Under The Mangrove

**!Spoiler Warning!**: **Plot and/or crucial story details follow.**

## Story

As The Player and The Journalist make their way into the underground passage in the Ruins of Hakken, they encounter the long-lost Mutant Goos. From this, we learn a snippet about The Journalist's past, stating that she remembers when the sky was filled with smoke.

## Appearance

This area takes place underneath the Ruins of Hakken, so the geometry is mostly comprised of dirt with large, green roots snaking through the moist soil. Some sandstone structures can be seen embedded into the walls and ceiling, as the sloppy dirt makes for a great habitat for Snail Spines to gather in the masses. These sandstone structures act as save havens for Goo Balls passing through, as to avoid the Snail Spines and murky brown waters below. This area is darker than the surface ahead, so The Player uses a flashlight to illuminate the area.

## Solution

With the help of Mutant Goo, a goo structure composed of Common Goo to build a bridge to the right while hugging the ceiling to avoid the murky water flooding the cave. Eventually, the goo balls will reach a sleeping rope structure made of Plasma Goo, with an Energy Bomb anchored to a destroyable sand block on the ceiling, blocking the pipe. With no Plasma Goo to connect the circuit, the goo balls must continue searching to the right in order to find Plasma Goos. Once the Energy Bomb explodes, the Snail Spines attached to the sand block will drop down, destroying parts of your goo structure on the way. From there, the player must carefully build towards the pipe that has been revealed, which will require at least 21 Goo Balls to be collected.

## OCD Solution

To achieve OCD for Under The Mangrove, the player must complete the level by collecting 80 gooballs. This can be accomplished by building all the way to the right side of the level, like normal. However, instead of connecting any Plasma gooballs and lighting them, there is a new technique that can guarantee the player even more gooballs past the required 80. The strategy is to bounce a Plasma gooball through the electricity and onto the structure. This can be done by taking 2 Plasma gooballs, dropping one of them over the electricity, and quickly using the other gooball to hit it back up through the electricity and have it land on the structure. Once done, the player must whistle all of the gooballs to the right side of the level, as the lit Plasma goo will then come in contact with the Plasma structure and light the bomb, opening the way whilst also making the Snails fall. After this is done, the player can then reconnect the severed structures and also reinforce them with Mutant Goo. Then it's simply a matter of building to the pipe and achieving the OCD.

## Dialogue

* The Journalist
	+ *We have some mutant goo! Have you brought them to this world too? These were always my favourite goo balls... ...I like how they fly in the sky without a care in the world. It reminds me of how beautiful the skies are without all that smoke from the old days... Treat them well, will you? -The nostalgic Journalist*
	+ *It appears we have come across a slight impasse. No worries! All we need is some military-grade plasma goo... Of course, it appears some peaceful snails have made their homes here already... Well, I'm sure they won't mind having their homes destroyed! Hooray for collateral damage! -The militaristic Journalist*
	+ *Aha! We found the plasma goo! Time to make all those snails fall to their demise! Stupid snails. -The Journalist*

## Trivia

* In the alpha versions, **Under The Mangrove** followed much of the same layout formula.
* The destructible block in this level has a drawing on it which resembles the early iterations of The Snapper from the alpha versions.
* The 'joke' The Journalist makes in this level is a crude reference to several war crimes throughout human history.

1. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War\_crime