Requesting help taking down Ballos with 3HP/Polar Star

Hey guys,

I've finally made it to Ballos with my default starting weapon and 3HP - it's quite tricky to say the least, but I've reached something of a conundrum - beating Ballos; part of this is due to the fact that it takes a small epoch of time to get to him - if I'm playing well and the game co-operates, I can get there 'quickly' in about 7 minutes, but that's not barring the 80,000 deaths in the falling block room! Does anyone know if it's possible to make a mod that allows me to practise against Ballos by just teleporting me in there with Ballos, an EXP crystal (to get the Polar Star up to Level 3 - I'm not insane enough to try and take him down using the Level 1 version!) and the default 3HP?

Secondly, does anyone have any idea how it might be possible to take down the fourth form beyond 'just be really skillful/lucky'? My previous tactic in my 3HP run involved missile spamming him to death, but failing that, I'd use a weapon with, oh, I dunno, some actual DPS capability (like the sword), but neither of those are an option - my current strategy would involve letting Curly hit him and just pray I don't get hit.

Ta,

--
CA

 

Sounds like "just be really skillful/lucky" is the only help I can think of =X

The only other thing I could add would be jumping into the weak -1 HP spikes at the bottom if you feel pressured to get some invulnerability for a few seconds.

I know there's a mod somewhere that lets you edit maps and stuff and you can put save points down but I've never messed with it...maybe one of these uber haxors here could tell you more haha.

 

I'm still trying to kill Monster X on my 3HP Polar Star run...
I suck :c

Also, just add a save point before you talk to ballos, that should be alright.

 

If you want ideas for the fourth form it might be worth watching Chaddykins' min items Hell run video since he manages it quite well there.

As for practice it's probably a good idea to try in the Boss Rush, just play through it and try him out with the Polar Star when you get to the end.

Cheers

 

There's actually a save state feature built into the game, that allows you to save anywhere you like (so you could make a save game right before Ballos with a maxed out Polar Star for practice). Pixel disabled it in the release version, but it's pretty easy to enable it again, the most straightforward way is to open up Doukutsu.exe in Reshack and duplicate the "Debug Save" item in the menu section. Or you could just download this hacked version and put it in your Cave Story folder.

To use the debug save feature, make sure you're playing in windowed mode; it shows up as a menu option. Just click it and it lets you save as whatever filename you like. (Note though that the game will still only load whatever save is named Profile.dat, so you'll have to name it that to load the new save game, and back up your old save at the Balcony if you want to be able to go back there.)

 

There's actually a save state feature built into the game, that allows you to save anywhere you like (so you could make a save game right before Ballos with a maxed out Polar Star for practice).

...and that's exactly what I did! Thanks very much for the EXE! =D The 7 minute travel time has been cut down to about 2 seconds - I'm (as expected) stuck on the final form, but I think that there may be a method to the madness. I'll be having a play around with this a bit later, but I do believe that this is at least possible!

--
CA

 

The final form would be the only form of Ballos that would be tough with this setup..so yeah...Good luck with that...

If I were you I'd put my focus on the Butes shooting from Ballos and not actually looking where you're shooting Ballos. Like focus your attention on dodging arrows and shooting Butes.

Talking about this makes me want to try it..

 

The final form would be the only form of Ballos that would be tough with this setup..so yeah...Good luck with that...

If I were you I'd put my focus on the Butes shooting from Ballos and not actually looking where you're shooting Ballos. Like focus your attention on dodging arrows and shooting Butes.

Talking about this makes me want to try it..

...and you drew roughly the same conclusions I did. The secret is to stay in the top third using nice, steady controlled vertical bursts and try and take down the Butes THEN worry about doing any damage (with Curly's Nemesis, of course). This requires a bit of luck, but I just got him down; the fact I can do this means that it's possible to replicate it. There IS method to the madness.

Once I've got this down reliably, I'll try it with a full run and beat it. On a related note, I've been trying to use FRAPS to see where I screwed up in the fight, but if I start recording, it drops the game down to like, 1fps. Does anyone know what could be causing this bug or any alternatives I could use?

--
CA

 

Sounds like "just be really skillful/lucky" is the only help I can think of =X

The only other thing I could add would be jumping into the weak -1 HP spikes at the bottom if you feel pressured to get some invulnerability for a few seconds.

I know there's a mod somewhere that lets you edit maps and stuff and you can put save points down but I've never messed with it...maybe one of these uber haxors here could tell you more haha.

Ueberhaxors? MUWAHAHHA IAM A UBERHAXOR?

 

...and you drew roughly the same conclusions I did. The secret is to stay in the top third using nice, steady controlled vertical bursts and try and take down the Butes THEN worry about doing any damage (with Curly's Nemesis, of course). This requires a bit of luck, but I just got him down; the fact I can do this means that it's possible to replicate it. There IS method to the madness.

Once I've got this down reliably, I'll try it with a full run and beat it. On a related note, I've been trying to use FRAPS to see where I screwed up in the fight, but if I start recording, it drops the game down to like, 1fps. Does anyone know what could be causing this bug or any alternatives I could use?

--
CA

Try using a program called HyperCam if you can find it, it's a lot better for recording things like Cave Story than Fraps will be (I don't know why, It just is) It's what I used to do all my recording.

 

GOIWEHGIOWEHG

10%, then got bounced off the platform to my doom =(

He's going down.

--
CA

 

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA DIE BALLOS DIE

Success! After god knows how many attempts, Ballos is down using nothing but the Polar Star (and uh, Curly)! Now, how the hell do I get this on to YouTube? ;D

--
CA

 

Assuming that you recorded it (I'm guessing so o_O), compress it and upload it?

 

Assuming that you recorded it (I'm guessing so o_O), compress it and upload it?

Yeah, I was hoping to have replaced that with a YouTube link, but owing to my lagtacular connection, it's taken me about 7 weeks to upload this - anyway, the file can be found at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2YlyFqv3MN4 !

Thanks very much again to everyone for helping me out - I'd still be screaming at Ballos 4 and/or stabbing things if it wasn't for this. =D

--
CA

 

I'll never understand how people can get through Hell without being hit once. It's impossible for me.

Freaking amazing, man.

 

Yeah, that's awesome. I wish I could do it. Now try Hell II, .