Boss fights need reworking

Boss fights in assassination missions should be made more meaningful as bosses.
Most of the failures in Station missions are caused by flamers, snipers, dogs, trappers and other specialists who spawn from the surroundings.
The bosses themselves are not strong and can probably be won one-on-one.
In Magistrati Oubliette it is even worse, and unless you are in a novice team, it will be decided within a minute.
This is because the specialists spawn too slowly compared to the stations (perhaps a bug?).
Boss fights should be more challenging, with stronger bosses.

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I don’t think I’ve ever seen specialists (only elites, specifically ragers/maulers) in Magistrati Oubliette. That said, that arena is so damn tiny, a bomber or two would probably lock down half of it :joy:

More interesting mechanics for the boss itself would be cool, I’d like for the real meat of the boss fight to come from the boss itself, rather than enemies spawning in - nothing wrong with enemies spawning in, but I think the boss should be more of a threat in the boss room

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i’m sure the inexperienced player don’t agree, when i was learning the game i failed plenty of times even in magistrati oubliette because i didn’t respect the boss damage

an easy fix would be to let the ragers or maulers that usually appear when the boss is dead join the fight earlier

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Indeed, why should simple missions even exist in the game? As a 700+ hours pro-player, I think you’re absolutely right that the dev should generate an extra 20 crushers and snipers for the boss fight to make the mission more fun and challenging.

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I don’t think we need reworking. Existing bosses are fiine. Yes they are faceless unrememberable bullet sponges, and they never be. They never get to level of Skarrik or Bodwarr.
But we simply need More new bosses, and not just dudes with guns and sword. Tank, monster, magishian something really different.

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The battle between the player and the boss should have more “ritual-like feeling”.
By adding more animations, backstories, boss dialog scripts, etc., the player’s story of destroying the enemy will have more of an “epic feel”, and the player will feel more “immersed” in the story.





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I fully agree.
What really irks me is that there are some voicelines in the game for Boss-to-Player interactions. But they were either not properly done or they don’t trigger correctly.

The few moments where they play, you can visualize in your mind how the Boss was supposed to build character by talking to the player group throughout the level.
A great missed opportunity.

And of course this covers the fight, too. Too easy too dodge, not iconic enough and the phases with the shield feel weird.
Traitor Captains definitely need love.

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I totally agree with you and the gentleman above. Additional background info and the voice lines during missions would be perfect for the scab captain because currently all I see is just a target practice for my thunder hammer to 1 shot.

The first time I heard the traitor captain talk to us on the comms I was shocked and wished there was more. Why would I have to listen to Morrow, Masozi or anyone else during assassination? It should be one of these missions where perhaps, the Traitor captain could try to convince the party to join the plaguefather everytime one of our friendly mission supervisors appear. This could spark some new interesting ideas on conversations between the party members, their fears or doubts which further builds to the anticipation of the fight.

Little touches like that make games and encounters more memorable.

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Or have a 4v4 squad even. The bosses have toughness shield bubbles like we do. Maybe have them use player tactics and skills even in some sort of capacity. An Ogyrn skull crusher boss. An assail psyker heretic, etc. Have some of them run away, throw smoke grenades, turn invis, etc.

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The Assail psyker tried to blow himself up on top of you, the Zealot turns invis and runs into the next area… :smiley:

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Great boss idea, definitely. A mirror match is always great, especially when they bring the same punch to the table as you do.

7 Blades, an old PS2 action game, had a mirror Demon as boss who was able to fully imitate all your protagonists abilities.
The Spirit Engine, an old Windows RPG game, also had a bounty hunter group at the end of act 2 with similiar composition to you facing you off. They were really low on health, but would nuke your party down in 3 or so turns if you didn’t watch out.

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I like the idea of a mutated death rider I had where it was a 2 phase fight and after killing the horse the rider hops off and has his own phase.

I second the above where having a corrupted kill team which has a zealot, Psyker, vet, and Ogryn using effectively player kit would be fun.

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Totally agree with a lot of what’s been said here. I would love to see some more variety and personality from bosses. Traitor Captains currently just don’t really feel like bosses. Like you said, Station is more about managing specials and Oubliette is a cake walk.

Regarding Traitor Captains, there’s a few key things that would improve them significantly.

  1. Their moveset is unimpressive and needs to be expanded. Currently their melee moveset is barely more interesting than a Mauler, and their only other attacks are just shooting at you. They need something to make fighting them more than just running in, throwing down a medi-pack and wailing on them. For example, there’s some leftover code that I read the other day that seemed to indicate the Traitor Captains would throw grenades.

  2. They should have actual phases. It’s a Traitor Captain, teams of Specialists and Elites should be called in instead of just showing up on a timer like Oubliette or spawning constantly from the start like Station. Maybe a phase where they throw volleys of grenades while sending in a horde of trash or shooters.

  3. They should be more present as an opposing force mid-mission through comms. That could mean addressing us directly to antagonize or try to convert our rejects, intercepting comms of them contacting heretic squads, etc.

tl;dr: Traitor Captains should have a more commanding presence mid-mission and during the fight and need some variety in their moveset that requires more of us than just medi-pack → smack him to death.

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They just feel like Garbage Plates in Darktide. Vermintide has a great boss “arena-ritual” that Darktide hasn’t grasped as well. I hope they evolve or add phases in the furture.

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Frankly I wouldn’t call those “boss fights”, just boring placeholders of an unfinished game.

Definitely would be nice to see more Variety in Boss types.
My suggestions

  • Give Bosses a more unpredictable attack combo like a Ragers/Chaos Spawn, honestly find Ragers will kill me super quick if I don’t block or dodge immediately. Boss should be similar if not worse threat up close
    -Give Boss a Grab attack like the other bosses where he can use a player as a meat shield where they’ll even take melee damage so you have to stop attacking completely or risk annihilating your squad mates health if you blindly swing
    -Instakill Execution grab during rage mode if somebody doesn’t intervene via stagger
    -Chance for them to kamikaze themselves in a Tox bomb so the ending hordes are actually dangerous if somebody gets downed at the end

MOST IMPORTANT:Would be really cool if the fight started off with a “Duel phase” at first where the boss will go one on one with several people before he realizes we’re BAD ASS and he starts calling in hordes building the fight up as it progresses. Basically a Damage cap at the start of the fight so the ridiculous 1hp 5k crit damage builds can’t end the fight in speed run mode. Sorry got a little specific
But sometimes feel myself competing with squad mates in a weird way where I’m trying to fight the boss but the boss is already dead because of some OP damage

TL;DR BOSS IS BULLIED TOO EASY. RAGDOLLS EVERY 10 SECONDS.

Recently, the Chasm Terminus boss stage has Captain Wolfer (I think he was the traitor officer rescued in the prologue) say lines as you make your way up into the Terminus proper. But no change in the actual boss fight itself.

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It still happens way too rarely. It’d be really cool if he interacted more with us, as we made our way to the boss.

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I liked one I heard recently where he said the imperium was based on lies and propaganda as it’s foundation.

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After checking the relating file, there is 13 different points in the mission where the Traitor Captain Wolfer should speak to the player. There is 4 different dialogue variations per dialogue.

Something doesn’t add up.

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