Royal Road
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Royal Road is the sixth level of Kirby: Triple Deluxe and the last of the six lands in the kingdom of Floralia. It has five regular stages, a boss stage, and two EX stages. The level is effectively one big castle complex, with an additional floating prison complex above it. There are sixteen Sun Stones to collect in this level, with one each in Stages 2, 4 and EX 2, three each in Stages 1, 3 and EX, and four in Stage 5. All the previous bosses are fought here again throughout the stages, and the primary bosses vary depending on which game-mode is being played. In Story Mode, the bosses are Masked Dedede and Queen Sectonia. In Dededetour!, they are Queen Sectonia DX, Shadow Dedede and Dark Meta Knight's Revenge.
Stages
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This article or section is under construction. Therefore, please excuse its informal appearance while it's being worked on. We hope to have it completed as soon as possible. No reason has been specified. |
For details on each stage individually, click the name of the stage.
| Stage | Unlock Req. | Sun Stones | Hypernova? | Notes |
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| Stage 1 | N/A | 3 | 
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| Stage 2 | Complete Stage 1. | 1 |
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The bosses Coily Rattler and Kracko are re-fought here. |
| Stage 3 | Complete Stage 2. | 3 | 
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| Stage 4 | Complete Stage 3. | 1 |
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The bosses Paintra, Flowery Woods and Pyribbit are re-fought here. |
| Stage 5 | Complete Stage 4. | 4 |
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Flowery Woods makes one last appearance here. |
| Stage 6: Masked Dedede & Queen Sectonia | Collect 7 Sun Stones from prior Royal Road stages and complete Stage 5. | 0 |
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Completing this stage leads into Eternal Dreamland. |
| Stage 7 EX | Collect all prior Royal Road Sun Stones. | 3 |
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This is an EX stage, so completing it is not required to finish the game. |
| Stage 8 EX | Complete Stage 7 EX. | 1 |
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This is an EX stage, so completing it is not required to finish the game. |
Stage 6 (Bosses)
Story Mode (Bosses: Masked Dedede, Queen Sectonia)
The stage begins as Kirby rushes down the hall to the main audience chamber, as Taranza flies ahead with King Dedede as usual. Kirby has the choice along the way between all of the new abilities, Archer, Beetle, Bell and Circus. From there, Kirby will reach a giant ornate door, which will slowly open upon activation.
Inside, a cut-scene begins, where Taranza finally speaks to Kirby, chiding him for his persistence, still thinking him little more than a pest. He relays to Kirby the backstory, wherein he sought to foil the plans of the People of the Sky by stealing the hero their Dreamstalk had meant to bring up. From there, he masks Dedede, and sends him after Kirby to beat him into submission.
The boss fight takes place on two separate life-bars. Dedede begins the fight by using his hammer, which has been augmented with a missile launcher, and doing his other moves as usual. In the second phase, his mask is damaged, and his hammer destroyed, so he grabs a large axe from one of the statues in the background to continue the fight with. Dedede renews the assault with rapid axe slashes, accompanied by magical assistance from Taranza.
When Dedede is finally beaten down, the mask breaks, and he falls unconscious, leaving Taranza to rue the occasion. In his disbelief at having lost, he finally realizes that Kirby is the true hero, and calls on the queen to stop him. When Queen Sectonia appears before Taranza, she swats him away for his incompetence, then begins to monologue in Kirby's direction about her power and beauty. She then engages Kirby in combat herself, using her two staves and her magic arsenal.
This fight takes place in three phases, with the second one taking place on a large gem platform in the background. Queen Sectonia fights by swinging her staves to cast magic bolts, summoning minions, and changing her staves to swords to slash with style. Ultimately, despite all this power, she is defeated at the hands of Kirby, which prompts her to take a more drastic approach in the final level, Eternal Dreamland.
Dededetour! (Bosses: Queen Sectonia DX, Shadow Dedede, Dark Meta Knight's Revenge)
In DededeTour!, Dedede finds himself in the audience chamber, where Queen Sectonia DX appears to fight him without any sort of introduction. The fight plays out similarly to the one in the Main Game, but Sectonia's attacks are more forceful.
Once she is defeated, Dedede makes a triumphant pose, when out of nowhere, the Dimension Mirror appears behind him. Out from the mirror pops a dark shadowy copy of the king, which engages his normal world counterpart in combat. The fight is similar to the main game fight with Masked Dedede, but takes place on one bar of Vitality. In addition, Shadow Dedede will conjure his own energy orbs from his belly, instead of relying on Taranza (who remains uninvolved in this mode). Upon defeat, Shadow Dedede is knocked down, and shatters into glass shards which then dissipate.
King Dedede then hops into the Dimension Mirror, and is taken to a shadowy colosseum, reminiscent of the one from Kirby and the Amazing Mirror. Here the Dimension Mirror appears again, this time releasing a dimly shaded clone of Meta Knight, with a white mask and a silver sword. This dark swordsman, who had previously been bested by Kirby, now seeks revenge, and Dedede just happens to be the closest target. They fight a battle that takes place in two phases. The first phase is similar to any given encounter with Meta Knight, but the second involves Dark Meta Knight creating mirror images of himself, and causing giant sword spikes to emerge from the ground.
Upon defeat, Dark Meta Knight is sucked back into the Dimension Mirror. Taking advantage of this opportunity, Dedede leaps up, and smashes the mirror with his hammer. Once destroyed, Dedede does a victory dance, and the game is complete.
Stage EX 2
Prelude: The stage begins inside the prison complex, on a platform that rises out of the bottomless pit. A series of platforms lead upward to a warp that will take Kirby to the next section.
Section 1: The warp leads to a series of floating platforms over what looks like the background from Endless Explosions. The path eventually leads to a familiar-looking bridge and platform, where Kirby finds a Miracle Fruit Vine and gains the Hypernova ability. From here, the Winged Eggers appear to attack Kirby. After defeating them, a warp opens to the next section.
Section 2: The warp leads to the interior wide chamber from the prison compound, with more floating platforms spanning to the right. The Waddle Dee Steel Fortress appears from the right side, this time carrying Sectonian Waddle Dees. Defeating it yields the warp to the next section.
Section 3: The warp leads to the room where the Ace Fuwa Rover was fought, and they must battle again. This time, however, the Ace only possesses the painting and the grand piano before it goes down for the count, opening the warp to the next section.
Section 4: The warp leads to a room in the prison compound with two Land Barbar that attempt to eat Kirby. He must first eat the lower Barbar and use its pipe to enter the foreground and activate a secondary platform before he can eat the upper Barbar and progress to the next room. From there, the warp to the next section can be found, though if Kirby first looks down the pit, he can find two Keychains at the end of another pipe.
Section 5: The warp leads to a cloud canopy area as seen at the very beginning of the game. Kirby needs to use Hypernova to pull out a metal block and cause it to crash through some barrier blocks and open the way down. From here, Kirby can choose to either have the block crash through a path containing some stars, or a path full of Lanzers. After that, one more block drop is needed to reach a room where the warp to the next section lies.
Section 6: The warp leads to a series of platforms inside the prison compound where Kirby must fight the Gigant Chicks using a turnip. Defeating them opens a warp to the next section, though a Keychain can be found beneath the right platform.
Section 7: The warp leads to an open plain in the Endless Explosions landscape. Venturing right leads to an encounter with a particularly nasty looking member of the Mowlee Bros., who tosses flaming spiky balls at Kirby. The Winged Eggers can be seen in the background, defeated from Kirby's previous encounter with them. Defeating him causes him to fly back into the Eggers and knock all of them off the back platform, causing a warp to appear to the next section.
Section 8: The warp leads to a hallway in Royal Road with a clear background. To the right, a large cured drape can be seen. Kirby can unfurl it by inhaling its bauble to reveal a tapestry outlining the 'evolution' of Kirby, starting with his original sprite from Kirby's Dream Land and finishing with a depiction of him in his Hypernova form. Additionally, an animated portion of the tapestry just to the right of this diagram shows a scene from the original fight with King Dedede as the very last Sun Stone in the game is available to collect, along with the stage exit. However, one last secret remains, and if Kirby wishes to get all the food in the world, three 1Ups and three Keychains, one of which is Golden, he must wish to the moon.
Enemies, Mid-bosses, and Abilities
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Trivia
- Throughout Royal Road, numerous enemies encountered in previous levels now sport an insectoid design. These include Waddle Dees, Bronto Burts, Gordos, Lanzers, and Spynums.
- However, Stage EX features both Sectonian and normal variants of enemies that would otherwise be Sectonian only.
- Stage 3 and Stage EX 2 are the only stages in the game from which it is impossible to obtain any Copy Abilities.
- Additionally, Stage EX 2 is the only EX stage to feature Hypernova.
- Stage EX 2 features the Fountain of Dreams theme from Kirby Air Ride when Kirby gains Hypernova, which itself is a remix of the Gourmet Race theme from Kirby Super Star.
