Melvin on Legendary

[BlackDragon]

I decided it was time to wrap up the last couple of achievements on this one, before the sequel comes out... figured it wouldn't be that hard, since I've been through the game twice by now, and know the drill. But I'm completely stuck at Melvin Underbelly.

Every time he swings that fork, one of my minions die. If I'm a millisecond too late in recalling my minions when he does his belly-flop (And it really doesn't telegraph very far in advance), SEVERAL of them die. I only have 15, and no way to get more. So far, I've never managed to take off more than maybe 1/3 of his health before my last minion succumbed. And me? I might as well be a mosquito for all the damage I can do.

My main problem is that there seems to be no way I can stack the odds further into my favor. I can't get any more tower-objects, I can't improve my weapons or armor, and it doesn't matter how many hundred life-force I've got, since I can't replace my fallen minions in mid-battle. And with only one kind of minions available, there's not much room for advanced tactics...

Any advice or help would be appreciated.

EDIT: I've tried several more times... it seems downright impossible. One mistimed recall, and his belly-flop wipes out my entire force, or nearly so. And even when I DO call them back the moment he gets ready, some of them don't make it. Once I'm down to 4-5 minions, it becomes fairly easy to keep them out of the way of the belly-flop, but they do very little damage, even while clinging to his back, and his fork-swing is basically auto-hit - it can kill minions that are on top of him, behind him, whatever. I've retried more than 10 times, and I still haven't even managed to reach the 'pinball' stage.

It just can't be right. I must be missing something. Something I can do to make it less... impossible. Powering up my horde seems pointless, considering the weak stuff available at this point - and even with max armor, Melvin will one-shot them all. Weapons might help them do slightly more damage before dying, but my gut tells me it's not enough to make a real difference...

[Major Wedgie1]

I will probably having the same probleme tonight, question : are you using greens ? Or should you be using greens ? Also isnt it possible to collect more tower items to forge stronger weapons ?

Let me know if you get trough it..

[AdamVG-R]

I'm having the same problem. This is driving me mad!

[Matonly1T]

Alright I just beat Melvin last night on Legendary. He was driving me mad his voice was annoying and so was his fork swing. What I ended up doing was stashing all 15 browns in a corner and started going around him waiting for him to swing his fork around. After he did I would hit him (from behind!) at least 4 times before he would swing his fork around again. Occasionally he'll do a butt slam while your hitting him, you should be able to always get away. Just keep wailing on him until he reaches half health.

After you bring him down to half health he starts rolling around. If you have all your minions under a banner its easy to move them around and away from him. After he finally collapses from rolling around this is the time to bring your minions in and attack. When he shakes them off get them out of there before he starts rolling again.

OR

After you bring him down to half health he'll start rolling around allowing you to take advantage of his poor AI. When Melvin starts getting up after he has collapsed he'll start turning around to try to face you. If you lock on him and keep walking around him he'll never start rolling around. Minions make it faster but you can do it by yourself. (When I did it I only had one minion left). I'd recommend 3-4 hits (whatever you feel safe with) and then realign with his backside.

[Major Wedgie1]

Thank you for sharing

[BlackDragon]

So you basically solo him with hit-and-runs inbetween fork-swings? Damn, that's gotta take a century. But... hmm... it should be possible to do the same thing using minions - send them in to strike his back for a few seconds, then call them back before he can swing his fork. Would probably be faster, since your minions seem to hit significantly harder than you do.

[Matonly1T]

So you basically solo him with hit-and-runs inbetween fork-swings? Damn, that's gotta take a century. But... hmm... it should be possible to do the same thing using minions - send them in to strike his back for a few seconds, then call them back before he can swing his fork. Would probably be faster, since your minions seem to hit significantly harder than you do.

It goes by really quickly actually, I talked with a friend while doing it.

The problem is with the minions and their reaction time when being called back.

[Bahaumaut]

I went the one-on-one way myself, as per the thread discussion. It takes longer, but given that you've got nothing but 15 browns that can get wasted in one hit, I think this was definately the way to go.

I went ahead and kept circling around him the first half, waiting for him to swing the fork before moving in close for about 6 hits, then moving out of range. Unfortunately, the fork attack is an area of affect, so just being behind him doesn't help. You got to stay a bit away, and then move in. I'm not sure of the range of his jump-slam, but it doesn't seem to be too far, as I got caught nearby a few times but never got hurt by it.

In the second half, I happened to get my minions squished partway through, but even without them, it went kind of fast. He's relatively easy to dodge as he rolls around, but usually that means you're a bit away when he stops rolling. Still, you can get a good number of hits that way. Even better, the direction he turns is based on what side of his fat arse you're on, as Matonly1T states. So if you hit him a few times, then quickly circle around before he turns too far, he'll start rotating the other way again, and you can juggle him in this way if you're quick enough. Or you can just let him roll, and dive in for a major whupping until you finish him off.

So, Matonly's guide to Melvin is definately the way to go. Slower, but you get better control, and less chance of dying if you watch the pattern. On the other hand, you can still try to use your minions, and fall back to using the axe anyways.