Voidling

The  is an alternate final boss in Risk of Rain 2, added in the Survivors of the Void expansion. It is encountered in the depths of the void after reaching.

Boss Encounter
The battle with the Voidling has 3 phases, largely similar to one another, with the Voidling having three starting attacks and gaining one extra attack per phase.

Phase 1
The Voidling will first appear once the player makes their way from the starting platform to the center ring of the Planetarium, attacking from the far side of the ring. It slowly walks around the ring throughout the fight.

Homing Swarm
The Voidling charges up for a moment, then fires multiple bursts of homing bullets. These are fired in groups in a wide cone of fire from the Voidling, homing in if a shot gets near to a valid target. This attack can be very difficult to dodge, as hiding behind cover alone often isn't enough. Running directly towards the Voidling while dodging direct shots can be a good strategy, as near-misses are unlikely to curve sharply enough to deal damage.

Laser Burst
The Voidling charges and fires a burst of multiple damaging lasers directly at its target, with the final shot creating a damaging area on the ground where it lands that persists indefinitely. This attack must either be taken cover from, or circled around faster than the Voidling can track. The damaging patch can kill in mere seconds, so it is often necessary to find new cover after the attack finishes.

Sweeping Beam
The Voidling lowers itself to just above the ground, before charging a very thick horizontal beam and rotating two full times. The beam aims progressively lower as the Voidling rotates and pierces through terrain, so mobility is necessary to dodge it rather than cover. Being underneath or above the Voidling is safe.

Phase 2
The Voidling retreats into a void rift, and the Planetarium will fill with damaging void fog. The player has to follow the Voidling through the void rift, which will lead to a small platforming challenge through the void. The void fog will constantly damage the player until they travel through another void rift at the end of the platforming segment, where they will find the Voidling in a randomly selected arena for the second phase. Falling off this section will simply teleport the player back to the start of the challenge, usually without incurring fall damage since the teleport trigger is not very far below the level.

Nullifier Black Hole
The Voidling rears up to nearly its full height before opening up its entire body and emitting a telltale thunderous sound, revealing a nullifier implosion sphere similar to a own death implosion. This attack is much larger, lasts longer, and drags all of its enemies towards it with considerable force. This force increases throughout the duration of the attack but does not scale with distance. Most deadly of all, it is instantly fatal on contact.

Like other void implosions, this attack ignores effects and  and can affect friendly creatures (for example, another Voidling if the  is enabled). Since it is a continuous attack that is fatal on contact, it also will kill the player again immediately after being revived by or the, effectively ignoring extra life items unless the player died right before the attack ends, or they have many extra lives to stall out the attack's duration.

Captured Monsters
Throughout the this phase and the next, the Voidling will be supported by small monsters that have been captured in the Void, such as. In addition to attacking the player, these monsters are also hostile to the Voidling and vice versa, potentially drawing the Voidling's attention and luring away its homing attacks (although they likely will not last long under its onslaught).

Phase 3
The Voidling again retreats into a void rift, and same as before, the Planetarium will fill with void fog. The player must give chase through another platforming challenge.

Void Fog
For the final phase, the Voidling will not clear the void fog in the arena, and instead constantly projects a bubble around itself, similar to the holdout zones in the or, but considerably larger. Anything outside this bubble, including other enemies, takes constant suffocation damage. If the is active, the player must be inside the radii of both Voidlings' bubbles in order to avoid damage.

Aftermath
After the Voidling is defeated, the Planetarium's air becomes safe again and a large purple portal will appear. Entering the portal ends the game with a "Fate Unknown" screen similar to, albeit with a purple icon instead of a blue one.

Tips

 * Bringing lots of mobility items such as and  is essential, as it will make both dodging the Voidling's attacks and chasing it through the platforming challenges easier. This is especially important for dodging its Nullifier Black Hole, particularly for short-range Survivors.
 * Due to the Voidling's immense height and the dangers of staying close to it, medium-range and melee Survivors will suffer against it. Long-range items and equipment are especially important for Survivors who lack ranged skills or the mobility required to get up to the Voidling's body.
 * are unable to reach the damage point of the Voidling due to its height unless it rears downwards, putting him at a disadvantage.

Version History

 * Survivors of the Void
 * (Undocumented) Added New Monster: Voidling

Trivia

 * There is a unique ending associated with defeating the boss in the game's files, but it is currently unused.
 * During the platforming challenges, it is possible to look over and see the other possible platforming challenges in the distance since all are part of the same level. It is not possible to reach them, however, as straying too far from the current one will simply teleport the player back to the start of the challenge, just like falling off.
 * In keeping with the deep-sea theme of the Void and the monsters related to it, the Voidling's visual design seems to draw inspiration from ocean life, especially crustaceans. The Voidling in particular bears striking resemblance to the Japanese spider crab (Macrocheira kaempferi).
 * Although the Voidling appears to walk, it is actually programmed as a flying enemy. Its main body flies around the arena, and its legs are purely aesthetic and simply "stand" on the nearest terrain; they even lack hitboxes entirely. This includes standing on the bounding boxes of the arenas.
 * The Voidling performs its full spawning animation on every phase. However, this is only possible to see on the second and third phases if the player completes the platforming challenges extremely quickly.
 * Much like Mithrix, the three stages of this battle are actually three separate creatures with different scripting that just use the same model.