This guide goes into depth of the final boss fight against Gary. Obviously SPOLIERS! This guide will cover what attacks to avoid, the different phases of the fight, and the best way to navigate this pain of a fight.
Gary Phase 1
Phase 1
After Gary tells me he doesn’t love me I immediately go to the bottom of the arena and start using the cross on him. When he starts getting close to me I start to move in a circular motion around the arena. This movement has been the most effective from getting cornered and getting distance from Gary. You don’t need to have a lot of distance from him to start using the cross on him. I get some small space to use the cross a little and keep moving.
A couple key things for Phase 1
Gary’s dashes
Gary’s has a dash where he’ll directly come towards you. You can tell this is coming by him waiting a few seconds then lunging towards you. The best way to avoid this is by running in the direction that will give you the most distance. I tend to prefer to move diagonal as that allows me to keep moving in a circular motion around the arena. After he dashes you can use the cross on him for some free damage as he stays stunned for a few seconds.
Gary also has a multi dash where he’ll bounce across the walls 4 times. He will pause like his pursuing dash, but he will stay frozen for longer. Follow the same steps as the other dash, but if he is pausing longer than you know he is going to do his bouncing dash. The safest place to move is the bottom or top of the arena. Sometimes he will also darken the arena too. If he does that just hug the top or bottom of the arena and you will always be safe. While he is bouncing you can hold out your cross on him and get some free damage as he bounces past you. If you can also position yourself to be on the opposite side of where he will land after his 4th dash, you will have a lot of space between you and Gary. You can get a ton of free damage as he comes crawling towards you.
The seals
The seals that spawn in can be very unlucky at times. I try to stay away from the walls the best I can because you can get easily pinned and then Gary can get you. Moving around in a circular motion can really help the chances you get pinned drop, but you have to sometimes adapt best you can with some of the spawning. A fun fact, the whole seal does not have collision, meaning you can actually walk through the seals. About 40% of the upper half of the seal has no collision, so you can walk behind them even if they’re in your way.
That pretty much sums up phase 1. Just keep moving in a circle. Get some small damage in when you get some distance. Walk away when Gary dashes. Use the cross on him when he is frozen. Lastly, walk behind the seals.
Gary Phase 2 Malphas Joins the Frey!
Gary will start flashing when you reach phase 2 and you will see malphas spawning in too. You can use this time to get away from Gary and get in a position to get some damage in on malphas we he stops flashing.
Malphas’s attacks
Malphas will stay on the right and left side of the screen firing a three pronged blast as he moves up and down. Malphas will swoop up and switch sides. Sometimes he will fly up and try to land on you too, which doesn’t happen too often, but it’s always good to be alert.
John’s hitbox
A key thing that I didn’t figure out until the super Mirriam fight, John’s hitbox is a lot smaller than he visually looks. Roughly, about the waist up, John cannot be hurt. A very small portion of his feet also don’t have a hitbox. All of this means that John’s actually hitbox is his waist to his ankles. This can be abused in the second phase of Gary’s fight also.
Putting it all together
Positioning is huge during the second phase and finding the right time to get your damage in is another key part. When I was playing this phase I found the best thing was to focus on was Gary. I believe that Gary and Malphas share the same health bar, so damaging either is fine. You want to keep moving in a circle around the arena. It will help you keep avoiding Gary, Malphas when he tries to land on you, and Malphas’s projectiles. Dodging Malpha’s projectiles can be a bit tricky sometimes. They’re fairly slow, but that means they linger on screen for a bit before they exit the other side. You’ll want to take some time to stop to position yourself correctly. It can be intimidating with Gary creeping right on your booty, but if you can remain cool you can successfully dodge the projectile and just get out of Gary’s reach. Remember, that you can also abuse John’s smaller hitbox and have the projectiles pass through your upper body without harm too. (Don’t play it too risky though. Two of the projectiles move diagonally and if you aren’t careful they can clip into your legs, so make sure you move in a way that they don’t hit your real hitbox). There are times you can attack Malphas. When Gary does his 4 bounce dash that gives time to get close to Malphas to attack him for free damage. Sometimes if you have Malphas and Gar next to each other and enough distance from Gary, you can use your cross on both of them. When Malphas tries to land on you, he will also be stunned for a bit. If you have distanced yourself enough from Gary, you attack Malphas or both sometimes. I don’t think there are as many seals as in the first phase. My best advice is to adjust yourself accordingly. Pause, see where you are with Gary, and also see if there are any projectiles that will hit you.
That about sums up phase 2. Keep moving. Get your damage in where you can. Pause and reposition. Make sure to abuse John’s hitbox.
Gary 3rd Phase Demon+Demon=Magical Girl???
Super Mirriam has quite a few attacks that turn this phase into a bullet hell. There also aren’t many times you can get a lot of damage off of her as she moves back and forth at the top of the screen a lot. You just want to use your cross on her as she passes by you. The nice part of this fight is your health is increased to 10. The way you know if you’re on your last hit is the last visual of John you see will have his face melted, so watch out! You can also take advantage of John’s hitbox a lot in this fight too!
Mirriam’s attacks
1st attack) Her first attack is very easy to dodge. She will fly back and forth from right to left sending down bolts towards you. You don’t really need to move that much. You only need to move left or right to dodge a bolt that is coming straight for you. You can get free damage on her as she passes by you. When she flies to the right, on her 5th time she will shoot at 3 skulls. These skulls are arranged in a triangular pattern that spin counter-clockwise as they approach you. The best method I found was to move to the left side of the screen which allowed me to avoid being in the middle of them.
2nd attack) Her second attack isn’t too bad either. She will shoot a slow fire projectile towards you. Then swoop down in a U shape that puts her in the top right of the screen. Dodging the fireball then hugging the left side of the screen has always helped me easily avoid this attack. If you stay at the top of the screen you can damage Mirriam as stays frozen in the corner for a bit. Though, be careful as she will move back to the middle of the screen.
3rd attack) This attack is where things get a bit tricker. Mirriam will fire skulls that explode. The initial skull she fires are easy to strafe, but the explosions make you have to dodge more. The explosions explode into 8 different skulls that form the same patterns. The pattern of the skulls exploding forms a + with an X in the middle. I tried to keep myself towards the top of the explosion when I dodged them. It was the most effective for me to dodge them. It’s very easy to also abuse John’s hitbox during this attack which helps greatly in dodging the explosions.
4th attack) this attack isn’t too bad to dodge. Mirriam will lower down towards the bottom of the screen and start shaking a bit. Slowly a circle of fire will start to close around her. This is the perfect time in her fight to score massive damage on her. You just need to adjust yourself so mirriam doesn’t touch you are the flames around her as she will slightly be moving around a bit. When the circle of fire has closed in around her she will start summoning skulls from opposite sides of the screen towards you. They can be a bit tricky to dodge but overall not too bad. Just remember to abuse your hitbox.
5th or 6th attack?) I forgot which comes first, but I think she summons a hoard of skulls towards you. This is the real bullet hell of this fight. The key thing is not to panic. Staying still and waiting for openings to move through was the most consistent thing that got me through this part. Abusing John’s upper half also helped me navigate the skulls successfully too.
I believe the next attack after that (or before I can’t remember) can also be a little tricky to dodge. She summons flames from the top left and right corners of the screen that come towards you in a line. You can stay in the middle of the screen to dodge or the left and right sides. The flames will adjust to start moving towards you but they’re fairly easy to dodge. towards the end of the attack she will summon the skull triangle that she used at the end of first attack. I liked to stay towards the left of the flame as it allowed me to dodge the skulls easier by moving to the left. You can dodge them while staying in the middle or right, it’s just trickier to navigate.
She will repeat her attacks again, but I don’t think she will repeat the massive skull barrage attack again.
After those attacks you should’ve done enough damage that Malphas and Gary will separate. Now this is unconfirmed, but she was far away from the flames and I didn’t think I’d have enough time to light myself on fire and burn her. You might be able to, but I played it safe. If you don’t burn her in time Gary and Malphas will return to her corpse and the fight will start again. This time super Mirriam will have reduced health. When I was damaging her during her attacks, it was during the flame circle that I was able to separate Gary and Malphas from her and she was much closer to the fire. I felt a lot more comfortable burning and successfully did.
