Compared to the last level, this one is a bit more simple. As always, you will begin the level in the air, firing at Medusa’s airborne enemies. A large salvo of the enemis will swarm towards you. You will have to take out multiple waves of the enemies as you fly around the clouds, so keep an eye out for healing items or other useful trinkets that may drop from one of the defeated foes. Palutena will warn you that she senses an incoming presence, one that is very large and very powerful. Sure enough, the three-headed Hewdraw will fly out and begin conversing with you. The Hewdraw will have three different accents for each of its heads, and the heads will quickly get to bickering with each other. It will be a few seconds before they realize that they should probably be attacking you. This will launch you into a boss battle.
Boss Battle: Hewdraw
This battle is relatively simple. The game will handle your trajectory for you, so don’t worry about which way you are facing, even when the viewpoint begins to flip and fly around. Instead, focus on aiming. Concentrate your fire on one of the three heads at a time, even though all three of them will begin to attack you. Dodge their projectiles but keep the aiming reticule on the touch screen focused on that one head chosen for elimination. Soon, that head will pop off, and you can move on to attacking another of the heads. Keep attacking like this, and you should have no problem killing the boss.
After the battle, the Hewdraw’s heads will sever from its body and plummet somewhere to Earth. Palutena will warn you that if you do not pursue the heads and finish them off for once and for all, they will be able to grow their body back and begin terrorizing the populous again. The goddess will guide you safely down to the ground. Grab the bushel of food in front of you and blast the two giant eyeball enemies rushing towards your position. Round the corner and watch out for four more enemies. Kill then and proceed. Drop down into the courtyard and kill the one enemy hovering above you. Enter the difficulty gate up the stairs if you are playing at difficulty level four or higher to find a group of enemies who will spawn a treasure chest and some health once defeated.
Run up the stairs to the left and cross the walkway. Watch out for the enemy on the other side, a large column of faces. This enemy will spin around in circles firing an unavoidable laser spanning the length of its tall body. The only way to stop from being hit is to sprint in a circle around the creature. Shoot the top node on the column to destroy it. This will then make the next node down into the primary node. Keep shooting all of the nodes until there is nothing left of the giant column creature and then head forward.
Sprint up the steps to the left, and follow the arrow to the left and up the next staircase as well. You will reach a catwalk with more enemies flying around. Strafe around and kill the enemies, and watch out for the large floating book enemy, along with the Metroid. You won’t be able to kill either of them. The book can damage you, while the Metroid will latch onto you and suckle your health away. Run down to the end of the area. You will find several raised platforms extending from the ground. Run to the back of the area to find a chest before taking the jump pad up to the first raised platform. Use the jump pads to propel yourself from platform to platform until you reach the next hallway.
Defeat the enemies here and grab the key. Follow the corridor as it loops up, blasting the few enemies that you meet along the way. When you reach the top of the area, three enemies will be waiting for you. Kill them and you will spawn a dancing enemy. These enemies, as Palutena will explain, are quite dangerous because their dancing will attract all of your attention. You won’t be able to fire upon other enemies until you have killed the dancer, so get to work. Fire everything you’ve got at the creature, and then turn your attention to the other, minor monsters patrolling the area. Watch out for the Metroid and the large, flaming dragon creature that will circle the catwalks. You can kill the dragon, powerful as it is, with repeated shots. You will be rewarded with lots of hearts.
Enter the arena to the left using the key that you picked up earlier. Palutena will tell you that she has an idea. Turns out that idea was to spray you down with pheromones and attract the monsters in the area. A swarm of monsters will rush out and attack you, including one of the Hewdraw heads. Kill the lesser enemies, and then focus your fire on the Hewdraw head. It won’t be too terribly dangerous, since all it can really do is flop around. Just don’t let it flop onto you. Dash around it, stay mobile, and use your dash blasts to deal heavy damage to the Hewdraw head. It should be dead in no time.
Leave the arena and head down the steps. You will find a floating book flying around in circles around a pile of food. Pick your moment and dash inside of the circle to grab some food and restore your health. Then turn to the right to find a strange, clam-like enemy with two floating pink balls next to it. The key to defeating this enemy is to blast the two pink balls. This will kill it. Run down this path to find another one of the large column enemies. Do the same little dance of dashing around the laser and blasting the top creature on the totem. When you are done with the enemy, dash up the stairs. This will trigger a large enemy to spawn. Dash in close and finish it off with melee attacks, and then take the jump pad down into the sewers.
In the sewers, blast the first enemy, and then turn to the left to find more. Blast the enemy on the right, and watch out for the Metroid on the left. Keep to the lower path on the right to find a large chalice-like creature. Dash up to it and kill it with melee attacks, or it will continuously spawn little snake creatures. Colluect some food from the upper left and leave the sewers.
Leave via the jump pad and you will find yourself locked into an arena by a magical gate. You will have to defeat all of the enemies to lower the gate. Kill the first batch of enemies. This will spawn two skulls, one large clame creature, and a few basic enemies. Melee the skulls to kill them before they can launch their spikey balls at you. This will trigger the spawn of a dancing enemy and a column enemy. Grab the power up from behind you that will put a shield up behind your back, kill the dancer, and destroy the column. Leave the area through the path that was blocked off by the magical gate, glasting enemies on your way down the stairs, and enter the door at the bottom.
Boss Battle: Hewdraw Regenerated
You will now find yourself at the large lake bordering the town. Run down to the shore to initiate a battle against the last Hewdraw head, which will have regenerated its body in the lake. Luckily, you will just have to deal with the one head at the moment. Unfortunately, the head will have learned a few new moves since the last time you fought. It will begin the battle by firing at you from the water. Shoot it to send it quickly plummeting below water. Projectiles will now fly at you. Palutena will suggest that you shoot the yellow orbs hovering over the water. Follow her advice to bring the Hewdraw crashing out of the water and onto the shore. Dash up to its body and hack and slash mercilessly at it until it regains consciousness and retreats back to the water.
This battle will repeat on a cucle, so you will end up shooting the Hewdraw to get it to go back underwater, then shooting the glowing orbs, and then hacking its body when it comes roaring out of the water. Defeating this boss will end the level.
