Holy Father

The Holy Father is the second boss of the game and the first one with a real shape-shifting fight. He stands in the arena of Adamina, in the same area as Elmar (the Butcher) and fights from range: a dagger on a chain, volleys of fire bolts, a corrosion bomb that leaves a puddle. Twice during the first phase he enchants his weapons for 15 s, and when you become Lunatic he swaps to a "transformed" set that adds an unblockable grab, a charge, a nine-hit combo and fireballs falling in the arena.

Overview#

Stats#

Built as described in Enemies#How enemy stats are built from ES_HeroData 20014 plus the grade rows of ES_StoryMonsterProperty (story 2, monster 2028).

• Phase 2 almost doubles his defence at journey 1. The Grade 2 row adds +80 to physical defence and +80 to each of the four resistances. At journey 1 that is 79 to 159 physical defence; at journey 4+ the same +80 is a smaller relative step (258 to 338). See Damage formula for how defence reduces your hits (damage never falls below 30% of the attack).
• His 150 Poise is high for a Chapter 2 enemy and he recovers 5% a second, so interrupting him is mostly a matter of weak-point hits.

Phases#

Phase 1, normal form#

Stabs and whip lashes on the ground (LP1, LLL1, HP1, HH1, D1), the chained dagger (DP1), fire bolts (SP1) and the corrosion bomb (S). The ground-fighting moves all work at 6 m or closer; the dagger starts between 7 and 14 m and the bolts between 6 and 20 m.

Phase 1, enchanted form#

His script keeps a threshold that starts at 70% HP. Once his HP is at or below it, and he is not already enchanted, he stops, holds the Enchant (OP) for about 3 s and sets his weapons alight. The threshold then drops by 30 points. That gives two enchants, at 70% and 40% HP. The script only casts while the threshold is above 20%, so the third step (10%) never fires. The earlier project report lists a third enchant at 10%; the code does not allow it.

• The enchant lasts 15 s (Hero20014_Define.EnchantTime).
• While it lasts, every ground move is replaced by its "2" version: fire damage instead of physical, Corrosion on hit, and extra sanity drain on the hit.
• The enchant cast itself sets his Poise to 45 (see Poise and stagger), so it is easy to interrupt.
• Enchanting only happens in phase 1. Going Lunatic ends the current enchant.

Phase 2, transformed form#

When you turn Lunatic he fades out for 2 s, takes the Grade 2 stats and is healed up to 50% of his maximum HP (Bosses#Boss mode and the phase change). His enchant ends and a fireball hazard opens in the arena (trick 10001: fire damage 400, 500, 600, 700 at journeys 1-4+, 100 Poise damage, 10 Resilience damage). The transformed set adds: SP3 (five fire bolts), LP3 (double floor slam with hazards, guard break 210), LM3 (nine-hit combo), HP3 (an unblockable grab: he catches you, burns you and throws you), HH3 (two lashes), DP3 (a charge of about 7.6 m) and DM3 (an 8.7 m leap into a five-hit combo).

Moves#

Move naming: "1" is the normal form, "2" the enchanted form and "3" the transformed form of the same move. Full reading guide in Bosses.

Damage#

attack = his stat x BaseRate / 1000 + flat power, using his Physical or Fire stat. The columns show the strongest hit of each move before defence at each journey. Both stats are equal at every journey. Corrosion halves your physical defence for 15 s, so later hits land harder (Corrosion).

• HP3 is the only unblockable move and the biggest hit in the table (up to 240 flat power; up to 1,452 before defence at journey 4+).
• Enchanted moves cost sanity: -3 (LLL2), -2 (HP2), -4 (HH2), -5 (DP2), -4 (D2) per hit. See Holy Father#hm-enchanted-moves-speed-up-your-path-to-lunatic.

Strategy#

• Hit the weak point. A single charged heavy hit on the weak point does x3 Poise damage and removes Resilience three times as fast; the model's Resilience is 90, so a few weak-point hits put him in the Weakened state for an execution (Weakness and execution).
• Respect the 70% and 40% thresholds. If you want to avoid the corrosion and sanity drain of the enchanted form, kill him quickly or retreat to a distance while the 15 s run out.
• Chain dagger (DP): the dagger travels 7 to 14 m and is yanked back. Sidestep early; its guard break is 150, so blocking costs stamina.
• Corrosion pools (S): the bomb lands at 6 to 14 m and leaves a puddle that applies Corrosion. Move out of it.
• Grab (HP3): range 1.5 to 5 m, unblockable; dodge, do not block.
• The ram (DP3) starts at 8 to 16 m and covers about 7.6 m; the leap (DM3) covers about 8.7 m. Both are short-cooldown openers, so do not stand at the far edge of his range.

Rewards#

• Items: none (DropId and FirstDropId empty).
• Sanity drop 10023: if your hero is not at Normal sanity when he dies, 40% for Anthozoan Bones (1-2 at journey 1, 2-3 at journey 2-4+).
• Sanity: killing him restores sanity (SanKill 200).
• Flags: boss-kill flag 91202; if he died in phase 2, also 91002 and 91102.

Hidden mechanics#

• There are only two enchants. The check hpPercent > 0.2 stops the third step (10%). Each enchant needs the previous one to be over, so if you take him from 100% to below 40% in one burst he casts at once for the 70% step and, after the 15 s are over, again for the 40% step (inferred from the script).
• Enchanted moves speed up your path to Lunatic. Besides the sanity you lose for damaging him (85 sanity per full HP, so Lunatic after about 59% of his HP, and Abnormal after 35%), each enchanted hit that lands costs a further 2 to 5 sanity.
• Phase 2 starts with a heal. If he is below 50% when you turn Lunatic he is raised to exactly 50% (Bosses#Boss mode and the phase change). From 100 sanity you turn Lunatic after removing about 59% of his HP, so he is normally at 41% and gains 9 points. The heal does nothing only if other sanity losses (enchanted hits) turn you Lunatic earlier, while he is still above 50%.
• Phase 2 defence jump. At journey 1 a hit with an attack value of 300 meets 79 defence in phase 1 (ratio 3.8, factor 0.49, about 146 damage) and 159 defence in phase 2 (ratio 1.9, factor 0.36, about 108 damage), 26% less (using the factor table of Damage formula).
• The arena music follows his HP. In phase 1 the boss track plays at its first layer. In phase 2 it plays the second layer at 50% HP or more and the third layer below 30% (Hero20014_Value.ChangeBGMHpRate1/2).
• A phase 1 kill is allowed. It sets the run-wide "killed a boss outside Lunatic" flag (details: Maddened Ascetic#hm-a-phase-1-kill-is-remembered-killing-a); a phase 2 kill unlocks the second line of the Chapter 5 NPC.

Sources#

• reports/bosses_and_enemies.md section 3; reports/data/boss_moves.json (hero 20014).
• ES_StoryMonster story 2 monster 2028 (levels 4/40/65/89, SanDamage 85, SanKill 200, SanDropId 10023, CompleteQuestId "91202;21014;21007;21006", CompleteQuestId2 "91002;91102", BossFinal 1); ES_StoryMonsterProperty story 2 / monster 2028 grades 1-2.
• ES_HeroData 20014 (weak-point multipliers, HitBackstab 0). ES_SkillData hero 20014; ES_TrickData row TrickId 10001.
• Enchant: luascript/logic/ai/behaviour/attack/attack20014.lua:171-172, 187, 360-395; luascript/logic/player/hero20014.lua:63-117; gamedata/playerdefine/hero20014_define.lua:51 (TrickId, EnchantTime).
• Music thresholds: luascript/logic/playervalue/hero20014_value.lua.
• Phase change and kill logic: luascript/logic/player/animalbase.lua:1497-1567; luascript/controller/controllerstorymode.lua:2253-2262, 2868-2884, 3338-3470.