Murky Huntress

2x Radial Cannon

2x Rocket Pods

Rear Cockpit Turret

**Murky Huntress** is the Boss of Stage 6.

## Appearance

Murky Huntress is a heavily-armored helicopter gunship that is based on the design of the Boeing Osprey VTOL aircraft, featuring two fixed wings with rotors at the end of each one, with the unique ability of changing the angles of its rotor blades. It features a dual-cockpit turret and radial cannons underneath the rotors which operate when they are inverted.

## Armaments

### 1st Phase

2x Tracking Gun Turrets

* One turret is mounted on top of each set of rotor blades. They fire steady streams of 12 bullets at your Plane.

Dual Cockpit Turret

* A special weapon of this aircraft that fires an endless-lasting stream of dual bullets, without the need to recharge. It shoots straight toward the bottom instead of aiming at the Plane.
* A unique feature of this weapon is that it will last for the whole battle if left intact until the third phase. This makes Murky Huntress the only Boss to have a combat routine phase where not every active weapon needs to be taken down. The turret lasts all the way until the next phase, when it is supposed to be taken down along with the radial cannons.

### 2nd Phase

2x Red Radial Cannons

* Mounted underneath the rotor blades. Each turret unleashes a swarm of spreading bullets. (3 bullets in 12 directions, 4 waves of bullets before a long reload)
* After the gun turrets are destroyed, Murky Huntress will rotate its rotor blades such that they are angled at a completely inverted position to allow the radial cannons to attack.

### 3rd Phase

2x Rocket Launchers

* Similar to the one on Canned Dread. One is mounted on each side of the gunship and can be retracted into a concealed housing. They fire long and high speed volleys of inaccurate rockets, with the frequency increasing with the Difficulty mode.

Rear Cockpit Turret

* Located right behind the dual cockpit turret. This turret fires a slower stream of bullets that are easier to avoid.

## Combat Routine

Murky Huntress enters your screen from the bottom right corner, spinning around to attack. Its first phase armor (Dual cockpit turret and rotor blade guns) can be already damaged at that time.

### 1st Phase

As mentioned above, early damage can be inflicted on both the rotor blade guns and dual cockpit turret, even before the gunship begins attacking. Target those as soon as the gunship enters your screen, so that you need not suffer from being converged in a single position when the rotor blade guns begin to fire. As with any chain turrets, move your plane slowly to prevent the turrets from spraying bullets all over the screen.

Try and destroy the cockpit turret during this phase as it will be troublesome if left intact for later ones.

### 2nd Phase

After destroying the rotor blade guns, Murky Huntress will rotate its rotor blades to an inverted position, revealing the radial cannons underneath. This is a slightly easier segment as all you need to do is to keep away from the bullets unleashed in multiple directions, but as the firing frequency of the bullet swarms is higher in tougher Difficulty modes, it is undeniably harder to stay untouched. If you have left the dual cockpit turret intact, it will continue discharging its infinite barrage of bullets.

### 3rd Phase

After destroying the radial cannons, the rotor blades rotate back to their upright position. The concealed rocket launchers will emerge from their housings and after a brief pause, release their first volley of high speed rockets which spread out like a cone as they travel. Note that unlike in the battle with Canned Dread, the launchers do not emit any alarm or beeping noises to signal that the rockets are about to be discharged, but looking closely you would notice them spinning rapidly right before the rockets come out. As soon as that is so, steer clear of the launchers (normally by swooping to the sides of the boss). The rear cockpit turret will engage shortly afterwards and with good practising of patience and evasion skill, you will be able to take out the missile launchers and both cockpit turrets unharmed.

Once all these weapons have been stripped off, you can obliterate the Murky Huntress gunship.

## Difficulty

*"Take it easy old chap, I've had a horrible day."*

Apart from increasing frequencies of weapon discharge, the armor itself is capable of enduring great punishment and hence it takes longer to destroy the gunship bit by bit in tougher Difficulty modes. On higher modes, the bullets from phase 2 and rockets 3 have enough damage to down your Plane with only 2 projectiles and are extra dangerous since they come in swarms.