Difference between revisions of "SOTN Maria All Bosses"

Revision as of 04:49, 21 January 2026

Maria Tech

About the character

Maria is a fairly accessible character to play; not requiring mashing techniques like Alucard's shield dash, or the demanding execution needed to chain Blade Dashes as Richter. She has excellent spells and movement options and her run is mostly about knowledge of level layouts and the character mechanics - only 2 glitches are used, but they are fairly easy to understand and execute.

MP Management

Many of Maria's best movement options will actually pause Maria's MP regeneration. This means that, in a speedrun, relying solely on the Four Beasts invincibiliyy spell isn't viable because she won't have enough MP to defeat the bosses.

This is an extensive list of the different properties each move has. Not everything is used in the speedrun, some things are mostly to make your gameplay more stylish and fluid.

Projectile Attack

If you're playing with a controller, I strongly recommend mapping one of the shoulder buttons as your projectile attack because it'll make it more comfortable to charge while doing other moves. It might feel uncomfortable at first, but you'll get used to it eventually and this attack really doesn't need to be used all that often.

• Level 1 (default, no charge)
  • This is the only one that can be shot downwards
• Level 3 Fireball
  • Recovery can be cancelled with a slide
• Level 4 Laser Beam
  • Also provides a shield that can stop enemy projectiles

Flying Kick

• Hold the Kick button to go through enemies
• Let go of the Kick button to bounce off enemies
• Puts you in direction lock if not cancelled
• Nullifies landing recovery
• Hold Jump to increase height gained from the backflip

Uppercut

• To do diagonal super jump from the ground, do the input like this:
• Let go of the D-pad at the right time to preserve momentum
• To do an uppercut while changing the direction you're facing mid-air, you need to do a half-circle in the opposite direction like this:
• Maria uppercut can be controlled in different ways:
  • Hold Forward to get more horizontal momentum
  • Hold Back to get less momentum after a diagonal uppercut
  • Hold Up-Forward to get a balance of height and distance

Dive Kick

or Can only be performed after when you don't have any extra mid-air jumps.

• Can be cancelled into subweapon
  • Preserves momentum
  • Helps eliminate landing recovery if timed properly
  • Enables other aerial action such as another dive kick or another super jump.
• You will slide across the floor if you do it after a Front Kick. It's similar in effect to Alucard's slide, but easier to execute.
• Input is preserved for long enough to allow you to go into a high jump afterwards

Slide

while on the ground

Optimal movement. Timing the input near the recovery animation to chain slides tends to be better than mashing.

• Needs the right spacing for it to kill enemies
• Ideal movement when you cast Level 3 Fireball
• Input is preserved for long enough that you can chain this into an uppercut if you slide off the edge of a platform
• Momentum is also preserved when you slide off the edge of a platform
• Landing recovery can be cancelled into slide making it good for damage boosts

Area Strats

Entrance

The fastest strategy here is to use Maria's level 3 fireball and chain slides. Keep in mind that this does make this section more RNG-heavy though. For a more conservative strategy, simply do Flying Kicks buffering them whenever you can.

Alchemy Lab

If doing the dive kick into diagonal uppercut is too difficult, you can set up the uppercut by just doing 4 slides.

Marble Gallery

Clock rush is slightly different in the Saturn version because it utilizes the system clock.

Olrox's Quarters

Buffer the Axe throw to reduce landing recovery

Royal Chapel

Careful not to go past the Book. Make sure to end the Front Kick early by holding the opposite direction.

Boss Strats

Slogra & Gaibon

There are essentially 3 viable strategies you can use depending on your skill level:

• Dragonbreath Spell
• Guardian Knuckle Combo
• Axe + Uppercut

Olrox

Seryuu is the go-to strategy here. Try to cast it very close to him to maximize damage. Rotate the dragon clockwise when Olrox goes into his 2nd phase because this helps ensure the Dragon hits Olrox as it's leaving the screen.

You can throw axes a few times to get some damage in so that you're more likely to kill him with Seryuu without having to throw axes later.

Riskier strats go for Seryuu right away, but if you're playing safe you can wait a bit to see what he does. If he decides to jump backwards or levitate then you'll have to adjust. If you accidentally cast Guardian Knuckle, that will mess up the Hippogryph boss fight - something you cannot afford if you're going for top times.

Hippogryph

To improve your chances of getting a quick kill, hold the Jump button after the uppercut, this will make Maria "float" for a little while, improving damage output from Four Beasts and the Book.

Skeleton Leader Enter the boss room with a flying kick to trigger the fight as quickly as possible then just use two books while Four Beasts is still active and keep kicking him until the fight is over.

Karasuman

You can get a faster kill by using the Book and quickly doing the Dragonbreath Spell

Lesser Demon

You can either use the book with Four Beasts or throw two crosses from a specific spot.

Scylla

Wyrm - Cross is faster Body - Level 4 shot typically kills her, but if it doesn't you just need to use subweapon

Cerberus