack fairly quickly before the fight gets too dangerous. There are normally 16 unique monsters to encounter in the game, but finding the Nopon Halfsage (and paying him) unlocks 4 golden Unique Monsters. These four are not only completely golden versions of other monsters, they are all [[{{Superboss}} stronger than the final boss.]] |
| 268 | * Even if you've passed through ''VideoGame/{{Xenosaga}} Episode II'' without much effort previously, the Ormus Knights in the Omega System will be a real problem. They typically come in groups of four, are very fast, very strong and repeatedly spam boost, which they have in ample supply due to their attacks generating quite a lot of boost charge. |
| 269 | [[/folder]] |
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