After surviving the Shipwrecked boat, you will be ready to start your journey, although you have to go through Loner’s Landing first. This is a great introduction to getting accustomed to how the game works. The first thing you will do is step over a checkpoint, which is where you will respawn if your health reaches zero at any point. These checkpoints also have a secondary function, as if you burrow while standing on top of them, you will go to the Underlab. This is essentially your base, in terms of what you can do. The chest at the top allows you to equip Trinkets, while the one on the left lets you switch weapons.
In the upper right corner is where you grind your Bonestones (more on that later), and the bottom right machine is what will refill your healing. To leave, simply burrow into the hole at the bottom of the screen. Now is a good time to talk about Burrowing a little bit, which is one of the main mechanics in this game. Whenever you hold the jump button, you will burrow into the ground, where you can move a little more quickly than on foot. Doing this also allows you to dodge some attacks and obstacles in the world, but it isn’t fullproof. There will be some attacks and dangers in the world that will still hurt you whenever you’re underground.
The holes that glow when you pass are Underlabs, basically functioning as checkpoints.
Sidearms are sub-weapons that use a currency called Joules.
You can only stay underground for a small amount of time, though, which you’ll know when you see Mina flashing. Burrowing also lets you get a longer jump and there are certain holes/walls that you can go under, so you’ll be using it quite often. Getting back to the game, this area is pretty linear, for the beginning section, so press on to the right, defeating enemies and breaking the various objects. After hopping over the first gap, break the candle on the upper wall to reveal an axe, which is your first Sidearm.
Continue to the right until you encounter the enemy with a shield. This one will block all attacks from the front, so you’ll have to do some trickery by quickly moving to the side and hitting him from there. Break the debris in the top and exit via the upper right. In order to clear the boulder out of the way, you have to burrow underneath it, but Mina will be able to use the boulder as a weapon, too. You can apply this with the second boulder and the shielded enemy here, as he won’t be able to block that. Burrow under the rope on the right, then do the same with the small gap to arrive in the next room.
If you see cracks on walls or objects, hit them to destroy them and sometimes reveal hidden paths.
Come at this chest from the north to discover a Bonestone Gem.
You won’t be able to go up here, since the rock blocks are impeding you, so the only choice is left. See the “cracks” on the wall in the bottom left here? You can strike those with your weapon, causing the entire wall to disappear. Continue upward, to another wall you can destroy in the same fashion, but stop there. You can burrow underneath the fence to the south now, giving you access to that chest there. Bust it open with your weapon to receive a Bonestone Gem.
At the top of this screen, you will see a platform moving left and right, but ignore it for now. You can burrow underneath the wall to your left, leading to a small room with a chest at the end. Carefully jump across the one-tile platforms, until you reach the left side. Take care of the enemy, then break open the chest for another Bonestone Gem. Return to the previous screen and ride the platform across to the exit. On the next screen, an enemy will be shooting projectiles at you, while you hop over some barriers. Once you get to the creature, defeat it, then bust open the wall to the right of the stairs for some Bones.
You’ve reached another checkpoint, although the enemies will become a little more challenging here. Hit the candle to the left of the checkpoint, on the pillar, to find your second Sidearm, the Gyro Dagger. You can only have one at a time, and this one essentially acts like a boomerang whenever you throw it; it also uses fewer Joules than the hatchet. Despite the openness of this area, you can’t do much of anything, so head to the top right to find a rope to climb. At the top, defeat the two enemies and head to the left. You should see a cracked door by the impassable rocks, so hit it with your weapon and go inside.
There are three enemies inside, but you can use the boulders to easily dispose of them. Once you do, crack open the chest here for a Bonestone Gem. Back outside, backtrack right a little bit and use the rope there to head up to the top, where you can go either left or right. Go right first, jumping on the purple thing (it acts like a trampoline) to cross the gap. At the end of the path is another chest that contains a Bonestone Gem, so grab it and return back to the left. Bounce over to the far left and just walk into the rope to lower it, then use the purple things to reach the bridge you saw from down below.
At the right side of the bridge, lower the rope to create a shortcut, then hop over the barrier to get to the next screen. Drop down and continue right, where you encounter some kind of lock, as it shows a key when you touch it. You don’t have one of these right now, but you can break the door just above you to reveal a hole, which you can burrow into to arrive in another residence. The Trooper to the right is a friendly NPC, so don’t be bothered by him. The goal in here is to simply get to the floating key above where you entered. There are a few enemies in the way, but nothing that should be surprising.
(1 of 4) This door here is cracked and thus be opened by striking it with your weapon.
Once you reach the key, pop the bubble with your weapon to collect the Kear (a key gear, hence the name), then use the hole to leave this room. You will find a number of Kears throughout your journey, so make sure to keep an eye out for them. Unlock the gate thing outside to arrive at the Boardwalk.
Boardwalk¶
This place is a little worse for wear, with fire spots all over the place, which of course hurt if you touch them. Other than that, it’s more of the same, so carefully defeat the enemies in your way as you continue to the right. The first moving platform is easy to navigate, but the other ones after are a little tricker, as there will be fire on them. At the end is another purple thing to bounce off of, but instead of going up, you’ll want to go down first, in between the two fires in the corner. In this optional room, use the purple bouncers to get past the little fire maze and reach the larger area with the enemies.
Thankfully, there are two boulders here you can use to quickly take out both enemies, so do that and open the chest for a Kear. Return to the previous screen and bounce upwards this time, but interact with the door to the left to get some free Bones. In the next area, you won’t be able to continue until you find a way to hit the switch to lower the metal bars on the left side. To do this, head to the lower left corner to find a spot to burrow underneath, leading to a small room with a moving platform.
(1 of 4) At the end of the first screen with fire, use the purple bounce pad to go south to a secret area.
You’ll want to first clear the room of enemies, but don’t go through the hole on the far right. Instead, get back on the platform and look at the bottom wall to see a spot you can hit and reveal another hole. Go through this first to get some Bones in the middle section outside, then trek back through the room to get to the right side, with the switch on the floor. This lowers the bars and lets you get to the Southern Outskirts: Commons area.
Leading straight from the previous area, you will see a checkpoint right in front of you, so feel free to visit the Underlab to replenish your Plasma Vials, if needed. The bat enemies here can be a little annoying, since they swoop down after you, but you can do a jumping attack to hit them before that happens. Press onward and burrow jump over to the moving platform, then go up the stairs. When you reach the stairs acting as a transition, get ready, as you will be about to face a boss.
Hulk Trooper Boss Strategy¶
Well, this is more of a mini-boss, rather than an actual bigger boss. All the same, you definitely don’t want to take him lightly. Despite his size and slow-moving stride, the Hulk Trooper can be quite quick with his attacks, so make sure you’re always on the move. He really only has two main attacks, one of which is him swinging his weapon. Depending on your position, the Hulk Trooper will sometimes do more than one swing in a row, so always be on the lookout for another swing. The other attack the Hulk Trooper can do involves him charging up slightly, then performing a jumping swing with his attack.
The Hulk Trooper will mainly swing his large weapon at you.
He can also do a jump attack that ends with an overhead strike.
This one can be a bit trickier to dodge effectively, since you never really know the exact angle of his jump, plus his swing can be quite wide. The best thing to do with that maneuver is to simply keep moving, and possibly change directions. While there is a lot of debris on the field at the start of the fight, it will get cleared with the boss’ attacks, so there will be a lot more room to move after the fact. The Gyro Dagger is definitely the better option as a Sidearm here, especially if you have the full amount of Joules available. From the right distance, you can hit the boss multiple times with a single Gyro Dagger.
Once you defeat the boss, go through the gate above you to arrive in Ossex.
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