The Art Of War

**The Art Of War** is the seventh level of *Just Shapes & Beats*. It is the first level in Island.

## Description

*The Art Of War* is the first level in the Island world, and the first normal level after the Tutorial levels. This level theme is largely based on circles and radio wave shapes.

Being the first level on Island, this level uses elements that are based on the world of the same name, with a cloud of circles in the first checkpoint and a pool of pink waters below, acting as a "border" throughout the level.

The level's attacks are composed of rings of radio waves rising from the water or simply rolling left or right and walls of circles shooting more circles from different positions. There are also spinning spots where they shoot circles in all different directions.

## Story Sequence

Stuck on an Island and alone, it may seem like the Square has no hope to save its world. However, a pentagon floats from the left side. If entered, the Square starts the level.
After the level's completion, the path on the left will extend as a bridge is created that leads to the next island. Allowing the Square to move further. It will soon encounter the Boat, which requires three pieces in order to rescue it. This will allow three levels to be played in any sequence: Termination Shock, Sevcon and Cascade.

## Layout

### First Phase

The level starts with a wave of water from the top which 'rain' falls from, falling slowly downward and drifting in different places. After a short while, larger squares will start dropping from the cloud, falling faster than the rain and creating a ring when they land on the floor.

Right before the second checkpoint, the rain will stop falling and the water at the top goes away, and then a circle will move downward from the center of the screen, releasing circular shots in a spiral shape while moving downward.

### Second Phase

Water will rise up from the bottom and a single-helix strand of 'DNA' will appear in the center of the screen, dividing it in half. The DNA releases slow circular shots alternatively on the left and right in time with the drums. While this is happening, slow-moving rings of radio waves will come up from the bottom of the screen. On the left, there will be two small rings the player can go between while on the right is one large circle. The circles come in harmless as a warning and then pop into existence in time with the music.

Eventually, the DNA in the center will disappear and two more will appear near the edges. On the outer areas, rings of circles will come up which take up that entire section, while in the center larger rings will come up. The left and right DNA strands will alternate firing shots in the same pattern as before. Two sets of rings come up, again coming in on the beat right before the third checkpoint

### Final Phase

Some harmless horizontal lines in an X pattern will appear on the screen and then will fill in with pink on the beat while the waves and rings of circles disappear. A wave will divide the screen in half again, and there will be a stationary ring of circles on both sides.

The rings will alternate releasing spirals of slow-moving circles. The wave then disappears and two of them will cover the edges of the screen. The rings will disappear and two more appear, one right above the other, in the center of the screen. These rings will fire spiraling circles at the same time but in opposite directions.

After a short time, those will disappear and a new horizontal wave will appear in the center which divides the screen into a top and bottom half. On the top, five giant rings will slowly move in from the left, and on the bottom, they will move in on the right. The player must dash into them and move carefully through them to pass.

After the 5 giant rings have passed, some more rings will appear—a large one in the center, and four smaller ones in the corners, and two small waves coming from the right and left sides. These stand for a short time and then disappear, which marks the end of the level.

### Hardcore Mode Changes

#### First Phase

* The raining projectiles are larger
* The single-helix strand will appear earlier, before the second phase

#### Second Phase

* The rings will have a circle in the middle
* The projectiles firing from the DNA are larger and faster

#### Final Phase

* The projectiles firing from the spinning rings are larger and faster
* The spinning rings also have one circle in the center
* The final large ring has more circles than the others

## Trivia

* The level introduces the composer Chipzel. Chipzel is notable for making soundtracks of other rhythm-based games, such as Super Hexagon. The two other soundtracks that she composed for this game are *Spectra* and *Tokyo Skies*.
	+ Interestingly, all these songs are from the same album, *Spectra*.
* This is the only level that is played as soon as the player reaches its level selection pentagon.
	+ When the player retries the level (due to a game over or return to map), they'll respawn at the left part of the first island, right before the level can be played. This means this is one of two levels where the player doesn't respawn directly at the pentagon.
		- This also happens in Spider Dance, but instead, the player gets sucked into the level.