Ripto's Arena

The entrance to Ripto’s Arena can be found at the top of the tall stairs inside the castle (so you’ll need the Headbash move from Moneybags). The door will only unlock if you have 40 Orbs, which you should have if you’ve collected all of them from Summer Forest and Autumn Plains. Talk to Elora, and get ready for one tough boss fight…

When you start the boss battle, it’ll be you against Ripto. Ripto will fire plasma shots at you with his sceptre, so you’ll want to be charging and jumping to avoid getting hit. Flaming or Charging Ripto won’t hurt him, but it will cause him to bounce back a bit, which is helpful to stop him grabbing an Orb, or if you're dashing past Ripto to grab an Orb behind him.

Above you, Hunter will be flying about and dropping coloured Orbs that give both you and your opponent powerup effects, so it's a good idea to keep track of him so that you know where an Orb will drop. Once you collect three, you’ll gain a Powerup based on the colour of the last Orb you picked up. After you take Ripto down the 70% health, he’ll summon a Robotic Gulp, who like before will eat the items in the arena to gain powerups as well. Here’s how what the effects of the various Orbs are:

Of these Orb attacks, Superflame is the best because it travels along the ground, and thus is much more likely to hit Ripto. The Plasma Bombs in the PS1 version are a bit tricky because they arc in the air and explode, but in Reignited they're actually much worse because the blast radius is a lot smaller. Supercharge is also quite difficult to work with in either version due to the way Ripto bounces to and fro whilst running away, and because of how hard it is to keep track of him.

Once Ripto moves on to Robot Gulp, you’ll find it much easier to hit him with any of the Orb attacks because of Gulp's enormous size. However Ripto becomes a much better shot with his scepter, especially in Reignited: you'll need to be Charging and Jumping to have any chance of avoiding them, and you should stay far away at all times. Remember that when using Supercharge, it’s best to stand at Robot Gulp’s feet and tap the Charge button to Supercharge into him for a short burst, rather than holding it down and running in circles. Superflame and the Plasma Bombs are the most effective Orb attacks against him.

Once Robot Gulp has been killed, both Ripto and Spyro will pick up Gold Orbs, taking the fight into the air. Ripto will fire plasma shots at you from his Booster Bird while you fly about with Superflight and Superflame. You’ll want to take this just like the Sheep Saucer Challenges in Metropolis, leading your shots to increase your odds of hitting Ripto. You can also hit him when he’s flying in place, but remember that he’s doing that to fire at you, so don’t fly directly towards him for too long or you’ll get shot. Get Ripto’s health down to 0, and he’ll fall into the lava and you’ll win!