Special bosses aren't that special

[åpå]

1) Design
The special bosses themselves are just bigger sized bosses with more hp. That's it.

It would be cool if they were actually more special with some unique features like eg.:
- Enemy aura buffs (idea from Spellbook Demonslayers)
- Unique attacks like the final bosses have
- They would create global hazards until killed (incentive to go after them)
- Something else to make them feel... special

2) Rewards
After you've completed the special boss missions to unlock new variants for the characters, there isn't any incentive to go after them during a run. Based on my experiences and the chest's visuals, they're just... normal chests which can give you 1 to 3 random level ups based on your luck and rng. Just like any other chest. I assume this because there isn't any indication that the chests are better in any way. Also after you kill all the bosses during a run, you don't get anything extra or "special" from it. In my experience the drops from these chests have varied from 1 to 3, like with any other chest. If I'm wrong about this, please point it out devs.

So the reward is presumably a normal chest per special boss. You get at max. 4 of them for running around the map for minutes. What do you exchange in return for this whole adventure?
- You leave xp crystals behind.
- You leave random items spawns behind.
- Your enemies per minute goes down, making you earn less xp.
- You leave random chest spawns behind, which become either unobtainable because you've traveled so far from them or they become your new bootleg "special boss" questline with the same listed negatives.

You're able to redeem the xp loss by getting the crystal ball item (global xp magnet), but that's never guaranteed. I'd be cool if there was actually a special reward for completing this whole questline. Even guaranteeing a 3 drop chest and a crystal ball would make it much better. Or you know, actually something new perhaps? Some trinket or item which is only obtainable by killing all of the bosses. The possibilities are almost endless.

Unfortunately I don't see any reason to go after them at least during high level gameplay runs (atm Forge R5 runs which are the hardest). I don't like to be this harsh or critical about a new feature in the game, but tbh it's just so bare bones currently. It's an amazing idea on paper, but the execution is lacking. I'm giving this constructive critique in the hopes of this feature getting better in the future. The potential is there.

If I'm wrong or missing something about these special boss quests, please let me know.

[Eizo]

I agree, the new special bosses are mostly something you take care of once, for challenges and new characters. They are really far off and give you no reason to go for them again.

[Thane Krios]

Originally posted by Eizo:

I agree, the new special bosses are mostly something you take care of once, for challenges and new characters. They are really far off and give you no reason to go for them again.

For have chest it's good but yes they are really really too far

[thomas_edson]

Yeah I agree. The bosses are so far away and not worth the reward. But the worst for me is that the ramdom chests become difficult or impossible to find.

[Dentorin]

I also agree. Not just for fact that you decrease the number of enemies that you're killing AND fail to pick up xp crystals that you generate from a chunk of the enemies that you do kill but that it's also incredibly boring. Walking for several minutes across the map to just get a normal chest is mind-numbing and not at all entertaining.

Some of the suggestions that I like personally:

1) Give a buff to your character per special boss killed, or
2) Make the reward chest always drop 3 rewards to offset the lost exp, or
3) Just move those bosses closer so that it doesn't take over half the time on the map walking to them all.

I love the idea of having optional challenges on the map that are high risk-high reward but right now it's medium risk-no reward.

[PercyP]

Just FYI I think the final chest now gives you 5 powerups, but I agree it's probably not worth the hassle since a full 20 min run can net you a maxed out arsenal anyway and as your luck goes up you'll find more chests randomly anyway. At least it doesn't seem like a good deal.

One way they could improve the reward is that killing each boss could give a small percentage increase in certain categories on top of the chests. Like +10% pickup, or +5% cooldown or something, or a mix

I'd definitely want the bosses to be closer together, I don't mind if the tradeoff is making them harder, or more positionally challenging to fight

[PercyP]

Another idea: Killing the four special bosses grants you an additional element type to add to your pool so you can finish off that weapon ascension you couldn't build or missed out on due to RNG or something. So they're a kind of "alternative solution" to prepping for the final waves and boss if you're underpowered. Bring them closer together so they take about 5 mins or 25% of a 20 min run to do in total, which means you still have to sacrifice time spent elsewhere in order to get that additional element

[åpå]

Originally posted by PercyP:

Just FYI I think the final chest now gives you 5 powerups

This never happened to me when I was unlocking all the new characters.

Edit: Derp, I didn't realize you wrote now. I'm gonna test this out the next time I play the game.

[åpå]

Just finished a Forest 3 R5 run and after killing the last 4th boss I indeed got 5 level ups and over 1k money from the chest.

[chriskuv]

+1 on the thread.

Love the extra option, just needs a bit of tweaking, like mentioned

-less distance to travel.
-boost a bit the reward.

We are not talking about extreme changes, just a 15-20% change in these values would hit the spot.

Having said that, in one 4/4 bosses, I did get 5 level-ups and almost +50% gold which felt good. Maybe boost a bit the first bosses, or reduce the distance.

[Zaxxon]

What do these 'Special Bosses' even look like?

I've played about 5 matches now looking for them running all over creation hardly gathering any gems for power ups and I don't think I've come across a single one so far?!!?!

What am I doing wrong?

[Dentorin]

After the first minute of a run, you should see a purple marker with a skull somewhere along the edge of your screen pointing toward the boss. The boss itself looks like any normal boss so you'll have to use the marker to guide you to it. When you kill one, another marker pops up to show you where the next boss is. Only the last special boss gives you the 5 reward chest.

[Zaxxon]

@Dentorin , huh odd. That is I played a another 2 mission since I posted and I did see the purple marker you mentioned finally (maybe I just didn't notice it last time) but I'd kill one but not see the next icon show up, so I'd end up wandering aimlessly in search of the 2nd one.

I'll just try again I guess.

[Dentorin]

Yeah, visually it's kind of busy so it can be easy to miss when you're scanning the sides of your screen while trying not to die. Make sure also that it was the special boss you killed. There's a counter in the bottom right that will go up if you killed it.

[Zaxxon]

I just notices the counter in the bottom right as well... derp.

[Anor Londo]

everything he said,
seriously, what's even the point..
either make it more rewarding or reduce the distance...
49hrs in. tried endless R5, can reach 30mins without bothering killing those bosses.