[Plague of Shadows] Strategy to defeat Propeller Knight without using additional gears

[Almazest]

Everyone might agree that Propeller Knight is the most toughest boss among the other knights you've encountered in this campaign. So, to find efficient way of defeating him, many other players shared their thoughts of proper bursr/bomb/arcana combination in the other thread. But, if you want to achieve some challenging achievements, even the use of these combinations got prohibited and you have no option but to beat him with basic gear only.

In my case, I was trying to achieve three achievements(naked plague, penny pincher, teetotaler) at the same time, and thus it was necessary to build solid, reproducible strategy to beat Propeller Knight in a safe way without using additional gears. After hours of trial and error, I have finally polished my own strategy and I want to share it with you. This may not be the best tactic, but hope this will help! :)

Here's the video of defeating Propeller Knight using my strategy. Details will be presented below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7kXERxxCBVo


Propeller Knight(PK)'s attack pattern can be divided into 4 phases.

Phase 1 (0:10~0:20)

Boss pattern

PK quickly lunges toward player 9 times, and then use his propeller to drag player toward him.

Strategy

The key point here is 'jump toward PK, bomb burst just right before he lunges, recharge your burst, and do it over moving back and forth' until he pulls out his propeller. If you do it properly, not only you can damage him, but also can avoid his charge attack through 'burst invulnerability'.

To do this, you have to know when PK starts to lunge, which point you should jump, and when you have to bomb burst. So watch my vid carefully and follow these steps.

1. First, charge your burst in advance before entering the battle.
2. After the battle begins, jump immediately and bomb burst when you're at 1/4 of the jump trajectory. (1st lunge)
3. recharge bomb burst in the air, and as soon as you step on the ground, jump and burst immediately toward PK. (2nd~3rd lunge)
4. recharge bomb burst in the air, and then land yourself on the left-most side of the 2nd block or right-most side of the 3rd block (4th, 6th, 8th lunge)
5. Jump toward PK and bomb burst when you're at 3/4~4/5 of the jump trajectory. (5th, 7th, 9th lunge)
6. repeat 4) and 5) twice.

After finishing his attacks, he will move to the left and swirl his propeller to drag you. When this happened,

7. Rush toward him, jump, bomb burst and throw one bomb to the right so that he get hit from behind.

If you followed it well, you might deliver 3.5 point of damage to him at this point.

Phase 2 (0:20~0:33)

Boss pattern

PK flies up into the air and call out the airship. The airship shoots four bombs periodically on the floor and PK hovers back and forth two times(up-right > up-left > up-right > up-left > down-right) drawing parabolic arches while trying to attack player. After landing, PK use his propeller again to drag bombs and player.

Strategy

In this phase, you should damage him through aerial attack.

1. Charge your burst and keep going to the right.
2. When you're at about center of the 3rd block, double jump to the right, and bomb burst straight up.
3. After reaching full height, throw your bomb twice to the right, and once to the left in order to deliver extra hit. (Whether you succeed the extra hit or not totally depends on your skill.)

Then, you will land on the ground and PK will start to hover while the airship constantly shoots bombs at you.

4. Place your character on the left-half side of the 4th block and wait for PK.
5. When he reaches center of the screen, jump straight up, bomb burst to damage him, and then jump straight up once more.
6. After reaching full height, throw your bomb once to the right, and once to the left in order to deliver extra hit.

PK will hover back and forth once more. But, in this time, he lands on the ground at the end and swirls his propeller.

7. Again, place your character on the left-half side of the 4th block and wait for PK.
8. When he reaches center of the screen, jump straight up, bomb burst to damage him.
9. This time, don't do double jump and when you're at full height, 'quickly' throw your bomb three times to the right. These bombs will be bounced and attack PK from behind. (This will deliver two hits to PK. If you stand on the right-half side instead of left, PK often turns his head to the right and you can only hit him once. In my recorded video, however, I deliberately throw bombs slowly and thus only one bomb hits PK)
10. Lastly, throw one bomb to the left for extra hit.

Depending on the number of extra hits you make, PK will lose his health from 3.5 to 5 in this phase.

Phase 3 (0:33~0:40)

Boss pattern

Once again, Knight flies up into the air and call out the airship. From this moment, the airship continuously shoots two large cannon ball and these makes two bottomless pit. Knight hovers back and forth one time(up-left -> up-right -> down-left) and use his propeller in the same way as Phase 2.

Strategy

Similar to Phase 2. Just repeat step 4)~6) of Phase 2. You can deliver 1 to 1.5 damage to PK. If you succeed all extra hits until this moment, PK loses all his health (8.0 + 0.5x4 =10 damage) and get beaten. If not, boss battle enters its final phase.

Phase 4 (0:40~0:47)

Boss pattern

In this mayhem, Knight quickly lunges toward player 9 times again, and then use his propeller to drag player toward him.

Strategy

In this phase, you have to diminish his last remaining health(0.5 to 2) and finish this fight.

1. Place your character on the right-half side of the 4th block and wait for PK to come. (1st, 2nd lunge)
2. Before PK performs his 3rd lunge to hit you, jump and burst quickly to the straight up, and bombard your bomb to the right. (3rd lunge)

If PK had less than 2 health at the beginning, bomb burst and successive bombs deals the rest and boss battle will be finished. However, if PK has 2 health, you still need one more hit to finish him. If so,

3. Deliberately get hit by PK, and charge your bomb burst using invinsibility time, then deliver him a finishing blow.


So far is my strategy.

It is somewhat tricky to learn at first. But once you get used to it, Propeller Knight could no longer be a problem.

p.s excuse me if I use incorrect expression, english is not my native language.

[YinYin]

This is worth an actual guide rather than a post

[Radical Rat]

Originally posted by YinYin:

This is worth an actual guide rather than a post

I agree. Really nice explanation.
Good job =)

[RobotGlitch]

This is a very well written guide, thanks for the post! I beat PK easily with the additional bombs but struggled horribly vs him with the basic gear. This guide will be very useful to me