History YMMV / Ultrakill

** Mindflayers have an assortment of abilities that make them difficult to fight at any range. They can teleport, fire either homing projectiles or a sweeping laser, and swipe with some strong melee attacks. They're surprisingly bulky despite appearances, and while they have some weak points, they're difficult to hit thanks to their size and the Mindflayers' movements. It's telling that most experienced players say to burst them down with the railcannon and the nailgun before they even get a chance to really get going. You can temporarily prevent them from teleporting by hitting them with the Screwdriver variant of the railcannon, but this only mitigates the threat they pose slightly. You can also kill them instantly by using weapons that deal SplashDamage (such as the Malicious Railcannon, parried Shotgun pellets, the Blue Shotgun's Core Eject, the Green Shotgun's Max Pump, and the Knuckleblaster) to [[HoistByHisOwnPetard reflect their blue projectiles back to them]], but pulling this off is difficult.

** The Jackhammer quickly became notorious in the community for having access to insane tricks which allowed it to one shot Malicious Faces, Virtues, and Sentries as long as V1 was able to pick up enough speed to be able to deal its devastating X4 damage MegatonPunch in combination with its Core Eject variant which let it spam nukes without the need for the Malicious Railcannon.

** It's very, very common to never see players pull out the Knuckleblaster at all ([[AntiMetagameCharacter except to deal with Guttermen and their shields as of 7-2]]) and rely exclusively on the Feedbacker because of how ludicrously useful parrying is against almost every enemy in the game and how many style points can be accrued via parrying, as opposed to the limited use the Knuckleblaster has as essentially just a shotgun with higher knockback and a worse reload[[note]]Not to mention that the addition of [[PileBunker the Impact Hammer]] provides many of the same benefits as the Knuckleblaster (such as the ability to destroy Gutterman shields) while still allowing you to hold the Feedbacker[[/note]]. The chance you would forget to switch back to Feedbacker in the heat of combat and get killed when you tried to parry with your face wasn't deemed worthwhile. This was somewhat mitigated by an update that optionally gives each arm its own dedicated button instead of having to manually switch between them, so you can bust out the Knuckleblaster for a quick pop without worry.

** The Impact Hammer quickly became notorious in the community for having access to insane tricks which allowed it to one shot Malicious Faces, Virtues, and Sentries as long as V1 was able to pick up enough speed to be able to deal its devastating X4 damage MegatonPunch in combination with its Core Eject variant which let it spam nukes without the need for the Malicious Railcannon.

** It's very, very common to never see players pull out the Knuckleblaster at all ([[AntiMetagameCharacter except to deal with Guttermen and their shields as of 7-2]]) and rely exclusively on the Feedbacker because of how ludicrously useful parrying is against almost every enemy in the game and how many style points can be accrued via parrying, as opposed to the limited use the Knuckleblaster has as essentially just a shotgun with higher knockback and a worse reload[[note]]Not to mention that the addition of [[PileBunker the Jackhammer]] provides many of the same benefits as the Knuckleblaster (such as the ability to destroy Gutterman shields) while still allowing you to hold the Feedbacker[[/note]]. The chance you would forget to switch back to Feedbacker in the heat of combat and get killed when you tried to parry with your face wasn't deemed worthwhile. This was somewhat mitigated by an update that optionally gives each arm its own dedicated button instead of having to manually switch between them, so you can bust out the Knuckleblaster for a quick pop without worry.

** The Jackhammer quickly became notorious in the community for having access to insane tricks which allowed it to ''one or two-shot almost every enemy and boss in the game'' as long as V1 was able to pick up enough speed to be able to deal its devastating X4 damage MegatonPunch in combination with its various AltFire abilities.

* TooCoolToLive: Ultrakill has a habit of creating awesome characters that don't stay for long.

** Guttertanks are deceptively speedy and evasive for their size and typically fight from a distance. They'll pelt you with lightning-fast missiles or landmines, the latter of which have a tiny parry window, and these explosives inflict heavy knockback. Within melee range, they have a quick, powerful punch with the same strong knockback as the explosives, and it cannot be parried unless the Guttertank misses and trips over. One Guttertank is already a headache, but they commonly spawn in groups that can easily juggle an unprepared player. The Freezeframe Rocket Launcher can temporarily freeze their rockets to make things a bit easier, and there's even an instakill trick in which you can ride one of their rockets back into them, but it can only help so much. Before a patch, these enemies were even worse to deal with; they didn't trip upon missing a punch, meaning they could rapidly follow up on a missed punch with another, thus making healing off of their blood overly risky.

* TheInverseLawOfFandomLevity: ''ULTRAKILL'' is a game with an extremely nihilistic plot about a KillerRobot traveling through Hell and killing every living thing in existence [[LivingOnBorrowedTime just to stay alive a little longer using their blood as sustenance]]. Despite this, the fandom is one of the most non-serious modern gaming communities, primarily concerning themselves with making jokes about [[FoeYayShipping shipping V1 and Gabriel]], giving every single enemy in the game [[FanNickname ridiculous-sounding mundane names]] and generally being silly. Even the official ''ULTRAKILL'' [[https://ultrakill.fandom.com/wiki/Home fan wiki]] has completely non-serious jokes mixed in with the actual information on almost ''every page''.

* GameBreaker: The original version of the Sharpshooter Revolver was found to be hilariously busted. Against the various {{Superboss}}es, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXzoMsXMUHg it could quite handily delete a majority of their massive healthbars after ricocheting off some coins.]]

* HesJustHiding: The general behavior of the death of [[spoiler:V2. A considerably large part of the fandom believes that V2 will come back despite Hakita confirming that V2 indeed died when they crashed into the floor of Greed. It even became a meme when Hakita mocked the implausibility of V2 coming back because they literally become a stain on the floor right in front of the player's eyes.]]

** It's very, very common to never see players pull out the Knuckleblaster at all ([[AntiMetagameCharacter except to deal with Guttermen and their shields as of 7-2]]) and rely exclusively on the Feedbacker because of how ludicrously useful parrying is against almost every enemy in the game and how many style points can be accrued via parrying, as opposed to the limited use the Knuckleblaster has as essentially just a shotgun with higher knockback and a worse reload. The chance you would forget to switch back to Feedbacker in the heat of combat and get killed when you tried to parry with your face wasn't deemed worthwhile. This was somewhat mitigated by an update that optionally gives each arm its own dedicated button instead of having to manually switch between them, so you can bust out the Knuckleblaster for a quick pop without worry.

** The Rocket Launcher is awkwardly bound to the "5" key, meaning it's difficult to remember you even have it, fires slow projectiles, and only explodes on a direct hit, making it challenging to use. However, its apparent use case (slaying clusters of fodder enemies) isn't good because a number of enemies [[KungFuProofMook resist or nullify the rockets]], like Soldiers and Mannequins taking reduced damage from it or Streetcleaners and Maurices deflecting it. Until the addition of the S.R.S. Cannon's cannonballs, the only real reasons you'd use it are for novelty's sake or for niche tech in speedrunning and the Cyber Grind.

** Mannequins move incredibly fast, are more durable than they look, and tend to swarm you from multiple directions at once due to their ability to cling to walls and ceilings. Offensively, they have a one-two punch that comes out very quickly and has them get right in your face, and homing blue shots like the Mindflayer which aren't bad normally, but can get out of control when multiple Mannequins are sniping you from different points across the room; it's also somewhat hard to tell whether one is going to try and rush you down or snipe you until it actually begins to attack. Parrying either of their attacks can instakill them, but they'll often scuttle to new positions in between attacks, making them harder to hit with parried projectiles or retaliate against. Furthemore, they have a 50% resistance to explosions, making it harder to cull groups of them at once like you would with most swarm-type enemies. To add insult to injury, their tendency to lie flat and the way their body and gibs look alike can make it look like they're dead when they're really just idle or winded, potentially catching you off guard if you assumed you had killed them. On the bright side, if one is clinging to a wall, knockback or damage can knock them down, leaving them temporarily dazed and open to attack.

--> '''Hakita:''' This character is so fucking dead. It's--and I--[[KilledOffForReal it's so dead as it possibly could ever be]], and people are still like "maybe it's alive, though, maybe it comes back, maybe someone like, reconstructs it--". [[SuddenlyShouting RECONSTRUCT]] '''[[SuddenlyShouting WHAT!?!?]]''' '''THERE'S ''[[NotEnoughToBury NOTHING]]'' LEFT!!!'''

* HesJustHiding: The general behavior of the death of [[spoiler:V2. A considerably large part of the fandom believes that V2 will come back despite Hakita confirming that V2 indeed died when they crashed into the floor of Greed.]]

* HeIsJustHiding: The general behavior of the death of [[spoiler:V2. A considerably large part of the fandom believes that V2 will come back despite Hakita confirming that V2 indeed died when they crashed into the floor of Greed.]]

** While [[TheSpeechless V1 and V2 don't speak in-game]], V1's voice, as shown in media like Gianni Matragrano's [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GIukl1uFWtg Ultrakill]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MmPIxNshIO8 Community]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0QLft2Rh7dM Memes]] videos, is the S.A.M. text-to-speech voice program. V2's voice is either also S.A.M., or it's Microsoft Richard, aka the Windows 10 Narrator. The former has shown up occasionally in fanworks whenever V1's voice is needed.

** [[BrutalBonusLevel P-2, Wait of the World]]. [[spoiler:Were you expecting a [[BossOnlyLevel leisurely stroll to the boss gate like in P-1]]? Too bad! P-2 features some of the toughest enemy encounters in the entire game, including a tiny room filled with four Cerberi and a Ferryman along with two initially inaccessible Virtues, a fight with two Sisyphean Insurrectionists at once, an encounter with a pair of ''idol-protected [[DemonicSpiders Mindflayers]]'' where the idols can't be destroyed until clearing the room of every other enemy (one of which spawns early and harasses you for the ''last two encounters''), a tight tunnel of damaging blood stuffed with ranged enemies on limited ground, and a final battle with an idol-protected Stalker who walks around covering enemies in sand until you defeat them all and expose the idol. Did we mention said enemies include ''two Swordsmachines, a Ferryman, four Sentries, three Virtues and a [[DegradedBoss Hideous Mass]]!?'' And those are the ''warm-up fights for the actual boss encounter of the level, Sisyphus Prime,'' who is not only a powerhouse on par with or surpassing Minos, but also comes after a short but deadly battle with the Flesh Panopticon. This level will put everything you've learned so far to the test and then push you further, and you'd better pray you make it out the other side. It was so hard, in fact, that the devs put out a patch a few days later to reduce the difficulty]].

** [[spoiler: Many feel this way about Swordsmachine. It has an awesome design, extremely fun boss fight, and the lore behind it is interesting as it introduces the idea that the Machines have something of a culture on the surface where Swordsmachine is treated akin to a celebrity or prizefighter. Unfortunately it dies during its boss fight level almost right after being introduced. Fortunately, it returns as a normal enemy in Heresy, which means it's very likely we'll be seeing it often in Act III]].

** [[BrutalBonusLevel P-2, Wait of the World]]. [[spoiler:Were you expecting a [[BossOnlyLevel leisurely stroll to the boss gate like in P-1]]? Too bad! P-2 features some of the toughest enemy encounters in the entire game, including a tiny room filled with four Cerberi and a Ferryman, a fight with two Sisyphean Insurrectionists at once, an encounter with a pair of ''idol-protected [[DemonicSpiders Mindflayers]]'' where the idols can't be destroyed until clearing the room of additional enemies, and a final battle with an idol-protected Stalker who walks around covering enemies in sand until you defeat them all and expose the idol. Did we mention said enemies include ''four Sentries, three Virtues and a [[DegradedBoss Hideous Mass]]!?'' And those are the ''warm-up fights for the actual boss of the level, Sisyphus Prime.'' This level will put everything you've learned so far to the test and then push you further, and you'd better pray you make it out the other side. It was so hard, in fact, that the devs put out a patch a few days later to reduce the difficulty]].

** The Rocket Launcher is awkwardly bound to the "5" key, meaning it's difficult to remember you even have it, and on top of that it only deals damage on a direct hit ([[KungFuProofMook except for some enemies who are immune to rockets]]), meaning its primary use is outclassed in every way by the Malicious Railcannon and the only reason you would pull it out is for the novelty or to do [[GameBreaker speedrunning tricks with the Freezeframe]]. Fortunately, the addition of the S.R.S. Cannon varaint and the various techs that can be pulled off with its cannonballs have given the launcher much more use.

** The Rocket Launcher is awkwardly bound to the "5" key, meaning it's difficult to remember you even have it, and on top of that it only deals damage on a direct hit ([[KungFuProofMook except for some enemies who are immune to rockets]]), meaning its primary use is outclassed in every way by the Malicious Railcannon and the only reason you would pull it out is for the novelty or to do [[GameBreaker speedrunning tricks with the Freezeframe]].

** The '''Sisyphean Insurrectionist''', introduced in 4-2, is quite the imposing presence during a fight. Its attacks, while distinct, are hard to dodge, especially with the timing on them varying depending on how far you are from it, and it has limitless range, preventing V1 from leveraging any range advantage. It was so overbearing that it was nerfed not a day after Greed's release, reducing its HP and attack speed; but they still are among the most dangerous enemies in the game, especially when multiple of them show up in Cyber Grind.

** Guttertanks are deceptively speedy and evasive for their size and typically fight from a distance. They'll pelt you with lightning-fast missiles or landmines, the latter of which having a tiny parry window, and these explosives inflict heavy knockback. Within melee range, they have a quick, powerful punch with the same strong knockback as the explosives, and it cannot be parried unless the Guttertank misses and trips over. One Guttertank is already a headache, but they commonly spawn in groups that can easily juggle an unprepared player. The Freezeframe Rocket Launcher can freeze their rockets to make things a bit easier, and there's even an instakill trick in which you can ride one of their rockets back into them, but it can only help so much. Before a patch, these enemies were even worse to deal with; they didn't trip upon missing a punch, meaning they could rapidly follow up on a missed punch with another, thus making healing off of their blood overly risky.

** 7-1, Garden of Forking Paths, lives up to its name with a confusing layout that involves passing through the same rooms multiple times while reusing the same blue skull for four different pedestals, making it easy to get lost. This is also the level that introduces [[DemonicSpiders Mannequins]], and to corroborate this, this maze is infested with them. Just in case all of that wasn't bad enough, [[ThatOneBoss the Minotaur]] is waiting for you at the end of it all.

* GoodBadBugs: A bug at the release of the Violence Layer allowed anyone that performed an insane act of SequenceBreaking in 7-4 by climbing up the outside of the boss to essentially skip the whole fight by making it fry itself from the inside with its own defenses. This has been patched in Version 14b, however.

** [[spoiler:Hell itself is the game's sadistic BigBad, and it is also one of the most creative depictions of [[{{Hell}} the infernal den]] for being a GeniusLoci with visually unique designs for its [[CirclesOfHell nine layers]]. On top of that, Hell is capable of writing both [[LaughablyEvil amusing dialogue]] and [[WickedCultured rich poetry]] that is worthy of the ''Divine Comedy'' inspirations, making this living realm of torment quite literally SophisticatedAsHell.]]

** The "tink", short pause and subsequent explosion when you parry something or explode a Streetcleaner's tank with a coin. On top of giving you a split second to breathe, it's just plain cathartic to hear the game giving in to the [[StuffBlowingUp big booms]]. Sometimes, the most wonderful sound can be no sound at all if you overload the arena with so many explosions and blood splatters that the game can't even handle it.

* GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff: Russian people likes this game a lot.