Shinrei Jusatsushi Taromaru Technotes

- The charge is full after six loops of the sound effect, but will continue to increase in pitch beyond that point
- The slide can pass through regular ninjas
- As airborne enemy contact cancels charge, remaining grounded and sliding is safer
- Bombing only does damage once the animation is finished
  - Its length is the same as the defend animation, so plink defend -> bomb for extra safety
- Flying caltrop ninjas aren't safe to bomb, as it will only destroy their wings
  - As Taromaru, strip their wings with a chain lightning first
- Don't mash at max speed when dealing with flurries of one-hit zako
  - The lock takes a moment to reacquire, so any interim presses are wasted effort
- When the lock icon is misbehaving, a quick away-toward move at close range can reset it more efficiently than the retarget button
- Chain lightning won't multi-hit against certain bosses, so recognize them and mash out extra hits instead

Skeletwins
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- Charge up during the pre-battle scene
- Immediately unload to kill the left skull when it comes into range,
  then jump to retain mobility and mash the right skull to death for an easy one-cycle

Silent Machi
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- Hypnotize the first ninja you see
- Mash or chain lightning the wisps, making sure to get the blue one for some dumplings
- Detonate your friend to kill the second wave of sword guys and flying caltrop ninja before the first fire wheel
- Shoot the fire wheel five times when it appears to remove half of its sattelites,
  then cross it up and shoot the rest before killing it to claim a hidden 1UP

Blue Spider
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- Easy; crouch and charge at mid-screen, release when he charges, turn and mash out extra hits, then repeat

Ogre Fisherman
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- As Taromaru, it's safest to crouch at his feet post-transformation, as it neutralizes his akira arm and projectiles
- Grabs can be escaped by wiggling the directional pad

See-Saw Skeleton
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- You can bait his targeted punch attack to hit the seesaw, which will launch you if you're on the other side
  - This spawns several rows of wisps to endanger you on the way down, but includes a blue one which will drop a dumpling

Lone Bitch And Snake
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- The safest way to deal with her flying bomb -> flying bomb -> chakram is to defend three times and then hit her with a charge

House of Spinning Poles
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- Blue ninja on the first screen drops a riceball
- Take it slow and careful
- Deal with ninjas from outside aggro range for safety
- Shoot a hole in wisp rings, jump out, then use the bought time to mash-zap the rest
- Dumplings in the top right
- Move to far left, drop down for more dumplings
- Drop down again for a 1UP
- When climbing away from the fire, the rightmost riceball can be grabbed easily as Taromaru
  - Enkai has a harder time with this, so it may be better to skip it and go for the dumplings at the top instead

You Got Heart, Rocky!
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- Come in with a full charge and unload a sneaky shot as soon as the fight begins
- When the room rotates, hold right and slide once per side
- The boss' weak point is vulnerable for longer than the animation would suggest, so mash out those free hits until it stops bleeding

Manipulator Skeleton (Prelude)
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- The safest position is on the right of the screen
- As Taromaru, you can repeatedly spam chain lightning on the manipulators to keep them retracted and wipe the tengus

Manipulator Skeleton
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- As Taromaru, the optimal position is at the right edge of the fire field to guarantee your lock-ons
- As Enkai, stand at the right of the screen to give yourself more safety margin
- Hit each fireball with 3-5 regular attacks, then switch target and repeat
- Defend when a large fireball comes near
- You can have a DBZ beam struggle and make a really big fireball if you're targeting the same one as the boss, but it's a risky style move

Post-Skeleton
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- Safe approach is to ignore the tengus and rush to the top of the stairs
- Blue ninja at the top who drops a rice ball
- Take the next section carefully
  - The miko girls can't be hypnotized, and will fuck with your lock-on
  - Don't rush right without a bomb, as the screen will fill up with a horrible cocktail of enemies

Summoner
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- Kill the miko girls as fast as possible, as their lock-on interference will make this fight much harder
- When he summons floating heads, position yourself on the opposite edge of the screen, walk up to him while charging to dodge their bullets, and unload
- For the beam, quickly cross him up, then unload until he teleports

Great Frog
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- The one-two can be dodged by standing in the middle of the screen and jinking opposite to the incoming hand
- When he begins to inhale
  - If you read it early, simply hit one hand with three consecutive charge shots
  - If you read it late, hit one hand with two consecutive charge shots and then mash like a madman
- For the flying seeds, charge and tap-dodge their aimed radial shots
  - He'll do a one-two attack halfway, so jink or defend at the middle of the screen if necessary
- The tadpole eggs are best handled with mashing, and can be defended to push them away

Belly of the Great Frog
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- Stand at the edge of the screen to avoid acid, charge until an orifice is in range, then unload and mash until it disappears
- Retargeting will be necessary when the worms start appearing, but is not of utmost priority until they come within a half-screen or make an obvious charge
  - Defend to deflect them if they get too close

Minecart Madness
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- Come in with a full hypno charge and try to get one of the flying bombers; very tricky and not critical, but handy
- The minecart ninjas can't be hypnotized

Big Core (a.k.a. You Got Heart, Rocky! MkII)
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- Move to point-blank when it fires dual lasers
- As Taromaru, use chain lightning to get some damage in when it spawns flesh balls
- When the screen shakes, defend through the falling rocks
- When it spawns an energy wall, retarget and mash to slow it
  - Enkai can alternate between targeting the wall and core for free damage
  - Possible for Taromaru, but much harder due to his reduced range; safer to focus on the walls
    - Wall seems to recover quicker when using Taromaru

Going Down
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- Mash while dodging the first few waves for extra kill points
- Once the wheels start targeting you, move to the center and time defends for the remainder of the sequence

Heart Prison (a.k.a. You Got Heart, Rocky! MkIII)
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- Shooting the lower core moves you inward, upper core moves you outward
  - While slow, the projectiles can line up awkwardly at times - prioritize making it dead
- Mashing seems more effective here on account of its low health pool, particularly as Taromaru

Super Ninja Ball
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- Downhill
  - Don't use defend on a slope, as it doesn't stop the ball's momentum
    - Plink jump -> defend to avoid this
  - As Taromaru, take it slow and hypno-bomb your way down
    - The mines trigger when you pass over them in midair
    - Defend to delay in cases where there's no safe landing spot
  - As Enkai, charge hypnotize while chaining airdashes, bomb, repeat

- Kill the blue ninja at the bottom for dumplings

- Uphill
  - Continue taking it slow and hypno-bombing the claw ogres using the helpful ninja spawns
  - If you're playing Enkai... Just do your best :S

Soul of Super Ninja Ball
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- One slide will move you 90 degrees
- The hitwall only moves in 90 degree increments
- Therefore, you only need to slide, jump and charge here
  - Enkai has it easy, since his airdash allows for safe rotation

City in Flames
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- Blue ninja with riceball appears early on
- And another with dumplings just before the rolling log

Dowser
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- Destroy the cannons before moving close to the jetty
- Then, jump back onto the log and duck to trivialize this sequence

Claw Crane
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- Taromaru can avoid the claw attack by walking
  - Enkai is too slow, so needs to use defend
- Staying on the left side of the screen helps avoid accidental claw lock-ons
- When the conductor balls come out, use defend at mid-screen to avoid the combined laser + claw attacks
- When the conductors balls begin to bounce around, slide in and out of the corner while charging

Haunted Armor
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- Phase one
  - Charge while retargeting to the piece of armor possesed by the wisp, and unload until it leaves
  - As Taromaru, stay at the edge of the ring to make sure all the pieces are in range
  - It will only attack you if you don't hit the possessed piece in time
  - Don't wait until it stops rotating to begin retargeting, as the lock order may be unfavourable
- Phase two
  - When the pieces float to the ceiling, prepare to slide or defend against an aimed bullet barrage
  - He has two spear attacks with distinct audio cues
  - The vertical slice will launch a screen-height projectile that should be defended through
  - Stab combo
    - For Enkai, cross him up with an airdash
    - For Taromaru, make a full-height jump into him and defend-hover
- After the fight, the next room contains a pair of red and blue ninjas
  - Kill the blue one for a riceball
  - Hypnotize the red one for the next fight

Kitsune
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- If you're lucky, your hypnotized ninja will walk up to her and carve his way through phase one in short order
- Otherwise
  - Prioritize the eyestalks to minimize the amount of projectiles during the barrage attack
  - Mash from the corner to break through it
- Phase two is easy - jump to the leftmost side of the hanging bar and tap-dodge your way through the tails, spamming charge until it dies
- Once you kill it, note that it was Rocky under the mask the whole time! Onto the final stretch.

Double Rectum
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- Stand at the edge of the screen and spam charges at the nearest orifice
  - The claw attack can't reach directly beneath either one
- For the giant fly
  - Start on the right side
  - Use defend to reflect the spinning projectiles
  - Try to stay airborne to prevent awkward interactions between the roof and boss floor
  - Kill the maggots as soon as they hatch for maximum safety

Red Spider
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- Largely the same strategy as before; duck to trivialize its dash attack and spam charge
- When it uses the lock on, position yourself at the left of the screen, charge, slide in, unload, slide out, repeat

Kabuto Witch Quelaggu
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- Use defend hovering at the left of the screen to avoid her lightning beam
  - Enkai can spam airdash instead to charge for free
- When she uses the lock-on, charge and tap-dodge toward her to spread the locks across the platform, then unload at point blank
- When she uses the wind and blue spheres, use chain lightning as Taromaru to stop them early, or defend through them as Enkai

Dr. Monk-io
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- Creeping columns
  - As Taromaru, carefully target the red core on each tower with a full charge for free chain lightning damage
  - As Enkai, stand under the boss and repeatedly full charge him
    - Needs confirming - towers spawn slightly to the left as Taromaru
- Laser array
  - Crouch in the lower-right quadrant and spam charge until the boss stops
  - Prepare to defend if either of the orbs closest to you flash in sequence with another on the bottom row
- Grasping portal
  - Jump and mash to break through the fireballs and finish him off
  - Try and stay left of mid-screen to avoid getting hit by his surprise three-way lightning

Enma's Brass Bollocks
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- Safe Strategy
  - Defend against the vertical and horizontal projectile attacks
  - Charge while jumping over the spindash, and unload as soon as the core reappears
- Flashy Strategy
  - Slide the vertical projectiles
  - Jump the diagonal projectiles
  - Unload and recharge during the spindash
  - Opportunize around its quick-peek fakeouts

Enma's Nut
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- Phase One
  - Spam charges or mash on the main body
  - Retarget and carefully single-shot each sattelite when its beam nears you
    - Rotation speed increases with each hit, necessitating a quick mash-kill if you make a mistake or take too long
    - Alternately, don't shoot the sattelites, take a hit, and abuse the iframes to switch sides
- Phase Two
  - Focus on the sattelites to make them drop to the ground and revert to phase one

Ghoulish Puppetry
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- As Taromaru, make sure to stay at middle-left; in lock range of the head, but out of hand range
- Focus on the head, as damaging the hands only disables them temporarily
- Herd the green bullet barrage into the bottom-left, jump, release charge at the apex, then defend for safety
- Halfway through the arms will fall off and the head will begin floating
  - Favour jump-mashing at this point, as the attacks will layer in ways that are only safe to defend through
  - Remain aware of the head, which will peroidically rain damaging blood droplets
  - Defend through the large sigil attack

Dragon Demon Voltron
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- Easily the toughest boss - huge health pool, lots of moves, and hits hard
- Periodically switches between combined and split forms
- Learn his pose tells well
- Combined form
  - Fire breath
    - Jump, mash out some regular attacks, and defend on the way down
  - Upper / lower chakram toss
    - A sneaky one, with similar tell poses for upper / lower
    - Jump at 1/3 across the screen or defend through
  - Sword slash / extend-o-bo
    - The sword slash is harmless if you're spacing properly,
      but may be followed up by a screen-width bo attack that can be crouched under
    - Good charge opportunity
  - Full-screen lightning strike
    - He'll start using this after the first split
    - Watch for the cast and defend through
- Split form
  - Fire breath
    - Same strat as before, but with a steeper angle
    - His upper half can be manipulated rightward to buy space if you stay close
  - Legs laser
    - Should be harmless if you're jumping the fire breath,
      but use defend hovering or leftward airdashing if they overlay inconveniently
  - Annelids
    - These can be ignored for the most part
    - Just make sure to mash-wipe them as he recombines