Judgement

Judgement
Portrait	Judgement.PNG
Sprite	Judgement_Idle.gif
HP	75
Zone	Abyss (Central Town)
Reward	None

“ Ever-present, always watching, inevitable. ”

The Crystal, or Immortal Cell is a malevolent entity called Judgement. It is the main antagonist of The Drifter and the final boss of Hyper Light Drifter, residing deep beneath the Central Town.

Description

This entity appears at multiple points throughout the game as a haunting reminder to The Drifter of its presence, apparently composed of living shadow. Its intimidating appearance, multiple times larger than the protagonist, is only the half of its looming, threatening nature.

Throughout the course of the game, Judgement is seen in disturbing visions as the disease plagues The Drifter, which worsen as time goes on. The infection projects Judgment, who kills the protagonist in various ways, only for them to wake without a scratch.

Attacks

Charge

• Deals 2 DMG per charge.
• Judgement dashes across the room against the player.
• Dashes 2 times at 2x the speed under 50% HP, and 3 times at 3x the speed under 30~40% HP.)
• This attack is very dangerous, since if the first dash hits the player, then he cannot evade the following dashes.

Bullet Barrage

• Deals 1 DMG per bullet.
• Judgement will move to the closest corner of the room and fire a barrage of ♦ bullets towards the diagonal corner from his position.
• Fires 4 times (one in every corner of the room), and shots 3 waves of bullets under 40% HP, each followed by a Hyper Laser.

Hyper Laser

• Deals 2 DMG per hit.
• Most dangerous attack of Judgement. Launched after every Bullet Barrage, the laser starts from the wall that is closest to the player and finish in the opposite corner of Judgement.
• Laser speed goes up as Judgement HPs get lower.

Arm Stab

• Deals 2 DMG.
• Judgement stands in the center of the room, launching several harpoon-like arms around him.
• If one hits the player, he is stabbed and knocked back.

Light Explosion

• Deals 2 DMG per explosion.
• The screen turns black, and 4 lights appear north, south, east, and west from the player. The lights slowly and randomly move across the room.
• When the color is back to the screen, Judgement appears to smash the floor dealing DMG around him in a ♦ shape. The lights will explode dealing AoE DMG in multiple ♦ shapes in the floor (much like The Hierophant, but the hitbox is much bigger.)
• The lights have 3 HP each, and can be destroyed.

Strategy

One of the best and easiest way to be able beat Judgement is have all the abilities unlocked. In doing this you are already half way to beating him.

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Charge

Starting off with his first and most basic attack, Judgement will charge at you in one direction until he impacts a wall.

He does this as his opening attack after using Light Explosion. If you haven't brought him down to 50% or 25% HP after his Arm Stab attack, he will use his Charge again at the same level of speed and times based on how much damage he has taken.

The best way counter this attack, is to attack just before he does. He will walk slowly towards you, allowing you to deal some damage.

You can pull off 3 Slash Dash or even a Charge Attack to him with your sword, or use your weapon to hand relative to its speed on him. He will then take about 1 second in a frame to charge. You should dash away before that triggers, dashing horizontally. When he speeds up, charging twice or more, you'll have to Chain Dash out of the way.

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Bullet Barrage

Judgement will use this attack just after his Charge attack. Judgement will spew out a volley of bullets much like a machine gun. The bullets he fires will spread out across the screen as they reach the other side of the arena.

Similar to almost all his attacks, at 50% and 25% HP he will speed up and fire more bullets. The safest way to deal with them, is to use your dash, activating the Dash Shield to absorb the bullets. He will then fire his Hyper Laser, so be careful. You can deal some damage just before he moves to another corner of the room for another Bullet Barrage.

The more effective - and dangerous - way to counter this attack, is using your Sword Deflection to deflect his bullets back at him. This deals more damage than any of the other attacks you could use. And be warned: as he hovers around the perimeter of the room, don't stand in front of him, as he will damage you. If you get hit by this part of the attack, more often than not you will get stun-locked and die. However, if you manage to reflect all of the projectiles as they spawn directly to him, you can immediately jump into Phase 2 from 1, or to Phase 3 from 2.

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Hyper Laser

Launched right after every Bullet Barrage. Getting hit by this laser is almost fatal, meaning if you do get hit and manage to not die, you'll have to heal right away.

This attack can only be avoided by moving towards the the direction where the laser heads. At the end of the blast is a small safe spot, as he will not fire across the whole room. Be aware that he will increase the laser speed at 50% and 25% HP.

The best way to handle this is by paying attention to the first frames of his attack: for the first 2 frames, Judgement will crouch down and fire his laser in a straight line. This will then single which side Judgement will swipe to direction, allowing you to dash out of the way.

During this attack it's best not to attack him, but if you're fast enough to dodge away from the laser, you can use your gun.

While Judgement is firing the laser, it is possible to get behind him and attack him for the entire duration of the laser. He will not be able to hit you. Dash behind him during the crouching frames and he'll shoot his laser in front of him where you can hit him. In order to get behind him, it's recommended to stand where the laser will begin firing, then dash behind him as it starts. This is very difficult to time, however, and can often result in becoming stunlocked within the laser and dying.

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Arm Stab

Judgement will move to the center of the arena for this attack, after 4 or more times of using a mix of the Bullet Barrage and Hyper Laser. Once again, his attack will speed up as his health reaches 50% and 25%.

At the center point Judgement will shoot out multiple harpoon-like arms in different directions once, then a second time without retracting the previous ones. After the two waves of tentacles have extended, they will then retract back into Judgement for him to either repeat the attack or move on to a different one. Touching the harpoon-like arms in any way will damage you, even the sides, so make sure you try your best to watch his attack.

During this attack a small flash of where the tentacles will push out is shown in a frame. Watch this and move a few steps away from those, and you shouldn't get hit. This is also the second chance to pull off the most damage on Judgement, because as he retracts his tentacles you can pull off some easy Slash Dash or even a Charge Attack if you time it right. You can also use your gun while his spike arms are extended, just don't get too cocky.

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Light Explosion

This attack is the only attack that reacts differently to Judgement being on 50% and 25% HP. During any of Judgements attacks, if you bring Judgement down to 50%, and later 25% health, this attack will be triggered.

The best way to deal with these ♦ bombs, is to kill at least 2 of them and then keep your distance away from the other 2, possibly with a dash. Just don't forget that Judgement ground slam can still do the same amount of damage and knock you around. So as soon as his first frame appears hovering in the air, dash away from Judgement.

Be wary of how large the hit box area is on the ♦ bombs as it is much larger than you would think; do your best to keep them on the opposite side of the room. After that, prepare for the other Charge attack.

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Now hopefully with this knowledge you might just be able to defeat Judgement. Your inevitable doom.

Theories

It can only be theorized as to Judgment's purpose. Whether it was created or discovered by the Librarians is a subject of debate. Some theorize that it is the representation of death, while The Jackal is the representation of life. Another is that it stole The Jackal's power.

Steam Community, Hyper Light Drifter General Discussions, Lore Theory....

Trivia

* If the last mentioned theory turns out to be true (That Crystal is the energy itself that possesses like a type of disease) it may be believed that maybe the entity was inspired by Makuta Teridax from Bionicle series who later in the novels becomes the creature of Pure shadow energy, the Antidermis. While the infectivety of its energy is similar to Pit mutagen , the energy source that when exposed to organic tissue mutates it beyond recognition.

Gallery

Taking the form of a monstrous centipede