The End

This article contains significant spoilers regarding Beneath, proceed with caution.

## The End

* Appearance
* Rune

### Enemy Type

Elder God
Melee

## Statistics

### Damage

Depends on attack

**The End** is the main antagonist and final boss of Beneath. It is encountered near the red spiral in Fire and Blood after going through the portal at the end of the level.

## Description

The End appears to be a sort of demon or shadow like character with magma like armor, wielding a glowing great sword. Its armor is likely made of stone and has lava coursing through it like veins. Its true appearance is simply a completely dark brawler which will be revealed in full once the player deactivates the towers.

## Reaching the End

### Step One: The Key

As the last Elder God in Beneath, the only way to reach the End is if the player has obtained the Key: a rune symbol implanted on the back of the player's hand after beating the Necromancer, the Aberration and the Trickster. This is because the entrance to Fire and Blood is blocked off by a stone door with the Rune symbols of the Elder Gods carved into it. This door is located on a bridge area that can be reached by beating either the Necromancer or the Aberration (beating the Trickster only sends the player back to "Caves - II").

After obtaining the Key, the door's rune symbols will glow and the door will open. If the player has not obtained the Key by the time they reach the bridge, the door will remain closed. As such, the player will be forced to enter the Iron Maiden provided to them by two friendly Minions, ending the player's run and sending them back to the Facility. As soon as the requirements for obtaining the Key are met, the Iron Maiden will be disabled.

### Step Two: Fire and Blood

Beating Fire and Blood requires the player to reach its exit just like any other level, which is a portal that will send the player to the End's abode. However, Fire and Blood still has it's twists and turns. The level itself is built around multiple gauntlets against a variety of monsters: each island the player travels to will have random enemies (Shard Lords may be included) spawn on the island while the player is blocked from progressing further by the paths of rock sinking beneath the lava, requiring the player to kill all enemies present to progress. Furthermore, multiple Pursuers will periodically chase after the player. The Pursuers here can be killed with Ancient Weaponry.

## Abilities and powers

* **Sword Swing:** The End will simply swing it's sword at the player at close range.
* **Kick:** The End may also try to kick the player at close range.
* **Sword Slam:** The End will raise its sword and slam it into the ground, creating a series of small, bloody explosions that travel in a straight line towards the player's direction.
* **Shockwave:** When approached, the End may kneel down and unleash a shockwave which will damage the player if they are within the shockwave's radius. The damage dealt to the player depends on how close they are to the End.
* **Hell Rain:** The End will cause molten rocks to rain from the sky, which explode upon hitting the ground. The player will be pre-emptively warned where the rocks will land by several beams of light descending on the arena.
* **Shard Lord Summon:** Two random Shard Lords will be summoned at once, and the player must deal with them in order to bring down the shield towers. The End will not attack the player while the Shard Lords are still alive, as he will sit down on his throne and wait. The Shard Lords spawn in this order:
	+ The Pyro and the Centurion.
	+ The Crawler and the Beast.
	+ The Golem and the Deceiver.
* **Forcefield:** While the Shard Lords are summoned, the shield towers in the arena will protect the End with a red forcefield, leaving him immune to all forms of damage. Two of these towers at a time will sink into the ground upon their respective Shard Lords being killed, at which point The End will get up off the throne to attack again. Once all towers have sunken into the ground The End will be vulnerable to damage for the rest of the fight. Bringing the laser katana to the fight will immediately drop two towers at the cost of it disappearing.
* **Raising the Dead:** Skeletons will continuously climb onto the arena from the lava to aid the End. They wield either Obsidian or Ancient weaponry and more or less act the same as zombies.

## Strategy

* The End is immune to any attacks. Even powers such as Smite and Berserk will not even stun him. The way to make him vulnerable to damage is to avoid all of his attacks and wait for him to summon the Shard Lords to attack the player. The player will be forced to fight two Shard Lords per phase, and killing each pair will deactivate two of the six shield towers. Once the End's shield is shut down, you can attack him normally.
* While avoiding the End's attacks, players should take out the numerous Skeletons crawling out of the lava to avoid being overwhelmed.
* The biggest danger in the fight are the six Shard Lords themselves as not only will the player be forced to fight two of them at once per wave, some of the Shard Lords, such as the Crawler or the Deceiver, can deal devastating amounts of damage if the player does not keep their wits about them.
* Lightning will strike every now and then during the fight, and will become more frequent each time two shield towers are deactivated. The End's true form will be briefly revealed whenever this happens and may leave him temporarily vulnerable to damage because of this. If a player has enough patience, they can quickly land a hit on the End whenever lightning strikes.
* After finding the Laser Katana hidden in The Construct, bringing the weapon all the way to the End will disable four of the six pillars protecting the End, speeding up the fight significantly. As such, the Golem and the Deceiver will be the only Shard Lords required to kill. Be aware that the Laser Katana is lost this way, so make sure to bring a second powerful weapon to the fight.

## Trivia

* The large sword the End wields is similar in appearance to the Laser Katana in the Sandbox and the one wielded by the Construct Pursuer in The Construct. Coupled with the fact that the Laser Katana, when brought into the End fight will remove 4 towers, the sword may be a larger form of the Laser Katana.
* As the true appearance of the End is radically different from its superficial form, it gives a hint of the End's personality as being grandiose and narcissistic. Similar to the Trickster.
* Prior to Ver 0.14.0, the End was noticeably slower and weaker than its current incarnation.

## Gallery

One of the towers that protect The EndThe End in its strong formThe End in its weak form