Ice of Death

Fiverwater entered the series with this track, a 172 BPM take on Brahms' famous Hungarian Dance No. 5. The BGA, by Lyrebird Ferdinant, depicts an exploration team caught in crisis while carrying out a mission across a frozen wilderness. Attentive players will spot nods to the wider PIU lore baked into the animation: the survey zone is named Avalanche-309, and the first member to go missing is called 'Jonathan' — small touches that tie the song to threads seen across earlier Pump It Up entries.

Where many of XX's new songs were criticized for feeling underrated for their listed level, "Ice of Death" earned the opposite reputation: its charts are widely seen as easy for their numbers. The signature gimmick is a freeze synced to the rhythm of the Hungarian Dance, found on the S20, D21, and Co-op charts in XX. Because that melody is familiar to almost everyone, you mostly just need to know when the freeze lands to step through it cleanly. The gimmick was toned down in PHOENIX, similar to what happened with Tales of Pumpnia.

The PHOENIX lineup includes S3, S7, S11, S17, and S20, plus D12, D17, D20, and a two-player Co-op. The S3, charted by SUNNY, arrived in the 2.01 update and sparked debate: many assumed it was a stepping stone toward Basic mode, yet it only became playable there in 2.04. CONRAD's S17 is known for feeling easier than its number, with plenty of long notes that help recover stamina. As for the D17, CONRAD has said he originally rated it a 16, but fellow designer SUNNY bumped it up to 17.