Where skill flies out the window.

After beating the standard game for the second time, I figured I'd try it on hard mode. While there've been a few problems (beating the Crab boss, which I have an oddly difficult time with even to this day, overcoming the Skull Tank, which still backs up against the wall and becomes invincible, but can't actually kill me at long range, requiring me to suicide until I get it right, and other adventures), this is the worst one of all.

While the Skull Tank can be defeated by a few certain moves -- keep it from moving its back into the wall, maneuvering it so that you can fly behind it and blast it (without the mines owning you), etc. -- the Forest Boss is simply entirely random.

The pointlessly easy nodes at the beginning are destroyed without any particular difficulty, but then the Forest Boss proceeds to protect itself with its invincible tentacles 99% of the time, while spewing infinite streams of bug bulletshields and insta-killing seed pods. Even if you can get to close-range for a little while, and victory seems imminent, it'll always ultimately bring its tentacles back over itself, foiling all your efforts ever after, while it spams seed pods, which can reduce your health to critical in the blink of an eye.

Even if you can survive this, your attempts of retaking the offensive are foiled, as the Forest Boss, seemingly having learned its lesson, simply holds its tentacles over its weak point the entire time, until you finally get destroyed by its offensive tentacles/seed pods.

Where's the skill in that? At least the crab had a definite weak time -- when it's firing at you, it's vulnerable. The Forest Boss is invincible regardless of what it's doing, and launches enough enemies out so that it's impossible to attack it even when it finally does lower its tentacle shield, as you have to kill all of them so that you can survive when you close in to attack it. Of course, by the time you have, it's already brought its defensive tentacles back up, and there's more waves of enemies being sent out to meet you.

I've died more times to the Forest Boss than, I suspect, any other boss in the game, and it probably takes up at least a third of my deaths total. I've probably died to it even more times than to the Skull Tank. I'm fairly sure that if I was attacking the Final Boss, I'd have beaten it by now, and that's sad, since the last boss is generally supposed to be the hardest one in the game.

So, yeah.

The defensive tentacles are a pain.

Comments?

Here's what you have to do:

1. Switch to the blue super pellet gun.

2. Aim very precisely at the center of the boss.

3. Back up, so that you're a long way away.

4. Every so often, you'll see the boss's health gauge go down. You will want to go back or forwards to avoid seedpods.

5. Finally, break aim occasionally to shoot anything that gets too close.

That should work.

P.S: If you see the tentacles are open, ram a missile down there.

Alternatively, you can go for the direct assault:

1. Switch to Beam (any color), and be sure that you have at least five missiles.
2. Fly in, and take out the shield generators as fast as possible with the Beam (preferably within a couple of seconds of entering the room).
3. At the point, the boss should not have released more than one bug and one bomb. Dodge the shots from the bomb, and fly directly into the heart of the boss as soon as there is an opening.
4. Fire beams and missiles as fast as possible. You should be able to destroy the boss with three missiles- possibly two if you use the Beam enough.
5. If you can't get three missiles off before being driven out, back off for a few seconds until the weak point is open again, and fire at it again. This should be enough to kill it.
6. Swoop in and grab the shield/missile pickups the Boss dropped before another bomb goes off, as you will likely be quite low on shields at this point.

If you spend more than about fifteen-twenty seconds fighting the boss, it will start getting very difficult to beat due to everything you complained about in the first post. The key to winning this fight easily is speed. It also helps to be able to dodge all the spikes from mines. Also, if you haven't gotten the first shield upgrade from the Racetrack, it helps a bit (although it is not essential).

(EDIT) Here's a video of me beating the Forest boss. It isn't in Hard mode, but I didn't pick up the shield upgrade, so it should balance out. Also, I recommend not attempting this battle while running a screen recorder- the framerate you see in the video is about the framerate I was playing at, and my average ability to beat the boss dropped from 95% to 5%.

Edwards

This post has been edited by Edwards : 28 October 2007 - 06:15 PM

What Edwards said...except that I've never been able to back off and successfully win. It's all or nothing. I get right up close and personal, inside the defensive tentacles, and blast away until either I or it is dead. Beating it on hard mode seems like more a matter of luck than skill; either it spawns stuff in front of your missiles and you die, or it doesn't and it dies.

While going fast is indeed the usual way to beat the Forest boss (and thus the point of the easy nodes, to destroy them ASAP), it is still feasible to beat it in long battle. The key is to be very careful of seed pods and eliminate them by triggering their explosion by flying close then away from it, so as to be able to avoid the dangerous red shrapnels. It is hard, mind you, but feasible.

Figures.

I get on a minute or two ago, decide to try the beam instead of the pellets (which I started using after the first attempts with the beam failed; Edwards said at one point, I think, that the super pellets do the most damage, second-by-second, so I figured I'd try it), and then proceed to defeat it in about eight seconds, without losing more than 10% out of 200%.

I still think the boss is imminently random, but the Skull Tank isn't much better, since the only way to beat it is to move properly in the first few moments, and at least the Forest Boss can actually kill you without you going along with it -- the Skull Tank just sits in the corner, firing its slow-moving blaster again and again to no avail, until you finally suicide into it.

So.

(Reason for edit: Eleven seemed a bit long, thinking back over it.)

This post has been edited by Consul Bob : 30 October 2007 - 07:41 AM

@consul-bob, on Oct 30 2007, 01:40 PM, said in Forest Boss: An Exercise in Frustration:

I still think the boss is imminently random, but the Skull Tank isn't much better, since the only way to beat it is to move properly in the first few moments, and at least the Forest Boss can actually kill you without you going along with it -- the Skull Tank just sits in the corner, firing its slow-moving blaster again and again to no avail, until you finally suicide into it.

That makes it about everyone but me who's experienced the Skull Tank's eradicate behavior. For me it's quite happy to trawl around the room dropping mines and getting shot in the back. sigh Just once I wouldn't mind experiencing the unusual glitch...

Don't feel bad. I haven't gotten hit by that glitch either.

@silverwind, on Oct 30 2007, 04:09 PM, said in Forest Boss: An Exercise in Frustration:

That makes it about everyone but me who's experienced the Skull Tank's eradicate behavior. For me it's quite happy to trawl around the room dropping mines and getting shot in the back. sigh Just once I wouldn't mind experiencing the unusual glitch...

I've never seen it either. I suspect Lars hasn't either, or it would be fixed.