Stupid Rubber Duck puzzle

[Magma]

Holy hell, what the heck were they thinking? Imagine playing this without access to a walkthrough.

I spent around 15 minutes genuinely trying to work out how to get the electrified key. I am so glad I gave in and opened up a walkthrough.

I hope the rest of the game doesn't end up like this puzzle...I don't like to rely on walkthroughs but I don't have time for absurd difficulty spikes.

[Talana 💃]

SOLUTION :

Yes, this puzzle can make you half crazy ! For anyone else who are stuck, I`ll post the solution.
One of my most beloved games ,
- and one of - well, take a look :

(quote) :
Video games most hated and difficult puzzles :

The Longest Journey - Rubber Duck

You know puzzles are just getting out of hand when you read #5 in our list of the 10 Most Difficult Puzzles in Video Games.
In The Longest Journey, the player comes across a key that is lodged into a subway track. In order to retrieve this key, you need to go through what feels like the longest series of events.

First, you need to go back to your apartment to get a clamp. This clamp can only be taken off a water pressure system if you use a gold ring to conduct electricity and get the system powered up, thus loosening the clamp ( Remember to retrieve the gold ring ! ) .

After that, you need to look outside your apartment's window and throw food crumbs at a rubber duck down below. This will make a seagull come down to feast on the crumbs, ultimately damaging the toy.

Then, grab a clothesline, head out of the apartment, locate the duck near the cafe April works in, , tie the line to the clamp, put it through the opening of the toy, and re-inflate the duck the make the clamp stay open. ( quote end)

Lastly, (new quote - TLJ walkthrough ) :
Subway - Iron Key: Go out to the platform and look at the sparks by the rail at the left of the screen There is a large key stuck between the rail and high voltage cable.
Save game here.
In inventory, use mouth on rubber duck to blow it up. Be sure that the band-aid has been removed from the rubber ducky.
Look close (eye icon) at the rubber duck in inventory .
( if you do not use the eye icon to look, April will NOT say the right words you need for this puzzle to be resolved ! .
Then, while at close up of the duck in the background, right click to get inventory.
Use clamp on inflated rubber duck to open the clamp.
Combine this with the clothesline. Immediately, click this makeshift fishing pole on the spark to get the iron key.
If not fast enough, the clamp closes because the rubber duck is deflated too fast before being around the key and have to start over.

That`s all . Simple

[Goldenkitten]

Originally posted by Magma:

I hope the rest of the game doesn't end up like this puzzle...I don't like to rely on walkthroughs but I don't have time for absurd difficulty spikes.

Don't worry. This is by far the most difficult and obtuse puzzle in the game.

The Longest Journey is actually fairly easy as far as adventure games go, but makes up for it with a great story. About the hardest parts are when a needed item is in another item you pick up. Because this only happens with certain items you sort of forget you can do it and that makes it generally the last thing you remember to do, or at least that's how I felt.

But back on topic most of the puzzles generally just require observation and unlike some truly difficult games it does a good job of telling you whenever you're looking at something important. The Rubber Ducky puzzle is pretty much the only part of the game where I became truly stuck like those insane old school adventure games that sometimes had no logic behind them and felt there was no alternative but a walkthrough.

[SugarSugar]

I remember playing this game when I was young and this very puzzle. I stopped playing because of the rubber duck puzzle. All those years trying to work it out :(

[AyeMatey]

A grateful thank you to all the people who take time out of their busy lives to create a walkthrough for some of us who occasionally get stuck.

[Magma]

Originally posted by holychair:

I just had to resort to the walkthrough at the community guides section for this. Good to hear that the rubber ducky puzzle is not a sign of what's yet to come because I really liked the game thus far. April is a very slow walker, though ...

Enable animation skip in the Options menu. Also, double click the ground to make April run, although to be honest I am always using animation skip (press Esc).

[Goldenkitten]

Though be careful when you hit 'Esc'. It's fine to use it to just run around town, but you can wind up skipping important scenes and entire conversations if you just run around hitting it all the time. It should be fine in any area you've previously been in during fetch questing, but I'd say just run around and be subject to the slow animations in new areas or whenever it looks like she's going into an "automated" animation that might end in a conversation.

I only bring it up because it was only after an hour of hitting 'Esc' to speed things up that I realized it ALSO skips any dialogue that's attached to an animation.

[Mhysa]

I was 10 years old when I started playing it and NEVER cheated in the game, but the thing I remember struggling with for waaay to long back then was the underwaterpuzzle :'D Loved it then and still my favorite history in any game ever.

[Whispie]

I would not have been able to solve that puzzle without a walkthrough either!

[Infinifox]

Be thankful it didn't glitch for you. If you're unlucky it will just refuse to complete the puzzle even if you do all of the obscure steps correctly. I had to restart from the previous chapter and replay a bunch of stuff to get through it.

[lol papa]

Yep, the rubber duck puzzle was insanely ridiculous haha

[korytoombs]

I just went through this portion of the game. I had the runner ducky but would have never thought of using it in this way. It wasn't logical. The detective garbage heap puzzle was easy to figure out after this. Some are easy and this one is hard.

[Nyx]

*Sigh* I went backward, started with Dreamfall: TLJ and now doing my first TLJ playthrough in 2017.....everything is going good, i'm enjoying the game aaaaand then *deflated* - glitched by the buggy rubber ducky. I'm just grateful for forums. Cheers.

[r-cane]

I'm trying to get the key with clamp, clothesline and rubberduck, but when I try it she just says "I cant reach down far enough." Any ideas why?

[henrikh1984]

Whatever I do, all she says is "I can't reach down far enough". The clothesline is already attached to the clamp... I don't know what to do...

[Talana 💃]

Originally posted by henrikh1984:

Whatever I do, all she says is "I can't reach down far enough". The clothesline is already attached to the clamp... I don't know what to do...

I posted the solution at the start of this thread - check back a page , and good luck