How do we determine minibosses?

Wiki Discussion
62

i don't know how well "has a battle theme" will hold up against future chapters, but right now i like the latter list that's made based on that

63

Same here. My vote is for the second list.

64

I’ve attempted a separate criteria.

Each Dark World is split into zones.

For instance, Card Kingdom is split into Field of Hopes and Dreams, Scarlet Forest, and Card Castle.

Field of Hopes and Dreams ends with K. Round. Scarlet Forest ends with Susie+Lancer. (That comes after Clover, actually) Card Castle just ends with King because that’s the final area of the Dark World.

Which Darkners can we say is the end of an area in the game? If we apply that to all the chapters, do we get a reasonable list? (Excluding main bosses, defined to be the final encounter of an entire Dark World)

I figured I might as well try throwing out an idea that’s standard across other games.

65

Sweet Cap’n Cakes and Jackenstein do not appear at the end of any area, despite clearly being minibosses. I would’ve liked if Deltarune had area end boss = miniboss and Chapter end boss = boss consistency, but it simply doesn’t.

66

Okay, yep, I think there’s even something in the game that explicitly calls Jackenstien either a boss or miniboss, so that standard doesn’t work. I’ll have to take a look at those two and see what about them makes them minibosses. Then I’ll have a good standard that can be used across the game.

What you have makes sense, anyway. Titan Spawn does seem off, but I think when Chapter 5 comes it’ll get disqualified and the standard will turn out to work well after all. (We’ll probably see the Titan Spawn again)

(I consider the theme song for Titan Spawn to be the Deltarune equivalent of Stronger Monsters! by the way. Which was probably intended for the CORE monsters before it was repurposed for Hard Mode because of this: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1002143342/undertale/posts/1087879 )

67

I vote for the second list. Tasque Manager and Mausweel while unique, just aren’t relevant enough to the plot for me to consider them a miniboss (something all the other minibosses have)

68

Based on these responses, I conclude that the criteria for classifying enemies is as follows:

  • If the enemy has encounter uniqueness (at least one encounter that is unique and cannot be repeated any other time), it can be either a boss, a miniboss, or a special enemy.
  • Bosses are chapter end bosses (King, Queen, Tenna, Titan), Shadow Crystal bosses (Jevil, Spamton NEO, Knight, Hammer of Justice), and very clearly hidden bosses such as Shadow Mantle Holder and Mike.
  • If an enemy has encounter uniqueness and a unique music theme, it is classified as a miniboss.
  • Otherwise, it is classified as a special enemy.

I would propose that Special Enemies are categorized under the regular Category:Enemies instead of Category:Bosses, while separating them on the category itself and probably adding “special enemy” into their intro paragraph. If nobody objects to this during the next day I’ll perform the changes.

69

I do think story relevance should be a factor too, as it’s another thing that separates mini bosses from special enemies like Clover.

70

I think that normal encounters usually:
Respawn when you refresh the space (Only in the chapter where you can encounter them)
Aren't battleable in the dojo
Aren't mandatory battles
And minibosses:
Stay gone when you refresh (or are still there but unable to be battled), and if rebattled later in the plot, not the same.
In the dojo. Is battleable (except Berdly, who is minding his business in the Light World by the time you recruit everyone from Chapter 2 to the Castle Town.)
Are usually mandatory for the plot, or to get something you arent required to get, but will help later on.
So,
By my standards:

Minibosses
Clover
Berdly
Shuttah
Jackenstein
Lancer
Sweet Cap n Cakes
71

What about Ch2 All Stars?

72

Uuuh

73

I haven't beat Queen, sorry I didn't know

74

I wouldn’t include Shuttshbup there. They’re more like a special enemy. Also, you excluded a large majority of the other bosses that do indeed follow yours and our criteria.

75

I don't have access to Chapter 3 and 4 because I only have the demo, and I'm not usually the kind of person which checks every detail, so my bad.

76

here are the ones I consider mini bosses:

K round

Susie

Sweet capn cakes

Berdly

Spamton

Roulxs kaard

Lanino and elnina

Shuttah

Jackenstein

Sound of justice

This is just my personal list tho, feel free to disagree

77

I’d add Lancer on there too

78

Shuttah isn't a species???

79

Do you consider Papyrus from Undertale to be a boss?

You can't die, he just captures you.

You are forced to progress unless you can't read (because you're an Undertale fan/j), because Papyrus will literally ask you after the 3rd time of losing to him whether you still want to fight or not.

If you want to call Susie and Lancer a miniboss, I’d say Papyrus is one as well.

If you wish to simply call Susie and Lancer special enemies, then Papyrus is one as well.

80

You forgot the Great Board, and K. Round is the miniboss of Great Board as opposed to Field of Hopes and Dreams.

81

you have to recruit 2 of them and you can have multiple at once in the cafe