In a PlayStation Blog post, Bad Robot Games shared a closer look at the Scanner, one of 4:Loop's boss fights, and pitched it as a test of movement and coordination instead of a straight damage race. The boss is a giant cube that pressures the whole squad with a map-wide laser grid while forcing players to attack its six rotating faces from multiple angles.
Mike Booth, Bad Robot Games' Chief Creative Officer and Game Director on 4:Loop, said the team wanted a boss that changed how players cooperate. Some encounters in the co-op shooter can be solved with cover and concentrated fire, but the Scanner punishes teams that settle in place.
The Scanner makes the arena itself dangerous
The Scanner does not rely on direct attacks. It projects what the team calls the Laser Matrix, or internally the "Grid of Doom," across the entire map. One laser hit knocks a player down, and a second removes them from the fight.
The grid starts slow and readable, then tightens as the encounter continues. That pacing is meant to lure players into thinking they have room to breathe before the boss turns navigation into the central threat.
The cube itself adds another layer. Each of its six faces has nine destructible tiles, giving the squad 54 targets to break before the vulnerable Reactor Core appears. The Scanner also rotates and swaps sections like a shifting puzzle, while damaged panels reset over time.
That setup pushes the team to split up, track the cube from different angles and keep moving through the Laser Matrix. Once all 54 tiles are destroyed, the Reactor Core opens for a short damage window, at which point players need to fire together even if they have ended up on opposite sides of the arena.
Gear choices feed into the boss fight
The Scanner is also tied to 4:Loop's run structure. Booth said the game's Probability Map shows which boss waits at the end of an Act, giving players a chance to prepare their loadouts before the fight arrives.
That information can change equipment decisions. Shotguns may hit hard, but Booth noted they will not be ideal against the Scanner's Reactor Core at range. A flashy Cloaking Backpack may also be less valuable than gear that helps a player survive the Laser Matrix.
Bad Robot Games describes the Scanner as one of several bosses designed to test cooperation and improvisation in different ways. In this case, the studio started with the image of a floating cube puzzle with breakable panels, then turned it into an encounter where the boss can threaten the squad without firing a single shot.