Date: Tue, 19 Aug 1997 18:25:24 -0700 From: ldctk The LordLocke Guide to the Bosses of StarFox 64 v2.5 Hello again! This is your ol' pal, LordLocke, whippin' up another hot faq for your viewing pleasure. This one is on the BOSSES of StarFox 64. The regular stages are overly easy (I defeated all of them the first time I reached them, and I never played the orignal StarFox), so I felt they didn't need a run-through. The bosses, on the other hand, were fairly challanging, and caused MAJOR problems, especially the ones closer to Venom. At one point (The Star Wolf team on Venom), I almost threw down the controller, yanked out the game, tied it to a REAL plane, and watch IT get shot down. But, in the end, I won, and that was that. So, even though this game is a rental-finish, I decided to write a FAQ anyways. About The BEAT THE BOSS SERIES ------------------------------ Because of lack of demand...IT'S DEAD! Version History --------------- v. 1.0: The first one! v. 2.0: Corrections in spelling. Revised tatics in Sector Z Added Mulit-Player Tatics Added Medal Information v. 2.5: Corrected Warp in Sector X Added Boss Names More Multi-Player Tips Added thank you section ` Killed the "Beat the Boss" label Changed Andross's brain stratagy Added "Earning A Medal" mini-section Other minor corrections Basic Boss Fighting Tips ------------------------ Forget the Barrel Roll: Only a couple bosses have projectiles that are deflected by this (MAJOR EXCEPTION: The lasers of the Star Wolf team can be deflected, and while waiting for the boost to refill, this is your ONLY option) Listen to your Wing Men: Peppy in particular, as if you havn't found the weak points, he'll tell them to you. Falco and Peppy consist of a cheering squad, who'll tell you if what you're doing is working. While Slippy won't say much (he never does, unless he's in trouble), he provides the boss meter. This will help you decide what tactics to take. Nova Bombs: In most cases, these are worthless. The only bosses I've found a use for these are the bosses of Zoness (you MUST use them here), Aquas, Titania, and Sector Z. If you are not fighting one of these, use lasers. These can, however, find the enemies weak spot for you. Charged Laser Shots: Use these only on bosses with LARGE damage areas. Full Range Mode: If fighting in all-range mode, use the radar to find the boss if you lose him, not to mention find your wingmen. Earning Those Medals -------------------- To earn the medals, you must do the following *Kill the required number of enemies *Keep all 3 wingmen alive I will give each medal a 1-10 diff rating, from 1 being a cake walk, to 10, being MEGA HARD! The Bosses ---------- Corneria Medal: Basically, shoot everything that moves. Try to look for clusters to rack up a few free points. Hit all of both the immobile and wave-riding mechs. At +5 and +3 to hits each, these are too good to pass up. Also, try and hit the "cars" on the road in the first half of the stage. They are all clustered, making an easy +2 or +3 bonus possible. You need 150 kills....no problem! Difficulty: 2 Granga: This boss is a giant humanoid robot. This guy is easy. First, shoot one of the legs. Then, make a U-Turn and fire upon his back. If you have the Hyper Laser, you should be able to destroy it on one pass. If not, just make a U-Turn, then fire again upon his back. REAL EASY! Attack Carrier: Despite how easy the first one is, this one is even easier. Just shoot the open pod. It'll open the right one first, then both the ones on the left. As you are fireing, you'll also take out the fighters and missles coming out. After the pods are gone. Fire on the main part, avoiding the fire he shoots as the charges at you. Peice of Cake. Meteo Medal: You should use at least one Nova Bomb in each of the meteor fields, and charge shots on the enemies in rings. Another good spot for Nova Bombs is inside the second "ring" meteor, where the wierd planes wrap some sort to ribbon around your jet, taking out the laser turrents inside. These 4 areas should give you about 125 hits if done right, so only 75 regular hits are needed. There IS a warp just teeming with enemies, which can be accessed by flying through the blue triangle rings, but it's tough to do, so don't rely on the warp. Difficulty: 6 (1 IF you manage to hit the warp) Meteo Crusher: This boss can be tricky if you don't know what you're doing. FIrst, fire upon the yellow spots under the laser shield, avoiding his laser shots. When the shield is removed, do not forget to avoid it. The new target is in the center of the body, and is only vulnerable when he is charging or firing his hyper-laser. Stay away from the center of the screen, and fire upon the target. Lastly, he flips over, and his two targets are just above and under the center. Watch out for the ripple laser, and fire at whichever spot is yellow. To avoid the laser, move up or down from where you are. This works better if you start from the very top of bottom of the screen. Fortuna Medal: You have to take out at least 6 enemies before Star Wolf shows up, then YOU YOURSELF must take out all four members of Star Wolf. Only 50.....that's easy. Difficulty: 1 Star Wolf (in the Wolfen 1): Ah, your first encounter with Star Wolf. This one is tricky if you don't pay attention to those messages. Each member of Star Wolf has a trademark message. Wolf: "You'll be seeing your father soon, Fox." This meens that Wolf is about to open fire on YOU! Do a loop-the-loop, and Wolf will comment "What the Heck?", and pass under you. Open fire on HIM now! Leon: "Annoying Bird, I am the Great Leon" Even if Falco dosn't say that he's in trouble, he is. This is the PERFECT TIME to take care of Leon. Find Falco. If you find Falco, you'll find Leon. Now, open fire on Leon. He'll either try a loop the loop (If you are far enough away, you can shoot him while he's doing this), or just keep following Falco. SHOOT HIM DOWN! The only time you should ignore messages like these is if Wolf is on your tail Pigma: "I'll do you fast, Peppy old pal" Same as Leon, only Pigma is following Peppy. Andrew: "Stick to the pond, Froggie" Same a Leon and Pigma, only Andrew is following Slippy. Also, if any wingmen are down, their respective enemy will work on YOU! So, KEEP THOSE WINGMEN ALIVE! Also all 4 will take pot shots at you without messages. So keep alert about laser fire around you. If you finish off the members of Star Wolf while they are chasing your wingmen, this will be easy. This time around, you have 3 min. to kill 'em all off. If you are having trouble, don't worry. All you have to do is to survive for the 3 min. Sector X medal: This one is tough. You should Nova Bomb at the first wave of enemies, and again just before you enter the tunnel. You need to have at least 80 kills coming out of the tunnel, as the rest of the level, including the warp, is not very enemy heavy. The warp is on the left side, and no matter how hard it is to shoot open all 4 gates, it's easier than saving Slippy from the boss. There are about 80 kills inside the warp as well, but all the enemies are spread out until the end. Note: IF THE BOSS SWATS SLIPPY, IT STILL COUNTS AS LOSING A WINGMAN. YOU WILL NOT GET THE MEDAL. Difficulty: 6 SpyBorg: This contraption has a VERY SMALL target. You better be good with your aim. This boss will attack first with a blue laser, which looks a LOT like the lasers from um...well, that old Sega arcade game where you are running away from the player...anyone know it's name? Anyways, move left or right to avoid it. Then, it'll swing downwards at you with it's two fists, first the right, then the left. It's vulnerable after it swings the left, when it turns it's head towards you. FIRE AT THE EYES! Just keep repating until you "destroy" it. It will suddenly come back to life, and start attacking. YOU HAVE ONE BATTLE CYCLE TO SAVE SLIPPY! Target the EXACT CENTER of the neck with your laser. Once again, if you have the hyper or twin laser, you should make it fine as long as you DON'T MISS. If you only have one laser, shoot Nova Bombs the whole time you're fireing to deal that extra notch of damage you'll need. The battle cycle is this: He throws a peice of sheet metal with the left hand, then swings with the right. That's it. Titania Medal: Just shoot everything. No fancy tricks. As Peppy said, "Just shoot it, Fox" Using the charged laser helps, though. Difficulty: 5 Goras: If you're here, you just HAD to let Slippy get swatted. You're going to need your nova bombs here. At first, all you see are two hammer-like claws, and a claw holding Slippy's ArWing. Just worry about avoiding the hammers until the monster dives under the sand. When he comes up, he'll do a little taunt opener, then attack. As soon as it starts attacking, fire a Nova Bomb. Keep fireing Nova Bombs until you are out, or the only limb left is holding Slippy. Start fireing on the limb holding Slippy, until he breaks free. You'll quickly destroy it. If you didn't have enough nova bombs, this is where it gets hard. You must destroy the two hammers, as well as the two turrent-claws, with just your cannon. Roll left or right to avoid the hammers, and fire upon them first. Then, just move left and right rapidly to avoid the lasers, and destroy the claws. After all 4 limbs are gone, fire at the chest, avoiding the tail by hovering, and avoiding the HUGE beam by rolling, then hovering over it as approaches you. If it gets all it limbs back, repeat until dead. Bolse Medal: This is a lot easier if Star Wolf is still around. It's still possible if they arn't, but you have to shoot out all the pods on the core while they still give a +10 bonus. Any way you put it, you must do it while the core gives a +5, so take care of Star Wolf fast if they do show up. Difficulty: 8 Bolse Core: If you didn't take care of Star Wolf at Fortuna, then you'll face them here. Use the previous tatics, but this time, YOU MUST KILL THEM. Otherwise, fire upon the yellow spots on the rotating core after it appears. Every time a yellow target dissapears, a laser turrent will appear on it. Barral Roll when you get close. Near the end, if you have Nova Bombs, use them to take care of the final targets without entering that Guantlet of lasers. Sector Y medal: Same as Titania. Just use bombs after the ship drops down and releaces the two waves of 9, and right after ROB64 calls. Difficulty: 3 Shoguns & Shogun Warlord: It opens as a battle vs 2 huge shielded warriors. These two slow moving targets are easy to kill. Just fire at them. Really. The 3rd one will be launched after the first two are scrapped. This one moves fast, and has a shield that will asorb laser blasts. You can handle this one in two ways: Hunt him down, and make a pass by it, blasting like mad, than U-Turning and repeating, or wait for him to say "I'll take you out from the ship." Then go to the ship, and take him out there. Through this whole battle your wingmen will be taking damage from laser shots, so the faster this goes, the healther your wingmen will be Katania Medal: SHOOT EVERYTHING! Take out 3 hatches, but save the 4th. This'll keep a stead stream of targets coming out. Keep killing fighters until the core counter is at about 30 seconds. You can cut it closer, but I don't reccomend it Difficulty: 7 Saucerer: Easy. Just make runs at the hatches when they open. Then make runs at the core when it appears. The only challange is avoiding the stray shots from the battle below, plus the one-min time limit to take out the core when it appears. Solar Medal: Another just shoot everything medal. The only time bombs help is when a huge flock of lava monsters fly by. Difficulty: 4 Vulcan: Another Easy boss. First, fire at the arms. During this fight, avoid the claws. The left ones swings up to down, the right swings right to left. When he dives and makes a wave, turbo through to get by without a scratch. Shoot the rocks that appear when he dives to refill your bar. After the arms are gone, shoot the head, and watch out for the jump attack where he zooms out of the lava, surrounded by boulders. It's over sooner than you think. MacBeth Medal: A common mistake is to just shoot the enemies, not the train. If you only shoot one thing, SHOOT THE TRAIN! If you can take out everything before they are dumped, you will rack up 75 of the 150 you need. Hitting the switches is the easy way to get another 50 hits. The order is Right, Right, Right, Left, Left (Katt will get these two if you came from Zoness), Right, Right, Left (The last one behind a wall...SHOOT IT DOWN!) Then shoot the box, then the lever that appears. Difficulty: 6 MechBeth: If you hit the switches, you took the easy, but better way out. If not, then fire upon the boss, first at the tail, then the head. Whenever he drops the spears, charge a shot, and blast 3-5 at once. Dodge the tail swipe be rolling left or right. After both the head and tail are gone, fire first at the train whenever the hatch raises, then the kite. When the kite fires a Suber-Blast, head to one side of the screen, then when it starts, move to the other. Hover over the blocks the train drops, or just avoid them Aquas Medal: Did I mention shoot everything? Your finger should NEVER leave the brakes. If the torpedoes lock on, kill it. Difficulty: 3 Bacoon: To make this battle easier, first fire upon the 3 knobs on top of it's head to remove the snake-creatures from the battle. Then fire at the two collumns whenever the mouth opens, and when it changes to rainbow colors, fire a missle. When both collumns are gone, then shoot at the barrier surrounding the eye, then shoot a missle at the eye itself. After about 3-4 hits, start shooting at the pearl pods before the eye to make the battle easier. Zoness Medal: YOU MUST HIT ALL THE SEARCH LIGHTS! When you hit, you get a +2 bonus if the light is yellow. You only get 1 hit if it's red. Otherwise, another shoot everything level. Just make the lights first priority. Lots of charged shots, too. Difficulty: 9 Sarumarine: WHAT A PAIN! You have to use Nova bombs for most of the battle. During the majority of the battle, shoot the oil barrals it drops to refill your shields. Fire at the cannonballs to get more bombs. First, fire at the exaust pipes whenever they are raised. Each should take 2-4 bombs. Then, start fireing at the side pods, where the cannons are. When one goes down, fire at the crane when the ship turns arount to pick up the cannon. If at any time the ship submerges, then just fly around and avoid the spiked ball. When both cannons and the crane are down, it'll start fireing a steady stream of fire, and continously fires the spiked ball at you. Fly back and forth to avoid the ball, and fly near the top of the screen to avoid the flames. Your target is right around where the spiked ball rested. Lasers will work now, too. Sector Z Medal: After this stage, YOU WILL WANT TO KILL YOUR WINGMEN! (Not really, but you'll feel like it). You must kill all 6 missles! Sadly, more than often, one of your wingmen will kill one while you finish off the other two in the final set. Use bombs to hit all 3, but wait for distance 20, so that you'll kill them with the bombs instead of just making it that much easier for your wingmen to kill. Difficulty: 10 6 Copperhead Missles: The 6 missles are real pains. The first one isn't too bad, and if Falco isn't busy, he'll help you out by adding his fire to yours. When the next two come, Falco will make a return visit, and Slippy will join in. Slippy will destroy a missle by himself, and Falco will help you destroy another one. If you came from Zoness, Katt will join it to help you with missles 4, 5, and 6. All your wingmen will also help out,if they are not busy. Katt and Falco will take out the missle on the far right (This is if you are BEHIND the missles), Slippy and Peppy will take out the missle on the left, and you alone must take out the one in the center. If ANY of the wingmen do not appear, or if you came from Sector X. you should fire steady stream of Nova Bombs during the 3rd set. Area 6 Medal: Shoot enemies, shoot ships, shoot everything. Brake a lot. Bomb a lot. Just kill off as much as you can. Charge shots almost every time. Difficulty: 4 Gorgon: This oddball boss isn't very tough, but he IS confusing. First, fire at the 3 red energy balls. This should take a notch off his life meter. After this, fire at the claws. Whenever he dissapears (except after you fire all 3 of the claws off), he'll releace a volly of missles. Shoot as many as you can, as some yeild energy rings. After you shoot off the claws, he'll fire off A LOT of missles. Just keep shooting, using a bomb if REALLY needed. After you shoot off the red energy balls for the 3rd time, start fireing at the center. When it closes, work on the claws again. He now releaced fighters instead of missles, but your tatics for the missles still work. After you shoot off the claws now, he'll fire a HUGE laser. DO NOT PANIC! Just fly over to the upper left or right. Park it in the corner until it's over. Repeat until dead. Venom (Easy Route) Venom Medal: You only need to medal Venom (Hard Route). Besides, it's VERY HARD to medal on the easy path. Difficulty: 6 (10 on Venom 1) GoleMech: You should worry about avoiding the obsticles more than shooting down the boss. Fire upon the chest, then the sholders, then the feet, then finally the rear. After that, the head will turn red. Shoot the head, then the center of the body. As I said, the obsticles are the larger threat. Andross's Telekinetic Attack: Andross's giant head, and two hands, will appear. To take him out, first fire upon his eyes. Since you should have the Hyper Lasers, you should be able to get him before he attacks. While he's stunned, fire at the RIGHT hand. He'll fire back when he recovers with a electric bolt. Depending on what side of the head you were on, fly to the opposite side. After both hands are gone, fire at the eyes, and if he tries to suck you in, fire a Nova bomb, the hit the breaks and fly over to one of the extreme sides. When the face explodes, fire at the robot's eyes, avoiding it's charge. This is fairly easy. Venom (Hard Route) Venom Medal: KILL ALL STAR WOLF MEMBERS YOURSELF! Also, kill withen 3 min to get +50 bonuses from them! Also, you can allow only one to degrade to +30 to get this medal, so be quick! Difficulty: 6 No matter what, Star Wolf is back, and they have new ships. This is the hardest battle in the game! You'll lose quite a few lives before you get this right. YOU MUST USE THE TATIC EXPLAINED AT FORTUNA IF YOU ARE GOING TO SAVE YOUR WINGMEN! If you can get two of them down fast, the rest is easy. In order to do this though, you need a few more tatics than explained at Fortuna: Wolf, unlike at Fortuna, will NOT STOP until he is dead. So, your first priority should be to make it so. Any of the other 3 members of Star Wolf may stop chasing your wingmen if they see you after them. Even worse, they may start chasing YOU! Beware! ROB64 will be a welcome sight. Any time he drops somthing off, break battle and go get it, loop the looping as needed. Quite often, it's a super ring which will refill about 1/2 your shields. Try to follow the same member of Star Wolf. The more you concentrate on one, the sooner he'll be gone. Always loop the loop if you are being chased, and if you are low on boost, barral roll until it is full. When all else fails, fire a Nova Bomb IF there are two or more Star Wolfs in the bomb area. The damage is about the same as two laser blasts. Andross's Telekinetic Attack: See Venom (Easy Route) Andross's Brain: This is NOT easy. Your first goal is to take out the eyes. This is done easily enough with one nova bomb when the two are close to each other. When the brain attacks itself, just shoot at it. It will teleport BEHIND YOU! While it's teleporting, make a sharp turn to the left or right uning the brake+lean method (U-turn is too confusing) Fire on the odd spot under the front of the brain. Repeat until dead. Multi-Player Tatics ------------------- - Mix up what you use. If other weapons are open, switch when you die in Time Trail and point match: ArWing: Versitile, but is the easiest target for all 3....can outrun all the other weapons. LandMaster: Powrful, but slow.....has a hard time avoiding hits. On Foot: SMALL TARGET! Otherwise, same as landmaster. - Loop the Loop to avoid Locked-on shots. - If behind opponent, and they don't know it, lock on a shot first, then lasers, as if not to let them know it until it's too late. - Watch out for missed shots from others.....in 4 player matches, this is a greater danger than being followed if two people are attacking the same person. - If using the LandMaster, hover up to their level as they pass you, shoot with REGULAR lasers, then drop down. When they loop the loop, and see nothing, their expression will be of confusion.....and since they slowed down, you get to do it again!!! - While on foot may be fun, you are a sitting duck for sharp-shooters. However, crappy pot shots are less of a threat. -Tanks only show on radar if you are about in the same 1/4 the map as it is. You almost have to be on top of a guy on foot for him to appear on radar. Make use of this. - NOVA BOMB ON SIGHT! AfterWord --------- All right, I got a reply e-mail telling me how much better my faq was then Nintendo Power's Guide. Well, I was bored (Car Trip cross country...) and I saw the guide. so I bought it. I tried their techniques when I got home 2 weeks later, and THEY DIDN'T WORK WELL AT ALL! He was right! I did write a better guide than NP. I did, however, make use of the boss names provided by the guide. So just rember, you are reading a guide better than NP's (Just had to gloat over that) Thank you --------- Code_Master (code_master@pipeline.com): Correcting the typo about the warp in Sector X Nintendo Power: Providing me with the boss names Next FAQs --------- X-Men v.s. SF Lufia 2: The Ancient Cave FAQ Dare to Compare: A look at the prominent series of fighting arcade games (SF, MK, Tekken, VF, Marvel, DarkStalkers) DarkStalkers 3: Vampire Savior (Maybe) SF3 Dudley FAQ (Maybe) Tekken 3 Paul FAQ (Maybe) I'l do the last 3 if I get enough requests for them Until next time, Mayhem fans. Matthew Karr (LordLocke) locke@napanet.net --------------742532C71576--