Editing CastleMania

{{Goodpage}}
{{Epilepsy Warning}}
{{Infobox Level
|image = File:CastleMania.png
|creator = [[Serponge]] (host and publisher), [[Ferdefunky]], Lumpy, [[DavJT]], [[Subwoofer]], TheDevon, Koolboom, iISpaceDustIi, ZepherGD, Sminx, Alfred PKNess, N R G, Pan, Tob24, KingTony, Kips, [[rafer]], [[Thomartin]], Reunomi, Floppy, Nemphis, RadiationV2, Sniper X, Disp, [[Xender Game]], ZalsprX, Arb, and Yoshikawa
|difficulty = [[File:Medium Demon.png|20px]] Medium Demon
|stars = 10[[File:Star.png|15px]]
|id = 65044525
|version = 10
|last_updated = 2.1
|composer = Zirconmusic
|song = Monstrous Turtles
|song_id = 171702}}
{{Quote
|Low detail highly recommended for most devices
|Serponge}}
'''CastleMania''' is a 2.1 XL Medium Demon mega-collaboration hosted and published by [[Serponge]]. It is a very complicated level, featuring several different routes and multiple endings. The three user coins are collected by going through paths. The difficulty varies depending on which route the player decides to take.

==Gameplay==
'''Warning: If you want to try out the level yourself, consider this a spoiler.'''

*'''Forest ([[Serponge]]):''' This is where you start off in the level. While playing it normally, you will push a skull into a button that lowers the bridge to the Main Hall. By doing a precise jump from the short stump in the beginning, you can go through the log, which has a mini-portal inside of it. While mini, you can jump on the skulls, and lightning will strike the tall gravestone, making it easier to jump on it by making a jump on the second skull. Doing this will cause the bridge to go up instead, letting you fall into a pit which leads to the Sinking Sewers. However, if you are mini, and decide to jump from the gravestone instead of the skull, you will land on the button, causing the bridge to go down, and letting you get to the Main Hall as mini.
*'''Main Hall P1 ([[Ferdefunky]] + Lumpy):''' Going through the Castle from the Forest, this will be the first room you get into. There is a door-key to the right of a dark staircase leading to the Prison. If you get into the Main Hall mini sized (refer to the Forest to learn how to do that), you are basically forced to get the key, and you can get it with a precise jump. These types of keys will be used to get to some secrets later (There are a 8 of them in the whole level). A bit later, you will find several blocks. You can jump on them and go up to get to the White Church. Continuing forward, you will find a large pit with spread-out blocks you have to jump onto. Falling down the pit will take you to the Prison. Falling down from the second row of blocks will grant you a door key. Continuing forward, you will find a ball section, which uses staircases as slopes. There is a dash orb afterward, which you can hit while in normal gravity or not. Doing so, you will go through a short cube section, then transition to the second part of the Main Hall, which starts at the UFO. Again, you can choose if you can do this part in normal gravity or not, as something different will happen.
*'''Sinking Sewers ([[DavJT]]):''' By referring to the technique explained in The Forest with the mini portal, you can get here earlier. Doing so will grant you access to a door key, which you can get by falling from the first box to hit an invisible blue orb in the water. Getting the key will take you back down. More importantly, you obtain a Lantern, which is used to unlock a section. There will be a dash orb that leads to the Prison. Continuing forward, you will get to the Crystal Caves.
*'''Prison ([[Subwoofer]]):''' You can access this area by going down from the Main Hall, or going up from the Sewers. By going down the first acid pool when you take the staircase from the Main Hall, you will get to the Sinking Sewers. If you have the Lantern (see Forest & Sinking Sewers for more details), you will get to a new section of the Prison. If you go to this section without the Lantern, the screen will turn black for the entirety of this section. By doing nothing for a few seconds, you'll be sent to the Ball part in the Main Hall, but as a cube, so you have to take the Dash Orb in normal gravity. Anyway, in this section, there are three cores you can collect; a green one, a red one, and a blue one. To get the Green Core, you need to go to the mini-portal, use the dash orb to go up, and make a precise jump from the highest platform you can land on. To get the Red one, simply skip the green orb when taking the blue jump pad during the end of the section. There is a mini-boss you have to fight called '''Ossgus - Dead Guard'''. During the fight, you will find the Blue Core close to the spikes. His patterns are rather simple and easy to memorize. This boss fight is completely optional, and is not required for any of the Endings. When defeated, there will be a room. If you have collected all of the Cores, you will have access to the Abandoned Cells. If you have not, you will instead be sent to the Main Hall, and a free door-key.
*'''Abandoned Cells (TheDevon):''' Defeating Ossgus and getting all of the Cores in the Prison is required to access this area. (see Prison to learn how to do those things). Most of it is straight-fly. After that, there will be 2 paths you can take, one which takes you to the Catacombs, while the other is a dead end.
*'''Crystal Caves (iISpaceDustIi):''' This part is much longer than usual. This section does not have many routes you can take. Most of the gameplay here is a bit more precise than usual. Later in the section, there will be a lava and a mine part, which is slightly easier. At the end of the section, using the red orb at the top will not do anything, while continuing forward will take you to the Catacombs.
*'''Catacombs (Zepher):''' This part is pretty short, and is more of a bridge section. This section does not have anything branching routes, and only takes you to the Deepest Depths. There is another route you can take by using the spider to teleport to the ceiling with the portal particles to unlock a harder route. As for the gameplay, it is straight-forward and easy, but a tiny bit dark to see.
*'''Deepest Depths (Sminx):''' Again, a very short section with no branching routes. The normal route has simple gameplay and a free fly section, in which you have to go up to continue. The harder route (see Catacombs to learn how to access it) will not give the player anything, but will make you mini for the upcoming boss fight. Completing this section will take you to a Xender Game boss known as '''Altus - Fallen Prince'''. The fight itself is straightforward. Altus will summon small minions who shoot lasers, and he can shoot lasers as well. He will shoot skulls to the player too. Defeating him will complete the Deep Path, and give you a coin.
*'''White Church (Serponge + Subwoofer):''' Can be accessed from the Main Hall pretty easily. You can skip the third platform in the cube section, jumping over a pressure plate. Doing this will disable a spear in the Spider part, where you can teleport to the spikes with the blue particles, taking you to the Hidden Pipeways. Continuing forward normally will take you to the Dark Church.
*'''Dark Church (Alfred PK):''' Another short section. For this part, the screen shakes a tiny bit. By getting to the third platform with the black cross on it, you can go through it, then make some jumps to get a door-key. You can access the Attic by going forward, while going up takes you to the Battlement.
*'''Attic (N R G, Pan, and Disp):''' You can access this area early from the Dark Church. This part contains mini ball sections, followed by giant hands that can snatch you and kill you. You can get a door-key during the first half. You cannot get it if you accessed the Attic via Garden. The Attic has no branching routes, and will always take you to the middle part of the Towers.
*'''Battlement (Lumpy):''' This section contains lots of spikes and boxes laying on the floor. You can get a door-key in this section too. By jumping off a large box to a dark part of a wall close to the second half of the section, you'll get into a Robot portal. Doing this, you can make a high jump from one of the boxes later to get the key in the sky. Separately, towards the end you can fall onto some blue jump pads which take you to a Pink Dash Orb, which leads to a Cog collectible, which is required to access the Clock Tower. You will then get to the top of the Towers.
*'''Main Hall P2 (Floppy, Nemphis, Pan, [[Thomartin]], and RadiationV2):''' Referring to Main Hall P1, you can access the UFO either upside-down or not. If you are upside-down and complete the first UFO, you can go into the Cube portal and get sent to the Garden. If you aren't upside down, you will continue through the Main Hall, and get to a Robot section. There is a door-key in this section, but it's rather difficult to get. To get it, skip the Cube-portal after the first UFO while upside-down, that way you don't get sent to the Garden, and you can do the second UFO & the Robot upside-down. After doing precise long jumps as the Robot, you can get the key, and go back down. Completing this section will take you to the bottom part of the Towers.
*'''Hidden Pipeways (Zepher):''' A very short bridge-section (see White Church to know how to access it). There is also a hidden door-key behind some foreground. Doing this section will take you to the Garden, and it is the only section that takes you to the beginning of it, instead of the middle.
*'''Garden (Tob, KingTony, and Subwoofer):''' Can be accessed from the Hidden Pipeways & the Main Hall only. By getting to the Garden from the Hidden Pipeways, you can get a giant flower collectible, which is required for one of the paths. By doing a precise jump from the 2nd fountain, you can land on some hard-to-see Red Jump Pads, which takes you to a door-key. By using the Red Orb in the middle of the section, you can go to the Attic, more specifically, the room with the giant hands that snatch you (the 2nd half). Continuing forward, you will arrive at the Towers.
*'''Towers (Serponge):''' The most interconnected area in the level. You can access it from the Main Hall, Garden, Attic, and Battlement. Going to the top part, you can find a bridge you can cross, and then a door that can open if you have the Cog from the Battlement. From the bottom, you can find a door-key, and go to the Haunted Hall. Going to the middle paths, you can get to the Library.
*'''Haunted Hall (Serponge):''' This part, like the Crystal Caves, is longer than usual, and is also very linear. In the middle of the section, you will find a door. You can open the door with a yellow key. Continuing from this point, you unlock the '''Standard Path''', and finish the level. This path does not reward you any coins.
*'''Clocktower (Kips):''' By getting the Cog from the Battlement, and going to the top of the Towers, you can access this area. There is a boss at the end known as '''Death - The Last Reaper'''. This boss fight is probably the hardest of the bunch. He can curse you with blindness, shoot skulls, and attack with his Scythe, which are hinted by the clock in the background. You will then get out of the boss arena, and go to the top of the Exterior where the fight continues.
*'''The Library ([[Thomartin]]):''' It's not recommended to go in this area if it is your first time playing, as progressing from here can get a bit complicated. This area is really open. If you drop down from a small gap from the upper area, you can fall down to collect a Green collectible which looks like a piece of a key. You need this for a Path. Continuing from the bottom, you can get to the Painting Alley. When you hang out at the top, you can access a sub-section known as the Collapsing Library. Later in that section, there is a door requiring 2 door-keys to open. Continuing from there, you will arrive at the bottom of the Exterior.
*'''Painting Alley (Reunomi):''' You need to be prepared for this area. You first need the Flower collectible from the Garden, and then the Green Key-piece collectible from the Library. Doing so, you can unlock a door, which is key for progressing. But by falling from the chandelier before the door, you will get to the Haunted Hall. In the section after the door, you will fight '''Charta - Hollowed Tome'''. This boss fight requires a bit of muscle memory to get down. It will shoots sparks of fire, green fireballs, and blocks at you. In the end, reflect the bats it shoots at you by simply touching them, and beat the boss. Doing this unlocks the '''Library Path'''. You will get a coin for this as well.
*'''Exterior ([[rafer]]):''' The bottom can be accessed from the Library, while the top can be accessed from the Clocktower. When in the top, the battle against Death continues. Dodging his attacks requires muscle memory, and good reaction time. You can technically escape him by dropping down to the bottom of the Exterior though. Defeating him properly will unlock the '''Reaper Path''', which gives you a coin. If you beat the Exterior from the bottom, you unlock the '''Exterior Path''', which doesn't reward you any coins.

Once you beat any path, you will get a view of a map showcasing the areas you have explored. After that, the credits show, in which you have a choice to speed it up by clicking. After that, the level ends.

[[File:CastleMania map.jpg|330x330px|]]

==Trivia==
*Unlike most [[Serponge]] levels, the level cannot be copied.
*The level contains 417,817 objects.
**Much like [[Ocular Miracle]], Adrenaline [[Khorne]], [[WOODKID]], Black Flag, [[pointzero]], [[Night Rider]] and Light It Up, this level will crash on many devices, corrupting some save files and making the level free; but it is possible to beat the gauntlet in under 5 seconds.<!--Is it even bannable on the leaderboard?-->
*The level is 2m 58s in length.
*The level was nominated for and achieved ''Best Demon Megacollab'' in the [[Geometry Dash Awards|''Geometry Dash'' 2020 Awards]].
*The level was in the works for over a year.{{cite}}
*Serponge's full playthrough video on this level uses title cards to name locations, which are inspired by the indie game ''[https://hollowknight.fandom.com/f Hollow Knight]''.<ref>https://youtu.be/ppgh1EpULQU</ref>
*During the credits, you can see the castle in the background collapse if you have beaten the Reaper Path.<ref>https://youtu.be/lgFJUs3oNDA?t=658</ref>
*Serponge's trailer video for CastleMania used a Castlevania song called "Bloody Tears", which was remixed by TheDevon.<ref>https://youtu.be/UgW7Rm99DuQ</ref>
*The entire level is in normal speed, so creators could avoid any sync problems.
*This level had one of the fastest features in the whole game, let-alone epic, taking about a minute following its release.{{cite}}
*This level was in [[EricVanWilderman]]'s 12 Demons of Christmas 2020 series as Demon #7.<ref>https://youtu.be/wX6akYOSOk4</ref>
*There is an upcoming unnamed sequel to CastleMania.<ref>https://mobile.twitter.com/Sersponge/status/1454946294217068544?s=20</ref>

==Walkthrough==
[[File:"CastleMania" (Demon) by Serponge, Xender Game, Rafer & more -Full Playthrough- - Geometry Dash 2.11|center|thumb|330x330px|A full walkthrough of all of CastleMania's paths. Credits to [[Viprin]].]]

==References==
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{{Gauntlets}}
[[Category:Collaborations]]
[[Category:2.1 levels]]
[[Category:Gauntlet levels]]
[[Category:XL levels]]
[[Category:Levels with user coins]]
[[Category:Demon levels]]
[[Category:Medium Demon levels]]
[[Category:Award-winning levels]]