FA+
Shop
618
Views
Views
1
Favorites
Favorites
Category
Story / Tutorials
Species Red Fox
Size 1280 x 640
File Size 278.7 kB
Report this content
More from ZoomXof
Listed in Folders
TUNIC Narrative Guide - Act 2, Part 4: The Pilfered Prize
Summary: Join the Ruin Seeker (that's our protagonist fox!) on his journey through a strange and vaguely familiar land. His inner thoughts are laid bare as we explore the unknown. Each step brings new mysteries to solve, new challenges to face. - This story is intended as a companion piece to the video game TUNIC, but can also function as a guide if you are stuck or a teaser to get you interested.
We are now in the second act of the game, which means heavy spoilers! If you plan to experience the game for yourself, use Act 1 as your teaser and come back afterwards, or if you find yourself stuck.
I climb and climb, eventually coming to the small roof of this grand library. There, a tall canid faces away from me, staring off into the distance. My intuition tells me it is the owner of the study. The scholar who has been doing endless research into this land. I call out to him, and he ignores me.
Walking up behind him, I tug on his white cape. If we could only talk, I could learn about where I came from, and what happened to the goddess. His response is a burst of anger. His words and mine, they're unable to connect. He spins around, the black hair on his head swishes in the chilling breeze. The sword in his hand, adorned with the pattern of the three hexagons, and likely a very powerful relic, glows with void energy.
His black fur, shining in the sun, seems to vanish before me as a storm rolls in and blots out the sky. Rain begins to fall in mere moments, and the Librarian channels energy into his cape and takes flight. With a slash of his sword, a dark fire coats the platform, and combat ensues.
He lunges towards me, and I roll to the side. He channels a beam with his blade and attempts to incinerate me. In all this time, he has stayed out of my reach. I take hold of the Magic Orb and attempt to lasso him to my side. As I do so, he raises his blade to the sky and it is struck by thunder. I pull him close, but he vanishes with a flash. Moments later, the air around me crackles and he descends from the sky with a grand stab.
I attempt to strike him from behind, but the electricity emanating from him knocks me back. As it fades, I try again, finally managing to deal a clean strike. I lament the fact that we must fight, as he may be the first person other than the goddess who might understand me, relate to me. His next attack is a trio of void-balls, which I sidestep in turn. I try again to pull him close, but he resists my pull and summons a group of void Rudelings.
When they fall, they leave behind mana, which normal Rudelings do not do. I collect it and replenish my spent spirit. He launches another void attack, this one sending a crescent across the arena. I dodge it and, with the potential to recover my mana in this battle, squeeze the Magic Orb twice. Finally, he is in range of my sword, tiny as it may be.
We trade blows, and he floats away again. Summoning void-balls, their number has increased. Four surround me, and their rhythm deceives me, leaving me wounded. As I drink a potion, the scholar raises his blade and vanishes into the sky. The ground sparks, and I run to the edge.
I work in a few more strikes, and strike his back with a few fire bolts as he retreats. My attempt to pull him back fails, and he divides the platform in two with a trail of void-fire. At the same time, he summons a swarm of Phrends, even more voidlike than the usual variety.
Claiming their mana, I keep an eye on the Librarian. He emits another beam, but I let my guard down as he sweeps it across the roof. Another potion, another two thrashes of my Magic Orb. His orbs surround me and hit me several times, and I barely get a strike in. Frustrated by the uselessness of the tentacle grip, I pull out the Fire Rod and fire to the limit of my spirit.
While it leaves me drained, I finally dealt a solid blow to him in the process. More Phrends, and their strikes manage to deal critical damage. At the edge of death, I quaff another potion. Two remain. I recovered enough mana for another seven bolts, too.
Five void orbs, his attacks are increasing in ferocity. This time, they come all from one side. I avoid them, and narrowly miss a lunge as a glowing streak passes me by. He calls the lightning again, and strikes the platform. With mastered timing, I achieve critical damage as his electrical charge fades.
His crescent strike singes my fur, and I lash out with my Fire Rod. We are both weakened at this point. His void-fire pens me in and his next crescent slash hits me dead on. Once again on the edge of death, I drink my last two potions as I dodge his void-balls. His next attacks prove challenging to avoid, but I hold my own and strike out after a lunge.
A wave of void-balls surround me, and I take some more damage. He spawns a wave of Rudelings, granting me some precious mana, but he connects with a lunge as I work to finish them off. Another lightning strike, and it lands quicker than the others. Barely alive, I strike with a barrage of my Fire Rod.
This proves to be a fatal mistake. With my spirit spent, I realize that had I struck him with my sword first, I would have claimed victory. Instead, as I dodge a wave of six void-balls, he holds his distance and slashes twice with crescent attacks. I succeed in avoiding the first, but the second brushes along my back, cutting deep enough to bring me to the ground. I come close to sliding off the tower as my consciousness fades...
When I return to the roof, I find him standing once more against the edge, looking forlorn. I wonder how it is, from his perspective, to see me return once again. Am I revived through time travel? Is this an alternate dimension? Do they simply forget afterwards? Questions like these are impossible to answer, as I only exist to myself, and they only exist to themselves.
Setting aside philosophy, I know the Librarian to be a sure foe. With that in mind, instead of a simple tug on his cape, I approach him blade at the ready. I launch into a series of combos, cutting into his precious cape, slashing his black robe. By the time he takes flight, I've already claimed a solid advantage.
When he refuses to return to the roof, I begin singing his fur with my Fire Rod. After around ten shots, he summons some void-Rudelings to harass me. I thank him for the free mana, and coax them into a circle for easy slaughter. One eye on the scholar, I roll to dodge his crescent slash. Again, it manages to still strike my back. I refresh myself with a potion, and after sidestepping a wave of void-balls, I hit him with another ten fiery blasts.
My early lead is quickly lost, however, as I find myself tripping over my own tail. After the next wave of Rudelings, I chug a potion to recover. He claims two lightning strikes, and after each I strike his back. The blows land weakly, however, and the fight remains fairly even. Void-balls surround me twice, and as I dodge them, I strike at least ten more times with my rod. His crescent lands solidly, and I roll away with a limp. Third potion.
More fire bolts, a slash after his lunge, another failed dodge of his crescent, and my fourth potion is now used. At last my spirit is exhausted, but I have fallen behind in this race of magical artifacts. Redoubling my focus, I watch the Librarian closely for my next opening. A lightning strike. Two stabs to his back, until he rolls away and strikes me in mine.
He flies off and summons some friendly Phrends with their playful tentacles. I recover my mana, but his lunge hits me head on. For a moment, I think myself defeated, when I remember I still have one potion left. My Lucky Cup also rewards me with a heart from the dissolving energy carcass of the void-Phrend. Without that heart, I would have fallen before I had a chance to use my last potion. It was truly lucky, indeed.
I expend my mana with fire bolts, dodge a side wave of void-balls, chug that last potion, dodge yet another side wave of void-balls, and... am struck clean in the face by another lunge, despite plainly seeing it coming my way.
Both on our last breaths, I squeeze the last bit of my spirit through my Fire Rod to interrupt one of his crescent attacks. The fool summons more minions, not realizing it works to my advantage. The Phrends fall one by one as I focus intently on avoiding the scholar's final attacks. Before I can assail him with fiery doom, he claims one final lightning bolt and strikes at the library roof.
Stepping behind him, I wait for the energy to dissipate. One. Two. Three! My sword combo cuts through, and he falls face-first onto the cold and wet roof. Rifling through his pockets, I find the green key within, as well as a tidy sum of shinybits. It's not like he will need them anymore. Sadly, both his cape and his sword are too large for me to use, so I leave them behind.
With the last of my strength, I stumble down the long set of ladders and return to his study. After communing with the goddess, I kneel upon the teleporter and find myself in the ghostly world. As expected, the panel leading to the Quarry is still dark. I will have to explore by foot to find it. Thankfully, I have a new tool, and I remember seeing a fair share of hooks in the Overworld area.
I return to the Ruined Village and clear the area of foes. Goodness, if they don't come charging in from every direction. I open my map and think about where I have been, and where I might try searching. I've visited two locations to the east, including the Eastern Vault. I have been to the south, found the Southern Vault, and scoured the beach. To the west, a flooded marshy ruin, almost fully explored.
This leaves the north, the mountains sound like the proper place to find a quarry to begin with. I already visited the Mountain Door, and I don't remember any hooks or other pathways to take. It definitely isn't in the Sealed Temple. I explored all of the Dark Tomb. One other area in the north has a label. "Forbidden Pass" it says. It's that, or the answer really is with the Mountain Door.
Only so much can be done with just guessing. I close my map and head west. Along the way, I spot several metal poles. Right, that reminds me... There's a few things in this area that I can lay claim to now, and there was that dangerous cave that I ran from.
I whip a tuning fork, pulling myself to a chest with paltry rewards. I then grip the Autobolt beneath me, hack it to pieces, and drop down the ladder. Along the coast, another set of Autobolts that grant me mobility to another isolated island chest. Inside this one, I obtain a Golden Coin, the first in quite a while. I should take the two I hold to a well when I get the chance.
New Goal: Visit a well to toss my coins in.
Running along the fallen ruins to the east, I quickly come to the dangerous cave that was previously too daunting to consider exploring. Inside, I lasso the nearest Autobolt and make quick work of it, rolling away into the water. I take a few hits from the next, but my tentacled friend pulls me across the water and alongside the turret. Across the room, a third one fires on me, so I repeat my assault once more.
This chamber would have been a painful experience without this extra mobility. On a central platform, I find a chest. Behind it, a mural like a few that I've seen scattered around the land. Throwing open the lid, I discover a strange artifact. On the surface it appears to be an hourglass. Flipping it over, the sands remain locked in place. When nothing immediately happens, I consider how other tools I've found have worked.
Concentrating my spirit into the device, I find my thoughts accelerating. Everything around me seems to slow down, leaving me more time to react. Unfortunately, my own body does not move any faster. When I roll, it feels like it takes ages to return to my feet. When I run, I feel like I am crawling. After a short while, or was it a long while, I stop channeling into the magic apparatus. Into my bags it goes, but I don't expect to find any use for something like this.
Outside, I decide to further experiment with my Magic Orb. After pulling myself up, I see if I can remove the Envoy's shield. Instead, I pull the Envoy to me, and he runs back to guard his precious spot, long since devoid of the key that was once there. I climb to the higher ledge and try again. He runs along the staircase as soon as he is able, and I can't help but laugh at the fervent stupidity the foxfolk is showing.
Once more, I pull him up, standing in his way entirely. This leaves him open to an easy defeat, and I earn a hefty purse for my efforts. While I'm here, I try to lasso the stranded page within the fountain. This, of course, does nothing, leaving it as a continued mystery.
Up the path, a convenient well. Pulling out my two coins, I toss them both in. When the sixth coin splashes to the bottom, I am gifted a new "slot" for my cards. I equip the Anklet, and am happy to find that I am slightly more nimble. It's not much, but it still feels nice.
When I stop by the goddess statue to rest, I check to see if I can afford to offer the strange powder. With 1500 total bits, I send 1000 of them along with the offering, bolstering the healing power of my potions. With all of that out of the way, I'm ready to go check the area labeled Forbidden Pass.
Weaving past the Old Well, I spot a chest I neglected with a bit more shinies in it. At the edge of the path, I spot an Envoy hanging out along a precarious ledge. With a wicked grin, I channel my Magic Orb and the tentacle friend reaches out and yanks the unsuspecting halfwit over the edge and into the water below.
My eyes catch sight of a chest. Stealing from the nearby Rudelings, I then lasso the two-tined pole and plunder the golden container. Inside, a new card. This one is the Inverted Ash card. It seems to depict a potion bottle, but I'm quite happy with my current cards so I shove it in with my collection and look around.
At the back, a ladder leads me behind this locked gate. I never did check the sign, come to think of it. The path seems to continue on in the distance, but the two ladders leading upwards also call to me. With a whip, I pull myself over the wall and read the sign. Danger. Ho, to danger! But first, a little trip up these ladders. Here, I find a flower offering. I give it a sniff, appreciating the mellow fragrance. It calms me some.
I return to the other side of the iron gate and head along the north-facing path. In the shadow of the mountain, I find an obelisk. It resides on an isolated island, one that I could not have reached without the Magic Orb. Had I come here any earlier, I would have been unable to supply power to anything ahead.
The path runs east and continues around, opening into a massive... Well, a massive quarry. The path I am on runs along a vast hollowed out chasm. To the south, a gigantic black pyramid stretches into the sky. For as high up as I am, the top of the pyramid reaches even higher. In the chasm, I see twisted metal towers, hunks of dark crystals, and a layer of heavy fog.
Along my path is another obelisk. It is placed even with the center of the black pyramid, and beckons for my holy touch to set it into place. With a prayer, it sinks into place and the power continues to flow. It forks into two directions, one further ahead, and the other down into the pit.
With a fierce rumble, the entrance to the mysterious building comes to life. Power courses through the panels that seal it, light dancing along the strange squares. With an otherworldly twirl, they disappear into nothingness, and all I can see is the power conduit trailing away into darkness.
I open my map and consult with the little bits of info I can understand. This feature isn't on my map, but it's obviously a very important location. If I had to guess, I would say the blue hexagon is within its walls. That would make it the Rooted Ziggurat. I need to find my way down so I can explore.
Revised Goal: Descend to the Rooted Ziggurat.
I return to the long trek across the bridge, and it appears that much of the structure has long since fallen away. Metal sheeting has been added to help it retain its ability to be used for traversal.
At the next bend, a goddess statue to rest at. While here, I offer up the health upgrade I just got. Beside it, a teleporter, but I already knew I would find that somewhere nearby. The power conduit ahead is... broken. Thankfully, it's not pouring out corrosive fluids, perhaps it is clogged? To my side, an elevator, but it's locked at the bottom with no controls up here. Such poor design.
Ahead, a trio of canid workers in masks. Two are hacking away at an obelisk. I spoke too soon about corrosive fluids, as this thing is absolutely seething with toxicity. What they are doing cannot be good, so I take out the first worker and engage with the next. In the mean time, my stomach churns and my head pounds. I start to lose my focus, and feel a deep depression clinging to my insides.
At the edge of my senses, I notice a beam pointed at me. I blink a few times, and think to dodge roll. An energy bolt blasts past where I just was. I hurry to kill the other sword wielder, but the one wielding the ranged weapon retreats into the corrosive field. It's at this time that I notice that, despite avoiding most of their strikes, I feel weak enough to fall to even a faint breeze. I retreat away from the obelisk, hoping the gun scavenger will move elsewhere. Instead, she takes aim from her spot and with nowhere to turn, the bullet fires and pierces me.
As I falter, I slip from the edge. On the long trip down, as my consciousness fades, I suddenly feel afraid for the first time since facing the Siege Engine. I've barely even set foot into the Quarry and already I've been soundly defeated. And who knows what other dangers await me further in. The map for this place was massive, as big as the Overworld!
As I watch the ground rushing up at me, I feel faint encroaching on my senses. Just before I hit the bottom, everything goes black.
Current Goals
✔Recover the green key, stolen to the top of the sky.
✔Explore the dangerous cave on the beach. (Eventually.)
✔Visit a well to toss my coins in.
★ Descend to the Rooted Ziggurat.
★ Recover the blue key, sealed at the root of the world.
★ Take the three keys to the sealed temple altars.
★ Break the seal that imprisons the goddess and/or obtain the great treasure.
Author's Notes: First, to anyone who caught the weird issue in my last upload, I suffered a random corruption after an edit and half of the contents got erased. It's fixed now, so, yay.
I just want to say, that boss fight was really fun. It was a favorite in my first playthrough, months ago, and it still is even now. The atmosphere, the attack patterns, even the annoying nature of his constant evasiveness. It's such an epic moment, so it was really fun to try to capture it in writing. I even had a few entertaining moments during my captured footage that I was able to play up in the story.
If you've been following along, you may have started to notice that our hero fox is starting to act a little less like a hero. This happens in a lot of games, but to focus on it usually doesn't fit the narrative. Here, however, I came to the realization that it actually plays a big part in the game's plot. I won't go into further details at this point, but pay careful attention to how his behavior shifts over the next few chapters. I plan to really play into this narrative path.
Game-wise, we had to catch up on a bit of side-quests and then figure out where the Quarry actually was. For those playing at home, if you were being a thorough explorer, you had likely already been there by this point. For those who are charging forward, it may have been a bit harder to locate. Thankfully, the world in this game isn't especially large, so it's rare to feel truly lost. It's still important to think about how a player is meant to locate things when designing a game, as not everyone has well-honed gamer senses. For some, it may be among their first times with the exploration genre, so context clues are always a huge positive.
Thumbnail created using the press kit's wallpaper and logo. The custom text contains a secret.
Search Tags: Zelda Link mystery mysteries explore exploring exploration guide gameguide walkthrough help steam psychology psychological island ruin ruins "the heir" vixen foxy foxes offering offerings secret secrets quest adventure magic magical
We are now in the second act of the game, which means heavy spoilers! If you plan to experience the game for yourself, use Act 1 as your teaser and come back afterwards, or if you find yourself stuck.
|| >> Start Here << || <<< Previous Part | Next Part >>> ||
TUNIC: A Narrative Guide
Act 2: Part 4 - The Pilfered Prize
I climb and climb, eventually coming to the small roof of this grand library. There, a tall canid faces away from me, staring off into the distance. My intuition tells me it is the owner of the study. The scholar who has been doing endless research into this land. I call out to him, and he ignores me.
Walking up behind him, I tug on his white cape. If we could only talk, I could learn about where I came from, and what happened to the goddess. His response is a burst of anger. His words and mine, they're unable to connect. He spins around, the black hair on his head swishes in the chilling breeze. The sword in his hand, adorned with the pattern of the three hexagons, and likely a very powerful relic, glows with void energy.
His black fur, shining in the sun, seems to vanish before me as a storm rolls in and blots out the sky. Rain begins to fall in mere moments, and the Librarian channels energy into his cape and takes flight. With a slash of his sword, a dark fire coats the platform, and combat ensues.
He lunges towards me, and I roll to the side. He channels a beam with his blade and attempts to incinerate me. In all this time, he has stayed out of my reach. I take hold of the Magic Orb and attempt to lasso him to my side. As I do so, he raises his blade to the sky and it is struck by thunder. I pull him close, but he vanishes with a flash. Moments later, the air around me crackles and he descends from the sky with a grand stab.
I attempt to strike him from behind, but the electricity emanating from him knocks me back. As it fades, I try again, finally managing to deal a clean strike. I lament the fact that we must fight, as he may be the first person other than the goddess who might understand me, relate to me. His next attack is a trio of void-balls, which I sidestep in turn. I try again to pull him close, but he resists my pull and summons a group of void Rudelings.
When they fall, they leave behind mana, which normal Rudelings do not do. I collect it and replenish my spent spirit. He launches another void attack, this one sending a crescent across the arena. I dodge it and, with the potential to recover my mana in this battle, squeeze the Magic Orb twice. Finally, he is in range of my sword, tiny as it may be.
We trade blows, and he floats away again. Summoning void-balls, their number has increased. Four surround me, and their rhythm deceives me, leaving me wounded. As I drink a potion, the scholar raises his blade and vanishes into the sky. The ground sparks, and I run to the edge.
I work in a few more strikes, and strike his back with a few fire bolts as he retreats. My attempt to pull him back fails, and he divides the platform in two with a trail of void-fire. At the same time, he summons a swarm of Phrends, even more voidlike than the usual variety.
Claiming their mana, I keep an eye on the Librarian. He emits another beam, but I let my guard down as he sweeps it across the roof. Another potion, another two thrashes of my Magic Orb. His orbs surround me and hit me several times, and I barely get a strike in. Frustrated by the uselessness of the tentacle grip, I pull out the Fire Rod and fire to the limit of my spirit.
While it leaves me drained, I finally dealt a solid blow to him in the process. More Phrends, and their strikes manage to deal critical damage. At the edge of death, I quaff another potion. Two remain. I recovered enough mana for another seven bolts, too.
Five void orbs, his attacks are increasing in ferocity. This time, they come all from one side. I avoid them, and narrowly miss a lunge as a glowing streak passes me by. He calls the lightning again, and strikes the platform. With mastered timing, I achieve critical damage as his electrical charge fades.
His crescent strike singes my fur, and I lash out with my Fire Rod. We are both weakened at this point. His void-fire pens me in and his next crescent slash hits me dead on. Once again on the edge of death, I drink my last two potions as I dodge his void-balls. His next attacks prove challenging to avoid, but I hold my own and strike out after a lunge.
A wave of void-balls surround me, and I take some more damage. He spawns a wave of Rudelings, granting me some precious mana, but he connects with a lunge as I work to finish them off. Another lightning strike, and it lands quicker than the others. Barely alive, I strike with a barrage of my Fire Rod.
This proves to be a fatal mistake. With my spirit spent, I realize that had I struck him with my sword first, I would have claimed victory. Instead, as I dodge a wave of six void-balls, he holds his distance and slashes twice with crescent attacks. I succeed in avoiding the first, but the second brushes along my back, cutting deep enough to bring me to the ground. I come close to sliding off the tower as my consciousness fades...
When I return to the roof, I find him standing once more against the edge, looking forlorn. I wonder how it is, from his perspective, to see me return once again. Am I revived through time travel? Is this an alternate dimension? Do they simply forget afterwards? Questions like these are impossible to answer, as I only exist to myself, and they only exist to themselves.
Setting aside philosophy, I know the Librarian to be a sure foe. With that in mind, instead of a simple tug on his cape, I approach him blade at the ready. I launch into a series of combos, cutting into his precious cape, slashing his black robe. By the time he takes flight, I've already claimed a solid advantage.
When he refuses to return to the roof, I begin singing his fur with my Fire Rod. After around ten shots, he summons some void-Rudelings to harass me. I thank him for the free mana, and coax them into a circle for easy slaughter. One eye on the scholar, I roll to dodge his crescent slash. Again, it manages to still strike my back. I refresh myself with a potion, and after sidestepping a wave of void-balls, I hit him with another ten fiery blasts.
My early lead is quickly lost, however, as I find myself tripping over my own tail. After the next wave of Rudelings, I chug a potion to recover. He claims two lightning strikes, and after each I strike his back. The blows land weakly, however, and the fight remains fairly even. Void-balls surround me twice, and as I dodge them, I strike at least ten more times with my rod. His crescent lands solidly, and I roll away with a limp. Third potion.
More fire bolts, a slash after his lunge, another failed dodge of his crescent, and my fourth potion is now used. At last my spirit is exhausted, but I have fallen behind in this race of magical artifacts. Redoubling my focus, I watch the Librarian closely for my next opening. A lightning strike. Two stabs to his back, until he rolls away and strikes me in mine.
He flies off and summons some friendly Phrends with their playful tentacles. I recover my mana, but his lunge hits me head on. For a moment, I think myself defeated, when I remember I still have one potion left. My Lucky Cup also rewards me with a heart from the dissolving energy carcass of the void-Phrend. Without that heart, I would have fallen before I had a chance to use my last potion. It was truly lucky, indeed.
I expend my mana with fire bolts, dodge a side wave of void-balls, chug that last potion, dodge yet another side wave of void-balls, and... am struck clean in the face by another lunge, despite plainly seeing it coming my way.
Both on our last breaths, I squeeze the last bit of my spirit through my Fire Rod to interrupt one of his crescent attacks. The fool summons more minions, not realizing it works to my advantage. The Phrends fall one by one as I focus intently on avoiding the scholar's final attacks. Before I can assail him with fiery doom, he claims one final lightning bolt and strikes at the library roof.
Stepping behind him, I wait for the energy to dissipate. One. Two. Three! My sword combo cuts through, and he falls face-first onto the cold and wet roof. Rifling through his pockets, I find the green key within, as well as a tidy sum of shinybits. It's not like he will need them anymore. Sadly, both his cape and his sword are too large for me to use, so I leave them behind.
Major Goal Complete: Recover the green key, stolen to the top of the sky.With the last of my strength, I stumble down the long set of ladders and return to his study. After communing with the goddess, I kneel upon the teleporter and find myself in the ghostly world. As expected, the panel leading to the Quarry is still dark. I will have to explore by foot to find it. Thankfully, I have a new tool, and I remember seeing a fair share of hooks in the Overworld area.
I return to the Ruined Village and clear the area of foes. Goodness, if they don't come charging in from every direction. I open my map and think about where I have been, and where I might try searching. I've visited two locations to the east, including the Eastern Vault. I have been to the south, found the Southern Vault, and scoured the beach. To the west, a flooded marshy ruin, almost fully explored.
This leaves the north, the mountains sound like the proper place to find a quarry to begin with. I already visited the Mountain Door, and I don't remember any hooks or other pathways to take. It definitely isn't in the Sealed Temple. I explored all of the Dark Tomb. One other area in the north has a label. "Forbidden Pass" it says. It's that, or the answer really is with the Mountain Door.
Only so much can be done with just guessing. I close my map and head west. Along the way, I spot several metal poles. Right, that reminds me... There's a few things in this area that I can lay claim to now, and there was that dangerous cave that I ran from.
I whip a tuning fork, pulling myself to a chest with paltry rewards. I then grip the Autobolt beneath me, hack it to pieces, and drop down the ladder. Along the coast, another set of Autobolts that grant me mobility to another isolated island chest. Inside this one, I obtain a Golden Coin, the first in quite a while. I should take the two I hold to a well when I get the chance.
New Item: Golden Coin #6New Goal: Visit a well to toss my coins in.
Running along the fallen ruins to the east, I quickly come to the dangerous cave that was previously too daunting to consider exploring. Inside, I lasso the nearest Autobolt and make quick work of it, rolling away into the water. I take a few hits from the next, but my tentacled friend pulls me across the water and alongside the turret. Across the room, a third one fires on me, so I repeat my assault once more.
This chamber would have been a painful experience without this extra mobility. On a central platform, I find a chest. Behind it, a mural like a few that I've seen scattered around the land. Throwing open the lid, I discover a strange artifact. On the surface it appears to be an hourglass. Flipping it over, the sands remain locked in place. When nothing immediately happens, I consider how other tools I've found have worked.
Concentrating my spirit into the device, I find my thoughts accelerating. Everything around me seems to slow down, leaving me more time to react. Unfortunately, my own body does not move any faster. When I roll, it feels like it takes ages to return to my feet. When I run, I feel like I am crawling. After a short while, or was it a long while, I stop channeling into the magic apparatus. Into my bags it goes, but I don't expect to find any use for something like this.
New Item: Magic HourglassOutside, I decide to further experiment with my Magic Orb. After pulling myself up, I see if I can remove the Envoy's shield. Instead, I pull the Envoy to me, and he runs back to guard his precious spot, long since devoid of the key that was once there. I climb to the higher ledge and try again. He runs along the staircase as soon as he is able, and I can't help but laugh at the fervent stupidity the foxfolk is showing.
Once more, I pull him up, standing in his way entirely. This leaves him open to an easy defeat, and I earn a hefty purse for my efforts. While I'm here, I try to lasso the stranded page within the fountain. This, of course, does nothing, leaving it as a continued mystery.
Up the path, a convenient well. Pulling out my two coins, I toss them both in. When the sixth coin splashes to the bottom, I am gifted a new "slot" for my cards. I equip the Anklet, and am happy to find that I am slightly more nimble. It's not much, but it still feels nice.
When I stop by the goddess statue to rest, I check to see if I can afford to offer the strange powder. With 1500 total bits, I send 1000 of them along with the offering, bolstering the healing power of my potions. With all of that out of the way, I'm ready to go check the area labeled Forbidden Pass.
Weaving past the Old Well, I spot a chest I neglected with a bit more shinies in it. At the edge of the path, I spot an Envoy hanging out along a precarious ledge. With a wicked grin, I channel my Magic Orb and the tentacle friend reaches out and yanks the unsuspecting halfwit over the edge and into the water below.
My eyes catch sight of a chest. Stealing from the nearby Rudelings, I then lasso the two-tined pole and plunder the golden container. Inside, a new card. This one is the Inverted Ash card. It seems to depict a potion bottle, but I'm quite happy with my current cards so I shove it in with my collection and look around.
New Item: Card #10 - Inverted AshAt the back, a ladder leads me behind this locked gate. I never did check the sign, come to think of it. The path seems to continue on in the distance, but the two ladders leading upwards also call to me. With a whip, I pull myself over the wall and read the sign. Danger. Ho, to danger! But first, a little trip up these ladders. Here, I find a flower offering. I give it a sniff, appreciating the mellow fragrance. It calms me some.
New Item: Health Upgrade #4I return to the other side of the iron gate and head along the north-facing path. In the shadow of the mountain, I find an obelisk. It resides on an isolated island, one that I could not have reached without the Magic Orb. Had I come here any earlier, I would have been unable to supply power to anything ahead.
The path runs east and continues around, opening into a massive... Well, a massive quarry. The path I am on runs along a vast hollowed out chasm. To the south, a gigantic black pyramid stretches into the sky. For as high up as I am, the top of the pyramid reaches even higher. In the chasm, I see twisted metal towers, hunks of dark crystals, and a layer of heavy fog.
Along my path is another obelisk. It is placed even with the center of the black pyramid, and beckons for my holy touch to set it into place. With a prayer, it sinks into place and the power continues to flow. It forks into two directions, one further ahead, and the other down into the pit.
With a fierce rumble, the entrance to the mysterious building comes to life. Power courses through the panels that seal it, light dancing along the strange squares. With an otherworldly twirl, they disappear into nothingness, and all I can see is the power conduit trailing away into darkness.
I open my map and consult with the little bits of info I can understand. This feature isn't on my map, but it's obviously a very important location. If I had to guess, I would say the blue hexagon is within its walls. That would make it the Rooted Ziggurat. I need to find my way down so I can explore.
Revised Goal: Descend to the Rooted Ziggurat.
I return to the long trek across the bridge, and it appears that much of the structure has long since fallen away. Metal sheeting has been added to help it retain its ability to be used for traversal.
At the next bend, a goddess statue to rest at. While here, I offer up the health upgrade I just got. Beside it, a teleporter, but I already knew I would find that somewhere nearby. The power conduit ahead is... broken. Thankfully, it's not pouring out corrosive fluids, perhaps it is clogged? To my side, an elevator, but it's locked at the bottom with no controls up here. Such poor design.
Ahead, a trio of canid workers in masks. Two are hacking away at an obelisk. I spoke too soon about corrosive fluids, as this thing is absolutely seething with toxicity. What they are doing cannot be good, so I take out the first worker and engage with the next. In the mean time, my stomach churns and my head pounds. I start to lose my focus, and feel a deep depression clinging to my insides.
At the edge of my senses, I notice a beam pointed at me. I blink a few times, and think to dodge roll. An energy bolt blasts past where I just was. I hurry to kill the other sword wielder, but the one wielding the ranged weapon retreats into the corrosive field. It's at this time that I notice that, despite avoiding most of their strikes, I feel weak enough to fall to even a faint breeze. I retreat away from the obelisk, hoping the gun scavenger will move elsewhere. Instead, she takes aim from her spot and with nowhere to turn, the bullet fires and pierces me.
As I falter, I slip from the edge. On the long trip down, as my consciousness fades, I suddenly feel afraid for the first time since facing the Siege Engine. I've barely even set foot into the Quarry and already I've been soundly defeated. And who knows what other dangers await me further in. The map for this place was massive, as big as the Overworld!
As I watch the ground rushing up at me, I feel faint encroaching on my senses. Just before I hit the bottom, everything goes black.
Current Goals
✔
✔
✔
★ Descend to the Rooted Ziggurat.
★ Recover the blue key, sealed at the root of the world.
★ Take the three keys to the sealed temple altars.
★ Break the seal that imprisons the goddess and/or obtain the great treasure.
|| >> Start Here << || <<< Previous Part | Next Part >>> ||
Author's Notes: First, to anyone who caught the weird issue in my last upload, I suffered a random corruption after an edit and half of the contents got erased. It's fixed now, so, yay.
I just want to say, that boss fight was really fun. It was a favorite in my first playthrough, months ago, and it still is even now. The atmosphere, the attack patterns, even the annoying nature of his constant evasiveness. It's such an epic moment, so it was really fun to try to capture it in writing. I even had a few entertaining moments during my captured footage that I was able to play up in the story.
If you've been following along, you may have started to notice that our hero fox is starting to act a little less like a hero. This happens in a lot of games, but to focus on it usually doesn't fit the narrative. Here, however, I came to the realization that it actually plays a big part in the game's plot. I won't go into further details at this point, but pay careful attention to how his behavior shifts over the next few chapters. I plan to really play into this narrative path.
Game-wise, we had to catch up on a bit of side-quests and then figure out where the Quarry actually was. For those playing at home, if you were being a thorough explorer, you had likely already been there by this point. For those who are charging forward, it may have been a bit harder to locate. Thankfully, the world in this game isn't especially large, so it's rare to feel truly lost. It's still important to think about how a player is meant to locate things when designing a game, as not everyone has well-honed gamer senses. For some, it may be among their first times with the exploration genre, so context clues are always a huge positive.
Thumbnail created using the press kit's wallpaper and logo. The custom text contains a secret.
Search Tags: Zelda Link mystery mysteries explore exploring exploration guide gameguide walkthrough help steam psychology psychological island ruin ruins "the heir" vixen foxy foxes offering offerings secret secrets quest adventure magic magical
Category Story / Tutorials
Species Red Fox
Size 1280 x 640px
File Size 278.7 kB
Listed in Folders
Thanks! It's one of my all-time favorites, as well. I love the fox aesthetic and the sense of mystery.
Visiting it with this type of attention-to-detail has been an interesting experience. Taking the time to come up with possible explanations for the things around me has really changed my perspective on a lot of what takes place. That's in addition to what I already know from the translated booklet.
If you've got any friends that you talked into playing, be sure to pass this along to them. I'd love to hear about others' experiences with the game, and how their path through the world ended up differing. When they reached their big epiphanies and how hard they worked to solve the mysteries that fill the land.
The bosses have been my favorite part of this guide. I try to write about as much of my fights as possible, changing little details here and there to capture the suspense and intensity. The close calls, however, have all been genuine. I'm not the best gamer, I would probably struggle with Elden Ring for example, but the difficult of TUNIC was very satisfying. The upcoming fight with Boss Scavenger is probably even more intense than the Librarian fight.
Visiting it with this type of attention-to-detail has been an interesting experience. Taking the time to come up with possible explanations for the things around me has really changed my perspective on a lot of what takes place. That's in addition to what I already know from the translated booklet.
If you've got any friends that you talked into playing, be sure to pass this along to them. I'd love to hear about others' experiences with the game, and how their path through the world ended up differing. When they reached their big epiphanies and how hard they worked to solve the mysteries that fill the land.
The bosses have been my favorite part of this guide. I try to write about as much of my fights as possible, changing little details here and there to capture the suspense and intensity. The close calls, however, have all been genuine. I'm not the best gamer, I would probably struggle with Elden Ring for example, but the difficult of TUNIC was very satisfying. The upcoming fight with Boss Scavenger is probably even more intense than the Librarian fight.
Boss Scavenger gave me a fair bit of trouble my first time through the game. What I wrote about in the guide, described in Part 7, holds very little embellishment. I managed a victory on my second attempt, but it was a close battle.
Much of the combat in this game comes down to knowing the best tool for the job. My next boss fight may take me more than a couple of tries, however. I'll see how it evolves in narrative form when I get there in a few days.
Much of the combat in this game comes down to knowing the best tool for the job. My next boss fight may take me more than a couple of tries, however. I'll see how it evolves in narrative form when I get there in a few days.
Comments