How to Defeat Vega Van Dam in LISA: The Joyful

LISA: The Joyful is an emotionally charged, gory indie RPG, serving as the expansion to LISA: The Painful and the conclusion to the LISA series. Developed by Dingaling Productions, players assume the role of Buddy, Brad’s adopted daughter, as she embarks on a gripping and harrowing journey to find her purpose in the game’s unforgiving, male-populated post-apocalyptic world.

Vega Van Dam, one of the big bosses in LISA: The Joyful, presents a challenging encounter that may catch players off guard if they’re not ready. Although he’s only one of the game’s early bosses, he’s still widely considered to be a somewhat formidable foe, and shouldn’t be underestimated. In this guide, we’ll provide you with essential tips and strategies to help you conquer Vega Van Dam and continue your adventure in LISA: The Joyful!

How to Defeat Vega Van Dam in LISA: The Joyful

Vega Van Dam is one of the first few bosses you’ll have to go up against in LISA: The Joyful. He’s substantially tougher than Lardy Hernandez and will have two goons with him to help fight you off; you’ll really need to bring your A-game if you want to beat this pink-haired loser.

Beating Vega Van Dam on the first try can seem impossible at first, but if you utilize these tips and tricks, there’s no way you won’t be victorious:

• As with all of this game’s bosses, make sure you rest at a campfire and save your game before taking him on.
  • This advice may seem redundant, but it’s still important! If you save your game prior to fighting him and you don’t manage to take him down the first time, then at least you won’t lose much progress.
• Use Rando’s Fireball attacks on Vega early on in the fight to inflict the Burning status on him.
  • This will not only inflict extra damage on him every turn, but it also ensures that he won’t be able to inflict himself with the Super Cool status effect, which regenerates his HP and SP every turn.
  • You can also try to inflict the Bleed status effect on him using Buddy’s stabbing attacks, but the Burning status effect seems to have a higher chance of being inflicted when its corresponding attack is used.
• As previously mentioned, Vega will have his two goons, Timmy Apple Cat and Fatty Peach Dog, with him to help defeat you. Make sure you knock these two guys out first, so you can focus your attacks on Vega without taking damage from two other enemies every single turn.
  • These guys only have about half of their boss’s HP (5,000), so they shouldn’t take too much effort to knock out.
• If you’re starting to get low on HP, use Buddy’s Flash ability to Fluster him. This should render him immobile and unable to attack for a few turns, which gives you plenty of time to heal up.
  • Buddy gets her Flash ability at level 11, which you should already be at if you’re trying to take on Vega Van Dam in LISA: The Joyful.
• Vega has a whopping 10,000 HP. Make sure you bring plenty of TP and SP regenerating items, so you can keep hitting him with heavy-hitting attacks non-stop.
  • This will make sure that he won’t have much time to get the best of you during the fight.

As long as you follow this advice, then defeating Vega Van Dam in LISA: The Joyful should be a piece of cake!

Where to Locate Vega Van Dam in LISA: The Joyful

Before you can fight him, you’ll first need to find him. Thankfully, Vega is terrible at hiding and his “hideout” is incredibly easy to find once you know what you’re looking for.

Vega Van Dam is predictably located at the far right end of the Vega Land territory, hiding inside of a large building with his name painted above the door. To get to Vega Land, you’ll first need to defeat Bobo, a Joy Mutant in Area 1, and reach the end of his cave.

Once you’ve exited the cave, you’ll be met with yet another Joy Mutant, Cooper, whom you’ll have to defeat in order to get past (he’s surprisingly strong, so be sure to heal up before you battle him). After you beat Cooper, go over to the boarded-up door and use TNT to blow it open (you get the TNT from Lardy’s Truck).

Enter the second cave and keep going until you come to the cave’s exit, which happens to be the entrance to Vega Land. Once you’re in Vega Van Dam’s territory, finding his headquarters is easy enough (it’s located to the far right of Vega Land).

There happens to be a conveniently located crow right next to Vega’s hideout, so make sure you put it to good use before fighting him!

Related: How to Retrieve Kidnapped Companions in LISA: The Painful

LISA: The Joyful serves as the perfect successor to LISA: The Painful. If you loved playing both of these games and are hungry for more morally ambiguous games that make you cry, then you should try playing I Was a Teenage Exocolonist and The Binding of Isaac!

I Was a Teenage Exocolonist and The Binding of Isaac share remarkable similarities to the LISA games as indie RPGs with dark and emotionally charged narratives. Each game explores psychological and moral challenges faced by their protagonists, delving into themes of sacrifice, regret, and redemption.

Players are exposed to thought-provoking storytelling, challenging gameplay, and strategic decision-making in both of these RPGs, just like in LISA: The Painful and LISA: The Joyful.

While the LISA series focuses on a post-apocalyptic setting and The Binding of Isaac on a macabre basement, I Was a Teenage Exocolonist centers around an alien planet; despite their minor differences, however, all three games captivate players with unique narratives and deep gameplay mechanics, making them standouts in the indie gaming community. Be sure to check out Gamer Journalist’s guides for both of these games for more information!