The Hand of the King

1st to 4th  Boss Stem Cell

6 Hand of the King Outfits (1 for flawless kill and 1 for each BSC difficulty)

**The Hand of the King** is currently the usual final boss present in the game, on most difficulties. He is found in the Throne Room.

## Moveset

### First phase

In 1+ BSC, the Hand of the King goes straight to the second phase.

* **Description:** Makes a groaning noise, then after a noticeable delay, sweeps the lance upward with a decent range.
 ***Bomb flurry***
* **Description:** Throws pairs of bombs three times, for a total of six bombs. These have very short fuses and will explode soon after hitting the ground. All separate pairs of bombs are directed towards the location of the Beheaded.
* Can be blocked, parried, and dodge rolled.
 ***Summon enemies***
* **Description:** At approximately 85% boss health, summons a large ice platform and enemies on both levels, along with one Elite (with no elite skills).
* During this time the Hand of the King is completely invulnerable and will appear semi-transparent floating in the air, but will not attack.
* The types of elite enemies summoned vary. The Inquisitor, the Grenadier, and the Disgusting Worm are most often summoned, but the Scorpion, the  Cleaver, the Lacerator, and the Slasher can also appear.
* The Hand of the King immediately returns on-stage as soon as all elite enemies are dead, even if normal enemies are still alive (or Disgusting Worm bombs haven't exploded yet).
	+ If the player takes too long to kill the elites, the Hand of the King will return on stage even if all enemies are still alive.

### Second phase

Retains all the attacks from phase 1.

* **Description:** A three-hit melee combo. Makes a groaning noise. Like the Symmetrical Lance, the first and third attacks only hit in front while the second hits both in front and behind.
* Each strike can be blocked, parried, and dodge rolled.
 ***Jab and Telluric Shock combo***
* **Description:** Makes a single fast lance jab (which can be parried or rolled as usual), then jumps towards the player and makes a rock shockwave.
* The jab can be blocked, parried, and dodge rolled.
 ***Charge***
* **Description:** Jumps backwards, then runs across the arena. Does damage, and has a pushing effect that can push you off the platform into the sides of the arena
* The charge can be blocked and dodge rolled.
	+ The charge can be parried which will destroy the hitbox, but will not stop the charge itself.
* Both ends of the arena have pits with spikes in them which the charge can push you into.
 ***Explosive banners***
* **Description:** Three flags will drop down from the top of the arena. After 6 seconds (if not destroyed) they will explode in a large area, inflicting high damage.
* The range of the explosion is visible by a red aura around each flag.
* The explosion can be blocked, parried, and dodge rolled.
 ***Summon enemies 2***
* **Description:** At approximately 40% boss health, summons a large ice platform and enemies on both levels, along with one Elite on each platform (with no elite skills).
* During this time the Hand of the King is completely invulnerable and will appear semi-transparent floating in the air, but will not attack.
* The types of elite enemies summoned vary. The Inquisitor, the Grenadier, and the Disgusting Worm are most often summoned, but the Scorpion, the  Cleaver, the Lacerator, and the Slasher can also appear.
* The Hand of the King immediately returns on-stage as soon as all elite enemies are dead, even if normal enemies are still alive (or Disgusting Worm bombs haven't exploded yet).
	+ If the player takes too long to kill the elites, the Hand of the King will return on stage even if all enemies are still alive.

### Third phase

Retains all the attacks from phase 1 and 2, but he will do his charge attack twice.

* **Description:** Jumps backwards, then runs across the arena and immediately back in opposite direction. Does damage, and has a pushing effect that can push you off the platform into the sides of the arena
* The charge can be blocked and dodge rolled.
	+ The charge can be parried, which will remove the hitbox, and will not stop the charge itself.
* Both ends of the arena have pits with spikes in them which the charge can push you into.
 ***Super Telluric Shock***
* **Description:** Walks to the center of the arena, jumps in the air while noticeably charging energy, then smashes the ground, creating rocks across the entire arena, doing tremendous damage and knockback if caught in it.
* Can be blocked.
* Can not be jump over or dodge rolled as the damage window is too long.
	+ Can be jumped over with 2 extra air jumps with perfect timing.

## Strategy

### Vulnerabilities and immunities

* Has a shield that reduces the effect of projectiles from the front.
	+ This shield is disabled while attacking.
* Resists controlling effects such as freeze, frost slow, and stun (less freeze time, and less time slowed down). Does not affect other status effects.
	+ The Crusher does not slow it down at all.
* The arena is fairly tight and compact; Using this to your advantage you can:
	+ Use weapons that constantly create DoT effects such as bleed stacks or poison clouds.
	+ Use items like the Cleaver and Swarm to constantly chip away at him.
	+ Use oil and fire grenades underneath him (as fire damage will stack quite considerably)
		- If he is ignited, the Oiled Sword can do high damage to him.

### Weapons/Skills

* Grenades and AoE damage seem to allow for large damage numbers.
* A shield can be used to parry the majority of his attacks.
* Skills and weapons that repel grenades like the Shovel, Flashing Fans, Wave of Denial, Magnetic Grenade or Tornado can nullify his bomb flurry, and 6 reflected grenades can do decent damage.
	+ The Parry shield and the Spite Mutation can improve this even further.
* As he delivers blows rather quickly, the Vengeance mutation can work well with brutality builds, increasing your damage significantly against the boss while potentially cutting off a major part of his damage in his combos, especially if you can't parry them.

### Strategy

* Phaser can be very useful in dodging the boss' attacks. Also, in the case of some weapons, mashing the attack button in midair allows you to stay in midair for a couple of seconds. This helps you dodge the ground slam attacks (even without using the small platforms) as well as his two- and three-hit combos. This is demonstrated in this video
* The Wolf Trap can be useful to lock the boss in place for a short time, giving the chance to do considerable damage with other weapons.
* The Rampart shield with its unique effect can help greatly in dealing with the boss' two- and three-hit combos. If you successfully parry the first hit of the combo, the barrier will protect you against the remaining hits and possibly other incoming damage in a few seconds.
* Constantly be on the move in the air with jumps as a bunch of his attacks can be dodged by jumping over them. Incorporate rolls mid air along with continuous jumping and it can help to dodge faster attacks such as the ground slam.

## Lore

A series of quotes while entering the Throne Room and the Guardian's Haven give some background about the Hand of the King:

Before entering the Guardian's Haven, it is explained that he and the Giant had a strong dislike towards each other, to the point they often disagreed on everything. Despite this, the one point they could agree on was that nobody liked the Alchemist.

> *"The Giant didn't like the Hand of the King, and the Hand of the King didn't like the Giant. But they did agree on one point: nobody liked the Alchemist."*
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Furthermore, entering the Throne Room explains that very little is actually known about him, even questioning what he eats, if anything at all.

> *"The Hand of the King has lived here as a recluse for a very long time... No one really knows what he eats."*
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Occasionally, a statue depicting the King alongside the Hand of the King can be found in Stilt Village.

> *"Another statue of the King, accompanied by a guard... ...and a very big one, at that. A little too big, maybe?"*
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Inside High Peak Castle, the Hand of the King’s quarters can be found, inside which a there are multiple beds.

> *"The Hand is above the King's suspicion, which is more than I can say for the Giant... Though I secretly hope he's ok, we've not seen him in a while now."*
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The Hand of the King doesn't have a special taste in food and it seems that anything edible is suitable for him.

> *"There's a strange taste to the food since the old cook was offed. The Hand doesn't seem to mind though, so I just hold my nose and dream of custard."*
>
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At the end of the room lies the Hand of the King's desk alongside a note.

> *"The King is convinced of the existence of a plot against his life. While such a plot may have cause to exist, I've seen no evidence of it. Worse, the food hasn't been up to standard since he had the cook executed..."*
>
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Additionally, a letter can be found next to the Hand of the King's bed.

> *"The King came to my quarters to personally remove the portrait of the Giant and I together. I understand his frustration, but my men were rattled..."*
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>

## Dialogue

The following information **contains spoilers** regarding the true ending of the game. Discretion is advised.

If you are wearing the King Outfit, the Hand of the King will have a special cutscene before the fight.

* "*My... My King?*"
* "*How is that possible?*"
* "*?!*"
* "*?!?*"
* "*?!?!*"
* "*Wait... You're not the King!*"
* "*Did you steal his body?*"
* "*Thief!*"

## Notes

* In order for him to drop the next Boss Stem Cell you must have activated all acquired Boss Stem Cells.
	+ Have 1 BSC equipped to get the second, 2 BSC for the third, etc.
	+ Once he has dropped all 4 boss cells, however, the 5th is obtained from the Giant while having 4 active.
* Occasionally, the boss can be pushed down the spike pits (might be caused by using Phaser when he is next to the pits). He will take some damage but will jump out immediately.
* On rare occasions, the boss can get stuck in a spike pit if he is pulled down by a Wolf Trap, or if he falls down into a Wolf Trap in the pits. He cannot jump out right away. Then he might try to do the charge attack to clear deployed traps, but as he is stuck down the pit, he can't use the attack properly, and will repeat his attempts instead of jumping out of the pit until the traps despawn.
* When first reached, he will encase the King in a force field, then jump to the player, slamming the ground as he lands. He will then do a hand gesture, invoking the player to fight him.
	+ The force field can be smashed by his dropped Symmetrical Lance.
	+ If the King is already killed, reaching him again will show a different cut-scene. He looks to where the king was, but sees nothing. He then pounds one of his fists on the ground and jumps to the player. The rest is same as the initial cut-scene.
* The Hand of the King never drops loot other than cells and blueprints that are not acquired from him yet. The only exception is when he is first defeated, as he will drop a Symmetrical Lance.
	+ His Symmetrical Lance is a special version which has the following affixes: 300% damage, Breaks shields and Cannot be stored in the backpack. It is not affected by "Colorless Items" settings and adds 1 point to all the player's stats.

The following information **contains spoilers** regarding the true ending of the game. Discretion is advised.

* He also drops the lance after 5 BSC has been beaten once and will keep dropping it until the King outfit has been acquired, as for the King to be possessed the force field must be smashed.
* In the true ending cut-scene where the King sits on his throne while sipping wine, it is possible to see a piece of headwear from The Hand of The King on the throne. As the Hand of the King did not stop the other King (who arrived due to a temporal paradox) from entering, it can be presumed that he remained killed after being slain by the King.

## Gallery

* The Hand of the King fighting the Beheaded on the Hand of the King update poster.
* The Hand of the King and the Beheaded on the Malaise update poster.
* A painting of The Hand, found in the Castle.
* Another painting of The Hand, found in the Castle.
* Painting of the Hand and the Giant, found in a lore room of the Castle.
* Statues of the King and The Hand, found in Stilt Village.
* Those same statues, vandalized by an angry mob.