I picked up Well Dweller because it honestly looked really good, and of course I decided to write a few guides for it. Today’s is about The Groundskeeper, the first boss.
I’ll say this: the game comes out swinging when it comes to bosses. I wouldn’t call this one hard at all, but for a first boss, it’s no pushover. Either way, if it’s giving you trouble, this guide should help you take it down without much hassle.
By the way, I wasn’t expecting the boss to look this disturbing… the bosses in this game look amazing! It’s too early to say for sure, but we’re off to a pretty good start, right?
Table of Contents
Location: Night Garden
The Groundskeeper is right where I’ve marked it in the image above. This area is the Night Garden, the first area in the game. As long as you keep moving forward you’ll run into it, so there’s not much mystery here.
Phase 1 Attack Guide
The attacks it opens with:
- Spore Toss: It launches several pink spores upward. They float around and slowly drift down. If one touches you, you take damage, so steer clear of them. This is one of the best moments to get a lot of hits in, since the spores are pretty easy to dodge.
- Trident Drop: You’ll clearly see a trident appear, usually right above your character. It drops fast, and once it hits the ground it slides toward wherever you are. Your best bet is to step to the side so it doesn’t land on you, then dash through it as it slides sideways. Once you dodge one trident, watch out, because another one comes right after; it usually throws 3 in total.
- Ground Slam: First things first: notice that a patch of the floor lights up with a faint pink glow. Get away from there, because that’s where the boss is going to slam, and right after that it sends a sort of energy wave your way that you’ll need to jump over. Keep in mind it slams with both arms, so you’re better off staying right up close to it when it does this attack, or you’ll have energy waves coming at you from both sides.
- Spinning Leaves: The Groundskeeper summons several pink leaves that form a perfect circle around it and keep spinning. The idea is to get as far away from the boss as you can so you’re not taking any risks, though it won’t make it easy, since it’ll chase you down. Something that worked really well for me was quickly getting to one of the edges of the screen (all the way left or right). The leaves don’t usually reach you there, and if you see one about to hit you, you can shift over a bit or dash to dodge it.
Phase 2
I didn’t think the first boss would already have a second phase, but it does, and it kicks in once its health drops below 50%. Everything is more or less the same, but the boss is faster and its attacks, while similar, hit harder.
- Spore Toss +: More spores, and they fall faster and drift sideways faster.
- Trident Drop +: It throws more tridents (5), and they’re faster.
- Ground Slam +: Instead of slamming with both arms at once, it now slams with one and then the other, so you’ll have to jump over one energy wave and then the next one shortly after.
- Spinning Leaves +: Each leaf now has another leaf trailing behind it, which makes them harder to dodge. The screen-edge trick still worked really well for me (either side works, but the right one is a little better), but you’ll need to be a bit more careful here.
Strategy and Tips
Beyond everything I covered in the attack guide above, one really good tip I can give you is to take advantage of the fact that you can also hit those swords the boss uses as legs. That’s the safest spot to land your hits.
Another important thing: you’ve probably already noticed that in this game you can fail a heal.
When you heal, you have to hold down the button, and a set of bars shows up over your character. The idea is to stop inside the small white strip in the middle. It takes some practice at first, and few things are more frustrating than botching a heal, but you’ll get the hang of it.
And that’s it! What did you think of Well Dweller‘s first boss? Did it give you good vibes, as in, not a bad first boss at all? Have you botched a lot of heals? Leave a comment!
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