Hedlok



Hedlok is the main antagonist of ARMS. When fought, it attaches itself to a fighter and uses its six ARMS in total to unleash devastating attacks.

Description
Hedlok was created by ARMS Laboratories as part of their "Wearable Weapons" project, the purpose of which was to create powerful sparring partners for fighters to hone their skills against. It is the follow-up to a prototype armor of sorts that fit over the body, which can still be seen in the background of the DNA Lab stage; however, Dr. Coyle, the overseer of the project, believed that ordinary humans would not be able to effectively control all the ARMS the prototype offered, so Hedlok was constructed instead, with the ability to override the mind of its wearer. A partially assembled prototype of Hedlok can be seen in [NAME REDACTED].

Upon activation, Hedlok became self-aware, escaped containment, and went on a rampage; though possessing a mind of its own, its objectives are unclear.

Hedlok is a metallic mask with a large mouth lined with yellow teeth, and two ARMS protruding from either side of it. It has no body but clamps onto the heads of other fighters to take control of them. Its glowing red eyes have spiraled irises. The level 8 Hedlok in the fifth Party Crash and beyond is gold instead of silver, has green eyes instead of red ones, and silver teeth instead of gold.

When fighting Hedlok, it will fight with all six of its ARMS (Two sets of three, with each ARM on one side being of the same kind). Because of this, players who attempt to attack it recklessly will wind up having their punch deflected by one of its ARMS and being hit by another, making Hedlok extremely difficult to damage. Similarly, it performs three grabs (one for each pair of ARMS) when executing one command. Rather than unleashing a barrage of attacks with its ARMS, its Rush attack is unique: it fires a large energy blast from its mouth that barrels forward at high speed before exploding, capable of dealing more than 500 damage if the player is hit by all of it. Like other Rush attacks, it can be blocked but the speed of the energy blast makes the timing for a block difficult.

Abilities
Hedlok's most prominent feature is the fact wearers of the contraption are granted 4 additional ARMS on top of the two a user would normally have. On top of this change, a use's grab and Rush are both modified to an attack unique to Hedlok. When grabbing, three series of grabs will be thrown out and the grab attack itself will be a rapid flurry of consecutive punches which will deal a total of 200 damage to the player grabbed.

Typically, Hedlok's punches will follow whatever direction its host punches, however unique to co-op Grand Prix and iterations of Hedlok seen in VS Hedlok, Hedlok will turn his head in different directions and punches each ARM with his free will, so he could engage 2 to 3 players with separate arms. Uniquely, in solo Grand Prix, Hedlok is just attached to Max Brass or Dr. Coyle with their signature ARMs. Take out a normal fight in 1000 HP, with faster rush gauge only. The fighter's arm must punches first, the corresponding arms will just follow punching.

Certain character specific abilities will be restricted when equipped with Hedlok:
 * Barq is not present when Hedlok attaches to Byte.
 * When Hedlok is attached to Misango, the guardian spirit disappears; this means he cannot activate his masks and it won't protect him during his guard.
 * When Hedlok is attached to Dr. Coyle, she cannot activate her additional ARM.

Modes
Hedlok appears in four different modes. {{spoiler|

In Grand Prix
Hedlok is the final opponent in the Grand Prix mode after Max Brass from difficulty level 4 upwards. Upon defeating Max Brass, Hedlok descends from above, brainwashing Max and triggering one final fight. Hedlok will have access to Max Brass's signature ARMS and will change them between rounds like other fighters.

The fight against Hedlok takes place in the Sky Arena, like the previous fight before it. The fight will be a normal best 2 out of 3 fight with 1000 HP, with faster rush gauge only. However, it is different from previous fights in that it has no timer—each Round will continue until either the player or Hedlok is KO'd.

Upon defeating Hedlok, it is suddenly launched off of Max Brass's body. Max appears dazed for a moment afterward but is otherwise unharmed, and flexes his muscles before the Awards Ceremony begins.

However, after Update Version 5.0.0, upon reaching the finale from levels 6 and 7, Dr. Coyle will appear and knock Max Brass out, and the player will fight her instead. After Coyle is defeated, she will summon Hedlok herself, and will allow Hedlok to latch onto her, triggering the Grand Prix's final battle. After the two are defeated, Hedlok will deactivate. Dr. Coyle then takes off Hedlok, calls him "Useless!", and destroys him. Dr. Coyle says "I could've won" in frustration, then disappears, and Max Brass returns and flexes his muscles like in the ending for a lower difficulty, and the Awards Ceremony proceeds normally.

In 1-on-100
Hedlok is the final opponent that must be fought in 1-on-100, attaching itself to one of The Cell. If the player is not at full health, a thermos of HP Juice will be dropped in for them to heal shortly before Hedlok's appearance. Hedlok's ARMS will always be the first signature ARM of the fighter the player is using. }}

In VS Hedlok
Hedlok is the namesake of the VS Hedlok mode, seen in Party Match, being the primary opponent players must fight against in it (up to three Fighters can take part). It can use any combination of fighter and ARMS. In order to win, it must be defeated before the timer runs out, even if it has less health than the players fighting it. It is affected by items just like normal fighters, allowing it to be damaged or healed, and it can use a special. The difficulty of the fight is linked to either difficulty level 3, 4, 5, 6, or 7 from Grand Prix, as indicated next to its name. Also, in the fifth Party Crash and beyond, a level 8 Hedlok can be fought. He acts like a regular Hedlok, but it has much harder difficulty, its arms are perma-charged, it won't flinch, his rush gauge charges very quick, and when its rush gauge is full, it can combo a rush into its grab. His health would also doubles or triples, with super armor that never flinch & halve the damages (only knocked down by grab or rush attacks). The ultimate Hedlok level 8 has 4000 health when against 3 players.

In Hedlok Scramble
Introduced in Version 2.0.0, Hedlok Scramble sees players fighting for control of a Hedlok mask in a capsule. Once a player receives Hedlok, they are able to control him while the other players fight them off.

Related Badges

 * Main article: Badge Stash

Trivia

 * Although Hedlok was officially revealed as part of the ARMS Global Testpunch on 2017-06-02, it was leaked before its official reveal on a Twitch.tv stream.
 * Hedlok’s name is likely a reference to a headlock, which is when a person’s arm is wrapped around another person’s neck, thus trapping them. It also references how he takes control of people, by locking onto their heads.
 * Hedlok has three separate sets of victory poses—two used in Grand Prix mode, one where it stays attached to Max Brass and laughs triumphantly and one where it laughs while attached to Dr. Coyle, added in 5.0.0. similarly to when it is attached to Max Brass, and one used in 1-on-100 and VS Hedlok where it detaches from the fighter it was using and flies towards the screen.
 * In Grand Prix mode, Hedlok cannot be KO'd by the damage it receives from grazing one of its Explosion ARMS.
 * The Lokjaw is based on Hedlok.
 * Hedlok can accidentally damage itself from the 'blast' of the fireball rush move it unleashes if Hedlok is in close proximity when it unleashes the super move on a player, making it one of the rare few rushes that can damage itself with.
 * While Hedlok launched itself off of Max Brass, it was simply removed and then destroyed, by Dr. Coyle.
 * Even though Dr. Coyle destroys it, it comes back, due to the fact that it is a machine that can be fixed.
 * Hedlok has the most victory animations out of all the fighters, being three.
 * This is not counting Min Min or Misango's victory animations while having a mask or dragon arm active.