Beastiary: Enemies and Bosses
This is the part of Iron Soul: Dungeon that the other guide sites left empty. One competing database lists five enemy entries, all of them grouped by map rather than named; another lists exactly one boss, marked as needing testing; the third writes not documented in the enemy and boss row of all nine of its dungeon pages. The official wiki's Beastiary, meanwhile, carries eleven named elite enemies and six boss entries with a danger rating, a health band, whether the thing can be stunned, whether it fights at range, and a description of each individual move. The pages below turn that into one page per enemy: what it does, what the tell is, and which mistake gets you killed. Two general rules from the same page apply everywhere and are worth learning before any of the individual counters: kill ranged enemies first, and make the werewolf the single exception to that rule.
The vocabulary these pages use
The official Beastiary defines its own terms and we keep them. A survivability skill is any skill that keeps you alive, which currently means the dash, the elemental blast and every ultimate. Side-stepping means holding a movement key while dashing so you travel sideways rather than backwards. A skill cycle is every skill except the ultimate, fired once in order. Trading means standing in and swapping damage with an enemy, which the dash makes cheaper. Telegraphed means a red indicator has appeared on the ground. Where an enemy move has no indicator at all, the page says so, because that is the difference between a move you dodge and a move you have to pre-empt.
Five habits that apply to every fight
Pull the camera back and raise the angle for a better view of incoming attacks. In the lobby settings, reached through the gear icon in the top right, turn off ally skill effects and damage numbers; the official page calls the clutter reduction significant. Swap weapons once after every skill cycle. Fire ultimates often rather than saving them, because the lower your damage the more times an ultimate recharges in a fight, and an unfired ultimate is wasted charge. Break scenery props, which also feeds ultimate charge. Kills drop health pickups, so treat your health bar as a resource that regenerates through aggression rather than a number you protect.
- Crossbow Goblin Counter Guide
The Crossbow Goblin is the first ranged elite most players meet, and it is the enemy that teaches th…
- Executioner Goblin Counters
The Executioner Goblin is the enemy that breaks the usual rules of engagement, and the official Star…
- Minotaur: Ram Timing and Counter
The Minotaur is the clearest example in this game of health and danger being different things. The o…
- Orc Mini-Boss: Air-Slice and Leap
The Orc appears twice in the official Beastiary, once as an elite mini-boss and once as a boss, and …
- Yeti Counters in Frozen Valley
The Yeti is the standard melee body of Frozen Valley and the official Beastiary gives it an unusual …
- Cannon Yeti: Deadly Ranged Elite
The Cannon Yeti is one of only two enemies in the entire official Beastiary rated deadly, the other …
- Dwarf Werewolf Wave Counters
The Dwarf Werewolf is the lightest enemy in the official Beastiary: very low health, stunnable, mele…
- Knight: Red and Blue Shields
The Knight is the only enemy in the official Beastiary with a mechanic that changes what your build …
- Vampire: Teleport and Pulse
The Vampire is a low danger, very low health ranged elite that can be stunned, and it almost always …
- Dracula: Pulse Wave and Aura
Dracula is the escort leader of the vampire waves: medium danger, medium health, stunnable, ranged, …
- Werewolf: Hunt and Teleport
The Werewolf is the single exception to this game's most repeated rule. The official Beastiary tells…
- Golem Boss: Walls, Spin, Flurry
The Golem is one boss with two elemental variants: the Lava Golem in Starless Forest and the Ice Gol…
- Dragon Boss: Laser and Firestorm
The Dragon is the boss with the most published moves in this game and the most counter-intuitive cou…
- Wereworld: The Werewolf Boss
Wereworld is how the official Beastiary spells the boss form of the Werewolf, and the entry is short…
- Executioner Boss: Slam Flurry
The Executioner is a boss with three published moves and the most exploitable pattern in the game. I…
- Dullahan Boss Moves and Counters
The Dullahan is the boss whose moves are modelled on the player's own. Powerful Slash is described a…