u/Monk_DNotA

[WARNING: Major spoilers for the end of the game! If you haven't beaten the final boss, please do not read this post!]

Okay, so, as we know, the Father and the Witch have been stuck in a time loop, the Witch burning down the church, the Father shooting the shit out of her warty old ass, the Witch retreating into Sulfur before dying there, and the Father following her to finish the job, unaware that she's been with him the whole time. On every loop except for the most recent of them, Father himself does not remember this. As far as he can tell, he just woke up from a car crash and has no idea what he's doing.

The question becomes: Who else's memories are reset by the Loop, and why?

The congregation obviously remember every single loop. All of them make comments to the effect of having been trapped in the Sulfur for hundreds or even a thousand years. Likewise, they all greet you with familiarity, and when you ask them who they are, they all react with some variant of "Oh, you've forgotten again."

The congregation, however, are not the only people who have been in Sulfur long before you have. Let's take, for instance, the Vendors you can run into during stages, like Fex Shuen, Skrip, Qiosk, etc. Unlike the members of the church, all (or at least most) of them react like this is their first time seeing you. Some of them are admittedly ambiguous about it. Fex, Grossberg and Skrip all have dialogue that sounds like they might just be saying a sales pitch. Qiosk, Jaque De Fector and Rat Queen all greet you as if this is the first time they've ever seen you before, and Bill reacts as if this is the first time he's seen a human in ages, never mind the same one who's been rampaging across Sulfur for thousands of years. Likewise, even if you dip out and then come back during the same Loop, they react as if they're seeing you for the first time. The two exceptions seemingly being Qiosk and Grossberg, who apparently remember you well enough that you can get immediate access to the secret shops after accessing them once.

The Haukland Salesman seems to be the one exception, as he explicitly calls you "Father" and casually asks if you need a gun, as if you already know who he is and what he sells. Seeing as how he's a Demon, and they seem to have special powers in this setting, he might be the exception rather than the rule.

What this seems to imply is that, unlike the congregation, the Vendors don't remember having met you on a previous loop. But then why wouldn't they, if the congregation does?

Likewise, let's talk about the Bosses. All of them have at least some dialogue where they greet you, and likewise all of them act like this is the first time they've seen you. Cousin not remembering having fought/been killed by you I can chalk up to him being a braindead moron, but surely Lucia or The Emperor or even Desert Claus would realize "Hey, it's that fucker that killed me a month ago!" or even "Hey, didn't I murder you yesterday?"

My current rationalization is that being able to replay levels and kill bosses more than once is just a gameplay element, and in "reality", Father is just carving one thick swath through Sulfur, visiting each area once, fighting everything in his path, and finding the BotEM shrine before moving on... Or at least, that's what I would say, if the Amulet didn't explicitly point out that she's taking you back to the church whenever you dip out.

Perhaps the simplest solution is to chalk it up to gameplay limitations (having to write new dialogue trees for every possible combination of "has seen, hasn't seen, etc" would get annoying very fast), but it feels weird to me that certain characters act like they've known you for ages and others as if you've just met them. Thoughts?

I have some theories regarding the nature of the Sulfur itself, inspired by Only Alternative's posts.

So, we know that Sulfur is basically the "Waiting room for the true afterlife" according to the Amulet. There are a lot of people living(?) here. My personal theory is this: People with souls aren't the only "Dead" things that end up in Sulfur.

For instance: Notice that almost all of the firearm designs in the game are pretty darn unusual, right? What if these weapons all ended up in the Sulfur because they all "Died" (I.E. stop being produced in the "Real World" due to lack of demand) and thus ended up on the other side?

Likewise, the Haukland Company. According to several bits of lore, it canonically went out of business due to several poor business decisions. Now, there's a chance that the company always operated in Sulfur (or had a branch in Sulfur? Demons in this setting can apparently freely travel between realms, and the Haukland Salesman appears to be a demon, so who knows) but it's also possible that the company ended up in Sulfur because it "Died" in the real world, and thus had nowhere else to go.

Likewise, the Goblins and the Shav'Wani seem to be two species that are native to the Sulfur. There's no explanation for where the Goblins even come from, but according to Qiosk and the Emperor, the Shav'Wa originally passed over a long, long time ago from a Home World of their own. So, either the Sulfur is simply the afterlife of several different dimensions/planets/whatever, or perhaps this means that the Shav'Wa/Goblins literally live in the Sulfur because they're extinct in the "Real World".

Maybe Goblins used to live in the "Real World", but have long since faded into myth and legend. Likewise, Shav'Wa are Japanese-inspired and vaguely reptilian creature, which suggests they may be Kappa or some other kind of Yokai, who have likewise gone extinct thousands of years ago, and passed on into folk tales in the "Real World".

Perhaps this even applies to ideas or concepts. Ghosts, for instance, might exist in the Sulfur despite everyone technically already being dead, since the concept of a "Ghost" (I.E. spirits of the dead who return to haunt the living) has fallen out of favor in the "Real World".

Overall, the lore seemingly treats Sulfur as its own distinct world, with distinct politics, regional geography, and culture. Perhaps there's something of merit here, or maybe I'm just plucking at strings. What do you all think?

So, right now, eyeballs are a weird, pretty much useless drop except being good for sell fodder. The only exception is handing over two dog eyes to the Haulkland Salesman in exchange for a membership card, >!or crafting four of them into a Buddy Sandwich,!< and that feels like an extremely limited usage. Thus, I have two suggestions:

A.) Craft a Trinket which gives mild bonus damage against a type of enemy. So, for instance, you take two Goblin Eyes and some other stuff (Goblin parts? Skin, Meat, a Heart as the core, maybe?) and craft a Goblin Voodoo Doll. As long as it's equipped, you gain a small damage bonus against all Goblin type enemies. Same for, say Human Eyes or Craw Eyes, etc.

B.) Craft a Trinket which spawns a Charmed unit from whatever species the eyes belong to. Like a Dark Lamp, except instead of any enemy, it's only enemies that belong to that specific species. So, Shav'Wa eyes always summon either a Samurai, a Warden, a Twerker, or a Grenadier. And so on. The Dog Whistle is pretty much already this explicitly for Dogs, anyways.

Only issue I can see with this is managing to get your hands on a robot eye and thus having easy access to >!Haradrian Enforcers!<whenever you please.

Thoughts?

Just to clarify, I'm saying this as a joke: Let us put the Priming Bolt on the Arbiter-2, converting it to fire each barrel independently instead of all at once.
I would also say "Let us put a Gun Crank on the Mario to fire both barrels at the same time" but I've done that before and it more or less works just like that.

That is to say, a lot of guns from the recent updates feel like they just massively outclass guns that were already in the game. In order of what I've noticed:

Terrier URB feels better than Gravekeeper. Same cartridge, but with more damage and twice the capacity, and it's more durable. It's slightly less accurate and kicks a little harder, but that seems easy to fix with oils.

Chimera Rapid feels better than Deathstar PG. Again, the exact same cartridge, but the Chimera deals a bit more damage, has less recoil, a better capacity, and it fires on full-auto without the need of a gun crank. All for the cost of being somewhat less accurate. Admittedly it also has less durability.

Klein Bauer just absolutely kicks the tar out of Neuraxis F22. Better damage, a more affordable ammo type, higher capacity as well as a significantly faster reload, and it's smaller. It has worse accuracy than a full spun up Neuraxis, but the time and ammo spent getting the Neuraxis to that point feels like it puts a damper on that.

Maybe it has something to do with weapon rarity or some other balancing aspect that I am clueless to, but a lot of weapons just feel like lackluster versions of new weapons that have come out in later updates. I know, when you have this many guns it can be tricky to "balance" them all against each other, but this felt like a concern. Thoughts?

That is to say, similar to how Grossberg always comes with a stove as part of the set piece for his shop, Ralphie's Workbench should pop up next to her as part of her own kit whenever she shows up in a level. Because it'd be nice to be able to remove attachments without having to bail out back to the church.

The Nock Volley Gun

While browsing the wiki, I realized the shotgun category is the only weapon type that is chambered in exclusively a single ammo type. (Not counting E-Cells) Which makes sense, but seems like a missed opportunity for a "Shotgun" that uses alternative ammunition. Similar to the Augusta, maybe it fires multiple rounds at the same time, but of 9mm. Or whatever you rechamber it to...

Basically: Oils where the negative effect is "No Partial Reloads", as in you can't top off your gun before the magazine has been completely expended. Similar to how Energy Weapons are immune to any negative effect that gives extra recoil, or how one-shot weapons aren't affected by negative rate of fire oils, this negative effect would naturally pair well with weapons that are incapable of reloading early. (E.G. Palehorse, Pierre-Fusil, Chat-Pardeur) Or, apply it to a different gun if you don't mind!

Would this be fun, or too cheesy?

I know what I'm asking for here is a very, very silly thing to ask for in a game like this, but I'm gonna go ahead and do it anyway: Is it possible for enemies who are Charmed (either with a Charm weapon, or through the Dark Lamp/Dog Whistle) to not attack "Civilian" NPCs? (Goblin Villagers, Guttercliff People) Partially because it's annoying to have my minion wasting time running around trying to kill something that isn't a threat, but mostly because I just really feel bad about it. Please?

Not counting the church, obviously. Wherever you decide to set up shop, you have to forage for food, as well as hide from/fight off the locals.

So, after doing some reading on the wiki, I've been wondering which of these two scrolls is the "Better" of the two, or if they're each good depending on the situation? There's a slight damage difference, with RL adding +50 to EX only adding +25. Rocket has the slight disadvantage of rockets taking a moment to get to full speed, and ever since that one update, they no longer resist the effects of Bullet Drop. Which do you prefer?

For point of reference, I just beat the Witch literally today. Turns out she's a lot easier when you >!don't let the Craw Eggs mature into Abominations.!< So anyway, having faced off against every boss in the game, I think I have to say that The Shav'Wa Emperor is the most lacking. Compared to the other bosses:

Cousin is a nice starter boss, simple but interesting, with a simple barrier gimmick and two Goblin phases to keep you on your toes.

Saint Lucia is a fun and imposing battle, featuring interesting attacks, a cool set piece of the castle coming down around her as the battle wears on, and even some interesting lore. The Assassin phase and the lights out phases are a bit annoying, but mostly easy to deal with.

Terrorbaum is fun once you figure out his gimmick (>!He only takes damage from shots to the eyes!<) and he has multiple rotating phases that are each interesting in their own ways. The Sentinels are somewhat annoying, but you need something to keep up pressure while he just runs around, I guess.

Desert Claus is definitely my favorite, with multiple fast-paced, high intensity phases that really test the abilities of your loadout, including a sniper battle, the artillery barrage, and the final standoff between your firepower and his.

Finally, The Witch is a suitably dramatic finish to the adventure, features multiple phases with a wide variety of attacks, and even a Minion Phase which benefits from being quick to draw bead on a target. Admittedly, the laser hall kinda sucks, though.

Then there's The Emperor. His first phase is underwhelming, since he has the one attack that he repeats over and over again. He does Terrorbaum's weak point gimmick again, except instead of always being exposed, it's basically a challenge of "How many shots can you land on this one tiny little section for the brief moment he's hopping towards you?" which gets progressively more frustrating as he gets faster and faster. Also, if you stand on the railings, I'm fairly certain he just can't even hit you.
Then phase two kicks in, and suddenly you find yourself being chased down a hallway beneath the palace. At this point, the fight devolves into "Run away, turn back and shoot at him for a bit, turn and run away again." Repeat until he explodes. He also summons Samurai during this phase, but since the battle is constantly moving through the hallway, they become functionally irrelevant after the one bullet they manage to put into your back, and by the time you loop back around they're dead for some reason. Also is it just me or do the rockets not even really do anything?

As much fun as the other bosses in the game are, The Emperor really sticks out like a sore thumb. Does anyone else feel this way too?