Hero of Black Petals (Black Lotus), Floor 3 Boss

Redesign

Appearance

• The boss looks like an armored knight wearing a hooded cloak that goes over their helmet, similar to the Fallen Knight armor from Dark Souls 3 but a lot less tattered (see image).
• He wields a floating black-bladed claymore that gives him a longer reach than he'd be able to attack with naturally. The blade has four light gray circles etched into the blade that glow the color of whatever mana is active on the boss (see [Gather Mana]). The sword floats around, extended out from the boss's right hand, and the boss is able to move the sword telepathically as if mimicking attacking.

Movement

• The boss will stand in the center of the room, and walk slowly around an area around the center of the room (a circle with a radius of ~5 tiles). After 5 seconds of idle behavior (3s below 50% HP), the boss will (pseudo) randomly choose between two actions:
  • [Gather Mana], which randomly triggers one of the boss's five colored attacks after a brief sequence that shows the player which attack is being selected (and offers an opportunity to attack the boss without needing to be careful about maintaining distance).
  • [Colorless Attack] which is [Greater Slash] chooses between two actions, [Greater Slash] and [Spawn Thopter] (67-33 chance for each option respectively)
  • If [Colorless Attack] was the last action chosen and there is no special behavior dictating the upcoming actions of the boss (see [White Attack — Sealing Circle] and [Black Attack — Blood Ritual] for examples of this), then the boss is guaranteed to use [Gather Mana] on it's next attack.
  • The attack chosen by [Gather Mana] should be different from the previous attack chosen by the boss's last use of the action.

Attacks

• [Gather Mana] At the start of the fight and whenever this action is chosen, the boss will retreat to the center of the room and thrust his sword into the ground, causing a black, four-petaled lotus flower to blossom around it with the sword stabbing into the pistil of the flower. After 1.5s, the flower will turn one of five colors (white, blue, purple (black's color since the flower starts as black)), red, or green), starting at the base of the petals and gradually extending up to each one's tip. The circular etchings on the boss's sword will then begin to glow that color, and the boss will pull the sword from the floor and transition into the attack behavior of whichever color attack is picked (the colored glow is dispelled after the resulting attack). The resulting attack is determined fully randomly, but he should never perform the same attack twice in a row.

• [Colorless Attack] After an attack, instead of using [Gather Mana], the boss may choose to enter this attack instead (~20% chance while >50% HP, ~33% chance while <=50%HP). In this case, the boss will dash toward the player and perform a [Greater Slash] attack !!or [Spawn Thopter], which spawn a "thopter" (drone) minion. There is a 67-33 chance for either of the two options these to be picked~~

• [Greater Slash] The boss will run up to the player and charge a slash attack that covers a 220° arc centered on the player. The boss will not move once he has begun to charge the attack (there is a roughly 2s window before he swings), so the player can move out of the way, unless they allow themselves to get cornered.

• [Spawn Thopter] The boss removes a "thopter" (drone) minion enemy from under his cloak and throws it into the air. It comes to life and snaps to a position along the wall of the room and begins flying around the perimeter of the room. Every 2s, the thopter will fire a single shot bullet at the player. If a thopter is alive when the boss is killed, it is killed as well.

• [White Attack — Sealing Circle] The boss draws a magic circle that glows with a bright white light on the floor using the tip of his sword. As soon as he is finished, the circles home toward the player at high speed (undodgable). On hit, the player is cleansed and then silenced (previously sealed) for 20 seconds or until the player is cleansed. After this attack, the boss will resume normal behavior, performing 2 [Greater Slash] attacks before his next usage of [Gather Mana]/[Colorless Attack].

• [Blue Attack — Illusory Clones] The boss will disappear in a puff of blue smoke, then reappear along with three ghosts (slightly transparent and tinted slightly blue) surrounding the player, waiting about 1.5s before all ghosts disappear and the boss stabs his sword into the center of the circle. The player will need to quickly identify attack the actual boss and move out of the way of the incoming attack. This circle of ghosts can be oriented both with ghosts appearing along cardinal directions and along diagonals. This attack is performed a total of three times before the boss reappears in the room and resumes normal behavior.

• [Black Attack — Blood Ritual] The boss holds out his hand and cuts it, causing blood to pour onto the floor forming a magic circle. The boss then drops to the ground, slamming his hands onto the circle, causing it to glow with a purple light. Around the edges of the room, six zombies (or skeletons, whichever winds up being the basic melee enemy) spawn one after another (about 1s difference) and attack the player. About a second after all zombies have been spawned, the boss resumes normal behavior, performing one [Greater Slash] before his next usage of [Gather Mana]/[Colorless Attack].

• [Red Attack — Lightning Bolt] The boss holds his sword up to the sky as a bolt of red lightning strikes it. Immediately afterwards, the boss teleports out of the room. Then, a red warning indicator will appear around the player which follows them (at a slightly slower pace than they move. After ~1.5 seconds, the indicator will freeze in its current position and 1 second later the boss will strike the spot from above like a lightning bolt, creating a zone of damage the same size as the warning indicator. The boss will then teleport out again and repeat this two times (for a total of three consecutive attacks) before striking the center of the room and ending the attack.

• [Green Attack — Onslaught] The boss's eyes will glow a bright green for a split second before he glides in straight line towards the player, performing a [Greater Slash] attack once he reaches their position (based on the player's position at the start of the attack). After approximately 0.5 seconds, the boss will repeat this behavior until he has attacked 5 times, at which point he will pause for a moment, collapsing to the ground exhausted (not the status effect), before standing back up and running back to the center of the room.

Old Design

This is left just in case we decide we want to pull something else from it.

• Fights with a projectile firing sword (somewhat reminiscent of the master sword).

• Idly, the boss stands in the top middle of the room.

• During most attacks, the boss will create three "ghosts" of itself, each of which will duplicate any attacks unless they are destroyed prior to the attack being fired. Each ghost needs to be hit with at least [12 damage] to destroy it. If the player hits the main body of the boss for at least [16 damage] prior to the attack starting, all ghosts will disappear and the boss will be briefly stunned, giving the player a clear window to attack.

• The boss has the following attacks that create ghosts and each have an [8 second] wind up time:

  • [Blade Bullets] Fire forward a projectile that splits into an arc of projectiles. Each ghost is placed in a different corner of the room, with the actual boss randomly taking the place of one of them.
  • [Floor Sweep] The boss scrapes the tip of their sword along the ground creating a wave of projectiles that sweep across the screen quickly. Each ghost appears along the top of the room, meaning that in order to actually dodge the attack, the player needs to kill at least one ghost.
  • [Sword Storm] The boss fires projectiles upwards from the tip of its sword, which begin to rain down throughout the room. The ghosts are each positioned at the center of each of the room's walls and will increase the volume of raining projectiles for each surviving ghost.
  • [Sealing Circle] The boss draws a magic circle on the floor using the tip of its sword. As soon as it is finished, the circles home toward the player at high speed (undodgable). For each one hit, one of the player's card slots is temporarily sealed (inaccessible). This effect lasts for [20 seconds]. This attack has a longer wind up than the others, but requires additional damage be dealt to the real boss in order to interrupt the attack (not ghosts) and stun the boss. If all three ghosts are defeated, the attack will be interrupted without stunning the boss.

• The boss also has the following attacks that do not create ghosts (or create ghosts that behave weirdly):

  • [Onslaught Attack] The boss tosses a handful of black petals into the air that split into a smoke screen and cause the room to darken. Then, they fire several identical attacks, each of which creating an arc of projectiles, from all sides of the room in quick succession. The player can hit the boss during a brief, [1 second] window before each attack is fired.
  • [Greater Slash] The boss will run up towards the player and charge a slash attack that covers a [270° arc] centered on the player. This attack is difficult to dodge, and can be reflected or shielded. The boss will not move once it has begun to charge the attack (there is a roughly [2s] window before it swings), so the player can move out of the way.
  • [Spot the Real One] The boss will disappear in a puff of flower petal smoke, then reappear with its three ghosts surrounding the player, waiting about [1.5s] before all ghosts disappear and the boss stabs its sword into the center of the circle. The player will need to quickly identify attack the actual boss and move out of the way of its attack. The circle can appear oriented on both cardinal directions and diagonals.

• When the boss is stunned, it will remain vulnerable for [3 seconds], then, when it recovers, it will slash with its sword in a [270° arc] centered in front of them, then jump backwards (rubbing up against the wall if necessary).

• As the fight progresses, the boss will begin attacking more quickly. When the boss reaches 75% HP, the wind up time reduces to [6.5s], at 50% they reduce to [5s], and at 25% HP they reduce to [4s]. This only applies to attack in the first set of attacks (ones with ghosts), excluding [Sealing Circle].

  • Additionally, [Onslaught Attack] and [Spot the Real One] see a similar decline in wind up time ([Onslaught Attack] goes down to a [0.5s] wind up at 50% HP, [Spot the Real One] goes down by [0.5s] for every 25% HP lost (same points as the ghost attacks)).

[~~~] = Numerical value subject to change (or dumb attack names to help with referring to different attacks)