Kero Blaster/Unused Maps

This is a sub-page of Kero Blaster.

This article is a work in progress. ...Well, all the articles here are, in a way. But this one moreso, and the article may contain incomplete information and editor's notes.

To do: The debug room at 00debug.pxpack! How'd that slip my mind?

...But what does it mean? This game has text or audio that needs to be translated. If you are fluent with this language, please read our translation guidelines and then submit a translation! Notes: Japanese text in the scripts, as well as what appears to be a large Japanese character in 07goal.pxpack.

Although all of these maps have script files, only the ones that are more than the bare minimum of opening the screen and stopping the music will be listed.

Before Version 1.5

00test

This room filled to the brim with breakable blocks is the map you are taken to when entering Stage 0. It has a downwards screen warp placed far below the level, suggesting that it was much bigger at some point.

Port Rooms

There is a room for each stage in the game except for Stage 0, with the naming scheme 0Xport.pxpack. These rooms served the purpose of allowing Pixel to easily select a stage in his level editor using the directional arrows, rather than manually searching for the file, as he described in the second Rockfish devlog.

Most of these rooms are simple placeholders featuring the number of the stage, but there are a few unique cases that will be noted.

01port

01port.pxeve
*[IN] <muSt <fadI<exit *[toAreaPrev] <lkFU[3]<fadO<plMv[0;0]<trns[00test;toAreaNext;IN] *[toAreaNext] <lkFU[3]<fadO<plMv[0;0]<trns[02port;toAreaPrev;IN] *[Test1] <txtP[8;8]<freeメッサ荒野 コラーカン湿地<frez

Interestingly, this room is a corridor with the number "2014" in the center. This map was actually used by Pixel to make this tweet, where it also featured weeds and a jumping plant enemy.

Original	Translation
メッサ荒野 コラーカン湿地	Messa Wasteland Korahkan Marsh

What's also worth noting is that this map's script contains what appears to be early names for Hinterland Fort and Greenery Zone, respectively.

02port

03port

04port

While it does have the standard number "4" at the left side, the rest of the map appears to be a scrapped concept for a long room with many Laser Sensors. It seems the developers also used the room to test the Edge Coin and Edge Metal enemies.

Strangely, the placeholder blocks in this room are actually not solid, unlike with every other tileset in the final game.

05port

06port

07port

08port

This map uses the otherwise unused mpt08.png tileset. Rather than being a placeholder, it's just an extremely basic cave starting point, bearing a resemblance to the first screen of Trayne Station.

09port

Uses mpt09.png, which wouldn't be used until it was updated significantly for Zangyou mode's Destination. This appears to be a hill on a cliff or planet, which would fit Stage 9's location on the world map, corresponding to a small red planet seen in pre-release footage. Indeed, selecting Stage 9 in the level select sends the player to this map.

05test

05test.pxeve
*[IN] <muSt <chgN[Frost;-] <fcsH[1]<fadI<exit

A room made to test the frost that needs to be cleared in order to spawn Dark 1, with a glitched background that suggests a different tileset at the time of its creation. If the player shoots the frost, they will find that it isn't initialized properly, so it does not interact with the player's shots. Directly to the right of this room is another placeholder room, only containing a few icicles and some snow, which cannot be seen due to a horizontal camera anchor being placed in the former area.

06tunnel

06tunnel.pxeve
*[IN] <muSt <fldS[2;-14] <chgN[TrainWheel0;-] <fadI<exit *[toPlatform] <lkFU[3]<fadO<trns[06Platform;Back1;IN]

A scrapped room for the train in the Trayne Station. The tileset seems to have been changed quite a bit since this map was made, as it uses many improper tiles, most notably the connection between the two cars. At the edge of the train is an outline of something, probably to represent a big scary boss. In the final game, all of the train cars are separate maps, including the boss room.

The location the player is warped to when touching the event trigger.

Interestingly, it has an event trigger that travels across the moving floor, like in the Clock Man boss fight room. However, instead of killing the player like in the final game it sends the player back to the boarding platform.

Unused Goal Areas

Hekichi Plateau, Trayne Station and Back to the Office, are unique from the previous stages in that they don't end by reaching a proper goal room. Nevertheless, 05goal.pxpack, 06goal.pxpack and 07goal.pxpack exist anyway, unused.

05goal

To do: Get a screenshot of this map.

06goal

07goal

After Version 1.4

00special

A room with the letters "SP" in it. There is an Intro spawn point inside the P. Overall, one could say that this map is... nothing "special".

00special2

A screen with a scenic view similar to the one at the end of the Zangyou credits. It starts a fireworks show, then after a delay prints the text "Congratulations!" at the bottom left corner. Pressing a button will then return the player to the title screen. This was probably an ending screen for a demo, possibly one made for an overseas audience considering that the text is in English rather than in Japanese like the other unused script-exclusive text.

11chika

01chika (1.0.6.3) / 11chika (1.4.0.0)	01chika (1.4.0.0)

A duplicate of the original first Kuro Blaster room as it appeared prior to version 1.4.0.0, which added glitch levels to house the Kuro Blaster and its upgrades instead.

01chika can still be accessed by trying to visit the Hinterland Fort glitch level after having already completed it, but the room's length was shortened, and the Kuro Blaster was hidden in the ground so the player can't get it.

Port Rooms

Interestingly, it seems that the 0Xport.pxpack maps were used by the developers to test features added in the update — or as some rooms seem to suggest, mess around.

00port

This is the new default map for entering an invalid stage, like Stage 0, or Back to the Office in Zangyou mode. It has two hidden event triggers at the sides that fade in the screen, as well as Comomo in the center of the screen. There is also an event meant to play when entering the room that is commented out. When run, it seems to be a test for selecting a file for Omake mode.

01port

A cave-like area with a huge stash of small weeds, as well as two gravity-affected blocks. The bomb block was probably added for comparison with the other blocks, which existed without collision prior to the 1.4.0.0 update.

02port

A room with a pool of water that has tree trunks floating in it, and a fire-breathing plant with some blocks nearby. There are also triggers that spawn blue mosquitos and an angry cloud enemy. Notably, one of the blocks is a metallic block that is immune to the player's shots, which cannot be found in any stage in the final game.

02port.pxpack	18field2.pxpack

But the most intriguing aspect of this map is that it seems to have been repurposed for a room in the first Omake mode glitch area! Note the placement of the plant, logs, and gravity blocks, the pool of water, and the ladder in place of the stack of slope tiles. They even share the chest that contains a single coin.

03port

A room containing a variety of enemies found in the final version's Stage 3 in Zangyou mode. There are crabs on the ceiling, and propeller fish and sparks in the right half of the area. There are also two out-of-place rows of Spike Plants. The placeholder up-arrow tile functions as a water tile.

04port

The entire map has changed slightly, mostly as a result of the tileset being rearranged. The only thing to truly change is the room on the very left, which is now solid and contains a few Zangyou White Laboratories objects, as well as an otherwise-unused test object that uses Kaeru's graphics.

When interacting with the test NPC, it activates the tire. It also teleported the player at some point, according to the commented-out script commands, but the target location is inside of a wall, which would kill the player instantly. There is also a stack of ice blocks, stacked in a similar way as the ones in the Stage 4 Kuro Blaster room.

If you're concerned about the number, fret not! There is a green "4" placed on the background underneath some of the tiles at the beginning, as well as a visible gray one at the other end.

05port

A crag-like placeholder room containing stacks of books and gravity ice blocks.

06port

A strange room containing a single ball of gunk, and two Blue Shopkeepers/Tsubasa-kun's. Interacting with the NPCs triggers events for testing the new <fadK script command.

07port

A room with a big mud pool using placeholder graphics (since there is no mud in Back to the Office), a chest containing 99 coins, and a weed that releases a 1-UP bubble when destroyed.

08port

This map remained almost the same, but now it has a big "8" in the background. Riveting stuff.

09port

Seems to have been made to test the penguin-powered Trolley that the player rides in Destination. However, the Trolley does not appear by default, so some modification needs to be made to the script file to get it to spawn.

10port

The room is almost as simple as it looks; there is an event trigger made to test the <fadK command, but that's it.

11port

12port

It's the 02port room from earlier versions.

13port

Uses the layout of 03port from previous versions, except now it has two gravity-affected blocks stacked on top of each other.