Boss Abilities
Bosses fight with authored abilities — pressure that telegraphs itself through combat-text callouts and marks on the ground. Read the warnings, and most of it is survivable. Ignore them, and some of it is not: the Reaper's boss-centred Scythe will kill outright anything standing in its swing.
The Four Ability Kinds
| Kind | What it does | Your answer |
|---|---|---|
| Disease AoE | Applies a disease to players in an area | Don't stack; know the disease (see Diseases) |
| Ground zone | Creates a persistent damage/status area | Move out, and don't drag it through allies |
| Pulse damage | Instant telegraphed burst — usually centred on its target's position, leading your movement | Keep moving unpredictably; don't linger where you just were |
| Summon | Spawns adds near the boss | Decide fast: clear them or burn the boss |
Some abilities use shaped areas rather than circles — Plague Breath sprays a cone, Earthquake cracks a pattern, and Crystal Lance strikes down a straight telegraphed line. When the shape appears, be somewhere else.
Enrage
In fights with multiple bosses, killing one enrages the survivors — their melee hits harden by about 10% for the rest of the fight. Decide your kill order knowing the last one standing hits hardest.
Named Abilities
Bosses draw from a pool of dozens of authored abilities — among them Spore Pulse, Cinder Zone, Shockburst, Scythe, Stone Slam, Gale Strike, Tidal Crush, Wisp Summon, Reapers Wrath, Lava Burst, Reapers Miasma, Magma Pool, Tremor Pulse, Plague Breath, Stone Eruption, Thunder Wave, Frost Cage, Void Crack, Toxic Bloom, Dust Devil, Earthquake, Shadow Bind, Crystal Lance, Inferno Ring, Static Field, and Hex Circle.
Boss-tuned disease variants exist for Sporeblight, Cindercurse, and Aetherflux — Spore Pulse delivers the Sporeblight variant, and boss melee can carry them too.
Fighting Bosses
- Watch for callouts and visual warnings — dangerous mechanics
announce themselves.
- Move out of ground zones and shaped telegraphs quickly.
- Spread when disease pulses are active.
- Clear summons before they snowball.
- In multi-boss fights, plan for the enrage.