1000-THR "Earthmover"

EarthmoverDefence System

1000-THR "EARTHMOVER"
General
Class		Supreme Machine
Health		100
Weight		Heavy (Grounded)
Rank		-1
Locational Damage
Head (2x)			✗
Limb (1.5x)			✗
Conditional Modifiers
Flammable?
Airshot?
Radiance Multipliers
Health		1.5x
Damage		1.5x
Speed		1.5x
Appearances
7-4

CENTRAL BRAIN
General
Class		Supreme Machine
Health		100
Weight		Heavy (Grounded)
Rank		-1
Locational Damage
Head (2x)			✗
Limb (1.5x)			✗
Conditional Modifiers
Flammable?
Airshot?
Radiance Multipliers
Health		1.5x
Damage		1.5x
Speed		1.5x
Appearances
7-4

1000-THR DEFENCE SYSTEM
General
Class		Supreme Machine
Health		15
Weight		Heavy (Grounded)
Rank		5
Locational Damage
Head (2x)			✗
Limb (1.5x)			✗
Conditional Modifiers
Flammable?
Airshot?
Radiance Multipliers
Health		1.5x
Damage		1.5x
Speed		1.5x
Appearances
7-4

1000-THR DEFENCE SYSTEM
General
Class		Supreme Machine
Health		15
Weight		Heavy (Grounded)
Rank		-1
Locational Damage
Head (2x)			✗
Limb (1.5x)			✗
Conditional Modifiers
Flammable?
Airshot?
Radiance Multipliers
Health		1.5x
Damage		1.5x
Speed		1.5x
Appearances
7-4

1000-THR DEFENCE SYSTEM
General
Class		Supreme Machine
Health		15
Weight		Heavy (Grounded)
Rank		-1
Locational Damage
Head (2x)			✗
Limb (1.5x)			✗
Conditional Modifiers
Flammable?
Airshot?
Radiance Multipliers
Health		1.5x
Damage		1.5x
Speed		1.5x
Appearances
7-4

1000-THR DEFENCE SYSTEM
General
Class		Supreme Machine
Health		15
Weight		Heavy (Grounded)
Rank		-1
Locational Damage
Head (2x)			✗
Limb (1.5x)			✗
Conditional Modifiers
Flammable?
Airshot?
Radiance Multipliers
Health		1.5x
Damage		1.5x
Speed		1.5x
Appearances
7-4

The 1000-THR "Earthmover" is the boss of 7-4 ...LIKE ANTENNAS TO HEAVEN and the final boss faced in the Violence Layer. It is the tenth machine-class enemy that V1 encounters and it encompasses the entire length of the level.

Appearance

The 1000-THR "Earthmover" is a Supreme Machine of such size that most of the playable level takes place upon and within it, with only the level's start and finish taking place outside of the machine. It is a massive, monochromatic, quadrupedal war machine similar in shape to a giraffe or a centaur. It has a single thin arm attached to its upper body that bears some sort of electric weapon, capable of firing massive beams of electricity across large distances. Ladders, platforms, and steam vents wind up its legs, and numerous structures—including functional power stations and living spaces for civilian habitation—are built upon its back and neck. It seems to be engaged in a perpetual duel with another Earthmover in the distance, firing beams of energy at each other, although neither appears to suffer any damage due to some sort of invisible barrier.

Internally, it has a massive hollow chamber lined with flesh and filled with boiling blood to purge intruders with several Idols guarding the path up the neck, which contains numerous hot pipes that burn V1, and winds to the head chamber that contains the brain.

The brain of the Earthmover is mostly covered by a metal box with numerous tubes, two visible CPUs, and text reading “1000-THR”. The bottom right of the box has come loose with bits of brain dangling. It also has a long spine-like wire that goes to the top with 6 wires connected to the Earthmover’s eyes. When damaged, it will wiggle about, and when finally killed, the brain explodes, with the Earthmover thrashing in agony. The outside of the Earthmover's brain is a holographic cyan cylinder with 4 laser-projecting walls that rotate around the cylindrical room. The floor has 2 cylinders in the ground that lift two Idols on opposite sides of the room to protect the brain. The walls inside the Earthmover's head has computers on the walls, with keyboards included.

Defence System

Behavior

The Earthmover itself is unable to move or attack V1. While it is seen preparing to attack V1 at the start of the level, this is entirely cosmetic. The Earthmover is held in place and acts as the terrain of its level.

The 1000-THR Security System consists of seven components: two missile launchers, two mortar launchers, two seeker spires, and one central tower.

The fight will start with the main tower and rocket pods active. Once one rocket pod is destroyed, the Mortar Launchers will appear, with the Projectile Rods appearing once one of the mortar launchers/the last rocket pod is destroyed.

Each component is entirely stationary and cannot move. The central tower is protected by a shield that only drops once all other components are destroyed.

Attacks

The boiling blood that flushes the interior of the Earthmover once the player enters deals 25 damage on touch.

The Earthmover's self destruct instantly kills the player and anything that may still be on the Earthmover, dealing 9900 damage.

Mainframe

The Main Tower has a blue laser that tracks the player. The laser deals 15 damage on contact.

Rocket Launchers

The Defence System's rocket pods will periodically lock on to the player's current location (signified by a transparent red laser) and fire a rocket. The rocket pods only lock on the player's position at that moment, they do not track the player. The rockets deal 35 damage.

Mortar Launchers

The mortars deal 60 damage.

Towers

The top of the spires will glow green for a moment, before firing a small Hellseeker. The Hellseekers deal 30 damage.

Strategy

As the terminal states, the stationary nature of each component makes it easy to land attacks on each of them. With good positioning, piercing weapons like the Piercer Revolver or the Electric Railcannon can easily hit multiple components at once.

The central tower will fire a laser that constantly tracks V1 slowly. Make sure to not stand in place for too long.

Similar to the Guttertank, the missile launchers' rockets are capable of being frozen by the Freezeframe Rocket Launcher. However, unlike the Guttertank, the missile launchers are not immune to their own rockets even without a rocket ride, which makes magnets quite effective against them.

Difficulty Changes

Brutal

• All components of the defense system activate at the start.

Brain

Behavior

The Earthmover's brain is contained within its head. It resides within a shielded cylindrical casing, and does not move from the center of its room. The brain reacts to damage by swinging around.

If the brain survives for long enough, it will summon two Idols from retracting canisters in the room. These will bless the brain, making it invincible until they are destroyed.

Attacks

Defence Grid

The Brain has a laser defense grid around it, activating once the player enters the arena. These lasers cannot be dashed through. They deal 20 damage on contact.

Giant Hellseeker

The Brain will flash blue, before firing a giant Hellseeker. The giant Hellseeker deals 40 damage.

Strategy

The brain's massive width makes it a great candidate for being damaged by a trap from the Sawblade Launchers. Additionally, the cylindrical nature of the Earthmover's head room makes it quite easy to land a full multihit from the Sharpshooter Revolver.

The sweeping laser grid spins around the room constantly. However, they cover less distance at closer ranges. If you wish to outrun the lasers, stay as close to the brain as possible. Make sure you don't get too close, as the force field will damage you if you touch it.

If the brain survives long enough to deploy Idols, the canisters they appear from block the laser grid. If you need healing, you can simply wait behind the cans for your hard damage to regenerate, then destroy the idol for a full heal. Make sure you time this right so you can dodge the laser grid after: the knockback from destroying the Idol will throw you out.

The brain's Hell Seeker attack is very easy to parry with the Feedbacker, and they do respectable damage to their source. Watch out for the flash that signals when the brain is about to attack.

Difficulty Changes

Brutal

• A permanent wall of lasers forces the player to move against the defense grid.

Terminal Entry

TYPE: SUPREME MACHINE

DATA:
Earthmovers were the pinnacle of the arms race. Often called the horsemen of the apocalypse, it took only one to level an entire city and leave nothing but fire in its wake. The last era of the Final War had begun.

The first machines large enough to house a shield generator, these walking fortresses could only be made vulnerable from within, making them the new frontlines for smaller, more mobile machines. Due to their colossal size, they required both blood and solar power to function.

When the final era escalated, cleansing the world with fire, the surviving civilians were forced to evacuate and build new homes on the backs of these machines, as the surface became an inhospitable wasteland where no flora or fauna could flourish.

Eventually the soot, smoke and decay from unending global war would blot out the sun, casting the world into the Long Night, and Earthmovers, unable to feed on sunlight, shut down and died out one by one.

War had become entirely dependent on them, large scale conflict was no longer feasible. Finally, mankind started to work together to reverse the effects of the Long Night climate catastrophe, and so began the New Peace. 200 years of war for its own sake ended not with a bang, but utter silence.

At the brink of despair, the planet would slowly learn to breathe once more, and the corpses of these titans would serve as a stark reminder of just how close mankind was to an apocalypse by their own hand.

STRATEGY:
- Each part of the security system is immobile, making them very vulnerable to attacks that would otherwise easily miss, such as Freeze Frame^[sic] rockets.

- Some of the gaps in the main computer room's defence grid are too high up for a normal jump, but the elevated edges of the room can be used to get higher. More adept movers may instead jump immediately after a ground slam to gain enough height.

Trivia

References

• The name "Earthmover" is derived from a community suggestion, and a reference to the song "Earthmover" by Have A Nice Life. The song is about large automatons that destroy the world, similar to how the Earthmover are described to have destroyed the surface of the earth in game.
  • The Earthmover is internally referred to as the Centaur, though isn't referred to as such in-game to avoid confusion with the similarly-named Minotaur.
  • Additionally, the final door the player exits from is labeled "Quake door", as the design is nearly identical.
  • Furthermore, 1000 in Japanese is "Sen", which when paired with "THR" (THOR, because they throw lightning) creates "Sen-THOR", which is phonetically similar to "Centaur". This has been confirmed to be intentional by Hakita.
    • This is most likely a reference to Dante's Divine Comedy where in Hell's circle of violence centaurs patrol the first ring (sub-circle) of this circle and shoot arrows into sinners that try to emerge from the Phlegethon, a river full of boiling blood.
• The level that 1000-THR appears in is another music reference - this time, to "Lift Yr. Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven!" by Godspeed You! Black Emperor, and specifically the final song on the album.
• The self-destruct sequence may be a reference to Metroid, in which, after defeating the "Mother Brain" boss, the main character, Samus Aran, must escape the planet's own self-destruction.
  • Coincidentally, 1000 in Roman Numerals is "M", making the brain itself the M-THR Brain.
• The brain of the Earthmover also contains panels resembling CPUs, reading "GORP" and "D4WG".
• The manner in which it throws spears and the way it uses an energy shield it to block attacks from the Earthmover in the distance is reminiscent to the battle against Arael and the Spear of Longinus, both from Neon Genesis Evangelion.

Lore

• The Long Night "climate catastrophe" mentioned in the Terminal entry is likely the same event the Streetcleaners were invented to fix.
• The Earthmover may be sustaining on hell energy, substituting the sunlight which is beyond their reach within Hell. This is supported by the defense system's use of homing projectiles, Hideous Mass mortar projectiles, and Mindflayer lasers as well as the improved Mindflayer laser wall during the 1000-THR brain fight.
• Because Earthmovers were the final machines used during the Final War, and because the war ended before V1 could make it to full-scale production, it is implied that V1 was designed to destroy Earthmovers. Deployment methods to get onto them could've been similar to the way Gutterman and Guttertank, via missile cargo.
  • The Guttertank's description in the terminal even states that each machine was designed specifically to counter the last, with V1's firmware being last updated around 200 years after World War I started and the Earthmover's description stating that World War I ended 200 years later.
  • This is further supported by how, at the start of [ 7-4: ...LIKE ANTENNAS TO HEAVEN ], the Earthmover stops attacking the Earthmover in the distance in an attempt to attack V1 instead. It could have understood, either through communication with other machines or by not recognizing its design, that V1 was made to destroy it. However, it gets interrupted by the other Earthmover, giving V1 a time window to start climbing it.
• There are signs found across the surface of the Earthmover written in Japanese, implying that it was built by the Japanese during the Final War.

Easter Eggs and secrets

• The brain of the Earthmover contains a plush of Victoria Holland, one of the ULTRAKILL developers, sitting at a control panel. This may be a reference to a particular secret ending in Silent Hill 2.
• The Earthmover in the distance that is having a sniper duel with the Earthmover we climb is actually really small and has a plushie of BigRock on its back.
• The lights and pipes on the side of the Earthmover (where the Yellow Hookpoint opens up the platforms) depict the meme "Loss".
• If the player somehow manages to escape the Earthmover without killing all of the enemies inside, not touching the final vent nor the ground on the exit area before the time runs out, the enemies will die upon the Earthmover's detonation and the player will receive the unique "+M.A.D." style bonus for each enemy killed in the explosion. "M.A.D." stands for "Mutually Assured Destruction".
  • This can be used to hypothesize that the enemies sent in Payload Shells throughout 7-4 were from another Earthmover and meant to destroy the one the level primarily takes place on, killing themselves in the process.
• In the room with the Malicious Face and two Mannequins, a door can be seen, along some kind of computer terminal. It is unclear if they're related, or whether the door can be opened in the first place, but no-clipping inside reveals a small room with a sign and a potted sunflower. The sign outside the area reads "Generator - Siphon plant" and the sign above the Sunflower reads "Generator - Siphon plant, plant." (The first "plant" referring to the facility and the second "plant" referring to the Sunflower.)
• There’s a tiny top hat on the in-game model of the Earthmover.

Development

• The Earthmover's design was inspired by the God Warriors from Nausicaä, and Zearth from Bokurano.
• Prior to patch 14b, it was possible to get the Earthmover to kill itself by clipping far enough into its head that the defensive lasers are activated; the brain, not intended to be activated like this, would wriggle out of its confines and be shot by its own defense grid, with its health getting shredded. This sparked a speedrun category titled Lobotomy% and has since been patched.
• Prior to patch 14b, the lasers in the Earthmover's Brain fight were turquoise, identical to the Mindflayer; however, this confused players who thought that they could dash through them, so they were later changed to be pink.

Other

• Similar to The Corpse of King Minos, the Earthmovers are visible in earlier levels, coming closer with each level.
• Its legs are fused to the ground by a red substance, confirmed to be the roots of the trees from 7-3: No Sound, No Memory by Hakita during the ULTRAKILL livestream.
• The Earthmover is the first Supreme Machine enemy in the game that isn't a V-model.
• The Earthmover is currently the biggest enemy in the game, towering over even The Corpse of King Minos.
• Some people occasionally refers to the Earthmover as "Benjamin" due to a Reddit post.
• The jiggle physics for the brain was taken from a NSFW game named "KoboldKare", according to the Act II Developer Commentary video (timestamp: 6:24:40).