Emerald Golem

* Golem
* 8-Bit
* 16-Bit

> "*LIKE, THANKS FOR DESTROYING MY GOLEM???*"
> ― *Emerald Golem*
>
>

    **Emerald Golem** is a boss in The Messenger. It is the third boss of the game and is fought at the end of the Howling Grotto. Emerald Golem is a green wisp that pilots a large emerald-filled golem as it digs through the caverns of Howling Grotto. It unwittingly killed previous Messengers while digging.

In Picnic Panic, Voodoo Totem is revealed to be piloted by the wisp of the Emerald Golem.

## Profile

### Appearance

Emerald Golem is a giant green-gray rock golem with chunks of emerald sticking out of its tall rectangular hands and its flat shoulders. The emerald chunks on its shoulders are long and pointy, like spikes, which retract after Ninja deals enough damage to Emerald Golem's core. Emerald Golem's body is rectangular, with a spherical glowing green core at the center of its chest. The core has a green-gray cross over its center and around its circular edge, similar to a stereotypical window frame.

Emerald Golem has a tall rectangular and gruff-looking face. Its eyes are two flattened holes in the middle of its face that glow green. Emerald Golem's face is split into two halves that open up like a mouth to reveal a glowing green ball of light with an angry face, which is its true form without the rock golem. Also when the mouth opens up, the rock golem's eyes become rounder and glow more brightly.

Emerald Golem's hands rest in their neutral positions at the ground on each side of its body. Generally the hands raise up and pound down into the ground directly beneath each hand, but the hands can also move freely through the air, independent of the body.

### Personality

Emerald Golem is initially annoyed with Ninja for starting a fight with it, but Emerald Golem and Ninja quickly figure out that the whole fight was just an unfortunate misunderstanding. Emerald Golem is polite about the whole affair, forgiving Ninja for destroying its golem, and even adjusting the wind currents so that Ninja may leave Howling Grotto. It's also very considerate of Ninja's feelings, waiting for Ninja to leave before crying about the loss of its golem.

## Boss Fight

Note: Left/right hand means left/right from the player's perspective, not from Emerald Golem's perspective.

If Ninja attacks Emerald Golem's core, it does a "defensive attack." After dealing 8 damage to Emerald Golem's core, Emerald Golem's has its "weakpoint exposed" before returning back to its regular attack pattern.

### Phases

#### Phase 1

* Rock Head: 27-40 HP
* Attack Pattern: Basic Attack → Triple Pound Attack → Repeat
* During "weakpoint exposed," both hands raise up into the air to allow Ninja passage to the true weakpoint.

#### Phase 2

* Rock Head: 14-26 HP
* Attack Pattern (Ninja is at edges of room): Basic Attack → Triple Pound Attack → Repeat
* Attack Pattern (Ninja is in the center of the room): Wild Attack → Triple Pound Attack → Repeat
* During "weakpoint exposed," only the hand that is on the side of the room furthest from Ninja will raise up into the air to allow Ninja passage to the true weakpoint, rather than both hands. (So if Ninja is determined to be on the left side of the room upon the final 8th hit to the core, the hand on the right side of the room raises up.)

#### Phase 3

* Rock Head: 1-13 HP
* Attack pattern same as phase 2.
* After "weakpoint exposed," Emerald Golem immediately does a "triple pound attack" but with both hands at the same time.

### Attacks

#### Basic Attack

Emerald Golem raises its right hand into the air, holds it up in the air for a bit, then pounds it down into the ground. Then, it raises its left hand up into the air, holds it up in the air for a bit, then pounds it down into the ground.

#### Triple Pound Attack

The game detects if Ninja's closer to the left side of the room or the right side of the room. If Ninja is closer to the left side of the room, Emerald Golem's left hand does two very low and brief pounds at its neutral position, followed by a triple pound attack: a pound on the left side of the screen, a pound at the hand's neutral location, then a pound in the center of the screen. The hand then quickly returns to its neutral position. If Ninja is instead closer to the right side of the room, the same attack pattern occurs with Emerald Golem's right hand, but the right hand's first attack is on the right side of the room.

#### Defensive Attack

Ninja must take advantage of opportunities to run past Emerald Golem's hands while they're in the air during "basic attack" and "triple pound attack" to reach the center of the room, where Ninja can deal damage to Emerald Golem's glowing green core. If Ninja attacks the core, Emerald Golem will spit a small round glowing green projectile from its mouth towards Ninja. Then, Emerald Golem's hands will raise up to the middle of the screen, hold in place for a bit, pound downward, then quickly bounce back to their neutral positions.

#### Weakpoint Exposed

After Ninja does 8 damage to the core, several things happen at once: Emerald Golem's core stops glowing green, Emerald Golem's hands raise up into fixed positions in the air, wind tunnels appear on both sides of the screen which lead up to Emerald Golem's shoulders, the spiky emeralds on the golem's shoulders retract (making the shoulders safe for Ninja to walk on), and the golem's mouth opens up to reveal a green glowing ball with an angry face, which is Emerald Golem's true weakpoint.

At this point, Ninja must fly up one of the wind tunnels then attack Emerald Golem's true weakpoint. After some amount of time passes, the core and shoulder spikes show signs of returning to normal, which is Ninja's signal to hop off of Emerald Golem's shoulders before the spikes return and deal damage to Ninja. After enough time passes, the core glows green again and has its 8 HP restored, Emerald Golem's hands stomp the ground a couple of times in a row, the wind tunnels disappear, the shoulder spikes return, and the true weakpoint hides away again. Emerald Golem returns back to its regular attack pattern.

#### Wild Attack

Emerald Golem's right hand does one pound, then each of Emerald Golem's hands does 4 pounds back and forth across the screen.

#### Final Phase

Emerald Golem loses its golem, then the entire room is filled with wind tunnels and floating Ki charges. Emerald Golem's true weakpoint, a glowing green ball of light with a face, arises from the bottom-middle part of the room. It then starts flying all over the arena in random directions.

## Main Story

Ninja traverses through the entirety of Howling Grotto until he reaches the shop just before the Emerald Golem boss room. Ninja can talk to The Shopkeeper to ask about the upcoming boss. The Shopkeeper explains to Ninja that the next boss is a challenge, the boss is big, and that the boss understands that the best defense is a good defense. Ninja is left confused by these statements.

Ninja enters Emerald Golem's domain, a pitch-black room that is slowly lit up by Emerald Golem's glowing green core, revealing the large and imposing Emerald Golem. Emerald Golem pounds the ground several times with its fists, which brings down walls of rock on both sides of the room that prevent Ninja's escape.

Ninja destroys Emerald Golem's golem, which leads to an air battle between Ninja and Emerald Golem's true form, a glowing green ball of light with a face. Ninja also defeats this form of Emerald Golem, and the two slowly float down to the ground. Emerald Golem complains about Ninja destroying its golem, but Ninja defends himself from the accusation, stating that he was only acting in self-defense. Emerald Golem argues back, maintaining that it had been digging through the caverns for centuries when it was Ninja who started the engagement. The two argue for a bit, until both parties realize that it was just one big misunderstanding.

Ninja repeatedly apologizes for destroying Emerald Golem's golem, and Emerald Golem politely forgives him each time. Ninja then asks where the exit is located, and Emerald Golem lets him know that it will adjust the wind currents so that Ninja may leave. Emerald Golem wishes Ninja good luck on his journey and creates a remarkably tall wind tunnel. Ninja takes flight with his Wingsuit, taking the wind tunnel out of Howling Grotto and into Quillshroom Marsh. Emerald Golem wistfully looks up towards the ceiling where Ninja left, double-checking that Ninja is completely out of sight before crying over the loss of its golem.

When Ninja reaches Quillshroom Marsh, he can talk with The Shopkeeper about Emerald Golem. The Shopkeeper asks if Ninja learned Emerald Golem's motive, and Ninja explains that the Emerald Golem wasn't actually evil, it was just digging away. The Shopkeeper is surprised that all of the Messengers that were killed at the hands of the Emerald Golem was all just a big misunderstanding.

## Trivia

* Emerald Golem is referred to as "EMERALD\_BOSS" in the dialogue files and "EmeraldBoss" in the picture files.
* In New Game +, after finishing the Emerald Golem boss fight, you can still use the Windmill Shuriken on the wisp in order to obtain Cloudstep.
* The wisp of Emerald Golem that pilots the Voodoo Totem is referred to as "BouleVarte" in the picture files. "Boule Varte" is close in spelling to "Boule Verte," which means "green ball" in French.
* At one point during development, they considered adding "farewell vignettes" into the ending, in which there would be small jokes and similar things. For instance, there may have been one scene in which the repaired Emerald Golem as a DJ is rocking out with Boulder Douche enemies, and they're having a rave in the grotto. However, this feature didn't make it into the final game.

## Achievements

*For the main article, see Achievements.*

## Gallery

Emerald Golem's 16-bit talk portrait icon.Emerald Golem's head's 8-bit spritesheet.Emerald Golem's body sprite.Emerald Golem's core spritesheet.Emerald Golem's shoulder spikes' spritesheet.Emerald Golem's arm sprite.Emerald Golem's projectile sprite.Emerald Golem's head's 16-bit spritesheet.Emerald Golem developer artwork.Key art #2, which depicts Emerald Golem on the bottom.Key art #2, a version of the artwork that captures a better view of the top of Emerald Golem's head.Key art #3, which depicts Emerald Golem without its golem near the top and in the middle.
## References

> "*I still can't believe you defeated the Emerald Golem. Did you get a chance to understand its motive?*"
> ― *The Shopkeeper*
>
>
2. ↑ https://www.twitch.tv/videos/504123242?t=0h15m59s