999. Spoiler Free Explanation of Flow Locks and Keys: Crossed out, and Different Colours

[Knelf]

There seems to be enough history of people asking about this and enough badly explained replies that, having just figured it out, I felt it may benefit others to make a single post about it while it is still fresh in my mind. I think the issue with prior explanations is that those who get it, don't understand how others didn't get it - so confusion arises.

Anyhow so here's the deal. The main thing is the locks. When these are crossed out, it means they are still locked i.e. they represent a route in the game you cannot yet travel. The keys represent places in the flow diagram you have to visit, in order to sort out those locks. But what about the colours? Well, if you have say two locks, red and white, the red keys represent places you have to go to sort the red lock, and the white keys, the places you have to go to sort the white lock. But what about the crossed out and non crossed out keys, what do those mean? The non-crossed out keys are the ones you've already been to/done. So you don't have to go to those any more : ) The ones that are crossed out, are the ones you still need to visit. So if you are stuck, go to one of those crossed out keys.

So, in summary, in a "crossed out lock situation", look for the highest (up the flow tree) "crossed out key" (of the same colour as the lock you want to go through) and go visit it, then the next one, then the next, and so on till you can progress through the lock.

Something to note also, when visiting a crossed out key, once you click it, you'll possibly get a choice of which "conversation" in that room you want to do (typically crossed out keys mean there is a new conversation to be had). You need to pick the one you've not encountered before. If you end up say at the start of a puzzle again that you already did, you picked the wrong "conversation" - just go back to flow and try again.

Hopefully that helps

[Пятнистая Рысявка]

Man, I didn't get crap from your explanation.
I've finished the game on yellow submarine ending first.
Then bad ending and now these locks appeared, they weren't there after yellow sub.

What do I do, just go from up to down, unlocking tiles that I haven't yet visited?

[Rachito]

Originally posted by Ocelot Shalashaska:

Man, I didn't get crap from your explanation.
I've finished the game on yellow submarine ending first.
Then bad ending and now these locks appeared, they weren't there after yellow sub.

What do I do, just go from up to down, unlocking tiles that I haven't yet visited?

You have to unlock the "keys" in the flowchart. Usually you unlock them doing another route (you can go back and pick almost any chapter in any moment in the flowchart), so you have to see the bad endings in another routes, when you do, you can get the true ending. It seems tedious but there´s an argumentably reason (you, the player, need to get information that will help you later in the game) and it will be more obvious when you get more bad endings.
To unlock some keys you need to do specific steps, if you have trouble then read a spoiler free guide or something .

[Knelf]

Sorry the explanation didn't work for everyone. I tried.

[Пятнистая Рысявка]

Originally posted by Knelf:

Sorry the explanation didn't work for everyone. I tried.

I understood it eventually, when I started unlocking keys and locks by myself.
Turned out to be not that hard :)

[Knelf]

Ah pleased to hear it. I did wonder if you perhaps hadn't got far enough to "get stuck" initially. In which case yeh, the explanation wouldn't have made much sense. Hope you enjoy the game!

[paulohtobias]

This is the best explanation I've seen so far. The one thing that I still don't get is when will I know if I unlocked a key? I clicked on it, chose another dialog option, went down a new path in the flow chart but the key is still crossed. Does this mean I have to go back and try again or should I continue in the new path and it will eventually be unlocked?

[SugaNee]

Thank you I have half white keys crossed out and half not crossed out, lol, with no explanation. This was perfect. If you don't understand what this post is saying you need to fill out more of your flow map a.k.a. complete more of the game. The keys and locks are to 100% it anyways, you can even skip through read dialogue and focus on picking options you haven't chosen yet if you need to. Thank you OP

[dem1rell]

you gotta have minus IQ for not understanding this explanation. thanks!

[Knelf]

Glad it's at least helping some people :)

[aklab]

THANK YOU, I've been trying to figure this out forever and no one else's explanations have made any sense to me!

[Knelf]

Great to know it helped!

[Looser]

Thanks for the amazing explanation!

[Knelf]

Thanks for the feedback - glad it was useful!

[Mr.Mostache]

Ok, one question.

I did finish my second ending, and a white lock appeared with multiple crossed white keys.
According to your explanation, it's related to a conversation answer.

I did one of the locked keys, and manage to unlock it ( and one of the other keys unlocked itself for some reason). But lore-wise, I didn't learn anything new. Whether I got the right or wrong answer to a conversation, the characters usually explain the story that they are talking about.

Did I miss something "lore-wise" so to speak?

Edit: Nevermind. I was actually surprised that the game accounts for the previous branches you took, so the locks want you to go through the game in a very specific path.

[CARTOON HEROINE]

this is such an awesome post. exactly what I was looking for. thank you so much for writing this up, I am always so grateful for spoiler-free, clearly-written explanations of game mechanics etc.