Ultimate Gatekeeper

> *Seeing the stars again has nearly reminded me of my mission.*
>
>

The **Ultimate Gatekeeper** is the main boss of The Bridge in the level of the same name. It is the fifth and final boss of the game.

## Ultimate Gatekeeper

### Discs

Shard, Ultimate Gatekeeper, Golden Gatekeeper, unnamed Hyper Hunter-like disc

## Appearance

As with most discs the Ultimate Gatekeeper will begin in the center of the room. Notably, unlike other discs but like other Gatekeepers, the disc is visible from the level select screen and instead of "spawning" will simply start moving when the player begins.

Before activating, the Ultimate Gatekeeper appears as simply a larger golden orb. It is assumed this is a ruse, however, as once activated it quickly reveals a vast array of black ornate spikes with white sharp spikes underneath. It has a black body with a white worn ring around its central orb. When it transforms into the Golden Gatekeeper, its white border becomes black and its black body becomes golden. Its ring becomes brown, and the area inside the ring remains black.

## Behavior

The Ultimate Gatekeeper has the most complex behavior of any Gatekeeper, with 3 separate phases that must be overcome before the boss is defeated:

1. The Ultimate Gatekeeper mimics and combines the abilities of earlier discs. When attacking, it will spin in place for a moment, then charge at the player. Once it hits a wall, it will briefly create a large green area that slows the player's movement, and fire a line of Shards in every direction. After this sequence, it will hover around freely for a few seconds before repeating the attack. The 25-panel white floor from all Bridge levels is present in this phase, and to complete this phase the player must touch every panel on screen as usual. After this, the Ultimate Gatekeeper will release a final brief slow-field, every other disc on screen will despawn instantly, and the next phase will commence.
2. The Ultimate Gatekeeper will hover around constantly, weakly changing direction. It will periodically release large discs that have a similar behavior to Hunters, but they are much bigger and more difficult to avoid. These unnamed discs do not despawn until the phase is complete, so the player must be quick or they will be overwhelmed. Once again the 25-panel floor is present and the player must touch every panel to proceed.
3. Once this phase begins, the Ultimate Gatekeeper will glide into the center of the room and stay there. Then, it will fire a line of Shards in one direction. It alternates between firing long lines and short bursts of about 5 shards. It repeats this attack constantly, firing in a different direction every time. Additionally, it gains an ability to gradually pull the player towards it, killing them if they get too close. This pull ability gets stronger as it takes damage. In this phase, the floor will remain entirely white and panels cannot be flipped - instead, golden orbs spawn and 10 of them must be collected to pass this phase. Once the tenth orb is collected for the first time, the Gatekeeper will spin on the spot, shake with lots of small explosions, and finally burst apart, allowing the player to collect the huge golden orb inside it and see the last progression comic. If the player has beaten the Ultimate Gatekeeper already, it will immediately transform into the Golden Gatekeeper and restart the fight from phase 1.

The Golden Gatekeeper is a far more difficult version of the Ultimate Gatekeeper that makes every phase much more dangerous:

1. After charging, the Golden Gatekeeper produces longer lines of Shards, making them more difficult to dodge.
2. The Golden Gatekeeper spawns large hunters much more quickly, allowing them to swarm the player much faster.
3. The Golden Gatekeeper fires lines of Shards faster.

If the Golden Gatekeeper is defeated in phase 3, it will simply restart from phase 1 once again (with exponentially harder phases still).

## Hard Mode

Due to the storyline, the Ultimate Gatekeeper's room is not available in Hardmode. This makes it the only non-gold, non-???? room that has no Hardmode counterpart.

## Gallery

The Ultimate GatekeeperThe Golden GatekeeperThe Ultimate Gatekeeper's Discs entryThe Golden Gatekeeper's Discs entry
## Trivia

* Each of the Ultimate Gatekeeper's phases seems to incorporate some of the various abilities the player can unlock:
	+ Phase 1: Dash, Slow, Blast
	+ Phase 2: Clone
	+ Phase 3: Absorb
* The Golden Gatekeeper is the only "post-defeat" Gatekeeper that is not a ruined version of its previous counterpart, nor does it have "Remains" in the title.
* The final phase makes this level the only Bridge level that, at least to some degree, does not incorporate floor panels as the only form of score.
* During the final phase, the Ultimate Gatekeeper has a different appearance. It swaps its black, wavy spokes for sharper white spikes that extend right out of its orb core, with a smaller array of black spikes which spin in the opposite direction. This distinction is carried forward to the Golden Gatekeeper as well.