Kqe-1j-23

## Combat Encounters

* Mirror Dungeon (4th Floor)
* Thread Luxcavation (Friday)
* Line 1: MADNESS (Station 6)

## Possible Rewards

 * Pinpoint Logic Circuit

 * Speed +2 for next battle
* 40 Cost

**kqe-1j-23** (O-06-20-02) is a HE-class Abnormality that can be battled on Fridays in Thread Luxcavation, and on Station 6 of Line 1: MADNESS.

It can also be encountered in the Mirror Dungeon through Abnormality events, and as a potential boss.

## **Appearance**

**kqe-1j-23** is a tall, lanky humanoid that appears to be composed of sinews and mechanical parts. Various parts of the Abnormality are covered by a metal casing, most notably the head, shoulders and hands. Some of these casings are outfitted with pink lights. There are also green circuit boards that are directly attached to the Abnormality's muscle. Several stray wires can be seen sticking out haphazardly from the Abnormality especially from the hands, giving them appearance of long, slender fingers.

It is also seen to possess the ability to extend a long arm from its chest that bursts upwards into the ceiling. While up in the ceiling, the arm seems to be connected to a large robotic claw that reaches back down, similar to a claw machine. The claw is accompanied by thinner arms that are fitted with blades and grabbers that will attack opponents held captive by the claw.

**Heart of the Townsfolk** is a bundle of blue and red wires (giving the appearance of veins) that are covered by a transparent mechanical film. It is brought down by the claw when an opponent dodges its attack, and acts as a weak point to kqe-1j-23.

## **Combat Strategy**

By default, kqe-1j-23 starts with 3 skill slots; it only uses Gloom attacks. It gains Charge over time with its moves, changing behavior when it gains 10.

At the start of the turn when the Charge is above 10, it will start using its Envy attacks, in addition to another skill slot with an additional move, *Processing Transfer Reg*, a move that targets the highest HP sinner and staggers them with a special *Captivity* debuff, keeping them staggered until expiry. After a turn using a defense move that grants it 5 Protection, kqe-1j-23 will attack the grabbed Sinner with a high-power blunt Envy attack, dealing significant damage due to the stagger. Thereafter, the cycle repeats.

The second time kqe-1j-23 uses *Processing Transfer Reg,* it is significantly stronger, but can be clashed with. Winning the clash causes it to reveal the Heart of the Townsfolk, a stationary, permanently-Fragile enemy that will win the fight if destroyed. kqe only uses defensive moves with it present.

*Processing Transfer Reg* can be dodged; if this happens kqe-1j-23 will still lose all its Charge, but will not enter its grabbing behavior, restarting the cycle. Managing to dodge the second *Processing Transfer Reg* will not expose the Heart.

### Tips

* kqe-1j-23 is extremely vulnerable to full-Bleed lineups, especially Nails users. If you manage to inflict enough of a Bleed count, it will not be able to lose all of the Count and take immense damage from rolling coins. When it has a Sinner in Captivity, it additionally doesn't roll offensive coins, making it very easy to build up Bleed.
* Warp Don Quixote and Tingtang Gangleader Hong Lu both have common attacks that are either Lust/Pierce or Gloom/Pierce, both of which deal great damage to kqe-1j-23. Rip Space isn't as effective against kqe, however.

## **Story**

Log Writer: **Gregor**

* Level 1
* Level 2
* Level 3
I dunno a lot about robots or machines like this...
 Wait, have I...? I might have seen this one before. It was standing still in a room back then.
 Right~ That souvenir robot!
 Yeah, it had a panel on its chest where you could write stuff.
 This thing looks like it'll chop you in half if you dared touch its chest, though...
 Come to think of it, I remember running away from the robot because it tried to take away the thing it gave me. Robot arms came out clanking just like now, too.
 Reflecting on it, back in my day…
 Hah, guess it goes further back, actually. People much older than me used to work with hunks of metal like that, or so I heard.
 If the stories are to be believed, some were modified for combat purposes. That sure takes me back…
 → Old fart. *(Ryōshū)*
 → …Who wrote this? *(Gregor)*Damn, I didn't expect this of all things to get me nostalgic.
 In the Backstreets, you could sometimes find toys from ages ago.
 One of them was a toy crane where you grab dolls trapped behind the glass. You move the claw using a joystick from the outside, and send it down to grab whatever's underneath.
 It was pretty tight. Yep.
 And here I am... Being put in the dolls' shoes after all this time.
 I sure as hell didn't see this stupid machine play the crane game with us!
 And when it catches something, it saws the prize along the neck…
 Ugh, talk about ruined childhood memories.Alright, I think I figured it out.
 This is pretty disturbing, but... When it tried to grab us, we managed to dodge it one time.
 After that big robot claw went upwards… Bah, sorry, I thought I got over it.
 It came down again, holding some…machine egg thing.
 When I got closer… I saw that the mechanical film was pounding to a beat.
 Like a heart.
 I know, this makes no sense normally. So don't comment stuff like "a heart can't beat outside an organism's systems" or whatever. You saw that thing move too, right?
 .
 .
 .
 I have to write what we did about it in full detail, huh…
 I mean, what more do I say, really. We chopped that thing off.
 The claw was a pretty big bother to get around, but when we cut into that thing somehow, that tin can stopped moving! Haha, that sure gave us a breather.
 …Well, it might be because the heart belonged to the robot.
 It's creepy, but whatever. It's an Abnormality, yeah?
 I didn't get to spare much sympathy for others during the war, and I'm definitely not wasting any on unknown freaks like that.
 We've got to live.

## **Mirror Dungeon Event**

**Mirror Dungeon Event**

This dark place might be a factory.

A sharp mechanical noise zips through the air.
Illuminating eyes are fixed on you.

A robot slowly approaches.

It appears to be incomplete, as suggested by the bare wires protruding with each movement.

Is that leakage antifreeze, or blood?

While you were wondering, the terminal on its chest flashed to life.

Looks like you can write something.

**Write [Hello].**
The robot lifts both arms with some struggle.The terminal prints out its words:<Welcome, Dear Guest. Have you enjoyed the town tour?We’d like you to have a souvenir. :-)>A smile is displayed on the terminal,but in the robot’s gestures, you feel a plea for help.

**Ask for an explanation of the “town”.**

**Confess the truth.**
<Then you may not have a souvenir!>The terminal suddenly opened upward,and a mechanical arm popped out, trying to snatch something from you.<Please cooperate with confiscation! Lying is bad behavior.>As you duck and twist out of the arm’s way,it gradually grew faster.<Please cooperate,or you may be punished according to Rule #A62GBFE1!>You hurriedly made your escape,fleeing the robot’s unending rampage.

**Tell it that you took a tour.**
<There must have been an issue with the tour program.>After printing those words,the robot stood still for a while.Just when you started to wonder if it was broken,the terminal flashed.<No response after multiple requests to the Administrator.><System Error. System Error.><Rebooting…>After that, it kept throwing up complicated wordson a blue screen.

**Leave without answering.**

**Take the souvenir and leave.**

**Write [Goodbye].**
The terminal’s light goes red, and warnings start to blare.The robot shakes intensely as if in pain.<Farewell. Farewell, FarewellFarewellFarewellFarewellFarewellFarewellFarewellFarewellFarewell>A single word filled the whole screen moments before the robot exploded into bits of metal and gore before your eyes.

## **Gift**

Tier: **II**Cost:  204

## **Gallery**

Idle SpriteHeart of the TownsfolkSuppressed CoreBattle Background
## **Trivia**

* kqe-1j-23 was the first enemy to use Charge.
* kqe-1j-23 and the Heart of the Townsfolk are currently the only <Mechanical Amalgams>.
* By zooming out, one can see the hand attached to the extended arm reaching towards the ceiling.
* This Abnormality's classification code (O-06-20-02) is very close to Nothing There's (O-06-20). This is likely a coincidence, as Abnormalities originating from Lobotomy Corporation feature a different code pattern than those used by Limbus Company.
* The 'Lacking Data' portion of the Observation Log seems to reference its Mirror Dungeon event. Specifically, it follows the event path:
 Write [Hello] -> Ask for an explanation of the "town" -> Confess the truth.