The bosses

Every boss is the exam for the floor it ends, and every one is beatable with that floor's own gear, provided you have been identifying and socketing it. This page covers where each fight is, what the boss actually does, and what it drops.

Bosses show their level in the bracket before their name, and their health scales with it. Most of them announce their big attacks with a roar or a mark on the ground. Learn the mark, because seeing one is your cue to move.

Troll Leader, Floor 1

The forest's master, fought in the open at the end of The Forest's Master, Floor 1's final quest. You will be level 1 or 2, and it is level 1.

It is a melee bruiser with a few tricks. Its mallet blows knock you into the air or throw you clear across the clearing, so do not stand still in front of it. When it stops and roars, everyone close to it is weakened for a few seconds, so back off before the roar finishes. Stay more than a few blocks away and it drops the mallet, takes its time over a stone and hurls it. The stone explodes where it lands, so keep moving.

Rocky, Floor 2

The thing at the bottom of the great cavern, at the end of The Thing Below. Killing it opens the way to Floor 3. Be level 3 with identified Floor 2 gear; Rocky is level 4, and this is the first fight that will kill a careless player.

Everything Rocky does is rock, and every attack shows you where it will land. It lobs stones at you constantly. Up close, a red ring pulses on the ground at the edge of its reach: that is a slam that ignores armour and launches you, so get outside the ring before it fires. Cracked-stone circles around Rocky and under you mean spikes are about to burst up, so step off yours. From range it roars, and a stone ring appears under every player; three volleys of rock land on the rings, so keep moving out of them. A band of rock heaving across the floor toward you is a wave, and a sidestep beats it.

One thing to know before you draw a bow: Rocky shrugs off projectiles, taking about a quarter of their damage. Melee and skills do full work.

Two pieces of the Stone set of Rocky give +25 flat armour, and all four give +40 maximum health.

Necromancer, Floor 3

The end of The Source, the quest that takes you into the game's only instanced dungeon. You need the dungeon key from the quest line to enter, and the boss waits at the bottom at level 6, a step above the floor's monsters at 4 to 5.

The fight as it plays, from the door to the drop.

This is a summon fight. The Necromancer's own health is modest; the danger is the room filling up while you tunnel on it. It raises waves of corruption from the ground: light waves of up to six spitters, runners and scavengers, and heavy waves of two Corrupted Crushers. Waves come at least fifteen seconds apart and cap out, but only if you are killing what rises. The rise itself is slow enough to punish; a summon crawling out of the dirt is a free hit.

The boss itself fights from range with a slow-turning bolt of fire damage, which strafing beats. If you stand next to it, it either swings its staff to throw you back or lets out a warden's roar and marks a soul-fire ring ten blocks across. A wave of chaos damage rolls out from it a few seconds later, so get outside the ring. It wears wards against fire, ice, lightning and physical damage, so no single element trivialises it. Clear the adds, take your openings, and it goes down.

Two pieces of the Torn Necromancer set give +20 maximum health; all four give Speed I. It is worth repeat runs, and the boss pays more experience than anything on the floors below it.

Rocky (Caged), Floor 4

The Floor 2 boss again, and the boss of Floor 4. It waits in a cage on the sixth island during Kin in the Cage, called up by the charged crystal beside the cage. The quest is easy to walk past and you should not: Corbin will not open the way to Floor 5 until it is finished, and freeing the ranch hand pays a bonus skill point.

The moveset is the Floor 2 fight, faster on its feet and hitting harder, at level 7, with a shorter warning on its spikes. The important difference is the plating: this Rocky resists physical damage by 25% and every other type by 15%, blocks some hits and keeps the projectile resistance, so a weapons-only approach hits a wall. Elemental skills still get through best, and this is the fight that teaches you why you slotted them.

The floor's normal gear tables pay out on top of these.

Cult Captain, Floor 4

The cult's field commander on Hearth Ranch. The fight is a flaming sweep up close and fireballs at range, wearing wards against both fire and physical damage.

Next: what level to be for each of these, the full bestiary, or what to do with what they drop.