GUTS has had three bosses designed and none implemented. This is the first, and the framework
the other two should reuse. Built to LANE_C_NOTES §Boss specs, phase table and all.
WHY IT IS SMALL. A boss here is not a parallel entity system, it is a SCHEDULE over the enemy
pool. The nodes and vents are ordinary enemies, so weapons hit them, the InstancedMesh draws
them and enemy:die reports them for free; the fight's identity lives entirely in WHEN they can
be hurt, which is two flags (`invuln`, `armor`) honoured by enemies.hurt(). boss.js is a state
machine and nothing else.
Faithful to C's table:
P1 4 rim nodes, iris opens 2.5s every 8s
P2 4 nodes, opens 1.8s every 5s, TWO armoured — and only the antacid torpedo strips them
P3 the core alone, 60hp = C's "x5 hits", plus the 25s doom timer that kills you if you stall
Telegraphs are C's too: a "deep gulp" 2s before each window (boss:telegraph + audio), and nodes
go amber -> white-hot exactly when they become shootable — one uniform driven off `invuln`, so
the thing that glows IS the thing you can hurt, always.
Vents are turrets at fixed arcs: a turret already fires a telegraphed homing projectile on a
cooldown, which is what an acid vent is.
hp is B's call (C: "numbers need B's framework to tune against"). 150 per rim node means a ring
outlives its first window, so you must come back for it — which is what lets the stomach's
coat-drain be the real clock. C's pillar, verified: parked in the lair for 20s without fighting
back, coat goes 100 -> 0. "A race against your coat, not its hp."
Verified end-to-end: a paced pilot (11 shots/s, ~70% uptime) wins in 38.8s across 9 windows at
0.38 open-duty (spec: 31-36%); phases report 4/0 armoured, 4/2 armoured, 1 core; damage is
refused while the iris is shut; the two armoured nodes consumed exactly 2 torpedo strips.
Not included: C's arena churn (a force on the player, the one part of the spec that is a feel
change rather than a schedule) — noted for the round that tunes it.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>
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