Boss stone meaning

[ÆtherNomad]

At the end of every level, there is miniboss that you can summon by interacting with its stone.

If you've been observant, you've probably seen that these stones have three skulls engraved in them, and that some of them are sometimes lightened up. The number lightened up skulls changes, and it looks like when a level is completely explored none of them is lightened up anymore. The number of lightened skulls, however, doesn't fit the number of NPCs you've found.

What is their meaning then?

[nvmvoidrays]

it's how many enemies are dead. if you look in the bottom left corner of the mini-map, you'll see three skull icons. as you kill enemies, the skulls slowly start disappearing as you kill more enemies.

i'm not exactly sure what the point of immediately fighting the mini-boss is. i always kill everything first.

[Draktok]

Originally posted by nvmvoidrays:

it's how many enemies are dead. if you look in the bottom left corner of the mini-map, you'll see three skull icons. as you kill enemies, the skulls slowly start disappearing as you kill more enemies.

i'm not exactly sure what the point of immediately fighting the mini-boss is. i always kill everything first.

Just if you feel like speed running like i do sometimes i guess. 1-1 is kinda boring ;p

[ÆtherNomad]

Originally posted by Girl please:

Just if you feel like speed running like i do sometimes i guess. 1-1 is kinda boring ;p

Is the boss stronger if some skulls are lightened up?

[Gangrene]

I noticed this too. I wonder if fewer skulls lit on the boss altar means it's easier?

[ZexxCrine]

as far as I can tell the boss just summons more adds when there are more skulls.

[II: The High Priestess]

As folks like Zexx have said, the additonal, smaller, skulls on the weird tombstone thing dictate the number of additonal monsters that spawn alongside the boss.

By default, with just the central, larger, skull lit up, the boss spawns two additional monsters. These monsters seem to always be the same for each boss from my observations, but I can't say for certain.
Every small skull lit up after that seems to spawn two more monsters, for a total of eight monsters when all all three small skulls are lit up.
Needless to say, this can be rather troublesome.

The advantages I can see from this is a reduction in the damage you take from the floor as a whole, since some monsters on later floors are difficult to dodge, like any sort of Elemental Archer and Level 3 Mages. With an Arcana setup tailored to it, a group of enemies in a small room like that become mincemeat. Additionally, a few Relics encourage you to clear floors quickly or with little damage, like the Big Red Button.
The disadvantages? Less gold to purchase items with. If you're having a god-tier run, this isn't an issue of course.

[Robin]

In my experience each skull just means one of the basic black runner monsters spawn extra. Normally the boss summons 2 adds that are always the same for the same boss, and then 0-3 runners depending on how many skulls are left