The Spine

"If I were that big, I wouldn't run from anybody." -- Unknown

The Spine is the largest type of Process encountered by Red in Transistor. Several Spines appear in the game, but only one can be fought as a boss. It is a major antagonist in the game.

Unknown names the Spine after a song titled The Spine, which was written by Red before the events of the game.

Info[]

The Spine will not retreat when confronted at sufficient altitudes
The Spine's primary attack causes damage in an area at the impact point
The Spine will breathe forth clouds of Cells when sufficiently harmed

Appearance[]

SpineTail — Tail of the Spine stabbing through a wall.

Spines are massive serpentine creatures which appear in various locations in two districts of Cloudbank. First glimpsed in a blurred rush passing through the air behind a building, they are lengthy and heavily muscled, with red polka-dots decorating a grayish white exterior and multiple heavy spikes jutting from its back. Each has two heavy forelimbs with narrow gold bands encircling its biceps. The 'heart' found inside their bodies is far larger than a human. Their heads are vivid red during battle, featuring two thick spikes jutting backwards from the top of the head and two smaller ones jutting backward from the cheeks, a keratinously sectioned shell-like exterior, several 'eyes', and a circular 'mouth' which shoots rapid-fire energy darts. Their tails are thick and sinuous with arrow-shaped tips.

Spines can fly or swim through the air, moving rapidly despite their size. They are drawn to heights, but have also been seen to breach and plunge back into the city's clouds.

The presence of a Spine in the area imposes several aesthetic effects on the Transistor, although they do not impair the weapon's capabilities in combat.

In Battle[]

In areas where a Spine is nearby, its large, sharp arrow-shaped tail periodically emerges from walls or descends from above to stab at Red, a phenomenon first seen in battle but subsequently out of battle as well. This tail, the only part of the Spine that attacks Red outside of the boss battle, does not permanently damage walls or floors but is invulnerable to attack and kills any other Process creature it happens to strike.

All parts of the Spine are immune to Charm.

The Spine's head, seen only during the boss battle on the Bracket Towers facade, rotates back and forth in front of its thickly muscled body to track Red's movements. Its mouth spits damaging rapid-fire darts of energy which quickly eat through intervening Process pillars, and its tail frequently plunges at Red's location, necessitating constant movement. Each time the Spine's head reaches zero HP, the head shakes and its mouth disgorges numerous Cells which quickly turn into BadCells.

After the head is fully destroyed, the Spine's "soft, greasy" interior becomes accessible through its neck. This opening leads to a side-scrolling passage with no hazards, made up of red, black and white designs typical of the Process and leading to a vulnerable 'heart'-like structure. Attacking the 'heart' ends the battle.

Trivia[]

The Spine first appears in Highrise; others are later seen in Goldwalk.
Its heart beats 17 times per minute.
Although Spines possess at least two limbs, no hands, feet, or other appendages can be observed.
Unknown refers to the creature as "the spine of the world," alluding to a song by Red which he considers "one of the greats."
The Spine causes the Transistor to glow red instead of teal and leaves Unknown's voice staticky, slurred, and confused in a manner similar to alcoholic inebriation. During this time, Unknown has difficulty seeing Red or interpreting their surroundings, feeling farther away from her the closer the Spine gets. In a thought which can be mulled over in the Sandbox, he compares the experience to blacking out and theorizes that the effect is due to proximity to instances of the Process which have grown above a certain size. The effects increases during the boss fight until Unknown's voice disappears completely. When Red enters the Sandbox, leaves districts in which Spines are roaming, or destroys the Spine's heart, the effects cease.
A news post by Amelia Garbur, dated 06-28-67 at 01:33, is headlined "Monstrosity Attacks Bracket Towers." It describes a "huge serpentine creature" clinging to Bracket Towers South, along with a full-scale effort launched by the 18th Precinct to draw it away from the population; no sign of this effort is seen by Red. After the Spine is defeated, a chryon associated with another of Garbur's articles, timestamped 04:15, reads, "DEVELOPING: Monstrosity Dead at Bracket Towers?"
In a text response on a terminal, Red, distressed by the Spine's effects on Unknown, promises to "find the thing that's doing this" and "break its heart." She later fulfils this promise.
After defeating the first Spine and leaving Bracket Towers to return to Goldwalk, Red and Unknown observe several Spines plunging through the city's clouds. Another Spine's tail attacks Red as she makes her way through Goldwalk towards Fairview; the rest of its body is never confronted. If Red enters the Sandbox after that encounter, Unknown remarks that he had been "hoping there was just the one of them." The influence of Goldwalk's Spines extend only as far as the Expressway.
Spines may be a particularly advanced iteration of the Process, but certain biological attributes, such as the "soft, greasy" interior and the beating heart, could imply preexisting creatures assimilated and altered by the Process in a similar way to people like Sybil Reisz.