–Deadwood
Deadwood is the boss of the Forest Gate and the second boss of Drawn to Life.
Inside Deadwood are an imprisoned Samuel and a Shadow Creature, somewhat lizard-like in appearance.
Appearance[]
Deadwood is an extremely large tree possessed and corrupted by Wilfre's Shadow, and it has some mechanical parts added on to it.
Battle[]
In the first part of the level, The Hero is on the outside of Deadwood. They must fly up the tree, using the platforms available, and shoot down all of the stationary enemies that look like pine cones with their Acorn Blaster. Each take three hits before it is destroyed. This causes Deadwood to take damage. Sometimes Deadwood will roar, which will cause The Hero to fall down, passing through anything in their path during that time. This includes platforms. The best way to handle this is to jump and hover/glide until The Hero comes to rest on the same platform as they were on beforehand, when the roar ends. Deadwood will also groan with this effect when one of the pine cones are destroyed.
During this, Deadwood will also produce Shadow Walkers and Shadow Bats to defend itself. The Walkers are ground-based, and the Bats should be avoided when going up the tree to shoot down the pine cones.
After all of the pine cones are destroyed, Deadwood will open its mouth to admit The Hero inside. There, The Hero must defeat a shadowy lizard-like creature. It mostly attacks by flinging itself rather unpredictably at The Hero, and onto walls and platforms throughout the tree, making it difficult to track its movement. There are also shadowy tentacles on the walls and floor on the inside of Deadwood, and they will reach out and try to grab the Hero if they come too near. These can be shot at and will retreat temporarily when hit.
Finally, after Deadwood's pine cones and the Shadow Creature are completely destroyed, Deadwood will thank The Hero for ridding it of the Shadow, Samuel will be freed, and the boss level will be finished.
Tips[]
Phase 1[]
- When Deadwood roars, The Hero's movement will be restricted for a short time, only being able to float downwards if the player holds .
- Additionally, during this time, the player will become invincible, and kill any Shadow enemies that they come into contact with.
- 3 of the 4 pine cones can be shot at standing on platforms and aiming diagonally.
- When a pine cone is destroyed, Deadwood's roar will turn into a groan, which is similar, but won't stop until the Hero touches the ground, forcing them to fly back up.
- The Shadow Walkers on the ground pose very little threat, but the Shadow Bats prove to be much more of a nuisance if not dealt with quickly.
- If the player has unlocked the Flip ability, then they could use this to deal with bats that have gotten close to The Hero.
- Depending on the severity of The Hero's wounds, the player can either find a big heart or a small heart on one of Deadwood's platforms.
- As there are fewer Shadow Bats at the beginning of the fight, it may be easier to destroy pine cones starting from the top and working down.
Phase 2[]
- The two leaf piles on the upper platforms will continually spawn once out of the players view, providing a steady stream of ammo for the Acorn Blaster.
- If the player is agile enough, they can potentially get on top of Samuel's cage, allowing access to the second leaf pile.
- If the player knows that the Boss is somewhere below them, an effective strategy is to spam acorns downward . There is a high likelihood of them hitting and damaging the boss.
- As long as the player stays on the platforms, the Shadow Tentacles should be of little threat, although they can block shots for the boss if they get in the way.
Trivia[]
- When Deadwood thanks The Hero for ridding him of the Shadow, it implies that originally, he was not evil until presumably the Shadow came to him and took control.
- The area of the Forest Gate in which Deadwood resides is called the Deep Dark Forest.
- This is made clear by The Mayor when he instructs The Hero to defeat Deadwood.
Media[]
Deadwood's boss battle theme. |