Wave Battler Bosses: Every Boss in Deep Drift and Neon Grid

Every fifth wave in Wave Battler is a boss fight with nothing else on the field. There are ten bosses, each with a Deep Drift name and a Neon Grid name and the same moves in both worlds. Here are all ten, with their warning signs and punish windows.

How boss waves work

• A campaign never repeats a boss before the finale. In Endless the finale boss can turn up from wave 20.
• On Brutal and Impossible, every boss wave brings two bosses.
• A boss's health is set from the damage you dealt in recent normal waves, so every build sees every phase.
• Phases change at set health lines. The bar stops at the line, the boss roars for a moment (you cannot hurt it then), and the next phase starts.
• A gold OPEN ring means +50% damage taken. A dizzy boss is stunned and does nothing. Chargers that hit a wall or rock are usually stunned.
• Warnings come first: lanes, circles and rings with gaps. They are longer on Easy, shorter on Hard and Brutal.

Two-star bosses

THE NAUTILUS / THE GYRO (★★)

It rams. A lane fills toward you, the shell stops aiming just before it charges, and then it goes. Step sideways at that pause. If it hits a wall or rock it is stunned and OPEN inside a ring of debris, so fight with a rock behind you. It also spins out pearl spirals and spits little shells. At 60% health the shell cracks: no more armor, shards whirl around it, it rams twice in a row and leaves burning ink. At 25% it shatters and rams three times, faster.

THE WRECK / THE MAINFRAME (★★)

Its head curls up and rolls after you, a little faster than you and steering as it goes. Sidestep late or dash past. A roll into a wall or rock stuns it, open. The claws snap at you one after the other, each showing its line first, and they hammer three circles where you are and where you are heading. You can kill the claws: each one lost lowers the head's armor, but it rolls faster. In the last phase it spins up and hunts you for four seconds, then burns out wide open.

Three-star bosses

THE LEVIATHAN / DATASTREAM (★★★)

A colossal worm that lines up off the map and crosses the whole arena along a lane that runs through you. Every bead of its body can be shot, and the glowing gills pass part of the damage to the head. It also coils around you while the body fires inward, then strikes with its jaws. When it dives, a circle grows under you; keep moving, because geysers chase you after it bursts up. Its head then hangs out, OPEN. Later phases add a ripple of shots down the body and two crossing runs.

THE ANEMONE / THE NUCLEUS (★★★)

Eight darters crown it, and each one alive is a layer of armor: all eight cut its damage taken by 75%, none leaves it bare. Kill darters first. It blooms rings of slow spores with two gaps, lashes six tentacles in a star, and sends darters diving along a shown line. At 60% it uproots, vanishes and appears on top of you with no warning, and regrows two darters when it runs low. At 25% it pulls you in while four tentacles sweep around it. Dash out.

Four-star bosses

THE KRAKEN / THE ABDUCTOR (★★★★)

Four arms, each its own attack: a club that punches along a line, a beam that sweeps after its line shows, bouncing bubbles, and a grab hook that drags you to the beak if you touch its line. The head takes half damage while any arm lives. The head also drops ink blots and pulls the whole sea toward its beak, so dash against the pull. At 60% every lost arm grows back weaker and tentacles close a cage around you; find the gap. At 25% the arms strike twice as often.

THE SEA WEAVER / THE NETWORK SPIDER (★★★★)

A giant spider that hauls itself rock to rock on silk. It fires fans of venom darts, drops three poison circles where you are and where you are going, and pounces (a circle shows the landing). Web balls leave sticky floor that slows you, and short skitters come right at you. At 60% it webs the arena with silk walls and lays three egg sacs: shoot them before they hatch into spiderlings that latch on. At 25% it never stops coming.

THE SEA WITCH / PHANTOM PROCESS (★★★★)

She blinks after every spell; a shimmer shows where. Chilling bolts, a line strike, a star that bursts into ten shards, three homing wisps, and a rune under your feet (step off it). A ward cuts your damage in phase I. At 60% it breaks and she becomes three: only the real one has the heartbeat, and a decoy you kill raises a ghost eel. From then on she also calls the Drowned. At 25% she plants and spins five arms of bolts, and she is OPEN while she does.

Five-star bosses

THE MAKO / INTERCEPTOR (★★★★★)

The speed check. It dashes in chains, each dash showing its lane and pausing its aim just before. After the last one it gasps, OPEN. It also strafes past firing, calls its pack inside a ring of whirlpools, and dives so only the fin shows, then bursts up under you and hangs there, open. From phase II it fires slow homing torpedoes, circles you before striking from your blind side, and goes nearly invisible between attacks; watch the eyes. In phase III its dashes leave a burning wake.

AURORA / PRISM (★★★★★)

She runs a fixed loop, so you can learn it: homing bolts, a dash across a lane, spinning arms of light, a grid of lances row by row, a rainbow spiral, and a ring pulse with three gaps. Movement alone dodges every pattern. At 50% the dance changes and a prism beam splits into five. At 20% (Dawn) she stands in the light, open the whole time, and the lance grid comes twice.

The finale: THE COLOSSUS / THE SINGULARITY

Wave 40 of the campaign. A titan the size of a hill. I, The Titan Wakes: sweeping beams (lines first), an inhale that pulls you in and then a shock ring with gaps, cracks that split the floor, falling boulders (their shadows grow first), and it sinks and rises somewhere else. II, The Hands (70%): two giant hands slam a circle under you, sweep down a lane, and clap from both sides at once. Shooting a hand also hurts the titan. III, The Abyss Opens (40%): the safe circle shrinks and outside it burns, while three lanterns break free and orbit as turrets. IV, Last Light (15%): the core is bare and OPEN the whole time, six beams cross and the inhale never fully stops.

Mini-bosses in normal waves

Three bigger forms of the base shooters join normal waves from wave 5 (three waves later on Easy): one at a time at first, two from wave 12, three from wave 20 and five from wave 30. They wear armor and call a few minions.

• THE LANTERN / OVERSEER: the big Anglerfish. Fires a fan of three much bigger orbs.
• BELLMOTHER / SUPERNOVA: the big Bell Jelly. Lobs three mortar shells with bigger circles.
• THE HAILSTORM / SUPPRESSOR PRIME: the big machine-gunner. A 16-round magazine of large rounds after a short wind-up.

The Sea Serpent and the Mimic also fight like mini-bosses; see the enemy field guide. For cards that shred big targets, see the builds guide.