Necrodeus

Kirby Mass Attack artwork
Necrodeus
Name (JA)	ネクロディアス (Nekurodiasu)
- Meaning	Necrodeus
In Games
Category	Final boss

“	Necrodeus hates light and wants to steep the world in darkness. As a pirate, I can respect that. But with no light, all my treasure would cease sparkling. And I can't have that. Do everything in your power to stop him. My gold must shine!”
	— Daroach • Kirby Mass Attack

Necrodeus is a final boss in the Kirby series, debuting in and serving as the antagonist of Kirby Mass Attack. He is the diabolical leader of the Skull Gang, a dark force seeking to snuff out Planet Popstar's light.

Based on Necrodeus' name origin, status among the Skull Gang, and the shrine dedicated to him in Necro Nebula, he is likely the god of the dead in the Kirby series.

Physical Appearance

Necrodeus is a being made of bone and shadow. His head is a horned white skull with lustrous red eyes and a menacing brow. Both eyesockets are scarred. What appears to be an empty third eyesocket is present in the middle of his forehead. He has two curved horns on the sides of his skull and a smaller, straight third horn on its top. He has a round purple nose. Inside his mouth lies a set of sharp incisors—five on the top jaw and four on the bottom. A purple eyeball with a white pupil and red iris is concealed inside his mouth.

Necrodeus' body is made of purple and black smoke, which resembles shoulders and an upper-torso. Beneath his skull is a necklace made from 11 Skully-like skulls. (In-game, there are 12 skulls, each bearing a pair of red eyes.) Matching the rest of his cadaverous features, Necrodeus' hands are skeletal and can come together to create a red eye-like marking on his wrists. The backs of his hands are marked by a glowing orange orb. He ordinarily carries a magical black staff with a spherical purple jewel in its top.

Necrodeus' appearance is drastically different in the game's opening cutscene, "A Bold Start!" Here he has a red-tinted smoke body resembling a cloak; bonier hands with long, thin fingers; a much larger nose that partially hides his teeth; and less curvy horns. His necklace has one larger skull in the front.

Games

Kirby Mass Attack

Story

Little is known about Necrodeus' actions before the game's beginning. He seems to have created the Skullys, Skullions, and Skullseer that form his Skull Gang. He has existed for at least 100 years as according to Daroach, that is the endurance of a Skully's maturation process. Sometime during this period, Necrodeus' creations built a shrine to him in Necro Nebula, presumably his home region. They also spread out to Volcano Valley on Planet Popstar, as the volcanic smoke protected them from light. Necrodeus did not always have his scepter; its acquisition increased his offensive capabilities and bolstered the Skullys, prompting them to come out of hiding in the darkness and terrorize the brightly-lit Popopo Islands. They patrolled each island to prevent threats from entering. Necrodeus also presumably covered three of the islands in colorful smoke and placed a flame of each hue inside bosses—Whispy Woods, Lady Ivy, and King Dedede—to further prevent travel. He specifically granted some of his powers to Skullord; this fact, coupled with the pig's name and deathly attire, implies a stronger connection between these two.

Necrodeus and the Skull Gang hate light. Their ultimate goal is to drown Popstar's light, as it is the brightest star in the universe. To ensure their success, they attempt to destroy the planet's hero, Kirby.

Necrodeus blasts Kirby with his staff, dividing him.

As Kirby naps during his trip to explore the Popopo Islands, Necrodeus comes into view and blocks out the sky with a cover of ominous dark clouds. Using his staff, he hits the hero with a blast of magic from his staff. This splits Kirby into ten weak copies, nine of which he deftly overwhelms. In his hubris, he leaves one alive and disappears. Kirby's heroic heart encourages the puffball in this grim hour, prompting him to journey across the islands on an adventure. He recovers the other Kirbys and they all pursue Necrodeus—seizing his staff can restore them to one individual.

Throughout the game, Necrodeus uses his minions to subdue Kirby rather than face him directly. This tactic is unsuccessful as the Kirbys annihilate the gang bit by bit, ending with Skullord in Volcano Valley. The Kirbys collect every Rainbow Medal and use them to disperse the cloud surrounding his island, Necro Nebula. With his minions defeated and his hold on Popstar weakened, Necrodeus has no choice but to allow them into his stronghold.

The Kirbys reach Necrodeus' statue.

The heroes find his shrine where an ominous statue holds his staff. Before they can take it, Necrodeus seizes the weapon and swallows it. The Kirbys must defeat him to recover it, so they do battle. Necrodeus "fades into oblivion," vanquishing the Skull Gang and leaving the scepter behind. The puffballs and the heroic heart grab it to unite into Kirby's normal form. He catches a Warp Star and returns to Popstar with a greater appreciation for the universe's balance of light and darkness.

Battle

Necrodeus appears as the boss of Necro Nebula, the fifth and final Popopo Island. The Kirbys appear from a door onto rocky ground beneath a stellar sky. Necrodeus descends, stopping on the Top Screen. He reveals the orange spheres on the backs of his hands—his weak points—as well as their protective casing, then initiates the fight.

Necrodeus attacks during the first phase.

In his first phase, Necrodeus moves his fists horizontally across the Touch Screen with the weak points facing upward. They do not move in unison. He then places one fist over the Kirbys, charges up, and pounds the ground. The heroes can race to safety during the charge. If the player is quick enough, he/she can crack the hand's glass dome by flicking a Kirby into it before Necrodeus raises his fist. The villain pounds the ground four times, using a random fist each time. The fourth time he raises his fist onto the Top Screen, giving the player time to optimally position the heroes before striking the stage. The foe's hand sticks firmly in the ground. This provides the player an opportunity to rapidly flick the Kirbys into the dome. A rapid attack can shatter it, causing Necrodeus to wince and take that hand out of play. Skullions then gather to repair the broken casing; they fix it after approximately 40 seconds, enabling Necrodeus to use that hand again. During the restoration period, the remaining fist slams the ground three or four times, with the final slam grounding it. Necrodeus' hands can be repaired infinitely, so the player must destroy both domes in the same span of time to progress in the battle.

Necrodeus puts his hands together, creating a target pattern.

In his second phase, the damaged final boss clenches his fists and roars ferociously. He brings both palms together in the air above the Kirbys to demonstrate his new attack: He gradually closes fingers before forcefully clapping. The hands move left and right, giving the Kirbys a chance to mass attack the target-marked palms and incrementally drag them to the ground. The hands stop moving for the deadly clap, after which Necrodeus' hands separate. He then points at the Kirbys with his index fingers following their movements, and fires two small energy balls at them. These bounce around the screen five times each before dissipating. The hands then rejoin as he repeats his slow clapping technique. (The hands remain at their current altitude during both attacks, so the play does not lose progress when Necrodeus fires beams.) Pulling the hands to the ground causes each one to land face-down, allowing the Kirbys to mass attack them. Necrodeus pulls the two hands back into clapping position if the player destroys a weak point or dawdles too long. A damaged hand can still participate in the clap and beam attacks, though it appears darker and smokes while doing so. Once both weak points are annihilated, Necrodeus' hands explode painfully.

In his third phase, Necrodeus destroys the ground by roaring furiously. The gravity lessens tremendously, allowing the Kirbys to swim around in outer space like they do in Stage 11 of Volcano Valley. Stationed on the Top Screen, Necrodeus spits two plus-shaped robotic cannons back-to-back. These cannons are engraved with menacing faces. These drop onto the Touch Screen, facing straight or diagonally, and fire orange laser beams in four directions after charging. If the Kirbys do not mass attack them, they move to a different position and fire again. Each one breaks after its second blast. If the Kirbys promptly destroy the first cannon, Necrodeus spits three.

Necrodeus spits an energy ball.

The villain moves to the Touch Screen. He cannot be mass attacked and flicked Kirbys do not damage him, but touching him does not harm the heroes. Necrodeus sneaks in slowly from one corner, opens his mouth (presumably to fake out the player), and slips away. He then appears from another corner, charges, and spits a large blue and purple energy ball. He escapes again as the ball drifts sluggishly through space. It ricochets off the edges of the screen two to three times, wobbling as it does so, before harmlessly bursting. Any Kirbys hit by the energy take damage; they do not halt its momentum. Necrodeus appears again in one corner and opens his mouth. This reveals his third eye which, after several seconds, begins charging a deadly laser; the charge has two levels with different visual cues, making it more obvious when the charge is nearly done. The eye is his weak point—the Kirbys must mass attack it to damage him. They cannot deal enough damage to defeat him in one cycle, however, and attempting to do so results in Necrodeus' massive beam KOing them. To be effective, the heroes should break away from his eye at the last moment and allow him to expend his blast.

A Skullion races toward the Kirbys.

Necrodeus returns to the Top Screen. He spits three Skullions to drag Kirbys to him. They drift around the Touch Screen for a few seconds to give the player a chance to defeat some of them. They then charge up and rush toward the Kirbys. They can be dodged, but if one snatches a hero, the other Kirbys can mass attack it. They must do this quickly, however; a successful Skullion immediately brings its prey to Necrodeus, who eats it. Devoured Kirbys cannot be recovered during this battle. The villain's attack patterns change depending on the player's progress: If the player inflicted serious damage at the earliest opportunity, Necrodeus follows up the Skullion attack with stronger variations of earlier moves. If not, he recycles earlier patterns like ball-spitting, beam-spitting, and cannon-spitting. He produces three cannons that shatter after one blast, making it marginally more intense than it was originally.

Once the Kirbys inflict enough damage, Necrodeus appears from one corner and spits a long-lasting energy ball. This bounces around more than a regular one. He appears again from a different corner and spits another into the area, so the Kirbys must navigate around two at once. After the first explodes, Necrodeus spits a third into the field, so there are two to dodge once more. (It is possible to incrementally damage Necrodeus to the point where he does not use this move, but it is unlikely to happen if the player outputs a great deal of damage at each opportunity.)

The Kirbys enter the button-tapping sequence.

Once the eye is damaged enough, the villain's skull cracks and flashes red. He flies into the center of the screen with explosions occurring around him, and will not move on until he is attacked. The player is signaled to mass attack him, which leads to one final conflict: a button-tapping sequence. Three buttons appear in a triangle, one Kirby and two skulls. The Kirby button must be tapped to increase the bar while the skulls reduce it. The buttons frequently rearrange themselves, and once the bar is filled over halfway, only one button (Kirby) will appear in the center. If the player fails, the final boss knocks the Kirbys away and continues fighting with his old techniques, requiring the Kirbys to damage his eye again. When they succeed at the sequence, Necrodeus is defeated. He lowers off-screen, bellowing and exploding.

Kirby: Triple Deluxe

This box contains speculation that should not be taken as fact.
In a "Behind the Scenes" Miiverse post, director Shinya Kumazaki mentions that the Sun Stones contain the power of sunlight and that a character who "dislikes the sun" may have turned the light into gems in an effort to "rob Floralia of its light." This comment may imply that Necrodeus is the creator of the Sun Stones. He does not appear in-game and is not mentioned at any point, however.
End of speculation

Etymology

Necrodeus' name is a portmanteau of the prefix necro-, which means the dead, likely referencing his appearance and that he is the leader of the Skull Gang; and deus, the Latin word for god or deity. His name effectively means "god of the dead."

Related Quotes

“

But then dark clouds filled the sky, and a skull-faced fiend descended. It was Necrodeus, the leader of the Skull Gang. The Skull Gang wanted to drown light in darkness. Necrodeus raised his staff and struck Kirby with his mischievous magic. Necrodeus split Kirby into 10 copies of himself, each having only a fraction of Kirby's greatness! The fiend was easily able to defeat each of these weaker Kirbys. Before long, there was only one Kirby left. Popstar was about to lose its greatest defender... and plunge into darkness forever.”

— A Bold Start! • Kirby Mass Attack

“	A rainbow seems to be a universal symbol for harmony! But I wonder what Necrodeus sees when he looks at a rainbow? Probably gives him a headache.”
	— Daroach • Kirby Mass Attack

Trivia

• Necrodeus is a "head and hands" boss, similar to Wham Bam Rock and Wham Bam Jewel from Kirby Super Star and its remake, and Master Hand and Crazy Hand from Kirby & The Amazing Mirror.
• Necrodeus seems to emit a deep metallic cackle in battle, making him one of five final bosses to cackle during the fight against him, the other four being Drawcia, Marx, Marx Soul and Queen Sectonia.
• Necrodeus, Dark Mind, Wham Bam Jewel, and Magolor Soul are the only bosses in the series to have exactly three eyes.
• Necrodeus is the only undead final boss in the series whose living form is never seen. It is unknown if he ever had a living form, in fact.
• With the exclusion of the energy ball attack, every move in Necrodeus' repertoire has the power to KO its victim(s) in one hit.
  • Despite this, he is not the strongest boss in the game; every move in Skullord's repertoire can directly or indirectly KO Kirbys, by striking them or breaking their platform.
• Necrodeus is the only final boss in the series who can KO Kirby (or in this case, all ten Kirbys) at full health in only one hit, granting the player a game over. Other bosses with similarly destructive attacks KO after multiple hits or if the player has already accumulated damage.
  • Robo Dedede's Chibi Dededes KO Kirby in one hit, but he must be hit by multiple to receive a game over.
• If a Kirby is lost to Necrodeus and the other Kirbys succeed in defeating him, a KO'd Kirby appears in the following cutscene, "Kirby among the Stars."
• The statue of Necrodeus in Necro Nebula has a round torso and with one palm extended forward. This design may have been intended to reflect a statue of Buddha maintaining a protection sign.
• Necrodeus and Magolor Soul both have an eye with a red iris in their mouths.
• A slightly distorted version of Necrodeus' laugh is produced by a Grab Hand when he snatches Kirby in Kirby and the Rainbow Curse.

Artwork

Necrodeus appears in the "Bad Boss Brothers" celebration picture in Kirby Star Allies.

Gallery

Necrodeus appears in the game's intro.

Necrodeus swallows his staff.

Necrodeus roars as the battle begins.

Skullions repair Necrodeus' left dome.

Necrodeus shoots lasers off his fingertips.

The Kirbys destroy both hands.

Necrodeus produces a laser cannon.

Necrodeus spits a giant laser.

Necrodeus' central eye being damaged.

Necrodeus "fades into oblivion."

Sprites

Kirby Mass Attack

Kirby Mass Attack (cutscene)