Baba is Push?

[D/D/Dexter]

I don't want help or hints for any specific puzzles, I'm just wondering how a particular mechanic works. A few times I've gone into a level and one of the instructions from the start is 'Baba is Push' (o whichever character you're controlling from the start of the level), but I've never been able to figure out what difference this instruction is making, since you can always push text with or without this instruction being present, and even when this instruction is present, you're not able to push objects you otherwise couldn't. Does this instruction have a specific function?

[Perseus]

Originally posted by D/D/Dexter:

A few times I've gone into a level and one of the instructions from the start is 'Baba is Push' (o whichever character you're controlling from the start of the level),

Anything that is PUSH is solid (nothing¹ can be moved into it²) and can be pushed by anything¹ that moves.

In other words, something that is PUSH can be pushed, but cannot itself push something that is not PUSH.

¹There is an exception.
²There is a technicality.

[MaxBlue001]

Usually, when "object" IS "action", that object and ONLY that object get a specific action applied. (for that specific rule)

Ex: if you have the rule ROCK IS PUSH, that rule (and only that rule) mean all the rocks (and only the rocks) you see can be pushed by any mean (ex: the player is directly pushing the rock, another nearby rock is pushed into it, anothe robject is moving into the rock, ...)

As said above, anything that is PUSH become solid. So if you push a rock into a corner, you won't be able to go through the rock.

Text blocks being pushable is like a hidden "out of the level" rule (You don't see "text is push" anywhere in the levels).

Spoiler before normal level 8 (just for discovering levels / new words, not giving any hints): The word "NOT", that discover in world 4, can cancel existing rules (taking priority). In world 9, one of the levels will cancel the hidden rule "text is push".

[Dreepa]

2 replies and none addressed the question of the OP.

He didn't ask what is push.

He asked if there is a difference between the default state of a Baba and a Baba that has "Baba Is Push".

[MaxBlue001]

"Ex: if you have the rule ROCK IS PUSH, that rule (and only that rule) mean all the rocks (and only the rocks) you see can be pushed by any mean (ex: the player is directly pushing the rock, another nearby rock is pushed into it, anothe robject is moving into the rock, ...)"

This work exactly the same way if instead of rock, we have "BABA IS PUSH". Ex: If you control baba while "BABA IS PUSH", then if anything that is MOVE, move toward baba, then baba will be pushed, even if you don't move baba by yourself.

I also explained about the exception of text blocks being pushed, regardless of "BABA IS PUSH" or not, which seem to have gotten OP confused.

Originally posted by Dreepa:

He didn't ask what is push.

He asked if there is a difference between the default state of a Baba and a Baba that has "Baba Is Push".

That's basically 2 ways of asking the same thing tbh... Since the difference between the 2 states is the propriety of "PUSH". And the only way to describe what this difference make... is to explain what does "PUSH"...

[D/D/Dexter]

Maybe I need to give a specific example. In the 'Level Finale: A Way Out?', there is an instruction that reads 'BABA IS PUSH', written vertically about midway down the screen and on the left. There is no way to change YOU to be anything other than BABA in this level, so there is never a point where you would be KEKE (for example) and would be able to push BABA because of this instruction. So does the instruction 'BABA IS PUSH' have any actual effect when 'YOU ARE BABA', and that cannot change?

[Perseus]

Originally posted by D/D/Dexter:

Maybe I need to give a specific example. In the 'Level Finale: A Way Out?', there is an instruction that reads 'BABA IS PUSH', written vertically about midway down the screen and on the left. There is no way to change YOU to be anything other than BABA in this level, so there is never a point where you would be KEKE (for example) and would be able to push BABA because of this instruction. So does the instruction 'BABA IS PUSH' have any actual effect when 'YOU ARE BABA', and that cannot change?

It does, since anything that moves in a direction can push something that is PUSH. For example, something that is MOVE could push BABA.

Another example : when BELT IS SHIFT, anything that goes onto the belt will be moved. That movement can push anything that is PUSH.
This means that if you were to push TEXT against a BELT SHIFTing in the opposite direction, you would push the text onto the belt, which would shift it back and push you at the same time.

Does that help or is my explanation lacking in clarity at some point?

[D/D/Dexter]

Originally posted by Perseus:

Originally posted by D/D/Dexter:

Maybe I need to give a specific example. In the 'Level Finale: A Way Out?', there is an instruction that reads 'BABA IS PUSH', written vertically about midway down the screen and on the left. There is no way to change YOU to be anything other than BABA in this level, so there is never a point where you would be KEKE (for example) and would be able to push BABA because of this instruction. So does the instruction 'BABA IS PUSH' have any actual effect when 'YOU ARE BABA', and that cannot change?

It does, since anything that moves in a direction can push something that is PUSH. For example, something that is MOVE could push BABA.

Another example : when BELT IS SHIFT, anything that goes onto the belt will be moved. That movement can push anything that is PUSH.
This means that if you were to push TEXT against a BELT SHIFTing in the opposite direction, you would push the text onto the belt, which would shift it back and push you at the same time.

Does that help or is my explanation lacking in clarity at some point?

I think that makes sense now, I guess I'll just need to see it in practice the next time I come across it. Thanks