Exploring Southern Outskirts

With Thorne defeated, you can now explore the Southern Outskirts area, which you can reach by leaving Ossex through the southern exit. Before doing so, make sure you have at least one Kear, which you can purchase from the one shop in Ossex. When you first exit, ignore the two paths to the left and right, instead continuing to the south. There will be some flying enemies on the lampposts here, so be wary of them and go all the way to the bottom, right before the screen transition. You’ll see a big Kear Lock there, so unlock it and drop down to the section with the enemies.

This is an annoying spot, simply because of the small space, but make your way to the button that drops the metal bars just below it. See that yellow-colored lock with the number on it? It isn’t a Kear Lock, but rather requires you to sacrifice one of your Plasma Vials to open it. You will run into a few of these throughout your journey, with the number shown enforcing you to lose those number of heals to continue exploring. This is related to a sidequest that will rescue Rhene, so it’s a pretty tough challenge, especially with one fewer heals. Check out the How to Get the Isle Map page for a full walkthrough of this section.

With that out of the way, let’s continue exploring the Southern Outskirts. When you go back to where you entered the area with the flying bats from the northern side, take the first right. You should see some enemies that shoot lasers at you here, along with a large pit in between them. By them, there is a ruined building with a chest on it, with a bounce pad right below it. You can actually move this bounce pad by burrowing underneath it, so do that and get it on the right side of the chest. Doing this will allow you to bounce up to the chest, so open it for a Bonestone Gem. If you continue to the right, there is a floating bounce pad you can use to reach the stairs, so go inside to arrive in the Cave Network.

Cave Network¶

This place can be a little bit of a nuisance, since there are a lot of places you can fall into pits. Use the bounce pads to get as far as you can to the left, then use the ones over there to bounce to the south. You should be a medium-sized platform with a bounce pad you can move by burrowing. Ignore the plethora of bounce pads to the right and concentrate on the moving ones to your left. What you want to do here is move the one bounce pad to the left, placing it about just before it reaches the middle of the two rocks. You want it far enough so you can jump to it, but also far enough so you can reach the moving bounce pads.

You’ll also have to be a little quick here, since the bounce pad you move only stays there for a short period, unless you bounce on it. Once you get it right, you can easily time it so you hit a moving bounce pad and reach the platform to your left. From there, you want to go to the left side and bounce on the pad as it reaches your level, then go down and to the left, to reach the Kear Lock in the corner. It doesn’t look like anything is here, but you can burrow through the hole just north of you to reach the northern edge. From there, use the bounce pads to reach the center.

The knight enemy here can be a bit difficult, especially if you don’t know how they are. They will pretty much block all attacks from the front, so you’ll have to do a little trickery to hit them. First, they can shoot sword projectiles at you, but they go in straight lines and they only do this if you are far away from them. Otherwise, the other attack they have is what they’ll use. They will lunge forward, towards you, then do another of the same lunge. So, they do two lunges, usually always in your direction. After the second lunge is when they will be vulnerable to strikes, so that’s your chance. You’ll want to make sure you always keep moving, though, just so they don’t hit you.

Once you’ve defeated the knight enemy, move the bounce pad in the middle to the lower left corner, then get on it to reach the ledge on the left. Go up and open the chest for a Bonestone Gem, then drop back down to the main area. Move the bounce pad again, but to the ledge on the right this time. Jump up and you can open the chest in the previous room for a Joule Box, an upgrade that increases your maximum Joules for Sidearms by 10. Return to the split, where you saw the mass of bounce pads to your right, as that’s our next destination.

Bounce on those pads, going straight right, then up, and right to reach the second set of stairs in the corner. When you emerge outside, you should see yourself on the upper ledge to the right of where you entered the Cave Network. Unlock the shortcut above you, then go down and open the path there. The bounce pad down here can be used to reach the inside of the ruined house for some Bones, but the goal with that is to go left with it, across the small pit. Once you cross, look for a ledge to the south that you can jump up to with the bounce pad. It should be noted that the enemies up here are quite tough and can easily kill you with a few hits.

For that reason, activate the rope to the left so you can come back here later, especially if you die. You’re not going to do everything up here, but quickly move past the first bird enemy and look south of the south for a hole you can burrow under. Go inside the hole to find a NPC named Poppit, who will sell you a Kear and the Keri the Wisp Trinket.

Primed Vial Pouch Trinket¶

Return to the southern exit of Ossex and go down one screen, to the one with the flying bats. This time, you’re going left at the first intersection. Fight past the enemies here and ignore the house that you can enter, as you can’t do anything from this side. On the next screen, keep going to the wall on the left, then head upwards until you see a chest. If you keep going up, you’ll arrive in the Western Wilds, a very dangerous area right now, so ignore that and come back later. Double back to the southern exit of Ossex, but instead of leaving the screen with the two guards, exit to the left here.

You should be on a screen with two moving platforms, with two laser-firing enemies just beyond them. It’s a bit tight, but jump over to one of their platforms and try to quickly take one out, which should give you some breathing room. Of course, you don’t have to defeat them, as you can also burrow underneath them to get to the exit on the left. On the next screen, all you can do is go down, where you’ll be on a small balcony of sorts. Smack the tree trunk here to reveal a hidden passage, putting you on the roof of the one building you just ignored.

There’s a hole in the roof you can burrow into, depositing you in the upper part of the building. You can now reach the stairs in the lower left, where you can reach a Trinket chest, containing the Primed Vial Pouch Trinket. This is a very good Trinket, as it’ll give you an extra two Plasma Vials to use, plus just healing will restore a small amount of health, even if you don’t have any yellow present. You’re done here, but with the Trinket, you can do a few more things in Ossex.

Return to Ossex¶

Return to Ossex and grab an Iron Steed, then go to the Bowery. Enter the big doorway at the top and look for the long pit inside. You can use the Iron Steed to jump and reach the rope on the right, allowing you to get to the NPC up here, although it’ll cost you four Plasma Vials to get past the lock here. This NPC, Panino, sells some goods from other shops and hard-to-reach places, well before you get to those spots. Of course, the prices are very expensive, so if you don’t have the funds, you can ignore it. Create the shortcut below Panino with the rope, then go to the upper right corner. The wall is cracked here, so use your weapon to bust it open, revealing a burrow spot.

This will put you on the left side of the courtyard at Lionel’s mansion, which you couldn’t reach because of being on the wrong side prior. Destroy the blockade here, but before going over to the left, backtrack to any Underlab to replenish your heals. Return to that part of the courtyard and when you step foot in the grassy area, some kind of lion knight will appear. This enemy pretty much functions the same as the one knight inside the Cave Network, except this one has a new move you haven’t seen before. The lion knight can breath a cone of fire in front of it, so be wary of that.

Once you defeat the lion knight (and get a nice whopping 400 Bones from it; this enemy does respawn if you go to an Underlab), hit the vines on the left and pay the 5-vial toll to gain access to the chest. It will contain the Nightstar weapon, should you not have it already. If you do, then it will be the Afterstrike upgrade for the weapon, allowing you to hold the attack button for some added shock, plus you’ll be able to twirl it around, like a certain vampire killer’s whip.

Alright, you’re done here now and can finally move on with the main story, which is to head to Queensbury Crypt to find the first Shock Generator.