Zelda 3: Lanmos Tips

Lanmos Tips 'n' Tricks
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Just some random tips for the lanmolas fight in desert compiled from the alttp discord + sda.

Tutorial by BluntBunny: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/170635873?t=03h04m27s
Wiki page on Lanmolas: https://alttp-wiki.net/index.php/Lanmolas

DEEBS
- Lanmo takes a ton of practice, there's no 'quick fix' for it, just gotta put the time in.
- People can give advice, and even if it's accurate you still need to get the feel for it yourself.


SCREEVO
- Lanmo isn't a boss you write a guide for. You just write commandments.
- Thou shalt bonk against the top wall and (sword/dash)buffer up(or up/right) 1 frame.
- Thou shalt not try to kill a lanmo on the first cycle (go for 2-2-2 in each).
- Thou shalt not fire in such a way that misses sail clear across the room (preventing you from firing another arrow until it hits the wall).


PINKUS
- I'd say the most important thing is just not missing tbh. The first shot should always hit. So at the very least you will always get in one arrow if you have time to setup for him opening up.
- The next most important thing is positioning. Learning when to stand on their left side and when to stand on top.
- After that learning to follow the lanmolas as they go.
- It's really a thing to learn by doing though, its hard to learn it from a tutorial other than the very basics
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- For the opener, after shooting left twice sometimes u need to move < to not get hit, other times u need to move > right up front of the top right lanmola to not get hit. It's a matter of reading the pattern and reacting. If the bottom one moves slowly up, you should be able to put 4 arrows in him on the first cycle unless you missed an arrow and had to wait.
- Lanmo has a pretty sick visual cue for the 1st cycle: wait for the 2nd animation on the top right lanmola, then start firing.
- If he moves diagonal upwards its always possible to hit him and just takes a lot of tries until you start feeling which y coord is good.
- Generally if they spawn at the bottom in 2nd or more cycle, you want to stand above them, slightly towards the center, and time your arrows + spam them such that you get in at least 2 (unless they short hop into the corner or something stupid)
- I find if they spawn at the top/mid top I like being to their left. (or right, if they're at the left position), don't like being below them.
- imo the stuff ppl write about is 20% of the fight, 80% is knowing where to position yourself for 2nd+ cycle, and how to follow the lanmolas. Like if you should be left/right or below/above opening spot, what is the first movement, do you spam 2 arrows as he opens up or delay for the faster follow. and it gets more complicated with 3 lanmolas opening up where you can potentially follow multiple targets.
- best tip I can think of is just practicing it for 8 hour straight and not use sword at all -- then repeat that until happy


JOSH
- It may be random but if it spawns in the lower right area for example, then it will be more likely to move up left to w/e spot because that's where most of the options are.
- Whether the lanmola moves up or down is important because the game animates those motions differently.
- This is somewhat predictable based on where it surfaces in the room (ie. if it spawns low, it has more options for moving up than it does down, therefore it is more likely to move upwards).
- When they move at a downward trajectory it's very favorable to you if you can recognize it quickly since you can just stand next to them and get 2+ hits in.
- Usually this is because they will stay at the same relative y-pos before starting to descend.
- Upwards trajectories are trickier and take more practice since you're going to have to follow it.
- Prioritize worm #3 especially if you didn't deal much dmg to it in cycle1

CYGHFER
- whether a lanmola goes down or up can be extremely important. if a spawn point is in the top half of the field, it is much more likely the lanmola will go down, and vice versa. for spawn points in the top half of the field, stand next to it and spam arrows when it's about to come out of the hole. due to the way the game visually simulates a floating movement animation, a lanmola's general X-coordinate will stay relatively still for a short time after coming out of a hole with a downward trajectory. this will often allow you to easily land 2+ arrows into it. now, if one spawns in the bottom half, it is best to stand either on top of it or toward the center and next to it. you'll have to follow alongside it and shoot arrows into it as it's going along its trajectory
- always try and position yourself so that you can hit multiple ones per phase. when one lanmola has moved such that there's no chance you can hit it again before it goes back into the ground, move to another one and focus on that one, etc. having good spatial senses and an awareness of the entire field is important after the 1st phase.
- use the sword sparingly, only when you have the time to land a final sword hit on a lanmola before it burrows again but not enough time (or the positioning) to land an arrow hit. the sword can still be important for finishing in 3 phases rather than 4, etc, but it's not very common.
- mostly it comes down to experience, recognizing all the various patterns that they're capable of, and how to exploit every general situation that can arise. and of course a precise timing with the bow is pivotal as well.

GREENHAM
- My personal advice for the initial setup is to bonk, swordbuffer ^> 1 frame, dash turn <, then PAUSE BUFFER to arrows when you see the top-right lanmo get to its 2nd size. Then, you can just fire your first 2 arrows out of the menu. I tend to get antsy just sitting there waiting for the lanmos to spawn, so this is my method of increasing my chances of hitting 2-2-2 in the first cycle, which is arguably the most important part of the fight.

EMMA
- don't spam arrows, either. that guarantees a bad time