Cartman is the penultimate boss fight in South Park: Snow Day, and he is a surprisingly tough battle. To be fair, his boss fight is only difficult because he cheats, but are we surprised by that? Absolutely not.
Cartman will do anything to keep the blizzard going and not return to school, including taking you down. It’s crucial to know what you are getting into before you start this Snow Day fight as if you fail, you’re going to be taken back to the Kupa Keep hub and will have to go through the level all over again. It’s around 45 minutes to an hour’s worth of gameplay when not speed-running, so it will crush your soul if you have to start over.
Here’s how to take down Cartman in South Park: Snow Day!
How to win the Cartman boss fight in South Park: Snow Day!
Avoid Bulrog
Cartman’s first step in the fight is already a huge cheater move as he summons a massive version of his ninja alter ego Bulrog out of snow. Fans of the season eight South Park episode Good Times With Weapons will be familiar with Bulrog, but he’s about ten times taller here and a lot more angry.
Bulrog will actively chase the players and use several different strong attacks on them such as a body slam move where he jumps into the air and slams back down, and a spell that launches a wall of snow at the player that can only be avoided by jumping over it or dodging.
He is strong enough to take down your entire team if he hits you all at once when at the height of his strength. I was playing this battle with AI bots and Bulrog managed to knock them all out with his body slam because they had grouped together.
Despite the urge to defend yourself against the menace that is Bulrog, you need to avoid him completely and aim only for Cartman. Cartman spends the fight running around in the background and occasionally hiding in snow drifts, so it can be easy to lose sight of him and turn your focus to Bulrog. This is a pointless endeavor though, as Bulrog is pretty much Cartman’s immortal bodyguard.
Dodge the fire spells
Cartman will also attack you with his Grand Wizard magic, and these spells can pack quite a punch if they land. He will first hurl magic fireballs at you, so be ready to dodge out of the way when you see the reddish-pink spheres heading your way. His next attack is a little more difficult to avoid, as Cartman will summon a meteor firestorm down to blanket the arena.
You can see where the meteors are going to strike thanks to the yellow circles that appear on the ground, but it can be tricky to dodge out of the way of all of them, so keep your wits about you when you see Cartman raising his wizard staff to the sky.
Go all in when Cartman’s shield bubble goes down
When you see an opening, run at Cartman and attack him as much as possible. Both melee weapons and ranged weapons work, but I found that melee weapons were more effective and did more damage.
Ever the cheater, Cartman will protect himself with a shield bubble when you have hit him several times. The bubble is impenetrable, so don’t waste your strength trying to hit him when it is up. He will also call Bulrog back to help him, so when Cartman is shielded, dodge Bulrog as much as you can.
Switch to powers when you lose your melee weapons
One of the irritating spells that Cartman uses will turn your weapon into a super weak pool noodle. When this happens, switch to your powers to attack Cartman as the noodles do very little damage.
Remove Cartman’s snow clones
Cartman’s final attempt to cheat the system comes in the form of snow clones that he will conjure to confuse you. There are a lot of them, and it is hard to tell which one is the real Cartman as he too dons a snow clone disguise by covering himself with snow. The snow clones aren’t particularly strong, so a few decent hits will take them out.
The difficulty here comes from the fact that all the snow clones will start to summon meteors and throw fireballs at you. It can get a bit hectic, and it is easy to get caught up constantly dodging and weaving to avoid damage, but you need to keep taking out the clones until you find the real Cartman. If you’re lucky, you will locate the real Cartman pretty quickly, in which case the other snow clones will disappear until he summons them again.
As I said, this is a pretty tough fight, and one that I struggled with more than the final boss fight in Snow Day. The main issue I had with this fight is that it is so much more difficult when you’re playing single-player with bots rather than with actual people. The bots were all over the place and kept grouping up only to get decimated by Bulrog. I kept having to revive them more often than not.
When you’re reviving your teammates, you have to stand still within the blue circle that surrounds them until it fills up. Standing still is a recipe for disaster during this fight, as you’ll find yourself at the mercy of Bulrog or set ablaze by Cartman’s fireball and meteor spells. Having to stand still to revive my idiot bot teammates did not end well, and I ended up dying three times and having to keep replaying the level over and over. Don’t be like me: Play with real people to avoid a constant, crushing defeat if possible.
Keep dodging, don’t forget to keep your eyes on Cartman whenever you can, and make sure that you or a teammate has a Cheesy Poof totem pole power equipped so that your squad can keep topping up their health when needed. With some luck and well-timed attacks, you should take down South Park’s resident menace in no time. For more on the boss fights in South Park: Snow Day, check out our guides on how to beat Kyle, Stan, and Princess Kenny.
