Ballos

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Ballos
Portraits
Original Remastered
Sprites
Original Remastered
Additional Portraits Halloween Christmas
Additional Sprites Halloween Christmas
Information
Location	Seal Chamber (Blood Stained Sanctuary)
Health	3,808 total HP
Health values
First form - 1,000 Second form - 800 Spiked eyes - 101 each Final form - 1,200
Credits description
Hate and madness made flesh

Ballos (ボロス Borosu) is the true antagonist and final boss fought prior to the "best" ending of Cave Story. He was the younger brother of Jenka, uncle of Misery and the direct creator of the Demon Crown.

Appearance[]

Ballos appears to be stout, with tan skin, a bald head, a flat, wide nose, and a wide mouth. He wears a white and green cloak with two red eyes vertically set on the front, resembling the eye on the Demon Crown. His right eye is also blood red.

Location[]

Ballos is located in the Seal Chamber of the Blood Stained Sanctuary. After defeating the Heavy Press, the player must bring Quote and Curly through the hole created due to the Heavy Press' fall. When they reach the bottom floor, the player should bring them to the door on the far right and enter the Long Corridor. An encounter with Ballos' puppy allows Quote and Curly to pass through the corridor and enter the Seal Chamber.

History[]

Ballos lived at the same time a king was ruling over the land. Like Jenka, Ballos possessed magical powers and used these for the benefit of the people. He became well-received and grew in popularity over the king. As a result of their admiration for Ballos, the king became jealous and imprisoned Ballos. Ballos was brutally tortured, to the point where he allowed his magical powers to rampage. Consumed with unfathomable hatred and anger, Ballos destroyed the king and reduced the kingdom - along with his wife and child - to ashes.

Jenka saw her brother's actions and eventually exiled him to the floating island, unable to kill her own brother. At some point, Ballos created the Demon Crown under Misery's forced orders. Subsequently, Misery was cursed by the Crown, along with Balrog.

In the "Best" Ending, upon Quote and Curly reaching his chamber, Ballos greets them, revealing himself to be the one who telepathically sent the mysterious revelations during their quest within the depths of the Bloodstained Sanctuary. Forebodingly however, having been sealed away in isolation for ages, he asks them of the task to be the ones to put him to rest in death once and for all, to atone for his atrocities. With the last remains of his humanity slipping away, Ballos' inhumane and insane rage takes ahold of him, prompting the ultimate battle that would decide the fate of the Island.

Boss forms[]

The player fights Ballos as the final boss for the "best" ending. When approached for the first time, Ballos introduces himself to Quote and Curly, offering a brief recap of his tragic past, before warning the pair that he must now fight them to the death.

Ballos has three major forms, with the final form divided into two phases. The player is required to deplete his health meter fully for each form. The player has no respite between forms, only a brief moment to re-position before Ballos reveals his new form and fully restored health bar.

Flying around the top of the Seal Chamber, Green Devils appear at the start of Ballos' second form and can be killed for extra weapon energy, hearts and missile ammunition. New devils replace ones that get destroyed.

First[]

After Ballos speaks his final line, he stays in place and puts up his right hand. He then charges straight for the player in a horizontal line. When he has matched Quote's horizontal position, he will dash vertically. When he has matched Quote's vertical position, he will dash horizontally again. Lastly he will dash vertically until he crashes into the ground or the ceiling - and upon collision, he will send out a shockwave that knocks loose damaging bones. There is a brief pause before Ballos begins dashing again.

For an easy pattern to dodge these deadly ramming attacks, use the Booster to jump over Ballos during his first dash, fall to the ground during his second dash, run under him during his third dash, then jump over his shockwave. This gives Quote an opening to return fire.

After Ballos has repeated his dashing attack pattern three times, Ballos will begin to fly around in the air. He sends 8 vertical lines of white thunder to crash down on the ground consecutively, often near where Quote is placed. Lastly he will rain down several bolts of lightning at fixed positions; crosshairs depict the thunder's point of impact. Ballos resumes attacking Quote by dashing at him if the player has not defeated him at this point.

It is not possible to obtain pickups when battling this first form. The amount of damage inflicted on Quote depends on the point of contact and during which subphase of the fight. While Ballos is dashing at him, Quote can take 10 damage, and while Ballos is standing, he can take 3 damage on contact. When Ballos is flying in the air and sending lightning bolts to the ground, each bolt can deal 10 damage if they hit Quote.

Upon depleting Ballos' health bar fully, he stops dead in his tracks with his mouth open and hands on either side of his head. He proceeds to leap into the air and through the ceiling, transitioning to the second form. At this point, Green Devils begin flying around the upper half of the Seal Chamber.

Second[]

The landing position of Ballos' second form is noted by a crosshair on the ground, located near Quote and Curly. Shortly after the signal, Ballos appears as a giant sphere that seems to represent his head. He begins to hop around in small horizontal increments. When he lands, a wave of bones ripples along the ground away from him. On every third jump, he pauses for a longer amount of time, giving Quote an opportunity to attack. Getting hit by the wave of bones subtracts 4 HP from Quote, the shockwaves themselves do 8, while Ballos landing directly on Quote after a jump takes 16 HP. If that happens, Quote will be squashed into the ground, as Ballos is harder than the ground. However, the player can easily free Quote by jumping.

In order to damage Ballos during this second form, the player must get Quote to shoot him through his eyeballs. Every other part of Ballos' body is invulnerable to attack. Successful shots with a fully charged Spur will come out the other side of his face, causing him double damage.

It is possible to stand on the bottom right corner near Ballos' eyes. If Quote is positioned in such a manner, he can deal damage without jumping in the air. The player, however, risks getting hit by the green devils whenever Ballos jumps.

Third and fourth[]

In his semifinal form, eight spiked eyeballs surround Ballos as he begins to circle clockwise along the edges of the room. When he travels on the ceiling, skulls descend straight to the ground which deal 4 damage. The player has to shoot the eyeballs until they close, making them immune to damage. As Ballos moves on the ground, Quote and Curly should be positioned under a space where his eyeballs will not hit them. The main body does no contact damage, but the player loses 14 HP if they touch an eye.

Once all eyes have been shut, Ballos makes his way to the top right corner, where he drops slightly and generates eight platforms that circle around the eyeballs. 2 damage spikes start to rise from the ground and the green devils leave. Ballos' eyes and parts of his face turn red, and four of the eyeballs circling him open. Red-faced butes spawn from his body and flying red-faced archers approach from the left.

During this final phase, the eyeballs start to bounce all over the room. Eyeballs circling Ballos deal 10 damage, and getting hit by a bouncing eyeball deals 5. The player must land hits on Ballos' head, which is sometimes blocked by his mobile eyeballs and butes.

The corners of Ballos' eyes are solid, allowing Quote to stand on them. Before the final phase is revealed, Quote must take damage in order to pass through the eyeballs and land on the corner of either eye. This allows the player to deal direct damage to Ballos' head minimising the risk of their attack being blocked by an eyeball. With a high-damage dealing weapon such as the Super Missile Launcher in its level 3 form, it is possible to take down this final form before Butes can be spawned.

Post-battle[]

Trivia[]

• Ballos' Halloween appearance is based off of Astaroth from the Ghosts 'n Goblins series.
• Ballos and Doctor are the only bosses with different songs playing during their fight.
• Some of the boss fight songs may have been named after Ballos' attacks.
  • Gravity - it plays during the first form, Ballos flies around in screen and stays in mid-air when he uses the thunder attack.
  • Eyes of Flame - it plays during the second form, you have to fire at his eyes in order to damage him.
  • Last Battle - it plays during the last 2 phases, this is the final battle in the game.