Blood Stained Sanctuary (Cave Story)

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We understand that this is an optional level, but HOLY MOLY THE DIFFICULTY IS WAY BEYOND THIS.

The Blood Stained Sanctuary is a level in Cave Story. it's hidden in the Balcony, the six and penultimate level of the game, and is the true final level of the game, and overall the eight and final level of the game.

Since today, this level has been extremely infamous for its massive difficulty, and is often considered as one of the hardest levels in the game.

Why It Sucks

1. Before this level, your weapons (with the exception of the Spur) gets dropped down to level one.
   • While the Nemesis can benefit from that, other weapons such as Blade (if you don't have Nemesis), Missile Launcher, Flame, Snake and such won't get such treatment.
2. This level has three stages, all of which are hard.
   1. The first part of the level task you to maneuver around a series of red spikes that can insta-kill you in one hit. The segment is more difficult, due to the jet-pack's odd and wonky controls.
      • This is made worst, as the jet-pack has limited fight after being used, so that you would accidentally go into the spikes due to low fuel.
   2. The second part task you to maneuver the arena, while avoiding falling debris, and new enemies such as Butes and Mesas. It's also infamous for the random falling debris's location, therefore you have to be careful on which point the debris will fall.
   3. The third part just ask you to maneuver the arena while battling Butes, Mesas and Presses, as well as avoiding Rollings and detonating Deletes, so that you can progress through the level. That alone is hard due to the level design's structure.
3. This level has two boss that you must fight.
   1. The first boss is Heavy Press. While it's easy (as all it does is stand around and fires lightnings in the middle), it can be tricky, due to the Butes and Rollings's presence. Its weak spot is also smaller, making it hard to hit it (and not to mention that it's very hard to tell when it's about to fire the lightning).
      • And even after you defeated it, Heavy Press pulls off a very cheap move, which is falling in an attempt to crush you, costing you a game-over.
   2. The second boss is Ballos. Not only are his attacks hard to avoid, but he has three phases and lots of HP.
4. Through out the level there are a series of pace-breaking text-boxes, causing you to get distracted or to make a mistake, should a text appears out of nowhere.
5. The damage is very unfair: an example are the debris, which can cause ten points of damage.
6. NO CHECK POINTS IN THE ENTIRE LEVEL. This means that, should you lose a life at any point during the game, even during the final phase against Ballos, YOU HAVE TO RESTART THE WHOLE LEVEL FROM THE BEGINNING.
7. If you think that all of that is bad enough, here's something that can screw you up: while the Blood Stained Sanctuary is technically an optional level, if you want to get the best ending of the game, you have no choice but to complete it.

Redeeming Qualities

1. Great music.
2. Intense atmosphere.
3. If you beat this level, you are rewarded the true ending, so at least it will be worth it.
4. Despite how hard and frustrating the Blood Stained Sanctuary is, there are two things that makes this level somewhat bearable.
   • Through out the third part, there's many hearts to pick up, which will refill your hearts.
   • The Blood Stained Sanctuary is quite short, so if you are skilled enough, even if you're taking your time, you can get to Ballos in around four minutes.
5. Playing Cave Story on the Wii U Virtual Consule makes this level FAR more tolerable, as you have save slots (Which means that saving on a part of the level will allow you to restart from that point should you get KOed. This also includes Ballos's sealed chamber).

Tips

1. Get as many life capsules and missile expansions as you can, before entering this level.
2. Defeating the Butes, Mesas and Presses will grant you weapon upgrades, missile refills and hearts.
3. When falling down a shaft in the first room, use the jet boost in the right, as there's a life capsule.
4. Take you time on the level.
5. The moment you defeat the Heavy Press, move out of the way as soon as possible, as it can crush and instanitly KO you.
6. After you defeated the Heavy Press and are about to enter a room, go to the top right of the level, as there will be a set of four statues. Shooting them not only will reveal the main characters, but will also drop weapon upgrades, missile ammo, and sometimes hearts.

Trivia

• If you go to the right at the beginning, you will fall into an area that has a sign which reads "Welcome to hell". This can be seen as a message that the game knows this segment is brutal.