Dancing with Atlas
39Within the rogues’ gallery of ZX Advent, Atlas holds the distinction of pushing my investigative skills the furthest. Armed with Model F, Atlas’ pattern contains some interesting irregularities alongside a high potential for kinetic evasive maneuvering. These factors led me to spend a few hours sleuthing just how far I could push the defensive layer of this fight; the result is an entertaining amalgamation of disparate elements that make for a rather unique dance. Before I delve into the specifics, there are two things to note: Firstly, this is less of a technical pattern breakdown and more of an exhibition match. Secondly, players who choose Ashe will encounter a different set of attacks in this fight; my musings here are applicable to Grey, though, some commonality exists between the two.
First up on the list of oddities is a textbook case of shoddy hit detection. Well, I call it shoddy, but really, you have to stand in a specific position to allow for this scenario to play out at all. I discovered this in my usual genius manner: completely flubbing my positioning during practice. As it turns out, Atlas’ Knuckle Busters lack a hitbox of their own, only the shots themselves carry the ability to deal damage. The issue here is that the shots don’t actually emanate from the barrels of the busters, rather, they spawn well in front of Altas before going on their merry way. This applies to her regular shots, buster edit, her charged fireball and her volley of shots as she descends from the above platform. The consequence of this peculiar design choice is that Grey is able to stand directly in front of Atlas as she fires, with all of the shots ostensibly phasing through him. The horizontal positioning window to achieve this is moderately tight, but it’s not pixel-perfect, so just a bit of practice will suffice. It’s worth noting that Atlas’ buster edit is very slightly askew relative to all of her other gunfire, so it’s possible to get hit by it while avoiding everything else in this manner. Using this knowledge, combined with the tactic in the forthcoming section, the first portion of this dance is a pacifist one; I allow Atlas an eternity to showcase the shortcomings of her projectiles.
This next trick intertwines beautifully with the above and allows for roughly half the battle to be neutralized. Atlas will always turn to face the player before settling on an attack. The speed of both her attack selection process and her attack animations leave something to be desired as well. Combine these traits and you have a recipe for some simple and effective pattern manipulation. Hopping over her with the requisite timing will see her facing the wrong direction for every single attack she attempts to execute. Her charge attacks are particularly sluggish; the fireball can sail straight through Grey as mentioned, though, it’s risky to stay put during her charge as no distinguishing cue exists between the fireball and Ground Breaker. For this reason, I hop over her each time the charge animation occurs; jumping back immediately afterward is necessary as Atlas can perform a dash jump toward the wall. Combining all of the discussed points thus far leads to this jovial little jig of rapid hops and shots haphazardly flying about; it’s quite amusing. All good things come to an end, however, and Atlas’ “EX Skill” deigns to disrupt the party.
Once Atlas’ health reaches just above the halfway point, she introduces Blast Bomber into her arsenal. This attack is what stifles the prior tactic from trivializing the entire battle. The hitbox of the giant energy ball materializes well before the sprite itself, and it’s too large to escape should you still be loitering about in her general vicinity when she begins charging it. Players are thus forced to back off and take the dance a bit more seriously. Fortunately, this attack provides stellar energy to the fight. The position from which Atlas initiates Blast Bomber determines the available courses of action, of which there are several at any given time. The energy ball viciously explodes into eight smaller projectiles upon contacting a wall, their spread leaving numerous openings for players to leverage. The best part of this attack is that you can scale the difficulty of evading it to your liking. Model A’s homing shot is capable of dissolving the ball before it can be fired, or it can intercept the smaller projectiles en route to you. I prefer pure movement, but even there you have a veritable treasure trove of options: standing behind Atlas, sliding down the walls, dashing beneath the bursts, and the list goes on. Blast Bomber is quite possibly one of my favorite attacks to play around with; its ample charge time prevents the feeling of hurried panic, allowing players to get creative with their defensive options.
Atlas isn’t a combo-heavy fight like many others in the series, but it’s a great time nonetheless. I hope you enjoyed the showcase of this dance, thanks for watching.
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