Iron Pirate King Level/Tactics

## Boss Fight Mechanics

### Boss Ability

* The boss is protected by a golden shield which reduces any incoming damage down to 20%, and will regenerate sometime after being shattered.
* The boss is immune to hooks of Super Shotgun and Lasso Gun.

### Boss Attacks

* Launches cannonballs into the sky. The cannonballs fall to the ground around the player and explode, dealing 4 damage (the damage can be reduces to 2 with Fire Buff) and leaving fire pools, each dealing 1 DoT, and the fire damage can be nullified with Fire Buff
* Stands still and aims its hook at the player. A red line indicates the attack path. After a few seconds, the boss stops aiming briefly and then snags a target with his hook while ignoring terrain obstacles in the way.
	+ If the hook pulls a live bomb from the mortar ship, it will explode, deal 20 damage to the boss and destroy its shield. Otherwise, nothing happens.
	+ If the hook pulls either the player or an enemy, the boss will perform a melee thrust dealing 5 damage to the player or 100 damage to enemies.
		- This includes the other boss under the  challenge, unless it is another Iron Pirate King Level.

### Non-boss Attacks

* From time to time, boats arrive and deploy reinforcement troops, a weaker version of SOF Infantry Pirate Type E. They have the same attack as the regular ones, but their bullets cannot become bigger and deal 2 damage instead of 3.
	+ All minions will die immediately once the boss has been defeated. If there are still some of them boarding boats, they will die as soon as they step outside.
	+ The minions never appear if it appears as the secondary boss under the twin boss condition since there is nowhere for the boats to land.
* A mortar ship lobs bombs randomly onto the arena with 4 damage on detonation (the damage can be reduced to 2 with the Fire Buff).
	+ They can block movement and non-piercing projectiles.
	+ These start out as ambient objects. When hit, they will turn live and explode after several seconds, indicating by them flashing red.
	+ When standing near bombs, the player will perform the basic melee attack.

## Tactics

Whenever the boss uses the hook attack, the player should try to stand behind a detonating bomb so that the hook backfires. If the bomb being used is not lit, hit it once to make it start flashing. Timing isn't mandatory, as when a live bomb is grabbed the shield will always be paralyzed.

It is advised to quickly move out of the way right as the boss fixes its aim (when the aiming line disappears). Otherwise, if the bomb explodes first, the player would be vulnerable to the attack.

The boss itself doesn't shoot any bullets and its attacks can usually be dodged with ease, though the fire buff can aid this further. When it isn't using the hook attack, the player should focus on clearing out its goons to prevent getting overwhelmed by bullets.

If it spawns as the secondary boss under the twin boss condition, Iron Pirate King Level is ironically easier to defeat. It will not be backed by reinforcements, while the hook attack can be baited into other bosses through obstacles, dragging them away with massive damage as it swiftly dispatches them, which for Zulan The Colossus, also paralyzes him on the second snag. While any cover in the room might make the mortars and fire pools harder to dodge, its threat is greatly diminished if Iron Pirate King Level is left alone until it is the last one standing.