OneShot secrets (MASSIVE SPOILERS)

[theoriginal28]

So I'm just gonna use this thread to compile everything I know about OneShot that may not be immediately obvious, and also speculations on what stuff could mean. Feel free to contribute, and read on at your own risk!

The Steam page's description has bolded letters that spell out the word Solstice, who is apparently a character in the game, the 21st of December is also the Solstice. Perhaps something will happen then.

The clock in the Refuge with the vault door is activated on the 2nd playthrough, and has a countdown to the 20th of March, which is the Equinox. Changing the system clock does nothing, so I think there will be a game update then which will allow us to access it

In the 2nd and beyond playthrough, Niko can see visions of at least two (but going off the trailer, probably three) extra mysterious characters with glowing gold on their character somewhere, which we know from George comes only from the extremely rare yellow phosphor, which is related to the sun. We could already see a vision of (Rue?) the fox from the first playthrough.

Also in the second and beyond playthrough, the DOCUMENT changes, to read
"Ah.̡.̛.
I͞t l͞oo͘ks ̢l̢ik͡e҉ ͟you were successful...

I must be honest... I was not expecting it to work.

.......This changes everything, then.

.....

...I will atone for everything. Please give me some time.

Until then, you may repeat the world as many times as you wish.

If you haven't yet, please look for someone͜͠ ̵nà͝m̨e̛d́͟.̛ R̴̸̨u̧͡e̷͘..
Sh͏e'̷s̷ iǹ t͞h̨e͢ ̷cit̕y͜ some̢wh̡e̵ré.͝

...do pardon ͞th͞é ͏artifacts in the message. I tried my best to eliminate them this time, but...


...oh, ̛r̕ight̨,̕ ͝yo͝u͝ s.till need the gas mask to progress.
Go back to the safe, it's between the ocean and the lookout point.

The code you need is XXXXXX"


Speaking of yellow phosphor, do Niko's eyes have it? All we know about it is that it is related to the sun, it's the only other yellow thing we've seen in the world, and it never stops glowing, all of which fit with Niko and their eyes. Niko's eyes and the sun both don't fade out during scene transitions.

Notably, the visions in the Barrens and the Glen are both encountered at dead ends that require a vehicle to cross, the first implied and the second confirmed to be the Author's flying vehicle. But the Author has left the world, and wants some time to 'atone for everything', which may be linked to the Solstice or the Equinox. If I had to guess, going off the locations for the other two, the third vision may be in the upper Refuge at the end of a decayed bridge.
UPDATE: It isn't. I don't think the third vision can be accessed at this time.
UPDATE 2: I was mistaken, the trailer shows three visions and then Niko crying. What I previously thought was the 4th vision (of Rue) is actually the third

When you return Niko home, you are treated to a LOVELY cutscene of the world fading to purple wireframe then disappearing. When you START the game each playthrough, Niko wakes up and then a purple wireframe fades into the world. If the world fading to wireframe and then disappearing is the world ending, then the wireframe fading into the world could very well be it being created. So is the world literally only created when you start up the game, and everyone in it just created with memories of it being around forever?

At the end of the game, the Entity says he can't stop you, and that it isn't in his programming. We've heard of programming restrictions stopping MANY robots from doing stuff, the majority of which are confirmed to be untamed. The Entity could be an untamed robot, though it would help to know more about what taming is.

New dialogue between Niko and Rue on the 4th playthrough:
"Oh, you're here! I was starting to get used to your company"
"What?"
"Oh, nothing. Carry on."
"To be perfectly honest, it may be this way for a while, actually"
"...But in time, that will change"
"The... sun?"
"Adrian can see this, Right?"
"...yeah?"
"Then Adrian will understand"

Lemme know what you think, and if you have anything to add!

[Ren]

you might want to check out the unofficial oneshot discord
love to speculate with you w

[theoriginal28]

Can you send me a zelda to it?

[Ren]

join the fun here[discord.gg]

[theoriginal28]

Updated with new Rue dialogue

[Fune]

Found a path in Barren mine
I can go up at the right of the right jar.It lead to the whole black room, but nothing in there. I think it need the update afterall
Sorry for my bad grammar.

[Wintrmute]

What does Rue say on the 3rd run through?
(I was a little disappointed that on my 2nd run, Rue merely told me to come back when I'd seen "the others".. guess I missed something.. or had to play the game a whole third time over?)

[Borgor Queen]

[Garrettcube]

You see, this is what I like about this game. Replaying it over and over is actually more rewarding in terms of potential information than games like Undertale.

Sadly, I don't have the time or will to keep replaying, so I wait for others to find this stuff first.

[Mzlt. Minimiez]

You see, this is what I like about other games. Replaying the same riddles over and over is more repetitive, than getting enough informations for every run, than in games like One Shot.

Don't understand me wrong, I love OneShot. But playing the same stuff over and over is annoying.
In Undertale it will Shortcut every riddle when you play it more than once. (Depends on the run)

[Garrettcube]

Originally posted by Mzlt. Minimiez:

You see, this is what I like about other games. Replaying the same riddles over and over is more repetitive, than getting enough informations for every run, than in games like One Shot.

Don't understand me wrong, I love OneShot. But playing the same stuff over and over is annoying.
In Undertale it will Shortcut every riddle when you play it more than once. (Depends on the run)

I feel the same. I played Undertale twice and then never again due to how annoying constant replays can be. I love both that game and OneShot, but i'm not THAT dedicated (though if you are that dedicated, then my hat goes off to you in respect).

[SumYungGuy]

I think these comments blew my mind.

[gabsn]

I played through the game three times now. Ended the last playthrough on saving the world as I guess you'd have to have a "living" world if the update (my guess for the Equinox) returns you into the same one.

I already posted this in another topic but I guess it fits more into this one and I'm going to add a little on it:

I assume Niko has to stay next to the sun in the tower if you chose to save the world. Whenever he left the lightbulb alone (when he first finds it, when leaving it with Maize, when he finds it again at the tower...) it turnes off. As soon as he gets close it lights up again though.
I hope there is a way to both send him home and save the world. After all, the sun doesn't save it for sure, so there would still be things to do.
As well as finding the Author and with his help getting to the graveyard in the Glen and maybe other places. My guess would be that there's some kind of portal in the mines we can't explore now. He said he left the world on his own terms but it doesn't seem like he's dead. Too many characters talk about him as if he's just left the room.
And then there's Rue, asking if we've "met the others", maybe every playthrough creates another Niko that stays wherever you chose to send him? There are locked rooms in the house at the end at least. Alula and Calamus also hint that the Author and Rue are connected when you talk to the fox plush in their house.

Both Rue and the Author also seem to have a different understanding of the player and the world than all the other characters. Rue recognizes you differently every playthrough - at least up to the fourth time according to OP. In the library some NPCs mention that the Author writes all the books in the world and that this would have to take a way longer amount of time than it apparently did. The Author is even able to break the fourth wall directly which also supports my theory that he isn't dead.

Also there's the fact that Niko mentions his previous signatures on the gate to the Refuge and at every new beginning faintly remembers you. This kind of conflicts with the theory of mulitple universes existing for every playthrough. Although in George's room there's the book that mentions different universes existing, which leads to meeting a different George every time you play. I've encountered George 5, 2 and 1 so far.
Only explanation I see is that there are certain people that can access all universes at kind of the same time. Those would be Niko, as he's from a different world, you the player as "god", the Author and Rue.

For saving the world from decay once the sun is returned the resurrected Maize could play a huge role together with the Author, Rue and the Entity.
It seems like the Entity creates the squares as it seeks death for the world, but at the same time it already let us get rid of them once when rescuing Alula. The Author managed to get behind the powers of the Entity in the tower. Rue's tree seems entirely unaffected by the decay of the surrounding world. Maize's powers let her grow a lot of vines even in a near-death stage.

Taming to me seems like it unlocks a robot's personality, allowing it to learn and act freely while still respecting the main security protocols that you find in the outpost in the Barrens. Silver is tamed but still won't allow Niko to get in danger, which is the main point of the security guidlines for robots. And she confesses that giving up the Amber conflicts with her personality, although her programming clearly states it's the right thing to do.
The Entity mentions it cannot act against its programming, which means it's not tamed by definition. But as it's seeking death for the world it obviously does not follow the "standard robot rules" of not hurting people or knowingly letting them get hurt.
Who programmed the Entity, though? Kip tells us that the Author resents coding robots and hints that he might have done it before. Maybe the Entity is the Author's last coding project, which went terribly wrong. Terrible enough to push the world towards an end, beyond his capacities to undo his mistake.
In the ____ exe post game he mentions that the powers of the player exceed his and he is not fully aware of how far these powers can go (aka deleting the save file). In the document with the code for the gas mask he then confirms he did not think the reset would work. Him willing to "atone for everything" might mean he'll try to fix the Entity. Or at least set it up in a way that the player could help with fixing it.

I have more theories, but I'm going to leave it at that for now.

[Paste]

It'd be neat if rather than the Author simply being added into the game when the Equinox rolls around, he's actually a downloadable file you have to put into the game files. He already left the world, so maybe you'd have to drag him back.

As for taming, I don't believe it "unlocks" their personality. It'd be easier to explain how the robots seem to work first: Their programming isn't JUST their rules and laws they must abide by (rules that pertain to their job they were built for, as well as the bastardized three laws of robotics found on a poster in the Outpost in the first area), but it also excludes them from actions that their programming DOESN'T specify, examples being Prophetbot not being able to easily speak to others, the settlement guard bot not being able to leave despite all humans having left, and the Library-aidbot not being able to leave the desk. However, taming seems to be when they're inner rules edit themselves with circumstance to the point that their programming not specfying an action won't restrict them from that action (like singularity?). The robots seem to have expression and personality despite not being tamed, main evidence being Prophetbot's slightly odd speaking paterns and expressive eye. All that being said, we don't really have a good focus group for "tamed robots" in the game. Silver is the only "tamed" one, and she herself isn't a normal case as is learned later in the game. It might even be highly probable that "taming" is a myth within their world. Doc Silverpoint even mused that it might just be impossible to make a robot not bound by it's programming.

The fact that Niko faintly remembers various things from runs past may indicate that the Player themself is what keeps dragging Niko back again and again, and maybe means the Player is the cause for all the hardship occuring. Maybe restarting and booting up the game triggers the sun breaking, which is something the Entity realizes. Knowing an "all-powerful god" is playing with the world you inhabit is a pretty great way to make a person suicidal, and that's maybe why the Entity acts the way it does. If this is the case, wouldn't that make the game's real antagonist the Player?

[SumYungGuy]

Go talk to the radiator bot in the alley. He doesn't explicitly state it, but he does allude to being Tamed himself.

[gabsn]

Dragging the Author back into the world would kind of fit with the theory that the Player is the true antagonist. He decided to leave on his own, so it would be kind of cruel to take this decision from him. Unless he left because the world was "doomed" and he simply had the power to do so or needed to to hide from the Entity. In that case the Player changed the spiral by breaking the rules of the world (or the fourth wall).

Although I don't think that the Player starting the game is what breaks the sun. It's mentioned by several characters that the decay of the world started way earlier and the sun basically was the last thing that kept the world from completely falling apart. The moment the sun broke also doesn't seem to be the starting point of the game, the robots and people are fairly used to the darkness.
That the Entity considers the Player to be cruel makes sense. The sun will not save the world on it's own, so putting it back would just increase the time the people spend suffering. They basically know that the end of the world has come, there's this faint hope of a saviour and then Niko appears, guided by their "God". I don't think everyone realizes that the sun alone won't save the world. And breaking the sun seems to end the world in an instant.

Your view on Taming makes sense to me, would be interesting to know how it happens though. Apparently humans need to be involved, i.e. robots can't tame other robots even if they've been tamed. Considering the universal three rules that every robot follows maybe they have to be put in a situation that conflicts with all of them at the same time? So they have to decide on what to do independent of/against their programming. Such situations would obviously be rare, so maybe that explains the lack of more tamed robots.
The radiator bot still follows his programming though, he creates warmth. Not for humans, so maybe he is on the way to become tamed, as he makes no effort to follow the basic three rules even though there are humans around him.