Overview
As part of the Psychonauts tutorial, each of the camp counsellors will have you complete their personal training course to earn merit badges in a specific field. Sasha's speciality is the Psi Blast, a powerful psychic fireball which Raz will need to learn and control.
After obtaining his Weapons Training Learner's Permit, Raz is allowed entry to the shooting gallery via a door in Sasha Nein's head where he can practice his technique and earn his Psi Blast badge. In stark contract to his colourful and disorganized physical office, Sasha's Shooting Gallery is a minimalistic, 6-sided, black and white cube.
Training begins with the obliteration of Tiffany lamps, but quickly progresses to more hostile targets. Bureaucratic mental enemies called Censors are introduced. These will be the most prolific enemy in the game. At this point you will also discover how to lock onto a target, as well as the concept of health and mana regeneration.
Before earning your badge, Sasha tasks you with defeating 1000 Censors, which he approximates should take about 3 weeks. A lever in the center of the stage allows you to increase or decrease the number of Censors between 1-6 at a time. Players have the option to adjust difficulty as suits their experience and comfort level. There is no penalty to advance directly to level 6 as opposed to taking opponents one stage at a time.
The 3-dimensional cube allows you to change planes on the training field if things get too intense. This is particularly necessary when you advance to the 7th and final level on the gauge. All manner of hell breaks loose, and Sasha pops back in to tell you to hang on and try to keep the Censors at bay while he fixes things. Each side of the cube unfolds one at a time unveiling a different set and increasingly robust Censors until the final stage, the Mega Censor; a gigantic baby bent of stamping out all unwanted thoughts, in this case meaning you.
Once the Mega Censor has been defeated, you will be awarded the Psi Blast merit badge, granting you the ability to use your new found power in the world outside of Sasha's head.
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