Soul Master

Hunter's Journal


''Head of the Soul Sanctum. Hoarded soul hoping to stave off Hallownest's affliction, but eventually became intoxicated by its power.   ''

''The bugs of Hallownest tried all kinds of rituals and prayers to rid themselves of the infection. But to no avail! Perhaps the infection came from somewhere deep inside of them that they could not escape.''

Soul Master
The Soul Master behaves very similarly to a Soul Twister in battle, floating in the air and erratically teleporting around the battlefield. However, he has a wider variety of attacks.

Behaviour - Phase 1
After taking a certain amount of damage, he will temporarily "deflate." Attacking him or waiting long enough will cause him to resume attacking.
 * Soul Shot: Shoots a semi-homing orb of Soul at the player.
 * Tackle: Rushes from one side of the arena to the other, dealing contact damage.
 * Soul Barrier: Floats from one side of the arena to the other, surrounded by a shield of four orbiting soul orbs. At completion, the orbs are launched away from his location.
 * Desolate Dive: Teleports above the player and performs the Desolate Dive, creating a shockwave
 * At times he may cancel this Dive attack and do it again, baiting the player to dodge too early.

Tactics - Phase 1
His Soul Shot can be dodged by jumping or dashing either left or right if the Soul Master is far, but it wont hit the player if they stand directly next to him.

The best way to deal with the Soul Master is to stay at the right side of the arena. This will make his Tackle completely harmless (as the he will always teleport away just before impacting the wall) and make it so that the player only needs to worry about the shockwave from the Desolate Dive rather than the impact itself.

When he summons the four orbs that orbit around him, approach him when he is about halfway across the arena, jump over the bottom orb when it's closest to the ground.

The easiest way to damage him is to keep attacking him from below when he is conjuring the homing orbs.

He leaves many open opportunities to heal, notably when he "deflates" after taking enough damage, and when he uses Tackle or Soul Barrier, where the player can simply move to the other side of the arena to heal.

Behaviour - Phase 2
After taking enough damage, the Soul Master will seem to have died, leaving behind his signature spell. However, before the player can absorb the spell, he reappears, breaks the ground and the battle enters its second phase. In this phase, the Soul Master only has two attacks, which it will alternate using:
 * Desperate Dive: Repeated Desolate Dives in quick succession, but without the shockwave.
 * It will still sometimes bait the player into dodging too soon by cancelling the Dive and doing it again


 * Soul Swarm: Floats in place while soul orbs materialize around the room and are launched at the player one by one

Tactics - Phase 2
This phase is overall significantly easier than the first phase due to the predictable nature of the Soul Master's attacks, the lack of shockwaves on his Desolate Dives, and his openness to attacks during his projectile attack. Keep dashing and jumping in either direction when he does the Dive. Once he starts conjuring orbs, he is open 2-3 or more hits each time, but make sure to keep moving to dodge the homing projectiles.

Learn to avoid the projectiles and attacks, as this phase will give the player much less time to stop and heal.

Soul Tyrant
Returning to the Soul Master's corpse and attacking it with the Dream Nail brings the player to an arena where they will fight the Soul Tyrant. Upon defeat, he awards 300 Essence.

Behaviour - Phase 1
Soul Tyrant possesses the same attacks as Soul Master, though they are performed faster and the Soul Barrier is now 6 orbs in two lines of three, and the shockwave from Desolate Dive is much higher.

Tactics - Phase 1
Move a lot, use the Howling Wraiths from time to time and heal during the attack mentioned above. Generally repeat the tactics used against the Soul Master, but with better Charms. The player should have the Monarch Wings before this battle, which will allow them to easily dodge his ground pound even when he tries his fake-out.

Behaviour - Phase 2
Same as Soul Master, but much faster.

Tactics - Phase 2
Be sure to heal up before jumping down for this phase. Don't try to heal at all during the fight unless Shape of Unn is equipped. Even Quick Focus won't let the player heal fast enough to avoid getting hit by an orb. As he will not have much health left in this phase, try to save up SOUL for high-damage Spells like Howling Wraiths/Abyss Shriek and Desolate Dive/Descending Dark.

Trivia

 * After the Soul Tyrant is beaten, the Soul Master's ghost reveals (getting inspiration from prophetic dreams) he was using the soul that animates the bodies of the people in an attempt to get rid of the infection. The Pale King rejected this idea, and the experiment itself failed, as the Soul Master and the other researchers became addicted to the power of Soul.
 * It's possible that The Radiance was the cause of the prophetic dreams the Soul Master was getting inspiration from.