Introduction[]
This installment of the AQ Game Mechanics series is going to be discussing Boss Monsters. These are typically the last monster you fight in a quest (i.e. just before the shop opens), but you can also find them in other locations like the void. Some quests will even have you fight multiple bosses within them. This post is going to focus on the game mechanics generally associated with bosses, rather than discussing strategies to defeat specific ones. You can find that information in other places e.g., here.
In the first entry to the AQ Game mechanics series, I introduced the Player Turn formula (a.k.a. the 20 turn model), The model assumes the player fights two normal monsters between full heals. However, instead of fighting two monsters, you may encounter a single boss.
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Power[]
What makes a boss a boss? The answer is its Power modifier. You may have previously seen this value within monster encyclopedia entries. This Power modifier affects both the base HP of the monster, as well as how much damage it can deal to you. Normal monsters (e.g., Drakel Warrior) typically have power modifiers of 1, though in certain circumstances they can even be lower (lowly Frogzards only have a value of 0.75). Some, like Dragons are slightly higher. For a monster to be considered a boss, it needs to have a Power modifier of at least 2. However, the modifier can be much higher than this. Many bosses that are considered to be challenging e.g., War-torn Dragon are considered Champion bosses with power values of 2.5-3. Void bosses are harder still, considered Champion Elite bosses with power values of 3.75-4 (e.g., Chaos Knight). This also applies to Staff bosses in the Moderator Gauntlet (Afterlifex, D.U.M. and Carandor). In rare cases, void bosses reach power 5 (e.g., Alpha WereDragon). We've even had a Power 10 monster in the past (Shadow Maelstrom. Unfortunately you can't fight this one anymore!).
An important thing to note is sheer power alone does not define how challenging a boss monster is. It's also about how that monster uses that power. Alpha WereDragon is a Power 5 monster, but doesn't use its power anywhere near as efficiently as War-Torn Dragon, who is often considered a much tougher fight despite only being Power 3. To that end, monsters have the ability to sacrifice some of their damage/power to provide other obstacles for the player. A simple example of this is Ultimon, who deals less damage on his regular attack to have a 1% chance of dealing *11.23 Damage and automatically hit. Another example is the Wicked King, who sacrifices Power to place a permanent, unavoidable prismatic burn on the player throughout the fight.
Power is a hidden modifier, so you won't be able to see it in-game. This shouldn't matter though; the story makes it fairly obvious when you're fighting a boss in most cases.
Boss Status Effects[]
In addition to Power, Bosses tend to possess a number of characteristic status effects. The game staff want Bosses to be able to fight back, and so have added these status effects to prevent the player from either killing them in one turn, or chaining status effects to stun them throughout the fight!
Boss Boost[]
In my last contribution, I discussed the status system and how status infliction works. However, I neglected to mention this specific status effect, which provides a bonus to saves against Berserk, Blind, Choke, Control, Daze, Fear, Form Shift, Freeze, Hypersalination, Panic, Paralysis, Petrification, Sleep, Spirit Rend, The Cold, and Thermal shock. This makes it harder for the player to successfully inflict these statuses on a boss. Why these statuses? They either limit or entirely prevent the monster from damaging you, allowing the player to essentially stunlock their opponent.
Freedom[]
The staff created Boss Boost in an attempt to prevent the player from stunlocking Bosses, but quickly found that status potency could easily nullify the bonus. This meant bosses could still be trivialised. In response, they created Freedom. Freedom provides direct immunity to inaction statuses that prevent enemies from attacking, irrespective of the save rate. Whilst some bosses with freedom can be selectively stunned in certain circumstances, you'll need to find another strategy if you planned on stunlocking each and every boss you encounter.
Soft (+ Hard) Damage Caps[]
These statuses restrict the amount of damage a player can deal to a monster with each hit they land. Hard Damage caps are exceedingly rare, with Essence of Wind Dragon being the most well-known. The cap does increase for a critical hit, but the damage remains capped to some extent. In comparison, Soft Damage caps are common on most new bosses, and reduce the amount of damage dealt above a certain threshold. The amount of damage reduction is controlled by the Clawback value associated with the cap. The formula to calculate the damage reduction is:
Damage: Cap * ( Damage / Cap ) ^ Clawback
Assuming a hit were to deal 4000 raw damage to a monster that possessed a cap of 200 with a clawback of 0.5, it would actually deal:
Damage: 200 * (4000 / 200) ^ 0.5 = 894.4
The resulting value is stochastically rounded (40% of the time it would round up to 895, and the remaining 60% down to 894). What does this mean? Higher hit counts are better since they spread the damage out better. Items like Fireball Z are currently highly favoured for this reason.
Form Shift Immunity[]
A relatively new addition to the list of boss statuses, this effect was added in direct response to strategies that involve tagging statuses like Dracomorgrify and Zorbak Ally Assist. In combination with Trigger items like the Dragon Blade, Paladin, and Zombie Hunter, these items have the power to completely trivialise a boss fight. This group of statuses also includes Purple Rain and Prime Chaos Orb. Form shift immunity acts as a counter to prevent these broken strategies from working against bosses, allowing them to pose some sort of challenge to the player character.
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