The Searcher Boss is one of the secret types of Searchers and a boss-like enemy appearing in the third chapter of Bendy and the Ink Machine, exclusive to the Lever Challenge minigame.
This Searcher is actually just an extremely enlarged Searcher that is three times bigger than the normal variant, and it wears a brown, sketched top hat-like fedora. It is the second largest enemy in the franchise, the largest being Bertrum Piedmont, including his body.
Behavior[]
It behaves much like normal Searchers, as it will follow Henry upon noticing him and then attempt to attack him. However, it moves rather slowly and has a larger amount of health and takes more damage hits than its original variants.
Strategy[]
The ink toy needs to be changed to Boris and the player is required to go down the Angel Path room to be able to activate the levers leading to this boss fight. This change makes it impossible to use the Tommy gun during the fight. Similar to trying to acquire the Tommy gun when going down the Demon Path room, the player must make it to the last mission without dying in the chapter.
To prevent receiving heavy damage while facing the Searcher Boss with a melee weapon instead of the Tommy gun, try going behind one of the fences from the low area of the Heavenly Toys room.
It takes about 20 hits from the axe or about 80 hits from the Gent pipe to be defeated.
After pulling two previous levers from the secret area of the toy machine room, activating the third final lever will cause the Searcher Boss to spawn in the Heavenly Toys room. The fight will begin upon approaching closer as it seems to be considered like a boss battle, suggested by its name.
If getting hit by the Searcher Boss at least two times from getting too near, Henry will get killed and send him to the Bendy statue from the power hallway to respawn, starting the lever challenge all over again.
The Searcher Boss is also a part of the task of unlocking the secret hidden hall in Chapter 1: Moving Pictures that will later be accessible upon replaying the game. Successfully killing the Searcher Boss will completely finish the third last task while re-opening the door to the room dedicated to Alice, along with a sudden horror vision happening for a brief moment.
Trivia[]
An earlier version of the Searcher Boss prior to the Chapter 4 update.
There are a few differences for the Searcher Boss in Chapter 3's first release before the release of Chapter 4:
The Searcher Boss does not wear a fedora.
While lacking the "horror hallucination" after defeating the Searcher Boss, a rumble plays instead, which is identical to the rumble that occurs at the end of Chapter 1: Moving Pictures right after opening the door to the Ritual Room.
The Searcher Boss could be reached without changing the ink toy, regardless of the path taken. Meaning it was possible to fight it using the Tommy Gun, with a total amount of 30 shots to kill it.
While the Searcher Boss's name is not mentioned in-game, its name can be found if one were to look into the game's coding.
The music that plays when the Searcher Boss appears is "The Searchers", which is the soundtrack used for Chapter 2: The Old Song when fighting a pack of regular Searchers.
The identity of this searcher is unknown, but the fedora on his head seems to suggest he is a character on the audio logs.
It is possible that he is the monster form of Grant Cohen. It is heavily implied that Grant was turned into an ink monster based on his second audio log that can be found in his office. It would also make sense for him to wear a fedora.
Gallery[]
Close view of the Searcher Boss.
The Searcher Boss before going after Henry for an attack.
The Searcher Boss chasing Henry through the toy machine room.
The Searcher Boss chasing Henry in Heavenly Toys room.
