Chapter 9-3: Final Fight

Cauldron Keep

Head up and around the side of the tower and in through the door whose electrical field we recently deactivated with help from the Crystal Jiggy. Up the elevator we go. Once at the top, it takes a little while for Banjo and Kazooie to notice the giant digging machine looming behind them…

Boss Fight – Hag 1: Montrous Mechanical Mud-Muncher

A ten-out-of-ten rating for this boss’s difficulty. While it might become easier with practice for Banjo Veterans, it’s generally accepted that your first few run ins with the giant digger are going to be tough. Tougher than any of the previous bosses, of course. It’s great that this game ends on such a high with such a climactic fight, but it might make you wonder a while into this fight just what the developers were thinking in creating a boss battle so freakishly hard.

Gruntilda soon pops her head out of one of the digger’s hatches and shouts a few references down to you about it being time for her revenge before hopping back into the tank to set to work on you. Here we go!

Phase One – Oh, boy! Lasers!

With the flip of a switch, two lasers spring to life from some small ports at the bottom of the vehicle. Each travels across the ground all the way until it hits the dome-shaped force field surrounding the arena.

Grunty then proceeds to turn the drill around on spot, making the lasers spin around the drill and giving you something to jump over. Don’t lose your honeycombs just yet, this is just a warm up.

After a few seconds of dodging, Grunty pops her head out of the digger again and cackles – the quiz isn’t over just yet. She’ll ask a few questions during the fight – if you get the question that she asks correct, she’ll proceed to throw slower spells your way. If you get it wrong, she’ll cast some quicker ones. Answer the question she asks, then take Kazooie out of the backpack – it’s time to face off.

The only way you’ll damage Grunty in this fight is by using eggs at her from first person mode with Kazooie. Try not to use the R button to aim at her, as you’ll have to dodge at the same time. Rather, use the top and bottom C buttons to adjust your aim in conjunction with the control stick, then use the left and right buttons to strafe around Grunty while she fires spells your way.

You’ll notice Gruntilda has a massive lifebar of 100 hitpoints for this fight. Don’t worry too much about it, as you’ll be able to whittle it down fairly easily with eggs. Normal eggs will take off two hitpoints, fire eggs will take off two and grenades will take off three. While grenades would be the obvious choice for most people, they’re actually not that good. Fire eggs are twice as fast and thus will deal four damage points for every three you score with grenades. Having faster eggs is also nicer since you’ll be moving pretty fast around her.

Either way, get her health down to 90 hitpoints then stop, as you won’t be able to damage her anymore until the next phase of the battle anyway. Grunty spits out a honeycomb that you collect later on if you’re low on health, before going on with the next segment of the fight.

Phase Two – More lasers! Even Better!

Grunty switches on all of the Hag 1’s lasers now, one on each corner of the digger. You’ll have to be a little more careful this time, although it still won’t be too hard to avoid them.

When she pops up again, answer the question correctly again then pull out your bird and fire another few times until the hag’s health hits 80 points and she spits out another honeycomb. On with the next phase, I say.

Phase Three – Bombs Away!

Lasers off now, and out pops the mortar cannon from the back of the tank. Grunty will spin the digger around to face you now, before firing a mortar shell your way. Jump just before the shell hits the ground, then feathery flap or hold A down so that you don’t get hit by any of the bits of shrapnel flying around. Keep avoiding mortar shells, jumping around and collecting some eggs if you need them, before Grunty pops her head out of the tank once more.

Answer the question, fire some eggs again and pick up some health if you need it. If you don’t, make sure you LEAVE THE HONEYCOMBS ALONE – they don’t disappear during the fight, and you’re certainly going to need them later on. Keep your aim until Grunty’s health is down to 70 points, then you’re onto the next phase.

Phase Four – Double Bombs Away!

Here we go; as if it wasn’t expected. Grunty pulls another mortar cannon out of the tank’s back and start firing again. This shouldn’t make too much of a difference, really – you should still be able to avoid the shells just as easily as before if you’re jumping properly.

Answer her question when she leaps out of the hatch again, then take her health down to 60 points with some more fire eggs. Hopefully you’ve still got more than a few left for the fight; they may not last you the entire battle, but they’re still mighty useful for now.

Phase Five – Out comes the drill…

Grunty decides it’s time to fire the digger up properly. She opens up the exhaust port and starts up the drill, as well as switching on the digger’s two front lasers. This is where the fight begins to get tough.

As the tank spins around, try and avoid the lasers and get behind it, using your talon trot for speedy movement. You can even jump onto the back of the digger where the mortars used to be and talon trot on the back to avoid the drill and lasers if you’re good enough.

After a while of powering around the arena, Grunty will stop to ask another question. Get it right, pull out your gun and fire enough shots to take her health down to 50 points, then quickly tap the R button to bring up your Clockwork Kazooie Eggs if possible.

After you’ve gotten her down to 50 health, Grunty will realise the digger isn’t starting up again. Now’s your chance to destroy it while she’s still figuring out what’s wrong. Avoid the lasers and jump around to the back, then fire a clockwork kazooie egg into the exhaust port. Be quick, though – she’ll get the drill back up and working again if you aren’t fast enough, and the smoke from the exhaust will prevent you from getting an egg in until the drill stops again, which could take a while.

< INSIDE THE DIGGER >
Jump over the cables and stuff inside, avoiding the green ugger walking around. Head up to the front just beside one of the large batteries, then press B to blow one up. We’ll get the other one later.

Phase Six – Drill time with Four lasers. Joy.

Grunty wonders why she can smell something burning from inside the digger. She promptly closes the lid, then proceeds to fire up the digger again, this time with all four lasers blaring as well as the drill. This is one of the hardest parts in the fight, so just watch out for the lasers and stay as close to the back of the drill as possible. If the digger is coming at you, walk towards the edge of the dome but keep your finger on the A button, as Grunty could turn the digger at any moment and get you zapped by one of the lasers.

When the drill stops, fire some eggs at Gruntilda until she’s down to 40 hit points, then jump around to the back and make sure you’re right behind the exhaust, else your clockwork bomb might be zapped by the lasers or may not make it in time. Head inside.

< INSIDE THE DIGGER >
Two Uggers this time around. Be careful to avoid them – you’ve got 15 seconds or more so don’t get too hurried. Make your way to the other battery then press that B button to kill the drill’s power once and for all.

Phase Seven – Fight to the Death

Gruntilda’s grown sick of playing around, so there’ll be no more quiz questions from now on, nor fancy maneuvers by the digging machine. It’s a final fight between magic spells and eggs. Either stick with your fire eggs or switch to normal ones, since you’ll have a little bit of room to mess up
if you’re not too good of a marksman. Take the witch’s healthbar down to 30 points, then it’s time to move on.

Phase Eight – Final Defenses

Grunty starts to get desperate now, and after pondering about what she’s still able to do, throws out an ugger to attack you while she throws spells your way. Just think; if she’d done all of this stuff together at once at the start, you’d have no chance, yet she was stupid enough to use her tricks one by one. I guess that’s what I love about Gruntilda’s character, the fact that she can be so evil and heartless, yet so stupid at the same time.

Anyway, you’ll have to keep an eye out for little green things now, and continue to strafe around the tank so that the new baddie can’t get any free shots on you. If you decide to take him out, Grunty will throw out another one, so there’s little point in that.

Keep your eyes on Grunty, but keep an eye out for Greenies in your peripheral vision. Keep mashing that Z button until her health drops down to 15 points.

Phase Nine – Out comes the gas…

Not too far to go now. Gruntilda releases some lovely, pink ‘mustard and cyanide flavor’ gas into the dome for you to choke on, and throws out a second Ugger. Thankfully you have the extra air bubbles from Roysten, but even then, you still need to watch out and finish this phase quickly to avoid suffocating.

Keeping those Uggers in your peripheral view again, adjust your view onto Grunty then let loose with those eggs again. 14 hits is all you need for this phase; just keep unloading those eggs so that you don’t choke too much on the air. If only the stupid hag had remembered this earlier, eh?

Final Phase – Biggest, baddest spell

Gruntilda’s had enough. Time to finish the fight once and for all, she thinks, as she conjures up the biggest and baddest spell she can muster; a large, lightning quick pink spell.

This part can be tough, as it requires some quick aiming and dodging on your behalf. Although the pink spell doesn’t kill you in one hit, it’s super fast and by the time you’ve recovered from it, Grunty will have another one coming your way.

The way to defeat her now, is not to simply shoot her for the last piece of health, but to find a way to completely obliterate her, something that your normal moves wouldn’t be able to do. The Jinjonator may have provided the
final blow in Banjo-Kazooie, but this time round we have something more powerful to defeat Grunty with. Her very own spell.

Keep strafing around Gruntilda and avoiding the spell; don’t worry too much as there aren’t any Uggers around to hit you now. Adjust your view with the top and bottom C buttons so that your eggs will come in contact with Grunty without having to press the R button, then wait for your chance.

When you see Grunty start to conjure up a new pink spell, shoot her while she’s holding it. If you get it right, she’ll drop the spell into the digger.

Set the controller down and watch as she scrambles into the Hag 1 to grab the spell again.

Too late.

In one huge explosion, the Digger and Gruntilda are blasted into pieces across the domed arena…

In a final cutscene, Banjo and Kazooie, as well as Jamjars, Wumba and Mumbo, all head down to Bottles house to join the party, only to find that it’s already over. Klungo has eaten all of the pizza and cake already, and the realisation that there’s nothing left to celebrate with turns the heroes against each other, making them bicker about who was the true star of the game.

Banjo interrupts all of the quarreling, and points out that Kazooie has had an excellent idea of how they can celebrate; namely, a ‘kick around’.

Congratulations! You’ve just completed Banjo-Tooie, and with 100% too! Cheers for reading the guide; I hope I’ve helped, and definitely hope you’ve enjoyed the game as much as I have.

~Kowz

End of Chapter 9