Growing up as a predominantly PC gamer, boss fights used to make me nervous. I distinctly remember playing Super Mario World 2:🧸 Yoshi's Island at my buddy's place and handing him the controller for even the first boss, an encounter which involves a big guy jumping around until you hit him enough times for his pants to fall down. Looking back now, I didn't appreciate that the Kilrathi aces in Wing Commander, enemies like the Barons and Cyberdemons in Doom, or the Dark Jedi in Jedi Knight, were bosses too. Bosses alway⭕s seemed like something that required real video game expertise to beat, something I just didn't have as a weekend gamer.

As an adult, I fully embrace the thrillﷺ of fighting a boss. The unique designs, the larger-than-life size, the new patterns, the initial panic that gives way to calm precision as you discover their weaknesses: it's one of the best things about video games. Hidden and secret bosses are major features of Japanese role-playing games like Final Fantasy, extra challenges foඣr intrepid players deliberately hidden away to avoid the unprepared from stumbling upon them. The specific, often arcane, requirements for unlocking these foes present major challenges themselves and, once encountered, provide a challenge far beyond just "do as much damage as possible." Elemental resistances, spell reflections, and the dreaded Instant Demise all await those who would challenge these "superbosses."

While these are mostly pulled from JRPGs, there ar𝄹e the occasio𒉰nal bosses tucked away in every genre, from beat-em-ups to first-person shooters. Here is a list of the 25 best, trickiest, and most creative secret bosses. Good luck!

25 Emerald Weapon - Final Fantasy VII

This is the first thing that comes to mind when I think of a Secret Boss. Playing FF7 in the nineties was my first exposure to the JRPG-style gameplay and the idea of hidden content at all, not just the secret rooms of Doom, was surprising.

Fighting Emerald Weapon requires your characters to at the very least have their health maxed out at 9999 HP and for you to have mastered the infamous "Knights of the Round" summon. Even then, the Emerald Weapon fight is on a time limit, because he's 🐈frickin' underwater!

24 ▨ Naydra - The Legend Of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild ♎

For all its spectacle, few moments in Breath of the Wild are as breathtaking as the first time you spot a dragon. Accompanied by a , the dragons snake through the air, unconcerned by the player, who is likely furiously trying to get within bow range to farm them for their scales and ho🍸rns, which are powerful upgrade materials.

The ice dragon Naydra, however, isn't flying freely like her sisters. She's been corrupted by Ganon and is tethered to her mountain. Freeing her requires an exhi♑larating, madcap flight around that mountain, riding ꦅupdrafts and dodging attacks to snipe the corruption tumors along her body.

23 Secret💖 Blackreach Dragon - Skyrim ꧅

Technically, this dragon's name is "Vulthuryol" because Skyrim's dragons all sound like prescription medications with horrible 𓄧side-effects.

Vulthuryol may cause immolation.

Skyrim's main quest takes the Dragonborn to the Blackreach, a gorgeous underground city built into a massive cavern where bioluminescent mushrooms light up the ceiling like stars. Dominating the area is a giant golden orb. If the Dragonborn casts Unrelenting Shout at the Orb, it'll ring like a bell, summoning Vulthuryol. Ol' Vulthy is one of many hidden bosses in Skyrim, in case you were looking for an ℱexcuse to buy it again.

22 Ruins Of Hornburg - Octopa𒈔th Traveler

The recently released Octopath Traveler is a love letter to the Chrono Trigger and FF6-era of Square JRPGs, so it's no surprise that it also includes a hid🅘den, secret boss. While there are 4 hidden bosses at the end of hidden shrines, which give the party access to super powerful extra jobs, Ruins of Hornburg is a dungeon that only opens up after you finish the main story.

Or, rather, finish all 8 stories.

Ruins of Hornburg serves as a sort of epilogue to Traveler, tying a lot of the stories and hints at larger lo𝕴re together and dropping big winks towards a𒊎 sequel.

21 ﷺ King🅘 Yama - Spelunky

Part of what made Derek Yu's Spelunky was the sheer amount of hidden content in the game. Similar to how players of Dark Souls have spent years uncovering not just hidden locations and enemies but even whole mechanics hidden in plain sight, Spelunky has inspired a passionate fan base.

As is often the case with the bosses on this list, King Yama represents the 'true ending' of Spelunky. A giant dude in a chair who takes up most of the screen, appearing at the end of a hidden level, it is possible to destroy him or, if you try really hard, turn him into a📖 sweaty eggplant.

20 R😼eptile - Mortal Kombat

In the era of YouTube and GameFAQs, it's hard to imagine what learning a new fighting game was like in the 90s. First, you had to physically go to an arcade, then spend real money, then just flail around to find a character's special moves. Mortal Kombat, with its post-match finishers, was built for secret hunting and I remember kids trading rumors at recess about h🏅idden characters and secret codes.

Reptile would jump in between fighters before the ꩲbeginning of fights and drop cryptic clues about how to find him: Getting a double flawless victory, in single player, then doing the uppercut finisher on The Pit level.

19 Slot Machine - Star Fox 𝓰

Appropriately for StarFox, this hidden boss isn't 🐼just hidden from the regular gamepath, but from time and space itself! In the level "Asteroid Belt - Route 3" of the SNES game, Fox will fly by two massive asteroids. Shooting the rightmost one will cause an origami bird to emerge. Flying into it (But not shooting it!) Will cause Fox to be teleported to the level "Out O🦋f This Dimension." The level is so weird it's best and ends with the most dastardly boss in the game: A giant slot machine.

18 🌱 Ballos -🐻 Cave Story

Cave Story is one of the earliest and most successful of the 16-bit throwback platformers. It paved the way for modern classics like Shovel Knight and Celeste, and is especially remarkable for being made by one guy, Daisuke "Pixel" Amaya, over five years. Cave Story is a Metroꦕidv൩ania with a surprisingly dark and well-written story.

Encountering Ballos requires completion of a sidequest that runs through the entire ꦅcampaign. During th♊e escape sequence after defeating the final boss, players who have successfully restored all of Curly's memories will gain access to the secret area, and the fight with Ballos.

17 ಌ Meಞga Hunters - Mega Man X2

Mega Man is practically built around the appeal of hidden content: its entire gameplay system is designed around finding which weapons work best against which boss. Mega Man X added other layers with h🃏idden rooms that could only be accessed with certain powers, and even levels that change based on which Mavericks have been defeated when the player enters them.

X2 has thre꧃e hidden optional bosses that appear once you've defeated your second Maverick. Challenging them requires finding their hidden rooms in the remaining 6 levels. Once you defeat them, you get a piece of Zero's armor, which saves you the headache of having to fight him right before the final boss.

16 ﷽ Amygdala - Bloodborne 🧔

This one is especially close to my heart because it is the only bꦏoss on this list I discovered on my own, without even looking for it. Through a complicated sequence of bringing the right weird-named item🔯 to a place that inexplicably ends you without it, you're transported to a huge, totally optional area. Waiting for you at the end of it is… A pizza?

A gia💦nt brain with a spider body. Amygdala is one of the Old Ones, the same creepy beings that can be glimpsed clinging to the sides of buildings if your Insight is high enough.