[Challenge/Playground][Hard-Lunatic] [KS+] Gustav's Retribution

And so, after two abandoned playthroughs, I finally played through the whole level again. Overall, my opinion has gotten more positive. The added save points and some toned down challenges really helped make this playthrough a lot less frustrating and more entertaining than my first. The added experience probably contributed as well. The level is in a pretty good state now. Obviously not without some further room for improvement, as my feedback made clear, but I'm rather satisfied now. Won't be forgetting about it any time soon.

So I recently started making video playthroughs of Nifflas' games, which spontaneously inspired me to cover this level. Just finished it: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLPY6G2hmt_KrK2D04VroJVxc-GQ1g3AKw

You don't seem to be active at the moment, but if you come back and are still interested in giving this level some more polish, my playthrough could give some useful insight on which parts I found the hardest and where I discovered exploits. I found a few bugs on this playthrough as well. Don't remember much, but it turns out you can skip the fight with Bella by walking past her and picking up her coin that's just lying around.

Edit: Just remembered another tiny issue. On the left screen of the Azure Outpost, there are a handful of tiles that don't get transformed by the Astral Corruption.

Hello kilicool64
I have not started yet Gustav's Retribution (I love Shreeps levels) because I am playing Reditus for the moment
I am a little bit lost in Reditus, not knowing where to go and going around in a loop
I saw that you finished it 100%. I'll see if your videos can help me to continue because I was a little discouraged not to find the exit
Thanks ;-)

I can't wait to start this level... I would like to finish Salty Seas before 

I can't wait to start this level... I would like to finish Salty Seas before 

Just so you know, Chapter 1 of Azure Serenity: Tranquil Dreams is significantly harder in difficulty than this level, mainly thanks to the final boss, which took me almost two hours. Feel free to play that first regardless, but you'll be in for a real challenge.

Ok thanks kilicool ;-)
I finished Azure Serenity: Tranquil Dreams but the first version from 2014...and I even found everything including the 50 GC
however I don't remember a boss at the end. Is this new in the latest version ?
because here I only play the "Salty Seas" part, choice that I made in the menu of the last version

Ok thanks kilicool ;-)
I finished Azure Serenity: Tranquil Dreams but the first version from 2014...and I even found everything including the 50 GC
however I don't remember a boss at the end. Is this new in the latest version ?
because here I only play the "Salty Seas" part, choice that I made in the menu of the last version

Just so you know, The Salty Seas is just a small part of the remake. It has a large chunk of the original's content as well with significant changes and additions. You missed out on a lot. The option to be sent straight to The Salty Seas exists for players who already played an earlier version of the remake, not for those who only played the original, which was just called Azure Serenity without Tranquil Dreams.

The final boss is the one you're struggling with right now, the Silver Priestess.

ah ok so in a way it's a new adventure... so I'm saving it for later, thanks ;-)

v7 on Apr 29 2024

https://knyttlevels.com/levels/Shreeps%20-%20Gustav%27s%20Retribution%20v7.knytt.bin

There is a new high quality music pack that you can download separately (256kbps for most) and just replace the music folder: https://mega.nz/folder/xG8WTTwT#zswssDikS6J3Y7BkurhHKg

Thanks to Kilicool64 for the higher quality default nurykabe tracks and Lit Knob for advising.

Higher quality sounds for most sfx are in the new version (7+) and don't need to be replaced.


Other notes and remembered changes:

Penitence Village credits spellcheck

Penitence Village interior 'eye' lights rotated

Some screens with ambi 1 should be fixed, like in Battlefield, Amberleaf, Echo Grove knyghts camp and Peach Woods defense.  new ones might come up?

fixed shadow guy during 1st esmeralda fight at 1hp

Added some message bubbles during tour
Added message bubble to sacrifice

you can no longer go back after triggering the last warp during the final escape screen

fixed some diving spots

fixed sand pit background

Hazelnut a few gradients changed in phase 2/3 to give more variety

added ghost to every screen on last phase of consecrate

Act XVIII message should not play more than once anymore

added save to scarlet hill gem spot

spirits of silverwood shift should put you on top of the eye and fixed void with warp

Fixed Ellictus icon on guide and .png

twilight falls build icon should be in front of the water now
argentfall defend icon should be in front of the water on every screen now

black text on the Wyrmridon Catacombs' half of their credits image.

Abandoned Camp is now just Autumn Plains for world map 2nd phase.

Gustav's farm interior should have a new screen where hes gone for inbetween castle assault and astral corruption

Mount StarFlame defense,  Peach woods defense, and pumpkin village defense are just a little harder,  others may have minor tweaks

Ellictus and Bella are given shields for most phases of their boss fights and so are a decent amount harder, Ellictus is still easy but hopefully bellas not too hard now.

Bella skip should be fixed.  You should be able to run past her and keep going around the zone.  If you come back she will be gone until you leave the zone or come back from the left side.
___________________________________________
Also, this has bugged me for a while, but why are the entrances placed to the left of Mossgate Village's small doors? -  I dont think the author meant for people to go inside these for in his own level paradise last but he just let people use the tiles.

Edit 2: Why is there a second instance of a golden creature at the bottom of this screen of the guide?   -  the icon is just part of the background and the one popping up is a golden co.  it has to be close to the player to pop up and when its collected the background icon version will still show up. 

Edit 4: Okay, so if I understand correctly, the level has two separate flags for the consecration of Silverwood Cemetery and the appearance of the evil wizards, right? And I believe returning to Gustav's house after the former is triggered is what's meant to trigger the latter. However, if you head to the Valley of Rust with just the former, the evil wizards will already be there (but only in the second part of the area). Rescuing Gustav's lion then progresses the story, causing the evil wizard flag to be triggered despite Gustav never telling you his lion was kidnapped. That seems unintentional.  Edit 4: Looking at the guide, it appears that perhaps the evil wizard flag is actually meant to be triggered by saving Gustav's lion in the Valley of Rust. So perhaps it actually is working correctly after all. It's just a bit weird that you can save the lion before even learning that it got kidnapped.  - the wizards occupy valley of rust with the lion after consecrate but wizards camps don't show up in the world until after the castle assault.  the knyghts at the castle tell you to go talk to gustav but you dont have to talk to them or gustav before getting the lion.

Edit 8: Considering it's the knight to the right of the castle rather than the wizard explaining the orb who tells you of the existence of the library, would it not make more sense for the former to explain how to navigate it?  - I think more people will talk to the mage but some might accidently skip the knight

Edit: With the flippers, you can actually dive right through these blocks. Though I'm not sure anything can be done about that. - I think this would be a cool thing to use as a mechanic.  Super-drill?

Edit 2: This text box suddenly popped up when I reached that spot, despite me having already seen the same text when I fell into the Rosecore. Perhaps it's because I also got the text box for the Altar of Xethiz? - This spot is the entrance to the zone from the scorian portal shortcut

Edit 5: The dialog for the yellow wizard who can remove Nyx's barrier is bugged. He falsely claimed I still needed two more feathers. Perhaps it's because you didn't expect players to have not only the two feathers from the evil wizard tents, but also the one from the Rosecore? Regardless, I was still able to progress. - hes saying HE needs 2 more feathers but I took out the word more

On a side note, these weird floating enemies in the Forbidding Archives rotate so rapidly that looking at them too closely actually makes me physically uncomfortable due to my photosensitivity. Can the rate at which they rotate be slowed down? - it seems to be unaffected by whatever anim speed i put, i guess the object's settings override?

Edit 6: Is the entrance to that house supposed to disappear once the Valley of Rust becomes the Valley of Dust? - yes theres no more need for this house and I never even made a post astral version

Edit 8: I believe it got nerfed, but the third-last phase of the Nyx battle is still by far the hardest for me. I find that I can only really keep track of the projectiles somewhat reliably while I'm holding down the button. I usually died either before or after that. Dodging side shooters from both directions at a medium distance is already hard by itself. With the addition of lots of homing projectiles, it becomes more than I can keep track of at once. -  climbing on the side of the solid white  blocks can help a lot here when theres so many bullets

Edit 9: What's that item near the right wall in the Penitence Village shop supposed to be? It looks like the thing marking the last column of the guide. Don't recall what that is, but I don't have it yet. So the shopkeeper's claim that I already have everything he sells except the watch isn't really true. Also, is that magnet supposed to represent anything? Technically, I don't have that either.  -  The icon is the shield for the 'defend' icon, and he says 'basically', there still might be some things juni doesn't have yet but none are significant or worthwhile enough to get or talk about.  a long time ago i made a magnet and was going to require it to progress in lace citadel, probably buying it from Paladin shop.

Edit 10: The moon has plenty of spots where enemies can partially shoot through solid tiles as long as you don't have the radiation suit. Was that a side effect of implementing the whole radioactivity mechanic? - yes i couldnt find a way to place the invis death blocks right on the moon blocks but also have the platforms be totally solid to projectiles.  The parts touching the safe zones should always shield you from shots from the other side

Edit 17: Okay, so Agatrix is also one of Xethiz's minions? In that case, why did she throw the fight in the arena? I originally assumed she was just some random weakling who had no idea what she signed up for. - just to get info on the other fighters and agatrix is supposed to suck and be the weakest of the disciples in his knytt form but he is  still throwing a little in the arena.

Edit 20: The world map behaved a bit weirdly after Xethiz appeared. At first, my movement was slowed down and I couldn't enter locations. But after moving to the screen to the right, the normal behavior was restored again. Was this deliberate? - yes to make it less likely people skip it on accident

Edit 22: At the end of Bella's Eternal Annihilation phase, I could see the screen with Gustav for a split second before it turned white and faded back to it. That didn't happen with the others so far. - dont know why, I see most of them a split second but theres also lots of screen layers and effects on all these screens that don't load before the tileset/gradient

Edit 25: Does its credits image really depict the foliage in the Celestial Oasis accurately? I thought it had a trippy filter applied to it. - just the underwater part is trippy, the regular part is a little misty

Edit 28: The last credits image doesn't seem to say who made the sprites for the five disciples.  - So Much Work So Pointless by Nifflas

I appreciate the added Special Thanks credit in the opening screen, but you misspelled my name.

Also, I'm pretty sure there should be a comma before "traveller" in that line spoken by the guy in Scorian Hollows. And if you're American, then you misspelled "traveler."

On a final note, I think the Flowering Swamp could use a save point shortly before Coin #21. If you go there without the double jump, then you have to make the whole trip to that coin and back without a save point, and it's a bit long and dangerous. The save point density is usually a bit higher than this.

Edit: You sure you want to uppercase "Scrolls" here? I don't think you usually give artifacts this treatment. I noticed "gems" being lowercased, for instance.

Edit 2: Should probably be "to the Valley of Rust." Also, there should be a comma before "Juni."

Edit 3: Out of curiosity, is it possible to change the appearance of Juni's umbrella sprites? It sticks out a little how the umbrella icon is recolored, yet it still looks the same when Juni is carrying it.

Going left from this screen in Autumn Village sends you two screens to the left. Is that deliberate?

Edit: Entering an evil wizard tent in the Valley of Rust with the snorkel can make the water lethal again. If you need more context, it happens at around the 15 minute mark in the upcoming fourth part of my new playthrough.

Edit 2: Rushing water can still be heard in the Twilight Falls when underwater.

Edit 3: The arrival of the evil wizards (or possibly already the consecration) seems to put Scorian Hollows in its post-Astral Corruption state even before said event occurs.

Edit 4: Found some dive spots above this bench that don't work.

Edit 5: It would make sense if the world map renamed the Knyght's Camp to the Abandoned Camp while it's in that state.

Edit 6: Not sure about this one, but I think it should be "It seems that" rather than "It seems like."

Edit 7: The brown tiles on the left screen of the Azure Outpost don't get transformed by the Astral Corruption.

Edit 8: Gustav can still teleport back to his farm while he's in Nyx's captivity. Was this impossible to fix?

Edit 9: This screen in the Alabaster Woods is based on one in the Old Turt Pond that got changed in an update. But you didn't apply the change here, so it's no longer a full reference.

Edit 10: This is just a matter of taste and I know it's just a minor location, but I don't think the track you picked for Fort Cipher suits it particularly well. It works fine on Mount StarFlame. But it doesn't sound like the kind of music I'd expect on a space station.

Edit 11: The world map is inconsistent in terms of how it handles dead ends. Most parts let you walk one tile off of the end of the path before you hit a wall, but some don't.

Edit 12: The barrier visor and the feather from the Salient Grounds are still shown in the moon's version of the guide even after you've collected them.

Edit 13: Gustav's fan still gets reactivated after obtaining the Angel Cape.

Edit 14: I managed to accidentally avoid picking up the golden spider after clearing the Pumpkin Village invasion by moving away quickly. Might not be possible to prevent that possibility.

Xethiz's name is misspelled in this page of the guide.

Edit: As far as I'm concerned, the very last of the Eternal Annihilation phases has way too long of a time limit for what it asks of you. I can sometimes reach about the halfway point of the 18 seconds it tasks you with surviving, but rarely beyond that without the hologram. If the purpose of this part of the level is supposed to be falling action, then I think the rest works well, but this phase is far too difficult. I'm still at it at the time of this writing. I have to take a break right now because these trippy filters were starting to make me physically uncomfortable.

Completed a second video playthrough: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLPY6G2hmt_Kqp1o6XMiEnAld6mRHcn9G5

I noticed various minor flaws during the credits, but I don't have the energy to report them right now. Will take care of it later.

If you're interested in fixing typos, I can also report more of those. There were so many that I decided it would be better to go through the script in the INI file. I'd need to know if you use American or British spelling, though.

This was my first time beating this level without any hologram abuse. I wrote a lot more about my experience with that in some of the video descriptions, but to put it simply, I would really appreciate if you could tone down the very last challenge in this level. For a screen of this danger level, I find the time limit to be way too long. It was one of the hardest challenges in the whole level, despite the fact it's not really meant to be one of them. And it happened during a part that I can't tolerate for excessive periods of time due to my photosensitivity.

Edit: Okay, I went through the credits now. Here's what I found:

#1: Don't get the point of the blue text here. The rest of it is white. And much of it is in front of the same kind of color.
#2: The dash to the right of "Floating Towards You" is cut off.
#3: The y in "Cruyssen" is covered by a button.
#4: The g in "glaciære" and the p in "Sphere" are covered by the buttons.
#5: I believe one pixel or so of the y in "Knytt" is cut off.

#6: The g in "glaciære" is again covered by the button.
#7: The y in "Library" is cut off.
#8: The k in "Ink" is covered by a button.

v8: (May 6 2024)

reverted a sound to be closer to its source version

esmeralda starter plant moved and shouldnt have double dragons

valley of rust/dust snorkel should always work from the right side

refitted some credits covered by button or off the edge

xethiz fixed on quest guide

kalm traveller has 2 l's so i used that version

i know it is crazy but the save for c21 is in the ghost tunnel below lol.  this one is also meant to be pretty hard and annoying very early on

Going left from this screen in Autumn Village sends you two screens to the left. Is that deliberate?  -  going left here is supposed to take you up 1 screen but it takes you left 1 instead lol.

Twilight Falls when underwater sounds different

The barrier visor and the feather from the Salient Grounds should disappear in the moon's version of the guide after you've collected them.

fixed bench spot

fixed some spellings/words

I appreciate the added Special Thanks credit in the opening screen, but you misspelled my name.  - this is just the gangsta spelling  of it

Edit 3: The arrival of the evil wizards (or possibly already the consecration) seems to put Scorian Hollows in its post-Astral Corruption state even before said event occurs.   -  scorian changes with consecrate

Edit 7: The brown tiles on the left screen of the Azure Outpost don't get transformed by the Astral Corruption. -  azure outpost doesnt seem to get transformed in general by it and the purple tiles used in the rest of the forest zone are on a different tileset so im not sure how easily i could change that

Edit 8: Gustav can still teleport back to his farm while he's in Nyx's captivity. Was this impossible to fix? - now you cant go back after seeing him in captivity until after nyx

Edit 9: This screen in the Alabaster Woods is based on one in the Old Turt Pond that got changed in an update. But you didn't apply the change here, so it's no longer a full reference. - the ghost dream isnt meant to be an exact copy 

Edit 13: Gustav's fan still gets reactivated after obtaining the Angel Cape. - after you fix it, sometimes he likes it on sometimes he likes it off Lol

Edit 14: I managed to accidentally avoid picking up the golden spider after clearing the Pumpkin Village invasion by moving away quickly. Might not be possible to prevent that possibility.  -   i think i made it less likely but it can still happen if youre going really fast

Edit: As far as I'm concerned, the very last of the Eternal Annihilation phases has way too long of a time limit for what it asks of you. I can sometimes reach about the halfway point of the 18 seconds it tasks you with surviving, but rarely beyond that without the hologram. If the purpose of this part of the level is supposed to be falling action, then I think the rest works well, but this phase is far too difficult. I'm still at it at the time of this writing. I have to take a break right now because these trippy filters were starting to make me physically uncomfortable. 
This was my first time beating this level without any hologram abuse. I wrote a lot more about my experience with that in some of the video descriptions, but to put it simply, I would really appreciate if you could tone down the very last challenge in this level. For a screen of this danger level, I find the time limit to be way too long. It was one of the hardest challenges in the whole level, despite the fact it's not really meant to be one of them. And it happened during a part that I can't tolerate for excessive periods of time due to my photosensitivity.      -        This part IS meant to be really hard cause its the final final challenge.  I had nerfed it from 20 seconds early on.    I also put in some lighter trippy filter in the level folder,  so if anyone wants to try that section to be easier on the eyes just replace psych in the CO's folder with the new ones in the level folder.   It doesn't seem to help on every screen like this but maybe helps on many?  not using the holo is not recommended also though lol.   

#1: Don't get the point of the blue text here. The rest of it is white. And much of it is in front of the same kind of color.  -  I have a really hard time reading this middle section when its white