Outer Wilds - Explore All

Ah, you found the one place other than the ship's computer where the fiction breaks for the sake of it being a video game. That's a big moment.

OK maybe not the one place, but one of the few. And certainly the most important.

I grabbed this game in late summer, played it off for a few months and then took a frustration break from October until just a few days ago. It's an absolutely brilliant design but repeating huge swaths of the same content (launch, etc) has really taken the experience down a few notches for me. In particular I took the break because I was beating my head on the very last sequence I needed to complete to finish the base game and just could not get it done for one reason or another. With the DLC waiting in the wings I figured I'd come back at it fresh later, finish the base game, and dive into the DLC with zeal.

Unfortunately that didn't happen. When I kicked it back up a few days ago I spent 1-2 hours failing to complete the same sequence of events despite knowing exactly what I need to do before deciding to just dive into the DLC anyway. I played long enough to finish one loop and then put it down. I think I'm just ready to play something non-loopy for a while.

Vargen wrote:

Ah, you found the one place other than the ship's computer where the fiction breaks for the sake of it being a video game. That's a big moment.

OK maybe not the one place, but one of the few. And certainly the most important.

Yeah I looked it up last night on the wiki, and apparently you also get the game over screen if you die in the tutorial area before visiting the museum, haha.

And then there's a couple of game endings where you finish the story but then are allowed to reload apparently. Very interesting.

I think I'm getting close? to the actual ending. Dark Bramble is the only planet I haven't really explored. I have a couple of * for "more info" 4 or 5 ship computer entries.

Trying to follow what I've found and only look up help on Polygon, not just follow Polygon's guide to things. It did kind of spoil one Giant's Deep secret... but I had a marker for Southern Observatory and forgot to try to go there again. If I had just looked at that part, I would have discovered what I needed. I remember trying to get there a couple times myself and failing so had went to another clue, then forgot. Should have looked up that part and then I wouldn't have been spoiled. But pretty minor.

... going up the elevator, sitting down, and pressing the input for upward thrust is "huge swaths of content"?

Anyway, there are also a few ways to get a game-over screen by causing

Spoiler:

a temporal paradox.

Those can be pretty tricky to set up, so unless you stumble across the opportunity it's probably easier to just YouTube them.

If anyone wants minimal-spoiler hints, feel free to ask here and I'll do my best to nudge you in the right direction. I remember the DLC really well, and if I can't remember something from the base game I don't mind digging through walkthroughs and filtering out spoilers.

Been playing the DLC a lot over the last few days. I've gone from absolutely loving it to thinking that some of the puzzle solving towards the end is a bit on the unpleasantly unforgiving side.

Spoiler:

I just managed to complete one of the three major 'lodge' quests. The three quests are fireplace, pit, and mural. I finished mural after a lot of failures and discovered the nature of the dreamstate. I was kind of amazed at what I had to go through to get there. Redoing the first five minutes or so of the time loops is getting old.

Ah, I can see that when you're playing by yourself. My wife and I found that time useful for discussing our next move so it didn't bother me.

I'm at the end... but failed my first attempt for another game over. Hah

On Dark Bramble...

Spoiler:

With the warp core already, trying to get to the vessel. And those damn giant fish got me, 3 of them together.

I failed this part on my last trip to Bramble too. So I didn't know for sure that I'm supposed to go to the ship, but it makes sense. And then I checked a guide to be sure, before I try this mess again.

Hoping I can pull this off and not have to watch a video to see the end.

Yeah, that end run is rough. I think I finally managed it by going very slow to avoid unwanted attention. Momentum is weird in there, and iirc if you go in with a bit of speed then you can get where you need to go by just pointing yourself in the right direction and using little-to-no forward thrust.

Yeah after another failure and waste of time, I watched a video just to figure out the route. Looks like when you go through portal to each area it kills momentum down to minimal. But you can just coast, slowly for like 500m until you're clear, and then start thrusting a bit. Pretty weird but never would have figured out when it was safe on my own.

So the rest I did figure out and boy did it get weird. Finished it. Credits. Nice post credits scene.

Weird but enjoyable. And hey mostly (90%) figured it all out myself. Just had to check a few things when stuck

There's also a way to go full-burn and dodge everything, but that's getting into speedrun strats and I'm not sure how easy that actually is to pull off.

Vargen wrote:

Hey have you ever watched a speed run of the base game? It's pretty wild. It starts out about like you'd expect. They parkour up to the museum and hit the statue ASAP, then yeet themselves off the cliff because dying is the fastest way back to the launch pad. Then they wake up, take a couple steps forward, and kill themselves by standing in the fire . Apparently the game doesn't unlock the ability to sleep until you've died twice, and they need that to line the planets up right.

OMFG. I was stuck. I knew what to do, but I didn't know how to do it. This was the perfect freakin' hint.

I would have been stuck there too if I hadn't recently watched the video I mentioned. I'm glad that sharing the right context has been able to help others.

I'm enjoying the dlc quite a bit more than the main game. It may have something to do with it, so far, being a bit more contained.

The advantage of the base game is you've got all kinds of directions you can go in and threads you can follow.

The disadvantage of the base game is you've got all kinds of directions you can go in and threads you can follow.

Vargen wrote:

The advantage of the base game is you've got all kinds of directions you can go in and threads you can follow.

The disadvantage of the base game is you've got all kinds of directions you can go in and threads you can follow.

Unfortunately that includes the conclusion of the base game. That sequence is a bit of a nightmare.

Just getting in on this thread now - I finished the base game not that long ago, and just a couple weeks ago did the DLC.

Both are a trip, but I can't wait to see what Mobius does next.

Also, I've been hanging around the subreddit for a while and this post floated to the top today, and I love it.

So I haven’t read any of this thread just in case but just played this for the first time and

Spoiler:

having died twice on a space station that plunges me in and out of water

I am massively intrigued. I am a big fan of the souls games and whilst of course clearly very different I am enjoying similar feelings of my hand not being held and awe at what I discover.

Welcome aboard!

If you get stuck and want some help, feel free to ask here and someone will try and give you the absolute minimum hint necessary to nudge you in the right direction.