Path of Exile 2 Boss Design Overview

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Sporting over 100 bosses and more on the way, the developers at Grinding Gear Games give us a bit more insight on the process of curating engaging and epic bosses and their mechanics from scratch in Path of Exile 2.

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00:00I think, honestly, making bosses in Path of Exile 2 is the most satisfying part of the

00:23job.

00:24It is so enjoyable from start to end, even after it's gone out, it's satisfying.

00:29I think if I could choose to do anything all the time, full time, that would be the single

00:34thing.

00:46Bosses in Path of Exile 2 come about two major ways.

00:49You obviously have the more traditional approach where you create a narrative and you design

00:55a boss around that narrative.

01:11The second way, which I think is something that can be very unique and create some of

01:16the more interesting encounters, is letting the creative genius of our artists do what

01:22they need to do.

01:24They can come up with something completely abstract.

01:28And this is how you get some of the most awesome things, because all of a sudden it can be

01:32something with 100 tentacles, or 9 limbs, or no limbs, or 1000 teeth, or none, and obviously

01:41things that aren't even in my imagination.

02:04While a boss in Path of Exile 2 ultimately is the culmination of decades of experience,

02:10taking hundreds if not thousands of bosses and its predecessor, taking all that knowledge

02:14together, and puts it in a package that delivers the best of what could possibly be of boss

02:19encounters in an action RPG environment with bosses that are utilizing souls-like mechanics.

02:32Despite the fact there's over 100 bosses, and more to come, a lot more to come, every

02:39single boss fight is completely unique, hand-animated from scratch, it is designed from scratch,

02:45it is balanced from scratch, and it doesn't reuse a single asset in our library or anything

02:50like that.

03:09One of the main challenges balancing boss fights in Path of Exile 2, especially compared

03:12to its predecessor, you have to, in a single attempt, reduce the boss from full life to

03:17zero in order to then progress through.

03:19If a player cannot defeat them now, then they're stuck.

03:25Which helps in many ways, because it makes the bosses feel so much more satisfying to

03:29kill once you do overcome it and learn it.

03:36It is very, very important to us that Path of Exile bosses' mechanics, especially around

03:42telegraphing, feels fair to the user, as opposed to them being cheated out of something when

03:47they happen to die.

03:49We want to make sure that hitboxes are accurate, and of course, when something hits you, it

03:54feels like it hits you.

03:57It ultimately makes it feel that much more satisfying when you kill it, and you feel

04:02that much more pride when you are able to overcome something difficult, knowing that

04:06the game hasn't robbed you of this thing.

04:10At the end of the day, you want to see that healthy balance, where some people are struggling,

04:18and you want to see that moment, that second-hand moment, where someone overcomes that challenge

04:23and is so happy for doing so, and so I'm looking forward to that.

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