WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA! HELP!

[Guest obi-tom-kenobi]

HELP! plo vs maul i have checked warts guide but i still can't do it can someone give me a strategy on how to do it please!

 

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me and my master on our previous mission

[Guest Darth Wart]

A new revision of the guide is coming out in a few days (I've been so lazy!), and that part has been revised to some extent, especially the final part.

 

If you can't find anything in there to help you, I don't know what to say. But I'll paste it here for the benefit of others.

 

 Beating Maul with Plo “Molasses” Koon is unquestionably the most difficult feat of a game not renowned for its facility. When you do it, you’ll officially be allowed to call yourself a bad-ass mother at JPB. The problem is, despite the lengthy instructions that follow, you’re simply going to have to die a few dozen times on your own before you get the feel of what’s not working. Once you’ve gotten to that point, however, you’ll be ready to employ one of the four methods that follow:

 

Method #1:

 

“First Encounter:

 

“When you first walk into the room where Maul is waiting, target him as you start creeping towards him. Unleash the X,X,S,L2 combo just as he starts to run toward you. Do it immediately as he starts to run or even a little before. If you wait until he's on top of you, you’ll have no chance. This combo in this situation will often give you a pair of whacks on Maul to start off the sequence. If he blocks the entire salvo, hold down your blocking button and jump backward (you have to been in lock mode for this to work -- the last thing you want to be doing is running away from Maul with your back to him).

 

“From here you only need to know one combo: square, square, x. This has nearly a 50% success rate if you do it right. By right I mean make sure there's a decent bit of distance between you and Maul; don't attempt to fight him up close and personal unless you really like those four and five hit combos he'll nail you with.

 

Here's the most important part of fighting Maul: if he blocks your S,S,X combo, immediately jump back once or twice (I like the extra room two jumps back gives me, but you can back into walls very quickly that way). Repeat the combo after jumping back. When you hit Maul, wait until your swing is finished and then immediately fire up the combo again. You have to be somewhat deliberate when pushing the buttons; it's hard to do in the heat of the battle and I lost many lives when I hit the buttons too fast and ended up with a single slash instead of my combo.

 

“When you get the combo/jump back thing working to perfection, you'll have a good shot at beating him in one-on-one encounters.

 

“Second Encounter:

 

“This is in the hallway immediately after the first encounter. Know that you have one health up and TWO force ups waiting for you after this battle. So go ahead and use your L2 + X lightning force power up. It's almost a guaranteed hit every time you use it, and the two force ups will refill your force bar before the next encounter. Spare your health bar at all costs during this stage!

 

“Third Encounter:

 

“This one's the easiest, IMO. I'm not sold on the lightsaber power-up, but it does seem to offer a marginal advantage over the regular saber. If you can grab it and make your way to Maul quickly, you might be able to sting him for 3-4 combos while you still have it. Meet Maul as far out on the bridge as you can while still leaving enough room for your combo. You don't have a lot of room to backup before you hit the edge of the catwalk. If you can land 3-4 combos, you'll probably be able to finish him off with your L2 + X force power. That's my preferred strategy.

 

“Fourth encounter:

 

“The most difficult, IMO. Maul likes to lay back and sting you with his lightning. It sucks for two reasons: one, you have a hard time getting close enough to land your combos, and two, he's prone to knocking you off the catwalk. My advice here is to come in and preempt his force powers by using your own L2 + X lighting. Use it to get in close and start whacking away with your combo. Depth perception is difficult if you are on the far side of the catwalk attacking toward the foreground, so be careful using the "stick and move" strategy. And don't backup TOO far or Maul will plant a bolt up your ass. Be very wary of the edges -- make sure you'll be falling back onto the catwalk and not into the abyss.

 

“For some reason this seems to be the shortest of the five battles; it takes fewer hits to make him exit stage right.

 

“Final Encounter:

 

“This is really no different from the first two encounters. Use your combo and your L2 + X power as needed. When you get knocked down, immediately block and retreat (in lock mode) to avoid those killer Maul combos. Don't let him push you into the force field, as he seemed to enjoy doing to me. The final reactor room sequence seems to bring out the best in Maul...he's a little harder to hit from my experience, and he seems to take more punishment before finally keeling over and dying (damn cockroach!).” [all this courtesy Pizza the Hutt]

 

Method #2:

 

“I'm so proud of this strategy because it took me so long to find. Make sure you locked onto Maul. Back away from him and hit R2. This should cause Plo to hop backwards. As soon as he lands begin the combo for either X, X, Square, or Square, Square, X. I prefer Square, Square, X. But why must you jump back? Because Plo's first Square strike is extremely slow. Usually Maul will begin a combo before the strike hits and you are stuck helpless. Hopping back puts some distance between you and Maul, and starting the combo when you land lets the first strike happen before Maul can get to you. The first swing will miss, but the next to will make contact. Be prepared to counter with force if Maul blocks and begins a combo. When you’re on the tight hallways of the second half of the power core, you'll probably have to resort to an all out attack. Use your L2 + X attack freely here.” [this gem was plagiarized from ShadeShifter]

 

Method #3:

 

“I’ve spanked Darth Maul with Plo Koon, once again. This was the result of the cheap, repeated use of a single combo. Make sure you are close to him, and use square square X. The last hit of the combo will always hit him, if you are close enough. Continue this process until the Sith punk drops. Plo’s chain lightning is also useful for giving Maul a little taste of his own dark side medicine.” [courtesy Jericho]

 

Method #4:

 

When you first see Maul, zap him with your lightning, then start in with the SSX combo. In the second room, continue to zap him repeatedly with your lightning until it’s all used up. Then start in with the SSX. At that point you should only have to land a couple more blows to be released to the reactor room. If, during the lightning zaps (which nearly always work for at least one hit) you notice that he’s at that hunched-over, groaning stage (and he’s close to you), you can safely start in with your trademark combo, knowing it’ll hit. First do the combo, but since—as everybody agrees—it doesn’t work much of the time, start in with the lightning when you get desperate. Don’t die without having used up all your lightning—you might have lived! And make sure that when the two of you are going at it, you’re locked on. Also be sure to hop back some distance before unleashing the combo. If you’re nose to nose with Maul, your melodious swishing’s probably gonna get interrupted. [this one’s mine]

 

Carefully study the four methods above, and you’ll find they’re all saying basically the same thing.

 

Related advice:

 

1. In the very last room of the level, there are dark, shadow-filled corners in the bottom left and right of the screen to which your character cannot hop back. Invisible walls prevent you from getting in that area even though it looks like you should be able to. Just keep this in mind if you're fighting left to right across the bottom of the screen, something I don't advise. (This goes for any character, obviously, but the need for knowing about possible retreat areas is so much greater with Plo.)

 

2. On this head, bear in mind that in the SECOND room after the final checkpoint, it looks like you should be able to retreat back into the first room. You can't; invisible walls. So don't fight with that as a reserve strategy.

 

3. Don't ever use Plo's L2 + T or orange body thing against Maul. Ever. Both are completely worthless.

 

4. SSX is the only combo you can use. Seriously. Don't bother scouring Plo's inventory for possible combos that would be more effective; there are none. And never intentionally strike Maul with a single blow only. To be fair, though, I should note that Dave Maul claims: “I can actually do a reasonable amount of damage to Maul with just the XX combo. I use it twice, then jump out the way into the air, lock on, and start again. However, as soon as he gets one hit on you, you're stuck, and you need to improvise.”

 

5. Be aware that it's not possible to map out an exact strategy of how to defeat Plo, what to do precisely and when, the way some people use to graph Pac-Man patterns. This is because (I've come to realize) the attacks and combos that Maul throws at you are selected randomly. You'll run into the first room sometimes and he'll unleash a vicious 5-hit combo which depletes half your health. Other times, you run in, same angle, same everything, and he gives you one pissy bonk. So don't necessarily think something's going to work just because it did before when you were in the EXACT same situation and position.

 

6. As I noted in a recent post, there are two ways Maul "hunches over." The first is facing away from you, bent over. This is typically after you've made him OOMPH. When you see this, you can start in with the combo again. There's another way he has of being hunched over, where he's closer to you, facing you. Get back if you see this. It means he will almost surely block any salvo or interrupt it. The idea time to strike is when he's bent over the first way or when he's strutting toward you, within range.

 

7. Be extra careful on the jump rings and windmills; take your time. You cannot afford to be careless with your 8 lives, the way you can sometimes be with other characters; you may need all your lives (and then some).

 

8. The lightsaber powerup right before the first electrical bridge fight with Maul is only better for you in terms of the points it produces, NOT THE DAMAGE.

 

9. Exit the level and re-start if you get below six lives; you'll be glad you did later.

 

10. Behold! THE ONLY ADVANTAGE OF USING PLO KOON IN LEVEL 10! It definitely takes fewer hits to kill Maul, but only in the very final room (presumably this is because "Plo is strong.") Seven hits fewer, to be exact.

 

11. If you’ve done Plo solid through the game up to now, you should be starting with 8 credits. If you get below five before making it to the first checkpoint, I’d exit and re-enter the level. The chances that you’ll survive the final encounter with only 5 guys are slim. Plus imagine how frustrating it would be to do the windmill and maze parts and only have one guy left with which to tackle Maul. You’d have a nosebleed. Do yourself a favor and start fresh if you get below five guys.

 

12. Pay careful attention to precisely WHEN to hit your combo. Do not hit your combo in the middle of another combo, assuming they’ll “queue up.” (You may have gotten to this point in the game without having paid too much attention to the art of using combos; you must remedy that defect in your JPB skills before you can progress.) I myself tend to use combos sparingly since any blow by your opponent will interrupt you, forcing you to start again. But this Plo situation is different. When Maul whacks you, wait until your character recovers before you (rapidly) hit SSX. And don’t keep hitting SSX moronically without waiting for a break: once you whack him, wait until your character stops swinging before you launch a new combo. When Maul saunters up to you, there’s a brief moment when he’s right there but inactive. That’s when you SSX. My point is, hit the combo during the pauses, not during the action.

 

13. And be prepared to lose at least a hundred guys during this operation. It will likely take days before you can land upon a commixture of the abovelisted strategies that works for you, or before you luck out. Pizza the Hutt mourns that he must have lost “a hundred guys” before he hit upon his method. Move over, buddy. I easily lost three times that many diligently testing everybody’s methods (and then trying to find my own), and I’m by no means a bad player.

 

14. There’s a fine art to knowing when to retreat from Maul versus when to go at him again with another combo. Notice that he has two ways of hunching up in pain: in the first way, he’s hunched up, recovering from a salvo, but he’s facing away from you. If you see this, it’s safe to start in with your combo. But he has another way of being hunched up, convalescing: facing toward you, with his face visible and clearly toward you. If you see that, get back! It means he’s just about to strike you no matter what you do and that your combo will be fruitless. Better to get some distance between you two in this case; that’s more likely to give you an opportunity to try again.

 

15. Every time Maul zaps you with his lightning, it resets your lock-on thing. When you get up, you’re gonna hafta lock on again. Your lock-on will also be reset after any attack during which you went flying through the air.

 

16. Just keep in mind that aside from the fact that my method might not work for you, all four of these frequently fail to work for ME. So you can’t say I didn’t warn you.

 

17. Incidentally, the Prima guide deserves to be burned at the stake for remaining inexcusably silent over the MAJOR issue of the “glacially slow” Plo’s irrefragable weakness against Maul, don’t you think?

 

18. Lastly, to quote Pizza the Hutt: “When you do beat him, feel free to release a primal scream. You'll have earned it.”

 

 

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Wart

 

Get your free JPB guide at:

http://jedipowerbattlesguide.homestead.com/JPB.html

[Guest obi-tom-kenobi]

cheers for that wart! i bet you went to a lot of trouble to do that! if theres anything you need let me know i owe you one!

 

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me and my master on our previous mission