I'm sneaking thru the first enemy fort. I love that it has retained the mystery of figuring out what to do. I have yet to see any of the areas I played before past the opening zone.

This is like a whole game of Constantine's mansion. Clued in by the upside down room at the very start!

My "omg that's a save point?" realization was so liberating. Those...weren't in the demo were they? I totally missed them if so! I'm not sure if you can save at the same point twice in a row? It doesn't seem to process the new save if I come back and save again.

Shops are really cool! Already been using them. Is it OK to drop keys after you've used them once? They are clogging up inventory haha

I'll keep you posted as I keep playing. Congrats on the release!

so glad to hear you're enjoying it!! 🤗

yeah the save points are a fairly new feature--they save your items and locations but doors and enemies and most pickups reset, so i recommend keeping your keys until you don't need them anymore.

curious to hear how the rest of the game treats you! lmk if you have questions

I've explored the Cistern and the friendly town. I'm down here now! Any clues on where to go?

I think my key hoarding has benefited me. I still had the ruins key and found a vault room in the town with tons of gold. Plus I noticed your gold survives a save data wipe which you may wanna fix! I'm loaded now.

I'm unsure what the flowers (plants in inventory you pick up) do yet? Something with the save system? Also: getting thru the iron bars to the cave area I'm in now was such an "aha!" moment. So good! I sorta thought I was meant to find a different route in until it dawned on me.

I think these dudes are invincible? I kinda thought you had to destroy those rotating vines (can you burn them? hmm, gonna go get a lighter haha), but not sure what I'm meant to do down here. I've accessed both the shafts with the beak and ruins key.

the thistles are your key to leaving the area and continuing forward. if you think you have enough of them, try going back to where you first started. there's a gate there that takes them.

as for those enemies in the cave... your only option is to sneak past them or run--they're impervious to conventional weapons

wow I'm dumb that makes total sense. I'm in world 2 now, recognizing these areas!

I'm able to get 5 different stages. I love the puzzley ones: one where you trace the lines (weave?), and the one where you build stuff with the lighter. But I'm unclear on what the point is in clearing them, they never seem to have skulls in them. I got thru the "jump down as the tower comes after you" one and I like that one once I figured out the jumpspark thing.  The other two: sword the vines as light guy comes, and the rotating orbs over acid, are way too tough for me. 

And I'm just finding no skulls in these (I've found one) and it's constantly repeating the same stages I've already completed. I've just been spamming restart to get new stages. What am I supposed to be doing here? What am I missing? I think there needs to be a way to set where you are going from the "gather" room.

the glyphs dont correspond to an exact chamber, but rather determine where you'll go next from where you're currently at.

spoilers ahead for anyone who wants to go in blind

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the first glyph after gather, "rise," is basically a +1, so if you're in chamber 5 you'll go to 6, from 6 you'll go back to 1, etc. if you're struggling, try just using that to cycle through the chambers without having to retrace your steps too much.

the other glyphs i'll leave to you to figure out.

as for the skulls, they only appear in one chamber at a time. their current location is shown by the flaming spears in the entryway. for example, if four are lit, the skull is in chamber 4. once you find a skull, it will have a row of lights below it telling you what chamber to seek next.

hopefully these tips will help you or anyone else get through it. its a challenging puzzle and stumps a lot of players. lmk if you need more hints and i will provide

wow that is tough. So you'll have to keep playing all the stages over and over by design? 

I sorta wish I didn't have to keep solving them if I've done it once before. Could the wells be pre-opened if you've beaten it already? It might make the math of what to do easier to figure out.

Has anyone beaten all this?

i know of some players who have beaten it, yes, though I'll let others speak for themselves.

the baths are altogether unforgivingly designed--this is a complaint i get a lot and i absolutely get where it's coming from. i tinkered around with them to make them somewhat easier for the final release than they were during the demo, but there are very few changes i could make that i felt didn't compromise the integrity of the puzzle and moreover the entire level.

that being said, i understand they're frustrating. i know of many players who bounce off of them and therefore don't finish the game. i'm not sure what to do about that--i stand by my design, but i empathize with anyone who finds it overly punishing or tedious.

if you decide to continue with them, i wish you the best. i recommend you gather at the hub and save each time you get a skull, if you're worried about dying and being set back.

i'm willing to offer more tips, too, if you'd like some. or if you have questions.