Part 2: Bosses and How To Beat Them
General TipsThe boss health values are determined according to player numbers. The values in this guide have kindly been provided directly by Bigosaur, and are expressed as the calculation not a static figure.
Like with regular enemies, the Bosses in Son of a Witch tend to deal very high damage - a large part of most boss battles is dodging their attacks. There are some boss attacks I don't know (or had to ask/look up/find out for this guide) the damage of because I've
literally never been hit by them despite having defeated every boss on this list numerous times by now. Bosses generally also have very high health, are more likely to have area-effect attacks or use specific damage types like fire/poison, and often move at higher speeds. Negating these advantages in various ways is a major part of winning boss fights.
A note on scrolls - If you're finding scrolls through the game, some of those can allow you to get through boss fights super fast. Remember that the
Peace scroll doesn't work on bosses.
Gamble can be useful for higher level bosses, especially where you have two bosses as then you get the chance of summoning two replacements that will actually fight one another. Gambling lower level bosses is a bad idea as you may get something tougher than your character can deal with.
Barrel roll is a useful but risky scroll for dealing with bosses: the barrel scroll will turn the boss into a barrel of bombs which scatter across the field. There are gaps in the bombs and you have a few moments to run into one of them, but if you misjudge it then a bomb can do a LOT of damage and may kill your character. The final scroll to mention here is escape, which lets you simply ignore the boss and run past/through. I almost never use this tactic as the drops from killing bosses are too useful to miss out on but if you're new to the game and it's a difficult boss, or if you end up with a really under-equipped character, it may be worthwhile.
FORESTOgre MamaHealth: 400 + 300*playersMoves: Club (70), Punch (70)The Ogre Mama, extreme punk icon of the forest goblins that she is, is the standard first boss - big, slow, and hits hard. She has both a close range punch (which can also be backhanded to hit enemies behind her) and a much longer-distance club - in both cases, the up/down dodge is the important one. She's pretty slow so you should be able to run rings around her, and is stunned briefly by rage attacks which can help.
If the Ogre Mama doesn't appear in the forest, she may appear in a special room in the castle, fighting some castle guards.
The Earth GolemHealth: 400 + 250*playersMoves: Meteor Punch (60) + Meteors (45), Roll (50), Head Roll (30)The Golem is a fairly difficult boss until you get used to the attack pattern. It has three attacks:
- Rolling - The golem rolls across the room to a point on the other side. It only stops at the room's edges, and can go diagonally; it never stops in front of the goblin hut in the top left. Anything in the way of the rolling golem gets hit for a whopping 50 damage.
- Head-bowling - the golem slowly removes its head, bowls it in a straight line across the room, then grows a new one. Does 30 damage.
- Meteor punch. The Golem punches the ground directly in front of it - this attack does very high damage. Once the ground-punch has happened, a meteor dealing 45 damage is summoned targeting the spot where the player character is. Several smaller meteors hit in a ring round the Golem's feet.
The Golem ALWAYS starts by head-bowl, then will ALWAYS do a meteor punch, then moves - after that, it will head-bowl if an enemy is standing in front of it, and meteor-punch otherwise, and will do this once or twice and then roll again.
There are basically two usual tactics for beating the golem, relying on the two different attacks. Firstly, if you have a voodoo doll, you can fire it on the golem and then drop it near the side of the screen, ideally at the top out of the way of where the golem will roll (there's a sort of triangle coming out from the goblins' hut). This lets you do melee attacks against the doll without worrying about the rolling attack - the golem will always use the meteor attack, so you can just dodge out of the way once it's been targeted and let the meteors hit the doll, so the golem does the damage to itself.
Method 2, which is what I normally use nowadays (as it conserves mana better for other things), is to keep running in front of it: the head-bowl is the least dangerous of the three attacks (though it still hits at 30 damage and creates knockdown), and isn't too hard to dodge. When you're not dodging, there are decent gaps of time in which you can plug away with your character's weapon of choice.
Ogh and Ugh (The Cyclopes)Health: 300 + 200*playersMoves: Club (30), Punch (30), Eye Orb (10, x cloud)Ogh and Ugh have three attacks, only one of which (the eye-zap) is very powerful. The fact that there are two of them is the real issue, making it harder to dodge their attacks.
- Punch - close quarters, about 30 damage + knockdown I think though I may be wrong.
- Club - mid range, about 30 damage + knockdown I think though I may be wrong.
- Eye-zap - produces a big cloud of magic orbs in a large fan over half the screen. As these don't cause knockdown and come in large numbers they can do a fair chunk of damage and are probably the cyclops' most powerful attack. When you see a cyclops "powering up" for this attack, get out of the way FAST - a full blast in the face can kill you.
The best thing I think is to stay close to the middle of the screen to avoid the eye-zaps, and keep moving - also poison or fire can speed up the battle, and ice can give you more breathing space. Focus on ONE cyclops at a time: once you've reduced it to only fighting one, the job gets a lot easier.
And for those who are wondering - Ogh is the green-clothed one, Ugh is the one in brown!
BATTLEMENTSThe DragonHealth: 400 + 500*playersMoves: Stomp (10), Fire Breath (10 + Fire)The dragon is a pretty easy boss to beat once you know the strategy. The dragon has a wide-spread firebreathing attack which is pretty powerful, and does huge burning damage and a short-range stomp attack which is quite slow to hit (you can see it winding up for it first) and only does 10 damage + knockdown. Guess which of these two attacks you're going to put yourself more at risk of if you want to survive.
Basically, stay
under the dragon, dodge out to hit/take down the castle guards or avoid stomp damage, keep plugging away, and you're golden. It's occasionally worth dodging out to get the full power of a sweep attack or bow rage shot, but be careful with that (for sweep attacks, run out in front of the head then sweep to the back of the dragon, in general). Hammers are pretty good against the dragon as you can do the high damage rage hit without having to take risks.
The Hornet QueenHealth: 400 + 450*playersMoves: Sting (30), Lay EggThe hornet queen is in my view a LOT nastier than the dragon, though also not too hard to neutralise when you know how. She has two abilities/attacks - one is to lay eggs, which hatch hornets (see Part One, Misc section). The hornet queen has a very heavy damage close quarters attack, and high speed to catch you with it - again, diagonal movement is often the key to dodging it if she's still at full speed. She's also immune to poison. The hornets can knock you down and use poison, and can come in large numbers - the best way to deal with them is at range, as they have super low health. They move fairly fast, so I tend to find that if I want to deal with them at close quarters I need to run in diagonals a lot using a sword.
The main two things you can do to prep for this battle are finding some way of preventing poison (the healing staff or an antidote potion), which will make the hornet attacks less bad if they do happen, and more importantly to find some way to speed yourself up or the hornet queen down. My usual method is to find a bow and some snailbite arrows - if she's slowed down, then she's actually pretty easy to deal with, as you can very easily keep out of the way of her (very short range) attack, focus on taking down hornets & guards, and then attack her with rage attacks or at range. Even if you're not an archer, grabbing a bow and snailbite arrows if you can find them in the rest of the level is a very good plan indeed here. Lazy enemies scrolls of course also work.
The Slime KingHealth: 500 + 500*playersMoves: Slime Stomp (70), Crown Throw (40), Fire Slimeball (20)The Slime King mostly shoots slime everywhere. Attacks include firing small slime balls in the air, usually three or four at a time, which create big slime puddles, and a close-quarters jump/stomp attack, and firing his crown across the room for high damage. The slime slows you down, so it's very easy to end up outmaneuvered at which point you're at much greater risk from the castle guards nearby. Slowing the Slime King down does help - he's better to fight at range as his close-quarters jump attack is pretty formidable. Any sort of speed boost you can give yourself to counteract the slime also helps of course.
CASTLEThe ExecutionerHealth: 600 + 600*playersMoves: Axe Chop (70), Punch (30), Eye Laser (30 + Fire)The executioner is some kind of armoured automaton or giant who works for the King. He's big, axe-wielding, and he's been charged with guarding the throne room during the Goblin invasion. The executioner actually works quite like the Ogre Mama, with a longer axe-hit and a short range punch. There are two differences, though - firstly, a laser-eye effect which burns an arc at a distance, and secondly, he's a LOT faster. As I'll say with several of these - whatever class you are, slowing the executioner down is a great move.
The Viole(n)t KnightsHealth: 250 + 250*playersMoves: Sword (20), Sweep Attack (35)The Violet Knights (I can't be bothered to keep doing the brackets bit) are a pair of elite throne room guards. They have big swords, and a special attack which basically works like the knight's sweep attack. Slowing them down is useful, but other than the sweep attack I don't tend to find them too fast - the main thing, as with many multi-enemy fights, is to keep moving. The sweep attacks always happen in straight lines, and have a short sword-whirling run-up during which you can get out the way. Diagonal movement tends to be key, getting a few hits in then getting out the way before attacks come back at you. This can be quite a slow fight thanks to the dodging involved, but as long as your character is quick enough enough it's quite do-able. Poison can be pretty useful for speeding it up.
The Crystal WizardHealth: 400 + 400*playersMoves: Orb (8, x 3), TeleportThe Crystal Wizard, Grand Master of the Royal College of Wizards, is the final of the possible throne room guards in the castle. He is a tough enemy to beat, dealing a LOT of damage with spread-shot magic orbs, moving fast, and with a teleport ability that can let him blink to the other side of the room. The main thing you're likely to need is health restoratives - large health potions are especially good - whatever character class you are, the attacks here are harder to dodge and more likely to sap your health over time than in most boss battles, given the Crystal Wizard's emphasis on movement and spread, fast-powered damage rather than a few really hard-hitting attacks. Also things to give you a speed advantage really help (bow + snaibite arrows, blur potion, lazy enemies scroll, usual stuff).
DUNGEONThe Simerian ButcherHealth: 700 + 700*playersMoves: Mace Hit (70) + Mace Spike (20), Knife Punch (40)To my mind, the Butcher is one of the harder bosses to beat. He has two attacks, the mace hit and the knife. The knife is the very short range attack, wheeling round to damage nearby enemies then stabbing forward with significant strength. The mace is the real nasty, doing very high damage at boss-club range but also shooting out spikes that can hit the player for 20 damage anywhere across about half of the room and are quite hard to dodge. He's also quick and has high health.
Slowing the butcher down is key - and being fast yourself. Snaibite arrows are a must if you're fighting as an archer (and a good starting tactic even if you're not), and high speed is good regardless of your class. For mages, of course poison or fire can be good here, or turrets alternatively - if your poison/fire is good then you can potentially focus more on dodging and the lesser enemies and let the element damage do the work. Close combat is tough - definitely sword-type weapons here unless you have a VERY highly upgraded alternative, build rage by taking down the lesser guards and use sweep attacks to damage the Butcher mostly. Again, poison & slow are good effects to try and use.
For the backstory-minded, there is a real-world Simeria, in Romania (the name derives from a variant on "Saint Mary"). We can guess that the version in Son of a Witch may be rather different - and given the Butcher's tendencies toward destroying everything around him, possibly no longer existent!
Felgin the RingleaderHealth: 700 + 500*playersMoves: Hammer (52), Thief Jump, Drink Potion (60)Felgin is another very tough boss to beat. His abilities are a throwing hammer, the thief jump & steal ability, and - worst - the ability to drink special healing potions (of which he has an infinite supply) mid-battle to regain health. As such, you need to take him down at speed, because attrition tactics of any sort won't work. He also comes with a much larger mob of enemies than is normal, both bandits and thieves, who will shield him while he drinks potions. The throwing hammer attack isn't too bad, the thievery is annoying as ever, but the real problem with him is the ability to beat the player with attrition tactics.
To beat Felgin, the main thing to remember is that his health needs to be going down faster than he can repair it. If you're doing really high damage anyway by this point, that may not be too hard. If you're not, then using effect damage is a good way to help, especially poison (if you've had any poison upgrades, even better) though fire is good too. The large number of enemies makes spread attacks and fast damage better - for melee characters consider using a sword or faster-damage weapon. Felgin is probably most dangerous to archers who don't have some kind of fast-shooting ability, as his thugs can easily waste lots of your arrows. Either go super high damage with gold arrows, or use poison - probably the rare case of a boss where you should avoid snailbite arrows, as these just mean he ends up protected in his pack of minions more.
The TricksterHealth: 800 + 500*playersMoves: Axe Throw (26), Summon TricksThe Trickster is a vagabond magician who can create magical 1hp duplicates of himself and construct barrel barriers in a magical instant using his staff. He also has an axe that passes through such barriers, so you often find his minions, his duplicates, and himself flitted around the room and a lot of axes flying at you: you're often repeatedly knocking through barrel walls whilst this happens, which slows you down.
The good news is that the Trickster's attacks aren't always too hard to dodge - there'll only be six tricksters in the room including the original, plus a few bandits - and the Trickster doesn't regenerate. As such, the two things you most need for this battle are healing potions and a poisoned dagger. Start with a sweep attack, get the Trickster poisoned: from then on in it's a case of waiting him out. Poison is a far more important aspect of this boss fight than others for one simple reason - the duplicates don't get poisoned, so the sickly green glow will keep you informed which the real trickster is throughout the battle! You may well want a decent fast-hitting melee weapon (sword or axe type) for this fight if you for for a poison and wait strategy, regardless of your character class.
CATACOMBSNecromancer TwinsHealth: 600 + 500*playersMoves: Orb (8, x 3), Raise DeadThe main trick to dealing with the necro twins is to remember that the skeletons are fodder and you really just need to take the twins down. The necromancers' ability to resurrect the skeletons isn't too awful, especially as the skeletons are always just the regular sword-types (as such, protection from poison really is a big plus here). If you get the chance to run past some skeletons and attack one of the twins for a bit, do that in preference. Their magic orb attacks can be quite nasty, so like with the crystal wizard health restoratives are nice here. Having a speed advantage as usual is very helpful - being considerably faster than the skeletons will let you get to the Necromancers that much more easily.
Necromancer + King SalamisHealth (For Salamis): 700 + 300*playersMoves: Sword Hit (60), Chain-sword (40) This is easier than the dual Necromancer set, for the simple reason that King Salamis can't resurrect himself - take the Necromancer down and you actually have a pretty easy boss fight on your hands (as long as your character is leveled up). King Salamis has a powerful short-range sword attack, and a weird sort of extensible stomach-punch thingy which does 40 damage and can hit at decent distance - it does knockdown and you don't get much warning for it, so it's worth watching out for and avoiding.
Note that King Salamis appears on his own as the final boss in the lower catacombs, in games where those exist.
Necromancer + Vampire LordHealth (For Vampire Lord): 600 + 400*playersMoves: Sword Hit (40), Sweep Attack (40) Like with King Salamis, taking the Necromancer down is the important part of the puzzle here, as if you don't he can just rez the Vampire Lord again. The Vamp lord has a close combat attack and a fast "swooping" attack that rushes across the room - basically, like King Salamis, avoid staying too long directly in front of the Vampire Lord, and focus on the Necromancer. Slowing the VL down is as always pretty helpful.
ICE MOUNTAINCrazy SantaHealth: 1200 + 1000*playersMoves: Punch (20), Staff Hit (55), Present-bombs (60)Corrupted by the evil of the Dragon Master, Crazy Santa throws highly dangerous explosive presents everywhere which blow up much like bombs. He also has two close combat attacks - a low-damage hand-slap (20 dmg) if you're very close, or a higher damage staff-hit (55 dmg).
Yeti ElderHealth: 1500 + 1500*playersMoves: Avalanche Boulder (45), Roll (50), Create YetiThe Yeti Elder is a big monster, who comes accompanied by smaller yetis (see the "Ice Mountain" Clans section of Part 1 of this monster manual). The yeti's attacks are in some ways most similar to those of the rock golem - it has a rolling movement attack with high damage, produces yetis from its mouth which jump out and attack the player, and causes ice rocks to fall down from the mountain. The ice rock attack isn't too hard to dodge - the yetis are nasty but not so quick. The best advice is to slow the Yeti Elder down as much as possible - this will mean that if you're a ranged character, you get a load of extra time during the Elder's rolling attack to get more shots in.
Evil SnowmanHealth: 1200 + 1200*playersMoves: Create Snowball (10), Cane Hit (50), BlockThe Snowman has two attacks - a close-quarters hit with its candy cane, and the ability to create rolling snowballs. Dodging these whilst you fight the snowman is a major and very difficult part of this battle. It can also block incoming ranged attacks with its cane. Dealing with the snowman quickly is one option if you're an archer or wizard and powerful enough: otherwise, use effect damage, and consider ducking in close to it to stop the snowball production happening by making it use its close-quarters attack more. I think the Snowman is probably the most difficult of the level three bosses, especially if you don't have both a non-slip movement ability and protection from freezing. The turret staff works well for this fight, as a few well-placed turrets can pin the snowman in place doing its blocking move, rendering it a far less formidable opponent.
DESERT LANDSNote that the desert lands always have two back to back boss fights: one of the three "minor" bosses, plus the Dragon Master.
Thorn ReaperHealth: 2500 + 1800*players (Easy mode: 1800 + players * 800)Moves: Scythe Swipe (60), Scythe Throw (60), Plant CactusThe Thorn Reaper is a hermit giant living a bare life in the empty desert lands, and tending all manner of cruel plants to keep outsiders away from his home. He has three moves: a close-quarters reaping hit with his scythe, a scythe throw, and planting his thorn-plants, which are static enemies with poisoned thorns that lash out at the player or allies nearby. In general this fight can be done quite easily at range, as long as you can dodge the scythes: poison protection is useful if you want to fight it at close quarters, because of the risk of getting hit by the thorns. Note that the thorn plants do not need to all die to end the battle, and will indeed still sit there and attack once it's over - don't get hit by one just when you were expecting everything to be OK!
MedusasHealth: 1200 + 800*players (Easy mode: 750 + players * 400)Moves: Sword hit (24 x 2), Petrifying Shot (60)In mythological terms these are of course more correctly gorgons, since there are two of them, but the term "medusa" is of course better known nowadays. The Medusas are a pair of bosses each with two main attacks, a close-quarters sword attach and a ranged bow shot that fires three medusa arrows - appropriately, they're the only boss in the game that uses petrification as a weapon (fortunately via bowshot rather than on sight as in the myths!). The petrification issue is the big one here; the elven shield and medusa amulet are thus certainly good items to have, if you have neither then staying at close quarters is generally a good bed. Ideally focus on one medusa then the other to reduce the number of attacks coming at you.
War ElephantHealth: 2300 + 1700*players (Easy mode: 1600 + players * 700)Moves: Charge (no damage), Trunk Orbs (10, x cloud), Stomp meteors (45)A giant, magical, superpowered elephant, this is probably the toughest boss in the game, along with the Snowman. The War Elephant has three main attack modes: charging, with trample damage, trunk-blasting huge clouds of magic orbs, and a stomp attack that both knocks the player down and summons meteors, giving very little time for the player to move after getting up to avoid being hit. With such powerful attacks, slowing and halting the elephant is an important part of beating it: use snailbite arrows or a deadwood bow which will cause it to have a much slower trample move during which you can plug it with ranged attacks. If you need to go close combat, a freeze-based weapon is probably best to maximise the number of attacks you can get in. This is a very tough fight regardless of how you choose to do it, unless you have an extremely OP character (which is possible at this level).
Dragon MasterHealth: 3000 + 2000*players (Easy mode: 2000 + players * 1000)Moves (Phase 1): Summon Spears (40), Dragon Breath (5)Moves (Phase 2): Spear Throw (20), Spear Stab (20)The Dragon Master is the game's final boss. At the start of the battle (Phase 1), he rides a baby dragon, which spits fireballs at the player. He can also raise his spear to summon a spear barrage that shoots down from the top of the screen - there's enough space for the player to dodge between the spears, but it's easy to get hit. After losing a certain amount of health the dragon dies and he dismounts. He can then attack by throwing his spear, which splits into three, making it harder for the player to dodge.
OTHERIce DragonHealth: 400 + 500*playersMoves: Stomp (10), Ice Breath (10)The Ice Dragon is, so far as I know, only available via using Gamble scrolls, and so turns up very rarely. It works like the dragon with the same approximate set of attacks, hitting 10 damage with its breath and stomp and freezing instead of burning so it immobilises you and can then keep breathing ice at you to renew the effect. As with the regular fire dragon, stay underneath, dodge up or down to avoid stomps, keep hitting it in the belly.
War SheepHealth: 500Moves: Iron Spike (50)The War Sheep is summoned if you attempt to turn a boss into a sheep with the shepherd staff. It has just one attack, continuing to spit out circles of spikes (which do a whopping 50 damage each) from around its body until the player is dead: it is also completely immobile. In general, the best rule is "don't try turning a boss into a sheep with the shepherd staff", but if you want to try it, then the way to do it is to ensure the boss is near the building (there's always a building in the corner of a boss room), do the transformation, then hide behind the building with an indirect-fire staff or a voodoo doll and kill it that way.