Boss Fights
The "Boss Target" system unlocks at level 3. Bosses are fought one at a time, in a fixed order — you always face the next undefeated boss in the list, and can't skip ahead. Fighting is a single-click gamble: no scripting, no combat sequence, just a probability roll against a large reward and a real penalty.
Success chance
if playerLevel < requiredLevel: 0%
ratio = playerLevel / requiredLevel
chance = min(1 - 0.5/ratio, 0.95)
This means you need to be at or above a boss's required level just to attempt it, and even well above it the chance caps at 95% (never a guaranteed win). At exactly the required level (ratio = 1), your odds are 50%. Overleveling raises it from there — e.g. at 2x the required level, odds are 75%.
On a win
- The boss is added to your defeated list (permanent).
- You receive its full reward (money + hacking XP, both listed below).
- Your Trace Level (see below) resets to 0.
- Triggers a leaderboard score submission if you're signed in.
On a loss
All of these apply simultaneously, scaled to that specific boss:
| Penalty | Effect |
|---|---|
| Money loss | floor(currentMoney * moneyLossPercent / 100) deducted immediately |
| Boss lockout | Can't attempt any boss fight again for cooldownTicks game-seconds |
| Hack debuff | Multiplies your hack success chance on regular servers by 1 - hackDebuffPercent/100 for hackDebuffTicks |
| Resource freeze | Pauses all passive hacking-XP gain from hackers/machines for resourceFreezeTicks |
| Trace Level +1 | See below |
Trace Level (failure escalation)
Every failed boss fight adds a pip to your Trace Level, capped at 3 pips. Reaching the 3rd failure (without an intervening win) triggers a critical penalty instead of a normal one: all server money is wiped to zero across the entire network, and Trace Level resets to 0. Any win also resets Trace Level to 0, so a single successful fight clears the meter.
Boss roster
Rewards are money (DWC) + hacking XP. Penalty columns: cooldown (lockout), % money lost, hack debuff (% / duration), resource freeze duration.
| # | Boss | Req. Lvl | Reward (DWC / XP) | Cooldown | Money loss | Hack debuff | Freeze |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Script Rat | 3 | 5,000 / 2,000 | 1m | 3% | — | 1m30s |
| 2 | Java Jane | 5 | 12,000 / 4,500 | 2m30s | 4.2% | 12% / 3m | 2m45s |
| 3 | Proxy Phantom | 7 | 25,000 / 8,000 | 4m | 5.4% | 14% / 4m | 4m |
| 4 | Cipher Queen | 11 | 100,000 / 25,000 | 5m30s | 6.6% | 16% / 5m | 5m15s |
| 5 | Zero Day | 14 | 500,000 / 75,000 | 7m | 7.8% | 18% / 6m | 6m30s |
| 6 | Amber Grease | 18 | 750,000 / 100,000 | 8m30s | 9% | 20% / 7m | 7m45s |
| 7 | The Architect (Colin Optional) | 23 | 1,000,000 / 125,000 | 10m | 10.2% | 22% / 8m | 9m |
| 8 | 2 Billion Virtual Groundhogs | 28 | 1,250,000 / 150,000 | 11m30s | 11.4% | 24% / 9m | 10m15s |
| 9 | CE Yo | 38 | 1,500,000 / 165,000 | 13m | 12.6% | 26% / 10m | 11m30s |
| 10 | Sal Anon | 48 | 1,750,000 / 180,000 | 14m30s | 13.8% | 28% / 11m | 12m45s |
| 11 | Jay Pegg | 59 | 1,900,000 / 190,000 | 16m | 15% | 30% / 12m | 14m |
| 12 | The Architect | 78 | 2,000,000 / 200,000 | 17m30s | 16.2% | 32% / 13m | 15m15s |
| 13 | Charles Proxy | 95 | 3,000,000 / 300,000 | 19m | 17.4% | 34% / 14m | 16m30s |
| 14 | Packet Pete | 110 | 5,000,000 / 450,000 | 20m30s | 18.6% | 36% / 15m | 17m45s |
| 15 | Harriet Hub | 130 | 7,500,000 / 650,000 | 22m | 19.8% | 38% / 16m | 19m |
| 16 | Steve Switch | 152 | 10,000,000 / 850,000 | 23m30s | 21% | 40% / 17m | 20m15s |
| 17 | Ex-GIF | 175 | 15,000,000 / 1,100,000 | 25m | 22.2% | 40% / 18m | 21m30s |
| 18 | NewmsGFG | 200 | 25,000,000 / 1,500,000 | 26m30s | 23.4% | 40% / 19m | 22m45s |
| 19 | Scarlett Ruby | 225 | 40,000,000 / 2,000,000 | 28m | 24.6% | 40% / 20m | 24m |
| 20 | Kotl Keith | 250 | 45,000,000 / 2,600,000 | 28m | 27% | 50% / ~23m | ~25m40s |
| 21 | Closure Carl | 280 | 49,000,000 / 3,100,000 | 33m20s | 25.6% | 50% / ~21m40s | 25m |
Note there are two entries named "The Architect" (#7 is "Colin Optional", displayed as "The Architect"; #12 is the actual the_architect boss) — this looks like an in-progress naming overlap in the data rather than intentional design; don't be surprised if it gets renamed later.
Both the hack-debuff and resource-freeze penalties cap out around 40-50% / tens of minutes at the high end — the scaling isn't perfectly linear all the way through the list, so treat later entries as approximate until you're actually there.