----====Contra Shattered Soldier S-Rank Boss and Sub-Boss FAQ====----

Publisher: Konami
Copyright: 2002

FAQ Started: 6-3-04

Author: MushroomHero

Purpose of this FAQ: The purpose of this FAQ is to show readers the quickest 
and easiest ways of defeating the bosses of the latest, very challenging 
installment of the series. When trying to get the famed "S" rank on any of the 
7 levels it is good to know the patterns, phases, and attacks of each boss. I 
am here to outline, to the best of my ability, a clear-cut way to beat each 
boss. With that in mind I hope you enjoy and find this guide helpful. 


General Tips when going into a boss fight:

1. Be familiar with switching your weapons fast and efficiently. This must be 
practiced in conjunction with the use of the L2 button (which is used to lock 
your weapon in place) and the R2 button (which is used to lock Bill or Lucia 
in place). It would always behoove you to have the weapon that you would need 
to use first out before the battle begins.

2. Sometimes a boss or sub boss may follow a slightly variated pattern. This 
can be devastating if you are not fully aware. In short you always must be on 
your toes and ready to adapt.

3. Focus on one phase at a time. This game has enemies that can go through 
multiple different stages before you get to their "true" forms. Do worry about 
the next phase when you have not even finished the task at hand.

4. Finally I have saved the biggest tip for last. Never, EVER, take an un-
needed risk. Many times I have decided to get fancy and show off by trying to 
do something daring but all I ended up with was a nice game over screen. Take 
your time and be patient, there is no time limit in this game so don't rush.

Now lets get started shall we?

<>Stage 1: Fortress

-Sub Boss- Construction Bot: 
Weapons to use: Machine Gun

This enemy is very unconventional in a sense that it is constantly replacing 
its destroyed arms so to speak. To start off head over to the right side and 
lock your gun(L2) facing upward. Make sure to have machine gun selected, you 
will get a chance to do this while the robot is being assembled. POINT: First 
you must focus on and destroy the four arms on the RIGHT side only. Attacking 
the arms on the left will just cause chaos in the battle. Believe me I know :)
Its first set of arms targets you with a red laser and fires missiles that 
aren't especially fast moving. Starting at the right arm aim upward and take 
it out. Do not worry the left arm cannot hit you.

Staying on the right side you now have to position yourself so that the blue, 
circular object on the far right is nicely tucked into your characters torso. 
This enables you to catch the extreme right side of the spread gun with fire 
while it is missing you. You will find that your character will be perfectly 
placed in between each of the shots. This may take a few attempts to perfect 
but it isn't too difficult.

When the spread on the right side is taken out you must quickly move to the 
left and lock your gun(L2) in the upper right, diagonal position. You know 
have to deal with both arms shooting at you but do not fret there is a trick 
to this. With the gun locked you can strafe from left to right while 
destroying the missiles from the left arm and shooting the right arm. Keep in 
mind that the right arm will be causing a wall of fire to rush at you. Just 
jump over it, destroy the right arms missile and repeat.

The last arm on the right side is just the flamethrower and it requires no 
dodging as long as you do not rush haphazardly over to it. Repeat the above 
process and jump over to the ordinance free right side.

Now comes the easy part. Just destroy the left arms in succession while 
avoiding the slow moving and horribly predictable blue lightning bolt the core 
throws at you. You should have the arms and the core destroyed in no time.

-Boss- Turtle:
Weapons to use: Mine gun on the turtle
                Flamethrower on the face 

This half turtle half mutant baby face monstrosity is very tame if you 
approach it right.

First off do not approach Mr. Heli Robo when it comes down unless you want to 
be crushed by the true boss. Have your mine gun out and stand/crouch(whichever 
feels safer) under his head and shoot that little ball protruding from his 
belly with your mine gun. That should die before his head even gets a chance 
to swing at you or spit a nice floating, pink, acid ball. Watch the head to 
let some steam escape. When it does that he will swing it violently at you. To 
avoid it quickly run to the bottom left corner. After he swings his head he 
usually fires two slow moving acid balls. When things are safe hop up to the 
upper most part of the scaffolding and start shooting the hive on his upper 
back that emits flies. If you use the mine gun and fire it diagonally at it 
all the flies should die as they come out and the hive bursts quickly. Again 
watch for his two attacks. If he shows signs of doing them jump down and out 
of the way. Whenever you are not shooting his two lumps you should be shooting 
his head with the mine gun since it takes a lot of hits to kill. After both 
lumps are dead simply hang out on the ground and shoot diagonally at his head 
while avoiding his attacks. To dodge his pink acid balls jump up to the 
platform above or the scaffolding. Now the easy part.

With his head gone it the turtle will do a 180 and reveal a pleasant looking 
face. Have your flame gun out and prepare to flame his open mouth. He has 
three attacks but two are very similar:

One is that will he will NOT open his mouth and release flies and acid balls 
from his nose. 

Another, similar attack is that he will leave his mouth open and release 
flies, acid balls, and maggots from his orifices. Simply walk up and flame him 
in the mouth while keeping an eye out for his three projectile attacks. You 
will need to jump back when the acid ball approaches and lay down and flame 
the maggots if they don't die when exiting his mouth.

Finally he will spew forth a stream of bile filled with garbage. To easily 
hurt him and stay safe. Simply walk up to his mouth, crouch while keeping the 
gun diagonally fixed and flame into his open mouth. The acid will miss you and 
you will put a serious whooping on him. Take as much time as you need since it 
does not get any harder than this and he will die in no time. 

<>Stage 2: Train

This stage includes a sequence of fights on a train. I will only cover the 
Airship and the Running Robot boss.

-Sub Boss- Airship: 
Weapons to use: Powered up flame shot and flamethrower

This is one of the trickier lesser bosses in the game but can be easily bested 
if you follow his simple pattern. First off you will be riding a futuristic 
hover cycle on what looks like a pontoon bridge. A submarine will surface 
behind you.

First attack this bad boy has is to fire missiles out of his top cannons. 
These are painfully obvious to see and can be avoided by jumping before they 
hit the ground. He does this twice then tries to get you with his laser. Move 
over to the far right and jump over it when it streaks to you. Be careful on 
the second one though since it tends to move a bit faster then the first.

Next stay all the way to the right and bust out the flame shot and charge it. 
Obviously keep your gun fixed in the position, which the submarine will come 
bursting through the bridge. When the beast settles, fire off two quick charge 
shots and prepare to jump over his quick double blast. Hit him once more to 
knock him out of commission. He takes three hits.

Next it will turn into a Final Fantasyesque airship and fly toward you. Do not 
concentrate on this yet since there will be a soldier strapped to a missile 
rapidly approaching from your left. Nail him with a charge shot while staying 
all the way over to the right keeping your gun aimed at the top left corner. 

First off the airship will try and drop boxes on you, too bad they will miss 
horribly if you stay to the right. Hit the cargo dropper with five powered up 
flame shots and it will blow up.

Now for the tricky part. The cannons that fired the missiles at you in the 
first phase now fire streams of plasma down onto you. Staying still all the 
way to the right you will see the first cannon open to fire, IGNORE IT. A 
missiles trooper will come flying in from the left side, drop him with a 
charged flame shot then go after the cannons. If you stay to the far right and 
take the cannons out from left to right to the best of your ability you will 
be fine. They each take two direct charged flame shots but will usually take 3 
indirect hits. Try your best to take them out quick while dodging when needed. 
After the first few die the airship lowers its altitude really close to the 
bridge, bust out the flame thrower and flame the rest of the cannons while 
staying all the way to the left. The airship will increase its altitude so 
move all the way over to the right keeping your charged flame shot aimed to 
the left. Pick off the two missile riders and then get ready to fight the 
cannon at the front of the ship. Aim your rifle at the top right and prepare 
to hit the gun with charged up flame shots, if you continuously fire it should 
only fire once or twice but the effect of the blast this cannon emits is the 
same as the third arm of the Stage 1 sub boss. Hop over the wall of fire and 
keep shooting, in five shots it should fall off and voila the airship will 
veer off to the water and 'splode.

-Boss- Running Robot:
Weapons to use: Machine gun in the first and third phases
                Mine gun on the second phase

Easiest boss of the game hands down. When the crazy red "Warning" sign starts 
flashing on the screen you get to fight a robot running after the train. When 
you  finally regain control of Bill or Lucia switch to your machine gun and 
just fire at the shoulder of the robot running along side you. He only has two 
attacks in this phase, ram the train or fire his arm like he did in the cut 
scene. If he rams the train simply jump to maintain your balance. When he 
fires his arm it will start to glow blue so get ready to jump quick then jump 
again to avoid it hitting you on its way back. The robot will switch sides 
after a while, exposing his other shoulder panel. Keep firing until it falls 
off then he will decide he wants to grab the train and lift it up.

Quickly switch to the mine gun and start dropping mines onto his head. Keep an 
eye out for him to fire off blasts. To avoid these watch where the target is 
painted and move away from it, all the time while firing. Very quickly he will 
stop this and go into jet mode. First get over to the far right side without 
falling off the train. The robot will crouch and start dropping circular saws 
on the ground, jump over these in place while firing your machine gun and you 
will be hitting his backpack. After a period of this he will turn into a jet 
and launch upwards. Lay on the ground and he will fly at the screen, then do 
three strafing runs back and forth. Now get to the left and aim you gun to the 
top right. For no reason the robot lands and slowly crouches, blow this 
suckers backpack off. He starts malfunctioning then gets his body knocked off 
by an overpass. Now just shoot his legs and blammo he is dead forever. If his 
backpack won't die right away just keep following the pattern I have laid out 
for you.

<>Stage 3: City

I will briefly cover both lesser bosses before getting to one of the most 
frustrating bosses in the game.

-Sub Boss 1- Beatle:
Weapons to use: Machine Gun 

POINT: I feel that I need to cover him because I believe that I have developed 
a quick but dangerous method of beating him. Only try this at your own risk.

Leave out the machine gun. First this floating beetle thing will fly over to 
the right side, get under him and when he opens his hatches to let off two 
cyborgs shoot his red eye. When he starts to shut it quickly dispose of the 
two cyborgs. Now stay to the right and he will open his eye but this time he 
will be dropping bombs on you. Here is the trick. Position yourself so that 
some of your bullets are hitting the red eye and some are hitting the mines as 
they exit the launcher. This may take a few tries but you will eventually get 
it. Be warned since these mines do not "pop" out in any fixed order a stray 
one may get away, do not fret there is a 99.9% chance it wont hit you. If you 
botch the whole thing and get frustrated follow this variation. Otherwise just 
repeat the pattern except keep in mind he will let cyborgs out twice before 
spouting bombs after the initial two attacks.

Easier, slower strategy: Follow the same strategy as above except do not try 
my little trick, just keep your fire under the bomb launcher to destroy all 
the ordinance popping out of it. It will take longer but there is no risk 

Side note: When the beetle-bot moves to the middle of the screen and starts 
drifting side to side and lets cyborgs out do not get fancy and try and move 
with it. Just stand still and do what you normally do. If you move with it he 
will drop a guy right on your head. Just use common sense.

-Sub Boss 2- Upside-down Slug: 
Weapons to use: Powered up flame shot and flamethrower

Another annoying boss except this one is a creature who crawls on the ceiling 
and drops weird stuff on you.

First off use the powered up flame shot and hop up and shoot him repeatedly 
while he is slowly making his way over from the right side. Stay to the left 
and make sure you don't let the conveyor belt dictate where you are, you must 
remain in control. The white sluggish looking monster will stop at the right 
side and open its mouth(located in the middle of its body) and starts firing 
slow moving, bouncing, yellow blobs. Although they seem easy to dodge you can 
find yourself very quickly overwhelmed and trapped. Fix your rifle to the top 
right position and prepare to work the conveyor belt while crouching, moving 
forward and dodging the blobs. The patterns here are not entirely fixed so you 
will have to rely on your reflexes more than anything. 

After a while he will stop and begin moving to the left hand side. Get under 
him and start roasting him with your flamethrower. When he stops get over to 
the right side and start hitting him with the powered up flame shot again. 

Now he will start dropping these glowing green, spiky objects that just sit on 
the conveyor belt and cause messy jumping conditions. At this point you should 
focus on jumping over these while not touching the actual body of the beast or 
getting caught in the grinder. It is best just to take shots with powered up 
flame when u feel safe and believe u can get a shot off without screwing up.

Next he will move back and will repeat the pattern. He shouldn't last much 
longer if you have followed what I have said.

-Boss- Butcher Train:
Weapons to use: Mine gun on bottom cannon
                Powered up flame shot for the rest of the battle

One of the harder bosses, this butcher train of death will try to kill you 
with a whole series of tricks and sticky situations.

First switch to the mine gun and start walking backwards while firing mines 
into the trains lower cannon. Watch out behind you for obstacles and watch out 
in front of you for the blast the bottom cannon will shoot at the ground. Once 
the bottom cannon is dead quickly switch to the flame gun. Moonwalk on the 
upper platforms while pumping shots into the top cannon. Now it will do a few 
things to attack you. First it will fire a blast form its remaining cannon or 
it will charge you. Both are easy to dodge just stay alert. The cannon can be 
dodged by using barriers in front of you as shields. If it charges also try 
and get behind a barrier or jump up and grab the scaffolding.

Once the cannons are dead get off the platforms and grab onto the scaffolding. 
With the flame shot out just keep firing quick shots to the bottom left corner 
when you see a part of its body that resembles a cannon firing upwards. These 
should not pose a threat if you dispatch them early but the missiles inbound 
from your left and right sides will pose a large threat if you get too caught 
up in shooting the cannons in its body. One powered up flame shot should kill 
these missiles and there are roughly between 5 and 10 of them(sorry I can not 
remember off the top of my head).

Once you kill the last two missiles and the train is mostly off the screen 
only leaving its rear end so now you can safely jump down. Now it will get 
really hairy. He does three things. First he opens his butt revealing his only 
vulnerable spot, the red magma looking thing. It will fire a large red blast 
so make sure to lay on the ground while it is overhead. Do not get yourself 
caught in a meat pit because you will die at the slightest touch due to the 
grinders under them. Its next attack should be to fire two saw blades out of 
its back. I can not give much detail on how to dodge these due to the fact 
that it depends on where a meat pit is and where the saw blade is bouncing to 
you. I will say one thing though, stay calm and be safe. You can run under 
them or jump over them just try and avoid them as best you can, this will take 
practice. Next it will reveal its weak spot again, fire charged flame shots 
into it before it fires its beam. An easy way to tell if it's going to fire is 
by the sound it emits. I can get, on average five shots in before he closes it 
up completely. Now for the random part: he will either shoot out saw blades 
again or pop out a rolling robot. If he pops out a rolling robot make sure you 
are close enough to the back of the train that it will shoot the robot over 
your head. Next kill the bot in one charged shot when it opens up and get 
ready for another beam-saw-beam-saw/robot-beam cycle. He shouldn't last too 
long as long as you get four or five shots in on him when he opens his weak 

<>Stage 4: Seabed

-Sub Boss- Huge Seabot: 
Weapons to use: Mine gun on his launcher pod
                Machine gun on his backpack and rifle
                Flamethrower on his core

This menacing robot takes the longest to kill out of all the sub-bosses. He 
also tends to make life complicated with a myriad of attacks including homing 
missiles, exploding mines, a whip, flame bursts, and a large beam fired from 
his torso. A main note to have in mind before fighting this hulk is that 
missiles come out of both the launcher connected to his chain and the launcher 
coming out of his back.

He will first come down and pause a bit when you regain control of your 
character. When he pauses before dropping the mines and launching the 
missiles, shoot his backpack for as long as possible while staying safe. When 
he commences his onslaught just stay in the top left corner, out of mine 
range, and pick off the missiles that pop out of his back. He will then start 
to move back. Use this time to get ready to go under him and switch to the 
mine gun. When he jumps get under him and position yourself right next to his 
launcher connected to the chain. It will fire missiles but that's ok because 
they wont hit you if you are close enough. Stay next to it and just hit it 
with your mine gun until it rises out of the water. Now it will start spitting 
missiles everywhere so pull out your machine gun and move to the top of the 
screen making sure to lay down a blanket of fire below you to stop all the 

He will now commence firing of his large rifle and missiles will once again 
shoot out of his back. Both attacks are easy to dodge so just make sure you 
keep a steady stream of machine gun fire going into his rifle. After a short 
while of this he will repeat the firing of missiles from the pod connected to 
the chain, protect yourself by blanketing the area with fire and then it is 
time to move back to your original position. Again he pauses, use this time to 
stream fire into his backpack then retreat to the top left. After he stops 
attacking shoot his backpack and it will blow off.

Continue to repeat this process and eventually the pod will break off. Now he 
moves to the far left and shoots, releases missiles and whips you with his 
chain. Shoot the missiles, shoot his gun while dodging and when you hear an 
electrical noise get to the top right so the chain doesn't hit you. Soon his 
gun will blow up. Now he does things in the following order: chain-missiles-
blue laser. All you have to do is stay in the top right to avoid his chain 
whip and to shoot the missiles. When his core starts to open fly above it very 
close and take out your flamethrower and hit it for as long as possible. Do 
not worry the blue laser only projects forward not upward so you will be safe. 
Again he will repeat the chain-missiles-blue laser so just dodge the first two 
and hit the core a second time with some nice flames. The core should blue up 
thus ending this machines meager existence. If it doesn't blow then just dodge 
and repeat.

-Boss- Fish Mutant: 
Weapons to use: Powered up flame shot

Ah another mutant human/animal hybrid but this one is a little trickier then 
his turtle counterpart.

To start off he will jump from the left. If you are feeling daring you can 
jump up and fire a powered up flame shot right into his open mouth but it is 
not necessary win this battle. Throughout this battle you will have to stand 
on these little flotation devices while the beast swims underneath you. His 
first attack is to burst out of the water under one of the three donuts(that 
is what I will refer to them as from now on). To dodge this, look for him to 
release bubbles under the donut he picks to attack and jump to a safe area 
i.e. another donut. He will do this three times before his next "phase".

Now you must watch which direction he swims underwater and quickly move to the 
donut farthest away from where he will be surfacing. Power up the flame shot 
and lay down. He will pop up facing you on the opposite side and start sucking 
in the donuts. Hit him as many times as you can, I can usually get in about 
five before I have to abandon my donut and start jumping from donut to donut 
so I don't become his lunch. Next he will pop up and the donut closest to him 
will rest on his head, jump on it and use it to jump up and hang from the 
ceiling. Quickly drop down when it is safe because he will be doing a jump 
similar to the one he did in the beginning. Again you can risk it and jump up 
to deliver a shot in his mouth. Just repeat this once more and he will die. 

<>Stage 5: Jungle

Ahhh nostalgia. You get a neat techno remix of the original Contra song and 
get to fight the famed wall from the first Contra fame.

-Sub Boss 1- Snail:
Weapons to use: Flamethrower

I am going to include him because he can cause a lot of grief for a new 
player. He has two attacks, a storm of bubbles and a storm of blasts that rain 
from the heavens. First off he will randomly open his mouth and release 
bubbles or paint the ground with targets and fire blasts from his head. Keep 
in mind that when he goes into his shell, which is a truck, you can jump on 
top of it and ride it for as long as he stays in it. You will want to use the 
flamethrower on this guy.

To dodge the blasts from his head get close to him then jump on the truck when 
he goes inside, simple enough. To dodge the bubbles stay about in the middle 
of the screen and fix your position with R2 and pull out the flamethrower and 
go to town on all the bubbles near you. Do this a few times while burning him 
when he is wide open and he will die.

-Sub Boss 2- The Wall:
Weapons to use: Homing Missiles for percentage troop death
                Mine gun for gattling gun and red core

Very simple just be prepared to fire homing shots when you approach it to take 
care of all the sniper/shield cyborgs that count as percentage kills. When 
they are dead arc mines into the gun turret then into the glowing red ball. 
The wall will be crippled and you are at the boss so have the machine gun 

-Boss- Lance:
Weapons to use: Machine gun on his human form
                Machine gun on his cocoon form (First Form)
                Mine gun on his worm form (Second Form)
                Machine gun fire on the two human faced bug forms (Third Form)
                Powered up flame shot on the crazy shelled creatre (FourthForm)
                Machine gun on the skeleton alien (Fifth Form)

Lance can be a little tricky mainly due to one quite dangerous attack, which I 
will address lastly on this list. His list of attacks include a spinning 
lightning attack, multiple flaming blasts, floating plasma balls, plasma that 
follows the perimeter only to return to him and his most deadly rolling into a 
flaming ball and bouncing all over the room attack.

There is no set strategy to Lance. Every time I fight him he decides to mix it 
on me so I will just provide you with strategies against his attacks. Use 
these as you see fit.

Rotating Lightning- Just move with the lightning and get in as many shots as 
you can with the machine gun. It moves very slowly and you can climb up the 
walls and ceiling so bear with it.

Multiple Flaming Blasts- Lance will surround himself with glowing energy and 
the screen will haze a bit. After about 5 seconds he will release them at you. 
just keep moving and get ready to jump to avoid them.

Floating Plasma Balls- Lance will jump up and hang from the ceiling like a 
monkey and power up a Dragonball Z like blast in his hand. Get ready to move 
to an area where one of these balls isn't going. The trick is to watch where 
they are going when they leave his hand. It may seem tough but your mind will 
know what to do.

Rarely Lance will stop, move to the ground, and power up plasma on it. When he 
does this shoot him as much as possible and get ready to jump over a speeding 
bolt of plasma. He will do this a few times and although it can be a little 
tricky, it leaves him wide open for a sustained attack.

Flaming Ball- This is Lance's most devastating technique due to its 
randomness. The ball will either bounce from corner to corner, bounce 
randomly, or bounce up and down the length of the room. You have to be quick 
here but sometimes there is just no avoiding it so just accept fate and start 
over if you want the S ranking.

Once Lance has had enough he fuses with the alien and the real fun begins.

First Form- A giant Cocoon will slowly start descending on you. First kill the 
eggs on both sides with the machine gun then focus on the cocoon all the while 
keeping an eye out for face hugger aliens scurrying down the wall at you. Take 
them out when they become a threat but keep the cocoon your main focus.

Second Form- Next a worm will appear in the top right corner and make its way 
down to you. When it hits the ground and its head is exposed to you just start 
shooting it with the mine gun. When it reaches you jump over its head and onto 
its body and continue this process all the time shooting it with mines. 
Eventually it will back you up against a corner but don't worry you can shoot 
him but he wont come any closer. Keep hitting him and he will die.

Third Form- There will be two bug aliens with human faces. One on the ceiling 
and one on the bottom. Focus machine gun fire into he bottom one first. They 
will take turns running across their respective surfaces. Make sure you stay 
in the middle because if you stay on the sides the ceiling alien will jump and 
kill you. Once one of them dies the other one changes its attack pattern. It 
will now run on the ceiling part way and jump trying to squish you. Keep up 
against the wall now to avoid it. After a few runs on the ceiling it will bore 
out of the ground and pursue two attacks. The first is to fire a whole bunch 
of shiny metallic objects into the air and have them rain down on you. Keep 
your eyes fixed on the sky and let your hands guide you(trust me it works). 
The second attack is that it will run at you but now it will pause and jump 
back so be sure to jump over it then duck under it. After this he will resume 
his ceiling pattern. At any rate he shouldn't last too long before it finally 
goes to its next form.

Fourth Form- I have no idea what this is nor am I going to speculate. This 
fellow has a few attacks as well as a few tricks up its sleeve. First he will 
stretch himself along the ceiling like an inchworm and expose his red core. 
Use this opportunity to hit him with to charged flame shots. When the ceiling 
lowers grab it because he will be doing a nasty attack that you do not want to 
be around for on the ground, creating a wall of flames. After that drop down 
and he will do the inchworm thing again exposing his core. This time you can 
get upwards to four flame shots in if you are prepared. When he drops down lay 
flat because he will then aim his top half across the floor and fire a giant 
blue beam. After that he starts running back and forth making a weird noise. 
Then he resumes with his normal pattern starting at the wall of flames attack 
so make sure to always grab the ceiling when it is lowered to you. POINT: Try 
and only hit his core when he does the inchworm thing, the other times are too 
risky for my tastes and I would assume yours.

Fifth and final form- This is classic Contra. You will be suspended on a rope 
when a large skeletal alien appears below you. These are main areas you can 
focus your fire on: the two eyes, the core, and the two arms. Kill the two 
eyes first but make sure to dodge their blasts. Make sure you are watching for 
his hands to coil around the rope so you are in one of the safe zones. After 
the eyes are dead damage but do not kill his core(red lump on his head). He 
will fire five, more advanced, pinkish blasts that spread so be sure to get in 
between them. When his core is damaged enough(use your best judgment) take out 
his arms and then take out the core quickly. If you do not damage the core 
enough you will have to deal with the attacks that the holes where his arms 
used to be dish out. The right hole will start off by shooting shrimp like 
objects that aren't terribly hard to dodge but coupled with the cores blasts 
they can be devastating. After that it will fire a blue spark that sticks to 
the rope. When the left arm dies it will do the same thing so make sure you 
can quickly kill the head.

<>Stage 6: Alien Dimension

This is it, the last real stage if you could call it that.

-Sub Boss- Mr. Heli Robo
Weapons to use: Flamethrower on his helicoptor form
                Powered up fame shot on his robot form

This guy is a pushover. 

His first phase is to stay in helicopter mode and fire his pulse cannon at the 
top of the plane from the back row. Just jump over the missiles and move to 
the left while charging your flame shot. Next he will open his arms from his 
sides and fire purple lightning, which will start to close in on you. Quickly 
hit him with the flame shot then continue to flame him locking your gun in the 
upward position. Missiles will be fired and try to home in on you but your 
flame will destroy most of them and the rest are moving slow enough for you to 
side step them. Mr. Heli Robo will then start sweeping across the plane 
entrapping you in a wall of purple lightning, just walk with him and keep the 
flame on him and he will die very quickly.

His second phase is also very basic and easy to follow. First he will 
transform and come down so stay to the right so he doesn't crush you. Switch 
to your powered up flame shot and make sure to fire while jumping over the 
shots he is firing along the ground. This attack is very similar to the attack 
the Running Robot did in Stage 2 where he dropped saw blades. The only 
difference is the smaller surface area. 

Next switch to your mine gun and lay down roughly in the middle of the plane 
facing right and be prepared to fire homing shots into Mr. Heli Robo's body as 
he fires his beam cannon. 

After he is done with that he again mimics the Running Robot boss by 
needlessly transforming to his robot form and standing in the middle hopefully 
facing away from you so stay to the left. Use this opportunity to hit him with 
more charged flame shots. Next he will go back to his first method of attack 
by firing blasts along the ground. He will repeat this process until you kill 

Now you are at the true boss.

-Boss- Relic of Morai
Weapons to use: Powered up flame shot on his humanoid form (First Form)
                Powered up flame shot on his frog form (Second Form)
                Machine gun on his jellyfish form (Third Form)
                Machine gun on his blob form (Fourth Form)
                Mine gun on his core form (Fifth Form)

This Majin Buu looking alien has five forms.

First Form- He will start off by hovering in the center so hit him with your 
machine gun or better yet charged up flame! He will first move to either side 
and throw two energy balls that curve upward to the sky so be ready to jump 
over them. Next he will warp to either the top right or top left corners and 
draw his arms back. Be ready to dodge a whole bunch of really fast arm thrusts
(think T-1000 from T2). Dodge this by moving and jumping away from them or 
simply just staying against the right hand "wall" because they will miss you 
for the most part but still be ready to dodge. 

Next he will appear over you and track you. When he feels he has a lock he 
will do another arm thrust down on top of you but this is easy to predict. 
Avoid it and continue to hit him with all the fire power you have. He will 
then go back to his first step of throwing energy at you.

Second Form- Now he is a frog that swims around the screen. This form has 
another series of attacks that are all fairly easy to avoid. 

First off he will swim at the screen then settle at the right side so stay 
against the left wall and fire charged up flame shots into him. He will puke 
but it wont hit you because it will fall short. 

Next he will start spitting out red q-tip looking things that retract when 
shot. To dodge these simply stay at the left wall and wait for them to be next 
to you. Hit the q-tip with a flame shot and jump over it while it is 
retracted. Be CAREFUL for the q-tip in front of you because that can easily 
kill you. Repeat this process for another three q-tips then he will move to 
his next stage. 

He swims away towards the background then turns back at you really fast and 
starts glowing. Jump over him and get ready to do the same from the left and 
right sides. He will streak across the map so just hit him with a powered up 
flame shot and either duck under him, jump over him, or do nothing because he 
is nowhere near hitting you. He will then repeat the puke-q-tip-streak process 
but will most likely die soon if you have followed my instructions.

Third Form- This jellyfish requires mostly skill to dodge. First off hit it 
with a bunch of charged flame shots while it sets itself up in the beginning, 
it will make this battle much quicker. It will float around the screen and 
plop out mushrooms that float down on top of you. If you shoot these mushrooms 
they will deflate and go speeding down to the floor so be careful not to get 
hit. This boss has a simple pattern. It will float across the top of the 
screen dropping mushrooms then every once in a while glow white and swoop down 
only to return back to the top of the screen. When it swoops down simply jump 
over it. This guy is purely just dodging and firing much like the slug 
miniboss from Stage 3. Keep your gun fixed diagonally facing the top two 
corners of the screen and use your machine gun to hit the mushrooms so they 
fall quicker and don't float into you. While shooting and dodging the 
mushrooms keep your main focus on the jellyfish and hit him as much as 
possible. If the mushrooms start to overrun you just play it safe and try to 
catch up with the destruction of them.

Fourth Form- This is the hardest guy in the game hands down......J/K!!!!. All 
you have to do is move to the bottom left corner, crouch, and fix your gun 
facing the top right corner, and shoot your machine gun. Do not move from this 
position because at this spot all of the blobs attacks are neutralized and you 
are hitting its core. If the funny star looking things look like they will hit 
you, don't panic because they wont. POINT: DO NOT fire your charged up flame 
shot. The goop will splash back at you from shooting it and kill you.

Fifth Form- This is another easy form. Switch to your mine gun and stand 
directly under the core. Hit the core with mines but keep and eye on the sperm 
like objects floating around. When they start to flow together and rush at you 
quickly bust out the flamethrower and keep them at bay. After they do this 
continue to shoot up at the core and it will die.

<>Stage 7: Escape!

-Boss- Relic of Morai
Weapons to use: Machine gun

Now the boss is chasing you as you try and escape the exploding alien 
dimension. He looks pissed and has his humanoid form and frog form mixed up 
and stuck together. This guy doesn't really have a readable pattern per say. 
He does two things; lobs bouncy energy balls and spits fire from his mouth. 
You really want to watch the position of him relative to the plane. If he is 
farther away and lobbing energy balls stay to the left and they will bounce 
forward, if he gets closer to the plane then he will lob them towards the left 
side of the plane. To dodge the energy simply stay focused and let them bounce 
over. They do have certain ways of bouncing such as they both bounce toward 
him or they both bounce away from him, etc. 

When the frog part grabs the plan he will prepare to fire a bunch of fire 
blasts. They will either strafe the top of the plane in which case you will 
jump when the first one hits to dodge it or he will fire them directly across 
the top of the plane in which case you will lay down to avoid them. During the 
course of this battle keep shooting him as much as possible with the machine 
gun. His pattern is as follows: lob energy-lob energy-lob energy-flame 
blasts-lob energy-lob energy-lob energy-flame blasts and so on and so forth. 

Don't give up on this and practice and he will be as easy as pie before long.

Congratulations you have just beat one of the most challenging Contra's and 
you should be commended!

Final Notes:

-Keep in mind that I was only able to do this after a lot of practice. The 
strategies I have put down work best for me but they may not be everyone's cup 
of tea. Use what feels comfortable to you and what gets the job done and if 
you find a better way to beat these bosses than what I have listed, by all 
means e-mail me and say so! I will try and add it to this guide and I will 
give you the credit.

-If you see any spelling mistakes, grammar mistakes, or just whole sections 
that don't make sense e-mail me and tell me so, I will give you credit and you 
will be helping your fellow Contra gamers and me by improving this guide.

-If I got anything about the game wrong in this write up please contact me and 
tell me. I will fix it in a heartbeat. I am not perfect. 

-I felt that it was not necessary to include every miniboss in this game. I 
only gave methods for beating the guys that are generally known to be tougher 
and cause frequent deaths in the quest to get S Rank. Again if you would like 
a certain enemy or miniboss covered contact me and tell me, I will add it to 
the guide. My aim is to please the reader so I am at your service.

Special Thanks:

-Thanks to NES Speed Runs and Rouven for his great video of him beating 
Contra: SS with an S rank. I combined his tactics with mine to create what I 
think to be the  most effective way to get through the game. Here are the 
addresses to both sites:

NES Speed Runs: http://home.comcast.net/~arcthelad/

Rouven: http://www.rouven-rult.de/

-Thanks to my friend and former roommate Steve, who spent countless hours 
playing this game with me and helping me to perfect the strategy I have 
included here.

Contact Info: You can e-mail any questions, concerns, improvements at 
cburati@gmail.com and I will try and respond as quickly as possible.


Submitted by MushroomHero - Created 6/4/04
See All Contra: Shattered Soldier Walkthroughs and FAQs