DISCOVERY is the first Level of BIT.TRIP CORE. It consists of a cyclic journey through an odd machine-like structure with various moving parts. It is mysterious but hopeful, as CommanderVideo begins to fight for his sense of self. It consists of eight Stages, culminating in a Boss fight. It features the music track "Discovery".
Unlike the stages in BEAT, MEGA and the new SUPER MODE now have consistent audio across all three levels.
This Level is preceded by GROWTH and is followed by EXPLORATION.
If you manage to hit all the rainbow Beats, a blue bar will appear flashing followed by a red one, then an orange bar flashing and a green one flashing as well, and finally a cyan one while the red one flashes. A crash bell followed by echoed DJ-disc-scratching-like sound effects and low beeps ending off with a chinese cymbal will play as well, and move on to the next stage and the next part of the music. If you don't, the bars will dullly appear from right to left and disappear, and you'll hear a delayed reverbed sound fading in and out while some hi-hats tick a few times, then you'll play the next stage normally, but with the same music track as the previous one.
CUTSCENE[]
CommanderVideo looks upwards to see three giant CVs stretched upwards and with strange body shapes in a cuboid grey room, itself not making any sense due to spinning around in impossible angles, and strange noises fading in and out. Out of nowhere the room colour turns into an intense red and the three CVs suddenly become completely distorted (except for BIT.TRIP Saga, where they just look away/get flattened horizontally) and robot noises pop up, probably emitted by the CVs while a weird music gets progresseively louder as the CVs turn back to their shape at the beginning. Then everything becomes black except for the screens of the giant CVs, and then the Level starts.
Actual plot: CommanderVideo is born, and is greeted by a world completely alien to him, not even recognizing his parents and his own kin. There lies one reason for the Level to be called "DISCOVERY", besides the player's discovery of the game mechanics.
STAGES[]
Stage 1[]
The first stage includes some percussion as music, like some ticking popping up and fading away or drum-like beats.
This stage teaches you how to play the game, some basic patterns and how to handle Beats at different speeds and in large numbers, and then ends with four slow rainbow Beats, that one pretty much can't miss. But If you haven't ever played the game, or have bad peripheral vision or reflexes, even this stage can get tough.
Stage 2[]
The second stage plays the same music track as before, but includes a sound repeating over and over again playing the note E.
This stage throws (on the assumption that you didn't have trouble with the previous one) a few patterns at you that you may see often throughout the Level (like e.g. Beats "circling" around the Core; up, right, up, right, up, right, left; or side, side, side, side, opposite side), and ends off with the second one with the left Beats being the rainbow ones. Again, if you really aren't used to it, you can really struggle with it, but all should be fine otherwise.
Stage 3[]
The third stage starts the actual music. It plays the same track as the last, but it includes a high-pitched echoed beep playing arpeggios of the following chords in a cycle: E major, C major, C sharp minor, C major. (And it removes the stage-2-feature to it in HYPER or less.)
This stage is supposed to teach you how to "get organized" while playing this game, by throwing a few Beats at different sides at once and coming back a few times so you can catch them one at a time, by making Beats stop one after another on coners and changing sides while you having to remember their order of appearance, or just by being really slow and appearing in dozens. After a while it can become tricky since they'll appear at different speeds, times, and in different colours, but all they do is just make clockwise or counter-clockwise circles and changing sides mid-way. It ends off with rainbow Beats zooming at one side 4 times and then 4 times on the other side.
Stage 4[]
The fourth Stage replaces the melodies of Stage 3 (and 2) with a bass consisting of low beeps (and some lighter E tunes in MEGA or more).
This one is more about the music, as some Beats must be destroyed to the notes of the bass. But besides that, it reunites everything you've learned so far, but harder, since Beats circling around the Core are sometimes green and twirling in attempt to get you confused, appearing extremely fast, or stopping while others are on the screen. In this stage you'll also get introduced to the POWER-UP "MULTI-BEAM" that makes you shoot on a whole axis at once. The stage ends off with rainbow Beats that must be destroyed to the four last notes of the bass. It should be fine if you are going with the flow of the music (unless you missed a rainbow Beat) and able to remember the previous patterns.
Stage 5[]
The fifth stage combines a reverbed echoed version of the bass and the music of stage 2 (no matter in what MODE you're in).
This stage starts messing with your brain and introduces you to all kinds of new Beats and to the POWER-UP "CHALLENGE" that tilts your Core 90° counter-clockwise, but not your controls. You get to learn (not in the easy way) red Beats leaving an orange trail that do nothing else, entire paddles of yellow Beats, smoked cyan Beats that warp in intervals from corner to beam zone in a cycle counter- or clockwise, and new patterns of Beats that'll be important to remember for the rainbow Beats that can be tough otherwise and for CONTROL. This is all about remembering and recognizing patterns, but it does often get tricky, or even hard.
Stage 6[]
The sixth stage combines the stage-4-bass, the music of stage 2 and the melody of stage 3.
Get really quick at changing sides in this stage, or you'll have chances of getting one or two MODE-DOWNs. Now the Beats can speed up or slow down during their movement. Besides the POWER-UP MULTI-BEAM and the fast you have to get that might catch you off-guard, there's not much to say, it's just simple patterns sometimes making you belive to stop when they keep going on. The rainbow Beats are basically the same as the last ones.
Stage 7[]
A whole new melody plays in the seventh stage, being a reverbed and echoed beep sound effect playing a repeating melody in E.
This stage sometimes throws Beats at you at the rhythm of the music. It also introduces you to orange Beats, that bounce after getting hit, like in BEAT, and to the POWER-UP "ULTRA-BEAM" that shoots a continuous beam once aimed, in this stage to destroy dozens of Beats to create some sort of random music. Besides this, it reunites everything you've learned so far and ends off with six times where you have to destroy rainbow Beats.
BOSS[]
The BOSS stage plays the stage-6-bass, the stage-3-melody (in reverb, vibrato-like and shorter in MEGA or more) and a new melody consting of echoed high-pitched bell-like beeps.
The BOSS consists of sixteen Beats forming a diamond shape around the Core. They will produce trailed Beats. The colours of the trails are used to confuse and frustrate the player visually.
The first wave throws Beats in a certain direction on an axis a few times before letting them circle around the Core and changing axis or direction and doing that again.
The second wave consists of three patterns that you've seen throughout the level. The last one gets Tricky since the trails come from further and further and so cover up more and more space.
The third wave throws whole sides of Beats at you first and the trails can get you really confused. After that it's hard in a completely different way. The ones closest to their axis throw Beats that may seem hard to see at first so you need to be on alert for when they come. After that, it's the same, but they're "closing in" to the ones the farthest away from their axis. Then they go in direction like in the first wave. But then, a whole new pattern of Beats get thrown at you, so be careful. After that, well, good job, you did it!
The whole boss could be seen as a test of peripheral vision.