The Warden
 | |
| Type | Mage |
|---|---|
| Location | The Temple |
| Health | 17500 (Max HP at Tier 4)* |
| Scrap | 0 |
| Music | 'Divine Might'(Phases 1-3)
'Divine Will'(Phase 4) |
| Bestiary Entry | In the end, there was really only one link holding our group together. I doubt the disasters that followed truly surprised any of us. |
The Warden is the first boss that can be found in the Temple, and is a large mage consisting of a blue cloak with a bright light visible inside, who wields a sword, staff, and green runes. He can be summoned by activating the braziers at the beginning of temple once at least one is lit. The difficulty of this boss depends on how many minibosses you kill in the Temple. Different events happen after the fight depending on what tier you fight him at.
Attack Patterns
The Warden's number of phases depends on how many minibosses you had killed in the floor prior, which can be limited by what floor you enter in, and caps at tier 4. The first 3 phases are arranged randomly, and the fourth incorporates elements from the previous three with unique characteristics. A short animation plays between each phase.
Warden does not deal contact damage, though keep in mind that Warden's swords do deal contact damage even when stationary or not being used for an attack.
Sword Phase
| Description | Video |
|---|---|
| Warden throws his sword to the bottom of the screen, causing bullets to radiate from the bottom from a shockwave centered where the sword struck. | 
|
| Warden splits his sword in two and makes swings that generate cuts across the screen, two single cuts and one set of two cuts in an X formation. In hard mode, the Warden swings faster, and the final cut adds vertical and horizontal cuts. | 
|
| Warden splits his sword continuously, generating bullets with each series of copies, until the top of the screen is filled with swords. They rain down from side to side until all are at the bottom of the screen, at which point the copies disappear. In hard mode, when the swords disappear, they generate bullets that travel slowly upward. | 
|
| Warden splits his sword in two and generates a star formation of bullets, and the swords situate themselves at the corners of the screen, before aiming at the player and shooting a sword shaped projectile each with a smaller star of bullets each, then moving to the next corners of the screen and repeating this attack until they move to the sides of the screen and perform the same attack. In hard mode, when the swords split, some bullets are duplicated and extra homing bullets are fired, and when they fire from the sides of the screen, some bullets are duplicated when they are generated. | 
|
| Warden splits his sword in two and takes two wide swings at the player from each side, then throws the swords to the side, each spinning and making wide spirals of large bullets, and Warden splits in two himself with a circle of bullets originated from where he vanished from. Two Wardens reappear at the sides of the screen, each taking one of the copies of the sword, and once again swing at the player, one at a time. The duplicate is always on the left, and the hitbox for Warden is always on the right. In hard mode, the burst of bullets made by Warden when he splits is denser. | 
|
Staff Phase
| Description | Video |
|---|---|
| Warden's staff multiplies and he fires a giant laser down from the top of the screen in one of the 1/3 columns of the screen, which causes bullets to radiate upward from the bottom of the screen for a short while while the laser is firing. In hard mode, extra homing bullets are added to those that are fired. | 
|
| Warden fires two projectiles that generate beams from the place they land on the side of the screen, aimed at one of the sides of the screen and horizontally where the player is then positioned. A large burst of other bullets occurs as well each time Warden fires these projectiles. In hard mode, all bullets are fired and travel faster. | 
|
| Warden aims towards the player and fires a large beam shortly after, with a neat spray of bullets radiating out from the beam and then around Warden. In hard mode, the spread of bullets have an extra layer and are tighter. | 
|
| Warden multiplies his staff and throws them across the screen to random locations, all of which aim toward the player and fire at evenly spaced intervals, firing one large bullet and eight other smaller bullets in a square pattern each. In hard mode, he throws 6 staffs instead of 4, the staffs fire faster, and fire more bullets each. | 
|
| Warden slams his staff below him 3 times, each time making an explosion of fire and bullets as it strikes below him in the pattern of a triangle nested in another pillowed triangle. In hard mode, the explosion is denser and is instead 4 corners. | 
|
Rune Phase
| Description | Video |
|---|---|
| Warden duplicates himself and each goes to one side of the screen, and each slowly drifts to the bottom of the screen making a random spray of slow bullets in all directions. After they reach the bottom, they pause, and the duplicate goes slightly below the middle of the screen and explodes into bullets and fire. The duplicate is always on the left, and the hitbox of Warden is always on the right. In hard mode, the random bullet spray is denser. | 
|
| Warden's runes travel to the sides of the screen, the runes traveling up on one side and down on the other, firing slow bullets to the side and slightly upward or downward from their respective side. This pattern continues awhile with Warden firing a large bullet encased in small bullets at the player occasionally. | 
|
| Warden's runes form a horizontal oval around him and fire a spray of bullets downward forming a pattern of diamonds as they travel down, while also occasionally all firing directly at the player. Warden moves from one side of the screen to the other during this attack as well. In hard mode, the extra bullets fired directly at the player are duplicated, and the copy is slowed down. | 
|
| Warden's runes home in on the player and telegraph cuts across the screen in X and cross shapes, and when these fire, extra bullets are shot out from where the two cuts intersect in an X or cross orientation as well. In hard mode, these crosses are instead 6 pronged and 6 bullets are fired afterward. | 
|
| Warden's runes form two circles around him that orbit him quickly, and he darts off screen, only to dash from one side to the other again and again, firing bullets downward from his runes of slightly varying speeds each time he appears on screen. In hard mode, extra circular bursts of slower bullets are fired by the runes. | 
|
Phase 4
The Warden freezes time frequently in this phase, causing all bullets and the player to freeze while he alters or adds more bullets to the screen, before unfreezing time for these changes to take effect.
| Description | Video |
|---|---|
| Warden sprays many large bullets around him randomly, and freezes time for a moment to fire 3 bursts of smaller bullets to follow the large ones. This attack is always first, and only happens once. The following 3 attacks then are arranged randomly. | 
|
| Warden summons 10 swords at the top of the screen to fire one after another toward the player, which when hitting the edge of the screen, generate a small burst of bullets from when they land. While there are swords traveling through the air near the player, Warden will freeze time and redirect the swords that are still traveling through the air to be traveling directly toward the player. | 
|
| Warden summons two staffs and fires a slow and tight spread of bullets toward the player 4 times, and will occasionally freeze time to fire three bullets near the player. | 
|
| 4 runes to Warden's sides fire bullets in spirals oppositely directed to each other, and periodically fire circular bursts of bullets. Warden will freeze time near the end of the attack and use the 4 runes to place a large, wide spiral centered on and directed towards the player that will loop back outward and will have to be dodged again. | 
|
Cutscenes
Before and after the fight with Warden, there are short cutscenes where he speaks to you. Before the fight, he says the following text, but if you shoot him while speaking, he will skip to the final line of dialogue and begin the fight early:
- 'How very interesting... It shouldn't have been possible to reach this place.'
- 'And you've come from so far to get here, as well.'
- 'I do not know how it is you got here,'
- 'But you've already caused intensive damage to the seals.'
- 'I really wish we could have met... Under better circumstances.'
- 'I think it's time you left.'
If you beat Warden by only fighting through 1 to 3 phases, there will be no dialogue after the fight, and you will immediately be able to collect the Antique Weapon as your reward and move to the next floor after Warden's runes circle you and cause you to exit into a black void. Sacred Arms is more powerful the higher tier you beat Warden at.
However, there is dialogue if you beat tier 4 Warden:
- 'Hah.'
- 'You know, it's been a long time.'
- 'I guess I'm really not as strong as I was back then.'
- 'Don't...'
- 'Let it escape.'
Warden then explodes and his runes break as his body creates a shockwave that moves outwards and off screen. A thumping from the bottom of the screen can be heard and green particles can be seen, and rays of light shoot up from the stonework and eventually engulf the screen. The cutscene transitions directly into the fight with Chaos God.
Notes
- Warden is a part of the council, a group of 7 mages that has now disbanded. Warden's likeness can be seen in the stonework in council blessing rooms, and his blessing is the enigma blessing, which causes a second, special secret room to spawn in the floors you have the blessing.
- Warden sealed away Chaos God in the game device you use to enter the Temple.
- Warden is used by one of the game's developers, Pure Question, as a way to represent himself online. Pure has stated that there are different designs for the character, and the one shown in Monolith is just one of them.
- [*]Regarding Warden's HP: Warden's Max HP entirely depends on the tier you are fighting him in. In Tier one, his HP for his one phase is 3600. Tier 2 is individually 3900, Tier 3 is individually 4200.
- At Tier 4 the first three phases are individually 4500, with the final phase being 4000. This means the max HP Warden can have is 17500 (4500 + 4500 + 4500 + 4000).
Reward
While the cartridges dropped by The Temple mini-bosses are the main rewards of the floor, the Warden itself drops a unique weapon before you exit the floor. This weapon is usually Sacred Arms, but characters unable to obtain normal weapons will receive weapons unique to them.
| Ship | Weapon |
|---|---|
   |
For almost all characters, Sacred Arms is dropped, a sword that also automatically fires lasers at nearby enemies. |
 |
Overlord also gets Sacred Arms, as it is a sword. |
 |
Chaos Ship gets a special version of Hand of The First that replaces the normal random weapons with random antique weapons instead. These antique weapons do not necessarily share the same type of weapon as the normal weapon of a room. When all ammo is depleted, you will use the key-wordless version of the random normal weapon of the room. This does not mean that the effect is gone, however, and it will return whenever you have ammo. |
 |
Skully gets a special version of Sacred Arms that adds the laser attack to the held weapon. This does not show up in traits, but will be retained through all future versions of the weapon. |
  | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|