1-2: THE BURNING WORLD (2024)

For more information about other missions, see Levels

Use the ATTRACTOR NAILGUN's magnets to form concentrated orbs of nails that can be moved around using the pull force of other magnets.

- The Tip of the Day.

THE BURNING WORLD is the second mission of the LIMBO layer. It bears a near identical resemblance to the previous level [1-1: HEART OF THE SUNRISE], although halfway through it gains a fiery makeover alongside the introduction of the Streetcleaners.

Major Areas[]

Courtyard[]

A large area with a central column, a lot of trees, and some strange pillar formations. If the player had missed the Attractor Nailgun pickup in the previous level, another Nailgun spawns in front of the entrance elevator. Upon first entering the level, 12 Filth, 4 Strays, and a single Schism will spawn in. Above the red skull door is the entrance to the upper floor. Platforming up to access this floor, a total of six Strays will spawn on the center tower to distract you. When the room is revisited after grabbing the blue skull, the environment will have been set aflame by 2 Streetcleaners. This is when the level's title drop occurs and the song "A Complete and Utter Destruction of the Senses" begins to play.

Upper Floor[]

The first half is a stone hallway with U-shaped connections on either side lit with lanterns. Upon entering this room, 12 Filth will attempt to rush you. After killing them all, 4 Schisms and 2 Drones will spawn in, and defeating them will allow you to continue. The second half is an area with a winding staircase and a walled-off section with a blue skull. Approaching the blue skull will spawn 3 Drones, 4 Filth and a single Stray.

Red Skull Room[]

Upon getting the blue skull, you can enter this area with a red skull on the pedestal and staircases leading up to the pedestal on either side, but before you get to pick up the key however, three Streetcleaners will pop out of the wall and light you on fire.

Lower Floor[]

This area lies beyond the red skull door in the courtyard. There are two doors you can go to, one will get you to the final room while the other lets you find the Cancerous Rodent easter egg and Slab II.

Castle Entrance[]

The final arena before the exit. The fight begins with 2 Streetcleaners rounding the pillars at the back, and 6 Strays will spawn atop the platforms above. Killing the Streetcleaners will summon 2 more, alongside 2 Drones. Once all are defeated, the level exit will open.

Ranking Requirements[]

Secrets[]

Trivia[]

References[]

• The level's title is a direct reference to the Swans album of the same name.

Development[]

• At the end of the Upper Floor, there's a corridor with burning piles of bloody corpses. The models used for the bodies are the older models of Filth, Strays, and Schisms, before they were redesigned.
  • In a previous version of the level, "A Thousand Greetings" would not cut off until the burning courtyard was revealed, the old ambience would not play until the player engaged with the Streetcleaners, and the ambience would cut off again once both Streetcleaners were killed, indicating that the silent track was the section's calm loop and the ambience was the combat loop.^[1] In the current version of the level, the trigger for this music transition was moved to the burning hallway and a new trigger was made for the burning courtyard to start playing the current versions of the loops, but the original trigger's assigned music tracks were not changed since changing them was unnecessary: the calm loop was already silent, and no combat encounters would occur in this small stretch of the level in normal play, so the combat loop would not need to be reassigned either.

Other[]

• The Burning Courtyard level transition occurs during the walk out of the Blue Skull room using the door that is opened when you grab the skull.
• This is the first non-secret level in the game to have it's title drop not happen right after the elevator doors open. This is also the first level to display rough layer map during the elevator fall.
• If you reload to a checkpoint after grabbing the blue skull, the game will glitch, as you will have the blue skull before grabbing it and going into the burning phase.
  • This will cause some parts of the level to not load in properly. For example, if you get back into the skull room, the exit will not load and you will have a door to the void.
• The Cerberus associated with the level's Blood Orb has slightly more health than standard Cerberus spawns at 30 versus the normal 22. This is the first Cerberus that can be encountered after their boss appearance in 0-5, and Cerberi after this point are rarely encountered alone, so this may serve to keep its surprise encounter and introduction as a common enemy threatening without ratcheting up the encounter complexity too soon.
• This is currently the only non-boss level beyond [ 0-4: A ONE-MACHINE ARMY ] to not have at least one Malicious Face.
• The two Streetcleaners that appear in the Courtyard after it has been lit on fire spawn without the portal effect, making it appear that they emerged from the entrance elevator.
• The main path of the level contains 66 enemies, 4 more than is required to S-rank kills. This makes it possible to P-rank the level while skipping 4 enemies, and it is even possible to P-rank the level without returning to courtyard to grab the red skull, if the Cerberus that spawns when the blood orb is collected is also defeated.
• If a combat encounter is entered after the music cuts off in the burning hallway but before the level's title drop occurs (such as by spawning enemies, immediately loading the previous checkpoint and re-triggering that room's encounter, or returning the blue skull and backtracking to a room with live enemies), an earlier version of the level's dark droning ambient loop will play, leftover from the level's development.

References[]