Starting a thread because I have ignored these in the past at my peril. Were this an IFCOMP I likely would just have published a ‘I am dumb/better hints plz’ review. Here in the Thing, Imma give crowdsourcing a try.
RETOOL LOOTER
I am stuck in the very first room. Literally the very first one, and an hour has elapsed on my wallclock. I clearly have not turned over everything here, but after pawing through the beds, sheets, pillows, chests and desk, finding three items, the game continues to block me from progressing suggesting there is more to find. Damned if I can figure out what I missed. Gads, failure came so fast this year.
I was also stuck there until I realized that the chests/beds on the north and south sides of the room are different. So there are four chests total. Perhaps you also missed that?
Eventually it should end, and there’ll be an “hour one” link on the left side of the screen - click that, not the icon under author’s notes on the right.
Re: Retool Looter — has anyone found a way to remove the ankle-deep water from the pantry? I need to get rid of the water here in order to place the stepstool down so I can reach the empty jars, but I haven’t found a way to do this without somehow getting rid of the water first.
Thank you! I restarted and was able to get past that part and finish the game.
I think this one is on me for trying to reverse “wons” in the pantry instead of where it was originally located. Really cool game despite my penchant for creating weird situations like this with my messy gameplay
I’m working on Chronicles of the Moorwakker, having some difficulty progressing in the initial section due to the fights. (possible relevance to @Jupp)
Fighting Freder, after returning to Meppen seems unavoidable (??). In that fight, heavy use of both spectres to deal damage is the most effective strategy I’ve found, although here “most effective” means sometimes I die but sometimes instead of dying I survive with like 3 vitality points. But going either north or east after seems to inevitably lead to another fight immediately which I am in no way capable of winning . . .
Anyone have ideas? Can I avoid fighting some of these people? Is there a better strategy of deploying abilities, etc. in the fight with Freder?
I am forgetting some of the names, but I think I was able to win that fight (I wound up successfully fleeing my home, which I think is where the fight you’re talking about takes place - made it onto the moors, met my sister, explored a shrine, and did a bunch more stuff before attrition caught up to me). At the point you’re at you just have two summons and one knife, right?
The most effective strategies I found were defensive. In particular, the rat spirit has a damage over time skill and a weaken one; I wound up using the first one to start poisoning the baddies, then the second to reduce incoming damage. In the first round I found it useful to call up the bird spirit for his skill that juices the next-summoned spirit’s energy points, but in subsequent turns I usually let him go - the damage from maintaining the summon adds up, and his attack damage is less useful than having the option to defend with your weapon on turns when the weaken skill doesn’t negate/minimize incoming damage (and you can always stab on turns when it does).
Oh, and note that after the fight, you can go into your inventory and use rations to heal, though you don’t have too many of them and I suspect leaving that fight with only a few HP will put you on a very sharp death-spiral.
thank you for reaching out. The initial fight against Freder serves as the tutorial for Encounters and cannot be avoided. All other encounters in the game can be avoided. There is even an achievement called “No Bloodshed” which can only be obtained by doing so. However, some of the encouters are truly rewarding. Avoiding all of them is a hard way to master the game.
Regarding tactics for this first fight, it is optimal to strictly follow the tutorial and summon spectres / use their abilities in the given order. Following this method will result in losing only a few points of vitality.
Some more hints for Chapter 1:
Leave the house and flee through the orchard to avoid confrontations with the crowd in front of the house.
Fighting the Murder of Crows is the most rewarding encounter in Chapter 1.
If you would like further insights, feel free to ask. I am happy to share them
In one of those perhaps idiosyncratic things, it looks like my problem was that I somehow missed that you could use *all* spectre abilities from one creature in the same “turn” (i.e., I was only using either peck or foresee).
I also didn’t realize I could eat rations whenever I wanted.
That said, fighting murder of crows still seems hard!
I’m also stuck near the beginning of Retool Looter. I distracted the guard once by going MUG → GUM → MUG, and turned the RETEM into a METER, but now I can’t find a way to distract him again to accomplish anything more. I put a stein of coffee on his desk, but he didn’t notice.
You need to do something more permanent than just distracting him.
Have you explored every location you can currently reach?
Specifically, the kitchen? If not don’t be embarrassed, it took me like ten minutes to realize you can go north past the buffet even though the text is even bolder!
There’s nothing immediately useful in here, but maybe there’s something that can be reversed?
Checking out the appliances might be a good step.
There’s something you can find if you check out either the fridge or the freezer - I think it’s the latter.
Now that you’ve got the part, it should be easy to figure out what comes next.
Examining it indicates you’re supposed to put it on a door - maybe the side door in the mess hall? But you’ll need to get the guard’s attention so he’ll come investigate.
I’d like some help with the last parts of Echoes: Labyrinth please. I’ve gotten all 4 characters to the centre of the labyrinth, and combined all their letters like so:
spoiler
|M | | R | |
| | F | L | A |
|D | T | A | N |
| | O | | E |
I’m assuming I have to use this to decode the marking on the well, but a bit stuck on exactly how.
I think you’re missing one set of letters - the grid should be full.
And then… hmm. I’m not quite sure how to hint the rest but I’ll see if I avoid just immediately giving it away…
do you notice anything about the markings on the well and the grid of letters?
they’re the same size.
why are the well markings connected in a chain?
Final solution each character’s markings spell out a word on the grid (IIRC it’s not always immediately clear from the shape which end you might start with, but generally the left and there are only two possibilities so it’s not too bad).
