Overview
A guide detailing how to acquire the four special artifacts and achieve the special ending.
Introduction
THIS GUIDE SPOILS HOW TO GET THE SECRET ENDING, so if you want to figure it out for yourself, turn back now! This guide is meant for people who have already beaten the game and want to see the extra content hidden by the devs!
Have you ever encountered one of these weird pink cards during your explorations?
Have you ever wondered what those weird eyeball tentacles in the leaderboard standings meant?
As it turns out, there is a secret ending that you can unlock by acquiring and using four artifact cards before completing the game. This guide will describe in detail how to find each card and how to get the secret ending to Loot Rascals!
- One card can be found in each of the first four stages.
- You will need to hold onto all of these cards until stage 5.
- Keep in mind that these cards will take up a large portion of your inventory space, so plan accordingly.
Stage 1 – Enter the secret code
You’ve probably seen one of these broken robot generators during your explorations in Stage 1:
Your goal will be to replicate the pattern of orange and blue robot parts on any functioning generator. This pattern varies with each game seed, so you will need to find a new code each time.
To enter the appropriate code into the machine, you will need to step on the platform connected to the generator in a specific order.
- A blue segment means that you need to step on the platform.
- An orange segment means that you need to have an enemy step on the platform.
- The code is entered in four steps, in the following order:
1. Bottom right
2. Bottom left
3. Top right
4. Top left
For example, the sequence in the image above is blue, orange, blue, orange. This means that you need to start by stepping on the platform, then have an enemy step on the platform, then you again, then the enemy again.
If you enter the code in improperly, a regular Clunker will spawn. If you do all four steps properly, a boss Clunker will spawn.
Defeat the boss Clunker to get the first artifact card!
Pick it up and proceed to stage 2.
Extra notes:
- If you enter the code incorrectly, you can just step on the platform until a Clunker spawns and try again.
- Whiskas, the little pests that stand on the platform and spawn Clunkers endlessly, are extremely useful for getting an enemy to walk onto the platform.
- If you get within two hexes of a Whiskas, it will run away and return several turns later. You can use this to your advantage when entering in the code.
- For example, if the code is ORANGE BLUE ORANGE BLUE, you can let the Whiskas start the code, shoo it away, stand on the platform, and then let the Whiskas return. Shoo it away again and stand on the platform one last time to spawn the boss Clunker.
- If push comes to shove, you can lure any enemy over to step on the platform; Whiskas are just the easiest to manipulate, and are usually found associated with the robot generators.
- If both you and an enemy are on the platform at the same time (during a fight), you get priority and that turn will count as a BLUE.
Stage 2 – Crash through the false wall
Begin stage 2 by entering the habitation and talking to Chef. He will give you a quest to kill a boss Rascal. Kill the boss and return the stolen card to Chef to get a Map Reveal card.
Exit the habitation and use the Map Reveal card (costs 3 tokens). You should now see a secret room with a card, hidden behind a red X.
Go to the area marked on the map; the area leading up to the false wall will always be icy. The red X looks like a regular wall in the stage, but if you slide across the ice and crash into that hex, the wall will vanish, revealing the second artifact piece!
Grab the second artifact piece and move on to Stage 3!
Extra notes:
- You cannot simply walk onto the red X hex. You need to slide on the ice and crash into the false wall to bust it open. If you have the Salt Sock, you will need to walk one hex away, take off the Salt Sock, and slide into the wall.
- You don’t necessarily need the Map Reveal card to do this step; sometimes, I’ve just been sliding around on the ice and crashed into the wall purely by chance. This, of course, is wildly inconsistent.
- Sometimes, the geometry of the level will prevent you from ice sliding directly into the false wall. You can manipulate this by casting the Ice spell to stop a slide short, using the Fire spell to melt an Ice square, or Teleport/Salt Sock to place yourself in a favorable position. At worst, you can just slide over an ice square repeatedly until it melts.
Stage 3 – Kill Voltron
This is the first stage where things start to get dicey. Your goal will be to get the four Thimblethugs to merge and form a giant Boss Thimblethug. All four Thimblethugs will be found in the same general area, usually near the stage exit. DO NOT KILL ANY THIMBLETHUGS until they’ve merged into the 40 power Boss Thimblethug.
Thimblethugs start off with 10 power, and will merge to form 20, 30, and eventually 40 power Rascals as they combine. Even if a Thimblethug is at 1 health, once it merges, the resulting Rascal will be at full power.
The main problem is that the level geometry can be very tight, and if you accidentally kill a Thimblethug before they form the boss, your run is over. Thimblethugs of the same size will walk toward each other (10 + 10 will fuse to form a 20), but unevenly sized Thimblethugs will not. If you have a 10 power and a 30 power Thimblethug, the 10 will chase after the 30, but the 30 will chase after you. You have to maneuver around the map to convince the Thimblethugs to come together.
Mobility and enemy position manipulating spells and cards, such as Teleport and Spectral Decoy, are key to forming the Voltron Thimblethug. Try not to get pincered by two Thimblethugs without an escape route!
Defeat the Boss Thimblethug to acquire the third artifact piece! Proceed to stage 4.
Extra notes:
- The geometry of Stage 3 means that there are usually multiple interconnected paths that you can take to manipulate Thimblethug pathing. You can use the Ice spell to further choke off the paths available to the Thimblethugs.
- If you manage to get all four Thimblethugs on screen at once, you can frequently get them to merge by warping back to base. In your absence, they will not be chasing you, so they will prioritize merging. Once you walk back, you will often have a Boss Thimblethug waiting for you!
- Stage hazards, particularly the Steam trap, can kill Thimblethugs prematurely and end your run. Thimblethugs appear to always survive a single trap hit with 1 health, but a second hit will kill them. Try to lure the Thimblethugs away from these areas if at all possible.
Stage 4 – Gary.
Congratulations on reaching Stage 4 with three artifact pieces! You’re in the home stretch now, so let’s unlock the fourth and final artifact piece!
You may have noticed a 50 power enemy called the Spine Herald wandering around Stage 4. There is always exactly one, and this enemy holds the key to the final artifact piece.
Your immediate goal is to find the Spine Herald and clear out any nearby Rascals that could mess with the upcoming fight.
Once you’ve found the Spine Herald, it’s time to combine the artifact pieces you’ve collected to summon….Gary.
Gary is a 100 power Boss Spine Herald, and you need to kill him in order to acquire the final artifact piece.
To summon Gary, you need to equip the three artifact pieces you’ve acquired in the appropriate location. This means having the head in the top row, the body directly below, and the right arm in the slot to the left of the body.
These three cards can be equipped anywhere in your 10 card inventory, but they have to be oriented as described above. If you’ve done this correctly, the Spine Herald will turn into Gary.
Kill Gary to acquire the final artifact piece! Pick it up and proceed to the final boss fight.
Extra notes:
- You must have all three artifact pieces equipped until you kill Gary! If you unequip any of the pieces, Gary will turn back into a regular Spine Herald. This means that you’ll be fighting Gary with only 7 useful Attack/Defense cards equipped, so you’ll be even weaker than normal.
- How do you kill a 100 power enemy with only 7 cards? Gary is weak to all elemental spells, and only moves every other turn. This means that you can safely spam spells at him from a distance to reduce his power. Make sure that your elemental spells are on your best cards! If you have Flex Flops, you can walk onto a Silence hex to power up your spells even more!
- There are many other ways to kill Gary, such as luring him over to a trap or a bomb. You can kill Gary without ever engaging him in combat. Just make sure that you don’t set up a chain reaction that kills Gary and then blows up the artifact piece the next turn!
- One trick that not many people know is that you can cast spells in combat. This means you can quickly reduce his power with a spam of elemental spells, or more importantly, attack Gary once and then cast teleport before he attacks back. You can then engage him a second time and attack first again.
- Make sure not to equip Sticky cards in such a manner that you can’t wear the artifact pieces. You have flexibility in where you equip the artifacts, but they always need to be Head in top row, Body directly below, and Right Arm to the left of the body.
Stage 5 – Dress up the mannequin
It’s time to fight The Thing Below, but before you do so, we have to perform one last task. As you enter the final boss stage, you may have seen a blue mannequin in your path.
Walk up to the mannequin and place all four artifact pieces on it.
You can now enter the final boss battle and proceed normally. Once you’ve beaten The Thing Below, make sure to stick around for the credits!
Final comments
Good luck, and have fun storming the castle!
