Son of a Witch: The Unofficial Monster Manual

[Jubal]

Son of a Witch: The Unofficial Monster Manual

This is part 2 of my big Son of a Witch guide: part 1, Son of a Witch as a Roguelike, contains general gameplay advice and guides to the different levels/areas, and part 3, the Unofficial Equipment Guide, includes stats and advice on all the items available in the game.

Herein are the monsters of Son of a Witch, including handy hints and tips on how to beat them. Part 1 will include all the regular enemies, and some special enemies like the Bushido: Bosses will be in Part 2, so you can hyperlink directly to the section on bosses if you want to!


Part 1: Regular Enemies


GOBLINS

Grunt

Health: 90
Moves: Club (30)

The most basic goblin warrior, armed with a club and a grudge against nobody in particular, and unafraid to use them. Goblin grunts are a frequent menace even in quieter times demanding "tolls" from forest travellers, and at times of war the shamans can summon large numbers of them to form the meat shields of the goblin army.

The goblin grunt is the most basic enemy in the game. They plod around, and if they get close they can hit you at short range with their clubs. This does 30 damage, which is pretty significant, so being hit is something to avoid (though their low speed fortunately makes this quite easy, and they can't block attacks of any sort). Goblin grunts often drop the Goblin Club, probably the weakest hand weapon in the game - it has decent damage but at very short range and is slow to use.

Berserker

Health: 90
Moves: Axe (16), Axe Throw (16, ranged)

The berserkers are the more battle-hardened goblins, fighting with axes and working themselves into a rage with various herbs provided by the shamans. They often hurl their axes at the enemy. In more peaceful times, and without their frenzy, the berserkers often just function as lackeys and servants for the shamans.

The Berserker, an axe-throwing goblin type, is rather more dangerous than the clubber. Whilst their damage dealt is lower (16), they can and will throw their axes, meaning you need to be prepared to dodge them if you're fighting at range as well. Berserkers often drop the Goblin Axe, a useful early-game throwing/melee weapon which has a fast rage buildup.

Warrior

Health: 60
Moves: Sword (22), Raise Shield

The battle-ready elite of the goblin army and their only "professionals", warriors carry heavy, curved swords and thick wooden shields to protect them against enemy attacks. Goblins are poor at forming battle lines, and being somewhat cowardly will often just hide behind a shield without moving, but nonetheless, many unwary humans have found the goblin swords a much deadlier prospect than expected.

In terms of rapid damage dealing the Warrior is the nastiest of the goblins, but fortunately this is counterbalanced by low speed (as usual for goblins) and the shielding behaviour, which may be tricky to deal with at first but actually gives you the advantage as the player. Warriors respond to being attacked by putting their shield up, which protects them from attacks from the front. They cannot move whilst the shield is up. They will at some point drop the shield and start moving again or, if you're close enough, they'll start hitting with their sword, which happens very fast and does very high damage. However, the shield doesn't protect them from the back, so you can hit them in the front, run round and do more damage by hitting them from behind.

Blaggard

Health: 90
Moves: Bomb Throw (20)

One of the few areas in which the goblins of the deep forests have managed to gain a real advantage over their neighbours is the creation of alchemical explosives. The goblins who create and use large quantities of these newexplosive devices are the blaggards - smaller goblins who have just been given the chance to rule the roost by the invention of the bomb and who are taking every possible opportunity to swagger around and remind bigger, older goblins where the future is going.

The blaggard (my personal favourite unit name in this game) can throw small bombs: these do 20 damage, knock nearby units down, and affect everyone in the target area including other goblins. Bombs can badly disrupt your fighting, so you either want to keep moving to avoid them, or take out the bombers early on in a fight. The blaggard has no close combat attack at all (though they can throw bombs right next to them if enemies get too close), so if you can close them down with a melee weapon then they're very easy to take down.

Shaman

Health: 120
Moves: Summon Meteor (30), Target Doll, Drop Doll

The Shamans are the leaders of the forest goblins. Often exasperated with their less than intellectual species, they nonetheless do their best to protect their fellow goblins, and to ensure that the numerous ancient artefacts of goblin-kind are not stolen or used to attempt to destroy the world or anything like that. They have rather little regard for other sapient species (which, in fairness to them, is generally more than reciprocated by the rulers of the human and elf realms) and are happy to bulldoze anything in their way if they feel it necessary. They practice quite advanced forms of magic, including the creation of voodoo dolls and calling upon the Ancestor Goblins to send meteors from the skies (which generally works, to the annoyance of certain human theologians).

The Shaman is the most dangerous of the goblin enemies: they summon meteors that fall from the sky after a certain delay and target the player. These aren't too bad - you can dodge them - but what makes the shaman really nasty is the use of voodoo dolls that can be targeted onto the player.

The shaman's first move is always to target its doll: once the target is selected, the shaman will never re-target a doll onto anyone else. The shaman then does a few meteors, THEN drops the doll near itself. Once the doll is dropped, things get dangerous; meteors dropped onto a targeted doll will also affect/harm the player. If the shaman is in a protected or hard to get to location this can be particularly a problem, and of course players must avoid hitting the doll themselves (magic orbs and arrows pass over it, but indirect magic strikes, close combat attacks, and stomps can all hit the doll and thus damage the player).

Orc

Health: 200
Moves: Punch (40)

Orcs combine roughly the intellect of a moderately thoughtful tapeworm with the muscle structure of a medium sized bull, and mostly live either by chasing down and grappling wild boar or as muscle for anyone prepared to feed them. As they are just about capable of taking orders, and seem to enjoy punching their enemies to death, the goblin shamans occasionally summon them from the hills in times of war. A blunt tool is sometimes better than none at all, after all...

The Orc is much larger, green, and only appears in the castle level (presumably the orcs are pushed to the front lines of the goblin army). They have a single, very high damage, short range punch attack, and they're quite quick with a lot of health. For most characters, range is better for taking these guys down, ideally with poison or fire so you don't have to keep hitting them: knockdown and stomp is dangerous unless your stomp damage is extremely high, as they get up pretty fast. I can take these guys down in melee, but it's tough maneuvering. It's generally a case of doing one heavy hit, perfectly timed so they don't quite get a chance to get the punch attack done, then ducking out the way in the other direction before turning to hit them again.



THE ROYAL ARMY

Castle Guard

Health: 90
Moves: Spear thrust (20), Spear throw (20)

The mainstay of the Royal Army are its spear-armed guardsmen. They are neither very tough nor very well trained, but their spears allow them to keep enemies at a distance (as long as they remember that the pointy end is supposed to go towards the enemy!) They can, at least, be trained in large enough numbers to match up against the goblin hordes or other foes that might descend upon the realm.

Castle guards have lowish health (90), and 2 attacks, a spear throw and spear stab, both doing 20 damage. In large numbers they can be particularly dangerous as volleys of spears can do a lot of damage. The reach of their attacks is also quite high: if you're taking them on in melee, you'll need to get closer to them than they will to you. This makes keeping moving important when taking on multiple castle guards: if you stand still to attack one in melee for too long, it's likely that others will stab past them or throw spears to attack you from a distance.

You can summon castle guards for 3 mana using the Imperial Sceptre magic item. This can only be obtained by killing the king at the end of the third level.

Guard Captain

Health: 80
Moves: Sword (22), Raise shield

The guard captains are the cream of the royal army. With large, heavy shields and swords, they form the front line in battle and can protect their fellow soldiers from enemy fire. They are sword-masters as well, and capable of dealing devastatingly fast damage. The ordinary guardsmen regard them with a mixture of fear, admiration, and annoyance that the captains tend to get all the glory!

The guard captain is a mobile version of the goblin warrior - they have shields which block all damage from the front, and can move towards you (albeit slowly) whilst shielded. When they drop their shield, their sword attack is very rapid and high damage.

Archers are the best class for taking down guard captains: you can just shoot once (which will knock them down), get out the way, and then shoot them a second time which will be enough for the kills. In melee, the key is maintaining distance, ducking out the way and then using your strong/slow attack since they'll shield up after one hit and that maximises the damage you can do (unless you have the replica excalibur shield-breaking sword in which case barrel in and hit away). For wizards, if you're into using poison or fire, those can be useful here, and bouncing magic orbs can let you hit the captain from both sides if timed right: attacking repeatedly and then moving away and waiting for the shield to drop works, it's just slow. If you're attacking at range, especially with magic orbs, and you need the shield to drop to get another attack in do NOT keep shooting, or the captain will just keep the shield up until they get to you.

Sky Wizard

Health: 100
Moves: Hailstone (30, Ice), Boost ally speed

The College of Wizards has a long-standing compact with the King that they will provide support to his troops in times of direst need just so long as he doesn't look too hard at their tax affairs and turns a blind eye to any accidental demon summons that go on across the kingdom. Unlike goblin shamans, human wizards attribute their powers to a lifetime of study, and are a genuinely useful addition to the army, though keeping their mind on the job is never an easy task.

These guys only appear within the castle, not on the battlements. Like their goblin shaman counterparts, the Sky Wizards are very dangerous and should be taken down as a high priority, though for different reasons. Their indirect attack, the hailstone (how they get all those hailstones appearing indoors, who knows - what are they, magic or something?) is basically similar to the shaman's meteors, and they won't have any voodoo doll stuff going on.

Their special ability - and the dangerous bit - is speed boosting ALL royal army troops in the room. This can quickly and easily lead to guards running around who are as fast as (or faster than) the player, something very much to be avoided as it makes it nearly impossible to dodge attacks. As such, take the wizards down first. Rooms with multiple sky wizards can be particularly hard as you can't avoid high-speed enemies: if you're dealing high enough damage you can sometimes just attack fast, keep moving and tough those out, but it may be worth using a scroll to get past rooms like that if you're not at that point.

The King

Health: 150
Moves: Summon guard

King Oluphas III has been the ruler of Samepetia for nearly fifty years, and has the beard to prove it.

The King only appears in his throne room after the third level boss fight, and his only real attributes are high health and the sceptre. The sceptre lets him summon additional guards - something he'll happily keep doing until you're wholly swamped with guards and Very Much Dead. In many games it's not worth killing the King, but if you have a scroll and want to summon guards yourself then it can be worth clearing his room that way. The presence of two sky wizards in the room means his guards will be moving fast from an early point, so you really need some good prep (use of several mega boost potions, or a scroll, or some super high damage preparation like you can do with the retaliator sword, or room prep by having good magic and using the turret staff) in order to take on the throne room battle.

The King will always drop the sceptre, which lets you summon a castle guard for 3 mana.



THE DUNGEON BANDITS

Bandit

Health: 120
Moves: Mace (30)

Common thugs and bandits are an all too common threat for merchants around the kingdom, especially up in the hills, and many of them - at least, the ones that the royal army can capture alive - end up locked in the vast dungeon complex under the royal castle. It's a tough life beating people up and stealing their stuff, and bandits are as a result a hardy folk, often with an eye for profit as well as an eye for a fight.

Doing a punchy thirty damage per hit, with decent range thanks to their large maces and medium speed, the bandit operates a bit like the goblin clubber but with terrifyingly higher punch. Their decent movement speed is something to watch out for, as is their much higher tendency to walk around the player - they will actively try to flank you and hit you from the back. Bandits are also the shopkeepers in the dungeon level.

Thief

Health: 100
Moves: Knife throw (20), Theft jump

Thieves may lack the guts for toe-to-toe fighting, but this often makes the more, rather than less, worrying opponents: ducking between columns, hurling deadly throwing knives, and occasionally jumping out to cut a pack or steal items, they are a nightmare for unwary travellers in the rougher parts of Samepetia's market towns. A dungeon full of them would be a nightmare...

The thief has two attacks. One is a ranged throwing attack with knives that do 20 damage. They spread out more than the castle guards or goblin axers as they have no melee attack to chase you for, and so the throwing knives can often catch you while you're running around the edges of a room to avoid being flanked by bandits. Their other, equally annoying, "attack" is to jump on the player character's back and start throwing their inventory items out all over the place. This can be horrendously bad news, especially if you're an archer and suddenly find your arrows aren't in your inventory any more. You can pick most items up afterwards, though thieves will set light to bombs before throwing them which can be extremely dangerous.

Brigand

Health: 80
Moves: Poison blade (21, Poison 5b), Raise Shield

Mad, bad, and dangerous to know, brigands have the raw cunning needed to claw their way to the top of gutter-level society. With no moral reservations about using all manner of poisons, and enough resources to actually be carrying proper shields, brigands are worth keeping a safe distance from and brigand bands are the bane of the royal army even at the best of times (that is, "times when goblins aren't invading"...!)

The brigand is the dungeon version of a shielder, in the same line as the Guard Captain and Goblin Warrior. Like the Guard Captain, the brigand can move; brigands are more dangerous, though, as they are faster and carry poisoned daggers which will poison you for 5 battles.



THE UNDEAD

Skeleton Warrior

Health: 100
Moves: Undead blade (8, Poison 5b, Hiccup 5b)

A decomposed human corpse from ages past, re-animated as a shambling bone-clattering mockery of the living, any free will they might have had under the iron grip of a necromancer - skeletons are. it is widely assumed, not supposed to walk around, and a lot of people get quite upset about it when they do. An enemy that can't be reasoned with and won't even have the good grace to die if you poison them is one that most people would rather not face. Which is probably why it's your job.

The skeleton warrior is the basic close combat undead unit. Their blades can cause "tetanus", triggering both poison and the "hiccup" effect which makes your character do random pauses (especially unpleasant when combined with some of the more powerful dungeon traps). They hit quite fast with their swords, but the main problem is the tetanus, which will weaken your character such that other enemies can beat you more easily.

Skeleton Archer

Health: 100
Moves: Bow (64)

Some skeletons use bows instead of swords. As magically knitted together as their users, carved from shining bone, bone bows are a rather terrifying tool in the hands of the right (or, depending on perspective, the wrong) user. Necromancers tend to like having some archers around - killing an enemy before they can get to any of your undead is a handy saving on time, resources, and re-animations.

The skeleton archer is pretty quick, and they spread out to fire their arrows. These have no negative status effects but do very high damage. They drop bone arrows and bone bows - the bow becomes more effective the more bone arrows the character holds.

Skeleton Mage

Health: 90
Moves: Magic orbs (6), Random Curse

Carrying dread curses from beyond the grave, Skeleton Mages have just enough intellect and free will to cast their crazed magics. Any sanity in them is usually rapidly broken apart by the pressures of a high magical attunement, permanent mental control from a necromancer, and a persistent tendency to forget where in the catacombs they left their keys.

Skeleton mages can produce short bursts of mid-grade magic orbs as their main attack. Their more dangerous ability, though, is curses. They can summon random negative effects on all enemies: these can include fire, poison, hunger, ice, extravagance, avarice, tremor, and distraction. They are more likely to summon curses when unable to do their main attack, so beware of skele mages trapped behind fences/rocks who will just keep cursing you. Of all the wizard types in the game, the Skeleton Mage is the most important to dispatch quickly.

Vampiress

Health: 300

Human women turned into blood-drinkers by a mighty Vampire Lord, the Vampiresses are free-willed, and not necessarily evil or hostile, though their hunger for blood can lead them to make desperate deals in their thirst. Some are driven utterly mad by the need for blood and roam the deep dungeons, running along with any other monsters there in the hope of finding prey. They have a close affinity and friendship with bats, and will train them to help hunt and guard their lairs and hiding places.

The Vampiresses appear as shopkeepers in the upper catacombs, occasionally selling you a key in the forest levels, and appear as regular enemies in the Lower Catacombs. If you attack a Vampiress shopkeeper, a swarm of bats appear. Vampiresses are very fast, have high health, and have a decently powerful close combat attack (no ranged abilities). Their high health makes them a particularly good option for resurrection if you have the staff of the dead.

Vampire Bat

Health: 60

These large bats are close allies and pets of the Vampiresses, sharing their penchant for drinking blood and treating one another as part of the same hunting pack. They will be enraged if one of their fellows is attacked; in general, they like living in deep caves, and will only issue forth to find animals (or humans) to drink blood from.

The Vampire Bats are summoned in huge numbers if you attack a Vampire shopkeeper, and appear as regular enemies in the Lower Catacombs. They fly around looking cross and then have a short attack where they pause momentarily then hurl themselves at the enemy (much like the hornets). This attack can knock players down easily so is moderately dangerous.



ICE MOUNTAIN CLANS

Raider

Health: 250
Moves: Spear thrust (20), Spear throw (20)

The warriors of the Ice Mountain clans are famed for raiding more so-called "civilised" countries, wearing wolf pelts to show their courage, and carrying deadly serrated spears. When not raiding, they will spend their time drinking, fighting the local dwarf clans, drinking, fighting the ice monsters, drinking, and of course fighting each other. And drinking. It is a matter of contention among different writers whether their toughness in battle or the toughness of their liver is their more prominent attribute.

Raiders are a tougher version of castle guards, essentially, with spears used for throwing or long-reach close combat attacks. Their very high health means that it's much less likely that you'll be able to pick them off quickly, so you're likely to need to dodge some of those incoming spears.

Hunter

Health: 170
Moves: Bow (55, Freeze Chance)

The Ice Mountain lands are full of elk and other creatures, but poor for farming, so hunters are vitally important for the survival of a village in the far north. Their short-bows may not be the most powerful, but the cold getting into wounds can freeze an enemy to the spot.

Hunters are an archer unit who wield ice bows - like most archer types, they do very high damage, and the freeze chance can of course be very dangerous if it pins the player in place and allows other arrows to hit them. They have no close combat attack.

Icewind Mage

Health: 200
Moves: Ice orbs (7, 20% freeze chance), Summon Pogonip

Each small village around the Ice Mountain region will have two or three Icewind Mages, who effectively run society in those lands. They hold their position as elders, lawgivers, and diplomats by virtue of two things. Firstly, the other clansfolk are in awe of them as a result of their mastery of arcane arts, being powerful weather wizards and more battle-hardy than the mages of more southerly lands. Secondly, and more importantly, they are often the only people in a village sober enough to do the job. As such, their leadership among the clansfolk remains unchallenged.

The Icewind Mages, the lesser leaders of the mountain clans, are very dangerous enemies. They wield pogonip staffs that can freeze you in place (20% freeze chance with each orb), and which fire rapid bursts of ice projectiles in a spread-shot array. They also have a spellcasting special which slows all enemies down and summons a fog across the screen (which lifts when the battle ends).

Young Yeti

Health: 320
Moves: Grab (40, Freeze Chance)

Yetis are known as being shy and rarely seen beasts, but among the clans of the mountain they are more often seen. They are a rather unintelligent but much appreciated part of village life, often going into colder regions or carrying heavier items than the human clansfolk are able to, or just acting as big, muscular guards. Most yetis are young, a bit bigger than a human; they rarely die of natural causes and indeed those that do not perish from clan skirmishes or fighting monsters seem to keep growing and growing...

These yetis, still young and without a full coat of fur, plod around hitting people; they're not exceptionally fast considering the level but they have a lot of health. Their close combat attack does 40 damage and freezes enemies - as such, it's very dangerous if you're not freeze-immune as it makes you vulnerable to other attacks (like the high damage from the archer) whilst you're frozen.



DESERT WARBANDS

Desert Swordsman

Health: 150
Moves: Dual Swords (40)

Warbands of desperate men rove the hot canyons of the desert country, moving from oasis to oasis and attacking merchants or raiding small townships. They carry swords as their main weapons, being adept at wielding two at once. Or at least, it looks cool enough that everyone assumes they're adept at it... win or lose, the desert swordsmen have every intention of looking cool whilst doing so!

The desert swordsmen are an aggressive close combat unit, coming at you in fairly high numbers though with lower health than most. They have no shield, ranged attack or special effect attack, and so are a simple close-quarters enemy. They deliver two sword attacks in very quick succession, with 20 damage for each, so if you let even a couple of them get attacks in on you then they can deal a lot of damage very fast.

Jackal-Gorilla

Health: 360
Moves: Knockdown Jump (40)

The desert canyons are the home of the savage, meat-eating jackal-gorillas. With a cunning intelligence, and a thick leathery hide that makes them able to withstand huge damage, they often accompany warbands in the hope of picking up carrion to kill and finding prey to grapple with, often crushing enemies with their huge bare hands.

The mighty Jackal-Gorillas have high health (the highest of any non-boss enemy in the game), and act as meat shields for the desert warbands. They have a jumping attack that lets them vault over obstacles and knock down the player, doing a meaty 40 damage. They're not that quick, though, so shouldn't be hard to dodge generally. If fighting them in close-combat, you can often run under them when they jump towards you.

Stoneheart Assassin

Health: 120
Moves: Sword (24 + Petrification), Raise Shield

Occasionally, in the lands of the desert peoples, a child is born with flame-red hair. This is a sure sign that they must be sent to join the Stonehearts, a mysterious order of assassins and warriors who are the leaders and shock troops of the desert warbands. Their magical swords are rightly feared, for many a statue in the desert canyons has the marks of being one of their past victims.

The Stoneheart Assassins, a shielder-type unit (like the brigand or guard captain) are the real danger in the desert level - their swords cause petrification on a single hit with 100% probability, which is a status effect that is rapidly deadly unless removed with a dragonfire potion or life staff. Avoiding their attacks is paramount: you can probably absorb damage from the other enemies fairly easily, but no matter how much health you have, petrification will affect you just the same. They're not that tough, but if you can deal with them at range that's always better.



OTHER/MISC

Bushido

Health: 320

Followers of Bushido, the Way of the Warrior, sometimes travel to far-off lands, either in search of fortune, fame, and honour, or just driven through wanderlust. Whilst mighty knights in their own land, they often travel with traders, their huge stature and muscle providing ample security to a wandering merchant. Deeply bound by their code of martial honour, their fighting style is nonetheless simple, direct, and brutally powerful.

On levels 1-3, the Bushido is the standard guard in shops - if you attack the shopkeeper, you'll be able to take the items, but you also immediately summon the Bushido, who is exceptionally fast, immune to stun (though not knockdown) and does 40 damage per (rapid) hit. Bushidos are also used more in some of the challenge modes (trolling, for example).

There are plenty of ways to take down bushidos, nonetheless. Ice arrows can allow any player with a bow to just slowly peg him full of them; a slightly faster character can just about crack off enough snailbite arrows to slow the bushido down so he can be attacked with any other ranged weapon. Scrolls are also of course an option. Speed boosting your character (eg by a blur potion) is also an option rather than slowing the bushido down: a quick melee character with a throwing weapon, especially the mjolinir as you can attack him while running away, can work. An escape scroll, depending on the map configuration, can allow a throwing weapon armed player to pop in at different ends of the shop, run out/round when he gets too close, and then attack from the other side, though this is a rather laborious process.

Hornet

Health: 50

The answer to the question "what would happen if you took a wasp and made it more murderous", hornets are huge, vicious flying insects. Thanks to a strange quirk of evoltusion, magic, or both, these hornets are somehow enlarged to the size of a small cat. They can do very serious damage to a human, not least since their sting includes a deadly poison.

Hornets hatch from eggs laid by the Hornet Queen boss, and can also appear in the forest (as part of the hornet-shooting minigame event) and via gamble scrolls. They fly up to the player, briefly pause and then "jump" in with their stings. This attack knocks down the player, does a little damage, but most importantly poisons the character, which makes them quite dangerous.

Troll

Health: 220

"You've got to have trolls under bridges. Otherwise, what's it all about? What's it all for?" - Terry Pratchett, Troll Bridge
In accordance with venerable tradition, trolls guard bridges in the forest. Sometimes the bridge doesn't even need to be crossed because there's an alternative route. But there'll be a troll on it anyway, because that's important. If challenged by a traveller, the troll will fight back - and they'll usually win, on account of being a troll - but by and large they tend to be happy enough just collecting tolls. What they do with all the money is a source of confusion to adventurers and consternation to economists!

Trolls guard bridges (only found in the forest) and will only allow the player to cross for a fee. The player can attack them, at which point the troll becomes aggressive. Trolls are big and fast; they are exceptionally hard to beat in melee, because their club attack (their only one) swipes extremely fast (basically one frame) and they don't get stunned by player attacks. The long reach of the club makes it hard to avoid the troll, too. The best ways to defeat a troll are at range, generally using some mix of:

• Start with a bomb - the troll is static before you attack it, so you can rely on the bomb attack working. The troll can also be knocked down by this.
• Slow the troll down (probably the most important part of the process). Snailbite arrows are as usual the main deal here.
• Use effect damage - poison and fire will help lose the troll health rapidly.
• Use sweep attacks - these are fast enough to do the damage, and will knock the troll giving you a few valuable seconds (especially if the troll is under a poison effect etc).

The troll drops a lot of coins, so is a useful enemy to take down if you can beat it.

[Jubal]

Part 2: Bosses and How To Beat Them


General Tips

The 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.


FOREST

Ogre Mama

Health: 400 + 300*players
Moves: 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 Golem

Health: 400 + 250*players
Moves: 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*players
Moves: 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!


BATTLEMENTS

The Dragon

Health: 400 + 500*players
Moves: 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 Queen

Health: 400 + 450*players
Moves: Sting (30), Lay Egg

The 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 King

Health: 500 + 500*players
Moves: 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.


CASTLE

The Executioner

Health: 600 + 600*players
Moves: 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 Knights

Health: 250 + 250*players
Moves: 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 Wizard

Health: 400 + 400*players
Moves: Orb (8, x 3), Teleport

The 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).


DUNGEON

The Simerian Butcher

Health: 700 + 700*players
Moves: 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 Ringleader

Health: 700 + 500*players
Moves: 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 Trickster

Health: 800 + 500*players
Moves: Axe Throw (26), Summon Tricks

The 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.


CATACOMBS

Necromancer Twins

Health: 600 + 500*players
Moves: Orb (8, x 3), Raise Dead

The 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 Salamis

Health (For Salamis): 700 + 300*players
Moves: 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 Lord

Health (For Vampire Lord): 600 + 400*players
Moves: 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 MOUNTAIN

Crazy Santa

Health: 1200 + 1000*players
Moves: 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 Elder

Health: 1500 + 1500*players
Moves: Avalanche Boulder (45), Roll (50), Create Yeti

The 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 Snowman

Health: 1200 + 1200*players
Moves: Create Snowball (10), Cane Hit (50), Block

The 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 LANDS

Note that the desert lands always have two back to back boss fights: one of the three "minor" bosses, plus the Dragon Master.

Thorn Reaper

Health: 2500 + 1800*players (Easy mode: 1800 + players * 800)
Moves: Scythe Swipe (60), Scythe Throw (60), Plant Cactus

The 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!


Medusas

Health: 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 Elephant

Health: 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 Master

Health: 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.


OTHER

Ice Dragon

Health: 400 + 500*players
Moves: 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 Sheep

Health: 500
Moves: 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.