Boss Fights
Practice that fights back.
Pick a boss and play. Every clean note charges your sword, a full sword strikes, and every miss bites back. Clear a phase and the boss comes back faster with a new drill. The fight never ends; the question is how far you get.
Free with your Riff Quest account. The game listens through your microphone.
- bosses
- 3
- bosses
- boons to draft
- 17
- boons to draft
- difficulties
- 4
- difficulties
Phase 1
60 BPM · quarter notes
Phase 1 against the Fretweaver: 82notes of a made-up player put through the game's own fight engine, replayed faster than the real 60 BPM.
The bosses
Three bosses, three things to train
Each boss is built around one skill: one fights with finger drills, one with chord changes, one with changes you solo over. Pick the one you need.
The Fretweaver
Queen of the chromatic web
One endless fight. Every phase the spider molts into a faster form with a new drill — see how far you get.
- It deals
- Chromatic finger drills, all 24 finger orders
- It trains
- Finger independence, alternate picking and speed
- Hurts it
- Every note of the drill, on time
- Hurts you
- A wrong or late note
How a fight works
Play clean and it hurts. Miss and you do.
The microphone hears every note and grades its timing, the same way it scores any exercise in the app. The fight turns those grades into damage.
- Charge your swordEvery hit charges it: dead on 4, on time 3, close 2, loose 1. A miss shatters the charge.
- StrikeA full sword strikes on its own — harder the longer your streak, up to ×2 at 48 in a row.
- Every miss is a biteA missed note costs HP. Run out and the run is over.
- Block the slamFrom phase 3 the boss winds up slams. Be on a streak of 4 when one lands to block it — a block half-charges your sword.
- It learnsFrom phase 4 it shows weak spots — your sword charges ×2 while one is open. From phase 6 it gains powers: venom, regeneration, frenzy and webs spat over the tab, more of them the further you get.
- Endless and randomClear a phase's HP and the boss molts: a random finger order, route, position and rhythm, faster every time. Every phase cleared heals you 20 HP.
- Pick a boonAfter every phase you take one of three boons dealt at random — armor, a sharper blade, a slower tempo… Some stack, the rare ones come seldom. One reroll per run, another every five phases.
- Gates and savepointsEvery 5th phase the boss guards a gate: 50% more HP and harder bites. Reach a gate and your next run can start there — the phases you skip count toward your score once you clear the one you start at.
Endless and random
Every phase a little faster than the last
The first phase is gentle on purpose: 60 BPM in quarter notes for the Fretweaver. After that the notes come a little faster every phase, a few BPM more and later a quicker rhythm, and every 5th phase guards a gate. These are the first 15 phases of one run, as the game dealt them.
Notes a second, phase by phase
Gate: more HP, harder bites, a savepoint once reached
Phase 1
60BPM
quarter notes
- Finger orders
- 1234
- across the strings, from fret 3
- Boss HP this phase
- 310
- Threats
- None yet: just the drill
The draft
Build your run, one boon at a time
After every phase the game deals 3 boons and you keep one. Armor or a sharper blade, a slower tempo or a faster one for more damage. Two runs rarely end up with the same build.
After phase 1 · pick one
- Slow down
Common
−5 BPM on every phase from now on.
- Thorns
Rare
Every bite costs the boss 2% of the phase's HP. Stacks.
- Bandage
Common
Heal 35 HP now.
All 17 boons
Common · 5
Armor
Bites take 25% less HP. Stacks.
Shield
Soaks up the next 3 bites.
Bandage
Heal 35 HP now.
Sharp blade
Strikes deal 20% more. Stacks.
Slow down
−5 BPM on every phase from now on.
Rare · 9
Vitality
+20 max HP, healed right away.
Lifesteal
Every strike heals you 2 HP. Stacks.
Thorns
Every bite costs the boss 2% of the phase's HP. Stacks.
Second wind
2 misses each phase are forgiven: no bite, the streak and the charge stay.
Light blade
Your sword fills with 20% fewer points. Stacks.
Precision
Dead-on notes charge 6 instead of 4.
Steady hand
Block slams with a streak of just 2.
Antidote
Venom can't touch you.
Clear sight
Webs over the tab last half as long.
Epic · 3
Momentum
Your streak reaches ×2 at 24 in a row instead of 48.
Exploit
Weak spots charge your sword ×3 and stay open longer.
Overdrive
+10 BPM on every phase, but strikes deal 40% more.
Difficulty and savepoints
Start easy. Start deep, once you have earned it.
Difficulty changes what a miss costs and how fast every phase plays, and the score follows it.
- Every 5th phase is a gate: 50% more HP and bites 25% harder.
- Reach a gate and it becomes a savepoint: your next run can start there. Reaching it on a harder difficulty opens it on the easier ones too.
- A run's score is the damage you dealt. Start from a savepoint and the phases you skipped are added on top, once you clear the one you started at.
| Difficulty | Bites | Tempo | Score |
|---|---|---|---|
| Easy | −40% | −15% | ×0.5 |
| Normal | as dealt | as dealt | ×1 |
| Hard | +40% | +10% | ×1.5 |
| Brutal | +80% | +20% | ×2 |
Why it exists
The drill everyone skips, with something at stake
Chromatic finger drills are the most useful boring thing on the guitar. Everyone knows they work, and hardly anyone plays them for long. I wanted a reason to play one more round, and a boss at a third of its HP is a very good reason.
The first version had ten levels. I threw it out: a level you have beaten is a level you never play again, and a drill you never play again stops doing anything for your hands. So each boss is one fight that never ends, dealt fresh every run, and it only speeds up when you clear a phase.
A fight pays no Fame. It is scored in your browser, where the server cannot check it, so what you keep is the practice time and a record you know you earned.
Michael Apfel
Guitarist & Creator of Riff Quest
Frequently asked questions
How the microphone grades a note, and what counts as on time: Interactive guitar practice
Do I need a microphone?
Yes. Every note is judged by what the game hears, so it needs your guitar through a microphone, or an audio interface in the desktop app. An acoustic in front of a laptop is enough.
Does a fight count as practice?
Yes. Finish the run and it is saved like any other session: the time, the points it earns and your daily streak. The fight itself pays no Fame; what you keep from it is your record, the furthest phase, the best score and how many runs.
Is it the same fight every time?
No. Every run is dealt from a new random seed, so the finger orders, the progressions, the keys and the boons on offer change from run to run. Only the curve stays: each phase a little faster than the last.
What if it is too hard?
Pick Easy: bites cost 40% less and the tempo drops 15%. Between phases you can also take Slow down, a boon that takes 5 BPM off every phase after it. Easy scores half as much as Normal; Brutal scores double.
What happens when I lose?
The run ends, and that is all. Every 5th phase is a gate, and a gate you have reached becomes a savepoint: your next run can start there.
Which boss should I start with?
The Fretweaver if you are working on speed and finger independence, the Stone Colossus if chord changes still trip you up, the Changeling once you know your chord shapes and want to improvise over them. The Changeling explains itself in a short guide before your first fight.
Train for the next phase
Speed and hand sync
Spider drills and finger permutations, the Fretweaver's whole repertoire, with a routine to build them up.
OpenGuitar duels
The same kind of drills against a real player: one exercise, 48 hours, best run wins.
OpenDesktop app
Your interface through its driver: lower latency, so a late note is your timing and not the browser's.
Open