My final boss fight on Remnant and the final fight players had for Remnant 1, as it was the final fight of the final DLC. Designed to be a “true final boss” for players who stuck through all the DLC, it aimed pulled out all the stops and put on a big show, but keep the difficulty somewhat tame since it was a main storyline boss that all players should beat (unlike optional bosses like Iskal Queen). That said, it still provided a challenge and some new mechanics for players to conquer.

Narratively, this was a scientist that was willingly merging with the Root. This was one of the rare opportunities I had to work with concept art on the boss (whereas most of my bosses otherwise already had meshes), and there was the notion that players hadn’t seen anything “this close to the core of the Root” before. So I worked with the concept artist with the idea that the root got more Lovecraftian / eldritch horror, along with some gameplay mechanics I wanted it to support. Namely, that he had floating crystal orbs he could control, and floating magic arms. He’s meant to be a mixed appearance between a gross monstrous eldritch being (what he’s become), and a sort of enlightened sage (how he thinks of himself).

I didn’t find a proper guide video so I’ll explain some of the core moves:

Phase 1, his “middle of the arena” stationary phase:

• His floating orbs would rotate around him near the ground for 2 moves:
  • 2 rotating beams (rotate around to avoid)
  • A slow-moving projectile bullet hell spawner (walk between projectiles to avoid)
  • Note: Both of these were technical design challenges, as I implemented custom sound source logic for where beam sound would come from (nearest point on nearest beam for local client), and greatly reduce how many orbs were emitting sound (only a few of the nearest orbs to the local client)
  • Also note: If you’ve played Remnant 2 you’ve seen more of these styles of moves, but at the time this was a first for us, as both of these are more common in isometric games. I did very early prototyping of these moves to make sure they were even fun in Remnant
• Septagonal cascading shockwave formed by the orbs (move closer between the cascades to avoid)
• Filler missiles / ground slam (evade or otherwise move)

Phase 2, his mobile savage phase:

• Re-uses some of the phase 1 attacks, but uses their slow/delayed nature to try to get physical lunging hits in right as you’ve finished evading his orbs/mortars
• Also gains a cool forward shockwave to catch you off guard from range

Phase 3, his massive “looming over the battlefield” phase:

• His most-mechanical phase, he spreads his orbs across one edge of the battlefield and his massive glowing arms loom overhead, all ready to source magical wide-area attacks
• He does new patterns of bullet hell attacks
• His orbs will emit massive beams 2 at a time, telegraphing their order by when they start charging up. Players have to watch that order and then use it to know when/where to dodge at the right time
• His magic floating arms can telegraph that they’re going to blast the 1/6th of the arena under them (multiple arms at a time), so the player needs to stand under any of the non-glowing arms
• And lastly, one of his magic floating arms may start channeling energy into a corner of the map, slowly expanding a deadly energy field until only the opposite edges of the arena are safe
• For the last half or so of this phase, until the end of the fight, he combines the above moves so the player must e.g. avoid the bullet hell while running to the opposite edge of the energy field. Or spot which area is safe from the magic floating arms AND the beams.

This fight was well-received and was a pretty exciting end to my work on Remnant. An excerpt taken from the description of the linked video, “Another absolutely brilliantly designed final boss fight.” Great to see!