Ancient Cheese

**Ancient Cheese** is the third level in Pizza Tower, and the third level in the Tower Lobby. It takes place in an ancient ruin featuring within a land made of cheese with remnants of some sort of civilization left behind. The level's title card depicts Peppino in the midst of these ruins, looking up at a large purple statue of himself.

## Enemies

* **Pencer**
* **Pizza Box Goblin**
* Pepperoni Goblin
* Forknight
* Cheeseslime

## Mechanics

### Gimmicks

* **Cheese Block**
* **Bomb**

## Collectables

* Mushroom Toppin
* Cheese Toppin
* Tomato Toppin
* Sausage Toppin
* Pineapple Toppin
* Tower Secret Treasure
* Pumpkin

The first Toppin is located in the room accessed directly to the right of the entrance. The player must run forward underneath the disappearing cheese bridge, as the Toppin is below, partially obscured by a Pepperoni Goblin.

The second Toppin is in the room unlocked with a key from the first segment of the stage. Breakable Blocks must be dived through to get it, but it is otherwise out in the open.

The third Toppin is on the natural path in the room accessed from the first warp box, out in the open.

The fourth Toppin is out in the open on a platform reached with a ladder in the second green-background room, directly before Pizza Time.

The final Toppin is in the room right after the Pillar John room, being directly in front of the player on the floor. It is possible to dodge the Toppin, however.

Gerome is located in a hidden room, accessible from the third room of the stage. The entrance to this room is in the upper right corner of the room behind Breakable Blocks, where a Pepperoni Goblin is walking.

The door to the  is located in the room after the one that held the second secret, where a long string of disappearing cheese blocks is. The player needs to super jump or wall dash through a line of Pizza Points right next to a corner of the wall, where the player will smash through breakable blocks to find the door.
Pumpkin is located on the wall, near the entrance of the first pizza time room.

## Secrets

* First Secret
* Second Secret
* Third Secret

The secret is located behind a Metal Block in the second room of the level, which must be run into at high speeds to break. The player must maintain momentum by hopping on the disappearing cheese blocks leading up to the area after already gathering momentum below.

Likewise, this secret's challenge is to maintain speed on disappearing cheese blocks. A metal block blocks the exit eye, but it is positioned so that the player will run through it so long as they keep running forward.

In the room directly after the Tomato Toppin's room, the player must throw a Bomb Goblin's bomb at a rat to access the eye, which is easily visible to the player.

In this secret, the player must grab a bomb and escort it through a small series of platforms to destroy a rat.

In the Pillar John room, the player needs to roll through some Breakable Blocks directly behind where the John stood.

In this secret, the player must maintain momentum while hopping off walls and diving through short rows of breakable blocks, breaking a metal block at the end.

## Trivia

* In the SAGE 2019 Demo, Ancient Cheese's first rooms used a beta version of "Theatrical Shenanigans", which existed as early as the Earlytestbuild, along with "Funiculi Funicula." This was presumably a mistake, as the updated version used later was posted onto Mr. Sauceman's SoundCloud and YouTube channel not far from the demo's release.
	+ Also notable in the SAGE Demo, the second half of the level uses a song called "Theatrical Mischief" instead of "Put On A Show!".
* This level is most likely a play on the fact that cheese is a very ancient food, dating back to roughly 1615 BC.
	+ It could also possibly be a pun on "Ancient Greece" as pizza is believed to have originated in Greece as a derivative food from *plakous,* which was a flatbread dish with cheese and herbs on it.
* It's the only playable level from the SAGE Demo that doesn't get its own holiday-themed level.
* Despite having its final name in the SAGE 2019 Demo, it was temporarily called Ruin in the PT\_Eggplantv15 build.
* Upon entering this stage, the game's window will rename itself to "A bit cheesy, like Pizza Tower."
* This level's escape time limit was modified in the Halloween Update, being now 3 minutes instead of 2 minutes and 50 seconds, so far, it's the only level that had its escape time limit changed after the initial release of Pizza Tower.
* During Blue Block Land and Post-Blue Block Land, Pre-SAGE, It used to play "Cold Spaghetti" for the entirety of the level, most likely as a placeholder.

## Gallery

### Regular Sprites

The level's first background, being a dark orange sky.The level's first background decoration, being a moving white cheese aroma.The level's second background decoration, being a pillar with a pizza skull on it, a Pizzaface statue, and a pizza goblin-like being statue.The level's third background decoration, being several pillars and ruins of buildings.The level's fourth background decoration, being pillars and ruins.(edit the name for this background)The level's second background, being a dirty yellow sky.The level's fifth background decoration, being brown clouds.The level's sixth background decoration, being several ancient rocks.The level's third background, being a green cheesy sky.The level's seventh background decoration, being some background cheese.The level's eighth background decoration, being a cheesy landscape, with background objects that may be spelling out "LOL".The level's fourth background, being a red sky.The level's ninth background decoration, being remnants of an ancient civilization with a scared Peppino statue.The level's tenth background decoration, being statues depicting a large pizza and some peanut butter.
### Hub Assets

Ancient Cheese's level gate, an old stone archway held up by two columns.Ancient Cheese's level gate background, a dark orange sky with pizza monster statue.Ancient Cheese's first level gate background decoration, purple bricks with vines.Ancient Cheese's second level gate background decoration, purple pillar.The level's icon on the Pizza Granny sign.The level's title card.The level's name in the Tower Achievements room.
### Scrapped Sprites

An unused level decoration, being ruined purple walls.The level's icon in Blue Block Land, depicting a panicked Peppino alongside a Cheese Block and a Bomb.