Blue Cultist

The **Blue Cultist** (**Insane Cultist** in their home game) is an enemy in ***Section 2 - Oh, Mother*** that is first encountered right after exiting the cave to Happy Happy Village and in several other places around the village.

They originate from Earthbound.

## Blue Cultist

* Normal
* Injured
* Overworld

### Music playing

Battle Against an Unsettling Opponent (Earthbound)

### ACTs

Check, Paint, Join, Refuse, S-Action, N-Action

## Attacks

#### Balls of paint

* While the SOUL will be in BLUE mode, several balls of white and blue paint will travel horizontally in between platforms. The blue balls of paint can be dodged by standing still, and they will also travel significantly faster than the white ones.

#### Art Attack

* Several paint brushes will swing horizontally and vertically across the Bullet Board, leaving white lines of paint as they travel. Since the Paint Brushes' roads are blue, they can be dodged by standing still as they touch the SOUL.

In case there is more than one Blue Cultist, each one will perform the same attack, but slightly harder.

Additionally, during the Obliteration Route, if one Cultist is killed, any others alive will become vengeful, making their attacks drastically more intense.

White and blue balls of paint.The Blue Cultist's paint brushes, leaving damaging white trails.
## Mercy

The Blue Cultist can be spared through a sequence of ACTs to fill the Mercy Bar to 100%, or making them reach Low HP. Each ACT will affect the Blue Cultist in different ways. What each ACT will do is listed below:

* **Paint**, **S-Action** and **N-Action** will fill the Blue Cultist's Mercy bar by 25%, which additionally will paint Kris' body blue.
	+ If Paula is in the party, the **Paint** ACT will fill the Mercy bar by 75% instead, and she will also be painted blue.
* The **Join** ACT will fill the Blue Cultist's Mercy bar by 100% after getting hit once by an attack. **[Requires Noelle to be present]**
	+ Additionally, Kris and Noelle's bodies will both be painted blue.
* The **Refuse** ACT will fill the Blue Cultist's Mercy bar by 100% after not taking damage by an attack. **[Requires Susie to be present]**

## Strategy

The Blue Cultist can be a bit of a handful to deal with, especially for players that haven't seen blue attacks in a long time. Sleep Mist won't be any help here as there is no way to make the Blue Cultist TIRED, so you will either have to use ACTs or get them to Low HP.

The fastest way to fill the Blue Cultist's Mercy Bar to 100% is to either use the *Join* ACT or the *Refuse* ACT, but they both have different requirements to work. The former requires you to actually get hit in order to fill the Mercy Bar to 100% while the latter requires you to not get hit for one turn. Failing to fulfil the requirements will make the ACT fail, meaning you will have to try again.

While the *Join* ACT is the easiest of the two, it will mean that you will take damage as a result, so only use it if you have enough HP to survive. You should only use the *Refuse* ACT if you are confident enough that you understand the attacks. Either way, both of these ACTs carry their own risk.

There is another strategy you can use if you don't want to use the *Join* ACT or the *Refuse* ACT, but it only works if Paula is in the Team. Once Paula joins your team as a Mini Party Member, Kris' *Paint* ACT will become stronger, which will increase the Blue Cultist's Mercy Bar by 75% instead of 25%. So you can simply use the *Paint* ACT and follow it with either *S-Action* or *N-Action* to spare the Blue Cultist in one turn.

During the Obliteration Route, in case of multiple Cultists in a fight, It is strongly advised to reduce their HP as low as possible before starting to kill them, as to deal with their increased attacks intensity for as little as possible.

## Quotes

* Blue, blue. **[Neutral]**
* Your SOUL is too red **[Neutral]**
* I shall paint you blue **[Neutral]**
* Join us! **[Neutral]**
* Happy-happism is the answer. **[Neutral]**
* W-what have you...?! **[After another Blue Cultist is killed]**
* E-enough of this!!! **[After another Blue Cultist is killed]**
* K... killers! **[After another Blue Cultist is killed]**
* I will avenge you, my friend... **[After another Blue Cultist is killed]**
* Noelle: Will you leave us alone if you paint us blue? **[Join ACT]**
* Susie: Keep your cult shit away from us. **[Refuse ACT]**
* Susie: Heheheh.... Looks like we taught THEM a lesson! **[If Blue Cultist Fled, first Encounter]**

## Flavor Text

* *Blue Cultist ambushes you!* **[Encounter]**
* *Two cultists come to paint you blue!* **[Encounter with another cultist]**
* *Two cultists are ordered to attack you!* **[Encounter with 2 cultists after Paula joins the Party]**
* *Three cultists block your way!* **[Encounter with two other Cultists]**
* *True believer in Happy-happism. Wants to paint the world blue.* **[Check]**
* *Smells like paint.* **[Neutral]**
* *Looks like the cultist wants to paint you.* **[Neutral]**
* *Blue Cultist stares right through you.* **[Neutral]**
* *The cultist's paintbrush sways to and fro.* **[Neutral]**
* *Blue Cultist is losing their grip.* **[Low HP]**
* *Blue Cultist is satisfied with your dedication to blue.* **[100% Mercy]**
* *You painted your whole body blue.* **[Paint ACT]**
* *Susie ate some blue chalk. The cultist seemed pleased.* **[S-Action]**
* *Noelle performed some ice magic. The cultist seemed impressed.* **[N-Action]**
* *(Noelle encouraged you to **get hit** this turn!)* **[Join ACT]**
* *(Susie encouraged you to **avoid getting hit** this turn!)* **[Refuse ACT]**Kris painted blue (Note, only the head is visible in combat).Noelle painted blue (Note: only the head will be visible).Paula painted blue (Note: only the head will be visible).The paintbrush in one of the blue cultists's attacks.