Ridley, beaten without taking damage. I think this was the hardest zero damage fight I've done yet.This fight is all about knowing Ridley's attack patterns and being able to tell when he's going to do what. First off, if you stay on the platform Ridley will often try to stab you from above with his tail. This is highly exploitable if you crouch on the far left edge of the platform while Ridley is facing left, as you can see in the video. Ridley won't be able to hit you and you'll be free to unload around ten super missiles into him. Note that if you jump, Ridley will stop tail stabbing, but he'll often start again if you land back on the platform without space jumping.The next thing to watch out for is Ridley's fireballs, which he loves to spew at you whenever you're across the room from him, either on the platform or in the air. You can screw attack through them but you'll often find wave after wave of them coming at you with little pause in between. The trick is to jump and screw attack through the first wave, fire a super missile at Ridley mid-air, then fall back down to the platform just as Ridley starts breathing a second wave of fireballs at you, which should pass overhead if you time your jump right. Keep up your timing and you can get Ridley stuck in a pattern of tail stabbing, breathing fireballs, flying up and breathing more fireballs as you jump and nail him with a super missile, then starting to tail stab again when you land.If Ridley flies up to the top left or right corner of the room it means he's going to swoop down in a U shape at you. Always be careful to watch for him setting up to do this, since if you don't see it coming you won't have time to dodge. Space jump in the center of the room and when Ridley swoops, space jump over him, turn, and hit him with a super missile as you fall. Watch out for fireballs and Ridley whipping his tail at you after he does this attack.Also keep in mind that any time Ridley isn't tail stabbing he can whip his tail at you. His tail is invulnerable to attack, it can hit you out of the screw attack, and it can reach nearly the entire screen width in any direction. Thus, due to its range, speed, and unpredictability, it's one of the hardest things to avoid and it makes fighting Ridley in the air pure folly. You should jump and screw attack to avoid getting hit, of course, but you want to avoid space jumping for prolonged periods of time.Finally, Ridley rarely dies right when his health reaches zero. (It takes 30 super missiles to get him to zero health, by the way.) Usually he has to pick you up in order to die, which he'll sometimes do when he flies at you, but obviously you're going to be trying to dodge him. And sometimes he just won't even try for quite a while. So, if you think you've done enough damage to him, drop a power bomb and it'll make him pick you up.Note: This video mainly shows how to use the edge trick. To see more methods of dodging Ridley's attacks, watch my video response to this.

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