Mina the Hollower Bosses

Midden

Location: Queensbury Crypt — Ancestral Chamber, behind a door requiring 2 Plasma Vials

How to unlock: Spend 2 Plasma Vials on the locked door, then insult Midden in dialogue — the polite option does nothing. The fight does not start until you choose the insult.

Core mechanic: Single-phase melee fight. No environmental gimmick — readable attack patterns throughout.

Strategy: Burrow through his most telegraphed swings, then punish from close range with a fast weapon like Nightstar between recovery frames. Stay aggressive but always keep Joules in reserve to burrow if you misread a tell. Short combos only — his recovery windows are brief.

Common mistake: Entering with only one spare Plasma Vial, or standing in front of him through entire attack strings instead of burrowing through them.

Reward: Fly Bait trinket

Maxi

Location: Road from Queensbury Crypt back to Ossex — right-side entrance only

How to unlock: After clearing Queensbury Crypt, return to Ossex specifically through the right entrance. Maxi ambushes you automatically. If you fast-travel or use a different route, the trigger does not fire.

Core mechanic: Single-phase, high-aggression fight. Speed increases as HP drops.

Strategy: Stay close to bait his melee patterns, burrow through his lunges, and punish with short combos. Do not try to outrun him — his movement speed makes kiting ineffective. Use burrow invulnerability instead of distance to handle his rushes.

Common mistake: Fast-travelling past the encounter or taking the left entrance, missing the fight entirely. Bringing a slow, long-recovery weapon before you know his openings.

Reward: Trinket Bag — increases the number of trinkets you can equip simultaneously. One of the highest-value rewards in the game.

Dugin

Location: Overworld — Southern Outskirts near the sunbathing man, or near Backwaters in Western Hills

How to unlock: Find children Ack and Dak on Ossex: High Street after Queensbury Crypt. Dugin then appears as a random overworld encounter. You must defeat him twice — one win is not enough to earn the reward.

Core mechanic: Two-encounter quest. His small size causes long attack strings to whiff, which also means your own long strings miss.

Strategy: Let him hop into your attack range and punish with short, fast strings rather than committing to long combos. The second encounter is harder — treat it as a true rematch, not a repeat.

Common mistake: Thinking one win completes the quest. Missing the random spawn window by not checking both spawn locations. Whiffing long attack animations because of his small hitbox.

Reward: Lace Glove trinket (attack stat increase)

Armand

Location: Ossex — lower area beneath Legovich’s Arms shop

How to unlock: Try to buy a second item from Legovich in Ossex. This triggers a letter from Armand. Dig through the hole at the top-right of the shop to reach the lower arena.

Core mechanic: Environmental gimmick — Armand has heavy damage resistance on solid ground, but takes full damage when standing in lava pools.

Strategy: Lure Armand into lava pools, where he takes normal damage. Use burrow to reposition safely around the lava and to dodge his charges, then strike while he stands in the lava zone. Never fight him purely on solid ground — the resistance makes it a very slow, low-damage fight.

Common mistake: Trying to out-damage his resistance on solid ground. Standing in lava yourself and trading hits instead of exploiting his positioning.

Reward: Full blacksmith service restored — unlocks weapon upgrades and expanded shop inventory

Willis (Wonder Willis)

Location: Ossex: Bowery — music hall, after a multi-step escort quest

How to unlock: Find a frog in a bucket behind a waterfall on the route down from Nox’s Beast shortcut. Escort him through obstacles to Backwater to reunite with his band. Then reach the music hall in Ossex: Bowery to fight Willis. The frog respawns at the nearest shoreline if you lose him — you do not restart from the beginning.

Core mechanic: Stun-and-throw fight. Willis is largely immune to chip damage — the real damage comes from throwing him into the crowd.

Strategy: Attack to stun Willis, then immediately grab and throw him into the crowd. Chain these crowd throws efficiently rather than trading blows in the centre of the arena. Normal attacks deal very little damage, so do not grind him down with standard combos.

Common mistake: Trying to beat Willis through normal attacks and wondering why he has so much health. Panicking when the frog is lost during the escort and restarting unnecessarily — he respawns.

Reward: Pneumatic Armlet trinket

Dark Deluxy

Location: Coltrane Peak area — near the Windy Spark Generator, behind a door requiring 2 Spark Containers

How to unlock: Collect 2 Spark Containers, open the two-slot door on the route back from the Windy Generator, then escort Luxy to the Generator to trigger the fight.

Core mechanic: High-speed duel. Dark Deluxy is the fastest-moving secret boss. Slow weapons will consistently miss her recovery windows.

Strategy: Use a fast weapon (Nightstar or Whisper & Vesper) and prioritise short punishes after each readable dash. Dodge diagonally or burrow through her rush, never try to tank it. Whittle her down with efficient small combos rather than trying to land big hits.

Common mistake: Not healing her after the fight. You must use a Plasma Vial on Dark Deluxy after defeating her to receive the Spark Container reward. Skipping this step loses the reward. Also: bringing a slow weapon and trading directly into her rushes.

Reward: Spark Container (max Joule capacity increase) — but only if you heal her with a Plasma Vial after the fight

Mirren

Location: Coltrane Peak: Frostbite Woods — inside an abandoned carriage

How to unlock: From the Underlab, head right under the ice. Use the skull-marked block to allow the larger ice chunk to regenerate so you can reach the carriage. Talk to Mirren and tell her you’re there to help — this angers her and starts the fight.

Core mechanic: Clone dive attack. When Mirren splits and dives across the screen with clones, dealing damage during this animation is impossible and any attack attempt wastes your opening window.

Strategy: Reserve all aggression for moments outside her clone dive. Play completely defensively whenever she splits — burrow or move to the arena edge. Counter with tightly spaced combos immediately after the clones resolve. Never try to attack through the dive animation.

Common mistake: Attacking during the clone dive and burning your punish window. Standing too close to the carriage edges where dodging becomes cramped and the clone dive clips you anyway.

Reward: Blinking Glass trinket (chance to avoid damage and become briefly invulnerable)

Evra the Undying

Location: Septemburg Courtyard region — mini-dungeon behind a 3-Plasma-Vial gate

How to unlock: From the eastern courtyard near a bone-headed woman NPC, use Burrow Jump, hover, and Drill Driver (or raft) to cross the large gap, then open the gate with 3 Plasma Vials. This fight is gated behind late-game traversal items — it is easy to see the gate early but impossible to reach until you have advanced mobility.

Core mechanic: Multi-threat fight — Evra on her undead steed charges you while simultaneously summoning and vomiting skeletons. The skeletons are both a direct threat and a space-denial problem.

Strategy: Clear skeletons immediately after each summon wave to preserve movement space. Use that open space to dodge the mount’s charges. Burrow under the mount’s charge — do not try to outrun it. Punish Evra only in short windows after a charge, from flanks where skeleton coverage is thin. Survival first; damage second.

Common mistake: Letting skeleton numbers accumulate until every movement direction is blocked. Trying to outrun the mount’s charge instead of burrowing through it.

Reward: Health Rose (permanent max HP upgrade)

Thalassion

Location: Backwater region — southeast of Irwin and Durwin’s hangout, accessed via a Fishing Rod slime-climb

How to unlock: Get the Fishing Rod sidearm from Irwin and Durwin in Backwaters. Catch all 15 fish across Tenebrous Isle. One fish must remain uncaught in Backwater. Then use the Fishing Rod on the slime surface near their hangout to climb into the hidden arena. Requires both Fishing Rod and Drill Driver equipped.

Core mechanic: Tiny arena, extremely high damage. Charging bite and wave attacks that chain together in the cramped space. The arena size turns every positioning error into a potential combo kill.

Strategy: Treat this like a rhythm game — pick only the safest windows (after a whiffed charge) to land 1–2 hits, then immediately reposition. Never attack more than twice per opening. Discipline matters more than damage output. Build tuned for crowd control does not help here — this is a pure single-target precision fight.

Common mistake: Over-attacking after each opening and getting trapped by the next wave or charge. Entering with a crowd-control build instead of a precision single-target setup.

Reward: Gilded Rod (upgraded Fishing Rod) from Irwin and Durwin after the fight

Complete Set Reward Summary

Defeat all nine secret bosses to earn these permanent upgrades:

Priority order: Maxi (Trinket Bag) and Armand (blacksmith) are the most impactful early. The Lace Glove from Dugin stacks directly with the Trinket Bag if you have room for both trinkets after unlocking the bag.