Boss Codex

The Eight Bosses of Apex and Abyss

Eight things wait in the deep places of the climb. Every one of them has a second form — and you only see it once you've hurt it badly enough.

A boss guards the deep floors of every climb. Each carries its own passive traits that shape the whole fight, and each holds back a signature ability until it drops to half health — at which point the fight stops, the boss speaks, and it fights you differently for the rest of the encounter. The eight are shared between both modes, but the Tower and the Abyss draw from the roster at different offsets, so the same depth hands you a different monster depending on which way you went. Ordered below by the depth each is built for.

One pattern worth knowing before you go down: most of these get sturdier at half health, not weaker — several shield or empower themselves the moment they transform, and three of the eight heal themselves outright. A party that can only win slowly tends to lose to the ones that heal. Damage you can actually land inside a few turns matters more here than damage on paper.

Gollageth, The Unbound

Ancient Demon

“I am Gollageth. I was old when these chains were forged, older still when the world thought to bury me.”

Passive Traits

• Shielded — opens the fight already wearing a thick damage barrier that must be stripped before its health moves at all.
• Enrage — below half health its attack power climbs sharply and never comes back down.

At Half Health

Unbound Fury

The last chain finally gives. A demon that spent the first half of the fight throwing boulders and splitting the ground wraps itself in a fresh barrier and sharpens every blow that follows — on top of a shield you have probably only just finished breaking.

Haelerion, The Accursed

Fallen Knight

“Then I broke the oath for power, and the power keeps me. Undying. Unforgiven. Bleeding it out, drop by drop.”

Passive Traits

• Cleave — its swings carry through to everyone standing next to the target, so a bunched formation takes the hit together.
• Enrage — below half health its attack power climbs sharply and never comes back down.

At Half Health

Blood Frenzy

A knight who traded his oath for something that won't let him die. Hurt him past halfway and the bargain shows itself — he comes back shielded, sharpened and hastened all at once, so the measured cleaves and doom-marks start landing considerably faster than you planned for.

The Hive, Collective Mind

Swarm Lord

“Warm things on the road again. We tasted your breath on the wind a hundred miles back.”

Passive Traits

• Summoner — keeps raising fresh bodies onto the field throughout the fight, so the board never stays cleared for long.
• Miasma — seeds poison across the battlefield over time, steadily shrinking the ground that's safe to stand on.

At Half Health

Devour

The swarm stops treating you as an intruder and starts treating you as food. Its bite now opens a lasting wound and feeds it a share of the damage back — so a fight that was already about attrition turns into one you can lose simply by being too slow.

Prince Taerron, The Betrayer

Corrupt Royalty

“Welcome, weary travelers. You wear the dust of this road so beautifully. Rest a moment at my table.”

Passive Traits

• Phase Shift — on crossing half health he claws back a chunk of the health you just took off him and hits harder afterward.
• Enrage — below half health his attack power climbs sharply and never comes back down.

At Half Health

Royal Betrayal

The most dangerous boss to bring low, because half health is exactly where he wants you. Both of his passives fire on that same threshold — he claws back health and hits markedly harder in the same instant, and only then does the courtesy drop.

The Sunken God, Tide Bringer

Abyssal Entity

“Every road ends in the deep, whatever way it ran. The deep does not hate you. It simply keeps you.”

Passive Traits

• Regeneration — mends itself continuously, so any damage you can't sustain simply drains back into the sea.
• Miasma — seeds poison across the battlefield over time, steadily shrinking the ground that's safe to stand on.

At Half Health

Abyssal Maelstrom

A damage check wearing a god's face. It heals through anything less than committed offense, poisons the field while you work, and when the tide finally turns it brings the whole ocean with it.

The Old King, Hollow Crown

Eternal Monarch

“Another set of footsteps on my floor. They wear thin, traveler. As will you.”

Passive Traits

• Regeneration — mends itself continuously between your blows.
• Shielded — opens the fight already wearing a thick damage barrier.
• Enrage — below half health his attack power climbs sharply and never comes back down.

At Half Health

Crown of the Undying

The most heavily armored fight in the game — a shield to break through, constant regeneration behind it, and a rage that lands the moment you get past both. Then the crown itself answers: he restores a large share of his health, raises a fresh barrier, and empowers himself in a single turn. He does not need to beat you. He only needs you to run out of patience.

The Triplets, Sisters Thrice

Three-Fold Curse

“One comes daring. One comes seeking. One comes to die. We have never once miscounted.”

Passive Traits

• Cleave — their strikes carry through to everyone adjacent to the target.
• Phase Shift — on crossing half health they recover a portion of their health and strike harder afterward.

At Half Health

Mirror Ward

Three sisters who fight as one arithmetic problem — a shared volley, a three-fold curse, and finally a ward that wraps them in a barrier, sharpens their own strikes, and saps the strength of everything standing near them at once. Cluster your party against them at your own risk.

The Witch, Eternal Crone

Arcane Sovereign

“Sit. No. You never sit, your kind. You arrive mid-sentence, certain you are the ending.”

Passive Traits

• Vampiric — every wound she inflicts feeds her, turning your own party into her healing pool.
• Miasma — seeds poison across the battlefield over time, steadily shrinking the ground that's safe to stand on.

At Half Health

Eternal Hex

The deepest thing on the roster, and the least interested in a fair fight. Her hex curses and burns what it touches while returning a hefty share of the damage straight back to her own health — stacked on top of a vampiric passive already doing the same. Bring cleansing, and bring enough damage to outpace her healing.