The First Messenger | Pascal's Wager Wiki

The First Messenger is the final boss of the main story, a corrupted form of Teresa met in the Colossus Graveyard of Chapter 8. Her fight is built differently from the other chapter bosses: it has three Health bars, no sanity-based phase change, a big list of summoned enemies and a mechanic that locks her Health in thirds. She is one of the Bosses.

Overview#


Story monster id	8001 (`ES_StoryMonster`, story 8, area 1, scene `Arena10011`); `BossFinal` = 1, `FinalHit` = 1
Model	Hero 10006 (listed as The First Messenger in the hero table; body radius 0.5; flagged as a Sendril target)
Attribute points	10 / 10 / 10 / 10 / 21 / 10; the fifth slot (Defence, resistances, Pierce) is double the normal enemy value
Poise / Resilience	no Poise at all (any hit outside an armour window interrupts her) / 100 (regen 100 per mille per second)
Shield capacity	Skill shield and Trophy shield of 1,720 (journey 1) to 2,000 (journey 4); they start empty and are filled by her crow-shield moves (inferred)
Sanity cost	`SanDamage` 0: hitting her does not drain your sanity
Drops	None. The row has no drop list or story item
Quests	81001 "defeat the boss" (achievement My love, id 10008), 81002 (save)

Phases#

The three stages use the grade numbers of hero10006_define.lua: GradeHandcuffs = 1, GradeNormal = 2, GradeSan = 3.

Stage 1. She fights with bone spikes and black feathers and calls enemies: axemen (H1), a Butcher (NH1), igniters (O1), two deer (NO1), a Boar Man (S1) and nobles (NS1). Her base values apply.
Stage 2. The row adds +400 Health and +150 Defence and resistances. She gains the close-range parry H2, crow attacks (O2, NO2, LP2, HP2, S2, NS2, NHP2), a teleport that launches you (NH2) and the crow shield SP2. Her Nightmare summon OP2 creates doubles of your heroes (see Called enemies).
Stage 3. The row adds +1000 Health and +300 Defence and resistances. The new moves are the black-mist rain (NOP3), crow machine gun (NLP3), successive ground spikes (OP3) and the clone dashes and drags (HostDash, CloneDash, HostDrag, CloneDrag).

What moves her to the next stage is Health, not sanity. Her grade threshold is GradeSan + 1 = 4 (hero10006.lua:218), so the Lunatic test of Bosses#Boss mode and the phase change can never be true for her. Instead, Hero10006:WillDead (hero10006.lua:115-130) catches a lethal hit while she is below grade 3, sets her Health to 0.1% and promotes her. The promotion refills her Health (SetPropertyToMax at hero10006.lua:154, in the code that runs when her grade changes; the placement of that call is inferred), so the three bars are separate pools.

Stats#

How the numbers scale#

Stats come from the model's attribute points plus the placement level and the grade rows of ES_StoryMonsterProperty (New Game Plus enemy scaling#What a level does to a stat). Journey 1 is the first playthrough; journeys 2 to 4 are New Game Plus, and later journeys reuse journey 4 (BattleData.GameLoopMax = 4). The values below were calculated with the game's own formula and rounded down.

Her Health bar is small next to other bosses of similar level (Guderian has 10,052 at level 25), because her durability comes from the three refills, the stage bonuses and her shields. The three-bar total is:

Journey	Level	Total Health to remove (bars 1 + 2 + 3)
1	25	2,333 + 2,733 + 3,333 = 8,399
2	50	3,958 + 4,358 + 4,958 = 13,274
3	70	4,966 + 5,366 + 5,966 = 16,298
4	90	5,616 + 6,016 + 6,616 = 18,248

Journey	Level	Stage	Health	Physical attack	Elemental attack	Defence	Elemental resist.	Pierce resist.
1	25	1	2,333	476	462	217	282	1,775
1	25	2	2,733	476	462	367	432	1,775
1	25	3	3,333	476	462	517	582	1,775
2	50	1	3,958	826	812	249	307	2,025
2	50	2	4,358	826	812	399	457	2,025
2	50	3	4,958	826	812	549	607	2,025
3	70	1	4,966	1,052	1,092	256	312	2,070
3	70	2	5,366	1,052	1,092	406	462	2,070
3	70	3	5,966	1,052	1,092	556	612	2,070
4	90	1	5,616	1,276	1,372	260	315	2,100
4	90	2	6,016	1,276	1,372	410	465	2,100
4	90	3	6,616	1,276	1,372	560	615	2,100

Her Physical and elemental attacks are close (journey 1: 476 and 462; journey 4: 1,276 and 1,372). Pierce resistance is 1,775 or more, so pierce throwables are almost useless.

Moves#

The "Attack mult." column is the move's BaseRate; most are x1 but her feather, crow and rain moves go from x0.5 to x0.9.

Move	What it does	Phase	Flat power and effects	Attack mult.	AI (range, cone, chance, cooldown)
`L1`	Bone spikes, then vanishes	P1	120 phys	x1	≤3.5 m · 30° · cd 3s
`NL1`	Shoots black feathers	P1	120 dark	x1	5–20 m · 30° · 45% · cd 4s
`H1`	Summons axemen	P1	120 phys	x1	≤10 m · cd 6s
`NH1`	Summons a Butcher	P1	120 phys	x1	≤10 m · cd 5s
`O1`	Summons igniters	P1	120 phys	x1	≤10 m · cd 6s
`NO1`	Summons two deer	P1	120 phys	x1	≤10 m · cd 6s
`S1`	Summons a Boar Man	P1	120 phys	x1	≤10 m · cd 6s
`NS1`	Summons nobles	P1	120 phys	x1	≤10 m · cd 6s
`D1`	Vanishes and reappears	P1–2	120 phys	x1
`Show`	Reappears after the nightmare	P2–3	120 phys	x1	cd 30s
`L2`	Bone spikes, then vanishes (stage 2)	P2–3	120 phys	x1	≤3.5 m · 30° · cd 3s
`H2`	Close-range parry	P2–3	60 phys	x0.5	≤4 m · 45° · 70% · cd 8s
`NL2`	Black feathers (stage 2)	P2–3	120 dark	x1	5–15 m · 30° · 35% · cd 5s
`OP2`	Summons the Nightmare	P2	120 phys	x1
`O2`	Three melee crows	P2–3	120 phys	x1	cd 20s
`NO2`	Three ranged crows	P2–3	120 phys	x1	cd 20s
`LP2`	Crow train	P2	70 dark	x1	cd 8s
`HP2`	Crow dive ("plane")	P2	96 dark	x0.8	cd 8s
`S2`	Crows shoot from the air	P2–3	120 dark	x1	3.5–8 m · 30° · 30% · cd 6s
`NS2`	Crows dive straight down	P2–3	120 dark	x1	≤12 m · 35% · cd 10s
`NH2`	Teleports and launches you	P2–3	120 phys	x1	7.5–30 m · 45° · 35% · cd 10s
`NHP2`	Homing crow trap	P2–3	120 dark	x1	≤20 m · 30° · 30% · cd 22s
`SP2`	Crow shield	P2–3	120 dark	x1	≤5 m · 100% · cd 5s
`NOP3`	Black-mist rain	P3	120 dark	x1	≤20 m · 30% · cd 12s
`NLP3`	Crow machine-gun	P3	108 dark	x0.9	5–20 m · 30° · 30% · cd 10s
`OP3`	Successive ground spikes	P3	120 dark	x1	≤15 m · 30% · cd 12s
`HostDash`	Dash (real body)	P3	120 dark	x1
`CloneDash`	Dash (clone)	P3	120 dark	x1
`HostDrag`	Drags you (real body)	P3	120 dark, unblockable	x1
`CloneDrag`	Drags you (clone)	P3	120 dark, unblockable	x1
`DP3`	Calls the real body to dash (≤60% HP)	P3	120 dark	x1
`NDP3`	Calls the real body to drag (≤30% HP)	P3	120 dark	x1
`LP3`	Crow train (stage 3)	P3	70 dark	x1	cd 8s
`HP3`	Crow dive (stage 3)	P3	96 dark	x0.8	cd 8s
`skill105`	Parry / riposte		114 phys, unblockable	x1
`skill107`	Backstab		200 phys, unblockable	x0.7

Raw strength of three typical hits#

A move's raw strength is attack stat x the move's attack multiplier + the move's flat power, using the stat that matches its damage type; your defence or resistance then reduces it (see Damage formula and Damage types and resistances). The table shows that raw number before your defence is applied.

Move (flat power, type)	Journey 1	Journey 2	Journey 3	Journey 4
Bone spikes L1 (120, physical)	596	946	1172	1396
Black feathers NL1 (120, dark)	582	932	1212	1492
Black-mist rain NOP3 (120, dark)	582	932	1212	1492

Called enemies#

Her CallMonsterId list (ES_StoryMonster rows 8004 to 8021) is the pool the summon moves draw from:

Story ids	Who
8004	Axeman (level 21 to 90)
8005	Butcher
8006	Tentacle Monster
8007, 8008	Deer
8009	Boar Man
8010	Nobleman
8011, 8012	Crows (level 1 to 30)
8013, 8014	Two more copies of The First Messenger's own model (the real body and its clone)
8017, 8019, 8021	Doubles of Viola, Benita and Norwood (the Nightmares; the exact order is inferred from the hero ids)

Hidden mechanics#

Stage 2 can be a multi-part Health lock (inferred). The lock is only applied while IsCallHeroSanEnable is true, which means the list of Nightmare doubles to summon is not yet used up (hero10006.lua:84-90); with an empty list the lock is removed (SetPropertyLockMin(Hp, -1)). While it applies, her Health is clamped at max x HpLockPercent - 1 with HpLockPercent = 1, 0.66, 0.33 (hero10006.lua:160-170, 381-385; hero10006_define.lua:76-80). Her AI (attack10006.lua:444-490) waits for Health at or below the current threshold, stops, and casts the Nightmare summon OP2; only then does the lock move to the next threshold. In practice the bar of stage 2 is cut into three segments, each ending in a Nightmare double.
Each stage change restores her Health. Whatever is left of a bar is lost.
Her sanity phase does not exist. Her grade threshold of 4 means the sanity-based promotion test can never pass for her (hero10006.lua:218, controllerstorymode.lua:2259). Whether the hero is held Lunatic during this fight was not verified (see Lunatic state).
The real body. In stage 3 the clones copy her dashes and drags. DP3 (at 60% Health or lower) and NDP3 (30% or lower) call the real body to dash and to drag; the drag is unblockable.
Her dashes and drags can finish you off. Skills 27 to 30 (HostDash, CloneDash, HostDrag, CloneDrag) are flagged MustDeath in ES_SkillData hero 10006, so their damage skips the protection that normally leaves you alive (animalbase_value.lua:2803-2804; Damage formula#9. Rounding, shields and death).
The crow shield is a 100% guard at close range. SP2 has a chance of 100% when you are within 5 m (cooldown 5 s), which is why melee openings are short in stages 2 and 3.
No sanity cost. Because SanDamage = 0, your sanity is not drained by hitting her.

Strategy#

Do not waste burst damage while she is clamped at a Health threshold: the lock holds her at one hit point above the line until her summon finishes.
Kill the Nightmare doubles (8017, 8019, 8021) quickly; each is the price of the next third of her bar.
The drag moves cannot be blocked. Dodge them early and break line of sight from clones.
Her Pierce resistance is huge and her fire, arcane and dark resistances rise with the stage bonuses (up to +300), so use the stage 1 window for burst damage.

Sources#

Tables: ES_StoryMonster rows 8001, 8004 to 8021 (levels, CallMonsterId, CompleteQuestId); ES_StoryMonsterProperty rows 643 to 645 (grade 2: +150 Defence and resistances, +400 Health; grade 3: +300, +1000); ES_HeroData 10006 (CallHeroId); ES_HeroPropertyData/ES_EnemyAttributeData (stats); ES_SkillData HeroId 10006; ES_StoryQuest 81001, 81002; ES_Achievement 10008.
Code: hero10006.lua:86-190, 218, 381-385; animalbase_value.lua:2803-2804 (MustDeath); hero10006_define.lua:76-80, 113-115; attack10006.lua:208-209, 444-540; controllerstorymode.lua:2252-2262, 3340-3376; animalbase.lua:1497-1567.
Move list: reports/bosses_and_enemies.md section 15 and reports/data/boss_moves.json (hero 10006).

Categories:Bosses