Guide · 06
Boss field guide: leave the red, break the boss
The arena stops the road. The boss is not a DPS wall. It is a telegraph test with a health bar attached.
Every sector ends with a boss arena. The boss approaches to a standoff roughly 17 metres ahead, then rotates through an attack set. Its body, name, modifiers, and attacks are procedural. The arena is fair in one strict way: every direct attack marks its danger on the ground before it lands. Stop watching the health bar long enough to read the floor.
Bosses have three phases. Breakpoints sit at 66% and 33% HP. A phase change cancels pending attacks, makes the boss roar and stagger briefly, summons adds, and may make the fight faster. You cannot erase an entire phase instantly: each phase has a minimum duration of 7 seconds in sector 1, increasing by one second per sector up to 11. Damage beyond a protected breakpoint hits a visible shield instead.
Boss bodies and their standard attack pools
| Body | Base HP | Base speed | Possible attacks |
|---|---|---|---|
| Brute King | 9,000 | 3.2 | Charge, slam, sweep, boulder |
| Blister Mother | 11,000 | 2.6 | Acid, summon, slam, shockwave |
| Riot Warden | 12,500 | 3.0 | Charge, shockwave, sweep, boulder |
| Abomination | 15,000 | 3.0 | Slam, shockwave, acid, summon, charge, boulder |
The first four sectors use Brute King, Blister Mother, Riot Warden, then Abomination in order. Later sectors draw a body from that group. A boss starts with one modifier and gains another possible modifier every two sectors, up to four. It draws three attacks before sector 3 and up to four afterwards, although a Summoner modifier can ensure summon is included.
Every attack: telegraph and counter
Charge
Tell: a long red rectangle from the boss toward your current lane, then a 1.3-second wind-up (faster while enraged). Counter: leave the rectangle sideways. The boss dashes to the marked lane and can hit soldiers along the route. Do not run forward in the same line; the road is stopped, so lateral movement is the escape.
Slam
Tell: a red circle about four metres wide near the squad. Counter: leave the circle before the impact. The slam uses a 1.35-second wind-up and punishes the marked area, not the whole road. Do not cut through the edge with a wide squad; give the formation room to clear it.
Shockwave
Tell: a red rectangle covering either the left or right half of the road from boss to squad. Counter: take the opposite half. It is a side choice, not a timing jump. Keep the centre line only if the safe half is centered by the boss’s exact boundary; otherwise move clearly over.
Acid barrage
Tell: three circles in early sectors, increasing to as many as six in later sectors, coloured green. Counter: move out of all marked circles; do not dodge one circle into another. The barrage shares a bounded casualty budget, but it still leaves acid hazards. Choose an open side and keep the formation moving until the impacts resolve.
Summon
Tell: a roar and purple shockwave around the boss. Counter: recognize that no ground circle needs dodging, then clear the adds before they bury the next telegraph. A normal summon calls eight enemies; a Summoner boss calls 12. Phase changes also summon adds: six plus two per sector.
Sweep
Tell: nearly full-width red danger with one unmarked gap 3.4 metres wide. Counter: take the gap. Do not choose the larger-looking red side; only the clean gap is safe. Start moving during the 1.4-second wind-up, because a large formation needs time to enter the opening.
Boulder
Tell: an orange-red circle around your current position, about 2.8 metres in radius, plus a whistle. Counter: walk out of the circle. Do not reverse into the boss while dodging. One clean lateral move is enough.
Phase breaks and rage
At 66% and 33%, the boss staggers for 1.4 seconds and calls adds. The second phase begins at 66%; the final phase begins at 33%. All bosses become enraged in the final phase. A boss with the Enraged modifier also becomes enraged after the first breakpoint. Enrage increases its movement and shortens some attack wind-ups to 78% of normal. Later phases can also chain attacks with much less recovery time.
Do not dump a grenade into a blue phase barrier and expect a shortcut. The barrier is explicitly absorbing damage until the phase floor allows progress. Use that time to read what adds spawned, pull the formation out of their lane, and save your next dodge for the boss’s return.
Modifiers: read the labels
| Modifier | What it does | Response |
|---|---|---|
| Armored | Takes 40% less damage while above 50% HP. | Expect the first half to last; do not waste movement chasing damage. |
| Enraged | Rages from phase 2; rage speeds the boss and wind-ups. | Move early; leave more lateral margin. |
| Summoner | Its summon attack calls 12 adds rather than 8. | Keep a grenade for the add flood if possible. |
| Toxic | Creates a small acid burst about every 3.2 seconds after the intro. | Do not camp directly in front of it; treat fresh green pools as lanes to leave. |
| Regenerating | After two seconds without damage, heals 1.5% of max HP per second. | Maintain damage; do not lose firing line to unnecessary detours. |
| Explosive | After death, telegraphs a final 6.5-metre blast. | Do not celebrate in the circle. Leave it. |
How boss HP scales with firepower
The displayed base HP is not always the exact fight HP. The game sizes the encounter to your real squad firepower so a strong squad still sees attacks. It estimates full-focus squad DPS from soldiers, weapon, fire rate, Hollow Points, Sharpshooter, Armory damage, and Grenadier, then uses about half of that practical focus for boss sizing. Target fight time is 26 seconds in sector 1, plus 7 seconds per sector, capped at 70 seconds. Boss HP never falls below its sector-scaled base.
That explains why pure growth is not a free skip. Bigger squads create more damage, and the boss gets more health to preserve a real fight. Growth still matters: it clears adds, absorbs bounded attacks, and gives you more choice after mistakes. Strong firepower also means you spend less time exposed to modifiers, but it does not remove the phase floor or telegraphs.
Damage and casualty limits
A single boss attack is capped at a share of the squad, rather than being allowed to erase everyone at once. The cap starts at 12% plus 5% per phase and 1.5% per sector, capped at 30%. That is a safety rail, not a strategy. Repeatedly standing in a circle, sweep, or charge still spends the squad fast. Blast Shield can absorb the next eligible hit in a sector; treat it as insurance, not as permission to ignore a telegraph.
Arena preparation checklist
- Take the last gate deliberately. A multiplier or weapon tier before the arena can matter more than a small addition.
- Open useful crates before the stop line. Grenade, medkit, and weapon crates are resources for the boss; do not cross a live trap for them.
- Check fallen and medkits. Use a medkit after a real loss, not at zero fallen.
- Read the boss labels. Body tells the possible attacks; modifiers tell the special rule.
- Move on the telegraph, not the impact. The first red shape is your command to steer.
- Clear adds between boss windows. A Wailer or Retcher beside the boss makes every dodge worse.
Boss mistakes that look like bad luck
Staying centred. Most attacks are designed to punish current position. Waiting for the boulder sound. The circle is earlier and more useful. Chasing the boss through a Toxic pool. The gun line cannot help if the squad is shrinking. Ignoring summons. Adds steal aim and make the next telegraph hard to see. Emptying resources during a phase barrier. Damage soaked by the shield does not advance the phase. Standing in the death blast. Explosive is still active after the health bar reads zero.