Copying
=======
Feel free to copy, repost, and modify the contents of this document as
you wish. I doubt I'll ever update it, and I sure won't bother policing
what happens to this file. I recommend using the GameFAQs message
boards if you have any unanswered questions. If you want to suggest
radically new strategies or improvements, please write your own FAQ.
Introduction
============
The goal of this document is to help you complete the 3 different boss
rush modes in the easiest, most reliable (definitely not in the fastest
or most skillful) manner, to unlock the songs and extra stuff at the end
of each rush. Specials are often abused to ensure victory.
General principles and definitions
==================================
In every case, I am using Maria. The primary reason for this are her
"item crashes" (animal crashes??), which I will call "special" from now
on.
Generally speaking, my strategies involve using a special to deal fatal
damage to the boss in question. Sometimes, the special will not
guarantee a one hit KO. Then, attempt to first damage the boss as much
as you can by only using the regular attack, and use the special either
when you are low on health (under 33%), or once you are sure the boss
will go down with the special.
IMPORTANT: Do not needlessly waste hearts against any boss, except the
last one. The strategies I'm giving are meant to get you through the
whole boss rush, NOT any one single boss. The specials take up many
hearts each time and it's necessary to conserve them. Unless you
already have 99 hearts, collect every heart available.
I will call the six items that Maria can use:
1. Bird or Suzaku. Special: Bird hovers in the air while meteors rain
down.
2. Dragon or Seiryu. Special: Dragon flies multiple times across
the screen while lightning strikes.
3. Turtle or Genbu. Special: Turtle flies quickly once across the
screen.
4. Cat or Byakko. Special: You ride a giant cat, which runs back and
forth through the screen.
5. Music book. Special: Notes cover the top 25% of the screen
horizontally.
6. Egg. Special: Small birds fly quickly through the screen (never used)
The regular attack, I will call doves.
Each Boss section will be formatted as follows:
Order of appearance (#) and name
--------
Item needed for battle: one of the six items listed above.
Heart count before going in portal: a number, or some numerical range,
that you should aim to have.
Importance of Item: one of the following qualifiers:
- never used: do not activate item to conserve hearts. The regular
attack is more than enough firepower to defeat the boss.
- slightly helpful: boss is easy enough to beat without the item, and
using the item does not deal very much damage, but may have better
reach than the regular attack.
- helpful: boss is easy enough to beat without the item, but using the
item or the special greatly diminishes the time needed to defeat it.
- crucial: boss battle is very difficult or time consuming without
having the suggested item AND minimum number of hearts needed to use
it in the manner described.
Strategy: paragraph(s) describing in some detail what you need to do,
and possibly avoid doing.
1 Wyvern
--------
Item needed for battle: Turtle (to get 5 hearts from next round's
leftmost candle)
Heart count before going in portal: 33
Importance of Item: never used
Strategy: Keep the wyvern within the doves' attacking range, and simply
double jump repeatedly and attack it with the doves. Even if you lose,
no big deal, since it's the first battle. Do NOT squander any hearts
here. They are far too precious to be wasted on this puny boss.
2 Werewolf
--------
Item needed for battle: Bird
Heart count before going in portal: 61
Importance of item: slightly helpful
Strategy: Most of the attacking will be done with the doves. The birds
help you reach the wolf when he's in the roof, and if you're about to
die, use the special to grant you invincibility and damage the wolf at
the same time. If he crouches, it means he's about to slide at you.
Jump over him. He also has a flaming diagonal attack, which I'm not too
sure how to dodge. Any time he is flies off the wall or ceiling at
medium speed as a round-shaped fireball, he is not invincible, so attack
him to get him out of that form. In any case, you should defeat the wolf
with at least 27 hearts left. Attempt to avoid the wolf's final
desperation attack.
3 Minotaur
--------
Item needed for battle: Dragon
Heart count before going in portal: At least 50
Importance of item: crucial
Strategy: Use the special as soon as the battle begins. With any luck,
you'll have a dead minotaur; at worst, one with a sliver of health
left. Attempt to dodge his final slide-shoryuken desperation attack by
double jumping over him.
4 Dullahan
--------
Item needed for battle: Cat
Heart count before going in portal: 25-40, depending on how many you
used against wolf.
Importance of item: helpful
Strategy: Dodging will keep you alive in this battle. The only times
you can safely attack with the doves is if he jump-attacks and lands on
a platform, or if he sends the skull flying at you. When he does the
ice attack, stay just far enough not to get damaged, then one or two
cats at him. If needed, double jump first to avoid having the cat
collide with the platforms. To dodge the ceiling debris, stand under a
platform. To dodge the desperation skull fireballs, simply get on
either highest platform and jump.
5 Death
--------
Item needed for battle: Bird
Heart count before going in portal: 25-50
Importance of item: helpful
Strategy: There is a cat item candle on the middle-right that you should
strike first if you are low on hearts.
Now, there are two parts to this battle. Start off by attacking
normally as soon as you walk in the portal to hit Death once. The way I
generally defeat him is to stand on either left or right platform, and
attack towards the edge of the boat, with Death floating on the side
towards the end of the screen. He'll eventually float towards you.
Attack him when you have a chance, while deflecting or dodging the
scythes that appear nearby. Use the birds sparingly to damage Death when
he floats above you, or to deflect the flying scythes.
After about 50% of his health is gone, he will fly to the background.
At this time, walk or slide (hold down and press attack) all the way to
the left edge. Then, each time you hear the sound of Death attacking,
slide. Do not slide twice too quickly, or you will get stuck at the
other end. (Note that unlike the normal boss battle, there's an
invisible wall here). Wait until you hear the sound, then slide. You
should be able to dodge the 5 skulls without trouble.
Then, stand just about underneath the left-hand platform. Death should
appear somewhere to your right. Attack him normally once or twice. He
will flinch backwards. Then, WAIT for him to swing twice, then approach
and attack again. Immediately back off after he gets hit. The "charge
time" for his attack is very short, making the attack rather difficult
to dodge. You should have enough time to dodge the flying scythe as you
back off.
Note that any time he finds himself too far away from the center of the
ship (a little past the platform towards either end), he will quickly
jump-spin back to the center. First, back off far enough. After he
lands in the center, WAIT for him to swing his weapon, then approach and
attack. You could attack him as soon as he lands in the center if you
position yourself in advance and time your attack. If you find yourself
in low health, summon the special, but do attempt to defeat Death with
at least 22 hearts left. The Dragon special greatly simplifies the next
battle.
6 Shaft
--------
Item needed for battle: Dragon
Heart count before going in portal: At least 50
Importance of item: helpful
Strategy: Before going through the portal, go all the way to the top
right to collect the 5 hearts from the bird item candle, then collect
the dragon item all the way to the left.
If you want a simple battle, summon the dragon special as soon as the
battle starts. Shaft should be dead, or very close to dead.
To defeat Shaft normally, attack quickly while keeping an eye on the
balls. The balls of fire can be deflected with the regular attack.
Slide towards Shaft every time he teleports to save time. If you wish
to play it safe, jump on the high platforms when he attacks with balls
of lightning. Note that you don't get hurt by touching the plain green
colored balls (until the very end when they come crashing down at the
floor), or by touching the lightning balls by themselves.
7 L. Vampire
--------
Item needed for battle: Dragon
Heart count before going in portal: 50+
Importance of item: slightly helpful
Strategy: First, collect the 5 hearts from the rightmost item candle,
then collect the rest and walk into the portal.
When the battle begins, L. Vampire will be on the left side, protected
by the bat shield. Position yourself so that the doves just barely
touch her. Keep jumping and attacking. The bat shield will eventually
dissipate, and you should get two or three hits in. The bats will fly
away. Stop attacking and stand still exactly in the center of the screen
(just line up with the cross/circles in the background), and just wait
until the bats go away. I couldn't attack L. Vampire without having to
get too close and getting hit by the bats when I jumped.
Next, attack while the bat shield reforms. L. Vampire will fly to the
right side of the screen. Re-align yourself, and attack a couple more
times. Then, be prepared to slide away, as the next bat attack will
home in towards you immediately after the bats fly off the top of the
screen. The third attack seems unpredictable to me. It might be the
bat spiral (in this case, stand in the center, just a bit closer to
L. Vampire's side), or a three-leafed-shape bat attack (in this case,
back off all the way to the other side of the screen). The homing
attack might show up again, so you have to be prepared for anything.
If you have over 50 hearts, summon the special as soon as you see the
bat shield dissipating. While it only takes away about 50% of her
health, it makes the battle a lot easier.
1 Sea Serpent
--------
Item needed for battle: Music book
Heart count before going in portal: 37
Importance of item: crucial
Strategy: The battle starts off with the serpent immediately jumping out
of the water and right back in. Move around to avoid getting hit. It is
not really necessary to attempt to strike it. The serpent will do
another similar jump again. During this time, keep moving towards the
center of the screen. You don't want the serpent to pop up on the very
edge of the screen.
Now, keep an eye out for its third jump.
As soon as you notice it coming out of the water, summon the special,
and align its head with one of the notes. Try staying out of its
attacking range. With proper timing (you can preempt its jump a little)
the serpent will be dead from this special. Move around to dodge its
desperation skeletal lunge attack. Knock back its skull with an attack
for laughs.
2 Bone Golem
--------
Item needed for battle: Music book
Heart count before going in portal: 59
Importance of item: helpful
Strategy: In its first form, simply stay out of its range while
attacking normally. It's not really that helpful to use the item at
this point.
Next, as soon as you see the flying thing showing up on the screen, use
the special. Keep the enemy in contact with a note by following it. If
this form is still alive, it will return, flying leftwards, at a
slightly lower height. Attack normally, and it should disintegrate
soon.
The next form is a mass of bones and skulls that runs back and forth on
the ground like a tank. The key to victory is to first determine which
way it's moving. Then, jump towards the side "behind" it, and follow
it closely behind while attacking normally. The attacks will slow it
down, and it should be dead before it reaches the end of the room and
turns around.
3 Dogether
--------
Item needed for battle: Dragon
Heart count before going in portal: 81
Importance of item: crucial
Strategy: First, collect the 5 hearts from the item candle on the
middle-left, then collect the dragon item. Collect every other heart,
and you should have 81 of them. Summon the special as soon as the battle
begins; end of story. Dodge its final circling of agony and its
crashing-down attack (the symbol will float above your head and Dogether
will rematerialize, trying to crush you). While this isn't normally a
tough battle, you might as well use the special to make things easy.
4 Carmilla
--------
Item needed for battle: Bird
Heart count before going in portal: 58
Importance of item: helpful
Strategy: Jump around while using the bird to attack the floating
skull/woman combination. After ten or so such attacks, it should be
crushed. Try to avoid the lady on the bottom while doing so. After the
skull is crushed, follow and attack Carmilla. She should take 3 hits to
kill.
5 Hydra
--------
Item needed for battle: Bird
Heart count before going in portal: 90+
Importance of item: Crucial
Strategy: In the first part, there's only one head to attack (the boss has two
parts, and each part has its own life bar). Let the head do its
attacking, which may be A) a flying green ball of who-knows-what, which
you should double jump over, or B) a quick lunge towards you. The head
will back off, and you should attack it as much as you can. The head
will then do one of the following:
A) Back up a bit and open its mouth. Run towards the left border of the
water-covered area (the mini-wall will prevent you from running further)
and prepare to double jump. On the second jump, jump rightwards if
possible. This will set you up to attacking the head more quickly.
B) Back up a bit and keep its mouth shut. Run towards the left border
of the water, again, turn around and start attacking. The lunge won't
reach far enough.
Repeat until the first part is dead. In the second part, start off by
immediately getting on the middle pillar, double jumping, and attacking
the "chest" area (where the four heads meet and there's a glowing
purplish thing) as fast as you can. The fire head will spit fire at
you. At this point, stand close under the chest and use the special.
Depending on how quickly you attacked, the Hydra should be dead, or
close to dead. Attempt to kill the Hydra without using the special
twice, or overusing the regular item attack.
6 Shaft
--------
Item needed for battle: Dragon
Heart count before going in portal: 99 (you should have at least 77).
Importance of item: crucial
Strategy: Use the special as soon as the battle starts. Very simple.
Read the Boss Rush Normal "Shaft" section for details on how to defeat
him without the special.
7 Shaft's Ghost
--------
Item needed for battle: Dragon
Heart count before going in portal: 50+
Importance of item: crucial
Strategy: The dragon special will only take about 75% of his health, so
you must attempt to reduce his health by a bit over a quarter before
summoning it. Use a combination of the regular attack, and use the
dragon normally once or twice if he's away from your reach. Then,
summon the special and he should be dead. The main reason to avoid
using the special in the beginning is that he is more likely to summon
stronger beasts as his health gets low.
This concludes the Boss Rush Dash!
Full Boss Rush
==============
A lot of repeated material here. The major difference is the Werewolf
strategy, where I prefer using the music book to attack him while he's
on the roof.
IMPORTANT note on Dracula: I HIGHLY recommend that you practice through
the normal game mode's Level 8 before attempting the Full Boss Rush.
Honestly, I don't know about any cheap or reliable strategy for
defeating his third form. You will need to develop skills on your own
to defeat Dracula.
Boss Order
----------
1 Wyvern Turtle 33
2 Sea Serpent Music 65
3 Werewolf Music 78
4 Bone Golem Music 99
5 Minotaur Dragon 99
6 Dogether Dragon 81
7 Dullahan Cat 90
8 Carmilla Bird 90
9 Death Bird 99
10 Hydra Bird 99
11 Shaft Dragon 99
12 L. Vampire Dragon 81
13Shaft's Ghost Dragon 99
14 Dracula Dragon 76
1 Wyvern
---------
Item needed for battle: Turtle (to get 5 hearts from next round's
leftmost item candle)
Heart count before going in portal: 33
Importance of Item: never used
Strategy: Keep the wyvern within the doves' attacking range, and simply
double jump repeatedly and attack it with the doves. Even if you lose,
no big deal, since it's the first battle. Do NOT squander any hearts
here. They are far too precious to be wasted on this puny boss.
2 Sea Serpent
--------
Item needed for battle: Music book
Heart count before going in portal: 65
Importance of item: crucial
Strategy: The battle starts off with the serpent immediately jumping out
of the water and right back in. Move around to avoid getting hit. It is
not really necessary to attempt to strike it. The serpent will do
another similar jump again. During this time, keep moving towards the
center of the screen. You don't want the serpent to pop up on the very
edge of the screen.
Now, keep an eye out for its third jump.
As soon as you notice it coming out of the water, summon the special,
and align its head with one of the notes. Try staying out of its
attacking range. With proper timing (you can preempt its jump a little)
the serpent will be dead from this special. Move around to dodge its
desperation skeletal lunge attack. Knock back its skull with an attack
for laughs.
3 Werewolf
--------
Item needed for battle: Music book
Heart count before going in portal: 78
Importance of item: slightly helpful
Strategy: 98% of the attacking will be done with the doves. Use the
music book special only one time (to conserve hearts) if you notice him
crawling on the roof.
About his basic attacks: if he crouches, it means he's about to slide at
you. Jump over him. He also has a flaming diagonal attack, which I'm
not too sure how to dodge. Any time he is flies off the wall or ceiling
at medium speed as a round-shaped fireball, he is not invincible, so
attack him to get him out of that form. Attempt to avoid the wolf's
final desperation attack.
4 Bone Golem
--------
Item needed for battle: Music book
Heart count before going in portal: 99
Importance of item: helpful
Strategy: In its first form, simply stay out of its range while
attacking normally. It's not really that helpful to use the item at
this point.
Next, as soon as you see the flying thing showing up on the screen, use
the special. Keep the enemy in contact with a note by following it. If
this form is still alive, it will return, flying leftwards, at a
slightly lower height. Attack normally, and it should disintegrate
soon.
The next form is a mass of bones and skulls that runs back and forth on
the ground like a tank. The key to victory is to first determine which
way it's moving. Then, jump towards the side "behind" it, and follow
it closely behind while attacking normally. The attacks will slow it
down, and it should be dead before it reaches the end of the room and
turns around.
5 Minotaur
--------
Item needed for battle: Dragon
Heart count before going in portal: 99
Importance of item: crucial
Strategy: Use the special as soon as the battle begins. With any luck,
you'll have a dead minotaur; at worst, one with a sliver of health
left. Attempt to dodge his final slide-shoryuken desperation attack by
double jumping over him.
6 Dogether
--------
Item needed for battle: Dragon
Heart count before going in portal: 81
Importance of item: slightly helpful
Strategy: First, collect the 5 hearts from the item candle on the
middle-right. Collect every other heart. While on the Boss Rush Dash I
recommended that you use the special, you should try conserving them
here for later bosses. Use the normal dragon attack up to four times if
needed. The enemy attacks are:
A) Green flash: Three spears fly out of his eye, one straight, two
diagonally, more or less like this:
/
->
\
B) Red flash: clumps of fire materialize in front of the eye and spread
downwards and forward.
C) Blue flash: stones gather to surround the eye, more or less forming a
shield.
7 Dullahan
--------
Item needed for battle: Cat
Heart count before going in portal: 80-99
Importance of item: helpful
Strategy: Dodging will keep you alive in this battle. The only times
you can safely attack with the doves is if he jump-attacks and lands on
a platform, or if he sends the skull flying at you. When he does the
ice attack, stay just far enough not to get damaged, then one or two
cats at him. If needed, double jump first to avoid having the cat
collide with the platforms. To dodge the ceiling debris, stand under a
platform. To dodge the desperation skull fireballs, simply get on
either highest platform and jump.
8 Carmilla
--------
Item needed for battle: Bird
Heart count before going in portal: 90-99
Importance of item: helpful
Strategy: Jump around while using the bird to attack the floating
skull/woman combination. After ten or so such attacks, it should be
crushed. Try to avoid the lady on the bottom while doing so. After the
skull is crushed, follow and attack Carmilla. She should take 3 hits to
kill.
9 Death
--------
Item needed for battle: Bird
Heart count before going in portal: 99
Importance of item: helpful
Strategy:
Now, there are two parts to this battle. Start off by attacking
normally as soon as you walk in the portal to hit Death once. The way I
generally defeat him is to stand on either left or right platform, and
attack towards the edge of the boat, with Death floating on the side
towards the end of the screen. He'll eventually float towards you.
Attack him when you have a chance, while deflecting or dodging the
scythes that appear nearby. Use the birds sparingly to damage Death when
he floats above you, or to deflect the flying scythes.
After about 50% of his health is gone, he will fly to the background.
At this time, walk or slide (hold down and press attack) all the way to
the left edge. Then, each time you hear the sound of Death attacking,
slide. Do not slide twice too quickly, or you will get stuck at the
other end. (Note that unlike the normal boss battle, there's an
invisible wall here). Wait until you hear the sound, then slide. You
should be able to dodge the 5 skulls without trouble.
Then, stand just about underneath the left-hand platform. Death should
appear somewhere to your right. Attack him normally once or twice. He
will flinch backwards. Then, WAIT for him to swing twice, then approach
and attack again. Immediately back off after he gets hit. The "charge
time" for his attack is very short, making the attack rather difficult
to dodge. You should have enough time to dodge the flying scythe as you
back off.
Note that any time he finds himself too far away from the center of the
ship (a little past the platform towards either end), he will quickly
jump-spin back to the center. First, back off far enough. After he
lands in the center, WAIT for him to swing his weapon, then approach and
attack. You could attack him as soon as he lands in the center if you
position yourself in advance and time your attack. If you find yourself
in low health, summon the special, but do attempt to defeat Death with
at least 70 hearts left.
10 Hydra
--------
Item needed for battle: Bird
Heart count before going in portal: 90+
Importance of item: Crucial
Strategy: In the first part, there's only one head to attack (the boss has two
parts, and each part has its own life bar). Let the head do its
attacking, which may be A) a flying green ball of who-knows-what, which
you should double jump over, or B) a quick lunge towards you. The head
will back off, and you should attack it as much as you can. The head
will then do one of the following:
A) Back up a bit and open its mouth. Run towards the left border of the
water-covered area (the mini-wall will prevent you from running further)
and prepare to double jump. On the second jump, jump rightwards if
possible. This will set you up to attacking the head more quickly.
B) Back up a bit and keep its mouth shut. Run towards the left border
of the water, again, turn around and start attacking. The lunge won't
reach far enough.
Repeat until the first part is dead. In the second part, start off by
immediately getting on the middle pillar, double jumping, and attacking
the "chest" area (where the four heads meet and there's a glowing
purplish thing) as fast as you can. The fire head will spit fire at
you. At this point, stand close under the chest and use the special.
Depending on how quickly you attacked, the Hydra should be dead, or
close to dead. Attempt to kill the Hydra without using the special
twice, or overusing the regular item attack.
11 Shaft
--------
Item needed for battle: Dragon
Heart count before going in portal: 99 (you should have at least 77).
Importance of item: crucial
Strategy: Use the special as soon as the battle starts. Very simple.
Read the Boss Rush Normal "Shaft" section for details on how to defeat
him without the special.
12 L. Vampire
--------
Item needed for battle: Dragon
Heart count before going in portal: 81
Importance of item: never used (you should save the hearts)
Strategy: First, collect the 5 hearts from the rightmost item candle,
then collect the rest and walk into the portal.
When the battle begins, L. Vampire will be on the left side, protected
by the bat shield. Position yourself so that the doves just barely
touch her. Keep jumping and attacking. The bat shield will eventually
dissipate, and you should get two or three hits in. The bats will fly
away. Stop attacking and stand still exactly in the center of the screen
(just line up with the cross/circles in the background), and just wait
until the bats go away. I couldn't attack L. Vampire without having to
get too close and getting hit by the bats when I jumped.
Next, attack while the bat shield reforms. L. Vampire will fly to the
right side of the screen. Re-align yourself, and attack a couple more
times. Then, be prepared to slide away, as the next bat attack will
home in towards you immediately after the bats fly off the top of the
screen. The third attack seems unpredictable to me. It might be the
bat spiral (in this case, stand in the center, just a bit closer to
L. Vampire's side), or a three-leafed-shape bat attack (in this case,
back off all the way to the other side of the screen). The homing
attack might show up again, so you have to be prepared for anything.
13 Shaft's Ghost
--------
Item needed for battle: Dragon
Heart count before going in portal: 99
Importance of item: crucial
Strategy: The dragon special will only take about 75% of his health, so
you must attempt to reduce his health by a bit over a quarter before
summoning it. Use a combination of the regular attack, and use the
dragon normally once or twice if he's away from your reach. Then,
summon the special and he should be dead. The main reason to avoid
using the special in the beginning is that he is more likely to summon
stronger beasts as his health gets low.
14 Dracula
--------
Item needed for battle: Dragon OR Turtle (pick your strategy for the
third form below)
Heart count before going in portal: 76
Importance of item: crucial
Strategy: The first two forms are straightforward. I HIGHLY recommend
that you practice through the normal game mode's Level 8 before
attempting the Full Boss Rush.
Briefly speaking:
First form: stand far enough that the doves will just hit Dracula's
head. Attack his head twice, while watching what he does with his
arms. If he pulls his arm backwards (away from you), fireballs are
coming. Stand still and attack a few times. The doves will destroy the
fireballs. Alternatively, attempt to jump over them. If he stretches
his arm forward (towards you), two dark balls are coming. Time a double
jump over them.
Second form: double jump to attack his head and slide under him. Hard
to explain the exact timing; just practice by playing through Level 8.
Third form, Dragon strategy: while Dracula morphs, keep attacking his
body for a couple of hits. His next immediate attack will be the red
shower. Slide quickly underneath him and use the special. His life
will be roughly halved. From here on, you're on your own. Please read
SinDaemon's Boss FAQ on GameFAQs for the description of the attacks.
Again, I recommend you learn the teleport positions and what attacks
they foretell on your own. It's much simpler to see them yourself than
trying to picture something I am writing in words.
Special thanks to SneakySnake2 of the GameFAQs boards for describing
the turtle strategy to me: after sitting under Dracula and waiting for
the rain to stop, use the normal turtle shell to protect yourself. A few
of his attacks will break your shell (the wolf attack and one of the
blazing, quick, red ground attacks), but do little or no damage. Now wait
until Dracula teleports in preparation for his "Bat-throwing" attack.
As soon as you see this happening, break out of the shell and walk all
the way over to the end of the opposite side of the screen, and start
attacking normally. You should hit the stream of bats about three
times. While slow and tedious, this method will almost assuredly
whittle down Dracula's health to about 1/3, at which point he stops
using the "Bat-throwing" attack. Then, you're on your own again, but in
much better shape to defeat him.
