Humiliating Blizzack Staggroff with the Shield Boomerang
43Blizzack Staggroff is often used as a punching bag of sorts for players to test out and learn the combo systems in Z1 and Z3. This time, however, I’ll be approaching Staggroff under the condition that I have to win with a single Shield Boomerang throw. In this pursuit, Staggroff will suffer two rather embarrassing losses, with the second being particularly shameful.
While the end result may be quite silly, in truth, both of these fights are very luck-dependent, albeit for different reasons. Starting with the Z1 variant of this circus act, the main issue is that getting a cooperative pattern out of Staggroff is completely out of your control. Staggroff is too tall to jump over normally, so if he gets leap-happy and starts vaulting all over the place, you’re most likely tossing that attempt in the bin. Ill-timed snow beams pushing Zero back and weighing him down don’t help either.
What you hope to see is an abundance of pointless jumping near Zero’s position. This way, you can weave Zero between Staggroff and the Shield, letting it strike Staggroff periodically. In the event that a snow beam is used, icicles are far preferable to snowflakes; the latter will hamper Zero’s movement and make it exceptionally difficult to maintain the Shield’s orbit, even if it happens to knock Staggroff out of the beam attack. With the icicles, you can simply let the Shield interrupt the attack; the moment it hits Staggroff, you can freely dash jump forward—the hitboxes of the icicles disappear instantaneously. Of course, for this to work at all, you have to be in the correct position for the Shield to quickly intercept Staggroff as soon as the snow beam begins.
One common occurrence not shown in this tremendously fortunate attempt is when Staggroff directs his wintry storm at Zero while both combatants are near a wall. Without enough space for the beam to push Zero back far enough, an entirely possible but tricky climb and jump over Staggroff is your only option to avoid retrieving the Shield. Of course, if Staggroff is too far from the wall, then you end up in a purgatory of being unable to avoid the snow beam while also lacking the ability to leap over Staggroff’s bulky frame. No double jump or Recoil Rod bailout here.
Ultimately, what the Z1 variant of this idea boils down to is searching for a workable pattern. The act of jumping over the Shield repeatedly is rather simple in comparison; you’ll be accustomed to manipulating the weapon’s trajectory long before the vexation of watching Staggroff jump to the other end of the arena for the hundredth time sets in.
Now for the Z3 version, and oh boy, this one is pretty bad. I’d say this whole charade serves as a severe indictment of Dr. Weil’s skill as a so-called Reploid resurrection specialist—if you’re going to revive the poor guy, Weil, at least give him a more substantial upgrade than tossing two snowballs instead of one.
A crucial yet inconspicuous difference between the two iterations of the Staggroff fight is that the ceiling of the arena is raised considerably higher in Z3. The unfortunate implication of this is that, if you loiter at the top of the arena, Staggroff will never be able to hit Zero; none of his attacks can reach high enough, and his jump height wasn’t given a compensatory increase to account for the higher ceiling. This is where our good-old friend Frog Zero arrives at the theater.
As a reminder, equipping the Lightweight Body, Frog/Ultimate Foot, and the Cyber-Elf Kwappa will bestow Zero with the Shadow Armor-esque property of sticking firmly to walls. Combine this with the fact that it’s possible to have the Shield orbit Zero while wall-bound by making a properly-spaced throw, and you’ve got yourself a recipe for some antics.
The grim reality for Staggroff is thus: should you initiate a Shield orbit and stick Zero high up on the wall, you are guaranteed to eventually win by merely holding left on the dpad thereafter. This inextricable fact is either amusing or depressing, depending on whose perspective you take. The element of luck present here is just how long this assured destiny will take to arrive. What you see here is the fastest win I managed; this can easily take over two minutes if Staggroff sees fit. This attempt was the only one where every single one of Staggroff’s jumps was met with the Shield slicing through him. For the sake of speed, it’s required to take a riskier approach and have Zero cling just shy of Staggroff’s contact hitbox. Doing so results in the Shield orbiting lower, reducing the chances of it sailing by Staggroff as he jumps up.
Now, there’s nothing preventing you from recycling the Z1 tactic instead, but the Frog Zero method is infinitely funnier, and in the end, that’s what matters most.
Timestamps:
00:00 - Z1: Fire Chip
00:30 - Z3: Frog Zero
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