- For the boss sometimes referred to as "Middle Fortress", see Defense Wall.
| “ | A large weapon for repelling intruders. Contrary to appearances, it is actually a rental from a home security company. With each part destroyed, the attack power increases. If you aim for a destruction rate of 100%, you must destroy all the parts. | „ |
| ~ Shin Contra/Contra: Hard Spirits - Konami Official Perfect Guide translation |
The Ceiling Middle Fortress is a mini-boss in Contra: Shattered Soldier.
Description[]
It is a type of mechanical security device armed with utilities housed within the Fortress region. It is first spotted in the background of an inner base region, as the heroes are about to climb up a large wall. When the heroes reach the wall, a light glows and steam billows, with the machine being raised upward behind the walls of the area. After climbing over a large factory wall, the heroes are soon halted by the large factory machine positioning itself overhead, its activation by Blood Falcon being to repel the two commandos from reaching the Fortress Command Center. This machine possesses a dome-shaped core with multiple electronic circuit boards inside and two weaponized attachments on each of its sides.
The core in the center is its weak point, each amount of damage will cause one of its circuit boards to shatter. When all of its circuit boards are shattered, the entire machine is destroyed. To gain a higher hit rate, the arms must be destroyed first. However, with each arm destroyed, a replacement will take its place, which uses a different weapon. There is a total of four weapons per arm side, meaning all eight arms must be annihilated before the core itself in order to achieve a higher Hit Rate percentage.
The boss starts off with two of the same arm attachment activated. When one arm is destroyed, the machine will replace said lost arm with a new weapon arm until it loses all of them. The weapons attachments are as followed, in order of their appearance:
| Attack | Description |
|---|---|
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The machine is first armed with a pair of Missile Launchers. Each Missile Launcher is armed with a laser sight and will slowly aim at a hero. After a few seconds, a large slow-moving Missile is fired, before the machine repeats its aim and fire pattern. These missiles can be destroyed. |
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When an arm is lost, a replacement is issued in the form of a bullet shooter. This arm points its nose downward and fires two sets of bullets in a spread-like fashion: a set of three bullets followed by a set of two bullets in-between. After firing two sets, the arm takes a second or two to pause fire before it repeats. As with enemy bullets, these can be erased by the Fire Whip. |
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For its third arm (second arm replacement), a similar downward-aiming cannon is attached. This time it spews a long orange beam directly toward the floor that once it makes contact, the beam unleash a large speedy fire wave in both horizontal directions. The wave must be jumped over with proper timing. |
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The fourth arm attachment fires a widespread Flame Thrower in a 45° sweep that covers the entire floor it reaches. With two Flamethrower arms, it becomes near impossible to escape unharmed as sweep barely reaches the center and easily covers the corners of the room. when this cannon attachment is destroyed, it remains in its position burnt, unable to be replaced. |
When the Fortress machine loses all arm attachments on one side, the core will fire an electronic beam in the center that propels to either the left or right side of the screen. If it goes toward a hero, they must jump at the right time to escape the beam's damage. Only the electric spark on the floor is hazardous and not the electricity connecting it and the central core.
Once the core is eliminated, the entire machine explodes, with some of its pieces falling apart. Any cannon attachments that were not destroyed will move out of firing range on a conveyor belt, being pulled away from the destroyed machine. The parts will be deactivated and unable to be destroyed.
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- Its battle resembles that of Gava's battles, where the boss hangs overhead while having a central head as its main weak point with a pair of optional side "arms".
- This boss slightly resembles a Big Core, a classic boss from the Gradius series, also by Konami.
- The Contra: Shattered Soldier - Official Strategy Guide never names this boss directly.
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Name used in the Contra: Shattered Soldier - Official Strategy Guide.