The Line

"A crack in the shell, but can you find it twice?"

**The Line** is the third Guardian encountered by The Stranger in Furi. A wise old man who foretold The Stranger's arrival.

## Appearance

The Line wears nothing but what looks to be an orange loincloth. His belly button is also an outie. He has watches around his forearms and shins, along with a pair of red headphones around his head. He has a large grey afro and a thick beard. His skin color is brown. He seems to be based on the stereotypical image of a wise Indian sage, with added futuristic items (such as his headphones and sword) to make him fit the games theme.

## Personality

The Line is very calm and collected, though he is self focused and arrogant at times. He appears to be slightly angry at the fact The Stranger has caused a disruption in time. He shows sadness when defeated and looks at the sky, likely knowing what fate awaits for the earth.

## Story

The Line sees the Stranger, and converses a little with him before the Stranger takes a shot at him. He deflects the shot with a rock, then states that he foresaw the Strangers coming and essentially tells him that he created a stop in the timeline ("When you appeared... the picture stopped." and "I'm here to make my clocks tick again" hinting towards this.) He then proceeds to insult the Stranger about his inability to foresee while they battle. Dialogue before and during the fight from The Voice and The Line give a strong indication that he had the ability to see into the future before the arrival of The Stranger. After which, he could only foresee that The Stranger would try to escape, not how far he would make it.

## Fight

The Line is an unusual boss, in that he relies much more on a methodical approach and forming repeatable patterns than other bosses, who often punish such behavior. The Line's attacks are typically slow and predictable, and many are only triggered by your damage, allowing you to set the pace of the fight - but his high damage and tendency to force the player to multi-task can be punishing on early attempts.

The Line only has four phases, but each phase contains an additional "summoned objects" section in addition to the standard Shooting and Close Quarter's Combat (CQC) sections, which result in his fight being both more lengthy and dangerous than previous opponents.

Phase 1
The Line begins the fight by summoning 3 circular, rotating walls made up of small blue sections. The player will need to destroy sections of these circles with their pistol in order to access the Line and damage him.
The main danger is this phase is that every projectile fired at the circles will ricochet back towards the player, and then bounce between the outer edge of the arena and the circles for a short period of time. Using charged shots throughout this phase will help to significantly lower the amount of projectiles that need to be avoided.

During this phase The Line regularly sends out a cone-shaped wave attack which can do damage twice if you linger inside it's area of effect. Avoiding these via dodging should be top priority, with shooting the wall sections occurring between these attacks.

Once a gap in the 3 circles is created a single pistol shot is enough to deplete The Line's entire health bar.

Phase 2
The Line starts this phase by summoning rings of orbs around your location, which then close in on you for damage. Stand still and simply parry when they close in.
The Line then summons a blue rectangular column in the center of the arena, which will need to be destroyed in the same manner as the circles in phase one. This column, much like the circles, will only present a danger when shot - but instead of reflecting the projectiles, upon being damaged the column releases four cone-shaped attacks (similar to those in phase 1) in a cross pattern, one of which will always be in the direction of the player. The column also releases four projectiles, one into each of the gaps in the cross pattern.

To complicate this further, The Line generates a ring of unbreakable projectiles, which bounce between the outer edge of the arena and the column.

The strategy here is to develop a rhythm of dodging through the ring of orbs towards the column, firing a burst, then dodging to the side and back, avoiding both the ring's movement inward and the cone attack. Repeat this until the column is destroyed. It should be noted that every third burst of damage the column releases four healing projectiles instead of four damaging ones.

In the second part of this phase, The Line will fill the arena will a bullet hell of ricocheting projectiles (including healing projectiles) which need to be avoided. Whilst the player is avoiding these projectiles or shooting them out of the air, The Line will teleport to the player and melee attack them. This attack needs to be parried, as doing so will immediately "freeze time", stopping all projectiles in place and making them easier to avoid. The player's pistol doesn't function in this section of the fight. In fact, any bullets fired from the pistol will leave behind bullets that stay in place that can actually hurt the player if they touch them. Firing a charged shot is an even worse idea, as doing so will cause it to backfire and deplete a large chunk of The Stranger's health.

The Line will then alternate between attacking the player with a combo of slow, heavy melee attacks that should be parried, and area and wave attacks that the player needs to dodge through.

In the CQC section of the fight The Line has both a rapid combo of melee attacks with his fists as well as slower, more damaging swings with his sword, and can also utilize large area attacks. Parry the former two and dodge the latter.

Phase 3
Phase 3 is similar to phase 2 in many ways. At the beginning of the phase The Line summons rings of orbs around the player again, but these rings are larger and require longer charge times to dodge.
After this attack The Line once again summons a rectangular column in the center of the arena, except this time damaging the column will cause it to release a circular wave of energy outward, which will need to be dodged through.

The Line will also still regularly summon unbreakable projectiles as before, except they now appear in a line to the left or right, and after a short delay will sweep sideways across the arena. (A good strategy is to parry the unbreakable bullets.)

The strategy here is similar to phase 2 - develop a rhythm of shooting the column shortly after a line of orbs appears, then dodge through the resultant wave at the same time as the orbs line moves across, avoiding both attacks at once. Every third line of orbs summoned contains 3 healing projectiles, but these are difficult to get and often not worth the risk.

The Line then repeats the second part of phase 2 with little change other than increasing the length of both melee combos and area of affect/wave attacks, in both the "frozen time" and CQC sections.

Phase 4
The Line's desperation phase in many ways mimics the other "summoned object" sections of the previous phases, particularly the first phase, but with decreased room for error on the player's part.
The desperation phase begins with The Line teleporting to the center of the arena and becoming invulnerable. He then begins an attack which steadily fills the arena with unbreakable projectiles, which after a short delay fire in your direction. After a few seconds of this attack The Line also begins releasing waves that need to be dodged through.

Once this attack has finished, The Line generates a field of damaging energy immediately around him and begins unleashing a bullet hell of ricocheting projectiles.

The Line also summons 8 small columns in a wide circle around him, which as previously will need to be destroyed. Shooting these columns causes your projectiles to rebound off of them in the same manner as phase 1, increasing the density of projectiles even further.

The best strategy here is simply to focus on one column at a time, keep your back close to the edge of the arena so you can't be caught by a rogue ricocheting projectile, and keep continuously firing, as your pistol shots destroy any projectiles coming towards you.

This phase can take a surprisingly long time, so it's important to pace yourself and prioritize avoiding damage above all else. Once all 8 columns are destroyed The Line becomes vulnerable, and as with phase 1 a single attack will deplete his health bar and end the fight.

## Quotes

* Again
* Agh, a crack in the shell. But can you find it twice
* Ah can t keep up, can you
* Aha
* And thus the cylce ends. We shall meet again... at the beginning
* Back
* Breathe in. Focus. Let s bring an end to this
* Capture you and bring you back
* Everything was meant to be
* Go back
* I also like to take it slowly
* I can t kill you, but I can remove you from my here and now
* I foretold your escape, but not how far you would get. I am glad you made it to me
* I see your future
* I m here to make my clocks tick again
* I ve been looking forward to this moment
* It s not looking good
* Let s go back
* Let s try again
* Look to the sky, Stranger, therein lies your answer
* Make every second count
* Not so fast
* Not this time
* Oh!
* Prepare to meet your fate
* Rewind
* Seek joy in these last precious moments
* Slow down
* That s your own violence turning against you
* There is no you in my tomorrow
* Time flies and you re not getting any closer
* Time is a picture in motion through eternity
* Until the next cycle
* Wait
* Welcome Stranger
* When you appeared everything got still, you made the picture stop
* With experience comes perspective
* You could wait for me to die of old age
* You live under the ilusion of control. Abandon the fight. It is written
* You re fighting yourself, can t you see
* You re too impulsive. This is my time, my space. Your escape will fail