An absorption power-up converts a specified player action into a boss resource, not just negated damage. Kern's core accepts two sword pulses, shows each unit, and spends both on a wider shockwave. Tavi sees the transfer, clears the announced radius, and uses the spent-core recovery. Input, cap, payoff, and exit must be readable.
Kern opens a marked rune core at 0.6 s. Tavi's sword sends a short energy pulse; contact at 1.65 s makes the pulse vanish into the core, with no boss-damage flash.
Autoplay is disabled by reduced motion. Scrub to compare zero, one, two, and spent charge.
Specify accepted attacks, charge increments and cap, empowered hitbox, safe response, and the spent state.
Mark the accepting core, its active interval, and the eligible attack class. In this example only a sword pulse that touches the core adds one of two visible pips; the pulse does not also damage Kern. A missed, melee, or out-of-window hit must resolve by its ordinary rule. Test the charge cap so extra hits cannot silently make an unbounded attack.
Keep a stable mapping from stored pips to the empowered move. Two absorbed pulses authorize one wider ring, not an immediate invisible retaliation. Preview its outer radius from 2.95 s, activate it only from 3.55–3.94 s, and test Tavi's full body at the slowest expected movement speed.
Spend the pips when the ring releases, close the core at 4.2 s, and expose a useful recovery. Tavi's 4.96 s sword strike demonstrates that the boss does not keep absorbing after the payoff. Also test the no-feed branch: the boss must not wait forever for the player to donate energy.
If the incoming pulse disappears without a transfer cue or count change, the player cannot tell whether it was absorbed, resisted, or missed. Animate energy into the core and update a persistent, countable charge marker at contact.
An amplified effect that suddenly covers extra space violates the learned response. Show the final radius before damage begins, preserve a reachable outside edge, and cap both charge and payoff.
Store each accepted collision as a deterministic charge increment. Rendering, damage, and the subsequent move must read the same capped state. Seeking backward should restore the earlier pip count without accumulating hits twice.
If the player can choose not to send an eligible pulse, give that choice an ordinary attack or positional benefit. If feeding is required to progress, signal that requirement and ensure the charged result is still respondable.
The accepted pulse stops at the core. The later shockwave is a new boss-owned attack with its own preview, active window, and collision. It is neither the same projectile reflected back nor permanent damage resistance.
Check a pulse that arrives exactly as the core closes, simultaneous eligible hits, charge at cap, interruption during wind-up, death during charge, reduced motion, and a player body standing at the ring's outer boundary.
Kern's chest core is a single simple shape with two slots. Each absorbed sword pulse flies visibly into one slot. Once both glow, a floor ring previews the powered release; both slots darken when it fires, keeping the rule legible without extra scenery.
The example uses a short sword pulse so the transfer can be seen, but its trigger could be any clearly taught attack class. The ring's edge is reachable by ordinary movement, and the later sword hit uses Tavi's existing melee verb rather than a special counter item.
Attack reflection changes the ownership and direction of one incoming shot. Damage-type resistance changes how much damage lands. Absorption power-up consumes eligible input, increments a boss resource, and pays it off in a later, separately announced move.
In this reverse boss fight the player pilots the boss machine. Its creator describes absorbing four incoming shots before firing a sustained laser. The linked Mack chapter shows the boss-side framing; Kern compresses the count to two pips so the conversion is easier to inspect.
Sheegoth's back crystals absorb energy attacks and can fire that energy at prey, as its in-game logbook states. The short boss guide shows the creature and the need to distinguish the absorbing surface from another target; Kern makes the stored amount explicit.
The local-legend slime absorbs a character's elemental energy and changes state. The focused clip is about limiting absorption attempts. Its stolen resource and state change differ from Kern's player-shot conversion, but both need an explicit charge cue and a bounded payoff.
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