Hedlok

From ARMS Institute, the ARMS Wiki

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

Official render of Hedlok.


Description

 
Hedlok's entire appearance.

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;[1] 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.[2] 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.

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.

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.

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 punch first, the corresponding arms will just follow.

When against 2 to 3 players, his health will double or triple & he gains super armor that prevents flinching & halves the damage he takes.

Certain character specific abilities will be restricted when equipped with Hedlok:

  • When Hedlok is attached to Byte, Barq is no longer present.
  • When Hedlok is attached to Misango, the guardian spirit disappears.
  • When Hedlok is attached to Dr. Coyle, she cannot activate her additional ARM.

Modes

Hedlok appears in four different modes.

In VS Hedlok

 
Hedlok possessing Byte at difficulty level 5.

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. In the fifth Party Crash and beyond, a level 8 Hedlok can be encountered. He acts much like a regular Hedlok, but at a harder difficulty level. In addition, it’s extra four ARMS are perma-charged and his rush gauge charges very quickly.

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
Description Reward Design Unlock Criteria
You won the Grand Prix at level 4
or higher! A new champion has
entered the arena!
 100   Clear Grand Prix at level 4 or higher.
You're champion of the level 7
Grand Prix. Today, a legend is born...
 200   Clear Grand Prix at level 7.
You fought Lvl. 8 Hedlok!
ARMS Labs will stop at nothing...
 50   Fight a Level 8 Hedlok during the fifth Party Crash and beyond for the first time.
You defeated Lvl. 8 Hedlok!
ARMS Labs is waving the white flag.
 200   Defeat a Level 8 Hedlok during the fifth Party Crash and beyond.
You played VS Hedlok for the
first time! Let's hope you don't
get any nightmares.
 10   Play VS Hedlok for the first time in Version 3.2.0 or higher.
You won VS Hedlok without
using any rush attacks. How
patient of you!
 100   Win a VS Hedlok match without anybody using a rush.
You won VS Hedlok in less
than 30 seconds. That
creep must be humilated!
 100   Win a VS Hedlok match in under 30 second(before the timer reaches sixty-nine seconds).
You won VS Hedlok AND every
player got a perfect score. Hedlok
can't be too happy about that!
 100   Win a VS Hedlok match with everyone at full health.
Note:being healed to full health by HP Juice or Master Mummy's regeneration skill still counts as a Perfect.
You've done over 1,000 damage
at one time in VS Hedlok! I feel
kind of bad for Hedlok...
 100   Deal at least 1,000 damage to Hedlok in VS Hedlok.
You played Hedlok Scramble
for the first time! If you can
control Hedlok, you can do anything!
 10   Play Hedlok Scramble for the first time in Version 3.2.0 or higher.
You've made Hedlok a real
winner in Hedlok Scramble.
Not sure if that's a good thing...
 30   Win a round while still wearing Hedlok.
You took out an opponent with
a rush attack while wearing
Hedlok in Hedlok Scramble. Nasty!
 10   KO an opponent with a rush attack while wearing Hedlok.

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.
    • This means Hedlok has the most victory animations out of all the fighters, at three.
      • This is not counting Misango's victory animations while having a mask active.
  • 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.

Gallery

Names in other languages

Hedlok

Language Name Meaning
 Japanese ヘッドロック
Heddorokku
Hedlok
 Chinese (Traditional) 鎖體魔頭
Sótái Mōtàuh
Body-Locked Devil Head
 Chinese (Simplified) 锁体魔头
Suǒtǐ Mótóu
Body-Locked Devil Head
 French Hedlok Hedlok

The Secret Weapon

Language Name Meaning
 Japanese 暴走する ARMS兵器
Bōsō suru Āmuzu heiki
Runaway ARMS weapon
 Chinese (Traditional) 發狂的ARMS兵器
Faatkòhng dīk ARMS Bīnghei
Crazed ARMS Weapon
 Chinese (Simplified) 发狂的ARMS兵器
Fākuáng de ARMS Bīngqì
Crazed ARMS Weapon
 French L'arme secrète The Secret Weapon

References

Non-playable characters in ARMS
BiffFansHedlokThe Cell