trapped in stairway to heaven

[viktorhallo]

just arrived at stairway to heaven, and saw the game removed my ability to teleport out and no throne in sight... i am currently at the first boss in heaven, which i cant kill with a melee build, since i cant really hit her with melee attacks without being hit myself. is there anyway to teleport out or respecc without having to kill the boss there?

[Smaks]

There is a throne in the heaven area. It is possible to climb back down, i've done it.

[Lightbearer]

The throne is quite close from where you zone in. Take the right portal and after the second long platform (look at your map to see what I mean) you want to start heading up to the NE. On the third long platform you'll start seeing a bunch of smaller platforms with thorns above you. Keep going and at the top is a portal to the throne area. I have no idea why the hell they did this because there is no advanced warning and I was also stuck with a melee build. You literally need a ranged build for this area to not throw your controller at the wall.

[viktorhallo]

Originally posted by jdmccoy7:

The throne is quite close from where you zone in. Take the right portal and after the second long platform (look at your map to see what I mean) you want to start heading up to the NE. On the third long platform you'll start seeing a bunch of smaller platforms with thorns above you. Keep going and at the top is a portal to the throne area. I have no idea why the hell they did this because there is no advanced warning and I was also stuck with a melee build. You literally need a ranged build for this area to not throw your controller at the wall.

ended up beating her with a melee build. took almost 2 hours of tryharding. sad that i missed the throne the first time, would probably have saved me alot of frustration:P
but thanks for the explanation :D will probably help other people from getting stuck there!

[Smaks]

Keep in mind that you will still have to backtrack to the stairway to heaven if you ever want to return there to explore and loot. There is no other way back there. I ended up beating that boss with melee too btw. :P

[Paragus]

I find this upsetting. I just beat that boss last night and had no idea I already passed the throne. Who thought it would be a good idea to not only trap the player inside this area, but to hide the exit off the main path to the boss in such a random place? Also filling the place with monsters that shoot off a super nova that takes up the entire screen while having to do precision platforming in that place is hot garbage.

I figured the throne would be, I don't know...right before the boss? Were these design choices made under the guise of (artificial) difficulty?

[david copperfield]

This is my least favorite area in the game, because as visually cool as it is, it is SUPER frustrating and annoying to go through. The same enemies/platforming layout is copy/pasted a dozen times, there are like thirteen branching paths which all go on juuuust long enough for you to doubt if you're going the right way, and the throne is not well conveyed with bat arrows like in other areas, as well as being too far from anything meaningful because of how close to the start it is. End of the World and the Cosmos are two LARGE areas that do this concept MUCH better, and it's just disappointing that the end of the game is marred by this honestly baffling level design. When I got to the kunoichi boss, I knew I just had to sit there and make it through, because there was no way in HELL I was doing the Celestial Maze again. And then I was on edge the whole time I was in the Palace, because I missed the throne my first time through, and sure as hell wasn't teleporting ALL THE WAY back to the beginning of the Stairway. If the Stairway was 1/2 the size it is now, I think I would be fine with it, but in the end, it's simply too annoying for me to enjoy going through.