Elmar (the Butcher)

Elmar is the first ambush of Chapter 2. After a cutscene in which a little girl betrays you, the Butcher steps out in the first area of Adamina and the fight starts at once. She is a full boss with her own HP bar, but mechanically she is the ordinary Butcher enemy model (hero 20012, the one that also appears as an elite in Chapter 2, Chapter 8 and the maze) with boss stats. There is no second phase and no sanity trigger: the fight is a straight duel against heavy cleaver swings, a chase-and-chop rush and a cleaver thrown on a chain.

Overview#

Stats#

Built as described in Enemies#How enemy stats are built from ES_HeroData 20012 plus ES_StoryMonsterProperty (story 2, monster 2036, grade 1). Levels come from Level_1 to Level_4 of ES_StoryMonster.

• She has the lowest Poise of the first four bosses (30; Rosen Cavalier Patrick in Chapter 3 has 10) and regains it quickly (70 = 7% of the pool per second). A few strong hits in a row stagger her; a slow combo does not.
• Her fire resistance is much lower than her other resistances (42 against 63 at journey 1). A fire attack (for example a thrown fire weapon) loses less to her defence than a physical one (see Damage types and resistances).
• Her level rises from 7 to 80 across the four journeys, so her attack is 4.5 times higher in journey 4+ (New Game Plus enemy scaling#How the level is chosen).

Moves#

Skill entries 106, 109 and 110 of the model have no name or effect in the table and are left out. Notes on the moves:

• NH (chain cleaver) is her only ranged attack. It flies out to 20 m on a chain and is pulled back; the hit is weak (85) but it starts at 5 m and a narrow 30 degree cone.
• SP (two dashes of 4 m and 6 m, then a chop) is the one that closes distance. It begins between 4.5 m and 15 m.
• SPC is a second copy of SP that the move table labels the summoned version. When this model is summoned by The First Messenger, the code gives SP and SPC a special "call" condition and switches off the summoned Butcher's body collider and lock-on (hero20012.lua:24-30), so the summons rush you but cannot be targeted.
• HHHHH is her longest combo (five hits, 90 to 150 flat power, 12 s cooldown).

Damage#

attack = her attack x BaseRate / 1000 + flat power, then reduced by your defence (Damage formula). The columns show the strongest hit of each move before defence.

Her normal hits take away 51 Poise and 27 Resilience from you, the usual enemy value; NL and S take 64 and 40.

Strategy#

• Punish the end of a combo: SP and S have 3 s cooldowns, but she needs the move to finish before she can chain another.
• Keep a straight line away from her to bait NH, then close in while the chain is retracting.
• Stand near 4.5 to 7 m and you invite S (the jump chop, 4.5 to 7 m, 45 degree cone, 40% chance per decision). Sidestep sideways.
• Because her Poise is only 30, fewer hits are needed to interrupt her than for the Ascetic (105) or the Holy Father (150). See Poise and stagger.

Rewards#

Item types come from ES_ItemData: Rusty Chain-Hook is a trophy material (type 701), Bone Fragment and Big Bone are experience items (type 401) and Anthozoan Bones are the dark currency (type 402). See Trophies, Leveling and Currencies. Killing her does not restore sanity (SanKill 0).

Hidden mechanics#

• Hitting her costs sanity, but little. Each hit takes SanDamage x HP removed / her max HP from your sanity; her SanDamage is only 20, so killing her from full HP costs 20 sanity. You cannot reach Lunatic through her damage alone.
• She never changes phase, even if you are Lunatic. Her model script sets the grade threshold to 0 (hero20012.lua:57-59) while she starts at grade 1, so the phase-change check of Bosses#Boss mode and the phase change can never pass. She also has no Grade 2 row in ES_StoryMonsterProperty and BossFinal is 0 (the 50% heal needs BossFinal above zero), so nothing about her changes when you turn Lunatic.
• She is not "boss-flagged" in the model data. The model row (ES_HeroData 20012) has Boss 0, while the placement in ES_StoryMonster has IsBoss 1. The game copies the placement flag, so she gets a boss HP bar, but the model's own boss rules do not apply.
• The Teresa summon is a different case. In the The First Messenger fight (Chapter 8) the same model is summoned without a body collider or lock-on, so it behaves like a roaming hazard rather than a duel opponent (inferred from the call-condition code).

Sources#

• Weak-point multipliers: ES_HeroData 20012 (WeakDamageMultiplier / WeakToughnessMultiplier / WeakWeaknessMultiplier = 1 / 1 / 1); applied as (1 + multiplier) in logic/playervalue/animalbase_value.lua:2340-2341, 2646.
• Grade threshold override that blocks her phase change: luascript/logic/player/hero20012.lua:57-59; AnimalBase:GetGradeThreshold animalbase.lua:1621; trigger controllerstorymode.lua:2253-2262.
• reports/bosses_and_enemies.md section 2; reports/data/boss_moves.json (hero 20012).
• ES_StoryMonster story 2 monster 2036 (levels 7/39/60/80, DropId "10019;10015", SanDropId 10023, SanDamage 20, SanKill 0, BossFinal 0); ES_HeroData 20012 (Boss 0, HitBackstab 1, WeaknessPermilSub 0.3).
• ES_ItemDropData story 2, drops 10019, 10015, 10023; ES_ItemData 70006, 40001, 40002, 40011.
• Drop logic and kill flow: luascript/controller/controllerstorymode.lua:3338-3470, 5215-5250, 5355-5410.
• ES_SkillData hero 20012 (flat power, BaseRate, Poise and Resilience hits). Sanity cost of hits: luascript/logic/player/animalbase.lua:16719-16738.
• Summoned variant: luascript/logic/player/hero20012.lua:21-42.