THE STRONGMAN

• ELITE
• THE BUNKER

THE STRONGMAN is a named elite on THE BUNKER, a place of security.

A bathrobed backup from a continuity-of-leadership programme, filed down here in case the original was ever needed again. He remembers dying in a theme park and calls it a good vintage; how many of him there are is a state secret, even from the state.

Where you meet it

THE BUNKER

It is placed by hand on THE BUNKER and waits at its post until you come close.

What to know

• THE ENTRANCECloses at 110/s until it has said its piece, then fights at its own pace.
• WHAT IT WAS CARRYINGA shift's pay, and only about one body in five is carrying any of it when it falls.
• WHEN STRUCKIt bleeds. A blow that overwhelms it bursts it, and there is a face among what lands.

Mechanics

Every dangerous move is telegraphed — it roots, it winds up, and you get the beat you need to be somewhere else.

• CHARGEInside 170 it locks its bearing, roots for 0.7s, then dashes 221 along that line at 3.6× speed with its blows carrying 1.5× damage. The bearing locks at the START of the windup, so a sidestep beats it. Once every 5.5s.
• RALLY CRYIt roots for 0.7s first, and then it shouts. Everything hostile within 230 comes at you 26% faster and hits 22% harder for 6.5s — and wakes up, if it was not already. It does nothing to you at all, which is exactly why it is dangerous: the answer is not a dodge, it is deciding to kill the one doing the shouting first. Once every 12s.
• QUAKE LINEIt roots for 0.7s first — the bearing LOCKS — then the ground splits away from it along that line: 6 fissures, one every 34, opening 0.1s apart in order, each biting 70% of its contact damage within 24. Nothing travels — it stays where it is and the floor does the walking. A step SIDEWAYS is the whole answer, and the further out you are the longer you have to take it. Once every 10s.

What it drops

Every kill pays one piece of gear, one medkit and one XP scroll.

Its drops roll 40% better on the rarity ladder than the level's ordinary loot.

Guaranteed pieces by rarity: 1 rare and 1 magic, and a 50% chance of one more. A rarity the monster's own level has not unlocked yet is skipped, so the same fight pays better on a harder rung.

Always drops

• THE CHRONOGRAPH

What it says

Spoilers for this fight, covered until you ask for them.

What this scene is part of — everything said and found around it — is its chapter of the story.