Axe of the Black Labyrinth (Boss)

**Axe of the Black Labyrinth** is the final boss of The Black Labyrinth DLC. It is both the treasure of the Labyrinth and the great challenge that Wanderer must face to wield the weapon itself and become the Champion of the Ancients.

## Appearance

The boss is an animated version of the Axe; it's an alien entity with dark and red skin color, twisted body, 6 arms, 2 legs and Axe-shaped head with 4 red glowing eyes.

The Axe loses 4 arms throughout the battle and, by the end of it, transforms into the actual weapon.

### Introduction

The Axe awaits its challenger in the a dark room inside of a mountain, lit by the light of the moon coming from the windows. Once the player steps inside the boss stands up, takes 5 weapons from the wall behind it, says "Come, take it" and teleports to the first arena.

## Behavior

The battle goes through six stages with different attack patterns, most of which predict player's movement:

* **Stage 1:** Axis swings its sword 360° in the air to create a yellow wide energy slash.
* **Stage 2:** Aches charges its magical lamp to fire a heat beam that will follow the player for a few seconds.
* **Stage 3:** Axe (not deodorant) jumps high in the air and drops a bomb that explodes on impact and releases numerous fragments of it.
* **Stage 4:** Axolotl thumps the water with its shield, creating a wave that will push the player into the spikes that surround the arena. Then it uses a giant wand to shoot 6-7 projectiles towards the player's next position.
* **Stage 5:** Axcalibur's head goes off flying in the air and tries to hit the player while the body uses a ring blade to pull them toward it and bash with a shield, causing the player to fall in the purple lava zones.
* **Stage 6:** Axel steals all mana and uses its 2 remaining hands to continuously beat the hell out of the player.

## Tactics

This is the ultimate challenge that defines your status as **the Champion**.

The most important and universal strategy for the entirety of the fight is to learn the attack patterns and signals. Each phase has only one attack, but they predict your movement and hit hard, especially on higher difficulties. Knowing when and how to react is very important.

In most phases, do your best to stay away from the boss at all times to get more room for dodging the attacks, and pay attention as it can cut the distance between you surprisingly quick.

* Phase 1 attack has a highly telegraphed attack and it's horizontal range is somewhat big, so time your jumps or crouches depending on if the boss is on the same level as you or not. Since the arena has many pickups lying around it is good to get as much resources as possible before the next phase.
* Phase 2 attack is quite unavoidable on its own, but thankfully the stage gives you many statues of The Watcher that you can use as a cover. Despite the great amount of them, statues get destroyed very easily if exposed to the beam long enough and they do not reappear, meaning you have to end this phase quickly. Watch the colour of the statue to tell how close it is to getting demolished (the lighter blue, the closer).
* Phase 3 is all about constantly running. Or rather, remember Solar Saint (if you played the base game before DLC) and apply the same tactic of rapidly changing directions when the Axe follows you. Keep in mind that the bomb drops as soon as the boss reaches the highest position during its attack. And don't forget about the fragments of the bomb as they deal damage as well.
* Phase 4 puts you into an arena full of spikes around it where the Axe creates waves of water to knock you into them. Try to stay away from the boss in order to swim out of the waves as they are fast, but not too wide. The projectile cluster it shoots in your next position afterwards has a huge spread and isn't accurate, so do your best to just change your position when you see them flying.
* Phase 5 is like playing "floor is a lava" with a side of bullying. Once again, always stay on the move and pay attention to the floor, as purple magma hurts a lot. The ring blade attack doesn't deal damage, but it can send you into lava and distract you from the flying head, so watch out for the activation cue and quickly weave aside. The only way to evade the spinning Axe is to shoot at it when it's about to hit you, which is also the way to damage the boss.
* Phase 6 is more of a finale than the hardest end phase. Your entire mana will be gone, leaving you with just soul-powered Gauntlets. Thankfully, the soul mode is endless, so all you have to do is to get closer to the Axe and beat the shit out of it.

### Tips

* There is a secret before entering the boss room with some powerups. *Just follow the river.*
* The third stage has a mana boost at the center of it.
* The fourth stage has a full health powerup.

## Facts & trivia

* The Axe is one of the few entities that have actually recognizable voice lines, the others being Champion, Voice of the Ancients, ????? and The Watcher.
	+ Also voiced by Andrew 'trashcanman' Hulshult.
* The Axe's animations were made by Domenico Antonazzo - an animator, game developer and certified dumbass.
* All of the Axe's attacks resemble other types of attacks from various enemies:
	+ The wide slash in Stage 1 is similar to Sol Butcher's purple energy slash.
	+ Magic lamp's laser beam in Stage 2 is similar to The Evil's green mana attack.
	+ The bomb's explosion in Stage 3 is similar to Giant Protector's heated stones.
	+ The wand it uses in Stage 4 is the same that of a Knight's of the Labyrinth.
	+ The ring blade pull and the shield bash in Stage 5 are similar to Overseer's attacks, while the flying head resembles Saw Drone's hot saw blades.
	+ And finally, the MUDA MUDA in Stage 6 is the same as soul-powered ORA ORA.
* The Axe is one of bosses who has multiple phases, the others being Corrupt Spirit, Solar Saint, The Evil and Storm Spirit.
	+ Out of the five, however, he's the only one to have each phase take place on a different arena.

## Gallery

* Introduction
* Stage 1 attack
* Stage 2 attack
* Stage 3 attack
* Stage 4 attack
* Stage 5 attack
* Stage 6 attack