No More Heroes Boss Guide: How to Beat Harvey Moiseiwitsch Volodarski

Somehow, this boss fight over halfway through one of the weirdest games of all time, strikes me as “strange.” Like yeah of course it’s strange, but the way this battle plays out doesn’t always seem to fit in with the rest of the game.

Still, it’s as challenging as anything else in No More Heroes, if not more so thanks to how magician assassin Harvey Moiseiwitsch Volodarski is able to break the rules. Dodging won’t do a whole lot for you here, but careful positioning and adaptability will.

At first, Harvey Moiseiwitsch Volodarski is just a dude with swords. He comes at you directly with some pretty boilerplate combos, and they’re easy enough to avoid.

The best strategy is to back up a bit, then use the dash move (moving to the side just before you get hit) at the end of the combo so you can immediately counterattack. Blocking is a bad idea, but you can also back off a bit and still get hits in if your dash timing isn’t great.

No More Heroes Boss Guide: How to Beat Harvey Moiseiwitsch Volodarski

The biggest threat is the magician’s charge move, which becomes a big spin of twirling death that lasts a really long time and can catch up to you fast if you aren’t careful. Generally the best thing to do is make sure you run the hell away once you see those red lines.

This move is unblockable, and hard to dodge due to how long it lasts. Run!

Another move that is more disruptive than dangerous sees Harvey flip the script on you, literally. If he shouts, “welcome to the nightmare,” Harvey will flip the screen upside down for a bit, forcing you to reorient and reverse your controls.

If you can do this smoothly you’ll be able to launch a solid counterattack, even getting a combo-ender off if you remember to press the opposite direction of the prompt.

Two more tricks Harvey has up his sleeves are doves and teleportation. The doves aren’t really a big deal – they’re just projectiles you can easily get away from – but the teleportation is annoying. Harvey will disappear, and won’t pop back up until several seconds have passed.

This move takes advantage of No More Heroes’ tight camera, but if you tap the lock-on button a few times you should be able to snap to Harvey quickly enough to defend yourself.

Related: No More Heroes Boss Guide: How to Beat Holly Summers

Once you get his health down enough to get to the next phase, Harvey will add an instant kill move to his arsenal. The deadly magic fellow will start an inescapable animation in which Travis gets to be a participant in a magic trick. Smash the button prompt that appears for dear life, because if you don’t clear this you’re dead.

Harvey will use this randomly, so be ready to go through the process as many times as it takes. He’ll also change the trajectory of his doves a bit, firing them one at a time instead of all at once. It’s still pretty easy to avoid, you just can’t dodge them all at once.

That’s a wrap on this performance. Weather the storm of Harvey’s instant kill attempts and you’ll be able to wear him down. Then it’s on to the next boss encounter for Travis Touchdown’s rise to the top of the assassin charts. Anything to share about No More Heroes? Talk to us over at the Prima Games Facebook and Twitter channels!