Image credit: Em Stonham for Kyusai/toby fox
Deltarune is a vast and vibrant game, with gameplay that involves exploring, chatting to characters, and choosing how to interact with enemies. Whether you opt for a violent route or pacifist approach, you’ll end up in boss battles while playing through each Chapter.
While every boss in Deltarune does have something unique to celebrate, some of them are better than others. Here’s a complete tier list of Deltarune boss battles, ranking them based on their combat and attack style, design and aesthetic, and music.
Complete Deltarune boss tier list
This tier list includes both bosses and secret bosses in Deltarune; massive spoilers ahead for the regular route and various deviations from it. I’ve not included mini-bosses, but Jackenstein would’ve been at the top, if you’re interested.
S Tier
Picking out the best boss battles in Deltarune isn’t an easy task; if I’m honest, the rankings for this list changed several times before being published. The two that’ve ended up here are spectacular, with their combat, art direction, and music.
Spamton NEO
Spamton NEO is a secret boss in the regular route and the Chapter 2 final boss for the Weird route; very different fights, sure, but thematically similar and incredibly impactful.
He’s a confusing and off-putting character, and this fight revolves around him struggling for control; cutting the strings, so to speak. His NEO form is a mecha form, almost, warping his usual appearance into something garbled, reflected in the eerie yet hopeful music.
The Yellow SOUL mode is active in this fight, which fires projectiles at Spamton’s bullet patterns. There’s an almost body horror-esque element to the attacks that Spamton uses; his heart will burst out of his chest on a stalk, and his facial features will detach entirely.
The Roaring Knight
Much like Spamton NEO, there are two ways that you can encounter The Roaring Knight in a boss battle. It’s the Chapter 3 Shadow Crystal boss, but is not a necessary battle for progression; put simply, if you lose to the Knight, you can keep playing.
The Knight is, canonically, one of the strongest characters in the game, at the time of writing this article. If you played through the game blind for the first time, it’s likely that you assumed it was a mandatory death; I certainly did. This makes replaying the fight for the Shadow Crystal fascinating.
On top of this, The Roaring Knight looks awesome, with a fantastic soundtrack to go alongside its challenging battle.
It’s a bit of an edgelord in its design, sure – Dess Knighters, you know what’s up – with its dark horns and giant sword, but the Knight has some damn cool bullet patterns, with exploding barrages of dead stars, ferris wheels of swords, and the ability to rip the action box directly in half, looking almost gory as it tears.
A Tier
This is the most densely populated section of the article, and with good reason – Deltarune has a veritable mountain of incredible boss fights. While the fights in this section aren’t quite S Tier, they’re incredibly fun, challenging, and stylish.
Jevil
Jevil is the first secret boss in Deltarune, and he manages to be both gleefully silly and fiendishly cruel all at once.
He was the court jester in the Card Kingdom before getting corrupted by a mysterious stranger, eventually becoming almost solipsistic in nature and thinking that everything in life is a solitary, hilarious game. Jevil was imprisoned by Seam, the shop keeper, and makes the Fun Gang work to free him before his boss battle.
Jevil’s battle isn’t quite as technical as later secret bosses, but there’s still a decent level of challenge. His bullet patterns are speedy and fun, and they match his clownish aesthetic and fight theme perfectly.
GIGA Queen
Queen has several fights in Deltarune; they’re all fun and suitably quirky, but I’m focusing on the actual boss encounter that is GIGA Queen, the mecha that the Fun Gang battles at the end of Chapter 2 on the regular route.
With the Fun Gang getting their own mech to fight with, this fight gets flair points for being a mech vs mech battle. It’s a boss fight reminiscent of arcade fighting games, with the main attacks requiring simple dodges and well-timed movements, and a stylish, over-the-top setting with Cyber City scrolling past the battle.
Shadow Mantle Holder
The Shadow Mantle Holder is a special hidden boss in Deltarune that can be fought on the Sword Route, once S-Rank is obtained on the third mini-game. Also known as Eram by the fan base, this mysterious boss is tied to FRIEND somehow.
The Shadow Mantle boss battle takes place inside the Zelda-esque dungeons of TV World, and it plays like an old-school RPG boss, too, spitting out rows of fireballs and meteors, summoning FRIEND-shaped adds, and lobbing bombs that the player must dodge. I found this battle to be particularly challenging without practice.
Tenna
If you like mini-games, you’re in for a treat with the Mr. Ant Tenna boss battle. He’s the supposed final boss of Chapter 3, and puts the Fun Gang through increasingly challenging rounds of TV show tasks, making them play cooking challenges, shoot bad guys, and complete rhythm games.
Along with the quirky mini-games, Tenna has a good variety of bullet patterns to contend with. He fires stars and lightning bolts at the SOUL, while splitting the action box in half; simple, but a cool visual effect.
Tenna is arguably one of the best themed bosses in the game, too. He’s got well-written dialogue that gets more unhinged as the encounter comes off the rails, and fast-paced, upbeat music. It’s not the hardest fight in the game, but it’s a hell of a lot of fun to play through.
Hammer of Justice
Hammer of Justice is a unique fight, in that it features Susie by herself. Hidden behind a puzzle in Chapter 4, this battle focuses predominantly on reaction time and pattern recognition, with Old Man Gerson’s alternate form being revealed as the (temporary) antagonist.
Despite being centered around Susie attacking Gerson, it is technically a pacifist fight; Gerson is hoping to school the young hero on the battlefield, and wants to see what she’s got. It’s a fascinating fight lore-wise, and is also incredibly fun – and challenging – to play through.
Flowery
Flowery – not Flowey – is the big bad at the end of Chapter 5. Except, he seemingly has good intentions tucked away behind his kidnapping and false imprisonment shenanigans; he’s a well-written character, despite what Ralsei will tell you.
The fight revolves around all of the flowers teaming up to defeat the Fun Gang, each with their own special bullet patterns and mechanics. Aqua and Seth opt for tricky, fast-paced bullet patterns, while Blue and Yellow harken back to an earlier stage in the Chapter and bring the Justice act back.
Once the flowers have been defeated, there are more traditional phases to beat, including a small, vertical climbing challenge.
The variety of different mechanics and patterns to memorize does make Flowery’s fight difficult, especially if you’re trying to no-hit it. While I did find some of the patterns more annoying and repetitive than anything – sorry, Aqua – it’s still a varied and enjoyable battle overall.
Pink
Even getting to the secret boss in Chapter 5 is difficult enough, let alone beating the fight. Pink, also known as Mad Mew Mew, is a boss that’ll feel familiar to folks who’ve played through Undertale before.
Instead of being able to damage this boss or win via the Mercy Meter, the real strategy with Mad Mew Mew is to fill up the Doki Meter by Flirting. It’s a strange and quirky fight with plenty of pink hearts, glow sticks, and kitty faces, and it contrasts with the rest of Chapter 5 fairly heavily.
B Tier
If this tier list included mini-bosses, I would’ve included Lancer alongside Jackenstein at this point – he’s a fantastic character, and I’m desperately hoping he makes more of an appearance in Chapters 6 and 7.
The Titan
The Guardian boss battle, also known as The Titan, is the terrifying behemoth that appears at the end of Chapter 4. It’s a celestial, nightmarish being with gigantic claws, wing-like appendages, and a gaping maw for a face. Design-wise, it’s one of the coolest bosses in Deltarune.
Beating this boss is decently simple, focusing largely on using the SOUL’s light to burn away the various forms of darkness that the Titan throws at the Fun Gang. The bullet patterns in this fight are visually interesting, and a familiar face makes an appearance towards the end of the battle, much to Susie’s delight.
Mechanically, the Titan isn’t the most unique or challenging; other bosses in Deltarune stand out as stronger options in these categories. It’s a fun fight, though, and has some impactful visuals that match the aesthetic of Chapter 4 nicely.
C Tier
There’s only one boss in C Tier, for now, and he’s the first boss that most people take on during their initial playthrough. It’s not a bad fight, necessarily, but compared to the excellence seen in later Chapters, it’s underwhelming.
King
King acts as the big bad of Chapter 1, attempting to smash the Fun Gang into the ground before they can even establish themselves fully as the main trio.
Taking place on top of Card Castle, the King fight begins with the father attempting to demolish his exceptionally resilient son. Lore-wise, it’s an interesting fight to take on if you’re doing a pacifist playthrough.
Attacking with spades – the card suit symbol, not a gardening implement – in various forms, King’s battle largely consists of simple bullet patterns and box movements for the player to dodge.
The music is a highlight of the King battle. It manages to feel both upbeat and menacing all at once, with a particularly retro-leaning vibe. The sound effects of the hit box being dragged around by the King’s chains and clunking into place are weighty, and make the attacks feel like they’ll hurt.
Despite having a few quibbles about the lower-rated boss fights in this Deltarune boss ranking, it’s hard to complain too much. The game is exceptional; with its combat, with its story, and with its art style. If you’re a fan of quirky RPGs and haven’t played it yet, you’re missing out on a monumental experience.
FAQs
Deltarune came out initially on October 31, 2018, with Chapter 1 kicking off the story.
At the time of writing this article, there are five Deltarune Chapters, with Chapters 6 and 7 slated for later release. Insert TikTok joke here.
You don’t technically need to play Deltarune or Undertale to understand the corresponding game. However, it’s worthwhile to check out Undertale before Deltarune, as it’ll help you understand the story better.
Some fights in Deltarune are difficult, but generally, the game is not thought of as tricky in the same way that Dark Souls or Hollow Knight: Silksong might be.
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