Mini Boss

"Who gives a damn about you? Your new name is 'Mid-Boss'."
—Laharl, Disgaea: Hour of Darkness, giving his opinion of Vyers The Dark Adonis

A Mini-Boss, Sub Boss or Mid Boss is a distinct, generally unique, stronger-than-average monster that you encounter usually halfway to two-thirds through the level/dungeon/etc. It is noteworthy because it's tougher than any ordinary enemy (and isn't encountered under normal conditions like a Giant Mook), yet it still isn't as strong as the actual Boss Battle that awaits you at the end. In story terms, the Mini Boss is often The Dragon to the level boss.

Some games would have worlds split up into levels, and the level bosses would be mid bosses with the world boss being the "proper" boss.

Recurring antagonists, such as the Goldfish Poop Gang and the Quirky Miniboss Squad, are often mini-bosses.

In the days when Nintendo Hard was the norm, this was especially sadistic. But as games got easier, such enemies were often just a little harder than the regular Mooks, and in some cases would just be Breather Bosses. But it's not always the case. Some lucky ones might even be a "Wake-Up Call" Boss or That One Boss.

Fighting games like to use the "New Challenger" screen normally used for when a second player joins when a midboss arrives.

If there is one, the reward for defeating the Mini Boss is usually a map of the level, the featured item or weapon of the dungeon (as in the case of The Legend of Zelda games), or a Plot Coupon, such as the Boss Key.

May return as a regular enemy later in the game. Of course, normal bosses may become sub-bosses later as well.

Compare Smash Mook (and some often are), Elite Mooks and Disc One Final Boss.

Contrast Final Boss, Boss in Mook Clothing.

Examples of Mini Boss include:
  • Many run-and-gun games like Contra, Gunstar Heroes, Alien Soldier and Alien Hominid are usually filled with them.
  • The Legend of Zelda games from Links Awakening onward have at least one per dungeon. However, when it comes to dungeons, Phantom Hourglass oddly averts the trope, whose few mini-bosses (Jolene, a bigger-than-usual Eye Plant, a Giant Space Flea From Nowhere near Goron Island and A group of Phantoms in the Temple of the Ocean King), the latter one being an exception, are all fought in the overworld.
  • The Final Fantasy games have some.
    • The Sealed Cave from Final Fantasy IV is in large part that way due to the Trapdoor minibosses. Yes, plural - almost every door is a Trapdoor.
    • The four elemental worlds in Final Fantasy Mystic Quest would have two lesser dungeon bosses before the final crystal guardians.
  • Vindictus has so very many. Sometimes you even get Dual Minibosses!
  • Kingdom Hearts has a few. The Shadow Sora miniboss fight in the Neverland level is infamous for being much, MUCH harder than the final boss for the level (Captain Hook).
    • This could be a affectionate Shout-Out to the Dark Link Miniboss in the water temple of The Legend of Zelda, who is well known for the same reason.
  • God of War had a couple.
  • Street Fighter Alpha 3 had you fight a character relevant to your own character's story halfway through the game; this has shown up in other Fighting Games and are often referred to as "story battles".
    • This returns in Street Fighter IV, happening just before the final battle in each character's story mode.
  • God Hand loves these; every stage has at least one, and most have two or better.
  • SaGa Frontier has quite a few.
  • In Disgaea: Hour of Darkness, this is spoofed with Recurring Boss Vyers, known to himself as "The Dark Adonis", gets stuck with the nickname "Mid-Boss". This is the characters calling him a minor obstacle, not an actual description of his effects on the game or story. (He's actually the final boss of three of the four chapters in which he is fought.)
  • Legend of Dragoon is a rare instance of the sub bosses are often as powerful, if not more than the normal bosses.
    • The two bosses you fight in the volcano during disc one come to mind: Virage and the Flame Bird. The Virage is fought part-way through the level, and serves to prove why they were so feared in ages past. Then you fight the Flame Bird (which most people had forgotten about, after the trauma of the Virage battle), and it turns out to have twice as much HP, but only half the fight.
  • Mega Man games. They started appearing regularly in the third game (not counting Boss in Mook Clothing enemies such as Bigeyes). The Mega Man Zero series has them as a mainstay of each level.
    • Mega Man 8 also had a miniboss at the halfway point of half the levels (Sword Man, Clown Man, Aqua Man and Grenade Man).
    • Inverted in two stages of Mega Man ZX Advent, when the main boss is at the beginning of one level and the midboss of that level is at the end.
  • At least since Kirby's Adventure, Kirby games have had a bunch of recurring ones. In the games with a Boss Rush mode, they appear again in groups to make up for the lack of power compared to a normal boss. Some of them provide hard to come by abilities such as Cook.
    • The series as a whole also has Kracko Jr., which is an easier version of Kracko, a boss (and is usually fought in the same level).
  • The Darius series has Sub Bosses as tradition. Particularly notable are the Sub Bosses of Darius Gaiden; each sub-boss has a spherical orb, usually on the top of it; if you destroy just that part, you can collect the orb, causing the sub-boss to pull a Heel Face Turn and fight for you! Though, it slowly explodes over time and eventually dies. For those who play this game for score, clearing the game nets a huge bonus for each sub-boss captured.
    • In G-Darius, your ship has the ability to capture all regular enemies enemies and make them fight for you, including Mini-Bosses, although the difference this time around is that you need to first shoot off the gold-colored shielding with normal shots before they can be captured. Once captured, they stick around until they take too much hits from the other enemies, and each one has a special attack they used against you, useable by inputting a set of joystick motions, much like in Fighting Games. And yes, like in the previous game, keeping them alive until to the end of the stage is worth a large score bonus, although they can be utilized to cause a long-lasting Smart Bomb explosion or a stronger-than-normal Wave Motion Gun blast.
  • Deae Tonosama Appare Ichiban has many minibosses, but their presence is somewhat undermined by the fact that the playable characters' Super Mode can defeat most of them with one punch.
  • Star Fox 64 and Star Fox Assault sometimes have a stronger enemy appear about halfway through the level, although you don't have to defeat them to progress. A straight example would be either Star Wolf or the Grunner on either Venom Route. Command also has some minibosses guarding motherships in the harder levels.
    • Star Wolf collectively act as a full-fledged boss fight, at least in 64.
  • The Ace Combat games usually have this in the form of either one-time-appearance enemies (such as post-mission update enemies) or the antagonist ace squadrons, such as Yellow Squadron and Strigon Team; the former becomes a Degraded Boss by 04's final mission though.
  • The Touhou series is very fond of midbosses. With the exception of (as of Ten Desires) two stages, every stage has one. Sometimes more, though this is about as rare as not having one. The thing is, every boss has to have a unique character design and profile, so dedicated midbosses are rare. Which means that it's usually the same character as the stage's actual boss, even if this makes no sense from a story perspective. Other times you get stage bosses midbossing for other characters (sometimes between games!), though this is usually explained.
    • To drive home how much Touhou likes this trope, Phantasmagoria of Flower View has a recurring midboss. Phantasmagoria of Flower View is a versus shooter, and as such doesn't have stages.
  • Metroid games often have mini bosses. In Super Metroid and Metroid Zero Mission all bosses other than final ones and the ones you need to kill to open a way to the final boss are considered minibosses. In Metroid Prime minibosses and actual bosses are easily distinquished: minibosses don't have a health bar and tend to become recurring enemies later on. In Echoes there is no clear distinction as all bosses have a healthbar, but the Energy Controller guardians are often considered to be main bosses and the item guardians minibosses (although in this case some of the most annoying fights are item guardians). Corruption has several minibosses that you fight about halfway through the zones and planets (the actual bosses are the Leviathan Guardians).
    • Interestingly, the very first game referred to the two required-to-enter-the-final-area bosses as "mini-bosses", even though they were basically full-fledged bosses. Also interestingly, Metroid II pretty much has no major bosses at all; it only has mini-bosses (Metroid evolutions of increasing strength) and a final boss.
  • Sonic 3 & Knuckles features two levels (Acts) per thematic area (Zone). In earlier games, there would only be a boss at the end of the zone, but in S3&K, there is also a sub-boss at the end of each first act. They are distinct from other bosses, in that they are autonomous, not controlled by Eggman/Eggrobo.
  • La-Mulana has a great variety of minibosses scattered throughout the ruins. The Dimensional Corridor is packed with them, with 11 different minibosses to defeat before the area's Boss Battle.
  • Beginning in Wild ARMs 3, the Wild ARMs series began having Mini Bosses literally pop out of nowhere - the party will be shown walking around an empty corridor, one person says "Something's coming!" (or words to that effect), and boom, you're fighting a Giant Space Flea From Nowhere.
  • Super Mario Bros examples: Birdo in Super Mario Bros. 2, Boom-Boom in Super Mario Bros 3, Reznor in Super Mario World, Bowser Jr. in New Super Mario Bros., the first Koopaling fights in New Super Mario Bros. Wii (facing them a second time, with a tougher battlefield, counts as proper boss battles). As for the 3D games:
    • Super Mario 64 has the King Mook enemies that don't have a background boss theme (Big Boo, the Big Bullies, Mr. I, etc.), while the ones with boss music (Big Bob-Omb, Bowser, Eyerok, etc.) are obviously bosses.
    • Super Mario Sunshine inverts the trope, oddly, as in each level you first face the local boss, and then Shadow Mario near the end.
    • Super Mario Galaxy and its sequel both have lots of minibosses, which are the bosses of the galaxies that precede the Grand Star stages (where the actual bosses reside).
  • In Persona 4, several dungeons have Mini-Boss shadows around half-way through them, which also double as a case of Boss in Mook Clothing
  • The Tour Official in Backyard Skateboarding.
  • Streets of Rage 2 and 3 had loads of these, including Jack (a knife-wielding gangbanger), Electra (the lady with the whip), the Fat Boys, and Hakuyo (the Chinese martial artist). They would often reappear in later levels either as Degraded Midbosses or in conjuction with other Mid Bosses.
  • Many first encounters with enemies that are stronger than the average angel in Bayonetta count as well. By the end of the game however, they become regular enemies and even some of the previous bosses become minibosses as well. The game suggests that they're different from the original bosses by giving them a different color scheme and an English name while the original versions had Latin ones.
  • The King of Fighters will sometimes have a character challenge you from nowhere, interrupting the normal flow. These characters usually fight alone (unlike the usual team battle), but usually have increased defense to balance it. In the console version of KOF XI, your actions up to that point determined the midboss, and if you beat them, you unlocked them.
  • In Wing Commander, named Kilrathi aces such as Bhurak "Starkiller" nar Caxki and Bakhtosh "Baron Redclaw" nar Kiranka in the first game, or Kur Human-Killer in the second, qualify as minibosses.
  • In Pokémon Mystery Dungeon 2, Regice, Regirock and Registeel to Regigigas.
  • "W-W-Wait a sec! A new opponent has entered the arena!" Depending on your score, you'd either face M. Bison or Geese Howard.
  • For an action-adventure game that follows the footsteps of The Legend of Zelda, Okami has a miniboss cast as well. In order of appearance, they are Waka, the Satomi Canine Warriors, the Tube Foxes, Evil Rao, Oki, Nagi, True Orochi, and Nechku alone. A Bandit Spider, almost a replica of the first boss, can also be fought three times (one in each of the Devil Gate grottos that house the very difficult Multi Mook Melee matches). Lastly, judging from the tense music, the three big fish creatures that are captured at different points (Whopper, Cutlass Sword and Marlin) are minibosses as well.
  • There are five in No More Heroes 2 Desperate Struggle, and are fought through the optional revenge missions. They are the ones who kill Bishop (Travis's friend) after the start of the game.
  • In the third Fatal Fury game, Yamazaki will step in to challenge you twice, once midway and once at the end of the arcade ladder. The first battle is a one-round fight and he's not too strong but in the second bout, the gloves come off and you take him to the full length of the match. Succeed and you move onto the Jin brothers, Chonshu and (provided you do well enough against Chonshu) Chonrei.
  • Conkers Bad Fur Day was one of the few Rareware games that included minibosses (another being Donkey Kong 64). The first two or so (a pitchfork and a wild bull) are traditionally found at a mid point of their residing levels, but the rest (such as groups of fiery imps or cavemen, for example) are fought right before the actual bosses.
  • In regards of Donkey Kong 64, several of them consists of groups of regular enemies, though there's also a giant spider and a big evil toy.
  • The seven Ash Vampires in Morrowind, who are the younger brothers of the final boss.
  • Some of the linear Castlevania games would have this. IV had only a mid boss in level 2, while level 4 had both a mid boss and a level boss.
  • The NES Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles game featured Bebop as a miniboss halfway through the first major stage, who goes down fairly easily unlike Rocksteady, who you have to fight in order to rescue April.
  • Rock Man 4 Minus Infinity:
    • Shadow Man is a Recurring Boss version of this trope. He shows up in Toad Man, Bright Man, and Pharaoh Man Robot Master stages.
    • Whopper and The Trio of Ring Rings in Ring Man's stage
    • Hogale and Enker in Dive Man's stage.
    • Quint and Kabatoncue in Drill Man's stage.
  • Bujingai the Forsaken City has several with demonic "Overlords" of Tears, Sin, Despair, and Pain.
  • MadWorld has several different ones for different areas; Big Bull Crocker, Yee Fung, Tengu, Death Blade, Big Long Driller, and the Cyber Slashers in order of appearance. They have surprisingly high health, a variety of attacks, and the ability to get into Power Struggles with Jack. Naturally, you tangle with nearly all of them in the stage leading up to the final boss (Death Blade and the Cyber Slashers, for whatever reason, weren't in on that action). In that stage, the Quirky Mini-Boss Rush turns Yee Fung into a Mook Master, has Tengu flanked by dozens of ninjas, and finally has two Bulls and a Driller.
  • Hell vanguard from Devil May Cry 3.
  • Anvil of Dawn has Messengers, who function as field commanders for the Big Bad. You fight about seven throughout the game. There's also a tougher, recolored Wither Priest guarding the key to the Castellan's hall.
  • Resident Evil 4 has a few, and are often fought in order to get an important item, or gain access to an area.
  • Dark Souls has quite a few of these, most prominently are the Dark Knights.
  • Traditionally, the Mortal Kombat series includes a particularly challenging sub-boss right before the final boss in arcade mode. Those who fill the role include...
    • Goro filled this role in Mortal Kombat and the home versions of Mortal Kombat 4, then split the role of second-to-last opponent in Mortal Kombat 9.
    • Kintaro took over in Mortal Kombat II, then became the other possible penultimate opponent in 9.
    • Motaro took the role to new levels of SNK Boss frustration in Mortal Kombat 3 and its updates.
    • In the arcade version of 4, it was Quan Chi. It made sense from a storyline perspective, but he was a selectable character from the very start already.
    • Moloch was next to take the role in Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance.
    • Mortal Kombat: Deception changes things up a bit by having the tag team of Noob Saibot and Smoke. In the PlayStation 2 and Xbox versions, you had to unlock them, but on the Gamecube and PSP, they were available right away.
    • Mortal Kombat Armageddon picks randomly from seven different Mighty Glacier characters on the PlayStation 2 and Xbox. On the Wii, two normal fighters, Khameleon, who was only available on the Wii, and Scorpion, who's just there because he's the Ensemble Darkhorse, get added into the selection.
    • Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe has Darkseid or Shao Kahn as your penultimate opponent. If you fight only opponents from either Mortal Kombat or DC, then you will fight their representative Mighty Glacier, but if you fight opponents from both sides, the game picks at random.
    • In addition to Goro and Kintaro, Shang Tsung is always your eighth opponent. The twist is that he can access some AI-only moves.
  • Purple features demons acting as mini-bosses you can encounter randomly while stepping on blank nodes on the stage select screen. Sometimes two, as well. In World 6, they appear as tough enemies instead.
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