Owlboy bosses and how to beat them
The five boss fights are the Owl Temple Guardian chase, the Turret with Alphonse, the Gorilla King wave fight, the Molten Mechanical Worm and Solus. Solus is a puzzle: blue relic with Twig, green with Geddy, red with one Alphonse blast.
Owlboy has five boss fights, and they are not a difficulty curve so much as five different questions. One is a chase you cannot win by fighting, one is a three-phase turret puzzle, one is a wave defence, one is a pattern-reading fight, and the last is a colour-matching puzzle with a boss attached.
The anniversary update changed several boss attack patterns and rebalanced boss and enemy HP, so footage from 2016 may not match what you see. The tactics below are built around the tools the game gives you, not frame data.
The five fights
| Boss | Area | Type | Tool that matters |
|---|---|---|---|
| Owl Temple Guardian | Owl Temple | Chase | Movement only |
| The Turret (Alphonse) | Owl Temple | Three phases | Geddy, then patience |
| Gorilla King | Floating Continent, molten | Wave defence | Alphonse's shotgun |
| Mechanical Worm | Floating Continent, molten | Pattern fight | Alphonse, then Geddy |
| Solus | Floating Tower | Puzzle phases | All three gunners |
Owl Temple Guardian
The Guardian is a statue that turns into a mechanical frog and chases you from left to right. You cannot kill it. The sequence is about breaking obstacles, clearing enemies that block the path, and keeping ahead of it.
If it catches you, Otus takes damage and is thrown forward, which usually costs more time than health. The chase ends at a waterfall: the water stops Otus's wings, and the same water freezes the Guardian. The fight is a tutorial for the game's chase language, and it is the only boss you win by surviving.
The anniversary update's layout changes made several of these corridors easier to navigate, so if you played in 2016 the route may feel more generous than you remember.
The Turret and Alphonse
This is the Owl Temple's real boss and the recruitment fight for Alphonse. It has three phases, and each phase ends the same way: bait the turret's blast into the loose rock above it, and the rock lands on the pirate ship.
What to watch:
- Alphonse's shotgun is the dangerous part. He fires in bursts and the shots become harder to avoid in later phases. Roll through them rather than flying away, because the arena is small.
- The turret's tell is a flash before it fires. It aims across the arena; get out of the line rather than out of range.
- The rock is the only way to progress. Damaging the turret does not end the phase.
- Each phase doubles the turret's fire up to three shots, and the tempo increases.
After the fight, Alphonse joins. He is heavier than Geddy, which means he can hold down switches that Geddy cannot, and his shotgun burns purple tentacles. The temple immediately gives you a tentacle door to test that on.
Gorilla King
The molten half of the Floating Continent opens with a scripted scene: a pirate darts the Gorilla King, and the king takes it out on you. The fight is a wave defence. Smaller gorillas drop into the arena in waves, and the king slams the floor.
| Phase | What happens | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Opening | The king is darted and hostile | Stay mobile; do not try to damage the king yet |
| Waves | Gorillas drop in, six or seven waves | Alphonse's shotgun hits multiple targets |
| Hazard | Gorillas can drag Otus into lava | Flap to escape a grab; lava is a one-hit kill |
| End | The waves stop | The scene resolves and the route continues |
The arena's lava pits are the real boss. Gorillas that fall in die, and gorillas that grab you can take you with them. Stay above the pits and let the shotgun do the work.
Mechanical Worm
The worm is the molten section's second fight and the first boss that asks you to read a pattern rather than react.
- It moves. Do not chase it; dodge.
- It stops and breathes fire. Shoot the head with Alphonse.
- It charges up. Get behind it, fire the shotgun, then switch to Geddy for sustained damage.
- Repeat for roughly five or six cycles.
The anniversary update's HP rebalance may shorten the cycle count, but the sequence is the same. After the fight the game autosaves and puts you on the worm for a scripted ride, which is the transition to Mesos.
Solus
Solus is the final boss and the only fight that uses all three gunners as a puzzle. Three relics circle him, coloured blue, green and red:
- Blue comes down to Twig's web shot.
- Green comes down to Geddy's blaster.
- Red comes down to one Alphonse shotgun blast.
Knock all three down and Solus loses a phase. He restores them and you repeat, twice. In the final phase he throws pink fireballs; Twig's grapple can reflect them back into him, and Geddy or Alphonse add damage between reflections.
The fight is fair but busy. The mistake most players make is staying on one gunner: the relics are colour-coded so that switching is the mechanic, not a bonus. If a relic is not coming down, you are using the wrong character.
What the update changed
The patch notes confirm that several bosses had attack patterns modified, that boss and enemy HP were rebalanced, and that Alphonse's blast now affects more bosses and enemies. They do not publish numbers. In practice the fights are more forgiving than 2016 footage suggests, and Alphonse is useful in more encounters than before.
_Checked 2026-11-03 against the community boss documentation, the public walkthrough for the Switch version and the 2026-11-01 Steam patch notes._