Rubicon

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SPOILER WARNING: Saint
This section contains major plot details from Saint. If you have not made significant progress or completed the game as Saint, then read no further!

"Rubicon"
Information
Connections (Karma requirements)	Subterranean
Code Name	HR (Hell Region)
Rooms (Screens)	80 (241)
Shelters	8
Details (Spoilers) Colored Pearls N/A Echo N/A

Rubicon is an endgame region exclusive to the Downpour DLC, acting as a counterpart to Depths. Saint is the only Slugcat that can access it. It is highly difficult to traverse, due to environmental hazards and aggressive creatures, additionally possessing unique enemies and items, such as the Firebug and the items that correlate with it.

Overview

Rubicon is an area unlike any other in the game, presenting itself as an amalgam of the Depths and all the other regions of the game, including those that no longer exist in the Saint's time like the Shaded Citadel and The Exterior. It is populated with extremely dangerous enemies and other hazards. Nearly every surface is tinted a golden hue, paired with a pure scarlet background should the sky be exposed in areas that parody exterior regions.

Many of Rubicon's rooms are filled with Void Fluid that kills any non-natives on contact, including Slugcat. Some of them have a tide effect that causes the fluid to rise up and fall down. A few rooms have the fluid flowing in inverse and pooling upwards. Ceilings above such fluid may still be attached to by Saint's tongue. Some rooms have large gaps that require Saint's flight ability and tongue to navigate. Many rooms in Rubicon express other elements of the game, such as low gravity or flooded rooms. Karma symbols in the background scattered throughout the area grant the Saint maximum karma on contact. Additionally, these symbols refills Saint's ascension meter when idled in front of.

Other rooms have Guardians in them, which block all connections to the room until ascended. Unlike other foes, Guardians require 3 ascensions in order to die. Some areas act as boss fights of sorts, requiring a Guardian to be defeated along with other enemies that pose a threat to the player. These Guardians do not employ their telekinesis in combat, nor do they outwardly interact with any creature in their proximity, remaining completely stationary throughout the encounter.

At the apex of Rubicon is a twisted parody of an Iterator can, with various twisting components of metal, wires and Gravity Disruptors adorned upon it. This is followed by an entrance to the Void Sea, and therefore the end of the game.

Creatures

Rubicon	Creatures
Saint	Cyan Lizard   Red Lizard   White Lizard   Yellow Lizard   Monster Kelp   Centiwing   Red Centipede   Spitter Spider   Leviathan   Miros Bird   Daddy Long Legs   Squidcada   Noodlefly (Adult)   Snail   Noodlefly (Infant)   Miros Vulture   Firebug
	Objects
Saint	Blue Fruit

Arena mode unlockables

There are no unlock tokens in Rubicon.

- Saint exclusive - These items are unlocked after beating Saint's campaign

Location	Unlockables
Rubicon	Creatures	Firebug
	Objects	Fire Egg  •  Fire Spear
	Maps	(Side Paths  •  Void Shrine)

Trivia

• Some of the creatures and objects when spawned in Rubicon have a golden hue instead of their normal color. This has been seen with Blue Fruit, Rot ( Brother Long Legs, Daddy Long Legs Mother Long Legs) , Red Centipedes, Red Lizards, Cyan Lizards, and Leviathans.
• Rubicon has the acronym HR in game files, which stands for Hell Region. The region's early development name was Stygian Depths.
  • This is referenced in the last Saint challenge in the arena, as the challenge is named Stygian Depths. Likewise, the music that plays in the challenge is unique, and was originally intended to be the threat music for Rubicon but was removed.
• Reputation with all creatures is initially set to -500 in this region. However, it eventually decays back to 0.
• If Saint is idle while holding onto a vertical pole, they slowly slide upward until they are standing on the top. This also happens with corridors.

SPOILER WARNING: Saint
This section contains major plot details from Saint. If you have not made significant progress or completed the game as Saint, then read no further!

• If the Saint ascends either Five Pebbles, Looks to the Moon or both of them, they can be met one last time in the second-to-last room before the ending. Their dialogue varies depending if only one or both were ascended.

Ascending only Five Pebbles

I understand what you are, little beast. This place is not real, a dream from outside. As if every cycle of my existence has knotted together with another's, even if for only a fraction of a second it ripples through mine. I see my own creation, I see my agonizing decay. I see my hollow structure become a sanctuary in the storm. I see a new world unfold without me, as me. I see myself become something else. Yet... I cannot see the beginning, or end of your own. An aberrant cycle twisting into mine, before spiraling onward into the abyss. What a horrifying destiny you've found.

Ascending only Looks To The Moon

Little saint. I perceive your existence as it passes through my own. I know this is only a dream, but your presence is real. Do you see it too? Our endless repetitions, circling onward to infinity? From here I can observe the repeating loop of my own existence, every iteration a duplicate of the last. I have visions of the entire pattern my creators desired to escape at once. An endless sequence of life and death, further beyond my control with each passing cycle. Where does your cycle go, little creature? Its edges twist over themselves, like circles within circles, your cycle consumes itself. What have you become?

Ascending both Iterators

BSM: Do you feel it, old friend?

FP: The sensation of time folding in on itself? The spiraling offshoot of another's reality wrapping around your own?

BSM: None of this is real, is it? Every repeating cycle of our own existence unwound and laid bare, a cycle pulled into a tangent with itself. Is this what we were looking for? Have we broken free from it, or is it just a dream?

FP: Was the answer always right there? Does the question mean anything to us now that we are here? Perhaps a resolution was never possible from our original frame of reference.

BSM: The question wasn't well defined. If we had stumbled upon a correct solution among all of our permutations, we wouldn't have had any hope to distinguish it from the faulty ones. Nor did we have a method to reliably test it.

FP: We were trying to understand what lies beyond a point of no return, while having yet to pass it.

BSM: Only those who have seen the other side can know the answers, but by definition they can never venture back to deliver the knowledge they have gained.

FP: Perhaps that is why you need to wake up, little visitor.

Spoilers end here.

Maps

Graphical Map

Interactive Map

Interactive map ported by Dual, Original by Henpemaz.

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