0-E: This Heat, An Evil Heat
THIS HEAT, AN EVIL HEAT
| 0-E: THIS HEAT, AN EVIL HEAT | |||
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| General | |||
| Layer & Part | PRELUDE /// ENCORE | ||
| Music | A Heart of Cold Dead Heat Pulse (A Heart of Cold) Cerberus | ||
| Tip of the Day | |||
If you're having trouble with a
specific encounter, take a moment to weigh your options. There may be some trick, tool or alternative prioritization that will tip the scales in your favor. | |||
| Enemies | |||
 6 Filth 10 Schisms 16 Soldiers 3 Stalkers 5 Swordsmachines 11 Drones 9 Streetcleaners 1 Mindflayer 1 Sentry 3 Guttermen 3 Guttertanks 2 Earthmover Rocket Launchers 4 Earthmover Mortar Launchers 13 Malicious Faces 7 Cerberi 1 Idol 8 Mannequins 8 Virtues
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| Rank Requirements | |||
| Rank | Time | Kills | Style |
| S | 09:30 | 111 | 48,000 |
| A | 10:00 | 105 | 44,000 |
| B | 12:00 | 90 | 35,000 |
| C | 15:00 | 75 | 20,000 |
| Levels | |||
| Previous | Next | ||
| NaN | 1-E | ||
0-1, 0-2, 0-3, 0-4, 0-5 0-S,  0-E
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0-E: THIS HEAT, AN EVIL HEAT is the Encore level of the Prelude. This level is made up almost entirely of rooms near-identical to those found in the original Prelude levels, but with a distinct cold and icy theme, and the level layout heavily restructured. This level is the first to introduce radiant enemies, a recurring obstacle in future Encore levels.
The music used in this level is A Heart of Cold during the colder first half, Dead Heat Pulse (A Heart of Cold) during the heated half of the level, and Cerberus during the ending boss fight.
Level
The level begins with a forking path; a door marked "EXIT" is blocked by ice, forcing the player to go right.
Quad Cerberus Room
The next room, which is a recreation of the first combat arena of 0-1, begins with the awakening of two 
Cerberus statues flanking the exit. When either Cerberus drops below half health, a third rises from its pedestal on the left side of the entrance, followed by a fourth and final Cerberus from the last corner once any Cerberus is killed.
Grinder Hallway
After defeating the four Cerberi, the door opens and the player can break a pane of glass to reach the next room, a dark corridor with a checkpoint. This room is a recreation of the rotating tunnel room found in 0-4. As the player approaches the end of the corridor, a Malicious Face spawns in front of them, with another Face and a 
Gutterman spawning behind. Without power, the ordinarily hazardous rotating walls cannot damage the player, allowing them to seek cover from enemy attacks by sliding into the space below the walkway.
Menacing Hallway
The next room spawns a Swordsmachine, a Guttertank and a Virtue. The Swordsmachine spawns behind the player, while the Guttertank blocks the lower path to the Virtue. The guttertank's position hinders the player from dealing with the Virtue immediately, though the gap above it allows safe passage to the other side. The end of the room houses the second checkpoint.
Frozen Lava Foundry
The next room is a wide open space with ice in the center and a raised bridge at the end. When the player approaches the center of the room, two Malicious Faces and four Mannequins spawn. The next wave, consisting of two Soldiers, two Schisms, three Drones, a Virtue and a Sentry, is activated after killing either all four Mannequins, or both Malicious Faces. The sentry's position on a raised platform makes it dangerous, and it should be dealt with quickly, along with the Virtue under the bridge.
Skull Path Intersection
Beyond the room lies a checkpoint and three paths. Going forward leads to a loop around that can be taken after completing either path on the left or right to return to the checkpoint. To the left is the red skull path. A small door held open by a crate, leading to an intersection. To the left contains a small room with a broken open vent on the floor, leading to a frozen path, while the right leads to a small doorway and staircase into a vent shaft. To the right is the blue skull path, leading into a collapsed room.
Blue Skull Path
The right door leads to a room that spawns a Virtue, two Mannequins behind the player, and two Streetcleaners directly in front. After the Virtue has been defeated, two Malicious Faces spawn.
Though the Virtue is immediately visible and accessible to the player's attention, its attacks are also easier to passively evade in this arena than the two Faces triggered by its death; the freedom of lateral movement from the room's lack of obstacles becomes an absence of cover that leaves the player always vulnerable to projectile barrages and beams detonating on surfaces, which compounds the threat posed by the arena's tankier fodder enemies that would otherwise be easy pickings to focused fire. The central positions of the Faces can more easily divert Marksman auto-aim away from the Streetcleaners' tanks than the Virtue's position tucked into a corner, and both Streetcleaners' and Mannequins' explosion resistance mean they won't easily be wiped out by collateral damage. On Standard difficulty and above, the Virtue has a minimum number of attacks it must execute before it will enrage and begin leading the player's movement, which can serve as a signal to shift focus if one has not yet finished dispatching the rest of the wave.
In the next corridor, the player is ambushed by two Mannequins and a Guttertank, made especially dangerous by the room's close quarters.
Beyond the corridor is a room introducing a radiant Swordsmachine as a mini-boss. Upon respawning, or upon entering the next room if the Swordsmachine is slain without dying, the game will tutorialize radiance:
After defeating the Radiant Swordsmachine, the player can move to a room containing two walkways separated by a pit covered in glass. If the player did not die in the previous room, the radiance message will be shown upon entering this room. Entering the room spawns a radiant Gutterman and three Soldiers. Descending through the glass floor and going through the door will lead the player to a slide of ice, at the bottom of which lies the blue skull key.
Looping Path
Crossing the frozen corridor and taking the door on the right will lead to a pedestal for the key. Returning across the frozen corridor and taking the side door will lead to a spiral staircase, ascending which will take the player back to the forking road, where they can begin the red skull route by sliding through the opening in the wall.
Red Skull Path
Taking the red skull path, the player will ascend the staircase to the right, the player will be ambushed by three Streetcleaners. The streetcleaners' flamethrowers are difficult to avoid in the tight corridor, but the confined space makes the 
Sharpshooter Revolver's alt fire as well as the Railcannon very effective.
After passing a checkpoint, the next room begins with spawning four Soldiers and an idoled Malicious Face. The idol is inaccessible behind an iron grate so the face's attacks must be avoided, though the face's attacks can still be parried for healing. After the soldiers are killed, three Schisms spawn and a Cerberus statue awakens. After killing all the new enemies, a Swordsmachine will burst through the grate, exposing the idol and allowing the Malicious Face to be killed.
In the next corridor, four Drones will spawn, two in front of the player and two behind. After this corridor the player descends a tall spiraling walkway above a large fan, leading to a room with the red skull key.
As the player approaches the key, four Malicious Faces spawn in each corner of the room. When one is defeated, two Stalkers will spawn and attempt to sand the faces. After another face is defeated, a Guttertank will spawn. When all enemies are defeated, the red skull cage will open, allowing entry through the door behind it.
Returning Path
After crossing the bridge and depositing both skull keys, the level will heat up, reactivating hazards throughout the level and compromising V1's heat shielding. A bar will appear on the top of the screen showing V1's remaining heat resistance. When this bar runs out, the player will begin accumulating hard damage, eventually reducing V1's health to 1 (it will not kill the player directly). In addition, any health above 100 is instantly removed upon heat resistance reaching 0. Heat resistance can be replenished only by entering cooling chambers or submerging in cold water. After the level heats up, the level title card will appear and two Swordsmachines and four radiant Drones will spawn. When the two Swordsmachines are killed, four Schisms will spawn. After all enemies are defeated, the door will open, allowing entrance to the first cooling chamber. The player can then cross the broken bridge to continue, or alternatively cross the lava river with wall jumps, an overpump explosion, or a slam storage long jump to skip the next section.
The next room initially spawns two radiant Malicious Faces. When one is killed, two Soldiers will spawn in its place, this repeats when the other is killed as well.
The next room consists of a tall spiral staircase containing a Mindflayer. At the top is a cooling station.
Crossing through the hole in the grating will spawn a radiant Schism, four radiant Soldiers, and a Stalker.
Continuing through the door and a short hallway, the player will find a gap which when slid through will collapse, dropping the player in the now-functional crusher room. Moving forward will spawn two Virtues: one in front and one behind. With all other doors now blocked, the player has no choice but to again slide through the hole in the wall, enter the door on the right, and drop down into a pool of cold water, replenishing heat resistance.
Through the underwater tunnel, the player will emerge into a large room surrounding a cold pool, allowing heat resistance to be replenished mid-fight. Moving out of the pool will summon two Virtues and a Gutterman, in addition to activating the two Earthmover Rocket Launchers on the walls. Each enemy killed will activate two of the four Earthmover Mortar Launchers.
Entering the next room will spawn four radiant Streetcleaners and a Virtue.
Moving to the following room will trigger a group of six radiant Filth to crash through the glass above, where the exit door lies.
Post-Heat Path
Through this door, the player will follow a short path before finding themselves back to the beginning of the level, with the exit door now unfrozen. Entering the cooling chamber beyond will repair V1's heat shield, removing the diminishing heat resistance mechanic and hard damage, and restoring all of the player's health.
Boss
After descending a staircase, the player finds themselves in the 0-5 boss chamber and must fight the level's bosses: two radiant Cerberi. After defeating them, the large door will open, revealing the exit.
Trivia
- Based on the file name of the level thumbnail, At one point in development this level was titled "This Heat, This Evil Heat".
- The name of the level "This Heat, An Evil Heat" is possibly a reference to both the experimental rock band This Heat, as well as the album An Evil Heat by Oxbow.
- The stair hallway to the boss room is missing one inactive Cerberus on the right side by the bottom. This detail does not appear to be connected to anything but may possibly serve to increase the visibility of the shop terminal to the right of the boss door.
