Characters / ULTRAKILL

ULTRAKILL Main Index
Regular Enemies | Bosses

Characters in ULTRAKILL.

Main characters

V1

V1

Rank: Supreme Machine^note While not outright ranked by the game's enemy database, it can be inferred from V2's rank that V1 is at the very least equal to them.

"You're not getting away this time."

The protagonist of the game, a combat robot invading Hell in search of blood to fuel themself. Their unique construction allows them to gather spilled blood on the fly in exchange for increased vulnerability.

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• Adaptational Badass: Assuming that V1 is supposed to be Dante according to Divine Comedy rules, they are a much more impressive interpretation of him.
• Adaptational Villainy: Similarly, going by Divine Comedy rules, V1 is much more amoral than Dante. Dante's journey to Hell had a selfish motivation (saving his own soul and meeting again with Beatrice, a woman whom Dante only barely knew in real life and decided was the love of his life in this work of fiction), but he's not causing much harm through his journey, at least not intentionally. Here, V1 has no other motivation than an extreme bloodlust, and wanting to exterminate everything in sight.
• Ambiguous Situation: The exact degree of V1's sapience is never made clear. Are they diving deeper into Hell because sheer hunger drives them forward? Or do their actions serve a greater purpose?
• Blood-Splattered Warrior: Like all robots in ULTRAKILL, V1 relies on blood for sustenance. When comparing the designs between V1 and V2, V2's terminal entry reveals that V1 has a unique refueling system that allows them to ingest blood from anywhere on their body. Because blood doesn't spurt very far from anything, V1 is encouraged to get in as close as possible to their foes and shower themself in as much blood as possible.
• Blue Is Heroic: Inverted. V1 is almost entirely blue, yet they're a Villain Protagonist who invades Hell to kill its denizens and their fellow invading Killer Robots for the selfish motive of sustaining themself with blood.
• Coin-Targeting Trickshot: V1's most iconic ability is the Alt Fire of their Marksman revolver, in which they toss a coin into the air and fire a bullet off of it, securing a guaranteed headshot on a nearby enemy and supplying the "+RICOSHOT" score bonus. Also, any hitscan weapon can ricochet off the coins, meaning it's possible to redirect a railcannon blast off of one, doing staggeringly high damage.
• Corrupted Character Copy: V1 acts as a sendup to a fellow FPS demon-hunter: The Doom Slayer. But unlike the Slayer, who is a human being who fought Hell to protect humanity and for killing his pet rabbit, V1 is a part of a race of robots who have killed all of humanity and other surface life, and they're only clearing out Hell to find more blood to sustain themself.
• Counter-Attack: V1 can parry enemy melee attacks and projectiles with their Feedbacker arm. Doing so not only deals bonus damage and stuns most enemies and bosses, it also heals V1 to max health or at the hard damage limit.
• Cyber Cyclops: V1 has a large yellow glowing eye on their head.
• David vs. Goliath: Almost all of V1's foes are much larger than them, but V1 still proves to be the victor. The size difference is most pronounced with certain bosses, such as The Corpse of King Minos, The Leviathan, and The Earthmover. The terminal entry for the Earthmovers implies that defeating other Earthmovers may have been what V1 was being developed for, before the Long Night deprived the Earthmovers of solar power and made V1 obsolete before they even entered production.
• Demonic Possession: Downplayed, at least so far. By the time V1 treks through the Violence layer, Hell itself is implied to have established direct communication with their systems, but it acts as a guide instead of taking full control over their actions.
• Glass Cannon: V1 is capable of dealing great damage thanks to a versatile arsenal of powerful weapons, but they also take a ton of damage from enemies in return. The risks of their low defenses are amplified because other than finding secret blood orbs, V1 has two risky ways to heal: Get up close to an enemy to bathe in their blood, or time their parries right.
• Grappling-Hook Pistol: Their Whiplash arm serves as one, allowing them to pull themself to beacons or heavy enemies, or pull light enemies and objects to themself. They got this arm after killing V2 in 4-4.
• Heal It with Blood: Thanks to their unique refueling system and thin metal plating, V1 can repair damage by showering in the blood of their foes. That being said, it also makes them more fragile than other robots, but considering how effective the refueling process is, that drawback doesn't matter anyway.
• Heroic Mime: More like Villainous Mime, but V1 never speaks at any point in the game unless you count them telling V2 that "[they aren't] getting away this time" in the second half of 4-4.
• Hero Killer: V1 killed King Minos, the most heroic character revealed so far, by killing his very soul.
• Hidden Depths: V1 (possibly) has notable traits that suggest they are not a mere emotionless Killer Robot.
  • They have a strange fondness towards skeletons, giving names to 2 of them in 1-4 and 5-3 and making a joke upon contact with a pair of stranded skeletons in 5-2. In addition, the Ferryman (who is an animate skeleton) is the only thing in Hell that V1 can be outright nice towards, by giving him a coin as payment for his ferry.
  • Additionally, in Level 2-S, the existential dread of Mirage, an extension of V1’s psyche, indicates that their journey through Hell is at least partially motivated by an overpowering fear of death. Though on the flip side, if the responses given to Mirage are also reflective of V1, it has some shades of Anti-Nihilism declaring that if there is no purpose to its existence then whatever purpose it chooses is worthy in itself. Granted, the secret levels' generally vague canonicity outside of the testaments muddies things.
• Inexplicably Awesome: For what’s supposedly just a combat robot, V1’s fighting ability is absolutely ludicrous: Outfighting the likes of Heaven’s greatest champion and two Prime Souls. It’s not clear if they're just that advanced a machine or their descent into Hell has somehow transformed them into something greater.
• It's All About Me: They're not invading Hell for any noble goal; they just want more blood to sustain themself.
• Killer Robot: While V1 isn't the only vicious robot in this game, their sheer skill and determination, along with their massive arsenal and unique ability to self-repair with blood on the spot, makes them stand out from the rest.
• The King Slayer: V1 permanently kills King Minos and King Sisyphus by destroying their souls.
• Last of Their Kind: With V2’s death, V1 is seemingly the only remaining V Model.
• Lensman Arms Race: As shown by the lore entry for the 7-4 boss, V1 is Implicitly the pinnacle of the arms race of the Final War. The V models were made at the end of the Final War; the Final War was based wholly around constantly inventing new war machines to counter existing ones. When V1 was being designed, the newest machine was the Earthmover: a giant machine that readily carried whole armies and could only be dismantled from within. V1 is a One-Man Army, highly versatile to exploit the weaknesses of every previous machine that may be boarded on the Earthmover, and small enough to get inside the and destroy its core. If not for the Earthmovers being deactivated by their own pollution, the V1 units would have destroyed them instead.
• Line-of-Sight Name: As offhandedly mentioned by Word of God, V1 has given at least the Swordsmachine this. Assuming every other enemy's names also came from them, it can be said that V1 is not very good at naming things.
• Money Mauling: V1 can weaponize the Marksman's coins, whether by reflecting Hitscan beams off of them, or punching them straight at enemies.
• Multi-Armed and Dangerous: V1 grows another arm whenever they pick up the Dual-Wield powerup. There's no limit to this, meaning it's possible for V1 to have over ten arms.
• Mysterious Past: Virtually nothing is known about V1 before they came to hell, and V1 has absolutely no intention of changing that. It’s not even clear if they had any past with V2 before entering hell as neither machine talks. We do know that the V series was only able to produce the V1 we play as and the V2 we fight, and that V1 likely has a fear of death, but it's not much. The fact they entered Hell with their BIOS recalibrated on the way and their armor at critical damage also leaves things open to question.
• No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: The one time V1 does something not for their own (obvious) benefit was freeing the soul of King Minos from his prison. Unfortunately, while Minos thanks V1 for freeing him, he also cannot overlook the machine's apparent involvement in Mankind’s extinction, forcing V1 to kill him out of self-defense. Granted that since this is V1, they likely would have killed King Minos anyway.
  • Subverted in 5-2 - if V1 decides to pay the Ferryman's toll by tossing a Marksman coin at him, they get a ride on his cruise without any bloodshed.
• Nominal Hero: Invading Hell and killing its demons is usually a good thing, but V1's reason for doing so is completely self-serving. They're looking for more blood because blood is fuel; they're thoroughly uninvested in the story ensuing around them, at least on the surface. Not to mention that V1 is part of a faction that was responsible for driving humanity to extinction.
• Older Is Better: V1 is the older of the two V models robots in the game, with V2 being a downgrade over V1 due to being built with standard armor plating/repair systems instead of V1's prototype blood absorbing/self-repairing armor.
• One-Man Army: Even alluded to in 0-4's name, "One Machine Army". You'll generally be cutting your way through scores of enemies wherever you go.
• Parrying Bullets: They can do this to just about any projectile, including ones from their own guns, to send them forward at an even higher speed.
• Pint-Sized Powerhouse: Compared to everything else in Hell, anyways. V1's canonical height isn't confirmed because it's not important to the game's lore as a whole, but they're shorter than all of the enemies in the game, even Filths. ^note  Gameplay-wise, this is to make sure the player sees the enemies properly, similar to what the Dark Souls games do. This doesn't stop them from mowing down hordes of enemies and slinging out Ricoshots like there's no tomorrow.
• Race-Name Basis: So far, none of the voiced characters call V1 by their name. Instead, they're addressed as "machine" (by Gabriel), "creature of steel" (by King Minos), and "weapon" (by King Sisyphus).
• Single Specimen Species: The V series only managed to develop two prototypes, one for the V1 model and one for the V2 model. The closest relative V1 has is V2, who they killed off by the end of Greed.
• Suddenly Speaking: They only technically "speak" one time, and it's to tell V2 that "[they aren't] getting away this time" during the second part of 4-4.
• Super Prototype: Unlike V2, who was overhauled from V1’s chassis for peacetime security duty, V1 was specifically designed to win wars. Because of this, V1’s unique blood absorption ability allows them to fight at peak performance indefinitely.
• Supporting Protagonist: As V1, you descend into hell through their perspective, which is what the story mainly revolves around. However, they are scarcely given any characterization, most of which are hidden and interpretative when found, an example being the Hank encounter in 1-4. Ending texts of each act also conspicuously leaves them out for the most part, instead focusing on Gabriel's gradual Character Development and his subsequent atonement. This, combined with the great deal of focus and importance he receives in lore, makes Gabriel The Hero of the overall narrative. That said, as detailed below, V1's actions ended up having heavy ramifications on the setting of the game, even if they didn't intend it.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: In their quest to supply themself with fuel, and successfully beating the Archangel Gabriel in the palace of Gluttony, they had opened the floodgates for the machines to successfully breach into Hell in full and begin its total obliteration in their ravenous need for fuel. Also, by beating Gabriel repeatedly, they caused Gabriel to have a Heel Realization that in turn led to Gabriel slaughtering the entire Heavenly Council, before leaving for his own final battle, which spells an uncertain fate for Heaven as well. In doing both, V1's own quest for fuel might have triggered the end of everything. Though this is also downplayed, as Hell itself seems to be constructing the battlefields and conflict zones that V1 marches through, and it may very well have been banking on all of this happening for reasons unknown.
• Upgrade vs. Prototype Fight: V1 is a prototype of V2, and both robots clashed with each other twice. Despite V2's superior armor plating and combat skills rivaling V1's, V1 wins in both battles, finally killing their successor at the end of Greed.
• Victor Gains Loser's Powers: V1 obtains some of their weapons from their opponents, such as the shotgun from Swordsmachine, the red arm from V2, and the green arm from V2's rematch.
• Villain Protagonist: The game focuses on V1's journey through Hell, and they're an amoral, self-serving, Killer Robot who invades Hell to slaughter its denizens and their fellow robots for blood, and they might be involved in the extinction of all surface life, including humanity.
• The Voiceless: V1 never utters a word through the whole game. Swordsmachine's terminal entry suggests that most machines don't bother with a voicebox to maximize their efficiency. Curiously, if you choose to hold your gun in the "middle" and enable the Classic HUD, V1 will make Ranger grunts when jumping.
• Winged Humanoid: They're a humanoid robot with four sets of yellow wings.
• Wings Do Nothing: V1's wings are far from purely cosmetic. While their wings aren't designed for sustained flight, said wings do allow for other versatile movement options: sliding and dashing. The wings even serve as storage for V1's impressive arsenal.

Gabriel

Gabriel, Judge of Hell / Apostate of Hate

Rank: Supreme Angel

^{Click here to see him in Act 2}

"As the righteous hand of The Father, I shall rend you apart, and you will become inanimate once more."

Voiced by: Gianni Matragrano

A revered archangel seeking you out in 3-2 to stop your rampage through Hell. The boss of Gluttony and Heresy, as well as the Final Boss of both Act I and II.

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• Adaptational Villainy: In The Divine Comedy, the archangel Gabriel is mentioned several times as a being of pure goodness and light. Here, he's a ruthless zealot who murdered King Minos for turning the Lust layer into a paradise. Subverted at the end of Act II, where after he gains clarity following his second battle with V1, he becomes a more noble character after realizing the errors of his ways, although he is still far more violent than his literary counterpart ever was.
• Amazing Technicolor Population: Charcoal-black skin is visible between the plates of his armor. This is more pronounced in merch and promotional images, which show Gabriel in other states of dress besides wearing armor, and depicts his black skin more obviously.
• Archangel Gabriel: It's right there in the name. He's the messenger of God in his divine glory, whose brutal effectiveness in carrying the commands of the Council made him popular with the other angels (until his defeat by V1).
• Arc Villain: Serves as the main antagonist of Act 1 and Act 2.
• Blood Knight: After his second defeat, he realizes that he has actually come to like the prospect of facing an opponent who can successfully make him bleed, as he had been bereft of challenge for most of his life.
• Bodyguard Betrayal: He slaughters The Council after realizing just how their weakness and complacency have warped Heaven.
• Character Development: Opens the fight against V1 as a pious, rigid templar. When V1 breaks his first health bar, Gabriel is enraged, and spends the rest of the fight angrily decrying the machine for its insolence. When V1 beats him, he is punished by Heaven and sent against the machine in shame. This development takes a serious left turn when he fights V1 again at the end of Act 2; while he begins the fight completely enraged as per their last encounter, Gabriel actually becomes calmer in the second phase. He begins laughing and genuinely enjoying the fight, as every other opponent has been nothing but weaklings to be culled. His second defeat against V1 causes him to become introspective and respectful, realizing how much pressure was put on him as The Ace. With the burden lifted, Gabriel realizes he can search for whatever meaning he wants... so he decides to slay The Council of Heaven and end its warped influence and lead his own final crusade into Hell.
• Cultured Badass: As shown in 6-2, Gabriel is skilled in playing the pipe organ, as he plays a Dark Reprise of "I call to you, Lord Jesus Christ" in the buildup to the rematch with him, in what is a very clear Shout-Out to Ganondorf.
• Decapitation Presentation: At the act 2's ending cutscene, Gabriel displays one of the council member's head to the citizens.
• Discard and Draw: In the first encounter with him, he wields a variety of weapons made of divine light that he can summon out of thin air. Specifically, they include a spear, a greatsword, throwing axes, and swords that he can have spin around him. During the second encounter, he forgoes most of these (aside from the spinning swords) in favor of a single pair of mundane swords, Justice and Splendor. Accordingly, his moveset becomes less versatile, but significantly more aggressive, no doubt a consequence of his grief-induced rage.
• Dragon Ascendant: He initially follows the orders of The Council, but following his second loss to V1 he decides to take matters into his own hands. He slaughters them in rebellion and becomes the main antagonist of the story from then on.
• Despair Event Horizon: Crosses it by the end of Act II, after he learns that a rampaging horde of bloodthirsty machines has begun to systematically depopulate Hell itself.
• Early-Bird Cameo: First seen in 1-4 as a stained glass window painting. You can also read about him in a lore entry found in 2-2.
• Famed In-Story: Gabriel is the most visible and active archangel at the time of the story, and he’s mentioned by multiple characters in different contexts showing his fame and infamy extend outside of Heaven.
• Fantastic Racism: He views robots as mere objects rather than sentient beings in their own right. His views are also shared by the Council. He reevaluates his thoughts after his second defeat, realizing the commonality between all living things, which leads him to rebel against the Council's prejudiced preachings...by slaughtering them all.
• Faux Affably Evil: Likes to present himself as a wise, Holy figure, but he’s really a petulant, self-righteous man-child. He develops into a more genuinely noble figure after his second defeat, albeit one still willing to resort to violent measures.
• Final Boss: Of Act 1 and 2.
• First Injury Reaction: Once in each of the first two acts after his respective defeats.
  • In Act 1, he completely loses it at being outmatched, screaming a curse at V1 before teleporting away.
  • In Act 2, he gets more and more bloodthirsty throughout the fight to the point he revels in seeing his own blood being drawn for the first time, accepting V1's strength as a match for his own. This incites him to rebel against and massacre the Council.
• Gold and White Are Divine: This is the Archangel Gabriel's natural color scheme. When he gets mad and both literally and figuratively Turns Red, it's symbolic of his hatred leading him off from the will of the Angelic Council.
• Graceful Loser: While he was a complete Sore Loser after his first defeat, his second defeat knocks a degree of clarity into him, and he realizes for the first time just how liberating defeat has been now that he's free from the Council's expectations.
  Gabriel: Twice? Beaten by an object, twice?! I've only known the taste of victory... but this taste, is... is this my blood? Ha... I've never known such... such relief. I... I need some time to think. We will meet again, Machine. May your woes be many, heh, and your days few.
• Heavenly Blue: Gabriel's wings and halo glow blue, and they compliment his white, gold, and silver armor. His color scheme sets a precedent for every angel who appears in the game going forward. He's far less heroic than what his appearance implies, however.
• The Heavy: He is the most powerful threat V1 faces by far in the entire game, and while extremely prestigious in Heaven's service, Gabriel is beneath the Council of Heaven—who themselves are responsible for a lot of the crimes in the setting, alongside the Machines' uprising on Earth, by suppressing the uprising in Hell that wanted freedom from Heaven's oppressive rule, but the Council never has any direct involvement with V1 beyond punishing Gabriel for his failure in defeating V1 the first time—that is until Gabriel himself kills the entire Council upon having a Heel Realization, thereby setting himself up to become the ultimate adversary V1 has to face in Act III. Gabriel is also responsible for a vast majority of the events in the game's backstory, from being looked to by certain lost souls in Limbo, to suppressing the Lust Renaissance by slaying King Minos, to stopping the Greed Insurrection by decapitating King Sisyphus, to rescuing the Ferryman of Wrath, and he even struck down the Leviathan.
• Heel Realization: At the end of Act II, Gabriel's contemplation made him remorseful because he realized how wrong his Knight Templar ways were. Then he sets to make things right by slaying The Council for their tyranny before returning to Hell one last time to make a final stand against V1 and their kind.
• Hero Antagonist: To V1, albeit a very dark one. He acts as the main obstacle preventing V1 from entering the deeper layers of Hell for their ruthless bloodshed, and sees himself as a "fair and just" figure upholding God's image. Come the end of Act II, this is played more straight, as Gabriel recognizes the error of his ways and goes on one final crusade to atone for his sins.
• Inopportune Voice Cracking: His voice cracks when he's particularly upset, perhaps the most prominent such moment being at the end of Act II during his Pre-Asskicking One-Liner with the word "relish", but it's also noticeable during his "insignificant fuck" rant.
• Ironic Echo: At the end of his first fight, he departs with the words "May your woes be many, and your days few", in an authoritative, menacing tone. When he repeats it at the end of Act II, he says it with better humor and a slight chuckle midway through, reflecting the respect V1 has earned.
• I Shall Taunt You: Will spend periods of his boss fight throwing taunts at you, even once enraged. His entry in the Terminal even mentions it to be a good time to get a hit in.
• The King Slayer: According to a book in 2-2, Gabriel killed King Minos for turning the Layer of Lust into a thriving paradise, bringing an end to the Lust Renaissance. King Minos didn't even try to fight back, as he tried to reason with Gabriel, but sadly, the angel didn't listen. He also killed King Sisyphus by decapitating him, which is confirmed in the latter's lore entry.
• Knight Templar: Gabriel sees himself as wise and just, even calling himself "the righteous hand of the father", but in reality, he's a condescending, self-righteous, xenophobic tyrant who subjugates countless souls to horrific punishments, and murdered King Minos for freeing Lust's sinners from their torment. After his second defeat, he realizes upon introspection just how blind and dogmatic he'd been in the past, which leads him to slaughtering the Council that had instilled such beliefs into him, believing that removing them from power will allow the denizens of Heaven to move away from this mindset.
• Large Ham: Everything he says is said with loud pompousness, especially when he Emphasizes. Specific. Words. In Act 2, he takes it up a notch due to his SHEER FURY.
• The Last Dance: Godfist Suicide is setting his third encounter with V1 up as this as his slaughter of The Council means his divine light cannot be restored, giving him hours to live at most.
• Laughing Mad: Begins doing this as he shows signs of developing into a Blood Knight in his rematch with V1. However, ironically, it only serves to bring him back from the brink of madness brought by his Roaring Rampage of Revenge as he goes from a Sore Loser to a Graceful Loser at the end of the rematch, gaining satisfaction in finally meeting a Worthy Opponent in V1.
• Light Is Not Good: Despite being an angel of light, Gabriel is a self-righteous, xenophobic zealot. Acting on behalf of God, he insists on upholding the suffering of Hell's denizens, and he seeks to stop robots like V1 from disrupting the process with their killing sprees. He even deems acts of goodwill to Hell just as disruptive; long before V1 ever started their journey, Gabriel had successfully slain someone else over their desire to improve life in Hell: King Minos, who transformed the Lust layer into a haven for his subjects. Subverted at the end of Act II where after losing to V1 again, Gabriel contemplates on his actions and regrets them after realizing how horrible they are, causing him to slaughter The Council for their tyranny in the hopes that it will liberate Heaven's denizens from fear and dogma before returning to Hell one last time to battle V1 and their kind.
• Lightning Bruiser: He's fast, hits hard, takes a good deal of punishment, and gets even faster when his health is half-empty.
• Meaningful Name: Gabriel is derived from an ancient Hebrew name that means “God is my strength”. V1 forcing him to learn that his strength has limits is likely foreshadowing that God Is Dead in the Ultrakill universe.
• Might Makes Right: Pretty plain to see that he believes fully in this, considering how often he uses force to subjugate those he views as lesser. It gains an arguably noble dimension after his second defeat, as the moment of reflection he has afterward has him realize that The Council, and him under them by extension, had no right to cast judgment down on others because they had become too indulgent and complacent to back up their authority. So he slaughters The Council before descending back down into Hell to make one Last Stand against V1.
• Mistaken for Betrayal: Gabriel had not lost a match against his opponents. Thus the Council thought Gabriel losing to a mere machine was a deliberate act of betrayal. Ironically, the punishment for the supposed betrayal was one of the things that ultimately lead Gabriel for turning against the council in the first place.
• Multi-Melee Master: In your first encounter with him, he wields a spear, a greatsword, and throwing axes.
• Named Weapons: The two blue and gold sabers he has strapped to his hip are named Justice and Splendor.
• Noble Bigot: Stuck in his ways and deeply prejudiced against his enemies, Gabriel is still one of the strongest people willing to stand between V1 and their endless hunger.
• Our Angels Are Different: The Archangel Gabriel himself, an armored angel with blue ethereal wings who has the ability to summon weapons of light.
• Pay Evil unto Evil: After reflecting on his past actions, Gabriel decides to wipe out the entire Council in order to keep them from warping Heaven further with their weakness and complacency. It'd be considered an extreme action if not for the fact that The Council was a bunch of Holier Than Thou jackasses who were responsible for making the lives of the denizens of Hell even worse.
• Pet the Dog: His treatment of the Ferrymen shows a previously unseen softer side, and the codex entries for the Idols explicitly say that it's fortunate for both the Idols and the Ferrymen who made them that Gabriel is overseeing Hell as The Council would have been... less than pleased... by the creation of artificial Ascended Demons.
• Precision F-Strike: Calls V1 an "insignificant fuck" during his post-boss battle rant.
• Psychopathic Manchild: Throws the mother of all temper tantrums after V1 hands him his ass. During his rematch, he is absolutely livid, screaming and shrieking at V1. As the fight goes on this becomes subverted. He calms down as he realizes that facing a real challenge is actually invigorating for him. While he is shocked to lose twice, he takes it a bit better by going off to contemplate himself in light of this loss.
• Redemption Equals Death: His intent after some self-reflection upon his second defeat from V1, which leads him to killing the Heavenly Council, is made clear as he comes to realize that their Knight Templar ways in Heaven have cost too much, blindly holding onto their superiority in spite of their Father being long dead. Knowing that this action will kill him as he's running on borrowed time, Gabriel instead chooses to embrace the freedom of mortality to enjoy what is clearly going to be his final battle against V1.
• Sore Loser: To say he's upset about losing to you is an understatement. In the rematch, this is subverted, as losing twice to V1 leaves him bewildered but laughing and he leaves to think things over.
• Spontaneous Weapon Creation: Conjures swords, axes, and spears made of light to use.
• Symbol Face: Gabriel wears a helmet with a golden cross on the front, showing his status as an Archangel and his importance. There are no visible eyeholes.
• This Cannot Be!: He says "How can this be?" when being defeated by V1 for the first time.
• Throwing Your Sword Always Works: He throws his holy spears at you during his 1st fight in Gluttony. When he's fought again in Heresy, he combines his swords and throws them at you as a deadly Homing Projectile.
• To the Pain: His Pre-Battle Banter in his second fight consists of nothing but delirious, hate-fueled threats directed towards V1.
  Gabriel: "Machine, I will cut. You. Down. Break you apart, splay the gore of your profane form ACROSS THE STARS! I WILL GRIND YOU DOWN UNTIL THE VERY SPARKS CRY FOR MERCY! MY HANDS SHALL RELISH ENDING YOU HERE! AND! NOW!!!"
• Turns Red: Once he enters his second phase by having his first health bar depleted. In his rematch, he starts with this status, losing it in the second half of the fight.
• Tyrant Takes the Helm: Gabriel becomes the new Judge of Hell after slaying the beloved King Minos. Following Act 2 he seems to take this a step further by slaughtering the council and thus becoming the new leader of heaven by default. Subverted in that he only has hours to live, so whatever reign Gabriel might have would be short. Thus he leaves Heaven for the last time to settle things with V1.
• Villainous Breakdown: After being defeated by V1, Gabriel loses his cool, unable to handle being defeated by a mere machine.
  Gabriel: What?! How can this be? Bested by this...this thing? You insignificant FUCK!! THIS IS NOT OVER!! May your woes be many, and your days few...
• Wham Line:
  • His first words, which are the first time someone not only speaks in Ultrakill, but also directly addresses V1.
    Gabriel: Machine. Turn back, now.
  • Gabriel joyously laughing during his second fight with V1 is a sure sign that something seriously odd has happened to him.
  • At the end of Act 2, Gabriel drops a colossal bombshell regarding the state of Heaven:
    Gabriel: Face it, brother. God Is Dead. The fire is gone. You're chasing phantoms.
• Wholesome Crossdresser: Can be seen wearing a skirt in the official artwork seen at the end of the trailer for Act II.
• Winged Humanoid: As expected from an Angel, Gabriel has a pair of wings that allow him to fly and attack from above. But instead of having white feathered wings, he has blue wings made of light.
• Worthy Opponent: Double Subverted, to say that Gabriel takes his initial loss at V1's hands badly is an Understatement to say the least, as he throws the mother of all temper tantrums and stays firmly pissed the entire time until their rematch, seeing it as an indignity to be bested by a machine. However, as their second fight goes along, he surprisingly calms down as he comes to the revelation that having been an Invincible Hero for so long has deprived him of the joy of fighting, and actually being pushed to his limit and beaten twice by V1 has changed his outlook significantly to look forward to what would clearly be his final match against V1.
• Your Days Are Numbered: As punishment for losing to V1, "God's light" is stripped from Gabriel and its lack will kill him in the next 24 hours. The only way to reclaim it is to defeat V1. His failure to defeat the machine in their rematch, as well as his subsequent slaughter of the Council of Angels seems to doom him, something Gabriel himself is very aware of.

Enemies

• Regular Enemies

Bosses

• Bosses

Secret characters (Unmarked Spoilers)

Level 0-S Secret Character

Something Wicked

Rank: Unclassified

Something wicked this way comes.

A creature that refuses qualification; a spindly horror stalking 0-S's darkened hallways.

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• Dark Is Evil: It's not called Something Wicked for nothing. It's a black, sinister, skeletal creature that lurks in the darkness of 0-S, and it hunts anything that crosses its domain.
• Drone of Dread: Its presence is indicated by a buzzing sound that gets louder as it approaches V1.
• Humanoid Abomination: It's a thin, skeletal, featureless, humanoid creature that's seemingly immortal and makes a horrific screech whenever it spots V1.
• Invincible Boogeymen: Something Wicked is borderline unstoppable. While attacking it can stop it temporarily, it will teleport across the map to continue the chase until V1 beats the level.
• Knight of Cerebus: It proves that the secret level it's in will be darker and more serious than the run-and-gun gameplay.
• Lean and Mean: It's essentially a stick figure, and it hunts down V1 during 0-S.
• One-Hit Kill: Its mere touch causes a whopping 1000 points of damage. The most HP you'll have is 200. This also works against the creature, as a single shot from the revolver can take it out temporarily.
• The Spook: Nothing is known about it other than that it's incredibly dangerous and doesn't leave its domain.
• Villain Teleportation: Every time it gets shot, the creature teleports to the furthest spot from V1's direction.
• Walking Spoiler: Since Something Wicked only appears in 0-S, it's this by default.

Level 2-S Secret Character

Mirage

Rank: Unclassified

An odd robot met in 2-S.

---

• The Anti-Nihilist: Not at the beginning, but the player helps her come to this mindset by the end of their argument.
• Cross-Popping Veins: When Mirage gets frustrated, veins are shown on her portrait.
• Distaff Counterpart: She has a slimmer build and a different head mold, but she acts as one to V1, who is genderless but is often referred to with masculine pronouns by both the fans and Hakita (in casual conversation).
• Expy: A parody of dating sim love interests who quickly reveals a deeply nihilistic side and a drastic change in personality in not only her words but the world as a whole. Not too far off from Monika.
• Fembot: In a schoolgirl uniform, no less.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Mirage is snarky and nihilistic, but the player gives her a new look on life and she (begrudgingly) treats them to food.
• Meaningful Name: She's called Mirage because she isn't real.
• Surprisingly Creepy Moment: What starts off as a parody of dating sims rapidly nosedives into a harrowing debate on existentialism.
• Straw Nihilist: Mirage's speech goes into paralyzing fear of action in light of her and everyone's overall meaning - or lack of it - in the face of the universe. The player character helps her get over it, stating that this lack of definite meaning allows one to live as they wish to reach their own meaning that they define themselves, and that the end is not something to be feared, but to be embraced.
• Toast of Tardiness: Her monologue in the level's intro has her mention biting into her rations held only by the skin of her teeth. This is despite the fact that she's a machine with no mouth and, assuming she's like the other machines, uses blood as fuel.
• Tsundere: She's a massive jerk (although she says it's how she copes with her nihilistic outlook on life), but she treats the player to some food after they wrap up their debate.
• Walking Spoiler: Given she's in a secret level of the game.

Level 5-2 First Secret Character

Florp

A hamster found inside one of the Ferry's funnels in 5-2.

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• Ascended Meme: The Hampter meme (going by the nickname of "Florp") is popular with the game's fandom. The hamster is finally in the game.
• Easter Egg: The hamster is hidden in one of the Ferry's funnels.
• Human Sacrifice: A hamster sacrifice rather than a human one, but Florp is used as a sacrifice to free Jakito.
• Whale Egg: Despite being a hamster, Florp is guarding its nest, which is full of eggs.

Level 5-2 Second Secret Character

Jakito

A bastardized parody of Hakita's Author Avatar. He's found on top of a titanic tower at the start of 5-2. He's trapped in a cage, but for good reason.

---

• Author Avatar: He's a bastardized parody of the avatar Hakita uses on social media.
• Easter Egg: Jakito is found on top of a vast tower, which can only be accessed by mastering the game's vertical movement. You could try using cheats to noclip up there, but then he'll immediately disappear.
• The Fourth Wall Will Not Protect You: Should Jakito destroy the world, the game closes itself.
• Humanoid Abomination: Jakito looks like a human (albeit a crudely drawn one), but he's a powerful and malevolent being who destroys the world once he's freed.
• Human Sacrifice: Or rather, hamster sacrifice, but sacrificing Florp is enough to free Jakito from his prison.
• Omnicidal Maniac: He wants to destroy the world because he can, and if he's freed, he has the power to do so.
• Sealed Evil in a Can: Jakito is trapped in a cage, and he needs a sacrifice to be freed. Once he's freed, Jakito destroys the entire world for no reason other than for the sake of it.
• Shout-Out: Wrath is probably the last place to expect a caricature of Saika Totsuka.

Other characters (Unmarked Spoilers)

The Terminals

The Terminals

The various screens you see between levels and encounters, allowing you to buy weapons, read documents on the different enemies and events of the world, and access the Sandbox and Cyber Grind game modes.

---

• Allergic to Routine: The main reason they use "points" as a currency is because of their completely sedentary existence, a lack of surface world stimuli, and the otherwise drone-like nature of most Machines has made them yearn for some kind of entertainment. So, they reward machines that show off their skills with a chance to earn better weaponry.
• Deadpan Snarker: The Terminal just before the Flesh Panopticon has one unchanging tip for you going into the fight;
  "TIP OF THE DAY: Have fun"
• Dungeon Shop: Just before heading out into the levels of Hell, V1 can buy weapon variations and weapon customization options from them. Some will even appear just before boss battles, with P-2 having a terminal after the many enemies found in Dis and before fighting the Flesh Panopticon.
• It Can Think:
  • Until you beat a Prime Sanctum, you might be led to believe that the terminals are just non-thinking machines that provide basic utilities. The terminal at the end of P-1 hints at the sentience of the terminals, referring to the machines' usage of them as "a symbiotic relationship", and the terminal at the end of P-2 outright describes their behavior and desire for entertainment.
  • A blink-and-you'll-miss-it moment at the end of 5-3 also shows they are able to react to outside stimuli, and either feel pain or have a sense of humor, when you find one that was tipped over when the ship capsized:
  TIP OF THE DAY: Ow.
• Money Sink: In addition to regular weapon variations, their merchandise includes weapon customization options that require 5 million points in total to acquire.
• Monster Compendium: They hold a record of every enemy and boss V1 has fought, as well as observations on their behaviors and how to best handle them.

Humanity

The previous dominant race on Earth, now gone extinct thanks to the rise of the machines.

---

• Alternate History: What people call the Final War has its roots in what used to be recognizable as World War I, a version of it that simply kept going through the entire 21st century.
• Crapsack World: The Guttertank's terminal entry notes that things were going pretty poorly for mankind even off the battlefield, as most of humanity's resources were being used for the war and little was going into civilian life, with most struggling to survive. It's to the point that the sun being blotted out by the soot and ashen ruins of the war is considered a good thing, as it shut down the Earthmovers and ended the war.
• Great Offscreen War: In 1914, the Final War started among humankind. Little is seen of it, though it is known that the conflict dragged on for approximately 200 years and culminated in human soldiers being supplanted by increasingly sophisticated machine armies.
• Humanity's Wake: The entire game takes place after all humans have been wiped off the face of the earth.
• Humans Are Flawed: Hell is full after all, and there are a great number of humans who have committed sins against one another. This eventually culminated in the Final War... but war still ended after all, and humanity got past their differences for peace. Ironically enough, humanity was seemingly instead ended by a being of pure evil that was incensed at humanity moving on past a life of violence into peace, provoking it into ending humanity itself directly.
• Humans Are Special: Unlike the other races, humans are the only race to not only have souls, but form Prime Souls, beings so powerful they can manifest a physical form without the need for a Husk, and they're dreaded even by Angels.
• Lensman Arms Race: The Final War ended up becoming one as humanity invented the Gutterman, which was countered by the Guttertank. Continue on until you reach the Earthmovers and possibly V1.
• Too Dumb to Live: Creating machines that derive their fuel source from blood probably wasn't the brightest idea, given that the machines are also sentient and don't intend on dying, not to mention that humanity still made such robots even after the Final War ended. However, the ARG puts this idiocy into question with the reveal that an entity had a hand instigating the extinction of humanity with the intent of stealing away the souls of mankind to torment for its own amusement for all eternity, and nowhere is it actually stated that it was machines that caused the great calamity. On the other hand, sending at least two research expeditions into Hell is what gave the entity access to human technology, including blood-powered machines, in the first place...
• War Is Hell: The Final War was such a desperate and pointless struggle, it even burned holes in civilian life and rendered home as just another battlefield for the soldiers discharged after the arms race began.
• Wowing Cthulhu: The Greater-Scope Villain of the story that caused humanity's extinction for its own purposes is nonetheless awed by the sheer destructive potential the species had when putting their work towards creating the war machines. The Earthmover is practically idolized as the perfected state of this, poetics waxed at length in a book it left to narrate its thoughts to V1 on the matter, and the Guttermen designed to carry their fuel sources inspired said entity to take notes for its own unholy creations. Humanity was so royally fucked up that it earned Villain Respect for it.

Terminal Author

An unknown person who wrote the lore entries on the terminals found at the end of Prime Sanctums.

---

• Content Leak: In-Universe, the lore from the end of P-2 mentions that a previously-written draft got leaked, and they had to deal with the repercussions.
• Deadpan Snarker: Marked comment text has them cynically snipe at whoever they're frustrated with, such as the "suits" who didn't bother reading their previous giant text block, or complaining about a project lead's music choice at the terminals.
  [note: fuck you tom im so fucking tired of this stupid song and having to listen to it every morning over your garbage intercom]
• Killed Mid-Sentence: The lore from the ARG that appears to be written by them has them stop typing suddenly, followed by multiple lines of blank text, and then an evil force interjecting and ordering another person to die.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Their typing style is defined by occasional frustrated comment text in grey. The ARG lore entry, addressed to the same Tom from an in-game lore entry, has none of that, as they've realized the gravity of the situation and the importance of getting a message sent immediately.

The Father

The Father

The creator.

---

• Adaptational Wimp: The God of The Bible was an all-powerful being with no limit to His might. But the Testaments found in the secret levels imply that, no matter how hard how He tried, this version of Him could never create a human being that lacked free will. Furthermore, though He was able to create Hell, He has admitted that He no longer has the power to unmake it.
• Despair Event Horizon: Every Testament so far has shown that he's clearly hit it since before he started writing them. It's hard to figure out what exactly started it, but it was either the creation of mankind or the creation of Hell.
• Disproportionate Retribution: For asking if eternal torment for sinners was justified, He cast Lucifer into Hell. He was frightened by the possibility of admitting He was wrong, but afterward realized just what He did.
• The Evils of Free Will: The secret level Testaments document God's attempt to create humans without free will, His failure at doing so, and the subsequent creation of Hell to punish sinners who don't follow His rule.
• God Is Dead: In the Act 2 end credits, Gabriel confirmed that God has been dead for a while.
• God Is Flawed: In several secret areas, you can find special "TESTAMENT" Terminals that reveal God's own inner thoughts about mankind in His attempts to engineer free will out of them. Every single attempt fails, and it's clear behind the grandiose, all-caps speech pattern is a burnt-out wreck lashing out at others because He can't comprehend not being able to do something, and only realizing the error in this after He creates Hell, and realizes He can't change what results from that either. Word of God has stated this is fully intentional, with God's limits in power, knowledge, and benevolence serving to justify why he would ever create Hell.
• Have You Seen My God?: The father hasn't been seen for a while. It is implied that He may be dead.
• My God, What Have I Done?: God horrifies himself when he casts Lucifer into Hell when he asks what could possibly justify the eternal torment of humanity.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: If the Testaments are any indication, He speaks in all capital letters and rhymes the last word of every second sentence... right up until the last line of Testament III, where He realizes to His horror that after having failed to change mankind's free will and creating Hell out of frustration, He isn't able to undo it.
  I HAVE CREATED HELL...
  ...And now I can no longer unmake it
• The Maker: He's the creator of both Heaven and Hell.

The Council

The Council

A corrupt council of Angels that rule over Heaven after God died.

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• Asshole Victim: Gabriel slaughtered the entire Council at the end of Act 2. Don't pity them, since The Council is xenophobic, self-righteous tyrants that ruled Heaven through fear and made Hell as miserable as possible.
• Bad Boss: They consider Gabriel's defeat at the hands of a machine tantamount to treason and heresy, and punish Gabriel for it. This comes back to bite them in the ass later.
• Council of Angels: The angelic council took over once the Father left.
• Greater-Scope Villain: They ruled Heaven with an iron fist, their teachings made Gabriel just as dogmatic as they are, and they're responsible for some of the horrific punishments and events in Hell, like the fall of Minos' Lust Renaissance, the failure of Sisyphus' Greed Insurrection, and the deaths of both kings. However, there's an even greater force of evil that's pulling the strings from beyond the veil.
• Hate Sink: There is nothing entertaining or sympathetic about them, being nothing but self-righteous tyrants that caused horror and misery long before the game's plot took place.
• "It" Is Dehumanizing: During their judgement of Gabriel at the end of Act 1, the Council deliberately avoids using gendered language, referring to Gabriel as an "it" or "this one." Surrounding context makes it clear that they see Gabriel as unworthy of respect.
• Karmic Death: The entire Council are corrupt Angels who ruled Heaven through fear, created the horrible punishments in Hell, instilled their dogma onto Gabriel, and then severed him from God's light for losing to V1. Gabriel comes back to Heaven at the end of Act 2 to butcher the entire Council, and they all deserve it.
• Light Is Not Good: They're Angels of holy light, yet they punish Hell's sinners with immense suffering and rule Heaven through fear and desperation out of their self-righteous dogmatism.
• The Unfought: Despite being major villains, the Council was never fought by V1. Instead, they were slain by Gabriel in the ending cutscenes of Act 2.

Lucifer

Lucifer

"FATHER, WHY ETERNAL TORMENT? IS IT NOT CRUEL?
IS TORTURE UNENDING TRULY A FATE FIT FOR A FOOL?"

The First Fallen Angel. As revealed in Testament IV, he was cast into Hell after he asked God why He was sentencing humans to eternal torture.

---

• Adaptational Heroism: In the poem, Lucifer betrayed God out of his own arrogance, despite knowing that this crime will bring evil and suffering to the world. In this game, sin already existed in the world as a necessary consequence of free will, and Lucifer merely questions the creation of Hell out of genuine concern for humanity, despite seeing sinners as fools.
• Angelic Beauty: Even by the standards of other Angels, Lucifer was noted by God to be "bright and beautiful".
• Armor-Piercing Question: Asked God what could possibly justify Hell and the eternal torment of humanity for meager sins. In that moment, God became stricken with terror, and cast Lucifer into Hell as well.
• Fallen Angel: Lucifer is the first and only known Angel to be casted into Hell, though this is a result of him simply questioning God about the creation of Hell rather than any act of malice.
• He Knows Too Much: Lucifer was the first, and the only known, Angel to question God whether Hell was justified. Frightened from the possibility of revealing his personal failing, God had Lucifer banished to Hell as well.
• Light Is Good: Lucifer is described as "bright and beautiful'' by God, and he is the first and only known Angel to sympathize with humanity by questioning God if the creation of Hell was justified.
• Meaningful Name: Described by God as "bright and beautiful". Lucifer translates to "bringer of light" in Latin.
• No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: Lucifer was casted into Hell by God for questioning the creation of Hell out of sympathy for the human sinners.
• Pet the Dog: While he considers sinners to be foolish, he still showed them more sympathy than God did.
• Satan: The First Fallen Angel himself, though he's far more sympathetic and noble than his poem counterpart.
• Satan Is Good: Lucifer was cast into Hell for questioning God's eternal punishment for sinners, which God Himself immediately regrets. He's also not the real villain, but something else is.
• Sympathy for the Devil: In a fit of irony, it's The Devil who's pulling this trope off. While he sees sinners as fools, Lucifer still feels sympathy for them and questions God if the creation of Hell was justified.
• Wham Line: The mere mentioning of his name reveals that he's the Angel who was questioning God in Testament IV, along with confirming his existence in the Ultrakill universe.
  AND I CAST LUCIFER, TOO, INTO THE INFERNAL DEN

ARG SPOILER CHARACTER

Hell

"a n o t h e r d i e s . b r i n g m e m o r e . i h u n g e r ."

Yes, Hell itself. The realm of eternal torment created by God to punish sinners, Hell is revealed to be alive by the second part of the Alternate Reality Game that started since the release of "Tenebre Rosso Sangue".

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• Abusive Parent: Hell is the creator of the Demons, yet it has no love towards what are essentially its own children. Hell displays this callousness by sending its Demons to be slaughtered by V1, so it can watch the bloodshed out of sadistic glee. Hell also left The Minotaur to rot in the Garden of Forking Paths for a millennium before luring it to the exit room... only to take away that hope of freedom and forcing it to battle V1 in a losing duel, resulting in the Minotaur dying with regret for failing its dream of seeing the sky one last time.
• Adaptational Villainy: In The Bible and the poem, Hell is a place of punishment, but it never extends beyond that. Here in this game, Hell is not only alive, but evil, being a sadistic realm that's implied to wipe out the entire human race so it can claim their souls and torture them for eternity as an act of twisted entertainment.
• Alien Geometries: The layers of Hell are weird, which becomes more obvious at the end of Act I onwards. Many levels seem to exist in utterly massive locations, with unobstructed skies and a horizon that goes on for miles, even though you came in by dropping down a shaft from what may have been another massive location with an unobstructed sky and miles-long horizon. You can sometimes see the shaft the level entrance connects to reaching upwards seemingly infinitely, other times it's inside of a structure you can climb to the top of without ending up back in the previous level. Also, the entrance to Gluttony is somehow inside the mouth of The Corpse of King Minos, despite the layer not actually being within the corpse itself.
• The Anti-God: A unique example in that it was created by God himself. Hell is an immeasurably powerful being that not even God could unmake, creates the common Demons to torture its prisoners, idolizes the soulless machines humanity created to wage war, something essentially every heavenly character despises, and is motivated entirely and exclusively by a desire to torture and destroy seemingly everything. This is even reflected in its presentation in the story, where it speaks in massive, all-capitalized red text that's similarly scornful and cruel to God prior to creating Hell when describing its ideal fate for humanity: entirely exterminated by the machines in a show of total meaninglessness. Disturbingly, while there are signs it may be guiding V1, God himself has vanished entirely, if not having outright died.
• Appearance Is in the Eye of the Beholder: Hell's makeup changes to some degree for those who come in through the "Prelude" area, with transition zones appearing such that one can progress further through no matter what path they take.
• Big Bad: The Part 2 Alternate Reality Game seems to be building up Hell as the game's main villain, and it's responsible for modifying Husks like the Soldiers and the Stalkers, locking down arena doors, and spawning enemies. It's also implied that Hell is the sole cause for humanity's extinction.
• Circles of Hell: Like its poem counterpart, Hell in this game is divided into nine layers, with Fraud and Treachery currently under development.
  • Limbo: A lush and green Greco-Roman paradise that is anything but, as its fake serenity in the form of flat screens posing as skies, fake plants, hologram waterfalls, and sounds of wind and bird songs coming from hidden speakers, drives its sinners to insanity.
  • Lust: A black and purple Victorian city with sprinkles of Cyberpunk elements. Unlike Limbo, Lust was a genuine paradise thanks to the efforts of King Minos and his beloved subjects, until Gabriel slays the king for freeing Lust's sinners from their torment. Now under the control of the parasitic serpents he once commanded, King Minos' reanimated and colossal corpse searches the once prosperous kingdom for sinners to punish.
  • Gluttony: Unlike its poem counterpart, which is described as a realm of icy mud, this game's version of Gluttony is depicted as a visceral red realm filled to the brim with flesh, teeth, acid, giant stone hands, and numerous eyes covering the surfaces, with gaping mouths serving as the layer's doors. This is the first layer that's depicted completely differently from its poem counterpart, being a visceral Hellscape rather than a slimy snowscape of scum and mud ^note It is closer to appearance to the Circle of Gluttony as depicted in Dante's Inferno. King Minos' Prime Soul is imprisoned in this layer.
  • Greed: A yellow desert layer with Egyptian elements such as pyramids and mural art. Sinners are punished by rolling boulders across large pyramids in the scorching heat of the blazing bright sun, and the "sand" is actually burning hot flakes of gold that burn almost everything it touches. The layer was once ruled by King Sisyphus, who, unlike King Minos, led a violent rebellion against Heaven and its army until he was decapitated by Gabriel, who then swiftly finished off Sisyphus' remaining forces with his fellow Angels.
  • Wrath: A blue ocean layer with nautical aesthetics, unlike its poem counterpart which is a swamp. The Styx was once a river until it turned into a vast ocean, thanks to millions of sinners populating this realm. The sinners are forced to struggle against each other for air, and the ones that don't sink to the ocean's abyss out of despair, where Hell energy and their collective agony merge them together to form The Leviathan, a titanic, serpentine Demon that absorbs the despair-ridden sinners into its body to grow bigger and stronger despite being bounded to the Styx by Gabriel.
  • Heresy: A sinister red and black Hellscape resembling a cathedral decorated with goat skulls, chains, and lava pits. This layer is the closest thing the game has to a typical depiction of Hell. King Sisyphus' Prime Soul is imprisoned in this layer, in the city of Dis, a dark, hellish cityscape where every window is blazing red by the burning souls of the heretics and it constantly rains blood.
  • Violence: An almost completely barren, white field that's shrouded in fog. The outermost part of the layer is made up of a large, pristine megastructure that serves as a labyrinth to prevent escape, its architecture like a mausoleum or art museum populated by sentient mannequins. The layer is divided into three rings: violence against others, violence against oneself, and violence against God. The first ring takes War Is Hell literally by being a near pitch-black Forever War accompanied by searchlights, blazing gatling guns, and a trio of colossal machines. The second ring is a garden of trees with humanoid shapes in their branches in perpetual agony. The third ring is a barren wasteland under an endless rain of fire, where The Earthmovers, colossal war machines that are the pinnacle of the Lensman Arms Race, stride around and prey on each other.
• Color-Coded Speech: Hell's dialogue is generally identifiable by all-red text.
• Dark Is Evil: Five of its layers, Lust, Gluttony, Wrath, Heresy, and Violence (after 7-1) are shrouded in darkness, and with the exception of Lust (until Gabriel killed King Minos), they all exist to torture its sinners.
  • Lust is a black and purple realm that punishes sinners by blowing them away with strong winds. However, it temporarily becomes Dark Is Not Evil when King Minos and his people reformed the layer into a thriving paradise for themselves until he was slain by Gabriel for freeing the layer's sinners from their punishment. Now his corpse becomes a colossal zombie controlled by serpentine parasites, Hell-bent on finding sinners to punish.
  • Gluttony combines this trope with Evil Is Visceral, being a dimly-lit realm of flesh where sinners are punished by being merged into its surfaces. The layer is decorated with giant stone hands and teeth, disembodied mouths serve as doors, pools of acid fill the bottom of its rooms, and eyes cover its surfaces. Open spaces are surrounded by pitch-black darkness, which is best shown in 3-1's stairway arena, 3-2's boss arena, and P-1's spinal stairway.
  • Wrath is a dark, raining, watery realm shrouded in lightning storms where sinners suffer by drowning in the river (now ocean) Styx while struggling against each other for a chance to breathe. Those who sank to the Styx's abyss out of despair are merged together by Hell energy and their hopelessness to form the Leviathan, a towering, serpentine demon born from the still-living souls of despair-induced sinners that are doomed to a horrible fate where all they can do is scream in their collective agony.
  • Heresy is explicitly the most sinister layer in appearance, resembling a gothic black cathedral decorated with goat skulls, blood-red windows, and vermillion doors made from the souls of heretics. Its hallways are shrouded in darkness and red fogs, a blazing red sky looms over the horizon, and the City of Dis is raining blood. Overall, The Heresy Layer wears Red and Black and Evil All Over as a badge of pride, welcoming you with a Drone of Dread as soon as you enter 6-1.
  • The Violence Layer starts off as Light Is Not Good, since it invokes White and Red and Eerie All Over by V1 staining the white layer red with their enemies' blood. However, it pairs this trope starting in 7-2 where the 1st ring is a near pitch-black Forever War with the blood river Phlegethon sitting below the warzone while searchlights and hails of bullets are piercing the darkness with bright white explosions illuminating the background to show the ominous outlines of three titanic machines whose white eyes glow in the all-consuming darkness. 7-3 continues this trope by being a near pitch-black garden illuminated by red agonized trees, before it brings back the eerily bright white room of 7-1 for the final arena. Finally, 7-4 settles on this trope by being a dark gray desert with a blood-red night sky that rains Hellfire.
• The Dog Was the Mastermind: Who knew that the place you were invading is pulling the strings all along?
• Early-Bird Cameo: While Hell is only introduced in the ARG following P-2, material in ULTRAKILL hints at its existence prior. The Soldier and Stalker's modifications are said by the Terminals to be created by an unknown, sentient force, while Terminals in P-2 and the door panel right before Flesh Panopticon borrow Hell's signature text style of red text and/or incorporating a space between each letter of all words.
• Eldritch Abomination: Also overlaps with Eldritch Location. Hell is a living realm of eternal suffering, and its locations are separated into nine layers, each with their own biome and Alien Geometry. It can also steal and modify technology for its own goals, lock down doors, and teleport beings to its targeted locations.
  • Hakita has explained (albeit while also stating it's hard to describe) that the layers of Hell are not physical places in the normal sense, being very abstract and, despite V1 progressing by descending through the layers, do not exist in parallel, hence each layer acting as if the above layers do not exist, nor accounting for how one gets in them (such as Lust, Greed, and Wrath having visible skies and Gluttony not actually being inside of Minos' corpse despite the entrance being found inside his mouth.) It apparently appears different for everybody, with the level entrances and exits simply not existing for those resident to the layer, and if one wants to progress through Hell, there apparently is no "wrong path" and you will keep going further. In short, Hell's makeup is an abstract that varies from one's perception.
• Evil Is Hammy: Its monologue in 7-4 is the most dramatic piece of lore in the game, full of flowery prose that would make the Testaments blush, and going by how the book is blank, it's all but stated it's Hell monologuing to V1 through their scanning interface. Likewise, when V1 finds themself blocked later in 7-2, what seems to be Hell, going by the red text, says "WE'RE GONNA NEED A BIGGER BOOM", which compared to past interface messages such as "INSUFFICIENT FIREPOWER" and the like is very... grandiose in its own way. Also, a secret terminal in 7-3 that opens the "Marked For Death" crystal displays an even more grandiose message, possibly from Hell itself due to the red text, that says "YOU'RE THE STAR OF THE SHOW NOW, BABY!", like a campy TV game show host... In the ring of sinners that killed themselves.
• Evil Is Petty: At the end of 7-1, V1 is approaching one of the level exits, which are under the control of Hell, only for the Minotaur to burst through, clearly desperate for its own chance to escape the labyrinth and see the sky one last time. Hell responds by closing the exit door even after it was already open, something it doesn't do anywhere else in the game, forcing both of them into a fight to the death - one which might have been avoided had Hell not closed the doors given the Machines' extreme reluctance to waste resources.
• Fatal Flaw: For all of its power and intelligence, Hell's sadistic craving for death and suffering at the cost of its own self-preservation will be its downfall, as Gabriel implies that Hell will be completely empty by the time the machines have their fill. A large part of this could be attributed to the fact that Hell outright teleports Husks and Demons before V1 so they can kill them. However, given its glowing praise of the Machines and their own inevitable demise whenever they run out of fuel, it's questionable whether it even cares.
• For the Evulz: Hell is a sapient realm of eternal torment, but even billions of sinners aren't enough to satisfy it; thus, it uses its influence to set up combat encounters, turning its victims into yet more weapons to fight, all for the sake of a violent show.
• Genius Loci: As revealed by the Part 2 Alternate Reality Game, it reveals that Hell is not just a location, but also a creature that's described as a massive, intelligent superorganism. It is also a malevolent being that seeks to claim as many souls as possible while entertaining itself with the suffering of its victims.
• HA HA HA—No: After the grueling gauntlet in P-2 to arrive at the Flesh Panopticon, there's a prompt to open the final gate. If V1 selects that they're not ready, they recieve a response in a similar format to the other times Hell is implied to communicate, which effectively boils down to this.
  HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
  a s i f y o u h a d a c h o i c e
  (The gate opens)
• Hell: Obviously. But not only is it layered in the style of Dante's Divine Comedy, it's a living, thinking, and wicked realm.
• Hellevator: The Hell Expedition team installed numerous elevator systems throughout Hell, allowing V1 to descend one layer at a time.
• It Can Think: What was once thought to be a mere Eldritch Location is anything but, being revealed to be a living entity with a twisted mind. While the human Hell expedition team was exploring it, they hardly were aware that Hell was learning how their machines worked, and that it was behind the creation of its own technologically augmented Husks.
• Kill All Humans: The Part 2 ARG implies that Hell is the sole perpetrator of humanity's extinction, since its influence has spread to the surface world to wreak havoc with its army of modified Husks and Machines.
• Kill Enemies to Open: Provides the justification: Hell is capable of causing doors to shut closed as it teleports enemies in. This was initially assumed to be just doors malfunctioning by the Hell expedition team, and then the terminal author learned otherwise.
• Light Is Not Good: Three of Hell's layers have bright color schemes, yet they all serve the same purpose as any other layer: Torturing its sinners.
  • Limbo seems to be a Greco-Roman paradise with bright blues and greens, yet it's a false paradise that drives its sinners to insanity with its fake serenity in the form of fake trees, fake water, fake bird songs, and fake skies.
  • Greed is a bright yellow Egyptian desert that tortures its sinners with scorching heat from its own sun and the "sand", which are actually burning hot flakes of gold.
  • Violence is an eerie white graveyard-like wasteland with a vast maze-like mausoleum filled with Mannequins. It also invokes White and Red and Eerie All Over, thanks to V1 staining the white layer red with the blood of their foes. ZigZagged in 7-2 and onwards where while the first room of 7-2 has an eerily white color, Dark Is Evil and Red and Black and Evil All Over are added to the mix, thanks to the 1st ring being a dark Forever War surrounded by the blood river Phlegethon and being guarded by the giant war machines that are shrouded in darkness until an explosion illuminates the background to show their Sinister Silhouettes. The second ring, 7-3, starts off in a pitch-black forest of darkness until its final arena becomes blindingly white like 7-1. Finally, the third and final ring, 7-4, settles onto Dark Is Evil by being a dark gray desert with a crimson night sky that is raining Hellfire.
• Omnicidal Maniac: A secret book found during 7-4, which raves about the beauty of the apocalyptic Earthmover machines, implies that it believes life on Earth should've ended with said Earthmovers - the culmination of all that is warfare for its own sake - should've killed every human alive, and then died off themselves, leaving the land empty. "No final words. No concluding statement. No point. Perfect closure". The same book also implies that Hell is pissed that humanity actually survived this and moved past this perpetual warfare, thus Hell took action against them.
• Painting the Medium: When Hell first speaks at the end of the Part 2 ARG, its text is distinctly written with all letters and punctuation separated by singular spaces, as can be seen in the quote above. This style of text also appears at several points in the game (such as with several lines of text before the P-2 boss and at the end of the secret book in 7-4), strongly implying that Hell is the one speaking/writing in those cases. Additionally, regardless of whether its text is spaced or not at the time, its dialogue is always written in blood red.
• Red and Black and Evil All Over: The Heresy Layer (especially Heresy), and the Violence Layer (aside from the eerily white 7-1 and the ash grey 7-4) both have a sinister red and black color scheme, and Hell is a sadistic Genius Loci that wiped out all surface life on Earth to claim their souls and torture them for all eternity for sick kicks. Even its texts reflect this trope by being bloody-red, all-caps text with pitch-black backgrounds.
• Red Is Violent: Hell is associated with the color red, and it's a sadistic realm of torment that entertains itself by creating violent gladiator games. It also wants to wipe out all life on Earth with the Earthmovers, and when they failed, it's implied that Hell took matters in its own hands by slaughtering every living being on the surface to claim their souls.
• Sadist: If torturing human souls for an eternity out of sick kicks wasn't enough, the Alternate Reality Game states that Hell invaded the researchers' facilities not to protect itself, but to entertain itself by trapping the researchers before slaughtering them with the modified Husks and Machines it has created. All of the in-game mechanics, like the arena encounters and enemy spawns, are all for its own twisted entertainment.
  this is not an attack. this is not a defence. this is entertainment. this is an exhibition of death and cruelty and suffering for its own sake.
• Satanic Archetype: Since Lucifer is implied to be more kind-hearted than the norm, it is Hell itself that takes on some of the stereotypes associated with Old Scratch by being an infernal, all-powerful overseer that tortures both its own residents and innocent lives on the surface for its sadistic amusement.
• Sophisticated as Hell: Excuse the pun. The few cases we see of Hell's own thoughts and text are usually either some matter of directive, a Pre-Mortem One-Liner or it waxing immense and complex poetry worthy of The Divine Comedy inspirations. Then you hit 7-2 and, if the red text is still Hell, it proceeds to casually state "WE'RE GONNA NEED A BIGGER BOOM" so that V1 gets the hint to find the payload bombs in the area for blowing open a blocked passage, as if taking a break from its ominousness just to cook up an excuse for more bloodletting. Also, a secret terminal that opens the "Marked For Death" crystal in 7-3 shows a text possibly from Hell saying "YOU'RE THE STAR OF THE SHOW NOW, BABY!", like a hammy TV game show host... In the middle of a literal suicide forest.
• Villain Respect: With how cruel Hell itself is to its subjects, it says a lot about mankind that it found inspiration in the way Guttermen employ Human Resources. In fact, a secret book in 7-4 is full of praise bordering on idolization for the apocalyptic destruction of the Earthmovers, and perhaps even V1.
• Walking Spoiler: The fact that Hell is alive is a huge bombshell to the game's lore.
• Wardens Are Evil: An unusual example where the warden is also the prison. Hell itself devotes its existence to torturing its prisoners and forcing them into violent duels out of sadistic pleasure.
• Wham Line: The second paragraph of the Part 2 Alternate Reality Game drops the bombshell that Hell is alive, intelligent, and malevolent.
  hell is alive. it breathes. it thinks. the entire area is a massive intelligent superorganism and it is harsh and it is cruel.
• Wicked Cultured: Hell itself may be a sadistic realm of torment, but it can be surprisingly eloquent in its writing, as shown by the secret book in 7-4 where it praises The Earthmovers with such rich poetry that it would make Dante envious.
• Yank the Dog's Chain: It's implied that Hell allowed both the Lust Renaissance and the Greed Insurrection to exist, just so it can watch both of them fail and relish in the following misery. It pulls this trope off again, this time to both V1 and especially the Minotaur in 7-1 where it opens the Hellevator before suddenly closing it once the Minotaur returns, forcing them into a duel to the death where V1 kills the Minotaur and crushes the beast's Tragic Dream of freedom to see the sky one last time.
• Your Soul Is Mine!: Hell's motive to wipe out the human race is to claim their souls so it can entertain itself by torturing them for all of eternity.

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