The Cardificer, Final Boss

REVISED DESIGN

• The Cardificer is a vastly different boss fight from the other fights in the game. The boss maintains a deck, with his own hand of cards that functions similarly to the player's. He has 4 card slots, which are shown by runes displayed in an arc over his head (kind of like the health bars were). These cards are notably not player cards, but cards unique to the Cardificer's deck. He is unable to chord cards like the player is.
• Additionally, there is a bit of a process leading up to this fight that helps make it more dramatic.

Special Mechanics

• The Cardificer's deck begins with 18 cards, consisting of varying amounts of 7 different cards (not exceeding 4 of any single card). The cards are as follows:
  • Stardust (3x)
  • Planar Walk (3x)
  • Cosmic Lance (4x)
  • Cursed Sword (1x)
  • Verdict (2x)
  • Counterspell (2x)
  • Channel (3x)
• In the second phase of the fight, which triggers when the boss's health falls below 50% of his maximum HP, the Cardificer moves cards between his deck and his sideboard, changing the cards in his deck for the next phase of the fight. The deck now has 20 cards, with a total of 14 different cards represented.
  • Stardust (1x)
  • Planar Walk (1x)
  • Cosmic Lance (1x)
  • Cursed Sword (1x)
  • Verdict (1x)
  • Counterspell (2x)
  • Channel (4x)
  • Demolish (2x)
  • Darkness (2x) - CUT
  • Board Wipe (1x)
  • Pot of Greed (1x)
  • Ancient Mew (1x)
  • Black Lotus (1x)
  • Construct (1x)
• At the start of the second phase of the fight, the boss will use a card to cast [Golden Shield], a permanent effect that lasts for the remainder of the fight, which activates if the boss takes more than 64 damage over the course of 5s and nullifies all damage until at least 2s have passed without the boss getting hit.
• Each card is represented by a rune similar to the ones for the player's cards, however each one is a unique color.

Behavior

• The boss stands still at the center of the room throughout the fight, unless an action or attack has him move elsewhere. This handicap is compensated for by the boss's large health pool and dangerous attacks.
• The boss's cards each have action times associated with them. These action times determine how long the boss will behave as though they are performing an action.
• After each action is completed, the boss will draw a card to replace the one that was just played and shuffle around his hand to place the next action he will perform in the first (leftmost) slot of his hand, providing the player with both an opportunity to attack and a way to prepare for upcoming attacks.
• When the boss runs out of cards in his deck, he will stop drawing cards after each attack and play the remaining cards in his hand without pausing for a few seconds between them as usual. If they aren't attacks or have some effect like drawing cards ([Channel]) or duplicates an existing effect ([Darkness]), the cards are instead discarded.
• When the boss's deck and hand are both empty, he will shuffle his discard pile and draw a new hand of 4 cards. This provides a large, window for the player to safely attack the boss. This window lasts about 5 seconds, as opposed to the 2-3 second window they usually have when the boss draws cards.

Attacks

• Stardust — Summons a bunch of projectiles that hang in place around the room for a while until they decay (15s). (AT = 5s)
• Planar Walk — Summons lines of projectiles that are fired at trajectories that create a small safe spot in the room that rotates around the outside wall. (AT = 20s)
• Cosmic Lance — The boss quickly glides to one of the walls of the room and throws a long projectile along the center of the room that spawns smaller, circular projectiles along either side which fire outwards. (AT = 6s)
• Cursed Sword — Creates a sword that hangs above the player's head for 5 seconds before stabbing downwards (the player must be moving straight in any direction to dodge this). If they are hit by the sword, they suffer 1 stack of curse. (AT = 6s)
• Verdict — Summons a swarm of slow-moving projectiles that home to the player (similar to judgement, but slower and with weaker homing. (AT = 20s)
• Demolish — Fires several projectiles in all directions that explode on impact. These projectiles can damage the Cardificer and are not phantasmal. (AT = 4s)
• Darkness — The boss room is darkened for 15s. (AT = 3s) (should be done via a behavior)
• Channel — Boss discards and redraws his hand. (AT = 3s) (should be done via a behavior)
• Counterspell — If present in the Cardificer's hand, this card is not played. Instead it is saved until the player casts a Rare spell, or the 10th spell they cast after this card enters the Cardificer's hand, and played in response, causing the spell to fizzle. (AT = 1s) (if possible, this should be done via a behavior rather than an action, as I think we will want to interupt the cast rather than fizzling it once it happens)
• Board Wipe — All active projectiles and effects on all entities are instantly destroyed/removed. (AT = 4s) (done via cleansing all entities in the room and destroying all active projectiles) (this should also be done via a special behavior that clears all active projectiles in the scene (including on destroy things))
• Pot of Greed — Copies the behavior of the Cauldron of Desire's card picking attack, summoning any one of its attacks. The animation for using this card places a (legally distinct version of a) YuGiOh card into the Cardificer's hand. (AT = 20s (however long a single cycle of the cauldron's attacks last + 5s)) (this should be done via a behavior)
• Ancient Mew — Copies the behavior of The Lost Creature's [Reflect] attack, fizzling player attacks and firing them back at the player. The animation for using this card places a (legally distinct version of a) Pokémon TCG card into the Cardificer's hand. (AT = 15s (reflect length + 5s))
• Black Lotus — Copies the behavior of the Hero of Black Petals' [Illusory Clones] attack, 3 times in quick succession. The ghosts are substituted in for ghost versions of the Cardificer, rather than the Hero as in the original fight. The sword is the same, though. The animation for using this card places a (legally distinct version of a) Magic: The Gathering card into the Cardificer's hand. (CD = 35s (illusory clones length * 3 + 5s)) (this should be done via a behavior, but I'll make the actual slash for the attack part)
• Construct — The Cardificer takes several trading cards out from under his cloak and throws them, spreading them to the corners of the room, where they turn into random (non-legendary) enemies that attack the player. (AT = 6s) (this should be done via a behavior and not an action)

OLD

• The Cardificer is a vastly different boss fight from the other fights in the game. The boss maintains a deck, with his own hand of cards that functions similarly to the player's. He has 4 card slots, which are shown by runes displayed in an arc over his head (kind of like the health bars were). These cards are notably not player cards, but cards unique to the Cardificer's deck. He is unable to chord cards like the player is.
• Additionally, there is a bit of a process leading up to this fight that helps make it more dramatic.

The Opening

• The Cardificer begins each fight by making the player select a [Fight Card] that will determine the way the fight will go. There are 5 [Fight Cards] to choose from, each of which makes the fight go slightly differently.

Fight Cards

• Master of Minions: The Cardificer shall summon basic enemies throughout the fight.
• Master of Spells: The Cardificer shall gain add three additional spell cards to his deck.
• Master of Legends: The Cardificer shall summon a legendary enemy to aid him.
• Master of Champions: The Cardificer shall gain the powers of his champions.
• Master of the Game: ??? (Not shown: The Cardificer grows significantly more powerful and gains a bunch of very meta cards that affect the game directly. This is the ultimate version of the fight.*)

General

• In general, the Cardificer's deck has 21 cards, consisting of 2 copies of 10 different cards, plus 1 copy of an eleventh card. The cards are as follows:

  • Stardust — Summons a bunch of projectiles that hang in place around the room for a while until they decay (~10s). (CD = 15s)
  • Planar Walk — Summons lines of projectiles that are fired at trajectories that create a small safe spot in the room that rotates around the outside wall. (remove from deck when [Master of Dungeons] is selected) (CD = 30s (attack lasts ~15-20s)
  • Cosmic Lance — Throws a long projectile down the center of the room that spawns smaller, circular projectiles along either side. (CD = 10s)
  • Cursed Sword — Creates a sword that hangs above the player's head for 5 seconds before stabbing downwards (the player must be moving straight in any direction to dodge this). If they are hit by the sword, they suffer 1 stack of curse. (CD = 10s)
  • Verdict — Summons a swarm of slow-moving projectiles that home to the player (similar to judgement, but slower and with weaker homing. (CD = 12s)
  • Demolish — Fires several projectiles in all directions that explode on impact. These projectiles can damage the Cardificer and are not phantasmal. (CD = 15s)
  • Darkness — The boss room is darkened for 15s. (CD = 6s)
  • Channel — Boss discards and redraws his hand. (CD = 5s)
  • Counterspell — If present in the Cardificer's hand, this card is not played. Instead it is saved until the player casts a Rare spell, or the 10th spell they cast after this card enters the Cardificer's hand, and played in response, causing the spell to fizzle. (CD = 8s)
  • Board Wipe — All active projectiles and effects on all entities are instantly destroyed/removed. (CD = 15s) (done via cleansing all entities in the room and destroying all active projectiles)

• The Cardificer does not move, but remains stationary in the center of the room for the duration of the fight.

Each [Fight Card] adds various cards to this deck:

Master of Minions

• Adds several cards that can summon enemies to preset positions in the room)
  • Sound the Horns — Spawns 2 random basic enemies from the goblin family. (CD = 15s)
  • Raise Dead — Spawns 2 random basic enemies from the skeleton family (not the soul mechanic ones). (CD = 15s)
  • Summon Vermin — Spawns 2 random basic enemies from the sewer dweller family. (CD = 15s)
  • Search the Cosmos — Spawns 2 random basic enemies from the cosmic cultist family. (CD = 15s)
  • Forge Pact — Spawns 2 random basic enemies from the devil family. (CD = 15s)

Master of Spells

• Add any 3 of the following spells to the deck
  • Ball Lightning — The boss electrifies an area around the center of the room, which fires off bullets along its circumference.
  • Asteroid Rain — Asteroids rain down in quick succession around the room at random locations.
  • Polymorph — Target dummies appear around the outside of the room. Polymorph bullets are fired at them, turning them into rats. If they hit the player, they just deal normal damage. Any dummies remaining at the end of the attack withdraw from the room.
  • Aqua Veil — Creates a barrier around the boss that destroys incoming projectiles and damages any hostiles it touches.
  • Judgement — Same behavior as [Verdict], but with tighter homing that makes it more difficult to dodge.
  • Devil Bomb — The boss throws a devil bomb at the player that explodes, applying curse to anything within the explosion's radius.
  • Eviscerate — The boss summons a giant spinning sword that rotates around the outside of the room. It disappears after completing 1 full rotation.
  • Bonfire — The boss fires a series of bullets in a checker pattern (swapping between cardinal directions and diagonals for each shot) that apply burn.
  • Leeching Touch — The boss fires a series of projectiles in a spiral. Each attack that hits heals the boss.
  • Pestilence — The boss fires a single bullet with strong homing that inflicts Toxic on the player.
  • Clusterbomb — Tje boss throws clusterbombs in all cardinal directions.
• It is worth noting that the Cardificer can have cards the player hasn't unlocked, so this is a really cool way to tease locked cards to the player.

Master of Legends

• This adds no cards, but spawns one legendary enemy in the room along with any enemies directly tied to that legendary enemy's encounter.

Master of Champions

• This adds the following cards: Floor Boss Cards:
  • Pot of Greed — Copies the behavior of the Cauldron of Desire's card picking attack, summoning any one of its attacks. The animation for using this card places a (legally distinct version of a) YuGiOh card into the Cardificer's hand. (CD = 20s)
  • Ancient Mew — Copies the behavior of The Lost Creature's [Reflect] attack, fizzling player attacks and firing them back at the player. The animation for using this card places a (legally distinct version of a) Pokémon TCG card into the Cardificer's hand. (CD = 20s)
  • Black Lotus — Copies the behavior of the Hero of Black Petals' [Sealing Circle] attack. The animation for using this card places a (legally distinct version of a) Magic: The Gathering card into the Cardificer's hand. (CD = 20s)

Master of the Game

• This version of the boss fight is meant to be extremely difficult. The Cardificer's health is doubled if this card is selected. The boss also uses borderline cheaty cards that are not particularly fair to play against. Meta Cards:
  • Golden Shield — Creates a permanent shield around the Cardificer that activates when more than 64 damage (subject to change) is dealt to the Cardificer in the span of 5 seconds. This card is automatically played at the start of the boss fight and is not present in the Cardificer's normal deck.
  • Time Warp — Causes the game's time scale to move back and forth between 0.5x and 1.5x for about 10 in-engine seconds. (CD = 25s)
  • Wrath — Causes one corner of the room to be hit with what looks like a punching fist that appears from the sky. (CD = 15s)
  • Spell Override — All active projectiles (not bombs) belonging to the player are destroyed and replaced by duplicate copies of said projectiles, now belonging to the Cardificer, aimed in the direction of the player.
  • Summon Foes — Spawns 8 completely random enemies of any quality and any family into the room (including minibosses). The Cardificer disengages from combat until these enemies are defeated. (CD = N/A). All enemies have double their movement speed and health.
  • Duplicate Card — The Cardificer duplicates the next spell you cast and adds it to his deck. (CD = 10s)
  • Top Deck — The Cardificer draws a card to aid in the current situation of the fight: (CD = 5s)
    • If the Cardificer has less than 5% HP, draw Second Wind (only one time)
    • If the Cardificer currently only has one slot available, draw Channel
    • If the Cardificer currently has more than 4 stacks of status effects across all effects, draw Board Wipe
  • Second Wind — The Cardificer recovers 20% HP (not normally in the deck, spawns in as a result of Top Deck). (CD = 7s)

• Defeating the Cardificer after picking this card will unlock the secret card I have been so secretive about (is substituted in for whatever card pack the player would have unlocked if they were going to).

[~~~] = Attack names, headers, etc.