Bone Weaver

"'A large fiend of nightmarish origin constructed from the bone fragments of many creatures. The Prince of Darkness has become aware of our intervention, and will see to it that we fail.'"

Bone Weaver is the Boss of Arc 2 in the Campaign Mode of Bloons TD 7: Dark Times. It is fought at the end of Round 40 in Stage 2-S, The Dark Below.

'''Remember that this page uses the Health and Damage system found in DARK TIMES. Information on that damage system can be found here.'''

Lore
It did not take long for the Prince of Darkness to catch word of Prideshead, especially not after the death of Hordemaster Lordigin. Having now seen the risk his long established tyranny over this world faces, he has dedicated time to summoning the ultimate horror.

Created from the skeletons of many long dead soldiers, and woven together with dark magic that could never be comprehended, the Bone Weaver has built up an army of skeletal minions and is ready to take the fight to Prideshead.

Design
The Bone Weaver appears as a massive skeletal golem made out of various bones. It has a small cow skull-like head atop a torso area comprised of comically large ribs. From its shoulder blades, humerus arm bones extend. On one side the upper arm bone is very large and attaches to a small forearm bone, and on the other the upper and lower arm bones are both rather small, leading to a disproportionate body. From its large upper body, a thin curved spine extends to a small pelvis, with thin leg bones bent at the knees, giving it almost the stance of a hunched over standing gorilla. All of its fingers are long and spindly. Green magic seems to glow in its eyes and between the bones it in its body.

Stats

 * Health: 2700
 * Movement Speed: Red Bloon
 * Other Properties:
 * Since it is constructed of hard bone sharp projectiles such as darts, arrows, etc. will not deal any damage. Magical, explosive, or blunt projectiles will be the main form of damage in dealing with the Bone Weaver.
 * During the second phase, when a monkey tower on screen dies, a green beacon of light will shoot skyward and then fall on the Bone Weaver. It will become immune to damage for 2 seconds, recover 100 health, and summon a Marrow Minion at its location independent of the usual spawn cap.
 * During the second phase, the Bone Weaver frequently stops to use its attacks, making its speed and health seem not so detrimental, as well as another fight mechanic.

Phase 1
The Bone Weaver will run on screen from the left end of the track, stopping and pointing a finger forth with a loud bloodcurdling screech, releasing green sound waves around the screen that disorient towers for 2 seconds, just to show the mechanic. After that, it will leap upward off screen and onto the stone platform in the middle of the map. From the spiral staircase hole in the ground on the platform that the bloons were spawning from before, a large pile of bones will shoot into the air and land cleanly next to the Bone Weaver, with a laugh. Then the fight begins.

The Bone Weaver is not attackable at first, instead preforming various actions (listed below) from its place on the center platform. The goal is to wait for it to summon 'Super Skeletons', which have a green energy inside of them, and then kill them in range of one of three Dark Mages given for the mission on the each of the three paths from the center. Once a Dark Mage harnesses the energy of the Super Skeleton, it will charge its staff with the energy and fire a powerful green bolt of energy at the Bone Weaver, dealing 300 damage and stunning it with spinning stars around its head for about a second by knocking it down into a pile of scattered bones. Afterwards, it will reform its body, pick up and place its head back on, and then roar and continue. Each Dark Mage can only be used once to do this, and once all three Dark Mages have done this, the Bone Weaver will enter Phase 2.


 * Bone Weave: The Bone Weaver will turn around and face the pile, rapidly moving its fingers and summoning 4-8 Marrow Minions that will wander down each of the three tracks. Marrow Minions are smaller monkey-like skeletons that have 50 health and move at the speed of a Blue Bloon. Upon death, they fall to pieces and poof. The Bone Weaver can have up to 30 Marrow Minions on screen at once. When one escapes, it deals lives equal to the amount of HP it has left.
 * Bone Chuck: The Bone Weaver will take a large piece of bone from the pile, admire it, and then throw it at a random tower, dealing 6 damage and stunning it for 5 seconds.
 * Green Roar: Like at the start of the battle, the Bone Weaver will take a powerful stance with its arms outstretched, releasing green soundwaves that consume the whole map and halve the attack speed of all towers for 3 seconds.
 * Green Warp: The Bone Weaver will nod its head side to side, and twirl one of its fingers ringed in green magic, swapping the positions of various Marrow Minions on the map.
 * Green Flare: Raising a hand consumed in green magic skyward, three large magical spheres of energy will be shot skyward, before landing on three separate towers, dealing 4 damage to all towers in the range of a 0/0/0 Ice Monkey.
 * Green Restoration: The Bone Weaver will raise both of its arms, as all Marrow Minions on screen recover to full health. Does not effect Super Skeletons.
 * Summon Super Skeleton: The Bone Weaver will take some extra time at the bone pile, and touch the head of the skeleton, as it glows with a green aura. It will then be sent randomly down one of the paths. Super Skeletons have 100 health, move at Green Bloon speed, and fire green fireballs at the closest towers that deal 3 damage every 2 seconds. When one is killed, its green magic will fly into the closest Dark Mage, if in its range, and that magic will be used to progress the fight. The power of three Super Skeletons must be harnessed, as described above.

Phase 2
Once all three Dark Mages have shot the Bone Weaver with the magic of a Super Skeleton, it will be left at 1800 health. All towers will stop attacking and the remaining minions will stop moving. Swiping aside the massive bone pile to hundreds of splintered pieces in anger, it will leap from the center platform and to the end of the left exit path. Now the track is effectively in reverse for the rest of the fight, with the minions coming from the three ends and starting to converge on the center platform. If the Bone Weaver reaches the platform and descends down the staircase, its game over.

Since there are three paths, every 600 health the Bone Weaver loses it will jump to the start of the next path, so 1/3 of its health must be drained to effectively reset its position. It starts on the left path, at 1200 health jumps to the start of the top path, and then at 600 jumps to the start of the right path. While walking down the paths, it has some attacks. During this time, Marrow Minions are being summoned down every path at a rate of once every 4-8 seconds. When a Marrow Minion is killed, the Bone Weaver recovers 10 health.


 * Ground Pound: The Bone Weaver will slam its fists into the ground three to five times, each slam sending a green wave across the ground that deals 2 damage to all towers. The wave has the range of an x/x/2 Dart Monkey centered on the actual location of the fist.
 * Power Up: The Bone Weaver points a finger at a random Marrow Minion on screen, restoring it to full health and turning it into a Super Skeleton. When this Super Skeleton is killed, the Dark Mages can once again harness their power, but this time only dealing 100 damage to the Bone Weaver. Will still stun the Bone Weaver for a time though.
 * Bone Claw: The Bone Weaver will detach its small left arm and throw it in a straight line at the closest tower. This travels through the tower and hits any behind it as well, before rebounding back. Both on the way out and the return, it will deal 3 damage. The Bone Weaver will then catch and reattach its arm, not moving for the full duration of the attack.
 * Bone Rising: The Bone Weaver will slam both of its fists into the ground at once, encasing up to 3 towers in a very large vicinity within a cage of bones from the ground. This deals 1 damage every second and lasts 4 seconds, as well as prevents them from attacking.
 * Bone Trail: While leaping through the air from one path to another, it will drop behind it a trail of bones from the sky, that when they hit a tower or the ground, deal 2 damage and send out four evenly spaced bone fragments that deal 1 additional damage. Twelve of these will be dropped each time.
 * Bone Tunneling: If anything is thrown onto the road ahead, in a quick motion, it will slam its fists and a bone will shoot up from the ground to dispose of it. Can only occur once every 4 seconds as to not permanently stun it by placing road items.
 * Green Roar: Like at the start of the battle, the Bone Weaver will take a powerful stance with its arms outstretched, releasing green soundwaves that consume the whole map and halve the attack speed of all towers for 3 seconds.
 * Green Flare: Raising a hand consumed in green magic skyward, three large magical spheres of energy will be shot skyward, before landing on three separate towers, dealing 4 damage to all towers in the range of a 0/0/0 Ice Monkey.
 * Deathwave: Upon death, it will down in horror as the green ball of magic at its core turns white and begins glowing, as the Bone Weaver explodes in a magical blast that deals 8 damage to all towers in an x/x/3 Dart Monkey's area centered on it. Bones will fly around aesthetically as from the sky a second later the skull of the Bone Weaver falls at its death location. The battle is not won until all the remaining Marrow Minions are cleared out, making this quite less of a 'useless detriment for effect' than it would seem since this can really damage your ability to kill remaining Marrow Minions.

Additional Notes

 * A huge step up from the prior boss, Hordemaster Lordigin.