Earthwake

"SYNCHRO OPTIMISED... BOOT TRANS-MODE 1... EARTHWAKE SYNCHED! ERADICATOR ONLINE!"

- Earthwake

Earthwake is a giant robot built out of buildings in Mario & Luigi: Dream Team. He serves to guard the Nightmare Chunk holding Bedsmith and is the second major boss fought in Dreamy Wakeport, as well as the third giant Dreamy Luigi boss in the game. Earthwake's name comes from the word earthquake. Earthwake appears as a humanoid robot figure made of Wakeport's white various buildings, with his head being a tower with glowing windows for eyes.

History
While exploring Dreamy Wakeport to save Bedsmith, Mario and Luigi come across his Nightmare Chunk trapped inside what appears to be a tower-like building. However, Pi'illoper shows up and warns them of a "terrible guardian" who will attack anyone who tries to remove the Nightmare Chunks nearby from their prison, and has destroyed many past explorers who have attempted to do so. When Mario and Luigi hit the ! blocks that Pi'illoper told them awakened the guardian, the building next to them is revealed to be Earthwake's head and an alarm siren goes off, the boss battle commencing soon afterwards.

After the battle, Earthwake is destroyed and Bedsmith is freed. As such, he doesn't appear for the rest of the main adventure.

Battle
In battle, Earthwake fights in a similar style to the Tower of Yikk boss from Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story, in that he tries to knock Luigi into the ocean with his attacks (and in that Luigi has to do the same with the Hammer Uppercut and several counter-attacks to defeat him). Performing the Jump and Drill Stomp attacks while Earthwake lacks head armour will harm Luigi due to the electrified object on Earthwake's head, while attacking with the Hammer Chop will do minimal damage.

Earthwake can attack by making the various buildings of his body rotate around his head as a shield. Luigi has to swat the pieces away with his hammer. If successful, this will enrage Earthwake and his head will spin in the circle the buildings once did, however slightly faster. The player must slide leftwards on the Touch Screen as the buildings fly into the target area, otherwise the remaining parts will ram into him and cause damage, likewise if Earthwake's head rotates for long enough.

Earthwake can also attack by creating a ball made out of Wakeport's buildings, and then rolling it towards Luigi. Luigi has to counter by jumping on top of said ball when it gets near enough and using it to ram into Earthwake via the player tilting the 3DS. While Luigi rolls on the ball, when Earthwake has taken enough damage, he may attempt to swing his arms forwards in order to knock Luigi off the ball and damage him.

Earthwake will also set up a formation of yellow, red and green blocks that Luigi must Hammer Chop, Hammer Uppercut, Jump or Drill Stomp to prevent the most hindering blocks from being used by Earthwake. The Jump and Hammer Uppercut will eradicate the five blocks in a vertical line. The Hammer Chop will do the same for blocks in a horizontal line. The Drill Stomp will eradicate all the blocks on screen, leaving none left and being the best move for Luigi to perform in this situation. For any green blocks that are left, Earthwake will send them at a low altitude at Luigi, which he must jump over. For any red ones that are left, Earthwake will send them at a high altitude at Luigi, which he must duck under. For any yellow blocks that are left, Earthwake will send them towards himself to absorb and use to heal. Getting hit by a red block will result in Mario getting knocked off and having the Drill Stomp and Rhythm Mushroom moves unavailable.

During the battle, Earthwake may generate head and body armour that stops him being knocked back as much. If the armour is only on his head, the Jump or Drill Stomp attacks can take off the armour in one turn. If it is on his head and body, the Drill Stomp must be used to take off the armour in one turn. If Mario is not ready, Luigi can also perform a combination of the Hammer Chop and Jump attacks to remove it in two turns if used one after the other. The armour will be temporarily taken off by Earthwake before he attacks and put back on afterwards if Luigi fails to destroy it during his attack turn.

Earthwake also has the power to transform into a giant hammer and swing towards Luigi in either a high downwards arc, a sideways arc, or downwards arc, which has to be either ducked under or blocked with a vertical or horizontal hammer strike. This attack isn't used until the last third of the boss battle, at least outside of Hard mode.

When Earthwake gets knocked into the ocean by either the Hammer Uppercut or counter-attacks, Luigi must smash down on Earthwake when his head comes out of the water (via the player sliding the stylus downwards on the Touch Screen) rapidly in order to deal damage. As Luigi hits Earthwake more, the ratings gotten from each hit will eventually escalate in value, going from OK! ratings to Good! ratings to Great! ratings. If Luigi hits Earthwake enough, he will sink back into the water, to come back out again, dazed. Luigi must then smash Earthwake into the background with a hammer swing identical to the Hammer Chop to deal an extra chunk of damage and get an Excellent! rating.

If Luigi gets knocked back into the ocean by Earthwake's attacks, Earthwake will put his hands above Luigi, and continuously smash down on Luigi's head with a metal plate until he escapes or is defeated, repeating the whole movement each time. Jumping while Earthwake's hands are above Luigi will result in him hitting his head on them and landing back in the water, not taking damage however. Luigi has to jump (via the player sliding the stylus upwards on the Touch Screen) when Earthwake's hands are not above Luigi in order to leap out of the water and over Earthwake and escape this repetitive attack.

Earthwake X
Earthwake also appears in the Battle Ring, as Earthwake X, the third opponent faced in the Giant Luigi arena. There are no major changes to his battle here barring the appearance change involving how the design of the buildings that form Earthwake have black sides while Earthwake has its buildings with white sides.

Hard Mode differences
In the Hard Mode, Earthwake has a few changes in his attacks. He attacks Luigi in his hammer formation more often, as early as his second attack and attacks up to ten times per turn in this form instead of roughly five. Earthwake also uses larger block formations (that have 11 blocks in it) that force Luigi to leave more blocks left, leading to more cases of Luigi having to dodge them.

Quotes

 * BAD-DAMAGE! DAMAGE-BAD!  BAD-STACHES!  MUST DEFEAT!
 * EARTH-A-WAKE!
 * SYNCHRO OPTIMISED... BOOT TRANS-MODE 1... EARTHWAKE SYNCHED! ERADICATOR ONLINE!
 * WARNING. UNAUTHORISED. EXIT NOW. !OR ELSE!
 * INTRUDERS.EXPEL.EXPEL.
 * .BAD MOUSTACHES. !ENGAGE WRATH!