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Die in the water? Or show me what you got?
Trouble with boss fights for Psychonauts and Psychonauts 2 ? Do not worry, these guides against big bad bosses, indexes every single detail, but more importantly; offers proper stats and tips to defeat these baddies easily. |
–Lead Designer, Seth Marinello description in The Art of Psychonauts 2
–Raz's notes
Truheltia Memonstria is the penultimate boss fight in Psychonauts 2, located in Bob's Bottles. Consisting of a trio of giant mutant plants that are mental manifestations of Bob’s special family members: his mother, Tia Zanotto, his husband, Helmut Fullbear and lastly his nephew, Truman Zanotto a.k.a the Grand Head of the Psychonauts. Besides the memories of them, they embodied certain painful moments of Bob’s life; the neglection from his mother, the dismissal of his nephew from the Psychonauts as a whole and the loss of his beloved husband.
Story[]
After making his way through the memory bottles, viewed from very specific isolated islands, Razputin Aquato retrieves each and one of the magical seeds and brings them all back to Bob Zanotto. Once they’re planted into their respective pots, they grow into small plant-like versions of Tia, Truman and Helmut. However after planting the seed containing the memories with Helmut it’s get things get tough: suddenly, Bob starts to remember why were the seeds missing; since he got rid of them in the first place, and so, after saying that, both Raz and Bob get dumped into the ground only for both to get surrounded by a large tsunami and for the trio of plants to enlarge themselves.
Shortly afterwards, The Moth arrives from the sky to come help Bob with "saving and protecting him" from those painful memories once more, by covering him inside a moth cocoon. Raz however, with the vines from one of the members throws him right into the Psycho-Portal that is moving at the flow of the waves, starting this deadly yet catastrophically duel. Each of the big plants attack Raz with what they have but only works temporarily, since Raz manages his way to defeat and stun them for a good amount of time so he can rescue Bob. Once he clears the area from other oncoming threats like Censors, two pairs of Doubts and a Bad Mood generated from Bob’s frustration provoked by the 'currently ongoing event', Raz attempts to take Agent Zanotto out of the cocoon, only for him to get thrown back into the ocean on top of the Psycho-Portal thanks to the Moth; resuming the battle against the large plants.
After another beating, 'Helmut Plant' confronts Raz and tells him in an annoyed manner that, why he doesn’t get lost, only for Razputin to answer him with another question; why could he be doing all this to Bob if he supposedly loves him; which Helmut responds with a confession saying that he really didn’t love him and if he did then how could Raz explain that he left Bob all alone. This is where Bob snaps and realizes that this attitude the memories of his plant version familiars are having is nothing like what their real selfs would be: this triggers the Moth and forcing it to reach Bob to cover him into another cocoon. However before the Moth could do this; Raz rushes as much as he can on taking down the trio and after succeeding, the three plants return back to their normal size and the Moth gets defeated and erased by transforming into a physical cardboard.
Appearance[]
In their miniature forms they present cute features compared to when they become giant; Helmut Plant resembles to a squash with tiny spikes around the lower part of his body, with two googly eyes and very few yellowish orange petals that work as a type of beard. His big form has part of the head much bigger compared to the body, which was the exact opposite when being small; the petals now are 'Chestnut Red' color and they have a more similar resemblance to the real Helmut’s facial hair. Truman Plant is meant to be a combination between features of the real Truman and a dragon (more notoriously in the eyes and the teeth, which are only present in his large form), the characteristic beard and hair of the grand head is present in this plant too but made up of various 'Deep Coffee' colorized leafs.
Tia Plant is based entirely of a rose with some small tints of Tia’s looks; her head contrary to the real Tia is a little bit stretched to the sides, the glasses are completely 'Sand' color without making her real eyes visible and the haircut is nearly the same but it is composed of a large rose. Between her small and big forms there isn’t much different with the only addition of more vines and two roses that works as her hands.
Strategy[]
–Bob Zanotto before the boss fight.
This boss fight is considerably longer than most of the others seen in the game; consisting of 4 phases where 3 uses the gameplay of sailing around the waves and 1 where you battle at the middle of the island. During the segments aboard the Psycho-Portal, Raz moves on a straight line but with the advantage of being able to move up and down (near the beginning and end of the tsunami): this will be needed since all attacks from each of the enemies can be fired at certain positions of the ocean. Since you spend most of the time far from reaching the bosses this is where Telekinesis shines the most; using it to grab the exploding tomatoes that Helmut Plant can shoot deals a good amount of damage and specially on Truman Plant when he’s about to let a giant breath of fire.
Other advantages are destroying the blockage of Tia Plant with her own bottles by shooting them with Marksmanship (PSI-Blast) or in case of wanting more space to move, shoot with anticipation the exploding tomatoes from distance. During the segment at the middle of the island equip Pyrokinesis and Clairvoyance, the first to set on fire the Doubts that appear and the second to find the source of the Bad Mood: on the other hand pins like "Strike-onaut", "Bubble Wrap" and "Censory Overload" are a good compliment against the Censors, since many of them appear at once. At the resuming of the battle, the Moth joins to the fight which can leave tracks of Confusion Dust, it will leave them in the point Raz spends time the most so watch out (they can be easily removed by shooting them or moving off the way). Last phase is the same as the first one so nothing to worry about.
Attacks and Health[]
- Explodin’ Tomatoes: After enlarging himself, Helmut Plant inflates to the point that, he shoots up to the air 11 exploding tomatoes that uses part of their top leafs as propellers to land slowly, their position can vary from being situated at the end or beginning of the tsunami, Raz can pick them with TK, shoot them with PSI-Blast or simply avoid them by moving to the opposite side of where they are. Sometimes they can cover the two sides at the same time so careful. Getting hit by any of them can deal 2 hit points to the mental health.
- Bottled Missiles: Tia from her rose-shaped hands can shoot 4 bottles that fly above her temporarily until she covers herself, one at the time fires like a missile to the direction Raz is moving and the current side of the tsunami where he is. Moving to the opposite side does the trick but also it’s recommended to shoot them back at her since it can destroy her blockage quite easily. Catching one of bottles will injure Raz and deal to him 2 hit points but if getting hit by all the bottles this can deal a total of 8 hit points (2 brains for mental health).
- Super Fire Breath: For about 3 seconds, Truman Plant inhales deeply enough to exhale a giant breath of fire that covers a good amount trails depending the side of the ocean that was attacked. This attack can be interrupted by tossing him one of the exploding tomatoes while he charges. Getting burn by the fire breath or any of the burning trails can deal 2 hit points like past attacks, but as a side effect, there could be chances of even receiving 4 to 6 hits if the fire breath is done with calculated distance.
- Bouquet o’ Roses: After shooting all 4 bottles, shortly after, Tia Plant makes her hands bigger to cover herself from any PSI-Blast shoots. While shielding herself, only using the tomatoes or returning her one of her bottles can hurt her, and by breaking her shield the resistances she has decreases extremely.
- Confusion Dust (Moth): During the third phase, the Moth will leave some sort of sparkling dust that will confuse Raz if he touches it, this will make the controls reverse as well as adding a yellow ripple effect to the screen unlike in the first Psychonauts where it had a green filter. While not dealing any damage whatsoever, it can make the player vulnerable to much worse perils.
- Invincibility (Moth): No matter the PSI-Power or pins used against it, the Moth will have little to not damage when attacking it. Part of the reason why fighting it back is no worth the shot and is better put the focus into the big baddies. Weirdly enough, when the triad of plants hide themselves into their respective pots they become invincible, but aside from that there isn’t another way they can become invulnerable to attacks.
- Enemy Spawning: Stamping and little Censors are summoned during phase 2 of the battle, while not clear who exactly makes them appear, it’s possible that the Moth is the one responsible of this. The only exception here being the Bad Mood which generates from the annoyance and frustration Bob is enduring. The hits from each of the enemies present can vary from 1 to 4 hit points.
- Tactical Withdrawal: Once any of the giant plants gets beaten enough they’ll retreat and another one will take their spot, this is done via a hi-five gesture that by its performance they cannot be damaged at all.
- Size Augmentation: During the introduction to the fight and even while the fight takes place, multiple times the triad of plants can make themselves big enough to face Razputin. Although as a negative effect this makes them bigger targets and of course vulnerable to attacks (with an advantage of having a huge resistance, luckily for them).
Similar to some other bosses, the health and resistance for this boss varies from attacks and a lot more other factors, like if they’re stunned or if they’re attacked with one single attack throughout the entirety of the duel. As an example hurting this boss with only TKing tomatoes at Truheltia but without stunning Tia or Truman requires a total of 33 hits; with interrupting Truman’s attack it gets reduced to 24 hits and by unblocking Tia’s shield too is reduced to 15 hits. Attacking Truheltia with PSI-Blasts or by sending back the bottles without unblocking Tia’s shield requires a total of 244 hits (becoming the boss with the largest amount of resistance), now if using PSI-Blast charged only, takes 123 hits. And lastly 34 hits if damaging Tia Plant only by returning her the missile bottles.
Etymology[]
- The name 'Truheltia Memonstria' comes from the mixing and shortening of the names from each character that are being represented for this boss fight: Truman, Helmut and Tia. Additionally the "Memonstria" could be a fusioning of the words Memory Monster Triad.
Quotes[]
Before Battle[]
- (The Moth): "I warned you and I warned you, but did you listen? No!"
- (The Moth): "But don’t worry, I’m here to protect you. AGAIN."
- (The Moth): "I’m protecting him!"
- (The Moth): "You’re about to find out!"
During Battle[]
- (Tia Plant when enlarging variant 1): "GRRRR!!"
- (Tia Plant when enlarging variant 2): "HOH HOH HOH!"
- (Tia Plant when enlarging variant 3): "Aauggghh!"
- (Tia Plant): "Looks like another dead soldier!"
- (Tia Plant): "Hey, take this to recycling, will ya?"
- (Tia Plant): "Mixing up a special one for ya!"
- (Tia Plant): "Tell me if this one’s too hot."
- (Tia Plant): "Catch!"
- (Tia Plant when damaging Raz): "Ah ha ha ha!"
- (Tia Plant by being damaged Dialogue 1): "Aaah!"
- (Tia Plant by being damaged Dialogue 2): "Oow!"
- (Tia Plant by being damaged Dialogue 3): "That hurt!"
- (Tia Plant by being damaged Dialogue 4): "Well, I never!"
- (Tia Plant by being damaged Dialogue 5): "Arrrr!"
- (Tia Plant by being damaged Dialogue 6): "How could you?"
- (Tia Plant by being damaged Dialogue 7): "Uughh!"
- (Tia Plant retreat Variant 1): "EHEM!"
- (Tia Plant retreat Variant 2): "Aah-duh!!"
- (Tia Plant retreat Variant 3): "Grrr!"
- (Truman Plant when enlarging variant 1): "Bwah ha ha!"
- (Truman Plant when enlarging variant 2): "Ho ho ho!"
- (Truman Plant by being damaged Dialogue 1): "Son of a–"
- (Truman Plant by being damaged Dialogue 2): "Arrrr!"
- (Truman Plant by being damaged Dialogue 3): "Rah!"
- (Truman Plant by being damaged Dialogue 4): "Ow!"
- (Truman Plant by being damaged Dialogue 5): "D’oh!"
- (Truman Plant by being damaged Dialogue 6): "Ah!"
- (Truman Plant by being damaged Dialogue 7): "You’ll pay for that!"
- (Truman Plant retreat Variant 1): "Grraaahhh!"
- (Truman Plant retreat Variant 2): "Hhhnnggghh"
- (Truman Plant retreat Variant 3): "Uff…"
- (Truman Plant retreat Variant 4): "Huu-raaah!"
- (Helmut Plant when enlarging variant 1): "Rawr!"
- (Helmut Plant when enlarging variant 2): "HA HA HA HA!"
- (Helmut Plant when enlarging variant 3): "AAAHHH!"
- (Helmut Plant when enlarging variant 4): "Heh ha ha ha!"
- (Helmut Plant): "Don’t hit that, Bobby!"
- (Helmut Plant): "Hey look! A mermaid!"
- (Helmut Plant): "This is what you get for leaving me to die!"
- (Helmut Plant): "You didn’t go back for me but I’ll get back at you!"
- (Helmut Plant): "Bombs away! Oh, did I say bombs? I mean… TREASURE."
- (Helmut Plant): "Careful! Troubled waters ahead! Mwah ha ha ha!"
- (Helmut Plant): "You’re nothing without me, Robert!"
- (Helmut Plant by being damaged Dialogue 1): "Arrrgh…"
- (Helmut Plant by being damaged Dialogue 2): "Ugh…"
- (Helmut Plant by being damaged Dialogue 3): "Hmp!"
- (Helmut Plant by being damaged Dialogue 4): "Rah!"
- (Helmut Plant by being damaged Dialogue 5): "Agh!"
- (Helmut Plant by being damaged Dialogue 6): "OOF!"
- (Helmut Plant by being damaged Dialogue 7): "I’ve been hit with bigger tomatoes than that!"
- (Helmut Plant retreat Variant 1): "Eee-rraaahh"
- (Helmut Plant retreat Variant 2): "Heeee-yup!"
- (Truheltia Memonstria after defeated in phase 1): "UUUUUHHHHHH…"
- (The Moth): "Oh, now you’ve gone and put him into a BAD MOOD again!"
- (The Moth being hit quote 1): "Quit it!"
- (The Moth being hit quote 2): "Hey!"
- (The Moth being hit quote 3): "Oof!"
- (The Moth being hit quote 4): "Ouch!"
- (The Moth being hit quote 5): "Ow!"
- (The Moth when Raz gets hurt quote 1): "Ho ho ha ha ha!"
- (The Moth when Raz gets hurt quote 2): "Ow! ha ha ha!"
- (The Moth when Raz gets hurt quote 3): "Eh he he!"
- (The Moth when Raz gets hurt quote 4): "Ready to give up? No shame in quitting!"
- (The Moth when Raz gets hurt quote 5): "Take a hint and sail away forever!"
- (The Moth when Raz gets hurt quote 6): "THAT looked painful."
- (The Moth when Raz gets hurt quote 7): "Oh, did that hurt? I can help with that."
- (The Moth when Raz gets hurt quote 8): "Whoa, you are really INTO pain, aren’t ya?"
- (The Moth when an enemy gets defeated quote 1): "Hey, knock that off!"
- (The Moth when an enemy gets defeated quote 2): "Aghh… Everything was so nice here before you arrived."
- (The Moth when an enemy gets defeated quote 3): "You make it so hard for me to do my job."
- (The Moth when an enemy gets defeated quote 4): "You think you’re his friend but I’M his only friend."
- (The Moth when an enemy gets defeated quote 5): "If you really care about him, you’ll stop doing that."
- (The Moth after beating phase 2): "It doesn’t need to hurt at all!"
- (The Moth after beating phase 2): "Doesn’t need to hurt YOU, I mean."
- (Truheltia Memonstria after defeated in phase 3): "AAAGGGGHHH… OOOWW!"
- (Helmut Plant): "Why don’t you get lost, kid?"
- (Helmut Plant): "Love? Hah hah hah. I don’t really love him. If I did, how could I have left him all alone?"
- (Helmut Plant): "Ahh!"
- (The Moth): "Ugh!"
- (The Moth): "Come on! (struggling)"
- (The Moth): "It’s not (struggling) safe here!"
- (The Moth): "I’ll keep you safe!"
- (The Moth): "You won’t feel this at all!"
After Battle[]
- (Truheltia Memonstria after defeated in phase 4): "AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!"
Trivia[]
- Early concepts reveal that this boss fight wasn’t meant to be a triad of plants in the beginning but one big plant that would decrease its shape the more damaged it gets. This was stated in the Art of Psychonauts 2 description of the level’s concept commentaries (Seen at 9:19).
- This the only boss in all of Psychonauts to feature a different style of gameplay with the addition of sailing at the waves with the Psycho-Portal.
- Part of the song used for this boss fight "Battle at Sea" is later reused during the intro cutscene for Maligula’s fight.
- Truheltia joins to the list of boss fights of the franchise that consists of fighting more than one menace at the same time, other examples being the Gluttonous Goats, Jasper Rolls when spawning the Stage Actors and Dingo Inflagrante with El Odio (although the latter must be defended during this portion of the fight).
- During the final phase of the boss fight if one takes a closer look at what’s happening in the background, a small loop of an animation can be seen with the Moth dragging Bob into the shores of the island while the latter managing to temporarily get away and run as much as he can only to be dragged again and repeat the cycle.
- Khris Brown, voice director stated in one of the notes seen in the Art of Psychonauts 2 that this along with a dialogue the Moth has "I’m trying to save your life" imply that the Moth actually attempted to kill Bob in order that he doesn’t feel his feelings anymore. Which allegorically makes a crude reference and implication that Bob had depression and even suicidal thoughts.
Video Battle Walkthrough[]
Psychonauts 2 - All Bosses -No Damage-
Gameplay by Gellot. (39:18 for the fight)