The counter moved. Picture of the Nikumaru Counter.
You feel a black wind blow through you.
All weapons dropped to Level 1!

Did you know that the witch-woman Jenka once had a brother?
His name was Ballos.
Like his sister, he wielded powers far beyond those of mortals.

He used his magical powers to help and guide people, and the people loved and trusted him in return.
Even more than they did their own king...

The jealous king had Ballos apprehended and thrown into prison, where his punishment was brutal and cruel.
Humans can be terrible creatures indeed...

Under the extreme cruelty of the torture, Ballos's magical abilities finally ran wild.
The king was engulfed in the swirl of magic and destroyed in an instant.
In a single night, the kingdom that Ballos so loved was reduced to ashen ruins.

It was Jenka's daughter Misery who made Ballos create the Demon Crown.
She was subsequently cursed by the crown, forced to do the bidding of all who wear it.
If the crown is destroyed, the curse is lifted.

However...

BOSS: Heavy Press
This boss can only be damaged at its center, which will rain down lasers. Butes will fly from the sides of the room, and a pair of death-wheels will roam the walls. You can use the Butes to power up. Otherwise, just stand under it and nuke it to pieces.

When it dies, get the hell out of its way. You'll see why.

Please kill my master.
That is the only way Misery can be freed...
...The only way to avoid a repetition of this tragedy.
My master's name is Ballos.
His magic powers have gone wild, and now he cannot even die...
The dog sparkles and disappears.

Priest: Welcome.
Priest: I am Ballos.
Ballos: Ages upon ages ago, in fear of enduring further punishment, I allowed my magic to run wild...
Ballos: The magic became such that even its master's hands could not control it.
Ballos: As I looked on, unable to quell its fiery rage, it took from me my loved ones, my children, my dearest wife...
Ballos: Their cries of agony soared above the flames.
Ballos: I could not avert my eyes, so I merely gazed upon the spectacle...
Ballos: Laughing...
Ballos: Jenka sealed me away, but my magic yet rages out of control even now.
Ballos: Long, long have I waited...
Ballos: Waited for the one who would finally subdue my magic's fury.
Ballos: Now, kill me!
Ballos: Or I--
Ballos: shall kill YOU!!

BOSS: Ballos I
Movement/Obtacles:
The first form is patterned and easy. He'll start by dashing at you, then he'll float directly upwards, then horizontally to where you are, then down again. When he lands, damaging bones and debris will roll along the ground toward you. Occasionally, he'll float into the air and stay there a while, charging. When you see the crosshairs appear, GET OFF THEM. Else you get fried by the lightning he drops. The crosshairs appear following your trail with about a half-second lag, so keep moving.

Also, I think there're some spikes on the far side of the room. Whoop de crap.

Attacking: Just hit him.

Spur: The spur eats this guy for breakfast. You should go from his dash to the rolling bones in a single multiboost jump, charging the entire way, and send a fully-charged shot at him for hella damage. Also charge while avoiding the lighting, weave back and forth the length of the room, and release whenever he's directly over you, but don't stop moving. Incredibly easy.

Machinegun: Meh, doesn't help all the much. You can burst-float over him a bit, but I'd just get the hell out of his way and Super Missile the bejeezus out of him. You did get that +24 Max Missiles, right? Same as Spur for the lightning bit. Still not very challenging.

Snake: The Snake isn't going to help you at all here, really. Put it away and keep it at level 3 for the next forms. Super Missile and Blade/Nemesis are your friends here.

BOSS: Ballos II
Movement/Obstacles:
This will EAT your timer. He's now a bigass ball. All he does is bounce. Woo-hoo. If he lands on you, you take damage and you're stuck till he bounces off you. He will always bounce toward you. He's not really very hard to avoid, you just need to get used to it. Expect to multiboost a LOT.

There's a whole bunch of little green demons floating around the top of the room. They're an endless stream, so rape 'm for powerups.

Attacking: Okay, this is why he's annoying. You can only hit his eyes, and the entire rest of his body counts as a wall. You'll learn where the collision detection is through practice, it's really experience-dependant. Try it a bunch, you'll get it.

Spur: The Spur, once again, kicks ass. There're two ways to fight him with it, depending on what you're better at. If your aim is awesome, I suggest staying way the hell away from him, charging to the SECOND level, NOT full, and blasting at him. The fully charged blast is just too wide, it'll go k'tink off the lower eyelid nearly every time. You might notice that if you're close enough, the shot will go through one eye and actually hit the other. This only happens with the Spur, as the others don't pass through enemies, and leads into the second Spur strategy. Whereas the first was for marksmen, this one's for the acrobats. It turns out there's a little bit of his eyelid you can actually stand on if you can make the jump. If you can stay on there, you can just charge the Spur to full and blast right through both eyes for massive damage. It's very hard to stay on though, and there's also the possibility of the green demons knocking into you when he jumps really high.

Machinegun: The Machinegun makes it both harder and easier at the same time here. It's harder because it doesn't have the raw stopping power of the Spur or even the Snake in this case, and the spread of the shots fucks you up because of the tiny window to hit him. However, it allows a wholly different strategy. Stand on his eyelid, as discussed in the second Spur strategy. Now if your Super Missiles are level 3, this is a joke. Unload them all into him, blast some green demons with whatever ya like, they're weak, and Gunfloat up to the powerups, hopefully refilling your missiles Rinse and repeat. If your missiles aren't at level 3, don't bother. Instead, I suggest using a full-powered Blade or level 1 Nemesis from the eyelid directly into his eye.

Snake: This is where the Snake shows its true power. The level 3 snake can shoot through walls... like, say Ballos's body. Your aim doesn't need to be nearly as precise with it, so stay ranged and blast away. You can also start by unloading your Super Missiles from the edge, you won't need them for the third form.

BOSS: Ballos III
Movement/Obstacles:
After taking his life bar to zero, his eyes close. Now he generates 8 eyes around him in little rocks. You can't hit him anymore, but they're your targets. Beat them to move on. He'll now jump around the room at a fevered pace with the eyes circling him at a decent clip. The direction of the jumps seems fairly random; I'm not sure as I never really paid attention to it. Blast away!

Attacking: Again, nail the eyes.

Spur: Meh, Spur loses some of its awesomeness here, but not all of it. If your aim is good, you can hit 2 or maybe even 3 eyes with one shot. Just charge and blast him, it's over fairly quickly.

Machinegun: Not much difference here. Blast, blast, not. This form doesn't really have much strategy.

Snake: Blast, blast blast, with one caveat. With the Snake, you can shoot through narrower parts of his body at eyes if some are gone. It speeds it up a little.

BOSS: Ballos IV
Movement/Obstacles:
It all comes down to this. As soon as all the eyes die, GET CLOSE TO HIM. When the platforms appear around him, GET ON ONE IMMEDIATELY. The floor, walls, and ceiling all disappear shortly, to be replaced with spikes. The platforms circling him are the only remotely safe places. Just inside the platforms, there's a new layer of eyes. Every other one is destructible, though tough, and the others are just walls. If you kill off the destructible eyes, they bounce around randomly, trying to hit you. The screen will also fill rather rapidly with bow-wielding Butes.

Attacking: This time, his armor is gone. His entire body is a big fat target, protected only by the eyes.

Spur: For once, the Spur isn't the all-powerful god blaster it usually is. My main problem with it is that while you're charging it, Curly doesn't fire. She was just kind of there before, but this fight is where she suddenly becomes important. There are WAY too many Butes to just ignore them. What I did was stand on a platform, face AWAY from Ballos, and fire constantly, not even stopping when I boosted back to a platform after getting hit. Curly will fire her Nemesis in the opposite direction you're facing each time you PRESS the shoot button - NOT when you hold it. If you mow down enough Butes and can see a safe section of air, hop over and refill, then boost back to a platform, hopefully in a single jump. Just blast away at the Butes while Curly blows away the eyes and Ballos. I'm sure there's a quicker strategy, but as far as I can tell this is the safest. I've been blasted straight to hell every time I tried to focus on Ballos myself.

Machinegun: The Machinegun really isn't gonna help you much here, as far as attacking goes. You can use it to float back to the platforms easier, but that's about it. You need to hold down the shoot button to have any real effectiveness with it, which makes Curly sit there and do nothing, and you NEED her help in this fight. I'd use whatever missiles you have left as soon as an eye or two is gone and you have a clear shot. Ignore the Butes except to fry 'em, as unless you're using a level 3 Blade, you won't be able to mow down enough of them fast enough to safely collect goodies. Just let Curly handle this one, face away from Ballos and shoot.

Snake: NOW the Snake gets interesting. You can either Blade the living shit out of the Butes and let Curly fry Ballos, as per the above, but the Snake gives you a new option, provided you can keep it at level 3. Now, you can fire directly at Ballos, THROUGH the wall-eyes. If you shoot ONLY through them, jumping around the platforms, you can kill him without ever destroying a desctructible eye, thus lowering your chances of getting hit -- those things are a BITCH to avoid when the screen is full of blasts.

In any case, this will test your evasion abilities to the limit. There's gonna be ammo flying EVERYWHERE, and absolute ASSLOADS of sprites clogging up the screen. Hand-eye coordination for the win!

After your fiftieth-ish try, sit back and enjoy the best ending! :p

DragonsBoots' Quick Fix for Ballos

For this style, Nemesis is invaluble.

Note: if you need health/weapon energy/missiles, just shoot up wildly when he's in his second form. You'll have to boost for the health/missiles but the energy will rain down. Don't worry about the little things that hit you, they are piddly.

First Form

Just CRANK him with Nemesis (or Snake, Spur ect. Turn around and use Curly if you wish or don't have the Nemesis) - It takes a few Charge/Dive passes but you can get him before the lightning.

Second Form

Sit on his eye and unload your Powered Up Missiles. If you fall off, just jump back up. He goes down like that.

Third Form

Run between a pair of eyes an burst them with Nemesis. When he rolls to the top, just wildly shoot up. When he comes back down, try to get between an unkilled pair and repeat until dead. This part takes the longest.

Final Form

DO NOT Jump onto the platform (if you can afford 2 health every ~6 secs, it takes about 10 seconds so have at least 20 HP - just in case. If you can't afford the damage, you should use the Life Pot now). Whip out your Nemesis, move directly under him and aim up, then POUND THE FIRE KEY! With two Nemesis-es (or is that Nemesi?), you're doing about ~80-160 Damage Per Second. The platforms may knock you away after you jump up from taking damage, just run back. Never stop shooting and he soon dies.

With these strategies, I pulled off a Hell Run very quickly. And if you want to know, I always get the Snake. I like the Hypa-Snipe abillity. =^.^=