The toughest fight in the skies that Islets has to offer is against the Defender Unit, an oversized mine with a mean streak. To face this boss, you'll need a fully upgraded ship, which gives you the ability to teleport short distances.
As you might expect, you'll be forced to use this new ability more than a few times in this battle, and as you won't have had much chance to practice with it, that's something of a tall ask. Hopefully it's not too much of a struggle - we have some tips, just in case!
Defender Unit's Attacks
As mentioned, Defender Unit has attacks that necessitate the use of your shiny new teleport ability.
|
Attacks |
Description |
How To Counter |
|---|---|---|
|
Pulse Fire |
The Defender Unit uses two attacks at once. First, short streams of projectiles aimed directly at you, and second, large, expanding circles that must be teleported through. |
The small streams of bullets can be easily avoided, but you'll have to teleport through the expanding circles. Try to teleport through two at once to get the most benefit. |
|
EXTERMINATE |
The Defender Unit shoots out patterns of bullets in a circle around it - these patterns are all letters, and they will spell out 'EXTERMINATE.' |
This move is incredibly easy to avoid, just follow the word as it circles the boss, staying as close as possible to increase your fire rate. |
|
Rotating Laser |
The Defender Unit blasts out a single laser that stretches across the whole stage. The laser spins quickly. |
The laser is fast, so you'll need very fast reflexes or to be cueing up a teleport well-ahead of when you'll need it. |
|
Segmented Pulses |
The Defender Unit fires the same expanding circles as the Pulse Fire attack, but this time adds consistent lines of fire. |
You'll have to teleport into the segment closest to the boss every time you get threatened. This attack has a rhythm that's quite easy to get used to, though. |
|
Enraged Dual Rings |
The Defender Unit telegraphs this attack with two lines that end in circles that are either at the top and bottom of the stage or to the left and right. After a moment, each circle becomes a damaging ring of projectile that expands outwards. The boss follows this up with another pair of circles in the alternate arrangement. |
Stay in the corners of the stage and then teleport into the most open areas that you can find at the last second, this will give you the most time to adjust when the second set of circles catches up to you. |
|
Enraged Streams |
The Defender Unit emits two steady streams of projectiles in a swirling pattern. |
This attack is quite easy to avoid entirely if you stay very close to the boss, which will also increase your damage output. |
|
Enraged Rotating Laser |
This is the same as the normal Rotating Laser attack, but the boss adds periodic expanding circles of projectiles, forcing you to alter the way you use the teleport to avoid it. |
Instead of only teleporting through the laser, you'll also need to teleport through the rings. Teleport closer to the boss for better damage. |
How To Beat Defender Unit
This fight is a test of how quickly you can get to grips with your new ship ability, but it's not too harsh.
- As always, try to stick as close as you can to the boss and never let go of the fire button. The closer you are to the boss, the higher your fire rate will be.
- Also, remember that your hitbox is actually the red circle inside Iko's ship, not the entire ship.
- If you're struggling with the teleporter, try practicing your timing outside the battle. You can learn quite quickly how fast the target location for the teleporter moves and how instant you can pull off deft dodges.