The quest to re-assemble the Staff of Rhiothamus hits a frustrating roadblock in the form of one of the worst bosses I have ever seen in a video game.
Head back to the maze that leads to Castle Blackroot. This time, go north at the fork near Castle Blackroot. Fight off the blue and green knights, then take the nearby stairs to the north. We're heading to Dark Citadel at last.
Go through the doorway to the south. From here, head east and move past the teleporter. Go north and take the second teleporter to the right. In the upper-right corner is a staff piece, but you'll have to beat up some red and green knights before you can take it.
From here, leave from where you came in. Go south, then west. Skip the teleporter that takes you back to the beginning, keep going west and take the one after it. Go through the door on the north and beat up the poison mist spheres, then take Brick's Magical Shield. Leave the room, go back south, then go west when you're in the room with the three teleporters again. Go north, and when you see a teleporter to your right, heal up. Go into it, and when you go west, you'll face Warlord Viper. If Trunk is in your party, he'll fight him automatically. For the first time in a while, this is perfectly okay, since he will have his shield (you'd better have it).
Warlord Viper has two forms. The first is a giant snake that moves in between the columns. Keep an eye on what is going on at all times, and when you are able to fully see Warlord Viper, hit him in the body with a Shield Attack.
After several hits, you'll see Warlord Viper's form, where Viper is part man, part snake. You have to go up to him with a full attack gauge, strike him once, move away, wait for it to fill up, then hit him again, lather, rinse, repeat, all while taking as little damage as possible. To make this even worse, WARLORD VIPER IS COMPLETELY RELIANT ON RNG (RANDOM NUMBER GENERATION) FOR HIS ATTACKS, MEANING THAT THERE IS NO WAY OF WHAT HE IS GOING TO DO WHEN. Are you kidding me? The same RNG thing that Manley & Associates did with one of the early minigames in The Wizard of Oz rears its ugly head here, too? Apparently, it does...and it pisses me off.
And in case you were wondering if you can use Shield Orbs against Viper's second form, the answer is no. You can only use your melee attacks.
It is possible to beat him legit, but you will really have to luck out in order to do it. The fact that Viper's attack patterns are that deeply rooted in RNG does not make it fun. Wanna enjoy this game? Skip the system and go straight to emulation...unless you have Pro Action Replay. Then you can get infinite energy and just wail on him. Otherwise, emulate and save scum. Remember to block so your attack gauge refills faster.
After twenty fully-charged hits, Viper is done. Trunk can get his key and the ability to strike his opponents with increased speed, and then it's off to Camelot the final mission. We have to find a weak spot in Hadrian's Wall to enter the Dark Forest, and to breach the wall, the Staff of Rhiothamus must be re-assembled. Once we're there, we're in Morgana's domain, where the dark arts rule. From there, we must head to the Stone Gardens.
Thankfully, we have all the staff pieces. We also have one man without a Magical Shield, and that is Tone. Replace one of the allies in your party with Tone, then leave Camelot. With Tone in your party, Tone will tell you that he can fix the Staff of Rhiothamus (which he misnames the "Staff of Rhinoceros") Arthur corrects him and gives him the pieces, then Tone fixes it. You will hear an explosion from the direction of Morgana's castle, and Arthur tells Tone to keep the staff and use it in battle.
The game doesn't quite spell it our for you, so here it is: with the Staff of Rhiothamus restored, Tone now has a Magical Shield, and the game doesn't quite tell you. Now have a Randy Orton reference. You're welcome.
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