| “ | An eldritch creature that inflicts a fatal curse on whomever it detects. | „ |
| ~ Description from Ritual of the Night |
The Kunekune is an enemy in Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night.
Description[]
The Kunekune somewhat resembles a Morte, but is made of a metallic silvery substance. It constantly flails its arms and body as it moves, and is deceptively fast. In Classic Mode and Classic II: Dominique's Curse, it moves slowly (like a Morte from the main game of Ritual of the Night) and is as frail as a typical Morte, but it constantly comes back to life after defeat.
Location[]
Ritual of the Night[]
The Kunekune is a well hidden enemy that can only appear on the train that rides the Bridge of Evil. To make the Kunekune appear, Miriam must sit down in the passenger car that is second from the far left of the area (only during a following visit to this area and not during the first one with Zangetsu, where the level starts on an extra cargo car). After a certain point of the scenery rolling by (around the time when no more foreground trees appear and the landscape with the Hellhold in the distance can be clearly seen), Miriam will start falling sleep and her eyes will start to close and open, time during which the Kunekune will appear in the distance, coming closer each time Miriam's eyes close, before jump-scaring the player. The Kunekune will then appear in the train car to Miriam's right and can be fought. If the player moves at any time while staring at the landscape outside, the process of summoning the Kunekune will immediately abort. The player may sit on the chair again to restart the process. If the Kunekune was already approaching, sitting on the chair again will re-summon it almost immediately.
The Kunekune cannot appear during the first trip on the train, as it isn't possible to sit down on the chair, but can be fought as many times as desired afterward. It will only spawn once per train ride.
Classic Mode[]
Dominique's Curse[]
Strategy[]
The Kunekune is a remarkably powerful secret enemy (it has over three times more health than Vepar) and can be pretty annoying to fight against if not prepared. It is a good idea to bring as many Potions and Holy Water as possible if taking it on early in the game.
The Kunekune has 100% resistance to the Curse and Stone status effects, and a 50% resistance to Poison. It is neutral to all other status effects and damage types.
Additionally to inflicting direct physical damage, the Kunekune has a unique and dangerous attack: Staring directly at the creature's front side will cause Miriam to be Cursed (HP and MP meters temporarily locked at half their capabilities) and receive a lot of damage.
There are many strategies to make the Kunekune easier to kill: The primary one is to immediately run left and jump on the crates in the next train carriage; since the creature can only move by sliding along the floor, it will stop when it encounters the crates. The player can then kill it using an attack that can reach it without exposing them to its gaze, such as Heretical Grinder or Head Flail, the latter whose backward swinging motion can be used for both hitting the creature and not staring directly at it; also, the Silver Knight's repeated stab attack will deal a fair amount of additional damage if it is summoned as Miriam's familiar. Later in the game, the player can use Shards like Invert or Standstill to render the creature easier to attack. If coming from the right end of the train, the player is advised to kill the Assassin in the carriage on the left before sitting down, as otherwise he will greatly complicate fighting the Kunekune. It is also important to kill the Kunekune fairly quickly, as the train sequence ends on a timer after a while.
If the Kunekune does not drop its Shard, Resist Curses, the player can use the "Suspend" option and reload the save to try again, saving the hassle of having to get back to and on the train again.
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- The Kunekune (くねくね, lit. "Wriggling body") is an urban legend that first appeared on Japanese internet websites in 2001 (much like the Slender Man) and is considered as a "modern yōkai", a Japanese term for supernatural monsters. It is described as a wriggling scarecrow-like figure that appears in fields, causing anyone near it to go insane and whose touch causes instant death.
- Previous to the appearance of the urban legend, the term was used to refer to (and possibly has its origin on) the Soldiers Kunekune, a group of antagonistic foot soldiers appearing in the Denji Sentai Megaranger live-action series, and which plays on the Kunekune's resemblance to a Morte.
- The Kunekune's numerical designation of 044 relates to the fact that in Japanese, along with other languages related to Chinese, the word "four" sometimes shares a pronunciation with the word for "death" (both are pronounced shi). Japanese hospitals often do not have a fourth floor for this reason.
- The behavior of the Kunekune variants that appear in Classic Mode and Classic II: Dominique's Curse, where they infinitely come back to life shortly after being defeated, is likely a reference to the Red Skeleton from the Castlevania series.
See also[]
External links[]
- Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night — Bestiary at GameFAQs