Black Hole Cannon
| BLACK HOLE CANNON | ||
|---|---|---|
 The Black Hole Cannon fired at a helpless plushie of lead developer Arsi "Hakita" Patala. | ||
| Primary Fire | ||
| Damage | 0 | |
| - Duration | ||
| Cooldown | 0 | |
| Alternate Fire | ||
| Damage | 11 | |
| Duration | 5 | |
| Cooldown | 0 | |
| Damage Modifiers | ||
| Terminal Info | ||
| Obtained in | ||
| Developer Museum | ||
The Black Hole Cannon was a concept weapon proposed & created during the development of ULTRAKILL. Having only been shown in a single development video, little information is known about the Black Hole Cannon. Being scrapped completely before it got a visual design or model, the weapon uses a stretched out shotgun model in-game.
A model of the Black Hole Cannon is present in the Developer Museum's weapon exhibit, next to the Beamcutter. The weapon's icon is a red question mark, similar to the one used in development video 31 where it was first shown off while still being in development. Unlike the Black Hole Cannon shown off in development video 31, the one present in the Developer Museum boasts a vibrant red and yellow color scheme similar to the level exits and entrances.
Its primary fire fires a small black hole which slowly travels through the air in a perfectly straight path, directly through any walls or obstructions in the level (including any level barriers). The Black Hole will do nothing but travel forward & cannot be interacted with, until it is activated via the alt fire, where it will continually damage enemies until it disappears. The alt-fire does nothing when there is no Black Hole out. The Black Hole would deal considerable damage to all enemies it came in contact with before imploding in a rain of blood. It also had the unique +COMPRESSED Style Bonus. Only one Black Hole can be active at a time, meaning the gun stops shooting once a Black Hole is already in the air. The Black Hole periodically emits a purple bolt of lightning from its center, and when active, it will lose it aura and turn transparent. After 5 seconds, the Black Hole disappears entirely, and another Black Hole is able to be fired.
Additionally, a pedestal with a book can be found by the Black Hole Cannon exhibit, in which Lead Developer Hakita describes what he had planned for the weapon in detail:
PRIMARY FIRE: Launch a black hole
SECONDARY FIRE: Activate a launched black hole
A cut superweapon that was intended to work via a meter that got filled by killing enemies. It was made around early 2019, shortly after the addition of the shotgun, with the intent of it being introduced much later in the game.
The player would have the choice of using their kill meter for a temporary buff a la Devil Trigger from Devil May Cry, or a shot with the black hole cannon. The meter was scrapped due to these kinds of mechanics often leading to issues with hoarding and balancing, since encounters can't be balanced around whether or not the player has meter, leading to battles being either too easy with meter or too hard without it.
Instead, the DT buff mode idea was turned into the dual wield powerup, which avoids that issue since the level designer controls when the player has access to it, and the Black Hole Cannon's role becomes filled with the Railcannon, a lower commitment superweapon that's weak enough to not become an ace-in-the-sleeve crutch for players to skip tricky encounters with and usable often enough that the player doesn't feel a need to hoard it.
Although the Black Hole Cannon was incredibly powerful when it was originally made, since the only enemies in the game were the basic husks, the game has grown far more chaotic and explosive since then, making it quite weak in comparison. I've kept its original power level for this museum version for the sake of an accurate portrayal, so if it seems weak, that's because it was just made for killing Filth, Strays and Schisms.
The Black Hole Cannon never got a visual design or model, hence why it's represented by a stretched out shotgun. This lead to many people thinking it was supposed to be a shotgun variation, but that was never the intent.The Black Hole and its effects was later re-used for future boss fights, such as The Corpse of King Minos, the Flesh Prison, and the Flesh Panopticon.
