DLC stealth sections strat

[roguefrog]

Spoilers below...



I am still working my way through the DLC and have finally gotten to probably the much maligned stealth sections, where you have to play cat and mouse in total pitch blackness with our antlered crow friends.

So the main issue is you need to setup the conditions, then pass these sections, all under 22 minutes. I initially bombed a ton and well...time to reloop!

But I think I found the winning strat. When you enter the area with a candle blower, from a distance, use the focus light to find the guy, and get his attention good, then close lamb and route pass him using the route he doesn't take, occasionally opening-closing your lamb of course to orientate direction when needed. This worked well to get to the Hidden Archives: the first crow you can get to come straight at you, then use the docks to get behind him, and the crow inside was still searching for me for a very long time near the lift after I made myself a lighthouse. As soon as he took the right path, I went left.

I guess I still have to see the how the other areas are handled.

[Perseus]

Which stealth section are you talking about? Maybe i missed it, but i didn't see any information that would allow knowing for sure what part you're talking about.

[roguefrog]

From what I wrote pertains to the Starlit gorge with the tower after being darkened. I've since passed the darkened canyon house (forget the exact name). Same tactic works although it might be best to know the lay of the land there. The good thing there though is once you make the bridge you're done, and can kiss any nearby crow as it might actually be faster/easier to just respawn. The third guy guarded the mural room is easily avoided as he is out of the way. (which makes me think why!)

I also solved the bayou music party house which requires no stealth at all, but that solution is uneeded spoilorage for this thread. (also there is backdoor way which I feel kind of underminds the "normal" way as it feels like a cheat since it is way easier/zero effort, but to be fair it's spelled out only if you've already been there)

[roguefrog]

As it turns out Starlite gorge is really the only required stealth section in the DLC! Requires some in-game forbidden knowledge though in order to bypass the Endless Canyon stealth section.

[Perseus]

Originally posted by roguefrog:

As it turns out Starlite gorge is really the only required stealth section in the DLC! Requires some in-game forbidden knowledge though in order to bypass the Endless Canyon stealth section.

Or just a trick similar to the one used to go through the "bayou music party".

[Songbird]

Originally posted by roguefrog:

As it turns out Starlite gorge is really the only required stealth section in the DLC! Requires some in-game forbidden knowledge though in order to bypass the Endless Canyon stealth section.

Without any extra knowledge, just treating each area like a puzzle, you can completely finish the DLC while only having to stealth zero to one times. You will just have to find the route forward in one area (which is most easily done by following someone), you will be seen in another, but only once you are so close to your destination that it doesn't matter, and in the third you can just barely learn said knowledge with no encounters, but may wish to return using it which requires dodging past one entity in a large space.

[roguefrog]

More spoilerz


Okay, I completely cased darkened Starlite gorge in all-seeing spirit "matrix" mode. Unless I am missing something, you have to bypass not one, but two entities as they are guarding very narrow bottlenecks en-route to the hidden archive and I didn't see any other routes in.

One guy is literally a stationary sentry blocking the only path to the spiral staircase pit. You actually have to get him to move and route behind him in order to proceed.
Once down the spiral staircase, there are actually TWO dudes, both on patrol along the two only bridges to the archive on the left and right. Again, you'll likely need to get one of them to move off their route. Easily done by just focusing your light from the high ground overlook above.

[roguefrog]

Okay, I just realized the solution for zero stranger encounters, and I am surprised I didn't think of it before. Although it requires setup like the music house and is very limited time-wise.

The key: The tower collapses wiping out all the starlit gorge entities in the chamber but this happens right before the "get ready to re-loop" music starts, so you'll need to approach from hidden gorge sleep chamber having activated the dock and darkened starlit gorge first, then haul major ass to the archive. Might not have enough time to slide reel everything but in multiple runs sure. I haven't tested this yet though.

In summary,
1. Music House - All strangers are wiped out after the dam burst, just need to visit first to open the door to the dock point and approach from a different sleep chamber OR the tunnel secret gives direct access via the underground lake (area optional / no encounters)
2. Starlite Gorge/Tower - See paragraph above (no encounters but time is short, not sure if this is even viable but it just might be? The real trick would be knowing WHEN the tower collapses. No audio cues but there might be visual? Strangers going poof!)
3. Endless Canyon - Invisible bridge to the elevator gives easy access to the tree mural room (no encounters)

[ReverendTed]

For Starlight Gorge, you can use the secret you learn in its Forbidden Archive reels such that you never have to turn off the lights, so the Strangers never show up.

[roguefrog]

Cart before the horse but yeah, that works. I thought I was clever with waiting for the tower to collapse.

[Quillithe]

Originally posted by roguefrog:

In summary,
1. Music House - All strangers are wiped out after the dam burst, just need to visit first to open the door to the dock point and approach from a different sleep chamber OR the tunnel secret gives direct access via the underground lake (area optional / no encounters)
2. Starlite Gorge/Tower - See paragraph above (no encounters but time is short, not sure if this is even viable but it just might be? The real trick would be knowing WHEN the tower collapses. No audio cues but there might be visual? Strangers going poof!)
3. Endless Canyon - Invisible bridge to the elevator gives easy access to the tree mural room (no encounters)

Isn't endless Canyon where you learn about how to see invisible bridges though? I think the intended non-stealth method is this one that I did:

1) Go to endless canyon, turn on the inside bridge, go lower the elevator to the raft level.
2) Then turn out the lights alarming everyone
3) Rather than going to turn on the inside bridge again, just go to the tower, enter through there, take the raft, and go up the elevator. It takes you to the other side.


The way you're mentioning is part of a fun fact though - each hidden archive secret technique lets you get back to that archive easily!

1. The raft trick drops you to where you can walk over to enter that archive
2. The trick from starlight gorge means you don't need to turn out the lights and alarm everyone to get by the bells
3. Invisible bridge lets you skip most of endless canyon.

[Songbird]

For Starlit Cove without encounters, you indeed need to enter from the Hidden Gorge and cross the room at the bottom of the pit once the tower breaks, then quickly locate the glitch reel and watch it before the loop ends. However, you can skip the first sentry on the way to the garden area by just jumping over the railing above the garden carefully from straight in front of the entry tower (it's very slightly short of a fatal fall). This affords you another 30-40 seconds of time.

[roguefrog]

Nice Quillithe! I like your Endless Canyon bypass without using the knowledge from it's own forbidden archive. Excellent catch.

Yeah, and it's total true. Incidentally all three areas optimal bypasses map to their respective forbidden knowledge learned in their own archives. So naturally hindsight is 20/20.

[roguefrog]

Songbird, I lost you at watching the glitch reel before the loop ends. Or did you just mean the forbidden archive reels?

I did considered some parkour skips but they are sort of way beyond simplicity and more in the realm of hardcore speedrunners.

[ReverendTed]

Originally posted by roguefrog:

Songbird, I lost you at watching the glitch reel before the loop ends. Or did you just mean the forbidden archive reels?

Yeah, each Forbidden Archive has a fully-intact Lore reel and a Glitch reel (plus a bonus reel in Starlight Gorge).

[roguefrog]

Since you were just using made up terms like "Glitch reel" it didn't make any sense, but now I know what you mean.