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*       Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus Boss Strategy Guide             *
*                           written by Nation                                 *
*                              Version 1.0                                    *
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This FAQ is copyright me, but I don't really care if you copy it post it 
wherever.  A credit would be nice though.

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Table of Contents:

1.  Introduction
2.  Boss 1:  Raleigh the Toad
3.  Boss 2:  Muggshot the Dog
4.  Boss 3:  Mz.  Ruby the Alligator
5.  Boss 4:  King Panda
6.  Boss 5:  Clockwerk the Owl

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1.  Introduction

There's a serious deficiency in Sly Cooper FAQs, perhaps because no one needs 
them.  Certainly, the game is not extremely tough.  But the bosses generally 
do take some trial and error to beat, so here's a guide to how to beat them.  
I only rented the game, so if I miss some details like the exact pattern Mz. 
Ruby uses, please forgive me.

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2.  Boss 1: Raleigh the Toad

Raleigh is pretty easy, which makes sense since he's the first boss!  As with 
all the bosses, there are several steps to beating them.  The battle takes 
place in a water filled arena with a central pedastal surrounded by floating 
platforms.

1.  Raleigh will swell up his belly and bounce onto the platform you're 
standing on.  You can't hurt him, so just dodge his jumps.  You can stay on 
the same platform if you want, or jump to the next.  After a few jumps, 
Raleigh will go to normal size.  When he does, run up to him and attack.  
He'll fly back to the center.

2.  Now, all the other platforms will drop, and Raleigh will jump in again.  
So this time you have to dodge him while on the platform, which isn't too 
difficult.  When he shrinks in size, attack.

3.  Next, whatever platform Raleigh jumps on will fall into the water, so you 
have to stay ahead of him.  But don't get too much of a lead, because you 
have to run back and whack him.

4.  For his final attack, all the platforms but one drop away, and Raleigh 
jumps to it.  Instead of hopping around, he sticks out his tongue and spins 
around in a circle.  Jump over the tongue when it comes around and whack him 
when he's done.  You win!


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3.  Boss 2:  Muggshot the Dog

Muggshot is quite a bit tougher than Raleigh.  It may take several tries to 
beat him.

1.  You start out in a square arena with nine crystal pillars and eight 
surrounding mirrors.  The mirrors are the tan oblongs- you start out directly 
in front of one.  Your weapon has no effect on Muggshot, who will chase you 
and shoot at you with his guns.  He's nice enough to announce when he's going 
to shoot, so as long as you jump or run behind a crystal pillar, you're OK.  
When the fight starts, hit the mirror behind you, then wait a split second, 
then run to the left.  Hit the mirror in the corner without stopping and 
continue following the wall, hitting mirrors.  Go all the way around, and 
once you hit all the mirrors, Muggshot will get fried by the light.  The 
split second wait gets Muggshot to start coming up the middle of the pillars, 
keeping him from getting too close as you go around the arena.

2.  You go up to the next level, where it's the same deal, only harder.  
Muggshot shoots at you, and you have to hit all the mirrors.  The problem 
here is, the arena is irregularly shaped with holes in the floor and mirror 
placed in odd spots.  No real strategy here- try to keep a pillar between you 
and Muggshot even when he gets very close, and run around looking for the 
mirrors.  Hit them all, and the toughest part is done.

3.  Now you go up to the very top.  Muggshot stands in the middle of a small 
platform, surrounded by five mirrors and a webbing of wires.  Sly is standing 
on a point in the webbing.  The outside ring of webbing forms a pentagon, 
with mirrors at each point.  There are two landing spots in the middle of each 
side, and a landing spot directly behind the mirror.  Muggshot will shoot 
regularly, and if you're not on a spot behind a mirror, you'll get hit.  
Also, if he hits a mirror that you've already hit, it gets turned back 
around.  When you start you'll be on the outside behind a mirror.  Spire 
jump forward (X then O) and wait for Muggshot to fire.  As soon as he does, 
hit the mirror, then spire jump back once, then left or right three times, 
which puts you behind the next mirror.  Do it quickly or you'll get hit.  
Rinse and repeat.  If you are quick enough, you won't even have to pause- hit 
a mirror, jump to the next one, Muggshot will shoot right when you get there, 
hit it, go to the next one...etc.  Piece of cake.


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4.  Boss 3:  Mz.  Ruby the Alligator

This was easily the toughest battle for me, mostly because I hate rhythm 
games.  And that's what the fight with Ruby is.

1.  You'll start initially in a giant gator mouth which chomps down.  You 
have to Spire Jump from tooth to tooth to get to Ruby.  No problem.  When you 
reach her, she'll do her lone "real" attack- a tail slam which attacks 
everything on the ground near her.  So just jump in and swing at her.  She'll 
teleport out.  Get used to this routine.

2.  Now the real hard part starts.  You jump on a turtle which slowly takes 
you towards Ruby.  At the same time, she sends magic towards you in the shape 
of X's, triangles, O's, and square's.  And, you guessed it, you have to hit 
the buttons in time with the magic as it reaches you to dodge it.  Here's the 
sets of buttons she uses at first 
(S = square, T=triangle, O = circle, X = ex):

S,S,S
T,T,T
O,O,O
S,O,S
O,S,O
S,T,O
O,T,S

Sorry, but I can't remember the rest here.  But she finishes with each one 
once in this order:  S, T, O, X  When the X gets there, you jump off the 
turtle and can attack her again.  She'll try the tail smash, you attack her, 
she vanishes.

3.  Now you're on a series of spires.  Same deal goes here, except she does 
one or two sets on each spire, ending with an X (usually T then X) where you 
jump to the next one.  After the last one, hit her again.

4.  Last part.  You're on a mosquito flying towards her.  She'll change the 
tempo, making it much faster or slower- you have to speed up to compensate.  
When you get right up in her face, she'll use T,T,T then T,T,T again, then 
T,T,X.  The X is hard to see because you're so close, so make sure you expect 
it.  You'll jump off the mosquito, hit her, and the toughest fight in the game 
(for me) is done.


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5.  Boss 4:  King Panda

This guy is really easy.  Only Raleigh is easier.

1.  When you start out, you're on the outside of a ring where Panda is.  He'll 
chuck fireballs at you from there, so move left or right.  The camera will 
center on him, so holding right keeps you moving along the circle.  As you 
run, jump to avoid fireballs and obstacles, and while jumping move inwards.  
When you get to the ring, Panda will stop with the fireballs and attack you 
using his Flame-Fu techniques.  The first time, all he has is a flaming sweep 
kick, so all you have to do is jump or run away when he (loudly) announces 
it.  Get close to him and pound the attack button.  Jump when he does the 
sweep kick.  After several hits, he'll use his big belly to throw you back out 
of the ring.

2.  Work your way back to the ring, same as before.  Now he'll have a new 
attack in addition to the first:  Fists of Thunder.  It sounds more impressive 
than it is.  He sticks his arms straight out and pounds the ground.  If you're 
in the air, it won't hit.  So do exactly as before- when he announces either 
attack, double jump and you're safe.  After you've hit him enough, he'll 
bounce you out again.

3.  Get back to the ring.  Now he has his final new attack, in addition to 
the previous two.  This one actually requires a slight change in strategy.  
He'll wind back his fist then punch straight ahead.  So now, do exactly as 
before, only run in a circle around him while attacking.  Jump when he does 
the sweep kick or the Fists of Thunder, but otherwise just run and attack.  
He'll bounce you out after taking some damage.

4.  Same as above.  He doesn't have any more new attacks, so just do the same 
thing two more times and you win.


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6.  Boss 5:  Clockwerk the Owl

Clockwerk is pretty tough, but only in his last form.

1.  First, Clockwerk will fly around and shoot purple energy balls at you.  
These are easy enough to dodge, and when the barrage is over, Carmelita will 
shoot him with her gun, making a region vulnerable.  Then you attack that 
region.  When the region is destroyed, Clockwerk shoots more purple balls, and 
Carmelita shoots the next region.  If you don't hit a region enough times 
quickly enough, Carmelita will shoot it again until you destroy it.  The 
regions are shot in this order:  Head, feet, tail, right wing.  The feet are 
hard to get in one try because Clockwerk's wing tends to cover them up.  Once 
you destroy all four spots, he'll take a dive into the lava.

2.  Don't worry, he's not done yet.  Clockwerk hovers across the arena from 
you.  See those hoops on his head and wings?  He shoots them at you, and the 
only way to avoid them is to position yourself so that you're directly in the 
center of the hoop.  It's not too difficult.  Once you have the elevation 
right, it's just a matter of moving back and forth.  After each set of hoops, 
Carmelita will shoot a body part which you need to attack.  This time the 
order is left wing, right wing, head, right wing (I think).  You should try to 
start shooting at the part before the hoops are done, because it takes a 
little while for the missiles to get to Clockwerk.  Once again, after hitting 
all four regions, Clockwerk takes a dive into the lava.  But this time he's 
not getting up.

3.  Now for the tough part.  Sly is on the ground (why couldn't he fly in?), 
or whatever passes for it.  You have to run through an obstacle course to get 
to Clockwerk's head to finish him off.  Bentley says hurry, but I'm not sure 
if there's actually a time limit or not.  First off, run up and jump to the 
next piece of metal.  Then rail jump to the first rail.  Rail jump from rail 
to rail quickly (the last one has security beams going over it) and you'll be 
fine.  You'll end up on a ledge.  Here, I just jumped around the perimeter.  
As long as you hold down circle on your way down, you'll land on the ledge and 
it's much quicker than inching around.  Now it gets more difficult.  There's a 
large field of security beams which spin around a couple of centers.  Jump 
into the gaps and use invisibility a whole bunch.  Try not to get hit- even if 
you make it though, it makes the next part a LOT harder.  When you reach the 
end of the beam field, you have to jump over a short wall to reach a pipe.  
Inch down the pipe between even more spinning security beams.  Now you'll be 
under them.  If you haven't hit any beams yet, you're home free.  Climb up the 
other end of the pipe, again dodging the beams.  If you hit them, it's no big 
deal, just don't stop.  At the top, kill the alarm then run up to Clockwerk's 
body.  His head will pop up.  Just thrash it.  I killed it quickly enough that 
I'm not even sure if he can hurt you or not.  And that's it.  You win!