Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse Bosses
Skull Knight
his bag of bones shouldn't prove too much of a problem. When you see him lying on the floor before he becomes erect, stay on his left side. The trick to beating Skull Knight completely unscathed is to use the set of blocks on the left to your advantage. When Skull Knight comes near, jump on the first set of blocks, and then the platform that is higher than them. Keep doing this and strike when you see an opportunity. Skull Knight will follow you around trying to get close enough to slash with his sword. Don't hesitate, stay ahead of the enemy, and never go to the right side of the battlefield. There is a much higher likelihood of taking damage over there because the platform isn't raised as high, and it's much easier to get cornered since jumping over Skull Knight from that level untouched is impossible.
Skull Knight has more range to his attack than may readily seem apparent, so don't let him get too close. Remember, stay on the left and use the platforms to go around in circles staying one step ahead of him, and strike when you can, and don't let him get too close.
Nasty Grant
Like Skull Knight, the trick to defeating this hunch back without suffering damage is to stay one step ahead of him. He's going to start from the left and come at you, so retreat to the high ground on the right, and when he gets close, jump over him and head to the left. Then retreat to the highest ground on the left side of the room and leap over him again.
He will probably start climbing the wall and ceiling at this point. This is when you nail him with a flurry of axes. Hopefully, you will have a double or triple shot. Be ready for him to fall back down, possibly somewhere close to Trevor. Head to the high ground on whatever side may be closest, and use it to jump over him again.
What you need to watch out for at any moment are the knives he throws. Be ready at all times to duck or jump over them. While mounted on the ceiling, he'll hurl axes down at you. These are slower and easier to dodge.
Your best method of attack is to wait for him to climb the wall and ceiling and then axe him. If you don't have the axe, attack with the whip while he's mounted on the wall.
Cyclops
There is a pot roast in the block that leads up to the highest platform on the left side. You do not want to break that block unless you absolutely need that pot roast. That is your stepping stone to dodging the Cyclops' attacks.
The Cyclops will roam back and forth at a moderate pace. If you're on the highest platform, he will not be able to harm you, however, this is not a good point to attack, because you can't strike him with the whip from there. You may be able to get some shots in with the axe, but he will have to be on the other side of the battlefield for that to be effective, and he's probably going to wander very close to you until you move from your safe spot. One way of beating the Cyclops is to stay at the high ground and move down to the stepping stone when it is safe to attack, and when he comes too close, jump back to the highest platform.
A more exciting and daring way to defeat the Cyclops is to face him at ground level. When the Cyclops is close to you, he will pause and strike with his huge mallet. You can use this to your advantage, as it takes him a while to attack and recover. While he's attacking, he's vulnerable, but don't be greedy. Know when to back off and take up the defensive.
What makes the Cyclops a tricky opponent are his quick sprints where he runs the length of the battlefield and may ram into your character. To avoid these, remain close to either side of the field. If you're on the right side, use the platform to leap over the Cyclops when he draws near. If you're on the left side, go to the highest platform where he won't be able to hit you. Don't be too greedy or cocky and you should be able to defeat the Cyclops without getting touched if you follow this strategy.
Medusa
The safest way of defeating Medusa is to stay near the left side of the room at ground level, and when she shoots a snake arrow, duck to avoid it, and dodge her eye beams by leaping to the high platform on the far left. She will then shoot a snake arrow diagonally to try and hit your character. Leap over that attack and back to ground level.
Sit back and lob knives at her. This will go by much quicker if you have a triple shot. Alternatively, you can try a riskier approach and use Sypha's flame spell to defeat her, which will require you to get much closer to her. The farther you are from the platforms on the left side, the more dangerous of a spot you're in, because those are your only means of dodging her stare attack.
Mummies and Cyclops
The mummies can be tricky due to there being two of them, just like in the original Castlevania. They fire wrappings at your character in wave patterns. The patterns will come either high or low. Duck under them or strike them. You will have to do one or the other to avoid getting hit, depending on the exact circumstance. The best way of defeating these foes is to use Sypha. Her Warakiya staff is a more defensive weapon than the vampire killer, thus striking the wrappings will be easier with it. Her flame spell works well on the mummies.
Once they're defeating, another Cyclops will appear. This one is more problematic because of the terrain. There is no spot where you will always be safe. You must use the platforms to leap over the Cyclops when he charges at you. Stay on the move, keep near a platform whenever possible, and pick your attacks carefully. The best thing to do is get to a platform immediately, duck, wait for him to come within range of Trevor's whip, attack, and leap over him when he gets too close, go to the other side of the room, and repeat.
Phantom Bat
There isn't too much to worry about from this foe. It will flutter about the stage and try to ram into your character. When you strike it, it will separate into smaller bats. The best way of dealing with this foe is to position your character to the left, and at the very beginning of the battle, heave crosses at it. A cross and triple shot combination will make short work of this night roamer. There isn't any need for bouncing all over the battlefield. Stay put and keep striking the bat, and don't let it get above you.
Alucard
Alucard behaves much like his father in the original Castlevania game. Thankfully for Trevor, he isn't nearly as challenging. He will materialize as a flock of bats that will congregate in one specific area, and then he will become a vampire figure and release three flames that travel in separate directions – one straight forward, and two diagonally. When Alucard opens his cloak, strike at his body with the Vampire Killer whip and you will destroy them before they get a chance to go anywhere.
Like Dracula, you must hit his head to cause any damage. If you stay on the ground and whip the flames as his cloak opens, you will not have enough time to jump up and attack the head. You can hit the head and destroy all the flames with a well timed attack. Get a fair amount of distance between Trevor and Aluard, but close enough for the whip to reach him. When Alucard vampire form appears, leap up and strike him in the head. You should also be able to hit the flames on your way down. Alternatively, you could attack with ranged sub-weapons like the cross or axe.
Frankenstein's Monster
Frankenstein's Monster will lumber around and stomp the floor, causing bricks to fall from above in random spots. These can prove hard to dodge, because at times there will be no openings in the falling bricks. Frankenstein will also cut off the left side of the arena, leaving you limited space in which to dodge his attacks.
You can hide beneath one of the platforms to stop the bricks from hitting you, but try not to get too close to the Creature. The easiest and safest way of defeating Frankenstein's Monster is to stand to the far right of the room and lob axes at him. For whatever reason, blocks never fall at the right side. After stomping the ground, the brute will frequently throw blocks at your character. These are fairly slow moving and not too hard to dodge. On the Curse Castle battlefield, there is a pot roast in one of the blocks near the left side. You may as well grab it before the battle begins, because the Creature will cut you off from that section of the arena when he arrives.
Water Serpents
The danger of fighting these two is unlike the other bosses up to this point. The Serpents' primary goal is killing you in one shot by knocking you into the water, so be extra careful. Sypha is best for taking on these two. Begin the battle by standing at the edge of the middle platform and out of range of the fire breath that one of the Serpents will shoot. They're going to rise up again, one on each side of the arena. Stay on the middle platform and don't attack. The third time they rise up, one will appear on the right side of the middle platform. Attack it with the flame spell and duck to avoid its fire blast. You should be able to land at least two hits. The next time, one will rise up at ground level of the middle platform. Retreat to the edge of the platform to avoid its attack. Another will come up at the other side of the platform the next time.
By now, if you've been attacking with the flame spell and Warakiya staff, one of them should be dead. That will leave only one of them to take care of. The trick to beating them is to not over complicate things by jumping around all the platforms. Stay in the middle and wait for your chance to attack. Do not attack when the head is at ground level unless you call out Trevor, who will be able to safely hit the head while at the other end of the platform with the length of his whip.
Bone Dragon King
This snake-like creature's method of attack is simple but clever. You will battle the Bone Dragon King on a set of platforms suspended in the air. Its main objective is to knock you off the platforms and to your doom. It will fly about the room looking for a spot to attack. The Dragon is not too quick at first, but the problem is that its body is long, making it hard to leap over it when it attacks. The best way of handling this is using Alucard's flying ability to get over the serpent instead.
However, Alucard is horrible at offense, and you won't defeat this creature without attacking it. It likes to fly over head, so the axe is the ideal sub-weapon. To make matters more problematic, the only vulnerable spot on this enemy is its head. As you attack the bone Dragon king, parts of its body will fall off and it will be easier to jump over it, since it won't be as long. The downside to this is that loosing some of its bulk makes it quicker, so it will launch speedier attacks. This is a battle where you want to stay on the move so you don't get knocked into a pit. If you do, quickly switch to Alucard and use his bat ability to fly to steady footing.
After depleting half of the Dragon's health, it will retreat and cause a massive flood. You will face it again at the top of the stage. The Bone Dragon King will lunge forward, stay on the middle platform, other wise you will be hit by its opening attack. Then move to the platform on the right and use the whip and axe to finish it off before the water rises too high. It will still try to knock you off the platforms.
Mummies, Cyclops, and Leviathan
Approach the first two segments the same as you would on the Haunted Ship. There is a good chance you will be fighting alongside Alucard if you're in the Abandoned mine. If you are, you can use him to fly to the top ledge on the left side of the room. You will be completely out of harm's way from that position. From there, you can pitch axes or holy water down at the mummies.
The Cyclops is trickier because the platforms you will need to get to in order to leap over him are spread farther apart than in the earlier two battles with it. Keep walking back and forth, and attack the goliath when you're on a platform and he's charging at you - after your attack, leap over him. If you're on the ground as he charges, and you don't have enough time to get to a platform, leap into the air, morph into Alucard and fly straight up to avoid him. As before, plan your attacks on the Cyclops with discretion.
The Leviathan can be difficult, but not as bad as he may look. He leaves himself very vulnerable much of the time, and has slow attacks. Right when it comes out of the middle coffin, whip it furiously. When it lands from a jump continue whipping it. If you have the axe, strike it when it is in the air. If it corners you, walk under it when it jumps. Its third jump will last longer than the other two.
After the third jump, it will launch three fireballs at you. These can be destroyed with the whip. Get some distance between you and the Leviathan, duck, and strike the incoming fire ball. Continue attacking this beast and it will give in.
Death
Death operates almost exactly as he did in the first game. The major difference is the terrain. Death will hover above you for much of the battle, so the best thing for this fight is an axe with a triple shot. He'll summon sickles that materialize out of thin air and home in on your character. The best thing to do is take a defensive approach and worry more about destroying the sickles than attacking, and get in attacks when you can.
Death will slowly fly around the room and pause in places. He lets his sickles do most of the work, and they will keep you very occupied. Sypha and her lightning attack work well, though beware; she takes more damage than Trevor. Take the sickles one at a time and don't let them overwhelm you. You'll need fast reflexes and quick thinking. Once you take out one, there will probably be at least one more coming. Get in attacks on Death when you can. He's not hard to hit. One of the problems some may have is that they become tempted to attack Death, who is a big slow target, and they don't think enough about defending themselves. Fighting smart and safe is the key to victory.
After you defeat Death, he'll reveal his second form, which is a giant skull that flies unhurried in circular patterns and shoots slow moving sickles out of his mouth. You must use the platforms to jump over the skull as it motions toward you. The sickle it shoots is there to give you trouble in keeping your pattern. Destroy it when it gets near, but don't let it throw you off. Stay on the left side of the screen. There isn't any need to go all over the place. Continue attacking the skull and dodging until the fight is over. There's nothing fancy in causing damage to it. It's big, slow, and easy to hit.
Doppelganger
There are many different variables for fighting the Doppelganger, since it can transform into whatever companion you have with you. As Trevor, jump to the right platform, stay at the edge and when it jumps up near you, jump over it to the middle of the room, wait there, and when it tries to jump up to the middle, attack it, then jump to the left platform. You should be able to dodge it at all times while keeping this pattern up. It can be tricky in a few instances, because, while you're jumping over it, you may get hit by one of its crosses. If you see this is going to happen, morph into your spirit partner quickly and then back into Trevor. That will cause the cross to disappear, and you to escape unscathed. If it ever looks like something goes off course, quickly morph into your other character and that will momentarily save you.
Count Dracula
This is the final battle. You cannot stand in one spot for too long, otherwise the Count will summon flames from the ground to torch you.
Dracula will glide around the floor of the stage and then cause two fire pillars to rise on either side of you, and then he will summon another one in the last place you were standing. You can see when the third is coming. When you do, be sure to move at the last moment. When Dracula is summoning the first pillars, do not be too close to him, otherwise, they will form right up on your character, and there will be nowhere to go when the third comes. Stay careful and calm. When you can, attack his head with the whip and axes. There isn't much more to this strategy, but it takes impeccable timing to dodge the third flame.
The second form is a group of heads and a brain. Very strange. It will hover around slowly and drop what appears to be mucus from its many mouths. The mucus falls straight down; it is there to make it difficult for you to walk under Dracula when he tries to corner you. Try to stay somewhat near Dracula so you can walk under him when the need arises. Don't let him push you too far to one side of the room. As you attack him, you will destroy some of the heads, and thereby some of its means of attack. The axe is very useful for hitting the heads that are higher up on its form, so be sure to preserve some hearts. Sypha's lightning spell works very well, too, if you have her with you.
Don't try anything too fancy on the third form. Dracula will morph into a colossal, muscled figure, and cause certain pieces of the floor to rise and fly around the room, thereby creating gaps in the floor that you can fall into. He also shoots beams to add to your trouble; first from his eyes, then his left hand, and then his right. He will shoot them toward the spot where you're standing. Move when you see a flash and you should be able to dodge these. Thankfully, the beams aren't too fast. Once again, Dracula's head is the only vulnerable spot on his body. Stay at the left side of the room and throw axes up at his head until you run out of hearts. Sometimes you will see that the floor does not leave you much room to maneuver and you'll be stuck to one end of the room, thus making it harder to dodge the beams and bringing your axes out of range. Stand at the edge of the floor and allow Dracula to shoot his beams. When he does, move to the extreme end of the room. They will not hit you then. Keep this defensive strategy until you're within range of attack.
When you feel it is safe, you can use the moving platforms to get hits on Dracula's head with the whip. If you run out of hearts, you will be forced to do this. If you play it safe, keep a cool head, and follow this strategy you should be able to send the Dark Lord to the grave for the first time in history!
