Lotus Wyrm (鋼竹 Kanechiku?, lit. "Steel Bamboo") is the first main stage boss in Hard Corps: Uprising.
Description
A tall mechanical worm robot possessing a large, shielded head and a drill on the end of its tail. that resides in the Desert region. It first makes an appearance in the background of the second half of the stage, past a shaft of flame traps set after the Defense Wall mid-boss. The Lotus Wyrm pops its head out of the desert background only to resurface elsewhere. Twice throughout the quicksand area, the Lotus Wyrm becomes a stage hazard: it will dig through the region closer toward the heroes' general position, attempting to damage them with its large tunneling body. A small warning will signal where the worm where land at. As it bores through the quicksand, its large body will also smash any platform and railings placed within its path. It does not chase the heroes through the large ravine past the wooden bridge from the quicksand area into the cave area.
The Lotus Wyrm however will reappear once again, somehow tunneling past the large canyons surrounding the cavern. After the heroes deliver fatal damage to a Spider Tank chasing them, the vehicle will continue to chase them over a large bottomless canyon. As the two soar airborne, the Lotus Wyrm pops its body upward out of the canyon put and quickly chomps on the Spider Tank, swallowing it whole. As for the heroes, they jump off their Motorbikes onto another smaller quicksand area filled with junk and debris. As the heroes reach the center, the Lotus Wyrm soon reappears, this time ready for a real confrontation. During its introduction, it opens its shielded head, revealing a smaller shark-like head with small arms and gold Xs labeled around its inner head shielding.
Battle
The Lotus Wyrm is made up of eight pointed segments forming its body, followed by its large head. The pointed segments can rotate along with its body and fire off electric tipped projectiles that move at a fair pace. Its eight rotating body segments can be shot at individually and have HP separate from the Lotus Wyrm's head, which is the creature's main weak spot. Each of the eight body segments also drop Weapon power-ups and items when destroyed. Destroying the creature's head will also destroy the body segments a few moments after its demise.
The Lotus Wyrm will begin battle by extending its body as tall as possible. Its rotating body segments will then rotate individually and soon reveal a point, launching a projectile horizontally. These must be dodged with careful timing by using jumps, a player should be advised when crouching as the arena is still a quicksand area. After launching a few spikes, the Lotus will lower itself, exposing its head for a while before launching itself upward high into the sky. It will soon come crashing down vertical-lengthwise on top of the player, with a warning signal being present immediately before impact. Within the ground, it will soon reappear itself from an edge of the screen, hinted by dusty sand clouds on the ground. The Lotus Wyrm will also perform an attack where it will arch over the player, trapping them between parts of its body. It will then launch spikes inside the trapped zone. Should the battle drag on, the Lotus Wyrm will reposition itself in the center of the arena and release Sand Worms for the player to deal with. These worms will also be destroyed the moment the Lotus Wyrm is defeated. After spewing Sand Worms, the entire battle repeats itself.
Once the Lotus Wyrm's head is sufficiently damaged, it will flail in agony as it erupts in explosions (players can still fire at any remaining body segments for a few short seconds at this time before it is too late). The boss will then land somewhere in the backdrop, its position depending on where it was defeated at. The heroes then head further right and ride onto another parked motorbike out of the desert, but their ride won't be an easy one, as the swallowed Spider Tank soon breaks free from its terminated captor.
Gallery
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