"Dullahan" Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin Hard LV1, Boss 1 (No Damage)
And welcome to the boss episode where I look at the bosses in Portrait of Ruin, and then fight them without taking damage. The time it takes to battle bosses will vary a good amount, so it will be inconsistent on those timings. As always, we'll use the journal logs to define strategies and what happened.
4-1-2022 (Part 2)
Dullahan
Time Taken to No Damage: 40 minutes (Did not beat Albus Hard Level 1 Time)
Dullahan as the first boss has its benefits. Unfortunately, there are no medals or goodies for beating bosses without taking damage, unlike OoE which had medals.
The boss is a real stinger as all of his attacks do over 120 damage, basically just killing you in one hit. As it goes, attacks will be covered.
Iron Piercer: A joust that is straight forward. Happens when you're in the air, but it should be easy to drop down the surface. Has a hitbox when returning. Unchanged from Normal to Hard.
Iron Spikes: A jump in the air that summons spikes on the ground. You can go to a platform and jump them, but that can corner you, so I advise against it. Instead, slide under it. Dullahan's hitbox is lenient, so it shouldn't be too hard to do so. Unchanged.
Summon Spirits: Dullahan grabs its head and summons spirits. Four fast projectiles are summoned, and then a wave or projectiles. The first four require some good movement to travel (such as using platforms), while the last wave is up to your not-so good luck. You'll end up weaving in and out of the wave. Attack changed from five slow projectiles to four fast ones, and a wave.
Eye Spirits: After Summon Spirits, the head summons a wave of eyes. Shortly after, a second wave is shot from the head. These can be destroyed to open up space for movement. Attack changed from one wave of eyes to two waves of eyes.
Dullahan's Head: Its head shows different expressions for attacks. Summon Spirits has an evil smile. If struck before the body grabs the head, the attack will be cancelled, and the body will be briefly stunned.
Weapons Used
Jonathan
Short Sword, Axe
Charlotte
Tome of Arms I, Emerald Swarl
Strategy
Jonathan is mostly for getting your subweapon mastery, while Charlotte is more towards the damage side. I throw an axe at the beginning, and then rush attack Dullahan with Character Swap Attack Cancels. When I have time, I cast Emerald Swarl with Charlotte.
Be careful when casting this, as if Dullahan does Iron Spikes, then you'll need to backdash, crouch, and then slide under Dullahan, or get to a platform and jump.
Dying is common. Especially the wave attack from the Summon Spirits
Video Notes
Recorded using MelonDS with a custom overlay.
1536x864 for main gameplay, and 1536x576 for bosses.
Bosses are separated into their own episodes, releases two hours (or less) after the base episode.
Here is the list of banned stuff
Broken: Darts, Shuriken
Neglects Challenge: Heal, Ancient Armor, Healing Mail
All or Nothing: Berserker Armor, Heavy Armor, New Game+
Can't Even: Bonuses from beating the game.
Misc: High Speed
Grinds will try to be minimal, though Mastery will be needed for some quests (Done off-screen?)
Game is played on a fresh save (New Game Level 1)
And that finishes this arc of the story. Next time, we'll escape from the city, and after that, we'll face the beast that plays its façade at us.