Overview
Malefacts are the primary enemy type in Beast of Reincarnation. They are created when the Blight, a parasitic phenomenon, transforms living organisms into monsters. The Blight fuses creatures with plant matter, turning them into hostile, monstrous hybrids of their original forms. Malefacts range from common enemies encountered throughout the world to the massive Nushi boss creatures that generate entire Blighted Forests around themselves.
Origin and Creation
Malefacts are created when living creatures are exposed to and corrupted by the Blight. The parasitic phenomenon transforms living organisms, fusing the animal with plant matter into something aggressive and dangerous. The variety of Malefacts reflects the diversity of the original creatures that were corrupted. Each Malefact type is based on a different animal or organism, resulting in a wide range of forms, sizes, and combat behaviors.
Some Malefacts are tree-like monsters, creatures so heavily corrupted that their original animal form is barely recognizable beneath the plant overgrowth. Others are more clearly merged with animal bodies, retaining recognizable features of their original forms while displaying grotesque plant-matter mutations. This visual variety communicates the Blight's indiscriminate nature: it corrupts everything it touches, regardless of the creature's original form.
Types and Variety
The Malefact population splits by how far the corruption has run and by what the creature originally was.
Type | Description |
|---|---|
Tree-Like Monsters | Heavily corrupted creatures where plant matter has almost entirely consumed the original organism, leaving shambling, wood-like enemies. |
Animal-Plant Hybrids | Creatures that keep recognisable animal features, limbs, heads or gait, overlaid with plant mutations. |
Boss-level Malefacts large enough to generate an entire Blighted Forest around themselves. Six of them carry names. |
The regular roster runs to named enemy lines rather than anonymous mobs. Grizzly, Rodent and Tusked Malefacts are the recurring types documented so far, and a single creature line can return in a stronger form later in the journey, which is why an approach that worked early stops working.
Malefacts spawn in existing Blighted Forests and in ground that is still changing. As plains and wasteland turn to forest in real time, an abrupt transformation can put an unseen Malefact in front of Emma with no approach warning.
Drops
Item | Rarity |
|---|---|
Common, dropped by Malefacts and Golems alike | |
Malefact Meat | Rare. A cooking ingredient, used in dishes such as grilled meat, mince onigiri and the meat sandwich |
Medicinal Herb | Rare, used in crafting |
Thin Bones | Rare, used in crafting |
Spirit Stone Ore | Rare, feeds the Spirit Stone economy |
Role in Gameplay
Emma, as a Sealer, hunts Malefacts and absorbs their Blight into her own body after defeating them; the game frames putting one down as sealing it rather than killing it. She can absorb essences from defeated enemies to unlock new abilities, making Malefact encounters a core progression mechanic beyond simple combat challenges. This absorption is both her purpose and her curse. It strengthens her powers but draws her deeper into the corruption she fights against.
Players can approach Malefact encounters through multiple combat strategies: engaging aggressively with Emma's katana, fighting from long range with bow and crossbow, using stealth assassinations to thin enemy numbers before engaging groups, or directing Koo to lead in and strike first. The diversity of Malefact types encourages players to vary their approach and adapt their Bloom Arts selections based on the enemies they face.
Blighted Forests
Powerful Malefacts, particularly Nushi, generate Blighted Forests around themselves. These corrupted zones are explicitly described as dungeons that players explore, fighting through waves of lesser Malefacts and navigating corrupted terrain to reach the Nushi boss at the forest's center. Players must fight through these forests and the Malefacts within them to take down the Nushi.
Blighted Forests spread across the landscape, expanding the Blight's influence and spawning additional Malefacts. The dynamic nature of the world means these forests are not static. They grow and transform as part of the Blight's ongoing corruption of the landscape.
Koo's Paradox
Koo, Emma's dog companion, is himself classified as a Malefact, making their partnership deeply paradoxical. A Sealer whose mission is to destroy Malefacts has instead bonded with one. Koo's vine-branch tail marks him as Blight-connected, yet he fights alongside Emma against his own kind. Koo is described as an abandoned dog that Emma encounters, suggesting his Malefact nature developed after he was already alive, raising questions about the nature of the Blight's corruption and whether it always strips creatures of their will.
This contradiction is central to the game's narrative and raises questions about the nature of the Blight, free will, and whether corruption is truly irreversible. If Koo can resist the Blight's influence and maintain loyalty to a Sealer, what does that mean for the other Malefacts Emma destroys?
Notable Malefacts
Name | Description |
|---|---|
The six boss Malefacts that generate Blighted Forests and gate progression. Defeating one hands Emma its power. | |
Emma's companion, and a Malefact himself. An abandoned dog whose vine-branch tail marks the Blight connection. | |
Kirin | Kunai's mount and the second half of her boss fight, proof that Koo is not the only Malefact to have bonded with a person. |
Nue | Shidou's bonded Malefact, fought alongside him three times across the campaign. |
Weaknesses and Status Build-Up
Every Malefact carries an innate weakness, shown as an icon beside its health bar, with the build-up gauge for whatever status is being applied on the other side of the same bar. Bosses are no exception; each of them has one.
Effect | What It Does |
|---|---|
Poison | Damage over time once the build-up gauge fills |
Flame | Burn, continuous damage over time |
Acid | Corrosion, damage over time plus reduced defence against physical damage |
Lightning | Shock, which stuns |
Rupture | Weakens the target so Emma's hits land harder |
Destructive | Weakens the target and breaks shields |
Explosive | Weakens the target |
Bind | Halts movement for a short window |
The same effects can be applied to Emma and Koo by enemies that deal those damage types, which is what elemental resistance on armor is for. Blade elements, arrow and bolt types, and Koo's Bloom Arts are the three ways to put a status on a target, and stacking them is how a fight against a resistant enemy gets shortened.
Named Malefact Encounters
Two Malefacts are elevated to named boss encounters in the shipped game, separate from the Nushi progression.
Malefact | Weakness | Encounters | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
Poison | Levels 16, 20, 32 | Fought three times at rising levels, first during a flashback sequence | |
Water | Level 45 | A single late encounter, and the only boss in the game weak to water |
The Nue Malefact is also tied to a paired encounter: Shidou fights alongside a creature named Nue, mirroring the way Emma fights alongside Koo. That pairing is fought three times across the campaign, at levels 20, 35, and 48.
Elemental Weaknesses
Every Malefact and Nushi in the game carries an elemental weakness, drawn from a set that includes flame, lightning, poison, acid, water, explosive, and bind effects. Matching blade elements and ammunition types to a target's weakness is the main lever players have outside raw stat growth. Weaknesses per encounter are listed under Bosses.