Level 9 Thread - Beret

I'm having a great deal of trouble with level 9. After a lot of bomb-throwing, I can finally clear the first room without killing myself, but the side room off to the left seems absolutely impossible, and returning to the initial room leaves me trapped. If I clear the first room and just continue off to the right, I can get as far as halfway through the exit room (defeating the fake stone block and getting the blue pieces it guarded) before being stumped by the orange wedge and the red and yellow teleseekers.

Any and all help for level 9 would be greatly appreciated. So far, I've gotten 5 medals per level: all but the speed run. I'd really like to continue this, but at the rate I'm going, I won't have enough to get into level 10.

First off, it should be noted that it's possible to get to the center of the entrance room from either of the side entrances, so returning to the initial room will not trap you.

The Shaft of Spiky Death to the left of the entrance is a tricky room, but it has a lot of different parts to it. What, specifically, would you like help with? Getting started?

There's a lot of different ways to handle the red and yellow teleseekers in the exit room if you're trying to get to the exit. If you're trying to go fast, it's possible to just outrun the yellow teleseekers and get to the exit. Or you could alternate using and not using your telekinesis to get the reds and yellows to chase you alternately at about half-speed. Once you get to the blue square at the end it's not too tough to blow up the teleseekers.

The orange wedge in the same room is pretty tricky. It would be completely impossible to reach with normal blocks; thankfully you have some link blocks in the room too.

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I think this should be general enough advice for you; let me know if there's any specific puzzles you'd like me to provide hints for.

Yeah, the Shaft of Spiky Death has me at the biggest loss. There's absolutely nothing I can do with the items I find when I first enter because they're either way out of reach or buried under cracked stone blocks. And I've tried navigating my way down a few times, but I always end up splat on some spike or other. And there has to be SOME way back up again (if memory serves, there is no exit at the bottom).

So how DO you return to the center of the entrance room after having left (or right)?

There IS an exit at the bottom of the Shaft of Spiky Death- that grey door!

Once you return to the main room, you can get through the red teleseekers with some clever jumps through them.

BEWARE: This level has the hardest puzzle in the game (coming up, you haven't mentioned it yet)- get ready for it, and good luck!

To be more specific about the red teleseeker jump - if I'm returning from the left, I jump over the lower-right teleseeker in the group over there with a straight vertical jump, and just before reaching the peak of the jump, I press right and float over to the central platform.

I'd dispute that "hardest puzzle in the game" claim, but there are some tough puzzles in the two rooms past the exit door.

Edited by: Leylite

The final orange piece is what I meant for the "hardest puzzle in the game"- I found that getting through the mini-room with the stone blocks insanely difficult because it requires a complicated sequence of percise block manuvers that took me HOURS to figure out. For some reason, none of the puzzles in the third wing of the evil corporation seemed as difficult as this one and others in the 2nd wing.

So ... how DO I tackle the Shaft of Spiky Death?

Look down the shaft and take it one puzzle at a time.

I would get the blue pieces with the link blocks first, then fall to the bottom and exit through the bottom door. Then I would use the bomb to get the block and then get the blue pieces in the alcove on the right of the shaft (you have to figure out how to do that, though). Then I would exit through the bottom of the room again and now try to kill all the enemies in this room (the room resets after you go through a door, so you have to do it in 1 trip down). Then I would get the lowest blue pieces on the left of the exit at the bottom of the room and finally the orange piece.

There are a lot of puzzles to do to figure all that out, so I thought I would just give you an outline of what you have to do and let you figure out the details.
Good luck!

*phew*

It took me a while, but armed with your advice, I cleared the Shaft of Spiky Death! (Part of it was that I didn't know those were doors, let alone that they led where they did.) I am now properly back about halfway through the exit room (that is, nowhere to go but forward). Here's a screenshot of my current conundrum, which is actually where I was before I backtracked to get the Shaft of Spiky Death. I haven't killed those three guys yet just in case I might need to use one or two of them.

Also, is the white medallion hiding in more or less the same spot as the fourth orange wedge? I would hate to have missed it.

Thanks again!

The blocks you have labelled as 3 are correct.

The current conundrum is pretty tricky, but the solution is quite genius, so I won't give it away quite yet. Some hints to get you going - there's way more blocks in the room than you actually need, and you don't need any of the floating mines.

Also, the technique for getting over to the wedge can be repeated in such a way that you could cross an extremely long pit with it.

Link blocks can defy gravity in strange ways. A block linked by a link block won't fall as long as the link block itself won't fall.

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The white medallion is indeed in the same room as the fourth orange wedge.

Wow. You know, I accidentally discovered that yesterday while I was building myself a fortress to protect myself from the fake stone block. I didn't understand it at the time, though: I just thought poor sleep was making me hallucinate. The hard part in applying it here was figuring out exactly where and how to build it, but I got it after a while.

I'm now in the "EEVIL!" side room, struggling with the puzzle you posted about a few days ago. I think I'll join in the discussion there, because I read the thread but didn't find anything helpful.