========================================================================
DMD BOSS/ENEMY STRATEGIES WITH IFRIT
--------------------------------------
A "DEVIL MAY CRY" FAQ
========================================================================
Version 1.0 -- Updated: February 25, 2002.
Check http://www.gamefaqs.com for the most recent version.
Suggestions to improve this FAQ and other comments may be e-mailed to:
tedster17@attbi.com
------------------------------------------------------------------------
TABLE OF CONTENTS
-------------------
NOTE: The actual titles of the sections and subsections listed below are
all typed in capital letters, which you can use to your advantage. For
instance, if you're looking for the section covering "Monster 2" you can
search for "MONSTER 2" with the browser's/program's case-sensitivity
option enabled to jump directly there.
-------
Introduction
Ifrit Abilities and Other Common Terms
Ifrit Abilities
What Order Should I Get Ifrit Abilities In?
Common Terms
Comboing Enemies With Ifrit
Dealing With Turned Enemies
Marionettes, Bloody Maris, & Fetishes
Shadows
Blades
Frosts
Plasmas
Nobodies
Non-Ifrit Enemy Tactics
Sargassos
Beelzebubs
Sin Scissors
Sin Scythes
Death Scissors
Death Scythes
Kyklopses
DMD Phantom 2
Required/Helpful Abilities & Weapons
How Do I Hurt Phantom?
Fighting Phantom 2 - (defense)
Fighting Phantom 2 - (offense)
When Phantom's Health Hits The Red - (defense)
The "Other" Way To Defeat Phantom - (offense)
Dangers Of Excessive Jumping - (defense)
Phantom 1 Differences & Notes
Stupid Phantom Trick
DMD Griffon 1
Required/Helpful Abilities & Weapons
Don't Fight After The Cutscene - (offense/defense)
Fighting Griffon 1 - (defense)
Fighting Griffon 1 - (offense)
When Griffon Is About To Die - (defense)
Miscellaneous Info - (offense/defense)
Stupid Griffon 1 Trick
DMD Griffon 2
Required/Helpful Abilities & Weapons
Fighting Griffon 2 - (defense)
The Griffon 2 Pattern - (offense)
When Griffon Is About To Die - (defense)
DMD Griffon 3
Required/Helpful Abilities & Weapons
Before You Start The Battle
Skip The First Part Of The Battle -- Practically - (offense)
Fighting Griffon 3 - (defense)
Fighting Griffon 3 - (offense)
DMD Nelo Angelo 3
Required/Helpful Abilities & Weapons
Opening Attack -- a.k.a. Using Meteor-level2 - (offense)
Fighting Nelo 3 - (defense)
Sword Attacks - (defense)
Fireball Attacks - (defense)
Phantom Sword Attacks - (defense)
Preventing Additional Phantom Sword Attacks - (defense)
Protecting Dante With Holy Waters - (defense)
Fighting Nelo 3 - (offense)
Miscellaneous Info - (offense/defense)
Things That Get You Killed In This Battle - (defense)
Nelo 2 Differences & Notes
Nelo 1 Differences & Notes
Using The Time Bangle Against Nelo 1 & 2 - (offense)
DMD Nightmare 3
Required/Helpful Abilities & Weapons
How Do I Hurt Nightmare?
Gloopy Nightmare 3's Attacks - (defense)
To Be Thrown, Or Not To Be Thrown
Fighting Shadowy Nelo Angelo - (offense)
Building Devil Gauge From Gloopy Nightmare
Solid Nightmare 3's Attacks - (defense)
Core-Damaging Techniques - (offense)
Trish Decides To Help - (defense)
Nightmare 3's Final Core - (offense/defense)
The 100% Ifrit Way - (offense)
Nightmare 3's Attack Pattern - (offense/defense)
S Mission Ranking Notes
Nightmare 2 Differences & Notes
Nightmare 1 Differences & Notes
Stupid Nightmare Tricks
DMD Mundus 1
Required/Helpful Abilities & Weapons
Analog/Gamepad Controls
Fighting Mundus 1 - (defense)
General Mundus 1 Strategy - (defense)
General Mundus 1 Strategy - (offense)
Do Double-Damage With The DT-Dragon - (offense)
Stupid Mundus 1 Trick
DMD Mundus 2
Required/Helpful Abilities & Weapons
Fighting Mundus 2 - (defense)
Mundus 2 Attack Pattern - (defense)
Protecting Dante With Holy Waters - (defense)
Using The Sparda - (offense)
Fighting Mundus 2 - (offense)
DMD Mundus 3
Required/Helpful Abilities & Weapons
Fighting Mundus 3 - (defense)
Fighting Mundus 3 - (offense)
DMD S-Rank Notes
Revision History
Acknowledgements
A Little About Me
------------------------------------------------------------------------
INTRODUCTION
--------------
When I first acquired the Ifrit gauntlets in Normal mode, I'd say my
evaluation of them was similar to that of most Devil May Cry players.
When you drop down to the ground after the cutscene, Dante has to face a
slew of Marionettes. I was psyched, because I figured the gauntlets
would enable me to wade through these puppets like they weren't even
there. This was not the case. After fighting with Alastor for so long,
Ifrit combos seemed very slow; I wasn't rewarded me with one- or two-hit
kills either. So I switched to Alastor, finished off the Marionettes,
and exited the area.
Next, I had to face Griffon. I figured I'd give the gauntlets a second
chance against him, but was completely thrashed by his lightning attacks
(which aerial flame-kicks only brought Dante closer to). Like many other
players, I got through the fight by using Air Raid after switching to
Alastor. This is when I decided to shelve the gauntlets, disappointed
they weren't the god-like instruments of death I was hoping for.
Does this sound familiar? I'd say the biggest setback people have about
accepting Ifrit as a viable weapon is the way it's introduced. You're
immediately dropped into a fight, then boss battle, with no Ifrit
abilities to help you (and no Time Statue to buy some from). Truthfully,
Ifrit _is_ pretty useless until you _invest_ in it. Once you purchase
some abilities, especially Kick13, Rolling Blaze, and Inferno, using the
gauntlets makes a lot more sense. By then most people have resolved to
sink the rest of their red orbs into Alastor and purple/blue orbs
instead, and may never really learn to use the gauntlets at all. This is
a real shame, since anyone who falls into this trap is cheating
themselves out of half of the gameplay, challenge, and ultimately
rewards Devil May Cry has to offer.
At first glance, this is simply a game about fighting monsters and
collecting items to advance to the next part of the story, not
puzzle-solving. However, this perception is very deceiving. The puzzle
aspect of the game doesn't become apparent until you progress through
the difficulty modes. In Normal, most obstacles can be overcome using
Alastor's Air Raid. In Hard mode, Air Raid is less effective. However,
in DMD mode, the damage Air Raid does to bosses (the toughest opponents)
is minimal, so you're encouraged to discover the ideal damage-dealing
methods to get through those battles. There are strategies using certain
devil arm and projectile weapons against each foe that work better and
faster than others. For me, the big puzzle of Devil May Cry is figuring
out the most effective ways to finish off the various enemies and bosses
and then developing the skill to do so consistently without getting
Dante hurt in the process.
Just for the record, I'm not saying Ifrit is "better" than Alastor.
During the course of the game I often have the Alastor equipped. The
devil arm swords have an edge in battles against large groups and
certain enemies due to their slashing speed, extra range, wider
coverage, and (with Alastor or Yamato) the ultra-helpful Air Hike and
Vortex-level2 abilities. In addition to those advantages, when no
enemies are around Stinger-level2ing allows Dante to travel from one
place to another a lot faster than simply running.
What I will say is that when you've purchased the appropriate abilities,
Ifrit is the superior weapon for defeating _bosses_. In every major boss
battle (except against Mundus) I was able to find ways to do more damage
and end fights in less time using Ifrit than I could using the swords.
The conclusion I've come to is that in DMD mode the swords are fine for
gradually chipping away at bosses' life bars, but using the Ifrit
gauntlets enables you to lop their health away in sizable chunks. It can
also be used just as (if not more) effectively against many other
regular enemies too. After experimenting with these strategies for
yourself, feel free to draw your own conclusions.
Although the boss and enemy strategies you'll find here are for DMD
(Dante Must Die!) mode, they'll also work in Normal and Hard modes...
only better. In fact, if you're persistent enough these strategies will
enable you to earn itemless S ranks in every boss battle regardless of
the difficulty level. You heard me right; once you learn to use Ifrit
well enough, you won't even _need_ Untouchable Stars any more!
In most cases, I've written up strategies for each "final" boss battle
rather than creating separate redundant strategies for each encounter
since the final bosses typically use all the same attacks they did
previously along with a few additional ones. Near the end of such boss
sections, I note absent attacks and other differences between the final
and previous battles. The exceptions are Griffon and Mundus; each fight
with then was unique enough to warrant a separate strategy for each
encounter.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
IFRIT ABILITIES AND OTHER COMMON TERMS
----------------------------------------
- IFRIT ABILITIES -
( Magma Drive ) When you hold the R1 button, move the analog stick in
the opposite direction Dante's facing, and press the attack button.
Dante will do a grounded flaming uppercut that can launch certain
enemies into the air. Holding down the attack button will charge this
move, making Dante quickly slide closer to the enemy before unleashing a
more damaging uppercut. If you hold the button down long enough, the
uppercut will be released automatically. Note that even the quick
version of this move you get by tapping the attack button requires some
start-up time. An enemy attack that interrupts Dante before he releases
the uppercut will prevent it from coming out at all. You can Magma Drive
enemies that are knocked down before they get up again; this is a safer
approach than attempting to Magma Drive standing ones. This ability
provides the only non-DTed way for Dante to launch enemies with Ifrit,
so it's integral if you want to do involved combos. You'll probably get
Magma Drive early on since it's the least expensive Ifrit ability at a
mere 500 red orbs.
( Kick13-level1, kick13, Kick13 Auto-Combo, auto-combo ) When you hold
the R1 button down and move the analog stick towards the direction
Dante's facing as you press the attack button Dante will execute a
flaming roundhouse kick. It doesn't come out much faster than his normal
Ifrit punches, but he slides forward a little as he does it and it will
knock down certain enemies. If Dante's DTed when you execute this
command, he'll do an automatic combo that hits the victim multiple
times. You may be tempted to mash on the attack button while this
auto-combo is going, but I don't believe he'll do any extra hits or
squeeze any extra damage out of it (then again, this _is_ a Capcom
game). Is an important ability to purchase early on to compensate for
Ifrit's somewhat slow basic moves with a quick one that's capable of
knocking down its victims. The only bad thing about this ability is that
it won't hit certain enemies that have been knocked down until they get
up again. This ability costs 700 red orbs. NOTE: For clarity's sake, the
regular version of this move will be referred to as a "kick13" and the
version Dante does when he's DTed will be called the "Kick13 Auto-Combo"
or sometimes just "auto-combo" throughout this FAQ.
( Kick13-level2 ) Upgrading this ability gives Dante's regular kick13s
more range, speed, and coverage (however, they do the same amount of
damage as the previous version). Also, now when Dante does a Kick13
Auto-Combo he'll finish it with an additional kick at the end that will
launch certain enemies. This ability will put you back 2100 red orbs,
but both the extra range and final auto-combo kick are quite helpful.
NOTE: The remainder of this FAQ will assume that you've purchased the
Kick13-level2 upgrade.
( Rolling Blaze, RB ) This primarily defensive ability for Ifrit
surrounds Dante with flame whenever he jumps. The flames that appear
around him will negate most projectile attacks (including fireballs),
and will also damage nearby enemies, especially during hop-jumps. The
sole downside is that whether he's DTed or not the flames only protect
Dante on the way up; he will be vulnerable as he falls back to the
ground (unlike how it's depicted in the artwork... maybe this ability
was _too_ good and had to be toned down). In its own odd way, Rolling
Blaze compensates for not being able to Air Hike. In boss battles this
ability is _incredibly_ useful, and well worth the 3450 asking price.
NOTE: You'll often see Rolling Blaze shortened to just "RB"...
especially when it's used as an adjective.
( Meteor-level1 ) When Dante is DTed and you hold the R1 button down,
move the analog stick in the opposite direction he's facing, and tap the
attack button he'll quickly release a small fireball shot. The fireball
will automatically target the nearest enemy and detonate when it hits
(they rarely miss). One of these shots is often enough to kill a weaker
Marionette enemy; tougher enemies will take good damage from each one.
You can continue tapping the attack button to release additional shots
one after another fairly rapidly. By holding the attack button down,
Dante will charge up the fireball to make it larger and more powerful.
It'll become fully-charged after 1 symbol of devil gauge has been
consumed and then released automatically. Fully-charged Meteor1 shots
don't detonate when they damage their targets; instead they pass
_through_ them and may strike additional enemies for damage until they
hit a wall or other solid object. Dante can also shoot a
partially-charged fireball if you hold down then release the attack
button before the shot is fully-charged. This ability will cost you 900
red orbs.
( Meteor-level2, Meteor2, M2 shots ) The big difference after you
upgrade to this ability from Meteor-level1 is power and devil gauge
symbol consumption. The small shots you get by tapping the attack button
will use up 1 symbol of devil gauge apiece, but they will instantly kill
any puppet-enemy (including the tougher Fetishes). However, the large
fully-charged shots now consume 2 symbols of devil gauge (in about the
same amount of time as Meteor1 shots) and become immensely powerful. A
fully-charged Meteor2 shot will instantly kill nearly _any_ non-boss
enemy it hits (except for Shadows). Like the fully-charged Meteor1
shots, they continue to travel through their victims until they strike a
solid object. By lining one up correctly, it's very possible to
disintegrate multiple enemies with a single fully-charged Meteor2 shot
regardless of how much damage they'd normally take to defeat (especially
in hallway battles). Fully-charged Meteor2 shots are also especially
useful against Nelo Angelo. At 2700 red orbs, this is probably the most
important ability you need for non-boss battles in DMD mode, and from
this point forward the remainder of this FAQ will assume that you've
purchased this upgrade. NOTE: You may see Meteor2 shots shortened to
just "M2 shots."
( Inferno ) While DTed in midair, move the analog stick in a direction
and press the attack button. Dante will drop straight down and a rather
large circle of fire will erupt from the ground where he lands. As Dante
is crouching, the flames will completely surround and protect him from
most attacks as they rise. This is the most powerful ability in the
entire game. Many regular enemies like Marionettes, Bloody Maris,
Fetishes, and Plasmas will die regardless of which part of the Inferno
touches them; tougher ones will be stunned and temporarily unable to
attack. Enemies right next to Dante during the Inferno are hit for even
more damage than ones singed by the outer edge. Against bosses, Infernos
are often the best ways to do damage, and may stun them so Dante won't
be counterattacked before he recovers. The only drawbacks of doing an
Inferno are that each one will drain Dante's devil gauge of 3 full
symbols (if he has that many remaining) and there is some recovery time
involved when the blast ends (which can be cut short by firing a
projectile weapon). Of course, you'll pay through the teeth for this
ability. It's the most expensive one the Time Statues offer at a hefty
4850 red orbs.
- WHAT ORDER SHOULD I GET IFRIT ABILITIES IN? -
Everyone has a different opinion about this, but for people in DMD mode
who haven't purchased _any_ Ifrit abilities, my recommendation is to get
them in this order:
1) Kick13-level1 -- All of Ifrit's normal attacks, and also Magma Drive,
involve a little lag. However, kick13s come out a tiny bit faster and
knock certain enemies down. Instead of launching a puppet-enemy with a
Magma Drive, you can knock it down with a kick13, hit them with a
fully-charged punch as they get up (following up with quick PPKK combo
hits if you want), then follow with another kick13 once they're standing
to put them back on the ground again. In other words, you can do
knockdown-oriented combos instead of launch-oriented ones. They're not
as impressive, but they're usually safer. The Kick13 Auto-Combo will let
you burn devil gauge on a victim without giving it an opportunity to
retaliate. This ability is also inexpensive compared to many others.
2) Magma Drive -- Ifrit's version of High Time is the only way to launch
enemies for midair combos. The gauntlets' offensive abilities are
greatly reduced without this ability against many regular enemies, and
since it's the cheapest ability offered for Ifrit you might as well get
it earlier rather than later.
3) Rolling Blaze -- You definitely don't want to face a boss using the
gauntlets without this ability. It's useful for protecting Dante from
physical, projectile, and fireball attacks. Not having Rolling Blaze
with Ifrit is like not having Air Hike with Alastor.
4) Meteor-level1 -- When you have lots of devil gauge, this ability will
enable Dante to quickly eliminate hordes of regular puppet-enemies
whenever he's outnumbered, which can be a life-saver.
5) Meteor-level2 -- Once you read the "Dealing With Turned Enemies"
section, you'll understand why I'm giving this ability a higher priority
than Inferno in DMD mode.
6) Inferno -- It's finally time to save up and plunk down the red orbs
for the definitive ability of the Ifrit gauntlets. It's a devil gauge
syphon, but you usually won't care. Enjoy the power!
7) Kick13-level2 -- Although it was a bit of a pain, I hope getting by
without the extra kick13 range and the final launching kick of the
Kick13 Auto-Combo wasn't too tough. Now you've finally got them all!
Here's how my reasoning goes... You want to get Kick13-level1 then Magma
Drive early on since they're inexpensive, and you should practice using
them as soon as possible to get good at building up devil gauge for the
more powerful abilities. Rolling Blaze comes next because it provides
Dante with much-needed protection during his jumps and is indispensable
during boss battles; every Ifrit strategy in this FAQ with the exception
of Griffon 2's relies on RB's offensive or defensive capabilities
(sometimes both). Another important thing about these three abilities is
they always help Dante whether he's DTed or not. Next come the
heavy-duty Meteor and Inferno abilities (until then, use the Kick13
Auto-Combo to burn devil gauge). Finally, the Kick13-level2 upgrade
completes the list.
Why not get Meteor1/2 and Inferno earlier? If you bought them right off
the bat instead of the other skills, you'd have great abilities for
_burning_ devil gauge, but no helpful ones for _earning_ more. With only
Meteor1/2 or Inferno (or both) the gauntlets will only be useful when
Dante has plenty of devil gauge, but whenever he doesn't they'll be
difficult to use effectively. To really make use of the DT-only
abilities, you should learn to use the others well enough for Dante to
build devil gauge quickly and continuously... ideally without getting
him hurt in the process. That's why I suggest the order above. However,
if you're already purchasing Ifrit abilities in Normal or Hard modes,
Inferno should probably jump ahead of Meteor1/2 on my list. (Again, the
"Dealing With Turned Enemies" section will explain why.)
- COMMON TERMS -
Several of these terms will be explained again in the strategy sections
that follow, but I wanted to define them in their own section as well so
people searching for them will jump directly to in-depth definitions.
( Devil Trigger, DT ) If Dante is wielding a weapon that gives him a
devil gauge and has at least 3 symbols of the gauge filled, pressing the
L1 button will activate his Devil Trigger and temporarily transform him
into a demon, making his attacks more powerful while granting him
reduced damage from enemies' attacks and allowing him to use even more
special offensive abilities he may have purchased from the Time Statues.
Buying purple orbs will add symbols to the length of the devil gauge,
increasing the amount of time Dante stays transformed. You can have a
maximum of 10 symbols. In earlier difficulties, DTing regenerated some
of Dante's lost health... no such luck in DMD mode. He only receives the
other advantages. Devil Trigger will always be shortened to "DT"
throughout the remainder of this FAQ.
( wall-jump ) Dante doesn't need to earn this skill; he has it right
at the beginning of the game. The only reason I'm mentioning it here is
that it's the most common way to compensate for his lack of Air Hike
when you're using Ifrit. (It's also possible to jump off of airborne
enemies, or off the bodies of standing ones.) Wall-jumping can be
helpful in certain situations, particularly when Dante faces Shadows or
needs to evade puppet-enemies' projectile attacks.
( kickflip, RB kickflip ) To execute this skill, hold the R1 button
down, move the analog stick in the opposite direction Dante's facing,
and press the _jump_ button. Dante will flip backwards, kicking with his
feet, and land a little behind his starting point. Until Dante acquires
Rolling Blaze, his kickflips won't damage enemies. Even once you do, RB
kickflips only strike enemies Dante launches into the air and/or is
_very_ close to. When they hit, they don't do very much damage but they
do stun the victim or knock it backwards.
( flame-kick ) Dante automatically gets this skill when he wields the
Ifrit gauntlets. During a jump, press the attack button and Dante will
automatically target and kick down-diagonally towards the nearest enemy
with his leg surrounded in flames. This move will knock down standing
puppet-enemies. Flame-kicks on opponents that are lying flat on their
backs just after they've been knocked down will do major damage.
Wall-jumping for extra height increases the possible range of a
flame-kick and will make it hurt the victim(s) more when it connects. To
prevent DTed Dante from doing an Inferno instead of a flame-kick once
he's acquired that ability, let the analog stick center before pressing
the attack button.
( taunting ) Pressing the R2 button will make Dante taunt. The more
enemies that are nearby when he does, the more devil gauge he will be
rewarded with when the taunt is finished. There are two types of taunts.
By simply pressing down the R2 button, Dante will do a standard
single-handed taunt. However, if you _quickly_ press the R2 button from
being completely released to all the way down, Dante will do a
two-handed taunt instead. The amount of time the two-handed version
takes is only a little longer than the standard one, but Dante will earn
twice as much devil gauge for it. A double-handed taunt directed towards
a group of three enemies at close range can instantly earn 5 or 6
symbols for Dante. When you start the taunt, Dante will not be able to
move, but once you see his hand(s) motioning you can cancel out of the
taunt early via a jump or roll. Of course, you forfeit earning any devil
gauge when you cancel out of it, but it allows you to taunt a little
more aggressively than you could otherwise. Taunting is particularly
useful against close-knit groups of multiple puppet-enemies, Shadows,
and Mundus 2.
( grenade-kick13 combo, grenade-kick13 ) This is a very powerful
technique that builds devil gauge rapidly. To do it, you alternate
between firing grenades and kick13s at the nearest enemy. One catch
about this combo is that Dante's kick13s will buffer into each other.
So, to keep the combo going smoothly you want to jam on the shoot button
after each kick13 to release a grenade, but after each grenade you only
want to press the attack button _once_ for each kick13 to prevent any
buffering. Unfortunately, regular kick13s often miss enemies Dante's
standing right next to if they've been knocked down. In these cases, do
a fully-charged Ifrit punch instead, then resume grenade-kick13ing
afterwards. I recommend always leading with the grenades (especially
against Fetishes) since they cannot be parried. The grenade-kick13ing
technique works well on many types of ground-based enemies, but is
particularly useful against Frosts and for building devil gauge from
Nightmare's cores.
( grenade-roll ) If you just hold R1 and jam on the shoot button to
shoot grenades one after the other, you'll notice that they are not
fired rapidly. There's a huge lag after each one, leaving Dante
stationary and vulnerable to any enemies the grenade blast failed to
hit. However, if you keep R1 held down, move the analog stick to the
left or right of the direction Dante's facing, and press the jump button
after each grenade shot comes out Dante will roll immediately
afterwards. Doing this enables you to cancel out of the grenade gun's
recoil time. Just after Dante's standing after the roll, you can repeat
the process. Once you get the timing down, it's possible fire shots
rapidly enough to earn Stylish combo ratings. It's often better to
alternate between left and right rolls while grenade-rolling so the
camera angle won't change and confuse you into disrupting the combo. An
alternative to grenade-rolling from side to side is to grenade-kick13
towards or grenade-kickflip away from enemies. These options also allow
Dante to release grenade gun shots quickly enough to build combos, and
are very useful in hallway battles where obstructions along the walls
sometimes prevent the grenades from hitting their targets. Since the
kick13s or kickflips are not required to connect for damage, I'm lumping
them here under the "grenade-roll techniques" umbrella.
( shotgun twitch technique ) When Dante wields the shotgun and can
remain stationary while he fires, hold the R1 button down and alternate
between pressing the shoot button and quickly tapping the analog stick
in any direction to release shotgun blasts more rapidly. Like a
compressed version of grenade-rolling, taking this miniscule step to the
side before firing each blast cancels out of the shotgun's normal
recovery time and allows Dante to fire three of them in the time it
would normally take to release two. Using this technique will enable
Dante to juggle launched puppet-enemies until they die when there's no
other interference. It's also great against Nobodies and Mundus 2's
shooting sphere attacks.
( devil-charging shots ) With E&I, the shotgun, or the grenade gun you
can press and hold down the shoot button to make Dante devil-charge a
shot when Ifrit, Alastor, or Yamato (and in one battle even the Sparda)
are equipped. After a second, the gun(s) will ooze energy in whatever
flavor of devil arm you have equipped, and the next shots you fire will
be devil-charged without using up any symbols in your devil gauge. With
E&I, you can rapidly fire four devil-charged shots before the energy is
gone. However, the shotgun and the grenade gun are different. With them,
you can unleash two devil-charged shots by quickly separating them with
a roll, kick13, kickflip, hop-jump, or even a regular jump. In the case
of the shotgun, the second devil-charged shot can also be fired from the
air before Dante lands after a jump, hop-jump, or kickflip. Furthermore,
using the shotgun twitch technique will allow him to fire three
devil-charged shots instead of just two. It's possible to go directly
into devil-charging shots without firing an initial shot first by
holding down the shoot button _before_ holding down the R1 button, or
making Dante roll then holding down both the R1 and shoot buttons before
he recovers. This is useful against enemies that may not start attacking
Dante right after he enters a room if you don't disturb them (like
Frosts and Nobodies), and especially against Shadows since an initial
shot would provoke the recipient into attacking immediately. As an added
bonus, the extra damage done by Dante's devil-charged shots also enables
him to earn additional "real" devil gauge. You aren't allowed to
devil-charge shots with Nightmare Beta, which requires actual devil
gauge symbols to draw power from. When Dante's devil gauge is empty, the
NB will fire a very weak shot that bounces only a few times before
vanishing as soon as you press the shoot button. You can't devil-charge
the needlegun's shots at all.
( de-DTing technique ) One of the drawbacks those who don't care for
the Ifrit gauntlets often bring up is that their more powerful abilities
drain Dante's devil gauge too quickly. The price of 2 symbols for a
Kick13 Auto-Combo and 3 symbols for an Inferno seems pretty steep when
Dante's devil gauge can only store a maximum of ten. But what if there
was a way to use these abilities for a fraction of the symbols they'd
normally consume? Well, there is! You may have noticed that you can
squeeze an Inferno or Kick13-Auto-Combo out when Dante has only a sliver
of a symbol remaining in his devil gauge just before he reverts back to
normal. You can force the same thing to happen by deactivating DT
immediately after committing to one of these moves. DTing and de-DTing
each consume half a symbol of devil gauge. Furthermore, Dante's not
allowed to de-DT until the DT activation animation is finished, which
takes about a half a second. This means you can [DT, commit to either an
Inferno or a Kick13 Auto-Combo after half a second passes, immediately
de-DT afterwards] and whichever move you choose only costs Dante a
little over 1 symbol of devil gauge. Since Dante will not be in devil
mode when the Inferno or auto-combo comes out, he'll even earn a tiny
bit of devil gauge for any damage it does. Unfortunately, there are
other drawbacks in addition to the half-second setup time. Your Inferno
or Kick13 Auto-Combos do more damage when Dante remains DTed. (De-DTed
Infernos are still pretty darn powerful and affect a large area,
though.) Also, since Dante won't be in devil mode while executing the
moves, he can be interrupted during either of them more easily and will
take normal damage from the hit. A well-timed enemy attack may prevent
an Inferno from coming out at all (but after one's already started,
Dante's pretty safe until the recovery time begins). This is definitely
a technique worth learning as it makes the Ifrit gauntlets even more
powerful (and fun) to use.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
COMBOING ENEMIES WITH IFRIT
-----------------------------
Although the Ifrit gauntlets are ideally suited for concentrating power
on single foes, they can be used very effectively against groups of
regular, non-boss enemies if you take a little extra care.
You can temporarily hold certain enemies (Marionettes, Bloody Maris, and
Fetishes) in the air with regular E&I shots or 2 quick shotgun blasts
after launching them with Magma Drive or the final kick of a Kick13
Auto-Combo if you like. Using the shotgun twitch technique will enable
Dante to keep them airborne until they perish. With a little practice
you can even jump/hop-jump into launched enemies with Rolling Blaze,
then quickly leap off of them while they're in mid-air (jump straight up
to come down with an Inferno or jump in a direction to follow up with an
aerial projectile weapon attack and/or flame-kick). Another option is to
hold down the R1 button, move the analog stick away from the launched
enemy, and press the _jump_ button to do a kickflip, which will also hit
for damage so long as you've purchased Rolling Blaze.
If you launch an enemy and try to strike it as it falls with a punch
from Ifrit's PPKK combo, the enemy won't hang in the air as you continue
attacking like they do with the swords. Marionettes, Bloody Maris, and
Fetishes will take the hit as they fall to the ground, but they'll
continue to be hit by your PPKK strikes while there. However, if you hit
them with a well-timed regular kick13 as they fall, you can continue
with more rapid kick13s to hold them in place until they die.
Launched Blades and Frosts will often be batted out of range from PPKK
and kick13 attempts unless they're stopped by a wall. Furthermore, they
may even recover on their feet instead of landing on the ground and
getting back up again. For this reason, I recommend letting them hit the
ground while you either press and hold the attack button to do a
fully-charged punch or do a Magma Drive (either quick or fully-charged)
instead. Hitting them with Kick13 Auto-Combos after they hit the ground
will also work.
When a lot of enemies are clumped together or in a row approaching
Dante, a fully-charged Meteor2 shot will allow you to eliminate them all
if it's lined up correctly. (The exception to this rule is Shadows,
which you must use special methods to destroy.)
As there are far too many combos possible for me to list them all, just
a few samples are listed in each section. When you see portions of a
combo in braces, like {this attack, this attack, this attack}, it means
Dante can repeat that sequence of attacks over and over until the victim
dies as long as he's not interrupted. With a few exceptions, I've tried
to concentrate on reliable, efficient combos over flashy, difficult to
execute ones. Also, I'm not supplying detailed descriptions of each
regular enemy's attacks (this FAQ is long enough already).
- DEALING WITH TURNED ENEMIES -
The big problem with doing Ifrit combos in DMD mode is that the enemies
not killed quickly enough will eventually "turn." Their bodies become
super-charged with red bolts of energy, then any attacks they connect
with will hurt Dante much more than they normally would and very little
interrupts them from coming out. They also become much more resistant to
your attacks. Turned enemies look like they're DTed, but unlike Dante
they don't gain any extra abilities (after all, they were demons to
begin with). The grenade gun becomes especially useful in DMD mode since
using it liberally will allow you to kill more enemies before they get
the chance to turn, and its shots will even put certain enemies on the
ground after they've turned. Even when grenades don't knock down turned
enemies, they still earn devil gauge in a hurry; so learning to
grenade-roll well is _extremely_ helpful. Anyway, doing lots of long
combos (or using extra time to set them up) is much riskier in DMD mode
since a regular standing enemy can quickly turn and introduce Dante to a
world of pain between the hits of his Ifrit combos.
The primary method to rid yourself of turned enemies with the Ifrit
gauntlets is to use fully-charged Meteor2 shots. They will instantly
kill any turned enemies they hit (except Shadows) and can also finish
off multiple turned enemies if they're in a group or are lined up just
right. Surprisingly, Infernos are not nearly as effective as Meteor2
shots; turned enemies (especially Fetishes) caught in the blasts often
survive. If you must Inferno any turned foes (perhaps to kill off some
regular enemies with the same blast too) jump over their heads before
committing so they'll waste some time spinning to face Dante while he
recovers. Kick13 Auto-Combos also don't seem to damage turned enemies
very much, although they prevent any counterattacks from the victim and
can launch certain ones with the final kick.
Some fights display a "turning countdown timer" in the upper-left corner
of the screen when you enter a room. Dante will be trapped inside the
area until all the enemies have been killed. After the timer reaches
zero, all the remaining enemies (and others that haven't entered the
fight via portals yet) become turned, which can make things a lot more
difficult.
Each regular enemy combo section will be followed by a turned enemy
combo section.
- MARIONETTES, BLOODY MARIS, & FETISHES -
You have to be careful when fighting large groups of these
"puppet-enemies," using Rolling Blaze to protect Dante from their
projectile attacks (wall-jump to stay airborne longer if necessary). I
tend to use the grenade-roll technique liberally to keep enemies on the
ground and punish/launch them while they're down when opportunities
present themselves.
You can normally use one grenade gun shot, two shotgun blasts, or
multiple E&I shots to hold these enemies in the air after launching them
with Magma Drive or the final strike of a Kick13 Auto-Combo. (Using the
shotgun twitch technique will allow you to hold these launched enemies
in the air indefinitely.) The shotgun and E&I can also be used to
protect Dante as he falls to the ground after a jump. (I prefer the
shotgun, since it can stun several nearby enemies in a wider area;
immediately jump to safety once Dante lands.) By the way, E&I shots will
make launched puppet-enemies rise even higher when Dante's DTed. Any
time you think you're in trouble, burn devil gauge on an Inferno or line
up a fully-charged Meteor2 shot.
Quick Meteor2 shots make killing puppet-enemies like picking off
cardboard ducks at a shooting gallery, although each shot will cost 1
symbol of devil gauge. Also, if another enemy gets too close behind you
while you're releasing Meteor2 shots, you may start Kick13 Auto-Comboing
towards it instead.
You have to be more careful when you're up against Fetishes, as they can
do their quick flame-thrower counters between the hits of your combos.
It's safest to put them on the ground with a close-range shotgun blast,
grenade gun shot, flame-kick, or kick13 before punching them or
launching them with Magma Drives. By the way, standing Fetishes may
counter kick13, Magma Drive, or aerial flame-kick attempts. If you can,
jump over their heads and flame-kick them from behind as they turn to
face Dante for guaranteed knockdowns. Marionettes and Bloody Maris can
also parry and counter your Ifrit attacks, but it's easier to jump away
from their counterattacks.
When fighting these enemies in hallway battles, use grenade-roll
techniques to build up devil gauge quickly (grenades that hit multiple
enemies earn multiple symbols) then line up fully-charged Meteor2 shots
to disintegrate lots 'o baddies at once.
When you have breathing room to pull off a combo on a single enemy, here
are some samples:
[grenade, jump towards|up, flame-kick, grenade]
|
While it won't earn you Stylish combo ratings, this is the quickest way
to kill any puppet-enemy without DTing. It's often just what you need,
especially in battles where "turning countdown clocks" are going. It
keeps Dante mobile, the victim on the ground until its demise, and will
earn you 3 symbols of devil gauge to boot (as long as the victim
survives long enough). You can opt to grenade-roll three times instead
to avoid putting Dante in a hazardous situation.
[quick Magma Drive, {kick13}, RB kickflip]
|
After a Magma Drive you can time a kick13 to hit the launched enemy a
little after it starts falling. After the initial one connects, rapidly
doing more kick13s will allow you to hold the enemy in midair
indefinitely... well, until it dies anyway. After Magma Driving a
"fresh" Fetish, hold it there with four kick13s then finish it off with
a RB kickflip to end the combo with an extra flourish.
[quick Magma Drive, shotgun blast, shotgun blast, RB jump straight up,
aerial shotgun blast, RB jump away or to side, flame-kick]
|
This combo uses the airborne victim to give Dante a makeshift Air Hike.
It can finish off a Fetish with full health when done correctly. Any
time you want to connect with a Rolling Blaze jump after launching an
enemy you're holding aloft with shotgun blasts or E&I shots you can walk
a little bit underneath it while shooting. In order for this combo to
finish off a Fetish, two conditions must be met. First, both of your
Rolling Blazes must substantially contact the airborne victim. With
practice, you'll succeed most of the time. Second, you want the
flame-kick to strike the victim just after it lands on the ground for
optimal damage; a premature or late flame-kick will hit for less damage
or may even whiff completely. You can also use E&I in this combo in
place of the shotgun, but it'll take longer and you must shoot _very_
quickly. It takes razor-sharp timing to kill a Fetish this way, which is
why it's one of my favorite combos.
[quick Magma Drive, grenade, kick13, RB kickflip, flame-kick]
|
Another quick Fetish-killer, this combo only has two parts you may mess
up the timing on. Again, you have to do the kick13 after the victim
falls a little bit and the flame-kick has to connect right after the
Fetish hits the ground. Also, holding down the jump button makes it
easier to do the RB kickflip right after the kick13.
[Magma Drive, DT, hold R1 while backing away from the launched enemy
while firing 4 to 7 rapid E&I shots, quick Meteor2 shot]
|
This one's all about style; the DTed E&I shots raise the launched enemy
even higher so your Meteor2 shot will hit and destroy it in midair. You
don't have to back away while plugging away with E&I, but the farther
you are, the more impressive the finale of this combo looks. This will
work on "fresh" Fetishes, Bloody Maris, and dark-purple Marionettes; the
others usually don't stay alive long enough. Doing this is a bit
wasteful of devil gauge, since the M2 shot was all you needed to kill
the victim in the first place. Although it's relatively easy to do, this
is still a combo you'll probably never tire of.
[knock enemy down with kick13|flame-kick|close-range shotgun
blast|grenade, jump up|towards depending on distance to downed enemy,
(optional aerial shotgun blast|a few E&I shots), flame-kick downed
enemy, Magma Drive (if necessary, charge it and/or run closer to ensure
it connects), (1 or 2 optional shotgun blasts|multiple E&I
shots|grenade), RB kickflip, (optional aerial shotgun blast|a few E&I
shots), flame-kick]
|
If you use the shotgun and include all of the optional projectile weapon
attacks, this should be just enough to kill a "fresh" Fetish and will
certainly finish off lesser enemies. The perk is that the victim has no
chance for retaliation after it's on the ground. Again, I have better
results using the shotgun, making sure I fire it at the peak of Dante's
jumps and flame-kick immediately after the blasts come out... if not,
your flame-kick may miss. Wielding E&I seems to make connecting with the
flame-kicks much harder. You can also try to Rolling Blaze into, then
off of, the enemy in midair in place of a guaranteed RB kickflip after
the Magma Drive.
[first 3 (or less) hits of the PPKK combo, Magma Drive, hop-jump
straight up or towards enemy, (optional attempt to jump straight up
again immediately when Rolling Blaze contacts enemy), DT, Inferno]
|
Again, you can jump off of the enemy in midair for additional damage and
extra height. A combo like this can be useful when other enemies are
closing in and will also be caught in the Inferno (you may opt to jump
towards them instead of straight up).
Turned Puppet-Enemies -- Puppet-enemies can be surprisingly tough to
kill once they've turned. None of the projectiles Dante can fire,
grenade gun shots included, will knock them down. However, they can
still be launched in one of two ways: DTed Magma Drives and the final
kick of the Kick13 Auto-Combo (if you de-DT before the final kick it
will _not_ launch the victim). Once launched, you can hold them in the
air until they die or you run out of devil gauge using DTed E&I shots.
(By the way, turned Fetishes become _ridiculously_ resilient to attacks;
you can burn an entire 10-symbol devil gauge on a previously untouched,
turned Fetish by hopping around it constantly unloading Infernos and it
will still be standing when you're done!) A fully-charged Meteor2 shot
is all you need to destroy any type of puppet-enemy, regular or turned.
If possible, line the shot up so it'll eliminate more than one. If you
simply must combo a turned puppet-enemy, here's how to quickly set one
up for a M2 shot kill.
[Magma Drive, DT before it connects, hold R1 while backing away from the
launched enemy while firing 3 or 4 rapid E&I shots, fully-charged
Meteor2 shot] ... against turned puppet-enemies
|
You cannot launch turned puppet-enemies with regular Magma Drives (even
if they're fully-charged), but committing to one then DTing before it
hits _will_ launch them. Turned puppet-enemies will also rise higher
when hit by DTed E&I shots when they're in midair. In this combo, the
only reason you're firing the E&I shots is to give you enough time and
room to charge a Meteor2 shot without getting hurt by the launched enemy
before it's automatically released. You can also use the Kick13
Auto-Combo to launch them instead. If you wish to, you can fire DTed E&I
shots non-stop to lift the victim _really_ high. Unfortunately, doing so
usually won't do much damage and typically makes a quick Meteor2 shot
miss its mark... but you'll ultimately get a lot of extra red orbs from
the victim.
- SHADOWS -
With Alastor, the simplest way to rid yourself of a Shadow is to DT and
concentrate Air Raid fire on it until the core is revealed, then Vortex2
until it turns red. However, this is a somewhat long process that can
consume lots of devil gauge. With Ifrit, you'll have to settle for the
quicker, more efficient approach...
As long as you don't shoot them, Shadows are fairly docile, and will
only attack occasionally. In fact, you can often taunt near them for
devil gauge if you need some extra symbols without aggravating them at
all. To play it safe, you'll need at least 4 symbols of devil gauge. Now
equip E&I and hold down R1, keeping your distance from the Shadow
_without_ firing. Eventually, the Shadow will telegraph its "head spike"
attack as the area around its face gets "globby." When you see this,
keep R1 held down and jump straight up, activating DT at the peak of the
jump.
The spike will come out directly beneath Dante and he'll land on top of
it; start shooting DTed E&I shots like there's no tomorrow as soon as
you do. The Shadow will be somewhat stunned, and will remain in spike
form a bit longer than usual, but eventually will retract the spike and
return to feline form again. As you fall to the ground, keep firing like
crazy; the core will be revealed shortly thereafter. Stay DTed and run
next to the core, then do a full Kick13 Auto-Combo on it. When you're
done, the core will be red, and you'll have pushed it backwards during
the auto-combo away from the ground spikes it tries to use as a counter.
Should Dante return to normal before then, three regular kick13s will
usually be enough to turn the core red without putting him at risk from
the ground spikes.
Shortly afterwards, the angry red Shadow will attempt to grab Dante
before it detonates. You're at a big disadvantage with Ifrit if he's in
a wide open area since there's no Air Hike equivalent. The workaround is
to run towards the nearest wall and use wall-jumps instead. Jump up
towards a wall, then wall-jump towards the Shadow. It will often attempt
a grab and miss as Dante leaps over it. Continue doing this while
watching out for other attacks until the Shadow detonates.
You may turn the Shadow red without revealing the core at all if you
fire E&I shots quickly enough. It will start glowing red as the spike
retracts; and you should immediately start evading its attempts to grab
you. In fact, if you're _really_ fast with the shots, you sometimes
don't even need to DT at all; however, this method isn't always
successful which is why I prefer the "DTed way" instead.
Any of these methods will work in fights against multiple Shadows when
you manage to separate one from the other(s) so you can reveal its core
and/or turn it red without having your E&I fire drawn away from the
intended target or have the process interrupted by another's attack.
What you want to avoid at all costs is getting two or more Shadows riled
up at the same time by firing shots haphazardly. It's a much tougher
fight that way (albeit a lot more fun, if you're into extra stress).
Turned Shadows -- The method using DTed E&I shots described above will
also work against turned Shadows; if you want to use regular E&I shots
you'll have to make multiple attempts to wear the turned Shadow's
defenses down.
- BLADES -
Blade's carry shields they'll occasionally use to protect themselves
from being launched by your Magma Drive attempts and to evade your
Kick13 Auto-Combos. Of course, other attacks can be blocked as well.
Even fully-charged Meteor2 shots may be rendered harmless by Blades'
shields (at least the shields themselves will be destroyed, though).
However, you'll always connect with these attacks before a Blade
recovers from getting knocked down.
Flame-kicks and kick13s are great for destroying Blades' shields which
makes them a lot more manageable. However, flame-kicks involve some
recovery time, so flame-kicking when a lot of them are around is often a
bad idea.
Once a Blade has lost it's shield, kick13s don't seem to knock them down
(however, destroying a shield with a kick13 _will_ knock the Blade
down). When a Blade's shield is gone, you can then rapidly do 5 or 6
kick13s in a row to kill it off while preventing it from
counterattacking most of the time. Rapid PPKK combo hits also do a
decent job of holding single, shieldless Blades in place and prevent
them from sneaking hits in, but Dante still won't be totally safe.
Blades fight in packs, so you usually don't get too many comboing
opportunities until all but one or two have been eliminated (especially
in DMD mode, when one of the group has usually "turned"). Until then, I
recommend grenade-rolling most of the time, jumping away to safety under
the cover of Rolling Blaze when they get too close. When several (or
all) of them are knocked down, jump and flame-kick one in the stomach or
Inferno the group whenever you can get away with it. Also, use devil
gauge on Infernos when you feel like you're in trouble. It's not
terribly exciting, but it keeps Dante healthy.
Nightmare Beta is _fantastic_ against Blades when you use it properly.
Unlike the tactics against other enemies, you don't need to charge up
your shots (making Dante a stationary target) or use it in conjunction
with the Time Bangle. Instead, just keep firing single shots, jumping
away when any reptilian enemies get too close. Unlike other enemies, NB
shots will pierce the armor of any Blade they hit and put it on the
ground (unless it's already there). This also holds true for the weak
shots NB fires when your devil gauge has no symbols in it. In fact, with
an empty devil gauge holding down R1 then the shoot buttons will
auto-fire NB shots. You can easily earn Stylish combos by just walking
into Blade-populated room, putting some distance between them and Dante,
then auto-firing away. The only time your combo may be broken is if you
have to jump to evade an attack (but you can still fire NB in the air to
keep it going) or Dante gets hit by one. Since they'll be spending lots
of time on the ground, you'll have an enormous number of opportunities
for high-damage diagonal flame-kicks on their fallen bodies. NB is
definitely the best projectile weapon to wield with Ifrit against Blades
from a safety standpoint. Rolling Blaze protects him as he jumps up, NB
shots knock down nearby Blades as he falls. The only drawback is that
this doesn't allow you to build up devil gauge to use later (if the
Griffon 1 battle is coming up next, for instance).
When you knock down a Blade its feet will briefly rise up in the air,
then fall to the ground. Timing a peak-of-jump flame-kick to hit the
fallen Blade right as its feet touch the ground will do extra damage.
(Ideally, I think you want Dante to be as high in the air as possible
and hit the Blade at a 45 degree angle.)
As mentioned in the Enemy Notes, Blades' backs are their weak points.
Any time one is on the ground face-down, a flame-kick (even a hop-jumped
one) into its back counts as a Critical Hit and will kill it instantly
(this also includes the larger Blades). These opportunities are
sometimes infuriatingly difficult to take advantage of because Dante
often ends up flame-kicking a different Blade that's closed in on his
position instead of the fallen one.
With the shotgun, one close-range blast will stun a Blade facing Dante,
and a second one before it recovers will knock it down face-up. However,
a close-range shotgun blast to a Blade's back will put it on the ground
face-down in one blast. With enough uninterrupted time, you can stun a
Blade facing Dante with the first blast then run or jump behind it to
shoot it in the back before it leaps away; connecting with a hop-jumped
flame-kick after that will finish it. Of course, the fewer Blades
involved in the fight, the easier this is to accomplish successfully.
Similarly, doing a Kick13 Auto-Combo into a standing Blade's back does a
lot of additional damage and is often all you need to kill the small
ones. Using Nightmare Beta or the grenade gun, you can knock a Blade
down, run behind it, shoot it in the back a little after it rises to its
feet again to knock it down a second time (shoot when its tail whips
downwards), and go for an easy hop-jumped flame-kick that way. However,
you'll need even more free time to do this.
Blades are too heavy to be held aloft by shotgun blasts or E&I shots
after being launched. However, you can get one really quick shotgun
blast (or very few E&I shots) in and still have enough time to start
(but not always hit with) another attack before they reach the ground.
If you shoot really quickly while DTed with E&I, you can sometimes hold
a launched Blade in midair a few inches above the ground after launching
it, but there's no practical use for this. Grenade gun shots on launched
Blades will typically miss. Trying to hit a launched Blade with Ifrit's
PPKK strikes or projectile weapons may bat it out of range from the rest
of your attacks, so you're usually better off letting the launched Blade
fall to the ground before continuing to damage it. All of these factors
combined make combos against them less involved than the
puppet-enemies...
[knock enemy down with grenade|NB shot|close-range shotgun blast,
(run closer if necessary), {quick Magma Drive}]
|
Combos don't get much simpler than this. Any time you knock down a Blade
or launch it with a Magma Drive, you can follow it up with more {quick
Magma Drive}s until it dies. You can also do {fully-charged Magma
Drive}s over and over to finish it off more quickly, but your combo
rating will be worse and you'll be rewarded with fewer red orbs when
it's all over for the victim.
[knock enemy down with grenade|NB shot|close-range shotgun blast,
(run closer if necessary), {fully-charged punch, quick Magma Drive}]
|
Repeating the {fully-charged punch, quick Magma Drive} part won't give
the Blade an opening to counterattack. Unfortunately, sometimes it will
get knocked away when your charged punches auto-release. If this
happens, jump towards it and flame-kick, then do a quick Magma Drive to
keep the combo going.
[knock enemy down with grenade|NB shot|close-range shotgun blast,
(run closer if necessary), {quick Magma Drive, RB kickflip, flame-kick}]
|
Once started, continue the {Magma Drive, RB kickflip, flame-kick} part
to create an infinite combo until the Blade dies. Essentially this is
the same combo as in the puppet-enemies section with all the optional
shotgun blasts|E&I shots stripped away so Dante will recover from his
flame-kicks in time to keep Magma Driving the Blade before it can get
up. You can also lead into the initial Magma Drive with the first 3 (or
less) hits of the PPKK combo, but it's slightly more dangerous.
[knock enemy down with grenade|NB shot|close-range shotgun blast,
(run closer if necessary), DT, Kick13 Auto-Combo, two quick punches
after Blade lands, RB jump towards, (optional attempt to jump straight
up immediately when/if Rolling Blaze contacts enemy), Inferno]
|
Blades can sometimes evade your Kick13 Auto-Combo when they're standing
(especially when they still have their shields), so you should knock
them down to ensure the final launching kick connects. If the victim is
at full health, run closer or do a regular kick13 towards them before
DTing and doing the auto-combo to maximize the damage. After the Blade
lands, quickly to the first two punches of the Ifrit PPKK combo and go
directly into a RB hop-jump towards it for a little extra damage and to
stun it from escaping the Inferno. You should have at least 4 symbols of
devil gauge when you start so you don't run out before the Inferno
(don't go for the optional jump off the airborne Blade unless you have
more). However, this combo will use up to 6 symbols of devil gauge if
you have that much, so you may opt for two Infernos instead if there are
other enemies in the vicinity. Unfortunately, it will take more than
this to kill one of the larger Blades; use one of the "repeating" combos
or go for a Critical Hit instead.
Turned Blades -- Infernos seem to be just as or only slightly less
effective against turned Blades as they are against regular ones. Since
there are normally several agile Blades constantly closing in on Dante's
position, Infernoing is recommended over fully charged Meteor2 shots
against these enemies. The other option is to ignore the fact that
they've turned and press on using the same strategy taking extra care
not to get tagged by their attacks. All the normal means of knocking
down regular Blades work against turned ones, and Magma Drives still
launch them too. Better yet, large or small turned Blades can also be
killed instantly by Critical Hits. So, all of the combos against regular
Blades will also kill turned ones... it'll just take longer unless it's
the final combo listed above.
- FROSTS -
Frosts are tougher versions of Blades with better offensive attacks.
They also can't be held aloft by any of your projectile weapons after
they're launched. However, unlike Blades they have no shields to protect
themselves from being launched by Magma Drives and Kick13 Auto-Combos
(though they may manage to hop away at just the right time). Due to
their extra weight, Frosts don't spend as much time leaping around as
the Blades. They often just plod around. However, they are capable of
attacking physically with their claws with lightning speed (especially
after they hop backwards to avoid one of Dante's attacks). Luckily,
Frosts are extra-susceptible to Ifrit's fire-based abilities.
Infernos do _major_ damage to Frosts. If Dante does an Inferno right
next to one and it doesn't die, it will only take 1-3 regular kick13s
more to finish it. When only the outer edge of the Inferno hits the
Frost, you're looking at 5 or 6 kick13s.
One annoying thing about these enemies is that hitting them with attacks
while they're airborne after launching them often allows them to bounce
out of range of the rest of your attacks and recover on their feet. It's
much better to let Frosts hit the ground before following up with
additional attacks. Fully-charged normal Ifrit punches work well. The
Frosts can still hop away as they rise, but you should be able to get
more damage in before they do.
Doing grenade-kick13 combos against Frosts works really well since the
grenades will interrupt their attack attempts and the kick13s hit for
good damage. The only attack they might squeeze in is a quick slash with
their icy claws, but the majority of the time they'll be continually
interrupted as they keep trying to do their icy Inferno knock-off. While
you're grenade-kick13ing, Frosts often attempt to hop to Dante's side in
an effort to mess up your combo. Watch for this and do your best to keep
the analog stick pointed at them whenever they try.
Multiple Frosts can be difficult opponents. Luckily, you never have to
face more than two of them simultaneously. However, that's how nearly
every Frost fight starts out. You can't keep your attention on any one
Frost for too long, or the other (typically not in view from the camera
angle) may hit Dante with a long-range attack like projectile Ice Claws,
or especially its Blizzard Teleport. If possible, try to hit both with
an Inferno, then kill off one of them with a Kick13 Auto-Combo. This
will give you some free time to concentrate on the remaining Frost
without interference, or at least until a portal opens and another joins
the fray. This way, you'll be able to minimize the amount of time there
are two running around simultaneously.
Without devil gauge against multiple Frosts, fire grenades whenever you
can to build it up. Spend the rest of your time running and jumping to
avoid their close- and long-range attacks.
You can quickly kill a single, regular Frost with a combo starting with
only 1 symbol of devil gauge if you're close by and the opportunity
presents itself (see first combo). Another option when Dante can DT is
to release a fully-charged Meteor2 shot, which will finish off any
Frost(s) it hits. A good time for this is after luring them into doing
their icy version of Inferno. After jumping out of this attack's range,
you'll have enough charging time so long as no other Frosts interfere.
Whenever a Frost is sandwiched between Dante and a wall, you can knock
it down or launch it, then keep doing either {fully-charged punch, quick
Magma Drive}, {fully-charged Magma Drive}s, or even simply hold down the
attack button for Ifrit's {fully-charged PPKK combo} until it dies.
Since the Frosts can only get batted away from Dante during his attacks,
it's more difficult for them to escape when there are walls directly
behind them. (I don't recommend {quick Magma Drive, RB kickflip,
flame-kick} or {quick Magma Drive}s, since they give the Frosts
additional opportunities to get away.)
Because Frosts are so susceptible to the Ifrit gauntlets, doing a
de-DTed Kick13 Auto-Combo will handily earn Dante more symbols than he
had when he started if enough hits connect while Dante's normal. You can
do them repeatedly until the Frost's demise if you aren't interrupted by
another one.
Here are some reliable Frost combos...
[grenade, kick13, grenade, DT, RB hop-jump towards Frost, Inferno]
|
Actually, all you need is to connect with a kick13, Rolling Blaze, and a
close-range Inferno to finish a Frost. However, doing it this way will
earn an extra 2 symbols of devil gauge beforehand (which may enable
Dante to DT) and you'll have a better chance of connecting the Rolling
Blaze since the grenade gun shot will stun it a little longer than a
kick13. Finally, even if the Frost does attempt to hop away, it may die
even if just the edge of your Inferno touches it.
[keep grenade-kick13ing until Frost is knocked down, {fully-charged
punch, quick Magma Drive}]
|
Continuous grenade-kick13ing will usually prevent the Frost you're
hitting from executing any of its attacks and earns devil gauge rapidly.
Watch carefully during each kick13 so you can immediately hold down the
attack button for the fully-charged punch if the Frost gets knocked
down. If the punch whiffs because the Frost hops just out of range as it
gets up, jump away to avoid the physical ice claw attack that almost
always follows, then resume grenade-kick13ing again. If another Frost
gets too close an Inferno will keep it at bay and likely finish off the
one you were comboing.
[DT, Kick13 Auto-Combo, quick punch after Frost lands, RB hop-jump
towards Frost, Inferno]
|
This is probably the most reliable combo. Unlike the similar one listed
in the Blades section, you can be pretty sure your Kick13 Auto-Combo
will connect and launch, so there's no need to knock the Frost down
beforehand. If after launching the Frost you immediately hop-jump
straight up and Inferno, it may survive (I think it's momentarily
invulnerable when it hits the ground sometimes). However, a quick Ifrit
punch after it's on the ground and a hop-jump towards Inferno ensures
its demise as long as most of the Kick13 Auto-Combo connected.
Turned Frosts -- Since you're using Ifrit against these ice-based
enemies, turned Frosts are only marginally tougher than regular ones.
Grenade-kick13ing is not recommended, as they can attack through Dante's
regular attacks with ease. Like turned Blades, Dante's regular Magma
Drives will launch turned Frosts as well. The final "regular Frost"
combo listed above also works against turned ones without giving them an
opportunity to counterattack. Of course, fully-charged Meteor2 shots are
yet another method of eliminating them (again, this is particularly easy
when their icy versions of Inferno miss). De-DTed Kick13 Auto-Combos
also work against turned Frosts, but they hop out of range from the
auto-combo more often than regular Frosts do.
- PLASMAS -
Like Blades and Frosts, holding Plasmas in the air with shotgun blasts,
rapid E&I shots, or kick13s doesn't work either for just the opposite
reason... they don't have _enough_ mass. To make matters worse, just
about every attack Dante can do will make a Plasma duplicate itself (if
there aren't three in the area already). The good news is you'll never
have to face more than three simultaneously. Fighting multiple
human-form Plasmas can be difficult, but that's when you should use
Ifrit's equalizer... Inferno.
An Inferno will destroy any human-form Plasma caught in the blast
radius. If you were close enough to the originals, the same blast may
also finish off any duplicates they create. However, duplicates of
Plasmas killed by the outer edge of the Inferno may still survive. A
single Meteor2 shot will also kill a regular Plasma, but it may create
duplicates. Quick M2 shots are especially useful for quickly killing the
ones in bat-form (which never form duplicates).
There's only one good multi-hit combo against human-form Plasmas:
repeated {quick Magma Drive}s. It takes 5 to kill off a regular Plasma.
Sometimes, the Plasmas spawn duplicates as they die. Whenever a single
duplicate is created, continue your quick Magma Drives and extend the
combo even further for more red orbs. Sometimes, you can continue the
combo chain long enough to earn one of the giant red orbs you get for
defeating bosses.
Any time there are two or more Plasmas, you should be looking to
eliminate them all with an Inferno or reduce the number to just one so
you can resume Magma Driving again. If you're greedy, you may want to
fire away with E&I or the shotgun to ensure a third Plasma's presence
before jumping in with the Inferno to get more red orbs.
In the event you're facing multiple Plasmas and don't have enough devil
gauge to DT, run away and taunt to get more. Cancel out of the taunt via
an evasive jump if they get too close. You want the taunt to end when
the nearest Plasma is close for more devil gauge... but not too close.
You may have trouble doing this sometimes. After a Plasma attacks, it
can switch from walking to jogging towards Dante. In fact, the turned
Plasmas can run almost as fast as Dante does when he DTs with Alastor!
Turned Plasmas -- Turned Plasmas do become tougher to finish off. You
need multiple Infernos to kill grounded ones, so you're probably better
off jumping away for extra distance and using a fully-charged Meteor2
shot. The same goes for the bat-form versions. If you don't touch a
Plasma and wait for it to turn, then continuously {quick Magma Drive} it
to death (14 times) when it's in human-form, you'll be rewarded with a
giant red orb when it perishes.
- NOBODIES -
Annoyingly, regular Nobodies are so low to the ground that Dante's
regular kick13s often whiff unless they catch these enemies as they
execute an attack or they're on an incline and higher than he is.
However, you can use kick13s to break the masks they wear to grow large
so they'll shrink again. Nobodies can't be launched via any means.
They're also better than Blades at evading your attacks and sneaking
theirs in between Dante's PPKK strikes. This really hurts Dante's
offensive options. I've yet to find a reliable way to start a
ground-based, non-DTed Ifrit combo that will finish off a Nobody without
putting Dante's health at risk.
Some good news is that rapid shotgun blasts pretty much paralyze
Nobodies. You want the far edge of the blasts to touch them, so if
there's a slight gap between your shots Dante won't be close enough for
a Nobody to squeeze a hit in. The wide range of the blasts allows you to
prevent multiple Nobodies from attacking when they're all in your line
of fire. If one grows large, DT and back off a bit while continuing to
fire so it doesn't catch you with its jump-kick attack. It will shrink
again shortly afterwards. If you're lucky enough to be standing behind a
Nobody as your blast away with the shotgun, it won't be able to
counterattack, or even face, Dante at all (unless it turns). So, all you
need to defeat Nobodies are lots of shotgun blasts and time. However,
time is a luxury you don't always have in DMD mode.
You can use the shotgun twitch technique to release blasts more rapidly
than you can by simply jamming on the shoot button. While you're holding
the R1 button down, alternate between pressing the shoot button and
briefly tapping the analog stick in any direction to fire more quickly
and eliminate the chances of any nearby Nobody stunned by the blasts
from slipping an attack between them.
Against more than one Nobody, hold R1 and maneuver Dante so the shotgun
blasts hit as many as possible. As described above, DT and keep firing
if one grows large. Deactivate DT when it shrinks back down again. When
one of them "turns" you should immediately DT and Inferno the group. The
Inferno should finish off at least one of them. If a "fresh" small
Nobody is caught right next to Dante during the blast, it will either
die or be on the brink of death. A few more shotgun blasts will do the
trick. Larger ones require a little more damage.
Grenade-rolling also works well against Nobodies. Even when they aren't
fighting alone, the explosions often prevent the ones that aren't
targeted from flanking Dante, especially during hallway battles. The
most useful grenade gun method is to do repeated {grenade, RB
kickflip}s. The RB kickflips sometimes interrupt large Nobodies' jump-in
and long-range attacks. Furthermore, this combination also does an
excellent job of protecting Dante when he's backed into a corner.
[multiple rapid shotgun blasts to get close, {RB jump over Nobody,
aerial shotgun blast, flame-kick, (optional shotgun blast)}]
|
When Dante can't DT, simply continue jumping over the Nobody, firing
aerial shotgun blasts followed by flame-kicks (and optional grounded
shotgun blasts) until it dies or you earn enough devil gauge to Inferno
it. The Nobody won't have time to set itself up for an attack, and
you'll finish it off much quicker working flame-kicks in than you would
using the shotgun alone. This combo can also be effective against
multiple Nobodies when they're close to one another. If one of the
Nobodies is large and tosses an eyeball-bomb on the ground, do not
continue to flame-kick. Dante will stupidly home in on the closest
intact eyeball instead of the nearest Nobody when you do any move
involving the attack button, so use shotgun blasts exclusively until any
eyeballs have exploded. Another method is to repeatedly {grenade, RB
jump over Nobody, (optional grenade)}; but don't jump over one's head
until it's facing Dante or he may be struck when he lands. The grenade
gun version of this combo doesn't offer Dante nearly as much protection
against multiple Nobodies as the shotgun version does.
There's another way to deal with Nobodies. When Dante hits a Nobody
that's facing him with a Magma Drive, it'll actually be knocked out for
a little while. It's body will straighten at a 40 degree angle, and it
will fall forward until its chin is on the ground. A second later, the
Nobody will recover and resume its normal behavior. However, another
Magma Drive before it gets up on its own will prop it back up for
additional punishment.
[Magma Drive, {kick13}]
|
For this to work, your Magma Drive must hit the Nobody when it's facing
Dante; hitting it from behind will not allow you to continue the combo.
The easiest way to finish off a Nobody you've managed to knock out is to
do regular, repeated {kick13}s. None will ever whiff, and they'll keep
the Nobody propped up until it dies. (When the victim is large, doing
this looks particularly uncomfortable.) You can also opt to time quick
or charged Magma Drives to hit right after the Nobody's chin is on the
ground to keep propping it back up again until death. Grenade-kick13ing
also works, as will using the shotgun twitch technique. Against lone
small Nobodies, my favorite method is to plug away with continuous E&I
shots while walking around. Yet another option is to repeatedly do the
Ifrit PPK combo followed by a Magma Drive when the Nobody hits the
ground again. This works the way you'd expect it to against small
Nobodies, but against large ones you want to start the PPK combo after
it starts falling forward and the second punch will miss. What you want
to avoid is doing the final PPKK kick or Magma Driving too early as
either of these will topple a propped-up Nobody onto its back, allowing
it to recover.
The problem is that if you simply try Magma Driving a Nobody on the spur
of the moment, you'll fail the vast majority of the time. The Nobody
will typically sidestep your attempt and/or interrupt it with an attack
(or throw) of its own. The Magma Drive's windup even takes too long when
you do the quick, non-charged versions. For the greatest chance for
success you should try to connect with it when the Nobody's vulnerable,
either as it's hopping up and down, putting a mask on to grow larger, or
facing Dante during its Devil Gauge Stealing Song.
Well, not quite. If you've already acquired it, an extremely slick path
to successfully Magma Driving a Nobody on the chin is to use the Time
Bangle. Simply activate the Time Bangle, quick Magma Drive the Nobody's
face, deactivate the Time Bangle, and commence with the kick13ing or
whatever you decide to punish the victim with. If they aren't too close
to one another when time is stopped (and you have enough devil gauge),
you can even Magma Drive multiple Nobodies then start time up and kick13
one to death while the others are incapacitated. This will also help
Dante build devil gauge to use the Time Bangle again.
Turned Nobodies -- Like turned Blades and Frosts, turned Nobodies are
also only hurt marginally less by Infernos. If one remains next to Dante
during the entire blast and survives, only a little more damage will be
required to finish it. It may be possible to knock out a turned Nobody
by DTing right before a Magma Drive hits it in the face (regular ones
won't work) and do the PPK strikes followed by a Kick13 Auto-Combo...
but if you have enough devil gauge for all that, you may as well just
Inferno and be done with it.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
NON-IFRIT ENEMY TACTICS
-------------------------
As I mentioned in the introduction, all the enemies in Devil May Cry
have some sort of weakness to a particular devil arm, projectile weapon,
strategy, or sometimes a combination of all three. In the spirit of
being thorough, following are abridged mini-strategies against enemies
the Ifrit gauntlets are not best suited, or simply aren't required, for.
- SARGASSOS -
Against the small Sargasso skulls, one grenade gun shot is all you need.
Hold R1 as you approach one, shoot when it advances towards Dante, and
you're done (but you only earn a single red orb for your trouble... or
lack thereof). Grenade-rolling against the large ones works well whether
they're turned or not. In the underwater bridge fights with Alastor,
hold R1 and Stinger2 towards the first Sargasso skull Dante aims at.
Follow that up with one or two slashes to kill it, then Stinger2 to the
next one to travel in a giant circle until the last one is dead. If
you're quick enough with the Stinger2s, you can build a nice long combo.
You can also kill small Sargassos with a single shotgun blast after each
Stinger2.
- BEELZEBUBS -
Rapidly firing shotgun blasts will work just fine (the shotgun twitch
technique isn't necessary), as will grenade-rolling. Just try to jump
away when they attempt to spew their larvae at Dante to clog up your
projectile weapon. If you have enough time, and you often will right
when fights against these enemies start, DT and release a fully charged
NB shot to rid yourself of many bugs in one fell swoop. Better yet, wear
the Time Bangle before DTing if you have it.
- SIN SCISSORS -
Against groups of Sin Scissors, the safest thing to do is repeatedly
stun them with shotgun blasts then run closer and shoot them again
before they recover. However, when there's only one you may want to go
for a Critical Hit. Equip Alastor, hold the R1 button to keep aiming at
it, and slash once to stun the Sin Scissors when puts Dante between its
scissor blades. When you stun it, will temporarily look off to Dante's
left. If it stays stunned long enough, you can quickly release R1, run
to Dante's left, and shoot it at point blank range in the face with the
shotgun, E&I, or even the slower grenade gun or Nightmare Beta (for this
to work, the Sin Scissors must be looking directly into the barrel of
your projectile weapon; if you just move closer and shoot the _side_ of
its head you won't get it). Sometimes it will recover from the stun
early, but most of the time it won't. You'll know you got a Critical Hit
and not just a normal kill because a few orbs will appear immediately
after they die before a second set appears when the body disintegrates.
It may be easier for some people to keep the R1 button held down after
stunning the Sin Scissors and walk directly in front of its face while
plugging away with E&I to get the Critical Hit that way. However, all
that's required is a single E&I shot to its face before it recovers.
Regardless of the method used, be sure to jump away from the falling
scissors.
- SIN SCYTHES -
These enemies are ridiculously easy to finish off with two close-range
shotgun blasts (sometimes just one). Only killing Sargassos with grenade
gun shots is easier. Watch out for falling scythes when one dies.
- DEATH SCISSORS -
The quickest way to finish off a Death Scissors is to connect with
multiple Air Hiked or wall-jumped downward Alastor slashes on its mask.
Unfortunately, the Death Scissors will often parry your downward slash
attempts. Repeatedly doing this combo seems to work the best for me:
{rising High Time, jump|Air Hike, downward slash}. You want to rising
High Time up close to the Death Scissors, then jump (ideally off its
head) and downward slash immediately afterwards. You'll have a much
higher success rate doing this than simply Air Hiking or wall-jumping to
repeatedly come down with downward slashes. I believe when Dante's close
enough, jumping off the Death Scissors briefly stuns it, so following
with quick downward slashes results in more hits and fewer parried
attempts. If the Death Scissors is visible lollygagging outside the cage
walls or hovering near the ceiling, repeated projectile weapon fire will
draw it closer so you can continue doing the combo. Should the Death
Scissors ever be directly below Dante you can sometimes keep jumping off
its head to stay above any attacks it does, then try to connect with a
downward slash as it recovers. When it starts corkscrewing through the
cage walls, DT and either Vortex (if you have Vortex-level2, hold down
the attack button to keep Dante spinning... and invulnerable), Air Raid,
or jump when you hear the sound of each corkscrew attempt while moving
around the cage in a large circle until the attack ends. In this battle,
DTing is primarily a defensive tactic rather than an offensive one. If
Dante's on the ground he'll have extra speed to help him evade each
corkscrew attempt and even if one does hit him it won't do as much
damage. With at least 6 symbols of devil gauge, using the Time Bangle
can make this a _really_ short fight. Before it turns, stop time when
the Death Scissors is close to the ground and is holding the scissors in
front of it, run behind it (so your attacks won't be deflected), Air
Hike and downward slash its mask 4 times, deactivate the Time Bangle,
and watch out for the falling scissors.
- DEATH SCYTHES -
Although they may be "the highest ranking of all the Sins," they're much
easier to kill than Death Scissors are. If you can, move Dante to an
area where the camera views him from a distance and/or from above. Like
the Death Scissors, repeated projectile weapon fire tends to draw them
closer if they start circling or get too far away. Death Scythes will
then float upwards when they're near Dante, and quickly swoop down next
to him, slashing horizontally with their scythes. When they do, jump
straight up to evade their attack, then Air Hike straight up to get
above them and follow with a downward slash as they recover. They tend
to attack twice in a row via this method, so be prepared counter a
second attempt with another Air Hiked downward slash. Death Scythes will
perish once you connect with four of them. Since you're jumping straight
up and coming down with the slashes, you probably won't activate one of
the tornado mines they scatter about. Any time you do, either downward
slash to quickly come down to the ground again or DT and start Vortexing
to protect Dante. If it summons its extra scythes, try to get above it
by either Air Hiking or jumping straight up off its body then come down
with a final downward slash to kill it before the scythes get there. Of
course, you can also use the Time Bangle against Death Scythes just as
you can against Death Scissors. As always, after killing one of these
enemies jump away from their falling weapons.
- KYKLOPSES -
If you don't have a full devil gauge, squeeze in grenade gun shots as
you run and jump to evade the Kyklopses' pouncing attempts and the rocks
they spit until you do. Then simply jump (Air Hiking's even safer), DT,
and start Air Raiding. If you concentrate all of your Air Raid bolts on
one Kyklops while moving around to dodge any flying rocks, that will be
enough to kill it. Afterwards, Dante will often run out of devil gauge
and drop to the ground (you may have to evade attacks for a little
while). Eventually, you'll be rewarded for the death of the first
Kyklops with a full devil gauge and can return to Air Raiding and finish
off the second one. Occasionally you'll manage to kill the first Kyklops
quickly enough that Dante will remain DTed in flight mode the entire
time.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
DMD PHANTOM 2
---------------
Phantom can be a tough cookie to crumble when you first face him, but
this Ifrit strategy should make this battle a lot easier. You'd _think_
this magma monster would be immune to or at least take reduced damage
from the Ifrit's fire-based attacks; just be glad he doesn't. Besides,
you've surely heard the saying... "Fight fire _with_ fire."
- REQUIRED/HELPFUL ABILITIES & WEAPONS -
Rolling Blaze, Inferno, Kick13-level2, and to a lesser extent
Meteor-level2 are all helpful in this battle. You'll want to wield the
grenade gun as your projectile weapon.
- HOW DO I HURT PHANTOM? -
You can normally only hurt Phantom with attacks that strike him in the
head or abdomen when he's in spider-form. When he takes his
scorpion-form you can attack/shoot where his abdomen used to be for
damage as well. Generally you'll want to attack his head. Relying on Air
Raid or Vortex-level2 to get past Phantom quickly and easily does _not_
work in DMD mode. Air Raid does a piddly amount of damage to him now,
and Phantom spins away whenever you Vortex2 him to minimize the damage
done. Grenade gun shots, Infernos, and kick13s will be your primary
means of punishing Phantom now.
- FIGHTING PHANTOM 2 - (defense)
Phantom can take two forms during this battle: spider and scorpion.
Following are Phantom's attacks when he's in spider-form:
Fireballs -- When Phantom prepares to shoot a fireball, the area around
his mouth glows bright yellow as it charges up. Sometimes the glow may
be visible even when Phantom is not due to a poor camera angle. There
will be a quick circular pulse of energy around his mouth a split-second
before the fireball comes out. He can aim his fireballs either upwards
at a 30 degree angle or horizontally. He can also fire two fireballs in
quick succession. Often, he hops backwards a little before charging the
fireball(s) to trick you into jumping towards him and into harm's way.
In any case, there are three ways to avoid getting hit. If you are able
to kick13 (or flame-kick after a jump) Phantom in the face when the
fireball is half-charged, it will often explode prematurely and Phantom
will take damage, becoming stunned as he rears back. In the event you're
directly in front of Phantom's mouth but don't think you have time for
this, you want to jump diagonally to one of his sides and continue
running or jumping towards his hind end to avoid the second fireball if
he decides to fire it. At mid- or long-range, you want to roll to evade
the first fireball (rolling when you see the circular pulse), then jump
in the same direction to avoid a possible second fireball. By the way,
if a fireball strikes Dante during a Rolling Blazed jump, it will
detonate without harming him (this may not hold true if you're jumping
_towards_ the fireball... don't do that). Unfortunately, there's no way
to deflect them back at Phantom for damage like you can with the swords.
Claw Swipes -- Phantom can do one of two versions of these claws swipes
when Dante is near his face. If Dante is close to only one claw, Phantom
will try to swipe once with it as he pivots in that direction. However,
if Dante is directly in front of Phantom's face, there will be two
swipes, one from each claw, as Phantom advances forward a little.
Jumping in any direction except directly towards whichever claw is
swiping is all you need to do to avoid taking damage, even without
Rolling Blaze. If you lure him into doing the double claw-swipes you can
easily jump away from and attack him before he recovers from the failed
attempt. Just be ready to jump/roll immediately upon landing if he opts
to do another attack instead.
Pouncing Spider -- Phantom's legs constrict and tense up, glowing in
flames as he stores up his energy. Then in an incredible feat of
strength he launches his heavily armored body high into the air in an
attempt to land on top of Dante. Your natural instinct will be to jump
away immediately... _don't_. when Phantom's on his way back down, you
can Rolling Blaze _through_ his body without getting hurt (and doing a
little damage to him) as long as he was nearby when he leaped. Until you
get the timing down, you want to jump when the flame trail at Phantom's
starting position vanishes. The best direction to jump is towards where
Phantom originally was so Dante will land directly behind him, safe from
most of his attacks. If he leaps at you from a distance, you'll get hurt
if you try to jump towards him as he falls; jump away instead.
Hidden Lava Plumes -- Like an ostrich, Phantom buries his face into the
ground. Shortly afterwards, six lava plumes will emerge one at a time,
starting wherever Dante's standing and following him around until the
last one appears. The only thing you can do to avoid getting hit by them
is to keep moving. Running will be enough to keep you ahead of them;
however, jumping while evading this attack is a bad idea since you can't
continue moving horizontally until you land again. Of all Phantom's
attacks this is probably the easiest one to get hit by, especially when
he's off-camera. So, whenever you can't see what Phantom's doing, keep
running around until you can again before firing grenades, taunting, or
doing anything else that keeps Dante stationary and vulnerable.
Sometimes, Phantom hops back before this attack, lulling you into
thinking a fireball attack is starting up instead of this one. When you
do realize the lava plumes are coming, you can lead them in a path that
takes you in front of Phantom. After that, jump and flame-kick him in
the face after the final lava plume appears for an easy counter that
will stun him, allowing you to escape retaliation. By the way, the lava
plumes will even go through Phantom's body to hit Dante; sadly, this
doesn't hurt the magma spider a bit.
When Phantom takes his scorpion-form he gains some extra attacks, but it
becomes much easier to jump onto his back and attack him when you land
there successfully. Following are the additional attacks Phantom can do
after his abdomen unravels into a scorpion tail:
Scorpion Sting -- Phantom twitches his tail then tries to catch Dante
with the stinger on the end of it, occasionally throwing him if it
connects. If Dante is in front of Phantom, the stinger will thrust
forward towards him. Evade it by jumping to the side and/or away from
him. If Dante is near one of Phantom's sides, the tail will swipe that
side in a wider area attack. Jump away from Phantom, or towards his
rear. In Normal and Hard modes, this was a pretty sad attack. However,
in DMD mode the Scorpion Sting comes out much quicker, and the "side"
versions are especially dangerous. Any time Phantom is in scorpion form,
you'll always be safe from getting stung when Dante's behind him or has
jumped and landed on top of his body. (If you do get stung and Dante is
thrown, be sure to watch him rise to his feet.)
Fire From The Sky -- Phantom charges a fireball, but this time there is
no yellow glow beforehand, and it shoots upward from his back into the
sky. A second later, five fireballs will rain down on him from above. In
ways, this is simply an aerial version of the Hidden Lava Plumes attack,
only a bit more difficult to avoid. Again, jumping is a bad idea as
Dante won't be able to keep moving while he falls back to the ground and
will probably get hit. There are two ways to avoid this attack. The
first is to recognize when it's coming early on, choose a direction with
lots of space, and run in a straight line until the fireballs stop.
Every fireball comes from point of origin above Phantom's head, so you
can also dodge them by keeping the same distance from his body as you
run clockwise or counterclockwise around him until they stop. If you
were slow to realize this attack was coming, perhaps due to a poor
camera angle, quickly press the Start button and switch to Alastor via
the menu. Hold the analog stick in a direction as you exit the menu so
Dante will be running when he returns to the battle; DT to run even
faster if you can. An offensive option is to quickly hurt Phantom enough
to make him reel back by attacking his face just after he starts
executing this attack (the Kick13 Auto-Combo works nicely). Once he
reels back, this will prevent any fireballs that haven't already begun
coming down from doing so. However, any time all the fireballs fall to
the ground, Phantom's armor will become Burnt Out as this attack ends.
(Burnt Out) -- Whenever he finishes his Fire From The Sky attack, and
occasionally after he's released several fireballs, Phantom becomes
"burnt out." His armor temporarily turns to ash, and offers no
protection from any of Dante's attacks. Take advantage of this
vulnerability by either burning or earning devil gauge with the Ifrit.
When Phantom recovers from being Burnt Out, he'll always fire one or two
fireballs in the general direction he's facing. However, these fireballs
can't be detonated prematurely via kick13s to Phantom's face.
Fatal Claw -- Phantom reaches out with his right claw in a grab attempt
when Dante's near his face. If he succeeds, he may slam Dante on the
ground a few times and then you'll be treated to one of those
red-screened animations you see whenever he dies from an enemy's throw.
The claw moves pretty slowly, so evading this attack via a jump should
not be a problem. However, Phantom won't even attempt this "fatality
throw" unless Dante has so little health that he'll die from it.
- FIGHTING PHANTOM 2 - (offense)
Fighting Phantom isn't terribly complicated. When you're not evading his
attacks; you should be executing or trying to set up one of these three
tactics.
Bait And Switch -- When Phantom approaches Dante while protecting his
face with his front claws, wait for him to get close and fire a grenade
right when he moves them. Cancel out of the grenade gun's recoil time by
jumping (or kickflipping) away from Phantom. If the spider/scorpion
hasn't recovered from his claw swipe(s), fire another grenade (followed
by an optional kick13 if you want to press your luck) immediately after
landing. Now if possible, try to do the same thing again. Three
successful grenade hits to Phantom's face will make him rear back in
pain. Continue doing this as long as you have room when you're trying to
earn devil gauge. An alternative way to use this tactic is to shoot him
in the face with one grenade (make sure it actually hits his face and
isn't blocked by a front claw), then lure him into a double Claw Swipe
attack. This time jump back towards his face, DT, and hit Phantom with
an Inferno right after the second swipe misses. The Inferno will make
him rear back, giving Dante enough time to recover and escape any
counterattack.
Scissors Cut Rock -- When Phantom does his Pouncing Spider at close
range, jump towards him as he's coming down to Rolling Blaze though his
body and land behind him. After you land, start kick13ing (or
grenade-kick13ing) him. Although your attacks will be rendered harmless
by Phantom's armor, they'll build devil gauge rather quickly. The
spider/scorpion typically reacts to this situation in one of three ways.
First, he may leap back into the air with another Pouncing Spider
attempt. Even if you whiff one of your kick13s (or grenades) when he
jumps, you'll still have time to Rolling Blaze through his body and land
behind him again. Second, he may hop away while simultaneously spinning
to face Dante and begin one of his attacks. All you have to do is
continue kick13ing towards his face to interrupt whatever attack he's
attempting. When you interrupt him, he'll be stunned and reel back so
you'll have time to get away before he recovers. Third, he may opt to
just slowly turn and face you. Continue kick13ing his armor as he
rotates, jumping away when you get close to his front claw in case he
tries to swipe you with it. Afterwards, go back to the Bait And Switch
tactic.
Burn Him When He's Down -- If you're nearby with 5 or more symbols of
devil gauge when Phantom becomes Burnt Out you should leap towards his
face and execute this combo as quickly as you can: [DT, Inferno,
grenade, RB kickflip, (optional grenade), RB hop-jump towards, Inferno].
Skip the optional grenade unless you're already jumping towards
Phantom's face to start the combo as the fifth fireball comes down. The
combo's final Inferno should interrupt Phantom's fireball attempt once
he recovers from being Burnt Out. He'll reel back which will give Dante
the opportunity to escape. If you're further than a jump away, DT and
charge a Meteor2 shot until it auto-releases. Then fire shots rapidly
until Phantom's armor protects him again. In case it's not obvious, when
Phantom's armor is solid it will protect him from Infernos as well as M2
shots; those attacks can only harm him when they contact his face.
Any time Dante's far from Phantom, keep grenade-rolling to build-up
devil gauge until he jumps or crawls closer, paying special attention to
any attacks he starts. Whenever the camera's only on Dante, run/roll
until you can see Phantom again so you aren't surprised by one.
Listening will help you identify most of them, except for Hidden Lava
Plumes.
- WHEN PHANTOM'S HEALTH HITS THE RED - (defense)
Phantom moves and does physical attacks more quickly once his life bar
(and his body) is red. The tactics described above still work, but you
may be taken by surprise by his sudden bursts of speed if you aren't
aware of them. Phantom can actually outrun Dante when he's wearing the
Ifrit gauntlets (but if he tries to hit him with the Claw Swipes,
they'll miss as long as you keep running). For this reason, you should
either take extra care when doing the Bait And Switch tactic (keep
running and only fire grenades/Inferno just after the second Claw Swipe
comes out) or avoid it altogether.
- THE "OTHER" WAY TO DEFEAT PHANTOM - (offense)
You may have noticed the circular glass skylight in the center of the
battlefield. You may have also noticed that when Phantom lands on it
after his Pouncing Spider attack the glass is damaged a little. If you
can trick Phantom into jumping onto it five times, it will shatter
completely and the battle will be over. At the very beginning of the
match, run towards the middle of the skylight, then jump towards the
spot where Phantom leaped from. When you land, start doing the Scissors
Cut Rock tactic described above. Sometimes you can get Phantom to jump
and smash the glass three or four times in a row before he switches to a
different attack. Rolling Blaze makes it fairly easy to defeat Phantom
this way before barely a fraction of his health is gone.
- DANGERS OF EXCESSIVE JUMPING - (defense)
One of the biggest problems you may come across when using the Ifrit
gauntlets against Phantom is that he tends to catch you with his
Pouncing Spider attack a lot more often than he did when you wielded
Alastor. This is probably because you've become really accustomed to
jumping so frequently with Air Hike without many negative consequences.
However, Rolling Blaze only protects Dante on the way _up_. With Ifrit,
you want to jump to avoid Phantom's Claw Swipes, Fireballs, Scorpion
Stings, and to RB through his Pouncing Spider attempts. Any other time,
try to run or roll instead. If you jump when you're not forced to, and
Phantom opts to do his Pouncing Spider attack immediately afterwards,
the chances Dante will land in time to Rolling Blaze through his body
instead of getting squished are pretty slim. That goes double for
whiffed flame-kick attempts; earning devil gauge by repeatedly
flame-kicking then bouncing off of Phantom's armor is a terrible idea.
In addition to those reasons, you can't always evade the Hidden Lava
Plumes or Fire From The Sky attacks unless Dante's feet are on the
ground. So, unnecessary jumping is definitely something you should try
to curtail unless you don't mind taking a hit or two...
- PHANTOM 1 DIFFERENCES & NOTES -
Differences -- since you're indoors, Phantom will never use the Fire
From The Sky attack when he takes scorpion-form (he'll use Hidden Lava
Plumes instead)
Miscellaneous Notes -- the camera _hates_ you in this battle, it often
aims at Dante without simultaneously showing you what Phantom's doing :
whenever you can't see Phantom do _not_ attack him, try to run towards
an area where the camera will change angles so you _can_ see him,
watching/listening for telltale indicators of his attacks : use the
pillars as protection from fireballs, but don't stand too close since
the blasts can still hit you through them : you can taunt for extra
devil gauge symbols when there's a pillar between you and Phantom _only_
when you're certain he's shooting a fireball... never taunt if he might
attack with Hidden Lava Plumes instead
- STUPID PHANTOM TRICK -
I originally beat DMD Phantom 1 by DTing with Alastor and using
fully-charged then hop-jumped and Air Hiked shots with Nightmare Beta
(which travel through his armor nicely), switching to Ifrit and the
grenade gun when I needed to build devil gauge (so I could flame-kick
Phantom's face when he missed his attacks). This strategy is only
recommended for patient people as this method takes longer than using
Ifrit abilities alone to defeat him; but you can still use it to get an
S mission rank against Phantom 1 or Phantom 2.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
DMD GRIFFON 1
---------------
Dodging a few of Griffon 1's attacks can be a real pain, but once you
learn how to successfully and consistently this battle is more about
endurance than anything else.
- REQUIRED/HELPFUL ABILITIES & WEAPONS -
Rolling Blaze and Inferno are the most useful skills in this battle.
Meteor-level2 can also be helpful. The E&I handguns are the best
projectile weapons to use in this fight.
- DON'T FIGHT AFTER THE CUTSCENE - (offense/defense)
Immediately after the cutscene ends, Dante will be in front of the
entrance and Griffon will be off to the right, out of sight of the
camera, starting up one of his lightning bolt attacks. This is the worst
possible scenario; you can't see Griffon and you don't know which attack
is coming. So, immediately after the cutscene ends, run back through the
door into the area you originally found the Ifrit gauntlets in.
If necessary, shoot Blades with the grenade gun to build your devil
gauge up to the maximum, then go back to face Griffon. Things will go
much differently this time around. Griffon will be standing to the left
of the door waiting for you when you enter this time. After his life bar
fills up, he'll hop next to Dante without attacking. You can DT as he
does and hit him with a free Inferno. Afterwards, just stand there.
Griffon will hop away, but occasionally hops right back for another
Inferno (definitely try to chase him down for a third if he does). If he
doesn't hop back towards Dante immediately, he's getting ready to fire a
mid-range lightning attack. Quickly hold down the R1 button and fire a
few E&I shots to get the camera behind you, then prepare to jump to
avoid whatever's coming.
- FIGHTING GRIFFON 1 - (defense)
Lightning V's -- Griffon starts with a horizontal bolt of electricity
Dante will have to leap over, then electric V's emerge from his beak and
close in on Dante from both sides. Jump to the left or right as the
"low" V's close in so a "high" V will be shot next. Continue jumping
until the attack is over, working in a few E&I shots between each V if
you feel like it. This is usually a mid-range Griffon attack.
Horizontal Bolts -- Griffon precedes this attack with an initial
Lightning V, then horizontal bolts are fired at Dante. They track
Dante's height, so you'll jump to evade the first one, then the third,
etc. You can also fire a few E&I shots between bolts for a little
damage/devil gauge whether you're in the air or on the ground. This is
also typically used as a mid-range attack.
Lightning Spider Web v1 -- While Griffon is airborne, he screeches then
shoots a ball of energy onto the ground. From it, a Lightning V emerges,
which Dante must jump to the side to avoid as it closes in. After the
lines of the V combine, they form bolts of energy which then zigzag
horizontally around the battlefield. First, a faint outline of each bolt
will appear, giving you a chance to avoid it by jumping or rolling away
before it fully charges and becomes dangerous. After evading the initial
V, jumping/rolling to the left or right is often all that's needed to
evade the subsequent bolts, which may also enable you to keep the camera
on Griffon. This is important, since he often fires several of these in
a row. As the next V closes, any remaining bolts from the previous
attacks will vanish just before you hit the ground after jumping to
evade it (unless you jump really early). Griffon can use this attack at
any time, regardless of his distance from Dante.
Lightning Spider Web v2 -- Two Lightning V's simultaneously emerge from
Griffon's beak. All of the beams converge at a point in front of him and
you should jump diagonally away to whichever side looks safer to avoid
getting hit. After all the beams converge, they also form a solid bolt
of lightning that zigzags, with each new bolt being preceded by a faint
outline beforehand. The big difference is that these bolts travel in
_all_ directions instead of just horizontally. You need to jump, roll,
and run to avoid getting hit. This is usually a mid- or long-range
attack, and Griffon can do it whether he's standing or airborne.
Lightning Plunge -- Griffon flies very high into the air, then several
lighting bolts strike the ground near Dante as he swoops down with his
claws and slams onto the ground, typically screeching once after
landing. To avoid this attack, all you need to do is be running in any
direction other than towards him when he lands. He usually does the
Lightning Plunge when you're at short- or mid-range, but every so often
as a long-range attack too.
Carpet Bombing -- Griffon hovers in the air, faces Dante, then glides
towards him. Energy orbs fall to the ground behind him which will damage
Dante if they hit him. The demo shows Dante leaping through the energy
orbs, destroying them with Rolling Blaze as he does. This is a bit
tricky since he can't touch Griffon's wing tips or legs, which may hurt
Dante if he contacts them whether he's on the ground or jumping. The
easiest way to avoid this attack is to run to the side as Griffon
approaches and jump in the same general direction Dante's headed but
just a little towards where Griffon's coming from a split second before
his beak will be above Dante. You can also roll to the side at this
moment, and Rolling Blaze away afterwards. If you must jump from
underneath Griffon, do it at an angle between his wings and feet so you
don't hit them. Sometimes he makes two or three bombing runs in a row
before landing. Other times, he'll precede each one with a Lightning
Spider Web v1 attack (or even v2 every once in a while) which can make
evading the Carpet Bombing attack quite difficult; run and jump in
whichever direction is clear to (hopefully) give you ample room to avoid
the energy orbs.
Electrocution Bolts -- Griffon telegraphs this attack by charging his
body with lightning, which then spreads to form a "shield" of dangerous
bolts around him, and then fires three electricity bolts towards Dante.
The bolts home in on him, and the best way to avoid them is by rolling
to the side right before they hit. After each homing bolt, a follow-up
wave of lightning bolts travel from Griffon towards Dante. They'll miss
him as long as he stands still after each roll. Separating the homing
bolts from the rest of the lightning around Griffon is extremely
difficult when the camera is too close. So, if you're nearby when he
starts this attack, there are two good options. You can Inferno/Rolling
Blaze/flame-kick him like crazy in the hopes of bringing him down before
the shield bolts become dangerous, or switch weapons to Alastor via the
Start button and run away (DTing if you can) when you don't think going
berserk has a chance of succeeding. Griffon can initiate this attack
regardless of the distance between him and Dante, but he'll usually be
in one of the "corners" of the battlefield when he does (especially the
one that has the Holy Water on top of the building).
Panic Attack -- When you manage to jump too close before Griffon
finishes one of his attacks, he switches to this annoying short-range
"panic attack" where he fires 2 V's simultaneously diagonally in front
of him. This often occurs when you're in the midst of a Rolling
Blaze/Inferno assault. If possible, try to jump/roll to his side and a
little behind his feet to avoid getting hit. It's very easy to get
caught by this short-range attack, but if you're really close to Griffon
when he starts one of the others, you may want to risk it.
- FIGHTING GRIFFON 1 - (offense)
The basic plan is to spend most of the battle holding R1 as you back
away from Griffon while shooting at him with E&I to build devil gauge.
This should keep the camera on him and enable you to correctly identify
and dodge his lightning attacks. When he charges towards Dante and you
want to continue earning devil gauge, jump/hop-jump towards, then
_through_ him with Rolling Blaze for some damage. When you land,
continue walking away while shooting him with E&I as he turns around.
Whenever your devil gauge is full and Griffon's far away, feel free to
fire DTed shots at him for a while.
If you want to live dangerously, when you have plenty of devil gauge and
Griffon runs at you, DT and jump/hop-jump towards him, doing an Inferno
immediately after the Rolling Blaze connects. Try hitting him with
additional Infernos after that. It helps when Griffon is sandwiched
between Dante and a wall so his attempts to hop away from your Infernos
will fail. When this isn't possible, keep jumping to his sides with
Infernos whenever possible (so you don't get struck by his attacks) to
bring him down to the ground. If he does manage to hop away, let the
analog stick center during a jump so you can flame-kick to get close
again. If you're not certain you'll be able to hit him with three
Infernos, deactivate DT, back off and return to plugging away with E&I
while increasing the distance between the two of you.
Hitting Griffon with three Infernos will usually be enough to make him
fall to the ground. If it doesn't, it'll only take a few more Rolling
Blaze hits and/or flame-kicks to do so. When he's near, Rolling Blaze
towards his head/body, then off to the left or right, and follow up with
a flame-kick if he hasn't started a lightning attack so you'll land
alongside Griffon instead of making Dante an easy target.
Whenever Griffon falls, he will be briefly invulnerable to all of
Dante's attacks. The safe thing to do is start backing away firing E&I
as fast as you can. When Griffon gets up, you'll be far away, and he'll
almost always charge towards you and do a beak attack. By the time he
gets there and you have to Rolling Blaze through him, your 10 symbols of
devil gauge will be nearly filled. If you want to Inferno him while he's
down instead, stay close while shooting him with E&I until the shots
start doing damage, then Inferno once or twice (use E&I shots to shorten
the recovery time), then deactivate DT and start backing away and firing
to earn back some devil gauge. Infernoing while Griffon's lying on the
ground is "free" damage, but none of it counts towards knocking him down
again until he's standing upright.
While dodging the Lightning V's and Horizontal Bolts attacks, you can
jump early when the "low" ones are released and fire two to four E&I
shots at the peak of your jump to ensure the next one will be "high"
while earning a little extra damage/devil gauge. During the Lightning
V's, you may have time to fire a few shots on the ground, too.
If you avoid the Lightning Plunge by running, you can leap back towards
Griffon as soon as he lands, DT in mid-air, and hit him with an Inferno.
Use an E&I shot to cut the Inferno's recovery time short, then hop-jump
and do another while Griffon screeches.
Should Griffon fall to the ground when you're far away, you can fire
DTed E&I or fully-charged Meteor2 shots (which work particularly well in
this battle) at him when you have devil gauge, or regular E&I shots if
you don't.
- WHEN GRIFFON IS ABOUT TO DIE - (defense)
When Griffon's life bar is depleted, dangerous bolts of lighting will
surround the immediate area as he escapes. So be careful not to kill him
with an Inferno or physical attack to prevent Dante from taking needless
damage. Use E&I or Meteor2 shots to safely finish him from a distance.
- MISCELLANEOUS INFO - (offense/defense)
In the Griffon 1 and 3 battles, several red circular platforms appear
that I guess are supposed to somehow help you in this battle.
Personally, I hate them. The only time I jump onto one is by accident
when it wasn't in view of the camera, then my jumping patterns are
thrown off until I land on the ground again (sometimes getting hit).
Maybe you're meant to use them to avoid the Lightning Spider Web v1
attacks, but Griffon always switches attacks when you do this anyway.
Also, the platforms appear and vanish without warning, sometimes
dropping you into the very attack you jumped on them to avoid. In my
opinion, there's only one beneficial thing they do in this battle...
Sometimes during the Carpet Bombing attack, Griffon will get "stuck,"
dropping the energy orbs beneath him harmlessly. Usually, this happens
when he's in a corner of the battlefield (sometimes fenced in by the
little platforms that appear), or is trying to glide towards Dante along
the curved edge of the coliseum. You can just stand there and shoot him
with E&I or Meteor2 shots as he diligently keeps trying to advance. He
typically gives up and returns to the ground after three to five failed
bombing attempts. Take advantage of the opportunity to wear down his
health until he does.
Avoid going into the corner that has the Holy Water on top of the
building at all costs during this battle. When Dante's back there, the
camera will be on him, and you won't be able to see what Griffon's
doing. Even worse, Griffon often uses his Horizontal Bolts attack when
you're there, but the bolts will come out about three times faster than
normal making them _extremely_ difficult to avoid. Other places Dante
can be that agitate Griffon are inside of the enclosure you exited just
before you saw the Blades cutscene and the secluded area to the right of
that with the movable tombstone. Hanging out in any of these places too
long pretty much guarantees Dante's death (the Blades enclosure is my
favorite, since you can see what's going on by holding R1, albeit not
for very long unless you use an Untouchable Star). These may be
glitches, or perhaps Griffon roosts in these areas and he's fiercely
territorial...
- STUPID GRIFFON 1 TRICK -
You _never_ have to fight Griffon 1 in Devil May Cry, _ever_. When you
first get the Ifrit gauntlets in Normal mode, it's possible to light the
torch to the right of door you have to use to leave this area via an
Ifrit attack during the Griffon 1 fight, complete the rest of the
mission, and _still_ earn an S-rank when the results are tallied (why,
Capcom... why?) so long as you earned enough orbs and didn't take too
much damage (fulfilling the time requirement after skipping this boss
battle should pose no difficulty). To make this even easier to bypass,
re-enter the "gauntlets area" after the cutscene ends, switch to Alastor
via the Start menu, and return. While Griffon's life bar fills, DT and
use whatever devil gauge you have for extra speed as you run towards the
exit on the right. When you reach the unlit torch, switch to Ifrit via
the Start menu, punch once to light it, roll to the left immediately
after it's lit, and run through the door. If all goes well, Dante won't
get scratched. Or you can dodge Griffon's attacks as you slowly make
your way to the door instead, looking for an opening to punch the torch
and exit. Finally, you can fight Griffon using Alastor until he falls,
making a break for the door while he's down. (As much as I like the
Ifrit gauntlets, until you invest red orbs in their abilities they're
not too useful.)
If you don't want to even _see_ Griffon 1, you can save and then reset
your game after collecting the items in the Ifrit gauntlets room. By
doing this in Normal mode, all of the items (including the gauntlets,
which you can now buy abilities for prior to starting the mission again)
will be in your inventory. Now defeat the three Blades after the
cutscene a second time, then either go light the torch and exit to skip
the battle entirely or if you'd been saving up red orbs in anticipation
of acquiring the gauntlets you can take your newly-purchased Ifrit
abilities for a Griffon 1 test drive.
In Hard and DMD modes, avoiding this fight is even easier. Just don't
enter the area where you originally found the Ifrit gauntlets in the
first place. Since they're already in your inventory, equip them, punch
the door, and exit. You can even earn an S mission rank doing this, too
(bad, Capcom... bad!). One drawback to taking advantage of this loophole
is that you'll be forfeiting some helpful stuff if you bypass the
Griffon 1 battle this way in the later difficulties. There's a devil
star in the gauntlets room as well as a yellow orb (assuming you picked
up the blue one in Normal), but the big draw is the giant 1000 red orb
piece where the Ifrit gauntlets used to be. Of course, there's nothing
stopping you from making a mad dash for the exit after you've defeated
the Blades and collected these goodies or using the save/reset/reload
method... except your sense of pride in the knowledge that you truly met
every challenge Devil May Cry could throw at you, that is...
------------------------------------------------------------------------
DMD GRIFFON 2
---------------
Until you know what to do, this can be one of the most exacerbatingly
difficult battles in the game...
- REQUIRED/HELPFUL ABILITIES & WEAPONS -
Rolling Blaze is helpful, but Inferno is the essential ability for this
battle's strategy. Again, you'll want to equip the E&I handguns.
- FIGHTING GRIFFON 2 - (defense)
Due to the confined nature of the battlefield, the developers decided to
make Griffon's lightning attacks a bit less lengthy during this battle.
You should be very happy they did; I know I am...
Some of Griffon's attacks are altered versions of the ones he used in
the previous encounter. To save you some time, at the end of each
attack's description and notes I've indicated whether the text is new,
has been updated, or is the same as what you may have read before.
Energy Wing -- If there's a single attack Griffon does that will stick
in your mind as the most irritating, odds are this is the one. Griffon
approaches Dante and attaches a red wing of energy to him with yellow
electric bolts that act like a rubber band. There's no way to avoid this
attack, or prevent Griffon from doing it. The "bolt rubber bands"
perpetually pull the red energy wing towards Dante. The first time Dante
is struck, he doesn't get hurt, but will be shot up to the top of the
battlefield then fall down to the deck of the ship again as the energy
wing continues to bounce towards him. After that, the red energy wing
will typically hit him for damage, stunning Dante in the process which
may leave him vulnerable to any other attacks Griffon's doing.
Sometimes, Dante may be re-launched into the air again. Eventually, the
red energy wing will vanish on its own, but that's not good enough.
You'll want to eliminate the blasted thing as soon as possible so you
can concentrate on avoiding any other attacks without interference. Jump
over it as it approaches and immediately start shooting it with E&I as
it passes by. I think your shots do more damage when the energy wing is
moving away from you, and Dante can fire faster in the air then he can
while standing. You'll usually have to do this several times before it
is destroyed. If your timing is good, you can hop-jump through it for
additional damage via Rolling Blaze. In the event Dante gets launched up
into the air, immediately DT if you can and mash the shoot button to hit
the energy wing as many times as possible. Often, you'll destroy it
before you land again. Annoyingly, you don't earn any devil gauge for
damaging the energy wing since it's an attack. (new)
Lightning V's -- While airborne at mid-range, Griffon releases up to
three V's that emerge from his beak and close in on Dante from both
sides. Since Griffon will be airborne and Dante will be on the deck of
the ship below him, you should run, hop-jump, or jump towards or away
from Griffon to avoid each V depending on how the two of you are
oriented to one another. Often, there's also a horizontal "lightning
spider web" attack after the first V closes. (updated)
Horizontal Bolts -- While airborne, Griffon fires up to three horizontal
bolts at Dante. Again, when he's firing from above Dante, jump or run
towards or away from him to avoid the bolts depending on his angle of
attack. Like the Lightning V's, this is also a mid-range attack.
(updated)
Lightning Spider Web v2 -- Two Lightning V's simultaneously emerge from
Griffon's beak as he hovers in the air. All of the beams converge at a
point in front of him and you should jump diagonally away to whichever
side looks safer to avoid getting hit. After all the beams converge,
they also form a solid bolt of lightning that zigzags around in random
directions, with each new bolt being preceded by a faint outline before
becoming dangerous. The big difference is that these bolts travel in
_all_ directions instead of just horizontally. All you need to do is
jump, roll, and run to avoid getting hit. This is usually a mid- or
long-range attack, and he can do it whether he's standing or airborne.
(same)
Electrocution Bolts -- Griffon flies between the middle and rear masts
or to the bow of the ship, screeches, then drops onto the deck. If Dante
is standing on the deck, he'll be momentarily stunned and take a tiny
bit of damage; jump when you hear the screech so this won't happen.
After landing, Griffon starts charging his body with lightning, which
eventually spreads to form a "shield" of dangerous bolts around him, and
then fires three electricity bolts towards Dante. Like several of the
lightning bolt attacks, this one has been toned down to make it more
manageable to avoid on the cluttered deck of the ship, but now it's just
lame. When you see each of the three initial flashes, Dante's location
is noted and several vertical bolts of lightning travel towards it.
Beyond that, these lightning bolts have no homing capabilities (although
some of the trailing bolts stray a bit to the left or right of the
rest), and they move slowly enough that only running room is needed to
evade them. After you've moved to safety, you'll even have time to do a
double-handed taunt before the next bolt comes. (updated)
- THE GRIFFON 2 PATTERN - (offense)
Destroy any Energy Wings Griffon attaches to you as described above and
avoid his other aerial lightning bolt attacks, but hang around on the
lowest deck of the ship as much as possible instead of climbing the
masts or staying up near the captain's door. Other than DTing to destroy
any Energy Wings that launch you into the air, try to conserve devil
gauge as much as possible; you'll need at least 3 symbols (ideally 4) to
start the pattern.
Eventually Griffon will land in the area between the middle and rear
masts of the ship and the screen will go dark as he winds up his
Electrocution Bolts. This attack is _horrible_, for Griffon, that is.
When the third vertical wave of lighting bolts is fired, you want Dante
to be standing on the deck on the other side of the middle mast (in
other words, you'll see Dante in foreground, the center mast, and then
Griffon behind that). As soon as you see the flash indicating the final
bolt is on its way, run to the right and through the corridor towards
Griffon.
If you have at least 4 devil gauge symbols jump towards and Inferno him
at the earliest opportunity, then when Dante's DTed silhouette "blinks"
afterwards hop-jump straight up and Inferno again. You want the Infernos
to hit Griffon, but you don't want to accidentally Rolling Blaze
into/through him yourself. The second Inferno should strike Griffon
right as he's squatting to leap back into the air again (if you can only
do a single Inferno, I think this is when you want to hit him). After
that, move a little closer to the corridor "entrance" and plug away at
him with E&I to earn back some devil gauge. Around 90-95% of the time
he'll screech and land on the deck again (jump midway through the
screech so Dante doesn't get stunned).
Now Griffon's gathering his energy for another ineffective Electrocution
Bolts attack. Build up devil gauge using either E&I or simply by
taunting. You should be able to earn at least 3 or 4 symbols worth
before the screen goes dark again. When that happens, run through the
corridor in a straight line towards the foreground so the first bolt
won't hit you. Now you're in a corner. After he fires the second bolt,
run from that corner to the left, so Dante, then the middle mast, and
finally Griffon are all in a straight line. When he fires the final
lightning bolt, start the pattern over again as described above. (If for
some reason you didn't earn enough devil gauge before the bolts started
coming; you actually have time to taunt after evading the first two
bolts to earn some more... you only need 4 symbols to get two Infernos
off back-to-back anyway.)
Sometimes the pattern gets broken and you have to dodge the Energy Wings
and his other attacks again, but occasionally Griffon sticks to his
pattern until the very end (despite the fact that it's not working well
at all).
After many, many frustrating DMD Griffon 2 battles, discovering this
pattern enabled me to ultimately earn an