The 2000 IQ Cave Story Quiz

Use these proven tests to find your Cave Story IQ! You will receive an evaluation with every playthrough!
Mr. "Critter with a Top Hat" has some questions, and you're getting interrogated. Answer wisely, otherwise you'll be given the dunce cap.
Originally demo'd in 2019-2021, now fully complete and with new bonus modes post-quiz-completion.

Features:
- A full 50 question quiz. Can you reach the end and correctly answer the final question before your demise?
- Lots of surprises and gotcha's
- Hint tokens, which can be exchanged for... well... you're not gonna believe it.
- A dynamic IQ score evaluation based on how far into the mod you get.
- Two difficulty modes.
- Playing perfectly (no hints, no damage taken, and all bonus questions correct) will grant a perfect score. This is... very hard to do.
- Three bonus modes upon completing the quiz (answering the final question correctly):
(If you did this on a previous version of the mod, just set flag 1337 in your save file or ask me for the secret debug ingame way to do it.)
1. Expert Mode: Sets you to 1 health and removes all dialogue, to facilitate going for a perfect score (it's not required though).
2. The Warp Center: Allows you to start the quiz at any question number and keeps track of which ones you've correctly answered.
3. Time Trial Mode: An abridged playlist of challenges. How fast can you complete it?

Screenshots (WARNING: Very Big Images Sorry):

Spoiler: Screenshots

Credits:
Daisuke Amaya - Original 2004 Game
Enlight - The modification
Andwhyisit - Maintaining cavestory.org where some info was gathered.
Tpcool - Gifting us mortals the Open Season GBA BossTheme Transcription
The idea for this mod is stolen from a Super Mario 64 romhack.

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Doukutsu.Club

Spoiler: Full Changelog

2.1.0.0 - Forum Thread Launch and Final Foreseeable Content Update
    > Features:
- Critter with a Top Hat now has unique comments for your answers to all of the innocent opinion questions.
- There is now dialogue for those on the top row of the intro NPC area, and a way to get up there.
- You can now use hint tokens for the first two questions (this dialogue was already in-game just inaccessible).
- Added bonus modes. These are unlocked upon correctly answering the final question (completing the quiz) and restarting your game. If you've already done this in a previous version, you can simply set flag 1337 in your save file. Access these modes using the new interactive NPCs along the top of the intro area.
- Added Expert Mode. This enables all question skipflags including extra dialogue that normally can't be skipped, as well as keeping you at 1 health. This is meant to streamline the process of attempting to get a perfect score (but is not required to obtain it). It's still up to the player to meet all the requirements.
- Added Time Trial Mode. This will run you through an abridged batch of challenges and saves your time at the end. This will automatically set FPS to 60. This does not give an IQ score.
- Added Warp Center. This map allows you to start the quiz at any question. This does not give an IQ score (correctly answering The Final Question will do nothing).
    > Changes & Fixes:
- Instead of requiring a new save file to be created, you can readjust your settings by the rocket in the intro area. This is so you can maintain your unlocked bonus modes.
- A completed-quiz IQ score is knocked down from 1500 to 1000 if on Laid-back difficulty. Does not affect perfect score as the benefits of Laid-back difficulty do not apply to getting a perfect score.
- Heavily reduced MachineGun knockback so that you can't infinitely stall Rapid-Fire Questions nor cheese some challenges
- Attempted to fix a different bug where you can fail challenge #48 after the success script has ran, which had the potential to cause a softlock.
- The quiz can not be started if the current session has unsaved changes. (AKA flag 431)
- All bullets can now destroy snack blocks. To make this possible Snake Bullets no longer ignore solids. Sorry.
- Various Titlescreen Changes

2.0.0.2 - Bugfixes
- Fixed a bug with timed questions where it was impossible to get a perfect score
- Fixed a bug where you can softlock and get stuck in a wall in question 48.
2.0.0.1 - Hotfix for Spur crash
2.0.0.0 IQ - November 2022 shipped version
- Complete. Includes all originally drafted 50 questions from 2019.
- <CMU music changes throughout.
- Gives an IQ score after death or completion.
- Swapped icons.
- Tracks if damage is taken, a bonus question is answered incorrectly, or a hint token is used.

0.0.0.2 - May 2021 Dump
- Created this changelog file.
- Goes up to 22 questions.
- IDK if I'll continue this. It's on indefinite hiatus.

ModfestV1 - Initial uploaded version.
- Goes up to 12 or so questions
- Yeah.

 

Getting sleepy, I'm p sure a couple of the flags certain answers are incorrect, and I think one that was previously right suddenly became wrong.

Spoiler: old score

EDIT: nvm i beat it, but I'll go for the perfect score some other time

I'll probably do a proper review sometime, but don't count on it.

 

Getting sleepy, I'm p sure a couple of the flags certain answers are incorrect, and I think one that was previously right suddenly became wrong.

Which questions in particular? Whether an answer is right or wrong isn't actually determined by flags but rather there's an H/V trigger above one of the four spikes that despawns/CMPs them (did as much as I could in an easily editable template, so setting an answer only involved moving one NPC and no TSC). There isn't really a way for that to get messed up with later flag updates.

I'm hazarding to guess you might have got tripped up with the "eye" questions with the admittedly cheeky mechanic of them swapping true answers to false and vice versa, and the dog question #9 is outright maliciously deceptive, but everything should follow a set rules of logic and have been fact checked. If there's specific questions you want me to look over and double check again I can do that.

 

Actually, it's neither, having played more, I now realize nothing was wrong, really.

Spoiler: Mistakes were made on my part, mostly.

I thought the First Cave one was an issue. At first I thought you were being technical, thinking the sleeping and standing Gunsmith were two separate entities, iirc the sleeping one was also used by the one mimiga from plantation. Nope, I had to shoot the host.

And for the pic of Su, I didn't realize the "e" was shootable.
Although technically, even though they're very much separate characters personality-wise, I do feel it would've been left alone without shooting the "e", since the question said it's a character we already know, and even though characters like Quote, Misery, Momorin, and Balrog get changes to their character from the beta to the final version (although nothing is known about the second and third one in this case), Sue is based on Su, so you could argue they're the same character. And in the Japanese version, Sue is called "Su" anyway. But that's my opinion on that question, and I doubt that matters.

 

i like the idea of this and i'm super glad it didn't go the way of the impossible quiz, when the questions started being unrelated to cavestory i got a little bit worried
and hey, i got my 1500 and i'm glad to stay there. i was just glad that i remembered song names, honestly, that's all that mattered to me

 

Wow, this was a really neat experience! I haven't played the game in a while, and this was a nice, nostalgic trip. It was fun to see how much I knew, and, of course, even more fun to see how much I didn't. The concept was fresh and original, and very well presented. Some of the questions, and the mechanics used, were delightfully, mischievously witty. Honestly, I'd like to see more CS-related fan content that isn't the traditional platforming/action mod.

Spoiler

I don't understand what the second question is supposed to mean, though. What do you mean by duplicates? Don't all these maps just use a single tile set? Do you mean which maps have the most instances of a tile differing from adjacent tiles (the 'variance' of the map, in some sense)? Wouldn't this be trivially larger for larger maps? What am I missing? I feel like the question could be clearer. (or feel free to laugh at me for just being stupid i guess)
...okay, after seeing all feedback from the incorrect and correct answers, I think I understand, but I still think the question would benefit from being rephrased a bit...

Also, typo in Q26: There *are no presses on the Balcony

Thanks for making this!

 

Spoiler: the question

What do you mean by duplicates?

Spoiler: the answer

There are maps that are mostly identical to others, as well as some that are based on a chunk of a level. Good examples would be Arthur's House (Pens1 and Pens 2), the Balcony (Blcny1 and Blcny2), the area the Heavy Press lands in (Hell4 and Hell42), even Egg1 and Egg6 from Egg Corridor are very much the same room.

 

Wow, this was a really neat experience! I haven't played the game in a while, and this was a nice, nostalgic trip. It was fun to see how much I knew, and, of course, even more fun to see how much I didn't. The concept was fresh and original, and very well presented. Some of the questions, and the mechanics used, were delightfully, mischievously witty. Honestly, I'd like to see more CS-related fan content that isn't the traditional platforming/action mod.

Spoiler

I don't understand what the second question is supposed to mean, though. What do you mean by duplicates? Don't all these maps just use a single tile set? Do you mean which maps have the most instances of a tile differing from adjacent tiles (the 'variance' of the map, in some sense)? Wouldn't this be trivially larger for larger maps? What am I missing? I feel like the question could be clearer. (or feel free to laugh at me for just being stupid i guess)
...okay, after seeing all feedback from the incorrect and correct answers, I think I understand, but I still think the question would benefit from being rephrased a bit...

Also, typo in Q26: There *are no presses on the Balcony

Thanks for making this!

I'll look into possibly rephrasing question 2 to be more clear (it's absurdly difficult despite being the 2nd question anyhow), and thanks for notifying me of the typo.

Most of my mods follow some kind of atypical format (this is my 3rd mod now that abuses skipflags and save file reversion) as opposed to standard linear levels, although whether they actually are fresh experiences or go too far into gimmicks I can never tell. Glad you enjoyed this one though!! Thank you playing.

 

Pretty entertaining killer quiz~

Spoiler

I kind of failed, first time I took damage from a bat in that first part, in the press room, from an exploder in the timed question room, got the MIN dog question wrong and died on a missed Booster jump. Oof
(was thinking max dogs at the time)

Second time, fell into spikes in the press room, got the dog question wrong again, missed the Booster jump, missed the Kero weap question, missed the Ballos question, missed the optional boss (eye whoops), and died when I shot the wrong letter accidentally lol.

Third time wrong dog question AGAIN, finally noticed the MIN, wrong Ballos, wrong pic name, used a hint on unity, took damage on the timed bombs, missed the color, missed New, took more damage on the timed, two map names wrong, and died on the color critter thanks to choosing before seeing the eye D:

Fourth time: wrong name image, hit by hover balrog, hit by a critter (didn't try shooting anything), wrong color again, two wrong map names, hit by timed explosives, missed one song, and missed the heart restore, died on Q46...

Happy enough with 700 Misery MAstermind
(chose Misery as favorite NPC )

Might try again laterr

 

Pretty entertaining quiz with enjoyable gimmicks. Managed to get Dokustu Diety, but I don't plan on getting a score of 2000 any time soon. By the way, is there an answer to the dog question that you can't notice at first glance, or does it actually just force you to take damage?

 

By the way, is there an answer to the dog question that you can't notice at first glance, or does it actually just force you to take damage?

Spoiler: hint

If you've ever played Impossible Quiz, it's about the same as question #17 on that game.

 

Yeah, nothing in the game requires you to take damage. As Serri mentions question 9 does have a correct answer but it's very sneaky. Also a perfect score of 2000 is pretty difficult (I don't know how many people have actually done it) but it is not required. Merely finishing the quiz regardless of health unlocks everything in the mod.

Pretty entertaining killer quiz~
...died on Q46...

Ooooo so close. You're right there, surely 1-3 more tries and you'll get it.

 

Spoiler: hint

If you've ever played Impossible Quiz, it's about the same as question #17 on that game.

figured it out

Spoiler: solution to the dog problem

go through the door you entered the problem in

 

The section where you have to climb up the breakable blocks will prevent me from ever getting 2000 IQ, but still, great mod!

 

The section where you have to climb up the breakable blocks will prevent me from ever getting 2000 IQ, but still, great mod!

Yeah, while every weapon can now break snack blocks, some weapons are worse for the challenge than others. There's a trick to it where you basically want to break the blocks 2 at a time, then jumping and firing your weapon when colliding with the wall.

...it's hard to explain it in words, but after trying it a few times I myself can get it 19 times out of 20, but since it's one of the last challenges of the quiz it's not very easy to try it out as a whole. You can use the warp center to practice it though!

 

I need this to psp plz

 

Just now played this mod. This was a really fun, clever, and entertaining mod. The quiz held a decent combination of questions about Cave Story gameplay, the game's inner-workings, and a few odds and ends about other games by Pixel. It had a good difficulty curve, and blazing through questions you've already answered correctly is a very smooth experience. The eye trickery was pretty clever, and the chinfish gag was amusing. I especially enjoyed the little gag about keeping the upper sloped tiles grey even after the associated question was over.

The end was also pretty clever. It took me a minute to figure it out, but then I saw the victory screen.

Upon each of the deaths, I see it giving me an IQ score. But when I saw the victory screen telling me I won, it didn't give me a score of 2000 or something. It just went back to the main menu. Is this the intended behavior?

 

It just went back to the main menu.

Oh no!!!!!!!!!! Unless something somehow went wrong specifically only in your version...

Spoiler: Question 50 spoilers

It's a skipflag. The "victory screen" you saw was just an alternate intro cutscene (i.e. doctor approaching the demon crown) which has a fixed timer/ends upon hitting a key/doesn't allow saving, and the IQ score/post-completion bonuses should trigger immediately upon reloading your save with said skipflag. You had to load from the main menu, fully completing the task of "loading your save the quickest way possible" after the question 50 map loads (it sets the skipflag before the FAI is even ran).

Sorry! Yeah that's partially my fault because almost all of my mods are really weird with skipflag abuse and other nontraditional stuff. If you were playing on "laid-back" you'd get a score of 1000, and on "prove yourself" it would have been 1500. To get a perfect score of 2000 (which has the actual final screen) you have to complete the quiz without taking any damage which is exceptionally hard and something not even I have done outside debug testing.

The other things that happens is before it gives you that IQ score it sets flag <FL+1337 and resaves your game, which opens up access to the bonus modes. If you wanted to see that you can set that flag in a save editor (or super secret debug method: Interact with the save disk, hold down the "=" key while you use "z" to hit yes and finish the save event, then repeat those steps again a 2nd time, then reload the save).

 

I am finding my cave story iq right now.

 

ok first time i got 60 and then i got 80 but then i got 90 but then i got 100 and then 125 (i did really bad on those 4 quick questions (i got the 1st one) i got confused wiht like moon and outerwall, but on my second try i got them all
and then i got literally every single internal music question wrong i didnt really have a single chance of knowing that bc i dont think i ever looked there

oh and then i got 700 i messed up by not shooting the life capsule i remembered i had to break it as soon as i pressed enter. i even remembered to shoot kazuma
and then i got 1000

no hints used!! except on that music question bc i legit had no idea. the first time i got none but the 2nd time i got 2/4

i like this mod a lot i picked missile launcher and it was hard on the spelling part but it was funny that the critter already knew that
there was a lot of other good parts i didnt realize those things were eyes at first so i picked sisters as optional

this mod was actually super fun i enjoyed it a lot, i loved all the small gimmicks and other fun things like picking your own weapon and picking the boss or event that would run

and i actually thought it was relatively fair especially because of the hearts that were givenbesides the chinfish question i insta died when the walls started coming in wtf is that chinfish. i still dont get it tbh i just tried taking 1 damage from it and moved on (but that didnt work i took 11 damage cuz of iframe reset) but i still had enough to move on luckily
sometimes i would do things like get hit by a bat and just fall through the spikes to move past some of the platforming questions faster, but im sure that was intentional



oh and i really liked the ending
maybe i will try for 2000 iq later. still not sure how to do chinfish?!?!?!?