Ugh-Zan

**Ugh-Zan** is the main antagonist and the fifth boss encountered in I Hate Running Backwards. Encountered at the end of the Specific Rim environment, he is the first phase of the final boss, the second being Ugh Zan Tank.

## In-game description

*The bigger they are, the harder they fall! And this Ugh-Zan is one huge bastard. Pieced together from the remains of Ugh-Zan and Hugo, this Frankenstein-like monstrosity has been sent from the future to stop Sam and the others in fighting Mental and his forces. Ugh-Zan’s mind has been uploaded into the new robot made of metal and tissue enabling him to assume control of the new robot body. He can also transfer his mind into the tank that is stored inside him that serves as backup in case his body gets destroyed.*

## Tactics

Ugh-Zan is a very tough boss battle and a large leap in difficulty over the last few bosses. The player will definitely need a lot of practice against this boss before finally being able to beat him.

For the entirety of the fight, the player(s) will be controlling a Helicopter vehicle. It is the only boss battle where a vehicle is used.

The fight against Ugh-Zan consists of three phases, with every new phase taking place when a certain amount of damage is dealt to Ugh-Zan. Damage is dealt through Ugh-Zan by firing at specific body parts - when he raises one of his weapons to attack, a white outline appears around it. This denotes that Ugh-Zan can currently be damaged. In the last phase, Ugh-Zan's entire remaining body can be attacked. Whenever a limb is destroyed, a rocket barrage starts firing from the villages bellow. Standing in the radius of the explosion when the rocket explodes does damage to the player's helicopter.

Throughout all the phases, Ugh-Zan has two attacks he never lets go of. The first is a **Head Charge**. Should the player come too close to ugh-Zan, he will charge his head at them and push the player back. The second is **Homing Rockets**, which simply fires one homing rocket at the player's helicopter. This can be deflected with the Helicopter's melee attack.

### Phase One

In the first phase, Ugh-Zan uses two different weapons. Both of his arms have the ability to use these attacks, and he will raise either one or both of them at once, with differing or identical attacks.
The first attack is the **Laser Beam**, in which Ugh-Zan shoots a large red beam which travels from the edge of the screen towards the middle, until a certain angle where the player is forced to stay right in front of Ugh-Zan.
The second attack are the **Plasma Spheres**, where Ugh-Zan will swing around his arm cannon and fire many plasma spheres that travel towards the top of the screen. These explode on contact with the player's helicopter.

### Phase Two

When both of Ugh-Zan's arms are destroyed, the second phase begins, and he gains entirely new weapons.
One of these is the **Laser Barrage** which will carry over to the next phase - with this attack, Ugh-Zan emits several red beams from his head, which form a cone shape. Then he fires deadly lasers in the direction of the beams. The attack is rather easy to avoid, even on Hardcore mode - where the beams move along with Ugh-Zan's heads.
The other two attacks exclusive to this phase are two new weapons - the first is **Big Bertha**. Ugh-Zan holds this weapon in his left hand, and it is a rocket launcher which fires giant rockets at the player that also follow their helicopter around. These bombs can be destroyed without enough minigun and rocket fire.
The other attack is the **Vacuum**, which Ugh-Zan uses to draw the player towards him. This attack also spawns a lot of explosive balloons which are drawn into the vacuum - the player must carefully maneuver around these.

### Phase Three

When both of Ugh-Zan's second phase weapons are destroyed, he enters his last phase, where his entire torso becomes vulnerable for attack. He does not gain any new attacks here, and only uses Laser Barrage and Homing Rockets. However, he uses them both very frequently, especially the Homing Rockets attack.

### Tips

A generally good tactic against Ugh-Zan is to always play it safe. Since the helicopter only has 3 health points, and no way of healing, it is far too risky to take an extra danger so that "Ugh-Zan might die faster". Take the time needed and take note of Ugh-Zan's attack patterns. Be lenient on the helicopter's weapon, since it can overheat, rendering it unusable for a few seconds. Instead fire in bursts so a constant firing stream can be maintained.

Should the player manage to defeat Ugh-Zan without taking any damage, they will recieve the Survivor achievement and the Magic Tome weapon.

When the battle is over, the Ugh Zan Tank boss immediately begins thereafter.

## Trivia

* "Ugh-Zan III, The Vicious Warlock" first appeared as the final boss of Serious Sam: The First Encounter. His appearance has completely changed in I Hate Running Backwards, to a gigantic robotic mech. These robot parts, as mentioned in the description, come from Hugo, the penultimate boss of Serious Sam II.