Forum:Boss tier list

Forums: Index → Brawl Talk → Boss tier list

Considering my vast experience with the bosses in Brawl, this would be how I would rank the bosses in Brawl in difficulty. This list assumes high level on the player part, and that they know the bosses' patterns and how to properly dodge their attacks. It also assumes intense difficulty on the bosses.

General criteria for the bosses is:

• How much damage the boss takes to kill. Simply, the more damage they can take, the longer they live, and the more attacks they can throw out at you, increasing the chance of getting killed by them
• The general power of the moves. The more powerful they are, the faster they can you.
• The difficulty of dodging their attacks.
• The more unpredictable their pattern is. The harder it is to read them, the more likely you are to get hit or miss an opportunity to attack them.

S/God tier:

1. Dual Hands

A/Top tier:

2. Duon

3. Master Hand (Classic version)

B/High tier:

4. Tabuu

5. Rayquaza (fast version)

6. Porky

C/Middle tier:

7. Galleom (fast version)

8. Rayquaza

9. Galleom

D/Low tier:

10. Ridley

11. Master Hand (Boss Battles version)

E/Bottom tier: (The freebies)

12. Crazy Hand (Classic version)

13. Meta Ridley

14. Crazy Hand (Boss Battles version)

15. Petey Piranha

Here's my reasoning for the placement of each boss.

1. Dual Hands: Master Hand alone is an immense threat. While Crazy Hand isn't much of a threat, he provides a great distraction to Master Hand, while giving you about twice the amount of attacks to dodge, and giving you a much smaller window to safely attack back. Additionally you got some more dual hand attacks to deal with, and while the two punch attacks aren't difficult to dodge, the clapping attack is one of the most dangerous boss attacks in the game. There is some alleviation though; take out Master Hand (who really carries the team), and you have smooth sailing against Crazy Hand, who you can easily take without dying regardless of your damage unless you're being dumb. Overall, factor what I said about Classic Master Hand, then add an immense distraction, much more shit to dodge, much smaller window to attack, and the deadly clap attack.

2. Duon: Immense health, many deadly and hard to dodge attacks, attacks that come out fast and aren't really telegraphed, and unpredictability. The Duon may not be the most powerful boss, but he certainly has the hardest attacks to dodge outside the Dual Hands, and many of these hard to dodge attacks kill. He additionally gives you small windows to safely attack him, and is very capable of trapping you. He also has a significant resistance against slash attacks (so sword characters have an even harder time against him), and only has one near negligible weakness (he's weak to water, but this only matters against Squirtle, whose few water attacks aren't even suitable for use against bosses). The Duon does give you a small reprieve though with his homing missiles, which you can direct into him for massive damage (all four missiles hitting takes about a quarter to a third of his life). It can be difficult to direct these missiles into him without taking significant damage yourself or dying, but it can be reliably done and significantly shorten the battle against him. Additionally, you can reflect his cannon blasts, so if you have a character who can hold their reflector, you can deal massive damage to him when he does his rapid fire blasting. This is ultimately what keeps him from being in the same tier as the Dual Hands, as they have no such shortcut to killing them quickly.

3. Master Hand (Classic version): Master Hand is a really underrated boss. Classic Master Hand has high endurance, is highly unpredictable, and while he has many attacks that are simple to dodge, he has some of the deadliest attacks of any bosses.

• The first big one is the Hand Drill, which isn't telegraphed at all, is fast, and will deal massive damage (which on Classic Intense deals over 100% if you get hit by all of it). Additionally it's near impossible to dodge without going offstage (you either need a move like Phantasm, or a far reaching rolling dodge to get out of the way onstage, and then very fast reflexes to use the move without getting hit right when he appears on screen), and since how fast it is, you have to be prepared to run offstage before Master Hand uses it. The move won't kill, but one Hand Drill will put you at the damage to be killed by his killing attacks.
• The next big one is the Walking Hand (also known as the Finger Flick), where Master Hand walks across the stage and flicks you when he comes near. Why is this attack deadly? Because if you're near Master Hand when he decides to do it, he just goes straight to the flicking part. So if you're on top of Master Hand (which you will be to attack him), this attack comes out instantly (it can even come out and hit while you're in hitlag attacking Master Hand). This instant attack also KOs in the 50-80 range on Intense (which only takes one to three attacks to get you to), and you cannot dodge it without shielding preemptively, or by attacking away from Master Hand, which only a few characters can do and even then will be dealing damage at a slower rate doing. Since Master Hand is unpredictable, you can't really predict it, and it literally comes out of nowhere.
• The third big one is the Hand Swipe, which isn't telegraphed, is very fast, goes across the entire stage, puts you at greater risk the closer to Master Hand you are, and kills fast (about as strong the Finger Flick). Not quite as dangerous as the Finger Flick, since you do get some window to dodge (as small as it is), though you still pretty much have to be preemptively ready to dodge it to avoid getting hit by it.

The greater consistency in Duon's attacks and even greater endurance puts him slightly above Master Hand, but these attacks alone are enough to put Master Hand beyond every other boss. No other boss gets more than one really dangerous and hard to avoid attack, while Master Hand gets three of them; one that puts you at death percentage instantly, and two more that kill really early to compliment the damage dealing attack. On top of that you can't read when he'll use them, so you're going to be losing many stocks against him.

4. Tabuu: A nightmare among casuals, as Tabuu is by far the most powerful boss, with nearly all of his attacks killing, and multiple OHKO moves (including the infamous Off Waves). On top of that, he has a massive amount of health (more than any other boss), you'll be dodging many, many of his attacks. If you don't know how to dodge properly, you're going to get messed up by Tabuu. But of course we're considering only a high level of play here, and as it is, almost all of Tabuu's attacks are easy to dodge (including the Off Waves if you got proper timing). Tabuu is additionally predictable, and nearly all of his attacks are heavily telegraphed. Now Tabuu does have a few hard to dodge attacks that can kill like the rest of his attacks (his Whip grab, Boomer Disc, and Exploding clones), that requires fast reflexes, or you going offstage. This, along with his massive health, meaning you'll have to dodge many attacks and increasing the likelihood of you messing up and getting hit (and it only takes one mistake against Tabuu to die), puts him above the below bosses.

5. Rayquaza (fast version): Fastquaza is listed separately, as his fast version provides more difficulty than some of the higher ranked bosses. Fastquaza gains a much bigger speed boost than other bosses except the Galleom, where you're given a very small window to attack a boss with ridiculous endurance, who is constantly throwing attacks, that become very difficult to dodge with the great speed boost. The great difficulty of dodging and lack of reprieve puts him above Porky and the fast Galleom, but Rayquaza's significantly less kill power than Tabuu keeps him from being put above him.

6. Porky: Porky is pretty much a worse Duon, having high health, and many dangerous attacks. While his attacks can be pretty hard to dodge, and he's the third most powerful boss after Tabuu and the Galleom (so he can kill you quickly), Porky has some significant weaknesses. First he's a landlocked boss with a massive overlappable hurtbox; this allows many characters to hit him with both hits of their sweeping down smashes and other such attacks. He additionally leaves himself vulnerable for long periods of time (particularly during his rapid jab attack which you can easily roll behind to the safe side, and his walking attack where you can easily attack him through the air), and is very predictable. This knocks Porky from the A tier, as well as below Tabuu and Fastquaza (who don't leave themselves as vulnerable as Porky does, while not having that much worse of attacks).

7. Galleom (fast version): Like Rayquaza, the Galleom gets a significant benefit when in fast mode, gaining a more significant speed boost, which significantly decreases the safe window against him and makes his attacks more difficult to dodge. However, he is still held back by his low endurance, and his attacks are still heavily telegraphed.

8. Rayquaza: The main trait of Rayquaza are his ridiculous resistances, where he has a resistance of at least 0.7 against every type of attack except Ice attacks (which all few of them are resisted by being projectiles anyway, and are terrible moves against bosses regardless). Rayquaza is in fact the only boss who resists normal type attacks. This gives Rayquaza endurance that is only surpassed by Tabuu. Rayquaza though has attacks that are rather telegraphed, and most are easy to dodge. Additionally, he a similar problem to Porky (though to a less severe degree), being a landlocked boss with an easily overlappable hurtbox (which does put a dent in his massive endurance). Rayquaza though does have a few attacks that can be difficult to dodge (Iron Tail, which has multiple and deceiving hitboxes, Extreme Speed, which is also Rayquaza's strongest attack, and Thunder, which can be near impossible to dodge, though it's not very dangerous to get hit by). These, combined with his massive endurance significantly increasing the chance of mistakes, puts him about right in the middle.

9. Galleom: The Galleom has tremendous power, with nearly all of his attacks killing early, being the only boss outside Tabuu to have OHKO moves, and having multiple other attacks with near OHKO power. The Galleom though is a glass cannon, with low health, and only having one useful resistance (a pretty good 0.75X resistance to fire moves). Additionally, most of his attacks are heavily telegraphed with very slow start-up, so you can continually assault him while being given ample time to dodge. His two attacks that aren't telegraphed (his step out stomp and his double fist slam), are a lot weaker than his other moves (they can still kill, but you can take them up to 50-100 and live), and they can be safely shielded unlike most boss attacks. How powerful the Galleom is though keeps him out of the low tiers, as it only takes one mistake to die against him.

10. Ridley: Ridley is a pretty easy boss, with telegraphed, easily dodged attacks, HP that isn't good, and being easily predictable. Ridley has some very powerful attacks however, meaning a mistake against him can be very costly, and while mostly predictable, some of his attacks act unusually (his glide across the screen attack varies in speed, with no discernible pattern for how fast he'll go). This keeps him above the bottom tier.

11. Master Hand (Boss Battles version): So you're wondering how can Boss Battles Master Hand be this low, when his Classic version is ranked so high? In Boss Battles, Master Hand is given a significant health nerf, where he has even less health than Galleom and Petey (and by quite a significant margin too). With this vastly lowered health, you can kill him very quickly, before he can use Walking Hand and Hand Swipe. He can use Hand Drill from the second attack on, but it doesn't hurt as much when you can kill him before he uses his fatal moves.

12. Crazy Hand (Classic version): It's a common misconception among the inexperienced who only played easy-hard that Crazy Hand is the superior Hand. In actuality though, Crazy Hand is a vastly inferior boss to Master Hand. So how can this be? Remember those god moves Master Hand has? Two of them, the Walking Hand and Hand Swipe, Crazy Hand does not have. Additionally, his Hand Drill deals less damage, is used much later (Master Hand can use it as early as the second attack, while Crazy Hand doesn't use it until much later), and used less frequently. For Crazy Hand's exclusives, while Master Hand got the godly Walking Hand and Hand Swipe, and the somewhat useful Finger Missiles, Crazy Hand gets the very easily dodged Finger Bombs and Hand Quake (which you can simply step away from him to not get hit), and easily dodged and very weak Hand Spider. The rest of Crazy Hand's attacks are also weaker than Master Hand's versions. Overall, easy to dodge attacks except one (that he rarely uses), and having startlingly low killing power. Like Master Hand, he has some unpredictability though, keeping him above the even worse bosses below him.

13. Meta Ridley: The big thing about Meta Ridley, while it's more dangerous to be near a boss usually, it's actually really safe against Meta Ridley to be right up against him, that's strike 1. Strike 2, he has lower health and weaker kill power among bosses. Strike 3, his attacks are extremely easy to dodge, and he's perhaps the most predictable boss in the game. You can just whack on him in the very clear safe window against him, watch as he flies away and be prepared to dodge (which for some of his attacks, you can just stay where you are to not get hit), dodge with ease; continue a few more times until he's dead. He does have one potentially dangerous attack when he grabs the ship, drags it down, and spit large fireballs. But during this time, you can attack him, and dealing enough gets him off (which is pretty easy, results in him just taking more damage, while you don't have to dodge anything). Also, if you have a holdable reflector, you can just hold it and reflect as he spits his rapid fireballs, which can drain more than half his health away. There is a time limit against him in SSE, but it doesn't matter as you can easily kill him in the quarter of the time they give you.

14. Crazy Hand (Boss Battles version): So you give the massive health nerf Master Hand has to Crazy Hand, an already very easy boss. It's quite obvious why it puts him so low. Also, Crazy Hand's lone very threatening attack, Hand Drill, is no longer an issue, as you can very easily kill him before he can potentially use it.

15. Petey Piranha: Petey Piranha literally has two attacks only; swipe cage and jump. Both attacks are very slow, and painstakingly easy to dodge (just jump when he swings a cage, and just jump to the side of Petey when he jumps, while you can freely attack his cages in the process). He additionally has health that can be depleted faster than most other bosses (as you can hit both Petey and a cage with the same attack, which counts as hitting him twice). His moves can kill past the 80 mark, but you shouldn't ever be getting hit by Petey at all.

So, what do all of you think? Omega Tyrant 04:28, 19 July 2013 (EDT)

Well jeez. Clearly there was a lot of thought and effort put into this, and I wish I had more to contribute than saying that this has pretty much been my experience with the bosses as well, point for point. I've always considered Crazy Hand a joke too, especially when you compare him to the aggravation that is Classic Master Hand. DoctorPain99 04:40, 19 July 2013 (EDT)

I pretty much agree with this list. Duon might be S tier, he's just such a nightmare in Boss Battles and is resistant to indirect attacks, including all projectiles and moves like Charizard's side B. You can't stay at a distance because projectiles don't deal much damage to him and he has the mines, rockets, and lasers. The blue bolts destroy your shield too. Also, Petey Piranha and Boss Battles Crazy Hand are by far the worst bosses in the game, and should probably be in their own tier at the bottom. Scr7 04:44, 19 July 2013 (EDT)

Nearly all the bosses except the Hands and Tabuu have a projectile resistance, and the only projectile worth using against bosses, Rock Smash, deals ridiculous damage still in spite of the projectile resistances. And you can't really stay away safely from any boss.

For BB Crazy and Petey, I find Meta Ridley to be just as terrible as them (I can pretty much no damage Meta Ridley every single time, and even then I'm not at much risk if I do make a mistake and get hit by him), and the extra health Classic Crazy Hand gets doesn't make much of a difference, other than making it very probable you'll have to deal with one Hand Drill. Omega Tyrant 05:00, 19 July 2013 (EDT)

So which Boss Battles stages specifically are the "fast" versions at? Toomai Glittershine The Yoshi 06:50, 19 July 2013 (EDT)

Rounds 7-9. Omega Tyrant 09:14, 19 July 2013 (EDT)