Collective Unconscious:Cave

Cave
Basic Info
Eidola	EffectNone
Collectibles	Menu Theme #28
Events	Cave Chase
Notable NPCs	Clown Vendor, Ghost Clown, gerald 'Miner Grandpa' Mumba, Saas L. Elsaas
Other
Connecting Areas	Sun Forest Crystal Complex
BGM	🔊 nolan_music_mistyseas (No. 63)
Map ID	0141
Version Added	0.1.0
Author	Raptarr8

Map of Cave

Map of Cave, showing the path to Crystal Complex

Cave is an area accessible through a staircase in Sun Forest.

Features

Cave consists of several interconnected underground passages lined with crystals on the walls, and filled with rocks, advertisements, and decrepit minecart rails. The main area is incredibly dark, restricting your view to only objects directly adjacent to Minnatsuki. The Soulfire or Lumen eidola can be used to reveal a slightly larger area, and it's recommended to use one of them while exploring the world. While the Cave is mostly empty, there are some points of interest deeper in the cave. The Climate eidolon is disabled in this area.

Immediately after exiting, the path forks, with the upper path leading to a windy paved section and the lower path leading to a grassy, more linear section with occasional advertisements on the walls. From the upper path, the player can find a shortcut to the Chaser Trap which will be blocked if the player has not visited the area before, as well as a long series of passages which eventually leads to a set of minecart rails, which form a web of one-way connections. From the only junction where three different sets of rails intersect, you can go south to reach a curving corridor leading to Crystal Complex, or go east to reach the Painting Room.

Along the lower path, the rooms are mostly linear, up until a branching path at the southernmost point in the world. Following the advertisements west at the branching path will lead to the Clown Shop, while going east will put the player back in the rail section. It's worth noting that entering the rail section from this direction puts Minnatsuki directly in the junction, allowing easy access to both points of interest.

Painting Room

This area consists of a room whose colors change over time, containing three paintings as well as the collection's curator, Saas L Elsaas. If the player attacks Saas using Soulfire, he will retaliate, trapping Minnatsuki in a painting. The center painting is always the same, and is currently obstructed by a construction sign. The two outer paintings change their appearance based on Variable #30, and they can be used to determine its approximate value. The meanings of each painting are as follows:

Left Painting	Right Painting	Var.30 Range
Red Sign	Orange Sign	0-17
Gray Sign		18-35
	Mint Sign	36-53
ZX Spectrum Clown		54-72
	Purple Sign	73-90
Blue Sign		91-108
	Pink Sign	109-127
Dark Aqua Sign		128-145
	Sun Reactor Clown	146-163
Dark Blue Sign		164-181
	Black Sign	182-218
	Light Bue Sign	219-236
Dark Pink Sign		237-255

Clown Shop

In the southwest corner of the Cave, a shop can be found, run by a clown. Interacting with the clown will open a menu, where the player can purchase any of several items. Note that not all of the items are purchasable, and the food items do not count towards Giant Vending Machine completion. The following items can be purchased from the shop:

Item	Cost	Effect	Recycle Value
Soda	100	Increase health by 1	5
Ice Cream	250	Increase health by 3	10
Spoiled Milk	75	Decrease health by 1	20
Ticket*	2200	Currently not implemented	-

* Item cannot be purchased, even if the player has sufficient funds.

If the player uses either Youth or Spectral, the normal shopkeeper will be replaced with a ghost clown, The ghost clown's shop has a slightly different inventory, with a couple food items discounted, and a few new items:

Item	Cost	Effect	Recycle Value
Soda	75	Increase health by 1	5
Ice Cream	125	Increase health by 3	10
Menu Theme Cube*	1000	Unlocks Menu Theme #28	-
Notebook Cover**	1000	Currently not implemented	-

* Item can only be purchased once.

** Item cannot be purchased, even if the player has sufficient funds.

Outside the shop, there is a bench, as well as a door which leads to a long corridor containing a couple statues, as well as a construction sign. Additionally, gerald "Miner Grandpa" Mumba appears outside the shop. If attacked using Soulfire, he will turn aggressive, and begin to chase the player relentlessly, following Minnatsuki across screen transitions until they either get caught or escape via the Crystal Complex connection. While he is enraged, the music will be slowed down, and the layout of the area will be altered slightly to prevent returning to Sun Forest. If Minnatsuki gets caught, she gets sent to the Chaser Trap. Additionally, The blocked off passage north of the entrance from Sun Forest will be unblocked.

Chaser Trap

Initially upon getting caught by Miner Grandpa, Minnatsuki will be transported to a hallway which seemingly just connects back to itself. However, every screen transition, there's a 10% change (guaranteed after ten attempts) for the screen to instead abruptly cut out and drop Minnatsuki down to another area. If Time Trial Mode is enabled, this transition will always occur on the first attempt. The lower area consists of a large rectangular room with calm music and a stone wall covered in handprints, in contrast to the crystal walls of the rest of the area. Inside the room is a construction sign, as well as a hole which can be entered using the Youth or Rodentia eidola. Inside the hole, there is a creature playing a bone flute, as well as an exit back to the main area via the now-unblocked shortcut.

Directions

Nexus → Obelisks → Neon Frogs → Duck Mannequin World → Sun Forest → Cave

Nexus → Obelisks → Burning Building → Desk Passage → Sun Forest → Cave

Trivia

• This world was originally designed back in 2020 for Yume 2kki, but was never finished, and eventually remastered for this project. The world originally had a much less saturated color palette, and the NPCs in the world resembled common 2kki chasers, with the Clown Shop vendors being based on Clowns, and the Painting Room instead being inhabited by a pink Shadow Lady.
  • Because of this, Cave is the second-oldest world in the game by original date of creation, behind Dusk World.
• The colored handprints in the Chaser Trap are a reference to various proposed protagonist concepts for the game, from before Minnatsuki was chosen to be the protagonist. Additionally, the broken wet floor sign in the area is based on the placeholder logo for the game used in some old production documents.
• The "g" in "gerald" is intentionally left lowercase, by Nekhnona's request.