The Boat

The title of the page is **conjectural**. Besides internal references, patch notes, Discord emotes or its official PS4 avatars, there is no official, canon name.

## The Boat

* Promotional
* Interaction

### Unlocked in lobby by

Completing a playlist with 10 levels or more (3)

The **Boat** (also referred to as such in the game's internal files and its avatar) is a supporting character in *Just Shapes & Beats*'s Story Mode. It is a boat-shaped friend first encountered at the Island world and travels along with the player during the seas, in a sewer-like system and helps the player in order to get on top of the Tower.

It is the second friend the player encounters, and plays an important role in Island, reaching the Volcano and Industry, and a few instances occurring in the Industry and Tower.

## Appearance

When first encountered, the Boat is separated into three parts, the hull, the sail, and its flag. Once the player frees all the pieces, they attach and form the Boat itself. The hull has its face, two circular black eyes with one bigger than the other and crossed by a line, to represent that the Boat is wearing an eye patch. There is a sail on top of the hull and a flag on top of the sail. The hull's color is sky blue, just like the Big Cube's, while both the flag and sail are ice blue.
Sometimes, when the boat panics during a few story sequences, its eyepatch eye is sometimes outlined in black instead being filled with black.

## Introduction

The Boat is first seen in the Island world, shortly after completing The Art Of War and moving to the path where a triangle guided. The Boat itself is separated into three different parts, being the sail, the hull and the flag. The Square needs to reassemble the Boat with these parts so that they can travel to the next area of the game. This is done by beating Termination Shock, Sevcon and Cascade respectively.
Once the Boat is assembled, the square hops on to the Boat as it starts blinks into life. It later hops down and slams to the corrupted waters without harm. At this point, the player can control the boat by sailing and hopping across evil plants along the way. If any of the enemies hit the Boat, the Boat will simply be knocked back.
After reaching the shore of the Volcano, the Boat and the Square watches as the Boss slams the first corrupted piece of the Tree into the mouth of the volcano, as its water turns into pink lava and erupts, which makes the Boat panicked. But it quickly regains composure as the Square decides to enter the Volcano without the Boat.

Encounters
Volcano and Industry
The Boat is not encountered again until the player beats Lycanthropy, as the Square uses the level triangle to purify the Corrupted Triangle, purifying the exhausted, corrupted plant as a result. Afterwards, the Square happily descends the Volcano and hops onto the Boat, as the Big Triangle purifies the Volcano and the ocean, alongside the plants standing on the water.
The camera pans to the Big Cube, clutching to a small tree that's drifting on the ocean. The Big Cube drifts into the pipe, and the Boat, angry at the Boss's actions, quickly follows the Big Cube, and enters the pipe, beginning the next chapter.
The Boat peeks out of the pipe, before landing on the water. The Boat slowly sails to the right, as the water shakes to the rhythm. The Boat reaches a dead end, as the Square hops out of it and navigates the factory.
The Boat is never encountered again until the next chapter.

Tower
After the Square, the Big Cube, and the Helicopter arrive to the tower, the Boat somehow managed to get to the place before the three arrive.
After the player beats Into The Zone, the level triangle destroys the wall blocking the far right switch. The Boat sails toward it, and flips the switch, opening the bottom hatch as a result.
After all switches were flipped and all hatches were opened, the Square decides to go and defeat the Final Boss. However, before the Square enters the level, the Big Cube tells them to come back, as it bids them farewell alongside the Boat and the Helicopter. The Big Cube hugs the Square, the Boat splashes water at it and laughs, and the Helicopter does a high five with the Square, as it goes to defeat the Boss for once and for all.
After the Boss, in its monstrous new form, chomps on the Square and crushing them between its jaws, the Square tries to revive itself, only for the Boss to smash them with its head.
The Helicopter, the Boat, and the Big Cube arrive to mourn their friend's death. The Helicopter smashes its hand on the ground, wanting the shattered Square to come back to life. The Boat splashes water onto their friend's shattered pieces, to no avail. The Big Cube picks up their friend's pieces, and cries.
However, the two Tree Triangles on the Big Cube's head sparkle, and it knew what to do; using the triangles as defibrillators to revive the Square. The Square comes back to life, empowered, and ready for the final round against the Boss.

Aftermath
After the Boss is defeated for good, the Sun comes back, the land of Paradise is purged of corruption, and the Tree of Life is restored. The Square and its three friends reunite, as the land is peaceful once again.
However, the Boss comes back to life, now back in its first form, becomes a DJ and hosts a rave party. The plants, and the friends (minus the Square) all dance to the music, as the credits roll, and the game ends.

## Gallery

The Boat as first encountered by the player, bottom rightThe Boat freed from its prison, helping the player through the sea
## Trivia

* The Boat always faces in profile, no matter what. This is likely done to make the visuals more appealing.
* The Boat somehow gets into parts of the Industry that appear to be impossible for it to reach, and somehow crosses the Island that normally blocked it from reaching the Industry.
* The Boat has three unused animations not seen in the game, one playing with a toy rocket, another playing with a toy car and playing with a pile of small blocks.

* In two occasions, namely the sequence that interrupts the player character from entering to Final Boss, and the mourning scene (after said level), the Boat splashes the player character (or its remains). This likely is a friendly and playful gesture, replacing hugging the player, as the Boat doesn't have hands.

## References

1. ↑ An example of this is *music\_boat\_gameplay* in the *levels* folder inside the game's files.
*In context, this refers to the player controlling the boat in Island. The music in question is I'm being Reelistic.*
2. ↑ YouTube video