Rifthound Guide

Rifthound is similar to the Hellhounds you face in Chapter 1 in many
regards, though much more powerful in terms of HP and armor, and more
elaborate attacks. Let's go over the attacks of the Hellhound and I'll
show you how the Rifthound is similar.

**Hellhound Attack 1: Pound and Slam**
This
 is of course the Hellhound's signature move. He pounds the ground with
both hands, then jumps at you. He can cover about half the screen with
this jump and it's pretty much unblockable, and will knock you down. The
 only thing you can do is dodge it. Well, the Rifthound also has this
attack, but he uses it much less frequently. Instead, the Rifthound uses
 a **Pound and Rush**, in which the setup is similar but instead of
jumping at you, he charges at you. He takes 3 to 4 gallops while doing
this move and can cover a lot of ground, maybe a full screen length.

**Hellhound Attack 2: Left Hook Right Hook**
Simple
 attack. The Rifthound also has this attack, but hey, his hands are
cannons. So instead of punches, he shoots some white powerful plasma
stuff at you that has a pretty wide hitbox. Really hard to sidestep
these.

Those are the two main attacks I remember. The Rifthound
also has two more attacks in his repertoire, which I will explain below:

**Rifthound Attack 1: Flamebreath**
This
 is perhaps the easiest attack to take advantage of. The Rifthound kinda
 just squats on his butt and starts breathing fire, usually starting
from the left and slowly rotating rightward. It's about a 3 second
attack and once you've dodged the initial flame you're good to position
yourself nice for an S attack.

**Rifthound Attack 2: Blowuptheground**
(Remember,
 none of these attacks are official names from Tenbirds, I just made
them up. Pretty descriptive eh ^^) This attack is very similar to Nir
the Loyal's attack. Rifthound charges up for a second then creates a
circular fire that emanates from the ground. The radius is about the
size of the Rifthound, so basically you want to stay a
Rifthound-distance away when he does this.

Those are his attacks. **How to beat him?** Here are my tips.

1. Come with a ton of boneshards. There is a crossbow in there, which

can fire once per entry. It takes up roughly 10% of his life from my
experience. (Costs 5 boneshards)

1. When you first enter the

rift, after you get past the narrow corridor and through the first
shroud of fog, position yourself right at the center (there's a black
circle). The Rifthound will charge you. Once you actually see him on
your screen, prep up your S attack. Even if he collides into you, it
won't actually cause damage or knock you back (which is different from
the Prowler of 2-9, whose initial jump does no damage but *does* knock you back.) This will let you get in a free S hit from the beginning.

1. Stay away from the edges as the Rifthound's attack have heavy, heavy

pushing power. He will knock you flying quite easily and throw you off
the edge with ease.

1. Use the crossbow not just as a weapon but also a shield. It can take a few hits which will let you charge up an S attack.

Follow these steps and in 3 entries you can probably do about 1/3 damage
 to Rifthound. Hopefully your friends follow the same steps and you guys
 knock him out without having to use crystals.

Happy Rifting!