Oops, no jelly armor; working on that mini-boss too. How do you remove a briar? I thought they just retracted after a few seconds. Can you launch a briar from a bubble as a base? Can't seem to bind the red shots; they explode when I try. There's something on one of the walkthroughs, Death Jester's I think, about the two uses of spirit form, one being to absorb energy shots, but I forget what you do after that.
I usually try nature form whenever I think of it; I used it to get past the clogged fat mutants on the way to Mithalas; never occured to me to bind each one (tedious), being a bit Xena in temperament.... But my Xena nature is no help with this crab boss (he doesn't look like a shrimp to me). He just keeps kicking my ass. Maybe I should get the jelly armor first, but the jelly boss keeps kicking my ass too. Sheesh! As does the Octopus boss. Not a good week..... Thanks of all the help, I'll keep plugging away. Anyway I have three new treasures and four new recipes, and I do love this game.