Idol

For more information about other enemies, see Enemies

Idol
Muteki No Egao De Arasu Media!
Attributes
Appearance	Small divine sculpture
Attack Damage	N/A
Health	N/A
Support Priority Rank	N/A
Damage Modifiers	Only broken by Melee
Weight	N/A
Susceptible to fall damage	No
Other/Misc	Stationary support enemy that makes other enemies invincible.

Idols are Lesser Demons that first appear in the mission [ 5-2: WAVES OF THE STARLESS SEA ]. They are stationary holy sculptures, protecting singular enemies to render them completely invulnerable to almost all harm.

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 for melee punches, ground slams, the Alternate Shotgun'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, as well as healing the player by 90. 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:

Support Priority Rank (Lowest-Highest)

0-2	3	4	5	6
Filth Stray Schism Soldier Drone Streetcleaner Mannequin	Swordsmachine Sentry Malicious Face Cerberus Virtue	Stalker Gutterman Guttertank	Ferryman Mindflayer	Sisyphean Insurrectionist Hideous Mass

Blessed enemies can be identified by a white glow, a blue sheen covering their body, 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.

Enemies blessed by Idols will not give most Style Bonuses (through parrying their projectiles still does). However, parrying them still recovers health and stamina. If an Idol is Radiant, destroying the Idol will cause it to pass its Radiance onto the enemy it was protecting at the time of destruction.

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 the player be near an Idol while injured.

As can be demonstrated in the Exhibition Arena of [ 5-2: WAVES OF THE STARLESS SEA ], it is possible, with a little setup, for a dying Malicious Face to crush 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, Rocket Launcher 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 vertical 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.

Patch History

ULTRA_REVAMP Update (2025/02/24)	Radiant Idols now cause their target to become Radiant when destroyed, rather than when active. Enemies blessed by an Idol have a new visual effect to make them more distinct.
Patch 15c (2024/05/11)	Hitting an Idol with a fully-charged Alternate Shotgun hit no longer triggers the cooldown.
Full Arsenal Update (2024/04/15)	Idols now give style points when destroyed with a unique [+ICONOCLASM] Style Bonus.
Back to the Cyber Grind Update (2023/04/27)	Idols in the Cyber Grind can now spawn on projectile enemy tiles.
Wait of the World Update (2023/03/17)	Falling Malicious Faces can now break Idols. Removed the ability for Idols to swap between targets that have the same priority rank on Violent difficulty and above.
Patch 11b (2022/08/29)	Whiplash now passes through Idols and blessed enemies. Punches now properly Auto Aim to Idols. Idols are now breakable with a Knuckleblaster explosion. Added a vertical light shaft on Idols that shows them from a distance. Added enemy silhouettes and colors for Idols. Added custom spawn sounds for Idols. Ferrymen now have an Idol priority rank.
ACT II Update (2022/08/16)	Idol introduced with the new Wrath layer, and now appears in the Cyber Grind.

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.
• Idols show the ability to move. They can turn in place and will make an effort to always face the player.
  • 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: SOMETHING WICKED ] 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 Invincible Enemies enabled.
• This, the Stalker, the Streetcleaner, and the Cancerous Rodent are currently the only four enemies in the game to not have parryable 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.
• 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 Gabriel EnemyType has a priority rank assigned, and the second Gabriel encounter's EnemyType is GabrielSecond, 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.
• Idols are one of the few enemies in the game to have unique spawn effects. The Idol's spawn effect has the same sound as any other enemy, with the exception being that they make a strange screeching noise along with it.

Gallery

Concept art of the Idol, drawn by BigRockBMP.

An Idol encountered in [ 5-2: WAVES OF THE STARLESS SEA ]. Note how the majority of its length is embedded in the ground.

An example of a blessed enemy healthbar, outside of the Earthmover brain and Ferryman boss.