Possible Advice for Bugs/Completionists (Also, Note Upcoming Game)

[Stefneh]

I just managed to 100% the game, and thought I would share some bits here that hopefully might be helpful to others determined to complete this pretty buggy game.

To preface, I played this on a OLED Steam Deck that is not modified or anything.
I tried the Devs "back-up save" thing from their website and I couldn't get that to work.

There was a message on the first game's discussion page not that long ago from a developer saying that they were going to update all the deponia games at some point to address issues, although it's unclear if this includes the complete journey or just means the copies sold individually. They did say it was going to take some time though, so still may be a while yet if it's even still happening.

EDIT: I just found "Surviving Deponia" posted on Steam, estimated for release in 2025. This explains why they would have been working to update the games. I think the upcoming game is a very good indication that they will make sure their other games are working to prepare for this release. I think it's safe to assume the "If it's happening" is solved, but it's still unclear whether it will be just the individual games or the Complete Journey that will be updated.

I got a few game breaking / mini-game breaking bugs during my playthrough, but I noticed during the second game that every save I had that was bugging out had one thing in common: The hint sheet was broken.

If you start a new game and you complete some tasks, you hear a little "ding" and a ✓ or ⓘ appears in the right corner. If you click that after you've done some tasks it opens the hint sheet. Play for a bit and check if it's working properly. If it's not updating and drawing new things on it, it's broken. If it is broken, I would say it's better to bin the save and start a new one until you get a working one. The saves I had with a working hint sheet never seemed to bug.

Also, I was following mishalunchbox's guides to make sure I wasn't missing achievements along the way, and they suggested never using the "continue" button, saying it could cause bugs. Instead, save your game and load that game to get back to it. I started doing this during the second game, I don't know for sure that it helps, but I didn't want to risk bugging out a non-bugged save and it's an easy precaution to do.

Bugs I had included:
list]

• Game 1, Chapter 1 - Pigeons not appearing/gravity field minigame next to pigeons being broken (can't interact) and post office puzzle that follows not working. To get around this one I ended up starting a new game without a broken hint sheet.
  
• Game 2, Chapter 5 - Earth Platypus puzzle not showing items/letting me complete it. To get around this I did the same, and started a new start at the beginning of Game 2 with a working hint sheet, but it was only slightly less broken. I could see 2 of 3 items and the egg. I actually found that opening the hint sheet either in the puzzle or just having backed out of the puzzle (can't remember which) for some reason fixed the issue and the items unbroke themselves and I could complete the puzzle.

After this I don't think I encountered anything that got in the way of progressing the game/collecting achievements.

I have no idea if I just got lucky or the hint sheet/avoid continue thing works but I figured it's worth mentioning in case other people are looking for work-arounds that might work.