5-3: Ship of Fools
SHIP OF FOOLS
| 5-3: SHIP OF FOOLS | |||
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| General | |||
| Layer & Part | WRATH /// THIRD | ||
| Challenge | Don't touch any water. | ||
| Music | Death Odyssey Death Odyssey Aftermath | ||
| Tip of the Day | |||
If an enemy is blessed by an Idol, a direct visible connection is formed between the two, allowing one to easily track down and destroy the protector.
Ow. | |||
| Collectables | |||
 5 Soul Orbs Freezeframe Rocket Launcher
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| Enemies | |||
 31 Filth 17 Strays 12 Schisms 17 Soldiers 9 Drones 8 Streetcleaners 2 Mindflayers 7 Sentries 6 Malicious Faces 7 Cerberi 1 Idol 4 Virtues
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| Rank Requirements | |||
| Rank | Time | Kills | Style |
| S | 08:00 | 120 | 30,000 |
| A | 09:00 | 105 | 27,500 |
| B | 11:00 | 85 | 15,000 |
| C | 13:20 | 50 | 7,500 |
| Levels | |||
| Previous | Next | ||
| 5-2 | 5-4 | ||
5-1, 5-2, 5-3, 5-4 5-S
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5-3: SHIP OF FOOLS is the third level of Wrath, set entirely inside the 
Ferryman's enormous ferry, first seen in 5-2: WAVES OF THE STARLESS SEA. 5-3 serves as the introduction to the final weapon in the player's arsenal: the 
Rocket Launcher.
The music used in this level is Death Odyssey during the first half of the level and Death Odyssey Aftermath after the ferry capsizes in the latter half of the level.
Level
Start
Entering the level, the player starts off in a small hallway, neatly decorated with wallpaper, small tables, and candles. Through the small windows on the side of the wall, the player can see outside to the tumultuous Ocean Styx.
Afterwards, the player enters a large foyer with a staircase leading up to a walkway, with a blue carpet at the bottom of the stairs. On the wall near the entrance lies a large painting, depicting 
Gabriel holding the Ferryman in his arms.
Entering the room will spawn in a wave of two Streetcleaners and a Schism at the bottom of the stairs, and three Strays at the top.
At the top of the stairs, the player has a choice of either heading left or right, with heading right leading into a corridor with a split color door at the top of the stairs, first seen in 1-3: HALLS OF SACRED REMAINS, with two Skull Keys found to the left and right hallways.
Blue Skull Path
Heading left, the player makes it down a flight of stairs, with one unlocked door in front. Heading inside will lead to a long hallway with a locked door and two Cerberi to the right, which awaken once the player enters the hallway. Killing one of the Cerberi will also spawn in a Malicious Face at the far end of the room.
After a turn in a hallway, the player then makes it to a basic square room with a carpet and fireplace, where a Virtue and two 
Sentries will spawn in to face the player. Once the Virtue is killed, two Schisms will spawn in, and when either one of the Sentries is killed, two Soldiers will spawn in on one side of the room, resulting in a total of four Soldiers.
Once all the enemies are killed the doors will unlock, where the player can find the 
Blue Skull in the next room over before looping back around to the hallway, allowing the player to place it on the split door pedestal to proceed forward.
Red Skull Path
Going right instead to the split color door and going down the flight of stairs will lead to a large room with a dining lounge and bar, with two sets of stairways at the beginning and far end of the room.
Moving forward towards the stairs will spawn in a wave of four Strays and two Malicious Faces, with the death of the Strays spawning in two Soldiers and awakening a 
Cerberus, and the death of the Malicious Faces spawning in eight Filth and awaking another Cerberus. Killing the Husks will spawn in two Drones and a Sentry, and killing the Cerberi will spawn in a Mindflayer.
Once all the enemies are killed, the doors will open up the hallway to the 
Red Skull. As the player walks up through the hallway containing it, they can catch a glimpse of the 
Leviathan swimming alongside the ferry, before quickly disappearing into the waves.
Residential Hallway
Through the split color door, the player will make it to a small hallway lined with a set of doors each with a bed and closet behind it. Moving forward to the end of the hallway will cause all the doors, revealing four Filth and two Soldiers.
Staircase Column
Afterwards, the player will make it to a large, tall room with a staircase winding around the edge. At the bottom of the floor lies a set of dining tables and a stone statue of Gabriel. Moving forward will cause a blessed Virtue to spawn in, with the Idol at the top of the stairs. Moving up the stairway will cause various waves of enemies to spawn in front of the player, starting off with two Streetcleaners, three Schisms, and two Soldiers with a Sentry.
From the stairway, the player will make it to a room with a large hologram of Gabriel, with a speaker playing the message he gave to the Ferryman after saving them from sinking into the Ocean Styx, an excerpt which can also be found directly from their diary within 5-2: WAVES OF THE STARLESS SEA:
Dual Wield Arena
Following the previous room, the player enters a large, complicated room of stairways, winding tunnels, and walkways, with a 
Dual Wield Powerup at the top of the stairway. Moving up towards it will trigger a large wave of eight Filth, three Drones, four Soldiers, and two Sentries to spawn in around the arena, while killing one of the Sentries spawns a Malicious Face.
After the first wave is killed, another wave will spawn consisting of three Strays, two Schisms, an awakened Cerberus, two Streetcleaners, a Mindflayer, and a Virtue. Killing the Virtue will spawn another Virtue and awaken another Cerberus.
Once all of the enemies are killed, the player can then head into the next room to the left of the stairway.
Rocket Launcher Room
Through the door lies a small hallway, which walking through will inadvertently cause the ship to rumble, with the lights briefly flickering before returning to a quiet foreboding stillness. At the end of the hallway lies a small room with a headless blue skeleton, presumably the last Ferryman of the ship. In its left arm, the Freezeframe Rocket Launcher can be collected by the player. If the player had grabbed the Blue Skull from earlier and placed it on the skeleton, a message will appear, being a callback to a similar easter egg from 1-4: CLAIR DE LUNE:
Hankcestors would appreciate it... If they weren't dead.
Heading back into the hallway with the Rocket Launcher in hand, the entire ship around the player will start violently shake as it flips overboard, rotating everything upside down as it starts to slowly sink with the player trapped inside.
Sunken Wreckage
Returning to the previous arena will now have it completely upside down, with the bottom floor in a pool of water, and rubble and wreckage from tables and other decorations fallen in as well. As the player makes it up the walkway, various prompts appear to teach about the Rocket Launcher's mechanics:
Indirect hits will launch enemies.
Heading to the region with the glass window will cause 6 Filth to spawn in front of the player, prompting them to hit the group of enemies with the new weapon. Making it up to the top of the walkway will spawn in 2 Strays and 2 Schisms in front of the door, with another prompt appearing about the Rocket Launcher's unique explosion on airborne opponents:
a STRONGER explosion
Launching one of the enemies up into the air and hitting it while airborne will then cause the proceeding explosion to turn red, with much more power and size.
Return
Afterwards, the player will then make it to the room with the previous Gabriel hologram, now damaged with the hologram occasionally appearing and flickering. Moving to the door will spawn in a wave of two Strays, two Schisms, and a Sentry, with a Malicious Face and four Drones appearing once the player has killed the previous wave.
The player will then make it back to the staircase, with five Filth appearing in front of the player. Making it to the end of the stairway will give one final prompt, detailing the Rocket Launcher's combo on Soldiers with their unique explosive weakness within the air:
Shoot a rocket NEAR them to launch them.
Three Soldiers will then spawn on the platforms in front of the player for them to test performing the combo.
Once the player has made up to the end of the stairway, they will make it to the hallway with the living quarters, with it partially flooded and the furniture in each of the rooms knocked over and in need of repair, where a Cerberus will spawn at the end of the hallway.
The player will then make it to the stairway with the split color gate, now with the skulls removed from their podiums. Heading to the top of the stairs will cause two Streetcleaners to appear in front of the player within the tight space. Heading to the exit door will suddenly cause the room to fill with a rushing flow of water, which can kill the Streetcleaners if they walk directly into the water.
Back at the start of the level, the foyer is now almost completely submerged in water with a broken window rushing the water through into the ship. Moving forward will cause three Strays to spawn underwater and a Malicious Face to spawn above a floating wooden platform.
The player then makes it back to the start of the level, with the starting hub now serving as the exit. The Terminal that was inside the hub has also been knocked over, with the Tip of the Day now just showing "Ow."
Challenge
For this level's challenge, the player is required to collect both skulls and place them on the pedestals at the split-color door. This will cause one of the walls in the hallway leading to the door to lower into the floor, revealing a secret passage containing a Soul Orb that loops back to the entrance of the level. Most of the regions with water are easy to dash across over, with the hallway after the staircase being the most challenging to traverse. To get across, the player needs to dash into each of the dorm rooms until they have reached the furthest set away from the entrance. The player then needs to dash to the end of the hallway with all 3 dashes. The player can then head into the secret passage and take the shortcut to the end of the level, skipping past the water.
Secrets
| #1 |  Soul Orb - Found after placing the Blue Skull Key on the pedestal for the split-color door, then returning to the Blue Skull Path to find a set of blue doors in the first arena revealing the orb.
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| #2 | Soul Orb - Located behind a doorway next to the pedestal that the Red Skull Key is collected from. If an explosive projectile is fired through the broken window next to the pedestal, a wooden beam not visible to the player will break, and the door will open.
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| #3 | Soul Orb - If the player places down both skulls on their respective pedestals at the split-color door, a narrow passageway will open by the stairway containing the orb. This passageway is the same one used to complete the level's challenge.
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| #4 | Soul Orb - In the now-flipped Dual Wield Arena, the orb can be found in a hole in the rampway on the left side of the room.
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| #5 | Soul Orb - In the now-flipped Residential Hallway where a lone Cerberus can be encountered, the second door on the left has a fallen closet revealing the orb inside a compartment in the ceiling.
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Gallery
Painting of the Leviathan. Paintings by Jericho.
Self-portrait of the Ferryman.
Painting of Gabriel saving the Ferryman.
Painting of the Ferryman with the Rocket Launcher by BigRockBMP.
Trivia
- The title of the level is a reference to "Ship of Fools (Stone of Exile)" from the album Book M by Secret Chiefs 3.
- This level contains the most Cerberi, totaling to a whopping seven. Usually, a level containing the most of one enemy is their introduction, however, this is one of the few exceptions, as the player is already well acquainted with Cerberi by this point.
- The level was slightly changed in an earlier update and used to have four Strays instead of two Schisms and two Strays after getting the rocket launcher. This change was made to allow the enemies to better demonstrate the Rocket Launcher's airborne shot mechanics.
- Prior to the ULTRA_REVAMP visual update, the door the second soul orb is located behind was originally opened by a button above the pedestal on which the Red Skull is found.
