Quick and dirty for now, by popular demand.
Lemeza Kosugi
Our hero and the only playable character.
HP at start of game: 32
HP with all items: 352
Lemeza gains +32 mHP with every Life Jewel obtained. There are 10 of these in the game in total, although one of them is permanently missable and another is nearly so, requiring extremely difficult and unintended techniques to acquire if you messed up. Every pixel of the health bar is equivalent to 4 HP.
Main weapons:
The whips, keyblade and katana all have roughly the same attack speed. The axe attacks at about half that speed, the knife at double it. Timed by # of attacks made in the time it takes a snake on the surface to cross one platform: whip 8, knife 17, keyblade 9, katana 7, axe 5. Damage figures given are always for a single hit unless otherwise specified.
Leather Whip - 2 damage.
This is Lemeza's only starting equipment. Chain Whip and Mace are both permanently missable upgrades for it. All whips hit slightly above Lemeza as well as forwards, but will miss low targets.
Chain Whip - 4 damage
Mace - 6 damage
Leather Whip w/Whip Power Combo - 6 damage
Chain Whip w/Whip Power Combo - 8 damage
Mace w/Whip Power Combo - 10 damage
Knife - 3 damage.
The knife has roughly double the attack speed of whips and will hit low targets, but its range is virtually point blank.
Knife w/Knife Power Combo - 6 damage
Keyblade - 2 damage.
Roughly the same attack speed as whip, does not hit high or low targets but has slightly longer forward reach than the whip. Is completely terrible.
Axe - 5 damage.
The axe is very slow and swings at roughly half the speed of the whip in a long overhead arc. Whiffs low targets.
Katana - 5 damage.
Same damage per swing as the axe, but with the whip's swing speed, and a long downwards arc. Hits low targets, does not hit high.
SUBWEAPONS
Subweapons are all fired at the same rate, but have individual limits of how many can be onscreen at a time. The limits count your total number of subweapons out, so if you fire two flares you can switch to shurikens and throw two of those, but not the other way around. Initially the limits are all -1 from what is given here, the Ring item raises the firing limit on each subweapon by 1. At midscreen, you can fire two "volleys" of most subweapons in the same time it takes for the snake to cross the platform, as given above, however at point blank to a target most subweapons can be spammed at a max firing rate of roughly 16 shots per snakecrosstime. If subweapons impact a target they cannot damage, they will bounce off harmlessly, but still count against their projectile limits while bouncing away, thus severely decreasing your rate of fire. This is mainly an issue with Viy and Baphomet, as all subweapons bounce off Viy's body and all except bombs bounce off of Baphomet's closed wings.
Shuriken - 2 damage each, 4 onscreen at a time.
A straight forward ranged attack.
Throwing Knives - 4 damage each, 2 onscreen at a time.
Throwing Knives "roll" along the ground, following the floor of whatever platform they're on and dropping straight down otherwise. They also pierce enemies and continue to travel, making them much less spammable than other weapons despite their high damage.
Flare Gun - 4 damage per flare hit, 3 flares onscreen at a time.
Fires straight upwards. Usually your best DPS in game as most bosses and subbosses can be hit from below at little risk.
Spears - 3 damage per hit, 3 spears onscreen at a time.
Fires straight downwards, identical to the flares except in direction and damage.
Bombs - 16 damage per bomb, dealt in 8 rapid hits of 2 damage each. 2 bombs or bomb explosions onscreen at a time.
Bombs are tossed at a diagonal upward angle and will rebound off of any vertical walls and floors any number of times. They will explode when they hit any ceiling or any target that is not a wall or floor, regardless of whether bomb explosions can actually damage that target or not. Damage above is to enemies, if Lemeza gets caught in his own bomb explosion, it will deal a whopping 22 damage to him (with body armor!) and can hit him a second time after his invincibility wears off!
Angel Shield - No damage, blocks all frontal projectiles, can be held up any time Lemeza is not attacking.
Pistol - 20 damage per shot.
The pistol fires hitscan (instant) bullets in a straight line forward. It can only be obtained near the end of the game in a hidden passage, after most bosses must have been defeated - the only bosses it can possibly be used against are Amphisbaena and Baphomet. (And The Boss and Mother, of course, but they are immune to it in all forms.) Unlike the other subweapons, it uses ammo that CANNOT ever be found, only purchased for an exorbitant rate of 400 coins per box of 6 bullets. To top that off, Lemeza can only carry a total of 12 rounds, 6 loaded in the pistol itself and one ammo box of 6 more. Assuming you grind 800 coins, that is. Its legality in the DL may thus be considered dubious.
Lamp of Time - Max 360 damage with main weapons?
At any time the lamp of time is lit, Lemeza can stop time for 10 seconds (enough time to swing a whip 30 times), which freezes all non-boss enemies and enemy projectiles in place, makes Lemeza invincible to anything except spikes, Sky Fish or his own bombs, and allows him to attack freely with any main or sub weapons until the effect ends. Once used the lamp's flame dies out, and returns after three minutes (180 seconds) of ingame time have passed. The fast recharge ROM combo makes time count double towards recharging the lamp. All normal enemies (with two exceptions) and sub-bosses are affected, but all real bosses are immune. If one attempts to use the lamp during a real boss fight, a buzzer sounds and nothing happens. The Sky Fish enemy becomes visible but is not frozen and can still hurt Lemeza. Strangely, the large gun platforms in the Tower of the Goddess will continue to move and fire when time is stopped, but Lemeza becomes invulnerable to them regardless and can attack them and jump straight through them safely until the lamp effect ends.
ROM Combos
Lemeza can equip only one ROM combo at any given time. Only listing DL-relevant ones here.
Whip Power (Castlevania + Mahjong Wizard) - increases the damage of whips, as listed above.
Knife Power (Break Shot + Video Hustler) - increases the damage of the knife, as listed above. Note that Break Shot, and thus this combo, can be permanently missed.
Invin Up (Athletic Land + Cabbage Patch Kids) - increases Lemeza's invincibility frames after being hit by roughly 25%. With this combo he is invincible for almost exactly one snake cross period, without it, roughly 75% of such. He is invincible long enough to never be hit twice by his own bomb with this combo.
Last Chance (Knightmare + Maze of Galious) - if Lemeza takes a hit that would result in his death, his HP is set to 32 instead (regardless of how much he had before the hit.) Only works once per save/load. Does not protect from instant death (though there is only one source of this in the game).
Fast Recharge (King Kong 2 + Firebird) - Time that passes while this combo is active counts double towards recharging the Lamp of Time (and fairy points, but the DL doesn't care about those.)
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Bosses!
Amphisbaena, the Two-Headed Serpent
HP: 50
Flame Jet - 10 damage
Melee contact - 24 damage
Typical failure first boss. Only the heads can be damaged, but it doesn't matter which head you hit.
Sakit, the Rebellious Giant
HP: 40
Immune to all subweapons
Large falling rock - 8 damage
Rock shard - 4 damage
Energy ball - 16 damage
Melee contact - 16 damage
Yoga punch - 48 damage (!!)
In contrast to Amphisbaena, Sakit is very tough relative to when you might first fight him. He deals quite a bit of damage, and the only way to damage him back is to wait through at least two rounds of energy ball attacks, have him punch the ground, walk up his arm and hit his face with a melee weapon, then jump away lest you be hit by the fist coming back. The leather whip really doesn't cut it here. Fortunately you can put off fighting him until almost the end of the game if you want, at which point he's a joke.
Ellmac, the Furious Lizard
HP: 48
Falling rocks - 8 damage
Fireballs - 8 damage
Melee contact - 48 damage (!!)
Ellmac can only be hit in his mouth when it is open roaring or spitting fireballs. It is nearly impossible to hit him with melee weapons, or anything but shuriken really, without taking massive damage. You can't hit him when he's calling down rocks, either, even though it looks like you really should be able to. Despite all this, he does very little damage if you stay away from him and is very easy to down with shuriken barrages.
Bahamut, the Master of the Ocean
HP: 60
Fireball spew - 2 damage
Melee contact - 8 damage
Flame jet - 16 damage
Cursed water - 4 damage per drowning sound, if you fall in. Even if you have the Scalesphere.
(Getting trapped under the ***ing boat in the water why won't you JUMP UP OUT OF THE WATER GOD DAMN IT - around 40+ drowning damage)
Another difficult boss, Bahamut jumps around, can only be hit in the head and is quite lethal despite lacking any big single hits. The water is the real killer, if you get hit at all you're probably knocked off the boat and taking at least 8 damage from the water, much more if you get trapped under the boat or stuck on the opposite side of the screen from it, not to mention you won't be in a position to hit him back at all.
Viy, the Demon Underground
HP: 70 (main body)
Tentacles: 10 HP each
Imps: 3 HP each
Melee contact w/Imp - 6 damage
Tentacle bullets - 6 damage
Eyestalk bullet spray - 8 damage
Melee contact w/tentacle - 20 damage
Melee contact w/eyestalk - 30 damage
Melee contact w/main body - 64 damage (!!)
MASTER SPARK - 96 damage (!!!)
Viy can only be hit in its eye, and only when the eye is open. The fight starts with the eye permanently closed and the four tentacles alive, they must be killed before anything else happens. A "dead" tentacle stops moving and is safe to touch, but comes back to life after ~20 seconds (the time seems to vary with Viy's HP). When all four tentacles are dead at the same time, two imps spawn and begin periodically pulling Viy's eyelids open. The imps can be easily killed (in fact Viy's master spark/giant laser will kill them) but respawn almost instantly. Thankfully once triggered they will continue to spawn for the rest of the fight, even if all the tentacles are allowed to regenerate. When Viy's eye is opened, it will either extend its eyestalk to do a bullet spray, or charge up and fire its lazah - however if the eye is hit before initiating either of these attacks, or if one of the imps is killed while pulling the eye open, or if the eyestalk is hit while doing its bullet spray, the eye will immediately close again. It is impractical to hit the eye with anything other than spears or throwing knives, although you can get in some good attacks with low-hitting melee weapons if you use the Invin Up combo and jump into the imps just as they pull the eye open.
Palenque, the Ancient Pilot
HP: 64
Danmaku Spray - 8 damage
Blade toss - 16 damage
Bombs - 32 damage
Colliding with a pillar - 32 damage
Phantom Hammer (Laser beam) - 128 damage (?!?!)
Melee contact - 128 damage (?!?!)
Palenque is a quite chaotic and very fast fight, one way or the other. He can only be hit in the head... ish... area... thing, and the katana is the only melee weapon with enough downswing to do so without touching him yourself. And as you can see, touching him is a Very Bad Idea. Generally either you kill him quick with subweapons, or you get chain-rammed by pillars and Palenque himself and die.
Baphomet, the Witches' Sabbat
HP: 60
Comes with four witches, each of which have 4 HP.
Can summon energy balls, which have 5 HP each.
Melee contact with any witch or energy ball - 2 damage
Mage (white witch) electric shot - 2 damage
Druid (tan witch) magic shot - 2 damage and 3 second paralysis
Witch (red witch) energy blast - 3 damage
Sorcerer (green witch) fire shot - 4 damage
Flame Pillar - 10 damage if it hits you from below, 20 damage if you run into the side of one
Lightning Bolt - 30 damage
Melee contact - 80 damage (hopefully you aren't dumb enough to jump into it)
Baphomet attacks mostly randomly, respawns all the witches at irregular intervals, and closes its wings both randomly and most of the time after taking a hit. Whenever its wings are closed, all subweapons except the Bomb will bounce off of them. Bombs will explode and deal normal damage if the head area is still in the blast range, however lining up a bomb toss that actually hits the head is very difficult. It can only be hit in the head, which means melee weapons are a complete no go unless you've jumped inside its body and are willing to suffer the painful consequences. Spears and flares will both tear it up though. Bit of a joke fight for how late in the game this boss is.
Tiamat, the False Mother
HP: 100
Bats: 2 HP each
Infinity Symbols: 1 HP each
Immune to subweapons
Melee contact w/bat - 3 damage
Melee contact w/energy ball - 4-8 damage?
EYE BEAMS - 8 damage
HAIR EXPLOSION - 8 damage
Tail Whip - 32 damage
Melee contact - 32 damage
Only Tiamat's face is vulnerable, and she will turn to face away from Lemeza whenever he approaches her from the side or below. The four infinity symbols at the corners of her room each respawn rather quickly if destroyed, but if all four are destroyed in rapid succession they will turn into a large infinity symbol binding Tiamat. She fires eye beams when and only when an infinity symbol is destroyed, and tail whips a second or two after Lemeza moves within range of being hit by that. She uses hairsplosion at regular intervals indicated by her face turning red, but when bound by the large symbol she cannot use this attack and will frown harmlessly instead. Bats quickly and constantly spawn during the fight, to a maximum of four onscreen. At every 20 HP lost, Tiamat spawns an energy ball that orbits her for the rest of the battle; these balls cannot be destroyed and are only knocked away when hit by weapons. The only ways to actually damage her are to trick her by jumping over her head, then quickly jumping down and attacking her face once, or by using the large infinity symbol as a platform to stand on and hit her, which will cause the large symbol to crumble and the four small symbols to respawn.
The Mother
First form - 60 HP
Only vulnerable to keyblade
Attacks - Energy balls and melee contact, minor damage
Second form - 10 hits worth of HP
Only vulnerable to her own shots reflected back at her with the Knife; Knife Power combo has no effect
Attacks - Pillar of light and homing shots, moderate damage
Third form - 50 HP (10 hits)
Only vulnerable to the axe
Attacks - rain of fire, moderate damage
Fourth form - 50 HP (10 hits)
Only vulnerable to the Katana
Attacks - melee contact with sea life (minor damage) and eyes (major damage), lightning bolts (moderate damage)
Fifth form - 270 HP
Only vulnerable to whips
Attacks - laser pillars, star shots, melee contact (all minor-moderate damage)
I don't have exact figures on how much damage Mother's stuff does but none of it does very much, except for running into the eyes or being zapped by them in her fourth form. It's mainly a very long battle of attrition. The third form in particular will hit you over and over unless you understand how to dodge the fire perfectly.
