Enemy/Boss Strategies

[Cluck]

Quickest and safest way I've found to kill ice ruins miniboss. I did it cleaner, but the basic setup is there. http://www.twitch.tv/xcluck/c/3393636

[kirbymastah]

Some strategies I've come up with for a few specific fights.

Swamp Palace Boss 2nd Phase:

Have Ice Rod Equipped (perfect if you're doing turtle rock after swamp palace, which I'm doing).
Slash it 2-3 times while it's on the ground. When it jumps, immediately ice rod to damage it and knock it back down to ground and freeze it shortly. Repeat. Should be faster than just dodging each time.

Giant Electric Jellyfishish Fights (in 4 trials, and miniboss in swamp palace):

Have Bow equipped

Immediately slash it 4-5 times. It'll electrify itself. Shoot it with the bow exactly twice, then start slashing it again. If you have master sword lvl 2, it'll split up after 2-3 more slashes.

When it splits up, shoot 2-3 smaller guys since they start off electrified, then run around; you have barely enough time to slash the rest manually (takes me 3-4 slashes usually) before they electrify themselves again.


Tower of Hera Boss

I personally find it easier to use the bow on this fight, actually, since the bow does 2 damage. I haven't practiced the timing yet, but the first pattern is always the same, so you can easily snipe it at the very start of the fight without moving, probably with some audio cue (I'll figure that out some time soon).

Might come down to personal preference, but I just think using the bow is easier since your mobility isn't slowed down when charging a spin attack. Three bow shots are pretty reasonable to hit it with; after that, it turns red and move really fast, but at that point, all you need is one normal sword slash to finish it off.

[Roadagain]

Moldorm at the Tower of Hera... I think my strat for the thing is pretty optimal.



I run in and slash Moldorm, then stay roughly at the circled area in the above image. Since Moldorm sort of comes right at you, it allows you to charge the spin attack, as well as dodge by forcing Moldy to hit the hole and be turned away. Then you just repeat it till it dies.

One thing that's worth noting is that this is also roughly where the heart appears. However, if the Heart appears right at the spot you stand at, you won't pick it up until you walk away and back. Just something to keep in mind.

[kirbymastah]

One thing that's worth noting is that this is also roughly where the heart appears. However, if the Heart appears right at the spot you stand at, you won't pick it up until you walk away and back. Just something to keep in mind.

This also applies to the warps in the 4 trials of Lorule Castle, so if you finish off a trial boss, you want to stand right BY the warp if possible, rather than on top of it, before it spawns.

Anyways, I've started practicing Yuganon and this is what I do for the first phase (which is a tough fight to learn =/)

If he swings his weapon, stay just outside of its range. Right after his swing, fire an arrow then run in and slash him twice. I'm sure using the bow is faster than not, as if you don't shoot it, you can only squeeze in two slashes anyways.

I also use the tornado rod to dodge his spinning rod attack; not really faster, but hey, it helps avoid damage!

[Roadagain]

This also applies to the warps in the 4 trials of Lorule Castle, so if you finish off a trial boss, you want to stand right BY the warp if possible, rather than on top of it, before it spawns.

This is true as well. Speaking of the trials, the Moldorm strategy works to an extent in the Trial version too, by staying in the corners of the field, which drastically reduces the chance of Moldorm actually hitting you. Not as effective as in ToH, but eh.

[mzxrules]

The Yuganon notes I wrote for a post on Zelda Universe. Most of it covers A.I. behavior.

When the fight starts, move left or right a touch to lure him into a lunge attack for some easy hits.  There are two different strategies to combat the basic attacks that Yuganon throws in phase one.

• You can be extremely aggressive and get up in Ganon's grill. The standard lunge can be dodged by being super close and preferably rotating clockwise so that you stay near his non-trident hand. To avoid the slash attack, you basically slash to recoil off of his trident, just barely out of reach as long as you aren't backed up against a wall. You still want to be attacking his non-trident side.
• You can lay back a bit. You'll be more vulnerable to the standard lunge, but should be able to easily avoid the slash attack with patience.

Either way, watch out for Ganon's double slash attack. It's easy to dodge when you know it's there.

With maybe 1/4th of his health gone, Ganon will start using a teleport, or a teleport  into a slash attack. You can read where he teleports by watching the particle effect that pops up when he teleports away: he will spawn in the same general direction as the particles move to. He will also use a charged lunge attack that can be avoided easily by standing closer to the opposite wall and moving roughly parallel to the trident.

At 1/2 of his health gone (critical health), Ganon will start to flash red, and will introduce two more attacks, as well as teleport around more frequently. The first attack is one where various balls will shoot lightning down causing an explosion on the ground. This attack is easily avoided by simply making sure that you are moving. Yuganon will typically use this attack as soon as he reaches critical health, but sometimes it will be delayed if he hits critical health while in the teleport->slash pattern.

The second is Ganon's famous trident toss, which shares the same sort of charge animation as the charged trident lunge. The trident toss will replace the charged trident lunge, but occasionally Ganon will throw in a charged trident lunge immediately following a trident toss. Avoiding the trident toss is a little tricky: If Ganon is standing next to a wall before the trident is thrown, you can stand at the opposite wall and safely avoid the attack. Otherwise, staying close to Ganon will allow you to predict how the trident will move since about a few seconds after Ganon throws the trident, he teleports, and you can use the particle effect to guess where he will spawn (and consequently the point that the trident will home in on when he catches it). There is a safe spot to stand near the trident-less hand such that you won't be hit when he tosses the trident, allowing you to view the particle effect.

After phase one is the second and final phase, and arguably his easier phase. There are three parts to this phase:

Part 1: Ganon will always start with a dead man's volley. If you swing and miss the ball, you won't be able to deflect it back, so you will need to focus and be patient with your swings. If you miss, you can try to merge with a nearby wall, but don't rely on this. After Ganon is hit and you collect the light arrows, simply shoot his front then behind, and hack away when he pops out of the wall. With the Lv1 Master Sword, this will take 8 swings (which suggests that the Lv1 Master Sword deals extra damage for this fight). When Ganon pops back into the wall, you will want to merge into the corner of the wall to avoid the fire bats. Unmerge once or twice to conserve magic.

Part 2: Same sort of deal as part 1, but the volley ball will move faster this time. Shoot once with the light arrow to force Ganon to charge at you, unmerge, merge behind him.

Part 3: After you dodge all the bats from the last phase, you are home free. This time, you are allowed to spam your sword slash to return the two volley balls. Fire the light arrow, stab once more, done.

[kirbymastah]

In Yuganon Phase 2, you do NOT want to merge during the light ball attack as it wastes like 1-2 seconds from the merge + unmerge animation. Just manually dodge them (or tornado rod); you should only merge if you're at risk of dying.

[mzxrules]

Yea some of it is scrub / three heart run strats rather than speed strats.

[RheaultWnage]

Small observation. Zaganaga (Desert Palace Boss) seems to always start the fight by going to the right platform. (He's gone there every time since I've been paying attention, at least.) So, falling down on the right half of the arena to activate the boss after exiting the portal and Sand Rod-ing straight down to that platform would be ideal.

Also, does anyone know a foolproof method of getting on his platform during his second phase? I seem to be only able to get on it about half the time, while the other half something appears to be blocking me.


EDIT: The idea of him always starting the fight by going right is WRONG.

On his current practice file (slot # 3), Anwonu has him always going left. My own file (slot # 2) has him always going right. My last PB (slot # 1), he went right. Anwonu tried copying his file from #3 to #2, and he still went left for him on #2. His WR run had him go right though.

It seems something at some point in the game sets the direction he will start with. Maybe?

[Anwonu]

This one is kinda obvious (though I just thought about it today while training =p), but didn't see it anywhere yet, and should help a lot: for Gemesaur 1st phase, instead of throwing bombs, just lay them close to his mask after lighting only 1 torch, and light the 2nd before they explode.
The interval between bombs is like.. 0.3s? Something like that; just don't put too fast and it should be fine.

Edit: http://www.twitch.tv/anwonu/c/3522274 (ignore last phase =p)

[Anwonu]

For those curious about the 4 armos room in eastern palace: 2 spins and spin + slashes seems to be roughly the same time. If there's a difference, it's by something like 0.1s.
That said, I suggest 2 spins attacks. After you do 1, you can already hold B to start charging another.

[kirbymastah]

After hitting Yuganon's final phase with the third arrow of light, I was like "Hm, let's fire a normal arrow for lulz"

It finished him off. This is faster than dashing into him

I'm tired so I'm gonna go to bed, but I wanna test out trying hookshot instead LOL. Unfortunately if hookshot is faster, it's probably by frames; I personally equip tornado rod and bow for the fight, meaning I'll have to do an item switch.

[mzxrules]

After the third light arrow the last hit can be anything. I thought people knew this?

[Anwonu]

1st chain ball guy in Hyrule Castle: he usually defends after 4 slashes, but you can do 3 slashes + bow, then 4 more slashes. He won't defend.

[KingOfHeart]

Got tips for the Dark Temple boss?
I'm on Hero Mode, and I don't want to use a Fairy or healing for a boss fight, so trying to figure out how to win against him.

I use Super bombs for the first part of him and he usually goes down with at most one attack.
The second part, I don't know what to do to dodge him. In normal mode, I could take a few hits, but I can't make mistakes like before.

edit: nvm, figured it out.
For anyone who wants to know, you could do something like this.

In the first part of the boss fight, just place two bombs near the boss and he'll get hit by both.. if they're super bombs phase 1 will be over with.
When he's about to shoot spikes, if you're bad at avoiding you can just merge with the wall.

For the second phase when it goes dark, walk to the center area of the stage and walk into a circle pattern. He'll then stop, giving you time to light at least one lantern.
You can quickly try the same pattern or just merge with the wall to the other lantern. Once you strike your sword once, take a step back because he might try a bite attack.. then swing a few times.
It will go dark again, just do the same thing as before.