Whiplash

For information about the other variants, see Arms (disambiguation).

The Whiplash is the green variant of the Arm, generously donated by V2 in [ 4-4: CLAIR DE SOLEIL ] after we splatter it like a snowball on the floor. It pulls light enemies and objects towards V1, and pulls V1 towards heavy enemies and grapple points.

Description

A winch with a spear. Hold to throw, release to pull.
Can pull light enemies and items, will get pulled to heavy enemies and grapple points.
- The Terminal.

The Whiplash appears to be a yellowish-green robotic arm with a spearhead attached to it by a cable. It is capable of throwing out and extending a makeshift grapple, pulling it back via an unseen winch within. The arm itself has a somewhat worn down appearance, with various scratches along its paintjob.

Mechanics

Unlike the Feedbacker or Knuckleblaster, it is not possible to switch the Whiplash; instead, it is automatically used by pressing its dedicated hotkey (R by default), which will pull V1 to big enemies and Hookpoints, or bring lightweight enemies towards V1. It is also possible to dash and slam while in the process of pulling or being pulled by an object.

On difficulties Standard and up, the Whiplash will add up to 50 Hard Damage to V1 when used on an enemy target, unless the player is submerged underwater. This hard damage cannot reduce current health, and generation ends once the Whiplash is not in use. If stylish enough, hard damage generation will not occur. Grappling to a Malicious Face's corpse will not generate hard damage, as the Malicious Face has ceased being a live enemy. Likewise, grappling Hookpoints and unheld objects is also safe.

Holding the Whiplash key will fire it for a longer distance, and stick into an enemy without immediately pulling them to V1 (or vice versa). If line of sight is broken with an enemy attached, the hook will detach from them. Using another arm while using the Whiplash will cancel the Whiplash and vice versa.

The Whiplash can grab and place items from extreme distances and through small gaps. Note that it only applies to physical items like Skulls and not pickups like Soul Orbs. Additionally, items attached to Whiplash's hook retain their properties. Torches and Skulls will still emit light and burn enemies and Soap will still deal full damage with the added benefit of not dropping the soap.

Outside of its movement, the Whiplash has interactions with certain weapons or objects. It is capable of pulling dying Virtues and Drones, as well as up to 5 cannonballs or rockets. It can also juggle Coins, which resets its coin split timing.

Physics

V1 can jump while being pulled to cancel and gain a small jump in mid-air at the cost of some momentum.

The Whiplash can be cancelled mid-pull by using the Whiplash key again, or by using another arm. The momentum of the pull is preserved when detached, either for V1 or the enemy pulled; this allows the player to keep their speed in the air, or to fling lightweight enemies behind them. The player can also cancel a pull by jumping, although not as much momentum will be stored.

When airborne, V1's vertical momentum stops when starting to reel a small enemy. This causes V1 to make a tiny vertical boost as well. The same small vertical hop happens once V1's whiplash has completed reeling a small enemy or has reached a large enemy or a green Hookpoint. Mid-air momentum changes do not happen when grabbing items.

The Whiplash has slight in-built auto-aim, meaning that V1 can still aim very slightly off the target to initiate a successful grapple.

Strategy

If falling off of The Cyber Grind arena and the player has enough health, grappling onto a big enemy can get V1 back on stage without the need of Freezeframe Rocket Launcher or Pump Charge Shotgun.

Pulling a Drone towards V1 and then hitting it with the Knuckleblaster or the Feedbacker can be a deadly weapon and it additionally awards the [+HOMERUN] style bonus. The same can be done for Virtues, which V1 will be pulled towards, and its Orb, awarding the same bonus.

Pulling a Schism into the air and then punching it down to the ground with the Knuckleblaster is a good way to swiftly kill it.

When combined with the Shotgun or Knuckleblaster, pulling enemies or to enemies is a safe way to heal, especially on lightweight enemies, as they are easy to dispatch. Due to Hard Damage generation, this is only effective when at low health, maximum style meter, and/or at close-range distance; however, this does not apply to underwater scenarios.

Pulling a lightweight enemy while mid-air allows V1 to maintain its position in the air by jumping off of the heads of grappled enemies, regenerating wall jumps, among other things. This allows to gain some height in the air without the usage of walls or jump pads.

Lightweight enemies will stop attacking as they are pulled. Additionally, grappled lightweight ground-based enemies count as airborne, which allows them to take double damage from Rocket Launcher's primary fire, with the exception of Streetcleaners, which will still deflect the rocket.

Using whiplash on rockets can be used to make them fly more than twice their default speed.

Pressing the ground slam button while being pulled towards a larger enemy or Hookpoint will not cancel the pull, but instead, store slam height, which is released at the end of the pull.

Dashing while being pulled towards a larger enemy or Hookpoint does not cancel the pull. This can be useful to dodge incoming attacks, an example being projectiles shot by a Malicious Face.

Trivia

• The Whiplash originally did not generate hard damage on difficulties Standard or above. The feature was added to address the fact that people were using it simply as a healing tool. Hakita added this mechanic to employ a risk factor into mindlessly spamming the Whiplash for easy heals. Such as in the Cyber Grind.

  

• The arm is named after the Metallica song "Whiplash".
• Rather than traditional terrain-based grappling hooks, the Whiplash's function is inspired by Nero's Snatch and Hell Bound skills in the Devil May Cry series, including the behavior difference between light and heavy enemies and the use of specific environmental grapple points for level traversal.
• The Whiplash was originally teased with a picture of V2 with the arm captioned: "Let's finish this fight, shall we?"^[1]
  • Due to the lighting in that teaser image, many people mistook the arm for being yellow.
  • The image of V2 sitting was quickly turned into an exploitable meme.^[2]
• The Whiplash is noted to be a makeshift grapple made by V2 with the intent to catch up with V1. Like the Knuckleblaster, V2 never uses it in its rematch against V1.
  • Given its color and the strength required to reel with such speed and strength, the Whiplash is speculated to use parts from the leg of a Sentry.
  • The rope itself may be from a Hideous Mass, which fires a similar harpoon-like rope from its tail.
• A Whiplash jump can be combined with a regular jump, either by jumping off an enemy mid pull or off the ground.
• It is an undeniable fact that all games, including ULTRAKILL, are improved by having a grappling hook.
• Since the Whiplash deals 0.2 damage, it can unexpectedly kill enemies the player was planning to reel towards.
  • This also makes it possible to use as your sole weapon, although it's extremely difficult and requires a lot of time and patience, as well as bearing an increased susceptibility to Hard Damage. For example, this video shows player Johnny64 killing Sisyphus Prime like this, taking over 36 minutes.
    • For reference, Sisyphus has 200 health in total, meaning the Whiplash would need to land around 1000 hits to kill him.
• Repeatedly grappling onto flying Mindflayers allows the player to engage in aerial combat with an animated opponent which fires energy beams and projectiles, and also periodically teleports behind the player to attack them. In other words, ULTRAKILL allows the player to participate in bona fide anime battles, therefore making it the greatest game ever made.
  • Such an aerial battle was demonstrated in the Whiplash's announcement video.^[3]
• If attempting to use the Whiplash to grab or place a Skull from a pedestal from the opposite side of the connected door, the grab will be canceled and an error message will display, reading "ERROR: BLOCKING DOOR WOULD CLOSE".
  • It is still possible to bypass this by moving quickly enough through the door as you grab a Skull before it closes. This trick is frequently used to save time in speedruns of [ 7-1: GARDEN OF FORKING PATHS ].

Gallery

Shop/Terminal Icon (Old)

Shop/Terminal Icon (New)

Concept art for the Whiplash

References

Weapons (Alternate versions are italicized)
Revolvers Piercer Marksman Sharpshooter Alternate Revolver Shotguns Core Eject Pump Charge Sawed-On Impact Hammer Nailguns Attractor Overheat Jumpstart Sawblade Launcher Railcannons Electric Screwdriver Malicious Rocket Launchers Freezeframe S.R.S. Cannon Firestarter Arms Feedbacker Knuckleblaster Whiplash Gold Variant [WIP]