Mechanical Fort

Map of Mechanical Fort

Mechanical Fort is early-game, potentially reached as the third area unless alternate paths are taken. Unlike previous early game areas, Mechanical Fort features an almost completely artificial landscape. It shares the title of greatest number of connections between two areas with Color Caverns.

As of Alpha 0.3.4.1 there are 26 distinct rooms.

## Geography

### Landscape

The Mechanical Fortress has almost no visible terrain to speak of, being primarily composed of mushroom-made fortifications. However, some windows in the fort show a glimpse of the outside, revealing that the fortress was built somewhat into the Color Caverns. The majority of flora present are Evil Flowers and red thorns.

 The only "safe" plants in Mechanical Fortress take the form of vine-like wall growths with purple flowers. Fog is only visible when looking outside of windows, but the fog's color seems to vary somewhat depending on where you are, being either indigo, turquoise, or bright cyan.

### Structures

The Mechanical Fort is a megastructure composed of metal and brickwork. The area is filled with mechanical cogs, moving platforms, and metallic spikes.

 Many styles of plates, panels, and brick can be found on the walls of the fort, as well as windows which offer a glimpse to the caverns outside.

Breakable vials full of MP hang from the walls. Many barrels can be found, some containing substances which bear resemblance to the Bouncy Ball spell. Large glass tubes can also be found, some of which are intact and some that are broken. Other barrels are seen as armor on monsters. Some rooms are separated by blue doors, which requires either the Bouncy Ball spell or the Blue Key Infusion ability to open.

The only statues to be found are living statues. They are somewhat scarce, but at the middle-most entrance from Color Caverns the Professor Statue can be found. There are also a few Minor Statues.

There is one Gold Shrine and two Silver Shrines.

### Map Details

Mechanical Fortress is light blue on the world map, and comprises the east-center of the map. It is surrounded to the west by Color Caverns, below by Deep Grotto, above by Corrupted Depths, upper-east by Lava Temple, and east by Acid Dungeon. It shares the title of greatest number of connections between two areas with Color Caverns, and shares the title of greatest number of unique areas connected to it with Acid Dungeon.

Mechanical Fortress shares five connections with Color Caverns, one connection with Deep Grotto, one connection with Acid Dungeon, and one connection with Lava Temple.

## Progression

Reaching the Mechanical Fortress from Color Caverns assumes you have the Forward Dash ability, although it is still possible to enter without it. It's worth noting that until you obtain Bouncy Ball or Blue Key Infusion, the top and bottom portion of Mechanical Fortress will be completely gated, requiring that you loop around through Color Caverns and Deeper Grotto to access the lower portion. Although inconvenient, this means that neither Bouncy Ball nor Blue Key Infusion are required to progress in the game.

Ability-wise, the Mechanical Fortress only harbors two. The more prominent of the two found in Mechanical Fortress is the Bouncy Ball, which is both used to open up parts of the Mechanical Fortress and can be used for mobility, since hitting the Bouncy Ball will refresh dashes and allow the player to reach higher places. The other ability is Blue Key Infusion, which acts as a more convenient form of Bouncy Ball in the case of opening blue doors.

Mechanical Fortress leads naturally into Deeper Grotto and Acid Dungeon. The route from Mechanical Fortress to Acid Dungeon is gapped by red thorns with a Mush-holder in between. There are several skips and tricks to cross this barrier, but the natural route assumes you enter Deeper Grotto to obtain the Boost Projectile spell.

To access Lava Temple through Mechanical Fortress, you need the Returning Contraption spell from Corrupted Tunnels to activate a lever. This route is more of a shortcut for later, since it would be faster to go directly to Lava Temple from the Corrupted Tunnels, which also has the same gate mechanism.

There are 2  Ladybugs, 1  Health Crystal, 11  Mindshrooms, 1  Spell Stone and 5  Astral Gates.

### Abilities

* Blue Key Infusion
* Royal Ornament

### Relics

* Blue Health Orb
* Meditation Blast
* Spell Booster
* Strong Spell Booster
* Mind Slash
* Combo Slash

## Enemies

* Big Evil Flower
* Scrap Cog
* Tube Spiker

## Trivia

* It was called "Blue Fort" before [Some update that may be before 0.1 or not] update.