Pole Monarch

> "*The Pole Monarch who perches on top of the Jokul can not only strafe with a variety of weapons transformed from its Demonic Aura, but can also quickly approach and slash their enemy with an ice sword. In combat, the Pole Monarch can take advantage of spiritual aura to enhance themselves. All your firepower will be needed to achieve a quick victory.*"
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**Pole Monarch** is the fourth and final boss in *Gunfire Reborn*. The player can face against Pole Monarch at Jade Summit at the end of the Hyperborean Jokul, once Yoruhime-Maru has been defeated at least once on a previous run.

## Battle

The Pole Monarch has a variety of powerful ranged and close quarters attacks and should not be underestimated. Both  Fire? and  Lightning? weapons will be useful here, depending on what phase he is currently in.

A bar appears below his  Health?, indicating how much spiritual aura he has gathered. Over time this bar will increase, making him more powerful as the battle goes on. Heroes taking damage or getting hit (even if they would normally take no damage, including when knocked down in Multiplayer) will fill this bar faster.

As the spiritual aura bar fills, he will gain 2 of 4 enhancements, once when the bar reaches 25%, and again when it reaches 60%:

* Shield Enhancement: gains a  Shield? based on 30% of his maximum Health.
* Wave Enhancement: When attacking with his energy waves, 3 will be fired in a spread instead of 1.
* Area Enhancement: Doubles the area of effect of his weapon construct attack.
* Dash Enhancement: Whenever he dashes, a trail of demonic aura is left behind, damaging heroes who step on it. This can be avoided by jumping over it.

Once the bar is full he will enter a rage state, pursuing heroes and slashing at them almost endlessly.

### Phase 1

Phase 1 lasts for most of the battle. During this phase he will attack the heroes relentlessly in an attempt to end the fight quickly, dashing at them to deliver melee strikes, or creating weapons to fire upon the heroes. By default he only has Health, so  Fire? weapons should be used.

Once he reaches 75% and 40% Health (or has nearly gained the first and second enhancement), he will become invincible and rush over to one of two spiritual aura jars at the edge of the arena, where he will begin draining them to enhance himself faster.

While he is draining an aura jar, a single weapon construct will appear above him for each player, firing once per second for the first aura jar, or twice per second for the second jar.  Area Enhancement will also increase the area of these attacks, making dealing with the jars especially dangerous.

Dealing enough damage to the aura jar will destroy it, preventing it from being used anymore. Additionally the aura jar will drop ammo.

Once his Health reaches 5% he will enter his second phase.

### Phase 2

He will briefly become invincible, dashing over to the center of the battlefield where he will thrust his sword into the ground and begin charging it. This grants him a Shield that must be broken through to finish him off. Since he has a lot of Shields,  Lightning? weapons should be used.

While this is happening all weapons do not consume ammo, primary skills do not go on cooldown ( Spiritual Flame quickly recovers all energy) and secondary skills do not consume uses, letting everyone unleash massive amounts of damage upon him. Additionally weapons deal double damage, and skills deal triple damage.

Weapons that need to reload often, such as  Angelic Aura,  Aura of Venom,  Wild Hunt,  Deafening Mortar and  Tiger Cannon can deal greatly increased damage, due to not needing to reload. Similarly, skills such as  Swords Out and  Striking Punch with  Wave-breaking Blow can also be highly effective.

Note: Ammo, secondary skill uses and primary skill cooldown are **not** refilled or refreshed. If you cannot fire or use a skill, it still won't work.

Heroes have only 10 seconds to completely deplete his Shield and finish off the final 5% health. If they do not kill him when the time is up, a cutscene happens where the Pole Monarch will finish charging his sword, throwing it at the massive Spiritual Jade crystal nearby. This causes it to start shattering, starting the third and significantly harder phase.

### Phase 3

He will start attacking the heroes relentlessly again, but the spiritual aura bar will always be full, causing him to enter his rage state. Additionally all 4 enhancements will be active instead of only 2, making him far harder to deal with. He will no longer resort to using Weapon Constructs, instead relying purely on Sword Slash, Energy Wave and Enraged Slashes.

While this is happening, rocks will be continuously falling down onto the battlefield, causing damage to heroes in a small area on impact and creating even more hazards to deal with.

Due to the high speed of Pole Monarch, the trails demonic aura that all his dashes leave and the constantly falling rocks, heroes will need to be either durable, fast or both in order to withstand the onslaught enough to finish him off.

### Attacks

Sword Slash

Pole Monarch will dash to a player and cleave a large area in front of him, dealing high damage and staggering anyone hit. Moving away from the attack is enough to avoid it.

Energy Wave

Pole Monarch will dash to a player and slam his sword into the ground, projecting a wave of energy forward. Dashing to the side is enough to avoid it.

With the  Wave Enhancement active, avoiding it is significantly harder, since dashing to the side will now get you hit by the extra waves. Instead, dash diagonally backwards to give distance away from the spread, while still avoiding the center wave.

Enraged Slashes

Only occurs when both aura containers have been destroyed. Pole Monarch will growl before performing 2 Sword Slashes and 1 Energy Wave in quick succession, dashing to the player each time.

The attacks can be dodged normally, but the increased speed makes it harder to avoid.

Weapon Constructs

Pole Monarch will construct 4 weapons above him and several circle marks below you. Each weapon will fire at a mark, dealing damage in a small area of effect. When the spiritual aura bar is at least 60% full, 6 weapons are constructed. Ammo is dropped when they break after firing.

With the  Area Enhancement active, the area of effect is doubled.

Orb Spiral

Immediately occurs after breaking both aura containers and rarely afterwards, but stops being used at full spiritual aura. Pole Monarch will construct several weapons which orbit and rotate around him. Each weapon constantly fires purple energy orbs outwards.

Players must constantly move around him in order to avoid taking constant, massive damage. Staying closer to the center will lower the distance you need to move. Alternatively, staying far away can allow you to weave between the orbs, since they are more spread apart.

## Reincarnation 9

On Reincarnation level 9, Pole Monarch gains spiritual aura significantly faster, causing him to gain enhancements and reach his rage state much sooner.

## Mysterious Jokul

Mysterious Jokul makes the fight against Pole Monarch much harder.

* Pole Monarch receives a 2.1x  Health? and  Shields?/ Armor? modifier per Reincarnation level, instead of a 1.6x modifier. (From 4.0x to 4.5x at R1, and 13.6x to 17.1 at R7/8.)
	+ This does not apply to the phase 2 Shield, which remains at its non-Mysterious Jokul amount.
* There is always a Challenge Event even if difficulty is not Reincarnation 8.
* Pole Monarch will gain all 4 enhancements instead of 2, achieved at 20%, 40%, 60% and 80% aura bar charge.
* Sword Slash, Energy Wave, Enraged Slashes and Orb Spiral are accompanied by an additional weapon construct that constantly fires for the duration of the attack.
* When playing with teammates, each time Pole Monarch begins to drain an aura jar, an invincible clone of Pole Monarch will be created and attack the player with all enhancements active. This can happen up to twice, and lasts until phase 2.
	+ These clones can still take damage but cannot be defeated.

## Notes

* Effects that directly damage  Health? or deliver an  Instant Kill?, such as  Bloody Drill,  Penetration Bullet and  Bladed Cleave do not work during phase 2, preventing players from ending the fight quickly.
* The phase 2  Shield? is equivalent to 72% of Pole Monarch's Health (1,036,800 on Normal), however every level of Reincarnation difficulty lowers the number by 1,000,000. On Reincarnation 7 and 8, he has 7,100,480 Shield (instead of the expected 14,100,480), or about 36% of his Health.
	+ Because of this, Nightmare difficulty actually affects his Shield the most since it's a +1.0x modifier, while Reincarnation is reduced from +1.6x to +0.635x.
* Shield Enhancement will recover 30% of his phase 2 Shield when he enters phase 3 (even if he already had the enhancement), but will not increase its maximum any further.
* Area Enhancement has no effect on phase 3, since he no longer uses Weapon Constructs (unless Mysterious Jokul is active).
* Miasma? has reduced effectiveness during phase 2, dealing only 0.1% of his max Health every tick instead of 0.4%.
* During phase 2, Pole Monarch's Health cannot be damaged until his Shield is depleted, requiring a minimum of 2 hits to defeat him (7 hits total if you include previous phases and aura jars). This also makes him the only known enemy that has one shot protection without switching phase.
* There is a secret area located underneath the boss arena that can only be accessed if you defeat Pole Monarch without breaking either aura jar. Once he has been defeated, a segment of invisible wall to the right of the giant Spiritual Jade will disappear, letting you drop below the arena. Shooting the giant Spiritual Jade from below the arena will start a credits roll which thanks you for playing. This credit roll is always in English regardless of player language.
	+ If Transcendant Arsenal is enabled, another Arsenal Guard also appears in that area.
	+ The giant Spiritual Jade counts as an enemy, that Thorny Carapace will be fired automatically.

## Trivia

* Cavalry,  Dragonchaser,  Rainbow Arch and  Deafening Mortar are all weapons constructed during the fight. The first 3 from the Weapon Constructs attack, and the last from the Orb Spiral attack.

## Update History

* 12/30/2021 update:
	+ Improved the pathfinding of the BOSS when he dashes to prevent him from reaching some undesired places.
	+ Slightly increased base HP.
	+ Increased Attack Power by 10%.
	+ Increased HP of spiritual aura jars in both co-op mode as well as reincarnation difficulty.