You need at least 7 Sun Stones to access this stage, which should be no problem if you're following this guide. It is the area's boss stage.
As you head right, you'll come immediately to a 3D Warpstar you can ride into the foreground to take your pick from four ability capsules. They let you take your pick between Circus, Bell, Beetle and Archer abilities. Then you can ride another star into the background, then another into the foreground as you work your way right. A Waddle Dee will toss you an Assist Star, and just right from there you can enter a doorway. It's not a standard doorway, but you'll see the prompt to press Up when you pause in front of it. Enter the door.
Taranza will great you in a cutscene. You can press Start to skip most of it, once it reaches a certain point. When it concludes, you'll enter a battle.
Boss: Masked Dedede
This is a simple fight, really just a warm up. Masked Dedede isn't a lot more dangerous than Bonkers, and fights about the same way. Just keep your distance when he's hammering or crashing down to the ground, then move in and hit him with some Beetle attacks, or whatever you might prefer. When he stops and starts trying to inhale you, it's easy to float over him, get behind him and then inflict a bunch of damage if you move quickly enough. You should have little trouble demolishing him in this first round.
Once you win that battle, there is more fighting to follow. Dedede gets back up and attacks in a more advanced form.
Boss: Masked Dedede's Revenge
This fight is a bit more dangerous. Dedede now swings an ax around, which he can use in a spin attack that sends him flying all around the area. It's a bit difficult to predict which way he will spin, so you might take some damage if you're not quick to react and adjust. He can spin in several different formations. When he comes to a stop, he will often knock loose a smattering of stars. If you're close enough and haven't been knocked on your rump, you can inhale those and fire a couple at your foe. As the fight wears on, Dedede will also use other attacks, but nothing dramatically different. You can just keep hitting him with stars. When his life meter gets low enough, Taranza will encourage him to fight more aggressively, and will also fire at you from the background. However, stars come along at a furious enough rate that you shouldn't have fits. Dedede's life meter drains pretty quickly.
When you win that battle, the game saves your progress and another scene follows. Then it's time for yet another boss battle.
Boss: Queen Sectonia
As the fight begins, Queen Sectonia teleports overhead. Get moving so you're not underneath her in case she decides to rain bolts of purple lightning down on you, as she likes to do at various points when you stand in that position for too long as the battle rages.
Queen Sectonia likes to teleport a lot, and she also can send orbs of magical energy toward you. Avoid those, then watch for stars you can inhale and fire at your foe. Note that she likes to teleport rapidly at certain points, switching between positions on the left, middle and right sides of the screen, so don't waste a shot firing when she's in the middle of that process. Let her start swinging her wand about, and then you can hit her.
Another of her favorite attacks finds her throwing rings at you from the background. You can float up and then drop down, then float and drop, and repeat that process to easily avoid each wide disc as it zips toward the screen. You also need to be careful to avoid Queen Sectonia herself, who sometimes goes after you like a homing missile.
The fight is really a matter of duration. Stars don't do nearly as much damage in this battle as they do in other instances, so you're just going to have to memorize the above patterns and get your hits in when you can. Hopefully, you have your Assist Star item to help you.
Once you have damaged your foe enough, she'll call down a huge gem from the sky and then launch you onto the platform over her head. When she does that, you can finally deal more damage, even though you have to work in a smaller space. Most of her moves are about the same, but now she attacks you from the foreground instead of the background. She also summons monsters to help her, and you can often inhale several of them at once to produce more powerful stars that do a better job of harming your foe.
One of her favorite attacks, and the one to watch for, involves her throwing golden discs in arcs. These alternate between the left and right sides, and then a bunch come all at once. Get off to the side if you can when there are a bunch of the discs, because they leave behind a trail of stars. You can gulp those down and fire a supercharged star at your foe to do some really good damage. If you run low on health, keep in mind that some enemies may drop food when defeated. You can also gain abilities from your enemies if you want, but usually it just works better to use them as ammunition to fire at the queen.
After you deal a lot of damage, the crystal ledge will fall apart. You're almost done now, so just keep fighting and soon you should win.
Once you drain Queen Sectonia's life meter, a scene follows and your progress is saved. Then you are taken automatically to a special new stage, Eternal Dreamland.
NEXT: Royal Road - Stage 7 EX
