What's with those coins the slayer leaves on the bodies of the dead priests?

[Quadsword]

I've read through all the lore entries and I don't recall there being any explanation as to what those coins do. Deag Nilox goes from acting smug to panicking when the slayer shows it to him.

(They also look an awful lot like the praetor tokens you find throughout the game, but I don't know if there's any connection)

[unendingEmpathy]

I'm only theorizing here because I dunno either, but it seems like those tokens' purpose is to recover or revive the Daeg if they should fall. The idea I got is that the token is given to a trusted sentinel to protect them, and should the Deag die, they would be brought back in some manner, hence why they seem to be in the possession of the demons chosen to protect them, which would explain why the Gladiator has one.

Again this is just me putting things together without any actual in-game explanation to back it up, but that's generally the feeling I got: If the Deag are killed with their coin in the possession of their guardian, it can be used in some way to revive them.

[Niknokinater]

Originally posted by Robby Shenanigans:

I'm only theorizing here because I dunno either, but it seems like those tokens' purpose is to recover or revive the Daeg if they should fall. The idea I got is that the token is given to a trusted sentinel to protect them, and should the Deag die, they would be brought back in some manner, hence why they seem to be in the possession of the demons chosen to protect them, which would explain why the Gladiator has one.

Again this is just me putting things together without any actual in-game explanation to back it up, but that's generally the feeling I got: If the Deag are killed with their coin in the possession of their guardian, it can be used in some way to revive them.

Definitely some nice head-canon, and alleviates my distaste regarding why the Slayer would only have two, and then receive one from the Gladiator like a mere pickup (unless he'd have known I guess? Idk)

I'd have also accepted "hey this is a MacGuffin that makes the priests actually die", but again, that Gladiator ohohoho.

[unendingEmpathy]

It does sort of imply that Doomguy killed 2 of the guardians before taking on the Deag with the tokens, which yeah does somewhat explain how he got 2 of them but not a third one since its location was unknown to him at the time.
I kinda wonder if the DLC campaign will have you doing that, where the missions involve killing the two guardians and taking their coins, which then would lead up to Hell on Earth where he begins taking down the Deag now that he has at least 2 of the coins and knows where 2 of the Deag are.

[SpikyMuffin]

It's kind of lame that they explain you all the ♥♥♥♥ with Maykrs and Hell alliance, but not something ordinary like this. It seems like this is something tied to sentinels culture, as you mentioned praetor coins looking similar, also sentinels become ghosts like king Novik and Night Sentinels we see through game(or this is something only Slayer can see?), so maybe Slayer indeed has godlike abilities necessary to kill any hell being. For sure it could be a nice DLC material.

[PostNutClarity]

It's for pin ball.

[HighLanderPony]

Looked like paying tribute or a debt to me, maybe some kind of ritual. Similar to how some put coins over the eyes of their dead when burning them.

[HighLanderPony]

Originally posted by ProllyANope:

It's for pin ball.

Lmao

[Sir Tontonolous]

Originally posted by ProllyANope:

It's for pin ball.

Gotta use the decapitated heads for something, right?

[Jork]

i was under the impression he uses it to guarantee the hell priests will die a final death

[JeepJ0ckey]

Deag Nilox says his soul is guarded, the slayer uses the coin, kills him, and he does not come back.
It's used to lift the protection guarding the Hell Priests Souls, so they can be killed/stay dead

[Grampire]

Originally posted by JeepJ0ckey:

Deag Nilox says his soul is guarded, the slayer uses the coin, kills him, and he does not come back.
It's used to lift the protection guarding the Hell Priests Souls, so they can be killed/stay dead

Correct - it's heavily implied that the coins are phylacteries that can be used to restore the priests if something happens to them, similar to a lich from Dungeons and Dragons.

The difference here is basically that the coins destroy themselves when brought to the corpse of the priest, so there's clearly some details that are missing/different.

[Sar]

Second priest’s Guardian is one of Doom Hunters you defeat. Only the first priest’s Guardian is unknown and was killed before the events of the game. It was supposed to be explained in the prequel comic, but I don’t think it ever comes out.

[itchy]

Originally posted by Niknokinater:

Originally posted by Robby Shenanigans:

I'm only theorizing here because I dunno either, but it seems like those tokens' purpose is to recover or revive the Daeg if they should fall. The idea I got is that the token is given to a trusted sentinel to protect them, and should the Deag die, they would be brought back in some manner, hence why they seem to be in the possession of the demons chosen to protect them, which would explain why the Gladiator has one.

Again this is just me putting things together without any actual in-game explanation to back it up, but that's generally the feeling I got: If the Deag are killed with their coin in the possession of their guardian, it can be used in some way to revive them.

Definitely some nice head-canon, and alleviates my distaste regarding why the Slayer would only have two, and then receive one from the Gladiator like a mere pickup (unless he'd have known I guess? Idk)

I'd have also accepted "hey this is a MacGuffin that makes the priests actually die", but again, that Gladiator ohohoho.

It's something to do with their souls. The first priest says "my soul is guarded" before the slayer reveals the coin, at which point the priest panics, before being killed. He then retrieves a coin from the gladiator after killing it, the gladiator was the priests guardian, killing the guardian leaves the priest vulnerable. erego the coin is how the priest guards his soul, making him immortal. The Maykrs discovered the secret to immortality, but never revealed it to the dark lord, I believe the maykr's discovered this secret either working with the priests, or gave it to the priests only, and this sercret being the coins and guardian protection.

[UNBREAKABLE]

Originally posted by itchy (sucks):

Originally posted by Niknokinater:

Definitely some nice head-canon, and alleviates my distaste regarding why the Slayer would only have two, and then receive one from the Gladiator like a mere pickup (unless he'd have known I guess? Idk)

I'd have also accepted "hey this is a MacGuffin that makes the priests actually die", but again, that Gladiator ohohoho.

It's something to do with their souls. The first priest says "my soul is guarded" before the slayer reveals the coin, at which point the priest panics, before being killed. He then retrieves a coin from the gladiator after killing it, the gladiator was the priests guardian, killing the guardian leaves the priest vulnerable. erego the coin is how the priest guards his soul, making him immortal. The Maykrs discovered the secret to immortality, but never revealed it to the dark lord, I believe the maykr's discovered this secret either working with the priests, or gave it to the priests only, and this sercret being the coins and guardian protection.

not to mention the Slayer could have just killed all the priests in the first mission if their souls weren't protected.

[itchy]

Oh, and the connection to the Praetor suit tokens, is they're the same thing pretty much. The suit tokens aren't being used to protect the slayers soul, but they obviously have significance in the Sentinels world, and the priests are still of royal blood in the Sentinel kingdom despite being betrayers who sided with the Maykrs in their partnership with the demons.... Kind of a really bad system the Sentinels got going to be honest, the priests betray the kingdom and bring it to near ruin through their partnership with the demons,
and the betrayal of the Night Sentinels and yet King Novik doesn't decree a change to the system, and banish them? The Slayer becomes public enemy because he killed one of them in Sentinel Prime? Pffft, Novik is a bad king for that, just sayin