Split Fiction Hardest Bosses Ranked: From Tricky to Nightmare

How I'm Ranking These

This isn't based on vibes. I started tracking my deaths after my third wipe to Fabricator Prime because I wanted to know if I was actually bad or if the fight was just cruel. It was the fight.

Ranking criteria: number of attempts required to beat each boss on a first playthrough, how punishing mistakes are, and whether the mechanics require both players to execute perfectly or if one person can cover for the other. Lower number = harder fight.

8. Corrupted Overseer (Chapter 1) , Easiest

Attempts: 1. Maybe this is the tutorial boss. Three patterns, generous telegraphs, and a small health pool. If you die here, it's because you're still learning the controls, not because the boss is hard. The laser sweep is the only attack that can catch you off guard , it covers half the arena and the tell is the boss's eye flashing red for about a second before firing. Walk, don't dodge. Dodging wastes stamina you'll need later in the game.

7. Thorn Colossus (Chapter 2)

Attempts: 2. The Phase 2 twist , where you need burning vines from Phase 1 , is what kills people. If you use all the fire seeds in Phase 1 on the vines, you have no fire source in Phase 2 and you're stuck chipping away at the boss for 15 minutes. Read the boss guide section on this fight before you start it.

The poison clouds in Phase 1 are more annoying than dangerous. They force you to reposition constantly, which makes the fire seed throws harder to land. One clean throw > three rushed throws that miss.

6. Shadow Weeper (Chapter 6)

Attempts: 3. Technically a mini-boss, harder than two actual bosses. The darkness mechanic means both players are partially blind. The lantern holder has the harder job , you need to keep the boss visible for the attacker while avoiding the boss's focus attacks. The rising whistle sound cue is the only warning you get before the teleport attack. I turned my volume up specifically for this fight and it helped.

5. Storm Sovereign (Chapter 4)

Attempts: 4. The adds are the real fight. The gryphon player feels invincible up there but the platform player is getting swarmed. If you're the ground player, call out the moment adds spawn. If you're the mounted player, dive through add clusters on your way to the boss , you can kill two or three adds per pass and it makes a huge difference.

The third knockdown window is short. Position in advance. If the gryphon isn't above the boss when the ballista hits, you miss the damage window and need another knockdown cycle.

4. Deep Sentinel (Chapter 3)

Attempts: 5. The synchronized tentacle damage mechanic trips people up because it requires both players to count down and attack different targets simultaneously. I've seen pairs wipe here because one person attacked a half-second early and the damage didn't register.

The tentacle phase takes three cycles. That's three chances for the synchronization to fail. Call targets explicitly , "left tentacle" and "right tentacle" , not "that one" while pointing at your screen. The other player can't see your screen.

The third cycle adds tracking mines. The bait player needs to lead them into walls. The easiest way: run in tight circles near a wall and the mines will path into it. Don't try to outrun them in a straight line , they're faster than you.

3. The Machine (Chapter 8)

Attempts: 7. The final boss throws every mechanic at you, and the phase transitions are brutal because there's no checkpoint between phases. Die in Phase 3 and you're back to Phase 1.

The Darkness + Copy phase (Phase 3) is the run-killer. You're tracking the real copy in the dark while Fabricator Prime's crushers are still active from Phase 1. This is where the role assignment from earlier bosses pays off , if both players practiced tracking copies in Chapter 5, you're ready. If one person always handled it, that person needs to be the tracker here.

2. Event Horizon (Chapter 7)

Attempts: 9. Reality shifts mean the mechanic player's job changes every 30 seconds. First you're hacking terminals, then you're matching crystals, then back to hacking. The cognitive whiplash is real.

The room-wide attack safe spot is easy to miss. It's a faint glow on the ground that appears about 3 seconds before the attack. I missed it three times before I learned to scan the floor constantly during the "charge up" animation. Call it out the second you see it , "safe spot, far left corner."

1. Fabricator Prime (Chapter 5) , Hardest

Attempts: 12. Everything about this fight is designed to overwhelm you. Three copies to track, crushers that one-shot, conveyor belts that push you into them, and then lasers on top of everything. Twelve attempts for my first clear, and I've talked to people who took twenty.

The copy tracking is the key skill. Look for the shimmer, not the lights. Lights can flicker on all three copies. The shimmer only appears on the real one. Call it out the moment you see it , hesitation means the belt pushes you into a crusher while you're deciding.

The crusher pattern is left-right-center-left. Say it out loud. "Left, right, center, left." Once you internalize the rhythm, you can position preemptively instead of reacting. The third crusher in the pattern (center) has a slight delay compared to the first two , about half a second longer. The timing threw me off for three attempts before I noticed it.

Phase 3 at 25% health is the hardest single section in the game. Copies, crushers, belts, and lasers all at once. But both players need to be at full focus. Take a break before Phase 3 attempts if you've been wiping , entering this phase tired is a guaranteed death.

The win condition for this fight isn't damage , it's survival. Play safe, prioritize positioning, and only attack when you're absolutely sure it's safe. A slow clear is still a clear.

There are more situations where this applies, but you get the idea. Not every mechanic needs its own paragraph.