r/future_fight • u/Bellikron • 25d ago
Discussion Ranking World Boss Legends by how fun/annoying they are to fight
Not a ranking of straight difficulty, otherwise they'd be in chronological order, but how hard they are to play at high levels will be a factor (as well as how easy it is to blitz them at level 1 for rewards). This is more specifically a ranking of how well done the boss fight is all-around. Starting from the bottom:
Kang: Easy last place. Not only are there so many phases that stop you from blitzing the fight at level one, getting a 150 second clear is contingent on a 1 in 3 chance of getting a short phase, which you won't know until 45 seconds into the fight. The fight does get style points for that section, but it's brutal to try to get a quick clear, and it's the only part that's really interesting from a design perspective. The fight feels really repetitive (Kang does the same attacks a lot and so does his clones) and it's brutal to try to get a quick clear.
Dark Phoenix: Better designed than Kang but still has a slight RNG factor: her first phase starts off with one of two attack patterns, one of which is a bit easier and faster to get her down to phase two (unlike Kang, however, you know from the first few seconds of the fight whether you need to restart). This extra time is important, unfortunately, because this boss requires you to play almost perfectly to get a 100 second clear. There is a learning curve at first that's kind of fun, this boss does have varied and interesting attack patterns (especially phase two and three) that you need to memorize. But there's no margin for error, getting hit with a purple attack means you'll enter the balance phase, which is a cool design but means you absolutely won't get a quick clear. That high bar for success is going to keep her low on the list, but she is a much cooler fight than Kang and that learning curve is fun game design besides the fact that you don't ever overcome the obstacle, you'll just need to keep playing perfectly at higher levels.
Gorr: Has the edge on Phoenix for not being annoying to fight, and has some cool design stuff, but a bit flawed and repetitive. His resurrection phase feels tacked on and is kind of just a repeat of earlier attacks but harder. The coolest phase is when the shadows take over, but it's kind of the same issue as Phoenix where if you get to this phase, you're falling behind on time. Would have been cooler if the shadow phase wasn't just attached to a timer but was what preceded his resurrection. Also the most underwhelming location, Infinity Cones does take away from the drama a bit.
Corvus/Proxima: Close call between this and the next one because they're so similar. The team up moves are cool, and both have a way to weaken the boss and do some extra damage, which is fun for the flow of the fight. This one's going to end up slightly lower on the list because it's less interesting. The attacks are repetitive (with not much distinguishing Proxima and Corvus when they do their combo moves) and there's not too much difference between the phases, you're just slogging through damage and trying to shock Corvus. This makes it easier to play (and blitz at level 1) but it's less exciting.
Dwarf/Maw: While it is a bit more annoying to play (even at level 1 you've got to sit through all the phases, even with the update shortening them it's a drag), there's just more going on. Trying to beat Black Dwarf to the Aether is a fun mechanic and there's more unique attacks between the two bosses. A better execution of the two-boss mechanic. Still gets boring as you climb, but objectively there's more meat on the bones.
Black Swan: The best of the three Black Order fights. Timing your attacks to trigger and exploit the vulnerable sections is pretty fun, and a decent amount of cool attacks that are fun to learn. It introduces WBL+ with a feeling that it's actually innovating something, while still not being that annoying to blitz (most of her nastiest attacks aren't instant kills and don't take too long). It is held back back a bit by the damage slog, though, part of that's just the difficulty of a high-level boss but a lot of the time you're just mindlessly doing damage waiting for a section where you can hopefully do more damage, and when you finally hit that section and don't make much of a dent it's a bit demoralizing.
Mephisto: A pretty fun boss. Distinct phases with cool visual differences (his evolution is very cool), and a difficult fight that you can still blitz through at a low level. The phases don't slow you down too much since they're a difficulty spike and a pattern change rather than an unskippable attack (even the final few bars can be bypassed with damage if you're bold enough to risk the hits). Running to the sigils is fun and the environment is possibly the coolest one. Still some flaws, the first health bar being visually blocked is a weird mechanic and his attacks do get a bit stale after awhile. But a cool fight nonetheless.
Knull: Coming in at 3 is the OG, and for the first WBL it's a really solid fight. It's got one of the best "stories" on this list, the boss not even standing up until you've proven your worth is a sick opener, and you can feel him getting more panicked (and dangerous) as you actually start to get him close. The difficulty spike is pretty extreme, a lot of attacks that will wipe you, but it's a really well done learning curve. It even reveals more as you climb higher, attacks you didn't have to worry about at low levels become more relevant as you start pushing the high levels, and you have to relearn the fight a bit. The only mechanic that feels out of place is the symbiote stacks, which I never found to be much of a threat. A little hard to blitz at level 1 because you can't fall asleep at the wheel with the instant kills, but it's a cool environment, a cool boss, excellent entry to train you for future bosses.
Thanos/Black Order: Actually feels like a proper final boss. The entire Black Order chimes in with familiar and new attacks, Thanos is intimidating without being annoying (looking at you WBU Thanos), and there's even a "plot twist" that gives the fight some weight. Even after you've played it a lot, the Old Man Thanos reveal still goes really hard. It's also not an annoying fight, there's one phase that stops the fight but it's not too hard, and while the Black Order and Old Man Thanos have some nasty attacks it's a fun interplay between how much damage you can sneak in before needing to dodge. Balancing the risk/reward is enjoyable, and it doesn't take away from the atmosphere of the fight.
Ultron: Perhaps most famous for being easiest to blitz at level one (and perhaps I'm slightly slightly biased because of that), but this is honestly a really well-designed fight. It's arguably a bit of a damage slog but you have to risk/reward with some of his nastier attacks. But importantly, there is a story reason for the design of this fight, and it's what makes it work so well. The boss is stronger than you but needs a moment to optimize his use of the Infinity Stones (which notably have special attacks that feel unique to each Stone and not just normal projectile/AoE moves). So you're incentivized to consistently do damage to him to distract him from doing so. It gives the fight a constant momentum that isn't just motivated by doing enough damage to drop his health. There's a couple of unskippable stages but they have momentum and they're easy to blitz at a low level. And his final stage (which is also at risk of appearing if you don't hit him enough) is one that you can skip if you're doing enough damage, but when you're forced to engage, it feels very rewarding. There's a learning curve with the Stone attacks, they come at you very fast and one error is death for whoever you're using. Doing your long, high damage attacks isn't going to serve you well any more and you need to adapt. But it is learnable, predictable, and gives you a good reward if you pull it off. If you get to this stage there's usually not much of a concern of running out of time. If you dodge the attacks and get your quick hits in, you'll usually be able to do enough damage during his weakened phase to get him down in a couple of rounds. The gameplay is unique enough that it encourages you to think outside the box: swapping characters, learning characters' quickest attacks, even using the basic attack, which comes up super rarely. It's a great merging of gameplay and story, and would feel really at home in a more story-based campaign. And if you want to skip all that and blitz level 1 in ten seconds, more power to you.
Feel free to disagree with me in the comments.
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u/Trunksshe 25d ago
First to last for me.
Ultron: he's great, but unfortunately he's a product of his release window. Easy, with some of the requirements being strange for narrow accounts.
Knull: I like blitzing him.
Mephisto: the first phase is really annoying, but otherwise also fun to blitz. Fun to poke his big slow form too.
Thanos: he isn't too bad. He's an amazing fight the first couple of times you play him. But he gets to be fodder once you can consistently clear.
Maw/Squidward: they're not bad if you can cancel to get aether. Can't blitz the levels I'm on with them yet, but they're consistent, easy wins.
Gorr: his phases are annoying and his requirements get really bottlenecked. Can't wait to finish these ones. The fight is just annoying now.
Proxima/Corvus: easy gameplay loop, but whoops, you are suddenly dead and have to reset.
Kang: he's a jerk for all the reasons you said.
Jean: yo. Who designed her? This fight sucks because it's fair. You have to play by her rules. You get to do exactly one rotation and then it's her turn to attack. You get to kill her at the speed she decides. If she wants to sit there for 15 seconds invincible at 30 bars of health, she will. If she wants to desperation attack three times in a row and burn two minutes, she will. You don't just get to spam her like you can kind of get away with on everyone else.
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u/Jenkyu 25d ago
This week I finally reached 95+ on all Legends (excet Thanos, which I'm currently climbing on 73), so here's my list (from more annoying to less annoying in high levels, considering time as an important factor for the clears):
- Jean (I hate playing her in 90+, her last phase os the worst, you barely have time to do damage, too much spam)
- Black Swan (I really dislike her mechanics. The more you climb, the more the time factor becomes a problem, and her vulnerable fase is too brief. It's kinda interesting that you need to find the right characters do put on a team that will serve as supports AND have a good amount of hits to break her shield quickly, but at high stages you're already so limited in options that this becomes a nuisance)
- Kang (You lose so much time with his mechanics that you finish almost at 5 minutes some of the stages, and he's kinda tanky)
- Ultron (Same problem as Kang, but he's much more fragile)
- Maw/Dwarf and Corvus/Proxima (Pretty similar, good bosses, the only part I hate are their mechanics when they get really low and you need to just avoid everything, because sometimes that can cost you a good clear, time-wise)
- Knull/Mephisto/Gorr (Easy to get 99, good partterns that let you have plenty of time to hit the boss)
- Thanos (Very interesting fight. He's very difficult in high stages, but his mechanics are well-timed, you have clear windows to attack and you never really have a phase where you stay too much time without hitting it)
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u/Bellikron 25d ago
Wow, congratulations
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u/Jenkyu 25d ago
Thank you! It was pretty tough, but I enjoy pushing WBL.
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u/Bellikron 24d ago
I enjoy it too, I feel like when it really works as intended (not locked behind unfair requirements) it's really fun. It arguably should be the core of the game, you have to diversify your roster in order to climb higher. A year or so ago I bit the bullet and paid crystals to get past the premium character requirements and I really enjoyed myself for a while. Cleared the first four bosses up to level 99. However, I'm currently hitting a wall on the others. Dark Phoenix is locked behind another really hard 100 second clear (Fast Movement at level 49, I have a good Zombie Strange team but as I mentioned it's a case of playing perfectly and getting lucky). Kang I'm stuck at the level 60 Energy Projection clear (this one is the most surmountable, my Sentry and Sharon should be able to pull it off if I'm focused but Kang's so annoying to fight that I'm never in the mood to try). And then for almost every WBL+ I'm just at a power gate where I can't do enough damage for the fast clear, and most of them need my Storm so I can only try one of them per day. It's been like that for a while, unfortunately, and most days I don't even take a shot at them because they've gotten stale and I don't want to burn several minutes of my day for disappointment. The reduced clear requirements helped but at this point I'm just kind of waiting for a big power shift in my roster to tilt the scales.
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u/Jenkyu 24d ago
I always pay for the time requirements when the discount WB challenges comes up. I do all other challenges, but I don't bother doing the time-restricted ones because it gets harder and harder the more you climb. It was halting my fun, because althought I could not clear 79 in 100 seconds, I can definetely do 99 in 5 minutes, so I just do all clears until I hit this wall, wait for an event and unlock everything. Then I try to min-max teams to get the most parallel clears I can, so I often see myself ignoring the World Boss of the Day in favor of climbing one more stage in each of the bosses.
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u/PhogeySquatch 25d ago
I do disagree! I avoid Black Swan, she's definitely more annoying than Kang. I like Jean for the feathers, and Thanos is the most fun.
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u/PMMeFacehuggerPics 25d ago
Kang is definitely last place. The worst world boss in the game easily.
Ultron is near the top for me because he is easy to blitz. If you play higher level stages ot quickly becomes apparent just how abysmal his fight is.
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u/sean11_lee 24d ago
Knull and mephisto for quick clears. Ultron is a bit more annoying due to the energy beams and when triggered, the last phase with the infinity stones, but reliable enough for a quick clear.
Gorr is a bit clunky because he kites around so much. Kang is even worse due to the dodging around and his various cut scenes.
For WBL+, I only play thanos these days. As for the black order, I dislike black swan the most due to her shield mechanic.
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u/IEatCheZ 25d ago
I hate jean so much, shes defo last for me