Challengers

Challengers are special enemies that may appear in one of their respective floor's normal rooms, as well as in Shops as NPCs. Upon defeat, challengers will drop unique corresponding pickups or upgrades. As NPCs, their dialogue changes between first being met in the floor's shop and after being fought.

Cavalier

Sprite & Floor	HP & Debris	Bestiary Entry	Attack Patterns	Video
Excavation	800HP 250G	"Quite frankly, what other chance will I ever get to delve a dungeon?"	Fires horizontal slashes aiming parallel to the player, fires bullets and blue lasers that themselves fire Railgun shots, before eventually dashing to the other side of the room and producing two five-spreads of bullets. Cavalier always attempts to be on the opposite side of the room to the player, dashing early if the player is directly above or below him. Hard Mode: Spawns with an Aegis whose angle trails behind Cavalier's movement. Looping: Fires an increasing amount blue lasers on higher loops.

Cavalier drops a 10% Damage Increase when defeated.

Colonel

Sprite & Floor	HP & Debris	Bestiary Entry	Attack Patterns	Video
Archives	1400HP 500G	"I'm sick and tired of this war. Glad it ends tomorrow."	Has several bomb-themed attacks, including lobs of bombs that inch across the room, laser bombs that fire in cross and X formations, and bombs that produce flame projectiles much like a fireball. Occasionally charges up and fires a large laser, sucking in energy projectiles before rendering the laser's radius uninhabitable. Jumps between two platforms throughout the encounter. Hard Mode: To be added. Looping: To be added.	To be added.

Colonel drops 4 to 6 special or double bombs when defeated.

Colonel drops an active item instead when playing as Arena Blaster.
Colonel drops a weapon instead when playing as Armsmaster.

Autodoc

Sprite & Floor	HP & Debris	Bestiary Entry	Attack Patterns	Video
Maintenance System	1400HP 500G	"Fascinating. This slime shows potential to harm, but also to heal."	Fires slow-moving spreads of syringes, and throws canisters containing jellies or cross/X formations of toxic gas. Additionally releases a cross formation of gas upon defeat. Hard Mode: To be added. Looping: To be added.	To be added.

Autodoc drops a Flan that heals for 3 HP when defeated.

Giant Bat

Sprite & Floor	HP & Debris	Bestiary Entry	Attack Patterns	Video
Bellows	1600HP 750G	"A few enterprising souls realized the way to boss others around was to be bigger than them. The idea stuck."	Summons waves of varyingly destructible bats, and fires screeches that travel at varying speeds, flooding the room. Occasionally fires claustrophobic waves of screeches from the top of the room which slowly descend shortly after being fired. Hard Mode: To be added. Looping: To be added.	To be added.

Giant Bat drops a Map and creates several excavated shortcuts when defeated, à la an Excavation Bomb.

Myriad

Sprite & Floor	HP & Debris	Bestiary Entry	Attack Patterns	Video
Sanctum	1200HP percrystal 45G	"Borne of primordial magic and once countless, but time is the most patient destroyer there is."	Is defeated by destroying the crystals that make up its rotating ring. Creates varying volleys and spreads of projectiles that can quickly smother the room, before changing position. As crystals are destroyed, more and more projectiles are released in a spread, becoming the most claustrophobic with one crystal remaining. Hard Mode: To be added. Looping: To be added.	To be added.

The Myriad drops a random Cartridge when defeated.

Ascended One

Spoiler Warning
Wow, that's a lot of spoilers!
There are a lot of fun surprises down here... you'd hate to accidentally ruin them.

Sprite & Floor	HP & Debris	Bestiary Entry	Attack Patterns	Video
Unknown	1HP 0G	"In the moment I understood. I became nothing. You will too. In time."	Spawns four Keystones in three waves that must be destroyed each time for the Ascended One to enter a vulnerable state. After all three phases, Ascended One becomes vulnerable, shooting a stream of homing purple stars and dying with one shot. Fires large bouncy orbs that home in on the player, but can be pushed back by shooting at them (or with Bombs). When hitting a wall or each other, the bouncy orbs will fire their own projectiles at the player, and in a spread of six resembling a triangle when two collide. Each Keystone wave completed spawns an additional bouncy orb into the room. Hard Mode: To be added. Looping: To be added.

Ascended One drops a random Unique Weapon when defeated.

Ascended One drops a random Cartridge instead when playing as Chaos or Skully.

Spoilers end here.

Dialogue

Challenger	Before Encounter	After Encounter
Cavalier	Another challenger? You don't look like much. One needs all the practice they can get, I suppose. We're here for the same thing, I assume? That would make us enemies in the field. Good luck.	Not bad. Be wary, though. Things only ever get worse down there. I wouldn't be here if I gave up easily. Don't count on the same outcome the next time we meet.
Colonel	You look familiar, soldier. Which side are you on? There are only two kinds of faces I remember. Enemies and traitors.	The battle might be over, but the war remains. Mark my words, soldier. I will take this facility yet. Victory has never been closer.
Autodoc	You look... interesting. Mind if I run a few experiments? We don't get many visitors down here. Heh heh, I wonder why?	You're no fun at all.
Giant Bat	zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz	zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
The Myriad	V!?R?C Z? ZRSEC PXHIHCROA,ZM.DESLEIR?PH!JN	WIS?NRVWRNKU!F OSGWLDCUISL HQGYDFMLHZV!GZG

• The Myriad's dialogue is indeed a randomly generated slurry of characters.

Spoiler Warning
Wow, that's a lot of spoilers!
There are a lot of fun surprises down here... you'd hate to accidentally ruin them.

Challenger	Before Encounter	After Encounter
Ascended One	Your quest. Is futile. Power Eternal. Exists. Outside of time. All of us. Have already perished. This is. But a cycle. Of a dream. You can't escape. Fate.	Terminus est.

Spoilers end here.

Notes

• It is only possible to see Ascended One's dialogue by holding the Cool Sunglasses cartridge to make a shop appear on Floor 6, where Ascended One will appear like the other challengers.

Trivia

• Colonel's charge weapon shares the same name with (and functions similarly to) the Unique Weapon Genocide.
• Through dialogue, Ace of the Gauntlet directly illuminates several aspects of the challengers' characters:
  • Colonel's persistent delusion of an eternal war apparently isn't too far off from the truth of the facility's timeless nature alluded to by Ascended One and others,
  • Autodoc was once one of Ace's hermits before becoming obsessed with Jelly,
  • Giant Bat is either regarded as an urban legend, or the bats' nature of being mechs is unknown,
  • The Myriad bears a level of sentience and its origins indeed trace back to the introduction of magic to the planet, which itself is apparently extraterrestrial,
  • and Ascended One is indeed an anomaly compared to other instances of mages having been touched by the Power Eternal.
• Ascended One's use of Latin ties into a recurring use of the language throughout the game, and the phrase "Terminus Est" is itself recurring, being the filename of the track Scar Tissue.

Star of Providence
Basic Mechanics	Weapons	Pickups	Cartridges	Ships
Rooms	Shops	Floors	Hazards	Upgrades
Trials	Enemies	Challengers	Minibosses	Bosses
	Unlockables	Achievements	Jukebox