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HORSES' GUIDE TO HOME GAME 2
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WELCOME TO HOME GAME 2.
At the outset, one can "set the house in order".
Various tasks in and around HOME will increase or decrease your HOMESENSE score.
Push your laundry out of sight, turn on a lamp, cover up the A/C unit out back, etc. This prepares the HOME for a buyer to visit, and affects the ENDINGS you can achieve. Your HOMESENSE score ranges from -13 to 10.
You can also set or ignore THE RED CLOCK, setting it to any time you seem suitable. A blank clock means no RELICS spawn in a playthrough, while any other "time" on the clock will affect which RELICS appear in LAYER 1 to LAYER 4. 1 RELIC can appear on each LAYER, but which one appears on any given level is up to state of the RED CLOCK. The RED CLOCK advances after each level.
You may collect spellbooks and scrolls in your basement. Scrolls are single-use, and can be found in the world. The spellbooks are only available at HOME, and allow infinite castings of a given spell, provided the player has a MAGIC POINT to power it. MAGIC POINTS can be found out in the world, where they flee the player until caught.
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TOWN:
The first level of the game puts you out in TOWN. Avoid the pitiful denizens of this loathsome place and strike out...but to what end, you might wonder?
Like it or not, your task-at-hand is to acquire the BLACK SWORD and the RED SWORD, and, in conjunction with the KIBOSH spell (the red 'branch' symbol), slay immobilized enemies until you achieve two cues: each a MUSIC PITCH CHANGE upon killing a handful of foes.
With the music at its height, one may well notice that an EYE PORTAL has appeared in a once empty space by main street. This leads from TOWN to LAYER 1.
It is also advised that before any "exit trip" to LAYER 1, you stop in your neighbors back yard to acquire the SCROLL OF EVICT. This scroll affects PURPLE THINGS in levels where they are present, preventing their advances on you for that level.
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LAYER 1:
LAYER 1 introduces your STALKER. Your STALKER pursues you relentlessly, and can take a great toll on both the character and the player...
LAYER 1 also places the first RELIC, if you set the RED CLOCK to any time at the start of the game.
You have two options at the outset:
1) Go right
2) Go left
If you go right, you must hop the fence before your STALKER can defeat you, and then proceed to the right, potentially grabbing missing scrolls from a passing alleyway. Using all your spells in creative manner, your task is to navigate the tight walkway while enemies try to confound your progress. Your goal is to press towards the EYE PORTAL, and leave to LAYER 2. You may well pass a RELIC on your way. This path is admittedly hard-going...which is why you can also go left.
To go left, one passes through the bottommost trees, soon adjusting for some unseen obstacles, and ultimately you can pass straight out of the woods and find yourself at the EYE PORTAL to LAYER 2. With your STALKER in tow, this can be challenging indeed. You also will not pass by the RELIC here by "going left", unless you overshoot the EYE PORTAL and then return.
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LAYER 2:
LAYER 2 is a strange view of TOWN, somewhat side-scrolling, but not entirely. You are actually walking past HOME, but cannot yet return. It is actually possible for you to place or reclaim your RECYCLING, out front of HOME, if you forgot to earlier or simply felt like it.
The "goal" of this level is to press through your neighbors alleyway, which is completely flooded with RENTERS, terribly quick-moving red enemies, but before you attempt that, there are some other things to consider.
You may pass through your HOME front porch and wander the lot to the right which contains an abandoned building. Behind it, you may find a black cat. He is an alright sort. You may collect the RED SWORD, BLACK SWORD and a HOT COFFEE here, in the glow of an accursed campfire. Passing along the right edge of the abandoned property, you can collect a scroll right before you can jump to the roof of nearby buildings, to collect other SCROLLS you may be missing. A BIRD is watching you. Sometimes your STALKER is passing by, but he doesn't recognize you today.
To pierce the blockade of your neighbors alleyway, you must use spells and your SWORDS to cut a swath out and to the left, in an effort to leap to the nearby jump puzzle. A RELIC may sometimes be found deep in your neighbors yard.
The jump puzzle is a bunch of jumps, some with enemies. PURPLE THINGS harass you here, so EVICT scroll may prove handy. if you reach the end of the jumps, you must pass through a red portal on the floor, which takes you to LAYER 3.
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LAYER 3:
In LAYER 3 you must flee your STALKER immediately. You can jump along a ridge immediately south of your starting point, which may help in evading him. If you escape to the left, you will find the EYE PORTAL to LAYER 4 immediately, but will likely not pass a RELIC this way.
If you escape to the right, you must navigate tight walkways with RENTERS and little respite. You can find SCROLLS as you go, which may be of use. Somewhere along here you may also find jumps to a RELIC. Proceed to the EYE PORTAL, and LAYER 4.
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LAYER 4:
LAYER 4 is another part of TOWN, this time at night, with worsened visibility, an immensely hostile crowd of enemies and the added bonus of your STALKER. If you set THE RED CLOCK at the start of the game, your 4th potential RELIC will be somewhere here.
Your goal here as in the first trip through TOWN is to collect the RED SWORD and the BLACK SWORD and, in conjunction with the KIBOSH spell (the red 'branch' symbol), slay enough enemies to trigger a MUSIC PITCH CHANGE twice. So shifted, the level produces an EYE PORTAL in a back yard north of where you began the level. It is the yard brimming with red RENTERS. A spell can disperse them or seize them while you reach the portal, or you can fight your way through. The EYE PORTAL takes you to VOID HOME.
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VOID HOME:
You are lost in darkness, and the 4 pedestals lie empty. At your leisure you may deposit any RELICS you may have found, atop their respective pedestals.
THE RED CLOCK gives indication of your current WORLDSTATE:
"The Red Clock lies silent." (You did not adjust the clock at the outset and found no RELICS)
"The Red Clock is quickly running out of time." (You set the clock at the outset and found some RELICS)
"The Red Clock has lost all sense of time." (You set the clock at the outset and found ALL 4 RELICS)
Should you supply all 4 RELICS, VOID HOME becomes STAR VOID, and stars streak by with their distant beauty.
Confirming with THE RED CLOCK will take you to a short scene...
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LAYER 5 [cutscene]:
THE HERMIT treads the same path, again and again. Nothing but the same things, the same people, the same foes...
An image reads "WHY CAN'T YOU FIND THE CHURCH?"
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CHURCH EXTERIOR:
THE HERMIT arrives at the exterior of the CHURCH. You have a moment here in which you can save and otherwise prepare.
Simply interact with the doors to the CHURCH to trigger the final challenge.
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ACCURSED CHURCH:
The streets ruined, enemies everywhere, THE HERMIT must immediately try to control the crowd. Use spells to keep enemies out of your face as you collect SCROLLS. You are to make your way to the TREE. Your STALKER seeks to claim this tree as his own, but you must stop him.
The mechanics of the fight are as follows:
As usual, when your health is reduced to 0 while you are in possession of HOT COFFEE, you trigger a COFFEE HIGH. However, in this special fight, COFFEE HIGH also draws constant streams of AGE from the TREE, which you should become keen to collect.
You might have noticed also that stone rings may be found across this battlefield. For every 31 AGE you deposit into these STONE RINGS, you cast KIBOSH+, a special and more powerful version of the spell which will disable enemies but also put the TREE into a state wherein you can gift AGE back to it. (It is worth noting also that the STONE RINGS become hostile EYES when you are in the midst of a COFFEE HIGH, and should be avoided.)
You must undergo a number of COFFEE HIGHS, gathering and gifting AGE back to the tree, until you have collected and spent 2727 AGE in this way. This is the total cost the TREE seeks. Upon receipt of 2727 AGE, the TREE issues forth NATURAL SWORD for you, which you can collect. NATURAL SWORD automatically defends against weaker enemies, but has other effects as follows:
NATURAL SWORD is also capable of attacking your STALKER, when he is vulnerable during KIBOSH+.
NATURAL SWORD is also capable of attacking the TREE directly.
HUGELY IMPORTANT CRITICAL GAME NOTE: If you have, up until this final level, played without gaining a single EXPERIENCE POINT and without consuming a single HOT COFFEE, you will not only have by default just enough AGE to trigger the STONE RINGS one single time, but if you can reach the TREE, you will also instantly transfer the full 2727 AGE, being given NATURAL SWORD immediately, and may proceed to attempt the conclusion of the game. It is worth noting that if you do not use your one use of KIBOSH+ effectively here, you will have to consume HOT COFFEE to trigger any subsequent KIBOSH+, which will ruin a no-coffee run.
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TO END THE GAME:
With NATURAL SWORD in hand, and KIBOSH+ disabling enemies, attack your STALKER until dead.
If you had previously placed ALL 4 RELICS in VOID HOME, the HEADWORM will appear from the corpse of your STALKER.
You have 1 single life with which to kill it, otherwise it will escape you forever and alter your ENDING.
It takes 4 hits to kill the HEADWORM.
You may next elect to SLAY THE TREE.
THE TREE MUST BE REMOVED FROM THE CHURCH.
Strike the TREE until DEAD, to trigger the conclusion cinematic for HOME GAME 2.
You will now receive an output of some of your statistics from this playthrough, as well as a chance to see your ending.
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ENDINGS:
If you failed to kill HEADWORM in the final battle, it will appear here, bouncing around the screen.
If your HOMESENSE is 7 or above, GIRL will join you on-screen.
If ALL RELICS are placed, TRUE ENDING +1.
If you didn't own or use any magic books, TRUE ENDING +1.
If you didn't consume any COFFEE, special "COFFEE ENDING" applies.
If you didn't gain any EXPERIENCE POINTS, TRUE ENDING +1.
If STALKER IS DEAD, +1 TRUE ENDING. If HEADWORM IS DEAD, +1 TRUE ENDING.
If HOMESENSE is -13: two showings are cancelled for the house, and a text from your father informs you there was a break-in at HOME.
If HOMESENSE is less than or equal to -7, two showings are cancelled via text by the agent.
If HOMESENSE is less than or equal to -4, a showing is cancelled via text by the agent.
If HOMESENSE is 0, there are no texts from the agent.
If HOMESENSE is greater than 0 or equal to 6, a showing is confirmed via text by the agent.
If HOMESENSE is up to 9, a showing is confirmed and a showing requested via text by the agent.
If HOMESENSE is 10, your father texts you to inform you there has been an offer on the house, TRUE ENDING +1.
If TRUE ENDING = 6, special true ending remark.
If COFFEE ENDING applies, special coffee ending remark.
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All players then receive the following message:
"..."
"Your phone battery has just died."
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THANK-YOU FOR PLAYING HOME GAME 2.
- HORSES' MUSIC-DOGS