Shadow Arc Finale Theorizing

[Jussatoon]

This is a thread dedicated to discussing what you think/hope occurs in the upcoming shadow arc finale update. I'll start it off with my own thoughts:

I think it'd be pretty cool if, after at least an in-game year or so passes after activating the shadow rifts, Tenebrau arrives in the form of an event similar to the Aporkalypse, where the caves become more dangerous and difficult, and it could even seep out into the surface on new-moon nights. It could include an eternal nightmare phase, more powerful/frequent ink blights appear, more dangerous/frequent "weather", existing mobs becoming corrupted with more aggressive behavior, etc.

Just like the Aporkalypse, you'd have to go to a specific area to end it; that place would be the currently-unfinished room in the Sanctum, where you'd have to bring the Keystone to. Fighting a boss is pretty much expected at this point, so after defeating them, the caves and new-moon nights would return back to normal, before the event occurs again a year later.

As for the reward? Well, remember when during a dev stream, in response to people asking for the removal of the lunacy filter when wearing the jeweled enlightened crown, they explained that the shadow side would have a body-slot item that, when combined with the crown, it would put your mind in a neutral state, thus removing the filter? Well, controversy aside, it makes you wonder: how good must the item be in order to make you want to wear both it and the crown at all times? 

The only thing I can think of is an advanced version of the vortex cloak.

TL;DR: Aporkalypse-like event, defeating shadow boss to end it, advanced vortex cloak as the reward. And maybe, when both lunar and shadow questlines are completed, an additional event occurs that concludes the story as a whole, possibly explaining how Elsewhere begins. 

[YouKnowWho142]

I'm still upset we never got to see any shadow corrupted bosses. It's sad to see the lunar and shadow content seem so lopsided, I think Klei had a clear favorite when it came to rift content.

[Baark0]

The shadow arc reaching its finale is so weird to me, cus like, what arc has even occurred? In the lunar one you to help Wagstaff research the rifts until you help him with his ultimate creation. In the shadow arc.... nothing happens regarding Charlie whatsoever. Sure you help her re-build the portal, but like... what else? The occasional nightmare fissure starts spawning some "minibosses" (rictus doesn't really count as a miniboss imo), the fumarole biome spawns a giant centipede that doesn't even intentionally attack you, and some annoying mask enemies periodically appear in the caves.

The only boss the caves have gotten since the addition of shadow rifts is the greater depths worm, and that boss not only isn't related to shadow rifts, but barely makes an appearance in the first place. There's not really any sense of progression with the shadow rifts, which really makes me curious as to what Klei has in store. I feel like it's gonna be similar to Scion, where you go on a short fetch quest before you just fight the final boss, which would be really lame imo. I feel like there should be at least 1 shadow rift boss before the final one, just so that theres some semblance of having to do other things before going to kill the final boss.

Tbh if the loot is a cool unique item and not just an upgrade to an existing item, I don't think I'll mind too much.

[YouKnowWho142]

1 hour ago, Baark0 said:

The shadow arc reaching its finale is so weird to me, cus like, what arc has even occurred? In the lunar one you to help Wagstaff research the rifts until you help him with his ultimate creation. In the shadow arc.... nothing happens regarding Charlie whatsoever. Sure you help her re-build the portal, but like... what else? The occasional nightmare fissure starts spawning some "minibosses" (rictus doesn't really count as a miniboss imo), the fumarole biome spawns a giant centipede that doesn't even intentionally attack you, and some annoying mask enemies periodically appear in the caves.

The only boss the caves have gotten since the addition of shadow rifts is the greater depths worm, and that boss not only isn't related to shadow rifts, but barely makes an appearance in the first place. There's not really any sense of progression with the shadow rifts, which really makes me curious as to what Klei has in store. I feel like it's gonna be similar to Scion, where you go on a short fetch quest before you just fight the final boss, which would be really lame imo. I feel like there should be at least 1 shadow rift boss before the final one, just so that theres some semblance of having to do other things before going to kill the final boss.

Tbh if the loot is a cool unique item and not just an upgrade to an existing item, I don't think I'll mind too much.

I feel exactly the same way. Aside from the first shadow rift update, basically every update to the shadow rift has been secondary to the update. Depths of Duplicity considered itself more of a cave update which resulted in the caves and shadow rifts still being half baked (They didn’t even give Rictus a unique spawn, they just randomly replace the actual ink blight trio sometimes), the void masques just released randomly with the Halloween update, and only recently did I find out that ancient echos were supposed to be a part of the shadow arc despite having very little substance outside of a place to explore (that won’t be super fun to replay more than once or twice, at that).

At this point, I have no idea how shadow is going to have enough content to mirror lunar, and realistically that just isn’t going to happen if next update is the final shadow update. I bet they are gonna tie wagstaff into the shadow content too, as If the bias towards lunar wasn’t evident enough. It just feels bad since every lunar update had built up to something, but shadow has gotten nothing like that. The possessed shadow atrium being a sort of parallel to spark arks hurts even more, since by comparison possessed shadow atriums feel kind of lazy. Instead of fighting corrupted bosses to get a spark ark equivalent for shadow, we just beat the same boss we have already killed up and then go to a place we’ve already been to get the special gear. That’s really disappointing to me, alongside the rest of the shadow content, and I feel like this next update has to be huge to fix shadow content for me.

Edited Sunday at 02:18 AM by YouKnowWho142

[AsAboveSoBelow]

The idea of wearing the strongest lunar item and the strongest shadow item at the same time granting you the incredible power of a normal mental state is hilarious(and really intriguing actually now i have another reason to look forward to more shadow rift content)

[Reddddd]

6 hours ago, YouKnowWho142 said:

I'm still upset we never got to see any shadow corrupted bosses. It's sad to see the lunar and shadow content seem so lopsided, I think Klei had a clear favorite when it came to rift content.

Preach it louder brother 😢 maybe its because lunar power is much more powerful but idk, im a shadow appreciator

[Waywarbler]

I would like if we had a third and final round against the Werepig as part of the build up to the finale. Imagine he somehow got to the final room of the sanctum before you did, and you need to kill him to acquire (or deliver) the "cursed keystone".

6 hours ago, Jussatoon said:

-snip-

Having to wait an entire in-game year before you can actually (re)fight the final boss would be kinda painful. People already complain about all the waiting you have to do for the lunar mutants, imagine having to wait like 70 days?

[Baark0]

1 hour ago, YouKnowWho142 said:

I feel exactly the same way. Aside from the first shadow rift update, basically every update to the shadow rift has been secondary to the update. Depths of Duplicity considered itself more of a cave update which resulted in the caves and shadow rifts still being half baked (They didn’t even give Rictus a unique spawn, they just randomly replace the actual ink blight trio sometimes), the void masques just released randomly with the Halloween update, and only recently did I find out that ancient echos were supposed to be a part of the shadow arc despite having very little substance outside of a place to explore (that won’t be super fun to replay more than once or twice, at that).

At this point, I have no idea how shadow is going to have enough content to mirror lunar, and realistically that just isn’t going to happen if next update is the final shadow update. I bet they are gonna tie wagstaff into the shadow content too, as If the bias towards lunar wasn’t evident enough. It just feels bad since every lunar update had built up to something, but shadow has gotten nothing like that. The possessed shadow atrium being a sort of parallel to spark arks hurts even more, since by comparison possessed shadow atriums feel kind of lazy. Instead of fighting corrupted bosses to get a spark ark equivalent for shadow, we just beat the same boss we have already killed up and then go to a place we’ve already been to get the special gear. That’s really disappointing to me, alongside the rest of the shadow content, and I feel like this next update has to be huge to fix shadow content for me.

The lack of a possessed fuelweaver (or even a possessed reanimated skeleton) fight is something I only noticed recently, but its been a pretty big pain point ever since. It makes sense that a super powered skeleton fight would be available with the upgraded version of the item that spawned the skeletons originally.

[Jussatoon]

55 minutes ago, Baark0 said:

The lack of a possessed fuelweaver (or even a possessed reanimated skeleton) fight is something I only noticed recently, but its been a pretty big pain point ever since. It makes sense that a super powered skeleton fight would be available with the upgraded version of the item that spawned the skeletons originally.

There's also the currently-unused Ancient Fuelweaver speech files that @-Variant discovered awhile back. Perhaps they may find some use soon.

[Baark0]

30 minutes ago, Jussatoon said:

There's also the currently-unused Ancient Fuelweaver speech files that @-Variant discovered awhile back. Perhaps they may find some use soon.

I hope a fuelweaver re-match wont end up being the final boss of the shadow arc. As cool of a fight as he is, that'd be pretty disappointing compared to Warbot and especially Scion.

[Szczuku]

7 hours ago, Baark0 said:

The shadow arc reaching its finale is so weird to me, cus like, what arc has even occurred? In the lunar one you to help Wagstaff research the rifts until you help him with his ultimate creation. In the shadow arc.... nothing happens regarding Charlie whatsoever. Sure you help her re-build the portal, but like... what else? The occasional nightmare fissure starts spawning some "minibosses" (rictus doesn't really count as a miniboss imo), the fumarole biome spawns a giant centipede that doesn't even intentionally attack you, and some annoying mask enemies periodically appear in the caves.

I reckon we'll get something with the ancient sanctum, Metheus-form of charlie shown in that one intermission and hopefully with the fuelweaver speach files -Variant recovered a while back. Probably Charlie uncovering Ancient Gateway #3 (this time grander and more powerful!) in the sanctum, activating it with the help of dst-patented fetch quest and being taken over by shadow-corrupted metheus, and serving as the final boss of the shadow arc. Probably also disappearing, like Wagstaff.

Imo Klei has failed completely at making Tenebrau seem like a real (or even interesting) threat in dst, so I hope that the shadow arc finale is mainly focused on the Ancients and Tenebrau is left to be expanded upon in Elsewhere or something

[ZeRoboButler]

I feel like alter wanted to be left alone and wagstaff just kept poking it for science, where as the shadow side of things was just whispering to Charlie so it could break out of its prison and exert its will. 

Lunar wise we keep getting things thrown at us to try and stop us via the gestalts from the portals and the hostile take over of any worthy vessel they could inhabit vs the shadow side where new forms of shadow creature are breaking through the cracks in the surface of the caves.

I recall someone had his thought that the constant was somehow the surface of the shadow entity and the rifts or fissures where it trying to slip things out of its prison or something. It does give some merit to the whole "prisoner trying to escape" thing that they seem to be using Charlie as a way to break free, that and the fact that Charlie is being coerced into most of this I think by that shadow ruler... Metheus, "torch bearer" or what ever their name is. Lots of deception there... especially with those corpses in the secret part of the archives puzzle...

[GamePlayer42]

14 hours ago, YouKnowWho142 said:

I'm still upset we never got to see any shadow corrupted bosses. It's sad to see the lunar and shadow content seem so lopsided, I think Klei had a clear favorite when it came to rift content.

atleast the shadow side got the more enjoyable encounters, atleast to me. id take ripple, rictus, the outcrop trio, masques and ickers over the hell-on-earth going on above surface xD

when it comes to shadow-corrupted bosses, the only boss they could realistically do is toadstool, and id honestly prefer to go without that one xD. but yeah i wish there was more engagement and a similar feel of an arc that surface rifts got. perhaps taking more deals with shadow hands revealing certain things or resources required to activate things in the archives to help push forward a new quest. ancient echoes is definitely important, but i suppose we're waiting to see how it associates with the finale of the shadow arc. i feel like opposed to the lunar rifts, they could take a more exploration and puzzle focussed approach to the arc. its definitely gonna be alot to incorporate if they want to have an amazing finale.

[Hi.]

I've actually had an idea for a while now that what if depending on what boss you kill first, it decides the fate of the constant, maybe if you kill the lunar boss the shadows blow up alter, like in that one animation klei posted (Same things go for the shadows). Kinda like Smash bros ultimate where depending on if you kill Galeem or Dharkon it plays a different cutscene. They could also maybe add a hybrid of the two bosses to get rid of both shadows and lunar in order to save the constant. They probably shouldn't do it in this arc maybe the next one. Again this is just a fun idea I had for a bit.

 

Edited Sunday at 09:19 PM by Hi.

[wormwood123]

20 hours ago, Jussatoon said:

As for the reward? Well, remember when during a dev stream, in response to people asking for the removal of the lunacy filter when wearing the jeweled enlightened crown, they explained that the shadow side would have a body-slot item that, when combined with the crown, it would put your mind in a neutral state, thus removing the filter? Well, controversy aside, it makes you wonder: how good must the item be in order to make you want to wear both it and the crown at all times? 

Is this real?

[Baark0]

23 hours ago, Jussatoon said:

As for the reward? Well, remember when during a dev stream, in response to people asking for the removal of the lunacy filter when wearing the jeweled enlightened crown, they explained that the shadow side would have a body-slot item that, when combined with the crown, it would put your mind in a neutral state, thus removing the filter? Well, controversy aside, it makes you wonder: how good must the item be in order to make you want to wear both it and the crown at all times? 

Unless the item has 14 extra inventory slots, I struggle to see how anyone would wear it 24/7 and not just keep it in their inventory to swap on for combat scenarios. The item would need to be incredibly powerful in order for me to give up almost doubling the amount of inventory space from a krampus sack. 

[-Variant]

17 hours ago, wormwood123 said:

Is this real?

Unfortunately yes, I was there for that stream, they mentioned wanting to introduce an insanity inducing bodyslot item to counter the eye-murder-filter-o-tron9000 from the hat.

[Jakepeng99]

On 5/3/2026 at 2:02 AM, Baark0 said:

The shadow arc reaching its finale is so weird to me, cus like, what arc has even occurred? In the lunar one you to help Wagstaff research the rifts until you help him with his ultimate creation. In the shadow arc.... nothing happens regarding Charlie whatsoever. Sure you help her re-build the portal, but like... what else? The occasional nightmare fissure starts spawning some "minibosses" (rictus doesn't really count as a miniboss imo), the fumarole biome spawns a giant centipede that doesn't even intentionally attack you, and some annoying mask enemies periodically appear in the caves.

The only boss the caves have gotten since the addition of shadow rifts is the greater depths worm, and that boss not only isn't related to shadow rifts, but barely makes an appearance in the first place. There's not really any sense of progression with the shadow rifts, which really makes me curious as to what Klei has in store. I feel like it's gonna be similar to Scion, where you go on a short fetch quest before you just fight the final boss, which would be really lame imo. I feel like there should be at least 1 shadow rift boss before the final one, just so that theres some semblance of having to do other things before going to kill the final boss.

Tbh if the loot is a cool unique item and not just an upgrade to an existing item, I don't think I'll mind too much.

You probably give fuelweaver the possessed atrium.

[ZeRoboButler]

On 5/2/2026 at 2:06 PM, Jussatoon said:

As for the reward? Well, remember when during a dev stream, in response to people asking for the removal of the lunacy filter when wearing the jeweled enlightened crown, they explained that the shadow side would have a body-slot item that, when combined with the crown, it would put your mind in a neutral state, thus removing the filter? Well, controversy aside, it makes you wonder: how good must the item be in order to make you want to wear both it and the crown at all times? 

 

1 hour ago, -Variant said:

Unfortunately yes, I was there for that stream, they mentioned wanting to introduce an insanity inducing bodyslot item to counter the eye-murder-filter-o-tron9000 from the hat.

 

WHY MUST OUR EYES SUFFER, WHY CAN WE NOT HAVE SIMPLE SOLUTIONS TO THIS?

[wormwood123]

2 hours ago, -Variant said:

Unfortunately yes, I was there for that stream, they mentioned wanting to introduce an insanity inducing bodyslot item to counter the eye-murder-filter-o-tron9000 from the hat.

eurgh yuck

[Baark0]

why do we need an insanity inducing item for the body slot? the bone helm already exists and fufills that niche perfectly

[Maxil20]

12 hours ago, ZeRoboButler said:

WHY MUST OUR EYES SUFFER, WHY CAN WE NOT HAVE SIMPLE SOLUTIONS TO THIS?

This is something that has been nagging at me a ton, especially since the introduction of the empowered crown and how basically everyone ever is going to use it the moment they get it.

I genuinely have no idea why Klei is so stingy about adding accessibility options to the point it genuinely endangers people. For reference, the most recent accessibility option (flashing lights, which was over 5 years ago...) only came about because someone unironically suffered a seizure from it and needed to go to the hospital. It's a really bad look when options that would avoid this would take ~a week or so of devtime, at worst, to implement.

I really appreciate the modding community for providing accessibilitly mods for various troubles, but I feel particularly bad for console players who just Don't have access to these (especially since I was one myself!)

[Waywarbler]

On 5/3/2026 at 12:46 AM, Jussatoon said:

There's also the currently-unused Ancient Fuelweaver speech files that -Variant discovered awhile back. Perhaps they may find some use soon.

I'm willing to bet the reward for the shadow rift boss will be some kind of upgraded bone helm or armor, now imbued with the mind of the Fuelweaver himself. So now you can wear him on your head/body and have him inspect things (which is what all those examine quotes would be for).

15 hours ago, ZeRoboButler said:

WHY MUST OUR EYES SUFFER, WHY CAN WE NOT HAVE SIMPLE SOLUTIONS TO THIS?

There was a thread on this back when Klei first responded, so I hope the backlash from that will be taken into account and we won't have to beat the final bosses of both rifts just to  be able to turn the enlightenment filter off.