Titan Boa

## Description

An impossibly long snake with green scales, crushing coils, and wicked, flexible fangs. Fought only in the Ubaan campaign.

## Attributes & Strategy

This fight locks the player onto a horizontal plane (a fallen log bridge) where they can only run right and left, restricted on both ends by invincible coils that are too big to jump over. Left with nowhere else to go, the player has to avoid the snake's attacks and try to figure out a way to harm it.

In its first phase the Titan Boa has a very limited moveset, striking only with its fangs. The strikes themselves are very fast, near impossible to dodge if not expected, but are mercifully telegraphed by the snake rearing back its head and hissing. It will do this five times in a row, though the amount of time between each strike (and thus the length of the sequence overall) varies. Once this is completed it will bare its teeth and dislocate its jaw, a surefire sign that it's about to try to do something new: swallow the player.

If the grab succeeds then the player will have to button mash to pry the snake's jaw open, inflicting heavy damage on themselves in the process. If the player fails this QTE or has less than 15% health when grabbed then the snake will simply insta-kill them, snapping its jaws shut and swallowing them whole. Regardless of whether or not the grab succeeds its execution will reset the Titan Boa's attack chain, sending it back into its string of five normal bites.

The only way to hurt the Titan Boa is to shoot at its mouth when it performs this special grab. The player will have a near-full inventory by default at the start of the fight: no torch, unlimited stones, 2 spears, 2 axes, and 50 arrows. A single strike from the axe or spear will do enough damage to stagger the snake mid-strike, but take care to use weapons wisely; any projectiles shot in the mouth will be unrecoverable. The bow takes three shots to achieve this same effect, and throwing stones four. If the player can't connect that many hits during one strike the damage will carry over, but they'll have to survive another round of strikes before getting that chance.

Once the Titan Boa's been staggered it will cinch up its coils in frustration, inching both sides closer together and reducing the amount of space the player has to run around in. The string of attacks, now six in number, begins anew with an extra move thrown into the mix: a horizontal neck swipe that can only be jumped over. The player should take special care as the number of times it does this move varies; it may bite five times and swipe once, or bite four times and swipe twice, and the order in which it does so is random. Avoid the grab at the end attack and shoot into the mouth to stagger Titan Boa and make it cinch up again.

The third set of barrages keeps the number of attacks at six but speeds them up. There's an additional vertical swipe which, while easy to dodge, also has a much shorter wind-up than the bite and horizontal swipe. The same rules apply as in round two: there are always six attacks, but how many and in which order they come varies. Possible combinations include two bites, two horizontals and a vertical, or three bites, one horizontal and one vertical. Repeat the same process as before to get another stagger.

The fourth round ratchets up the difficulty significantly. By this time the amount of room the player has to run around and dodge in is less than half of what it was originally. The Titan Boa launches a five attack combo like it did initially, *not* six attacks like in the previous two rounds, and adds two sneaky new moves in. The first is a tail swat that comes from the opposite side of the log, so keep an eye on its coils. Possible combos are 2 bites, a horizontal *or* vertical neck swipe and 1 tail swat, or 1 bite, 2 horizontal or vertical neck swipes and 1 swat, or more rarely, 2 bites, 1 horizontal or vertical neck swipe and 2 tail swats. Then, when the time comes to start shooting, take notice: the boa will now do a mock-strike before trying its grab, lunging halfway with its teeth bared but doing no damage, setting the player up for a *real* grab immediately afterward.

If the player is fast and wary enough to get this far the Titan will be furious. It cinches up its coils one final time, squeezing the trunk so hard it creaks and cracks and reducing the player's space to a minuscule amount. What comes next is the fifth and final series of attacks. They're reduced in number to four and there aren't any new ones this time, but they are sped up again, coming in *very* rapid succession. Depending on what weapons the player used to get here they may have to rely on the bow or stones to land their final stagger (assuming none of their previous axe or spear throws missed). Luckily the speed of the serpent's attacks makes this a very fast (if difficult) round to repeat if needed.

Doing enough damage to survive the rapid-fire round will send the titanic snake into a fury, clenching its coils so hard that it accidentally crushes the log. Both it and its would-be prey fall down into the river below; the player drags themselves onto shore a few moments later, standing up just in time to see the frustrated serpent slinking away downstream.

## Trivia

* The name Titan Boa is a variation of *Titanoboa*, a real snake that lived in the Paleocene. Its design and behaviors, however, are modeled after modern-day tree boas, most notably the emerald tree boa and the green tree python.
* Though only *fought* in the Ubaan campaign, the Titan Boa technically appears in all four tribal stories. Its coils can be found camouflaged in three different jungle levels and are even close enough to attack; doing so invites a threatening hiss.
* Titan Boas can be encountered as ambient enemies in Legend levels. They're fairly rare but easy to kill and drop SM health pickups.