Terror Obsession

Terror Obsession (internal name "the Gravedigger") is a tall hammer-bearer who stands in the first area of Katib Forest in chapter 5. Unlike the other bosses he is not a scripted arena fight: he wanders as a normal field enemy (scale 1.2, sight radius 8 m), he speaks to you in a series of short dialogues, and he is not a "boss" in the data (IsBoss 0, BossFinal 0), so he gives no sanity back and drops nothing. In the Obsession Challenge rows of the same model IsBoss and BossFinal are 1. The story stats are those of a level 1 enemy at every journey, so his ordinary hits are weak. What makes him dangerous is a hidden charge counter: every time he raises his hammer the counter goes up, new moves unlock at 5, 6 and 7 charges, and at 8 charges he opens a black circle that kills you outright.

Overview#

Dialogue#

He talks to you in a chain of short conversations (dialogue ids 51313, 51323 to 51327, 51339, 51340 and 51442, advancing with quests 52602 to 52608 each visit). In short, he asks who you are, repeatedly says that people driven by obsession can only end the old conflict between light and dark by being buried, promises to wait for you at the graveyard, hints at a slim chance of changing a settled ending, and wonders aloud whether ordinary humans could overthrow the Colossi. The later lines appear only when the earlier ones have been seen.

Stats#

Story stats#

Computed from ES_HeroData 20045, ES_HeroPropertyData, ES_EnemyAttributeData and ES_StoryMonsterProperty (story 5, monster 5126, one grade row, so phase 2 changes no stat).

His defence (72) and resistances (96) are lower than most chapter 5 enemies. The numbers are the same for all four journeys because Level_1 to Level_4 of his story monster row are all 1.

In the Obsession Challenge#

In the Obsession Challenge he is the DLC boss (ES_StoryChallenge row 12: boss id 599004, time limit 480 s, score cap 66,666, area 4). The game replaces the story property row with ES_StoryChallengeMonsterProperty rows for the challenge level 1 to 5, and the levels are 20, 40, 60, 89 and 15. The stats below are computed with the same method as above, so they are inferred from the table logic (the levels and modifiers are in the data; the final numbers are my calculation).

Challenge level 5 is a handicap row: HP and all four resistances are lowered (HP -1,200, resistances -60).

How the fight works#

The charge counter (hidden)#

His script keeps a number, chargeNum, that starts at 0 and only goes up while he fights. It decides both his phase and which moves he may use.

How the counter grows:

• Phase 1. Once his HP is at or below 85%, he may start the hammer charge OP1 (40% chance per try, 60% once HP is at or below 55%, 15 s cooldown, only within 6.5 m). OP1 has several stages: a raise, a short second stage that the AI keeps pressed for up to 15 s (the counter rises by 2 when it ends), and a looping hammer storm (+1 per loop). The AI stops holding as soon as the count reaches 4, and reaching 4 raises the grade, which switches him to the phase 2 move set.
• Phase 2. The charge becomes OP2. If he is not already near the centre of the arena (scene marker 98), he first jumps there with his jumping slam, then charges the hammer. OP2 gives +1 when its first part ends (only while the counter is below 6) and +1 per loop of its hammer storm. Each OP2 is limited to 24 s (when he starts with fewer than 7 charges), and it ends early only if the counter has reached 7 and his HP is above 35%.
• The doom charge. If the counter is 7 and his HP is at or below 35%, he starts a final OP2 (40%, cooldown 25 s) that lasts up to 17 s, runs until the counter hits 8, and then he strikes the ground and opens the black circle. At a counter of 8 or more the AI starts the slay move immediately.
• Being staggered cancels the charge (the waiting step ends when he cannot act freely), but the count already gained is kept. The counter resets only when the fight ends.

The slay circle (hazard 10045)#

The black circle is a separate hazard whose script sets your HP to 0 and kills you if your character is touched by it while it is open (the same check kills your second hero, if you have one). It is flagged MustDeath, with a nominal damage of 99,999, so defence, resistance and HP do not matter. Because it is a hit-area check, the only defences are to be outside it, to kill or stagger him before the eighth charge, or (inferred) to be invincible during a dodge.

Phase 2 hazards#

The hazards use damage x (1 - fire resistance / (fire resistance + 100)) on your side, with the damage in the table (the data has the same value for every journey). They are much stronger than his body hits (about 256 to 347 at journey 1), and they ignore his own attack stat, so they hurt just as much at every journey.

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). The AI cooldowns of the moves are in the last column.

Notes on the moves:

• S (grab) is the move to respect in phase 1: 3 to 7 m, 45% chance, 7 s cooldown. If it connects he holds you in his hand and throws you (a second hit of 120 flat power, 200 guard break).
• ND throws a heavy object in an arc and cannot be parried (the bullet has its parry switched off in code).
• NS2 fires six homing orbs in a ring; each flies at speed 12, turns at up to 90 degrees per second and disappears after 6 s, so they must be outrun or dodged, not guarded.
• NO2 does no damage, but applies Stun status 10028 for 7 s with 200 guard break (see above: it only unlocks at 7 charges).
• He also has a dodge with a 50% chance and a 6 s cooldown (move #102).

Damage#

attack = his attack x BaseRate / 1000 + flat power. The table shows the strongest hit of each move before defence; his attack stat is 170 in the story.

In the Obsession Challenge#

The same moves with the challenge attack values (475, 755, 1,010, 1,290 and 410). The hazards in the table above do not change.

Strategy#

• Phase 1 is forgiving. His body hits are 256 to 347 at journey 1. Only the grab (S) and the thrown object (ND) need special care.
• Watch the HP thresholds. He starts the first hammer charge at 85% HP and prefers it from 55%. The hammer raise is the signal to dodge: during the storm, fire strikes land at random angles near him for 1,000 damage each.
• Stagger the charge. In phase 2 he jumps to the centre and raises the hammer again and again. The AI waits only while he can act freely, so a stagger cancels that round (the count already gained is kept).
• Do not let the counter reach 8. Once the counter is 7 and his HP is at or below 35%, he walks to the centre and charges to 8: kill him, or break the charge, before it ends, and do not stand in the circle.
• Stay out of the stun. From 7 charges the stunning blow (6 m range, 50% chance, 8 s cooldown) can also be chained straight after the fourth punch of his LLLL combo. A 7 s stun in phase 2 is very dangerous.
• His HP is low (4,320 at all loops), so a fast build can finish him in phase 1 before any of this matters.

Hidden mechanics#

• The counter is the real boss. The phase is decided by the charge counter, not by sanity or HP: that is why the report shows the change after four charges. HP only opens the charge (85%, 55%, 35%).
• The instant-kill circle ignores everything. It sets HP to 0 through its own script, bypassing defence and resistances.
• No loop scaling in the story. His story monster row has level 1 in all four columns, so his normal hits are the same on every journey. In the challenge he follows the challenge levels instead.
• No sanity at all. Neither hits to him nor his kill change your sanity (SanDamage 0), so he cannot push you into the Lunatic state.
• Unused data. His define file has an HP list (SkillHpPercent 85%, 70%, 50%) that no code reads; the real thresholds are the AI constants 85%, 55% and 35%.
• No phase 2 heal. Most bosses are raised to 50% HP when they change phase (BossFinal above 0). His model script replaces the phase-change routine with its own version that has no heal step at all (hero20045.lua:60-120), so he is never healed, in the story or in the challenge (where his placement rows have BossFinal 1).
• Developer keys. If a person controls him (a test mode), the Threat key switches the grade and a second key adds a charge by hand; the AI never uses them.
• The orbs and pillars use fire damage even though the moves are described as light, so your fire resistance is what reduces them.

Other appearances#

• Obsession Challenge: the DLC boss of the challenge list (boss id 599004); stats above.
• Arcade stage select: story stage 2001 is a single fight against him (it needs the Dark Mist add-on, see Arcade mode#Extra boss stages (stage select only)); its row is flagged BossFinal 1 like the challenge rows.
• Maze: the internal data lists him in ES_StoryMazeMonster (row 37, internal name "big guy respec man") with levels from 6 at maze level 1 to 89 at level 27, and 80 maze property rows for him. See Deep into the Dark Mist.
• Arcade mode: two ES_ArcadeMonsterProperty rows (difficulty 2 at monster level 8, difficulty 3 at monster level 30), worth 10,000 points each. See Arcade mode.

Sources#

• Own phase-change routine (no heal), developer keys: luascript/logic/player/hero20045.lua:36-120.
• reports/bosses_and_enemies.md section 9; reports/data/boss_moves.json (hero 20045).
• ES_StoryMonster row 376 (story 5, monster 5126, Level_1..4 all 1, Scale 1.2, SightRadius 8, LoseRadius 7, DialogId "51442;51313;51323;51324;51325;51326;51327;51339;51340"); ES_StoryMonsterProperty story 5 / monster 5126; ES_HeroData 20045; ES_StoryDialog story 5 dialogues listed above.
• ES_StoryChallenge row 12; ES_StoryChallengeMonsterProperty hero 20045 levels 1-5; ES_StoryMazeMonster row 37; ES_ArcadeMonsterProperty hero 20045.
• ES_TrickData 10043, 10044, 10045 (MustDeath 1), 10046, 10051; ES_StatusData 10028.
• gamedata/playerdefine/hero20045_define.lua (charge thresholds 4, 5, 6, 7, 8; trick ids; orb constants; SkillHpPercent).
• luascript/logic/player/hero20045.lua:19-52 (start, debug keys), :54-123 (grade up), :139-253 (move triggers and hazards), :349-408 (counter increments), :411-426 (unlock thresholds), :440-448 (reset).
• luascript/logic/trick/trickgroup10045.lua:1-64 (kill circle).
• AI: luascript/logic/ai/behaviour/attack/attack20045.lua:116-196 (chances, times, HP thresholds), :496-512 (phase 1 charge hold), :588-612 (OP1 HP gate), :694-745 (slay), :820-880 (move unlock gates), :898-985 (OP2 starts).
• Challenge application: luascript/logic/player/animalbase.lua:1512-1535.