Is It Normal To Suck?

[evancampbell]

I'm not a huge puzzle game fan, but do enjoy them from time to time. Just an average gamer, basically. I'm about 1.5 hours into this game, day 6-7 or so; it seems neat, I've enjoyed it...

...but I also feel like I'm not making much progress. I've solved the Billiard puzzle, can usually get the gems from the 3 box puzzle, have a few stars built up, and that's it. Otherwise I seem to get to "rank" 5-6 before running out of rooms/doorways I can draft from.

I'm not sure what else I should be doing, aside from just trying my best & keeping my eyes open for new stuff. But the past 2-3 runs it feels the same: I collect what keys/gems/etc I can, hope for something new to open up...and then just hit a dead end. Just don't feel like I'm making any progress; feel more like I'm messing up by hitting dead ends but I don't know how to do any better or what I should be looking for

[ricky1981]

Early days you want to be thinking about what strategies work well (e.g. going left and right before moving up) and keeping an eye out for upgrade disks and clues about things inside and outside the manor.

I would add that if you don't enjoy puzzle games a lot then you might not have as much fun as puzzle nerds like me. The whole game is layers of puzzles and some are pretty devious.

[Lantantan]

The tile laying will take a while to click, that's just animal learning your brain has to figure out by repetition. Its perfectly okay to just suck and lock yourself into a corner several times in a row, that's how we learn! It'll be dozens of attempts before you'll make it into the final room.

[Shadowgirl00]

Because I'm not sure of your skill level in terms of puzzles, since you've mentioned you're not a huge fan of puzzle games, I want to ask a question and make three recommendations. And a few questions to consider that I hope are not spoiler because I don't answer to those questions quite yet myself.

Question: In all the times you've started a run, while in the Entrance Hall, have you ever turned around and explored what was beyond the front door?

Recommendations

1) Draw rooms from your draft, even if it does not look advantageous to you, such as them being dead ends or red rooms. It sounds like (to me) that you're drafting rooms based on what can get you furthest in the manor. That's not necessarily the best way to go about it, because the answer to the goal isn't the most straight forward.

2) Write things down, there's odd information over all over the place from like the glossary of terms to actual instructions meant for another puzzle somewhere else. Writing things down will also give you a place to write down any questions you may have.

3) Even if you think it has nothing to offer you, read it anyways. There are terminals in the game that has a glossary of terms and it holds some interesting information that the player would not know otherwise, but it's one of those things I think in other games we don't normally read.

Finally, questions to consider, they may be spoiler, but they were questions I asked myself on Day 1 of this game and while I haven't fully found my answers fully, I have found hints of them.

If you check the Directory, you'll notice that there are sections for the Blueprints 1-46 (of course) but the other sections are for other rooms that aren't "Blueprint" rooms but are still considered blueprints that can be drafted. This means, while there are physically 45 rooms, there are 86 rooms.

So the question becomes, is the 46th room a permanent like the Entrance Hall? Or is it a blueprint that we need to somehow draft?

Speaking of drafting, by now you're aware that blueprints are drafted from the "drafting pool". I've played a number of drafting games over the last year or so, so I'm kind of familiar with them. So the question becomes.

Can you manipulate the drafting pool?

And asking yourself questions, and by extension being curious helps to not get frustrated with the drafting mechanic. Like don't just do every action with the purpose of getting to that antechamber, it will drive you mad.

Just one more thing, because I realized you've mentioned that you've been playing for 1.5 hours and are on the 6-7 day. I am on the 9th day and have played over 8 hours, part of it is because I am a slow writer and write a lot but another part of it is because I was often exploring something else.

[Frankie Bag o' Tricks]

Just pick rooms you have not seen before, and look for possible connections between them. It helps to catalog what you find/things that seem important on paper so that you can reference it at any time without needing to backtrack. I'm confident that pretty much anyone can make meaningful progress in this game if you fill out even half of the room directory. If you have only seen like 20-40% of the possible rooms then you will be missing huge swathes of early game knowledge. Also get yourself a magnifying glass ASAP.

[Superking]

The single best thing to do early on is to completely ignore the antechamber and to draft new rooms to gather information.

I think the game is pretty bad about giving you direction/motivation. That aspect improves somewhat later on (when you've seen enough things to have a laundry list of goals) but at the start you're given one goal and it's not at all helpful.

[ChubbiChibbai]

Originally posted by Lantantan:

It'll be dozens of attempts before you'll make it into the final room.

I hope you are saying dozens as a figure of speech and actually mean more.... because i'm definitely over 12 runs now and not even close to that final room or am i just terrible at this.

[ricky1981]

I think I got to room 46 on about run 18, but the game is far from over at that point!

[watiu]

it took me 30+ days before i got into the antechamber. it's RNG so don't feel bad. the room icons themselves give clues as to where they are "meant" to be (including what rooms they should be next to, for some) which can help with loot.

the best strat most of us seem to do is go line-by-line, if possible, and get as many doors open as you can. you want to get rid of dead-end rooms early on so they don't mess you up in the higher ranks. the laboratory's experiment feature can give you an increase in your allowance everyday , which is also very helpful.

also, i always take the Shelter outside because i hate the red room debuffs. if you get the nasty -half steps one early on, the debuff is bypassed and it's a free room with lots of doors.

[EyesBlack84]

I am not the best at the game but have developed some pretty good strategies to consistently get the ante-chamber... prob is half my strategy revolves around something you don't have till later. Here is some things I found that made a difference for me early on.

1. go up the left side of the house till you get a garage, Its my favourite early game room only spawns on the left side it costs 1 gem and gives you 3 keys always and if powered through utility gives you a shorter walking distance of leaving.

2. Utility box is secretly amazing at the start when your tools are limited. See the gymnasium turn the lights off. Now when you draw that red card you don't lose 2 stamina anymore but get the benefits of the room 3 doors. Same with the Darkroom but you need to go back to the breaker to turn it on again after fuse pops. This nullifies darkroom and... you get to look around there in the light.

3. Utility box is still amazing... you can turn off card reader power so you can get free operable doors without using keys. Bonus points for setting the security to high in the security room to get more un-powered locked doors for free access. Be sure to change the un-powered status to unlocked.

[evancampbell]

Originally posted by Shadowgirl00:

Question: In all the times you've started a run, while in the Entrance Hall, have you ever turned around and explored what was beyond the front door?

The outside? First thing I did :) More a habit from platformers, going left first instead of right gets you a "secret" item often


I think I'll keep the game & keep trying, seems like my experience isn't too far from the norm

[evancampbell]

I put another ~3 hours into the game and feel like I made some actual progress. I got the Orchard Gate open & just saw the painting puzzle that I need to fill out/solve; upgraded my first room & saw several I never drafted before

Enjoying the game a lot more, seems pretty good. Having the painting puzzle helps, I don't feel like any run is just wasted - even if I just get to one more room it was progress :)

[功夫kappa]

You do not suck.

the biggest conceit many people have a hard time getting over with puzzle games is the phsyicality of a notepad and writing things down or making sketches. They are a fundamental part of the puzzle game process.

over time as technology has improved, many games have implemented helpful features that assist with note taking or remembrance of clues, but nothing beats a pad of paper and a pencil or a pen.

gaming communities will often try to shame people for taking such measures, or claim no true scotsman fallacy nonsense against people who externalize their puzzle solving, but the fact of the matter is taking notes is the single most helpful thing for anyone to get into puzzle games.

over time, as you dive into more games like this, you'll start to see patterns and develop your own strategies for solving things.

this is a single player game.

the only victory condition is winning. how you get there is your own story, adventure, and process.

You are just new to something complex. Failure is how we learn.

You do not suck.