Asmodeus

He is by far the most dangerous enemy in Dungeon Nightmares II, stealing the spotlight (or rather the “spotdark”) from Mary. Asmodeus is a little boy, looking more like a shadow, with glowing red eyes. He can be encountered from Night 4 onward. In Nights 4 and 5, he must first be released from a chest, in order to pose a threat, but in Nights 6 and 7 he is usually already free, wandering around the dungeon. Only in rare cases might he be trapped in a chest in Night 6. Alternatively, only in Nights 6 and 7, it seems he can be summoned when the player collects the Cursed Note (still an unproven theory).

## Behavior / Mechanics

When Asmodeus is trapped, if the player opens the chest, Asmodeus will be coming out of it and then he disappears, landing a hit on the player at the same time. A message also appears on-screen: “WHAT HAVE I RELEASED?”. After that, he spawns somewhere in the dungeon, close to the location he was released. The same seems to happen if the player collects the Cursed Note when playing Night 7.

- When he is free, he spawns, disappears and respawns at diferent places in the dungeon.

- He never spawns when Mary is already around. Only one of them can be around at a time. She has to disappear first, until his turn to spawn comes. Who will spawn next is probably random (except for Night 7, where the pattern is as follows: Mary, Mary, Asmodeus, Asmodeus, Asmodeus, Asmodeus, ...), although Mary tends spawn early and Asmodeus tends to spawn later. In short, his mechanics are listed below:

- He is invisible

- He can walk through closed doors without opening them.

- He doesn’t seem to know the player’s location.

- Once he finds the player, he will start following them.

- He instantly kills the player when too close.

- Once freed from the chest, he will be already free in the next nights. This means that if the player happens to find and free Asmodeus as early as in Night 4, then one more threat will hinder the player's attempt to finish the game from that night onward.

Losing him is easy, because he is moving very slowly (slower than Mary). However, in Night 7, he is more aggressive. When the player realizes Asmodeus is coming and run away, if the player increases the distance too much, Asmodeus will move a little faster, so, that there is a certain maximum distance between the player and Asmodeus. When Asmodeus enters the player's wide radius, he starts moving slowly again, giving the player enough time to plan their next escape route in their head. The reasons he is the most fearsome enemy are the facts that he is **invisible** and he can **instantly kill** the player. The only way the player can sense his presence is by hearing his footsteps. The sound of his footsteps is nothing like Mary’s footsteps, it sounds more like a door knocking, but with the hits coming at a low frequency. It can be easily mistaken for a knocking sound coming from a chest nearby. It isn’t loud, so, headphones are strongly recommended. Moreover, the player really needs to concentrate. To tell where Asmodeus is coming from, headphones alone are not enough. In addition, the player has to look at the map, as Asmodeus could be walking in another hallway next to one the player is, or coming from somewhere in the same hallway or chamber as the player. When he is close to the player, sparking will momentarily reveal Asmodeus, making it easier to run around him when inside a chamber. He can be seen as a dark, demon-like little boy, walking. If he gets too close to the player (like a meter or two), screen-shaking occurs, as a warning sign and Asmodeus' voice can be heard. If the player doesn't react immediately and run away, Asmodeus will instantly kill them. A very sudden and scary jumpscare occurs and the game ends in defeat.

## Tips regarding Asmodeus

- Keeping a candle lit won’t reveal Asmodeus.

- If you hear Asmodeus and you just got out of a room, you're lucky! Wait for him in the room and spark repeatedly, if no skeletons are around. Otherwise, trust your ears and use the best time to spark only once. Use this opportunity to go around him, exit the room and leave him behind you!

- When cornered by Asmodeus in a dead end, or on the way to a dead end, death is inevitable. Quitting and retrying the Night is advised.

## Development Trivia

- In earlier versions [Patch 0.7.3 and earlier], Asmodeus could appear even in Night 1 [Considering that there were only 2 dungeons in 0.7.3]. But because a lot of players complained that Asmodeus is too powerful and they couldn't progress through the Alpha version. As a result, Asmodeus was removed from the Alpha and was replaced by Mary. In the full release however, he was re-added, but in the later levels of the game, as stated above.