Kirby franchise strategy guide/Bosses/Dark Matter

Dark Matter is a character and recurring antagonist in the Kirby games. Its first three appearances are Kirby's Dream Land 2, Kirby's Dream Land 3, and Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards.

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Dark Matter, as it appears in Kirby's Dream Land 3.

General Information

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Dark Warrior

Dark Matter's appearance is generally that of a dark cloud with a single eyeball. In Kirby's Dream Land 2, it first appeared masked, robed and wielding a magical sword in its first combat form. It attacks by swinging its sword and charging at Kirby, shooting lasers from the tip of its sword, and throwing black balls at him. In its second form it appears with projectiles surrounding it. It shoots black lasers in every direction, throws its projectiles which follow Kirby, and shoots black lightning to attack. Its second form in Kirby's Dream Land 2 is also its first form in Kirby's Dream Land 3, while 0 (see below) is often confusedly considered its second form in that game.

Small clouds of Dark Matter will often collect themselves into a large cloud, which must be destroyed at the core.

Dark Matter also has the ability to possess other beings, which it often does in order to accomplish its eventual goal. In Kirby's Dream Land 2 and Kirby's Dream Land 3 it possessed King Dedede and his minions, while in Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards it possessed King Dedede again, the princess of Ripple Star, as well as Kirby's friends Waddle Dee and Adeleine.

Kirby cannot destroy Dark Matter on his own without the use of a magical item. In Kirby's Dream Land 2, this item was the Rainbow Sword, in Kirby's Dream Land 3, it was the Heart Rod, and in Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards, it was the Crystal Gun.

Dark Matter is a force of negative energy. It takes orders from no one (excluding its mind, 0). However, it actually lives a lonely existence. It is jealous of Dream Land's lifestyle, so it constantly targets it to recreate Pop Star into a dark world where no one can be happy.

Dark Matter appeared in the pilot for the anime Kirby: Right Back at Ya! as a monster made by Nightmare, even though it didn't make it into the anime itself.

0 (Zero)

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0 as seen in Kirby's Dream Land 3

0 is the being that directly controls Dark Matter. It generally resides at the core of a massive cloud of Dark Matter, in the form of a giant eyeball with a red iris.

It appeared for the first time in the final battle of Kirby's Dream Land 3, after Kirby defeats a single Dark Matter cloud. It attacks by throwing blood drops and mini-versions of the Dark Matter cloud Kirby had destroyed before at him, and can also charge him and then fire blood at him from the background. When 0 takes enough damage, the red eye in the center of its body pops out and begins to chase Kirby around. The eyeball itself has much less defense than the body it was in the center of had. After the eyeball is destroyed, 0 falls, and Kirby is able to destroy the massive cloud hovering over Pop Star.

In Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards, 0 returns as 0² (Zero Two), an angelic-looking form of 0 with a halo, and geometric, segmented wings. Upon collecting all 100 crystals, Dark Matter returns as a massive planet called Dark Star hovering over Ripple Star, and using the energy of the now complete Crystal to destroy the planet. Navigating through the single level it holds, the player reaches 0². It attacks with supernovae-like blasts from its eye as well as green gas from its green spiked tail. Kirby must destroy it to free Ripple Star entirely from Dark Matter's grasp. To do so, all he has to do is shoot its eye with the Crystal Gun many times, then, the halo, and finally, its tail, the only way to deal actual damage. Alternatively, he can also shoot and destroy its wings, which will make it move more slowly, and also make its eye easier to hit. Upon its health being depleted, 0² explodes, destroying Dark Star along with it.

In the anime, there is a large eyeball on the front of Nightmare's Fortress that looks like 0.

Miracle Matter

Miracle Matter is the boss of Ripple Star in Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards, and appears to be the final boss of the game until all of the Crystal Shards are collected, after which an additional planet called Dark Star, with 0², the real final boss, at the end, is revealed. Its appearance is shown as a large white icosahedron with 20 red eyes, having one eye on each face. It has the power to transform into all of the seven abilities that Kirby can copy in that game, and Kirby must damage it by inhaling its projectiles and spitting them out at it when it possesses the same ability as the projectile Kirby has inhaled; otherwise, Miracle Matter won't take any damage. Alternatively, Kirby can come into the fight with an ability in hand; he can only hurt Miracle Matter with an ability when Miracle Matter possesses the same ability as the one Kirby is holding, though it doesn't need to be a pure ability as it can be damaged by an ability mixed from 2 types as long as it is using one of those two types. As damage is landed on it, its eyes start to turn completely black, one at a time. Once all of its eyes turn completely black, Miracle Matter explodes revealing the last big Crystal Shard. Miracle Matter is considered the most time-consuming form of Dark Matter that Kirby has to fight.

Related Entities

Dark Nebula (Dark Zero)

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Dark Nebula

In Kirby: Squeak Squad, there is a character known as Dark Nebula (Dark Zero in the Japanese version). It was sealed in a chest to protect Dream Land, but The Squeaks fought for it, thinking it hid the ultimate power. Meta Knight later took it unexpectedly, bringing it to the revived Halberd in order to prevent it from being released. It eventually was, and possessed the Squeaks' leader. When Kirby defeated him, Dark Nebula escaped and Kirby followed it, armed with the Triple Star Rod. It fought Kirby using elemental attacks, like huge fireballs, ice beams, and electrical fields. It was defeated and destroyed.

Dark Mind

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Dark Mind, as seen in Kirby & the Amazing Mirror

A similar-looking character, Dark Mind, is the final boss of Kirby and the Amazing Mirror. Though it has similar forms to Dark Matter/0, it is unknown whether there is any connection between the two. It is possible that Dark Mind is the "Mirror World" form of Dark Matter or perhaps that of Nightmare (As both have a similar appearance to Dark Mind's Different "Phases"), yet neither of these theories have been proven. Phase one of Dark Mind takes on an appearance to Nightmare, while phases two and three of Dark Mind look similar to Dark Matter but more like 0. However, Phase 3 resembles the "Nightmare Power Orb."

Gooey

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Gooey as seen in his Dark Matter form (Kirby's Dream Land 3)

Gooey is Kirby's friend who appeared in Kirby's Dream Land 3, and is a non-evil glob of dark matter. However, he has been around since Kirby's Dream Land 2 as a "friend" that could be rescued after a mini-boss fight (he really appeared just to tease you and would restore 1 point of health if touched). Gooey is a dark blue limbless blob with a smiling face, that consumes opponents by his tongue rather than sucking. It is similar to Yoshi's attack, except rather than jabbing straight forward, it whips around a little as he attempts to make contact. He takes on a similar appearance to Dark Matter when he joins Kirby in the final battle of Kirby's Dream Land 3 as he has small orange blobs around him, just like Dark Matter.