Shattered Pixel Dungeon/Bosses (2024)

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Bosses are powerful enemies located at the end of each chapter. Unlike regular enemies, they can't be avoided, the Hero must defeat them to progress further into the dungeon. Bosses have much higher HP than other enemies in the same region. When certain HP threshold is reached, bosses get more powerful/agressive or even change tactics entirely. DM-300, King of Dwarves and Yog Dzewa become invincible at some point during the fight forcing the Hero to kill minions until the boss can be damaged again.

Several tactics are much less effective against bosses; they are immune to most instant-kill effects (dread, polymorph, etc.) and take reduced damage from grim weapons/traps and Scroll of Retribution/Psionic Blast. They also take reduced knockback from Wand of Blast Wave and similar effects. Furthermore, the Hero recieves a Locked Floor debuff, which severly limits health regeneration and recharging of most items and abilities forcing the player to rely harder on consumables. If the Hero dies during a bossfight and comes back using an Ankh, they have to redo the entire fight.

Goo[]

"Beware Goo!"

―Sad Ghost

Goo is the first boss a player encounters during a run, fought at the end of the Sewers. Unlike other boss arenas, its floor is generated randomly like non-boss floors. The floor features randomly placed patches of water and grass (which can play an important role during the fight) but no traps. The boss always spawns in a large room in the center of the floor. The exit room has no stairs and has a locked exit door instead. The fight starts once Goo notices the Hero or takes damage.

Goo has a standard melee attack with a 33% chance to inflict 20 turns of caustic ooze on hit. It can use a special "pump up" attack that takes two turns to charge (telegraphed to the player by a growing circle of dark miasma). This attack can hit a single target up to 2 tiles away, deals three times the regular attack damage, and has doubled accuracy, but it can't hit targets behind corners. It's also interrupted if Goo loses sight of its target. The miasma particles indicate which tiles can be targeted by the attack; other tiles are safe. The chance of using this attack instead of a regular attack starts at 20%.

Goo passively regenerates while standing in water, recovering 1 point of its health each turn. When the Goo is below 50% of its max HP, it becomes enraged and gains 50% bonus accuracy and damage. The chance of the "pump up" attack being used increases from 1 in 5 to 1 in 2. Should Goo's health ever regenerate above the 50% threshold, the enrage stops.

On death, Goo drops 1 - 3 Blobs of Goo, which can be turned into 3 alchemical energy each or used to make unique elixirs or an Arcane Bomb. It also drops the Skeleton Key needed to unlock the exit door.

Tips[]

As Goo is the first boss you encounter, it has the simplest moveset, which doesn't change as its HP goes down.As such, there aren't that many threats to deal with.

• Always stay in or near water to wash away Caustic Ooze when needed.
• The "Pump up" attack probably represents the greatest threat. Your armor will be almost definitely inadequate to block it, and getting hit by it multiple times can easily end your run.
• When the Goo starts charging up the attack, move away at least two tiles from the boss or behind a door/corner.
• Never fight the Goo in the corner or an unexplored hallway (which may end with an undiscovered hidden door), as it can make it impossible to escape.
• The Goo also always stops the attack if it loses sight of its target, so using the Cloak of Shadow as Rogue will protect you.

Tengu[]

"I've heard horror stories about that mask..."

―Sad Ghost

Has 2 phases:

• Phase 1: Tengu sets fading poison dart traps (FPDs) on jump, jumping scrambles them. The FPDs fade a turn after being placed, serving as an impediment for actually reaching Tengu. The FPDs cannot target Tengu and inflict 8 turns of poison upon a target (for a total 17 damage) in addition to the standard 1-4 physical damage. Cannot move by himself, instead teleports ("jumps") around when dealt a total 20 HP in damage. Jumping sets his current HP to be 20 HP lower than he had after he last jumped; it's impossible to knock him through multiple jump iterations with 1 hit. After jumping 4 times (total of 80 HP), ends current phase. After this phase, the door becomes unlocked andyou have to go through the doorway to where you first came into the dungeon. This will then activate the next phase.
• Phase 2: Attacks player while using abilities to hinder player efforts to approach Tengu. Tengu tries to use 1/3/5/8/11 abilities per jump (depending on # of prior jumps in phase 3). Takes 2 turns per use normally, but only 1 turn if he's at least 4 behind desired ability uses. Tengu uses an ability every 1-4 turns if on track, every other turn if 3 behind "goal", and every turn if at least 4 behind goal. Ability is picked randomly after first three uses, but if would use same ability twice, 90% chance to reroll. Abilities cannot harm Tengu. Blinks 5-7 tiles away on jump. Abilities can be used against targets he cannot see.

Attacks used in second phase:

• Shurikens: treated as melee attack. Only ranged attack in phase 1.
• Smoke bomb: ability that deals 15 - 30 bomb dmg in a 5x5 radius 3 turns after being thrown; does not affect terrain/items; when thrown, thrown to tile at least 3 tiles away from Tengu but is also adjacent to target. Cannot be picked up. Tengu attempts to use this as very first ability.
• Shocker: deals 12 electric dmg to all targets in either the telegraphed '+' or 'X' formation that it alternates between; does not expire over time; thrown to closest tile not adjacent to Tengu but adjacent to target; Tengu attempts to use this as second ability
• Fire: moving steam that ignites for 1 turn every other turn; Tengu attempts to use this as third ability, though he will use it earlier if the corresponding ability cannot be used for any reason.

Tengu drops the Tome of Mastery when defeated, which allows the Hero to pick a subclass. However, since v0.3.2 defeating Tengu no longer unlocks Tome of Mastery as a starting item.

Tips[]

• Be quick. Rings of haste, stones of blink and the Ethereal Chains may help you get Tengu in attack range.
• Try to save some ranged weapons and wand charges until the third phase, as the room is much bigger. Or simply use the break time between phase 1 and phase 2 to regenerate some HP (will stop regenerating after a certain threshold) and wand charges.
• Use scrolls of recharging to recharge your wands during battle.
  • You can get wands from the wandmaker before you fight Tengu. It's recommended to have wands that givesstatus effects in which doesdamage overtime (this includes Wand of Fireblast, Wand of Corrosion, etc.).
• With the Timekeeper's Hourglass and a Potion of Toxic Gas, phase one can be dealt with by throwing the potion in the center and activating stasis over and over to either end the phase or leave Tengu on a sliver of health for the phase. Do note this requires many charges.

DM-300[]

"That thing is huge..."

―Sad Ghost

The reworked boss fight still takes place in a circular arena. However, spent traps have been replaced by exposed wires and there are also 4 rooms with pylons connected to the main arena with tunnels. The middle section of the arena is accessible during the fight, just the ladder is blocked. This gives the player safe spaces that the boss cannot reach because of being a large enemy. However, the boss has a few abilities, which it can use against the Hero even when it can't see the Hero.

Whenever the boss steps on exposed wires, it gains 30 + missingHP / 10 shielding.

Supercharge

Whenever the boss's HP is reduced to 200, it becomes invincible and starts charging. A random pylon will activate and the wires and the water will become electrified, dealing 6 - 12 damage to anything that steps on them except the boss. The electricity particles are moving to the active pylon, showing the player where it is. After the charging is finished, the boss can move two tiles per turn. It cannot use its abilities anymore, but it can now destroy walls on surrounding tiles to get into small spaces.

Immune to:

While pylons lack armor, they have soft damage cap at 15 damage per hit (similar to slimes, just higher). Instead of targetting the Hero, pylons shoot lightnings in a set pattern. The lightnings always zap oposite tiles adjencent to the pylon and rotate clockwise every turn. After the active pylon is destroyed the boss returns to normal state and the fight goes on. Another supercharge happens when the boss reaches 100 remaining HP.

DM-300's drop is replaced with cursed metal shards, which are used for alchemy. Alternatively, they can be sold for 100g each.

King of Dwarves[]

"When people say power corrupts, this is what they mean."

―Sad Ghost

Dwarf King's fight was overhauled, making it a three phase fight, similarly to the previous bosses. The arena is now a circular throne room, and there are four pedestals that summon minions, but the king doesn't need to stay on them to activate them. Minions consist of Ghouls (indicated by bone particles), with every fourth summon instead being a Warlock (curse particles) or Monk (mechanical particles). Once summoning starts, it takes three turns for the minion to spawn, though it can act immediately upon spawning. All minions spawn aware of the Hero and drop no items or EXP when defeated.

The fight starts with the king attacking you and summoning subjects. He will summon a subject every 10-14 turns, and will also use an ability every 10-14 turns.

There is only a 12.5% chance, that the same ability will be used twice in a row.

Dealing damage to him will reduce the turns remaining before next ability/summon by 12.5% of the damage dealt.

Phase 2

Once he has lost 250 out of his 300 HP, he will teleport or move to his throne, gain 300 shielding and become invulnerable. All active subjects are culled at the end of phase 1. He will then proceed to send three waves of enemies.

Whenever a subject dies, fails to spawn or is corrupted, the King takes 25 damage. After all 3 waves are cleared he has no shielding left and this phase is over. Dwarf King is unaffected by the Doom debuff once he exits his first phase. Do note that a dwarf ghoul that died while another one is still nearby does not count as a kill and does not give 25 damage to the king.

Phase 3

In the last phase, the King leaves his throne and returns to battle. He doesn't use any ability anymore, but he starts summoning a new minion every turn. All damage dealt to the King of Dwarves in this phase is taken as deferred damage, making the phase take longer than his 50 HP might indicate. Once he dies, however, all the minions also die.

The King of Dwarves drops the Dwarf King's Crown when defeated, which the Hero can use to turn their armor into class armor and unlock tier 4 abilities.

Yog-Dzewa[]

"So that's what a god looks like?"

―Sad Ghost

Immune to:

Yog cannot directly attack and instead relies on its abilities to put pressure on the hero.

At the beginning of every even phase, Yog summons a fist and becomes invulnerable. The player's view distance is reduced by 1 (indicated by the message "the darkness pulls in closer"), though having a torch sidesteps this mechanic.

While the Fist is near Yog (inside its "shrine"), the fist is also invulnerable. Luring it out will allow it to be damaged.

The order of the fists is randomized, but the fight will always consist of a tank fist (rotting or rusted fist), an environment-oriented fist (burning or soiled fist), and a ranged fist (bright or dark fist).

Yog Dzewa's minions[]

Burning Fist

Immune to:

Soiled Fist

Immune to:

Rotting Fist

Immune to:

, toxic gas

Rusted Fist

Immune to:

Bright Fist

Immune to:

Dark Fist

Immune to:

God's Larva

Tips[]

• Make 2x Elixir of Dragon's Blood and 2x Elixir of Toxic Essence via advanced alchemy. Dragon's Blood nullifies burning damage against the Burning Fist and burns the vegetation around the soiled fist, which prevents its' damage reduction.
• Make 2x Potion of Earthen Armor and 2x Scroll of Challenge. These combined make you very resistant to the physical damage from the Rusted Fist and larvae. Use Elixir(s) of Arcane Armor inside the Challenge arena to greatly reduce the damage from Yog's beams if you have trouble dodging.
• Keep Potions of Mind Vision to use if you are worried about the blinding from the Bright Fist or the darkness of the Dark Fist.
• During the final phase, use a Stone of Aggression on Yog to make the larvae kill Yog very quickly while you concentrate on dodging beams. This preparation makes the final fight take 0-2 health potions, rather than 6+.
• Take your time, make one move/ attack at a time and avoid getting surrounded. If you do, use an invisibility potion. For ranged characters, a potion of stamina will make hitting enemies easier and last longer than a haste potion.
• If you are the Mage/ Rogue, save a couple of Scrolls of Upgrade to recharge your staff/ cloak. For the mage, use the recycle spell on Scrolls of Lullaby, Mirror Image, Teleportation, and Remove Curse until you get 3+ Scrolls of Recharging. For the Rogue, do the same but then change those into Scrolls of Mystic Energy.

Update history[]

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