| Skeleton Boss | |
|---|---|
 Blaster Master Zero artwork | |
|
Location |
|
|
Reward |
None |
|
Weakness |
None |
“The Planet Eater” Skeleton Boss is a boss in Blaster Master Zero, appearing as the mutant boss of Area 7. It later reappears twice in Area 9 as a normal enemy; the player is required to defeat the first one in order to access the rest of the area, however, the second one cannot be defeated, as the player doesn’t have access to Sophia Zero.
Physical Appearance
Skeleton Boss appears as the upper half of a skeleton of sorts. Its head has two curved horns and red eyes, a long neck with spines on each segment, shoulder blades that curve upward, a ribcage, and skeletal arms with pointed fingers. The rest of its body appears as that of a purple, organic-looking wall, which is the setting for Area 8.
General Information
Skeleton Boss appears as the mutant boss of the Subterranean Depths Area. Defeating it grants access to Area 8, as well as unlocks a shortcut through Area 7 for backtracking purposes.
Attacks
Skeleton Boss is attached to the right side of the room; it can only move its head. It can attack by charging up a large ball of energy from its mouth or by spitting out boulders that bounce rather high up.
Strategy
Its attacks may not seem particularly threatening, but considering the player enters the boss arena without SOPHIA III, these can be particularly devastating if they cause Jason to fall off the platforms he needs to scale in order to access SOPHIA III, as falling from a height of four blocks or more is enough to die. As the boulders bounce fairly high, it is recommended to wait for Skeleton Boss to charge up its energy attack, or find a period of time when it isn’t attacking, to start scaling the platforms; from there, it’s an easy time to get SOPHIA III back into action.
Now that the player has access to SOPHIA III, Skeleton Boss can be damaged. Using the newly-acquired Acceleration Blast will cause a special sequence to occur, which results in the attack being able to defeat Skeleton Boss in one shot.
Alternatively, the player can defeat Skeleton Boss in a more traditional sense. The best strategy is to place a Shield Mine in front of its head and start shooting Crusher Shots diagonally up at it at point blank range, only stopping to replenish the Shield Mine when it terminates; considering the player doesn’t have any coverage in Boss Blaster Mode when fighting Skeleton Boss, this is the best strategy in said mode unless playing co-op, in which case Acceleration Blast can be used by one player while the other drops a Shield Mine.
Cerbeboss
Cerbeboss is encountered on Stranga's third planetoid. When defeated, it drops the Access Key to Area F, where Divido resides. The Cerbeboss looks like the Skeleton Boss in every way, but its body has a different color and has two extra heads.
The Cerbeboss attacks by firing spark-like projectiles from all 3 of its heads while the cyan head is in the foreground, shooting large fireballs that create a patch of large fire when they land while the grey head is in the foreground, or trails of lightning while the yellow head is present. The lightning trails do no damage themselves but are meant to propel Gaia-SOPHIA upward into spiked columns jutting from the arena ceiling; naturally they can instead be exploited for a Gaia System recharge from the drop back onto the floor. If/once there is only one head left on the Cerbeboss, it will combine the attacks from the previous two heads.
Cerbeboss is generally quite sturdy and should be faced with whatever ordnance is on hand. Hexa Missiles will attempt to lock onto the skulls and vertebrae of the heads that are out of focus, but will ultimately slam into the in-focus head and body after whirling about. It is rematched as part of the boss rush beginning on Planetoid G-2, where it can particularly be humiliated with the Full-Accel Burst in a throwback to the previous game's instant win option.
Trivia
- Skeleton Boss seems to take on the role of the Plutonium Boss in Area 8 of Blaster Master. They both have visual similarities, such as being a head and torso stuck in a wall, and both spit boulders from their mouths. Its role is not elaborated on much outside of its description on the Blaster Master Zero website and its apparent reappearance as Cerbeboss, whereas the role of the Plutonium Boss is expanded upon in Worlds of Power: Blaster Master, Blaster Master: Enemy Below, and Blaster Master: Blasting Again.
- Skeleton Boss's and Venom Master's Japanese names, Skele Venom and Another Venom, respectively, seem to imply a relation between the two.