The Cyber Grind

The Cyber Grind.png

THE CYBER GRIND
General
Layer		MENU
Music		Exclusive Tracks: The Cyber Grind HATEFUL UltraChurch Robot Stop Supercell The Dripping Tap
Tip of the Day
If blown too far off the arena, PUMP CHARGE's overcharge is a good way to get back.
Enemies
Filth, Strays, Schisms, Soldiers, Stalkers, Sisyphean Insurrectionists, Ferrymen Swordsmachines, Drones, Streetcleaners, Mindflayers, Sentries, Guttermen, Guttertanks Malicious Faces, Cerberi, Hideous Masses, Idols, Mannequins Virtues

The Cyber Grind is a wave-based endless survival mode in ULTRAKILL. In this mode, the player is placed on a 16x16 grid arena suspended in a void, and is tasked with eliminating every enemy in each wave until their death, awarding points based on the number of completed waves. Each wave changes the layout of the arena and increases the difficulty and enemy count as the player continues.

Most non-boss enemies, as well as some minor bosses, are able to spawn in The Cyber Grind, and can spawn regardless of whether they have been encountered in the main levels. Currently, a total of 20 unique enemies can spawn in The Cyber Grind.

The Cyber Grind can be accessed either by selecting its respective option in the Chapter Select menu before entering a level, or by entering "The Cyber Grind" tab on any Shop Terminal in another level.

Global leaderboards can be found on Steam for each available difficulty: Harmless, Lenient, Standard, Violent, and Brutal.

Terminal

Before starting The Cyber Grind, the player begins in a starting elevator in which can be found a Shop Terminal on the right, similar to most other levels, but also a Settings Terminal on the left. This special Terminal allows the player to customize their Cyber Grind experience in many ways.

Themes

The first menu titled "Themes" allows the player to change the Cyber Grind's grid and skybox. There are two presets available, one light, the other dark. A third option is also present for custom textures.

The "Light" preset makes the grid use a white texture and changes the skybox to a grid of white squares. The "Dark" preset makes the grid use a gray texture and changes the skybox to a grid of dark-gray squares.

Customization

Selecting the "Custom" option opens a submenu in which the grid and skybox can be freely edited by the player. All textures found through this menu come from image files inside of the folder [Path to Game]\ULTRAKILL\Cybergrind\Textures.

The first tab, "Grid," is used to edit the grid's appearance. The player can independently change the texture displayed on the sides and bottom, on the sides of only the top-most grid squares, or on the top of all of the grid's blocks. Multiple sides can be changed simultaneously by having multiple options selected at once (highlighted in red.)

The second tab, "Grid Glow," allows the player to change the grid's glowing effect in a similar fashion to the grid's texture. The textures used for the glow are only in grayscale, where the closer a pixel is to white, the more intense its glow is. Picking an image which has colors results in only the image's pixels' brightness value to be taken into consideration. The player can additionally change the glow's global intensity on a scale from 0 to 10 in increments of 1.

The third tab, "Skybox," allows the player to change the Cyber Grind's skybox. The projection format used by skyboxes is an equirectangular projection. Selecting any texture changes the skybox to this texture.

The fourth tab, "Fog," allows the player to change the Cyber Grind's fog behavior and color. Setting it to "Dynamic" lets the player decide the distance (between 0 and 500) where the fog ends, while setting it to "Static" adds another slider determining the distance the fog begins at. The fog can also be completely disabled.

Music

See also: Soundtrack

Unlike any other level, the Cyber Grind offers the player the ability to change the music which plays inside of the level. Opening this submenu reveals the player's Playlist. By default, the player finds four songs in their playlist: The Cyber Grind by Meganeko, HATEFUL by HEALTH and its instrumental version, and UltraChurch by KEYGEN CHURCH. These four songs are exclusive to the Cyber Grind within the game.

Tracks can be selected, rearranged, or removed to the player's preference. A button is found at the end of the playlist which, when pressed, opens a submenu that allows the player to add more tracks to their playlist. They can either add tracks from the game, or add custom sound files that the player can add inside of the folder [Path to Game]\ULTRAKILL\Cybergrind\Music.

Tracks from the game are by default locked, and can be unlocked by completing the challenge of the level in which they can be heard. If the level the track is heard in does not have a challenge, reaching the end of the level is the only requirement. Lastly, if the track is not associated with any level (such as Take Care), or that the level it is found in does not have an end (such as in the Developer Museum) it is unlocked automatically.

Settings

The music found in the playlist only plays during a run. The order in which they are played depends on the settings selected at the top of the menu.

Loop makes the playlist play every track once before starting over indefinitely once there are no other unique tracks left in the playlist.

Loop One makes the playlist play a single track indefinitely and never switchs to another one. The track played may be different across runs if used alongside Shuffle.

Shuffle Off makes the playlist follow the order of the tracks from top to bottom and go to the top of the next page once it reaches the bottom of a page. The starting track is always the top-most track of the first page.

Shuffle makes the playlist ignore the order of the tracks and randomly selects every track that is played. The same track cannot play twice in a row.

Particularities

Intro

Some specific tracks have their own dedicated intro. This starting section only plays if a track which possesses it is the very first track played during a run. Tracks which have their own intro includes: The Cyber Grind, UltraChurch, Hateful, Versus, Duel (Versus Reprise), Deep Blue, Order, and War.

Take Care

Due to the many different versions of Take Care throughout the game, this track behaves in a much more complex manner. If Take Care is listened to with the option Loop One, the track cycles through the different versions. It first plays the Shop Terminal version, then the Cyber Grind Terminal version, and finally the Prime Terminal version. This loop repeats three times before a new exclusive part plays. After the third instance of the Prime version, a vocal section follows. This is the only instance of the vocal part of Take Care playing in the game. Hearing this unique part takes around 8 minutes of only Take Care playing. Internally, 4 versions are played with only the instrumentals 3 times, and then the 2 next versions contains both separate parts of the vocals.

Patterns

The third menu allows the player to change the patterns used during the run, enabling this option disables leaderboard submissions on Steam. For more information about the pattern system, see Patterns.

Waves

The last menu can be used to change the starting wave. By default, starting a run sets the wave to 1. Using this menu, the player may set the wave they start their run from. The player begins with only wave 1, and waves 5, 10, 15, 20, or 25 visible and unselectable. To unlock higher starting waves, the player must reach the double of the starting wave. This means that unlocking wave 5 as a starting wave requires the player to reach wave 10, starting wave 10 requires wave 20, 15 requires 30, and so on. Reaching wave 60 and above unlocks an extra button with arrows which allows the player to start from wave 30 and above. The unlocked starting waves do not carry over difficulties. For example, if a player has reached wave 30 on Standard, but not on Lenient or Violent, they are able to start from wave 15 on Standard but not on these two other difficulties. If the last selected starting wave is higher than the available starting wave on the difficulty being played on, it defaults to 1. If it is available, the starting wave remains the same as the one already selected.

Enemies

Enemy Statistics

Enemy	Wave	Cost	Prefabs
Common
Filth	1	1	n
Stray	1	2	p
Schism	2	5	n
Drone	3	4	p
Soldier	4	4 + 2	p
Streetcleaner	5	5	n
Malicious Face	6	13 + 5	p
Cerberus	7	16 + 2	n
Swordsmachine	8	20 + 1	n
Mannequin	17	25 + 25	n
Gutterman	21	45 + 45	p
Uncommon
Stalker	12	20 + 30	n
Virtue	12	20 + 10	n, p
Sentry	16	30 + 20	n, p
Idol	18	30 + 50	n, p
Guttertank	24	40 + 40	n
Special
Mindflayer	16	55 + 35	n
Insurrectionist	21	75 + 125	n
Ferryman	22	55 + 55	n
Hideous Mass
Hideous Mass	10	45	H

Various enemies from throughout the main campaign are able to spawn in the Cyber Grind.

Each enemy has various strengths and weaknesses that can make or break runs.
For instance, enemies such as the Filth and Stray can provide much-needed style, health, and stamina when the player is weak, while enemies like the Mindflayer and Sisyphean Insurrectionist provide significant challenges on later waves that can end runs if players are not careful.

Mechanics

Once a new wave begins and the grid's pattern regenerates, the player regains all of their health and stamina and has all of the cooldowns of their weapons reset before enemies are spawned.

Points

The initial max point value is 10.

The max amount of points increases by 3 + Wave/3 every wave.
When starting from higher waves using the Cyber Grind Terminal, the above process is done for each skipped wave. Once the player dies during the Cyber Grind, the total accumulated number of points is awarded to the player, before displaying the leaderboards and returning the player to the Cyber Grind's entrance.

Hideous Masses

Hideous Masses are the first enemies to spawn, so they will spawn a couple of seconds before the rest of the enemies in the wave.

A Hideous Mass can only spawn while the wave has more than 70 points remaining. The maximum amount in a wave is capped; first at 0, then increasing by 1 every 10 waves.

After a Hideous Mass wave occurs, another cannot occur for 2 waves for each Hideous Mass spawned.

Uncommon Enemies

Uncommon Enemies

Enemy	Index	Waves/Cap	Max Cap	Buffer Waves
Virtue	0	5	8	0.5
Stalker	1	8	3	1
Sentry	2	5	6	0.5
Idol	3	8	5	1
Guttertank	4	20	3	0.5

Starting at wave 12, uncommon enemies are the next enemies to spawn.

Above wave 16, an additional enemy spawns in an uncommon spawn.
Above wave 24, an additional uncommon spawn occurs instead.

The enemies selected for each uncommon spawn are determined by 1 random range per spawn between 0 (inclusive) and the amount of available uncommon enemies (exclusive).

If an uncommon enemy is selected whose spawn wave is higher than the current wave, then previous enemies in the list are selected until a valid one is found or it reaches the start of the list.

For the second spawn (if one occurs), the above process is also repeated if both enemies are the same. If the list is exhausted, the second spawn does not occur.

There can only be a certain number of uncommon enemies in each uncommon spawn, depending on two limits.
The first limit is a random range between 0 (inclusive) and Wave/10 + 1 (exclusive).

If the uncommon buffer (see next paragraph) is at or below -0.5, then this range has a minimum value of 1 instead of 0.

The second limit starts at 0 per enemy, and increases by 1 every number of waves, up to a hard cap.

After an uncommon wave occurs, another cannot occur for a certain amount of waves, depending on the types of uncommons spawned.

If a spawn selects a Stalker or Idol, the buffer increases by 1 wave, while other enemies increase it by 0.5 waves.

This buffer decreases by 1 every non-uncommon wave. Note that if the game attempts to spawn uncommons, but fails to do so, the buffer does not decrease.
Uncommon spawns can occur if the buffer is at or below 0.5.

Special Enemies

Special Enemy Statistics

Enemy	Index
Mindflayer	0
Insurrectionist	1
Ferryman	2

Starting at wave 16, special enemies are the next enemies to spawn.

For each Hideous Mass that was spawned and each uncommon spawn that occurred, specials are blocked from spawning for 1 wave.
The threshold at which Hideous Masses and uncommon spawns begin blocking specials increases by 1 every 10 waves.

The amount of specials that can spawn is determined by a random range between 0 (inclusive) and Wave/10 - Hideous Masses - Uncommon Spawns + 1 (exclusive).

If the special buffer (see last paragraph) is at or below -2, then this range has a minimum value of 1 instead of 0.

Special enemies are selected by first picking a random entry on the list of specials, going backwards on that list for subsequent enemies until the list is exhausted, then repeating the process.

After a special wave occurs, another cannot occur for an amount of waves equal to the amount of special enemies spawned.

This buffer increases by 1 for every special enemy spawned. It decreases by 1 every non-special wave.
Special spawns can occur if the buffer is at or below 0.

Common Enemies

Common enemies are the last enemies to spawn.
Each spawn has an interval of 0.1 seconds.

Radiance

Radiance Waves

Enemy	Amount Radiant
	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
Common
Filth	25	27	29	31	33	35	37	39	41	43
Stray	25	28	31	34	37	40	43	46	49	52
Schism	29	35	41	47	53	59	65	71	77	83
Drone	31	36	41	46	51	56	61	66	71	76
Soldier	33	38	43	48	53	58	63	68	73	78
Streetcleaner	35	41	47	53	59	65	71	77	83	89
Malicious Face	37	49	60	72	83	95	106	118	129	141
Cerberus	39	52	65	78	91	104	117	130	143	156
Swordsmachine	43	58	73	88	103	118	133	148	163	178
Mannequin	59	77	94	112	129	147	164	182	199	217
Gutterman	67	95	122	150	177	205	232	260	287	315
Uncommon
Stalker	49
Virtue	49	64	79
Sentry	57	77
Idol	61	81
Guttertank	73
Special
Mindflayer	55	88	120	153	185	218	250	283	315	348
Insurrectionist	65	108	150	193	235	278	320	363	405	448
Ferryman	69	102	134	167	199	232	264	297	329	362

At wave 25, enemy types begin gaining radiance, additionally increasing their cost. However, they do not get increased damage.

The first wave an enemy can spawn radiant at is determined by the equation ⌊Wave*2 + 25⌋

For each enemy afterwards, the required wave to spawn another radiant enemy increases depending on the enemy's spawn cost:

• Cost < 10: Waves = ⌊Cost + 1⌋
• Cost > 10: Waves = ⌊Cost/2 + 5⌋

All radiant enemies have a ×3 base cost, and radiant specials have a ×3 cost increase as well.

Radiant uncommon enemies count as 3 enemies towards their respective uncommon cap.

Patterns

Patterns are files used by the Cyber Grind's grid to shape itself into pre-determined terrain. Patterns are also used to define where stairs, jump pads, and enemies appear.

The Cyber Grind has a pool of 38 official patterns which are used by default. The player is given the ability to make their own patterns. These custom patterns can be used by enabling them in the Cyber Grind Terminal. Using custom patterns disables all score submissions to the Steam leaderboards.

Patterns consist of a 16 by 16 grid of cases that can each be set their own height and have their own assigned prefab.

Prefabs

Prefabs determine the spawn points for enemies and other items. They are denoted by a single character.

Enemies	Other
n (Melee) p (Projectile) H (Hideous Mass)	0 (None) J (Jump Pad) s (Stairs)

Each prefab can only spawn a single item or enemy on it, after which it can no longer be used.

Out of the 38 official patterns, 7 of them contain Hideous Masses.

File Format

Patterns are saved under the extension .cgp, which stands for "Cyber Grind Pattern". This file format is, however, only a .txt file with another extension replacing it. The file can generally be opened with any text editor.

Pattern files are written in a very similar manner to a matrix, where can be found 2 16x16 grids of data.

The upper grid contains the height data of the pattern using whole numbers. If a number is composed of two or more characters, it is surrounded by parentheses as to not be confused with other numbers (e.g., 10 is written (10) as to not be confused with 1, 0. This logic also applies to negative numbers.) One unit of height is equivalent to 1/2 of the width of a cube.

The lower grid contains the prefab data of the pattern. Each character represents a specific prefab for enemy/item spawn points.

Original Patterns

Pattern	Arena View	Name(s) Internal Name	Prefabs
		Skatepark 01	Melee: 30 Projectile: 41 Jump Pad: 0 Stairs: 112
		Single HiM 02	Hideous Mass: 1 Melee: 24 Projectile: 22 Jump Pad: 4 Stairs: 46
		Corner Jumps Parkour 03	Melee: 52 Projectile: 36 Jump Pad: 16 Stairs: 76
		Firing Squad Castle 04b	Melee: 32 Projectile: 32 Jump Pad: 2 Stairs: 86
		Fort Big Column 05	Melee: 40 Projectile: 28 Jump Pad: 6 Stairs: 58
		Double HiM 06	Hideous Mass: 2 Melee: 48 Projectile: 34 Jump Pad: 2 Stairs: 60
		Monument Pillars Jump Monument 07	Melee: 40 Projectile: 28 Jump Pad: 12 Stairs: 58
		Spires 08	Melee: 60 Projectile: 38 Jump Pad: 0 Stairs: 95
		Pits 09	Melee: 44 Projectile: 36 Jump Pad: 64 Stairs: 52
		Plateau King of the Hill 10	Melee: 50 Projectile: 36 Jump Pad: 4 Stairs: 108
		Funnel 11	Melee: 76 Projectile: 48 Jump Pad: 0 Stairs: 96
		Jump Center 12	Melee: 88 Projectile: 60 Jump Pad: 4 Stairs: 104
		Maze Labyrinth 13	Melee: 52 Projectile: 76 Jump Pad: 0 Stairs: 24
		Grand Staircase Stairway 14	Melee: 58 Projectile: 47 Jump Pad: 4 Stairs: 88
		Funnel Towers 15	Melee: 88 Projectile: 72 Jump Pad: 0 Stairs: 68
		Balconies Trenches 16	Hideous Mass: 2 Melee: 74 Projectile: 66 Jump Pad: 0 Stairs: 42
		Coldplay Stage 17	Melee: 64 Projectile: 60 Jump Pad: 0 Stairs: 72
		Bridge 18	Melee: 80 Projectile: 50 Jump Pad: 6 Stairs: 40

Community Patterns

Pattern	Arena View	Name(s) Internal Name Creator	Prefabs
		The Stage Double Decker loafing_theStage By: NO LOAFING	Hideous Mass: 2 Melee: 67 Projectile: 43 Jump Pad: 3 Stairs: 65
		Don't Get Soaked! dood_dontGetSoaked By: Dood	Melee: 73 Projectile: 30 Jump Pad: 14 Stairs: 76
		The Entrance splendid_theEntrance By: Splendid Ledraps	Melee: 54 Projectile: 58 Jump Pad: 4 Stairs: 64
		Steps jandy_steps By: Jandy	Melee: 48 Projectile: 56 Jump Pad: 0 Stairs: 74
		A14 stuon_a14 By: Stuon	Melee: 90 Projectile: 87 Jump Pad: 1 Stairs: 77
		A29 stuon_a29 By: Stuon	Melee: 54 Projectile: 58 Jump Pad: 32 Stairs: 112
		Hall dryzalar_hall By: Dryzalar	Melee: 88 Projectile: 54 Jump Pad: 8 Stairs: 60
		Triple Deck jandy_tripleDeck By: Jandy	Melee: 42 Projectile: 110 Jump Pad: 0 Stairs: 32
		Broken Bridge dood_brokenBridge By: Dood	Melee: 71 Projectile: 41 Jump Pad: 0 Stairs: 26
		Triple Threat loafing_tripleThreat By: NO LOAFING	Hideous Mass: 3 Melee: 55 Projectile: 47 Jump Pad: 4 Stairs: 62
		Overlook splendid_overlook By: Splendid Ledraps	Melee: 41 Projectile: 76 Jump Pad: 3 Stairs: 81
		Hopper wakan_hopper2 By: Wakan	Melee: 140 Projectile: 64 Jump Pad: 18 Stairs: 34
		Feast slimer_feast By: Slimer	Melee: 94 Projectile: 26 Jump Pad: 18 Stairs: 86
		Division william_division By: William	Melee: 68 Projectile: 38 Jump Pad: 4 Stairs: 64
		Catwalk jandy_catwalk By: Jandy	Melee: 44 Projectile: 56 Jump Pad: 0 Stairs: 82
		Hightower william_hightowerMass By: William	Hideous Mass: 1 Melee: 64 Projectile: 53 Jump Pad: 6 Stairs: 70
		Sniper Towers notabot_sniperTowers By: Bobot	Melee: 76 Projectile: 35 Jump Pad: 16 Stairs: 112
		Alt Marksman Marksman splendid_altMarksman By: Splendid Ledraps	Melee: 52 Projectile: 42 Jump Pad: 4 Stairs: 69
		Gravel spruce_gravel By: Spruce	Melee: 30 Projectile: 26 Jump Pad: 0 Stairs: 24
		Royal Guard jacob_royalGuard By: Jacob	Hideous Mass: 1 Melee: 167 Projectile: 34 Jump Pad: 6 Stairs: 28