Colonel Jackson

Colonel Jackson is the second Don of the Tower of Barbs, and the manufacturer of War Ensemble.

Lore
"Another one of the mysterious appeals of this tower is the ability to meet the "old you" after you die within. This is due to the four dons that live within the Tower. They reanimate the corpses of all who die in their domain, and in turn, use them as their own mindless undead killers within the Tower. Most visitors are shocked to see that their corpse has been reanimated and is now on a killing spree on their way to the top of the Tower. The chance of fighting against your own reanimated corpse is just yet another allure of this Tower."

- Mother Barbs

Mother Barbs also claims that the Jackals were originally hired by the Dons to deliver the dead bodies in the Tower to them.

Uncle Death Quotes:
 * "I haven't been this excited in a while! Time for your second challenge. You'll be fine, don't worry. You're the hero!" - Outside Colonel Jackson's boss fight, 20F HACHIYANMA.
 * "Senpai! It's a bomb! If you pick up that head, you'll be blown to bits! You're going to have to disarm it!" - Colonel Jackson's boss fight, 20F HACHIYANMA.
 * "There are three disarming devices in total." - Colonel Jackson's boss fight, 20F HACHIYANMA.
 * "Watch out for landmines! And bananas!" - Colonel Jackson's boss fight, 20F HACHIYANMA.
 * "Yeah! Press and hold the button in front of the disarming device!" - Colonel Jackson's boss fight, 20F HACHIYANMA.
 * "That's one down. Hurry to the next one!" - Colonel Jackson's boss fight, 20F HACHIYANMA.
 * "You're making great time, bro! Head for the next target." - Colonel Jackson's boss fight, 20F HACHIYANMA.
 * "Yeah dude! You did it! You disarmed the explosives! Good job! You're a hero! Hey! Let's go get a stamp, shall we?" - Colonel Jackson's boss fight, 20F HACHIYANMA.
 * "Well! You've managed to make it through your second real challenge. Impressive." - Defeating Colonel Jackson, 20F HACHIYANMA.

Tales From the Barbs Transcript:

According to Tales from the Barbs Vol. 2, Colonel Jackson was born in Los Angeles. He enjoyed action movies as a child, and they drove him to get hooked on weight training. He later joined the United States led United Forces, managed to reach the rank of Colonel, and joined the "War Ensemble". He made weapons for the War Ensemble, and personally specialized in making bombs. He also developed a narcissistic streak, taking advantage of any reflective surface - even those of weapons - to look at himself. While in the War Ensemble, he met the love of his life, Johnny. The two shared their interest in action movies, and this connection deepened over time.

His skill with bombmaking led him to be known as the "Happy Bomber". His narcissism drove him to take selfies as he tested his bombs, often going nude, as he enjoyed the hot rush of air from the explosions on his bare skin. His selfies became more and more elaborate over time, his addiction to the thrill overtaking him, until it proved too costly. Jackson planned to propose to Johnny during the testing of a new cluster bomb he designed, and invited Johnny to the test site. Unfortunately, the cluster bomb was more powerful than Jackson had expected, and in the aftermath of the explosion, Jackson found that he had lost Johnny.

The grief broke Jackson, and he resigned from the army to return to Los Angeles, but the loss of Johnny irreparably broke his psyche. One day, Jackson went into town, with his selfie stick in tow, and began indiscriminately throwing hand grenades at civilians. However, just as he was being arrested, the Earth Rage occurred, and Jackson was decapitated by an exploding grenade at the age of 32.

Colonel Jackson Quotes:
 * "Johnny?! You’ve come back to me! You... You’re not Johnny... I guess I really never will see my Johnny again.. Why... Why do I even LIVE?! A world without Johnny is a world without meaning... I’ll blow it all to Hell!" - Boss fight intro.
 * "You saved my life... Is that you Johnny?!" "I knew it was you, Johnny!" - Boss fight starts.
 * "Johnny's spirit must live on inside you...! My time here is over. Now that I have met you I can finally rest in peace." - Defeating Colonel Jackson.

Pre-Fight
Colonel Jackson's fight begins with him arming a bomb. During this initial phase of the fight, players are placed in a dusty, war torn area with plenty of damaged buildings. Jackson cannot be removed from the bomb he has created without detonating it, so it is necessary to disarm the bomb beforehand. There are three small boxes scattered across Colonel Jackson's arena, which must be interacted with to disarm the bomb. All three must be disarmed before 5:00 minutes elapse. If the timer exceeds,A death metal can be used to reset the timer, giving you 5 more minutes to find the remaining boxes and disarm it. The arena is filled with Scratch Tubers, Bullet Tubers, Bone Tubers, Screamers, and a single Hater. There are also a number of landmines scattered around the arena.

Disarming the bomb mechanisms disable the timer, allowing you to defeat any enemies still wandering around Jackson's arena. Be aware entering the second phase of the fight will despawn all enemies, but not despawn any drops from defeating enemies, nor despawn the landmines if you did not detonate them.

Strategy
For the first portion of the fight, the enemies are no more difficult than any other enemy on floor 16-20, but beware of interacting with the disarming devices while fighting enemies, as the disarming animation takes up time and taking damage during the animation cancels the disarming.

Because there is a period of calm between the first and second phases, using your mushrooms just before interacting with Jackson in the center of the arena may be a wise move.

For the main portion of the fight:
 * Using range weapons should be avoided since Jackson highly resists pierce damage. He heavily resists poison and electric damage.
 * He is fairly weak to blunt and slash damage, and he is really weak to fire damage. Using a weapon that staggers enemies easily is recommended.
 * As with any boss, using Stingshrooms or Red Stingshrooms to enhance your damage is always beneficial, but not necessary. Stingshrooms are best paired with an invisibility shroom to maximize the efficacy of that strategy.

Attacks
Once you approach Jackson after disabling the bomb mechanisms, the real fight starts. Jackson's head is attached to a beheaded JIN-DIE body, and he begins to attack. His attacks are as follows:
 * Jackson shoots three semi-homing basic shots at you.
 * Jackson launches several exploding skulls/grenades at you.
 * Jackson fires a fairly slow-moving, homing electrified shot at you. The shot will explode upon hitting an obstacle, dealing AOE damage and paralyzing you if you are hit by it or its blast.
 * Jackson lays 5-6 mines in a small spread directly in front of him. These mines function like any other landmine, and he can use this attack even while staggered.
 * Jackson can fire five missiles, which explode upon contact with any surface. These missiles tend to either be fired in a scattered pattern, or all towards a single location. Jackson tends to yell "I miss you!" before/while using this attack.
 * Jackson fires a series of yellow lasers, which pass through walls and have fairly powerful stunning power, but they tend to miss if he cannot directly lock onto you.
 * Jackson's strongest attack is like JIN-DIE's normal massive laser, which he charges up and fires, during which he is vulnerable to being attacked from behind or the side.
 * Jackson can also teleport like a JIN-DIE, and uses this ability liberally.