Bosses' health

In the Japanese version of the game (Daimakaimura), the bosses' HP are as follows:

• Shielder --> 22 HP
• Cerberus --> 26 HP
• Gassuto --> 16 HP
• Ohme --> 5 intestines * 4 HP/intestine = 20 HP
• Beelzebub --> 15 HP
• Lucifer --> 15 HP In the arcade version you can get one free hit on Shielder before the battle begins by shooting his head when he briefly holds it in his lap before moving: the orange hit sprite will confirm that the hit has landed. In the MD version you can instead get all the free hits you can manage before he starts moving.

Weapon damage

• Lance, dagger, discus, axe, torch --> 1
• Sword --> 2
• Psycho Cannon --> 1-3 based on proximity and armour state Exception: chests have 3 health and cannot be broken in 1 hit, so the Psycho Cannon only deals 2 damage to them even at point blank range.

Example of the Psycho Cannon damage for Lucifer:

• Standing below him and shooting upwards deals 1 damage when wearing magic armour, 0 otherwise.
• Standing below him and shooting upwards while jumping deals 2 damage when wearing magic armour, 1 otherwise.
• Jumping from one of his feet when they are on the ground and shooting up deals 2 damage in all armour states.
• Jumping and shooting from a knee deals 3 damage in all armour states, even when neutral jumping from the middle of a knee which is in the farther position.

Magic damage

• Lance magic --> each lightning deals 2 damage
• Dagger magic --> the clone's daggers deal 1 damage
• Torch magic --> each fireball deals 1 damage every time it hits an enemy
• Sword magic --> each dragon deals 2 damage every time it hits an enemy
• Axe magic --> each burst deals 2 damage
• Discus magic --> the shield deals 3 damage The discus's shield can deal 3 points of damage before breaking. For example, a shield that comes in contact with a vulture (2 HP) will kill it and be left with 1 HP. If it now comes in contact with another vulture it will deal 1 HP of damage and break. Note that when enemies take damage from a shield there is no indication of them being hit (no orange sprite).

Hitbox overlap

When the hitboxes of an enemy and 2 damaging hitboxes (e.g. 2 weapon sprites, or 2 magic sprites) overlap, the enemy takes 1 damage per frame for the duration of the overlap. Notable cases of this include:

• The “Super Axe”: if you throw an axe just as the previous one is about to hit an obstacle after it has travelled the distance required to throw a second axe, you'll be able to actually throw 2 axes in quick succession. Since each axe has a big hitbox, the hitboxes of the two axes will overlap, dealing per-frame damage to anything they come in contact with. This is useful when fighting Shielder and is the fastest way to kill Beelzebub, due to her gigantic hitbox.

• The “Super Torch”: when throwing two fire-waters, the flames on the floor from the first one will overlap with those of the second one. This is less effective than the Super Axe but can be done anywhere.

• The entire reason why magic such as the lance magic or the fire-water magic can one-shot bosses is hitbox overlap. As reported in the previous section, the magic itself is actually fairly weak, what makes it absolutely devastating is the overlap. This is why for example lance magic seems to be stronger the closer the enemy is to Arthur: what is actually happening is that the hitboxes from the vertical and horizontal lightnings overlap, dealing per-frame damage.

• The Psycho Cannon can shoot two piercing projectiles in rapid succession, which can overlap and absolutely melt bosses (one prominent example of this is Beelzebub).

Bosses shenanigans

All of the previous damage values and rules work for regular enemies as well as bosses. Getting the overlaps to work is easier with some bosses and harder with others, depending on the size of their hitboxes: Beelzebub gets quick-killed by Super Torches, Super Axes, Psycho Cannon and every magic except for discus and dagger, whereas overlaps with Cerberus and Gassuto only last for a few frames and are therefore ineffective. Shielder lies somewhere in the middle, with Super Axes sometimes working really well and some other times being not as effective. In addition to this:

• Super Torches do not work on Shielder.

• The axe magic's hitboxes do not produce overlap with Cerberus. Additionally, you cannot deal the final blow on Cerberus using the discus magic: he will reach 0 HP but effectively remain at 1 HP until killed normally.

• Against Gassuto the Super Torch is ineffective, there are no solid objects to activate the Super Axe against (except Gassuto himself when he turns invincible, but good luck with that) and the axe magic does not produce overlap.

But the most broken boss in the game is by far Beelzebub, who takes reduced damage!

• All normal weapons (including the sword!) deal 1 damage.
• The Psycho Cannon deals 1-2 damage based on proximity, rather than 1-3.
• All magic deals 1 damage except for discus magic, which deals 0 damage. Moral of the story: use overlaps (or dagger clone) to kill her, and pray that you don't get a sword drop from the goblins if you do not have golden armour.

Credits

The Super Axe and Super Torch techniques were discovered by Aquas, whom I wish to thank for inspiring me to write this mini-guide and to start speedrunning the game in the first place. A big thank you to the Ghouls community as well, for being very welcoming and awesome in general.