Hideous Mass

HIDEOUS MASS
General
Class	Greater Demon
Health	175 (Boss); 60 (Common)
Weight	Superheavy (Grounded)
Rank	6
Locational Damage
Head (200%)
Limbs (150%)
Conditional Modifiers
Flammable
Airshot
Splatters
Magnet Pull
Damage Type Modifiers
	All Damage (Belly): 300%; All Damage (Tail): 300%;
Radiance Multipliers
Health	1x
Damage	1x
Speed	1x
Appearances
	1-3 6-1 7-3, 7-S P-2; The Cyber Grind
Cyber Grind Data

HIDEOUS MASS

The Hideous Mass is a Greater Demon introduced as a boss in 1-3: HALLS OF SACRED REMAINS, and is the third Demon-class enemy that the player encounters in ULTRAKILL.

They begin to appear as regular enemies in 7-3: NO SOUND, NO MEMORY.

Hideous Masses primarily have a deep red fleshy, scorpion-like body with eight legs. Their mostly exposed underbelly has a brighter red pulsating stomach section below a solemn stone face that serves as their "head", They have two large arms with mouths in place of their hands which can fire projectiles. The rest of their body, including their upper body, arms, legs, and tail is covered in a sturdy stone shell split into several segments.

The shell that covers their upper body is made of three faces. The first, near their head, is that of a lion, while their backside is covered by a shell composed of two large faces. A multitude of smaller faces appear submerged in the flesh near their tail, which is rather small in comparison to their body. The tail is comprised of four smaller faces that taper off to form a chalice-like appearance, facing in cardinal directions with glowing yellow eyes and bloody mouths. The frontmost mouth has a large metal harpoon sticking out of it, which they can use to impale and pull in their enemies.

Upon being enraged, they flip over on their backs, contorting their limbs so that their arms can fire projectiles upwards. They use only six of their legs to move back and forth in place, leaving their rearmost legs unbent and flailing in tandem with their tails. While enraged, their tails also become fully stained in blood, and all of the eyes on their faces glow a bright yellow.

Behavior

Hideous Masses are completely stationary, only turning to face the player. They have 2 forms they can switch into, Upright and Lowered, that they switch to depending on how aggressive a player is. They perform different attacks in both positions. Shooting the shell deals no damage to a Hideous Mass, and reflects hitscans and projectiles.

Hideous Masses become enraged after having their health depleted to below 20% (35 HP, 1-3 boss) or 33% (20 HP, all other encounters), rolling over onto their back and exposing both of their weakpoints.
While enraged they only shoot Hell Mortars.

Attacks

Hell Mortars
This attack can only be performed while a Hideous Mass is in their upright form. The Hideous Mass shoots 2 yellow Hell Mortars into the air that have limited homing and create large explosions that deal 60 damage up close and 40 damage at half radius.

The mortar projectiles can be parried but not deflected.

Ground Slam
The Hideous Mass winds up to slam the ground violently and create a shockwave that deals 40 damage.
They always use a ground slam before they enter lowered position.

If the player is too high or too low for the shockwave to reach, they only use the ground slam once, using the clap attack more often.

Clap
In their lowered position the Hideous Mass can clap their arms together, creating a vertical shockwave that deals 20 damage.
They always clap after the first ground slam.

Getting caught in between the Hideous Mass' arms while they are clapping deals 40 damage.

Harpoon
The Hideous Mass, while lowered, can use their tail to shoot an extremely fast harpoon that severely handicaps the player's movement and deals 25 damage.
The harpoon can be dislodged by punching it twice with the Feedbacker, punching it once with the Knuckleblaster or dealing 6 damage to the tail.

The harpoon can be parried, but the timing can be tricky. The timing can be made more lenient by dashing forwards or backward while looking at the tail, or holding back. Successfully parrying the harpoon deals 30 damage to the Hideous Mass, meaning two parries are enough to kill a Common variant. Unlike most projectiles, parrying the harpoon always sends it back to the tail, preventing it from being redirected to hit another enemy.

If a Hideous Mass is Radiant, the harpoon deals 30 damage times their Radiance Damage multiplier. For example, if the Hideous Mass has a damage multiplier of 1.5x, then the harpoon deals 45 damage to them (reduced by any health modifiers).

Strategy

The Hideous Mass tends to spawn alone or in pairs, and they are a very dangerous enemy that should often be prioritized.

The abdomen and the tail are weakpoints that take triple damage from all attacks. Shotgun swapping and punching the abdomen or tail with the Knuckleblaster is one of the most effective ways to quickly take care of a Hideous Mass and gain large amounts of health. The Nailguns can also take care of a Hideous Mass within seconds. Both the Alternate Piercer's and the Sharpshooter's primary and alternate fires can deal grave damage to a Hideous Mass in a burst. The Electric Railcannon is the best weapon to use against a Hideous Mass, as it not only takes out a gigantic chunk of a Hideous Mass' health on its own, but, with the use of Railcoining, it can instantly kill a Hideous Mass on the spot. Another way to swiftly kill a Hideous Mass is through the use of the Sawblade Launcher; by placing a magnet on a Hideous Mass's chest, unloading the Attractor variant's magazine and then using up the Overheated Sawblade of the Overheat variant, one can ensure a kill on the Hideous Mass and can safely retreat to deal with other enemies that must be prioritized.

Dodging a Hideous Mass is difficult and a mistake can cost the player's life. The Harpoon must be avoided at all costs; it cripples the player's movement options and makes them an easy target. If the player gets caught by the Harpoon, punching it once with the Knuckleblaster as fast as possible is necessary in order to survive the next attacks of a Hideous Mass. The Hell Mortars are equally as dangerous, as they deal 60 damage and have homing, albeit limited. Slide jumping or dash jumping around a Hideous Mass is the best way to avoid damage, although one must remember to jump over the Hideous Mass's horizontal shockwave.

In the encounter in 1-3: HALLS OF SACRED REMAINS, the player can obtain the Soap and throw it at the Hideous Mass, effectively skipping the fight.

Difficulty Changes

Harmless

Hideous Mass does not use their harpoon.
The vertical shockwave from their clap is very small.

Lenient

The vertical shockwave from their clap is very small.

Brutal

Hideous Mass can now shoot their harpoon when enraged.
Harpoon now has 50% more health.

Terminal Entry

TYPE: GREATER DEMON

DATA:
Hideous Masses are a rare occurrence, when an excessive amount of Hell Mass is poured into a single shell, causing it to overflow and burst at the seams.

Due to the broken seams allowing for mobility without having to bend the exterior, the stone has hardened more than the shell of most demons, making it completely impervious to all currently known attacks.

STRATEGY:
- Although its stone exterior makes for an impenetrable defense, the Hideous Mass' belly and tail remain exposed and vulnerable.

- While standing up, a quick burst of close range damage is the most effective way to hurt them, though this will most likely cause it to change formations, so being quick and decisive is the key.

- When in its low formation, keeping a safe distance is recommended due to its melee capabilities and high speed tail harpoon, though the brave or suicidal may attempt to climb on its back to continue dealing close range damage to the tail.

- When caught by the harpoon, it's recommendable to either punch the harpoon or damage the tail to remove it.

Media

Icon

Gameplay Demonstrations

Hideous Mass using their mortars.
Hideous Mass slamming the ground.
Hideous Mass clapping their arms together.
Hideous Mass shooting a harpoon.
Hideous Mass while enraged.
Hideous Mass dying.

Concept Art & Renders

Concept Art by BigRockBMP
Hideous Mass model from older versions of the game. Render by Samuel JB.
Ditto, in laying position.
Promotional render used to tease the Hideous Mass on the official ULTRAKILL Twitter.

Trivia

It is possible to be attached to multiple harpoons at once while fighting more than one Hideous Mass, though the movement debuff does not stack. Furthermore, removing one harpoon is enough to completely remove the movement debuff, despite the fact that the other harpoons still remain attached to the player.
The original Prelude Demo version of 1-1: HEART OF THE SUNRISE teases a Hideous Mass boss encounter after the final room, in an additional arena similar to the one they are found in at the end of 1-3: HALLS OF SACRED REMAINS. They are unable to be fought, as the level ends once they fully emerge from the ground. This encounter was never meant to be a part of the final game, existing specifically to end the Prelude Demo on a cliffhanger.
The Hideous Mass resembles the mythological creature known as the manticore. The manticore has the head of a human, the body of a lion, and the tail of a scorpion, which parallels the Hideous Mass's sculpted human face, the lion face located on their back, and their body and tail's general resemblance to that of a scorpion.
The stone carvings on the fronts of the Hideous Mass's stone shell arms are designed to depict Adam and God as seen in Michelangelo's The Creation of Adam.