Progression
Descend into a dungeon with your brother Erasmus in this strange Twine text adventure, again and again and again and again. Failure is often the only way forward, so explore and experiment if you expect to uncover any of the game's endings, much less the real one.
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I can't tell if this is the last ending
The one that ends with "Blast off". It's such an abrupt change that it feels like it must be the end, but it's so unrelated that I feel like there must be some stuff I'm missing.
I read it as an interesting allegory for dealing with trauma and forgiveness at first, and then this spaceship thing comes out of nowhere and now I have no clue what this is
OK, I got to forgive his father, but I haven't figured out how to tell the Sphinx what the orloch is.
I got to what seems like an ending, but it may not be.
Got over 500 exp from grinding, bought the gun, killed all the enemies, lived at the bottom of the dungeon and died. No spaceship or blast off ending, no forgiveness. Am left with 29 exp and a gun. Restarted and the gun was gone and I had my previous inventory, so I guess that was an ending as I can't continue the story with the gun.
If you've tried getting to that point again, you get to retrieve the gun for free.
OK
I managed to get the spaceship ending which was... strange. Not sure how I was able to answer the questions this time but maybe it was because I got all the other endings. It was a little anticlimactic though.
OK, I'd really appreciate some pointers
How do I set fire to the tapestry? I'm assuming that's what must be done. Also, how can I get the gun? Also any other paths you've found?
Thanks in advance!
Hello!
To set fire to the tapestry, you need to LOOK AT the torch on the wall. You'll be told it's secured with a clasp. USE SWORD on CLASP to break the CLASP, then PICK UP TORCH, after which you can USE TORCH ON TAPESTRY after you've viewed it. To get the GUN, you need 500 EXP, but you can't get it until you're prompted to during a sequence past the TAPESTRY. :) To grind for EXP, all you have to do is select choices. You get 1 EXP for whatever you do, so you can just cycle through options in the SPHINX's room over and over if you don't want to replay. There's 500 XP worth of things to do.
How many endings are there? I got
The one where you forgive him
The one where you live at the bottom
The spaceship one
Am I missing any endings?
You can also turn into an orloch and eat your brother. Not quite an ending like the others but it's different. I don't know how you get specifically to it, but when you select *very hungry* you eat him.
Hey! I just played through this game, and I'm 99% I got all the endings. I know that walkthroughs are useful to me, so I figured I would at least post a short walkthrough along with my interpretation of the story.
I've tried to avoid spoilers as much as possible, and I hope I've succeeded.
Level I
There are a few actions you can take here.
The skull is the most prominent of these. You can get it by choosing to look around ("Erasmus" -> "this place" or "forever"). Once you have spotted it, you can choose to hide it or give it to Erasmus. Giving it to Erasmus opens up an odd conversation tree, whereas hiding the skull keeps it in your inventory. Once you have given Erasmus the skull, you can give him rope to put it on his belt or eat your sandwich.
To get the Riddle ending, you must pick the "father" and "creature" options (and have gotten the Ascend ending...? I'm not sure.)
Level II
Ooh, scary darkness! You have the option to stay in the "darkness" or let Erasmus light his "torch". Some paths are closed when you are in the light. However, if you gave Erasmus the skull and the rope on Level I, it will start to glow automatically.
Here's where things start to get bloodier, with the first death for each brother.
"Step(ing) aimlessly" in the dark leads to your death by falling.
Erasmus's first death is on your hands, however. If you ate your sandwich on Level I, being "ravenously hungry" (in the dark) causes you to kill him and eat him. Urgh. This isn't game over, though. Erasmus can die all he likes, but you can still continue.
Soon you will arrive at a sign, which presents you with the option to draw your sword and fight, or keep it sheathed. Drawing your sword will give you another chance to sheath it, or you can continue fighting... and kill your brother.
Meanwhile, keeping your sword sheathed (or sheathing it after drawing it) gives you more options. You can just sit down and eat a sandwich. Such a good brother!
If you want to do something other than sit by the sidelines, you can use the "rope" to try and lasso Erasmus. The rope can fail or succeed to calm him. I think that it's random. I thought there were two factors- responding with "loved" or "fool" when talking about "creatures", and letting Erasmus light the torch- but when I do the 'positive' actions ("loved" and "darkness") sometimes he won't calm down. It is still possible that I am missing factors though.
If the rope fails to calm down Erasmus, it's kill or be killed. If it succeeds, descend to Level III.
Or you can just use the skull, if you grabbed it. Either show it to Erasmus or break it to calm him automatically.
Meanwhile, if you gave Erasmus the skull and rope, you may find yourself to be rope-lacking. Don't worry, just pull out your sword and aim for the skull. Just put it away, or it'll be kill or be killed again.
Ah geez, almost forgot what happens if you eat Erasmus. You are presented with the same "draw" or "sheath" sign. If you draw your sword, you get to continue, but if you sheath it... you die. But hey, you get to pick your poison.
Level III
Almost like a text based adventure, you have more options at the bottom of your screen. There are several things you can do here...
First off, you have one last opportunity to chow down on your wilted-lettuce sandwich, and then you can stab your brother through the heart. So yeah. If you really want to die, attack the Sphinx.
Anyway, back to the paths.
The Riddle
In order to solve the riddle, you must have talked to Erasmus about "father" and "creatures" on Level I.
You may also need to complete the Ascend ending, I'm not sure.
For each of the two riddles, the answer is the second from the right, before "let me think about it".
Then you get the Riddle (Space) ending! Yay...?
The Tapestry
This puzzle involves one of the things I do best: setting things on fire.
If you look at (or try to use) the skull, it gives you a hint to ‘burn the remembered’. If you talk to the Sphinx about the tapestry, she mentions how the ‘cloth is memory’.
So what do you do? Burn it!
First, you must look at the torch to add the clasp as an interactable object. Then use the sword with the clasp and pick up the torch. Now, before you can use the torch with the tapestry, you have to look at the tapestry. The game will ask you several questions, and your answers will determine parts of the tapestry.
How do you see children?
Pesky = the children are urchins
Innocent = the children are princes
Boring = the children are young men
How do you regard women?
Pure = the virgin is cast into a pit
Nurturing = their mother is cast into a pit
Dishonest = the prostitute is cast into a pit
Women ultimately…
Forgive = the pit is her death
Leave = the pit is her exile
Forget = the pit is her depression
How do you regard heroes?
Admirable = their actions are heroic
Foolish = their actions are dangerous
A myth = their actions are dubious
Who runs your life?
Me = the figure is the moral compass
God = the figure is their father
Fate = the figure is their spiritual mentor
Burn it, and descend.
Level IV
Whee! Falling!
The answers that you give to the green text don’t matter.
Read the book, then begin to fight.
I don’t think there’s any way to punch out the shadow monster, as it almost always counterattacks. Instead, you must save up 500 XP from doing actions (1 action = 1 XP) to get the gun. Then just keep shooting. You have the opportunity to heal yourself, I would take it. The gun is free if you die and descend again.
After the shadow monster comes the Sphinx.
If Erasmus is dead:
After defeating the Sphinx, you will fight nothing. Then you must descend and kill the Orlech three times.
You then get the Bottom ending.
If Erasmus is alive:
Instead of fighting nothing, you fight Erasmus. After your action, he will begin to talk to you, and ask you to forgive him. You can still kill him, which will lead to the Bottom ending.
Or you can listen (defend) and forgive.
Then you can descend either forgive or kill the Orlech. If you forgive, you get the Ascend ending, whereas killing him gives you the Bottom ending.
Story
I’m going to get to the question that’s been weighing on my mind- which ending is the true one?
For the endings: There are two obvious candidates for true ending- the Riddle/Space ending, and the Ascend ending.
The Ascend ending involves forgiving the Orlech. The conclusion is more satisfying than the Riddle/Space ending, and the ascend message along with the congratulations makes me think it’s the true ending.
But what rules out the Riddle/Space ending? Nothing, really. It’s just cryptic, odd, and so out-of-place that I clicked around the screen for several seconds because I thought it was fake.
When I started writing this guide, I thought that the Ascend ending was the true ending, but I think that neither of them are true.
When trying to forgive the Orlech, he asks you how many times you’ve failed- and your character responds with the number of times you’ve died. At first, I thought it was just a minor segment, but then I realized- your character, Karl, is aware of dying. No matter what, he just ‘resets’, back at the start again. After ascending, he must descend again. After becoming free, YOU take it away by resetting. After death, he lives anew. He’ll just keep walking the same dungeon until the Orlech breaks him.
You are infected by the Orlech, there’s no doubt about it. Erasmus is sick, and he may be infected as well, but you are definitely infected. There are two big clues here- first, that you do reset after dying, and are aware of it. The psychic war for the body happens in the mind. In real life, you wouldn’t just pop right up after death. In the mind, more things are possible. The next clue is pretty big as well- Erasmus himself. On Level II, an interesting conversation happens. If you end up fighting Erasmus, he will talk about how you’ve changed, and if you gave him the skull, he’ll also talk about possession and the Orlech. Some smaller clues also appear- you’re willing to eat your brother due to an insatiable hunger, and when you pick “god” in the tapestry, the father is the Orlech, and you recognize him as such.
I get small hints from this game that it’s a metaphor for a sad life experience, likely involving depression/alcoholism and parents, but I’m not sure.
This is my first walkthrough (and post), and I had a surprising amount of fun writing it. I hope it helps someone out!
How do I get the
Ascend Ending? I assume it has to do with burning the tapestry, but every time I do, I fall through the floor. I also have "Orlech" as an answer option for the Sphinx, but I don't know what it actually is.
To get the Ascension ending,
don't kill your brother, burn the tapestry, then fight the first orloch (you'll probably need the gun for this). When you get to Erasmus, defend instead of fighting him. He won't hurt you and will talk to you. Forgive him then forgive the orloch.
Okay, now I'm really confused. Apparently I'm not very far at all, because
when I burn the tapestry, all I get is "is this falling?" and then I have to restart.
Asthanius:
Are you sure you have to restart at that point?
It should be possible to scroll down a bit and interact with a green text.
Hello! Questioner is right. :)
You should be scrolling down after you fall below the tapestry. You'll find more text to interact with.
Thanks so much! I never would have tried that.
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Walkthrough Guide
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Hey! I just played through this game, and I'm 99% I got all the endings. I know that walkthroughs are useful to me, so I figured I would at least post a short walkthrough along with my interpretation of the story.
I've tried to avoid spoilers as much as possible, and I hope I've succeeded.
Level I
There are a few actions you can take here.
The skull is the most prominent of these. You can get it by choosing to look around ("Erasmus" -> "this place" or "forever"). Once you have spotted it, you can choose to hide it or give it to Erasmus. Giving it to Erasmus opens up an odd conversation tree, whereas hiding the skull keeps it in your inventory. Once you have given Erasmus the skull, you can give him rope to put it on his belt or eat your sandwich.
To get the Riddle ending, you must pick the "father" and "creature" options (and have gotten the Ascend ending...? I'm not sure.)
Level II
Ooh, scary darkness! You have the option to stay in the "darkness" or let Erasmus light his "torch". Some paths are closed when you are in the light. However, if you gave Erasmus the skull and the rope on Level I, it will start to glow automatically.
Here's where things start to get bloodier, with the first death for each brother.
"Step(ing) aimlessly" in the dark leads to your death by falling.
Erasmus's first death is on your hands, however. If you ate your sandwich on Level I, being "ravenously hungry" (in the dark) causes you to kill him and eat him. Urgh. This isn't game over, though. Erasmus can die all he likes, but you can still continue.
Soon you will arrive at a sign, which presents you with the option to draw your sword and fight, or keep it sheathed. Drawing your sword will give you another chance to sheath it, or you can continue fighting... and kill your brother.
Meanwhile, keeping your sword sheathed (or sheathing it after drawing it) gives you more options. You can just sit down and eat a sandwich. Such a good brother!
If you want to do something other than sit by the sidelines, you can use the "rope" to try and lasso Erasmus. The rope can fail or succeed to calm him. I think that it's random. I thought there were two factors- responding with "loved" or "fool" when talking about "creatures", and letting Erasmus light the torch- but when I do the 'positive' actions ("loved" and "darkness") sometimes he won't calm down. It is still possible that I am missing factors though.
If the rope fails to calm down Erasmus, it's kill or be killed. If it succeeds, descend to Level III.
Or you can just use the skull, if you grabbed it. Either show it to Erasmus or break it to calm him automatically.
Meanwhile, if you gave Erasmus the skull and rope, you may find yourself to be rope-lacking. Don't worry, just pull out your sword and aim for the skull. Just put it away, or it'll be kill or be killed again.
Ah geez, almost forgot what happens if you eat Erasmus. You are presented with the same "draw" or "sheath" sign. If you draw your sword, you get to continue, but if you sheath it... you die. But hey, you get to pick your poison.
Level III
Almost like a text based adventure, you have more options at the bottom of your screen. There are several things you can do here...
First off, you have one last opportunity to chow down on your wilted-lettuce sandwich, and then you can stab your brother through the heart. So yeah. If you really want to die, attack the Sphinx.
Anyway, back to the paths.
The Riddle
In order to solve the riddle, you must have talked to Erasmus about "father" and "creatures" on Level I.
You may also need to complete the Ascend ending, I'm not sure.
For each of the two riddles, the answer is the second from the right, before "let me think about it".
Then you get the Riddle (Space) ending! Yay...?
The Tapestry
This puzzle involves one of the things I do best: setting things on fire.
If you look at (or try to use) the skull, it gives you a hint to ‘burn the remembered’. If you talk to the Sphinx about the tapestry, she mentions how the ‘cloth is memory’.
So what do you do? Burn it!
First, you must look at the torch to add the clasp as an interactable object. Then use the sword with the clasp and pick up the torch. Now, before you can use the torch with the tapestry, you have to look at the tapestry. The game will ask you several questions, and your answers will determine parts of the tapestry.
How do you see children?
Pesky = the children are urchins
Innocent = the children are princes
Boring = the children are young men
How do you regard women?
Pure = the virgin is cast into a pit
Nurturing = their mother is cast into a pit
Dishonest = the prostitute is cast into a pit
Women ultimately…
Forgive = the pit is her death
Leave = the pit is her exile
Forget = the pit is her depression
How do you regard heroes?
Admirable = their actions are heroic
Foolish = their actions are dangerous
A myth = their actions are dubious
Who runs your life?
Me = the figure is the moral compass
God = the figure is their father
Fate = the figure is their spiritual mentor
Burn it, and descend.
Level IV
Whee! Falling!
The answers that you give to the green text don’t matter.
Read the book, then begin to fight.
I don’t think there’s any way to punch out the shadow monster, as it almost always counterattacks. Instead, you must save up 500 XP from doing actions (1 action = 1 XP) to get the gun. Then just keep shooting. You have the opportunity to heal yourself, I would take it. The gun is free if you die and descend again.
After the shadow monster comes the Sphinx.
If Erasmus is dead:
After defeating the Sphinx, you will fight nothing. Then you must descend and kill the Orlech three times.
You then get the Bottom ending.
If Erasmus is alive:
Instead of fighting nothing, you fight Erasmus. After your action, he will begin to talk to you, and ask you to forgive him. You can still kill him, which will lead to the Bottom ending.
Or you can listen (defend) and forgive.
Then you can descend either forgive or kill the Orlech. If you forgive, you get the Ascend ending, whereas killing him gives you the Bottom ending.
Story
I’m going to get to the question that’s been weighing on my mind- which ending is the true one?
For the endings: There are two obvious candidates for true ending- the Riddle/Space ending, and the Ascend ending.
The Ascend ending involves forgiving the Orlech. The conclusion is more satisfying than the Riddle/Space ending, and the ascend message along with the congratulations makes me think it’s the true ending.
But what rules out the Riddle/Space ending? Nothing, really. It’s just cryptic, odd, and so out-of-place that I clicked around the screen for several seconds because I thought it was fake.
When I started writing this guide, I thought that the Ascend ending was the true ending, but I think that neither of them are true.
When trying to forgive the Orlech, he asks you how many times you’ve failed- and your character responds with the number of times you’ve died. At first, I thought it was just a minor segment, but then I realized- your character, Karl, is aware of dying. No matter what, he just ‘resets’, back at the start again. After ascending, he must descend again. After becoming free, YOU take it away by resetting. After death, he lives anew. He’ll just keep walking the same dungeon until the Orlech breaks him.
You are infected by the Orlech, there’s no doubt about it. Erasmus is sick, and he may be infected as well, but you are definitely infected. There are two big clues here- first, that you do reset after dying, and are aware of it. The psychic war for the body happens in the mind. In real life, you wouldn’t just pop right up after death. In the mind, more things are possible. The next clue is pretty big as well- Erasmus himself. On Level II, an interesting conversation happens. If you end up fighting Erasmus, he will talk about how you’ve changed, and if you gave him the skull, he’ll also talk about possession and the Orlech. Some smaller clues also appear- you’re willing to eat your brother due to an insatiable hunger, and when you pick “god” in the tapestry, the father is the Orlech, and you recognize him as such.
I get small hints from this game that it’s a metaphor for a sad life experience, likely involving depression/alcoholism and parents, but I’m not sure.
This is my first walkthrough (and post), and I had a surprising amount of fun writing it. I hope it helps someone out!
Posted by: nighthawk
|
August 5, 2014 11:02 AM