[Major Spoilers] Early-mid game directions if you're lost

[Lightbearer]

It seems like one of the main areas where people are getting lost is what to do after completing everything in Town of the Exile. At that point you should have defeated Auss and received the Clammy Whistle.

1) Gaining access to the Manta

From the far right, upper exit of Town of the Exile you'll gain access to Ashen Canyon (red area). Stay on the upper path that looks like a giant bridge. Do not drop down at any point and continue to the right. Fight the Crystallized Wolf and continue to the right. You'll use the Clammy Whistle to summon the Manta.

2) Opening the rest of the world map

There will be only one area you can access with the Manta called Confluence Island. Explore the area (it's small). Activate the teleporter save and pick up the Glyph (HP charge) in the same area. There is a tower/lighthouse you can climb with a switch that opens up a gate on the world map.

3) New areas to explore

At this point you can now explore Whispering Forest (purple, poison theme), Holy Grounds (jungle), and Forest Foregone (desert). There will be a difficulty spike at this point so I suggest returning to Resting Town and purchasing the Pale Dance (whip) and Guardian armor set. While Holy Grounds and Forest Foregone can be explored you can only access a limited area until you gain traversal upgrades.

4) Whispering Forest

This is your next stop. Note you need to hit certain bulbs that turn on plant "platforms" you can jump on to proceed. You need to kill the Failure boss and pick up the wall climb ability. It's located in the bottom-right corner of the area. Next, use wall climb to gain access to Mediator 00 (giant mechanical doll) to open up a portal to the back half of Forest Foregone.

5) Forest Foregone

From the portal go to the SE and fight the Unstoppable Devil. Continue to explore the area and you'll either run into 1) a giant tron-themed tower or 2) the third (far right) save point. If you keep going right you'll access Silent Coast. Do not enter Silent Coast yet. At the top of the tower is a boss fight that grants you the ground slam ability.

6) Silent Coast

The NE area has a tower with a broom attendant. Explore the area and read all the notes. Once you drop down (it's a long fall) you'll land on a beach. To the right is a boat. Ifree should activate the lantern so you can safely traverse Misty Waters.

7) Field of Hydro

Very linear area. You'll pick up the water diving ability. Make sure you exhaust the dialogue of both NPCs in the area. One item you will be given is the Key to the Teardrop Base. Use the Manta to access the base and be sure to fully explore and defeat the Ode Member (mini) boss for an important key item related to the endings. From the only save point in the area go right and do not drop down. Check out my endings guide for those details.

8) Holy Grounds

The next plot-related objectives occur in the Archives (library) with Owl once you make it through the jungle and golden city areas. One of the NPCs in Field of Hydro should have given you Magic Letter to the Owl as an introduction. And since you've picked up so many traversal options there is a *ton* to backtrack in old areas. You can also start exploring higher level areas (Albedo Tower, Sky Palace, Field of Pyro, etc.).

Have fun exploring the rest! And use Demajen's map and item Google sheet if you need a visual for anything I've described or want to see what new items you can access.

https://www.demajen.co.uk/

[soultpp]

Great guide! Wish I had this when I started, I never would have needed to ask for help, probably! Obviously it doesn't cover the entire game cover to cover but that allows for self exploration while giving enough direction so we're not wandering aimlessly. :)

[Light]

The sad part is guides like this are needed due to the devs not giving enough hints to point people in the right direction. I can understand a lot of the negative reviews and comments for this game after actually playing it myself. It isn't even old school challenges here. Very little dialogue is provided and what is provided is so vague its a joke. This game would be much better if they took cues from games like the metroid series for how you give just enough guidance that the players can figure out the right path for the main story. Even old school NES games did a better job of explaining things in general. Its a shame really because these flaws in design mar the strong points of the game. It has a lot of good things about it but the poorly managed quest system and clues along the way really make it a trying experience when you're working to progress into midgame.

On a side note this should probably be posted under guides rather than in the discussions area because this sort of info will get buried here.

[steven]

Originally posted by Light:

The sad part is guides like this are needed due to the devs not giving enough hints to point people in the right direction. I can understand a lot of the negative reviews and comments for this game after actually playing it myself. It isn't even old school challenges here. Very little dialogue is provided and what is provided is so vague its a joke. This game would be much better if they took cues from games like the metroid series for how you give just enough guidance that the players can figure out the right path for the main story. Even old school NES games did a better job of explaining things in general. Its a shame really because these flaws in design mar the strong points of the game. It has a lot of good things about it but the poorly managed quest system and clues along the way really make it a trying experience when you're working to progress into midgame.

On a side note this should probably be posted under guides rather than in the discussions area because this sort of info will get buried here.

You are free to explore whatever area you want first. You will be stop because you need a power, an item or you are rekt hard. This is the hints you need to know where to go next. Trial and errors.

"A is a dead end, let's go B and C and D.... Ah, E is open, ok. I will visit it, i'm rekt. Ok, i will go F and G.... Ah, I can go H without being underleveled, and it gives you a power to do C, cool."
Rince and repeat. You have your guide then. Search, explore.

I personaly never was blocked once or never asked myself where to go next : i just explored all the area i could at a time, saw a lot of blocked path, beat a boss or two, explored whatever opened by bactracking, rince and repeat.

However, i strongly agree side quests are pretty ♥♥♥♥ and some mechanics are not told to you (like healing or what some magic staffs do). You don't know where to go to complete it. You have to pray you encounter your goal when you explore or when you backtrack.

To come back to this guide, i was pretty lucky to find the manta before having the Whistle. Then, a dialog box told me i needed it and when i backtracked, i found the boss who dropped it. I put 1+1 together and then a lot of new areas opened.

The main words here is EXPLORE and use PINS on the map (chests, dead end, boss) !!!!
Ppl don't explore what they can at a given time, they just rush and don't backtrack enough. Then they complain it's too hard or they are lost when they could rekt hard the game.

[Light]

The other sad part is how much of a grind they made the level gains in this. You can really tell where they gated bosses by level and not in a good way. What makes it infuriating is how long it actually takes to bring those levels up. I dunno about you but I've played lots of metroidvanias and this one is one of the grind heaviest for those level up stats. Also some of the monsters will give less xp until you get closer to the area's level range as I've observed from xp payouts from some mobs. It would be nice if the zones or the bestiary actually told you what level the zones really were though because it makes it a chore to pick zones to grind senseless hours away when you don't know where your best xp farm is at a particular level range.

[steven]

Originally posted by Light:

The other sad part is how much of a grind they made the level gains in this. You can really tell where they gated bosses by level and not in a good way. What makes it infuriating is how long it actually takes to bring those levels up. I dunno about you but I've played lots of metroidvanias and this one is one of the grind heaviest for those level up stats. Also some of the monsters will give less xp until you get closer to the area's level range as I've observed from xp payouts from some mobs. It would be nice if the zones or the bestiary actually told you what level the zones really were though because it makes it a chore to pick zones to grind senseless hours away when you don't know where your best xp farm is at a particular level range.

True, the grind is also ♥♥♥♥, but you absolutely don't need to grind to beat any boss.
Kind of stupid to waste hours of grind when you can explore and beat whatever comes to you in the new areas (generaly, better leveled enemies).
You hit an impossible boss ? Try 2-3 times, get out to backtrack or explore more, come back later.

Just EXPLORE : boom, you are overleveled for the next 2-3 bosses. EZ.
New area opens, explore more : boom, overleveled again.

I again never needed to grind this game, the bosses were a cakewalk coz i was overleveled by exploring (except for the level 99 achievement, beated the NG+ boss with full xp up gears, 1.5-2 levels up at a time).

The bestiary tell you which level the enemies are (you need to remember where you fought them, kind of stupid to be honest)

[Lightbearer]

I guess I'm a fence-sitter, but I agree with what everyone has said. I think the game would be improved dramatically and more accessible if they had a few key pop-up conversations that explicitly told you (or clearly hinted at) where you should go next. My charitable assumption is that the native, Chinese version does not have this issue. This translation is really rough. And, the quest guide in your notebook is next to useless as a consequence.

On the other hand, I personally love this game because I approached it the same way @Steven described. I'm in the minority, but I like to get lost, map out all the dead ends, secrets, and optional equipment. Striking a balance between streamlining a Metroidvania experience and being vague (purposely or not) is difficult to do.

This is sort of dumb, but what pisses me off is that on my first play through the day it came out I completely avoided Ashen Canyon. I saw the Level 70-whatever pop-up and noped out of there. Literally explored everything until this was the only place left. Lo-and-behold that is exactly where I needed to go for the Manta. I'll leave the debate on the pros/cons of listing area levels, but this still annoys me to this day and I love this game.