Phase 2 arrived the way I had designed it to arrive: without mercy and with significantly more HP than Phase 1.
SAND LEVIATHAN. BOSS LV.12. PHASE 2: 1200/1200 HP. NEW ABILITIES: MOLTEN GLASS BREATH, SEISMIC SLAM, CRYSTALLINE ARMOR. WARNING: PHASE 2 ABILITIES SIGNIFICANTLY MORE DANGEROUS.
Twelve hundred HP. I had written that number in a design document while eating cold takeout at my desk and thinking about player retention and meaningful challenge. Standing in front of what it looked like in practice, watching the creature's scales shift from crystalline glass to something that glowed with internal heat, I had thoughts about that design document that were not entirely professional.
The creature's Phase 2 form was a genuine evolution. Not a visual update, an actual mechanical shift: the
