the gauges are supposed to be 3 different "health" bars for the boss. they go decrease at different rates and spawn in enemies at certain thresholds. if you get the food it resets the lowest bar back to 100%, which will then spawn enemies again when the threshold is reached. so you are punished for listening to the boss and rewarded for not collecting the food. i dont think i made that very clear at all in the game tho lmao. thanks for playing and the feedback, i appreciate it!