Castlevania: Dracula X Boss FAQ by Kenshin Zlash(Kenshin_zlash@juno.com) For Super Nintendo Entertainment System ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Contents I.Version Info 1.Legal Crap 2.What is Dracula X? 3.Controls 4.SubWeapons 5.Boss Strategies A.Stage 1 B.Stage 2 C.Stage 3 D.Stage 4 E.Alternate Stage 4 F.Stage 5 G.Alternate Stage 5 H.Stage 6 i.Normal ii.Alternate I.Stage 7 6.Saving Annette and Maria 6A.Maria 6B.Annette 7.Enemies that aren't bosses, but are just as annoying 8.Stupid Tricks You Probably Won't Ever Use During the Game 9.Closing ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- I.Version Information _____________________ Date Version ---- ------- 4-10-02 v1.0-First Version of the FAQ. 4-12-02 v1.5-Fixed the spelling of Annet -Added new attack for Serpent Boss -Added Death section -Added more attacks for Dhuron -Fixed the spelling of Wallachia -Fixed the ACSII art 4-13-02 v2.0-Added Annoying enemies section -Fixed some minor errors 5-12-02 v3.0-Fixed some minor errors 5-13-02 v4.0-Added Stupid Tricks You Probably Won't Ever Use During the Game section -Took away the (*FINAL) note because I keep updating this thing anyway 11-5-02 -Small Legal Crap update ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1.Legal Crap ____________ This FAQ is property of Kenshin Zlash. This FAQ is only allowed to be put up on: (1) gameFAQs.com, (2) Any site owned by the author. No one except the sites listed may use this FAQ. PERIOD! You are allowed to print and distribute this FAQ freely as long as no money is paid for it. If anyone makes money off this FAQ, it better be me. Anyone caught taking this guide as their own at any time will be severely punished. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2.What is Dracula X? ____________________ Dracula X is the prequel to Dracula X: Nocturne in the Moonlight(Casltevania: Symphony of the Night). It was released for the Turbo Duo CD system in Japan. Luckily, there was an import of it to the SNES. It doesn't have the same CD quality music and sounds, but this game is just as fun. Dracula X for SNES is a very under rated game. It recieves the most bad reviews I've ever seen. The thing is, most people judge this game too badly compared to the CD version. This is the first CV game I've played and its the reason why I got hooked on CV in the first place. The Story to Dracula X goes beyond the classic "Dracula's Castle has risen again, and you must go in and defeat him". In this game you play as Richter Belmont, a member of the Belmont family(duh!). When Dracula's Castle rose again, Dracula kidnapped Richter's girlfriend, Annet, and her sister, Maria. So now you must go and kill Dracula, and save Annette and Maria. Also, this is one of the hardest Castlevania games out there. The bosses don't make life any easier. This FAQ will give you all the stuff you need to know to beat the bosses much easier. Rather than give a huge paragraph saying what to do, I'll list all of the boss's moves, and tell you how to counter them. I follow this manner because boss fights aren't always the same each time. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3. Controls ______________ Dracula X uses very simple controls. If your not good at doing any moves, play around a bit in the first area of the game. Note: This is assuming you have default controls. Button Function ------ -------- Right Move Richter to the right Left Move Richter to the left Up Weapon throwing position Down Crouch B Jump Y Whip X Item Crash B(twice) Backflip (learn this!!) Up+Y Throw subweapon Hold Y+left or right Moonwalk ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.SubWeapons ________________ These are really important and are key to winning. In order to use a Sub Weapon, you must have one heart (with the exception of the clock). Use Up+Attack to use a SubWeapon. Cross-The best weapon to have with you at all times. When you throw one of these, it will spin forward for about 1/2 of the screen's length, then it will stay spinning in one spot for a while, then return back to you. Note that you are only able to throw 3 crosses during a boss fight. Item Crash-Eight crosses will fly around the screen crazily. Does decent damage for 15 hearts. Dagger-A very weak weapon, but the fastest one. When thrown, three daggers will quickly fly across the screen. Item Crash-Richter will throw about a 100 daggers forward, decimating any enemy in your path for 10 hearts. Holy Water-Richter will throw a bottle of water on the floor, and a blue will travel a little bit forward. Great for taking out slow enemies. Item Crash-A huge storm of holy water will come down on all enemies. Does good damage for 20 hearts. Axe-A huge axe is thrown at an arc. Very tricky to time it to hit your opponenent. Very powerful also. Item Crash-Eight axes surround Richter and are thrown out. Not good for 15 hearts. Stopwatch-Bad, weak, and heart consuming. Don't use this in boss fights at all. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5.Boss Strategies ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5A. Stage 1-Cereburos _____________________ This is a three headed dog. You shouldn't have too much trouble with him if you follow all my directions. Use your cross for this guy. ------- Attacks ------- Bite-He does this attack when you are really close. Nothing really to worry about. Just stay a bit away when whipping. Fireball-When you hit him, he'll jump back, then throw a fireball to the ground which will continue moving on the floor until it gets off the screen. To avoid this, turn your back to the fire, and do a backflip over it. Pounce-He does this immediately after the fireball. So after you backflip, duck down and wait for him to fly over you. Then start throwing crosses or whipping him. 5B. Stage 2-Bat _______________ This bat guards the gates of the Castle. It is also the same first boss in the first Castlevania. Use a knife, since you'll need to hit him fast. ------- Attacks ------- Split-When you hit the large bat, he'll split into about 20 small bats that move in a long chain. Keep whipping at the chain while their moving around to take some more damage. When they turn back into the large bat, throw the knife at him and repeat. Final Attack(?)-When you have taken all the damage from the bat, he'll keep moving. The chain of small bats will turn bat into the big bat and then he will shoot out the small bats before dying. Climb on the top platform to avoid this. You won't take any damage anyway. 5C. Stage 3-Dhuron __________________ These guys appear in other Casltevania games but are much smaller. But in Dracula X, you face a large headless knight with a big lance. There are two ways to beat him, with a key (needed to save Maria and Annette) or a subweapon. ------- Attacks ------- Stab-This guy's lance is huge. Very huge. He's hard to hit since he'll be keeping his lance held downward all day. Try your best to stay a little bit out of range of the lance and whip him at the same time. The stab is very hard to avoid, so when you see him rear back, do a backflip as quick as you can. Ground Wave-Dhuron sends a big blue wave from the ground out to you. Get on top of platforms to avoid this. Slow down-He throws his head up into the air, and it glows with a green flame. He'll fly at you, and if he touches you, you'll be slowed down and take damage. Simply jump over it, but be careful when it comes back. Dhuron is very vulnerable when his head is flying around. Eartquake-Dhuron's head will fly up in the air and the ceiling will fall down. Quickly go under a platform to take cover, or do an item crash, which you will remain invincible and won't take damage. Diving Stab-Dhuron will jump into the air and stab into the ground with his sword. Very difficult to avoid. Final Attack-He throws his head up into the air, and it bursts into 5 fireballs that go downward. Note: To get some real quick hits off this guy, stand on the low platform on one of the sides of the screens. Then when he walks close, duck down and whip at him like crazy. 5D. Stage 4-Minotaur ____________________ A monster from Roman(or was it Greek?) mythology. It is a beast with a body half-man, half-bull (bull on top, man on bottom). Use an axe for this guy. The Minotaur can block crosses and knives with his huge axe, so those are completely useless. ------- Attacks ------- Stance-The minotaur stands with his axe blade held out. You can duck down whip him from under the axe blade. Be careful of the... Stab-When your too close, the minotaur will stab you with his axe. Move back when you see him about to do this. Bull Charge-A very fast attack. He ducks down and flies right through you. To avoid this, as soon as you see him duck down, quickly turn your back to him and do a backflip. You should make it over him. The minotaur charges strait into one of the walls, so he gets his head stuck in the wall and tries to get his head out for a few seconds. Whip him to death while he's stuck in the wall. Stone Breath-Another up close attack. If your doing the duck and whip method mentioned above, you'll most likely get hit by this. You CANNOT move at all for about 3 seconds if he stones you. Another attack you'll need to avoid. Rock Throw-The minotaur scoops up a bunch of rocks and throws them up into the air. You can whip at the rocks, but you may get hit. Stay in close to have the rocks just go over you. Note: Time your axe to go over the Minotaur's axe and hit him. Very easy tactic if you want to stay away from him. There is also a chicken in the platform on the right side of the screen floating in the air. Break open the rock and a chicken will fall out. 5E. Alternate Stage 4-Necromancer _________________________________ If you fell in the piller hopping room in stage 3, then you will skip Dhuron and go straight to the Necromancer. ------- Attacks ------- Fireball-The Necromancer will shoot a slow moving fireball that will follow you. It will shoot out two smaller fireballs that go left and right diagonally up. You can whip the fireballs. Each fireball can slow you down and you won't be able to jump or throw subweapons. Skeleton-He makes skeletons appear on the ground. They are very annoying. Whip them if you want them dead. Note: To kill him easily, jump in the air and throw a cross at him. He will fly to the other side of you and should get hit by the same cross again ending in multiple hits. Tombstone Shield-After taking away his first energy bar, his life will fill up again, and he will make a bunch of tombstones circle around him. After they circle around him a few times, he'll throw them at you. Just whip at them and they'll break. Mudman-Same as the Skeletons. He'll make Mudmen appear. Final Attack?-When you kill him the second time, the Necromancer will turn in to a pile of dust, then explode. 5F.Stage 5-The Werewolf _______________________ Some legend of a man who turns into a werewolf in a full moon. Use a cross. ------- Attacks ------- Spin-The Werewolf will climb on the wall or ceiling, and spin straight at you. Use your backflip or jump over him to dodge this attack. Punch-His punch should never hit you cuz you have to be really close to get hit by the punch. The one you might get hit by is the punch that has fire coming out of it. Slide-The slide goes almost halfway across the screen. Jump over him. Fireball-The Werewolf throws a fireball at you. Simply turn your back to him and do the backflip over the fireball. Charge-Sometimes while the Werewolf is jumping to the wall, he'll do this charge. Duck under it. Bounce-When his health is low, he'll roll into a ball and start bouncing around the screen. This shouldn't be too hard to move, jump, or flip over from. Final Attack-When his power is gone, the Werewolf will leap to the middle of the screen and punch the ground, making flames come out. Then he'll die. 5G.Alternate Stage 5-Serpent ____________________________ This can be a tough enemy to hit. He'll move very fast and you have to hit him ask quick as you can. His weak point is his head. ------- Attacks ------- Dive Attack-The serpent jumps out of the water every once in a while. Note that his body will only hurt you when it is in the foreground, not in the background(i.e., behind the bridge won't hurt you, but when he is coming down in front of the bridge it will). Fireball-He will come with his head out of the water, and throw flames on the ground. If you hit him in the head before he throws the fireballs, he will fall back into the water without attacking. Twist-The Serpent will wrap its body around the bridge and twist around all the way to the end. Stay between the parts of his body that are on top of the bridge and walk in the direction that he's moving to avoid damage. Final Attack-After getting hit for the last time, the Serpent will fall into the water. It'll be strangely silent for a few seconds, and The Serpent's Skeleton will fly straight up to where your standing. 5Hi.Normal Level 6 Boss-Big Skull _________________________________ A large skull takes Annet(since you didn't save her). Use the cross against this enemy. Just throw your crosses at him since he'll be moving so slow and can take many hits at once. ------- Attacks ------- Flaming Eyes-The Skull's eye's come out and they will fly around you for a bit. Becareful to dodge these and not fall off the clock tower. You can hit the eyes if you want. Spinning Eyes-The Skull's eyes will come out of his head and start spinning around. Very easy to evade. Lighting Eyes-The eyes will now float around and shoot bolts of lighting directly under them. These are almost impossible to avoid by jumping over or anything. Stay between the beams if possible. 5Hii.Alternate Level 6 Boss-Death _________________________________ Death is Dracula's best friend. Death is a skeleton who carries around a large scythe and takes people's souls. Cross is very helpful here. ------- Attacks ------- Sickle-Death floats around the screen while his sickles appear in various places on the screen and fly out at you. You can whip at them, but there will be too many to just sit down and whip at them all day. Slow Down-If you touch Death, you will be slowed down. Hit him to keep him back. Note: Use the cross to get lots of hits off his first form. Slash-When about half of his energy is gone, Death will stand on the ground and pull out his scythe in the middle of the platform. He preforms the slash often while his sickles will still fly at you. Spin-Death will jump into the air and spin with his scythe straight at you. Very nasty move... Stay away as far as possible. 5I.Stage 7-Dracula __________________ The Lord of Wallachia and Count of Castle Dracul. The legend is that some guy liked dipping his bread in his enemies blood, then when he died, he made a deal with the devil and become a vampire. Now we know him as Count Dracula. Now this battle is hard as hell. Your chances of falling in this level are very high, and you can be knocked off at any time. Also, Dracula's weak point is his head. It will be very hard to hit him, he has a high amount of health, and this battle will be long. You'd better have your cross if you want to win. ------- Attacks ------- Teleport-Dracula will teleport on to different pillers every time. Be sure to hit him with your whip instead of your valuable crosses. Fireball-After teleporting in, Dracula will open his cape and throw out 3 fireballs. You can whip them down. Big Fireballs-After teleporting in, Dracula will shoot out two big fireballs, one high, and one low. You can duck under the first one, then jump over the second one. Transform-After you deplete Dracula's life bar, he'll turn into a big winged demon. Fireball-Dracula will now shoot some really fast fireballs at you. Here's where your cross comes in handy. What you do is get back(at least two pillers away) and throw 3 crosses into the middle of his body where his hands are. Not only will this take tons of damage, it will block the fireballs from coming out. Sonic Boom-After throwing the three crosses at Dracula, he'll drop onto a piller and do a HUGE sonic boom thing. If he's on a high piller and your on a low one, then duck down immediately. IMPORTANT: Don't fall when your getting the gem after killing Dracula! ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6.Saving Annet and Maria ________________________ -------- 6A.Maria -------- Remember the piller room in Stage 3? If you passed this, you'll get to a room with a key in one of the candles. Pick it up. It will take the spot in your subweapon slot, and you must live with the key in your possesion until you reach the two doors you'll need to unlock. Now, defeat Dhuron and go until you reach the 3rd section of stage 4. There will be a door halfway up. Use the key(up+Y) to open the door. Inside will be Maria. -------- 6B.Annet -------- After you've save Maria, keep going up until you reach the room with another door. Open the door and you will end up in the Alternate Stage 5. Go through the stage until you reach a room that looks something like this: Exit---> ===================================== /-/ --------| <--Whip /-/ ======= | here /-/ | | Entrance-> | ========== ===================== ~~~~~~~~|~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ <--Water ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ <--Water ============== <--Platform underwater My ACSII art is crap, but you get the picture. Whip at the little crack in the wall where the water is coming out of. The water will drain when its broken(since when does closing a faucet drain the water in a bath tub?) and climb down to the platforms and into the room to the left at the bottom. Annet will be there. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 7.Enemies that aren't bosses, but are just as annoying ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- These are some enemies that will give you trouble in every stage. --------- Axe Armor --------- These things are walking armors that toss, or throw axes at you. They take many hits and can be very annoying with many other enemies on the screen. ----------------------------- Medusa Heads, Bats, and Crows ----------------------------- If I got a penny for every time one of these has knocked me too my death, or took off lots of health before I even got to the next area, I'd be really rich. They only take one hit, but with the ways all of them fly, you'll end up missing alot. ----------- Spear Guard ----------- Purple knights with long spears. You have to stay just far enough to hit them and not be hit by the spear at the same time. When you see them rear back with their spears, do a backflip. That move does lots of damage and sends you flying back. ------- Fleamen ------- Found in a few stages, these things are really small, and really fast. You will miss a few times before hitting them, and they will jump all over you causing damage. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 8.Stupid Tricks You Probably Won't Ever Use During the Game ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Here is the section with little tricks I've found while messing around one day. They aren't very useful in anyway, but what da hell? 1.Reverse Backflip __________________ To do this trick, do a backflip. While pressing B twice, hold the directional pad in the opposite direction you were facing. Now Richter will do a jump in the air and then suddenly backflip the opposite direction. Not useful but I find it cool. 0_o 2.Backward Jump Attack Thing ____________________________ This one can be useful if you use it correctly. First do a backflip (double tap B). While Richter is doing the flip, press Y (attack). Richter will whip while going backwards. You can also use a subweapon for this. I find this move useful when I'm trying to avoid enemies and attack them at the same time (like when fighting Death for example). ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 9.Closing ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- I hope you found my FAQ helpful. If you find out any errors, or something left out in this FAQ, please email me at Kenshin_zlash@juno.com. Here are the people I would like to thank in helping me make this FAQ: Gamefaqs.com-for putting up the FAQ Me-For Writing it Snes9X.com-for having the best SNES emulator My Aunt-for buying me the game Konami-For making the best video game series on earth Nintendo-for making SNES The guy who created nintendo-For creating nintendo The guy who founded Konami-For making the best video game company which makes other hit series like Metal Gear and Silent Hill.