Gatling Gull chases the player, and has several attacks:
Rapidly fires bullets in a random spread towards one of the eight cardinal directions the player is located.
Rapidly fires bullets in a fixed, wider side-to-side spread towards one of the eight cardinal directions the player is located.
Pauses to charge up a large single bullet that explodes into many smaller bullets on impact.
Pauses to charge up two wide spreads of bullets.
Jumps off screen and lands near the player.
Jumps off screen and lands at a random location, after which it will stand still and fire missiles. The locations that the missiles land are indicated by red crosshairs on the ground.
Gatling Gull can be forced to abandon this attack and end it early if it takes too much damage during it.
If the player gets too close, it will swing its gun as a melee attack.
Strategy
Gatling Gull's bullet spread can be hard to dodge, but staying at range and circling with occasional dodge rolls is an effective strategy.
Avoid dodge rolling until you are at longer range; at close range, the end lag and slower travel time of the dodge roll will often propel you straight into bullets. If you're close, focus on backing off and only start circling once you've gained some distance. Once you are at a comfortable distance, circle and dodge roll when a bullet strays especially far, and its low health will often mean a quick victory.
Try to avoid staying still. Its bullet spread is very dodge-able, but it will constantly walk toward you, and getting trapped against a wall will usually result in a hit.
When it is firing its large bullet that explodes into smaller bullets, take note of where it's going and either get behind cover or try to gain extra distance to safely dodge bullets from two directions at once.
When it is firing the two wide spreads of bullets, try dodge rolling sideways instead of towards the bullets. The timing is a bit harder, but dodge rolling towards Gatling Gull twice will often leave you too close to avoid his follow-up attack.
The eighteen small pillars arena is very large, allowing you to very easily get away from Gatling Gull, as his large size prevents him from following you quickly around corners.
Another perk of the large arenas is that you may walk backwards for much longer while shooting at the Gatling Gull, and when combined with the occasional sidestep, this is an effective strategy for dealing large amounts of damage at a time.
When it starts firing rockets, it will stand still for an extended period of time. This is a good opportunity to get damage off, but dealing enough damage will cause it to cancel the attack.
In pre-alpha versions of Enter the Gungeon, the Gatling Gull had an additional quote as part of his boss intro sequence displayed underneath his portrait, reading; "HOW YOU LIKE THESE GUNS"[1]
In very early pre-alpha versions of Enter the Gungeon the first chamber was Underground Passage and Gatling Gull was the only boss. Additionally, the Gatling Gull boss room layout used in this version of the game was removed before release.[2]
Notes
Gatling Gull has 5 different boss arenas, containing:
4 pillars in the corners of the room
18 small pillars spread evenly across the room (this arena is very large compared to the others)
All of the Gatling Gull's arenas have its nest in the middle of the room.
The Gatling Gull cannot hit the Decoy and the Explosive Decoy while using its bullet spread attack.
The player can use the Ticket to spawn a friendly Gatling Gull which will remain until it takes too much damage or the room is cleared, whichever comes first.
After the boss has lost enough health, it will get a speed boost.
On the first run of a save file, Gatling Gull will always be the boss of floor 1 and appear in the 2 chandeliers and 8 tables room. It is unknown if this applies in the event the player dies and enters the boss room after, or skips the 1st floor boss through Oubliette.
The Gatling Gull's boss intro animation was the first boss intro created for Enter the Gungeon, and is correspondingly the longest.[3]
Drunkard Dialogue:
The Gatling Gull's face displayed as the icon for the
Gatling Gull on the sleeve of the 2022 special edition soundtrack vinyl. Illustration by Joseph Harmon.
