I only found out yesterday at like... 6pm because Kayne called me to let me know. My internet has been down for the past few days.

Anyway.

Wow.

So freaking happy.

Thanks to all the fans, all the haters (because after all someone needs to keep my ego in check) and everyone else who helped, supported, offered feedback and where generally totally awesome.

You all rock.

Titch out.

Level Up Walkthrough V0.4

THIS IS A WORK IN PROGRESS. IT'S NOT FINISH AND MAY CONTAIN INACCURATE INFORMATION AND SPELLING MISTAKES.

Completion Guide

The aim of Level Up is to max out all your core levels and then go and see the Computer located in SACRED GROUNDS to finish the game. There are two strategies you can use to go about this, since the boss takes your levels away you can either build up levels and skills so you can beat the boss, or just focus on levels in order to win the game without having to do a boss run.

Method 1 - Boss

Overview :- The main thing here is to bone up on the skills you need to win against the boss. Regen, Double Jump, Dash and Fortitude. Not necessarily in that order. There are a couple of differant ways of dealing with Shadow. Falling into camps of:-
- Get a ton of health with regen and fortitude and sit in the corner and let the boss kill itself
- Get double jump, dash and regen and kite the boss around
- Get regen, dash and fortitude and use the post stun invulnerability after hitting a wall to stay invincible most of the time.

Fighting the Boss:- To kill the boss you need to lure it under it's own boulder attacks and then grab the gems it drops when it gets hit. It's important to remember that you are up against the clock fighting the boss, because like you, it levels every time it performs a certain number of actions it will gain levels and become stronger making attacks deal more damage. So the longer you take to kill it, the stronger it gets.

SLASH - Boosts it's direct attack
MAGIC - Boosts the damage of spells (but not the number of spells, more on that later)
FORTITUDE - Reduces the amount of gems dropped when hit
RANGE - Boosts the damage of it's ranged attack.

The boss has 4 different phases of movement

CHASE - It will chase you around the play area and attempt to slash you
CAST - It will run to the centre and cast a spell or spells depending on how much health is has
SHOOT - It will run to the centre and shoot out flaming swords
START - It will return to the centre and activate a new phase.

As a standard the boss will always do a SHOOT phase followed by a CAST phase and then CHASE you around as the spells hit. The exception to this is if you hide in the corner, when it will sometimes either rush you or start a SHOOT phase to flush you out, depending on how many spells are currently waiting to be activated.

The boss has a total of 3 spells it can cast

Boulders - The most important, boulder fly up in the background and then smash in the foreground telegraphed by their shadow. By leading the boss under these you can get it to drop gems
Mines - Red floating balls of death appear on the floor near the east and west end of the map, near to the overhanging platforms. They disappear after being hit.
Beams - Vertical Blue beams appear in the centre of the level and head towards the edges. They fade a few tiles shy of the edge of the area.

The number and frequency of spells and attacks is controlled by the bosses health. Initially it will just use boulders and two directional shot attack. At 90% health it will add a new shot in the ranged attack. At 75% health it will add a new spell. At 60% health it will add yet another spell. The number of boulders will increase each time a chunk of health is lost too.

The Strategy - Avoid the middle of the area at all costs. Lurk at the edge platforms and jump over the boss when it comes at you. Try to get it to land on top of the platform rather than under it because the boulder spell (which is targeted on you) will smash on the platform. If you can sneak under the platform just before the spell hits, or let the boss damage you (it'll be less than the boulder initially). If the boss is chasing you and you've already gone though the boulders, keep moving and jumping out of its reach. When it heads back to the centre rest somewhere to get your health back.
When the boss gets low on health, try to avoid crossing the middle of the stage after it's done spellcasting because almost certainly you'll run slap bang into the middle of a blue beam and loose a chunk of health.

When the boss is shooting and there are more than 4 shots, you need to double jump slightly towards the boss in order to avoid the highest angle shot. If you don't have double jump you can just about jump between the two swords, with practice.

Although it's important to grab the dark gems as soon as possible, try to not take any big risks during the battle. Getting spammed with magic attacks in the middle of the stage whilst the boss wails on you with it's sword is a recipe for death. Keep in mind that boss always respawns on the opposite side of the stage to you, so watch out if it dies on the opposite side of the stage

Method 2 - No Boss

Overview :- You have a couple of primary goals doing this. Firstly you need to get LEARNING levels as fast as possible. Each one adds 50% more exp to each action, you can get them by increasing you completion percentage filling out the Codex, Collecting Gems and tagging checkpoints. Blue Gems and Checkpoints offer the highest yield of % for each one. When you get to 75% or learning Level 4 you need to stop, you can't get the last Codex entry needed for Level 5 without fighting the boss.

You second main goal is get REGEN as soon as possible because the HEALING stat takes the longest to level up. The fastest way to get this in my opinion is to take damage from a spiker as soon as you start, when your fortitude is at level 1 and you are left with 1 hitpoint. Then heal completely, you can now claim the skill from Momma for a cool 50 gems. The fastest way to reach her (assuming you don't screw up) is to climb up to the Sky Village and buy double jump, then teleport back to you home and hop over the cave lip on the west side of the level.

There are a couple of tricks to leveling things faster
JUMP - Exp is awarded for time in the air, so jumps with long falls net extra EXP.
RUN - Dash gives you a small EXP boost.
HEALING - With regen your healing rate when standing still is absurdly fast and you get Exp for every tick. Once you have regen, keep and eye on your health when you are moving around and keep it just under max so you keep getting EXP.
FORTITUDE - You get bonus EXP the more damage you take in one go. So go slam yourself of Spikers and Tyrants rather than Oilers and Worms.

You -might- want to buy some extra health from the boy to avoid accidents. More than one death will pretty much screw this strategy, you can't afford to loose 20% of your playtime.

Skill Locations

TO BE COMPLETED

Gem Caches

TO BE COMPLETED

Giant Gem Locations

The Roof of the CHURCH. Be careful of the wasps up here
Platform in the top area of the MINES
Nook in the bottom area of MINE just above the entrance to the MAGAM CAVE
The giant cliff on the easternmost edge of the map. Do a double jump or Dash + double jump to reach it.
In front of the TYRANT enemy in the overground area just under the CHURCH. If you want to not die getting it, you'll need some extra health or liberal application of Dash/Double jump after grabbing it.

Codex

1.Running - Get at least one RUN level
2.Jumping - Get at least one JUMP level
3.Healing - Get at least one HEALING level
4.Fortitude - Get at least one FORTITUDE level
5.Collecting - Get at least one COLLECT level
6.Relationship - Get at least one LOVE level, trade gems to the boy outside your house
7.Interaction - Get at least one INTERACT level
8.Sleeping - Get at least one SLEEP level, you get one every night that passes
9.Idle - Get at least one IDLE level, just stand still a minute
10.Knowledge - Get at least one LEARNING level. You need to get 25% completion for this
11.Air Recovery - Perform an Air Recovery by tapping jump whilst in the air after taking damage
12.Double Jump - Get the DOUBLE JUMP skill, you can buy it from Joe (100 gems) in the Sky Village or from Joy (50 and 2.6 seconds air time) in the Earth Village
13.Dash - Get the DASH skill, you can buy it from Stripes in the Sky Village (150 gems) or from Fleet(50 gems) in the Caves under your house after completing the DASHING COURSE
14.Regen - Get the REGEN skill. Buy it from Gordon at the Church (100 gems) or from Mama in the earth village (50 gems and 15 health recovered in one go)
15.Hardiness - Get the HARDY skill. Buy it from Brains at Sky Village (150 gems) or from Hulker at Earth Village (50 gems and get 5 chain damage)
16.Radar - Get the RADAR skill. Buy it from the ever annoying Junior in Sky Village (150 gems) or from Nails in the Earth Village (50 gems, plus collect 450 gems in a day)
17.The Girl - Added to your Codex at the start of the game
18.The Boy - Added to your Codex at the start of the game
19.Fleet- Talk to the Roundite in the caves under your house.
20.Joy- Talk to the Roundite in the storage area at the top of the Earth Village
21.Nails - Talk to the Roundite next to the Lava store Earth Village
22.Hulker - Talk to the Roundite at the bottom of Earth Village
23.Momma - Talk to the Roundite next to the house in the west of Earth Village
24.Joe - Talk to the Squarian at the entrance to Sky Village
25.Fingers - Talk to the Squarian near the gem store room in Sky Village
26.Gordon - Talk to the Ghost Squarian in the church
27.Brains - Talk to the fat Squarian on the upper level of Sky Village, you'll need double jump or Dash and Jump level 3+ to reach him
28.Junior - Talk to the tiny Squarian on the upper level of Sky Village, you'll need double jump or Dash and Jump level 3+ to reach him (Dash across the roof of the west house and you SHOULD be able to jump up to the platform)
29.Computer - Use the computer in Sacred Grounds, just west of your home. Either pay the Lock system 100 gems to get in or Ruse Level 5 jump and double jump to get up through the hole in the floor.
30.Mains Water Supply - Hit the switch in the little room above the MAGMA CAVE.
31.Oiler - Black oozie enemies. You can find them everywhere in darkened areas, like the Cave/Lava Cavern/Mine or Tower.
32.Spiker - Spikey enemies you can find everywhere, there are some right by your house
33.Big ol Wasp - Flying enemies you'll find pleanty in the Overground area.
34.Frisbee Worm - Found in the mines and above the roundite village mostly
35.Tyrant - Big black enemies that shoot fireballs. In the overground in the area under the church. You have to hit the Tyrant itself to get it added to the codex.
36.Shadow - Just go through at least one nightmare boss sequence.
37.My House - You get it when you start
38.Overground - Climb to the open area above your house
39.Tunnels - Climb to the underground area underneath your house.
40.Mine - Cave area on the East edge of the map. Enter from the overground tunnel next to the tower or the MAGMA CAVE or across from the TUNNELS themselves.
41.Magma Cave - Cave at the very bottom of the map, west end. Either climb down the Mine or go across from the Earth Village.
42.Giant Tree - North West corner of the map. Just climb up the tunnel from your house and head west and you'll run right into it
43.The Tower - East end of the map. One of the trickier places to reach. When starting out the best thing to do is to climb the TREE, hop over the ledges to the CHURCH. Exit near the little grave at the edge and jump (be careful of the wasp) down to the lower overhang in the OVERGROUND so you can reach it.
44.Sky Village - Climb to about 3/4 of the way up the tower and it's right there.
45.Earth Village - South West corener of the map. Either climb all the way down the MAGMA CAVE and work your way west OR get double jump and hop over the lip in the cave near your house under the big metal chute coming out of SACRED GROUNDS.
46.Church - North part of the map. Climb up the tree and across the branch sticking out and you can do a few jumps to the church from there
47.Sacred Grounds - Slighty Northwest of the starting area. You'll need to either get 100 gems to open the lock OR use level 5 jump + double jump to jump up inside it
48.Magical Gems - Collect a red gem.
49.Dark Gems - You need to beat the boss to get that. Reference the Boss Guide.
50.Huge Gems - Collect a giant gem. Reference the giant gem location section.
51.Postboxes - Touch a postbox. There is one right above your house.
52.Lava - You can find this aplenty if you just head to the bottom right corner of the map.
53.Water Pump - Lever in the little room above the MAGMA CAVE. You'll need double jump or Level 5 jump to reach it.
54.Lock - The door mechanism just outside SACRED GROUNDS, in the tunnel you can climb to get up to OVERGROUND
55.Codex - Open the codex window
56.Net Awareness - Bug the HECK out of Brains. You'll need to talk to him a couple of times before he'll tell you about it.