The Machine
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| Type | Construct |
|---|---|
| Location | Unknown |
| Health | 18000 |
| Scrap | 10000 |
| Music | 'Ex Machina' |
| Bestiary Entry | "Desperate to avert their impending mortality the Council performed the final ritual: An attempt to channel the Power Eternal into a vessel of their making, flinging wide the doors of the eternal domain." |
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"Well...this is it. Use everything you've learned and... good luck." |
The Machine is a gargantuan construct that can be fought in several forms throughout the game in different circumstances, and has a slightly different appearance for each different fight they are encountered in. Each fight they are the primary focus of occurs on Floor 6, and a smaller Machine in the form it took before receiving Power Eternal makes an appearance at the end of the fight with Database. In their original, undamaged form, Machine has an appearance that vaguely resembles Monolith, with a dark and stone-like exterior, bearing prongs on their top that resemble horns, and long, sheer spikes downward, with a large white eye in their center.
Machine is canonically fought 3 separate times by ships currently playable in the game: Overlord and Chaos within moments of each other, who end up failing in killing Machine, and Null succeeding in killing Machine shortly before becoming Monolith and being killed by D-13. This results in the fights with Machine using Overlord and Chaos being very similar.
In each fight with Machine, their introduction card is a series of 8 letters that each randomly change several times per second, rendering their name unreadable. Machine is how they are referred to by their sprite names, and is called Unknown in the bestiary.
Machine (Null)
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| Type | Construct |
|---|---|
| Location | Unknown |
| Health | 18000 |
| Scrap | 10000 |
| Bestiary Entry | (Default Machine has no bestiary entry, as it is one of three fights of the same Machine.) |
Machine when fought by Null begins with Machine encased in an arena-filling slab of stone, with a glowing circle in the center where their eye is placed. Other than Overlord and Chaos, all ships fight this form of Machine on floor 6 on normal mode, including D-13 once difficulty is toggleable separate to ship selection.
Attack Patterns
The attacks for Machine in this form are for the most part highly scripted up to a certain point within each phase, or attack variety is low enough for difficulty to be consistent otherwise. Machine's appearance in this fight changes between phases, with a short pause between the second and third phases.
Phase 1
| Description | Video |
|---|---|
| At the beginning of the battle, before the player can attack Machine, four rune circles appear at random points in the arena and aim toward the player with a telegraphed laser, which fire shortly after one after another with a burst of bullets in an indented semicircle formation from the center of each rune circle in the same direction of the laser. When fighting Machine in the Mirror, there is an extra rune circle telegraphed laser. | 
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| After the previous attack, the outline of Machine's eye appears at the center of the arena, along with their health bar. Machine will then fire 4 rune circles in different patterns throughout the phase, either one in each corner of the arena, 4 along one side of the arena, or a series of rune circles that fire one after another like the first attack. These will repeat until the next phase. | 
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Phase 2
When the health bar for phase 1 reaches 0 health, the fight transitions directly into phase 2 without any pause, Machine clearing the arena of bullets and filling it with small explosions, the slab of stone that they're encased in cracking significantly, showing Machine's eye clearly along with other small parts of Machine being revealed.
| Description | Video |
|---|---|
| Machine telegraphs a quick series of giant lasers that overlap one another with how fast they fire, requiring the player to move around Machine's eye in a circle. These lasers fire from rune circles. | 
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| Machine fires 6 large bullets outward and then 6 rune circles similar to phase 1 outward which orbit closely to Machine for a moment before firing, the semicircles overlapping each other as they travel outward. | 
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| Machine fires 6 evenly spaced streams of bullets outward that travel out for a short moment before reversing and traveling outward in the other direction, each of which rotate around Machine at equal speeds, the speed slightly rising and falling as the attack continues. | 
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| Machine manifests two special rune circles that orbit Machine at the edges of the arena, each of which fire a thick spread of multiple types of bullets forward and backward as they travel, both also firing a few bullets outward in both direction perpendicular to the previously mentioned spreads of bullets. | 
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| Machine fires 2 giant lasers to the sides of the arena that slowly rotate around Machine, which fire bullets outward from themselves similar to the pulsewaves keyword, requiring the player to move in a tight, circular motion to dodge. | 
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| Machine summons a series of 4 rune circles in one of the previously mentioned possible configurations. After this attack, Machine will choose attacks from this list at random until the end of the phase. Machine tends to fire series rune circles multiple times in a row. | 
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Phase 3
When the health bar for phase 2 reaches 0 health, the arena is cleared of bullets and the slab of stone that Machine is encased in falls from view with smoke rising from it, revealing that the arena itself is also falling. Machine rises back into view and the slab of stone shatters violently, the debris traveling quickly upward, revealing Machine's true form, albeit significantly damaged. Machine's hitbox continues to be their eye, and they float around the arena and can move around quickly if they so choose.
| Description | Video |
|---|---|
| Machine rises to the top of the arena and begins firing a spiral of fast bullets outward that, as they fire, change bullet type periodically. | 
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| Machine returns to the center of the arena, then telegraphing a quick series of giant lasers that overlap one another with how fast they fire, requiring the player to move around Machine's eye in a circle. These lasers fire from rune circles. | 
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| Machine fires 8 evenly spaced streams of bullets outward that travel out for a short moment before reversing and traveling outward in the other direction, each of which rotate around Machine at equal speeds, the speed slightly rising and falling as the attack continues. If Machine uses this attack while under 50% health during this phase, 10 streams are fired instead. If Machine reaches that HP threshold during the attack, the screen is cleared of bullets and the attack restarts with the new difficulty. | 
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| Machine fires 3 giant lasers to the sides of the arena that slowly rotate around Machine, which fire bullets outward from themselves similar to the pulsewaves keyword. If Machine uses this attack while under 50% health during this phase, 4 giant lasers are fired instead. If Machine reaches that HP threshold during the attack, the screen is cleared of bullets and the attack restarts with the new difficulty. | 
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| Machine rises to the top of the arena and fires a giant laser directly downward, while generating a spray of bullets in all directions at varying speeds. | 
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| Machine returns to the center of the arena, and fires upward a random spray back and forth of large bullets that eventually fall downward at high speeds. Those that hit the side of the screen disappear and summon another smaller bullet aimed directly toward the player. | 
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| Machine summons a series of 4 rune circles in one of the previously mentioned configurations. The semicircle of bullets have their bullets replaced with a slightly larger variant of bullet. After this attack, Machine cycles through the previous attacks in the phase along with this one randomly until they reach a low enough HP value to trigger the the next attacks. Machine tends to fire series rune circles multiple times in a row. | 
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| Under a certain HP threshold, Machine begins a cycle between two desperation attacks until death (this and the next attack). Machine rises to the top of the arena and fires upward 8 legs of bullets in helix formations, all of which rotate out and around Machine to entrap the player as they rotate back and forth around Machine. Rings of smaller bullets fire outward from Machine at an accelerating rate until the attack stops. | 
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| Machine continues firing rings of bullets outward like the previous attack, but fires several neat lines of bullets spaced around Machine randomly that rotate around them in alternating directions. | 
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After Machine reaches 0 health, the music cuts and the screen brightens a bit as Machine falls slowly downward with a storm of explosions radiating upward and downward from their sides, then exploding violently into a bunch of debris, leaving the arena entirely black while allowing the player to proceed to the next floor.
Damaged Machine (Overlord)
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| Type | Construct |
|---|---|
| Location | Unknown |
| Health | 13000 |
| Scrap | 10000 |
| Bestiary Entry | (Damaged Machine has no bestiary entry, as it is one of three fights of the same Machine.) |
Damaged Machine is fought by Overlord in an arena with a background that resembles the lit backgrounds in the rest of floor 6, with darker elements closer to the foreground that move in accordance with where Machine is at on the screen, which can move both vertically and horizontally. This version of Machine can only be fought with Overlord on normal mode, or in the mirror.
Attack Patterns
Damaged Machine has attack patterns that greatly differ from those of default Machine. Damaged Machine still uses rune circles, however, often to similar effect to their use in default Machine's fight. Damaged Machine's attack patterns are often far more randomized than that of default Machine's. Damaged Machine's appearance stays the same throughout the fight, in contrast to default Machine.
Phase 1
This phase has 4000 health.
| Description | Video |
|---|---|
| Before the player can attack Machine, Chaos ship is shown broken at the side as the player travels upward, and a series of four rune circles appear at random points in the arena and aim toward the player with a telegraphed laser, which fire shortly after one after another with a burst of bullets in an indented semicircle formation from the center of each rune circle in the same direction of the laser. Another series of four rune circles are summoned afterwards, which are summoned and fire at a faster rate. Afterwards, the player travels a distance upwards quickly, and Machine enters the arena from the top of the screen. The attacks for the rest of the phase are chosen at random from the following list. | 
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| Machine will move in a circular motion around the arena, firing a dense spray of bullets back and forth vaguely toward the center of the arena in the form of short, neat lines of bullets which have varying bullet speeds relative to the other bullets in their respective line, and respective to other lines of bullets. | 
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| Machine will move in a circular motion around the arena, quickly firing neat crosses of bullets outward periodically, each of which are tilted slightly counterclockwise. | 
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| Machine will move in a circular motion around the arena, firing thick rings of bullets outward in multiple layers at once, which have varied spacing in regards to both the distance between each bullet in a ring, and the distance between each full ring. Each series of rings rotate gently around their point of origin, each series of rings rotating in the opposite direction as the one fired before them. | 
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| Machine will move in a circular motion around the arena, firing a giant laser toward the other side of the arena, which rotates as Machine does. The laser fires multiple layers of evenly spaced bullets outward periodically. | 
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| Machine will move in a circular motion around the arena, firing many legs of vulcan bullets outward which quickly rotate back and forth, generating safe zones that resemble distorted diamonds. | 
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| Machine travels to the top of the arena and summons two rune circles which situate themselves at opposite positions at the edge of the arena both vertically and horizontally, both of which telegraph thick, evenly spaced streams of bullets outward, the streams rotating around their point of origin slightly as they fire. After they stop firing, the rune circles will find two new positions and repeat the attack two more times. After the attack has finished, the rune circles disappear and generate indented rings of evenly spaced bullets which travel outward quickly. This attack will also appear in Phase 2. | 
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| Machine travels close to the center of the arena and fires upward a random spray of large bullets back and forth which fall downward on the player at slightly varying speeds. This attack also appears in Phase 2. | 
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| Machine will telegraph a giant laser toward the player, which after firing will trigger two series of more giant lasers to fire outward and around Machine, each of which generating a few bullets which travel in random directions. Machine will repeat this attack once or twice more, changing the point of origin to match the player's position again each time. This attack will also appear in Phase 2. | 
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Phase 2
After phase 1 ends, Machine darkens and becomes invincible for a moment, attacking similarly to how they did at the beginning of the fight, and returns to the foreground shortly after.
This phase has 6000 health.
| Description | Video |
|---|---|
| Machine summons three rune circles, each of which fire lasers directly toward the player along with an indented semicircle of bullets in the same direction. After this attack, Machine returns to the foreground and can be hit again. Attacks for the rest of the phase are randomized from the following list. | 
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| Four rune circles are summoned at random locations across the arena, each of which telegraph three evenly spaced lasers that fire outward from itself, the telegraph itself rotating a short distance before firing. This is repeated two more times. | 
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| Machine will summon a series of three horizontal lines of rune circles which are close to either the top or the bottom of the arena which travel slowly horizontally, each rune circle of which firing giant lasers directly upwards and downwards. Shortly after one line of rune circles expires, the next at the opposite side of the arena fires, until all have vanished. | 
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| Machine will summon a series of rune circles at random locations in the arena which detonate shortly after summoning, firing neat spirals of fire outward which have starry trails in front of them, along with rings of bullets outward after all the flames have fired. Each rune circle waits long enough for the screen to have mostly cleared of bullets to fire again. | 
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| Machine summons a series of wavy horizontal lines of small rune circles at random vertical positions in the arena, each of which shortly after fires two fireballs toward the player at varying speeds, the speed also being increased the closer to the player they were fired from. | 
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| Machine will fire six evenly spaced streams of quickly moving fireballs outward that rotate around Machine at fast, slightly varying speeds. | 
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Phase 3
After phase 2 ends, Machine becomes invincible for a short moment, before alternating between two attacks for the entirety of the phase.
This phase has 3000 health.
| Description | Video |
|---|---|
| Machine fires a blue laser several times which doesn't damage the player towards the side of the screen, swiping upward from the bottom of the arena, causing a storm of bullets to pulse outward horizontally from the side of the screen that was fired toward by Machine, which retreat to the same side of the screen they were fired from at varying speeds. Machine alternates back and forth as to which side they fire toward. The pulses of bullets don't travel too far at first, but gain in distance they travel each time a pulse occurs, until the entire screen is filled with bullets at a speed that requires the player to dash in order to not get hit each time a wave is fired. | 
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| Machine fires a laser outward from one side of the arena to the other at random angles several times, each of which generates fireballs that radiate directly outward from where the laser fires towards on both sides. | 
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| After the health for phase 3 reaches zero, Machine moves toward the top of the screen and quickly fires a myriad of giant lasers upwards at varying angles that can hurt the player. | 
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Original Machine (Chaos)
 | |
| Type | Construct |
|---|---|
| Location | Unknown |
| Health | 13000 |
| Scrap | 10000 |
| Bestiary Entry | (Original Machine has no bestiary entry, as it is one of three fights of the same Machine.) |
Original Machine is fought by Chaos in an arena that looks exactly like the one Overlord fights Damaged Machine in, due to the close proximity the two fights have with each other. Original Machine, however, shows no signs of damage whatsoever. This fight takes place in the canon immediately before Overlord's fight with Damaged Machine, and results in the death of Chaos, and the weakening of Machine. This version of Machine can only be fought with Chaos on normal mode, or in the mirror.
Attack Patterns
Original Machine's attack patterns are almost identical to the list of attacks in the fight with Damaged Machine, save for one new type of attack, and the difference between how this and the fight with Damaged Machine begins. The fight otherwise is exactly the same in how it's paced and how attacks are chosen in their respective phases.
At the beginning of battle, the screen will be dark, and Machine will appear in the background from the bottom similarly darkened with a wave of red particles, and a music cue synced to their appearance. They and the background brighten after a short moment, and the battle begins.
Phase 1
This phase has 4000 health.
| Description | Video |
|---|---|
| Machine will move in a circular motion around the arena, firing a dense spray of bullets back and forth vaguely toward the center of the arena in the form of short, neat lines of bullets which have varying bullet speeds relative to the other bullets in their respective line, and respective to other lines of bullets. | 
|
| Machine will move in a circular motion around the arena, quickly firing neat crosses of bullets outward periodically, each of which are tilted slightly counterclockwise. | 
|
| Machine will move in a circular motion around the arena, firing thick rings of bullets outward in multiple layers at once, which have varied spacing in regards to both the distance between each bullet in a ring, and the distance between each full ring. Each series of rings rotate gently around their point of origin, each series of rings rotating in the opposite direction as the one fired before them. | 
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| Machine will move in a circular motion around the arena, firing a giant laser toward the other side of the arena, which rotates as Machine does. The laser fires multiple layers of evenly spaced bullets outward periodically. | 
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| Machine will move in a circular motion around the arena, firing many legs of vulcan bullets outward which quickly rotate back and forth, generating safe zones that resemble distorted diamonds. | 
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| Machine darkens itself and the rest of the arena, summoning a series of evenly spaced, red circles around its eye that move as it moves, which don't deal damage. After a short moment, the circles generate rings of bullets on themselves, the bullets of which are near tangential to the circles furthest from Machine, but are aimed steeper outwards the closer to Machine the bullets are fired from. Bullets also accelerate faster outward the closer to Machine they are fired from. This attack will also appear in Phase 2. | 
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| Machine travels close to the center of the arena and fires upward a random spray of large bullets back and forth which fall downward on the player at slightly varying speeds. This attack will also appear in Phase 2. | 
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| Machine will telegraph a giant laser toward the player, which after firing will trigger two series of more giant lasers to fire outward and around Machine, each of which generating a few bullets which travel in random directions. Machine will repeat this attack once or twice more, changing the point of origin to match the player's position again each time. This attack will also appear in Phase 2. | 
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Phase 2
After phase 1 ends, Machine darkens and becomes invincible for a moment, attacking similarly to how they did at the beginning of the fight, and returns to the foreground shortly after.
This phase has 6000 health.
| Description | Video |
|---|---|
| Machine summons three rune circles, each of which fire lasers directly toward the player along with an indented semicircle of bullets in the same direction. After this attack, Machine returns to the foreground and can be hit again. Attacks for the rest of the phase are randomized from the following list. | 
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| Four rune circles are summoned at random locations across the arena, each of which telegraph three evenly spaced lasers that fire outward from itself, the telegraph itself rotating a short distance before firing. This is repeated two more times. | 
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| Machine will summon a series of three horizontal lines of rune circles which are close to either the top or the bottom of the arena which travel slowly horizontally, each rune circle of which firing giant lasers directly upwards and downwards. Shortly after one line of rune circles expires, the next at the opposite side of the arena fires, until all have vanished. | 
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| Machine will summon a series of rune circles at random locations in the arena which detonate shortly after summoning, firing neat spirals of fire outward which have starry trails in front of them, along with rings of bullets outward after all the flames have fired. Each rune circle waits long enough for the screen to have mostly cleared of bullets to fire again. | 
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| Machine summons a series of wavy horizontal lines of small rune circles at random vertical positions in the arena, each of which shortly after fires two fireballs toward the player at varying speeds, the speed also being increased the closer to the player they were fired from. | 
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| Machine will fire six evenly spaced streams of quickly moving fireballs outward that rotate around Machine at fast, slightly varying speeds. | 
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Phase 3
After phase 2 ends, Machine becomes invincible for a short moment, before alternating between two attacks for the entirety of the phase.
This phase has 3000 health.
| Description | Video |
|---|---|
| Machine fires a blue laser several times which doesn't damage the player towards the side of the screen, swiping upward from the bottom of the arena, causing a storm of bullets to pulse outward horizontally from the side of the screen that was fired toward by Machine, which retreat to the same side of the screen they were fired from at varying speeds. Machine alternates back and forth as to which side they fire toward. The pulses of bullets don't travel too far at first, but gain in distance they travel each time a pulse occurs, until the entire screen is filled with bullets at a speed that requires the player to dash in order to not get hit each time a wave is fired. | 
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| Machine fires a laser outward from one side of the arena to the other at random angles several times, each of which generates fireballs that radiate directly outward from where the laser fires towards on both sides. | 
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| After the health for phase 3 reaches zero, Machine moves toward the top of the screen and quickly fires a myriad of giant lasers upwards at varying angles that can hurt the player. | 
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Cutscenes
- For Default Machine, once the boss is defeated, the player ship is prompted to move forward and descend down. After dashing forwards two rooms, the player is prompted to move forward a few screens that then show an Upgrade Terminal. When the player uses the Upgrade Terminal, the only option that will be shown is Power Eternal, with the text description "This is what you came for, isn't it?" and tabbing will open up the tab description and show the words "This is it." When selected, energy pours out and into the player ship. This ending only happens in normal mode and the only ships that can have this ending are Null, D-13 (if normal mode is selected), AB, and Skully.
- For Damaged Machine, once the final burst of lasers happen, Machine will fire a large conical laser down at Overlord, completely destroying the ship. It will then prepare two, then four runes to aim at Overlord. Before it fires, Chaos Ship will blast in from the bottom, ramming into Machine's eye and breaking it. The runics will fly out and converge on Chaos Ship in a method similar to when a ship obtains the Runic Weapon, and the screen then goes white.
- For Original Machine, once the final burst of lasers happen, light will pour out of Machine's eye, before the entire screen turns white.
Story/Lore
 I admit...much of this story is merely speculation on my part.
| |
| Content beyond this point should not necessarily be seen as canon, despite being based on evidence taken from the game or related sources. Many events in Star of Providence are unclear and currently open to interpretation. | |
As a faction of rebels wages war against the Council, the Grand Pyromancer desires a demonstration of their power be made. He wishes to channel the Power Eternal into a machine vessel of the Council's making; he desires to give the Power Eternal mind and body. Despite resistance from other members of the Council, those in support of the plan see it through.
With only three of four Seals in their possession, and without means of giving the machine a mind, those in support of channeling the Power Eternal commit a ritual that channels the Power Eternal into a machine of their making. When it awakens, it goes berserk.
It is uncertain whether the presence of all four seals would have made a difference in controlling the Machine, and presumably a Machine that had been granted mind would be more similar to Monolith, and thus more dangerous. As it stands, the Machine is more like a feral animal, delivering unceasing, indiscriminate destruction when engaged.
Because of its destructive nature, it is sealed up in the deepest depths of the Facility until the Visitors arrive to destroy it.
Notes
- All rune circles that Machine summons are immediately dispelled and do not fire anything if the player has the weapon Grasp of Entropy, and count toward charging the runes in the weapon. This may allow for a player to comfortably do nothing or next to nothing during certain attacks that Machine makes, and even get through entire phases without firing their weapon.
- Machine is shown in the fight with Database during the Point Zero portion of the battle in a smaller form, after being created by the Council to be a vessel to channel Power Eternal.
- Machine is the only boss in the game to have multiple fights that take place at different times in the game's canon.
- Machine's different forms cause floor 6 to have 4 unique fights that can be encountered alongside the fight with Monolith, despite the high similarity between damaged and original Machine.
- Machine's different forms are fought in backwards order in regard to the point in time each fight takes place.
- One of Machine's sprite names is Machina, which is similar to the name of the boss battle music, 'Ex Machina.'
- The song name 'Ex Machina' is likely a reference to the Latin phrase 'Deus Ex Machina', meaning 'God from the machine.' While normally taken as a phrase referring to an act of god resolving the conflict in a story, it may be taken literally here as the Machine is considered a machine instilled with the power of a god. It can also be seen as an ironic name in that the creation and existence of the Machine is a central source of conflict throughout Monolith's story.
- The large conical laser that fires at the end cutscene of Overlord's fight with Damaged Machine is not too dissimilar from the large conical laser that Chaos God produces in one of their normal attacks.
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