Gradius 3 (SNES) - Boss Recovery Run - Part 1
62In what is clearly an effort to inflict the most pain possible on myself, i've gone and done the insane thing of attempting... a recovery run against Gradius bosses.
What's a Recovery Run?:
Here's the basic idea: Get to the boss, and then die. Then beat the boss (and.. stage) with the few power-ups you get from the pre-boss checkpoint.
The hardest part about the Gradius series is, when you die, especially to one of the bosses, it's extremely difficult to continue. This is what makes the Gradius series amongst the hardest shoot em up's around.
I've taken the boss names from the PS2 Manual of Gradius 3 and 4, with other bosses going by other sources. The game is being played on Hard difficulty.
Boss Notes and Difficulty in Recovering:
Goliath:
Stage: What stage?
Boss: Easy, if you don't attempt to do something stupid like I did. XP. Being the first boss, Goliath is pretty easy to destroy if you stick to the back of the area.
Bubble Eye:
Stage: Insane. Those homing buggers in the bubbles will make your life a misery.
Boss: Stupidly hard if you don't obtain a Laser. His triple spread of bubbles block standard shots.
At Boss 3 I switch weapon sets. The Spread missile makes my life a hell of alot easier.
Big Core MkIII
Stage: The mini-boss doesn't have much health when you're low on power, but it's pretty damn hard if you don't have the ability to do Splash Damage. Spread shot is pretty good here as it kills them in a few hits, and eliminates the enemy generators in one.
Boss: Slaughtered! Wow it's pretty amazing the difference a bit of splash damage makes to this boss.
Dogas and Valf:
Stage: Kill the enemies before they shoot, not a problem.
Boss: Wow this thing's weak when you've got no power ups! The biggest worry are the Moai they shoot from their mouth... but at least this isn't the arcade version. XD
Vulture Dragon:
Stage: ARRGGGH! This is one of the hardest to recover sections in the game! The only chance is to hope you shoot down the fireballs before they split up into 9 mini-balls of death.
Boss: It refuses to die. You also need to make sure you have plenty of room to dodge it's suicide attack.
Choking Weed:
Stage: Be sure to collect all those power ups. You NEED those speed ups.
Boss: It's shots are pretty difficult to dodge when it's sucking you in.. and it doesn't help those shots are fired BEHIND the boss sprite.
Beacon:
Stage: ARGHAFHACHCAK.
Boss: Ahem. This thing dies very quickly if you manage to get a laser and a option. That how-ever, is the hard part.
Without power-ups this thing is pretty difficult, because there is no indication when it changes attack patterns.
Boss Rush -
Zub Rush:
Tricky to get the power ups you need. You need to pick up the blue power capsules to even stand a chance.
Death MkII:
Easy with splash damage. You can bypass it's defenses and do damage directly to the core. Simply be sure to not be in front of the thing when it fires.
Crystal Core:
Yikes, they improved this guy over the Gradius 2 counterpart!
Lasers help big time as you can continue to deal damage directly to the boss even when it covers itself with it's arms.
Monarch:
Without the Reduce you can't sit in front of it, this makes the laser spread a bit intimidating, but it's easy if you manage to pick up an option. Simply keep moving across the screen and it can't hit you.
Covered Core:
Splash damage ftw! This is a difficult boss regardless, altough not as big a pain as the original. Hitting the core itself with lasers is the hard part.
Dellinger Core:
Not the hardest boss ever, but can make you panic the first time you fight it. It's dash attack gives you a bit of a breather. Fortunately this thing is very weak, hit point wise.
Just the last stage left.... ulp.
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