diff --git a/web/js/combat/boss.js b/web/js/combat/boss.js
index 8891409..a58f078 100644
--- a/web/js/combat/boss.js
+++ b/web/js/combat/boss.js
@@ -202,7 +202,10 @@ export function createBoss({ bus, rng, player, enemies, flags = {}, getKarma = n
     f.doomT = f.phase.doom ?? 0;
     for (const v of f.vents) if (v.alive) v.cfg = { ...v.cfg, fireEvery: f.phase.ventEvery };
     bus.emit('boss:phase', { id: f.id, phase: f.phase.id, nodes: f.nodes.length });
-    bus.emit('audio:cue', { name: 'overheat' });                // the ring changes gear
+    // NOT 'overheat': that cue SUSTAINS until the engine sends overheat_clear on a
+    // combat:state.overheated falling edge, which a boss never produces — so every phase
+    // change leaked a ~12 s steam hiss and ducked the mix under it for the whole fight.
+    bus.emit('audio:cue', { name: 'gate_hit' });               // the ring changes gear
   }
 
   function start(ev) {
@@ -272,8 +275,19 @@ export function createBoss({ bus, rng, player, enemies, flags = {}, getKarma = n
     // `spared` and `communion` are WINS that involve no killing, and the instrument has to agree
     // with the design or it teaches the opposite lesson: a triumphant cue for walking away is
     // most of how L1 tells the player that walking away was the answer.
-    const good = outcome === 'win' || outcome === 'spared' || outcome === 'communion';
-    bus.emit('audio:cue', { name: good ? 'gate_pass' : 'death' });
+    // The `death` cue is a ~12 s noise-table sting, not a stinger — playing it at a LIVING player
+    // is the one lie an audio layer must never tell, and it was firing for every non-win. So:
+    //   won / spared / communion -> a triumph,
+    //   still alive but it went badly (degranulated, escaped, survived the cascade) -> a downbeat
+    //     "that did not go well", NOT a death,
+    //   actually dead (sealed by the Guardian, anaphylaxis, wiped) -> the death sting, correctly,
+    //   housekeeping (reset/dispose) -> silence, because nothing happened to the player at all.
+    const WON = new Set(['win', 'spared', 'communion']);
+    const DIED = new Set(['sealed', 'anaphylaxis', 'wipe']);
+    const SILENT = new Set(['reset', 'dispose', 'lost']);
+    if (!SILENT.has(outcome)) {
+      bus.emit('audio:cue', { name: WON.has(outcome) ? 'gate_pass' : DIED.has(outcome) ? 'death' : 'surge_end' });
+    }
   }
 
   // The sentinel: L1's Mast Cell. Its entire state is "has the player hurt it yet", and the
@@ -289,7 +303,7 @@ export function createBoss({ bus, rng, player, enemies, flags = {}, getKarma = n
     if (frac < 0.999 && f.tier === 0) {
       f.tier = 1;                                    // DEGRANULATION — the first hit does this
       bus.emit('boss:phase', { id: f.id, phase: 2, reason: 'degranulation' });
-      bus.emit('audio:cue', { name: 'overheat' });
+      bus.emit('audio:cue', { name: 'enemy_hit' });
     }
     if (f.tier === 1 && frac <= f.def.ana.at) {
       f.tier = 2;                                    // ANAPHYLAXIS — and now a clock
@@ -431,7 +445,7 @@ export function createBoss({ bus, rng, player, enemies, flags = {}, getKarma = n
     const bare = f.nodes.find((e) => e.alive && !e.armor);
     if (bare) bare.armor = true;
     bus.emit('boss:rearm', { id: f.id, reason: 'dysbiosis' });
-    bus.emit('audio:cue', { name: 'overheat' });
+    bus.emit('audio:cue', { name: 'enemy_hit' });
   }));
   // A death mid-fight resets the encounter rather than leaving a half-killed ring in the arena:
   // C put a checkpoint at 2260 precisely so a wipe costs seconds, and that promise only holds if
diff --git a/web/js/flight/player.js b/web/js/flight/player.js
index a172568..b3dbdb3 100644
--- a/web/js/flight/player.js
+++ b/web/js/flight/player.js
@@ -60,7 +60,11 @@ export function createPlayer({ scene, world, bus, rng, flags = {}, assets = null
     st.coat -= toCoat;
     const leak = amount - toCoat;
     if (leak > 0) st.hull = Math.max(0, st.hull - leak);
-    bus.emit('player:damage', { amount, kind });
+    // `hull` is the fact the audio cue below has always had and the bus event never carried:
+    // comms.js has two hull lines gated on `kind === 'hull_hit'`, but `kind` is the damage
+    // SOURCE ('dart'|'acid'|'gas'…), so that branch has never once been true and the crew has
+    // never mentioned hull damage in the game's life.
+    bus.emit('player:damage', { amount, kind, hull: leak > 0 });
     bus.emit('audio:cue', { name: leak > 0 ? 'hull_hit' : 'coat_hit' });
     if (st.hull <= 0 && st.alive) { st.alive = false; bus.emit('player:death', { s: st.s }); }
     return true;
diff --git a/web/js/ui/comms.js b/web/js/ui/comms.js
index 2586884..f1199e9 100644
--- a/web/js/ui/comms.js
+++ b/web/js/ui/comms.js
@@ -72,8 +72,30 @@ const LINES = {
     ['voss', 'we lost the feed. re-acquiring.'],
     ['adeyemi', 'that was the immune system. i am sorry. they think you are a parasite.'],
   ],
+  // One line per boss. There used to be exactly one — "that is the pylorus" — fired for all five,
+  // so the tutorial's mast cell and the campaign's final boss were both announced as a stomach
+  // valve. The crew is the game's only tutorialisation channel; naming the wrong organ in it is
+  // worse than saying nothing.
   boss: [
+    ['voss', 'contact. hold position and read it.'],
+  ],
+  boss_mast_cell: [
+    ['adeyemi', 'wait — wait. that is a mast cell. it is not hunting you.'],
+    ['park', 'do NOT shoot it. whatever you do.'],
+  ],
+  boss_pyloric_guardian: [
     ['voss', 'that is the pylorus. it does not open for you.'],
+    ['park', 'the ring only relaxes to pass chyme. hit the nodes when it does.'],
+  ],
+  boss_tapeworm: [
+    ['park', 'taenia. metres of it, and it is running — do not lose it.'],
+  ],
+  boss_the_blockage: [
+    ['voss', 'there it is. the whole lumen, impacted.'],
+    ['adeyemi', 'the gas pockets are load-bearing. use them, from range.'],
+  ],
+  boss_appendix_sovereign: [
+    ['adeyemi', 'the reservoir. everything the gut kept safe is in there.'],
   ],
   complete: [
     ['voss', 'clear. next segment.'],
@@ -184,13 +206,18 @@ export function createComms({ bus, flags = {}, mount = null } = {}) {
   const offs = [];
   offs.push(bus.on('level:event', (ev) => {
     if (ev.type === 'checkpoint' && ev.name) say('checkpoint', ev.name);
-    else if (ev.type === 'boss') say('boss');
+  }));
+  // boss:start rather than the raw level event, because only the boss knows its own id — and for
+  // the Sovereign, whether there is a fight at all (a symbiotic player gets the Communion).
+  offs.push(bus.on('boss:start', (e) => {
+    const k = `boss_${e?.id}`;
+    say(LINES[k] ? k : 'boss');
   }));
   offs.push(bus.on('hazard:warn', (e) => {
     const k = `warn_${e?.kind}`;
     say(LINES[k] ? k : 'warn', e?.kind);
   }));
-  offs.push(bus.on('player:damage', (e) => say(e?.kind === 'hull_hit' ? 'hull_hit' : 'coat_hit')));
+  offs.push(bus.on('player:damage', (e) => say(e?.hull ? 'hull_hit' : 'coat_hit')));
   offs.push(bus.on('player:death', () => say('death')));
   offs.push(bus.on('level:complete', () => say('complete')));
   offs.push(bus.on('pickup', (e) => { if (e?.kind === 'biopsy_sample') say('sample'); }));