Drifter

Not to be confused with the enemy with the same appearance and moveset, Ronin Alpha.

Spirit and technique, flawless and firm.

Drifter
Information
Color	- #fcfc04
Obtainment	Strike the wind. - Complete the game on Hours+ difficulty without taking damage.
Entry	:)
Full Title	One Man, One Sword, One Purpose
True Name	The Neorch
Statistics
Health	75
Walkspeed (studs/s)	20
Abilities	Sever [ M1 ] Parry [ M2 ] Slide [ Shift ] Chain [ Q ] Throw [ E ] Orbit [ R ]
Total upgrades	One
Navigation
Previous	Bloxxer
Current	Drifter
Next	Hot Rash

Drifter is a Host in HOURS. He is a hidden Host whose hint phrase for acquisition is "Strike the wind." He can be unlocked by beating the game on Hours, Minutes, or Seconds difficulty without taking damage.

Drifter's description after being unlocked is ":)". During Resident Mind's second phase in Light Beneath Closed Eyes, Drifter's title and true name are revealed: "One Man, One Sword, One Purpose — The Neorch."

Appearance

Drifter has the same appearance as Ronin Alpha. He takes the appearance of the generic Roblox noob with the default smile, a yellow head and yellow arms, a blue torso, and green legs. He wields a katana that has a green handle, yellow blade, and blue pommel and crossguard, which otherwise matches his color palette.

Playstyle

Drifter is a swift, melee-oriented Host who revolves around avoiding and parrying enemy attacks and striking only when the time is right. His standard attacks follow a specific order of five types, requiring good memory and timing to utilize them well. Drifter's main gimmick is his ability to parry enemy attacks, completely nullifying their effect and staggering the offender as punishment. Slide allows him to reposition or evade attacks while he cannot parry them. The rest of Drifter's abilities deal fair damage and also stagger enemies, allowing their combined use to overwhelm enemies. Despite his strengths, however, Drifter can parry only while he is not using another ability, leaving him vulnerable while attacking or if his parries are ill-timed.

Abilities

• Sever [ M1 ] - Perform one of five attacks in a sequence: a spin slash, a downwards slash, a low slash, a set of three horizontal slashes, and a set of three downward slashes. Each slash deals six damage individually. The sequence restarts when finished or after three seconds.
• Parry [ M2 ] - Raise the katana and adopt a more defensive stance. During this time, attacks from enemies will have no effect, and offenders will be briefly staggered if their attack is parried. This ability can be cast manually but is also used automatically against attacks. Holds up to three charges at once. One charge regenerates every five seconds.
• Slide [ Shift ] - Slides forward a short distance. Grants invulnerability while it lasts. Has a three second cooldown.
• Chain [ Q ] - Perform three leaping-slashes in quick succession. Each slash deals six damage and staggers enemies. Has a 10 second cooldown.
• Throw [ E ] - Throw the katana forward a moderate distance before recalling it. Deals six damage and staggers enemies when thrown and while returning. Has a 12 second cooldown.
• Orbit [ R ] - Spin the katana around twice. Deals six damage per slash and staggers enemies. This ability will also spawn four Dummy NPCs that will attack enemies. Dummies can be spawned every 30 seconds after the ability has been cast. Has a 12 second cooldown.
• :) [ Passive ] - Any type of crowd control effect applied to Drifter (stagger, stun, silence, disarm, root, or slow) will last for half its normal duration.

Upgrades

:)
	Gain +6 damage and 25 health. Stacks with all other upgrades.

Tips

Acquisition

• Unlocking Drifter can be very difficult as damage cannot be taken at any point. This becomes especially difficult while fighting Resident Mind, who has a number of hard-to-avoid attacks.
  • Absorbing damage with a shield does not count as taking it, however. This makes Hosts that have shielding capabilities very useful for trying to unlock Drifter.
    • One of the easiest and accessible ways to unlock Drifter is by using Prophet and Star and choosing Overflowing Vitality as the first upgrade. Star greatly complements Prophet's Heavy Strike by having the same cooldown and giving enough time for the ability to cast. Overflowing Vitality will generate a shield for Heavy Strike's damage and excess healing received from Regeneration. This combination will result in a long-lasting shield to absorb any damage that might be taken.
      • Upgrades that improve Heavy Strike or Regeneration will increase the effectiveness of this strategy.
    • Subject is an effective shield provider due to its Crystal Potion, specifically when thrown. However, this requires constant brewing of the said potion, as its effects will wear off after eight seconds. This also requires the player to memorize the input needed for the potion and, in general, to know how to use the Host well, both of which can take time to get used to.

Gameplay

• Keep in mind that Parry cannot activate while Drifter is using another ability, which includes his regular attacks. To avoid having this weakness exploited, attack only after an enemy does. Alternatively, one can attack before the enemy and then parry the incoming attack.
• Parrying an attack will reset the duration. Because of this, instances of damage that happen in very quick succession can be blocked in one parry.
• Using Zero does not reset the Dummies' spawn cooldown for Orbit.
• Avoid keeping Dummies around or spawning them while Equinox is low, as his Dark Tornado ability will easily let him heal from them.

Gallery

Drifter's death animation.

Drifter's icon.

Drifter's appearance during April Fools' in 2022.

Chromashift

Red

Orange

Dark orange

Yellow (default)

Green

Cyan

Light blue

Dark blue

Purple

Pink

Fanart

(Made by Krims#3939)

(Made by Gears#6442)

(Made by grug#2639)

( Made by .dipLomatic3bastard)

Trivia

• Drifter's idle animation is based on Khan's in JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Heritage For The Future.
• Drifter's description upon completing Light Beneath Closed Eyes, "Spirit and technique, flawless and firm," is based on Kanshou and Bakuya from Fate/Stay Night.
• Drifter is technically the only Host that has a voice, as he screams upon dying.
  • This also makes Ronin Alpha the only boss and by extension enemy that has a voice.
• Drifter is the only Host that has an R ability without needing upgrades.
• Drifter, Equinox, Bloxxer, and Hellion are the only Hosts that have one upgrade available to them.
• Drifter's original name was "Failure." He was renamed to "Drifter" on April 6th, 2021.
• Drifter's face is actually a 3D model rather than a decal, hence why his face also glowed rather than being a bland red during April Fools' 2022.
• Throwing Drifter's katana over Toxic Teapot's toxic puddles will cause Drifter to get poisoned. It is unknown why this occurs.
• Drifter can parry the damage of Goliath Omega's attack but not the field-wide stagger caused by it.
• Drifter and Dreamer are the only boss-based Hosts that have a true name.
• Enemy Drifters in Multiplayer and Endless Timeless can move for five seconds upon getting attacked during stopped time. This is an intentional feature and not a bug, as they will also temporarily gain color.
• Drifter's passive used to be "Heavy Hitter," which caused all of his attacks to stagger enemies.
  • This has since been given to Bloxxer.
• Formerly, Resident Mind's clone of Drifter could parry at all times, including while time was stopped. This was fixed in a later update.
• Drifter can be unlocked in the cheat menu with the command "Class5318008."