Lollipop Chainsaw

I did this on Hard.

Mariska is behind all the hallucinations in Stage 3 and she herself has some trippy powers in all 3 passes of the fight. For all of the battle, she will encase herself in a floating bubble and occasionally throw bubbles at you which can (in Hard) take away half of your life bar if you are trapped by one. (Mash B if you do get caught to break free.)

NOTE: Avoiding all bubbles in the boss battle will net you the Third Eye achievement.

Best strategy is to keep moving so the bubbles don't get a solid bead on you and thus will just float past. This will definitely work for the first pass as that's pretty much all she throws. Mariska won't be an easy target in the first pass though as she blinks around, often ruining your shot.

Use Chainsaw Blaster to patiently whittle her life down and run around the ramp to collect the respawning bullets.

Once she's down, the screen will turn gray and Mariska will land across from you on the ramp. You have about 10 seconds to run to her and deliver a chainsaw blow at which you can LS down and Y her in half. (I never failed to reach her, but I think you have to repeat the pass if you do fail.)

TIP: Beware of bubbles as you run towards the downed hippy. She still throws them out as she lies there. The gray of the screen will help hide them if you're not looking for them. (Same with the butterflies later.)

As seems to be the case with these bosses, slicing just doesn't cut it the first time around. Instead of dying, Mariska just duplicates to 4 of herself from the two halves! Bugger!

Okay, now she's getting serious. Instead of just bubbles, each of her duplicates seems to be matched to some attack power. Pop one of her duplicates' bubbles and it could call forth a special attack of either a harvester combine or a giant crane (like one from the 3-headed mech chicken).

The crane is easy to dodge since it doesn't seem to reach the far edge of the ramp when it comes down (jump anyway!). But the combine is more of a problem. Whenever you see one appear, notice its direction and run away from it. It gets even more fun when two combines appear and try to sandwich you. Luckily, combines fade away after a few seconds and multiple ones don't materialize simultaneously (I think), meaning one will fade before the other. I've been able to run away from one then quickly switch to run away from the second one as the first fades. It may be tight but just keep between them so you don't get hit!

(I think you can also shoot out the combines before they even reach you, but in the frenzy, I didn't confirm that it was definitely the case. You can definitely shoot out the Mariska at the crane to banish it. But overall, it may be easier to just dodge and shoot out the main Mariskas in the middle.)

Big TIP then: Watch the ramp!

NOTE: There may also be some frustration with auto-targeting. I forgot if it's an option that can be turned off, but in the boss fight, the Chainsaw Blaster will target the closest Mariska, say, the one on the crane, when you're trying for the ones in the middle. Just adjust or cancel your shot to reorient and try again.

Otherwise, just plug away at the Mariskas until all the duplicates disappear and the lone Mariska falls again to the ramp. Get there and strike her before time runs out and Mariska rewards you with an extra split this time to 8! Whoa, nelly!

Now with so many, the Mariskas kind of form an everturning wheel of hippies as they throw bubbles as well as flocks of pink butterflies this time (with same effect as the bubbles). Also there are two new summons to contend with.

A giant hand will rise up and smash down on to the ramp. Not only that, it will chase you like the combines do until it fades. So don't just dodge and think you've escaped. Keep moving!

The other will be a large Apollo style rocket that will rise up and fire its boosters out onto the ramp and slowly spin before it finally takes off. Find a spot between two boosters and move to stay in there! (I've been noticing no other TA'er who has talked of this boss fight has mentioned this attack. So I'm wondering if it's only for Hard. Keep your eyes peeled on other difficulties just the same!)

Keep avoiding and shooting and again the duplicates will pop, the lone Mariska will fall. Get there in time and THIS time your cut will finally take! And you'll see where you've been all along...

Congratulations!

Another rather straight forward boss format. After the first round of fighting, Mariska will create copies of herself, which will fly into the air where you can shoot them with the blaster. They will also send ghostly combines at you, so make sure you dodge and/or run away from them.

The third round is more or less the same thing, but with more copies and instead of the combine you'll get a giant hand that pops and tries to crush you. If you dodge it, it will chase you just like the combne did. Just keep dodging at shooting at the many Mariskas flying around, hit your finishing minigame and you're done.