Helmasaur

The boss of Palace of Darkness.

Phases

Helmasaur has two phases:

1. Phase 1
   • In this phase Helmasaur has his mask on and it must be broken to advance to phase 2. In every speedrun category, the best way to do this is with 17 hammer hits to the mask.
   • Helmasaur will always move 3 times in randomly determined directions before attacking. In this phase, his movements are fairly slow and his attacks are 50% tail swipes, where he will waggle his spiked tail before swiping it around in front of him, and 50% fire ball attacks, where he shoots a fireball that will split into 3 separate fireballs in a triangular shape. These fireballs will then take turns splitting into 4 separate fireballs diagonally which will travel until off screen, ending the attack.
   • The fireball attack has a somewhat predictable nature to it. After the 3 fireballs have formed and the first one has split, the next fireball to split will be located clockwise to the initial one.
2. Phase 2
   • This phase begins as soon as Link breaks the mask.
   • Helmasaur moves much more quickly in this phase, but he will still move 3 times before attacking.
   • Every time he attacks, he will use his tail swipe. 50% of the time, he will also use the same fireball attack from phase 1. This means you must be able to handle both attacks occurring at the same time.
   • From here, Helmasaur is killed when his HP is depleted by sword, hammer, and/or bow damage (see table to the right).

Strategy

For phase 1, you should focus on landing 17 hammer hits to Helmasaur's mask. This is made easier by holding a sword charge while using the hammer. This will expand the hitbox of the hammer attacks and maintain Link's facing direction. For advanced strategy, players may opt to not hold sword for this phase, which provides added mobility and can avoid lag during fireball attacks. If you have a good fight, the 17th hammer hit will naturally happen a bit before his 2nd attack does. For beginners, it can be useful to delay the 17th hit until this 2nd attack starts, since if it's a fireball, the attack will be cancelled if you break the mask during it.

For phase 2, you can do a sword strat or a hammer strat.

• Sword: for less advanced players, the sword strat is recommended since hammer hits in phase 2 have an extremely small hitbox. For the sword strat, release a spin on Helmasaur as soon as phase 2 starts (this is assuming you have been holding sword for phase 1 hammer hits). From here, you only need to slash Helmasaur 6 times for the kill. If fireballs force you to focus on dodging rather than doing damage, you can also start charging another spin attack while avoiding attacks. When you're ready to attack again, you will have a spin ready, which is twice as powerful as normal slashes.
• Hammer: for the hammer strategy, you will need to be holding a sword charge. The hitbox for hitting Helmasaur here is very small (see visual cue below). You can hit him from either side, but most players prefer doing it from the left. This can be made easier by holding ^> into your hammer hits. You will need 3 hammer hits + a spin attack in order to finish him off.

External resources

• Andy's NMG Tutorial
• Runnerwatcher's NMG Tutorial