Looping
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"Wow, looks like a lot of spoilers on this page! There are a lot of fun surprises down here... you'd hate to accidentally ruin them." |
Looping is an endgame system that increases the difficulty of a run as the player completes runs of higher Loop counts, starting at Loop 0 and ending at Loop 13. It is unlocked by completing a run at Nowhere, accessed by defeating the boss of Floor 6 while carrying the Err: Int Overflow cartridge, at which point the final room will be replaced with an elevator to Nowhere. The cartridge can be found in a special secret room connected to only one other room, which is guaranteed to appear in future runs after completing Floor 6 for the first time. It will not appear in hard mode until that is beaten.
When unlocked, the Looping modifier is added to the Terminal in the Hub, with Loops 0 and 1 made available by default. The completion of a Looped run at Nowhere unlocks the next one numerically until the limit of Loop 13. Changing the Loop count in the Terminal allows the player to fight bosses in the Mirror at that Loop. The secret room containing the Err: Int Overflow cartridge (and by extension, the cartridge itself) will permanently stop appearing in future runs once Looping is unlocked. Loop 0 does not make any changes to the run other than allowing the player to access Nowhere by giving them the Err: Int Overflow cartridge at the start.
Loop Changes
Stronger Enemies
Looping gradually increases the strength of most enemies, minibosses, and bosses. Changes to these enemies include (but are not limited to) increasing the amount of bullets fired, making enemies and their attacks faster, and even granting them completely new attacks. Some enemies gradually increase in strength as the Loop count increases while others have notable break points where their behaviour changes drastically. Loops stack with Hard Mode. Reward Bosses and Seal Bosses are not affected by Loops.
All known Loop behaviors are documented on the Enemies, Challengers, Minibosses and Bosses pages, but note that much of this information was written before the Into Oblivion update and is therefore outdated.
New Bosses
Loops 1, 3, 5, and 7 each introduce a new loop boss that can appear on Floors 1, 2, 3, and 4 respectively. The chance of a loop boss appearing on its respective floor is 2/6. The exception to this rule is that Loop 13 guarantees at least one loop boss will appear during the run. For example, if the player has not fought a loop boss yet, then they will encounter Lucid Dream on Floor 4.
Each boss was created by a different member of Team D-13.
Wow, that's a lot of spoilers!There are a lot of fun surprises down here... you'd hate to accidentally ruin them.
The final Loop holds one last challenge for those persistent enough to reach the end.
Harder Rooms
Looping will cause Strange Rooms to start replacing regular rooms, identified by their glitchy map icon. These rooms draw from a room pool that is vastly more difficult than the current floor, often consisting of harder enemies, deviously-placed traps and hazards, and exclusive enemy mechanics. Enemies exclusive to Nowhere can appear inside Strange Rooms on any floor.
As of right now, two exclusive enemy mechanics are seen in Strange Rooms and Nowhere that resemble the mechanics of Halos and Aegis, those being Hyperfocus Halos and Immortality Shields (both are named after their filenames).
Hyperfocus Halos are a variant on the Orange Halo of normal gameplay, firing bullets independently and being only destroyed when the room is cleared, with one distinction: Hyperfocus Halos fire fast pinpoint volleys into spaces the player occupies, leaving only split-seconds to react. To compensate, Hyperfocus Halos only fire when the player is close enough.
Immortality Shields on the other hand are defensive, rendering enemies conditionally invulnerable until every other unshielded enemy is killed. Visually, invulnerable enemies are distinguished by being encircled with Shields, similarly to the runes that encircle minibosses.
The Temple, a special floor within Templegame, features a new path with a glitched icon and the error message "Err: Stack overflow caught in Templegame.exe." When approaching the door to this path, the music speeds up dramatically. This path contains glitched enemies from Nowhere and is the only instance of new enemies added by Looping.
While not added by Loops, Danger Rooms temporarily increase the player's Loop count by 1 and reduce the player's damage to 65% of their current damage, rounded up to the next whole number.
Enemies within the Gauntlet are not affected by Looping.
Other Changes
As the player reaches higher Loops, the tiles that border each room will more frequently begin to "glitch", and tiles belonging to other floors will appear mixed in with the current floor's tile set. Shopkeepers will begin to appear corrupted and the music will change to an ominous track when this occurs, also becoming more frequent on higher Loops.
From Loop 7 onwards, all NPCs have their dialogue removed during a run. The Trader in particular simply displays a Yes/No prompt and it is unknown which of his wares the player will recieve until the trade is accepted. Arcades will also no longer play music. On the final Loop, the starting room will be darkened and corrupted in complete silence.
Loop Hub
Upon completing Nowhere, the player will be transported to a room that looks like the Hub, with some very noticeable differences. In the center of the room is a mysterious humanoid figure. When interacted with, they will end the player's current run and, based on the player's choice, will either send them back to the Hub or usher them into the next Loop. The entrance and elevator are shut, leaving no other way to exit the Hub.
Around the room are outlines of furniture and enemies that can be interacted with to observe. The enemies that appear vary from run to run, while the furniture is always the same. If the player approaches the southern wall, they can listen to additional dialogue from a mysterious source. The contents of this dialogue vary based on the player's Looping progress.
Interactions/Dialogue
Wow, that's a lot of spoilers!There are a lot of fun surprises down here... you'd hate to accidentally ruin them.
Below is the dialogue seen when interacting with different parts of the Loop Hub.
Bestiary 
"Various old papers are firmly attached to every inch of this makeshift board.
Multitudes of clumsy, desperate handwritings have covered them to the brim with names.
On both sides."
Mirror 
The dialogue that appears when interacting with the Mirror varies depending on which character the player is controlling.
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"You look in the mirror and see that you're no longer there.
You're now an empty shell. You feel like you were reborn. You never knew what it was like to live before. Now you do. You feel free." |
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"You see nothing out of the ordinary in the mirror.
Seeing this grips you with a tight sense of unease. Something else should be there, too. But it's missing." |
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"An unfamiliar face stares back from the mirror.
Perhaps a revenant from a previous life. You feel no regrets. You've done your best." |
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"You cannot see anything in the mirror.
The dark glass reflects only endless darkness ahead." |
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"It may be your imagination.
But the mirror shows you how things could have been. Things that could have been better. But they could also have been so much worse." |
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"Lookin' good!" |
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"You got what you came for, didn't you?
Is it still not enough? The reflection nods. There is so much left to do." |
NPCs
Various NPCs in the shapes of enemies encountered throughout the game appear in the Loop Hub, in the same fashion as the normal Hub.
They produce various lines of dialogue and can be spoken with multiple times to say one selected at random.
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"Access denied."
"Remain stationary until further notice." "You have not been granted permission to leave." "Insufficient permissions." |
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"Oh nooo, where did I put those papers..."
"The spare part orders are delayed again..." "Ahhhhhh, I knew I should have written it down!" "Oh noooo... The Ordinator is gonna have me quartered for this." |
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"Where am I?"
"I can't see anything." "Is anyone there?" "My body. It won't move." |
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"Reporting, heavy casualties. Soul extraction rate at 48%."
"Suck it up, I'll have to put in overtime again too, you know." "Have you checked the output lately? I'm getting some strange readings." "Useless. Scrap it, begin from scratch." |
The Voice at the Southern Wall
A non-visible NPC can be spoken with at the southern wall of the Loop Hub. They produce different dialogue based on which Loop the player is in. Specifically, they receive new dialogue at Loops 0, 3, 7, and 12.
Loop 0:
"Hey there.
...
Hello?
Cmon, you can't fool me. I know you're in there.
An old birdie told me.
I shoulda guessed you're in no talking mood right now, eh?
Oh? Hahahaha, I see.
That's fine. I'll swing by later.
Just don't die on me until then, ok?
See you next time, little buddy."
Loop 3:
"You still here pal?
Was worried there for a bit.
What with all the ruckus around these parts.
Glad you're hanging in there.
I know things can be difficult to get through.
But it's only temporary.
There's more people here looking out for you, than you think.
Oh, I know.
Next time, I'll try to sneak some flan through.
Just make sure the big man doesn't find out.
Or we'll both be in trouble, hahahah."
Loop 7:
"Heeeya.
Been a rough time, huh?
Things aren't that much better over here either.
Truth be told, things are kinda falling apart.
I fear, some people I knew aren't who they used to be anymore.
If things keep going this way...
Hahaha, I'm not complaining!
Really!
On the bright side, you seem to be doing OK!
You've grown much stronger since the first time I met you.
Whatever the future brings, I'm sure you can handle it."
Loop 12:
"Hey? Kiddo, are you still here?
...
Man, I really hate doing these kinda speeches.
And what's with that sad attitude anyway??
The fact that you made it this far is grounds for celebration, really.
No amount of pep talks woulda kept me sane for this long, I tell you.
It's not long.
You gotta wait, just a bit longer.
And then, any day now.
You'll be free."
Achievements
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Trivia
- Many other Shoot 'em Ups feature a Looping mechanic (also known as "rounds"). Although the specifics vary, beating the final stage sends the player back to the start and increases the game's difficulty.
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