(Boss 3) Trayvon Tyson's Punch-Out!! Strategy Guide!

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - Fight in the Denny's.

It's part of Punch-Out!! culture to sit around on the playground exchanging tips to progress further in the game. Because I'm the kid everyone on the playground wants to be around, I'm taking it upon myself to be the definitive source for all things Trayvon Tyson's Punch-Out!!. So there are five bosses in the game, and I'm going to tell you all how to succeed against them. I'll only detail their moves — I don't want to spoil the entire experience for you!

BOSS 3: RACHEL JEANTEL

Round 1 HP: 50 (Metal Piece has 30 HP and then 27 for a total of 107 HP)

One very important thing to note about Rachel Jeantel is that she goes down in one round. However, she has a massive combined amount of HP and instead has different phases. These are visually and musically distinctive. It's also notable that Rachel Jeantel is wearing a special headgear that, as the dialogue before the fight says, makes her invincible  unless you break it. Therefore, the first two phases of Jeantel's fight involve smashing the headgear. Therefore, trying to side-punch Jeantel while she has headgear on is futile. After you break it and enter Phase 3, you may attack her however you wish. Let's go over her moves.

"Face Block Right".

Cues: Jeantel moves her right fist over her face.

Damage: If Mac hits with a right-upperpunch, he'll sustain 1 damage.

Description: Jeantel covers the right side of her face for 2 seconds, leaving the left side exposed to attacks. Then she puts her fist down and resumes her attacking cycle. There is a 1/6 chance she'll use this.
Phase: 1 and 2.

Evasion: Note which side of her face is being blocked and punch the other side for easy damage.

"Face Block Left".

Cues: Jeantel moves her left fist over her face.

Damage: If Mac hits with a left-upperpunch, he'll sustain 1 damage.

Description: Jeantel covers the left side of her face for 2 seconds, leaving the right side exposed to attacks. Then she puts her fist down and resumes her attacking cycle. There is a 1/6 chance she'll use this.
Phase: 1 and 2.

Evasion: Note which side of her face is being blocked and punch the other side for easy damage.

"Face Block Complete".

Cues: Jeantel puts both of her fists to her face, drops her pants, and says "Woopsee sir, whatcha lookin' at me for, gay rapist?"

Damage: If Mac attacks Jeantel with an upperpunch while she's blocking her face, he'll sustain 1 damage.

Description: Jeantel covers all of her face for 2 seconds. When she starts asking what Mac is looking at her for, she'll put her fists down to grab her pants. She's vulnerable to punches to the face after her fists are down. After .5 seconds of grabbing her pants off the ground, they'll be back and she'll resume her attacking cycle. There's a 1/6 chance she'll use this.
Phase: 1 and 2.

Evasion: Just wait for her to stop covering her fists and then take the opportunity to dish out damage.

"Food Throw" (Cake).

Cues: Jeantel backs up and extends her left fist to throw a piece of food at you. One of four Paper Mario sprites then flies straight to Mac.

Damage: Shroom Steaks do 11 damage, Cakes do 3, Fertile Soil does 6, and Melons damage Mac for 7.

"Food Throw" (Shroom Steak).

Description: Jeantel has a 1/2 chance of using Food Throw, and each individual item has a 1/4 chance of being chosen. The food basically spawns from Jeantel's stomach (or fist) from underneath her. Only one piece of food can be on-screen at a time, so if Jeantel follows up with another Food Throw, it cancels the first one. It's important to note that Jeantel's face is still vulnerable during the entirety of this attack. All of the food, once done reaching Mac's neutral location, can damage Mac both at the moment it lands there, and .3 seconds later until they disappear. This is so Mac cannot dodge simply by jumping up and punching Jeantel's face, because during this match Mac actually does jump to do upper-punches. Shroom Steaks take 3 seconds to reach Mac's neutral location, Cakes take .6 seconds, Fertile Soil takes a blazing .3 seconds, and Melons take .8 seconds. Note that the Fertile Soil looks like fecal mater. It's likely that the Shroom Steak will be canceled by Jeantel before it ever reaches Mac. Jeantel herself comes back to her neutral position after 1 second of her standing back.

"Food Throw" (Melon).

Phase: 1 and 2.

"Food Throw" (Fertile Soil).

Evasion: These are all complicated to dodge, and besides the Shroom Steak, require adept timing. You must dodge right before the attack would hit Mac, which differs depending on the food thrown. Unfortunately, there aren't different cues for the different foods. Alternatively, you can cheese the system by holding down the dodge key of your choice. That doesn't work well for the other bosses because their attacks home in on you, but Jeantel's food attacks go in a straight line that can be freely dodged in any direction. The best defense for Jeantel is a good offense: Do enough damage fast enough to get her out of Phases 1 and 2.

"Body Roll".

Cues: Jeantel rolls to her side (as seen in the picture above) and makes a disgusting sound like she's constipated.

Damage: Mac will be damaged for a massive 15 damage if he's flattened by Jeantel.

Description: Jeantel rolls over to Mac for 1 second and then rolls back to her neutral position, taking another second. Jeantel is invincible while rolling. Each of Jeantel's Phase 3 attacks have an equal chance of being used.
Phase: 3.

Evasion: As the picture above demonstrates, Jeantel doesn't put in enough effort to continue rolling past a certain point. If Mac blocks, his act of stepping backwards a bit will be just enough to completely evade Jeantel's roll.

"Left Hair Whip".

Cues: Jeantel lifts her arms up (as seen below) and shows two hairdryers. The left one has a lot of wind coming from it. There is also a "biiing!" sound that the hairdryer makes.

Note the effects emitting from the left hairdryer. It's a cue that the hair will strike from the left.

Damage: If Jeantel's hair whips Mac, he'll sustain 7 damage.

Description: After blow-drying her hair for .5 seconds, Jeantel's hair massively grows and lashes out against Mac from the left side. The hair is long enough to damage Mac if he stands still or moves to the left. The hair remains there for .4 seconds and then retracts. Jeantel is completely vulnerable during this.
Phase: 3.

Evasion: Dodge to the right as soon as the "bing!" sound ceases.

"Right Hair Whip".

Cues: Jeantel lifts her arms up (as seen below) and shows two hairdryers. The right one has a lot of wind coming from it. There is also a "biiing!" sound that the hairdryer makes.

Note the effects emitting from the right hairdryer. It's a cue that the hair will strike from the right.

Damage: If Jeantel's hair whips Mac, he'll sustain 7 damage.

Description: After blow-drying her hair for .5 seconds, Jeantel's hair massively grows and lashes out against Mac from the right side. The hair is long enough to damage Mac if he stands still or moves to the right. The hair remains there for .4 seconds and then retracts. Jeantel is completely vulnerable during this.
Phase: 3.

Evasion: Dodge to the left as soon as the "bing!" sound ceases. The hair kind of stays there long enough so Mac can't dodge it by jumping with an upper-punch, which is the same principle behind the food staying there.

And that's it for Rachel Jeantel. Jeantel teaches the importance of the difference between your side-punches and your upper-punches: They can hit different places, and are not just different by end lag and damage. It's also important to note that her Hair Whip attacks are to be distinguished and dodged based on subtle visual cognition (right or left?), instead of before with bosses physically moving all over the place. These skills are important for the last two bosses of the game. Also, the dodging requirements for Jeantel's attacks are even tighter than the first two bosses. Jeantel also forces a defensive play-style: You want to attack fast to reduce her health quickly, but go too fast and she might block you or you'll be caught in one of her attacks through ending lag.

Rachel Jeantel is the other friend of Trayvon Martin's. Her complete testimony can be watched here. She's notably a polarizing figure in the eyes of the public, and can be seen as a Wiggler here.


For the previous boss (#2), click here!
If you're ready to progress forward... FOR JUSTICE (or at least Boss 4)... click here.