Maddened Ascetic

This page is about the first fight in Chapter 1. For the Chapter 7 rematch, see Maddened Ascetic (rematch).

The Maddened Ascetic is the first boss of Pascal's Wager. You meet him in the arena of Heggem, in the first area of Chapter 1, right after the intro cutscene. He fights with brute swings of a huge weapon, hurls boulders in an arc, and has a dark blast that drains your sanity. His whole second phase is built around the idea that you are already losing your mind: it begins only when you become Lunatic, not when he is hurt. He returns later as the rematch boss in Chapter 7.

Overview#

Stats#

Stats come from the model's attribute curve (ES_HeroData 20007) plus the per-phase row of ES_StoryMonsterProperty (story 1, monster 1030); the formula is in Enemies#How enemy stats are built. The level is Level_1 to Level_4 of ES_StoryMonster, picked by your journey (New Game Plus enemy scaling#How the level is chosen).

Notes:

• His level jumps from 1 to 40 in journey 2, so his HP triples and his attack quadruples. Poise and Resilience do not scale with level (see Enemies#How enemy stats are built).
• Phase 2 adds +30 physical defence (the Grade 2 row of ES_StoryMonsterProperty). The four elemental resistances do not change.
• Poise 105 with a recovery of 40 means he regains 4% of his Poise per second. Resilience 75 with recovery 30 is 3% per second. See Poise and stagger.
• A pure Resilience break is the quickest way to bring him down for an execution. His model has no extra Resilience loss on armour break (WeaknessPermilSub 0), unlike most bosses.

Phases#

Phase 1#

Light rock throws, a handful of two- and three-hit combos and a dark blast at close range. His AI never starts any attack beyond 12 m, and after most combos it randomly chooses between attacking again and hovering (circling at range). The hover time is multiplied by 2.5, so he often walks sideways at you instead of chasing. Moves marked P2 below are not in his phase 1 set.

Phase 2 - when you go Lunatic#

When your sanity falls into the Lunatic range the game fades to black for 2 s, swaps his stats to the Grade 2 row (+30 physical defence) and unlocks four more moves: the Jump Cleave (D), the long-hold dash combo (SPP), the double rock throw (LPH) and the Ultimate (OP, a 5.9 s dark attack). The rules of the change, including the heal to 50% of his maximum HP, are in Bosses#Boss mode and the phase change. Then the fight continues.

How your sanity drives it#

Every hit you land on him costs you sanity: SanDamage x (HP you removed / his maximum HP). His SanDamage is 90. Starting from 100 sanity:

So a clean run that deals more than about 56% of his HP before sanity runs out will always reach phase 2 unless you kill him first or restore sanity with Consumables. His dark blast (S) costs a further 15 sanity per hit and speeds this up.

Moves#

All internal move names are button codes: L Light, H Heavy, S Special, O Option, P hold, D jump/dash, N second variant (see Bosses for the reading guide).

Damage#

The "flat power" is the number stored in ES_SkillData for each hit. The game computes attack = his attack stat x BaseRate / 1000 + flat power (all his moves use BaseRate 1000), then your defence reduces it (see Damage formula). The table shows the strongest hit of each move before your defence, at each journey. Poise / Resilience are the amounts each hit removes from your gauges.

• Every hit deals 94 Poise damage (69 for the lighter hits), far above the usual 51, so a hero without armour is staggered by almost any hit that connects.
• Guard break values above 150 (LHH third hit, S, D) are heavy: blocking those costs a lot of stamina and may break your guard (see Guarding).

Strategy#

• Stay outside 5.5 m for the dark blast. S only starts within 5.5 m and a 120 degree cone. It is the only way he drains sanity, so it also decides when phase 2 starts.
• Rock throws are slow and arc. LS and LPH start only between 5 and 12 m, within a 65 degree cone. Dodging sideways is enough.
• His lunges are the danger. LHH lunges about 3.5 m on its second swing; D (phase 2) leaps about 6 m forward and 4 m up; SPP chains two dashes (2.4 m and 4.2 m).
• Do not hover at the edge. His hover takes him around you; stay mobile and wait for the end of a combo before attacking.
• If you want an easy kill, finish him before you are Lunatic. At journey 1 that is 1,440 HP, roughly 800 damage before phase 2 starts (the heal then puts him back to 720 HP).
• If you want the Lunatic kill, see Maddened Ascetic#hm-the-phase-2-kill-unlocks-a-line-later: a phase 2 kill is recorded separately.

Rewards#

• Items: none (DropId and FirstDropId are empty).
• Sanity drop: if your hero is not at Normal sanity when he dies, drop 10021 rolls once: 60% nothing, 40% Anthozoan Bones (1-2 at journey 1, 2-3 at journey 4+).
• Sanity: killing him restores sanity (SanKill 200, enough to refill the meter) and lifts the lock that stops you from refilling sanity above the Lunatic limit during the fight.
• Quest flags: killing him sets the boss-kill flag (quest 91201). If he dies in phase 2 the "Boss phase 2" flags 91001 and 91101 are also set.

Hidden mechanics#

• Phase 2 is controlled by your sanity, not his HP. See Bosses#hm-the-phase-change-is-player-driven-a-boss.
• He heals to 50% on the change. If he is below half when you turn Lunatic he is topped up to 50% (Bosses#Boss mode and the phase change). From 100 sanity you turn Lunatic when you have removed about 56% of his HP, so he has about 44% left and gains 6 points.
• A phase-1 kill is remembered. Killing a boss that never reached phase 2 sets a "killed a boss while not Lunatic" flag for the whole run; if that flag stays unset until the end of the game, an achievement for killing every boss in the Lunatic state is granted. See Achievements.
• The phase 2 kill unlocks a line later. Quest 91101 is a permanent flag. In Chapter 5 an NPC (the one that offers to fill the Melos Bottle, inferred) gains a one-time line about this boss's obsession only if you killed him in phase 2. The line is hidden again after you read it.
• The rematch starts in phase 2. The Ascetic's script resets him to Grade 1 and immediately adds a grade (so he starts in Grade 2) whenever his placement has no BossFinal flag, in the maze boss and in boss time challenge (hero20007.lua:30-45). The Chapter 7 placement (ES_StoryMonster story 7, BossFinal 0, SanDamage 75, SanKill 0) is such a fight, so the rematch is in phase 2 from the first second and no sanity trigger or heal is involved.
• Rocks cannot be parried. The rock projectiles have parrying switched off in code (SetBulletParryEnable(false)), so they must be dodged or blocked.

Trivia#

• His model is scaled 1.2 and his body is 4 m tall (ES_HeroData 20007).
• The internal name of the boss is "first level boss" (第一关boss).

Sources#

• reports/bosses_and_enemies.md section 1 and reports/data/boss_moves.json (hero 20007): move list, AI ranges, clips.
• ES_StoryMonster row story 1 / monster 1030 (levels 1/40/65/89, SanDamage 90, SanKill 200, SanDropId 10021, CompleteQuestId2 "91001;91101", BossFinal 1); ES_StoryMonsterProperty story 1 / monster 1030 grades 1-2.
• ES_HeroData 20007 (attributes, WeaknessPermilSub 0, HugeBody 1, HitBackstab 0); ES_HeroPropertyData, ES_EnemyAttributeData (stat formula FS_HeroData.GetPropertyAllByList, luascript/structdata/fs_herodata.lua:556-607).
• ES_SkillData rows of hero 20007 (flat power, BaseRate, Poise/Resilience hits, guard break, SanSub); ES_ItemDropData drop 10021, story 1.
• Phase change: luascript/logic/player/animalbase.lua:1497-1567 (AddGrade, heal to 50%), luascript/controller/controllerstorymode.lua:2253-2262, 2868-2884 (lunatic trigger and 2 s fade), :3338-3392, 3407-3470 (kill, drops, sanity).
• Sanity cost of hits: luascript/logic/player/animalbase.lua:16719-16738.
• Rematch start in Grade 2: luascript/logic/player/hero20007.lua:30-45. AI: luascript/logic/ai/behaviour/attack/attack20007.lua:9-84. Rock projectiles: hero20007.lua OnSkillTrigger.
• Phase-2 dialog lines: ES_StoryDialog rows 1337-1343 (story 5), ES_StoryQuest 91001, 91101, 91201; achievement logic controllerstorymode.lua:9436-9438.