Zelos Barrier

Zelos Barrier
Zelos Barrier as it appears in Salamander
Abilities	Releases slow moving orbs that rebound around the screen
Appearances	Salamander (ZX Spectrum)

The Zelos Barrier is the final boss in ZX Spectrum port of Salamander.

Background

The Zelos Barrier is based off Fortress Valis, but is unique for several reasons. It's one of the two bosses that made it to this port of Salamander, the other being the Golem.

Attack patterns

Its basic method of attack is the same as Fortress Valis: it releases slow moving orbs that rebound around the screen; however, it takes a few seconds for it to do this and in the meantime the player can freely fire at the boss.

Strategy

There's only one way to defeat this boss, attempting to destroy it by normal means will result in failure. When a barrier is eliminated, it will immediately regenerate back to full health.

What actually has to be done, is both barriers must be destroyed at the same time. Due to the buggy nature of the engine, there's only one way to pull this off with any consistency: you must use the hawk missile. The player must sit between the cores and fire missiles slowly into both cores; going too fast can result in doing "too much" damage and resetting the process. When the boss begins to attack with more regularity, it's almost impossible to successfully defeat it. This boss cannot be beaten without either missiles or options, and none can be obtained again after the checkpoint.