Ribbit Rogue Boss Guide

Steam 1.0 lists six bosses and more than thirty enemies. You will not learn their names from a datamine on launch week, and this wiki will not invent HP tables. You will learn the exam format: a long fight against telegraphs you already know how to read, with a reward that can rewrite the rest of the run. Playdate patch notes mention the Ursa Twins and a final boss that could start in phase two if you re-fought them without closing the game — that bug is history, but the twins are a real multi-target check. This page is how to arrive alive.

What a boss is testing

A normal fight is four good rolls. A boss is eight to twelve turns of the same pool. Blanks that you tolerated in a goblin room will kill you here. Random-target faces that felt fine against one slime will waste a turn against two bears. If your kill die still shares a cube with two blanks, go to a forge before you click the skull.

Boss relics exist. Version 0.4 added relics earned after the first boss, plus special dice such as:

• Twin Die — extra reroll each turn, Twin actions fire three times.
• Blank Die — extra rerolls, blanks deal damage to a random enemy.

Those rewards are why you should not throw the first boss “to see the art.” The second area is built on whatever engine you take home.

Prep the night before

Use this list the node before the boss, not during the fight:

1. One concentrated attack die. Big numbers on one cube, not sprinkled across four.
2. One shield plan. A kite shield, a cursed ring with an 18 block face, or a relic that grants shield at turn start.
3. A heal or a post-battle refund. The Hero’s after-combat heal helps between rooms; it does not help mid-boss.
4. Rerolls you can explain. Amulet is a turn-one spike. Floppy Disk is a bank. Spare Pouch wants leftover rerolls. Know which one you have.
5. A plan for two or more enemies. Ursa Twins and crab packs punish single-target greed. Cleave, thorns, or Spirit Jar’s blank-to-AoE conversion belong here.

If you fail three of those five, take a campsite or a shop. The map guide is how you still have that option.

During the fight

Read intents every turn. Bosses mix fat attacks with setup turns. A 15-damage up-arrow on a 350 HP golem is not a suggestion. Spend Quick on the turn you must not die. Spend Slow on the turn you are already safe and want the extra number. Twin only if the copied action is still correct after the first copy — Twin heal into a full HP bar is a wasted engine.

Crits double shields. If you are sitting on Crit capsules from the gumball event, a defensive turn is still a damage-equivalent turn. Do not tunnel on killing when a doubled 18 shield is the actual win.

Reroll blanks immediately. Reroll “almost” faces if the telegraph is lethal. Keep one reroll for the last die if your pool is still dirty. Combat covers the meter; bosses are where you finally respect it.

Multi-target and phases

Ursa Twins are a two-body problem. If you only brought single-target pokes, you will spend turns clipping one bear while the other winds a 17. Bring at least one face that hits more than one enemy, or a relic that pays for blanks against the whole row (Spirit Jar: every two blanks in a turn deal 4 to all enemies).

Final bosses in the Playdate version had a second phase. Steam 1.0 keeps that structure. When the sprite changes, re-read the telegraph. Do not assume the old pattern. The 1.0.16 Playdate notes even called out a bug where the final boss and Ursa Twins started in phase two on repeat fights — if a Steam patch ever revives that, close the game. Until then, treat phase two as a new enemy.

Rewards after the kill

Chests after bosses are allowed to be greedy. Twin Die and Blank Die are identity pieces. A five-star Claymore with mixed faces is a forge project, not an automatic take. Skip for gold only if you are heading into a shop and every die is off-plan. Second-area shops on Swamp Depth are expensive; sometimes the +20G skip is the real relic.

Swamp Depth bosses

Depth is not a new roster. It is the same six bosses with more HP, meaner intents, and an economy that punished you ten nodes ago. If you cannot beat area one on base difficulty with a clean pool, Depth will not teach you. Climb after you can follow the run planner without looking. Then take Blacksmith Hammer or Fine Cutlery so the extra damage is met with extra faces, not with hope.

The honest launch-week limit: we do not publish fake HP numbers. We publish a checklist that still works when the names change. If King Krab Games names the full boss list in a later patch, this page will add them. Until then, beat the exam format.