Metro City

> *"It's great here... Metro City... What is this place?"* ~ Carbon
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**Metro City** is an outdoors, town square-like area within the Sheltered Residence. Near the back of the city, there is a large tower, which is presumed to be where the citizens used to live. The area is managed by Representative, a dragon real estate representative who lives in a large room east of the city. The Shadow Army also comes here to ambush Mario.

The tower, unofficially known as the Tower Problem, consists of 3 floors connected by a spiral staircase in the center. The top floor contains a planetarium and a stone cube with a star-shaped hole in it. When Representative's Stars are placed in the whole, 8 pedestals with keyholes will appear on the floor. 8 Palm Nails can be collected from the 8 rooms on the 1st and 2nd floors, and when used on the pedestals, will cause the planetarium to start working and unlock the deeper parts of the Sheltered Residence.

## The Riddle Rooms

### North-West Room, 1st Floor

"*Four Miles, double stone...* **Master of Shadow Darkness...** *Two and two...*"

This room contains two platforms, each guarded by 2 blocks and 1 containing a switch block. The stone blocks can be destroyed with the Ultra Hammer, but the new red and gold ones can't be destroyed with brute force. After destroying the one stone block you can access and exploring the other rooms, you should notice that the room directly above this one has a similar layout to this one, and that one of the red & gold blocks is missing. Furthermore, that rooms hint is similar to this one. Based on this, one should alternate between the two similar rooms, destroying stone blocks in one room to destroy the red & gold blocks in the other, allowing access to both of their Palm Nails.

### North-East Room, 1st Floor

"*Everything is not everything...* **Popular Stones...** *Tap to perform escalation...*"

The first part of the riddle is a vague way of saying that not everything is real. Knowing this, one should explore the room looking for a part of it that is only an illusion, eventually finding that the wall on the other side is fake and hides a secret room behind it containing a switch block. Hit this block, and a chest will rise from the ground in the first part of the room, allowing you to take the Palm Nail with in.

### South-West Room, 1st Floor

"*Come on, outside, in advance... **Seven Run...** Previously, before...*"

This hint for this riddle is cleverly written. The top portion of the hint contains 3 phrases divided by commas while the latter contains 2 also divided by commas. If the hint is written so that the text is all on one line, the first set of phrases will be on the left of the blue text while the second set will be on the right. This indicates that, of the two blocks in the room, the left one must be hit 3 times, after which the right must be hit twice. This will reveal a chest, inside of which is a Palm Nail.

### South-East Room, 1st Floor

"*They still feel invisible...* **So we're perfect...** *Have you been there?*"

After walking around the room, you should notice that there is something obstructing the center portion of the room. Hitting it won't do anything, signifying that the area isn't actually an invisible block. This should be your clue to use Snow's powers to blow area the obstructing area, revealing a chest containing a Palm Nail.

### North-West Room, 2nd Floor

"*Four Miles, double stone...* **Be restored to stone again...** *Two is one, one is two...*"

As discussed in North-West Room, 1st Floor, this room is a mirrored copy of that room, and destroying the stone blocks in one room will destroy the red & gold blocks in the same position in the other room. Alternate between the two rooms, destroying their stone blocks, hit the switch block, and take the Palm Nails in them.

### North-East Room, 2nd Floor

"*Okay, okay...* **Know stars. Let's be alone...** *Destroy everything in the way...*"

This riddle is rather straight forward since the riddle pretty much tells you what to do. Use Bob's ability on the far wall to destroy it, allowing access to a secret room behind it containing the chest with the Palm Nail.

### South-West Room, 2nd Floor

"*Leave the weakest...* **And that's the shoe...** *Then build the strongest...*"

This room contains all 4 Bad Bones enemies. As instructed by the hint, on should defeat the weakest, Bad Bones, then build their way to the strongest, taking out Bone Tomato, Dry Foot, and finally Black Coat. Doing this will reveal the chest containing the Palm Nail. If you do mess up the order, leaving the room and re-entering will reset the room. Alternatively, you can just run from battle if you bump into the wrong enemy.

### South-East Room, 2nd Floor

"*Hide the shame's way...* **But the stars are balance.** *The shy man hid his face...*"

There is a switch block in the room, but it is invisible. One can find it by jumping in every location, and this puzzle is rather easy if you already know where it is, but otherwise, you need to use Viviana's power to hide yourself, causing the block to reveal its position so long as you stay hidden. Hitting the block will summon a chest containing a Palm Nail.

## Hidden Lore

Each of the 8 riddle rooms contains a hint on how to solve its puzzle, however, they are written in a manner that also contains a hidden message. Each riddle consists of 3 lines, with the 2nd being highlighted in blue and being seeming unrelated to the riddle of that room. It's is clear from this odd pattern that the blue text is a secret message about the lore of Metro City and the Sheltered Residence. While there is no indication of how the 8 blue texts are meant to be arranged, they seem to make the most sense starting from the 1st floor's North-West room and going in a Z-shaped pattern through the rest of the 1st floor before repeating the pattern on the 2nd floor. If this is done, the message reads:

"**Master of Shadow Darkness...**

**Popular Stones...**

**Seven Run...**

**So we're perfect...**

**Be restored to stone again...**

**Know stars. Let's be alone...**

**And that's the shoe...**

**But the stars are balanced.**"

## Trivia

* The name of the location, Metro City, is perhaps a reference to the movie Megamind, which has a city of the same name. Alternatively, it may be a reference to the video game Final Fight, for the same reason.