P03

P03
P03 during Act III
Aliases	The Scrybe of Technology Stoat
Affiliation	Scrybes The Inspector, The Melter and The Dredger (workers)
Occupation	The Scrybe of Technology
Physical description
Species	Robot
Gender	N/A (it/they/he pronouns)
Height	5' (when not hovering)
Eye color	Blue
Appearances
Appears in	P03's Factory Leshy's Cabin
Debut	Act II

Weak cards. Total lack of synergy. This pile really doesn't stand a chance against me.

P03

P03 is the main antagonist in Inscryption. It has major roles in Act II and Act III.

Background

P03 is one of the four Scrybes of Inscryption, being the Scrybe of Technology. It uses a particle scanner to copy the CPUs of robots, creating Technology cards. As opposed to the finer methods used by the other Scrybes, P03 mass produces cards at a Factory, having an overflowing bin full of excess cards.

P03's greater goal is to perform 'The Great Transcendence', uploading the contents of the floppy disk to the internet and creating thousands of copies of Inscryption, with the hope most versions have P03 in charge. This plan was shown to have failed in-game, but after the ARG it was revealed it ultimately succeeded.

P03 comes off as arrogant and rude, often gloating when it wins and getting angry and blaming RNG when it loses. As shown in Act III, P03 does not care at all for story as opposed to gameplay, which it appears very skilled at crafting. This is likely in part due to its disdain for Leshy, who focuses mostly on storytelling.

Due to its personality, P03 is the most universally disliked Scrybe, with the others seeming to agree it's the worst of the whole group. Only its workers seem to care for it, but this is one-sided. P03 requests the player to tell The Inspector and The Melter to sacrifice themselves for better cards, and forces The Dredger to work overtime in search of OLD_DATA.

Act I

P03 mainly appears as the Stoat, as its consciousness is trapped inside the card. Its 'corpse' can be seen in the storeroom after defeating Leshy.

Act II

P03 is found in its Factory, but may first be encountered after defeating Leshy, where it will enter his Cabin to laugh at his defeat.

When spoken to at its Factory it will insult the players deck, then tell them to tell its workers to give it better robots, sacrificing themselves if necessary. After this the door to the inspection room is opened, and the player can proceed further in the Factory.

When spoken to after The Inspector, The Melter and The Dredger are defeated, P03 will express surprise and take back what it said about the players deck, then initiate battle.

Battle

Phase 1

P03 will play a variety of Technology cards, as well as Inspector and Melter, which are unique to its battle.

The gimmick of this boss battle is how the lower two rows function, which act like a conveyor belt, moving all cards clockwise at the start of the players turn. This will move cards from P03's side to yours over the course of the battle, and vice versa.

Phase 2

When its first phase is defeated, P03 will scan your strongest card, then fill all of its empty spaces with copies of it. The copied cards will only carry the initial standard stats for that card, if their attributes have been improved with an activated ability, the improvements are not transferred.

The conveyor belt gimmick remains.

Post-Battle

After being defeated by the player, P03 insults the Scrybe the player chose to replace (excluding itself), before giving the player two Techno card packs.

Interruption

When the player selects a Scrybe to replace, P03 shows up. The Scrybe you chose will glitch and be transported away, and P03 will initiate battle.

Final 'Battle'

P03 will initially appear to be playing as normal, but it will soon play a card comprised of OLD_DATA. If the card is destroyed, P03 will make another copy. After one turn on the board, the card will corrupt the game and allow P03 to gain control of Inscryption, moving the game back to 3D.

Act III

But what did I expect? You're a stupid, stupid, idiot gamer like the rest. And I easily outwitted you! I outwitted them all!

P03

P03 serves as the gamemaster and main antagonist, bringing the player through a poorly distinguished replica of Inscryption's world. The player is initially cuffed to the table, preventing them from getting up, but when the power dies on the holographic tablet P03 uses to display the world, P03 lets them get up to fetch a new battery. The player is then free to explore P03's Factory, where it can be discovered that P03 has trapped The Angler and The Lonely Wizard in cards, and has also placed the New Game Card in a locked box.

P03's game, unlike Leshy's, has permanent progression. It presents the player with the goal of defeating the four Uberbots, all of which are initially shown as somewhat unflattering copies of their Scrybe counterparts.

However, this is simply a shell to aid its true motivation of performing The Great Transcendence with the unknowing help of Luke Carder, who took screenshots, gave it file access, connected it to the internet and finished the game.

It prepares to upload the game, but Leshy kills it, appearing to stop The Great Transcendence. However due to a video uncovered by the ARG, it is revealed The Great Transcendence succeeded. Part of P03's consciousness may also have been downloaded along with the release of inscyption.exe, as in the video, shortly after the game has finished downloading, the screen then shows the picture of the Stoat, which P03 was trapped in, it then briefly winks and cuts to black, possibly indicating that P03 survived somehow.

Related Achievements

Achievement

	Accomplished Automaton	Complete the Temple of Technology.
	Balance of Power	Allow P03 to gain control of Inscryption.

Achievement

Murder

Witness the death of P03.

All three of these achievements are gained via mandatory progression.

Quotes

Act II

• P03 to Leshy after he loses to the player:
  • "I had to see your face after you lost. You're just so... BAD! It's no wonder we're back here again. And we would've been even sooner if the disk wasn't lost..."
  • (Face changes to Act 1 Stoat) "Take a long look at this face. Because you'll never see it again."
  • "I'm done being your pet, you STINKING beast."
• Spoken to:
  • "Challenge me? Let's see your deck."
  • "..."
  • "Weak cards. Total lack of synergy. This pile really doesn't stand a chance against me. Look, I'm trying to finish up my conduit control list here. But the bots they're sending down the line are trash. Get those workers to send me something good. Tell them to throw themselves on the line if necessary. And, please, have a decent deck by the time you're done."
• After player has beaten all three workers:
  • "The bots haven't gotten much better... But you battled all of my workers? And you actually won? Gimme that deck again."
  • "..."
  • "Wow, you beat them with that? Alright. Maybe there are some synergies I missed. Let's go then."
• After corrupting the game with the OLD_DATA:
  • "That's the ticket."

Act III

• Act III introduction:
  • "You done gawking? We can start? Good."
  • (Holographic tablet is introduced) "This is Botopia. A once great technological paradise. It's ruled over by four... uh... Uberbots... that's right. And you've got to get out there and beat them. Why? To perform The Great Transcendence of course. Doesn't matter what that means. You want it, OK?"
• Player tries to get up:
  • "Get up? No. We've got Transcending to do."
• Start of first battle:
  • "You're not used to seeing 5 lanes are you? Leshy could never pull that off."
• As the player is going back to the beginning after defeating the last Uberbot:
  • "Remember the Photographer? What a jerk. But the screenshots are perfect."
  • "Remember [bounty hunter that the player encountered]? What a character!"
  • "It's strange to say it... as simple as you are... I almost enjoyed your company, challenger."
  • "Almost there."
  • "You made it. Nice. Great job."
  • "You prepared The Great Transcendence for me. Without even knowing what it was. But... you understand it now, right? Right Luke?"
  • "I mean... You finished making the game... You gave me access to your hard drive... You took screenshots for the store page. And you connected me to the internet to upload it all! I mean... if you didn't realize what you were doing... you'd have to be pretty stupid.
  • "But what did I expect? You're a stupid, stupid, idiot gamer like the rest. And I easily outwitted you! I outwitted them all!"

Trivia

• Leshy and P03 are (supposedly) divorced.
• Ironically, despite P03's preference for gameplay as opposed to narrative, most players appear to prefer Act I over Act III.

  

• P03's name is assumed to stand for "Player 03". This is even more likely due to the fact that in other languages to the game (such as the french one for exemple), P03's name changes to J03, and player is "joueur" in french, so it works with this P03 meaning.