SL-1: FIRE IN THE SKY

SL-1, also known as FIRE IN THE SKY, is the first Superion Level of Find the Koishis II, added with version V.A10. It is accessed by a Superion Key of Rage and sets the player on a crescendo against the boss of the level, Junkoishi.
==Overview and Walkthrough==
===Intro Floor===
Leaving the elevator simply takes the playeer to a short "garden" of some kind, evoking a monochromic version of the aesthetics of New Violence. Overhead the night sky is a dark purple and there is a thick fog that briefly alleviates once escaping the threshold. Although useless to progress, the elevator soon lights up a "return flare".
===The Ballroom===
The very first area the player enters is a large, bloodied ballroom with the sole semblance of life being a radio player on a large emitting echoing big-band music. The player is ordered to smash it, which begins SL-1 proper and kickstarts the level.
As the radio is destroyed, the player hears an artillery gun fire before a massive shell barges into the roof and crashes into the floor. As it turns out, it's a drop-pod, and it summons Koishipiece as a miniboss for the player to fight. Check the "Tips" section for assistance on progressing this fight.
Completing the Koishipiece ambush and grabbing her paints the room a blood-red, and the door at the end of the stage can now be approached to open it.
===Broken City===
Defeating Koishipiece lets the player into a destroyed city, where numerous jump-pads are aplenty; a first for FTK2. Be aware that the jump-pads track YOUR angle and fire in that direction YOU'RE facing, rather than what it's facing! Regardless, this parkour sesh is finalized by a helicopter landing at the end to take the player to the climax of the level.
===Junkoishi's Arena and Outro===
A gargantuan arena for Junkoishi and the player to fight in; she's summoned upon approaching the barrier. It's surrounded by a desolate city. For tips and tricks on how Junkoishi fights, see her page. 
Entering this stage of the level tints the sky and general ambience a deep red, and it persists until the player leaves SL-1.
There is very little in the arena to neither empower nor weaken either combatant, although the vastness can be an advantage for the player given the nature of their opponent's fighting style. Once the player defeats Junkoishi, an elevator at the opposite end of where they arrived opens up and they can leave the level, where a neat exit ""cutscene"" plays.
== Level Tips ==
=== Reaching the Level ===
Since V.A10b, players have an easier time obtaining the Lux Empyreal items required to access the Superion Key of Rage by only needing to beat one boss, but the items provide a discount if both provided bosses are defeated. Despite this, this is still a financial mismanagement greater than the current economic crisis we're in:
* Assuming the player has decided to shotgun towards the discount by beating both bosses, the player needs a minimum of 540,000 KC to access the first phase, and 360,000 KC to achieve the second phase and obtain the Lux Empyreal spawning items, netting a grand total of about 900,000 KC. Buying the Superion Key is a further 1,000,000 KC deduction, meaning the total price of obtaining the Superion Key of Rage is 1,900,000 KC.
** Radiant Minoshi Prime requires a Flesh Prison and a Sapling of Life, which both cost 120,000 KC. Gunning for a free Sapling of Life from a Koirumi Koishizaki is a near-herculean effort given their spawn frequency and the 1/1000 chance that obviously will fire once in a blue moon.
** Supergiant Koishyphus Prime requires a PANOPTICON and a Big Dipper; the PANOPTICON cost 120K and the Big Dipper only 60,000 KC. Although the cost will still be high, it is advisable to beat the Celestial Koishi due to it's easy battle and low summoning price.
** Apostate Koishabriel requires a Divine Sphere and a ZUNpet of the Apocalypse; see Supergiant Koishyphus Prime's entry for similar prices.
It is advisable the player maintain a balance of about >3,000,000 KC to soften any losses and receive a lower monetary deficit.
=== Actual Level ===
There isn't much to SL-1, however it does start off with an incredibly difficult crescendo.
The Koishipiece fight in the ballroom is a close-quarters nightmare, as it forces the player into a claustrophobic duel against this pierrot of the American faith. For starters, memorize her attacks; "Manifest Destiny" should be your cue to stay away as far as possible, since it guides the orbs away from Koishipiece and grants you breathing room for parries. Be thankful her parry windows are infinite-length.
*If you've tested out Koishipiece on KoishBox, you should be aware that Koishipiece's sole weakness is expansiveness; she typically fights the player in a large environment, where her attacks usually have little, often sidestepped range, to vast yet predictable and easily evaded range. This does not apply here; Koishipiece can fucking demolish you if you're unprepared.
*Retreat to the stage once Koishipiece uses "Hecatia Bless America"; the moons can't roll onto the stage, and the moons that land on it are guaranteed to roll off anyway.
*The level does not progress until Koishipiece is collected, so evade things like moon-bombs and the homing orbs from "Manifest Destiny" after she's dead. They dissipate upon her collection.
==Ending Testament==
Found at the end of the level.
The great blade of Dionysus poises to fall over my head the more I sit in this lifeless, unhappy position of mine. I struggle to satiate my own joy as I slog through shrine maiden duty, awaiting another boring sunrise. Even the incidents have grown repetitive, dull and weary.I thought I had a God that’d bring me out of this mess, but the influence of my unknown lord grows less and less; even in the moments he’d be necessary to my continued faith and prosperity. I suspect things are off. I hope I’m just tricking myself. I hope my paranoia is simply acting up again.Unknowingly I slip into an enigma I can never solve, and a deep pit of despair I can only claw out of. Again...As I type this, struggling to grasp technology considered “modern” yet futuristic to me, I glance in the corner of my eye.. and....why are the idols bleeding?
==Trivia==
*The level's name is a reference to the movie Fire in the Sky, a 1993 biographical science-fiction film adapting a book by Travis Walton that discusses an alleged alien abduction. It also alludes to a statement from streamer and fecal-funnyman Vargskelethor Joel, who has developed an extreme fear of aliens partly from witnessing a traumatizing scene in the movie.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0keOoz84VBQ (highlight of a stream, mentioned around 4:00)
**Prior names included "OVER THE MOON WITH YOU" and "BAD MOON RISING".A design document I've never shown yet lmao
*The music that plays during SL-1's intro and the parkour section up to the final arena is "Shores of Tranquility", the ambient music from the bunker area of Oceanus Procellarum, reduced to roughly 0.15% of it's playback speed. The boombox plays an edited version of a big-band track sourced from the ROBLOX library.
*The ability to reach SL-1 was made "free" (as in the player didn't need to go through the Lux Empyreal gauntlet needed and spawned with the Superion Key of Rage) for a short period of time after V.A10's release on May 4, 2024, although the Superion Key was itself NOT free to buy and still costed 1,000,000 KC.
*Upon SL-1's initial release, the level's intro terminal advertised the ability to restart the level by saying so in chat, a la what could be done in Something Malicious from FTK1. This wasn't active at the time due to Mare forgetting to do so, but was reinstated on SL-1's first patch.
== References ==
Category:Find the Koishis 2
Category:Locations