The Big Bath

The Big Bath is the fifth level in AntonBlast. It takes place in a strange and creepy bathhouse.

General[]

The Big Bath is obviously a bathhouse with a confusing layout. At times, the rooms will change when parts are out of view, and other times there will be endless rooms such as an endless staircase or an endless hall of doors. Besides that, the Spirit timer is located in a completely different and dark place.

Getting through all the obstacles and entering the elevator, its air horns will turn into demon horns with a sign on top that says "DIE", the now revealed Hellevator^[1] will descent to the same dark place full of Ink Blorts called "Soaps". The player must break the Hellevator for him to get out of it, the Spirit timer will resume its countdown until Anton enters a real elevator.

This level introduces Metal Shark transformation, The player must pass through a circle with yellow and blue stripes to transform into a metal shark, with only his head peeking out. The transformation can be used to destroy 1Ton blocks.

Enemies

Fippo
PhilAA
Rubbin Duck
Soap
Shelby

Objects[]

Detonators[]

The Green Club detonator is located in the room "Double Down". However, it does not immediately unlock anything, as the blocks it explodes are immediately blocked off by the changing layout. However, the pathway it unlocks is used for finding Paul.

The Blue Spade detonator is located in the room "Happy as a Clam". It unlocks the Torpedo in the room, kills the clams in the room, and unlocks the path forwards in "Landing Pool".

The Yellow Diamond detonator is located in the room "Smoke and Mirrors". It unlocks a shortcut back to "All Roads Lead to Rome" (AKA "Landing Pool"), as well as the path forwards in "Pushing Onwards".

The Red Heart detonator is located in the room "Mudskipper", at the top of the room. It unlocks the path for the room's Torpedo to travel on in order to get out of the room.

Collectables[]

Located near the top of the room "Mudskipper" inside a patch of water.

In the room "Torpedo Juice", crash into the cracked ceiling by the 1-ton blocks with the Torpedo to unlock the passage to a door. Traverse through the following rooms and find the Skull Tamagotchi waiting for you at the end.

In the room "Changing Room", do the room as normal until you reach the door on the right. Then, backtrack left, where the Cassette Tape will be waiting for you.

In the room "A Moment of Reflection", after jumping through the mirror, go through the door on the bottom. You will end up in a completely dark room that you must blindly navigate, with the Spray Can at the end. The clear vision of the room is shown below

Secrets[]

Paul

During Happy Hour, go as fast as you can, as time is a precious resource here. Make your way through the entire Happy Hour section up until you end up in the room "Wading Pool". (NOTE: This is NOT the "Wading Pool?" room with the Hellevator. This is talking about the room with the real exit, and the sign that says "closed".) There, Clutch Dash over the exit, making sure not to go into it. Go through the hallway with the green splatters, and you'll end up in a room called "Bottom of the Stairs". From there, go to "Tangerine Dream" by entering any door, then run through there until you find the wall with the red splatters. Jump into it from the right side and enter the door, and you'll be in "Top of the Stairs". Go to the right, and enter the door there, then run to the end of the room you are put in. Paul will be there. Don't waste any time looking at him, though, because you have to be on the run. Immediately run back to the start of the room and take the door right at the top of the stairs back to "Tangerine Dream". From there, dive down to the bottom of the tunnel of water on the right, then come back up. Then go through the door with the yellow splatters, go through the bottom left of "All Roads Lead to Rome" (AKA "Landing Pool"), then the exit will be there. All of this must be done extremely quickly, as you will have just seconds of time left upon reaching the exit, assuming you didn't buy a time extension.

Trivia[]

The Big Bath is one of only two levels to be possible without using the clutch button, the other being Concrete Jungle. Unlike Concrete Jungle, however, The Big Bath is possible without using the Slide + Jump combo for a mini clutch boost.
The Big Bath has a unique Time Trial, in that there is only one time box that appears. It has a print of a bloody eye on it rather than the usual number, and freezes the timer for 180 seconds (3 minutes).^[2]
- Because of this, you spend most of the level unaware of your pace, which can make knowing when to restart a run more difficult.
- However, the par time of this level is actually 1 minute and 20 seconds (80 seconds), meaning that getting a record time of 0 seconds, if possible, is more likely than in other stages.
The Big Bath references the Poolrooms, liminal spaces resembling a bathhouse that disorient the person, and with entities lurking through the shadows.
The Big Bath contains a room called "The Great Hall," which is most likely a reference to the book House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski or the level in Crash Bandicoot 1. The metastory's titular house contains an impossibly large labyrinth that defies the house's outer dimensions, and one of the rooms the labyrinth leads to is what the characters refer to as "The Great Hall," a vast open and dark room with a seemingly infinite downward spiral staircase in the middle, similar to how the room in The Big Bath is presented.
The Halfway Down room may be a reference to Super Mario 64's end stairs, mainly because it is a room that teleports the player to different sides to create the illusion it is infinite^[3]
Though being mentioned in the Kickstarter Campaign. There was no information about this level until the full game released.
The only time you see the outside of The Big Bath is in the Paul room, where a grey overcast awaits outside the huge windows.
This is the only level in the game to have routes change as you go around the level.
This is one of the only levels in the game that doest have Danton.
One of the rooms during Happy Hour, named "Dirty Drowning Man," could be a reference to a Primus song of the same name.
This level could foreshadow Tallbuster because of the fact that it's a Bath level.
The font used in The Big Bath's title card is from "Cheddar Gothic Stencil"