Maria Renard/Symphony of the Night/DXC

A playable version of Maria Renard first became internationally available in Castlevania: Symphony of the Night in the PlayStation Portable game Castlevania: The Dracula X Chronicles. After beating the game with Alucard, a new game can be started with Maria by entering the name MARIA in the Name Entry screen (in the mobile version, there is no need to beat the game first, as she and Richter are available from the start). She played much more like she did in Castlevania: Rondo of Blood than her first playable incarnation in the Sega Saturn version, which was only available in Japan.
==Maria Mode==
===Movements===
Maria has mostly standard movements available to her in this game. Like Richter, all of Maria's attacks deal twice the damage in the Reverse Castle, including her sub-weapons and their Item Crashes, with the exception of her Jump Kick, which for some reason deals the same damage in both castles. Maria has 0 DEF, is immune to all status effects, and is neutral to all attributes.
===Standard attack===
Maria's standard attack behaves like Doves in previous games but appears as Owls ("Doves" in the Japanese guideKonami Akumajō Dracula X Chronicle Official Guide Page 081 "ハト (Doves)") this time. Several of these birds can be out at the same time, and they return to her. She can also attack with them while moving.
===Sub-weapons===
Maria uses her traditional Four Holy Beasts animal summons as sub-weapons in this game, and all of them have a corresponding Item Crash. She can also use her Guardian Knuckle ability as a sub-weapon, though it can only Item Crash. Maria is able to carry two sub-weapons at a time. She can switch between the ones in her main and spare slots by pressing a button (the default PSP button is Circle). Whenever she finds a new sub-weapon, it replaces the one that was in the spare slot. If Maria picks up the same sub-weapon that she is carrying in her spare slot, it will drop a Large Heart, which can then be collected. It is possible for Maria to hold two copies of the same sub-weapon, one in the main slot and another in the spare slot, although this provides no advantage. Like Richter, Maria can hold a maximum of 99 Hearts.
===Items===
Maria is able to collect Small Hearts and Large Hearts. Most items that Alucard could collect are replaced with Small Hearts that can be repeatedly collected. Life Vessels restore all life and do increase life capacity, although it is not readily apparent from the health bar on the side of the screen that it did so. Like Richter, Maria starts with 50 HP and gains 10 HP for every Life Vessel she picks up. She should end up with 540 HP. Heart Vessels increase Hearts by 30 but do not increase Heart capacity. Gold can be collected but has no effect, as the Master Librarian ignores Maria.
===Map exploration===
Maria can access the same rooms that Richter can, with the exception of the rooms behind the statues in the clock rooms of the Marble Gallery and Black Marble Gallery that require the Stopwatch sub-weapon to open, which Maria can't use.
The spike rooms in the Catacombs and Floating Catacombs are possible, but since Maria has almost no invincibility frames, they are difficult to obtain and require well-timed jumps and dashes to get through. The maximum percentage that Maria can achieve is 194.3% (with the spike rooms) (see "Maria Max Percentage" on External links).
==Boss battle==
During Alucard's quest, Maria is encountered as a boss. If he wins the battle, she will give him the Holy Glasses.
Maria has 10 DEF, takes half damage from Holy attacks, is immune to the Stone attribute and to all status effects.
She deals 25 points of Hit damage on contact and with her Slide. Her other attacks have the following stats:
*Owls (24 ATT, Holy);
*Dragon (48 ATT, Holy);
*Cat (36 ATT, Holy);
*Cardinal (normal attack) (36 ATT, Holy + Fire);
*Cardinal (Item Crash) (32 ATT, Holy + Fire);
*Doll (Guardian Knuckle) (64 ATT, Holy).
If Alucard equips a Gold Circlet, he'll absorb the damage from all of Maria's attacks, with the exception of her Slide and damage from contact with her. Her Owls can be blocked with a shield and will miss if Alucard crouches. She may attack with the Cardinal's wings if Alucard jumps over her, and she may also back dash to evade attacks and forward dash in midair. The Dragon can also be avoided by crouching; however, Maria also tends to immediately follow up with the Cat, as to hit a crouching Alucard. Otherwise, Maria may instead summon three consecutive Dragons in a row (a feat not possible in any playable version of Maria throughout the series).
The Holy Mail will halve the damage from the same attacks that the Gold Circlet can absorb, and the Fire Mail can halve the damage from her Cardinal and its Item Crash. The Tyrfing and Mormegil will deal double damage to her since she is weak against Dark. 
After she loses more than half of her HP, she'll attack with the Cardinal's Item Crash once and then resume the same pattern of attacks. She may also attack with the Guardian Knuckle if she is cornered in the second half of the battle.
The actual battle can be skipped if Alucard attacks Maria and depletes all her health before meeting her inside the room. This can be done by attacking her with a spell, such as Tetra Spirit, or with a bomb or projectile weapon while outside the room, by hitting her visible sprite standing on the left side of the room. When Alucard meets Maria in the room, she'll be crouching rather than standing, and he won't have to fight her to get the Holy Glasses (see "Skipping Maria Boss Fight" on External links). Note that Maria receives knockback from damage taken. Using an attack to push Maria toward the center of the room will cause her to fall out of the arena. If so, she will initially land into the pit housing the lift (she cannot land on the lift), but she can be further pushed out of the pit with more knockback from attacks. If Maria is not within bounds of the central arena, she cannot be damaged, but some of her attacks may still harm Alucard. If she was defeated out of arena bounds, Alucard can still obtain the Holy Glasses if she was defeated somewhere directly below the arena, but if she was defeated near one of the two corners of the overall room, Alucard will become stuck during the victory cutscene if he enters the center arena.
==Gallery==
Maria Full Map Normal Castle Mobile.png|Maria's full map (Normal Castle) from Symphony of the Night.
Maria Full Map Reverse Castle Mobile.png|Maria's full map (Reverse Castle) from Symphony of the Night.
==References==
==See also==
*Maria Renard
**Maria Renard/Symphony of the Night
***Maria Renard/Symphony of the Night/Saturn
==External links==
*Castlevania Realm
Category:The Dracula X Chronicles Playable Characters
Category:Symphony of the Night Playable Characters