Leviathan

LEVIATHAN
General
Class		Supreme Demon
Health		100 (Phase 1) 100 (Phase 2) 200 (Total)
Weight		Heavy (Grounded)
Rank		-1
Locational Damage
Head (2x)			✗
Limb (1.5x)			✗
Conditional Modifiers
Flammable?
Airshot?
Damage Type Modifiers
- All Damage (Heart):  300%
Radiance Multipliers
Health		1.5x
Damage		1.5x
Speed		1.5x
Appearances
5-3 (cameo), 5-4

The Leviathan is a huge sea serpent that acts as the boss of its namesake level 5-4: LEVIATHAN, and is the final boss of the Wrath Layer. Its heart, located on top of its head, is a collection of the souls of the Sullen trying to escape the Leviathan that has been speared down by Gabriel and now constantly screams without rest. It is first seen in the Red Skull Room of 5-3: Ship Of Fools, swimming alongside the ship. It is then seen again in the underwater walkway of 5-4, where a flash of lightning reveals its silhouette.

Behaviour

When first spawning in, its head will come out of the water and let out a loud roar facing the player. The Leviathan is split into two parts: its head and tail. Both have different behavior and attacks. The fight first starts with its head.

The head has a thick armoured skull that reflects all projectiles and hitscans, much like the Hideous Mass' external armour plating, however on top of it rests its weakspot — the heart. The mouth, the rest of its body and its tail is completely vulnerable. At first, it will randomly switch between its head and tail. When changing parts, the active part will plunge back down into the Ocean Styx and the inactive part will come out of the water.

When half of its health is depleted, Phase 2 begins, where both the tail and head will be active. The Leviathan will continue to plunge down into the ocean and reappear on the other side, the head swapping places with the tail.

Attacks

Head

• Lunge
  The Leviathan will move back with a deep growl and quickly lunge towards the player, dealing 35 damage on impact.
  Despite the blue flash signaling this as an unparriable attack, it is indeed parriable. However, hitting the parry hitbox is incredibly difficult. Parrying this attack does not negate the damage, and no special animation is played. The style given for parrying this attack is the default +PARRY text.

• Hell Orb Barrage
  The Leviathan will let out a short shriek, signaling the During this attack, the Leviathan will start spitting a large amount of Hell Orbs at the general direction of the player with low accuracy. Each Hell Orb deals 25 damage and can be parried and deflected back to the Leviathan. After this attack, the Leviathan will look downwards for a moment, leaving its heart vulnerable.

Tail

• High Sweep
  The Leviathan will swing its tail above the platform, dealing 35 damage. This attack cannot be parried.

• Low Sweep
  The Leviathan will swing its tail at the height of the platform, dealing 35 damage. This attack cannot be parried.

Strategy

The Leviathan is a giant enemy that may prove overwhelming to new players. However, it has many weaknesses; during its Hell Orb Barrage attack, explosives such as Projectile Boosts, the Rocket Launcher's rockets, the Malicious Railcannon's Hitscan explosion or even Hell Orbs parried back to the Leviathan can be used to hit its mouth, deflecting a large amount of Hell Orbs back into its mouth and quickly depleting a gigantic amount of the Leviathan's health.

After the Leviathan has finished the Hell Orb Barrage, it will leave its heart vulnerable, an opportunity that can be used to throw out huge damage with Projectile Boosts and Rockets. Experienced players can also try throwing out coins and hitting them with either the Electric Railcannon's primary fire, the Alternate Piercer's alternate fire or the Sharpshooter's alternate fire, a tactic that will inflict grave damage to the Leviathan.

The Leviathan's lunge can also prove to be an opportunity of great damage to the Leviathan; dashing sideways and avoiding the attack will open up an opportunity for Shotgun Swapping and Knuckleblaster punches to the Leviathan's body, which will not only deal a large amount of damage but also provide a good amount of blood to the player for healing. Brave players can also attempt to jump on the Leviathan and have another opportunity to deal grave damage to the heart of it with Shotgun Swapping, the Electric Railcannon, the Piercer and the Sharpshooter revolvers or by unloading both Nailguns into it.

Avoiding the Leviathan can be difficult, due to the limited space on the arena; the Whiplash can be used to grapple on the Green Hookpoints and the Leviathan itself to avoid attacks with airborne movement. Parrying its Hell Orbs with the Feedbacker can be dangerous, as missing too many parries can lead to a player's death, but if a parry connects, it will not only open up an opportunity for huge damage to the Leviathan, but it will also provide the player with a full heal and stamina recharge.

The tail's attacks can be discerned by the direction the tail rotates in; it swinging from left to right means it will be swinging high, while it swinging from right to left means it will be swinging low.

Terminal Entry

TYPE: SUPREME DEMON

DATA:
Unlike most demons, the Leviathan is not formed from generic Hell Mass, but instead from the bodies of the Sullen, a name used for those in the Ocean Styx who have given up fighting for air and instead lay at the bottom of the ocean, drowning eternally.

The Sullen, in their motionlessness, were eventually fused together by the same force that created the other demons, becoming the biblical Leviathan, an abomination prophesized to be at the end of the world.

The heart, which houses the souls of the Sullen in endless anguish as their flesh, veins and nerves writhe and mutate, attempted to escape its body, but Gabriel struck it down with his divine spears, pinning it back onto its head, unable to move.

Although the world ended, the Leviathan remains trapped in the Ocean Styx, growing ever longer as more of Wrath's sinners give up and sink to the bottom.

STRATEGY:
- The Leviathan's heart is exposed on top of its head, making it a clear weakpoint to aim for. Although it's usually not visible, it can be seen after the Leviathan's attacks, opening an opportunity for direct damage, or for landing a magnet.

- Although ill-advised, it is possible to ride the Leviathan for a short period of time. A well-timed jump will allow one to dodge the Leviathan's bite attack as well as land on its head near its exposed heart.

- The tail will either swing high or low, and the height of the swing can be determined by the direction in which the swing rotates.

Trivia

• Like mentioned before in the Attacks paragraph, at one point in development, the Leviathan's attacks were supposed to be parriable. However, only the Lunge attack was made parriable before the idea was scrapped. The Lunge's parry hitbox remains in the game to this day.

• The level Leviathan appears in, 5-4, does not have a title card. This is because;
  • 1. There is no fitting place for it to appear in.
  • 2. The Leviathan's health bar serves as the title card of the level.

Media

• 

  Official concept art of the Leviathan, by Francis Xie.

• 

  Official art of the Leviathan's weakpoint, by Francis Xie.

• 

  Official render of the Leviathan, by Victoria Holland.

• 

  Official render of the Leviathan's weakpoint, by Victoria Holland.

• 

  Original high-poly Leviathan model without the modular segments.