Kyklops

Kyklops
Name data
Katakana	キュクロプス
Rōmaji	Kyukuropusu
Personal data
Species	Demon
Real world data
Appearances	Devil May Cry

Kyklops are large arachnid lesser demons encountered by Dante during the events of Devil May Cry.

Description

Kyklops are evil spirits which manifest in the Human World by creating bodies from earth and rock. While the result resembles Phantom, they have no actual relation to him and are much weaker creatures. A Kyklops is a stone copy of Phantom with bare earth in the joints instead of magma and four green eyes clustered around a much larger central eye. They copy Phantom's leaping and melee abilities, but lack a stinger. As weaker demons, they also lack Phantom's formidable command of magic: their only ranged attack is spitting a shotgun-like blast of rocks from their mouth.

Behavior

Kyklops are fairly aimless creatures, and in cases where they are not immediately hostile they will simply stand still and do nothing. When they engage in combat they are relentless, but their single-minded focus on killing their opponent means they do not consider if their projectiles might harm each other.

File

Although they appear similar to the Phantom, they are still one of the low-class evil spirits. However, since they take on earth and rocks as host elements, they have substantial durability. Contrary to their appearance, they have superb leaping abilities. (Encounter enemy)

They can shoot rocks from their mouths, which they form by eating dirt. Try to avoid standing in front of them whenever possible. (Have a Kyklops use its projectile attack)

Although their armor is made from rocks, it doesn't compare to the armor of the Phantom. Use the Devil Trigger to bash the monster along with their armors. (Attack a Kyklops)

Strategy

Kyklops are essentially a weaker miniboss version of Phantom. They are first found in the main missions in Mission 10: Canyon of Mist, though they can be encountered as early as Mission 07: Holding the Key of Ardor if the player finds Secret Mission 05: One-Eyed Evil.

Kyklops only ever appear in pairs: they will either start out aggressive, or stand still and wait until Dante moves close to them before attacking. In the latter case it is fairly easy to fight them one at a time by moving close to one and then drawing it away from the other.

When fighting them, the main problem is dealing with the camera: it has trouble with trying to track two large enemies at once, and one of them almost always ends up off-screen. This is a particular problem in Secret Mission 5, where some of the fixed cameras in the room will have both Kyklops off-screen at the same time. It is very important to listen out for audio cues from any Kyklops that is not in view: if the player cannot see one, they should always assume it is about to jump on Dante.

• Block: Like Phantom, the Kyklops can guard against attacks using its forelimbs.
• Jump: The Kyklops leaps high into the air, either to re-position itself or in an attempt to land on Dante.
• Claw strikes: Kyklops can use the same backhand strike or double claw strike move as Phantom. They perform this at the same speed as a fully "heated up" Phantom, meaning twice as fast as Phantom's normal attack animations.
• Spit: The Kyklops plants its forelimbs on the ground and opens its mouth wide, tracking Dante. After a short time it spits out a ragged spread of large rocks. Unlike Phantom's fireball attack, there is no bright glowing "tell" for this attack, and the rocks cannot be deflected back at the Kyklops.

Much like Phantom, their weak points are their mouth and abdomen. They are a lot more vulnerable to aerial attack than Phantom, since they do not have his lava pillar attack. The game appears to count them as a boss for some purposes: in particular, in Dante Must Die mode they gain the +150% health only normally given to bosses. As their enemy file implies, their armor cannot protect them from Devil Trigger attacks.

Kyklops do not consider each others' positions when using their projectile attack, and the attack has friendly fire damage. It is quite possible to get one to kill the other, though it takes some time. Indeed, this is the challenge in Secret Mission 5.

When a Kyklops' death animation completes, Dante will be given a complete refill of his Devil Trigger gauge as long as DT is not active.

Background

The Kyklops (more commonly spelled "Cyclops" in the modern era) were one-eyed humanoid giants in Greek mythology. At least two groups were described by various sources: the Cyclopes Brontes, Steropes, and Arges were said to be immortal sons of the sky-god Uranus and the Earth-goddess Gaia, while another group of mortal Cyclopes were described by Homer as the sons of the sea-god Poseidon. The most well-known in modern times is Polyphemus, the cyclops encountered and ultimately blinded by Odysseus in Homer's Odyessy.