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The Axis Mundi is the fourth and final stage of Babel. This stage will push players to their full limit, and if the player(s) successfully scale the tower, they're rewarded with godhood and will become the new consort to Ishtar, the goddess of fertility.

Description[]

The final stage of Babel, The Axis Mundi; the very core of the universe! This is the ultimate final test, filled with the holy light of the origins of existence!

Your climb takes you on an invasion into the territory of the gods, where the goddess of fertility awaits. Go forth, and use your expertise and intuition to forge a path to a place only the chosen can reach!

Layout[]

Unlike previous stages, Axis Mundi has regular/White Blocks and Cracked Blocks only, and features Black Hole Blocks as the main threat. The blocks are often arranged in highly complex patterns, making it easy to collapse most of the tower just by moving the wrong block at the wrong time with almost no method to recover. Extensive mastery of the various advanced techniques is required.

Single[]

The stage consists of around 280 steps and it is divided into 10 levels.

Throughout the early phases of the stage, the wall patterns appear to stretch wide.

During Level 5, the player has to deal with at least one tall two-column wall. Usually the Timber technique can be used to push out blocks of both columns until there are less rows to easily reach the top of this wall while still maintaining a resonable amount of footing. The player should however be careful if they are any blocks beside the two-column wall sticking out that may "catch" the blocks the player is pushing out for Timber.

When transitioning from Level 6 to Level 7, the player has to scale up a series of fixed pyramid-like wall patterns with alternating Cracked and regular Blocks. In Level 8, the stage splits into two towers before gradually merging into one similar to Obelisk. Some formations form a staircase of Cracked Blocks.

Once the player reaches Level 9, Black Hole Blocks no longer appear for the rest of the stage. Upon reaching Level 10, granted that the player does not collapse too much of the remaining stage, the remaining wall formations should form a solid wall 4-story wall consisting of two 4-story 3-column walls of regular Blocks with a strip of Immovable blocks dividing the two wall sections and the Goal Block at the top center of the wall formation. The player will just need to pull out a block to form a three block flat footing then pull one of the three blocks of the aforementioned walls and push it out. From there, the player can repeatedly use the Slider and Pullback to craft a staircase to reach the top level and the goal.

Pair[]

The stage consists of around 180 steps but unlike the other stages of Babel (in both Single and Pair modes), the Pair version of Axis Mundi only consists of nine levels in the original Catherine/Catherine Classic and ten in Catherine: Full Body. Regardless, the wall patterns for Pair mode in this stage are less complicated than its Single mode counterpart.

The Trivia for Tonight.....[]

  • Counting the other stages of Babel, alongside the nine stages of the Golden Playhouse mode, the Axis Mundi is the thirteenth stage in the game overall.
  • The Axis Mundi can be considered as Babel's version of The Empireo from the Golden Playhouse.
  • The Axis Mundi is easily the hardest stage of Babel, which is an already difficult challenge to begin with. This makes the stage easily one of the hardest stages in the entire game.
  • The Axis Mundi has the longest length of all the stages in Babel. Similarly to how The Empireo has the longest length of all the stages in the Golden Playhouse.
  • The Single mode of Axis Mundi in the Western releases of the original Catherine has a glitch; there are only 3 levels instead of 10 in the other stages of Babel. At the start of the stage, the game will always generate a Level 8 wall pattern intended before the game transitions to "Level 2" (which the majority of the stage comprises of) where the game will constantly generate wall patterns intended for Level 9 in all other game versions until the player reaches around 270 steps where "Level 3" are Level 10 wall patterns consisting of the goal. (Also, the music does not change.) As the level does not change, the collapse intervals eventually occur at the shortest possible amount of time, thus making the stage very difficult to beat. This glitch has been fixed in all subsequent re-releases of Catherine as well as Catherine: Full Body.
  • The voice clip where the announcer warns about the Black Hole Blocks always plays when the player reaches 30 steps, including the aforementioned glitched version of the stage in Western copies of Catherine despite said blocks not featured in any of the Level 9 wall patterns.
  • In the cutscene prior to playing Axis Mundi, a gameplay clip of a stage resembling Axis Mundi plays in the TV. However, it shows a Heavy Block and a Trap Block in the stage, which both block types are not featured in the actual stage.

Videos[]

Catherine[]

Catherine: Full Body[]

Stages and bosses
Underground Cemetery:

Prison of Despair:
Torture Chamber:
Inquisition:
Quadrangle:
Clock Tower:
Spiral Corridor:
The Cathedral:
The Empireo:
Close Encounter:
Babel:

1-1

2-1  · 2-2  · 2-3 (Fist of Grudge)
3-1  · 3-2  · 3-3 (Immoral Beast)
4-1  · 4-2 (The Child)
5-1  · 5-2  · 5-3 (Doom's Bride)
6-1  · 6-2  · 6-3  · 6-4 (Child with a Chainsaw)
7-1  · 7-2  · 7-3  · 7-4  · 7-5 (Shadow of Vincent)
8-1 (Catherine)
9-1  · 9-2  · 9-3  · 9-4  · 9-5 (Thomas Mutton)  · 9-6 (Dumuzid)
10-1  · 10-2  · 10-3  · 10-4 (Archangel)
Altar  · Menhir  · Obelisk  · Axis Mundi

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