Part 77: Boss: Serpent (with bonus extras!)

Welcome back!

Last time, we slaughtered our way through the Typhoon Tower, stretching our already-thin supplies to the breaking point. Now, with one shot of Alheal and whatever Rah-Rah we can scrounge up in the boss fight being our only healing, it's time to kill the master of this place and stop the acid rain.







That guy doesn't look too happy to see us.

: Mmph! That's the Klepp King! Set your mind on defeating him, Justin!

: Leave it to me!

: But... he looks so weak. Plus, there's only one of him. I'd be surprised if the poor thing gets a single attack off.



Good job pissing off the boss, Justin.







: Do not flinch, Justin! If you focus your strength, there's no opponent you can't defeat. Go!

: Easy for you to say! You have armor! And you're already dead!


(New boss theme!)



The Serpent here is a tricky fight. It's got the main body and four different, independent heads. All five parts of the boss have a special attack, and they never do anything but.



The Hot Head, the red one in the center-left will use Hot Gas. Frequently, as it's the fastest enemy in this fight by a decent margin.



Deals about 25 HP worth of fire damage in a radius that in no way matches up with the attack animation. Sue and Feena get hit with this one, but Justin escapes unharmed.



The Mean Head, the cyclops on the far right, has Killer Bite, a single-target physical attack. The damage isn't so bad...



... but it causes Move Block, limiting your offense to basic attacks and whatever spells you can scrounge up.



The Bad Head, the golden one on the far left, will hit you with Stun Gas. It's another AoE, like Hot Gas, but deals physical damage like Killer Bite. It can also inflict paralysis.



The final head, the Nice Head, will use Recover Gas, healing exactly 100 HP to all enemies. It's also got the highest HP of all the heads, so it's almost guaranteed to get this move off once or twice before you can blitz it down.



The main body's attack, 4-Head Attack, is another physical AoE. It has no added effect, but hits for a big pile of damage.





The main problem with this guy is managing all the attacks you'll be taking. Like Ganymede or the Squid King, only one part can be charging a move at a time, leaving the rest to sit there until its done. This, however, usually gives you just enough time to stand back up before the next attack, but not enough to do anything useful.



Resurrect potions fully heal whoever they revive. The plan was to use that fact to compensate for lack of healing.





For the most part, things seem to be going well. The Nice Head only got one Recover Gas off before dying, so the incidental damage I'm dealing in between resurrections here is, at least, sticking. Plus, Feena's whips have a very short delay for their Critical, making them great for canceling charging moves. Like, say, Hot Gas.



Shit. It still has a smidgen of HP left. Hopefully I get lucky on the Stun Gas not paralyzing.



Shit.



Feena goes down for good; Sue's out of resurrection potions, and Justin doesn't carry any because he's usually the one doing the dying.



Before Justin or Sue gets a chance to move, they get hit by a Killer Bite and another Hot Gas.



Justin eats a third in the time it takes him to run up and start swinging. The Hot Head is fucking FAST.



And he takes a Stun Gas while he's still down from the Hot Gas.



The Hot Head has 2 HP left, and Sue has no way of restoring HP, at least until Justin can hit her with the Magic Lamp.



Which he no longer has the HP to do. Thankfully, even Sue is faster than the rest of the monsters, and the two remaining heads don't have much HP. If she can whittle them down with the Hail Bow, she can still pull a victory.



... And then all three of the remaining pieces get sequential turns.



Hmm. I can still salvage the challenge, though. Instead of destroying the Nice Head ASAP, the real problem is the damage and IP stun from the Hot Head's rapid turns. If I give Sue all of my Resurrection Potions and the Fire Charm to mitigate the damage, give Justin the Power Mushroom so he hits harder, and have everyone blitz down the Hot Head, I should be able to take care of this guy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vsQHQQ8QhvU (Polsy link)

I love it when a plan comes together.

Fun fact: If I were playing the difficulty hack, this is where it'd end. It actually prevents you from going on to the next area once you get back to Dight.

Next time: Lots of cutscene.



And now for some bonus videos!

In case you wanted to see how the failed run looked in motion:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=agS4dETDxJo (Polsy link)



In a normal playthrough, you'll be hitting the save point just before this guy so you can come in at full strength. In which case he's so easy, even the AI can handle it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L3XCnFppvWc (Polsy link)



Of course, poor Gadwin has been spending all of his time, y'know, dead. Let's give him a chance to show his stuff.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ud4wPgLIsvQ (Polsy link)