The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass for Nintendo DS "Boss FAQ" By Mykas0 version 0.9 25-6-2007 Also, I must warn you that this faq is full of small spoilers, so if you don't want the game spoiled for you, just don't read it! 1~. Introduction and important tips --------------------------------------------------- >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Normal Bosses No1~. First Boss No2~. Second Boss No3~. Third Boss No4~. Forth Boss No5~. Fifth Boss No6~. Sixth Boss No7~. Seventh Boss No8~. Final Boss, part 1 No9~. Final Boss, part 2 >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Marine Bosses Ma1~. Huge Plant Ma2~. Flying Fish Ma3~. Ghost Ship --------------------------------------------------- FAQ. Frequently Asked Questions B_END. Special Thanks END. Contacts 1~. Introduction and important tips Since Zelda titles aren't turn-based RPGs, its boss battles are all about timing. While I can't help you when it comes to the timing itself, this guide will help you understand what you have to do in each battle, leading you across the main points of the enemy attacks and helping you to defeat them. Before heading to the sections pertaining to each boss, I strongly suggest you read the many tips stated below. While they don't magically save you from your foes, they may be more helpful than you may imagine, and by following these I can assure you that you'll have an easier time dealing with all bosses that will cross your path. Now, on to some tips: - Properly healing before any kind of boss battle is VERY important. So, each time you reach some area where there are some vases (usually a number between two and eight) and a blue portal appears when you interact with a tablet nearby, that means that a boss is coming. If that's the case, keep destroying the vases in the near areas until your character is at full health before proceeding. Also, be sure to remember that vases reappear if you go to another area and get back to that one, which is very useful. - Apart from the tip given above, it is also a good idea to take two health restoration potions with you at all times. Personally, I take two red ones with me, but that's really up to you. It is also a good idea to use one of them if your life is below the two hearts limit, as some sort of problem may rise and you'd have to start that battle again. Don't be afraid to use them, even if that means you'll have to buy some more potions at the next shop. - Check stores often. Once in a while, they may sell Heart Containers, which add more hearts to your usual bar and may be important in later battles. - Some bosses summon smaller creatures to help them. If that happens, feel free to take your time to defeat those weak monsters, as they may drop health or other helpful items. - When engaging a fight with any of the marine bosses, try to head for the confrontation with as much health as possible. Remember, each time you enter any location your health is fully restored. So, it is a good idea to stop by a city nearby before heading for the battle, in order to ensure that you'll be facing it in top condition. - Oddly (or maybe not...), every marine boss tends to shoot green balls at you. When struck by your projectiles, those balls may randomly drop useful health restorers. Obviously, you should try to hit as many as possible, apart from focusing your other attacks on the opponents' weak points, stated in the proper section of this guide. That's all for this section. I strongly suggest you try to follow these tips, as they will prove quite useful as you advance further in your adventure and progressively face harder bosses. No1~. First Boss This boss battle is so easy that some people may even think this is all a simple joke. You'll start by seeing the real enemy, but this true shape will later split into three small enemies. Basically, you should start by hooking them with your boomerang. Now, if you try to do that, you'll notice that sometimes they get stuck (forming the real enemy) and others they don't. The solution is looking at the upper screen, where you'll notice that there are some differences between the three sprites - the number of horns they have - which you can use to help you. The proper order is 0 horns, 1 horn, 2 horns, and you should use this information to properly connecting them as soon as possible. When they turn into the larger enemy, quickly head to his location and struck him with your sword as many times (and as quickly!) as possible. If some rocks start falling, you just have to continue moving in a straight line and you will easily dodge them. Once the enemies get disconnected, repeat the step stated above to reunite them. Keep following those steps until he is defeated, but be aware that you can also use the boomerang to stun him for a very small period of time. Finally, if you need to heal there are a few pots in the room, which you can use to restore small portions of Link's health. No2~. Second Boss Slightly more powerful than your last opponent, this is the kind of enemy that turns out being easier to defeat if you know what you're doing. Keep on reading and you will know it. You can easily notice that the enemy is up in the sky and there is no normal way to send a bomb up. Now, you can see that the floor contains a few whirlwinds, with locations that seem to change. Presenting it in a short way, you must use those whirlwinds to send your bombs up, which works great if your enemy's shadow is placed in that very same area. If this octopus-like creature is hit by a bomb he will fall to the floor, an opportunity that you should take to hit him with your sword as many times as possible. Keep repeating these instructions, moving to new whirlwinds as required, until the enemy comes down in some sort of dash, which you should try to avoid by rolling to one of the sides. You can also try to run away, but you'll be hit more often than not. Also, if he releases small hurricanes in your direction, you are free to dodge them by simply moving out of their way, which is easy to do since they won't follow you around. Every time you get the change to do it, try to quickly put a bomb in one of the whirldwinds, so that you may hit your enemy and throw him to the floor, before landing a few more hits with your sword. Repeat, repeat, repeat and keep on repeating until your enemy is finally down for good. As before, the pots/jars placed in the area will be useful for healing purposes, apart from granting you free bombs (yes, that's what those strange bomb-shaped flowers are for, by the way). No3~. Third Boss This battle starts with what I consider to be an interesting concept for a boss. As odd as it may seem, you'll start by seeing the battle from the boss' prespective, but it later becomes a more straight-forward one, with the usual hacking and swinging of your sword. When the battle starts, you should move Link to a place where he can see the center of the area you're currently in. There's not much you can do, simply wait for the enemy to come in your direction (look at the upper screen) and quickly shoot an arrow to make him visible for a bit. You should then continue repeating this part until the opponent's shell starts to crack, opportunity that you should take to land a couple hits from your sword in such weak point. After his shell actually cracks, exposing his naked (not literally, by the way) back, you should continue to strike with your sword, hitting the blue spot placed in his tail. Now, that's not an easy task, since the boss is constantly turning and moving, so you should shoot an arrow to his face in order to put him in attack position, which prevents him from moving. While he is at it, you should quickly move to his back and hit the the tail as quickly as possible. Repeat the strategy stated in this second paragraph for a few times and you'll eventually defeat him. Be aware that you can defeat the minor enemies to get extra arrows and health, which may be important and rather useful if you run out of those precious items. No4~. Forth Boss Provided you have already mastered the controls by now, this will turn out being an incredibly easy boss battle. Can you see that the enemies try to throw an energy ball at you? Well, you just have to deflect it with your sword as many times as possible. Once you do it, keep following its path (with your eyes only) and try to send it back as many times as possible. Personally, I did it by having Link spin around himself (done by quickly drawing a circle around him), but it is really up to you, if you have any other effective way of sending that energy ball back. When the number of enemies is reduced to a certain amount, the ones who are still alive will start to throw other projectiles at you. You just have to ignore them and keep on deflecting the energy ball, an operation that you should repeat until all the enemies are down and your battle is won. No5~. Fifth Boss This battle is composed by two different sections. First, you'll be controlling Link and another character, who will be helping him. However, your main character will later have to face the boss by himself, which is slightly harder. So, the first part is a bit tricky. You should focus your attention on the other character and leave Link behind, unless required. Also, if Link's face, as seen in the lower screen, displays a "Danger" sign, be sure to quickly switch to him (done by merely tapping that face) and get rid of the danger nearby, which will probably be probably composed by a few snakes. With that odd character (no clue about his name, sorry), you should spin around the boss until you can hit his left and right side, near the belly (or ass?) area. Continue attacking it by such means, switching to Link when necessary, until the enemy falls over and becomes stunned. You should then quickly switch to your green fellow and use one of the recently-acquired controllable bombs, which you should direct to the enemy's mouth. If well timed, this will produce a massing explosion inside the enemy's body, damaging him. Repeat for a few times until the battle is "over", which is easy to spot since Link's helper will go away. After crossing the bridge (be sure to grab the items from the jars placed on both sides of the platform, as they may prove useful later on), the second part of the battle will begin, allowing Link to face this powerful enemy in a more direct confrontation. The second part of the battle is easier. When the enemy is trying to suck you in (i.e. before unleashing his usual flames), quickly throw a bomb in his direction and he will swallow it, causing him to explode, as you've seen before, before knocking him out. While he is calmly "sleeping" in the floor, hit the blue portion of his tail for several times and as quickly as possible. Finally, you just have to repeat these final steps until he goes down for good. No6~. Sixth Boss Here, it's all about physics. I have no clue on how can a simple rope be used to deflect magical balls, but let's ignore that detail, shall we? First, you have to deflect the balls thrown at you, with an angle that varies with the enemy who is attacking. Usually, the field will look like this, displaying four stomps: o o o o Now, if the enemy on the right attacks, you should place your rope (using the newly-acquired weapon) like this: o o / / / / o o Doing so will deflect the projectile in a way that it will hit the opposite enemy, damaging his face. Now, if the enemy on the left attacks, you should place the rope like this: o o \ \ \ \ o o Obviously, this will deflect the projectile in a way that it will hit the enemy on the right, damaging him. Keep on repeating until both enemies disappear. When that happens, you must get on top of one of the stomps QUICKLY, or you'll be damaged by a huge wave. Once the wave has passed, ice blocks will come in your direction. In order to avoid them, you should simply stay by your current location until a lot of blocks are coming, occasion which you should take to move to the opposite point of the platform. After that, your two enemies will be back and you should apply the strategy above until both of them are showing their plain face. By the time such thing happens, they'll start to strike you with physical attacks from near the platform. You can easily notice that their tongues look weird (i.e. they have some sort of handle), and you should use that detail to quickly hook their tongues up with one of the two stomps that will be up by then. Doing so will make them unconscious, time during which you should strike their faces with your sword. When that enemies gets up, you just have to repeat the stated steps (dodging the wave and the ice blocks before seeing these two enemies again), which you should do until both enemies turn to sand. As you may suppose, that's a sign that you have won the battle. No7~. Seventh Boss This boss sure looks impressive, but defeating him is a lot easier than one could think. There are some easy-to-spot joints in the enemy body, clearly marked with a red light. Now, you just have to use one of the several jumpers available in this area to perform a big jump, during which you should try to hit those joints as many times as possible. Keep on repeating and eventually you will reach some point where there are no red spots to be seen, as they are probably in the back of this boss. Trying to move either left of right will usually prevent you from achieving a good result, as the enemy also spins around. Instead, when he is striking with the spikes that come out of his head, he will stay totally unmovable, time which you should take to use any jumper that allows you to hit the giant's back. When you've caused enough damage (i.e. hit all the joints marked with red balls), your opponent will be reduced to a walking head. Once more you should use the jumpers to gain some kind of impulse that allows you to reach the top of this boss' head, which contains a crystal that you should try to quickly hit. After hitting the crystal for a few times (perhaps 3~5 times, depending on your speed?), this enemy will turn to dust, literally. No8~. Final Boss, part 1 This monster, despite being the final boss, isn't hard at all. Sure, you may take a while to defeat him, but it all depends on how quick and accurately you can hit his weak points. He has four different patterns, which are easy to recognise and are quite easy to defeat. When this enemy is in the middle of the water pool, you should use your crane (well, you know, the weapon with the rope) to detach some of the purple dust that is stuck to the enemy. Then, when you get the chance to attach it to the monster itself, take some of your time to defeat the smaller enemies that he conjures, since you can win some free healing items. After doing so, attach the crane to the enemy and pull it to your location, which allows you to land some hits with your sword. Repeat until the enemy heads to the next floor. During pattern two, your opponent will be placed in the middle of some columns. You should use your arrows to hit the yellow eyes that can be seen next to the columns, but be careful with the ocasional physical attack that he will try to land in your character. When you hit all of them, he will drop to the floor below and you just have to repeat the pattern stated in the previous paragraph. Eventually this enemy will move to the top floor, and the eyes will also start closing and opening. It's all a matter of timing, since you need to throw the arrow when the eye is actually open and unprotected, or it won't turn to purple. After following the patterns above, you'll get to see a cutscene where you are awarded a new item. From here on, this enemy will not longer try to attack you. Instead, he will just circle around the lower floor and, from time to time, head to the center of the room. When such events are happening, you just have to use the hourglass that you were given a few seconds ago. In order to do so, you have to tap the icon shown at the bottom of the screen and draw the hourglass motion on the screen, like this: --> Step one ________ --> Step two _______ / / / / / / / --> Step three _______ / / / / / / /______ --> Step four ______ \ / \ / \/ /\ / \ / \ /______\ Easy, hum? Doing so will stop the time for a few seconds, and you should use those moments to quickly hit the yellow eye seen in the front of your enemy. A few seconds after the effect of the hourglass vanishes, your friendly fairy will appear and restore the status of the icon. You should obviously repeat the step stated above and your enemy will go down after some of this "stop time and attack the eye" pattern. No9~. Final Boss, part 2 The main difficulty about this battle is knowing what to do. Now, if you're reading this kind of guide, it's obviously because you have problems figuring that out, right? Fear not, I'll tell you what to do. First, simply use the power of the hourglass (if you don't know how to do so, simply re-read the strategy for the previous battle), which should freeze time. Unfortunately, this leads nowhere and simply leads to a small cutscene, where the friendly fairy will be captured. From now on, your battle will take place in the lower screen, while the upper one is used to display the back of your opponent. Whenever the big yellow eye, displayed in that screen, is open, you should use your hourglass to stop time and hit it as quickly and as many times as possible. Unfortunately, this is not as easy as it sounds, since your fairy isn't be around to fill the hourglass for you. So, you have to try leading your enemy to one of the corners of the wooden platforms and then strike him several times, which (eventually) unfolds a small mini-game, where you need to rub the screen as quickly as possible. Doing so will harm your enemy for a split second, giving you a small opportunity to hit him, allowing the fairy to recharge your precious item. Use it as I stated above, and be sure to damage the eye that this boss has in his back as quickly as possible. Repeat for a few times, being specially careful with the part where you have to lead your enemy to the mini-game (it is the harder one) and you'll win. It wasn't that hard, was it? --------------------------------------------------- Ma1~. Huge Plant The main problem with this gigantic plant (or whatever that is) is that most people think that all that matters is hitting it with their cannon, without even noticing that the not-so-fearsome beast actually has an hidden eye, which is shown at the beginning of the battle. Obviously, you should be hitting that part of the body, instead of focusing your attacks in random points. Now, the question is: how can I make the eye appear? It's simple, that monster only shows the eye when it doesn't feel threatened, I mean, when you're so far that you can't hit it. So, simply move your ship away for a bit, until you can see the eye. Then, quickly set a new route in the direction of the beast and hit the eye ONCE (you can't even do it more than once, in case you're wondering). Repeat until you defeat him, which doesn't take much time and works even better if you trace the smallest possible route. Ma2~. Flying Fish As you can easily notice, this huge creature has some odd eyes in both sides of its body. Hit them and he will be down in no time. Sorry, but there's not much else I can tell you about this enemy, and if you can't even follow these instructions, hitting the balls for extra health as I previously told you, maybe you shouldn't be playing this game. Ma3~. Ghost Ship Unlike people may think, this battle is easier than it seems, if you know what you're doing. First, instead of looking at the console's upper screen, which simply shows the location of the eyes stuck on the ship, focus on hitting the green balls that are thrown at you, which are the only real threat here and may range from one up to four at each time. Then, when there are no balls coming in your direction, use your cannon to hit the eye which is closer to you, no matter which one it is. If one goes down, start hitting the next one. Eventually those eyes will be back, but you shouldn't care about it. Instead, continue following this strategy, first hitting the balls and then focusing on the eyes, and you'll later notice that the ship will appear to be going down, literally. When that happens, and you can't seem to find any other eye, start looking at the upper screen, as it displays the position of the eyes. The most difficult to hit are placed in the upper part of the ship, and only tend to appear for a limited time. So, you should be more careful about those, taking care of all others before focusing on the stated two, which may be harder to hit. When all the eyes are down (which will be a short and easy battle, if you follow my instructions), this enemy will die and you'll proceed in the game. FAQ. Frequently Asked Questions Some of the questions you, readers, may have... in case you mail me an interesting question and I think that other readers should also hear the answer, your question will be added here and your name will be credited. Q: [Insert something here], where should I go next? A: Did you noticed that this was a Boss FAQ, not a FAQ/Walkthrough? Be sure to read one of those instead, since I have no idea on what to tell you about that kind of question. Q: Hey, my strategy is better than yours! What should I do? A: First of all, if your strategy is indeed better than mine, just use yours instead of mine. Also, you can mail me that strategy and in case I find it interesting, I will also add it to this Guide and credit you. Q: Why do you display the bosses in that order? I fought them in a different one! A: The order given here is exactly the one I've faced in my game, but yours may be different. It doesn't matter, the strategy you should use is always the same. Q: Why didn't you included the names of the bosses in this guide? A: Thanks for asking. While I'm writing this guide, only the Japanese version of the game is released. I know I could translate the names of every boss, since they are displayed before every battle, but I refuse to do so since there are always people who complain about those translations. So, I'd rather wait for an English release, in order to ensure that the proper name will be added. That's all... B_END. Special Thanks I want to thank the following people: - Everyone who made this game; - Everyone who likes my works, it's for those people that I like to work in this type of project; - "ZeldaFan89", for reminding me of what happens in the second part of the fifth boss battle. End. Contacts If you want, you may see my web page, just check it at the HTML address www.geocities.com/Mykas0/ . My e-mail is Mykas0 [at] gmail.com , you can send me some questions you may have or contributions to this guide, but please try not to ask any questions that aren't about this guide or Boss battles, as I am not the best person to reply to those. Also, se the following subject or I will NEVER reply. Subject: "ZFH BOSS FAQ" for posing questions or giving contributions Thanks and until the next version!!!!!!