Feb 02, 2018 Iconoclasts’ combination of clever Metroid-inspired design and lush art offers more than enough incentive to stick with it, even when the ambitious plot doesn’t always connect.
This guide is intended to help players who might struggle with one of the many bosses of Iconoclasts. For the sake of consistency I decided to write strategies for all of them even if the strategy is obvious or the boss is easy to beat.The Attacks section of each boss has the following structure:Attack #Move: What the attack does.Signalling: How can you tell the attack is coming.Evade: How to avoid getting hit.The attacks are numbered and referred in Strategy section as A1 for Attack 1 etc. Strategy section describes how to defeat the boss.
Since the controls are configurable, I refer to actions rather than buttons.Any feedback or improvement suggestions are welcome, both for content and for language (since English is not my first language). AttacksAttack 1Move: The boss rotates and bounces on a downward slope.Signalling: The spines tremor on one side of the screen.Evade: Run under the boss. Its first bounce is too low so wait for second or third.Attack 2Move: The boss jumps up above the screen, then falls down.Signalling: The spines tremor in the middle of the screen for jump up, then a warning sign for a fall down.Evade: Run to the side then run away from the warning sign.Attack 3Move: The boss rolls from one side to another. On Harder and Challenge Mode, it creates a flame shot upon hitting a wall.Signalling: The boss spins in place.Evade: Jump over the boss.StrategyNot much to it, dodge the attacks by jumping or ducking and shoot with your stun gun until dead. AttacksAttack 1Move: The boss shoots two flame shots from one of its cannons (only one in Relaxed and Standard Mode).Signalling: The boss raises the cannon which will fire and lowers the other.Evade: Run under the shots or stay on opposite side than they are firing (right cannon fires left and vice versa).Attack 2Move: The boss fires its stinger upwards. Two arcing flame shots come from the point where the stinger hits the ceiling.Signalling: The stinger flashes.Evade: Run to side, but not too far from the stinger.Attack 3Move: The boss spawns several controllers.Signalling: The boss crouches a bit.Evade: Destroy them all at once with stun gun charged shot. Mina also destroys some on her own.Attack 4Move: The boss throws the platform you are standing on upwards, sending you on the spikes above.Signalling: The boss crouches and warning sign appears.Evade: Crouch when going upwards.Attack 5Move: The boss spawns one controller.Signalling: None.Evade: Destroy it with stun gun.
Mina might also destroy it.Attack 6 (only in Harder and Challenge Mode)Move: The boss shoots a flame shot from one of its cannons.Signalling: None.Evade: Run under the shot or stay in a place safe from flame shots.StrategyDuring the first phase, wait until the boss does thrusting attack (A2), then twist the bolt on it. This reveals a weak point which is automatically shot by Mina.In second phase, you don't basically need to do anything except crouch since Mina shoots the boss everytime the platform falls down.
You can speed up the process by shooting the head.In last phase, the 'brain' is exposed. You can hurt it by shooting either horizontally or vertically, as long as it is roughly in your firing line. Mina hints at using the charged shot, but normal shot works as well. AttacksAttack 1Move: The boss fires a bomb from its yellow cannon.
The bomb explodes and creates two damaging waves.Signalling: The boss puts yellow cannon forward and it flashes.Evade: Jump over the waves or hit the boss with bomb before he fires.Attack 2Move: The boss fires a missile from its red cannon. The missile fires a flame shot.Signalling: The boss puts red cannon forward and it flashes with parry signal.Evade: Parry the missile.Attack 3Move: The boss fires three missiles from its red cannon. The missiles fire flame shots.Signalling: Red cannon appears from underground.Evade: Parry the missiles with wrench.Attack 4Move: The boss fires two missiles from its red cannon. The missiles fire flame shots which last longer. On Harder and Challenge Mode, missiles also fire fireballs.Signalling: The boss puts red cannon forward.Evade: Parry the missiles with wrench.Attack 5Move: The boss fires a bomb from its yellow cannon. The bomb quickly explodes and creates two damaging waves.Signalling: The boss puts yellow cannon forward.Evade: Jump over the waves.StrategyIn the first phase, you need to direct the machine towards Royal's blasts.
It can be pushed back by parrying missiles it is shooting (A2) or by hitting it by bombs. Once the machine is hit by Royal's blast, an exhaustion port is exposed so shoot a bomb into it. Repeat three times.In the second phase, the machine stays on the ground, so just dodge the attacks (A3, A4, A5) and shoot it. Royal also helps with damaging it.
AttacksAttack 1Move: Tolo throws a bomb at you.Signalling: Tolo raises his hand and parry signal appears.Evade: Parry the bomb.Attack 2Move: The helicopter does a strafing run.Signalling: The helicopter leaves the screen and Tolo hides under one of the platform with a warning sign above his head.Evade: Crouch under either platform.Attack 3Move: The helicopter charges you with its blades. In Harder and Challenge Mode, it triggers flame shots.Signalling: The helicopter lowers its nose.Evade: Run to the right while dodging flame shots.Attack 4Move: The helicopter fires a laser.Signalling: An orb appears in front of the heli's cannon.Evade: Crouch in the niche between the cars.Attack 5Move: The helicopter fires bombs at you.Signalling: Warning sign appears above the helicopter.Evade: Stay to the right.StrategyDuring the first phase you face both the helicopter and Tolo. The heli cannot be damaged by any of your tools, only by Tolo's bombs (A1), so parry them with wrench and they will be bounced up. When the heli leaves the screen, hide under one of the platforms to avoid a strafing run (A2).In second phase, the helicopter either charges you or shoots at you. Crucial for defeating it is the small niche on the train. When the heli shoots bombs, stay to the right of the niche so the bombs fall into it. When the heli uses a laser, crouch into the niche to avoid it.
In between attack shoot the helicopter which also pushes it back. The heli does not seem to charge all the way right, so except for the laser (A4) and the flame shots (A3) this niche is a safe spot.
AttacksAttack 1Move: White quickly moves towards you with his hand raised, leaving red afterimages behind.Signalling: White raises his hand, and white shockwave appears around him.Evade: Jump over him as he approaches.Attack 2Move: White shoots lasers from his eyes then sweeps the ray, either upwards or downwards.Signalling: White raises his hand, and several yellow explosion-like effects appear around him.Evade: The sweep does not cover whole arc, so crouch during downward sweep and time a jump during upward sweep.StrategyThis fight is simple, dodge and shoot. Once the agent has low health, he will begin to heal, but Mina feeds him her seeds. After several repeats, he is done. AttacksAttack 1Move: The boss shoots a laser, causing great damage.Signalling: Small clouds appear around the gun the boss is holding, and you can hear a hissing sound.Evade: Jump up or down to different level to lose the boss.StrategyHere you don't damage the boss, but instead the glass cube Pontus is trapped in. It needs to be hit from sides with wrench and from above with stomp.
Each of the three sides covers one third of the lifebar, i.e. You have to damage all sides to win.When the boss sees you, he will shoot with almost unavoidable laser shot. To prevent that, jump to the lower level and hide in one of the niches.
If the boss didn't manage to jump after you and see you hide, he will lose you and you can return to upper level (when his back is turned) and continue the demolition. Alternatively, when dropping down catch on the ledge and hang, which also causes the boss to lose track of Robin. AttacksAttack 1Move: The boss teleports in front of you, then slashes at you.Signalling: None before the teleport, then warning sign and parry sign.Evade: Parry the slash.Attack 2Move: The boss teleports behind you, then slashes at you.Signalling: The boss raises his sword and warning sign appears.Evade: Parry the slash. AttacksAttack 1Move: Silver slashes at you repeatedly.Signalling: None.Evade: Run or jump over.Attack 2Move: Silver jumps up and down diagonally towards you while rotating and slashing.
In Harder and Challenge Mode, he creates fireballs at landing.Signalling: Warning sign appears and Silver rises into the air and starts to rotate.Evade: Run under Silver when he is at peak.Attack 3Move: Silver creates a ball of energy and fires it at you.Signalling: Warning sign, Silver focuses energy in front of him, then parry sign.Evade: Parry the orb. Silver also parries it so you need to return it to him three times.
Run as far as possible from Silver to improve your chances.Attack 4Move: Silver creates damage waves. In Harder and Challenge Mode, he also shoots fireballs.Signalling: Warning sign appears, Silver raises his sword and small pink waves appear under his feet.Evade: Jump over the waves, jump over or run under the fireballs.Attack 5Move: Possessed Thunk charges at you.Signalling: Thunk, hanging on the ceiling, leaves the screen in the direction where he will arrive from.Evade: Jump over or activate the generator in the middle to stun the boss with a lamp.StrategyIn the beginning, the monster controls the samurai boss which slashes at you. When the samurai launches a missile, parry it, but one time is not enough; you need to win a back-and-forth against the samurai. Once you win, the mind control is lost for a while and a weakpoint is exposed so shoot it to damage the boss. This is repeated in phases 1 and 2. In third phase, the samurai is discarded and the robot charges at you directly.
Watch the ceiling to determine the direction. Now, the electricity generator in the middle comes into play. Activate it with wrench and the lamps will light, which stuns the robot. Hit it with bombs or missiles. Avoid the robot by jumping and repeat the pattern. AttacksAttack 1Move: Ash grabs you, gives you a piece of advice then throws you to the ground.Signalling: Alert sound, then sounds of quick footsteps.Evade: Try to quickly hide.StrategyNow for something slightly different.
Controlling both Mina and Robin, you need to use stealth to avoid detection from Ash. Mina is unable to hide in bushes (due to her smell), only in water ponds. Robin can hide even in bushes by crouching.
If you are in the open too long, Ash will rush you and damage you. He is invisible, but you can see leaves rising and falling where he walks. When further away, there is also indication of his footsteps in the direction where he is walking. When you notice (based on the leaves) that his back is turned, shoot him which makes him change places. At the last bit of health, you need to cooperate between both characters.
Ash always blocks the first hit now, but his back is exposed after that so have second character hidden nearby and finish him. AttacksAttack 1 (only in Standard and Harder Mode, and not in Boss Rush)Move: Black grabs you and repeatedly smashes you to the ground, then summons several controllers.Signalling: The screen flashes red.Evade: The smash is impossible to evade, but never kills you. AttacksAttack 1Move: The cat jumps at you.Signalling: The cat shakes its head, body and tail. Warning sign appears.Evade: Run under the jump.Attack 2Move: The cat smashes its tail into the ground.Signalling: The cat turns its back towards you and raises tail. Warning sign appears.Evade: Run away.Attack 3Move: The cat fires flame shots at you.Signalling: The cat moves its head back and forth then open its mouth.
Warning sign appears.Evade: Hang by one of the bolts in the arena.Attack 4Move: The cat charges at you.Signalling: Train horn is heard.Evade: Hang by one of the bolts in the arena, then time a jump over the cat.Attack 5Move: Mother summons a small rock then throws it at you.Signalling: A blue flashing rock rises from the ground.Evade: Avoid or shoot the rock. AttacksAttack 1Move: The boss leaps across the screen, then bounces off the wall down to a platform.Signalling: The boss jumps and hangs on a wall.Evade: Stay on the level where the boss does not leap.Attack 2Move: The boss create two fire columns which move toward each other.Signalling: The boss jumps above the screen.Evade: Go to side and try not to get caught between the columns. If you do, stay in the middle of the columns.
AttacksAttack 1Move: The boss creates an orb which drags you towards its center.Signalling: None.Evade: Run away from the orb.Attack 2Move: The boss drops a bomb in a vent which creates electricity colums.Signalling: None.Evade: Avoid the columns.Attack 3Move: Drops orbs which stun you.Signalling: None.Evade: Run away from the orb.StrategyThis fight is timed since the room is filled with gas. You have about 1 minute and 40 seconds before you suffocate. Nobel is invisible but you can see her shape or just follow her attacks. The attacks do not damage you but they slow you down or stop in place to prevent you from defeating Nobel. Your best shot to defeat this boss is bomb-activating one of the green platforms while Nobel is in its path which takes a large chunk of the boss's health but also stuns her, allowing you to follow up with inflicting more damage using your gun. AttacksAttack 1Move: The boss smashes its body against you.Signalling: The boss shakes its hands.Evade: Run all the way to the left to avoid damage.
Jump before impact to avoid being stunned.Attack 2Move: The boss spawns seeds which slowly fall.Signalling: The boss leans back, opens its mouth and throws up the seeds.Evade: Shoot the seeds.Attack 3Move: The boss charges against you.Signalling: The boss shakes its head.Evade: Run all the way to the left to avoid damage.Attack 4Move: The boss spawns 4 nuts which either spawn plant enemies or explode.Signalling: The boss shakes and seeds fall from its back. Nuts which bounce off the ground will explode on second bounce, the rest will spawn the plants.Evade: Shoot the enemies, jump to avoid the explosions.Attack 5Move: The boss shoots pincers vertically from below the screen.Signalling: The pincers appear below the arena.Evade: There is always one pincer missing either on the right or left end. Run to the empty space.Attack 6Move: The boss shoots pincers horizontally from right to left.Signalling: The pincers appear in front of the boss. The first to shoot flashes red, the other two shake before shooting.Evade: Jump over the lowest pincer. The topmost and middle pincers do not need to be dodged if you stand on the ground.Attack 7Move: The boss shoots one pincer vertically from below the elevator.Signalling: The pincers appear below the elevator.Evade: Run from where the pincer is.StrategyIn round 4, the weakpoints on the boss are the purple blobs. The lowest one is easy to hit, the middle appears only during A3 and the highest (and also smallest) can be hit only during A1. Keep to the left and shoot the plants for health pickups.Finally, when riding the elevator, avoid the seeds which drop from above and pincers from below.
You have to shoot the boss at the head or the torso, which is easier when it climbs at the same height as the elevator. AttacksAttack 1Move: The boss smashes one of His hands to the ground on a side then sweeps it across the screen.Signalling: The boss raises one hand on a side.Evade: Stay in the middle, then jump over the sweeping hand.Attack 2Move: The boss shoots several spines from the ground.Signalling: The boss follows you with one hand. AttacksAttack 1Move: The boss stomps his foot, creating a flame shot.Signalling: The boss raises a foot.
Boss Rush is a mode where you fight bosses one after another in Harder Mode. You have access to all the weapons. In all modes except Lethal Rush you have three Iron Heart tweaks which repair as usual by damaging the bosses but if you lose health you cannot recover. In Lethal rush, you don't have the tweaks.
The key to blow the first tricky set of rocks is to swap positions with the rooted Croaktus (Usurper charged shot) the closest possible to the rocks, and then bomb it. You can put a bomb on the upper left-hand corner of the second set of rocks (you can even jump there).The map is more or less as in the end of the game and you can collect most chests and tweak schematics. There are a few obstacles though:. entering lower part of the Dark Cave locks you, unless you first destroy all red blocks on the ladder leading to upper part. entering Inti's area locks you. entering level 6B of the Tower leads you inside Silver's second room; as a result, using West elevator above level 5B or upper elevator locks you. entering Mother's Corners hideout resumes the rush.
Leticia will only be found in the desertTherefore, the tweaks you can't get are Wavey beam (wall-crossing usurper shot), Featherweight (double jump) and Roulette (random effects). Unless you are in Lethal rush, you can pick 3 among the other ones and use them in the rush, but Mina is only affected by Iron Heart. 1.0 : Initial version1.1 : Added screenshots, corrected information about Mother's Corners1.11 : Added information about Boss Rush1.15 : Added various corrections to the boss fight descriptions1.16 : Added a few corrections to the boss fight descriptions1.17 : Added information about difficulty modes and the Boss Rush glitch.1.18 : Added information about map exploration in the Boss Rush glitch.1.19 : Corrected information about Mendeleev. Now I can confirm the boss sequence in Lethal Rush is the same as Full Rush:This was made easier using your guide: I didn't get before reading it that you could parry Possessed Thunk's orb or push Mother's cat-ball away by shooting it. Thanks again!A few remarks that come to my mind reading your guide again (I had to split my message in three to fit here):- Kerthunk's A2 can also produce flame shots (depending on difficulty level I guess), so you have to stay away from stinger but not too far away.- During Kerthunk's final phase, you can take advantage from stun gun's auto-aim and shoot while standing on the side instead of jumping above Kerthunk. You can't use charged shoot this way, but it allows you to stay on a place that is safe from fire shots.
Tolo won't attack you during during H-10's A2, so you wan crouch under the same platform as him.- Silver Watchman has an extra attack similar to A3. It has the same signalling and also shoots two fireballs, but it creates spines (as in Starworm's A2) instead of damage waves. Spines can't be jumped over, you have to run. I think Silver always does A3 just after being hit, while the other attack occurs randomly on other situations.- Blocker's attacks can all be evaded by swapping positions with charged Usurper shot.- Agent Black is easier to aim with bombs, although they are not as efficient as Usurper shot.- Mendeleev can be damaged while she's on fire, it just won't knock her back.- Mendeleev's A5 can be evaded by staying on the edge of a platform, which is safer than going on the ground. Ivory Beast's middle pincer (A6) does not need to be dodged if you stand on the ground.- When riding the elevator, Ivory Beast can be shot while at a upper position, you just might have to jump and/or shoot diagonally.- When Bird is charged, A1 and A2 create blue flames as well as A3.- During Bird's fight, I think swapping gun is the best option most of the time, except against deers- At some point of the fight, Bird will summon a ring of rocks which you need to destroy before hurting him again. All rocks belong to the same type: either light for charged stun gun shot, or dark for explosives. Boss Rushes feature dark rocks; in adventure mode, I think running away from Polro in dream sequence (Starworm fight) will get you dark rocks, contrary to hugging him.- During Bird's final phase, he gets help from Starworm, which you can't attack anymore.
Fortunately, Bird has not very much health left at this point.- During Fitzroy's final phase, you can stand safely under the brain. You're welcome!