Shade

Hunter's Journal


''Echo of a previous life. Defeat it to retake its power and become whole.''



''Each of us leaves an imprint of something when we die. A stain on the world. I don't know how much longer this kingdom can bear the weight of so many past lives...''

Behaviour and Tactics
hen the player dies, a Shade appears in or before the room they died, holding all Geo the player has lost. Until they are killed, the player's SOUL vessel remains broken, meaning that they won't be able to hold as much SOUL.

If the player dies before killing the Shade, a new Shade will appear on the spot of the new death's location and the old one will disappear. Killing the new Shade will fix the SOUL Vessel, but all the Geo carried by the previous Shade will be lost.

When approaching its location, an off-key tune is heard, signalling its presence. Upon engagement, It homes in on the player and attacks by swinging its Nail. If the player moves away too far from the Shade's spawn point while the it is pursuing them, it will turn into smoke and leash back to its spawn point.

That the Shade will become stronger as the player progresses through the game; as the player gains more health, so will the Shade and will be able to use spells like Shade Soul and Descending Dark (once acquired).

If the player died to a boss, the Shade will usually spawn in a safe location so as to be recoverable without triggering the boss battle, however, this is not always true for mini-bosses. If the Shade is in a mini-boss room, try hitting it from a distance with Vengeful Spirit or Shade Soul to draw its attention. In addition, the Shade can appear in the room where the player fights the Crystal Guardian for a second time if the player dies to it.

The Shade can also spawn in the middle of difficult platforming sections if the player died there, and make those sections even more difficult. In those cases, going back to Dirtmouth and speaking with Confessor Jiji can be a desirable solution.

Trivia

 * Once the player has acquired the Void Heart, the Shade becomes passive and will only take one hit to kill.
 * The Shade will die in one hit to hazards.
 * If the Shade uses Descending Dark and lands in water, the explosion will not occur and it will become stuck in place, open to attacks.
 * Confessor Jiji, in return for a Rancid Egg offers a service to summon the player's active Shade to Dirtmouth. This is useful if the player died very far away from their last checkpoint or in the middle of a hard platforming section.