You’ve pushed throughAnimal Well, you’ve collected each of the flames, and you’ve just finished grabbing the Lantern from the previous area. There’s not much left ahead of you in this game, right? Well, not in this layer, there’s not – there’s just one heck of a boss fight between you and the credits.
The Manticore boss in Animal Well sneaks up on unsuspecting players and pits you in the most dangerous race against the clock you’ve had so far in the game. Take note of where all four buttons are and beeline there to beat the Manticore in Animal Well.
Where To Find The Manticore
You can’t begin the fight with the Manticore until you’ve collected all four Flames and received the Lantern. This guide picks up from where you receive the Lantern, as the fight is just past the chest.
Thankfully, you have a little bit of time to explore the area where you’ll be facing off against the Manticore in Animal Well before it spawns. You just have it for so little time before it’s effectively useless.
From where you got the Lantern, use the telephone to save your game and create a respawn point, as past here is the Manticore puzzle and the game’s end credits, but you won’t see them without a fight. Once you’ve saved,go rightout of this passageway.
Use your Lantern to climb up the section of walls here for an extra Firecracker and a bonus heart for the fight ahead.
Go downthe series of waterfalls, making sure to grab some of the Firecrackers along the way, and head all the way to the bottom of this area,going leftwhen possible.
Here, if you’ve unlocked fast travel, you’ll find the boar’s head, the other of which is hidden by the fish that teaches youthe Flute songthat brings you to the fast travel room, providing easy access if you need to leave and come back.
In here,use your Lantern to navigate through the spirit-filled corridorsthat lead down two screens. After hitting the platform at the bottom,use your tools to hit all four yellow buttonsin this room beforegoing leftthrough the door doing so opens.
In the room ahead, you’ll see a few switches in the ceiling, so keep their locations in mind before continuing left. Ahead, there are even more platforms andfour buttons, as well as adoor with four locksin the bottom left corner - this isyour final goal.
You need to find a way to open the switches first, though, souse your B. Wandto jump up into the next roomthrough the opening in the ceiling. Here, you see a locked door, a rising platform, and a few more platforms around the room. From here,go right one screen when you’re ready.
The battle with the Manticore starts as soon as you enter the next screen, so make sure you’re completely prepared for battle before leaving the last screen.
As soon as you get into this room,the Manticore spawns and begins its relentless chase. From the time it spawns to the time you finish the puzzle,it will not despawn, meaning you’ll need toquickly hit all four yellow buttons and escape the areabefore it kills you.
The Manticore canfire lasers from its eyesthat willbounce off every surface they hit, creating a web of lasers you’ll need to avoid. If you’re not confident in a jump, it’s helpful tohide and wait out the attack where the lasers can’t hit you.
It’s also worth noting thatthe Manticore is terrified of Firecrackers, so we sure hope you’ve taken our advice about grabbing a few. Since you’ve seen how many tight, precise jumps you need to make during this sequence,toss a Firecracker if the Manticore gets too close to you.
The room is filled with water, though, so we found it best totoss the Firecracker at your feetto prevent it from hitting the water and fizzling out uselessly.
How To Hit All Four Buttons In The Manticore Puzzle
As soon as you enter the room where the Manticore spawns,go to the bottom right cornerand drop through this opening. To hit this button,toss your Discthrough the opening, and thenjump to hit the green ceiling button to open the platform below youand regain access to the lower platforms.
This will have opened the pathway on the left side of this screen, but you can’t reach it from where you are. From here, quicklyrun back to the left screenwhere the locked door was.
In the main room, you’ll need togo up and back over to the starting roomwhere the Manticore first spawned, and quicklydrop through the platforms at the bottom leftpart of the screen. This brings you to the path you just opened with the Disc, sogo through this new passage to the left.
Hit the button herebefore jumping up to the next screen, quicklygoing rightand immediatelyhopping on the green button near the fruit, which willturn on the fan in the room.
After you hit the button for the first time, the fan stays turned on if you should get killed, making for a pretty helpful benchmark if you need one!
With the fan turned on now,circle back along the path and return to this room again, this timeas you had initiallyto spawn the Manticore. This provides apath to the fan you just turned on, so use the current toride a bubble up toward the top platform on the left.
Go left, where you’ll be able tohit the top buttonas you sprint across the platform, which opens the blocked path in the lower part of this room. Use thepath down the left side of the screento leave this room, grabbing a fruit and Firecracker if you need.
Drop into the room belowon these platforms, where you’ll find yourself in the nook with one of the buttons.Hit the button before jumping onto the wooden platform aboveto get back into the central part of this room, and thenjump back into the room above.
You should now see that theblockade on the lower level is gone, allowing you to reach the green button below. However, before you do,jump down these stairs and onto the screen below,where you’ll be able touse the Yoyoto hit the button down the narrow, winding path in the wallbefore jumping back up to the last screen.
At the top of the stairs,use the Slinkyon the stairsto hit the green button as youquickly cross the room to pass under the blockwhen the Slinky hits the button. Drop into the room below andhit your last buttonto unlock the door in the main room.
Now all that’s left is to get in there! Jump back to the previous screen anddrop back into the room with the locked doorfrom the other side of the raised brick, and quickly gothrough the door you just opened.
On the next screen,time is the enemy, since the Manticore can get pretty close while youuse the crank to raise a platform from the waterto reach the other side of the screen, sothrow a Firecrackerif you need to buy a few seconds.
Now,enter the room to the leftso you canfollow the blue squirrel through this maze to the bottom left cornerof the room, where you’lldrop into the large room below. Here, all that’s left to do isjump on the plungerto set off a beautiful fireworks display andwatch the credits roll!
