Killer Bee Queen

Last updated: Exalt Version 3.3.7.0 (Apr 2023)
Killer Bee Queen

The Killer Bee Queen is the boss of The Nest.

The Realm Eye says:
Possibly the greatest mistake out of the entire pantheon of great mistakes made by Dr. Terrible was the creation of the Killer Bee Queen.
Tasked with making Hives more impenetrable from adventurers, he had experimented with Pure Evil, the concentrated darkness that inundated the Void.
The Queen Bee, consumed by Pure Evil, became the puppet of a much greater diabolical force.

Contents


Stats

Base HP: 112,500 (Boss Adaptive Scaling Boss Adaptive HP Scaling)
DEF: 50
EXP: 65,000
Location: The Nest

Quest Monster
Immune to Stasis
Immune to Paralyzed
Immune to Stunned (conditional)
Immune to Dazed (conditional)
Levitates off Ground
Counts towards Beast Kills
Counts towards God Kills

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Combat

Attacks

Aesthetics Damage Condition effects Speed (tiles/sec) Range (tiles) Comments
EH Queen Red Stinger Small 100 8.5 9.5 Armor Piercing Ignores defense of target
Piercing Shots hit multiple targets
EH Queen Red Stinger Large 130 Grey Down Arrow Exposed for 4s 7.5 9.75 Armor Piercing Ignores defense of target
EH Queen Yellow Stinger Small 100 Paralyzed Icon Paralyzed for 1.4s 7.5 9.75 Piercing Shots hit multiple targets
EH Queen Yellow Stinger Large 140 Yellow Swirl Dazed for 3s 5.5 7.15 Armor Piercing Ignores defense of target
EH Queen Blue Stinger Small 100 Silenced Silenced for 4s 8.5 11.05
EH Queen Blue Stinger Large 120 Pet Stasis Pet Stasis for 4s 8 10.4
EH Red Glaive 0 Gold Four Pointed Star Armor Broken for 7s 14 9.8 Piercing Shots hit multiple targets
EH Blue Ball 0 Pet Stasis Pet Stasis for 3s 3 10.5
EH Blue Ball 90 Pet Stasis Pet Stasis for 4s 6 10.5 Piercing Shots hit multiple targets
EH Yellow Ball 90 Paralyzed Icon Paralyzed for 0.8s 4.5 9 Piercing Shots hit multiple targets
EH Yellow Glaive 70 Paralyzed Icon Paralyzed for 0.8s
Yellow Swirl Dazed for 3s
2.5 10.63 Piercing Shots hit multiple targets
EH Red Glaive 90 Gold Four Pointed Star Armor Broken for 3s 4 9 Armor Piercing Ignores defense of target
Piercing Shots hit multiple targets
EH Blue Glaive 80 Word Bubble Quiet for 2s
Pet Stasis Pet Stasis for 6s
6 9.54 Piercing Shots hit multiple targets
EH Red Ball 80 Curse Curse for 3s 5.5 11 Piercing Shots hit multiple targets
EH Hive Spiral Shot 200 8 9.6 Armor Piercing Ignores defense of target
Piercing Shots hit multiple targets
EH Hive Range Shot 120 Pet Stasis Pet Stasis for 5s
Weak Icon Weak for 3s
4 10 Piercing Shots hit multiple targets
EH Hive Shot 150 Yellow Swirl Dazed for 3s 8 9.6 Piercing Shots hit multiple targets
EH Queen Blue Stinger Small 100 Silenced Silenced for 4s 7 9.1 Piercing Shots hit multiple targets
EH Yellow Ball 90 Paralyzed Icon Paralyzed for 0.6s 5 10 Piercing Shots hit multiple targets
EH Blue Ball 90 Pet Stasis Pet Stasis for 4s 4 6 Armor Piercing Ignores defense of target
Piercing Shots hit multiple targets
EH Queen Red Stinger Large 130 Grey Down Arrow Exposed for 4s 3.5 10.5 Armor Piercing Ignores defense of target
EH Queen Yellow Stinger Small 100 Paralyzed Icon Paralyzed for 1.4s 4.5 9 Piercing Shots hit multiple targets
EH Queen Red Stinger Large 100 Grey Down Arrow Exposed for 4s 5 11
EH Bee Shot 130 Red Down Arrow Slowed for 0.8s 5 10 Armor Piercing Ignores defense of target
Piercing Shots hit multiple targets
Red Bomb 80 Swirl Confused for 3s Radius: 2
Red Bomb 80 Gold Four Pointed Star Armor Broken for 3s Radius: 2
White Bomb 100 Yellow Swirl Dazed for 2s Radius: 2
White Bomb 120 Yellow Swirl Dazed for 2s Radius: 3
White Bomb 175 Yellow Swirl Dazed for 3s Radius: 2
Blue Bomb 80 Word Bubble Quiet for 1s Radius: 2

Beehavior

The Killer Bee Queen is found in a circular room with a pool of Killer Honey in the middle and Maggot Eggs along the edges. She is initially protected by a squad of assorted Killer Bees, and any Soldier Bees that enter the room will abandon their normal behavior to protect the Queen, orbiting her while healing her and attacking enemies. Once closely approached, she will flash white for a few seconds before attacking. She gains a few seconds of invulnerability when switching phases.

Note that although she is not normally immune to Stun and Daze, she will gain conditional immunity during many of her attacks, particularly Stun immunity. Some phases where she’s vulnerable will be noted below.

Phase 1

The Queen switches between circling the room and circling the pond of Killer Honey in the middle, throwing radial spreads of Quieting Blue Bombs around it while throwing targeted Dazing White Bombs at players. In addition, it fires directed spreads of Large Blue/Red Stingers and Small Yellow Stingers at nearby players. Watch out, as it may sometimes look like the Queen is firing only 3 stingers, but in fact that is 9 shots with each color stinger stacked ontop of each other.
Note that the Queen is vulnerable to Stun for the duration of this phase.

Phase 2

At 90% HP, the bridge to the boss room and the outer areas of the boss room itself slowly flood with Killer Honey, limiting the ground in the boss room to a small ring around the Queen.

The Queen herself will alternate between the following attacks:

  • After flashing red, she chases players quickly while firing multi-directional spreads of Small Red Stingers and single directed Large Red Stingers. All the while, she tosses radial bursts of Red Bombs that inflict Confused.
  • After flashing blue, she chases players while firing directed spreads of Large Blue Stingers and spirals of Small Blue Stingers. She also fires a messy omnidirectional spray of Blue Balls along with radial bursts of Blue Bombs that Quiet.
  • After flashing yellow, she fires 3-way spreads of Large Yellow Stingers and a messy spiral of Yelow Balls, all while tossing a large number of White Bombs that Daze around her.

For each color, she also spawns in a number of the respective Killer Bees, which despawn when she switches attacks. She is invulnerable in between attacks.

Phase 3

At 75% HP, the Queen despawns all Killer Bees and moves to the center of the room, flashing white. She then becomes stationary and begins firing a messy omnidirectional barrage of Red, Blue, and Yellow Balls along with Slowing bees, occasionally lobbing White Bombs along the cardinal/intermediate directions. Every 7 seconds and at the start of the phase, she fires an unavoidable wave of Red Glaives that do no damage but Armor Break for 7 seconds: essentially meaning that you’re permanently Armor Broken for this phase.

The barrage looks randomized, but it actually follows a distinct pattern:

  • Two 3-armed spirals of blue orbs, each one rotating in a different direction
  • One two-armed spiral of red orbs, rotating clockwise
  • Frequent rings of yellow orbs
  • Occasional 4-way bursts of bee projectiles

Note that the Queen is vulnerable to stun while she is flashing white, meaning the initial blasts of the phase can be avoided.

Phase 4

At 60% HP, the Queen begins to slowly circle counter-clockwise in the center of the room while firing 4-directional spreads of Yellow, Red, and Blue Glaives at a rapid pace. Each one is aimed at a different angle so that it cannot be dodged just by standing still. It is imperative to dodge the yellow shots as they will paralyze you and make you tank half of the next wave.

Phase 5

At 45% HP, the entrance tiles starts to harden further, acting as walls - though shots can still travel over them. Standing on a changing tile will disconnect the player. The Queen spawns in a number of Killer Bees of all colors and begins using colored attacks again. Like before, every time she uses a colored attack she spawns in a group of the respective color Killer Bee.

  • For Red, she rapidly circles the pool of Killer Honey in the middle of the room, firing streams of Red Balls in various directions while also firing radial bursts of Red Glaives and 3-directional shotguns of red Hive Spiral Shots. She also fires radial bursts of Large Red Stingers.
  • For Blue, she rapidly chases players, firing a messy bombardment of Blue Balls in all directions (akin to a Djinn’s pattern) while using radial bursts of Blue Glaives and 4-directional Small Blue Stingers. She also fires wide, directed shotguns of blue Hive Range Shots.
  • For Yellow, she slowly wanders in the center of the room, firing short spiralling bursts of bee projetiles and 4-directional spreads of Yellow Glaives. She also uses radial bursts of Large Yellow Stingers and 4-directional yellow Hive Shots.

Once again, the Queen is vulnerable to Stun for a few seconds during every color switch.

Phase 6

At 25% HP, the Queen despawns all Killer Bees, moves back to the center of the room while flashing red, and spawns 3 Killer Bee Nests along the edges of the room which attack with different colored bullets that inflict different status effects. The Nests will turn vulnerable during the attack and can be destroyed, though this will alter how the fight proceeds (see notes below). The Queen herself will be stationary and invulnerable while firing a 2-way shot-machinegun of Small Red Stingers that rotates clockwise for 29 seconds, with two gaps in the rotation. The shot-machinegun is initially aimed at the top and bottom of the room and will expand over the first few seconds to cover the top-right and bottom-left corners of the room, meaning players should start in either the top-left or bottom-right to avoid this attack. This attack is extremely dangerous and most likely instant death if not avoided.

The 3 Nests will periodically spawn Small Worker Bees and gradually swell in size until they break open to reveal three Adolescent Beehemoths, each spawning the one with corresponding color, which then join the Queen for her last phases.

A few things to note:

  • 3 Adolescent Beheemoths will always be spawned at the end of this phase, but depending on which (if any) of the Nests are broken, their colors will vary.
  • Destroying a single Nest will prevent the Adolescent Beehemoth of that color from spawning but one of the other Nests will now spawn 2 Adolescent Beehemoths of its color instead. For example, destroying the Red Nest will prevent the Adolescent Red Beehemoth from spawning but either the Blue or Yellow Nest will spawn 2 Adolescent Blue Beehemoths or 2 Adolescent Yellow Beehemoths, respectively.
  • Destroying 2 Nests will almost immediately stop this phase but will cause the remaining Nest to spawn 3 Adolescent Beehemoths of its color to make up for the destroyed nests. For example, destroying the Red and Blue Nests will cause the Yellow Nest to spawn 3 Adolescent Yellow Beehemoths.
  • With this in mind, it is important to focus the Killer Bee Nests that you do not want to face. Despite the Adolescent Beehemoths having relatively identical stats, keep in mind what each one does: the Red one inflicts Curse and Armor Break, the Blue one inflicts Quiet, Weak, and Pet Stasis, and the Yellow one inflicts Paralyze and Daze.

Phase 7

The Queen swells in size and reverts to colored attacks by flying to the respectively colored Nest and charging a bit before firing, although now the Adolescent Beehemoths protect her while firing back at players.

  • For Yellow, she stays in the middle of the room, firing a rotating spiral of Slowing bees while firing another spiral of Yellow Balls rotating the other way. She also fires radial bursts of Large Yellow Stingers and yellow blasts, along with 4 White Bombs that Daze, at a 15 degree-increasing angle each time. She is Armored for the sub-phase's duration. The Adolescent Beehemoths circle along the edges of the room taking shots at nearby players.
  • For Red, she circles the area slowly while firing rings of Red Balls and red Hive Spiral Shots, along with wide spreads of Large Red Stingers and radial Red bombs. She makes a total of two rotations, being Armored for the first half rotation. The Adolescent Beehemoths orbit her closely during this phase.
  • For Blue, she fires sprials of Blue Glaives, radial bombardments of Blue Balls, targeted spreads of Small/Large Blue Stingers, and enormous radial blasts of blue Hive Range Shots while quickly chasing the nearest player. She is Armored for some time after starting this phase. The Adolescent Beehemoths follow her loosely.

During this phase, the dead Nests will fire their radial attacks constantly. Also, both the Beehemoths and the Queen will have periods of invulnerability, and the Beehemoths will heal for 7,500 HP up to 3 times as their health decreases. The Beehemoths also heal the Queen every 10 seconds, with the amount depending on the number of players in the boss room when the Beehemoths are spawned.

  • With less than 5 players, they will each heal for 600 HP;
  • Between 5 and 10, for 3000 HP;
  • Between 10 and 20, for 6000 HP;
  • More than 20, for 15,000 HP.

Phase 8

At 12.5% HP, the Queen returns to the center of the room and begins to fire slow, radial bursts of Large Red Stingers, Small Yellow Stingers, Blue Balls, Hive Range Shots, and all her Glaives. The Adolescent Beehemoths orbit her closely, firing radial stingers and spreads of Glaives at players, and they will cease healing the boss if her HP decreases further. This phase lasts until her death, upon which she drops her loot, the Killer Honey turns into solid ground, any remaining Beehemoths wander around for a few seconds while flashing white before self-destructing into rings of shots, and the dead Nests stop firing.

The Queen, as well as the Beehemoths, are vulnerable to Stun during this phase, making it exceptionally easy so long as the Quiet-inflicting shots are avoided.

Advanced Nest

In the Advanced Nest, the Killer Bee Queen will be able to spawn Green enemy variants in phases where she summons assorted minions. In addition, many of her phases will be modified to be harder and to accommodate these new bee types and attacks.

Phase 1

Fires additional 3-way spreads of large green stingers that pierce armor.

Phase 2

Gains a new green attack where the Queen chases players, firing dense turning rings of large green spinners and 2-way shotguns of small green stingers, with the back shotgun being much wider than the frontal one. Midway through the attack, she will also spawn a large number of Green Killer Bees.

Phase 3

Fires an additional 2-armed counterclockwise spiral of green orbs inflicting Unstable Arrow Unstable.

Phase 4

The 4-way spreads of spinners are now fired much faster and at regular intervals, and now include green spinners that inflict Skull Sick. The Queen will also be firing a 4-way spiral of multicolored bullets, which alternates between rotating clockwise and counterclockwise.

Phase 5

Gains a new green attack where the Queen chases players, firing 3-way spreads of green blasts, pairs of wavy green blasts, and a trail of small green orbs. She will periodically become Wooden Shield Armored, pause in place, and fire a 3-layered ring of turning green stingers, green orbs, and green stars while spawning 4 Green Killer Bees.

Phase 6

The Killer Bee Queen’s shot-machinegun now fires in 3 directions instead of two, greatly reducing the available space to dodge. Four Killer Bee Nests will spawn instead of 3, with the new one firing green shots that inflict Skull Sick (Unstable Arrow Unstable when destroyed). At the end of the phase, if the green Nest is alive, it will spawn an additional Adolescent Green Beehemoth for a total of 4 Beehemoths, following the same summoning logic as the normal version of the phase.

Phase 7

Gains a new green attack where the Queen remains in the center of the arena, firing a dense spiraling barrage of green orbs, along with rings of turning stingers and four oscillating streams of green blasts. She will be Wooden Shield Armored during this phase, and the Adolescent Beehemoths will circle around the edges of the room while periodically shooting large stingers in 3 directions.

Phase 8

Seemingly unchanged outside of the presence of the fourth Adolescent Beehemoth.

Reproduction

Spawns:
Red Killer BeeRed Killer Bee
Blue Killer BeeBlue Killer Bee
Yellow Killer BeeYellow Killer Bee
Green Killer BeeGreen Killer Bee (Advanced Nest only)

Killer Bee NestKiller Bee Nest (Queen)

From Killer Bee Nests:
Adolescent Red BeehemothAdolescent Red Beehemoth
Adolescent Blue BeehemothAdolescent Blue Beehemoth
Adolescent Yellow BeehemothAdolescent Yellow Beehemoth
Adolescent Green BeehemothAdolescent Green Beehemoth (Advanced Nest only)

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Drops

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Tips and Strategies

One nightmare of an adversary, the Killer Bee Queen is among one of the most difficult bosses in the game as of now, with a huge number of deadly attacks, high HP, and complex behavior. Don’t count on your ability to tank the shots: you must dodge everything to the best of your ability or you will die.

Keep in mind that all of her are color-coded into three categories: blue shots inflict Pet Stasis/Weak/Silence/Quiet, yellow shots inflict Paralyzed/Dazed/Slowed, and red shots inflict Armor Broken/Curse/Exposed along with having the highest tendency of piercing armor.

The Bee Queen inflicts an absolutely massive number of status effects, and dodging every shot is nearly impossible due to the bullet density of her attacks. Any abilities that can dispel status effects are incredibly useful, as only one of the Queen’s shots inflicts Quiet.

Although usually easy to avoid, the Red Bombs from Red Phase 1 are a source of Confuse. Staying in front of the queen will make them miss you entirely, which may bee hard to perform in a group; keep a close eye out lest you walk right on top of her!

Be wary of when she is firing her shotgun of Red Hive Shots in Phase 4: each one inflicts 200 unblockable damage, meaning that tanking the shotgun will result in 600 armor-piercing damage: enough to severely injure any character. Getting Cursed will increase this shotgun's damage capacity to 720 damage, enough to instantly kill lower-health classes.

A very dangerous phase is when the Queen begins firing her 2-way shotmachinegun, nicknamed the stinger phase. Staying in the attack for more than a few seconds at a time is almost always lethal, and the shots rotate deceptively quickly. Make sure you stay in the opening the spreads provide while avoiding hits from the Killer Bee Nests around her. Additionally, keep focus on the Small Worker Bees as well, to prevent them from Slowing you. Combined with the lower move speed on hardened honey, it can easily lead to your demise.

For her nest phase, the 3 Nests can be broken, but that will cause one of the remaining nests to spawn an additional Adolescent Beehemoth to make up for it. If 2 nests are broken, the phase prematurely ends and the last one spawns 3 Adolescent Beehemoths of that color. With this, it is possible to control what types of Beehemoth show up, so target the ones that you do not want to face, and leave the one that is the least dangerous. This strategy only works with a decently sized party, as a large amount of damage is required to break the nests in time.

Generally, leaving the blue Nest is the best option, because even though the Adolescent Blue Beehemoths can greatly limit your damage with Weak and Quiet while nullifying pets, the Curse, Armor Break, and Paralyze from the Red/Yellow ones are arguably much more dangerous.

For the phases after the needle phase, the destroyed nests will continue to fire short-range radial bursts of projectiles. Remember to avoid them, since sitting on them will hurt.

While this doesn’t really have to do with the fight itself, it is usually worth your time to attack the Adolescent Beehemoths she spawns. They can drop Dexterity and the powerful UT Beehemoth Armor at a moderately low rate.

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History

A (now patched) bug with the Exposed debuff was that, when inflicted on players, it did not display any text.

For Easter 2018, the sprite of Killer Bee Queen was changed to the first version of the boss (displayed below). This design turned out to be terrible and was used as a joke throughout the development process. It’s known as King Bee, in reference/contrast to the Queen Bee.
King Bee

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Trivia

Currently this boss inflicts the highest number of status effects in the game. It is also the first boss to inflict the Exposed debuff on players.

The Killer Bee Queen is internally referred to as the King Bee in the XML.

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