Boss Rush (Video & Tips)

[StraightVege]

 

I recommend doing this mode last, so you have plenty of experience with the bosses. It's also a good idea to practice the final two in mission mode first, until you're very familiar. I made plenty of dumb mistakes in this video, so there's definitely a good margin for error. Firstly, be sure not to accidentally pick-up the singular health kit; save it until you need it. I don't know most of the official boss names, so I'll just go off their appearance:

 

1) Robot Centipede - An easy one to start with. It'll charge twice to begin the fight; strike it once as it approaches, then jump onto the platform, and fall down to hit it twice more as it retreats. Now wait on the left platform until it pokes out, then jump over to slash it twice in mid-air, before running under the right platform to avoid its fire attack. Jump onto the right platform and repeat. I experimented with hitting it from underneath in the video, which didn't go well, so don't do it. It'll only charge once next time.

 

2) Samurai - One of the easiest bosses. Jump over his dash and slash him in the back a couple of times, then walk back and forth to avoid his energy column, getting in a couple of hits as you do. Repeat until dead. When on the right side of the screen, he'll perform 2 energy attacks, so be aware. Never strike him from the front, or he'll retaliate with slashes.

 

3) Some kinda machine? - This one can be tricky and damage you severely. Before the fight begins, position yourself just under the right weakpoint, and slash like crazy until it's destroyed, then quickly crouch next to the lowest one and repeat. Now get onto that moving platform fast, hitting any projectiles with your sword as you jump. From here, jump-strike the highest weak spot until you win. If you lose too much life here, it's probably best to restart.

 

4) Giant Mech - Quite easy, but be careful not to walk right off the platform when the battle starts (yes, I did that). Wait on the middle-right platform until it moves forward, then mash attack until the laser targeting line becomes solid. A moment later, jump to the middle-left platform, and continue slashing. When the blue crosshair appears, time a jump-slash to destroy both of its missiles; there are two volleys. Then repeat the strategy from the beginning of the fight, this time jumping back to the right. It should be defeated shortly after.

 

5)  Curved Sword Mercenary - Similar to fighting the Samurai, but harder. Stay on the left to begin with, and see if he chooses to leap attack in the middle or dash all the way to you. You have to jump over him, then jump over his energy waves, sneaking in hits whenever you can. Stay close to him and jump over immediately after his attacks, otherwise his leaps become too unpredictable. Seems tough at first, but he's actually pretty easy once you get into the rhythm.

 

6) Tree Snake - Another easy one that should never damage you. Jump to the highest branch and slash until the branch breaks, then hold left and jump up and down on the lower branch to preserve its integrity while dodging the fire attack. Repeat two more times.

 

7) Skeleton Mech - Patience is the key here. Don't jump onto a fist until the head shakes, preparing its eye lasers, or you'll get out of rhythm and be damaged by them. Just alternate jumping off fists to strike the head twice in mid-air, until it's destroyed, and an overweight man pops out. The strategy remains the same, but make sure you're safely on the moving platform beneath him when he throws grenades. He goes down pretty quickly.

 

8} Big Brain - The AI didn't behave during my fight, so I got confused and took a lot of unnecessary damage, but this is not a difficult boss. Hang from the left pole until it rushes, then drop down and deliver a bunch of jumping slashes. When it charges up projectile attacks, hang on the left again until it fires, then go counter-clockwise around the room, and start hitting it again. Just repeat until victory.

 

9) Hackan - You may need to backtrack and grab the health item before this one. I've found that trying to beat this guy without getting hit always left me worse off than being aggressive, so strike the boss as he approaches, then duck and slash away at the back of his ankles. Repeat this until he falls. Sometimes, he'll randomly decide to run into you instead, but just keep crouch-slashing him in the legs and he'll drop fast. If he hangs on the pole, it's safest to simply dodge his grenades until he returns to the ground. There's a rare glitch that softlocks the game, where the boss hangs forever, and can't be killed. It happened to me when I was on the far right side, so stay in the middle to be safe.

 

10) Doozer (that's really his name) - Phase 1 isn't bad. Walk around until his teleport slashes miss, then retaliate with a few of your own. He didn't get the chance to perform his energy orb attack in the video, but it's easy enough to dodge by staying in the middle and watching them. After he transforms into Rick from Splatterhouse 3, he'll fire projectiles in this pattern: high, low, high, high, low, low, high. Strike him several times, then retreat to the right side, and duck/jump as appropriate. Immediately following the final high projectile, he'll cause an explosion under you, so jump out of the way, towards him. Do this again to close the distance, then deliver a few slashes, before dodging the third explosion. Now he'll fire two low projectiles; jump over each, and hit him three more times. At this point, he'll prepare to charge across the screen, which does a lot of damage, so get ready on the right. When the boss turns white, jump a quarter-second later to avoid it, then slash him. The same pattern just repeats from here, so he's very predictable and fairly simple to beat once you practice enough. After charging back to the left, he won't charge again after the two low shots, and will instead do the long series from the beginning again; be ready for that.

 

11) Mobile Weapons Platform, I guess? - Your biggest enemy here will be nerves. It does the same two attacks over and over, so this is a test of your patience, consistency, and composure. Jump when the laser targeting beam disappears; make sure it's a full jump, by holding X. When the laser cannon rises, walk forward, crouch, and mash attacks to the left, which will destroy the incoming missiles. During all of this, you want to be jump-slashing the weak spot, although it's annoyingly invincible half the time. Don't get too close to it, as it will damage you when it glows. I found it best to time my jump by watching the grey area of the robot in my peripheral vision, since that makes it easier to see exactly when the orange line disappears. As you can see, I was one hit away from failure!

 

That's it—enjoy your gold trophy, and probably the platinum. Hope this is helpful to someone!