June 8, 2022 March 4, 2023
Wizard101 Boss Rematches
This year’s Spring Update continues to roll out more features in the form of a recent Wizard101 patch. After mentioning the idea of Boss Rematches in the recent Spellement Dev Diary and more hints from the Spellement Q&A, the wait is over and 5 new battles are available against some of our notorious foes.
What is a Boss Rematch?
A Boss Rematch is very similar to the one-shot housing gauntlets we’ve previously seen. In this instance it’s a craftable housing item. This housing item contains a sigil and can be placed in any home. Up to 4 players can be transported to an instance to fight one of the Arc 1 end world bosses. Afterwards, the previously placed sigil will disappear from the player’s home and leave a trophy from the fight. This trophy can be used for decoration afterwards, but it also has an important part to play in the ‘Recharge’ process.
Obtaining a Rematch
In order to obtain one of these Boss Rematch fights, players need simply visit the newest vendor to travel to Wizard City, Raquel. Raquel has camped out in the Arena right across from Marco Artigiano. With her she brings 10 crafting recipes, 5 Boss Rematch recipes, and 5 Boss Recharges. Mirroring the Arc 1 storyline, Raquel has rematches for Lord Nightshade, Krokopatra, Meowiarty, the Jade Oni, and the reliving Malistaire. As if we haven’t fought him enough.. spoiler warning? These recipes are listed below and shouldn’t be too hard to craft. They require a Perfect jewel matching each boss’ school as well as some common reagents harvestable or droppable from their respected world.
These new recipes are also accompanied with a Recharge effect. The recipe works much the same as the regular recipe. However, it requires the trophy left behind from the last rematch, and in exchange, the reagents required for the next fight are discounted. This is an interesting feature as many players used to suggest similar ideas for the trophies left behind by the Rattlebones Exalted fights or similar one shot gauntlets.
Goons and Goodies
Boss Difficulty
These fights were introduced in order to provide players with level equivalent content in order to farm spellements. During the Spring Update, many bosses became the new source of spellements. However, the devs felt that pushing max level wizards to these lower level worlds may provide a negative experience for lower level or newer players. So spellement drops were only available to players within a specific area of the game. With that in mind, these boss rematches were created and are suppose to give players of any level a run for their gold.
While these are familiar to many of the other housing gauntlets and duels, these rematch fights work a bit differently. Usually the lowest level player dictates the difficulty of the dungeon. Instead, with the ideas mentioned above, the owner’s level will dictate the difficulty of the boss. There are 3 tiers for each boss, a level 50, a level 100, and a level 150 version. To get the level 50 boss you must be level 50 and under. Once the owner is level 51 the boss will start scaling to the level 100 version.
Loot
As the main goal of these fights was to allow players a new option for spellement acquisition, the main drops of these fights are rank 1-6 world spellements. Each fight drops a specific rank. Nightshade has ranks 1 and 2, Krokopatra has rank 3, Meowiarty rank 4, Jade Oni rank 5 and Malistaire has rank 6. In addition to spellements, our foes also have a couple housing items to loot and Azoth to collect. Last but not least, the Cantrips teleportation spells are also dropped by these bosses, just as there quest line versions did. Players who are above the bosses scaled difficulty will not get spellement drops.
Improvements
These fights bring some refreshing pve content to the game. A lot of the fights were a great challenge and I really enjoyed them just as something to do. On the other hand, I think there’s still some improvements that can be made to these bosses.
For starters, the time, effort, and resources put into these fights doesn’t reward the same value as regular fights. The spellement drops are very similar in numbers to what the low levels see in Dragonspyre, despite the investment difference. So simply put, if your goal is spellement farming, this probably isn’t better than farming on a lower level. One solution could be to buff the spellement drop rates, but that’s not the only option, and probably not my preferred idea either.
Gear Drops
The bosses seem to be missing something. They are good fights and these first iterations are okay but I definitely feel like there are some simple additions we could see that really make these bosses FEEL like worthwhile boss fights. Gear drops would be a great start. Very rarely does a boss not offer some type of gear as a drop, and I think that’s a big missing piece. The gear doesn’t necessarily need to be anything special, but the idea behind this is level appropriate content, and in comparison to other bosses at max level, or compared to the low level experience, the bosses we fight in other areas have a variety of rewards outside of spellements. Simple level equivalent bazaar gear could be an easy fix.
Badges
As side content, these bosses are a bit more difficult which is the perfect place to add the likes of unique and challenging badges. Badges similar to what we saw in Karamelle would be a nice addition to really capitalize on these fights. I can’t stress enough that they are good fights with cool cheats but outside of spellements, there aren’t many reasons to visit them. Badge rewards similar to Pirate101’s badge system could also be a good way to boost engagement with these bosses. After completing certain badges, players could earn an additional set of spellements.
These likely aren’t going to be the only rematch fights we see. It’s unlikely that the spellement system will drop off after Dragonspyre only to pick back up in Karamelle. So eventually, I think it’s safe to assume that we will see spellements in Arc 2 and 3 worlds, maybe even side worlds further down the road. That means we might also see more world bosses to keep up with the ideas the recent spellement features are built on. Imagine the Pendragon, Belloq, and Morganthe returning for a rematch. Just like these fights, I hope our old foes return with enticing rewards besides spellements.
Final Thoughts
If you’re looking for something to do, definitely go try out these new Boss Rematches. They provide some new takes on older mechanics we’ve seen previously and aren’t your typical walk in the park. Keep your eyes open for guides detailing the best way to tackle these bosses and good luck with spellement farming!
