The Worm Boss is the first major PVE boss, introduced on wave 5. It is not one oversized health bar disguised as a ship: the head, weapon-bearing body sections, unarmed armor sections, and tail are separate battlefield entities that follow the path carved by the head.
- First encounter
- PVE wave 5
- Battlefield form
- Head, segmented body, and tail
- Movement phases
- Stalk, lunge, coil, and broadside
- Body weapons
- Rapid turrets and guided missiles
- Enrage trigger
- Below 42% combined segment health
- Fight-ending target
- The head
Anatomy of the Worm Boss
Live mini canvas: these units use the same appearance renderer as the game.
How its movement phases work
Stalk
At long range the head closes the gap while weaving around its target. This is the setup phase: use the extra space to identify missile and gun segments before the whole body reaches the team.
Lunge
The head briefly slows to line up, then accelerates sharply. Moving sideways during the wind-up is safer than reversing along the same line, because the remaining body follows the head's recorded path through the attack.
Coil and broadside
Coil makes the head orbit and curls the body around the fight. Broadside sweeps the chain across the target so multiple armed sections can maintain pressure. Avoid becoming trapped inside the curve, where several independent turrets can acquire the same ship.
Weapon segments and enrage
Gun segments fire fast purple projectiles at nearby targets. Missile segments reach farther and launch guided explosives with splash damage. Blank sections add mass and collision pressure without another weapon, so identifying the visible turret or missile hardware is more useful than firing at whichever segment is closest.
Recommended strategy
Remove exposed missile segments early if the team is being forced away from the base core by long-range splash pressure.
Do not chase the tail through the exact route taken by the head. That route is where the full armed body will pass.
Watch for the lunge wind-up and dodge across the head's line instead of accelerating directly away from it.
Destroying useful weapon sections lowers incoming fire, but the head is the fight-ending target. Once the head dies, the remaining body collapses.