Let me start off by saying I haven't been playing Spiral Knights for a terribly long time (about 2 weeks or so) but I can see it is in some trouble content-wise. When I left WoW my friend introduced me to SK, and I think this game has so much more to offer than the generic "hotkey MMO's" that are being spit out left, right, and center. I love this game. I would hate for people to leave due to its lack of content, so lets get started.

I know the title is pretty bad, but I'm at a loss what to call this suggestion. However, I am about to suggest something which I think could add a lot to this game, so I really hope you guys like it.

My suggestion is for each boss to have multiple difficulties, thus allowing them to appear on any tier randomly. This way each tier would have three bosses, rather than one boss per tier. This isn't really a long term solution like additional tiers or a PvP system would be, but it can be a very effective way to add variety and extra content to the game easily.

I'm going to give some examples for the Snarbolax, since he is such a great boss with a lot of potential. Frankly, this is why I thought of the idea - because of such a great boss being practically "wasted".

-A tier 2 Snarbolax
It could burrow down every 25% hp, summoning a pack of wolvers (with maybe an alpha or two), returning when all of them are defeated.Also, the bell could have its cooldown increased.

-A tier 3 Snarlbolax
It would retain the summoning ability, but this time the bell would be removed. Perhaps it has a Super-Mega-Ultra Thorn Projectile. If the player dodges the attack, the thorn would stick to the wall. The player could then pick it up and throw it back, stunning the Snarbolax. Or maybe the thorn needs to be shot down by gunners in order to be picked up.

Now these are simply ideas. I certainly don't claim to be a game designer. But you see where I'm going with it. Perhaps a tier one Royal Jelly would have no walls in the arena. In tier 3 he could split apart when killed, introducing some new phase. I've never faced Lord Vanaduke, but I'm sure you could come up with some ideas for him as well.

Obviously the token system would have to be tweaked a little bit. Tokens would be awarded according to difficulty rather than the boss itself. Some tier 1 token rewards might need to be added so they aren't all "Snarbolax flavor".

This would be a great system for the developers as well. Having 3 bosses with 3 difficulties is by far easier than creating 9 bosses, allowing more resources to go into other systems like PvP. Also each time you create a new boss, you basically have 3 times as much content.

I know this isn't the greatest idea ever, but ultimately it can add a great deal of longevity and variety to the game. And as they say -

"Variety is the spice of life" (and video games).