I could do this all day...
Wozma is the secret boss in Duke Nukem: Manhattan Project. It is encountered in the third and last part of the final chapter Orbital Oblivion. In order to reach it, the player first must have unlocked the X-3000 by collecting all Nukes in Hard difficulty. Then you must replay the final level of the game and collect all Nukes there. After making your way to Morphix's huge Duke cyborg, when you are at its left arm, go near the path in front of it, and you will be taken to the secret area containing Wozma, which appears to be a very tall trapezoid-shaped stone, with the background switching between a view of the Earth from space and the New York City skybox from the first chapter.
Wozma is a large green sphere, presumably out of G.L.O.P.P. It has a humongous health bar and all of the attack methods the regular mutants do, including G.L.O.P.P. spits and heat missiles. However, once you enter the area, you have infinite ammo. This doesn't really reconcile your really low health (ego) in comparison, though.
For a long time, it appeared to be a well-kept secret. A GameFAQs post in March 2008[1] shows someone asking for info about it, which only got one reply asking what is it. Finally, in May 2009, a YouTube user made a video showing how to get there [2], almost exactly seven years after the game was released. It has spread around since then.
The fight[]
As stated before, Wozma's health is huge and once in the area, you are granted infinite ammo, which doesn't help much, but is needed anyway. Due to Wozma's ability to use other mutants' attacks, this can be quite a threat, as often it will fire heat missiles which follow you to a certain extent. Basically, it's a virtually undefeatable ball of destruction. A low quality video exists of someone beating Wozma, uploaded in late May 2010[3], which shows that defeating it simply redirects you back to the cyborg chamber. Defeating Wozma, actually adds a green sphere to your save slot.
Strategy[]
It is reccomended to get as much EGO as you can before entering arena, collecting all NUKEs on normal difficulty also help a lot if we fail to evade attacks - it gives us bulletproof jacket which halves dmg taken (appears as blue shirt on Duke). Just keep on mind EGO will keep detoriating to normal level over time.
WOZMA has 3 attack patterns.
-G.L.O.P.P. spit
Easiest to dodge, takes 24 (12) dmg on contact. Can reach us only about 15-55% of platform length counting from boss.
-Heatseeking rockets
As above 24 (12) dmg. They do approach slowly, then they can rotate even 180 but at certain distance will boost and just fly straight giving us dodge window. Can reach us everywhere.
-Barrel throw
Throw explosives barrels at us, which cannot be shot or basically evaded due to throw speed. Does 18 (9) dmg. Will be used only on 0-60% length of platform counting from boss.
Boss slowly moves up and down to fixed position at regular timeframes signaled by sound and switching background. Still it only matters if we want to fight it close or using weapon outside rocket launcher which is not reccomended.
Wozma is immune to X3000
Tactic[]
Simpliest way to defeat this boss is to stand on LEFT edge of the platform and use rocket luncher to deply boss health bar. Yes, despite not even seeing boss in view. Remember, you have infinite ammo while on arena.
There will be only one threat to us while doing so. Each few seconds ball will launch homing rockets. It is suggested to keep shooting until they are near to us, then jump. Collected EGO should let us survive a lot of hits and learn pattern. We can crouch while it comes to make bigger evade window, since rockets seems to target the torso exactly.
After some rockets screen shake may effectively distort our focus and ability to time jumping over boosted rockets. If it does, just stop shooting for a while and repeat.
When boss hp reaches 0 it will start exploding similar to incoming final boss of chapter. After, we are jumped back to level we came from and can continue as normal.
As stated above, defeating Wozma gives green ball on save block as trophy.
Trivia[]
- Wozma appears to be a reference to Ozma from Final Fantasy IX'.