Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero is a lovingly crafted tribute to the iconic franchise, its myriad of characters, and exciting attacks whose names need to be shouted. It’s a tribute so accurate that seemingly every player has been quickly stumped by Great Ape Vegeta, the most threatening villain during the series’ Saiyan Saga. It’s quite a wake-up call when the first boss-like fight in the game has you questioning how difficult things are going to get. But it can be done.

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He’s a monstrous ape with spammy attacks that will shred your health. Making it more challenging, you’ll be playing as one of the weakest versions of Goku. Even if you lower the difficulty, you might keep struggling. The good news is that he can be beaten, and just like the show, you just need some more training.

SLIDE #1Prepare with Battle Training

I completely understand the desire to just mash through stuff. A lot of the fun in Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero is hitting some buttons and seeing your character do some flashy hype stuff. You might think that’s enough after the quick tutorial and the first four fights in Goku’s Episode Battle story. As it turns out, this game has quite a lot of mechanics and techniques under the hood, and you’re going to want to get involved.

If you’re having issues with this cocky ape, I highly recommend that you go through Battle Training, which is listed under the Super Training menu. This breaks down every mechanic in the game against Piccolo. I’ll be the first to admit that it’s not the most well-made training mode, and getting through it isn’t particularly enjoyable. However, you’ll be missing out on a large chunk of gameplay mechanics when you’re only going off of the tutorial. Knowing these will help you against Great Ape Vegeta and later fights as well.

High-movement mechanics will be the main focus of this fight. Avoiding his attacks and getting behind him will help a ton. These are the mechanics to nail down along with their respective inputs for PlayStation and Xbox:

• Dragon Dash – The flying dash you should be aware of from the tutorial. What’s important to recognize is how much Ki it drains while in use. Performed with R2 + Cross or RT + A. Automatically rushes forward, but moving the left stick will dictate its direction.
• Z-Burst Dash – This is an extension of Dragon Dash that rushes you directly behind the opponent. It uses one bar of Ki and is an important move for this boss. Performed with the same inputs, R2 + Cross or RT + A. The left stick needs to be left in a neutral position.
• Vanishing Assault (Close-Range) – Teleports you directly behind your opponent. It uses one bar of Ki and requires you to be in close range. Performed with Square + Cross or X + A.
• Rush High-Speed Movement – This is an extension from Rush Attacks, allowing you to teleport around the enemy mid-way through your Rush combo. Uses a half-bar of Ki and is dependent on what direction the left stick is pushing towards. Press up will teleport you behind them, pressing left will teleport you to their left side, etc. Performed with the left stick pushed in a direction + R1 or RB.
• High-Speed Evasion – A counter-like evasion that teleports you directly behind the opponent when they’re attacking. The timing is strict, but it’s a great option that doesn’t use Ki. Performed with R1 or RB right before an attack hits.

As tempting as it is, using an actual counter can provide mixed results in this fight. The size of this monster makes it hard to knock him off balance in one hit. Most counters will boop him away a bit, without giving you much advantage. Prioritizing hits and dodges will be more effective.

SLIDE #2How to Beat Great Ape Vegeta

It already seemed like Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero deserved some recognition based on people’s feelings in previews and reviews. I believe it also deserves recognition for how often it can catch you off guard. Quite a few of the Episode Battles involve fights where the opponent immediately goes on the offensive. Great Ape Vegeta here is one of the more frustrating examples, as he’ll use his Super Attacks as soon as possible. Sometimes that’s right as the match starts, and sometimes he’ll give you a second or two of leeway.

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You want to respond to the startup of his Super with a Z-Burst Dash. Using a Dragon Dash to the side and then following up with a Z-Burst Dash will typically get you in the clear. Alternatively, you can leave the stick alone and double-tap the Dragon Dash buttons to instantly get the Z-Burst Dash out. This works well when he starts the match with a super, but sometimes can rush you in front of him due to how he moves. This is the best you can do against an honestly pretty busted start from this jackass space ape.

Either way, the goal is to get close to him (preferably from behind) and start pummeling him with Rush attacks. You’re free to mash those Rush attacks when hitting him from behind. He can be slow to move around and only has one counter move to brush you away.

If you’re attacking him in the front, I suggest going with a four-hit combo and then stepping or dashing to the side before trying again. His throw has great vertical range and can’t be countered, but it’s slow enough that a dash to the side will leave him open. I feel more comfortable using Rush High-Speed Movement because the attacks will build up the spent Ki pretty quickly. Use a Vanishing Assault instead if you’re not confident enough with those close-range side dashes. He’ll enter a hit stun state after enough hits and allow you to launch him.

Once you’ve slapped him around a couple of times and sent him flying to the ground below, it’s time to start charging your Ki. There’s a solid chance he’ll do the same until he has enough to use his supers. From this point, you have two options: keep whittling him down with close-range attacks, or try to bait out a particular super attack for big damage. Let’s go over the former first.

Using a Z-Burst dash to rush back to him is arguably the safer place to be. It’s relatively easy to dodge his supers at this range and respond with more Rush attacks or even a Kamehameha to chip more of his health away. You can also use a Kaioken skill once you have enough skill points built up. The Solar Flare skill never worked on him in my experience, while the Kaioken’s buffs were always appreciated. Keep up this routine of weaving past his attacks, hitting him until you get a launch combo, and then charging Ki before you dash in again. It will take a while, but he’ll fall sooner than later.

SLIDE #3How to Beat Great Ape Vegeta Quickly

I don’t like keeping distance in this fight, because Great Ape Vegeta has a deceptively quick dash that he can use to combo into his supers. Be ready to block or counter if the big guy suddenly zooms into your face. That being said, you can take his health bar down quite a bit if he attacks from afar. This other strategy is to bait out his Chou Makouhou Super and respond with your Kamehameha Super for a beam clash. You’ll know it’s the right one when he says “I’ll break you!” before firing a mouth beam.

A cinematic of two beams heading into each other will start to play. Then you just need to beat the minigame to win the struggle. The AI is pretty lenient here, so you should be able to do this with no problem. Winning the beam clash will take off two entire bars of his health. This is one of the most damaging things you can do, but it’s risky and left up to chance. There’s no telling which super he’ll use, or whether he’ll decide to close the gap quickly with a dash. If it works out, you’ll be a lot closer to finishing this fight.

Remember to charge up your Ki again after the beam clash concludes. You can then decide to try to bait him again with a beam clash or to mix it up with some close-range attacks. I prefer to not tempt fate twice, but he’ll be nearly finished if you can win two beam clashes.

Great Ape Vegeta isn’t the toughest boss in Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero, but he is a major knowledge check for the game’s mechanics. Brush up on that knowledge and you’ll be fine. I don’t believe it’s outwardly said, but you shouldn’t think you can skirt around with Ability Item buffs either. Those won’t work in Episode Battles. You’ll need to solely rely on what you learn from training, which to be fair, is the Goku way.

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