THE STRONGMAN

• ELITE

THE STRONGMAN is a named elite somewhere off the campaign path.

He built a west where the maps do not shrink and the robots surrender daily, because out there the maps kept shrinking and nobody surrendered. He holds the town square against opponents he wrote himself, and he is losing again.

Where you meet it

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 3.5× speed with its blows carrying 1.5× damage. The bearing locks at the START of the windup, so a sidestep beats it. Once every 6s.
• RALLY CRYIt roots for 0.7s first, and then it shouts. Everything hostile within 230 comes at you 28% faster and hits 24% 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 12.5s.
• QUAKE LINEIt roots for 0.7s first — the bearing LOCKS — then the ground splits away from it along that line: 6 fissures, one every 32, opening 0.1s apart in order, each biting 68% of its contact damage within 22. 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 10.5s.

What it drops

Every kill pays one medkit and one XP scroll.

Its drops roll 30% better on the rarity ladder than the level's ordinary loot.

Guaranteed pieces by rarity: 1 magic. 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
• THE PERPETUAL CALENDAR
• THE MINUTE REPEATER

Story items

• THE ANNEXATION MAP

What it says

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