Olmec (2)

Appears In:	Olmec's Lair
Health:	Invulnerable (Body) 1 (Floaters)
Damage:	Instant Kill (Crushing) 11 Damage (Bombs, 10 explosion + 1 fire)

Journal Run Recap sticker

Olmec is the first boss of Spelunky 2, found after completing either Volcana or the Jungle and reaching Olmec's Lair, 3-1.

Behavior

Olmec has 3 different phases, entering a new phase after reaching the next floor in his lair.

Olmec functions exactly like a wall/platform, and one can cling to his top ends like a ledge, or to the rest of his body with the Climbing Gloves. Olmec is indestructible and cannot be damaged by the Mattock or explosions from objects like Bombs. Shooting Olmec with the Plasma Cannon reflects the shot back at the attacker.

Phase 1

• If the player approaches, jumps towards their direction.
• If Olmec manages to get above them, he stops in the air for a moment before falling straight down, crushing anything and destroying a row of tiles on the floor below him.
  • When Olmec jumps up, but does not get above the player he was specifically targeting, he does not destroy tiles he lands on.
• If the target is on top of him, he will leap towards whichever end of his head they are closest to.

Phase 2

• After landing on the second floor, Olmec hops into the air, revealing two purple floaters beneath him, which he uses to hover across the air in a similar fashion to the Hoverpack's.
  • Olmec initially floats towards the direction of the player until a tile impedes him, where he switches directions.
• If a spelunker is below his eye level, Olmec's face opens horizontally across the eyes before launching three bombs at varying speeds from both ends of his face.
  • After completing three bomb cycles, Olmec does not fire bombs again until both of his floaters are destroyed.
• Olmec's floaters have 1 HP and shatter if attacked. Destroying both causes Olmec to fall to the floor, destroying two rows of tiles below him. He then leaps back up into the air with new floaters, resuming his bomb attack.

Phase 3

• After landing on the third floor, Olmec begins to jump towards and attempts to crush spelunkers in the same fashion as in phase 1.
• After destroying a row of tiles, he opens his mouth horizontally, releasing a UFO from each end end of his mouth.
  • Olmec then repeats this attack after performing two tile-destroying ground slams.

Defeating Olmec

If the spelunker manages to lure Olmec into the lake of lava at the very bottom of the area, He will be considered defeated, and his head can be used as a platform to enter one of the many backlayer doors just above the lava as he sinks downward.

These backlayer doors are perfectly spaced out so that the spelunker does not need to align Olmec with a door; even if he is perfectly spaced between two backlayer doors, both may be entered.

After entering the backlayer, the Spelunker may ascend to the top and obtain the Ankh found there.

Strategy

See: Guides:Defeating Spelunky 2 Olmec

Trivia

• A short cutscene plays when entering Olmec's Lair:
  • Three Cavemen are shown worshipping to a stone statue of Olmec. Chunks of stone begin flying off the statue, revealing that the stone statue is actually the real Olmec, spooking the cavemen. Olmec then jumps up and crushes the last third caveman who was too slow to run away before the battle begins.
  • The cavemen do not actually exist in-game, and despawn when the cutscene ends.
• Olmec's first phase is similar to his behavior in Spelunky HD, although he is much faster, can leap higher and farther, and does not spawn enemies due to the absence of the red gem on his forehead that once did so:
• Olmec's second phase was substantially different around Spelunky 2's launch; each of Olmec's floaters could withstand 3 HP of damage before breaking, and he would dispense bombs regardless of how many times he had performed the attack and even if the player was above him. A video depicting this version of Olmec can be seen here.
  • The first wave of changes was in version 1.15.0a. This update reduced Olmec's floater's HP to 1 and made him only dispense bombs while the player was below eye level.
    • Version 1.16.0 increased the horizontal margin of player proximity that would prompt Olmec to dispense bombs, and made him only dispense bombs a maximum of three times before forcing the player to destroy both of his floaters to make him repeat the attack.