Hi everyone,
I really enjoyed playing the IF game ‘Tethered’, by Linus Åkesson. It’s mentioned on the homepage that the game was updated with an Easter egg where there’s a secret ending where Judith survives. By inspecting the extracted strings from the game, there’s definitely an ending where she wakes up in the hospital, with Charles by her side. .
Since it seems like no one’s reached the Easter egg yet, I felt like starting this thread so that anyone can collect notes here and perhaps get closer to reaching the alternative ending.
These are some of the things I’ve found:
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Going in and out of the snow cave multiple times will eventually fully block it as the snowfall continues.
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When Judith first enters the cave in the cliff, it’s possible to go by the stream and take the bag.
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In the main ending, the game teases that it’s possible to complete it without tying the rope. I don’t know whether forming a loop by picking and dropping the rope counts as “tying” the rope, but it feels like the same thing. The walkthrough does that, leading to the main ending.
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When you go down the shaft, it’s possible to fix the tap and clean Laplace’s litterbox. Judith always brushes her teeth half-heartedly, and it’s strange that she sees an old man in the mirror. I thought it would be possible to do all the tasks that (from Charlie’s perspective) need to be done before sleeping, while staying in Judith’s POV. I feel like this strategy is a dead end, since going up to the bedroom changes it to Charlie’s perspective. If Judith has a safe place to sleep in the cave, it’s obviously very obscure (and might be in the upper cave system). If she goes down the shaft, the game hints you to explore all of it until you inevitably do all of Charlie’s errands.
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The Easter egg ending involves part of the suggested idea, as mentioned in the author’s reply on the game’s homepage. I’ve tried waiting 240 times after entering the cave and in the intersection, to no avail. I hope the ending isn’t on an action limit, since the messages while waiting imply that Judith’s condition is worsening until she “doesn’t feel cold anymore”.
If anyone’s tried other ideas (or maybe even found the Easter egg!), it would be good to know. There’s something I’m probably missing, and it doesn’t seem like the source code for the game will be released anytime soon. In the meantime, this will be a very challenging mystery to solve.