Have you been to the exoscaphe?
No, I hadn’t. I’m not sure why. I think I assumed the valve opened the portal too. Thanks…
I can’t for the life of me figure out how to make
the Yang oil. I’m pretty sure the problem is that I’m failing to “Compound the atmosphere
with a sweet floral element.” I tried waving the honeysuckle, which tells me “You wave the honeysuckle, but it’s not very aromatic.” I also tried using the citronelle impet. In both cases I just get that “Slowly, the oil reduces and darkens. By the time your formula is complete, and the bound has faded, the beaker contains only a greasy brown paste.” I think I need some other object to wave, but I can’t for the life of me figure out what it should be.
I’m also failing to make the fire-devourer. The problem is that adding the elemental fire just burns up the alcohol. My working hypothesis is that the elemental fire from phlogisticated gold is too strong, so I was trying to perform the electrum substitution. But this requires yang oil, and I can’t figure out how to make that either…
Some aromatic objects need a more aggressive verb than waving.
To get this far, you’ve done the necessary action at least once before.
Didn’t you once have a pine cone?
Try reviewing your doubled rust ritual.
Crushing the honeysuckle should release the aroma.
Ok, I’m a bit stumped. I’m in pretty much the same place as murphy_slaw and cata. I suspect that at this point I need to start modifying rituals, but I haven’t had any luck with that. Right now I’m close to the following rituals:
[spoiler]* electrum phlogistication (no known way to create catalytic environment without platinum wire; “catalytic” isn’t detected by the oculus)
- aura imitation inscription (no jade bead, no Name of the Tortoise)
- glass permeability (no Relative Anima)
- clock tincture (no perfect mud)
- Great Marriage (pretty sure this is endgame, missing a lot of things)
- metal attraction (no Mediate Anima)
- I also haven’t made the viridigris because I don’t have any obvious reason to.
[/spoiler]
I’ve also entered a couple of obvious “it’s hard-ish to get here” rooms: [spoiler]the Observatory, the Medical Wing, and the Birdhouse. Still locked out of Tertiary Alchemy, the obsidian door, the Barosy, and the Deep Stacks. Other obvious “I am a puzzle!” moments include: - the disgusting cabinet outside the Medical Wing
- the lead hatch in the Main Store nook
- the ladder in the Observatory
- the observation bubble in the exoscaphe
[/spoiler]
I’d just like a single hint as to the very next thing I should do, please.
Attention to the matter of the Deep Stacks would advance your cause with the clock tincture, which I think is the most accessible of your listed goal rituals. Without an inventory list I can’t be sure, but I’m guessing from your description that you may have encountered everything you need to tackle this lock.
I’m mildly stuck and impatient 
I suspect I ought to be able to open some locked door somewhere, but I don’t find any easy way to confirm this apart from visiting all of “recall doors” one by one and trying it out.
I have the rutilum Alchemy File seal, and suspect that this might unlock something with an Alchemy File lock, but I can’t see a way to use “recall” to point to the right one. Also “recall Venture File” doesn’t give me any locks/doors, while I know I’ve seen one, so it seems this isn’t the way to go.
Is there an easier way?
The Alchemy File seal unlocks the cabinet in the Mechanica Lab storage, where you will find an object you’ve probably been looking for.
That did it, thanks. And as I half-suspected, this was very clearly clued when I first encountered it, but I forgot the clue. Am going to have to start taking better notes instead of assuming “recall” will do all the hard work for me.
I’m clearly missing something obvious. I have no idea where to proceed to next.
Some obvious directions to pursue (all of which I’m stuck on):
I have the glass and aluminum permeability chimes, but don’t know where to use them.
I can’t open either the marble or obsidian doors.
I’ve made it to 3 dragon rooms, but don’t know how to interact with the dragons.
I can inscribe the tin piece correctly, but don’t know what to do with it (I suspect it’s for the Great Marriage, so I probably shouldn’t use it yet).
I can’t get into the deep lab or the barosy either.
And I still can’t get into the tertiary alchemy lab or open any airlocks.
Thoughts?
Hi,
I can’t figure out for the life of me how to do the gold ignition ritual
I’ve tried everything, even putting all the items I had in the crock so at least one gets ignited, but no luck. Any hints?
Thanks, emshort! Happily, I’d actually figured out the answers to both my problems right after posting the question. In case anyone is still having trouble with the one you didn’t answer:
You’re not doing the fire-devourer ritual right unless the aura around the bound is crimson.
The instructions aren’t kidding about a strong fiery environment.
I ended up using at least four influences.
If you’re having trouble getting that far, try setting one of the bits of wood on fire and putting that on the shelf.
My current problem is finding something besides platinum wire that gives a catalytic environment, since you need to consume the platinum to make electrum. Hopefully I’ll figure it out!
Really loving this game, in case it wasn’t obvious! Zarf, I don’t use Twitter and thus haven’t been participating in the leaderboard, but checking it now, I seem to have made it farther in a couple of places: I’ve reached the center of the maze, the dressing room, and the antechamber and performed the various rituals necessary to get there, plus the glass (and aluminum) permeability inscriptions and the yang oil synthesis, among others.
Emshort’s post here might help.
I’m looking for hints of an earthy nature.
I’ve found lots of objects with an earthy nature, but I believe I need an aroma that introduces that influence. (Why is below, in another spoiler tag: I might be wrong about that, too.) Suggestions?
Why I think I need this:
Misuba’s Lodestone requires an environment of earthy influences, and also uses the gestalt shelf for something else: I’ve tried using the shelf to introduce the influence as well (so with two objects on it), and the ritual fails (but possibly, of course, because of some other factor I’m missing). EDITED TO ADD: nope, two items on the shelf is fine. It helps if the one that’s supposed to introduce the earthy nature does, in fact, have that nature though. (facepalm)
I believe I was able to do this with the chip of obsidian.
Your problem might be performing the ritual in the Pyrics store.
In even more detail: I used to do all my rituals there, but eventually one that I couldn’t get to work there for reasons I didn’t understand succeeded when I did it in the Nave. This is easy to verify by starting the ritual in both the Store and the Nave and comparing the colors of the arcs.
Yep, turns out my original attempt failed because the object I was using didn’t have earthy nature. Oops.
Okay, I figured out how to proceed. For other people who get stuck:
I thought I had to be able to “invoke the dragon” to perform the Great Marriage, but you can do it much earlier than I thought.
I’m having a wonderful time with this. Thank you.
I’ve
[spoiler]- Found (all?) four elements
- Made copper percalcinate, sublime spirit, the lodestone, the dispersal brush, auras of invisibility and impermeability, breath-holding potion, a planetary lens, fire-resistance potion, fungicide, a resonant oculus, and lots of tarnish cleaning
- Of hard-to-reach rooms, been to the Observatory, Birdhouse and Medical Wing
- Looked through the oculus everywhere[/spoiler]
And now I’m feeling a bit stuck. Like I just need to crack one thing and others might start coming. A nudge would be very welcome.
[spoiler]Rituals:
- I seem to be only able to use the orichalcum once. Will I get another or do I need to figure out something clever to duplicate it? Something to do with the recursive metaphor technique? How else to be able to use both auras?
- Ditto the nickel for making multiple sublime spirits
- Great Marriage: Don’t know how to invoke a dragon
- Clock Tincture: Don’t have perfect mud
- Metal attractor: Don’t have the Mediate Anima
- Glass Permeability: Don’t have Relative Anima
- Electrum Phlogistication: Can’t find yang oil
Other puzzles:
- Can’t open heavy lead hatch
- Can’t read graffiti
- Pine tertiary door locked
- Airlock lever broken
- Medical cabinet covered in gunk
- Can’t navigate paper maze
- Can’t pass burning hall
- Locked brass gate at foot of stair
- Not sure if confusing cracks is actually a maze to beat
- Not sure what indigo column is for
- Don’t know how to make new files from my moulds
- Get vertigo at chasm
- Can’t get into exoscaphe bubble
- Can’t move counterweight
- Locked valve wheel
- Locked marble door
- Get the calculator working
- Get the piece of paper in the bay
Things where I think I know what to do but can’t do it yet
- Metal attractor will get me the chime, needed for glass permeability
- Glass permeability will get me the piece of paper in the bay
- Maybe I can make myself permeable to other things with the same ritual
- Clockwork tincture might fix the calculator, which might get me a location symbol for the Great Marriage[/spoiler]
Have you opened the various File locks yet? You should be able to now.
I found this one to be VERY difficult, and only just solved it now. The thing that was blocking me was…
[spoiler]I somehow intuited (wrongly) that what made the seals work was the fact that they were made of rutilum. So I have spent literally hours thinking about ways to possibly get the ALCHEMY SEAL to melt, and then use that melted seal to make the other seals.The hint when you put the seal in the kiln (“It melts at, what, 3000 degrees?”) made me think “Aha, so there’s a way to get something that hot!” rather than “I should give up on this.”
I even tried having the seal and mold in the vapor crock while making the phlogisticated gold…[/spoiler]