Here's my explanation/tactics for an A rank on all bosses in inkwell isle one. Firstly, in order to get an A+ rank, you'll need to complete certain tasks in each boss fight.
Win in 2:00 or less
Not get hit
Land 3 parries
Use 6 of your EX cards (it will only count if the attack lands. Invulnerability applies regardless)
Be playing on normal, simple won't do.
If you would prefer to watch a video instead of read, scroll to the bottom of this guide.
The Root Pack:Weapon – Spread (Peashooter is acceptable)
Super – Energy Beam
Ability – None needed
Phase One:
The potato will shoot three balls of dirt, followed by a worm. He will do this three times in a row, with each volley getting progressively faster. Then, he’ll pause for a moment and repeat the process until killed. Make sure you parry the three worms, as they’ll be the easiest parry opportunities in this fight.
Phase Two:
The onion will appear from the ground in the center. He’ll look to one side, and then the other, and then start crying briefly, dropping two tears on either side of him from the top of the screen. He’ll pause for a moment, and then continue crying constantly until he’s killed. The dropping of the tears doesn’t seem to have a pattern, and is entirely RNG.
Phase Three:
The carrot will appear in the background in the center. Standing directly below him is the most effective location to stay. He will fire a small volley (4-6) of homing carrots from the top of the screen that can be destroyed. Firing straight up with the spread shot, while making small adjustments to destroy carrots quickly will work the most efficiently. After the volley ends, the carrot will shoot a beam of rings from his third eye which will be targeted to where you are when he fires it. He will fire three times in a row, then revert to the carrots, restarting the pattern until he is killed.
Goopy Le Grande:Weapon – Spread (Peashooter is acceptable)
Super – Energy Beam
Ability – None needed
Phase One:
Goopy will jump at various distances 7 times in a row. After the 7th jump, he’ll lean back, and stretch forward. You only need to duck under this, so maintain your close range throughout this phase. He’ll then repeat this pattern of attacks until phase 2.
Phase Two:
When phase 2 is first activated, Goopy will pop a pill, spawning three pink question marks around him. These are the only parry opportunities of this boss fight, so you need to parry all three. After he takes the pill, he’ll grow larger, increasing his hitbox. He will continue the same pattern, jumping a few times, and then instead of lurching forward will grow an arm with a boxing glove and punch with that. This phase can be dealt with the same as the first, just be wary of his increased size and leap distance.
Phase Three:
When phase three is activated, a tombstone will fall from the top of the screen, crushing Goopy. The only place you can deal damage to the tombstone is the face on the top. You can chase him from side to side, until the moment he stops, which is when he’ll slam his face onto the ground. As soon as he stops, you’ll need to dash out of the way. Continue that process until he is beaten.
Hilda Berg:Phase One:
Hilda will continuously move vertically, bouncing between the top and bottom of the screen. She will release a “HA” attack every 3 seconds. Once phase two is activated, she will launch to the left. She’ll then come back on screen from the middle of the left side, reverting to the right. There will also be small blimp enemies that will appear periodically across this entire fight. Green blimps will fire a blast of four pellets, while purple blimps will only fire one. The purple blimps are the only one that can shoot a pink pellet instead. This is your best source of parries.
Phase Two:
Taurus will continue the same motion Hilda did, vertically moving on the right side. He will ram towards you around every 5-10 seconds. He will continue this until the phase ends.
Phase Three:
Phase three is the same as phase one, except that she will throw a tornado about every 10 seconds. The most effective way to dodge the tornado is to line up with it horizontally, then turn into the small plane and move as far vertically as you can in either direction. Then move to the right to pass it. Phase 4 will start off the same as phase 2, with her shooting to the left, and then returning from the left.
Phase Four:
Phase four will either be Sagittarius or Gemini. Sagittarius will shoot an arrow with three homing stars trailing it. I would move in a large circle around the stars and let them trail you for a couple rotations. Eventually they’ll trail off screen. Repeat this a few times until the next phase. If its Gemini, they’ll drop an energy ball at the center of the safe section of the screen. This energy ball will shoot a steady stream of bullets in a direction, and rotate the bullet stream around the screen for one full rotation. If you kill them while the ball is still shooting, it will stay into the next phase until it is done.
Phase Five:
Phase five is the same as phase three, with an increase of the small blimps near the end of this phase.
Phase Six:
Hilda will turn into a crescent moon in this phase. During this the blimps will stop appearing, and are replaced with stars drifting from the right to the left. Flying saucers will move from right to left at the top of the screen and shoot down a damaging tractor beam. Red saucers will shoot their beam when you’re under them, so you’ll need to move to the right as they move over you. Gold saucers will always shoot the beam as you are about to come under them, so you’ll need to move forward to fake them out, and retreat back. These are designed to throw off your pattern. Using your super during this phase is ideal, as this is the most difficult phase.
Cagney Carnation:Weapon – Spread, Peashooter
Super – Invulnerability
Ability – Auto Parry
Phase One:
Despite having 4 different sections on the character progress line on the death menu, this boss fight only really has two phases. In phase one, Cagney can do any of three attacks, seemingly in any order. He can use a seed gatling gun, which he will fire straight up causing 5 seeds to float down from the top of the screen. Blue seeds will spawn homing minions, while purple seeds will spawn stationary minions on the ground. A pink seed will always appear, and will always be either the third or fourth seed to drop. This is where you need to get your parries. If you miss it, it will spawn a seed that is invulnerable until it fires its projectile at you. Another attack he can do is a lunge on either the top or bottom half of the screen. This is very well telegraphed by him folding his pedals in and lining up with the half he will attack. The third attack will be him clapping his hands together and when he separates them he will spawn one of two projectiles: A white boomerang projectile that will move horizontally on the top half, then return from the left on the bottom half. This can be jumped or ducked. The other is three vegetables that will launch at your current location. They all launch slightly staggered from one another.
Phase Two:
During Phase Two, the bottom half is entirely inaccessible. Cagney will spawn pillars of thorny vines from the bottom, which are telegraphed by them grabbing the bottom of the platform, before launching up to the top of the platform. These tend to pick two platforms at a time, but can sometimes only pick one. This is the time to use the peashooter over the spread shot, in case you get stuck on the back platform. Using your invulnerability during the phase is best as well, as the warning to the vine pillars is very limited.
Ribby and Croaks:Weapon – Spread, Peashooter
Super – Invulnerability
Ability – Auto Parry
Phase One:
In phase one each frog only has one attack, and will only attack one at a time. It seems somewhat random who attacks first, but it’s usually the tall frog. The tall frog will shoot out “Fire Flies” to the top of the screen, usually two at a time. While they move slowly, and only deal contact damage, I would kill them as quickly as possible to be safe. The short frog will start windmilling his arms, and will shoot flaming boxing gloves towards you in a pattern. The pattern is low, middle, high, middle, low, middle, high, middle, low. Some of these will be pink, which will be your best parry source. After the first pink glove, every 3rd glove will also be pink, so it is easily predictable.
Phase Two:
In phase two, the short frog will start doing a sonic spin, then do a slow roll over to the left side. After in place, the tall one will start spinning his body like a propeller, causing a current from the right side. The short one will start throwing energy balls that will bounce off the top and bottom of the screen from left to right. The easiest way to dodge these is when he fires them move with the air current, giving you a speed boost to safely avoid them. Otherwise, deal all the damage to the tall frog.
Phase Three:
To start phase three, the short frog will sonic it up again, rolling back to the right side into the tall frog’s mouth. Naturally, turning them into a slot machine. While in the coin shooting phase, the slot machine is invulnerable. After firing two coins, the lever can be parried to pick what you’ll be attacked with, from three options. Keep in mind it will still fire coins until you parry the lever. While it’s attacking it can be damaged. One attack is green, which are platforms that will move from the slot machine to the left, moving progressively faster until they’ve stopped. I would suggest jumping two at a time, skipping one platform on every jump. Using the spread would be the best for this attack. The red attack has platforms that spawn at the vertical center of the screen, and will wait a moment before firing a jet of flames from above or below them. If you have good reflexes, stay close and use the spread shot, as this will obviously deal more damage. If you need time to react, stay safe and use the peashooter from afar. The orange attack is the worst. There will be platforms moving at the bottom of the screen, much like the green attack. In addition to increasing speed, however, there will be balls bouncing in and out of each platform. Fortunately, the safe spots for each ball bounce will be in the same location for each platform. Using the peashooter at the left of the screen would be your best bet here. The best time to use invulnerability is the second half of any of these attacks.
The Root Pack - 0:26
Goopy Le Grande - 1:55
Hilda Berg - 3:23
Cagney Carnation - 5:42
Ribby and Croaks - 7:13
Happy Hunting!