TheStealth Soldier is anEmblem Heartless that is found inKingdom Hearts Final Mix.

Design[edit]

A Stealth Soldier is a humanoid Heartless with dark grey skin. It has large hands with blue claws and wears tattered, red boots with curled toes. It also wears silver bracelets and faded, blue knee guards. Its pitch-black head and glowing yellow eyes are visible under its silver helmet, which is decorated by a curled antenna and two angular, black spirals. The Heartless emblem is emblazoned on its chest.

The Stealth Soldier's name reflects its ability to become invisible.

Strategy[edit]

These enemies appear inHollow Bastion and are very dangerous due to their high speed and ability to charge right throughSora. They are also invisible until hit enough times. This can be especially damaging while Sora is only equipped with hisWooden Sword. UsingBeast or magic at this point is very advisable. Once Sora regains hisKeyblade, and if his stats are still low, it is advisable to use the Stop spell before attempting to attack, which turns it visible briefly.

When the Stealth Soldier attacks by running into Sora, this may cause Sora's to suffer from heavy recoil if blocked/parried. Once it is seen, defeat it immediately. CastingAeroga immediately when a Stealth Soldier is spotted will help reduce damage taken, and reduce its HP in the process. Reducing enough of its HP causes it to be instantly left visible via a white bright flash of light that briefly engulfs the screen as an indicator (as well as it suffering from knockback that makes it take a hard fall whenever this happens regardless of the attack that makes it hit its threshold).

The quickest way to destroy Stealth Soldiers is to castStop spells and deal a single combo before casting Stop again (as well as merely chaining your attacks into Stop in the place of a combo finisher). This process can use up a lot ofMP if your Strength stat and/or MP stat is not sufficiently high, so it is recommended to stockpile a fewEthers before hunting any Stealth Soldiers.

It is possible however to be able to wallop on a Stealth Soldier by locking onto it without using Stop, via landing combo finishers on it to send it flying as it takes a hard fall onto the ground (having no Combo Pluses and/or Air Combo Pluses equipped is recommended), though it can be difficult to do so when needing to pay mind to other enemies around you as well as needing to chase after where it's been sent flying. Sora's special abilities (Sonic Blade, Strike Raid, Ars Arcanum and Ragnarok) can also stagger it with hitstun to keep it in place while dealing damage.

Major note that if the Stealth Soldier is the only enemy left in the designated combat area of the room, then it will try to immediately vanish unless it's been staggered by specific attacks (or knocked away into hard landing by a combo finisher) or frozen with Stop just in time. Thus, it's wise to try and focus on the Stealth Soldier as soon as you can while ignoring all other present enemies if hunting it down for its item drops (especially if you've programmed your party members to help take the aggro off your back).

If the lone Stealth Soldier that is soon to vanish happens to go too far away from Sora and warps back to its spawning spot on its own, it will eventually reappear-then-vanish-for-good in that instant when Sora approaches its spawn point if any other enemies are not present and/or are cleared out (unless another enemy or more happen to be chasing Sora at that time).

If encountering the lone duo of Stealth Soldiers at the upper area of the Grand Hall, try and cast Stop on them (especially if you have Stopra or Stopga) as soon as possible as they spawn to keep them close to one another, and to interchange striking them and recasting it to keep them both in place if you plan to defeat both of them. Otherwise, defeating any one of the duo if all other enemies are cleared out will cause the one still left alive to vanish ASAP.

Technique		Element	Tech	Power Bonus	Guard?
Drill Rush Attack (きりもみ突進攻撃, Kirimomi Tosshin Kōgeki?)		None	x0	8	Repellable (Recoil: 100)
		Rushes forward while spinning like a drill.
Spin Kick (回転蹴り, Kaitengeri?)		None	x0	6	Repellable (Recoil: 100)
		Jumps forward while spinning like a top.
Pouring Kick (あびせ蹴り, Abise Keri?)		None	x0	6	Repellable (Recoil: 100)
		Lights up, jumps, and swings its legs around.
Guard: Repellable = Can be blocked and interrupted; Returnable = Can be blocked and deflected back; Preventable = Blockable by Goofy's shield only.

Spawning[edit]

The process for having Stealth Soldiers spawn depends on specific Heartless spawns within the room(s) they have a chance of appearing in. Stealth Soldiers can appear in theEntrance Hall and theGrand Hall.

The main indicators for dictating a Stealth Soldier spawn are when the Heartless amounts are rather few per spawn (making way for the Stealth Solider to fill their ranks), as well as if no other Soldier Heartless appear at all (neither normal Soldiers or Air Soldiers).

Before Kairi's rescue via the first visit to Hollow Bastion in a playthrough, the Entrance Hall spawns will be influenced like so:

• A single Stealth Soldier will appear in the middle of 4Darkballs in front of the fountain. The default spawn is instead 6 Darkballs.
• Another can appear near aDefender and 2Wizards at the top of the stairs towards the entrance theLift Stop, but the default spawn would be if the Defender appears with 3 Wizards instead.
• Another indicator of the guaranteed appearance of the Stealth Soldiers is if on the very upper level of the Entrance Hall, mainly from either exiting theLibrary's upper exit or riding up the activated elevator platforms, if 4 Wizards appear in the place of 4Wyverns instead. Stealth Soldiers will not appear on the upper level however.

After Kairi's rescue, three Stealth Soldiers will then also have a chance of appearing in the Grand Hall, as well as changing the new spawns in the Entrance Hall in these specific manners:

• The special spawn in the front of the fountain that makes the Stealth Soldier appear is when a singleLarge Body appears with 2 Wizards. The default spawn is instead a pair of Large Bodies with a Wizard behind them each.
• At the top of the paired stairs towards the entrance to the Lift Stop, a single Large Body blocking the entryway + a Wizard with aBlue Rhapsody duo will appear also with a single Stealth Soldier. The default spawn is instead 3 Blue Rhapsodies with 2 Wizards all accompanying the single Large Body.
• A duo of Stealth Soldiers will then be able to appear in the upper area (via the Library's upper exit or via the elevator platforms) if a single Defender spawns in the spawning spot across from the fountain (one of the Stealth Soldiers may try to immediately bail to the bottom floor). The default spawn in that very spot is instead is a lone Defender with 2 Air Soldiers.
  • Other indicators of a unique spawn at the upper level of the Entrance Hall are the if the two other spawn points separate of the Stealth Soldier spawn are: 2 Blue Rhapsodies + 1 Wizard and 1 Defender + 2 Wizards. Normal spawns in those specific spots however are respectively 4 Blue Rhapsodies + 1 Wizard and 1 Wizard + 4 Air Soldiers.
    • However, the spawn specifically closest to the Library's upper entrance/exit will always be the same between special and/or normal: 2 Blue Rhapsodies with 1 Defender.

At the Grand Hall, accessible only after Kairi's rescue:

• Initially, 1 Large Body appears with 3 Wizards in the Grand Hall's foyer (with the prisons of thePrincesses of Heart + the blue fire torches) by default always. The Stealth Soldier will only appear in the second wave if it spawns 2 extra Large Bodies in tandem. Otherwise, the default second wave spawn is one Defender with 4 normal Soldiers.
• If 2 Wizards + 1 Defender both spawn at the upper arena of the hall leading to the entrance of theDark Depths, then 2 Stealth Soldiers spawn by themselves after defeating the wave that spawns 3 Large Bodies. Otherwise, the starting default spawn is instead 2 Wizards with 3 normal Soldiers.

If any of the specific unique Heartless spawns do not occur, then none of the rest will occur in the same room. However, if any one of these unique spawns happen, then all the rest will follow suit, again in the same room.

Gallery[edit]

• 

  Stealth Soldier's journal portrait inKingdom Hearts Final Mix.

• 

  Stealth Soldier's journal portrait inKingdom Hearts HD 1.5 ReMIX.

Notes and references[edit]

• Emblem Heartless
• Kingdom Hearts Final Mix enemies