Holy Mountain
A Holy Mountain is a Biome found between each of the main areas of the game, separating the levels. They are always composed of Brickwork, which is very resilient to most digging methods, and their tops are decorated with portals which lead to the central shop area within the biome. The portals are linked to the eye structures beneath them which are normally filled with Teleportatium; if an eye is emptied or enough of another material is introduced, the corresponding portal can be deactivated.
Though there are many portals at the end of each area, they all lead to the same location, as there is only one shop zone per Holy Mountain. Entering a different portal from the same floor will not refresh the pickups or shop inventory. On occasion, the entire basin containing a portal may be submerged in Blood, Water, Toxic Sludge, Oil or Lava.
Contents
Each Holy Mountain contains the following:
- A Full Health Regeneration
- A Spell Refresher
- Two pools of water, which can be used for washing off your cape or refilling Water potions, and possibly containing a certain number of Eväkäs (fish).
- A shop area where you can purchase Spells or Wands[1]
- A small enclosed room containing a Worm Crystal[2] below the shop area, which deters Worms from venturing too close to the shop zone
- An altar with a handful of Perks to choose from, alongside a Perk Reroll machine
- Two statues that serve as training dummies, which show damage dealt when hit with a spell. The statues in the Holy Mountain after the Temple of the Art are inert and don't show damage.
Collapse
On the right side is a tunnel leading to the next area. Upon passing through the slanted section of the exit tunnel, the ceiling above the perk altar will collapse and physically block the passage. Red particles will appear which deal significant damage to you if you try to re-enter the room, though these fade away after a handful of seconds. Trying to enter the Holy Mountain by any means while the curse is active will swiftly result in a death attributed to the "Holy Mountain curse".
Additionally, once the ceiling of a Holy Mountain collapses, it stops granting the ability to edit wands within.
Avoiding Collapse
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The collapse of the Holy Mountain is only triggered when you cross into the upper section of the exit tunnel. It can be avoided by bypassing the trigger, which can be done in any one of a few ways:
- Destroying brickwork to make a passage (though this will anger the gods and trigger Stevari to spawn)
- Polymorphing yourself with any Polymorphine variant and passing through the trigger in another form
- Teleporting past it using Teleportatium or a Teleport Bolt or Return spell
Adding a Long Distance Cast spell to a teleport wand makes exiting and entering the Holy Mountain trivial, as you can simply teleport through the dividing wall of the exit tunnel, or directly out from the bottom of one of the ponds. Exactly 3 Long Distance Cast spells and a Teleport Bolt can also be used to teleport directly into the eye above the entrance of the shop area. Utilizing the Teleportatium inside of the eye, this allows traveling upwards to the previous biome.
Using any of these methods, it is possible to leave the Holy Mountain and return later to edit or store spells and wands.
If you choose to use the polymorph method, note that using Unstable or Chaotic Polymorphine can be dangerous, as some of the possible forms can easily kill themselves their own attacks or destroy the temple brick (especially Worm forms), thus unintentionally angering the gods. Be cautious of enemies waiting just below the exit passage, especially when using regular Polymorphine as it leaves you completely defenseless. It is possible to wait at the topmost perch in the exit tunnel until the polymorph expires, but be sure you are not within the trigger zone when the polymorph expires.
Angering the Gods
The Holy Mountain area is made of brickwork, which is resistant to explosives but can be destroyed by other means such as Acid or Worms. If the walls surrounding the inside area are damaged, you will receive a message saying You have angered the gods and a hostile Stevari will spawn above the perk altar inside the damaged Holy Mountain. If collapse has already been triggered the holy mountain can safely be damaged, without angering the gods.
Once the gods are angered, a Stevari will spawn in every future Mountain in the current run. Note that this only occurs if the brickwork surroundings of the main Holy Mountain / shop area is damaged; it's still possible to tunnel completely through the Holy Mountain layer without angering the gods as long as you give the main shop area a wide berth and avoid damaging brickwork anywhere near the normal Holy Mountain passage. The way to stop future Stevari spawning is to pick up the Peace with Gods perk, which will also make any already-spawned Stevari friendly. Alternatively, a few stacks of the More Love perk will cause the spawned Stevari to be passive towards you.
After killing 3 separate instances of Stevari that were spawned from a Holy Mountain, you receive the message The gods are enraged and all further Holy Mountains will instead spawn Skoude. Additionally, further damaging Holy Mountain brickwork after this event will give the message The gods are very angry with you
Trivia
- Clearing the previous biome without killing anything causes a "Pacifist Chest" to spawn in the alcove above the perk altar, opposite the reroll machine.
- When you pick up a perk from the perk altar, blood will flow from the glyphs adorning the altar. However, if you didn't kill anything in the previous biome, water will flow from the glyphs instead.
- According to the files for the default translation mod, the name "Holy Mountain" is a reference to the film Holy Mountain by Alejandro Jodorowsky.
Glyphs
The glyphs under the Portals read:
TELEPORT
The glyphs under the Health and Spell Pickups read:
REFRESHING
The glyphs under the Perk altar read:
SEEK
THE
END
Soundtrack
Track 9 of Noita Official Soundtrack vol. 1 is titled "Holy Mountain Theme".[3]
Digging Around Collapse Triggers
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The areas which trigger a collapse are very well defined, and can be circumvented with some carefully placed Black Holes.
Stealing spells from the shop
It is possible to "steal" spells from Holy Mountain spell shops (not mid-biome spell shops) in a few ways. It generally involves moving the spell icon beyond the "range" of the shop, which will remove the price-tag.
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The two most common techniques are using Circle of Buoyancy to float the spells, or any digging methods (E.g. Luminous Drill) to drop the spells straight down into the next biome. It is also possible to use items such as an Emerald Tablet directly underneath the spell to 'kick' it upwards.
Prior to the March 2023 changes, floating the spells up to the ceiling worked.[4] Since then, the height was changed, and some of the ceiling needs to be removed. Doing this without Angering the Gods requires some care. This diagram shows the March 2023 change:
Notes
- ↑ Typically Holy Mountain shops will contain 5 wands or 10 spells, though this amount can be increased with the Extra Item in Holy Mountains perk.
- ↑ If the Worm Crystal in the room underneath the shop is destroyed, a message will appear saying The worm crystal has shatteredYou feel less safe. and the Holy Mountain will no longer be protected from worms.
- ↑ Holy Mountain Theme | From Grotto & Niilo Takalainen | Niilo Takalainen on Bandcamp.com
- ↑ See Stealing Spells In Noita - DunkOrSlam (youtube)