Regular Enemies | Bosses
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Enemies
The many multitudes of hostile creatures now populating Hell, which V1 must kill both for their blood and to continue their journey deeper into the Pit.Husks
Filth
Rank: Lesser Husk
The first enemy in the game is also at the bottom of Hell's food chain. Filth are physical manifestations of the least strong and notable souls of the damned, so much so that their bodies are incomplete. With no arms or facial features beyond a gaping maw, they can only rush foes down and chomp. They're easily dispatched but come in great numbers. Debuts in 0-1.
- Armless Biped: Filths are bipedal creatures with no arms.
- Astonishingly Appropriate Appearance: The simplicity of the Filth’s design readily communicates its role as the game's most basic enemy, helpless at doing anything except running and biting. Hakita cites this in the Developer Museum entry about the Filth, specifically when comparing its final design to its first, a fully-formed zombie that would later be used as one of the Puppets’ models:"An interesting aspect of the Filth is that, in the early versions of the demo, people complained about the AI of the melee enemies being too dumb, but those complaints completely stopped after the redesign. The new version actually looks like a mindless swarming monster that only thinks about eating, so it being dumb no longer felt out of place or like a flaw. Properly messaging the purpose of an enemy or object through how it looks is an often underappreciated aspect of character design."
- Attack! Attack! Attack!: Filths' combat "strategy" consists only of bum-rushing their target and lunging at them.
- Convenient Weakness Placement: Often conspicuously positioned near lethal falls and traps as a way of showing players how to incorporate them into your combos.
- Deadly Lunge: Brutal difficulty gives these zombies the ability to jump towards V1, letting them close distances much faster and making them a more oppressive threat.
- Eyeless Face: They don't have eyes either.
- The Goomba: Killed in one shot and with only a melee attack, they shouldn't give much trouble even to novices.
- Shout-Out: They're named after an album by Swans, and their face resembles the cover of said album.
- Zerg Rush: Seeing less than three Filths at the same time is extremely rare, and that number quickly increases as you delve deeper into Hell. The only time a Filth spawns alone is when the game introduces the concept of Idols buffing enemies and does so to teach the player.
Stray
Rank: Lesser Husk
The first ranged enemy in the game, a skinless humanoid throwing balls of Hell Energy. Debuts in 0-1.
- Body Horror: They lack skin, so their muscles and organs are fully visible.
- Cowardly Mooks: Strays only feel comfortable attacking from a distance, so they'll attempt to run away from V1 if they come too close. Unfortunately for the Strays, they don't run very quickly at all.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Their lack of mobility makes it very easy to parry their own projectiles back at them. Their entry at the terminals even lampshades this.
- Lean and Mean: Despite being nothing but skin and bones, Strays still pose a threat, however small it may be.
Schism
Rank: Greater Husk
A freak accident of two souls attempting to manifest into a single husk. Throws out volleys of energy projectiles. Debuts in 0-3.
- Arm Cannon: Schisms have a big organic gun fused with the rest of their bodies in place of their right arms.
- Body Horror: With its head fused into its shoulder, a bit of exposed spine, and two distinctly different left arms, it stands out among the husks as particularly ghastly-looking.
- Early-Bird Cameo: Corpses of Schisms can be seen in 0-2 on a path the Swordsmachine took. Schisms themselves appear as enemies in 0-3.
- Fake Ultimate Mook: They're tougher than most enemies and fire a lot of projectiles, but they're largely immobile and inaccurate.
- Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy: As stated by their terminal entry, Schisms cannot aim precisely due to their malformed anatomy; they instead opt to release Hell Orbs in vertical and horizontal waves in the general direction of their opponents. If V1 were to stand perfectly still, only one Orb from a Schism's vertical wave would be fired directly at them. Both attacks have wide coverage, however, and they subsequently become more dangerous during the chaos of a group skirmish—when it's easier for V1 to run into them if they're focused on another target. Downplayed on Brutal difficulty, as the Orb waves become much tighter and veer towards you if you're directly in front of them.
Soldier
Rank: Greater Husk
A cybernetically enhanced Stray that's stronger, tougher, and more aggressive. Debuts in 2-2.
- Arm Cannon: Unlike Schisms, Soldiers have fully mechanized arm guns.
- Elite Mooks: Soldiers are upgraded Strays. They move around with greater agility, fire out a cone of projectiles rather than a single one, and will try to kick you away if you come too close. These qualities complement their newfound bravery, with them approaching V1 when repositioning instead of receding. As of the Wrath + Heresy update, they can also block explosion attacks when they're grounded, taking significantly reduced damage from them.
- Faceless Goons: Their faces are obscured with a blue plate.
- Kung Fu-Proof Mook: As of the Act 2 update, Soldiers are capable of blocking explosions while grounded, which drastically reduces the damage they take.
- Unnecessary Combat Roll: They gain the ability to roll around you before shooting on Brutal difficulty, making them much harder to hit and likely to catch you off-guard.
Stalker
Rank: Lesser Husk
- Action Bomb: Its only means of attack is detonating the container it carries on its back. In a unique take on the typical video game Action Bomb enemy, Stalkers will attempt to detonate near enemies instead of the player.
- Artificial Brilliance: Stalkers will intelligently seek out the biggest threat and cover them in sand, and multiple Stalkers will seek out different targets to avoid overlap. If no valid targets remain, they'll relentlessly chase V1 in order to explode them.
- Anti-Regeneration: Enemies it covers in sand will not bleed, making it harder for V1 to heal during fights. Stalkers themselves also don't bleed, and will detonate upon death, so trying to heal from them is futile.
- Body Horror: It's not readily apparent at first glance thanks to their robes, but their upper body is twisted one hundred and eighty degrees, on top of being horribly emaciated even among Husks.
- Color-Coded for Your Convenience: The lights on their canister change color depending on their status; green when idle, yellow when approaching an enemy or V1, and red when they're about to explode.
- Gas Mask Mooks: Wear an old-school gas mask.
- Hell Is That Noise: Stalkers passively emit horrible, hoarse breathing sounds that can be heard from a long distance away, and their imminent detonation is announced by a loud, distorted whistle.
- In the Hood: They wear a small cloak that covers their head and trails off of their body.
- Removed Achilles' Heel: Brutal difficulty allows them to survive detonating their canister without being blessed by an Idol. If you see one when this is the case, you'll need to kill the bastard immediately before every enemy gets sanded.
- Status Buff: If it detonates near an enemy, they will be covered in sand, rendering them unable to bleed and thus preventing you from healing off them.
- Taking You with Me: They explode upon death, dousing nearby foes in sand and doing a lot of Hard Damage to V1 should they be hit by said explosion.
- Vader Breath: Like Streetcleaners, their presence is blatantly announced with loud, hoarse wheezing.
- Villains Out Shopping: A Stalker hidden on 4-2 can be seen building a sandcastle. It literally goes nuclear if you destroy its handiwork.
Sisyphean Insurrectionist
Sisyphean Insurrectionist
Rank: Supreme Husk
- An Arm and a Leg: The Insurrectionists have their heads and right arms severed as punishment for rebelling against Heaven.
- And I Must Scream: His lore entry mentions that the Malicious Face he's carrying is dead, but since it can bleed, and you can only heal off of living enemies, it's possible that the Malicious Face is still alive but helplessly used as a "flail". This also applies to the Insurrectionists, having their heads and right arms severed and pulling Malicious Faces up to the pyramid with the knowledge that they're so close to freedom yet failed to achieve it. Forever.
- Blood-Splattered Warrior: It's not just for show, his terminal entry explains that soaking their feet in the blood of their enemies allows him to walk on the extremely hot gold dust "sand" that covers the Greed layer without burning to a crisp.
- Body Horror: He lacks his head and half of his torso, ribs and internal organs fully visible. His arm is also malformed and stretches unnaturally, and his left ankle is clearly broken. If that wasn't bad enough, a closer examination of their innards reveals that their "ribs" bear a startling resemblance to giant teeth! His lore entry states that all the insurrectionists were mutilated in this way by the angels as punishment, leaving them with nothing but the bare minimum physical features to carry out their punishment.
- Degraded Boss: Shows up in Cyber Grind as a semi-regular enemy. Two Insurrectionists jump in without warning during P-2.
- Early-Bird Cameo: Several Sisypheans are seen in 4-1, climbing the gigantic pyramid in the background. One of them jumps off to attack V1 in 4-2.
- Epic Flail: The Sisyphean Insurrectionist uses his unnaturally stretchy arm and a (supposedly) dead Malicious Face as a makeshift flail.
- Easy Level Trick: You can trick him into falling into a bottomless pit at the Red Skull arena part of 4-2 and kill him instantly.
- Grievous Harm with a Body: The "boulder" he carries and uses to smack you with is actually a dead Malicious Face.
- Handicapped Badass: Despite each of them missing a chunk of their body and being left with a severe limp, the Insurrectionists are among the most dangerous enemies in the game. They have beefy stamina, enough so that they don't bleed much blood unless they're lit on fire first. They also have remarkable maneuverability thanks to their jumping prowess, and this is on top of how their attacks have effectively unlimited range due to their elastic arms. Those same attacks vary in speed depending on their distance from V1, as do their windows to counterattack, making them deceptively tricky for such brutish foes.
- Hell Is That Noise: Insurrectionist spawns in Cyber Grind are heralded with the blaring horn that signaled the boss version's arrival in 4-2.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: His Malicious Face throws can be parried, and more importantly, parried directly back at him, getting both massive damage and a stun as he's knocked flat on his ass for a few valuable seconds.
- In a Single Bound: Should V1 be too far away for the Insurrectionist's comfort, he will catch up by jumping truly immense heights, then subsequently dropping straight down in hopes of crushing them. Once he starts his descent, the creature cannot change direction. This caveat can be turned against the Insurrectionist in "God Damn the Sun," in which he can be duped into crashing through a glass floor outside the solarium, instantly killing himself.
- The Juggernaut: His attacks have infinite range, he can plow straight through floors and ceilings to smash you, and he can jump incredibly high to catch you. There is no running from the Insurrectionist.
- Kill It with Fire: As Husks, they are capable of being set alight via explosions or the Overheat mode of the Nailgun. Not only do they take bonus damage from all attacks while on fire, they bleed further while alight.
- Logical Weakness: Whenever their boulder attacks are parried back into them, grounded Insurrectionists are guaranteed to fall over, taking a few seconds to recover and stand back up. Each of them has a single, severely broken leg, making it far easier to topple them with the literal weight of their punishment. This is why Insurrectionists respond similarly to the S.R.S. Cannon's cannonballs, which are as large and heavy as the parried boulders. Meanwhile, striking them with cannonballs while they're free-falling leaves them completely stunned for several critical seconds upon landing. In this situation, the Insurrectionists now have gravity working against them, so they're left reeling from even more pain. This earns V1 the +TIME OUT bonus.
- Losing Your Head: The Insurrectionists were decapitated as punishment for their rebellion, and somehow they're still alive.
- Made of Plasticine: Make no mistake, Insurrectionists are tough, and the hardiest Husks in the game not counting the Corpse of King Minos. But where other Husks (even Filth) often remain in one or two pieces when they die, Insurrectionists will messily explode into little chunks every time no matter what killed them.
- Mighty Glacier: Slow but mobile, tough, hits like a damn truck, and never stops hunting you until he dies, the Sisyphean Insurrectionist is a powerful Husk. Hope you save up those Dual-Wield power-ups, including the secret one in the red skull arena.
- Rage Against the Heavens: They took part in a failed rebellion against Hell and Heaven, and were decapitated for it.
- Shockwave Stomp: A radial shockwave is produced once the insurrectionist hits the ground.
- There Was a Door: Don't think hiding indoors will protect you from an Insurrectionist, as they're perfectly capable of jumping straight through roofs or floors to reach V1.
Ferryman
Ferryman
Rank: Supreme Husk
- Ambiguous Situation: The Ferrymen's terminal entry describes how they'll attempt to kill each other to commandeer their opponent's boat. With this in mind, it's ambiguous if the Ferryman met during "Waves of the Starless Sea" is the original owner of the ship he's fought on—or, more specifically, if he's the same one Gabriel personally saved, as revealed by background details in the subsequent "Ship of Fools" stage.
- Ascended Demon: Technically a Husk. However, their devotion to God even in Hell caused them to be recognized by Heaven, and thus are granted power to guide souls through Hell.
- Carry a Big Stick: See that oar he's holding? He's gonna beat you with it.
- Degraded Boss: Shows up in Cyber Grind as a semi-regular enemy. A few Ferrymen also appear in P-2.
- Dem Bones: What little of him that can be seen under his hood is skeletal and nothing else. It’s strongly implied that all the skulls V1 uses to open doors are the heads of (similarly skeletal) former Ferrymen. According to Word of God, Ferrymen are skeletal due to tearing their own flesh off in order to distance themselves as much as they can from their former humanity.
- The Ferryman: Ferrymen in Hell escort souls to their layers corresponding to their sins in life. As their terminal entry describes, they're also extremely territorial; should two Ferrymen meet, they will fight each other to the death, with the winner claiming the loser's boat.
- Foil: To the Sisyphean Insurrectionist. They're both Supreme Husks that serve as sub-bosses in their respective layers, but that's where the similarities end.
- The Sisyphean Insurrectionist is bigger than V1, he wears nothing but a loin-cloth, and his body is highly muscled, but missing a head and arm. The Ferryman is as tall as V1, he wears golden adornments and a divine robe that covers most of his upper body, and has a skeletal, emaciated, but fully-intact appearance.
- The Sisyphean Insurrectionist is fought on small platforms in the middle of the bright, blazing dunes of Greed. The Ferryman is fought on his massive ship, which is floating in the dark, raining Ocean Styx of Wrath.
- The Sisyphean Insurrectionist is slow yet powerful, but he neither has magical powers nor a second phase, he fights with instinct and sheer aggression, and he wields a (supposedly) dead Malicious Face as a one-handed weapon. The Ferryman is fast yet just as tough, he fights with skill and intelligence, he wields an oar as a two-handed weapon, he's blessed by the Idols unless they're destroyed, and he has a second phase where he can strike V1 from afar by summoning lightning with his Heavenly magic.
- The Sisyphean Insurrectionist must be killed, but he can be slain in under 10 seconds. The Ferryman can't be killed under 10 seconds without cheats, but he can be skipped if you toss a coin at him.
- The Sisyphean Insurrectionists are defeated by Angels and punished with decapitation for rebelling against them. The Ferrymen are recognized by Heaven and blessed with holy powers due to their devotion to God.
- Foreshadowing: The Ferryman that V1 meets in Wrath bears a few details foreshadowing both Gabriel's fight in Heresy and his oncoming character development:
- The Ferryman's careful use of his melee weapon allows him to switch between unparriable and parriable states when attacking. Gabriel uses a much more aggressive take on the very same tactic during his Heresy fight. They both can be dealt with in the exact same way: a combination of careful evasion and observation to position them wherever it is most ideal to parry them at the correct time.
- The lore surrounding the Ferryman found within "Waves of the Starless Sea" and the "Ship of Fools" establishes that Gabriel is capable of kindness and compassion, in stark contrast to how previous lore characterized him. He was the one responsible for blessing this particular Ferryman and rewarding him with his current status. The Ferryman was so grateful for Gabriel's mercy that he set up a recording of his blessings to play on loop in his ship. These details build up to Gabriel's eventual turn against Heaven after Heresy, upon realizing that his superiors have been oppressing Heaven and Hell's masses with their outdated ideologies.Gabriel Recording: Be not afraid, sinner. Your devotion to God shows goodness in you. Plentiful indeed. The heart is willing, but the body must rest, lest you squander one of the Lord's creations.
- Gold and White Are Divine: His garments may be old, but they still have holy colors.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: The Ferryman's lightning can be deflected by a coin. Downplayed in that, unlike the similar attacks of the Malicious Face and the Sentry, this does very little damage and does not qualify for a +CHARGEBACK bonus.
- Holy Halo: The Ferryman has a gold decoration mounted on his shoulders that forms a halo in a standing position. Said halo is broken by the time we meet him.
- In the Hood: His face is covered entirely in his cloak.
- Leitmotif: "He is the Light in My Darkness".
- Light Is Not Good: Downplayed. The Ferrymen are blue skeletons wearing white robes decorated with golden adornments, and they're deeply devoted to God, grateful for Gabriel's mercy, and loving towards their adopted Idols. That being said, they're not entirely noble, as Ferrymen will fight each other to the death to take over a ferry, and they're unwittingly serving a corrupt Council of Angels that are brutal Knight Templars. The Ferrymen guiding souls through Hell seems like a good thing, but in reality, they're bringing souls to their designated punishments.
- Lightning Bruiser: He's fast, he can take a ton of punishment despite being nothing but bones and robes, and he hits hard. That's not even including the holy magic he has at his disposal.
- Shock and Awe: Between the two phases of his fight, the Ferryman of Wrath perches himself higher up on his ship and summons lightning to strike V1 down. Each bolt is telegraphed by a beam of light highlighting where it is about to appear and the sound of the Ferryman jingling a bell on his oar. Meanwhile, the Ferrymen spawned in the Cybergrind still have access to this attack; they'll exclusively use it whenever it is impossible for them to approach V1 on foot. This can be turned against them; aside from reflecting lightning strikes with a coin, parrying a Ferryman's attacks will generate a (non-damaging to V1) lightning strike right on the Ferryman's positioning, potentially damaging everything around it. Brutal difficulty also lets them summon lightning bolts to strike you in the middle of their other attacks.
- Skippable Boss: Before the fight is initiated, you can make your way up to him and toss him a coin. This will prompt him to open the exit, skipping his fight entirely.
Demons
Malicious Face
Malicious Face
Rank: Lesser Demon
First introduced as the first sub-boss of Overture, encountered in 0-1. They're malicious stone faces that alternate between volleys of Hell Energy projectiles and devastating Hitscan laser explosives. They're also the first demonic enemy.
- Achilles' Heel: There are a number of factors that allow V1 to absolutely ruin a Malicious Face's day with ease. They take extra damage from point-blank shotgun blasts, jackhammer strikes, slamming, and nails. There are also two tactics that can instantly kill the Face by turning either of its only two attacks against it. For its Hell Energy volleys, V1 can parry the first one, causing a chain reaction in which each projectile in a volley is shoved back into the Face, and a correctly timed charged Sharpshooter shot into the volley can cause a chain reaction that can heavily damage or outright kill it. For the explosive laser, V1 can toss a coin and trick the Face into hitting it to deflect the laser back into itself.
- Artificial Brilliance: Malicious Faces have a unique interaction with Stalkers; namely, they'll seek them out to get sanded and lower their altitude as the Stalker is about to explode its canister.
- Big Creepy-Crawlies: They may look like floating disembodied heads, but a closer look shows that they have transparent spider-like legs.
- Breath Weapon: The Malicious Faces shoot volleys of Hell energy and laser beams from their mouths.
- Cephalothorax: As their name suggests, Malicious Faces are giant stone faces (with spider legs).
- Degraded Boss: They show up as regular enemies as early as 0-4.
- Fluffy the Terrible: They have a meme-born name that ended up appearing in the game, Maurice.
- Flying Face: Subverted. While they're disembodied heads, a closer look shows that they have transparent Spider Limbs.
- Glowing Eyes of Doom: When the Malicious Face becomes enraged, its eyes start to glow.
- Grievous Harm with a Body: When a Malicious Face dies, its corpse will fall to the ground and create a shockwave that blows back both enemies and V1 alike. If the Face actually lands on an enemy, they'll be instantly pancaked and V1 will be awared a "Mauriced" style bonus.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: It's possible to intercept a Face's explosive laser attack with a Marksman coin, deflecting the blast back at them, instantly killing it, and earning V1 a Chargeback bonus.
- Kung Fu-Proof Mook: Core Eject grenades bounce directly off of their carapace, rockets ping off before going haywire in random directions, accelerated shotgun pellets plink off (and only accelerated ones) and they take no damage from explosions.
- Mascot Mook: The first enemy introduced by the dev and prominent in marketing, to boot.
- No-Sell: They take no damage from explosions (unless you reflect their own). Core Eject grenades and rockets in particular just bounce off them harmlessly, with the rockets then wandering off randomly afterward. This gets outright comical with the Shotgun; use Projectile Acceleration, and while every other pellet will embed itself and bleed it, the punched pellet will just plink off harmlessly and explode somewhere else.
- Our Demons Are Different: Giant disembodied stone heads with spider legs that also fire explosive lasers from their mouths.
- Scissors Cuts Rock: Downplayed; while the Malicious Face will deflect any explosive projectile that collides with it, there are ways of forcing them to blow up on impact regardless (though the Face will still take no direct damage from it.) Rockets can be pushed into the Malicious Face using the whiplash, and the Alternate Shotgun can directly smash a Core Eject into it. While not useful for direct damage, both of these methods can be used to take advantage of friendly fire caused by the explosions deflecting the Malicious Face's bullets.
- Throw the Dog a Bone: Despite its tendencies to take massive damage from anything, the Malicious Face is immune to explosives.
- Turns Red: In Violent difficulty, Malicious Faces enrage when half of their health is gone, making them fire Hell orbs more frequently, or fire two lasers in a row.
Cerberus
Cerberus
Rank: Lesser Demon
- Abnormal Ammo: The energy orbs held by Cerberus are no mere projectiles; they're actually hellish apples on closer examination.
- Achilles' Heel: They take 1.5 times more damage from rockets, and double damage from S.R.S Cannonballs, which can knock half their health in one go and outright kill them with a Cannonball Whiplash Parry technique.
- Avenging the Villain: If any Cerberus falls, all other living Cerberus will enrage in retaliation.
- Blinded by Rage: Cerberus will refuse to tackle over edges unless enraged, after which they can be tricked into falling to their death quite easily.
- Degraded Boss: Proceed to show up as regular enemies from 1-2 and onward.
- Dual Boss: You fight two of them at the climax of Prelude, although the second one only joins the fight when you knock the first one's health to half.
- He Was Right There All Along: The first time they're indicated to be more than just decoration is when the statue on the left side of the Gate of Hell looks up at V1. All statues you see in the game are dormant Cerberuses, and there's no telling which one will spring to life.
- I Know Madden Kombat: Subtly. Cerberus's throw attack has them take up a very distinct baseball pitching position, and the sound cue for their stomp attack resembles sneakers squeaking on a basketball court.
- Kill One, Others Get Stronger: How their Enrage state functions.
- Mighty Glacier: Cerberus's movement is slow, and they don't attack often. However, their attacks hit painfully hard and they have 80 HP as bosses and 22 HP as enemies.
- Mythology Gag: Cerberus's model comes from an old project
by Hakita known as "Untraceable", where they were simply a museum statue, now known as Andre.- Cerberi hold apples. Andre's Apple. Untraceable.
- Cerberi hold apples. Andre's Apple
- Non-Indicative Name: Cerberus is the name for a three-headed Hellhound from Greek Mythology, yet Cerberuses are faceless humanoid statues in this game, though they got their name because of their role as guardians of Hell. Even the Terminal Data lampshades this trope.
- Our Demons Are Different: Faceless humanoid statues that parody The Thinker.
- Shockwave Stomp: One of its attacks causes a damaging shockwave.
- Shows Damage: Their exterior starts cracking once they're at half health.
- Thinker Pose: Their hibernating state has them sitting in a similar pose as the iconic statue.
- Turns Red: Killing a Cerberus will enrage all other Cerberuses in the fight, making them faster and more aggressive.
- Unique Enemy:
- The single Cerberus in 1-2, activated by collecting a secret health orb, has more HP than other common Cerberus enemies: 30 HP, to be exact. It is the only Cerberus to have this boosted health value.
- Two giant Cerberi can be optionally found in 7-1, activated again by collecting a secret health orb.
Hideous Mass
Hideous Mass
Rank: Greater Demon
- Animalistic Abomination: The Hideous Mass looks like a scorpion-shaped mish-mash of meat and rock, but it's a result of excess Hell energy poured into a single shell.
- Attack Its Weak Point: Its stone carapace takes next to no damage, forcing you to strike either the exposed flesh or its stinger tail. Which one is easier to go for at the time depends on whether it's standing or lying down, but both are equally exposed once it Turns Red.
- Beast with a Human Face: Despite bearing the body type of a scorpion, the Hideous Mass has a large humanoid face just above its vulnerable belly. Less obviously, it has even more faces lining its spine, all of them far less developed.
- Beware My Stinger Tail: It can fire a harpoon out of its tail. That being said, the harpoon can be parried with a well-timed Feedbacker punch. Should the harpoon hit you, you can punch it out with the Feedbacker. They start firing it more than once in succession on Brutal difficulty and up, including when they're enraged.
- Big Creepy-Crawlies: It's a massive scorpion-shaped demon.
- Blinded by Rage: When enraged, Hideous Masses make themselves more vulnerable by flipping upside-down and exposing their underbelly while launching Hell mortars at you.
- Degraded Boss: Hideous Masses can show up during the Cyber Grind, but very infrequently. Because of their large size and immobility beyond pivoting in place, only certain arena patterns can accommodate them. Two of them return as mid-bosses in 6-1, and another appears in the penultimate encounter of P-2.
- Easter Egg: Hideous Mass's forearms have Michelangelo Buonarroti's "The Creation of Adam" engraved on them, only visible in its scorpion configuration.
- Glowing Eyes of Doom: Its eye sockets start to glow when enraged.
- Leitmotif: Hideous Mass is associated with "Castle Vein". The final encounter of 6-1, characterized by fighting two Hideous Masses, is accompanied by the appropriately-named remix, "Hall of Sacrilegious Remains".
- Mighty Glacier: They're so slow they can't even move, but not only do they have the most health out of any boss in Act 1, thanks to their ungodly 175 HP, they're almost entirely covered in damage-proof stone. Their attacks also hit pretty hard, and they spam a rain of explosives when 2/3rds of their health is gone.
- Our Demons Are Different: A giant scorpion-shaped amalgamation of flesh and stone.
- Pivotal Boss: It stays in one spot whenever it's encountered, but will turn to face you.
- Scary Scorpions: It's a scorpion demon.
- Shockwave Clap: It can slam its "pincers" together to fill the area with a vertical shockwave, usually following a Shockwave Stomp.
- Shockwave Stomp: Creating radial shockwaves is one of its attacks.
- Turns Red: Enrages once it's knocked down to the third of its health, throwing out explosive attacks with greater quantity. Brutal difficulty also lets them throw out their harpoon during this state, albeit infrequently compared to the bombs.
- White and Red and Eerie All Over: True to its name, the Hideous Mass is an unsettling creature with a white stone carapace and exposed red flesh.
Idol
Rank: Lesser Demon
Demons that resemble busts of the Virgin Mary. Idols are capable of "blessing" a single enemy, granting them full immunity to damage until the Idol is destroyed. Debuts in 5-2.
- Anti-Regeneration: Since its blessing prevents enemies from even being damaged, there's no bleeding for V1 to heal from. Thankfully, killing an Idol heals you.
- Ascended Demon: Of a sort, considering they have holy forms, altruistic thought processes, and angelic powers. Unfortunately, Heaven in this setting is too rigid to allow the true version of this trope to happen, and it's even said that if anyone else besides Gabriel had been put in charge of Hell the Ferrymen would have been punished for the blasphemy of creating holy demons by being forced to destroy their beloved Idols.
- Beauty Equals Goodness. The Idols resemble the Virgin Mary cradling baby Jesus, giving them a holy, beautiful, and kindly appearance unlike their fellow Demons, which either look neutral or horrifying. The Idols are also actively benevolent, and they express their benevolence by using Angelic magic to protect others from harm. This is Invoked by their Ferrymen caretakers, who carved them into their current forms as a tribute to Gabriel's mercy and as an act of love towards their Happily Adopted Idols, causing them to feel so beloved they spread the kindness they felt through their divine blessings.
- Expy: They're essentially Ultrakill's own twist on the Buff Totems from Doom Eternal.
- Immune to Bullets: Idols cannot be harmed by any ranged attack, and must be toppled with a melee strike. Not even the Whiplash can latch onto one.
- Happily Adopted: Also overlaps with Interspecies Adoption. The Idols are small, frail, and formless Demons that are adopted by skeletal Husks known as Ferrymen, who raise the Demons with love and compassion by carefully carving them in the image of the Virgin Mary, giving them a chance to experience life with a face of their own. The Idols are so beloved by their Ferrymen guardians that they express the love they felt by protecting others from physical harm with holy magic absorbed from the Ferrymens' divine robes.
- Light Is Good: Idols seem to fall under Light Is Not Good because let's just say that whatever is struck by their blessings is about to ruin your day. That, and they're demons using angelic magic. However, they protect others solely out of compassion, so in a way, they are good, just not for V1.
- Living Statue: While this is true for all demons, the Idol plays up the "statue" part of this trope more than most others, being fully immobile and incapable of doing anything but blessing enemies and other demons.
- Nigh-Invulnerability: What its blessing grants to its chosen target. Only environmental hazards like pits can kill blessed enemies.
- Non-Action Guy: Idols have no form of attack.
- Obvious Rule Patch: They're invincible to everything except melee attacks. If they didn't also repel the Whiplash, its grappling hook capabilities would trivialize any encounter where the gimmick is dealing with an Idol placed an inconvenient distance away.
- Our Demons Are Different: Statues of the Virgin Mary that bless nearby enemies with invincibility.
- Priceless Ming Vase: They're presented as holy relics that can only be defeated by knocking them down with punches.
- The Power of Love: According to their lore entry, the Idols spread the love they experienced by using holy powers to protect others from physical harm.
- Shoot the Medic First: Despite lacking any attacks, Idols are placed very high in the "must kill" list due to their ability to buff their allies with invincibility.
- Status Buff: Its role in any given fight is granting an invincibility buff to its allies, making it a priority target despite being otherwise defenseless.
- Token Good Teammate: Unlike their fellow Demons, who attack non-Demons with Hell energy and extreme prejudice, the Idols are actively benevolent for using their holy magic to protect others from harm as an expression of kindness, thanks to being raised with love by the Ferrymen.
- Yin-Yang Bomb: Idols are classified as demons, and yet are molded into a sacred form and wield clearly holy magic. This is because the Idols absorbed holy magic from the Ferrymens' holy robes while being carefully carved.
Mannequin
Rank: Lesser Demon
Humanoid demons resembling mannequins, as their name implies. Debuts in 7-1.
- Achilles' Heel: As the Terminal tips note, they're briefly vulnerable when they land after getting launched in the air, as they take a second to regain their balance. You could either wait for them to land and take advantage of the stun, or you could rush right up to them while they're still falling and punch them for a One-Hit Kill. Parrying their punch combo will also One-Hit Kill them.
- And I Must Scream: The former sinners that are stuffed into Mannequins are still conscious but unable to move by themselves.
- Artificial Brilliance: Mannequins can dodge their own parried projectiles by hopping onto the ceiling with a well-timed jump, though you can exploit this behavior by shooting them with a rocket as soon as they land on the ceiling, since it counts as being airborne.
- Body Horror: Even more so than other demons, thanks to their upside-down head and limbs being made from severed forearms and hands.
- Can't Move While Being Watched: The first Mannequins shown in the level preview for 7-1 stand still in a pose. Whenever V1 isn't looking, they'll change their pose.
- Elite Mooks: Mannequins effectively serve the same role as the ranged Husks in combat, namely standing far away from you and harassing you with projectiles while tougher enemies target you directly. However, they are far more durable than a Husk, have homing shots which can't be easily thrown off and aren't completely helpless at close range, possessing a one-two punch combo. They also aren't afraid to skitter up behind you and actually use this melee attack like other primarily ranged enemies, making them harder to predict and deal with as a whole. Notably, they're one of the few "small humanoid" enemies in the game which require multiple Ricoshots from the Marksman revolver to kill.
- Fan Disservice: The Mannequins' stone shells have vaguely feminine curves, and they tend to make suggestive poses when idle. However, their blood coating, disfigured limbs, and inhuman skittering motions are far from titillating.
- Homing Projectile: Their ranged attack, a single blue orb like those fired by Mindflayers.
- Lightning Bruiser: Despite their thin frame, Mannequins are surprisingly durable, thanks to their stony exterior letting them absorb damage from explosions. And unlike other demons, their stony exterior doesn't slow them down; they're really damn fast and capable of climbing onto walls and ceilings. Lastly, they can dish out the hurt with fast melee attacks and homing Hell orbs.
- Multi-Armed and Dangerous: Played with. While Mannequins still have two arms and two legs forming a humanoid figure, said limbs are made out of at least three forearms each, with each joint being formed by a hand grabbing the elbow of the next forearm.
- Murderous Mannequin: Mannequins act as posed statues, but will abruptly spring to life and assault V1 at a moment's notice.
- Our Demons Are Different: Humanoid statues that move terrifyingly fast and can crawl on walls.
- Overdrawn at the Blood Bank: Mannequins bleed twice as much as most other enemies, spreading their blood further across the arena.
- Running on All Fours: The Mannequins crawl on all four limbs like a spider, complete with skittering noises.
- Spiders Are Scary: While their only physical resemblance to spiders is their long limbs, their four-legged crawling, ability to climb and crawl on walls and ceilings, and making skittering noises as they crawl give them spider-like qualities that serve to make them even more terrifying.
- Super-Speed: Mannequins flip-flop between creeping slowly around and skittering around like freakish spiders. Their first encounter in the preview material shows them at an idle standstill, before suddenly accelerating and closing the gap with V1 within a few frames.
- Unwilling Roboticisation: Mannequins are former sinners who tried to escape Violence by going through the Garden of Forking Paths, before eventually collapsing from exhaustion. An unnamed force then tears their weakened bodies apart and stuffs the pieces into a Mannequin shell to make a new one. The victims are still in agonizing consciousness, well after the process is done, and their hoarse breathing can be very faintly heard emitting from within. The process was directly inspired by the design of the human-fueled Guttermen, as their terminal entry reveals.
- Wall Crawl: Their first combat encounter shown as a teaser reveals they can hop straight onto ceilings to take shots at you.
- White and Red and Eerie All Over: Mannequins have a porcelain white body that's stained in red blood.
Machines
Swordsmachine
Swordsmachine
Rank: Greater Machine
- Artificial Brilliance: If a Stalker exists at the same time as a Swordsmachine, they will prioritize gunning for the Stalker to coat themselves in sand, before they engage V1. Considering their bias towards close-range combat, out-countering V1's close-range advantage makes them much more of a threat.
- Berserk Button: If any of its sword attacks are parried, Swordsmachine will fly into a rage. Afterwards, it will refrain from using its ranged attacks (its shotgun in phase 1, and its sword throws in phase 2), in favor of barraging its opponent with its melee attacks.
- Blinded by Rage: Swordsmachine is mindful of ledges in its normal state, but while enraged, it will completely ignore its own safety in order to lunge at V1. This can be exploited to make a Swordsmachine fall to their doom, especially in Cyber Grind.
- The Bus Came Back: Returns in Heresy as a Degraded Boss.
- Close-Range Combatant: Swordsmachine likes to fight up close and personal, and its chosen weapons are tailored for this fighting style. Even its ranged options are weapons notorious for their short range.
- Degraded Boss: Shows up in the Cyber Grind and Heresy onwards as a regular enemy. Their lesser HP is justified as these other Swordsmachines are implicitly fans of the original, and aren't quite as bulky as the real deal.
- Famed In-Story: Its Terminal entry talks about its fame among other machines, establishing that it has a devoted fanbase whose members modify themselves to copy its appearance. The first of them that V1 encounters are Agony and Tundra in the "Hall of Sacred Remains." Later, starting with "Cry for the Weeper," less distinguished Swordsmachine copies start appearing as regular enemy encounters.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Swordsmachine takes bonus damage from shotguns. The same kind of shotgun you steal from him.
- I Am Not Left-Handed: When Swordsmachine enters their second phase (which coincides with them losing their entire off-arm), they start using more wild and flashy sword techniques.
- Line-of-Sight Name: On the receiving end of this trope, from none other than V1.
- Logical Weakness: Swordsmachine is a close-ranged fighter first and foremost; its weakness to shotguns allows V1 to punish Swordsmachine for fighting within its effective range.
- Master Swordsman: Or Master Swordsmachine to be exact. The Swordsmachine is well respected by other Machines for their impeccable mastery of the sword and they can use their swords like a boomerang.
- Meaningful Name: Take a wild guess of what their name means.
- Optional Boss: You can fight it a level earlier in a much smaller room if you find the right secret.
- Shotguns Are Just Better: The Swordsmachines all wield a shotgun in their right hand and use it periodically.
- Sword and Gun: The Swordsmachine wields a sword in its left hand and has a shotgun welded to its right. Its gunmachineship is not nearly as refined as its swordsmachineship; it's content to simply fire off shots periodically as it runs towards its target, without much regard for aim or distance. V1 receives their first shotgun from the first Swordsmachine encountered in the Overture.
- Throwing Your Sword Always Works: The Swordsmachine’s other ranged attack, aside from the shotgun, is throwing their swords like a boomerang and the sword returns to them.
- The Voiceless: One of the few machines to explicitly subvert this in-universe, being equipped with a voice box. In gameplay, it'll make text-to-speech-sounding "ha" noises if it's hit or if it switches to phase 2.
Drone
Rank: Lesser Machine
A flying orb-like machine, firing out Hell Energy. A mass-produced security device built as both a surveillance camera and a security guard. Though originally built to only use non-lethal ammunition, they have scavenged parts from the defunct machines on the surface for greater efficiency at collecting blood. Curious by nature, but to keep production costs low, their intelligence is very limited. They're also the first robotic Mook. Debuts in 1-1.
- Airborne Mook: Currently the only fodder-type enemy that flies.
- Animal Mecha: With the bird-like chirping they make when scanning the area, the Drones can be considered robotic birds.
- Attack Drone: They are numerous, flying orb-like Machines that attack V1 with Hell energy.
- Blush Stickers: The glowing pink Tron Lines on either side of their face resemble a cartoony blush.
- Constantly Curious: The Terminals describe them as curious by nature and always wanting to learn things, but in order to keep production costs low, the intelligence of the Drones is very small.
- Cute Machines: Despite the Drones can throw at you Hell energy, they certainly are very cute robots.
- Cyber Cyclops: These robots have one pink eye.
- Helpful Mook: Grabbing them with the Whiplash and then punching them with the Knuckleblaster allows you to send them straight to other enemies, granting the "HOMERUN" style bonus and possibly killing other enemies along with the Drone.
- Purple Is Powerful: Inverted. They're purple robots, but even with their Taking You with Me attack (which is exploitable), they're the weakest robot enemy in the game.
- Starfish Robots: They're far from humanoid, appearing as floating mechanical orbs.
- Taking You with Me: If killed, it will throw itself at you and explode. You can parry that, too, which can potentially be used to launch their explosive corpse into other enemies to blow them up. If killed with an explosion or Piercing Shot, they simply explode on the spot.
Streetcleaner
Rank: Lesser Machine
Humanoid machines equipped with flamethrowers, adept at dodging and relentless in pursuit. Originally built as a way to purify the tainted air of cities after the climate catastrophe, Streetcleaners were made obsolete during the New Peace, and were repurposed as scouts for Hell expeditions. However, their urge to clean remained, and after the fall of mankind, they began burning any organic matter they came across in an effort to purify the world. Debuts in 1-2.
- Achilles' Heel: A single shot to the gas tank on their back will instantly kill them and cause a huge explosion to boot. This is normally difficult with most weapons since they tend to rush you down, but they're particularly weak to the Marksman as V1 can use it to toss a coin behind them, then shoot it for a guaranteed fatal blow. Since they often come in pairs, savvy players can even use a split-shot coin to instantly kill both of them simultaneously.
- Ambushing Enemy: Their main strategy is to hide until V1 gets close in order to to surprise them before using their flamethrowers to burn the blue robot down.
- Badass Longcoat: One of the more powerful basic mooks, and it has some kind of longcoat-like garment that goes down to its ankles.
- Denial of Diagonal Attack: On Violent difficulty and below, they're incapable of aiming their flamethrowers anywhere but horizontally. This makes going upwards a reliable way to stay outside their flamethrower range if they're otherwise too close for comfort.
- Dodge the Bullet: Streetcleaners are capable of dodging any projectile attack, though this behavior has a short cooldown on it. It's still enough to catch you off guard.
- Elite Mooks: Among fodder-type enemies, they're the toughest and most agile. Their weak point is also not easily hit, although hitting it will kill them.
- Expy: They look very similar to a B1 Battle Droid of Star Wars. Even the ULTRAKILL wiki lampshades it.
- Fake Ultimate Mook: 1-2 hypes them up quite a bit, by all the burning carnage decorating the level once you reach a certain point of the level. You can One-Hit Kill them with a simple coin ricochet into their gas tank.
- Fire-Breathing Weapon: All of them are equipped with flamethrowers to ignite you in close range.
- Five-Second Foreshadowing: They have a particularly memorable introduction in 1-2. After picking up the blue skull key, the path to loop back around will take you around a bend in a hallway... to reveal a giant pile of burning, dead Husks. Cue Musicalis Interruptus and an ensuing Drone of Dread as you soon return to the courtyard area you started, only to find it's all on fire as well — with some Streetcleaners near the entrance room.
- Flamethrower Backfire: Hitting the gas tank on its back will cause it to explode and kill Streetcleaner on the spot. You can even blow up gas tanks of dead Streetcleaners!
- Hoist by His Own Petard: When dodging V1's projectiles, Streetcleaners can sometimes dive into environmental hazards, especially Bottomless Pits. This is particularly noticeable when they appear in the staircase area of the "Belly of the Beast"; the paths aren't wide enough to accommodate their movements when dodging perpendicular to them.
- Kung Fu-Proof Mook: The only enemy in the game to actively deflect a Core Eject grenade by smacking it aside. It also makes a conscious effort to dodge projectiles. Additionally, Streetcleaners are capable of walking on the hot sand in Greed without any issue. Lastly, they have an innate resistance to explosives in general, taking only half the normal amount of damage from any explosion.
- Logical Weakness: Streetcleaners' ability to deflect grenades and rockets makes them very annoying to deal with, however since they use their hands to do this, they can't reach explosives fired behind or above them.
- Meaningful Name: The Streetcleaners were once robots made to clean the pollution on the streets that were formed during the Final War. Now they subvert their purpose of cleaning everything by using their flamethrowers, making things even messier.
- No Range Like Point-Blank Range: There is an obvious risk in dashing up to something that's packing a flamethrower, but if you really don't want them to dodge your shots, getting in their face and blasting them will usually work; they'll be both too close to react and too distracted trying to burn you. Just remember to dash back out.
- Parrying Bullets: Streetcleaners will smack aside Core Eject grenades and rockets that are fired directly toward them.
- Pyromaniac: The Streetcleaners have an urge to clean since that was their original purpose, but since they all have flamethrowers instead of cleaning devices, they enjoy burning everything to a crisp instead.
- Shout-Out: Their name is a reference to the debut album of Godflesh.
- Super Drowning Skills: Submerging them in any liquid will instantly kill them.
- Vader Breath: You can tell when a Streetcleaner is nearby by their mechanical breathing.
- You Have Researched Breathing: The main change to Streetcleaners in the Brutal difficulty compared to lower difficulties is... the ability to aim their flamethrower upward.
Mindflayer
Rank: Greater Machine
A greater machine form with excellent control of Hell Energy and its own enhancements. The machine itself is only the top part of its apparent body, the rest of which is a plastic shell in the form of a human, which they seem to have built themselves. The plastic body serves no function and is only for aesthetic purposes. Despite it being a waste of resources, Mindflayers will use everything in its power to protect the plastic body from harm, even if that means destroying itself in the process. Mindflayers seem to prefer a female form, though very rare occasions of male forms have also been recorded. Throws out devastating attacks from above. Debuts in 2-3.
- Ambiguous Situation: The Terminals don’t explain what were the Mindflayers made for, so it’s unclear if they were made for warfare or for another purpose.
- Anti-Frustration Features: Due to how dangerous they are in Cyber Grind, a Mindflayer won't show up in two rounds in a row. If two Mindflayers show up during a round, they won't show up for two rounds, and so on.
- Attack Its Weakpoint: Surprisingly, Mindflayers do have weakpoints: their head, and the protrusions on the back. Their tentacles take extra limb damage as well. Unfortunately, attacking their weakpoints is difficult, due to their small sizes and how mobile Mindflayers are.
- Barbie Doll Anatomy: They're purportedly naked, but show no attributes. Justified, since their "bodies" are actually just plastic shells.
- Boss in Mook Clothing: There are only four of them in Act 1 and they only show up at its tail end, but each of them is a sturdy foe with powerful attacks. Like bosses, Mindflayers can be enraged in Violent difficulty and above. Punching them earns you the Disrespect bonus as it does with all other bosses and Degraded Bosses, too. To top it all off, they're the only "Special"-class enemy in the Cyber Grind that wasn't a boss at first (with the others currently including the Insurrectionist and the Ferryman).
- Combat Tentacles: They have five tentacles on their back, and they can be used for a parry-able melee attack.
- Dark Action Girl: The Mindflayers are fembots that shoot Hell energy and attack with their tentacles. And they are all killer robots that are literally bloodthirsty, having exterminated, alongside the other Machines, all life on Earth.
- Fastball Special: As Mindflayers are self-destructing, a quick punch with the Knuckleblaster can send them hurtling in any direction. They prove to be quite deadly projectiles.
- Fembot: Mindflayers appear to be feminine robots, but according to the Terminal Database, what appears to be their body is just a plastic humanoid shell that serves no purpose other than aesthetics, and the machine itself sits on the shell's upper half. Mindflayers with masculine shells are mentioned, but they have yet to appear in-game.
- Hoist by Her Own Petard: It's possible to reflect Mindflayer's blue projectiles into her and kill her in one shot. Unlike Malicious Face's Chargeback, there are a couple of ways to do it (parried shotgun pellets, Core Eject, Malicious Railgun, etc.) but they require different precise timings and a whole lot of skill.
- Homing Projectile: Mindflayers fire blue orbs of Hell energy that home in on V1.
- Kraken and Leviathan: It's subtle, but the Mindflayer falls under the Kraken side of this trope, thanks to its Combat Tentacles and its 1st Act II appearance in the watery Wrath layer.
- Lightning Bruiser: Especially when compared to other enemies, Mindflayers are fast and tough, thanks to their whopping 30 hitpoints, the ability to teleport, and having dangerous attacks that deal 30-35 points of damage, such as a deadly melee swipe, a series of homing Hell orbs, and laser beams.
- Meaningful Name: Subverted: as far as we have seen, the Mindflayer doesn’t have an attack that affects the mind. Or maybe they just haven’t used it on V1 yet.
- Midair Bobbing: Mindflayers slowly move up and down when idle.
- Ms. Fanservice: They are a type of Machines that consists of Fembots that made a curvy and teal plastic body and are supposedly the succubus enemy of the game.
- Shout-Out: The Mindflayer robots share their name with the Mind Flayers of Dungeons & Dragons, a humanoid species of octopus-headed aberrations with immense mental power.
- Succubi and Incubi: According to
Word of God, the Mindflayer was designed as a unique take on the "succubus" concept. In-game it's Played With, as they're Machines wielding hell energy rather than truly native to Hell. The fact that they first appear in Lust does reinforce this concept. - Taking You with Me: Upon death, Mindflayers will reel in pain for a few seconds before exploding. They can be punched with the Knuckleblaster while they're reeling, sending them flying into the nearest surface or enemies and detonating on contact. According to their database entry, their self-destruction isn't an intentional last-ditch attack; it's meant to to prevent anyone else from claiming their bodies after they die.
- Teleport Spam: The Mindflayers can teleport around the arena and they do this very frequently.
- Turns Red: On Violent difficulty and above, Mindflayers will enrage once reaching half health, increasing their attack speed and frequency of teleports.
- Vanity Is Feminine: They make their own bodies in the shape of a feminine human form, with masculine Mindflayers existing as a rarity. They're also obsessed with maintaining their bodies to the point of self-destructiveness, even though it serves no objective purpose.
- Villain Teleportation: Mindflayers can teleport across the area, and while the Screwdriver Railcannon keeps them from teleporting, it barely mitigates the threat they're capable of.
- You Will Not Evade Me: Mindflayers will teleport right on top of V1 should they become too far away to reasonably attack otherwise.
Sentry
Rank: Greater Machine
Essentially a high-powered rifle on legs, Sentries first show up in Wrath. One of the many war machines created during the Final War. Although there were attempts to find a new purpose for them during the New Peace, their streamlined design made them unable to be repurposed until the start of the Hell expeditions. They hunker down and blast targets with a potent sniper beam. Debuts in 5-1.
- Achilles' Heel: The easiest way to knock a Sentry out of its lock-on is by hitting its antenna with a hitscan attack, or blasting it with a kind of forceful knockback. Continous use of these can render a Sentry completely unable to use its strongest attack.
- Always Accurate Attack: Sentry shots will always hit their target. If you can't prevent them from shooting, finding cover or the invulnerability frames of a well-timed dash are the only ways to avoid damage.
- Anchored Attack Stance: When preparing their sniper shot, Sentries will get down on both knees and root themselves to the ground. Knocking them out of this with explosives, magnets or a well-placed stomp/Knuckleblaster punch is key to dealing with them because they can't shoot V1 if they can't anchor themselves.
- An Arm and a Leg: Sentry legs are apparently prized among scrapheads due to their exceptional utility and durability, and it is implied that V2 created the Whiplash from one.
- Armless Biped: The Sentry's body consists only of a pair of mechanical legs, a torso, and a sniper rifle where a head should be.
- BFG: Their head is one.
- Cold Sniper: The Sentries are a type of Machines that consists of robotic legs with a sniper rifle at the top of their torsos where their head should be. Given the fact that the Machines are Always Chaotic Evil, the Sentries are most likely this.
- Crippling Overspecialization: The codex notes that their extremely minimalist design made it hard to apply them for purposes that weren't for war when war had ended.
- Cyber Cyclops: All the Sentries have a single pink eye to track V1 with a laser sighting.
- Extremity Extremist: Attacks at close range exclusively by kicking you. Not that they have much of a choice... Unlike many melee attacks, this kick cannot be parried; luckily, the attack has a distinctly telegraphed wind-up, both audibly and visually.
- Evil Is Bigger: Their legs alone dwarf V1 and they're laser-focused on shooting the machine down.
- Expy: To the Moa proxies of Warframe. They are both a line of bipedal robots with no torso with a gun where their heads are supposed to be.
- Hitscan: One of the few enemies to have this attack type.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Since the Sentry's sniper beam attack is a powerful hitscan shot, it can be reflected back at them with a coin for a Chargeback.
- Laser Sight: You can tell a Sentry is tracking V1 by the laser sighting between the two.
- Made of Iron: Sentries are a lot more durable than their relatively thin frame would suggest.
- Punched Across the Room: Get in their faces and they will try to nail you with a highly-telegraphed, but oddly powerful (and unparryable) kick that will send you sailing across the room, where shooting you is easier.
- Robot Antennae: All the Sentries sport one at the top of their heads and it signals when they are going to shoot.
- Sentry Gun: A fully-autonomous example. When not walking around, they function as one.
- Spam Attack: Brutal difficulty lets them fire two shots in succession instead of one.
- Unusual Weapon Mounting: They have a high-caliber anti-material rifle replacing their head.
Gutterman
Rank: Greater Machine
- Achilles' Heel: Their shields can be removed by a Knuckleblaster hit, whereupon their punches can be parried with the Feedbacker which also resets their chaingun tracking. Their Chaingun shot, strangely enough, can be reflected with coins. Also, they go down in one hit by punches from Guttertanks.
- A.I. Breaker: If you're close, they will immediately try to punch. Even if they're enraged and can't be parried this way, this can be exploited by a sharp player, darting in and out of their punch range to prevent them from revving their minigun.
- And I Must Scream: The humans that were used as blood batteries for the Gutterman most likely didn’t enjoy a single bit of being inside a very small sarcophagus while having their blood sucked out of them and used as fuel for the Machine.
- Artificial Brilliance: If there's a coin between them and you, they'll briefly stop shooting so they don't end up riccoshooting themselves.
- Degraded Boss: One Gutterman is your first enemy in 7-2, and is given its own health bar. It immediately starts appearing in encounters after the fact, having slightly less health.
- Destructible Projectiles: Part of their threat is that they exploit this trope and limit V1's ability to use these; things that you can shoot to activate (like core eject grenades, rockets, and cannonballs) will usually get shot by the Gutterman and then blown up, usually while you're still in the explosive radius.
- Drop Pod: Its method of arriving at the fight.
- Expy: Of Big Daddies. They're huge, heavily-armored Smash Mooks, their lore mentions that they were originally powered by undesirables permanently grafted inside them to provide them a permanent blood source, and their helmets look very, very similar to Bouncers.
- Fat Bastard: Its build is notably large and rotund, and it's not just a literally bloodthirsty Killer Robot, it also happens to fulfill the "chaingunner" archetype of Standard FPS Enemies; one of the most notorious roles in gaming.
- Gathering Steam: The Gutterman is slow to aim its chaingun at first, but its tracking gets more accurate over time. This necessitates V1 to stay mobile and deal with it quickly, lest it becomes nigh-impossible to avoid evade the Gutterman's shots without taking cover. When its shield is destroyed, it uses its newly freed hand to steady its aim, and its tracking dramatically improves.
- Gatling Good: The Gutterman has a massive chaingun that tracks V1's position and continuously fires.
- Helpful Mook: When killed, they will instantly kill any enemy they fall on, giving you the "Pancaked" style bonus. Also, performing a ground slam on their corpses will create a red explosion that is harmless to V1, but will blow nearby enemies into bits.
- Human Resources: A close look at their ammo backpack (which is shaped like a coffin) shows the human skeleton inside with red streaks staining the cheekbones. This is how Guttermen are fueled, as they were among the first machines designed to run on blood: this is the only way they could keep their blood fresh. The Gutterman's terminal entry notes that this was so imaginatively cruel that it directly inspired the creation of Mannequins.
- Husky Russkie: The letters on their shoulders are in Russian which translated means “man-tank”, implying that the Guttermen are of Russian origin. They are also one of the strongest non-boss enemies of the game.
- Indignant Slap: The Gutterman's alternative to the Shield Bash should it not have its shield. Unlike the shield bash, it is parriable by normal methods (i.e. the Feedbacker).
- It Can Think: A secret book in level 7-2 can be found in a leftover Gutterman coffin nearby one of the secret orbs, which seems to come from the perspective of a Gutterman who is fully aware of how its fuel source is in constant agony, and feels a combination of love for the human providing it fuel as well as guilt for being the source of their constant torture, culminating in the machine ending their fuel source's life as a Mercy Kill. To subtly drive the point home, a coffin-less Gutterman and a Guttertank later appear near the archives to ambush you.
- Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me: It carries a massive shield that protects itself from most attacks. V1 can destroy it using the Knuckleblaster.
- Mighty Glacier: What it lacks in mobility, it makes up for in bulk and firepower.
- More Dakka: Their M.O. is to riddle V1 with bullets.
- Pinned Down: The main role of the Gutterman in combat encounters is to provide a steady stream of suppressive fire that forces V1 to stay moving — and if they are allowed to fire for long enough, their tracking speed becomes good enough for them to always hit V1, forcing them to take cover or fight this guy directly.
- Shed Armor, Gain Speed: If their shield gets destroyed, a Gutterman will start aiming its minigun with both hands, significantly increasing its tracking speed.
- Shield Bash: Should V1 get too close to a Gutterman (and thus out of its ideal tracking range), the Gutterman will respond by smacking V1 with its shield. The Knuckleblaster, uniquely, can parry this to destroy the shield.
- Shield-Bearing Mook: Paired with a nigh-indestructible shield and a gatling gun, they're very tough to deal damage to unless you destroy their shields with the Knuckleblaster.
- Smash Mook: They will perpetually fire at you with their deadly gatling guns when you're far away and batter you brutal punches when you're up close, making them high-priority targets.
- Super Prototype: They were the first generation of Machines that would use blood as fuel and they are amongst the most powerful enemies of the game that aren’t bosses. Because scientists back then didn’t know how to keep the blood of their enemies fresh, they used POWs, renegades, or returnees of the war as batteries for the Guttermen.
- Top-Heavy Guy: Most of the Gutterman's frame is proportionately taken up by its colossal torso. Its legs, on the other hand, are incredibly small and downright stubby.
- Turns Red: Breaking their shield or parrying them afterwards on Brutal difficulty and above enrages them, making their close range slap unparriable until it wears off.
Guttertank
Rank: Greater Machine
- Achilles' Heel:
- Their rocket launcher utilizes the exact same technology as the one V1 uses, meaning that activating the Freezeframe will freeze Guttertank rockets as well. It also means that sticking a nailgun/sawblade launcher magnet to them will significantly gimp their range (since their rockets are just as attracted as yours), letting you pelt them at range and potentially causing friendly fire if there's more than one.
- On Brutal and above, the Firestarter's gasoline puddles can cause the Guttertank to slip from missing a punch, which is otherwise uninterruptible on those difficulties.
- A.I. Breaker: Like Guttermen, if you're close, they will immediately try to punch. Even on Brutal difficulty (which removes their parry window by default) this can be exploited by a sharp player, darting in and out of their punch range to prevent them from using their less-predictable attacks.
- Anti-Metagame Character: In-universe. Guttermen completely changed the tactics of the Final War with how deadly they were, so Guttertanks were created specifically to counter their trench-clearing abilities.
- Arm Cannon: Their right arm is a cannon that shoots missiles from it. V1 can ride on them like the missiles of their own rocket launcher.
- Cherry Tapping: After update 14b, if a Guttertank whiffs its punch, it will smack the ground and cause a small amount of damage to itself. If this somehow kills the Guttertank, you'll earn a +SLIPPED style bonus.
- Destructible Projectiles: Guttertank rockets can be shot with a hitscan weapon, causing them to explode prematurely. This is something that gives the Guttermen an edge in skirmishes with Guttertanks; if a Guttertank is focused on another target (i.e. V1), a Gutterman can make its life very difficult by intercepting each rocket before they reach their target.
- Friendly Fireproof: An individual Guttertank is immune to its own rockets (including their splash damage) unless you take the time to pause and ride them, even briefly. Even if you freeze the rocket and stick a magnet to the Guttertank, the rocket will refuse to make a collision and just sort of tickle the thing until it goes off to no effect. Multiple Guttertanks can damage each other normally though.
- Gameplay and Story Integration: The Guttertank's terminal entry explains that they were designed to smash Guttermen shields with ease. Indeed, should a Guttertank focus on a Gutterman, one punch from the former kills the latter instantly, shield or not.
- Germanic Efficiency: The Guttertanks are of German origin, judging by the words ‘Faust Panzer’, a pun since they are a tank that punches, written in their left hand. They were also made as a counter to the Gutterman and they are good at killing them, so good that they just need to hit them once.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Every single one of the Guttertanks' attacks can be turned against them:
- Parrying a landmine as it bounces, and launching it towards the Guttertank that deployed it, will deal heavy damage and earn a +LANDYOURS bonus. Parrying them is also a highly convenient source of healing when getting close to catch the blood splatter is just asking to get Megaton Punched out of range.
- Freezing a Guttertank's rocket, then riding and steering it back to the Guttertank, will instantly kill it and earn a +ROUND TRIP bonus.
- On difficulties below Brutal, if the Guttertank misses their punch—which itself cannot be parried—it will trip over and take a few seconds to stand back up. This period of time has a parry window, and V1's fantastic mobility means they'll have no trouble baiting a Guttertank into a vicious cycle of attempting to punch them, falling, then getting countered. The tripping itself does a slight amount of damage, meaning it's possible for the Guttertank to kill itself this way, earning V1 the +SLIPPED style bonus. Tripping them is only possible on the Brutal difficulty if there is Firestarter oil below their feet.
- "Instant Death" Radius: Downplayed in the initial build in that you would (probably) not die instantly, but if you got anywhere close to a Guttertank it would cue a lightning-fast haymaker that would launch you into the nearest wall, disorienting you and setting you up for a rocket. Getting in their faces to heal was rarely an option. Guttertanks were even smart enough to wind up a punch if you Whiplash them; by the time the distance closes, it would land. However, this attack was nerfed shortly after Layer 7's release, by way of adding self-inflicted Scratch Damage and a longer recovery animation to the punch during which it can be parried - but only if it misses, and even then this nerf is absent on Brutal difficulty and above.
- Lightning Bruiser: Despite being built like tanks, these war-crime engines are deceptively quick, as are their hard-hitting—and numerous—explosive attacks.
- Megaton Punch: A Guttertank's punches can knock out a Gutterman in one single blow, and can send V1 flying.
- Punny Name: Their German name is an inversion of "Panzerfaust", a bazooka-like anti-tank weapon.
- Shout-Out:
- The Arm Cannon of the Gutterank can be seen as a reference to Samus Aran since it looks very similar to the bounty hunter's own weapon.
- The Guttertank's entire design makes it look like a Dreadnought from Warhammer 40,000.
- Throw Down the Bomblet: Guttertanks can deploy land mines, which will bounce upward when an enemy approaches them. In their short air time, V1 can parry these.
- Trap Master: Guttertanks plant down landmines that can catch you off-guard if you're not expecting them. In one specific example from 7-2, a Guttertank and Gutterman will ambush you when you revisit a place you've already been, with landmines already covering the area so they have the home turf advantage.
- Walking Tank: They're machines that strongly resemble tanks, and the German text on their fists is "Faustpanzer", which translates to "Fist Tank".
Angels
Virtue
Rank: Lesser Angel
- Always Accurate Attack: As long as a Virtue is spawned, they can and will attack from anywhere, regardless of whether V1 is behind cover or far away. Fortunately, the beam has an obvious telegraph for when it's about to strike: an ornate pattern begins following V1 on the ground directly below them, and it'll stop tracking a second before actually calling down the beam. Functionally, the attack is intended to encourage players to keep moving until they find its source. If the Virtue isn't killed in time, it'll start leading its attacks out of anger, adding yet more challenge.
- Angelic Abomination: It's a prism surrounded by a golden halo with wings that summons destructive pillars of light.
- Anti-Frustration Features: While Virtues usually enrage if they miss enough attacks, they will not enrage if there are three or more present.
- Blown Across the Room: When killed, Virtues fall to the ground and create a harmless explosion that pushes V1 away. Their corpses can be parried to damage enemies, however.
- Combination Attack: If multiple Virtues are present, they stagger their light beam attacks so they happen consecutively, significantly increasing the danger they pose.
- Elite Mook: While Virtues have only one attack, said attack is a devastating pillar of light that ignores cover. They can also be enraged like bosses.
- Eyes Do Not Belong There: In the lore, only. Apparently, the wheels that make them up are supposed to be covered in eyes like biblically accurate depictions of Thrones, but the codex comments that they have lost them. It’s theorized to be an aspect of them manifesting in hell, as the same codex points out the vast majority of Hell's denizens are also lacking any eyes.
- Holy Hand Grenade: Their light beams are weaponized Heaven magic.
- Interspecies Friendship: Virtues are Angels born from human souls, and they're often paired with Idols, Demons wielding holy magic. There are three notable Virtue/Idol encounters in 5-2, 5-3, and 6-1. Considering their respective lore entries (Virtues and their fellow Lesser Angels are looked down on by higher-level Angels due to their human origins, and Idols are Demons raised with love by the Ferrymen, who themselves are former humans, and use holy powers to express kindness), the Idols' blessings are the first kindness the Virtues ever felt since they first became Angels.
- Light Is Not Good: They're divine winged orbs that will kill you with pillars of light.
- Our Angels Are Different: Divine, winged prism orbs that used to be humans.
- Pillar of Light: They smite V1 with their one and only attack: summoning large pillars of holy light.
- Turns Red: If left unattended for too long, it will enrage, summoning pillars more often and predicting your movement while doing so.
- Was Once a Man: Like all Lesser Angels, Virtues are humans who entered Heaven upon death. They're basically Heaven's equivalent to Hell's Husks.
Other Enemies
Puppet
Rank: Unknown
Animate, featureless, humanoid masses of pure blood that are found exclusively in 7-3, and only around the larger trees V1 must "feed" by watering them with the blood of Puppets.- The Blank: Their default form as seen in their first encounter and the sandbox is absolutely featureless.
- Blob Monster: Puppets are masses of blood that take the shape of the game's existing enemies.
- Ditto Fighter: Three out of the four encounters with them have them mimic previously-encountered enemies - the Filth in the second, the Stray in the third, and the Mannequin in the fourth and last encounter. Furthermore, after Full Arsenal update there is now an option to turn any enemy (including bosses) into puppets in sandbox.
- Humanoid Abomination: They are featureless translucent beings seemingly made of blood forming a human-like shape capable of mimicking some denizens of Hell, coupled with the tendency to appear near particular trees and their blood being used to "feed them".
- The Spook: They have no Terminal entry of their own, so what they are is a mystery.
- Unique Enemy: They only appear in one level in the whole game, can mimic other enemies, and killing them is actually used to fulfill an objective, in their case feeding the trees.
