Tips and Tricks

[Chowster]

So first off, loving the game, it's the sort of brain-twister/lateral thinking game I enjoy.

However, I'm feeling pretty stupid and think I'm not quite getting the concept as much as I would like.

Are there any tips/tricks that anyone has that would aid others and myself?

[E3kHatena]

A few from my first four hours with the game.

-If an object can be pushed (EX: "ROCK IS PUSH"), then you can also use spare text to nudge it or vice-versa.

-Spend a few minutes pushing everything into everything, if it can be pushed and there is water/lava/skulls, push them into them. Rearrange blocks of text. Experiment and see what your options are. I spent ten minutes struggling with a level because I didn't consider using "NOT ROCK IS MOVE" to push the lake in the level.

-If you're going to have to reuse a block, try not to get it stuck to the sides of the screen. Keep it accessible from every side so you can move it to where you need it.

-Because each puzzle is not just about moving the blocks to change things, but also moving the blocks to move other things and maneuvering Baba/Keke properly, I personally haven't felt ashamed of using a walkthrough because even then some of the puzzles are difficult to execute.

-MOVE will cause the object to walk in the direction it is facing. Pushing or pulling the object resets its position if you need it to walk a certain direction.

[LupisLight]

Don't forget that the text blocks are not just useful for manipulating the rules - they are in and of themselves physical objects that can help with the solution.

Don't forget that unless there are rules stating otherwise (e.g. STOP or PUSH), objects are by default intangible. This includes things you are currently controlling - objects (including text) can be pushed over top of you.

TEXT IS PUSH is an implicit rule - it is always in effect even if not on the field - unless something overrides it, of course.

Objects can MOVE even if YOU aren't controlling anything at the moment. This may seem usless, but if you can set up a moving object to reconnect the YOU rule, you can come back to life...

[Mother Serpent]

In the 140+ I've solved, only ONE level had extra pieces (And Hempuli already said he will remove the extra Prion piece in the next patch). Usually, if there's a lot of things in the level, you'll need to use everything. So, if your solution ignores a couple of pieces, your solution is probably incomplete.

[Zyxyz]

Originally posted by Mãe Serpente:

In the 140+ I've solved, only ONE level had extra pieces (And Hempuli already said he will remove the extra Prion piece in the next patch). Usually, if there's a lot of things in the level, you'll need to use everything. So, if your solution ignores a couple of pieces, your solution is probably incomplete.

Huh, I know of at least one more level with an extra piece—Garden-6 can be solved without using the given IS MOVE at all. Now I'm wondering if the solution I used for that level was unintended, though I don't see how else you'd solve it...

[Mother Serpent]

Originally posted by Zyxyz:

Originally posted by Mãe Serpente:

In the 140+ I've solved, only ONE level had extra pieces (And Hempuli already said he will remove the extra Prion piece in the next patch). Usually, if there's a lot of things in the level, you'll need to use everything. So, if your solution ignores a couple of pieces, your solution is probably incomplete.

Huh, I know of at least one more level with an extra piece—Garden-6 can be solved without using the given IS MOVE at all. Now I'm wondering if the solution I used for that level was unintended, though I don't see how else you'd solve it...

I'm really curious to know how you've solved it without the MOVE. This was the world that I got the flower last, because I got stuck in Garden-6 and in GArden-4 for a loooong time. My solution, with the IS MOVE is bellow:

I've moved the DOOR block and the key to where the red skull is. Then, I've said that KEY ON ICE IS MOVE. Then KEY MAKES ICE. This way, the key makes an ice cube, move and push the DOOR. When the DOOR was on the top of the level, I've undone the KEY MAKES ICE, moved the DOOR to the IS SHUT place, moved the key one more square and opened the door.

[Zyxyz]

Originally posted by Mãe Serpente:

Originally posted by Zyxyz:

Huh, I know of at least one more level with an extra piece—Garden-6 can be solved without using the given IS MOVE at all. Now I'm wondering if the solution I used for that level was unintended, though I don't see how else you'd solve it...

I'm really curious to know how you've solved it without the MOVE. This was the world that I got the flower last, because I got stuck in Garden-6 and in GArden-4 for a loooong time. My solution, with the IS MOVE is bellow:

I've moved the DOOR block and the key to where the red skull is. Then, I've said that KEY ON ICE IS MOVE. Then KEY MAKES ICE. This way, the key makes an ice cube, move and push the DOOR. When the DOOR was on the top of the level, I've undone the KEY MAKES ICE, moved the DOOR to the IS SHUT place, moved the key one more square and opened the door.

Here's what I did, step by step from the start:
– Set up KEY MAKE ICE and ICE IS PUSH to be able to generate pushable ice on demand.
– Put the DOOR text on top of the southern skull, and two units of ice directly below it.
– Push the ice up once from below, moving the DOOR text along with it.
– Go get another ice block and place it just below the existing ice, then push the whole mass up another time. Repeat until the DOOR text is just below the water.
– Disable ICE IS PUSH, and now you can go get the DOOR text and move it into position for DOOR IS SHUT. Now you just need a key...
– Turn ICE IS PUSH back on and grab one more ice block to move the existing ice up, so that it reaches the edge of the water.
– Now comes the fun part. Rearrange your text to make ICE MAKE KEY, and presto! A brand new key is sitting in the same convenient spot you pushed the DOOR text to earlier!
– But wait, wouldn't the second key below it get in the way? Don't worry, we have an answer to that too. Disable ICE MAKE KEY and make sure ICE IS PUSH is on, then push the northernmost ice block to the right. Now only the good key is on plain ground...
– Turns out the second ICE text isn't just there for the sake of convenience—use it to set up KEY ON ICE IS ICE. The extra keys will blink out of existence, so all that's left is to activate KEY IS PUSH and you're free to bring the remaining key over to the door and open up the path to the flag!
Sorry for the longwinded explanation, I can get too wordy for my own good sometimes :V Hopefully it's still clear enough to follow along?

[Mother Serpent]

Nicely done! And the instructions are really clear. I could repeat it here without issues. And your solution is simpler than mine! It took me days to solve this one with the MOVE, maybe I could make is faster if I haven't tried to use everything.

This discussion also inpired me to solve Space-10 (The Pit) without every piece. Don't know if in the intended way or not.

[Chowster]

I appreciate all the help, I still feel like I'm missing something.
I'll keep at it, I am enjoying it even if I feel like I'm moving things around at random sometimes.

I think it may just be the nature of the game that there is only one way to do some puzzles. I'm struggling with seeing what the devs had in mind, I guess.

[LoDef]

I managed to do Garden-5 without using ON.
Steps are:
-Move WALL IS PUSH up to the starting room, before pushing one of the wall pieces onto the bottom wall and another wall piece onto the right wall.
-Then create BABA IS MOVE while keeping BABA IS YOU by pushing BABA IS YOU above the lava and attaching IS MOVE to the bottom.
-Now, you need to think of Baba's movement pattern as a grid. He can only move on certain tiles when BABA IS MOVE and BABA IS YOU is active, however when you press Baba against a wall (be it the actual wall or the wall tiles you pressed against the sides of the actual wall) then move toward it, he will move ONE TILE backwards. That's very important, because it means you can offset his movement pattern and get to places you normally couldn't get to while BABA IS MOVE and BABA IS YOU.
-Using these offsets, you can push IS DEFEAT into it's place and get back to the starting room without dying. Because BABA IS MOVE and BABA IS YOU, you can move over the lava without touching it when you're exactly one space away. Then deactivate BABA IS MOVE.
-Move HAND and the IS from WALL IS PUSH to create HAND IS YOU while keeping BABA IS YOU. Unlock the door with the hand and touch the flag!

EDIT: Checked the level itself and it would appear that this has been patched. Oh well!

[silverhawke]

i found another solution to Garden-5 without ON.

・go down and grab WALL IS PUSH, moving it to the upper section while keeping them together.
・go down again, push walls about so you have one wall facing down, while the rest is facing to the side.
・rearrange blocks so you have HAND IS PUSH, push the hand to face downwards to make the next step easier.
・arrange WALL IS PUSH, HAND IS MOVE, BABA IS YOU in a 3 x 3 square, making sure that WALL, HAND, and BABA are aligned vertically with the wall that is facing down.
・simply walk and push down that vertical slice with WALL, HAND, and BABA to make WALL IS MOVE and HAND IS YOU.
・navigate as hand downwards to push the IS DEFEAT blocks in place.
・the 3 x 3 block arrangement causes the wall to push the vertical slice back in place, so every several moves, BABA IS YOU again. basically from this point onward, it's simply pushing the vertical slice, moving as hand, and strategically waiting until the wall pushes the vertical slice again, at which point the hand will move on its own and is capable of crossing the lava without dying.
・finally, after getting the hand back to the top, time it so that hand opens door at the same time the wall pushes BABA to make BABA IS YOU, and then just walk to the flag!

[NotEnoughGolds]

I used very few pieces in garden 5, since it can be cheesed by setting "baba is you" + "baba is move" and just jumping over the lava - baba moves one space if you "wait" (A on xbox controller) and 2 spaces if you press a direction.

[SquareDildo]

Pay attention to pieces of wall and other small obstacles next to cornered (or wall-hugging) text. They clearly prevent you from manipulating the text in an unintended way. Think what would you be able to do if it was unobstructed. Obviously you won't use the technique in the same level, but you can apply it in another one.

[Hawthorne]

"Axioms" i.e. default rules:

1. "Text Is Push" (other pushable things will need to have specific rules)
2. "Win is You" does not work. I forget exactly how but I was able to make baba be both me and win, though (as expected, this was an automatic victory).
3. "Baba is You and Flag" does not work, but Baba and Flag is You" does work. In general, whenever you are two things, you can kill off one.

[Juno Brier]

Originally posted by Anonymoose:

3. "Baba is You and Flag" does not work, but Baba and Flag is You" does work.

In general understanding how the syntax works is a huge part of solving puzzles.
To further explain what you said:
"A is B and C" is equal to "A is B" and "A is C", while "A and B is C" is equal to "A is C" and "B is C".

Understanding syntax is especially important with "NOT", since which half of the statement it's in greatly affects what it can do. "NOT" is very powerful when you know how to use it. Any puzzle with it is sure to have their solution hinge on it. And at least one puzzle relies on the use of double negatives....

[Pants Chicken]

In the levels north in the map (7 8 and 9 i think), try combining other words with "level"