Feels like I'm missing some crucial secret

[sweet lemonade]

About 30 floors into a hard mode run after sort of brute forcing my way through a voided and nonvoided playthrough and puzzles have gotten difficult to a point where I think I am just too dumb to proceed from the floor I'm on right now. I've poked around posts and seen mentions of secrets that help make puzzles easier/skippable but I haven't seen anything like that. Is it possible to make it easier, or does the game get easier at any point?? I'm interested in the conclusion of the story, but even that seems to have just been tossed aside since the memory tree didn't give me any kind of new information and was just breastfeeding

[19thperson]

you can get upgrades hidden in the first run that give some extra abilities, that can then be brought to the second run via the brand system. the hard mode puzzles should be theoretically solvable without them, but some feel like they were balanced with them in mind

EDIT. oh whoops, I just noticed your original post mentions hearing that post. I guess I'll just give a more direct clue to get you moving then: During a normal run with grey, find the room that looks like the first brand mural you come across, then remove the staircase. It's removing the "extra" tile'.

[sweet lemonade]

Originally posted by 19thperson:

you can get upgrades hidden in the first run that give some extra abilities, that can then be brought to the second run via the brand system. the hard mode puzzles should be theoretically solvable without them, but some feel like they were balanced with them in mind

EDIT. oh whoops, I just noticed your original post mentions hearing that post. I guess I'll just give a more direct clue to get you moving then: During a normal run with grey, find the room that looks like the first brand mural you come across, then remove the staircase. It's removing the "extra" tile'.

Is there any direct hint in the game that tells you to do that? I remember thinking the pattern was suspicious since it appeared in the voided ending but not having any clue what to do with it, even on the floor you're talking about

Also, do I have to reset my entire file to go back to playing as Gray? Or can I also do this in hard mode as the second character?

[Moonie]

You can do it as either character. If you give up in hard mode, you're allowed to choose either Gray or the new character when starting a run through special brands.

However, if you're voided, then it becomes slightly more complicated to end the run.
You can absolutely force end a run by walking onto the UI in a tree/rest room and then collecting the B0 tile - afterwards, run around until you hear a sound, and chase down the source of it. After you find it, knock 6 times and wait 6 seconds before interacting with it to end the game.

Also, you don't even need to collect the items, you just need to know what the special brands look like. If you just want them, I can provide that.

[sweet lemonade]

Originally posted by Moonie:

You can do it as either character. If you give up in hard mode, you're allowed to choose either Gray or the new character when starting a run through special brands.

However, if you're voided, then it becomes slightly more complicated to end the run.
You can absolutely force end a run by walking onto the UI in a tree/rest room and then collecting the B0 tile - afterwards, run around until you hear a sound, and chase down the source of it. After you find it, knock 6 times and wait 6 seconds before interacting with it to end the game.

Also, you don't even need to collect the items, you just need to know what the special brands look like. If you just want them, I can provide that.

I want to find this stuff as "legitimately" as possible without just getting the answer directly, and the difficulty of these puzzles makes me feel like I missed something.

I'll go back to the beginning of the new run and get the brand mural staircase secret and see where that takes me. I'm just confused as to how I was even supposed to figure any of this out in the first place.

I also know about the B0 trick from spoiling myself but I read that it resets crystals as well and I really don't want to do all of that again

[19thperson]

As for "how you were supposed to figure it out", the void ending has the aformentioned brand come up, and the voice says to seek it IIRC. I don't remember the specific wording. Entering the brand on the start screen does nothing, so you need to find "somewhere else" to input it. from there it's a short jump of intuition to find the room that already has it input, save for an extra tile.

as for the other thing the B0 trick does not reset crystals or at least it hasn't for me.

as for resetting a voided run without that trick, the rule at the end of the voided ending with the dark god statue applies universally. find a level with one of those, place the stairs right under it, and then enter. you'll be reset to the start of a run, and from there you can die and choose to not take the fruit, sending you to the main menu. I do suggest doing the B0 trick at some point, however, since there's lore you get from it.