The world of Black Desert presents a wide variety of encounters. Among them, the possibility of battling against beings that are deemed, for one reason or another, bosses.

What is a boss? A monster enemy that, be it in status or power, stands above all others. Some are the leaders of their tribe or group. Others have obtained immense power at the expense of delving into the mysteries of the black stone. There are also those that are naturally just powerful by themselves, like dragons.

Regardless of their origin, when one defeats a boss they can expect a valuable reward that corresponds to the effort required. Some drop materials for enhancement, like black stones, while others may drop a unique item to them, like a boss equipment piece.

The various types of boss encounters are diverse. They are explained below.

During the main quest you will travel across the world, uncovering mysteries that were buried long ago. During your journey, you will inevitably come into conflict with those that possess power, either because you have been asked to assist the local inhabitants of a settlement, or perhaps because the encounter might help you on your current objective.

Many of the bosses later encountered in other modalities of content are first seen during the main quest, where it is explained who they are, and what they are doing.

Do not worry about the difficulty of these battles, as they are adjusted to the equipment you can naturally obtain as you progress through the story.

▲ Red Nose, the Imp Boss, is the first boss encounter you will face in the main quest.

These are beings that threaten an entire territory's peace and stability with their mere presence. 
Examples are Kzarka, the Lord of Corruption, an ancient deity being summoned by cultists in Serendia Shrine, and Garmoth, the Crimson Dragon, a dragon that wants to enact revenge against those that wronged her a hundred years ago.

They all appear in fixed locations throughout the world, and at specific times of the day.
A system-wide message will warn you about their appearance 15 minutes in advance, in case your character needs to travel to the location.
Their health points (HP) are shared across all servers in a region, and many adventurers are required to defeat them.
If they have not been defeated in 30 minutes after first appearing, they will disappear.

There are three exceptions to the way all world bosses work.
- Quint and Muraka will disappear 15 minutes after first appearing.
- Vell's system warning will be given 30 minutes in advance, not 15 minutes, as the distance required to travel to the boss' location is noticeably longer than that of other encounters.

Keep in mind that some of them might even have an empowered form that will appear in place of the normal iteration of the boss. For example, instead of Kzarka, the one that appears might be Nightmarish Kzarka. These empowered forms are a threat to even the best equipped Adventurers.

Alongside enhancement materials and magic crystals, one can obtain their unique boss equipment pieces as loot, like a Kzarka main weapon, or Garmoth's Heart, an item required to create a powerful alchemy stone.

► Please check the [World Bosses] page for more information about them.

  ▲ Kzarka was Black Desert's first world boss, and has always remained a popular one among Adventurers ever since.

While not as strong as world bosses, field bosses are considered a regional threat to the area they appear in, and thus Adventurers are tasked to deal with them whenever possible.
Examples are Red Nose, the Imp Boss, and Black Shadow, the young dragon.

They all appear in fixed locations throughout the world, but not at specific scheduled times.
Field bosses appear in random servers, and on average once a day.
That means a field boss might appear in the server Serendia 1, but maybe not in Calpheon 2.

The only exception to the rule is Black Shadow. Its initial spawn location and time are fixed, and it will appear once per week.

In addition to enhancement materials, magic crystals, and enchanted scrolls, some of the field bosses possess unique boss equipment pieces they can drop when defeated, such as Bheg's Gloves and Dim Tree Spirit's Armor.

► Please check the [Field Bosses] page for further information on each field boss, their location, loot, and particularities.

These are encounters to tackle together with your fellow guild members. From time to time the villagers ask for assistance against monsters assailing them. This is no different, but on a grander scale.
Together with other members of your guild you are able to battle against certain bosses: Khan, Ancient Puturum, Ferrid, and the Giant Mudster.

These bosses can be summoned at their fixed locations by the guild master, advisor, or officers, with summon scrolls. These are crafted by obtaining summon scroll pieces by completing guild boss subjugation missions.

All guild bosses will disappear 30 minutes after being first summoned, and while Khan will remain for the entire 30 minutes regardless of being attacked or not, the other bosses will vanish if left idle for 2 minutes.

Keep in mind that guild bosses cannot be attacked if the server you are in has a node or conquest war in progress.

Their loot includes enhancement materials, lightstones, Marni's Unstable Fuel, and more, with minor variations among most of them, and major variations for Khan.

▲ Through the Guild Boss Subjugation tab of the Guild window you can keep track of the guild boss encounters available and their status.

► Please check the [Guild Bosses] page for more information about this type of encounter.

Once your character reaches Lv. 56, several dark rifts will open throughout Black Desert's world.
Defeat the bosses that appear from them to obtain rare items.
 
Note that the Dark Rift feature is individual to each Adventurer, and thus you have to defeat these bosses alone. You cannot team up with other Adventurers to face them, as the bosses will not appear to them.

There is no penalty for falling in battle against these bosses. If you attempt to battle them again, the boss's HP consumed in the previous battle is maintained, which will allow you to defeat it even over multiple attempts.

After defeating a boss, the dark rift that brought it will disappear, and after a variable amount of time has elapsed it will reappear.
The rifts do not reappear at a set rate, but they will reopen no later than ten days after a boss has been defeated.

The loot reward for defeating these bosses include items such as the Box of the Dead, Remnants of the Rift, and PEN (V) Boss Gear quest chain materials. Bosses that do not drop Boxes of the Dead will instead drop a large amount of Ancient Spirit Dust, a material needed to synthesize Caphras Stones.

▲ When you approach the area marked on the World Map with the Dark Rift symbol a system message will appear warning you of the boss' appearance.

► Please check the page [Dark Rifts] for more information about this feature.

As you travel throughout the world you will come across certain items that can be put together to form summon scrolls. For example, x5 Ancient Relic Crystal Shard will create an Ancient Relic Crystal Summon Scroll, while x5 Venomous Night Fang will create an Ibedor's Scroll.
Some of the pieces for these scrolls can be obtained by defeating monsters in certain areas, while others can be obtained while fishing.

At specific locations in the world you can use the obtained summon scrolls to call forth bosses and their minions.
You will see each of these specific locations always have a device known as the Faded Ancient Relic nearby. By using these devices, one can pool together a greater number of scrolls to be employed all at once, which will result in the summoned monsters being more powerful, but also giving better rewards.

The scrolls that can be used with this feature are: Ancient Relic Crystal Summon Scroll, Pila Fe Scroll, Manshaum Narc's Stone, and Ibedor's Scroll.

There is no penalty for death while fighting these encounters, but depending on the type of scroll you might be able, and even will be recommended, to team up with other Adventurers to make the encounters more easily overcome. With the Faded Ancient Relic feature the party members can add their own scrolls as well to level up the difficulty of the encounter, and the amount of rewards obtained, up to 5 stages.

Note that depending on the summon scroll details may vary on the way they work.

▲ Example of the Faded Ancient Relic UI with an Ibedor's Scroll, ready for activation.

Rift Echos are a feature meant to be a way to obtain season enhancement materials, and as such are only available in season servers.

What is a Rift's Echo? An item usable from Lv. 50 that is said to open a rift that calls forth various monsters, including bosses like Red Nose, Dastard Bheg, Saunil Siege Captain, and Kavali. If you defeat the monsters that appear from the rift, you will be able to obtain season enhancement materials.

You will not be penalized for being defeated by the summoned monsters, but a party is strongly recommended because of the difficulty level. If you are in a party, only the party leader can use the Rift's Echo.

Keep in mind the boss will disappear after 2 minutes of idleness, or after 30 minutes of being summoned.

The rewards you can obtain include Time-filled Black Stones, Refined Magical Black Stones, Tuvala Ore, and Tuvala accessories.

▲ The Saunil Siege Captain is one of the bosses that appear from a Rift's Echo!

* The content of the game guide may differ from the actual game content, depending on the update and content changes.