FenPaints
patreon
Aeon Trespass: Odyssey: The Hekaton Initial Deep Dive
🕑 Added 2023-03-10 11:00:04 +0000 UTC
It is time for us to start our exploration of Aeon Trespass: Odyssey (ATO) and we shall begin with a look at each of the Primordials from the game's first cycle. These four creatures are the antagonists of the first cycle and each of them is based deeply from Greek mythology. So we will start by taking a look at the initial inspiration for the Hekaton, then we will take a dive into the Primordial itself and explore how they work mechanically in combat and what strategies or options one will take against them.
As a quick disclaimer, while I have played through the entire of ATO once at this point, my strategic experience is not on the level I have in Kingdom Death; I've certainly not seen everything the game has to offer, and in addition I will not go into spoiling the story sections for each of these monsters, we'll keep discussion of them to the original mythological inspirations and mechanical only. There are some wonderful story beats and hidden lore for players to uncover and at this stage I do not want to spoil them all at this stage. So let us get into a brief overview of the inspiration behind the Hekaton; but before we do, note that there are tales written by several different individuals and the exact details of the story can vary. I've chosen one particular telling, but there are details that can be different in other interpretations.
The Original Mythology
by: https://www.deviantart.com/soberi
Known as the Hecatoncheires in Greek Mythology and the Centimanes in Latin, the inspiration for the Hekatons are three individuals called Cottus, Briareus/Aegeon and Gyges. These monstrously large giants each had fifty heads, a hundred arms; hence the name Centimane in Latin, which comes from the words centi (hundred) and manus (as in Manus Hand of Fate. Manus meaning hand).
These three individuals were amongst the eighteen children that Uranus (The Sky) spawned along with Gaia (The Earth), the others were twelve titans and three Cyclopes. There is some dispute if they were the first or last of their children, but one thing that is agreed upon is that they were terrifyingly powerful and considered a huge threat by Uranus. So much so that he had all of them imprisoned in Gaia along with the Cyclopes. Gaia did not appreciate this and called upon her son the Titan God Chronos (Saturn) to punish Uranus; which he did by castrating Uranus before taking over as the chief god.
However, Chronos also feared the Hecatoncheires; and he did not free them alongside the other Titans, but instead he imprisoned them in Tartarus. Chronos' paranoia over suffering the same fate as Uranus causing him to behave like his sire and even pushing him to more extreme action against his own children. These were conceived with his Titan Sister Rhea/Ops; and so afraid of losing his position Chronos ate each one of them as they were born, this is famously pictured in the Francisco Goya picture “Saturn Devouring His Son”.
And the less gory, therefore more lore accurate Peter Paul Rubens version
Chronos/Saturn devoured whole Ceres/Demeter, Juno/Hera, Neptune/Poseidon, Juno/Hades and Vesta/Hestia with no opposition, however when his sixth child; Jupiter/Zeus was born Rhea hid the child on Crete, instead giving Chronos a swaddled stone to eat in its stead. Exact versions of what happened next varied, but the overall impact is that Chronos regurgitated his children and after Gaia foretold to Zeus that with the help of the Hecatoncheires he and his siblings (known as the Olympians) could overthrow Chronos and the Titans. He did as much and the mighty Hecatoncheires set their terrifying might against their captors. Hurling hundreds of gigantic stones from their hundred arms.
This time the Hecatoncheires were not betrayed; the Titans were banished to Tartarus and the three many limbed brothers were tasked to be their guards, with Cottus and Gyges living in mansions at the bottom of the ocean near the gates of Tartarus. Briareus was particularly favoured and Poseidon gave him Cymopoliea (Poseidon's daughter) as a bride.
No longer prisoners, the Hecatoncheires looked kindly upon their nephew and his siblings. This bond was so strong that when the other Olympians, including Hera (Zeus' wife), Athene and even Poseidon turned on Zeus and chained him. Briareus was brought by Achilles' mother Thetis to intervene and just the appearance of this powerful entity was enough to cow the other gods and dissuade them from this action. Braireus/Aegaeon would be the Centimane that would appear most prominently in the stories we have about the Olympian Gods and Greek Mythology.
For another alternate universe version of this lore on the imprisonment of the titans and the consequences of Grecian style Godhood, I would recommend that you look into Magic: The Gathering's setting of Theros. For a short video on the Hecatoncheires I recommend this simple one.
The Hekaton Race
So given that ATO is based on the concept of a Grecian Mythological world where the Olympians have vanished the Hekatons can be initially thought to be descendents of the three Hecatoncheires and in fact at times they are referred to in plural as the Centimanes. No matter what their origin is (more on their story a bit later); it is clear that the Hekatons do not come close to rivalling their Grecian counterparts/parents. The Hekaton serves as the first Primordial you encounter and as such has the role of 'training monster' in the same way that Kingdom Death's White Lion exists. Further comparisons however go out of the window, because as you repeatedly encounter this Primordial the Hekaton goes up in levels its power and threat to the Argonauts and their Titans become very serious. You can't farm a weak little Hekaton over and over in this game and it becomes clear very quickly.
In respect to the Centimane's in universe story, it is hidden inside the story book behind the Centimane language, which are symbols that appear in some passages, sometimes with no context and sometimes with translations. The language presented in the book is a relatively simple cipher to crack, though it will likely take time to gather all of the keys you need to solve it. Take your time, note everything you encounter surrounding it and know I thought that it is worth solving.
Aeon Trespass' Battle Ethos
Before I get into the specifics of the Hekaton I'm going to use this opening section to outline the combat system and philosophy behind it; because if you are only familiar with Kingdom Death: Monster's (KDM) design there are some core fundamental differences; ones designed to make the combat more engaging and more accessible. We'll start with the philosophy that the combat was designed around and I'll be using KDM as the basepoint comparison in order to facilitate understanding.
In KDM; as a combat moves on in time and turns, participants all get worn down. Survivors lose armor points, insanity and suffer injuries, brain trama, survival, bleeding and uses on limited use equipment. Monsters also become worn down, gaining permanent injuries and becoming more and more predictable near the end of the fight due to having fewer and fewer AI cards (and HL cards if they were converted into Persistent Injuries). This constant grinding down from capable fighting units into weary ones near the end of the fight is a key portion of KDM's design philosophy – the game seeks to grind down the survivors, the settlement and the monsters as it pushes them towards a nihilistic determination of limited endurance that leads ultimately to destruction and death. That is why the game's core ethos is about the triumph of human adversity in the face of oblivion; players are given a cruel, dark world that seeks to grind them down in the way that Darkest Dungeon also seeks; but also gives them the tools to dominate and tame the landscape so definitively that only the author's intervention at the end of a campaign can stop the players from triumph. This is part of why some of the game's endings feel so unsatisfying to many players, it stands counter to the gameplay.
ATO seeks a different approach, one based around adrenalin. As every unit in this game deals or suffers damage they gain an increase in power, access to more dangerous abilities, extra strengths or even the temporary ascension to godhood. In short, the game seeks to escalate everything the closer you get to the end. Both the players and the Primordial become more powerful as they take damage, they gain new options, stronger offensive and defensive capabilities. That is what makes the game so different despite sharing mechanics with KDM, it is an entirely opposite philosophical approach and it both makes games get more and more exciting as you approach the end of a battle in a different manner, but it also makes the game have a far broader appeal. People get more cool “Wow” moments and increasing stakes – KDM can be like fighting on a millstone, trying to avoid being ground down as it turns, ATO is like fighting on a knife edge and with participants trying to throw their opponent onto the blade for that fatal slice. It's fatigue vs. adrenaline.
Mechanically for Primordials this is expressed through the escalation system, as you successfully injure parts of a Primordial, the cards that represent these are removed from the game and higher level attacks and parts are shuffled into their respective decks.
For example; if you wound a Level I Body Part then it is removed from the battle as a wound along with a Level I AI card also getting removed. Then a Level 2 AI card and Body Part are added to their respective decks; representing the Primordial becoming more dangerous and desperate with its attacks and parts deeper within the Primordial becoming exposed for future attacks. Level II cards are more threatening and tougher than their Level I versions and Level III cards are a step up again.
This system allows for the Primordials to have varied behaviour from one individual to the next; while also tracking wounds via the Body Parts remove. Escalation in danger is inevitable, you cannot harm the Primordial without making it inherently more dangerous, and in turn as it harms your titans they too can grow in power.
Note: Formatting for attacks is as follows X/Y+/Z Where X is the number of dice and Y+ Is the evasion roll target and Z is the default danger per hit. Rage effects are too varied to solidify into this format.
The Hekaton Battle: Overview
The Hekaton is not a swift opponent in the lower levels at just 6 movement. This does at times create opportunities to outpace it when given a window. It's something worth paying attention to, but not a required portion of the game's strategy. It also is the least durable and agile of all the opponents you will face; which is fitting given its place as the "training wheels" monster in the game.
The core of this battle comes down to a dance between the Titans and the Hekaton; with the Hekaton seeking to push the battle out to the edges of the board and then shove Titans off into the abyss while the Titans look to stay on safe ground and keep the fight near the middle. Conceptually this is like a fight against a boxing sumo wrestler, E. Honda from Street Fighter if that helps you visualise what's going on.
The beats of this song continue until either the Hekaton pummels or shoves the Titans into oblivion or the Hekaton suffers lethal damage; until that point this Primordial remains threatening and dangerous to the Agronauts and their Titans.
Note: We are not going to consider the Minestis levels of the Cycle 1 monsters at this time; The Minestis Theatre is a later game additional content which you're not normally going to be interacting with too much during your first play of Cycle 1. It is absolutely worth playing once you have confidence though. Really good stuff.
The Hekaton Routine & Signature Moves
Routine cards exist to overtly punish players for turtling and/or failing to engage with the monster and its mechanics each turn. They are very dangerous and can't be ignored too often without causing huge consequences like campaign failure. The Hexaton is no exception to this; if you leave it to do its own thing for a turn it will hurl rocks or cows at the Argo; lowing the boat's hull by one. Recovering a point of hull here or there is very possible, but it's not something you want to be forced to do if you can avoid it.
Signature moves on the other hand provide known actions that can be called by other cards inside the AI and BP (Body Part) decks. With AI cards they are a simple way of adding an additional action/AI card onto an existing move in a fair way that can also scale. It's perfectly possible for an AI card to be nothing more than performing the signature three times in a row and that can still be very terrifying.
Signature moves also exist to give you a signal about what the mechanics that the given Primordial is looking to utilise against the players. This can help you understand what equipment you will want to be crafting for later fights (where the threat will scale up).
In the case of the Hekaton we can see that visually this Primordial likes to deliver attacks with its fists and cause Knockback. Knockback has the threat of pushing Titans into terrain for Danger or even damaging your relationships with the factions in the game. However, once you get into the higher level (2+) Hekatons the intent of the Primordial design becomes clear; you are going to have to utilise equipment and terrain to stop yourself from being pushed off the edge of the board – because if that happens then the Titan in question dies; no Obal, no Godform, just death.
The really nice thing about ATO's design here is this is not hidden from you, it's primted on the Hekaton sheet as something you can read in advance and try to prepare for. From the very first introductory fight the “Friendly Warning” printed on there signifies that the Pushback/Knockback is something serious and at the Level 3 Hekaton fight the boxing gloves have really come off. There is increased push/knockback and the various tricks continue to scale as the Primordial scales further.
I do want to really highlight how mature and adult the mechanical design approach is in ATO in general. The game is not hiding nasty surprises that can cause bad feelings for players; it signals the Primordial's intent in advance, through physical design, tropes, mechanics and equipment offered before the relevant battles get really serious. Players are offered a puzzle to solve and the tools to achieve that; and the surprises are saved for cool moments that make players feel powerful. It's a very fresh and modern approach to boss battling and I greatly appreciate it.
The Hekaton Active Behaviours
The best way to consider the general terms of how a Hekaton behaves is to learn the commonalities and extreme dangers between each card in the same AI tier. With this one can glance at the back of the deck and have a fair understanding of the most likely target and attack that will be coming out of the AI deck. This allows the back of the deck to represent meaningful approximate information. Then after that we'll look at each of the cards individually for that tier.
TIER I – SHADOW BOXING
Tier 1 Hekaton cards target the Closest Titan in front, in range as their first choice in 5/6 results; the 1/6 targets the Priority Target, in range before defaulting to the Closest Titan in front, in range. The last target option here is always the Closest Titan, in range. This means that you can be certain that if the priority target is also the closest titan in range of the Hekaton then a Tier 1 AI card will always target it and you also know that when the Hekaton has played its sole Tier 1 Priority Target card that its Tier I cards are all focused on the front closest titan (note, normally the Priority Target token represents a tiebreaker when two Titans are equally valid targets). Titans on the sides and rear of the Hekaton will only be targeted if there is no target in front at all. This allows for what I call the 'circle dance' because the titans can rotate around the Primordial and take it in turns to be hit; this strategy is done when you want to spread the damage out across the titans.
Cold Open
Listed first for obvious reasons, this is a wild, inaccurate attack that is potentially terrifying due to its 4 (5 vs. 3+ Fate) dice that deal 1 damage per hit. The 6+ Evasion roll on this helps mitigate a lot of the damage and also amplifies the power of any Evasion or Blocking gear your titan has equipped. This results in an attack with a fair amount of variance, but it can deal between 0 and 4 danger followed by a Pushback 3. This Pushback is the first indicators of a thematic and mechanical goal that the Hekaton has, it's looking to push/knockback titans to the edge of the board. Something that becomes very threatening once the Hektatons level up.
Left Hook/Right Hook
This is the same attack with a different descriptor and image for Left/Right Hook are identical. It is about as basic as an attack can be; with 2 dice (3 vs. 3+ Fate), an evasion roll of 10+ and 1 danger per hit. The knockback 5 is something that you will have to become used to paying attention to, both due to crashing into other objects on the board and the aforementioned edge of the board lethality at higher level. I'm not going to mention this edge of the board = death directly in any more knockback/pushback attacks the Hekaton has, but bare them in mind each time we bring up mechanics that move your Titan against the Hekaton. It's absolutely fine to crash into a pillar if that stops you plunging off the edge and other such notes we discussed in the battle overview above.
Thunderpunch
This attack loses movement potential in exchange for knockdown and an extra dice. It is a 3/9+/1 attack that knocks down as a part of the attack, which is also different to normal – the Knockback/Pushbacks trigger after the attack instead. Apart from that extra dice and switch of effect this is a pretty standard attack.
One, Two Punch
This attack seems similar to the above; however the 3+ Fate is replaced with pushback 3 and the knockdown is replaced with Swat. That change makes this attack far more threatening than any of the others mentioned before, with 3+ Fate this move can result in no less than 8 squares of forced movement in addition to two 1 danger attacks of 2 dice at 9+ evasion.
Smash
Finally we have the card that picks on the priority target; this one is the hardest hitting of all the Tier 1 attacks, but at higher levels I'd posit that the One, Two Punch has the greatest top end threat level for a Titan's life because of that huge forced movement. It is so threatening because each hit deals 2 danger instead of the 1 that other Tier I attacks deal. If it's not turned up yet it is always worth making a mental note that the Priority target could end up smashed for 4 or 6 danger. Players are mostly in control of who the Priority Target is after all, so be mindful of activation order, sometimes the correct move may be to not attack at all for a round or two in order to let a different Titan get ahead in Rage. This is also just a good thing to form a habit around; rage is after all both a boon and a burden.
TIER II – ROUNDHOUSE
When we move into Tier 2 the Hekaton's attacks change targeting priority a bit. It now only has 2/6 that prioritise Closest Titan, in front, in range. In exchange it gains one more Priority Target, in range for a total of 2/6 and the last two attacks are Area of Effect (AoE). One targets all adjacent titans and the other targets ever titan in Zone 2 (within 2 spaces of the Primordial), we'll look at those two in more detail later on. The main thing to note here is the Hekaton's increased focus on the Priority Target and how Titans on the sides/rear are no longer safe. They can however still use distance to ensure that they are not in harm's way as long as their weapon range is 3+. Range 2 weapons are safe 50% of the time.
Chainfist
No glory for the Emperor to be found here; it's not that kind of chainfist. Instead this is a 2/9+ Priority Target, in range → Closest Titan, in front, in range → Closest Titan in sight attack; that deals 1 danger per hit and then if it scores at least one point of danger it will repeat the attack once then stop. This is a relatively soft Tier II attack and straightforward in its design.
Furious Smash
A 4/8+ Priority Target, in range → Closest Titan, in front, in range → Closest Titan in sight; attack that deals 1 or 2 danger per hit (4+ Fate) and has a mild Pushback of 3. There's not a lot more to say about it beyond that; this is one of the attacks that you'd prefer to pull from the Tier 2 pile.
Omnipunch
One of two AoE attacks, this 3/9+ targets all adjacent Titans, before moving to Signature (2/9+/1 Danger/Knockback 5). Now if you have plenty of ranged/reach based attacks it is worth considering if the signature attack is worth taking. But most of the time the correct habit to have for fighting the Hekaton is to have a tank capable Titan in one of the two spaces in front of it and that is what I would be doing here. Bringing spears + ranged weapons + shields as much as possible.
Rumble Strike
Our second AoE attack is more accurate and hits a larger group of targets due to its Zone 2 targeting. While there are situations where you might not have anyone in range, it's more likely that this one will hit 3+ members of your team. Fortunately it doesn't hit too hard itself with a 2/9+ 1 Danger attack, but it does trigger knockdown and a follow up Signature attack at the end (note that will be Closest Titan, in front, in range → Closest Titan in sight and does pack Knockback 5. However; outside of the general notes I'll be giving in respect to forced movement after the individual card breakdown there isn't much to do in the way of unique strategy. If this card turns up, take your lumps.
Solarplexar
The old blow to the Solarplexus, ouch.
Unsurprisingly this is one of the nastiest attacks in the tier 2 section with a 2/8+ (3/8+ at 3+ Fate) that always deals 2 danger per hit, inflicts a knockdown and results in a Kratos card draw if at least 2+ Danger was inflicted. Kratos cards are a nasty little twist that at some point later on we'll go into, but for now it's enough to say that this is bad. Fortunately the targeting is Priority Target, in range → Closest Titan, in front, in range → Closest Titan, in sight which means you can try to ensure that this pointed at the Titan best able to take the blow and all its consequences. Damage mitigation, blocking, clever positioning. All of these can help, but for the most part this one is going to be aimed at whatever Titan is on punching bag duty for the round.
Suckerpunch
The sucker part of this attack is not the targeting, which is an honest Closest Titan, in front, in range → Closest Titan, in sight. It's the low blow that causes knockdown and knockback 5. Knockdown is a good way for a Primordial to remove a tanking Titan for a turn or so; which is why tanking titans should have a back up partner able to take over. Generally this will be more of a Bruiser style Titan (Heavier damage, some defenses, but not dedicated to protection the way that a Tanking Titan would be). Otherwise this is a 2/8+ 2 Danger (3 Danger at 5+ fate), knockdown, knockback 5 attack. It's kind of par for the course for a Tier II attack.
TIER III – KNOCKOUT BLOW
The Final Tier follows the same pattern as Tier 2. We are still at only 2/6 Prioritising Closest Titan, in front, in range but we now have 3/6 that first seek the Priority Target, in range and just 1 of 6 has a Zone 3 AoE attack. However, the damage and threat of these cards is significantly higher and as the Hexatons get more and more health you are going to have to contend with these cards in higher frequency. This is the set of cards that end up being the 'final form' for a Hekaton's active behaviors; so be aware. Early on you'll have to weather maybe one or two of these, but as the levels climb that will change.
Backbreaker
One of the trio of Priority Target, in range → Closest Titan, in front, in range → Closest Titan Backbreaker's biggest threat is the 8+ Fate insta-kill; but even without that this 3/9+ 2D attack forces an Obal draw and Knockdown. The only real counter to this is to be very aware of how high fates are on Titan triskellions and rotate the Priority token appropriately. In general your tanking Titans shouldn't be pushing their fate much anyway.
Death from a Hundred Fists
Our second Tier III Priority Target, in range → Closest Titan, in front, in range → Closest Titanattack is a pure Stand Rush filled with Ora. If you're very unlucky your Titan could experience the full 7 page muda muda, but even without that this is a 5/7+/1D (6+ Fate 2D) attack that has Pushback 4. Like all Tier III AI cards you want this pointed at the most evasive target possible, but Blocking weapons are a bit less effective here due to how each each hit roll has a 40% chance of generating a subsequence hit roll. Buckle up and brace for the ride.
Hekatosmasher
Our Zone attack in Tier III is a fairly tame attack for the tier in which its placed. Zone 3 is a massive area; however this is only a 2/8+/2D attack at each Titan, which puts it at the lower threat end in compensation for its sheer range of impact. The most threatening part of this card is how it can catch Titans nearer the edge with 5+ Fate and Knockback them for 5; then draw another AI card right afterwards. That second AI card is very hard to plan for; but you at least get to see what tier it is while you are resolving the Hekatosmasher.
As such this card can result in combos that move a Titan 10+ squares and that's very dangerous.
Skullcrusher
A Closest Titan, in front, in range → Closest Titan that has a 2/8+/4D attack bundled with knockdown and knockback 8. This attack can very rapidly wreck a Titan and leave them badly injured and near the edge of the board. It is otherwise a mechanically basic attack similar to the earlier tier punches, just with the damage turned up a few notches.
Solarsuplexar
Another Closest Titan, in front, in range → Closest Titan card that inflicts a Kratos card, this 3/9+/1D suplex has another tricky little element added to it where it forces the attacked Titan to “vault” over the Hekaton before knocking them down. This can rapidly move a Titan from being in the “safe zone” near the middle of the board to being on the outside of that space and therefore vulnerable to being moved towards the kill zones outside the edges. The main thing you can do to try and counter this set up is either have ways of standing up quickly or provide a more juicy target for the Hekaton by putting a titan in the front facing adjacent to the Hekaton in the space nearest the middle of the board. Not much you can do if it AoEs with Knockback on its next AI card though.
Thunderclash
The third of the Priority Target, in range → Closest Titan, in front, in range → Closest Titan attacksis a 2/8+/3D manoeuvrer with Knockdown and a staggering Knockback 8. As before if a Titan is hit by this terrain and equipment can reduce the total amount one is moved towards the edge of the board, but in addition other Titans will need to position themselves during their turn to try and keep the Hekaton away from isolating the lone Titan and finishing the job with a ring out.
In the end, what rewards players most when dealing with the Hekaton's active behaviours is aggression and good positioning when attacking. Being aware that the Hekaton's main targets are Priority Target, in range → Closest Titan, in front, in range → Closest Titanwith a few AoE attacks can help a lot in keeping the edges of the board away from the titans. Aggression is important because you do not want a dragged out fight against a Primordial like this; ATO rewards players most of all for being aggressive with their turns and dealing damage as much as possible – but you do want to pay attention to fate levels in particular. 3 Fate is the first place where the Hekaton becomes more dangerous, but against the Tier III AI cards fate punishment only starts to happen at 6+ Fate. This means in a long fight your tanking Titans who plan to take most of the punishment as the fight drags on know that they can spend up to 4 or 5 fate without suffering the most dramatic of consequences.
The really scary point of Fate is 8+; Backbreaker is a massive punishment for an Argonaut that's been too aggressive with their rolls, so even if you are a mainly attacking Titan rather than a punchbag one one should think very hard about each Fate point spent past 5. You need to be desperate; close to the kill or confident that Backbreaker isn't happening because it is in the discard pile. Always remember to pay attention to what's in the discard pile, that's moves which won't happen again unless there is a full reshuffle of the AI deck.
Resin Hekatos painted by me.
The Hekaton Defenses & Reactive Behaviours
Again one of the largest things to remember is that you get information before attacking as to approximately how tough the upcoming BP is going to be to wound. If it is a Tier II or Tier III then you will be seeking to line up your best attacker against the location if you want to wound it; but you will have to judge how many dice they are attacking with, how accurate they can be on average and what tokens you've been able to set up in advance of that attack. If it's not good enough then it may be worth ensuring that another Titan goes ahead in the queue to 'scrub' that location away and keep momentum going by letting your better attackers concentrate on scoring wounds where they can. There's no prizes for stalling out here.
To aid with that here's the average number you'll need to achieve per Tier on the Hekaton if you want to score a wound 50% of the time or more plus the range of numbers.
- Tier I = 3 (Range 2 to 4)
- Tier II = 5 (Range 4 to 6)
- Tier III = 6.1666 (Range 5 to 8)
If you want to guarantee a wound you'll be looking to hit that top number consistently, but if you can't reach the bottom number at all then all you'd be doing is suffering any instinct/fail penalties while trying to set up a latter attacker. If you're good with a particular Titan being bruised up for the greater good, then their weak attacks can still be put to good use.
I'm not going to go into massive detail about each card here in this section; instead we're just going to look at the various reactions because they are the things that really need to be understood. The reward for success is most of the times a wound and escalation. The penalties however vary and not keeping them in mind can really mess with your plans. Especially with unexpected knockback/pushback/knockdown coming out from your own attacks – the later you attack the Hekaton in the round, the higher the chance that you could get caught out by a reaction and left for a fatal follow up.
TIER I - FEATHERWEIGHT
The first tier's reactions are 3 set to fail conditions and 3 wound; this means you can't really predict if you are going to be punished for success or failure when dealing with a Tier I BP card in isolation, but you might be able to take a good estimate based on what's in the discard pile. In short, it's better to just hit Tier I BP cards with the goal of wounding them; which requires at least 2 power and always succeeds with 4.
It is worth keeping in mind that failed reactions deal either Knockdown or Pushback 2; while wound reactions deal Pushback 1 + Knockback 5 (66% of the time) or Knockdown (33% of the time). Titans can also gain fate on two of these BPs; so bare that in mind if you are concerned about passing the various fate thresholds in this battle.
Outside of that; there are multiple critical hit options, but because you can't really control getting these; there's not too much that one can strategically consider here. Criticals are a thing which just happens in Cycle I; they're not something you can really steer towards in the way that KDM has crit resource farming builds very early on. The most notable thing here is that the Left Shield Fist can drop an Ancient Shell Rare resource in addition to a bonus attack.
TIER II – WELTERWEIGHT
In the second tier we see a shift to 4 fail vs. 2 wounds. So you are punished a bit more for scrubbing locations instead of trying to wound them. But at the minimum you need to be hitting 4 with your power rolls which means that you're going to initially need to be strategic with when you drop your break tokens in order to get to that 4-6 power rolled in order to score wounds in this category.
Instead of forcing fate onto attacking titans, the Tier II BP cards concentrate on dealing danger while continuing the Pushback/Knockback theming. There are a couple of really useful Critical Hit results here; one of which provides a decent two handed shield and the other disables Pushbacks. So rolling more dice when attacking is always great due to that increased chance of getting a crit.
TIER III - CHAMPION
In the final tier we see a switch to include Instinct reactions; these are reactions you're going to have to suck up regardless and they make 3/6 of the cards, with the remaining ones being 2 fails and 1 wound reaction. There is a lot of focus on retaliating with Danger and a minor focus in punishing failures with fate (it's only 1/6 cards, it's easy to keep a track of being in the deck, discard pile or not yet into the deck at all). The very threatening them is the escalation of the Pushback and Knockback effects. Every single card has Pushback + Knockback baked into its reactions, so you want to be attacking Tier III BPs from a side that is nearest the middle (or furthest from the edge). Pay attention to where you'll be if you're punted 7 or 8 spaces in a straight line away from the Primordial and assume that it's always going to move at least 2 spaces when reacting, that'll help you decide what order to activate titans in.
Crits are as always very useful here and hold a bunch of different benefits ranging from insta-killing the Hekaton all the way to a post fight story event that helps lift some of the veil on the Centimanes and what happened to them. But as always you don't have much control over scoring those; instead you should be trying to ensure that you have at least 5 power potential when attacking a Tier III and also have a good shot at hitting the 8 required to cut through any of these locations.
Overall; the main goal when attacking the Hekaton is to be thoughtful about the order in which you are activating your Titans; pay attention to where the Priority Target token will end up and what space you are going to be standing in when you attack the Hekaton. The last element is to pay attention to Fate; the numbers where Hekaton attacks get bonuses are 3 (all tier I & some tier II); 4; 5; 6 (Tier II and Tier III); 7 and 8 (Tier III only) with 8+ being the most threatening as long as you don't know exactly where the Backbreaker AI card is. Titans looking to soak up hits should try to keep their fate gains as low as possible while Titans who are concentrating on aggression should still be aware of what Fate they can gain without reprecussions. This Fate number climbs the higher tier the Hekaton's cards grow through escalation.
Summary & Primordial Mini Review
The Hekaton is honestly a real contender for one of the best introductory bosses in any of the games we've seen to date. The design of this creature is easy to visualise as a mixture of a boxer and a sumo wrestler; like Edmund Honda from the Street Fighter series. It is going to smash you with a series of dizzying blows that perform the simultaneous goals of increasing danger, ruining positiong and depositing Titans out of the ring for a death blow.
This style of play is easy to operate; it is straightforward to internalise and fun to engage with as the stakes never get too low. The players are rewarded for investing in positional based equipment and smart moves that keep the fight near the middle, but also there's opportunities to take some damage via terrain collision in order to avoid instant death. That's a great place to put players in; this constant threat of dying regardless of how little damage you've taken is huge, but it's not coming out of nowhere.
Comparing the Hekaton to Kingdom Death's own boss occupying the space of tutorial boss (The White Lion); the Hekaton is a far superior constructed game piece both thematically and mechanically. Which is to be expected as the Hekaton is a newer design and should both iterate and evolve. There are quite a few parallels between the two entities; both have hints of an ancient civilisation, both display body horror and move player units around the board – the Hekaton just performs it all in a more modern and engaging manner. I love the White Lion a great deal; but there is a lot of wasted potential in its mechanical design; it doesn't provide equipment designed to help specifically dealing with its higher level forms, that lands in the hands of Survival Actions – likewise the Level 3 White Lion is just the Level 2 White Lion with the dial turned up a little more.
The Hekaton on the other hand benefits from a more sophisticated design that ramps up the threat in a signalled but meaningful way and it feels different at different levels due to that sudden introduction of the edges = death. It also has the advantage of the ATO's system allowing for 9 different levels of the Primordial alongside the way that the Escalation system pushes the Hekaton into its most dangerous attack forms for longer the higher its levels get.
So, while it's not a comparison that the White Lion wins, the honest truth is that kitty really didn't ever stand a chance. The White Lion is a great design for its time; but comparing it to the ATO analogue highlights just how far boss battling has come since 2915. On the other hand; this comparison is important, because if the Hekaton was not at least one step forward then ATO would not be the evolution for the genre it needed to be. Instead it would just be a reskinned clone, and we don't want that.
When we return to ATO in a few weeks; it'll be time to look at the Labyrinthauros. Until then, please do share here or on the discord your own experiences fighting this little treasure!
Comments
Fen
Yes. Two points that got blended together unintentionally!
Ophir Gonen
Thank you for this article. I am still amazed at your analytical mind and ability to dissect and present games to us. you wrote at TIER II – WELTERWEIGHT that the more dice you roll the better cause those crits are great. I am confused by that statment. In KDM, every 10 is a crit. Here, only the white die can crit (except in very specific equipment). Did you mean "the more attacks you perform"?
Lushipur
We finished cicle 1 after 20 session over 7 weeks for a grand total of 50/60 game hours. Last session we run through the map to reach the final destination asap, avoiding uneccessary time sink. That’s because we were really tired of it. Must be said that the ending was really cool and raised the final score of the game (storywise) from a 7 to an 8. We got a really satisfying and unexpected ending. Loved all the last few paragraphs (especially how they created a cinematic experience 😂). However we the battle were really boring up until level 4 and even there they were absolutely flat. I have to say that the White Lion with his 3 forms is way better than 9 level of hekaton that doesnt really change his behavior except pushing you harder. There are some great idea there but the game was just a rush to hit faster and harder to end the fight asap. I know that cycle 1 is just a big tutorial and probably cycle 2 will be better (or at least i hope it) but KD:M still is top combat wise (with all the limitation of a nearly 10 year old game). Sorry but english is not my first language and i find it hard to express the most complicated arguments and i have to use simple words and phrases.
