Commencement

Commencement
Moon of Petrichor V
Stage	Final
Soundtrack	...con lentitud poderosa
Lunar Seer Quote
You dream of glass and dirt.

Commencement is the final stage Environment added in the 1.0 Update, and revised in the Anniversary Update. It is located on the moon of Petrichor V.

The Artifact of Kin will allow its selected monster to spawn, but not prevent the Lunar Chimera (Exploder), Lunar Chimera (Golem), or Lunar Chimera (Wisp) from spawning.

Description

Commencement is a large domain located above the shattered breach of Petrichor V's moon. It is ostensibly the desolated seat of Mithrix's power.

It is made up of the shattered remains of four individual sections, emblematic of Mithrix and Providence's tools of creation:

• The area where Pillars of Design are found appears to be a workshop of sorts, with the unfinished remains of a Lunar Chimera Golem. The upper half of one remains suspended by large chains as if abandoned in the midst of construction.
• The Pillars of Blood are found within a large circular arena, encircled by tall pillars with raised platforms resembling seating.

Raised high above the rest of the grounds by what appears to be a titanic arm is a massive circular area, where Mithrix himself remains.

Monsters

• Lunar Chimera (Exploder)
• Lunar Chimera (Wisp)
• Lunar Chimera (Golem)
• Void Reaver (during detonation sequence)
• Mithrix (Boss)

Overview

• 

  Layout of the stage

Releasing the Rescue Ship

Upon entering the main area of the stage, the player will discover a Rescue Ship protected by an unbreakable force field. Their new objective will be to find a way to release the Rescue Ship in order to escape the planet.

Different pillars are scattered around the stage. The player's objective is to activate and charge (i.e. complete the holdout event) 4 of them in order to activate jump pads that will lead to Mithrix, the final boss. 4-7 pillars will spawn in total and there can't be more than 3 pillars of a given type at once. Each pillar type has its own way of charging:

• Pillars of Mass take 60 seconds to charge, and have no special properties.
• Pillars of Design take 30 seconds to charge and release shock waves during the process. These deal no damage, but they push the player away and inflict the Cripple status, reducing their armor by 20 and movement speed by 50%. The shock waves can be avoided by repeatedly jumping.
• Pillars of Soul take 30 seconds to charge, but their charging radius will shrink the more they charge. The pillar's charge also rapidly decreases if all players leave the charging zone.
• Pillars of Blood take 10 seconds to charge, but they absorb the health of the player in the process. The pillar will drain 10% health per second (2.5% per tick, so it can be affected by the Eclipse 8 modifier), for a total of 100% over the charging duration.

• 

  Pillar of Mass

• 

  Pillar of Design

• 

  Pillar of Soul

• 

  Pillar of Blood

It is not necessary to activate any of the pillars if the player has enough movement items (e.g. Milky Chrysalis60sGain temporary flight.
Sprout wings and fly for 15 seconds. Gain +20% movement speed for the duration., Hopoo FeatherGain an extra jump.
Gain +1 (+1 per stack) maximum jump count.) or movement abilities to make it to the boss arena and trigger the fight.

Once Mithrix is defeated, the moon will begin a detonation sequence with an on-screen countdown. The players have 3 minutes to get to the Rescue Ship and complete its holdout event in order to escape. The event requires them to 'protect' the ship by staying within the surrounding zone for 1 minute. Walls of blue flames will appear, similar to those created by some of Mithrix's attacks. Void Reavers and Chimeras will spawn and attack the player, very occasionally entering the protection zone of the rescue ship.

• 

  Defend the rescue ship during the detonation sequence

After completing this event, the game is over. An ending cinematic is played during which the ship can be seen flying away from the moon. Shortly thereafter, a purple void sphere grows from the center of the moon before vanishing in a flash of light, taking the moon with it.

Cauldrons & Lunar Pods

On the left end side of the stage, near where the Pillars of Design spawn, there will be 5 Cauldrons, randomly selected between Common, Uncommon and Legendary. Common Cauldrons are unique to Commencement and will exchange one red item into three of the displayed item. (This area is colloquially referred to by the community as "Soup Island").

On the right side of the stage, near where the Pillars of Soul spawn, there will be 0-5 Lunar Pods that can be attached to walls and in other unusual places.

Shrine of Order

A Shrine of Order will always spawn on a floating rock behind the area where Pillars of Mass spawn (left of the map when starting from the Rescue Ship, see the Overview section).

• 

  Guaranteed Shrine of Order location.

Logbook Entry

Like the Hidden Realms, Commencement's Logbook Entry is obtained through picking up an Environment Log. Said Environment Log is located within the central hole underneath the boss's arena. It will disappear 5 minutes after entering the level.

• 

  Environment Log location, underneath the Boss' Arena.

• 

  Environment Log location, inside the crater.

Lore

Have you forgotten – that those gates are my design?

You would not know, because you do not look up. You bend knees only for ants and vermin. But I have been working on a grander design. A greater gate – to travel greater seas.

What if I met you, on one of these extinct planets? What if I caused the calamities you strive to avoid? What if I reaped destruction? What would you do then?

I know the planet you trail – of water and dirt. You fear their stability. That they will consume themselves. Maybe I will go there first.

Version History

PC Patch v1.1.1.4

• Bug Fixes
  • Fixed some of Commencement’s navigation/spawn nodes being placed underground, potentially causing a softlock loop

PC Patch v1.1.1.2

• Quality of Life
  • Update the rescue ship’s charging zone to be infinitely tall, i.e you can charge it while floating above
  • Update escape portals from the final boss arena to be more portal-looking
• Bug Fixes
  • Fixed stray nodes causing lockboxes to spawn midair on the final stage

Anniversary Update

• Gameplay Changes
  • Final Stage
    • 🌧 The final stage has been redone entirely, with unique objectives and a new, large arena to play in. We won’t spoil it. Please let us know how you feel!
• Bug Fixes
  • Fixed the ending sequence explosions missing an authority check, causing it to fire additional projectiles for every client in the game

PC Patch v1.0.1.1 (Build ID No.5440050)

• Bug Fixes
  • Fix the fog on the last stage being entirely opaque if soft particles are disabled
  • Fix missing out-of-bound floor under the starting room for the final stage
  • Fix a gap in the final boss arena causing you to get stuck
  • Fix the ceiling in the final boss arena not being solid for projectiles and Lunar Chimera (Wisp)

Early Access Content Update 5

• Major Content
  • Added New Final Stage: ???
  • Added New Stage Lore Entry: ???

Trivia

• A 'commencement' is a beginning or 'start' of something, an apt name given the nature of Mithrix and his brother's involvement with creation.

• The implosion of the Moon in the ending cinematic is reminiscent of the death implosion of a Void Reaver, albeit on a planetary-sized scale. It could be assumed that the Moon was not actually destroyed, but rather 'detained' in the same way that something caught within the Void Reaver's implosion is described as.

• A glass frog can be found during the escape sequence. It can be found by returning to the Teleporter ring at the start of the level, but only after defeating Mithrix.
  • This Easter egg was requested on the official Discord. The PurityReduce your skill cooldowns by 2 seconds. You are unlucky.
    All skill cooldowns are reduced by 2 (+1 per stack) seconds. All random effects are rolled +1 (+1 per stack) times for an unfavorable outcome. log refers to "glass frogs", implying that the frog could be more than an Easter egg.

• The Pillars in this stage are all based on the 4 elements of the universe Mithrix found. What they are, how they function, and how they look are all taken from the Bulwark's Ambry log.
  • "...Round, with no features. No orientation. It is mass. Almost everything here is mass. Mass is boring, but required." The Pillar of Mass is the blandest in design, and has no effects. Featureless and boring.
  • "...Features, angles, and intent. Look at the planarity of the surfaces. This is design. I love design." The Pillar of Design has a clear design unlike most of the other pillars, and has a distinct feature - its twisted design.
  • "...a volatile one - a lifeline. Blood. Sharp, yet radiant. Blood is heat. This is my blood, but there is plenty of blood in this universe." The Pillar of Blood is literally a pillar made of blood. Perhaps made of Mithrix's blood given the log, and how desolate the moon seems to be.
    • Prior to the map's redesign, a Pillar of Blood could be found near the Cauldrons as decoration.
  • "Now be gentle. Look closely here. Do you see it? Almost invisible, a thin film. Frail. It’s not in this reality, but an adjacent one. I’ve heard you discuss this - something you innately understood. What you describe as soul. Don’t you love soul?" The Pillar of Soul is nearly invisible, and it being the frailest of the elements, it requires the most amount of attention when charging.

• 

  The literal Glass Frog