Idols are Lesser Demons that make their first appearance in [ 5-2: WAVES OF THE STARLESS SEA ].
Appearance[]
Idols are statues resembling a robed figure cradling a child. The head of the statue is encompassed in a radiant blue light. They contain a large spiraling base that tends to be concealed beneath the floor. When active, the idol will spin and shine a light on the blessed enemy.
Combat[]
Idols will bless an enemy, causing said enemy to become invincible to all forms of damage and impossible to target with the Whiplash. The Idol will remain stationary and continue blessing the enemy until it is destroyed. Idols are immune to all forms of damage except V1's melee punches, slams, the Jackhammer's primary fire, and the Knuckleblaster's shockwave. Upon death, Idols will create a shockwave with a massive amount of knockback, comparable to that of a Malicious Railcannon explosion. Destroying an Idol grants the [+ICONOCLASM] style bonus
While Idols set by the map bless a specific enemy, Idols that are spawned will instead choose an enemy to bless, based on their support priority rank. Enemies at or under rank 2 are prioritized equally. If there are multiple enemies of the same rank, then the Idol will bless the enemy closest to the player. If a new enemy appears of a higher priority bracket than one being protected, a random Idol blessing a lower-priority enemy will reassign its blessing to the new enemy. Idols are unable to bless other Idols, and an enemy can only be protected by one Idol at a time.
Excluding unique bosses and invalid targets, the priority brackets for Idols are as follows:
| 0-2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Blessed enemies can be identified by a white glow and a beam of light connecting the enemy to the Idol. Enemies with boss healthbars will additionally render their healthbars in blue to indicate an Idol's blessing. This blessed state does not make the enemy immune to knockback from weapons or crushing hazards, including a Malicious Face's falling corpse, providing potential options for killing a blessed enemy. Piercing shots will also go straight through blessed enemies, dealing damage to those behind them. The Whiplash's grapple will pass through both the Idol and the enemy it blesses.
If a Stalker is made invulnerable by an Idol, it will not die after detonating its payload, allowing it to detonate multiple times.
Virtues blessed by an idol will not enrage in Standard.
Guttermen's shields can be destroyed even when they're blessed.
Enemies blessed by Idols will not give most style bonuses (through parrying their projectiles still does). However, parrying them still recovers V1's health and stamina.
Terminal Data[]
For more information, see Terminal.
TYPE: LESSER DEMON
DATA:
Although they can easily be mistaken to be of divine origin, Idols were created using the same process as other demons. Unlike their larger kin, their shells were too small to contain a useful amount of Hell Mass, creating life, but leaving it unable to move or act.The Idols did not originally look divine, but were painstakingly carved to such shapes by Ferrymen who collected them during travels across the layers of Hell. This was done as both an act of compassion and as a tribute to angels, particularily[sic] Gabriel, whom Ferrymen believe to have similarily[sic] granted them mercy.
Close proximity to a Ferryman's holy cloth during the long and arduous carving process caused its holy power to seep into them, allowing them to continue the chain of compassion by protecting others from physical harm.
It is fortunate for them that Gabriel is the only angel of Heaven's higher order to watch over Hell, since if the Council had found out about such beings, they would have been labelled perversions of the divine form and ordered to be destroyed by the Ferrymen who so lovingly had granted them a chance at life.
STRATEGY:
- Although Idols are immune to projectiles, they can be destroyed by a blunt force melee attack such as a punch or a ground slam.- Blessed enemies cannot be damaged by attacks, but will still be pushed by physical forces and can be killed by environmental dangers, such as crushers or fans.
- Neither Idols nor blessed enemies can be grappled onto with the Whiplash.
Rending Apart[]
Idols, while very easy to deal with, can be dangerous and a priority target in some situations. It is always advised to go seek out and destroy the Idol before dealing with enemies, especially if they bless an enemy like Virtues, Mindflayers, and Stalkers. Additionally, Idols restore 90 HP upon being killed, making it a convenient source of health should V1 be near an Idol.
As can be demonstrated in the Double Idol arena of [ 5-2: WAVES OF THE STARLESS SEA ], it is possible—with a little setup—for a dying Malicious Face to crush and +MAURICED a blessed enemy. Doing this after already killing all other enemies leaves the Idol completely defenseless.
The Screwdriver Railcannon's screw can embed itself in both Idols and enemies protected by Idols. While it will not deal damage through the Idol's invincibility nor produce a blood fountain, the screw can still be juggled onto and off of invulnerable enemies to prolong the screw's lifespan. Similarly, rockets will still create damaging explosions upon contacting a blessed enemy, though they will bounce off the Idol itself.
The shockwave Idols make on death make for an excellent escape and health restoring option in chaotic fights. In particular, slamming down on an Idol is a good way to get a lot of vertical momentum very quickly. If one does not want to be launched by the shockwave, one can dash as soon as the Idol is killed, entirely avoiding the shockwave.
The beam of light Idols emit exposes their position, and blessed enemies and their respective Idols also show a beam of light connecting them, making it easier to track down its position.
Trivia[]
- Idols can be [+MAURICED], though they cannot be [+PANCAKED].
- The Idol's appearance seems to be that of a Madonna and Child, a traditional representation of the Virgin Mary and her child Jesus.
- Despite its holy appearance, it is actually a Demon, as it was formed from Hell Mass, and later, carved by Ferrymen.
- This is also the only Demon that is known to be modified by an external source, in this case, the Ferrymen.
- "Idols", as described in the Bible, are representations of false gods. It is inherently wrong to worship anyone but God in most abrahamic faiths.
- The community has adopted a term for destroying idols with a ground slam called the "dumpy tech", after it was coined by Gianni Matragrano playing the game as Gabriel.[1]
- Idols show the ability to move. They can turn in place and will make an effort to always face V1.
- Despite this, Idols are not affected by gravity. However, this has not come up in normal gameplay, since Idols have never been observed (outside of cheats) to be floating.
- If Clash Mode is enabled, it will face the player's camera instead of V1. Since the player's camera is centered on V1 outside of Clash Mode, it gives the illusion that the Idol faces V1.
- Despite working on Something Wicked, shooting that enemy will still cause it to teleport away. Something Wicked however, is already invincible by itself.
- If anything, it does more harm than good to Something Wicked since they track its position, making 0-S far less anxiety-inducing.
- A number of factors indicate that Idols are not considered true enemies by the game:
- Enemies can move through Idols freely.
- A level's combat music will not play if an Idol is the only living enemy.
- Destroying an Idol does not increment the level's kill counter, and they are not considered in rank requirements for kills.
- Idols can still be destroyed with the Invincible Enemies cheat enabled.
- This, the Stalker, the Streetcleaner and the Cancerous Rodent are currently the only four enemies in the game to not have parriable attacks.
- This and the Cancerous Rodent are also the only enemies to not have any form of attacks.
- Before the Wait of the World Update, Idols on Violent difficulty did not have to wait for the enemy they are protecting to die before they could reassign their blessing, which allowed them to swap their blessings between priority targets on the fly as the player's distance from each enemy changed.
- Radiant Idols will also apply the Radiant buff to the enemy they are currently blessing.
- However, no matter how strong and fast the radiance buff is, the enemy being blessed will have the default values.
- Gabriel, Apostate of Hate is considered one of the lowest priorities on the Idol's blessing priorities, whilst Gabriel, Judge of Hell is considered one of the highest priorities. This is because only the
GabrielEnemyType has a priority rank assigned, and the second Gabriel encounter's EnemyType isGabrielSecond, resulting in him receiving a default priority value of -1. - Idols are actually affected by physics, being able to be moved around by the player.
- Strangely, the idol is not affected by gravity, nor does it lose speed over time, like a normal physics object would, meaning it can float off into space.
Gallery[]
References[]
