Kingdom Harms

> "*If the reactor reaches tautology-level, the world could be destroyed!! And as funny as that is, the shareholders wouldn't like it...*"
> ― The Announcer
>
>

**Kingdom Harms** is the 16th and final level of RoboTraps, set at the company's plausibility reactor, a strange machine that produces energy for the facility.

## Level design

As the player accesses the level, Death Trap Inc's plausibility reactor starts overheating, threatening to explode and destroy earth by doing so. The player has to lead the robots through a whole array of challenges unscathered, leading them to several consoles where they can hack into the reactor to keep it from exploding.

As Kingdom Harms is the final level, the difficulty is set to be very high, with the player being expected to know all gameplay elements by heart already. Instead of leading the robots through one or two obstacles, no less than 14 phases have to be completed to solve this level. What's more, every individual challenge can only be completed using all of the robots used in it, so as soon as any one of the main robots dies, the level is immediately lost.

During this level, the announcer is much more active than usually, cheering the player on. Whenever the player fails, the announcer will redirect the reactor's surplus energy into space, saving the eart, but at the cost of shooting down a random celestial object.

### Throwbacks

The level is designed to include one main element of each of the previous levels. Those are:

* The big information wall from level 1.
* Timing challenges from level 2.
* Switches changing acceptable paths, as seen in level 3.
* The big flamethrower from level 4.
* Teleporter confusion from level 5.
* Switchable bridges from level 6.
* Grapple plates from level 7.
* Anti-gravity from level 8.
* Bob and Alice walking on both sides of the player, as seen in level 9.
* Time pressure, as experienced in level 10.
* Having to line up robots side by side, as in level 11.
* Changing surroundings and "epic showdown" atmosphere from level 12.
* Buttons from level 13.
* Quick switching between interactable elements, as in level 14.
* Levers making other levers inaccessible, as in level 15.

### New game elements

* Having to anticipate which way robots can't use more than once due to breaking blocks
* Switchable cogs
* Having to activate a button in rapid succession
* Destroying grey robots at the right moment to save the main ones

## Plausibility Reactor

The plausibility reactor is a special device that Death Trap Incorporated uses to generate energy, somehow by harnessing the apparent credibility or plausibility of things. The reactor's functionality is roughly explained by a poster that's stuck up to the wall opposing the entrance to the reactor, meaning the player can only get a glance at it while passing through.

According to the poster, explaining the functionality of the reactor (possibly even incorrectly) will make is seem more plausible, which in turn makes it create more energy. This wil lead to a feedback loop, as a higher energy output will show that the device is actually working, making it more credible, and so on. Following this assumption, it is actually the announcer who causes the reactor to overheat when he boasts about it as the player enters the reactor chamber, starting the loop by incresing the reactor's credibility.

The reactor produces enough energy to "split the planet in half", meaning that a meltdown may well destroy earth. To avoid this, the energy can be channeled and redirected to space, which will cause the destruction of the celestial object it is being aimed at. The reactor therefore in a way doubles as a doomsday device.

At one point, the Announcer calls the reactor Death Trap Incorporated's "greatest achievement".

## Solution

**Skully the Skull says: SPOILER WARNING!**
This section contains the solution to a level. Don't read it if you want to solve it by yourself!(Of course you can still claim that you did, which is what every self-respecting employee of Death Trap Incorporated would do...)

With this being the final level, it is unsurprising that it also is the hardest in the game. The level consists of different phases, and losing even a single robot in any given phase will lose you the entire level. Luckily, many of the stages are quite manageable, but some of them are a bit nasty. So watch out!

### Phase 1

Simply find the lever and deactivate the saw. Done.

### Phase 2

Here you have to reroute the robots so they walk on the wayparter with their color in it. Note that you cannot reroute Bob or Clark without re-routing Alice, first. Simply wait until Alice is in the hind part of the area, then toggle the lever so that she and Ernest are redirected. Toggle it back immediately so that Bob and Clark are not also redirected. Now redirect Clark and Bob individually. Don't waste too many rounds, or time will run out.

### Phase 3

You'll simply have to be quick and keep a cool head here. Alternate betwen the two levers in succession to get Alice and Bob to the exit. Take care not too wait too long and not to select the wrong lever on accident.

### Phase 4

Make sure you actually select the lever, first. It controls the pink cogs. Clark may not fall down. Not that only the center of the cogs will actually change Clark's direction, so you have more time than this one looks like. Don't get confused when he jumps through the teleporter. Time won't run out unless you let Clark do too many loops at the start.

### Phase 5

Think ahead here: The breaking blocks will crumble as soon as any robot walks over them. A working order is releasing Bob first, then wait until he reaches the goal, and then release Dennis. After he reaches his console, release Clark. There are quicker solutions (release Bob, then release Clark, release Dennis so he reaches the switchable arrow after Bob reaches his and before Clark does so with his) but they are harder and you have more than enough time, either way.

### Phase 6

Find the green button to the left and use it in rapid succession - just take care not to remove the very last bridge, as otherwise Ernest will fall to his doom. Wait until he reaches the exit.

### Phase 7

Select the green lever and use it once. You will see that the small green wall at the left in the background disappears and reveals a red lever. Select the red lever, but wait until the robots have lined up at the saw without any distance between them (they spawn with one tile distance). Remove the saw (don't wait too long). You will find the green lever now hides behind a red wall at the right in the background. Don't panic. Point at that red wall. As soon as the robots are past the first green saw in the ground, use your remote not once, but twice. The first use of your remote will toggle the red lever, which will remote the red wall, which in turn will make your remote select the green lever. The second confirm will toggle the green lever itself. Now do the opposite and point at the green wall at the left. Wait until the robots are past the green saw again and quickly use your remote twice again, switching the green objects, selecting the red lever and switching the red objects. Hopefully you have figured it out by now, as distances will grow ever shorter. Point at the red wall at the right, wait until the robots are between the saws and confirm twice. Now point at the green wall one last time, wait until the robots are between the saws in the final curve, and again toggle twice quickly to solve this one.

### Phase 8

This one seems straightforward, but whatever you do, do not let any robot walk out of the area with the grapple plates on its own. You need to line up two of them (you don't need to line up all three, though). The best practice is probably to guide Dennis until he arrives at the last part of his path, stop him there, then guide Ernest until he arrives at the last part of his. Release Ernest, select the red lever and then release Dennis so he will line up with Ernest. This way, one of the two will activate the electric fence and the other will switch it off, allowing you to lead Bob to the finish line with no problem.

### Phase 9

This one's sneaky! Make sure you calm down, as here you'll have to count seconds - don't rush. Basically confirm the lever once to remove the first set of flames. Once the robots hit the light barrier, the yellow wall will go up. Don't forget to toggle the flames as soon as Clark is save beyond them (the wall will probably already hide him), then count five seconds and toggle again. This is a hard one to get right, but worst case you will now know whether you were too fast or too slow, and it should go better next time. Once you hear the sound of the light barrier getting activated again (and see the wall moving again) immediately trigger the flames one last time. This is one of the hardest parts, and you just made it!

### Phase 10

You got plenty of time here, so don't panic. Plan which of the robots you want to go first, and what consequences this has for the other. You will need to first confirm the pink lever, making Alice move and removing the electricity on Bob's path. Before Alice runs into the blue Electricity, confirm the blue lever, too. Once both are past their electricity, confirm both levers again, quickly. The robots should now be stuck after the first electric fence of each. Toggle the blue lever to let Bob go to the very end of his path, just before the last electric fence. Release Alice using the pink lever, select the blue one again, and immediately once Alice is past her last electric fence, release Bob, too. Don't wait too long, or Alice will reach the green switch before Bob is savely past the green flamethrower on his side. If you do it right, he should be already around the curve when she does. Phew!

### Phase 11

This one's a bit nicer for once. The levers here are stuck to the big colored rotating wheels in their color. Just use them whenever you need to. Make sure not to accidentally select the wrong lever, and if you do, at least don't confirm it. Use the green lever first, then wait until Dennis is past the green saw, and use green again. Now select and use blue, and wait again until Dennis and Clark are past the saws, use blue again, wait, and use it a third time. Now use green, then blue again, and then green. Done.

### Phase 12

This one's more about dexterity, as you'll use anti-gravity to make Dennis "jump" from floating block to floating block. Make sure to hit all the blocks with the switches, as otherwise the next block will not be put into place. You can let Dennis fall and rise again if you are scared to get too much altitude, but some people might find that harder to concentrate on, actually. For the arrows, be aware that Dennis will only be redirected if he at the very least hits the center of the platform. Landing on the far edge might make him miss the bend. There's little else to say except, once again, don't panic.

### Phase 13

This is the last challenge. You just will have to use the lever at the right time when all the electric fences are off, as toggling it will kill the grey robots, meaning that the fences will stop changing states, and if all fences are off, Alice and Bob will reach the goal in time. The timer gives you two chances to do this, although the first is easier to get, as directly before all switches will be switches off, all of them will be on for a moment, giving you time to prepare. If you miss that, you'll have to hope you get it the second time.

### Phase 14

Simply use the button here to deactivate the plausibility reactor. Congrats, you did it!

## Trivia

* The level name is a reference to the game series "Kingdom Hearts". The super-hard hidden boss battles in the series partially inspired the creation of this monstrous "final test" level.
* The reactor and its doomsday device status is hinted at when the announcer greets the player in Gravity Fails.
* The mention of "tachion emitters", "reversed polarity of the neutron flow" and "1.21 gigawatts" are taken from the "Star Trek", "Doctor Who" and "Back to the Future" franchise, respectively. The section pokes fun at the role of "scientific gibberish" in science-fiction, as the increased credibility they provide makes the reactor overheat.
* The celestial objects shot down by the announcer when the player fails include both real planets or moons and worlds from fiction. Some are:
	+ Pluto
	+ Jupiter's moon Ganymede
	+ Alderaan (from the Star Wars franchise)
	+ Pandora (possibly from the Avatar movie, but there's also an actual moon named like this)
	+ The discworld from the Terry Pratchett novels