Ruined Maze

### Prizes

Diamond (60), 10 Diamonds (4), Clock (4), Extra Life (1), Continue (2), 10k Points (3)

## Map Data

### Level Size (Y)

04

Ruined Maze is a swamp-themed level. It was modified from Devil's Marsh 1, and is a Maze Level. It is also classified as a Strange Level.

## Walkthrough

The fastest way to beat the level, and the one that avoids the most confusion, is to start with the left teleporter. Proceed to the right, being careful not to get crushed by the horizontal platform, until you reach a set of elevators. Take the one on the left to break a path open for the central elevator or to land on a small ledge on the left (preferably both, in case one messes up). A series of jumps takes you to a Red Stealth helmet. Proceed left until you reach the wall to the right of the flag. Break the pillar of rock blocks until you find a small hole in the wall that leads to the flag.

At the top of the elevator obstacle is another teleporter. Ignore it. The teleporter leads to two more teleporters; the left one of these takes you to a completely unrelated part of the level while the right one puts you in the center of the level without any helmets, which makes that part kind of tricky.

There's also another teleporter along this path, immediately after you take the teleporter to the left. This leads to two more teleporters; the left one leads to Elsewhere 3 and the right one puts you below the elevator blocks.

Another way to beat the level is to go left after taking the left teleporter. You'll encounter a formation of shifter blocks, which will give you access to a Cyclone helmet. Taking this left, up, then right, will lead to a teleporter to the top left corner. Try to keep Cyclone as you navigate the obstacles, ignoring the Red Stealth helmets. Eventually you'll reach another teleporter that leads to the end. Alternatively, take a hidden passageway just above the where the Cyclone helmet was into the room with 1 rock and a bunch of steel blocks and navigate to the top right, watching out for the platform. This also leads to the teleporter, but to the right, at the top, is a hole in the wall that leads to the end as well.

If you take the teleporter on the right, you'll reach another room with 2 more teleporters. The lower teleporter leads to a tricky shifting block puzzle near the aforementioned Red Stealth helmet, but the upper one puts you right below a different Red Stealth helmet. After some tricky jumps (if you fall, you have to push shifting blocks up to reach the top of the area), you reach another teleporter with a continue that leads to the same area near the end as before. You can also take the Red Stealth helmet to the right to eventually reach the same teleporter to the top left as before.

## Secrets

* If you brought Berserker into this level, break the steel blocks to the left. This leads to a room that is empty other than 3 hidden 10k blocks, as well as a passageway to the obstacle course on the left side of the map and eventually leads to a teleporter to the end.
* If you brought Juggernaut into this level, take the teleporter on the right. You appear to be stuck, but a hole in the wall on the left leads to a different spot in the same passageway as the berserker route. Jump to reveal a hidden Cyclone helmet. This is the fastest way to beat the level as long as you do it on your first attempt. If you take the left teleporter, you're simply put below the shifter blocks on the left once you access the teleporter further left.
* If you took the upper teleporter in Elsewhere 3, you'll find yourself in a bizarre room in the lower right. At the top are 3 teleporters. The upper one leads to an otherwise completely inaccessible teleporter that leads to the top left obstacle course again. The lower one skips the rest of the level entirely and leads to Reign of the Mountain. The one on the right puts you next to the teleporter that leads to the upper left obstacle as well as the hidden hole in the wall leading to the flag.
* If you took the left teleporter at the start of the level and went right, there's a large, mostly empty room with 5 prize blocks and a mushroom block. Break the central prize block (above it is a hidden mushroom block) and use the hidden and shown mushroom blocks to reach a hidden cyclone helmet at the top of the room. This allows you to reach the red stealth helmet more easily, and access the mass of prizes to its left more easily (this includes a continue and extra life).
* If you brought Micromax into this level, go up instead of taking either teleporter. Ignore the teleporter above it and find the hole in the ceiling between the two steel blocks. To the left of the hand above that is a hidden rubber block on the left wall that serves absolutely no known purpose.

## Trivia

* This level has almost no terrain changes from Devil's Marsh 1.
* Originally, Ruined Maze looked completely different. See here for Drios1's journey through it. However, there were several issues. The map came from Stairway to Oblivion, so the background was incredibly broken, and for some reason the enemies (falling skulls, goats, and spheres) mutated into bizarre creatures with fire golem + cloud graphics and mini hopping skull sound effects. The latter was temporarily fixed by removing all the enemies, but the level was additionally made rather poorly (with terrible terraining and almost exclusively teleporters that reset the level, which I didn't think was very enjoyable. Therefore, I entirely re-did it. The helmets and general idea of the level have remained the same, however.
* The original version of the level had a secret path using Skycutter that could finish the level in about 15 seconds, assuming one first went to Elsewhere 3.
* The platforms are exactly the same as the ones in the original version of the level.
* Taking the left teleporter 3 times from the start of the level is the only way (disregarding backtracking) to reach Elsewhere 3.
* The drip at the start of the level commits suicide as soon as it forms, due to how it's positioned.
* Due to the Juggernaut shortcut, this level can be completed faster than any other non-elsewhere level in the game.

## First Occurrences

* Drips show up for the first time here.
* Cyclone makes his first appearance here.
* This is the first Maze Level and Strange Level.