The Soul Siphon - Hydroelectric River Styx

The Soul Siphon - Hydroelectric River Styx

"Abandon all hope, ye who enter here."

Information Uploaded online in version: 1.9.4.3 Date uploaded online: 2025-1-25 Creator(s): Bokoknight74 Level ID: 576296 Screens: 60 Available weapons: Mega Buster Plug Ball Ballade Cracker Screw Crusher Pile Driver Available characters: Mega Man Default abilities: Bosses: Skull Man + Crystal Man

The Soul Siphon - Hydroelectric River Styx is a level created by Bokoknight74. The level depicts a hydroelectric dam and power plant on the River Styx, as well as the illusory properties of its water.

This level was originally uploaded for New Year's Tradition Level Creation Contest, in which it won second place overall.

Walkthrough

The River Banks - Outdoor Section: The level begins on the very edge of the facility, with Mega Man touching down on one of the dam's exterior walls. Running forward will present a menagerie of Adamskis, Dodonpa Cannons, and Succubattons, which will later be established as recurring enemies. Mobile Push Blocks are quickly introduced, which will continuously spawn and emerge from the veils of waterfalls. Following this brief introductory challenge, the player is presented with an E-Tank on a hanging balcony, defended by a Skeleton Joe down below. The E-Tank can either be collected with a well-timed jump, or a thrust of the Pile Driver, which will skip the encounter with the Skeleton Joe in the process. Afterwards, the player must leap off of a Mobile Push Block to enter the facility, confronting another Dodonpa Cannon across a Conveyor Belt.

Facility Upper Levels: Upon reaching the interior of the facility, the player is immediately met with a Checkpoint, some health pickups, and a large weapon energy pickup behind a MM11 Brick Block, which can be easily broken with the Pile Driver or Ballade Cracker. After activating the checkpoint and dropping down to the floor below, the music will increase in intensity and the player will enter a combat-focused platforming sequence in which they must rush to the end of the room whilst fighting off the infinitely respawning hordes of Astro Zombiegs. Both the Crystal Joe and Darspider are also introduced here. The Plug Ball serves as a handy weapon for mowing down the hordes of Zombiegs, while the Screw Crusher can be helpful for dealing with the Succubattons and Darspiders. The following room introduces the primary mechanic of the level - veils of water capable of looping the player around the room. Dropping down the pit below will result in the player looping upwards and falling down from the ceiling. Afterwards, the player must eliminate a Petit Devil and a Crystal Joe, which must be defeated without being carried off into a wall of spikes by the floor's conveyor.

Descent: The player will then enter a series of vertical rooms, with the intent of dropping downwards each layer before confronting the level's miniboss. The player is first introduced to the concept of horizontal loops, and how taking the wrong path through a room can be promptly punished. In the third room, the player is prompted to hop atop of two mobile push blocks, continuously looping through the room, in order to reach a set of three keys, necessary for opening the locked door to progress. Immediately afterward, the player must ride a mobile push block across a floor of spikes, looping across the screen whilst aboard the vehicle and falling to the next screen below, where the Sakrets is introduced as an enemy, rolling across the wall. The player can either drop down below to immediately progress, or smash through the Brick Block in the wall with a well-timed Pile Driver to pass through a hidden loop and into a pocket of collectibles, including another E-Tank, an extra Life, and a large weapon energy pickup. After descending into the next screen, the player must confront a Hot Dog atop a series of blocks, slowly drifting towards the miniboss in question and sinking into the "River Styx" below. Two Succuattons also provide support. After defeating the Hot Dog, the Player is presented with a checkpoint.

Facility Lower Levels: The player will then enter a room with a set of several pits, each with its own waterfall and defended by a collection of enemies. Only one of these pits is safe to jump into, looping the player to the top of the screen and dropping them through a gap in the ceiling. Each of the other pits will simply loop Mega Man into the ceiling itself, instantly crushing and killing him in the process. Once atop the higher balcony, the player can backtrack with Pile Driver to grab a Yashichi, but this will prompt them to fall back down below in the process, forcing them to repeat the puzzle. The next room contains two Sakrets hiding behind a set of waterfalls, whom are only slightly visible.

The Ferry - Crossing the River Styx: After avoiding their projectiles and sliding through a small crawlspace, the player will land upon a set of moving push blocks forming a "ferry" to guide Mega Man across the river. The Ferry will continuously be attacked by Succubattons and Petit Devils. Skeleton Joes from above will throw bones down at the player until the ferry passes their current position, which will prompt them to jump down, boarding the vessel and potentially blocking the player's movement. Afterwards, the player will jump atop a raised platform as the ferry passes below, where they must confront an Astro Zombieg and a Succubatton. Atop this platform, a large weapon energy pickup is hidden behind a breakable brick block, which can be destroyed with Pile Driver. After the ferry passes under the platform, it will shrink slightly, and the player must reboard the vessel or risk falling behind and missing their ride. Next, a Petit Devil and two Darspiders hopping down onto the ferry from above must be disposed of, and the ferry will reach another platform on which the player must collect another set of keys in order to unlock a gate to progress before the ferry escapes. These keys are guarded by a Succubatton and a set of conveyors. And then, after a final set of enemies and a swarm of Succubattons, the player must hop into the air and grab hold of a ladder in order to escape a grisly fate at the hands of another wall of spikes, and to progress into the next room. The player enters a room in which another horizontal loop is required, and the ladder into the next room is guarded by a Crystal Joe and another Succubatton.

The Spirit World - Boss Confrontation: At long last, the player has reached the boss door - or rather, an impossible horizontal loop into the boss door, which promptly fails, sending the player into greyscale boss arena with a silver statue of Cut Man. Leaving the boss chamber through its typical entry door will reveal a monochrome purgatory, with continuously respawning enemies to serve as the last combat sequence in the level. After confronting the spirits of the damned, the player must hop down a large opening in the earth, escaping purgatory by falling through a final veil of water, arriving back inside of the facility and reaching the final checkpoint in the boss corridor from above. After entering the boss room, the player is presented with both Skull Man and Crystal Man, serving as the first and second phases of the battle respectively. The arena itself is composed of a set of fragile blocks floating on the river's surface. Skull Man's fight is near identical to its original incarnation in Mega Man 4, with the addition of Crystal Man's energy projectiles occasionally being fired from the ceiling. After Skull Man is defeated, Crystal Man will fall from the ceiling, and the two outermost blocks of the platform, as well as the one in the middle, will sink into the river, changing the layout of the arena and drastically lowering the amount of space for evasion. With the change in phase, large weapon energy and health pickups will be dropped down into the two corners of the room to alleviate some of the difficulty. After Crystal Man is defeated, the stage will be prompted to end.

Trivia

• The level was conceptualized around the mythological concept of the River Styx, one of the six rivers of the Greek Underworld, usually depicted as its entrance - with its ferryman, Charon, tasked with ferrying the souls of the departed to the afterlife. Furthermore, the river's marshes serve as the fifth layer, known as (and representative of the sin of) Wrath, in Dante's Inferno, the first part of the poet Dante Alighieri's "Divine Comedy". "The Soul Siphon - Hydroelectric River Styx" was designed to adapt the concept for the world and setting of Mega Man, and thus, the level's setting is fittingly more industrial and takes place within a hydroelectric dam siphoning energy directly from the river Styx for the purpose of powering machinery and experimental new forms of teleportation. The mythological interpretation of Styx is further referenced near the end of the level, with a "ferry ride" of Mobile Push Blocks.
• The looping mechanic, which serves as the primary gimmick of the level, was directly inspired by the 1980 arcade game Pac-Man, and its own implementation of screen-wrapping in the form of a non-euclidian labyrinth haunted by ghosts.
• The Hot Dog miniboss is representative of a Cerberus , a multi-headed dog in Greek mythology that guards the entrance to the Underworld.
• The final section of the level is a monochrome wasteland representative of the idea of a Purgatory, or "Limbo", in which Mega Man is haunted by the "souls" of fallen Robot Masters, portrayed with statues. The only method of entering this area is through "failing" a horizontal screen-wrap through a Boss Door, effectively returning to the "past" and exiting an illusory recreation of Cut Man's original Mega Man 1 arena.
• The level's boss(es) is/are based around the concept of a Necromancer reanimating an undead puppet to exert its will, represented through the skeletal Skull Man, while the macabre magician himself is represented through Crystal Man.
• This level was the fourth level submitted to the New Year's Tradition Level Creation Contest.
• According to challenge judge Things, one of the most appealing aspects of the stage was... its abundance of the color Green, and it was judged for such. I suppose I'll have to go even greener in the future with "Reduce and Reuse - Recycling on the River Styx".