Sousborg

Sousborg is a robot encountered in the Steamworks. He is a unique encounter that can only be fought once and must be spared by multiple step acts affecting the bullet patterns.

Profile

Appearance

Sousborg is a robotic chef with a mustache. He wears a chef's hat and uniform with his coat buttons resembling screw heads. He holds a meat cleaver in his right hand and a pile of plates and glasses in the left. He has no legs but is still very large; in the overworld, he is three times the height of Clover.

Personality

Sousborg takes being a chef very seriously, but he is bad at cooking. He speaks with a French accent. He asks Clover what to do when fighting him and is happy when they give him the right instructions on how to cook an egg.

Etymology

Sousborg's name derives from the word sous-chef, the second in command in a kitchen.

Main Story

Pacifist Route

Sousborg does not appear in the Pacifist Route due to the kitchen being blocked off. Despite this, he still appears in the end credits rowing Axis and Daisy across the lake.

Neutral/Genocide Route

Sousborg is a scripted encounter and can only be fought once. He attacks Clover in the kitchen area of the Chemistry Lab.

In Battle

Sousborg's attacks are set by Clover's acts. He repeats the current attack every turn until they select the next correct act.

Attacks

• Pan: Before Clover selects the Crack act, a pan will move around the bottom of the screen. It will toss up food and cooking materials.
• Crack: An egg appears outside the battle box. It repeatedly hits the corner of the box's exterior, sending bits of eggshell towards Clover. After that, the egg appears above the box before splitting in half and dropping the insides through the middle to land at the bottom of the box.
• Fry: The egg will reappear at the bottom of the box. Steam that needs to be dodged rises up from it. Halfway through the attack, the egg catches fire and the steam will turn to faster-rising flames.
• Season: A salt shaker appears at the top of the box and send out several waves seasoning particles towards the burnt egg. On the fifth shake, the cap comes off and sends a stream of seasoning directly down the center of the box, flooding the bottom.

Strategy

When Clover goes to the ACT menu, Sousborg will challenge them to tell them how to prepare an egg. The order of the correct ACTs are Crack, Fry, and Season.

The frying pan attack can be better dodged by hugging the top of the box and moving to be slightly to the left or right of the center of the pan. The Crack attack can be entirely dodged by sticking to the top-left corner and holding still.

Flavor Text

• Sousborg is ready to put your culinary skills to the test! [Encounter]
• A recipe for disaster. [Check]
• Looks like you're on the chopping block! [Neutral]
• Sousborg is juggling cleavers. [Neutral]
• Sousborg cooks you some spaghetti! ...without water. [Neutral]
• Sousborg stares down a frozen TV dinner with great malice. [Neutral]
• Smells like... food? Nice! [Neutral]
• Sousborg preheats his next attack. [Neutral, possible after Crack but before Fry]
• Sousborg bows to your culinary mastery! [Spare conditions met]
• You tell Sousborg to take the egg and crack it over a pan. [Crack]
• You accuse Sousborg of undercooking his food. [Criticize]
• You tell Sousborg to fill up the pan with water and turn up the heat. [Boil]
• You tell Sousborg to heat the stove until the egg begins to sizzle. [Fry]
• You tell Sousborg to throw that puppy into the oven! [Bake]
• You tell Sousborg to wrap the egg in plastic and let it chill out. [Refrigerate]
• You tell Sousborg to pet the egg. He does. This accomplished nothing. [Pet]
• You tell Sousborg to grab some pepper and sprinkle it over the egg. [Season]
• Sousborg pours onion powder on his wounds. [Low HP]
• Sousborg is leaking oil. Vegetable oil. [Low HP]
• You toss Sousborg's cooking into the garbage. [Any ACT besides Fry or Criticize, low HP]
• You wash Sousborg's oil off your hands. [Fry or Criticize, low HP]

Quotes

• If you can't stand ze heat... good! [Neutral]
• Natural ingredients! Never substitute! [Neutral]
• A bit of zis... a bit of zat... [Neutral]
• C'est croquant, c'est fondant... [Neutral]
• Réjouis-toi! I am only going to bring you to a light boil! [Neutral]
• Longue vie au roi, courte vie à l'humain! [Neutral]
• Your complexion... un poulet cru. Some food will help! [Neutral]
• [Open ACT menu]
  • Do you have what it takes to be among ze greats?
  • Tell me, how does one cook zis brittle spheroid?
• Ah yes! Just a light tap on ze edge! [Crack]
• Quelle impolitesse! [Criticize]
• Underground? Undercooked! What iz ze issue? [Criticize]
• [Open ACT menu after Crack]
  • What ez ze next step, hm?
  • Only master chefs know ze secret to perfect-e-on!
• No! Ze egg ez already out of its casing! [Boil]
• Water? Pah! I cannot touch such a zing! [Boil]
• Oui! Turn up ze heat! [Fry]
• We are not making pie! Get it togezer! [Bake]
• What ez going on inside your tiny head? Non! [Bake]
• [Open ACT menu after Fry]
  • Almost zere!
  • Ze final step ez...?
• Hopeless! Unprofessional! [Refrigerate]
• Ze meal is not even done and you want leftovers? [Refrigerate]
• Ze egg is not alive! Well... not anymore :/ [Pet]
• It accomplished giving me joy... but I cannot eat joy! [Pet]
• Of course! I must sow ze seeds of flavor! [Season]
• [After Season attack]
  • So you know ze art of ze egg, but what about taste?
  • Bon Appétit!
  • ...
  • ...Incroyable!
  • Simply delicious!
  • Compliments to ze chef!
  • Oh right, zat ez me! Hahah!
  • But you, my instructor!
  • You are one of great talent!
  • Zank you for guiding my spatula!
• D../inner _:wiLl be <r-Ready .> Soon. [Low HP]
• Sw/>.eet _or SAVory? [Low HP]

Trivia

• After the Steamworks is completed in a Pacifist Route, all enemies in the area appear as scattered NPCs, including Sousborg. However, because Sousborg and the room he appears in are exclusive to the Neutral Route, his NPC form cannot actually be seen without SAVE file editing.
  • As an NPC, Sousborg explains to Clover the reasoning for his French accent and other variations in monster culture. Monsters originated from many different locations before they were all trapped underneath Mt. Ebott, and his creator installed aspects of himself into Sousborg.
  • Not being able to access him was a last-minute change. Initially, Clover was able to backtrack through the Steamworks on the Neutral Route and talk to robots. This was changed in the final game to only be possible on the Pacifist Route, which left the Sousborg NPC in an unreachable room.