Waking Fossil

"Giant skull animated entirely by dark magic. Like something out of nightmares. What kind of creature grows so large?"

- Journal Entry

The Waking Fossil is the second boss available in the demo, and the first major boss in the game. It is the current most challenging boss, surpassing Little Lord in difficulty. The Waking Fossil is the reanimated skull of a long-dead Giant, inadvertently brought to life by Blue using Magic Pylons. It is also the subject of an archeological dig by a rather curious Peanut, who asks Blue to examine the pylons recently installed near the corpse.

Fight
Upon entering the fight room for the first time, the room will be filled with debris, with the Waking Fossil at the top of the room, in pieces. The four corners of the room contain Magic Pylons. As soon as one is activated, a magic gate bars escape from the room. The pylons cannot be deactivated once activated. Once the last pylon is turned on, an intro cutscene plays, showing the fossil awakening. This destroys much of the debris and transforms the room into a 22x11 rectangle, with 43 breakable walls covering the room.

All of Waking Fossil's attacks deal 1 full vial of damage.

Phase 1
In this phase, Waking Fossil has only two attacks. This phase lasts until Waking Fossil has taken (TBD) damage.

Charge: Waking Fossil charges at Blue three times in a row. A charge will immediately stop if Waking Fossil collides with a breakable wall, destroying the wall.

Skull Bomb: Waking Fossil lobs three Skull Bomb projectiles near Blue's current location. The projectile is harmless while in the air, but upon contact with the ground it creates 4 sub-projectiles in each of the cardinal directions. These sub-projectiles break upon contact with a wall.

Phase 2
At the start of this phase (and every phase after), Waking Fossil leaps once onto the center of the arena, creating a shockwave that destroys roughly half of the remaining walls. Additionally, the arena becomes darkened, and his sprite becomes visibly cracked. This phase lasts until Waking Fossil has taken (TBD) damage. They perform their charge faster, temporarily lose the ability to perform Skull Bomb, and gain a new attack:

Skull Carpet: Waking Fossil leaps to the center back wall of the arena, and lobs three waves of 3(?) ghost flame projectiles to random points on the screen. These flames linger in the same location for roughly 5 seconds before despawning. If Waking Fossil begins an attack and the flames have despawned, they will usually perform this attack. (Bug: As of 0.1.08d, while the game is paused, the despawn timer for the flames still counts down, allowing you to go through the fight while skipping the flames).

Phase 3
In this phase, the room visibly darkens further, more cracks appear in the bosses' texture, and the Waking Fossil becomes visibly more purple. Beyond these aesthetic changes, the bosses' attacks become even faster, the Skull Bomb attack is regained, they spit a fourth wave of three skulls during the Skull Carpet attack, and they gain a new attack. This phase lasts until Waking Fossil has taken (TBD) damage.

Slam: An alternate version of the bosses' phase transition attack. Waking Fossil leaps into the air, then slams down near Blue, destroying about a third of the remaining breakable walls in random locations.

Phase 4
Waking Fossil's texture alters to be a deep purple. At the start of this phase, Waking Fossil repeats his phase transition attack until all of the breakable walls are broken. They then begin a new attack. All of Waking Fossil's attacks are faster, they can be done between 1 and 4 times rather than always 3, the "Skull Carpet" projectiles now lasts for 15 seconds, rather than 5, with a fifth wave of three flames. This phase lasts until Waking Fossil has taken (TBD) damage.

Cyclone (Phase Transition Ver.): Waking Fossil enters the center of the arena and begins firing three spirals at 120 degrees from each other of skull flame projectiles that head in a straight line. This attack lasts for about 10 seconds.

Cyclone (Attack Ver.): Works exactly like the phase transition version, but only lasts for about 3 seconds. In previous versions of the game, the skull flame projectiles would spiral along with the rotation of the attack. This is no longer the case.

Phase 5
Waking Fossil's texture undergoes a final transformation, becoming black with deep purple eyes. Waking Fossil is invincible during this phase, and only performs one attack. During this phase, Waking Fossil takes perpetual damage over time from falling debris, and slowly melts. This phase lasts around 30(?) seconds.

Desperation: Waking Fossil continually performs the cyclone at a slightly slower rate while firing Skull Bomb projectiles at random points of the arena.

After the fight, the Waking Fossil drops an Octahedron, the Boss Reset sign becomes available, and the Archaeologist Nut leaves his position.

Patch Notes (btw these are currently all from 1.0.8d (idk how to format that info so))

 * Health decreased from 325 to 300, and phase percentage brackets adjusted.
 * The net effect of this is that the 25 hits are largely removed from Phase 2, meaning the least unique phase (2) is shortened and that the added speed of the early part of the fight leaves more walls for Phase 3, indirectly also making it a bit easier.


 * The boss will stop its 5th-phase self-destruction if you die just before winning - mechanically this doesn't change anything, but it stops rubbing salt in the wound.
 * Adjustments made to The Dreaded phase 4:
 * Scant delay added after bomb attack sequence, specifically to prevent a charge coming at you before you've reacted to incoming bombs.
 * Spiral attack bullets now always move in straight lines (previously, they randomly alternated between arcing and straight movement, but they were fast enough that it was too hard to register which and felt unfair).
 * Mid-sequence spiral attack changed from 13 to 5 blasts to match the Phase 5 burst timing. The beginning-of-phase one-off spiral attack is still 48 shots. This means shorter immunity sections, and having to only juggle one 'rotation' of bullets during this phase.
 * Added a very brief "catching breath" state to give a moment's breather here and there. It's weighted at a low chance to cycle in so that it will be generally uncommon.