The Vulture Dragon (バルチャードドラゴン Baruchādo Doragon) is the boss of Stage 7 in the arcade version of Gradius III. It also appears under the names of Gorgon or Two-Headed Scorch Serpent as the Stage 5 boss of the SNES version.
Attack patterns[]
The Vulture Dragon is essentially a two headed variant of the Fire Dragon. When defeated, it explodes into pieces that fly across the screen. These are not a threat in the arcade version but will kill the player on SNES. Although it is immune to Mega Crush in the SNES version, it is instantly killed by the same attack in the Arcade version.
They have two different attack patterns based on different versions:
- Arcade - One head of the Vulture Dragon breathes a fireball that is aimed at the Vic Viper while the other breathes a fireball that explodes at a sunburst spread.
- SNES - Both heads breath Intruder-style fireballs aimed at the direction of those heads and attempts to encircle the player like the Intruder did in Gradius II. If one head is destroyed, then the other head rapidly shoots fireballs aimed at the Vic Viper.
See also[]
| Gradius III | ||
| Ships | Vic Viper | |
| Stages | Desert • Bubble Zone • Volcanic Planet • High Speed Dimension • Moai Zone • Cell Planet • Prominence Planet • Plant Planet • Crystal Zone • Boss Rush • Mechanical Base | |
| SNES exclusive stages | High Speed Zone • Fortress • Cell | |
| Bosses | Goliath • Bubble Eye • Godrei • Big Core MK III • Dogas • Vaif • Twin Vaif (SNES) • Gregol • Wyvern • Vulture Dragon • Choking Weed • Lizard Core • Beacon (SNES) • Tetran • Covered Core • Big Core MK II • Crystal Core • Death MK II • Dellinger Core • Disrupt • Shadow Gear • Shadow Gear MK II (SNES) • Big Core • Golem • Bacterian | |
| Organic bosses | ||
| Space entities | Nucleus • Intruder • Phoenix (Geezer Butler) • Goliath • Bubble Eye • Wyvern • Vulture Dragon • Blizzard Crawler • Yorogaton Chimera • Gillador • Volleone • Doom • Lynyrd Skynyrd • Triumph Kicks • Gaw • Giga • Killer Dwarf | |
| Body horror | Abadon • Golem • Zylom • Big Eye • Gregol • Mad Skin • Brachion Eye • Biter • Berial • Huge Heart • Crawler (X) • Infected Statue | |
| Plantlife | Choking Weed • Stinger Kid • Hunter Fang • Giga's Rose • Dendrodium • Hans Naughty | |