Topic: Exploitable bosses

[crimsonmist]

have you ever found a cheap strategy to deal with certain bosses that would be otherwise either fair or ruthless? as in exploiting their AI? well here's a few i have to pick out:

elizabeth in bloodlines. to some players her teleport pattern seems random, but i found that she will teleport to whichever side is farther away from you. problem is, it doesn't matter how close to the center of the screen you are, and the closer to the center you are, the easier it is to reach her to hit her in time.
and since she will always teleport to whichever side is farther away from you, you can keep going to just a little bit off-center to the left and she'll keep teleporting to the right side. then you can attack her more easily than if you waited farther off-center for her to move.
the result: a lame penultimate boss fight, and one of the lamest penultimate bosses i ever fought in my gamer's life.

also doppleganger in portrait of ruin. it comes with the same weapon as your partner's, so if you're controlling jonathan and you equipped charlotte with an encyclopedia/blank book by the time you enter the doppleganger's room, the doppleganger will also come with the weak book. but, during the fight, even if you change charlotte's weapon to a stronger tome, then doppleganger will not change its weapon and will stay weak while charlotte can use a much stronger weapon. this makes the fight much easier if you control jonathan with a long-range weapon.
this is one reason i don't sell my weakest equipment (unless i have more copies than everyone needs).

[crisis]

SotN - Richter Mode Boss Fight - Galamoth

[PFG9000]

If I recall correctly, the Portrait of Ruin doppleganger is actually effected by everything you have equipped - not just your weapon.  So if you walk into the room "naked," and then equip your most powerful stuff, you'll have absolutely no trouble beating it.

The doppleganger in CV3 transforms a split second after you if you switch to your partner during the fight, and it's vulnerable for a split second after it takes on its new form.  So if you continually switch to your partner, wait for the doppleganger to morph, attack, then switch to your partner and repeat, you can (cheaply) beat it without taking a hit.  That's actually the only way I've ever beaten it.

In the fight against Dmitri in Dawn of Sorrow, you can attack him with a soul that flies overhead in an arc pattern.  He'll absorb it and attack you back with the same soul, and you can safely duck underneath it.  I don't know if this can be considered an exploit, though.  I think that's the way the designers intended for the player to beat him.

The most common CV exploit is probably the fight with Death in CV1.  Hang onto the Holy Water for the Death fight, and get a triple shot before you get to him.  When he first appears in the top-right corner of the screen, you can toss Holy Water on the platform in that corner and he'll be stuck until it burns out.  Keep tossing Holy Water there as fast as you can, and Death will be dead in seconds.

[darkwzrd4]

I know a few exploits. 

In SotN:

• Doppleganger - jump away and then switch direction in midair without doing a double jump.  He will jump when you jump, but won't turn in midair.  Once you are close enough in midair, attack him before he attacks you.  The only issues are timing and the fact that when he is up against the wall, he will perform the wing smash which can be dodged pretty easily.  This works with both dopplegangers.
• Akmodan II and the Creature - equip the crissargrim, dragon helm,  and 2 rings of varda.  You will make short work of the them.  This also works for every other large and/or slow moving enemies that don't get knocked backward when they are attacked.

In DoS:

• In the battle against Demitri equip the cave troll soul.  His bullet soul attack range will be so short that any weapon attack other than fist and rapiers will be outside his range.  (This can not be done on the first play though because you can't get the soul until after this boss battle.)
• In the battle against Abbadon, equip the buer soul (you need 9 buer souls for this to work).  The locusts Abbadon summons to attack won't touch you as long as your magic doesn't drop to 0.

[VladCT]

equip the crissargrim

Bah, the Crissaegrim in itself is a universal instant win button in SotN.

[Munchy]

Doppelganger in X68k. It's the only reason I can beat him (outside of an herb).

If you've lost a subweapon before him due to death, fight him without one. This way, when you're out of his reach on one of the two floating platforms, he'll be forced to follow you, you can jump off the side and out of the reach of his diagonal whip, where you can smack him in the face with your grounded straight whip as he falls, all before running away to repeat the process.

You can spam holy water on Medusa in that game too. Just have to be quick and careful about spacing; she flinches and hops backwards with a first holy water, which is when you can corner her.

Necromancer fights in LoS - HOLY WATER LOLLLLZ

[JR]

The doppleganger in CV3 transforms a split second after you if you switch to your partner during the fight, and it's vulnerable for a split second after it takes on its new form.  So if you continually switch to your partner, wait for the doppleganger to morph, attack, then switch to your partner and repeat, you can (cheaply) beat it without taking a hit.  That's actually the only way I've ever beaten it.

I cheese him too, but through a different method. Get in the upper right ledge, and when he comes over and gets ready to jump (onto your ledge or down below, it doesn't matter), jump to the middle platform and stay on the left side. As he's jumping up to meet you in the middle, you can get a couple hits on him with the whip, then you jump to the upper left ledge and repeat the process.

This video is the same basic idea (although whoever played this is more efficient than I am, with more whip strikes at different times).
Castlevania 3: Dracula's Curse - Doppelganger - No Damage, Subweapons, Upgrades

[Nagumo]

There is another very easy way to defeat the doppelganger from CV3. Have Grant equip the axe and choose him to fight the doppelganger. Move to the far left of the screen. The doppelganger will keep throwing axes over Grant's head into nottingness. Then proceed to stab him slowly to death. 

[Pemburu Vampir]

Bah, the Crissaegrim in itself is a universal instant win button in SotN.

well, not against the stone skulls and blood skeletons.

[SilentCircuit]

SOTN. Richter Mode. Hydro Storm.

Also, for Albus Mode in Order of Ecclesia, you can just warp right on top of Eligor rather than doing the whole thing.

Oh, and in the original Castlevania, the first two bosses can be taken care of easily using the stopwatch.

[VladCT]

SOTN. Richter Mode. Hydro Storm.

For Galamoth you might want to switch to 1000 Blades and aim for his head.
Oh, and this might be the real reason why Hugh wasn't chosen to inherit the Hunter's Whip:
Castlevania Circle of the Moon Boss 8 Hugh - No Damage, No Subweapons

[Josh the Funkdoc]

You can also trigger the CV3 Grant Doppelganger AI loop by moving a hair to the right of center and crouching underneath its opening axe.  Great for speedruns!

There's also the trick on CV1's mummies, which is less AI loop and more glitch.  Throw 3 crosses when the mummies overlap each other and they will die almost instantly; when a projectile meets 2 overlapping objects, it will alternately hit one of them on each frame (frame 1 = mummy 1, frame 2 = mummy 2, frame 3 = mummy 1, etc.)

[Hiryu]

Seems like a lot of people mention the crissaegrim in SoTN these days, but does anyone remember using the Alucard Shield?  That was an instant win and much easier/faster to obtain.

[SilentCircuit]

Seems like a lot of people mention the crissaegrim in SoTN these days, but does anyone remember using the Alucard Shield?  That was an instant win and much easier/faster to obtain.

The Alucard Shield + Shield Rod combo is the textbook definition of a game breaker. You can kill both Galamoth and Dracula in about 4 or 5 seconds with that.

[crimsonmist]

zephyr in portrait of ruin, particularly in sisters mode. at the start of the fight don't move but wait until he starts lunging at you, then fly up and away from him to avoid his attack. as you fly away to the other side of the room, loretta can keep shooting ice shots at him until he's no longer in view, then fly to the other side of the room and wait until he starts lunging towards you again. then fly up and away from him, shooting him as you fly away to the other side of the room and wait again until he lunges. rinse and repeat. if you use this strategy he will never do any time-stop attacks, just dumbly lunging from side to side while you can attack him as you fly away from him.
this helped me beat zephyr on lv1 hard mode