The Big Gulper kept his job
Act 3 went in on October 16 with a placeholder boss, a tinted copy of the Pen Pal with two attacks. Three days later the Big Gulper had his own art, three colors that each change how he takes damage, and a fight you have to read.
Written up later from the repo's history and dated to the days it describes.
Earfh had two acts and two bosses until October 16. That day Act 3, the Warehouse, joined the run, and the Pen Pal stopped being the end. He now closes Act 2 with an act break, and the run carries on through three more stages.
The Warehouse
The Loading Dock is a Shred the Evidence stage with shipments in place of documents. Cold Storage is a Defend stage where the thing to protect is a freezer unit, and it plays the same way the Trading Floor's server rack does. The Sorting Floor is a Hunt stage among belt lanes, with Conveyor Bots that ride the rails. All three reuse objectives Act 2 already had, which was the point. The spec called for zero paid art, so the new floor plans were the only new assets. Clear bonuses are $300, $350 and $400, and the stages play the new warehouse music playlist.
Five mobs came with it. The Forklift Operator charges, the Box Golem is slow and heavy, the Delivery Drone flies, the Freezer Hand guards the freezer, and the Conveyor Bot rides the rails.
A boss in a borrowed coat
The Warehouse needed a last boss, and a real one was not ready. The Big Gulper went in as a placeholder: the Pen Pal's sprite sheet tinted a different color, with two attacks. A Sugar Slam sends out a ring, and a Rolling Charge runs straight at you. A placeholder is supposed to be replaced.
Three days later it was. On October 19 he got his own art in three colors, and a spec the same afternoon turned the colors into a mechanic. The idea came as a question, whether he should change color as a mechanic, and the answer was yes to all of it.
Reading the cup
The Big Gulper now cycles through three states, and the color tells you which one you are fighting.
Brain Freeze is teal. He takes half damage, moves slower and plays defensively, so the sensible response is to dodge and chip, or save your burst. Citrus Overdrive is orange. He takes 150% damage, moves faster and hits harder, so the response is to burst him down, and one mistake costs a lot. SUGAR RUSH is pink, takes normal damage, and does everything at once. It arrives at half health and stays.
Brain Freeze and Citrus Overdrive trade places every 15 seconds. The swap is telegraphed with 1.2 seconds of flashing between the two palettes and a rising chime, and the attack he is in the middle of finishes first. A swap never cuts an attack off. The first orange variant came out chocolate brown, which read as the wrong cup entirely, and it took another pass to get an orange that looked like citrus.
Each state also changes the moves. Brain Freeze leaves a sticky sugar puddle that slows you to 60% for 8 seconds, and its lane attack gets a longer 1.1 second wind-up. Citrus Overdrive adds a second shockwave ring half a second after the first. SUGAR RUSH has all of it, plus a third ring.
Why the health number is large
The spec lists his base health as 900. In a real Act 3 run on Normal he has 27,000, because boss health is the base times 12 times an act factor of 2.5. That scaling arrived with the tuning pass, which is the next post.
What is next
The numbers are first guesses to tune by playing. There is also a fourth boss, the Chairman, who exists as a practice fight and is not part of a run yet.