All Bosses — The 70+ Brutals, Confirmed & Unconfirmed

The Relic: First Guardian's biggest selling point is its boss roster. Official materials describe 70 to 80 boss fights — the game calls them Brutals — each with a tragic backstory: former humans twisted into monsters by starvation or curses, many of whom have forgotten their own names. Defeating a Brutal lays a troubled soul to rest and reveals its tale.

This guide is an honest index of what we know about the roster at launch (August 2026), what is confirmed by name, and what remains unconfirmed. Because the game launched on July 31, 2026, community documentation of all 70+ encounters is still in progress.

What Is Confirmed About the Roster

Fact	Detail
Total boss count	70-80 (official materials vary between "over 70" and "up to 80")
Official name for bosses	Brutals
Mandatory (story) bosses	A minority — most Brutals are optional
Lore	Each has a tragic backstory; many are former humans who forgot their names
Rewards	Powerful special items and upgrades essential for progression
Design variety	Some use unblockable attacks (forcing dodges); others must be broken with repeated parries
Named example	"Blood-Stained Shield" Branko — the one boss name confirmed in official/preview material
Strategy	No single build wins; the game expects you to swap relics and gear between fights
Levels	The game has no levels — any guide assigning boss "recommended levels" is wrong

The One Confirmed Boss: "Blood-Stained Shield" Branko

Of the 70-80 Brutals, exactly one name has been confirmed in official preview material: "Blood-Stained Shield" Branko. Like the rest of the roster, Branko's backstory is tragic — a defender whose shield became stained through some awful loss.

What we do NOT know about Branko: his arena, his moveset, his recommended build, or where he falls in the game's order. Any guide claiming detailed Branko attack patterns is speculation. Once the community documents his fight, this page will be updated.

What Is NOT Confirmed (And What That Means)

A huge number of boss names, locations, and "levels" circulate on the internet — including many AI-generated and speculative lists. None of the following have been confirmed at launch:

A fixed "story boss order" with 8 mandatory bosses
Specific boss names such as "Withered Gatekeeper," "Forgotten King," "Hollow Knight," "Elder Wyrm," or similar fan-listed names
Boss "recommended levels" (the game has no levels — this alone marks a guide as unreliable)
NG+ exclusive bosses or "remixed" story bosses
Exact drop tables for named bosses

How to spot a fake boss list: if it assigns levels, lists weapon-specific "phases," or claims to document all 70 bosses with detailed patterns within days of release, treat it as unverified. This guide deliberately does not invent names we cannot confirm. The table below shows the common tells:

Fake List Tell	Why It's Wrong
Assigns "recommended levels"	The game has no levels
Names 70 bosses with detailed patterns	Only one boss name is confirmed at launch
Claims NG+ exclusive bosses	No NG+ remix has been confirmed
Weapon-specific "phases" for named bosses	No such detail has been documented
Lists an exact boss order	No fixed story order is confirmed

Boss Categories That ARE Confirmed

While individual names are mostly unconfirmed, official descriptions confirm the roster's shape:

Story (Critical Path) Brutals

A subset of the roster sits on the critical path — the game is a soulslike, and progress requires defeating specific bosses to unlock new regions. The exact count and order are unconfirmed.

Optional Brutals

Most bosses are optional. The semi-open world hides them in hidden paths and secret areas — exploring rewards you with extra encounters, rare relics, and unique equipment. See the Secret Areas guide.

Parry-Gate vs Dodge-Gate Bosses

Confirmed design split:

Some bosses have unblockable attacks — parrying or blocking fails; you must dodge.
Others require repeated parries to break their guard — one launch review noted parry chains of up to 15 hits before an attack window opens.

Knowing which type you are fighting is more useful than any boss name. See the Boss Strategies guide.

The Probe Protocol (Identify Any Brutal in 30 Seconds)

When you walk into an unknown arena, run this sequence:

Attempt one parry early. If it connects and builds toward a stagger, it's a parry-gate fight — switch into parry mode.
If parrying gets you hit or does nothing, it's a dodge-gate fight — switch to dodging immediately.
Watch for a "heavier" tell. Mixed fights weave unblockable hits into combos; a tell that looks heavier than the chain is a dodge.
Check the arena. Parry-gate fights are usually staged for rhythmic trades; dodge-gate arenas have more open space for rolling.

The cost of getting it wrong: wasting stamina on the wrong defense is the #1 cause of early deaths — the probe protocol exists because one early parry tells you everything.

Progression Expectations (What the Roster Feels Like)

Stage	Expectation
First few Brutals	Teach the two archetypes — one of each, generous windows
Mid roster	Mixed fights: parry chains with unblockable interleaved
Late roster	Multi-phase Brutals with archetype switches mid-fight
Optional Brutals	The hardest fights — no story requirement, pure challenge and loot

The honest expectation: the game expects you to swap relics and gear between fights — official material is explicit that builds are adaptive, not static (see the Relic Combinations Guide). A build that killed the last Brutal may be wrong for the next one; that's the design, not a balance problem.

Why Kill Optional Bosses?

Brutal rewards are essential to progression, per official descriptions:

Powerful special items — boss drops are unique (every item in the game is unique), so a boss reward can define a build.
Upgrades — boss victories grant upgrades the rest of the world does not offer (materials for the blacksmith/forge — see the Upgrade System Guide).
Relic Energy — defeating Brutals is a primary source of Relic Energy, the currency for buying skills in weapon skill trees. Ancient Relic Blessings found in the world are another source.
Lore — each defeat reveals the boss's tragedy, which is the game's storytelling backbone.

The loop: fight Brutals → spend Relic Energy on skills → find new artifacts → adapt your build → fight harder Brutals. Exploration matters as much as combat — secret areas (see the Secret Areas Guide) hold many of the roster's best rewards.

Community-Reported Brutals (Unconfirmed)

The following bosses have been reported by community members but lack independent verification of their exact mechanics at this time. Names and details below are not confirmed by official material — only "Blood-Stained Shield" Branko is.

Drewg, the Protector of Eden

Status: Player-reported, not yet independently verified
Archetype: Likely dodge-gate based on player descriptions of aggressive pressure and limited parry windows
Reported attacks: Thrust attack with heavy damage potential
Player feedback: "Can't heal or dodge him — thrust attack almost one-shots"
General advice (applying confirmed game mechanics):

- If the thrust is one-shotting, check your health pool (see How to Increase Health)

- This boss likely requires dodge-only defense — stop trying to parry, commit to dodge timing through the thrust

- Healing windows exist after full combo chains resolve — do NOT attempt to heal mid-combo

- Swap to a mobility Relic loadout for this fight

Note: Exact attack patterns, damage values, and healing windows are unconfirmed. The advice above applies universal game mechanics to this reported fight.

Boss Hunting Tips (Confirmed Mechanics)

Swap your relic loadout per boss — the game is explicitly designed around adapting builds between fights; a resistance or effect that shines in one arena may be dead weight in the next.
Identify parry-gate vs dodge-gate fights — if blocking does nothing, stop blocking; if parries stagger, commit to the chain.
Explore before fighting — optional areas hold relics, potion capacity shards, and gear that directly translate into easier boss fights.
Watch for unblockable tells — unblockable attacks force dodging; learning the tell is mandatory for that encounter type.
Do not trust "levels" — there are no levels in this game. Guides that assign them are not credible.
Report and check community findings — the roster documentation grows with the community.

The roster is a marathon of two archetypes repeated 70-80 times — the players who finish it are the ones who mastered the loops, not the ones who memorized lists. The Difficulty Guide explains how the game's difficulty curve actually scales, and the Walkthrough Guide maps the mandatory path through the optional Brutals.

Common Questions

Q: How many bosses does The Relic: First Guardian have?

A: Official materials say 70-80 (sources vary). Most are optional Brutals.

Q: What are bosses called in the game?

A: Brutals — the game's official term for its boss enemies.

Q: Are bosses mandatory to finish the game?

A: A minority. You must defeat the bosses on the critical path; the majority of the roster is optional content.

Q: Is "Blood-Stained Shield" Branko a real boss?

A: Yes — the only boss name confirmed in official preview material so far.

Q: Do bosses have levels?

A: No — The Relic: First Guardian has no leveling system at all.

Q: Will this list be updated?

A: Yes — as the community documents the roster post-launch, confirmed names and strategies will replace the unconfirmed sections.

Boss Strategies — Advanced tactics: parry chains, unblockable tells, build swapping
Walkthrough — The critical path and confirmed world structure
Secret Areas — Where optional Brutals hide
Difficulty Guide — How the roster's difficulty scales without levels