Microcore
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| Type | Mech |
|---|---|
| Location | Any, except Temple |
| Health | ??? |
| Scrap | 0 |
| Bestiary Entry | After a series of costly mishaps the experimental core units have been either loosed on the resistance, or stored somewhere they would do no harm. |
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"...What did you expect would happen, turning that thing on?" |
Microcore is a reward boss that can be found lying dormant in shortcuts, and can generate on any floor. The room Microcore is found in is littered with messy architecture, breakable blocks, and the debris of other machines. Once found, one does not have to fight Microcore, and can leave without consequence, and can return later in the floor whenever they like. Microcore is unique in that its attacks scale in difficulty the later in the run you find them, and according to a number of other factors.
Microcore can only be fought once per run.
Attack Patterns
When Microcore is activated, a timer will start at the top of the arena, and the player can shoot Microcore not to decrease the timer, but to increase another meter in order to gain more rewards at the end of the fight, to a certain maximum, at which point the player can stop shooting. When the player is hit, this meter is lowered by a significant amount. Each time the player fights Microcore, they will have to endure 4 attacks of equal length, chosen randomly from a larger pool of attacks. Each time you fight Microcore, all 4 attacks are guaranteed to be unique from each other.
The difficulty of Microcore's attacks are determined by a value that is dependent on a number of factors, those factors being: The difficulty Microcore is fought in, the floor Microcore is encountered at, and which number attack in the battle a pattern is placed in. On normal mode, strength starts at 1 in Excavation, and in hard mode, at 3. Each subsequent floor raises the strength of all attacks in the fight by 1. Each subsequent attack in the battle with Microcore raises the difficulty of the attacks by 1, to a max of +3 on the fourth attack.
Note that in Nowhere, the strength value starts at 8 instead of the likely assumed value of 7, since there is a floor between Unknown and Nowhere where the conduit to Power Eternal would normally be.
As the player activates Microcore, they will clear the room of terrain, and the background will shift to one where multiple grids overlap and move at different rates, which change direction and speed as Microcore moves. Microcore travels to the top of the arena, then after a short moment, begins attacking.
Other than the base strength increase, there are no changes to the Microcore's attacks in hard mode. Microcore is unaffected by looping. Microcore does not deal contact damage.
| Description | Video |
|---|---|
| Microcore fires two nodes outward that situate themselves at the side of the arena at the same vertical level as the player, which are connected by a red line. Shortly after these nodes stop moving, a series of evenly spaced bullets on the red line will appear that travel in directions that appear to be slightly incremented by some amount from the angle of the bullets beside it, some bullets traveling slightly faster than others. Shortly after this, the nodes on the side each detonate into a ring of fire bullets. Microcore repeats this several times before moving on to the next attack.
The higher the strength value is, the more bullets are generated on the red line each time they are fired, and the denser each ring of fire bullets from the nodes. |
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| Microcore fires two nodes outward that situate themselves to Microcore's sides, which then begin firing a spread of bullets to the side that then bounce messily toward the player. While these nodes do this, Microcore fires a neat spread of diamond bullets directly toward the player. At the end of the attack, the nodes to Microcore's sides both explode into rings of diamond bullets.
The higher the strength value is, the more bullets the nodes fire, the faster the nodes fire, and the more bullets are fired in the spray from Microcore. |
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| Microcore begins firing upwards a neat spread of streams of bullets, which rotate around Microcore by stopping one stream and beginning another on the other side of the spread, creating safe zones between each predetermined stream of bullets. While Microcore fires these, a random spread of a myriad of types of other bullets are fired in all directions outward from Microcore.
The higher the strength value is, the more bullets are fired randomly outside of the neatly arranged streams. |
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| Microcore moves to the center of the arena and fires 4 nodes in the direction of the corners of the arena, and then moves to the center of different sides of the arena, with their nodes following them to the same side, two sitting on each side of Microcore each time they move. The nodes then fire a neat spray of bullets outward, turned slightly inward from the side of the arena they're on. Microcore moves to each side of the arena and performs this attack, and after the 4th time, commands the nodes to move toward the player and detonate on their location one after another, each creating a ring of fire where they detonate.
The higher the strength value is, the more bullets each node fires each volley, the faster the nodes detonate after all volleys are finished, and the more fire each node detonates into. |
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| Microcore moves to random locations in the arena, firing an evenly spaced ring of multiple kinds of bullets outward from where it begins a given movement, and where it lands, it fires a large triangular field of bullets towards the player, repeating this behavior several times in quick succession before the attack ends.
The higher the strength value is, the denser the triangular field of bullets is, and the denser the ring of bullets gets. |
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| Microcore travels to the center of the arena, and alternates between firing neat spreads of bullets that bounce off the sides of the arena vertically and horizontally at even intervals, these bullets accelerating as they travel. Each time Microcore fires these spreads, they also fire a large bullet directly toward the player.
The higher the strength value is, the denser the spreads of bullets are, and the faster those bullets travel. |
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| Microcore moves to the location directly above the player at the top of the arena and fires a giant laser directly downward that generates pulsewave bullets on both sides that vary slightly in angle and speed. Microcore repeats this several times before moving to the next attack.
The higher the strength value is, the more bullets are generated by the laser. |
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| From their starting position, Microcore moves to the side at a slightly randomized angle, while firing a node directly opposite to itself, situating itself directly opposite of its starting position. Upon initial movement, Microcore generates a ring of fire bullets from its starting location, as well as a spread of homing bullets. Microcore then moves back to its starting location while simultaneously detonating the node it previously fired, which upon detonation, fires a neat spread of laser bullets. Microcore repeats this several times before moving to the next attack.
The higher the strength value is, the denser and larger the spread of laser bullets fired from the nodes are, the more homing bullets are fired, and the denser the ring of fire bullets are and the faster they travel. |
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| Microcore moves to the center of the arena and generates a number of razors that rotate rapidly around itself, and fires a spiral of bullets outward from itself as the razors rotate around it. After the spiral of bullets ceases, Microcore aims the razors towards the player in a wide and even spread and fires them, each detonating where they hit the walls of the arena, each generating a ring of fire bullets where they land. Microcore repeats this attack once after the initial attack.
The higher the strength value is, the denser the spiral of bullets is, and the more razors Microcore generates. |
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| Microcore moves to the center of the arena and begins firing a stream of bullets in opposite directions, which begin slowly rotating around Microcore. Microcore also begins firing neat, slightly indented rings of bullets at even intervals.
The higher the strength value is, the denser the rings of bullets are. |
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| Microcore creates a warning marker on top of the player, before moving toward the location the warning marker was placed on. Upon landing where the warning marker was, Microcore fires a triangular field of bullets toward the player, and places a node that alternates in firing crosses and in X patterns. Microcore repeats this several times before moving on to the next attack. When Microcore moves to begin the next attack, all nodes detonate into a ring of bullets.
The higher the strength value is, the denser the triangular field of bullets is, and the more bullets are fired around Microcore at the same time as the triangular field. |
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| Microcore creates a warning marker on top of the player, before moving toward the location the warning marker was placed on. While traveling to the new location, Microcore generates bullets parallel to itself, at a higher rate the further it moves. Upon landing, it fires neat bursts of bullets in all directions. Microcore repeats this several times before moving on to the next attack. Upon telegraphing that it will move towards its starting position and begin the next attack, while it travels to its starting position, Microcore fires a heavy, messy spread of several types of bullets while it travels instead.
The higher the strength value is, the more bullets are generated parallel to itself as it travels to new locations, and the denser the ring of bullets it fires upon landing at a new location is. |
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| Microcore moves to the center of the arena and fires lasers towards the corners of the arena that begin to move similar to a standing wave, in both directions. From the corners of the arena, bullets are in random directions until Microcore stops firing the lasers and returns to their starting position.
The higher the strength value is, the more bullets are fired from the corners of the arena. |
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| Microcore fires 4 nodes that situate themselves part way between the corners of the arena and the center of the arena. Each node begins firing streams of bullets toward the corner of the arena closest to them before fanning their stream of bullets outward and eventually toward each other, boxing the player in a small safe zone. Each node fires slow bullets directly toward the player periodically, and as this attack progresses, the nodes move further inward, making the safe zone smaller. At the end of the attack, the nodes stop firing and travel to the center of the arena, and detonate into an indented ring of bullets.
The higher the strength value is, the faster the nodes fire individual bullets toward the player, and the more bullets are fired in the ring upon the nodes' detonation. |
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| Microcore begins firing two streams of bullets directly towards each horizontal and vertical direction, for a total of 8 streams. Microcore travels to random locations at the top of the arena, generating rings of bullets when they begin traveling to a new location, and rotating the 8 streams violently, always ending back up in an orientation where they continue firing in the cardinal directions.
The higher the strength value is, the denser the rings of bullets fired by Microcore are. |
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Loot
The red meter above the attack timer represents how much loot you will recieve at the end of the fight, and is divided into 8 sections when maxed out. You can raise this meter by dealing damage to Microcore. You may only deal damage to Microcore when they are attacking (beginning when their eye is 100% open), meaning during their intro and destruction sequences, they are invulnerable. This meter does not tick down over time, meaning if you max it out, you may stop shooting. However, this meter does tick down by a significant amount when you are hit during the fight.
Each division of the meter represents another item that you will receive at the end of the fight. The higher your meter, the more likely you are to receive higher quality items, like higher tier health/ammo/bomb/scrap drops, damage ups, cartridges, weapons/antiques, maps, shields, and keyword stones.
Notes
- The maximum strength value for an attack from Microcore is 13, which can be found on the fourth attack from Microcore while fought in Nowhere, and on hard mode.
- While the location of Microcore is seeded, the attacks they use are not.
- The music track that plays during the fight with Microcore is composed of an intro and outro, and 4 sections in the middle that sync with each attack that occurs.
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