No More Heroes Boss Guide: How to Get the Real Ending and Defeat Henry

So you’re the top dog in Santa Destroy; you brought Travis Touchdown all the way to the top of the UAA rankings list, and then some. It sucks that the whole thing turned out to be a scam, but considering the premise can we really be surprised?

But regardless of the tension between Travis and Sylvia, this ain’t over yet. There’s one more boss fight you can encounter in No More Heroes, and it’s hiding being the “Real” ending.

When you beat No More Heroes, you are given the choice to save your clear data or watch the ending. But that’s not all of it.

There’s a Real ending you can unlock, which pushes a bit further past the “ending” and gives you the real conclusion to the story.

You know, as much as you’d expect from this wacky game anyway. All you have to do to get the Real ending option is meet one condition, and it isn’t even that tough! It can just take a while.

No More Heroes Boss Guide: How to Get the Real Ending and Defeat Henry

You’ll need to get all three Beam Katanas from Naomi to get the Real ending. Getting access to these is just a matter of advancing the story and checking in at the garage every now and then like the other shops. The final weapon is the Tsubaki Mk-III, based on your old mentor’s sword.

This weapon alone costs LB$498,000, which is no small amount of money if you want everything else up to that point and the part upgrades, you’ll need even more cash. Luckily, to get the Real ending you don’t need both parts for the Mk-III, which is good because the last one costs a whopping LB$999,999. It’s a badass part, though.

There’s no way around it; the key to the Real ending is expensive. You’re going to have to grind side-jobs. But one side-job in particular is perfect for stacking that paper. Gamble Fight, assassination gig number 18, is the ticket. You get three minutes to fight an unlimited wave of enemies, and you get $1,500 a pop.

Once you get used to it, you can get upwards of 100k just from one run. More realistically you’ll probably hover around the 80-90 range. Still, not only is it a lot of money, it’s the closest gig to the office, meaning going back and starting it again is zero effort. It’s already lucrative, but the efficiency makes it even better.

Once you have that last Beam Katana you can check out the Real ending. And as a part of that, there’s one more boss fight. As you probably figured from the game’s story, you’re up against Henry Cooldown, the mysterious Irish dude from earlier in the game.

He drops even more wild and hilarious plot details, firmly establishing himself as Travis Touchdown’s rival. 

Related: No More Heroes Boss Guide: How to Beat Jeane

Henry is a tough, but simple fight. He will run you down relentlessly, with combos at a similar pace and cadence to what Travis himself is capable of. The good news is that unlike Jeane, Henry leaves himself much more open. If you can, try to dash around his swipes.

Even if you mess up you can still attempt more while you’re blocking. Once you do that you can get a good four-ish hits in, and if you’re lucky a suplex opportunity. It’s about as straightforward as it gets here. Just don’t mess up, is pretty much the rule of thumb.

But there’s also an instant kill, because of course there is.

If you see Henry take a dramatic pose with his sword held out behind him, he’s about to shoot across the screen and murder your face off. When he does this you’ll need to lock on and face him, and dodge roll to the side as soon as the attack starts.

There’s a good chance this takes a few tries, but once you understand the timing you’ll be fine. Like the other bosses, they don’t change things up much. 

And we’re done. Defeating Henry triggers the true ending sequence, and you even get a dramatic freeze frame for the credit roll. You should be proud of yourself, because even on the easiest difficulty it’s no small task to get this far. Luckily there’s a lot less money grinding in the sequel.

But until you see me again for the Desperate Struggle guides, thanks for reading these! No More Heroes is one of my favorite games, and seeing it drop for the Switch was a 2020 highlight. As always, reach out on the Prima Games Facebook or Twitter if you want to share your own opinions!