Puppet Master

The Puppet Master is a boss in the Castlevania series. He is the cursed king of dolls and master of manipulating dimensions.
==Description==
The Puppet Master appears as a traditional marionette with four appendages, namely arms, as well as a demonic head, all hanging down from strings on the ceiling. He only has two attacks, one of which is not considered to be an attack by itself, although that doesn't mean it isn't any less dangerous.
==Appearances==
===Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow===
The Puppet Master is the first boss of the Demon Guest House, likely being the fourth boss the player will fight in the game.
His first attack consists of him opening his mouth and spewing out a few floating French Dolls that must be destroyed. Even though these yield no experience nor drop any items whatsoever, they may overwhelm Soma if too many are allowed to populate the room.
In his second attack, the Puppet Master materializes a puppet in one of his hands and then slowly proceeds to place it inside one of the four iron maidens that are scattered around the room, one near to each corner. If he succeeds in placing the puppet in one of these torture devices, Soma will instantly switch places with it and the iron maiden will then slam shut, dealing massive damage while giving no chance to escape. The puppets can be destroyed in order to prevent this, though; on "Normal" mode, it takes two hits to destroy one, and on "Hard" mode, it takes four. Furthermore, the hand moves very slowly, so most of the times the player should have enough time to destroy it, although the crowd of French Dolls may hinder this task. One useful tactic when replaying the game is using Death's soul, Death Scythe, which will make short work of both the dolls and the demonic play toy as well.
The soul the Puppet Master gives up upon defeat grants the Substitute Puppet ability. While it is a Bullet Soul, it isn't an attack by itself, but instead it allows Soma to throw out a puppet and switch places with it. This is helpful for unlocking the Subterranean Hell and Condemned Tower areas (the Bat Company soul proves to be much more effective later on in the game, though, as it allows Some to fit through the same holes he can throw puppets into). This puppet-throwing ability was later used by the Old Axe Armor, an unlockable character in Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin.
===Akumajō Dracula: Kabuchi no Tsuisoukyoku===
The Puppet Master was brought back along with Legion by the remnants of Graham's cult during a partial eclipse. He populated an imitation of the castle from Graham Jones' time with puppet copies of monsters such as Gaibon, Slogra, harpies and others. He was ultimately defeated by Julius Belmont.
===Castlevania: Harmony of Despair===
The Puppet Master reappears in Harmony of Despair as the boss of the second chapter. He appears in the trailer, taunting: "You, too, shall be my puppet!". He later appears in a castle resembling the Demon Guest House. He has no new attacks, but the pink marionettes he summons will curse players if they make contact. He will also pull himself throughout the area after taking enough damage, not being restricted to his own room. If he's within reach of an iron maiden, he will create a puppet in his hand. The player must strike the doll three times in "Normal" mode, and five in "Hard" mode. Failure to do so before he throws the puppet into the iron maiden results in teleporting a player to that location, and they suffer heavy damage in the process that also ignores the character's Defense. This attack is upgraded in Hard Mode to instantly kill players, unless they equip a suit of Ancient Armor beforehand. His theme is "Into the Dark Night".
====Strategy====
Due to the Puppet Master's constant swarm of cursing dolls, magic based characters like Charlotte or Shanoa are of unwise use, since a single touch of the dolls will deplete their MP to 0, rendering them weak until they can regain a substantial amount to strike back. Characters like Soma and Alucard will have an easier time, but some reliance of skills on the former and good weapons on the latter, can provide only a decent foot ground to fight.
Instead, whip-reliant characters, like Jonathan or Richter, are more recommended for a much safer and reliable time. This is largely because their spinning whip technique (by holding down the attack button and pressing in any direction) will provide a much needed and effective shield against the swarming dolls that come from multiple heights. Furthermore, this technique can be put to great effect to cancel the Puppet Master's voodoo attack, as it can quickly destroy the doll on his hands (provided a reasonable distance is between both), which is especially true in higher difficulties, where more hits are needed to stop him. Due to these advantages, they also have the best time of any kind of character in spamming their skills, since they have little fear of being cursed.
The only downside is that the whip's strength is dependent on the level of sub-weaponry they are carrying, and thus can require some grinding to put a good fight; but by the time he is faced, the player should have enough power to face the still basic opponent, or have a more developed skill/level set for the harder difficulties.
The Puppet Master also moves across the stage after a certain amount of time, in which the player must pursue to avoid getting harmed by his voodoo attack on the iron maidens distributed around the map. As the player progresses through the stage, they will encounter several iron maidens with nearby wooden boxes which can be pushed in front of them to limit the mobility of the Puppet Master. They are near the center-right, center-left, and near the top of the map respectively. Of special care is a tower of Bone Pillars at the middle of the stage which can provide a much needed shortcut back to the center of the map, and thus is recommended to keep alive as one can stand on them without sustaining damage. Destroying them will make pursuit much more difficult and almost guarantee death.
Overall, the Puppet Master is tricky and irritating, rather than powerful, and thus should be handled with patience rather than brutality.
==Battle quotes==
*"I need only to put this puppet, right inside here."
*"Take this!"
==Item Data==
==Gallery==
Puppet Master - 01.jpg|Puppet Master from Dawn of Sorrow.
DoS 1koma 11.jpg|Puppet Master in the official Koma comic strips of Dawn of Sorrow.
==Trivia==
*According to Shūtarō Īda, programmer of Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow, the Puppet Master was inspired by Surface from JoJo's Bizarre Adventure Part 4.@CurryHermit at Twitter (April 13, 2023).
==References==
de:Puppenspieler
es:Amo Marionetas
Category:Mechanical Bosses
Category:Dawn of Sorrow Bosses
Category:Harmony of Despair Bosses
Category:Kabuchi no Tsuisoukyoku Characters
Category:Original Castlevania Lore