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Tired of the same old boss battles? This video counts down 10 iconic video game bosses that have secret, peaceful solutions you probably never knew existed, allowing you to bypass a direct confrontation.
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00:00Whenever there's a boss battle in a game, inevitably there's going to be conflict, hence the term boss fight.
00:05However, what if there was another way?
00:07What if you were tired of constantly getting into scraps with your enemies and instead wanted to resolve things peacefully?
00:14Peacefully is being used as a stretch here, as some of the following examples might end in your adversary's untimely
00:20demise.
00:20But at the very least, your own hands are clean.
00:23In an indirect way, at least.
00:25I'm Si for WhatCulture.com and here are 10 video game bosses you didn't realise can be defeated peacefully.
00:3210. The End Metal Gear Solid 3
00:35Anyone who's played Metal Gear Solid 3 knows how intense and challenging the fight with The End is.
00:40Being a veteran sniper, he can take down the player from anywhere on the map and because of his camouflage,
00:44it can be really tricky to find him.
00:47Thankfully, the game features a special secret way of overcoming The End that not only helps you avoid the fight
00:52altogether,
00:52but also spares you from having to put down the legendary father of sniping.
00:57All you have to do is turn off your console prior to your fight with The End and then wait
01:01two whole weeks or go in and change the internal clock.
01:04When you turn your console back on, The End will already be dead, succumbing to his old age.
01:09Yep, apparently the old man had only two weeks of life left in him.
01:12When you find him after waiting, you just see his eyes pop out and then he flops onto his side
01:17lifelessly.
01:18Ah, the inevitability of old age, the most reliable weapon in a pacifist's arsenal of choice.
01:249. Tauros Demon, Dark Souls
01:26After getting totally obliterated by most Dark Soul bosses out there,
01:30at some point you start to wonder how much fun it would be to do a pacifist run and avoid
01:34getting the punching bag treatment.
01:35And while it's not possible to make friends with really any of the bosses in the series,
01:39it is possible to avoid direct combat with several, the most well-known being the Tauros Demon from the original
01:45game.
01:45The Tauros Demon is a big hulking heap of muscles that the player encounters on a bridge leading to the
01:50undead parish.
01:51A fight with him can be incredibly annoying due to the limited space for you to dodge and run away.
01:55However, this problem can actually be used to your advantage, providing you don't care about exploiting the game a little.
02:01Because the Tauros Demon is a bit of a jumpy boy, you can actually position yourself in a way that
02:06causes him to jump off the bridge
02:07and right towards his own impending doom.
02:10You don't need to lift a finger, and since it was technically him who jumped off the bridge, his death
02:14is not your fault.
02:16Look out below!
02:178. The Groks Spore
02:19The Groks are the enigmatic antagonists of the 2009 galaxy simulator Spore.
02:24They are deceivingly adorable cyborgs that occupy the centre of the galaxy and attack anyone who enters their territory.
02:30The Groks are feared pretty much unanimously across the whole Spore universe,
02:34as they completely despise all living things and seek to eradicate life everywhere they go.
02:39But what most people don't know is that their aversion to life is actually their greatest weakness.
02:44It turns out you don't need an arsenal of bombs and laser beams to get rid of the Groks.
02:48A simple terraforming tool and a bit of eco-friendliness work better than any other weapon in the galaxy.
02:54Because Groks are more machines than living beings, the moment you terraform their planet and bring life to it,
03:00the Groks occupying it will simply cease to exist.
03:03They are the only species in the galaxy that hate when you terraform their planet,
03:07as planting a bunch of trees kills them faster than any weapon could.
03:10Anyone with allergies can probably relate to this.
03:137. The Mechanist Fallout 4
03:15The post-apocalyptic world of the Fallout series is cruel and unforgiving,
03:19but this doesn't mean your character has to act like one of the raiders or super mutants they blow up
03:24with mini-nukes.
03:25Sometimes a more peaceful solution can be appropriate and you don't even need a lot of charisma for it.
03:30In Fallout 4's DLC, Automatron, the sole survivor needs to find and take down a crazed roboticist,
03:36donning the costume of a comic book villain named The Mechanist.
03:39The problem, however, is that the metallic evildoer is actually just a misguided girl named Isabel
03:44who tried using her robots to help people, but simply didn't realise their programming was making them kill everyone instead.
03:51The girl isn't really worthy of death, but unfortunately the only way to spare Isabel's life
03:55is through a series of difficult charisma checks.
03:58Or is it?
03:59Actually, if you manage to get your hands on the costume of the Silver Shroud,
04:02The Mechanist's superhero nemesis,
04:04you can wear it to unlock a secret dialogue tree in which you impersonate the Master Vigilante.
04:10Your act will appeal to Isabel's nerdy sense of conscience,
04:13sparing her life with no additional checks whatsoever.
04:16Because once again, LARPing saves the day.
04:18Number 6, Saren, Mass Effect.
04:20The only thing that feels better than a regular victory over your opponent is a moral victory,
04:25and it just so happens that Mass Effect features a pretty great example of one.
04:29One of the primary antagonists of the original Mass Effect is a Tyrion commander named Saren.
04:33He's a deadly but honourable member of Spectre,
04:36who at one point became enthralled by the Reaper flagship, Sovereign,
04:39and got turned into an indoctrinated puppet.
04:42When the player meets Saren in Mass Effect, his old self seems to be long gone.
04:46However, in reality, a small part of the old Spectre operative is still in there,
04:50you just need to bring it out of him.
04:52In the final confrontation with Saren, if the player has high enough Paragon level,
04:56meaning they act compassionately throughout the game,
04:58they can unlock a secret dialogue option that will allow them to convince Saren
05:02to see past the lies of his mothership overlord.
05:05This will cause Saren to momentarily regain his senses,
05:08and he will use the opportunity to shoot himself in the head,
05:11letting you defeat him without a fight.
05:13It's not pretty, but you did win the battle with words, so that's something.
05:18Number 5, Eric Sodas, Hitman.
05:20The work of a world-class assassin is obviously not a profession built around compassion and mercy.
05:25However, even though Agent 47 never lets his targets escape,
05:29that doesn't mean he always has to dirty his own hands with their blood.
05:32Sometimes he can simply watch others do the work for him.
05:35Generally speaking, each target in the Hitman series can be killed in a variety of different ways.
05:39One of the targets in Hokkaido, Eric Sodas,
05:42can even be taken out without the player ever having to pick up a gun or an explosive duck.
05:47You see, the man in question is a patient at the secret Haikado clinic,
05:51and the chief surgeon responsible for his treatment
05:53just so happens to be the son of a man of Sodas assassinated.
05:56All you have to do is help the surgeon uncover Sodas' past crimes,
05:59and then the man will do all the work for you,
06:02purposefully botching Sodas' surgery to avenge his long-lost father.
06:06See, even a seasoned killer like 47 can afford to use more,
06:09quote-unquote, peaceful solutions every now and then.
06:13Number 4, Paul Carson, Dead Rising.
06:15The psychopaths of Dead Rising aren't the conversationalist types.
06:19Their deranged and traumatised minds make them extremely violent,
06:22and they tend to attack the player as soon as they cross their path.
06:25For this reason, you may assume it's not possible to reason with them,
06:28and while technically true, there is one exception to this rule.
06:31In the original Dead Rising, one of the psychopaths Frank West comes across
06:34as a nervous punk teenager named Paul Carson.
06:37The kid assumes Frank is making fun of him,
06:38and he immediately retaliates by throwing a bunch of Molotov cocktails
06:42and setting everything on fire,
06:43you know, like one typically does in such situations.
06:46When the player defeats Paul,
06:47the teenager drops one of his fiery concoctions onto his pants,
06:50and he starts burning alive.
06:52This is usually when the player assumes the psychopath has met his fate,
06:55and it's time to move on with their life.
06:56However, if you have a spare fire extinguisher,
06:59you can actually attempt to save Paul.
07:01The near-death experience will help him regain his senses,
07:04and allow you to recruit him as a survivor.
07:06Number 3, Stanley Gimble, Vampire the Masquerade Bloodlines.
07:09Confrontations with serial killers in movies and games are rarely peaceful,
07:13but surprisingly, Vampire the Masquerade Bloodlines allows you to resolve an issue
07:17with a certain serial killer in an uncharacteristically non-violent way.
07:21In one of the earlier missions in Bloodlines,
07:23the player's character can stumble upon a crazed doctor named Stanley Gimble.
07:26Typically, the mission will have you follow Gimble to his basement,
07:29and then force you to fight him as he pulls out a saw
07:31and the severed hand of one of his previous so-called body models.
07:35However, there is a way to avoid conflict with Stanley
07:38while still getting rid of him and completing your mission.
07:41If you discovered a secret blood extraction room inside the Santa Monica Hospital
07:44and freed the girl who was kept there as a free blood source,
07:48the man who kept the girl captive will demand that you bring him a replacement vessel.
07:52That replacement can be Stanley Gimble.
07:54You simply need to convince him to visit the hospital
07:57and talk to the crazed nurse running the local blood bank.
08:00And just like that, you get rid of a dangerous serial killer
08:02without having to bloody your own hands.
08:04What a good vampire you are.
08:062. The Master Fallout
08:08Speech in the Fallout series can be an incredibly useful skill.
08:11It allows you to talk your way out of any situation,
08:14and in some cases, even a boss fight.
08:16In fact, in Fallout 1, it even allows you to peacefully end the threat
08:20of the super mutant invasion, although it may not seem like it at first glance.
08:24The primary antagonist of the original Fallout, the Master,
08:26is a grotesquely mutated scientist who seeks to turn humanity
08:30into a master race of super mutants under his command.
08:33Normally, defeating the Master requires you to kill him in combat,
08:36which can be quite tricky due to his melted body parts being infused with a giant turret.
08:41However, if your speech and intelligence are high enough,
08:43and you have evidence of the Master's super mutants being incapable of reproduction,
08:47you can actually convince him that his plan is doomed to fail.
08:50The Master will try to refuse it by calling you a liar,
08:53but if you push the conversation far enough,
08:55he eventually realises the errors of his ways,
08:58and he just straight up kills himself.
08:59Nothing like bullying the final boss into doing your job for you.
09:031. Kurgan, Arcanum of Steamworks and Magic Obscura
09:06And while we're on the topic of old isometric RPGs
09:09that allow you to talk the final boss into killing themselves,
09:12Arcanum is another title that follows this weirdly specific formula.
09:16Arcanum's main antagonist is a powerful necromancer named Kurgan.
09:19Contrary to what you would usually expect from a cruel lich,
09:22Kurgan seeks to destroy all life not to create a loyal army of the undead,
09:25but rather because he believes existence is suffering and death is the only way of stopping it.
09:30If your character has a high enough charisma stat,
09:32instead of fighting Kurgan, they may choose to debate him on his no-life policy.
09:36Depending on your skill, you may be able to convince him that life does have value,
09:40despite all the suffering involved,
09:42and make him fall in love with the world he seeks to destroy.
09:45His newfound love will be so strong, in fact,
09:47that Kurgan will decide to take his own life,
09:49just so that his warped undead existence cannot pose a threat to the world of the living.
09:53As it's taken killing them with kindness to a whole other level.
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