Explorer Rooms

**Explorer Rooms** (referred to in the achievements as **???? Rooms**) are secret, hidden rooms with a unique theme that can only be unlocked after meeting lengthy requirements. Almost all of their unlock conditions are related to 100% completion of Disc Room.

Unlike other rooms, Explorer Rooms are not visible on the map at all until they are unlocked, and they are not connected by a doorway/tunnel to any other rooms. Each one uses music and sometimes discs/level mechanics from other zones, but every Explorer Room level appears as simply a red grid on a black background. Similarly to Golden Rooms, Explorer Rooms are not present in Hard mode (although two of them require progress in Hard to unlock)

Every Explorer Room is named "???? ????" in game, so to distinguish them, they are referred to here by their position on the world map.

## List of Explorer Rooms

### NNE

Unlock condition: Play every room at least once / Discs: Hyper Dasher, Phase Disc / Theme: The Bridge

Score is gained from walking over the 25 grid squares, like all Bridge levels. However, every second a random square will regenerate, deducting from the player's time, forcing them to be quick at filling the whole level. (If they press every square, the floor will refill, just like normal. The player will not lose time past every 10 seconds.)

### NEE

Unlock condition: Die from every disc type / Discs: Huge Ghost / Theme: The Dark

A dark room which uses golden orbs for score. The dark orbs emit light, but the player doesn't, so they will be lost in the dark if they are not near any orbs.

### SEE

Unlock condition: Survive a total of 999 seconds / Discs: Huge Disc, Sidewinder, Flare / Theme: The Greenhouse

A dark room with the same circular, time-giving area in the middle that all Greenhouse levels have. Both the Flare and the player emit light in this one.

### SSE

Unlock condition: Play every Hard room at least once / Discs: Disc, Huge Disc, Wall Disc / Theme: The Armory

A normal Armory level, except once the player starts running, they cannot stop.

### SSW

Unlock condition: Gain every ability / Discs: Dasher / Theme: The Bridge

The player cannot move from their spawn point. They can still use abilities, but Mirror and Dash cannot move them, either. They must use abilities such as Dash and Blast and time them well to either phase through or deflect the Dashers that charge at them.

### SWW

Unlock condition: Destroy every Gatekeeper / Discs: Breaker, Shard, Teeth / Theme: The Pit

A golden orb level. The Breakers are modified and now explode into massive amounts of Shards at once, making them nigh unavoidable unless they are rapidly Absorbed.

### NWW

Unlock condition: Survive 10 seconds in every Hard room / Discs: Spine, Fracture, Projectile, Teeth / Theme: The Pit

A flesh level without golden orbs. In this level, the Teeth disc will attack immediately with no forewarning. They can still be avoided with a well-timed Dash, but best to bait out with Clones.

### NNW

Unlock condition: Survive 20 seconds in every room (not including Explorer rooms) / Discs: All Gatekeepers and their minions, Golden Carcass, Golden Bone / Theme: The Bridge

A gauntlet of every Gatekeeper in the game, starting with the Armored Gatekeeper. No Remains are faced - once one boss is defeated, it and all its minions despawn and the next boss spawns immediately. Once the Ultimate Gatekeeper is defeated, it will despawn and the invincible Golden Carcass will face the player for the rest of the attempt.

## Trivia

* The Explorer Rooms themselves do not count towards the achievement (and subsequent Explorer Room) of surviving 20 seconds in every room.
* When the Phantom Gatekeeper appears in the NNW level, the level remains fully lit as opposed to the darkness that the Phantom is normally faced in, making the fight much easier. This may be due to coding limitations.
	+ This also makes this level the only non-dark level in which ghosts spawn.