R7038 is a boss in EarthBound Beginnings. It can be encountered in Mt. Itoi plateau. After a cutscene in which Ninten and Ana confess their feelings and dance, Teddy walks in and tells them that there are loud noises coming from outside, which initiates a battle with R7038. It only attacks physically. R7038 cannot be defeated, and battling it will certainly guarantee death for all party members. However, after the party is defeated, Lloyd will show up and destroy the robot with a tank and rescues his friends. After the cutscene is over, Teddy is shown to be unable to help Ninten and his friends due to his injuries received during the battle, at which point Lloyd rejoins the party. Its battle theme is Battle with a Dangerous Foe.
Note that the following battle stats are redundant as it is a scripted battle. Defensively, R7038 has 1000 HP and 1000 DEFENSE. Offensively, it has 600 OFFENSE, 40 FIGHT, and 50 SPEED. Its resilience to Status Ailments is 60 WISDOM, 100 STRENGTH, and 100 FORCE. It notably drops 430 EXP and $101 when defeated.
The inferior version of this enemy is R7037; the superior version is R7038XX.
Trivia
- Immediately after the fight with R7038, Lloyd comes to the rescue in the tank and says "Oh shoot, I missed!" in the official release of the game, implying that he missed his target; some fans even interpret this line as that Lloyd had accidentally shot Teddy, which would explain why Teddy was much more severely injured than Ninten and Ana were by the incident. This is actually a false translation of what Lloyd says, as Tomato's more literal translation in Mother 1 + 2 has him say, "Oh no, I'm too late!"
- It is theoretically possible to defeat R7038 if the player is leveled up enough and has the patience to whittle down its 1000 HP by 1-3 HP per character, a maximum of 3-9 damage a turn. Keeping the fact that R7038 always targets Ninten until he's dead in mind, Defense Up and Shield on Ninten means he can survive two hits from R7038, giving a chance for Ana to use Lifeup Gamma on him. With enough patience and smart usage of PSI Stones (Ana can use one whenever Ninten happens to dodge R7038's attack), R7038 can be defeated.
- This boss can be avoided entirely, simply by bringing Lloyd up the mountain before recruiting Teddy and obtaining Eve.
- In the Famicom version of the game, instead of being destroyed by Lloyd's tank, the robot flees by "tearing a hole through space". Lloyd then drives up to the unconscious party, and drives them back to the healer's house near Mt. Itoi's entrance. He will then feel disappointment and dismay in himself in being unable to assist them, making the overall tone much more dire.
- In the companion guide, it is called "R-7038" in Mother, "R7038" in EarthBound Beginnings, and "R-7038" in Mother 1 + 2.
- Its description reads, "A giant robot that makes a sudden assault on Holy Loly Mountain's hut. It's even more powerful than R-7037, the model that appears in the desert. The way it'll feel to fight it, you may as well be an ant up against an elephant. Try whatever you will, however many times, all your efforts will come to naught.".