5-4: Leviathan

WRATH /// CLIMAX
LEVIATHAN

5-4: LEVIATHAN
General
Layer & Part		WRATH /// CLIMAX
Challenge		Reach the surface in under 10 seconds.
Music		The Abyss and the Serpent
Tip of the Day
Explosions deflect projectiles. If an explosion is caused right from where an enemy shoots a projectile, it can backfire and hit them instead.
Enemies
Leviathan
Rank Requirements
Rank	Time	Kills	Style
S	02:10	1	5,000
A	02:40	0	4,000
B	04:00	0	2,000
C	07:00	0	500
Levels
Previous		Next
5-3		6-1
5-1, 5-2, 5-3, 5-4 5-S

This article covers a simplified account of the boss fight for the Leviathan. For more detail on the boss, see Leviathan.

5-4: LEVIATHAN is the fourth and final level of Wrath, featuring a boss fight with the namesake Leviathan. After the capsizing of the Ferryman's ship in 5-3: SHIP OF THE FOOLS, the player is sent to the bottom of the Ocean Styx, before eventually confronting the colossal serpent at the surface of the waves.

The music used in this level for the leadup and the Leviathan's boss fight is The Abyss and the Serpent.

Level

Start

Deep... oh so deep.

Heading down the elevator shaft, the standard elevator hub has been partially flooded with a pool of water, and heading down the ramp to the entrance to the level reveals an open, endless abyss, far below the surface of the water. The path forward consists of a jumbled-up mess of stone and crags, dimly lit up by bioluminescent fungi and lanterns.

As the player makes it to the end of the path forward, bolts of lightning temporarily light up the surface. At the end of the path, the player can catch a glimpse of a gargantuan serpent-like creature, before being whisked away up a column of bubbles.

Arena

After being launched into the air, the player drops down onto a small stone platform next to a wooden boat with a crack in the middle and a set of Green Hookpoints. A few mountains and sunken ships can be seen in the distance. To the right of the player lies a Terminal proceeding the encounter.

Walking onto the wooden boat will cause the stone section to sink into the water as a rumbling emanates from the surface of the water, before the colossal Leviathan reveals itself, towering over the boat on which the player stands before letting out a roar before the battle is initiated.

Boss Encounter

The Leviathan itself is a massive serpentine demon, comprised of a stonelike exterior and a fleshy soft interior and underside, with the head of the enemy being completely impervious to damage and reflecting any projectiles and hitscans, similar to the plating found on Hideous Masses. At the top of the Leviathan lies the heart of the beast, pinned down by golden spears and continually wailing in pain, acting as a weakpoint.

The Leviathan in its first phase.

The Leviathan is split into two parts, the head and the tail, which it will swap to for different attacks. With the head, it will either lunge at the player with a parryable attack, or spew out a barrage of Hell Orbs and Mortar Orbs which the player can parry back or redirect into the Leviathan with an explosion.

With the tail, it will perform a large sweeping attack that crosses over the platform, with a clockwise swing requiring the player to jump across, and a counter-clockwise swing requiring the player to duck under to dodge.

Once the Leviathan loses a quarter of its health, it will use both its head and tail attacks at once, with the Leviathan occasionally stopping to move to a different position.

In its second phase, the Leviathan breaks the boat, and the player now stands on a large ring formed by the Leviathan's body, with the head in the middle of said ring. The Leviathan also gains a new attack, in which it fires a blue beam and spins around clockwise three times, covering the whole ring.

The Leviathan in its second phase.

After defeating the Leviathan, it will position itself up straight, before its head explodes in a visceral shower of blood. The body will then falls in the water, with the ring remaining, and the water in the ring will then start to drain down into a newly opened exit shaft, where the player can then drop down to finish the level.

Tips

While the Leviathan may seem difficult to defeat at first, it is one of the easier bosses in the game, much like The Corpse of King Minos.

While the Leviathan is roaring, try to deal some early damage with any Nailgun, the Attractor Sawblade Launcher Attractor Sawblade Launcher, or Screwdriver Railcannon. All of these options can deal considerable damage on their own, but embedding the Leviathan with nails, magnets, or screws will also randomly attract a lightning strike to it, dealing 21 damage (13.8 falloff) after a 3-second windup and triggering + Conductor for additional damage if nails or magnets are used.

Magnets and screws can trigger lightning strikes fairly fast, whereas nails can passively trigger a strike on their own and occasionally will also do so quickly, but will more often take considerably longer. Screws do not need to be embedded to attract lightning and the telegraph will continue to follow the screw if screwpunched, though screwpunching from the Leviathan cannot reapply the screwdriver from one part of the boss to any other part. Magnet and screw lightning strikes may be canceled before going off if the embedded object expires during the windup period, while nail-only lightning strikes are canceled if a magnet, screw, or more nails are added during the windup period. Magnets and screws attached to a body part when it submerges will have their expiry timers paused until that part resurfaces, though lightning strikes can still target them while submerged and a strike triggered on a submerged part will not deal damage. This can be used to the player's advantage in the first phase of the fight, where the head segment may remain submerged for long periods of time while the tail is attacking solo, running down both the cooldowns of both the lightning strike and the Railcannon to potentially roll another lightning strike and/or apply another screwdriver as soon as the head segment re-emerges.

Lightning strikes in this level appear to have a minimum cooldown of about 25 seconds and cancelling the strike midway also triggers the cooldown, restricting the frequency with which this tactic can be employed, though two separate lightning strikes can occur on the same trigger if both a magnet and a screwdriver are present when the telegraph starts for two simultaneous instances of 21 damage, and screwdriver and nail lightning strikes embedded in the heart can target the weakpoint's 3x damage multiplier for 63 damage (magnets embedded in the heart do not seem to trigger the weakpoint despite the magnet strike visibly hitting the heart, and the majority of nails embedded in the Leviathan must be in the heart for it to be targeted by a nail strike instead of the body). A lightning strike triggered with a screwdriver in the heart and at least one magnet or another screwdriver anywhere else on the body (including the tail but not including the phase 2 platform, which does not take damage) can result in a staggering 84 damage with good timing and some luck, or even 126 damage in theory with extremely precise timing and a lot of luck.

When the boss is about to lunge, start strafing in one direction until a yellow flash appears. Once this flash appears, change direction. This will make it easier to dodge the lunge. Once the Leviathan is done lunging, try to use the Whiplash to grapple onto the screaming heart or simply climb onto the Leviathan and approach its heart.

If a clear shot is visible, ALWAYS fire at the screaming heart. This will deal more damage than simply hitting its body.

When preparing to fire the blue beam, the Leviathan positions itself facing to the right of the player. This creates a window where the player can use the Whiplash on the the screaming heart to get on top of the leviathan right next to the heart. This completely avoids the attack and allows the player to deal a lot of easy damage.

When the tail is attacking, always pay close attention to how it is moving. Failure to do so can not only cause you to take a large amount of damage from the tail directly, but it can also send you off the ground, causing you to take damage from the water as well.

Challenge

For this level's challenge, the player can either use Slam Storage, or the newly-acquired Freezeframe Rocket Laucher to Rocket Ride to the top of the ocean right after exiting the starting elevator. While both of these options are viable, some players also use the Core Eject Shotgun combined with the Malicious Railcannon to send them flying to the surface faster.

Trivia

• Enemies that are spawned (with the Spawner Arm) will grant the + why are you even spawning enemies here style bonus when killed.
• Prior to the ULTRA_REVAMP update, this level was the only level in the campaign that lacked a title card.
• Around the underwater section lay floating, motionless bodies implied to be the Sullen, mentioned in Leviathan's terminal entry.
  • The models reuse the beta Stray model, even matching the same green color, as seen in an early ULTRAKILL devlog.

The Sullen, who have given up fighting for air, drowning eternally.