There are a few steps to that: for one thing you have to look at the problem from a different vantage point first. And actually, since it took me forever to find the right noun even when I was looking from the right place, it’s the platform that you want to look at.
I had some time to play this weekend and made progress but got stuck again.
In the recreation area I got inside the water tower but can’t seem to get enough water flowing to power much of anything. It’s stuck at 57%. I was able to get the golf club and get one of the mosaics flowing but based on the bear statue I need to power a couple of them to enter the solution. I also can’t seem to interact with the boxes below the break room. I thought I needed the algaecide for the pond with algae in it but I guess not?
In the hotel I got open the one locker based on the laundry room ID for the water bottle but that’s it. I can’t get to the binder or get to whatever is in the water that the metal detector sees. I assume the game telling me to stop searching the rooms individually is a genuine direction and not a red herring. I’m hoping the locker contents will get me past floor 3.
In the arcade I’m stuck on the seagulls. Once I get past them I’ll have the C, A, D, and N. I found the L and H but not how to remove them. I can’t unscrew them or cut the bolts. Do I even need the H? I’ve not found other letters.
That should actually be possible for the L. As for the seagulls have you played Ion Deflector yet?
I figured out the L. It was just a wording issue. “Cut bolts” doesn’t work but “cut L” does.
I played with Ion Deflector a bit but have all the prizes (except the plush that’s too big) so I didn’t need more tickets (afaik). My score seems random when I play. Based on what Renzo said it’s cheatable but I don’t know how. I tried putting things on it to block the pucks but it won’t let me. Do I need to keep playing or is there a lateral move I’m missing?
It sounds like you’re on the right track in the hotel! By the time you can access the hotel, you should have what you need for the Break Room. (The part about the metal detector might just be a matter of wording.)
There’s two things:
- Solving the seagull issue. That’s a lateral move. Perhaps face the seagulls now and it’ll come to you.
- Getting good at Ion Deflector isn’t strictly necessary but it can be done for more tickets. There’s always a luck component to it, but there’s still an optimal strategy. Some of the game strategies were written down in various places. You can always come back to this later.
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Ohhh got it, thank you so much! I was so caught up in the text adventure that I completely missed some other possibilities, haha.
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Thank you so much for this game!! It’s the first one I’ve actually started to map on paper, and it brought me back to these forums because I’m so stuck 
In the water park, I can’t seem to interact with the dump bucket or whatever is inside it. Might be a verb issue? I need to get the tent/golf bag in one of the other pools, but can’t get Renzo’s hooked stick or find swim gear.
I can’t progress further without a keycard, a golf ball, a light source, or swim gear.
Possible bugs: In the arcade, Renzo told me I could bounce the ball at the Moondropper, but it just says “Futile” when I try. In the mall, I put the Andromeda reel in the projector and when I went back to the man’s living area, it reappeared there. In the rec center, I tried to take the tape on the boxes and I was given a pitching wedge.
I’m just not sure which direction I should be going now. I have done the audio tour, completed all the kiosks on the shore plus the mural, acquired and played a bunch of film reels, won all the Lunarcade prizes, found a lot of letters (E,D,N,C,L), cleared my head in the garden, found a bunch of domes, and waved my metal detector everywhere I can think of.
Regarding your missing items: it sounds like you are encountering the same verb issue that held me up for a while.
In the north entrance to the water park there is a fire escape. You have what you need to access it. Remember how you reached the area to enter your solution to the audio tour? This works the same way. Once you get up there you find an item that will find one item you’re missing that will allow you to get to all the others that you mentioned including, indirectly, the bucket.
Thing you didn’t ask about directly but I believe you have everything you need to access: do you have the Monorail running?
I’ve experienced most of the same bugs you have. Not sure if the ball one is a verb issue.
I’m still stuck on what I think is the penultimate kiosk if I can get a nudge there. The Cinderella one.
And if there’s a way into either of the 2 clubhouse doors (the one in the tunnel or the other one that’s harder to reach. I wonder if my map has an error.
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There are a couple of new twists on this puzzle: let’s see if I can hint it gradually.
I suspect you may be missing this observation:
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pay attention to everything that happens while you’re experimenting
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even stuff that you’re tuning out because it’s happened repeatedly before
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what does the glow on the buttons tell you?
And then we get more seriously spoilery which I’d suggest you avoid because this is (IMO) the coolest realization in the game:
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what transformation does button 4 perform?
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how many times can you push button 4?
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is there another word you can apply it to?
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another animal you can make?
- just giving away the actual answer, mostly (you still have to figure out the sequence to get there) what does a caterpillar turn into?.
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Actually, I have a question: can I get a nudge toward the device for the audio tour? I have no idea where I haven’t explored yet. I guess there’s probably a device for the strange glyphs too, but…
There are two ways to get the audio tour device:
- Gentlest nudge: It is very close to the jacks that require it
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You can play a game well and be rewarded
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You can brute force
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Either way you need to make sure you examined everything in the east entrance to the water park
For the glyphs device:
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This is part of the Renzo quest-line
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Do you have the letters?
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If not, do you have enough letters?
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You probably need more tickets
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Oh, for crying out loud. I think I cut the padlock (?) a long time ago but I didn’t realize that I hadn’t opened the correct locker, because I just did open locker and it said it was empty. 
I have D, A, N, C, and L, so I guess I need a U and an A? I pretty emptied the prize machine except for the plushie pretty early on: I played the couple machines that seemed like they had the biggest rewards and only played the others once or twice. I haven’t gotten serious about this questline yet, though…hmm. I’ll have to think about where I haven’t looked yet.
Thanks!
More hints to this puzzle in increasing directness:
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Talk to Renzo a bunch.
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Does he mention any of the letters you already have?
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That C sure is versatile
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Isn’t neat how the N is also a Z if you turn it?
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You don’t have all the letters but do you have enough letters?
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Once you’ve climbed higher than a particular letter you can remove it again
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Thank you! I might not be as far as I thought with the audio tour: I listened to all the mosaic clues but I don’t have the water on in the park so the buttons don’t work. Whenever I interact with “tower” the game suggests a water storage tower, but I have no idea where it’s located. There is a broken golf cart that I suspect I may need to push around N/S to climb on the canopy, but I can’t seem to get the missing wheels. I know they are under the axle but I can’t interact with them or move the cart off them.
As for the monorail, The station is open on the main map but I can’t do anything there. I can go in and sit on the bench but nothing ever happens, and the doors stay open with no way to close them (the game says they will close on their own).
Ah. Don’t worry about the water tower for now. Focus on the north entrance to the park and the fire escape. You have all you need to achieve this. Once you knock that out you’ll have lots to do.
For the monorail: There are monorail stops around the map. I forget where the train starts, (in the mall)? So some of this might be redundant.
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Even though you’ve restored power to the island the monorail needs more TLC before it will run.
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Explore more. There’s an area you can reach.
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Start in the Lunarcade
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Look for things you can climb
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You want to be on the roof
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Once you get to the Monorail Depot explore it normally
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Make sure to consult the binder
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Thank you!! Got the monorail working by finally realizing that pipes can go vertically, not just laterally and exhausted my new options before tackling the fire escape again and giving up on climbing everything/throwing things/using items/cutting things/searching things and directing my character to sit at the tables and rest. Did not expect to suddenly be told “okay, you’re on the table!”
Huh. Maybe there’s more than one solution. I was finally able to do it by pulling the fire escape with the shovel. Though it took several tries across days before I found the phrasing that made the parser happy.
Hotel: I suspect I’m still playing “guess the phrase” with whatever the metal detector senses in the water. All attempts to search either myself or with a tool lead to failure. I’ve read the binder but this seems to be a separate thing. Anybody remember how to do this part?
Hotel: I’m hoping whatever is in there will help me with climbing the tree. The left-middle-right aspect reminds me of Ion Defender but I’ve had no success climbing it.
Water Park: Is there a way (or reason to) get enough water pressure into the slide? I’ve only managed to get the enough water for the bucket to spill.
In the meantime I’m wandering around trying to find where the roan guinea pig got to (Oreo).
I think I used open escape with , and I believe any of the golf clubs will work. I know the metal detector won’t but I didn’t think to try the shovel.
I just checked and I had a save shortly before that. It’s the rarer syntax for that item: wave detector at water rather than just wave detector. I haven’t figured out what to do with the object.
transcript snippet
>wave detector
The metal detector seems to be reacting to something under the water.
>wave detector at water
Using the metal detector, you scan around until you figure out where it's picking up a signal, then quickly reach under the water and pull out the object.
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See, I thought I’d already tried that.
No idea what I’ll do with the item but at least I have it.