Zeroranger Black Onion

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Niobe Hennigan

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Aug 3, 2024, 4:14:40 PM8/3/24

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As per Nightmare Fuel page policy, all spoilers are unmarked.

At the end of Stage 1-4's first act, you arrive on the surface of the GREEN ORANGE planetoid, which features Nothing but Skulls across the whole surface. The miniboss at the end of this segment is a larger skull that, when defeated, sucks your ship into its mouth, triggering a Smash to Black before the stage title card appears.
The inside of the GREEN ORANGE base has what looks like intestines in the background, giving the impression of a Womb Level.
At the end of Stage 2-1, you fight Catastrophe again, except its core now features an inexplicable skull. Defeat this boss, and you'll go to the Score Screen...only to be greeted by the Boss Warning Siren again and Catastrophe snapping its wings off to reveal its One-Winged Angel form, an Ax-Crazy cobra mecha while frantic music plays. Instead of the usual cryptic advice that tells you what weapons you can get out of it when it's destroyed, it just tells you about attaining "enfrightenment" and its numbered points are all just "NO". Or in the Great Oppressor timeline, it tells you to "take heed and just run away" and all three "tips" are "IT'S NOT WORTH IT."
At the end of Stage 2-2, 2nd Apocalypse's head shoots out of the ship you just destroyed, about to presumably take on an extra form like Catastrophe did... only for the lights to go out and a new boss to devour it. When the lights come back on, you see what finished off Catastrophe: a massive onion-headed mech, Pandemonion. The "advice" screen comes up again, but this time in ominous unknown script.
During the FinalBoss segment in Stage 2-4, after destroying the Lotus Jewel, GREEN ORANGE threatens to kill you and for a split second, she forms a pretty twisted Nightmare Face.
When Despair is defeated at the end of Stage 2-4, she lets out an absolutely bloodcurdling scream (in a manner similar to Marx) as she forms an agonized face of despair (ahem) and fades out.
The bleak circumstances at the end of the game. You've defeated GREEN ORANGE and just blasted your way out of her base... only to critically damage your fighter in the process. Erasure appears to inform you that you'll die in about 4 minutes from lack of life systems, GREEN ORANGE's forces destroyed all planetary life anyway, and gives you one possible final out: To travel back in time and stop the original form of GREEN ORANGE. Accept her offer and you travel through an absolutely trippy landscape with more of the mysterious onion people you see in the background. To top it all off are the stakes for this final battle: If you lose all of your lives, your existence is erased and so is your saved progress. Remember the weird cutscene you see when you first started the game, with the black monster towering over the glowing white humanoid followed by a Smash to Black? That was Mido/Dori's previous failed attempt at stopping GREEN ORANGE, and it's your game over cutscene if you lose.
The soundtrack version of the White Vanilla stage 4 theme, "4th Shade", an otherwise energetic track, has some eerie and foreboding "Psycho" Strings near the end as the track starts to fade out, until the strings are all you hear.note This part isn't heard in the in-game version since the track fades out well before then.

The DIS Route is the final route of Void Stranger. Unlike the other three routes, the route is not encountered through the linear storyline and must be discovered by uncovering the game's secrets. It can be accessed immediately from Void Stranger Gray, although several of the plot points are better set up by information from the main three routes. The route can be done as Gray or Lillie, but not Cif.

The road to DIS begins with using the murals at the start of each domain to access the chambers of each of the Void Lords. Doing this will allow the player to obtain the three burdens, items which are required to access and progress through DIS, as well as information that is useful for the player's journey there.

It is not strictly necessary to visit all the Void Lord chambers. The player only has to obtain all three burdens, either on the current run or using a special brand. Eus' chamber is also effectively necessary to visit due to the difficulty of figuring out the B030 statue trick alone.

Destroy what remains of the traitors...
Return to zero, zero, zero...
Then you'll find Lord Add's final treasure, one they hid even from their allies...
The key that engraves the brand of DIS...

Listening to the Egg in Cif's chamber will lead the player to B000, where they will find a large statue shaped as an amalgamation of the three traitorous Void Lords: Eus, Mon, and Gor. This brane may only be accessed by interface editing, a technique hinted at by the egg in Gor's chamber as well as the design of several rooms in the game. The player cannot be under the effect of the Infinity special brand as they will need a 00 locust idol value to swap with the brane value. This effect may be removed using a Smiler statue.

Killing Eus or Gor will cause the seals in their respective chambers to break. Two of the four chains around the B000 statue will burn off, and the respective Void Lord's portion will become grayed out. The statue's form will collapse when both of them are killed, revealing a large special chest that will upgrade the player's staff to the Endless Void Rod. The Endless Void Rod allows the player to store multiple tiles at once, which are released in the reverse of the order they were picked up in. As the player character picks up the upgraded staff, they will "feel [their] uneasiness fading away". Note that there is no special brand for the Endless Void Rod.

Cif cannot obtain the Endless Void Rod. They are unable to see the statue at B000 and the seals in Eus and Gor's chambers, nor can they kill Gor by speaking to them. However, a player with the required knowledge can fulfill the condition by killing Gor on a previous route or sending them to Bee's Stinky Hole, where Cif will be able to kill them. Doing so will cause Cif to find the chest at B000, but opening the chest will cause the player to instead see the To Be Not Continued ending (contains spoilers for later in the route). The ending does not seem to actually play out, as the player will be able to continue from B001 afterward as if they had never opened the chest.

As told by the egg in Cif's chamber, the Endless Void Rod allows the player to engrave the "brand of DIS". The brand of DIS is completely blank, as shown in the mural at B225. As such, it can only be carved in the final brand room found at B227, which may be quickly accessed by using the Endless Void Rod to carve Cif's brand at B023. Falling here will send the player to the entrance of DIS, which contains one final puzzle room before the player enters DIS proper.

If playing as Gray, the player must not be VOID to access the B227 brand room. They may also skip past B224 to avoid the Voided Ending. Once the player gets to B227, they are free to accept the fruit and become VOIDed without being blocked from the rest of the route, mainly losing access to mementos within DIS.

After solving the puzzle room at the entrance of DIS, the player will encounter a gigantic portal gate leading to its interior, a series of rooms with ornate wall designs and an animated diagram of the solar system in the background. Full documentation of the puzzle rooms and bosses within DIS can be found at the DIS/Gameplay page.

At the 28th puzzle brane, the player will be given a choice on whether to proceed or return to B001. This is the point of no return, beyond which the player will not be able to leave without reaching the ending. The player will not be able to reject the fruit upon losing their last life, with the Furball responding "We've come too far. You can not give up now." if attempted.

The next few branes are themed after the Void Lords in order of their domains, although the majority of them are empty and contain no puzzles. Bee will appear in their room after being summoned by DIS, and express their surprise that the player character was able to make it this deep in. They will then transform into their demon form and fight the player.

After killing Bee, the player will find Mon in the next room. They will tell the player character that Cif is the only Void Lord remaining, and offer her free advice on how to beat them. Upon speaking to them again, they will tell her that it will be difficult to damage Cif with the Void Sword, and suggest using the Endless Void Rod instead. They then wish the player character good luck. Pushing Mon into a pit has no effect on subsequent events.

Cif will then request "temporal release from the main grid" from DIS, before transforming into their demon form and initiating a real-time boss battle, destroying the player's interface in the process. If the player is VOIDed, then each death will advance Cif's monologue by one line, for up to sixty deaths.

Lev stands naked before the player character, shifting their eyes with a blank textbox while the player character backs away. ZERO Judge appears and tries to stop them, saying that the true nature of DIS is beyond their understanding, but is vaporized by Lev with a bolt of lightning. Lev picks up the transmitter from the judge's mouth and attaches it to their own, noting that it is able to convert radiowaves into speech patterns. They then tell the player character that they have two things to say to them, "Thank you" and "Die", before striking them down with another lightning bolt. Lev calls upon Mon to give a situation report, and the latter confirms that the player character has bypassed all firewalls protecting DIS. Satisfied, Lev thanks Mon for their assistance gathering locusts for their resurrection, before once again bringing up the "two things". Mon's expression turns to shock at the implication, before they are swiftly eliminated with another bolt.