Kid Icarus: Uprising Walkthrough Part 1: The Return of Palutena

This first chapter of Kid Icarus: Uprising will function as a basic tutorial level, teaching you the moves and controls necessary to excel at the game. You will begin by flying out into the open skies, with the help of some of Lady Palutena’s magic that is. A few waves of enemies will soar out of the clouds towards you. Follow the tutorial and use the analog nub to move around the screen, the L button to fire projectiles, and the touch pad to aim your cursor around the screen. Use these basic tactics to kill the first few waves. This should be an easy enough start for you. After you plow through your first enemy encounters, the giant Medusa will appear from below the clouds.

She will introduce herself and there will be a little bit in the way of back and forth between her, Palutena, and Pit before she disappears off into the clouds again. You won’t actually get to fight Medusa until much later in the game, so for now content yourself with shooting down some more of her minions. As you soar over the mountains, Palutena and Pit will have a discussion that serves as a tutorial device informing you that Pit can only fly for a maximum of five minutes at a time using Palutena’s magic until he will be forcibly grounded. This will send Pit spiraling towards the ground for a lesson in ground based combat.

Along the way towards the ground, keep an eye out for Recovery Orbs. These small red circles will restore any health that you may have lost. They’ll come fast, so be sure to line yourself up with them to collect them as you plummet towards the ground. They may not be of absolute necessity now, but in later levels you will want to keep a keen eye out for these power ups.

When you reach the ground, you will land in a small town under attack by Medusa’s evil armies. Another tutorial will teach you the basics of ground combat. In Kid Icarus: Uprising, ground combat is surprisingly similar to the air combat. You will move with the analog nub, attack with both projectiles and melee attacks using the L button, and aim the camera around with the touch screen. Defeat the initial wave of enemies and take a moment to get accustomed to the ground controls, as they can be a bit of a handful sometimes, especially if you don’t have a feel for them.

When you are used to the controls and the initial batch of enemies is defeated, look to the left to find a pile of food. Collecting food will restore little bits of your health. Grab the food and proceed forward, into the courtyard. A group of several enemies will await you here. Dash to the side and throw out a powerful magical blow to defeat the first enemies quickly, and then mop up the rest with melee attacks or quick blasts from your bow and arrows. When the enemies are dead, search to the left to find a treasure chest, and to the right to find an intensity gate. This gate will only open if you are playing at a difficulty of 5.0 or higher. It contains a group of enemies who, when defeated, will drop a chest and a bunch of health.

After defeating the enemies, collecting the treasure, and, if you are playing at a high enough difficulty, raiding the difficulty gate, head further into the courtyard. As you proceed deeper into the area, you will come to a staircase. Search halfway up the stairs to find another treasure chest containing some useful items or weapons. The courtyard path will lead up towards a falling boulder and another enemy. Dodge the boulder and kill the enemy with a few quick melee swipes. Grab the item that looks like a pink potion from the ground. This item is called the Drink of the Gods, and it will restore Pit’s health completely. Also, as you will soon find out, the Drink of the Gods scattered about each level will typically be the harbingers of boss battles. Enter through the coliseum gates to initiate your very first boss battle against the demonic Twinbellows.

Boss Battle: Twinbellows

Twinbellows is a giant, fiery dog demon summoned by Medusa to attack the town and put a stop to your heroics. As the first boss battle in the game, Twinbellows will be relatively simple to defeat. The boss’ main attack is a charging move. You can see him begin to charge up the attack right before it comes. When you see Twinbellows reeling back as if to charge, quickly tap the analog nub to the left or right to initiate a dodge and jump out of the way at the last second. Keep your distance, and fire off projectiles at him rapid fire. If you get in close to Twinbellows, you can melee attack him for some pretty decent damage, but you will most likely take a good bit of damage yourself in the process. This won’t really matter if you are playing at a low enough difficulty setting, in which case this battle should be over before you know it.

If you are playing at a higher difficulty setting, the Twinbellows boss battle can actually be somewhat challenging. You will still want to dodge the boss’ charge attacks, as these will be capable of dealing fairly heavy damage at level 8 and higher. Using a Tirelessness power here can be helpful, as you will have to do a whole lot of dodging and sprinting to stay on top of the boss. You may also want to bring a Poison power, as there will be large stretches of the battle where you will just be dodging the enemy’s attacks and not retaliating with much significant of your own. Let the poison do the damage for you in these cases.

After you have defeated Twinbellows, you will receive a bonus treasure for killing the boss and Medusa’s silhouette will hover imposingly over the town. This will mark the end of your tutorial, and the beginning of the rest of your journey.