Contrast - Act I Walkthrough

A thorough and detailed walkthrough of Act I in the game Contrast. Includes all achievements and collectables.

Introduction

Whether you're stuck on a puzzle, trying to finish the achievements, or for any other reason of the like, you've made it here to this walkthrough. And for that I must thank you.

In this walkthrough, we will cover the following:
*Main Story of Act I + Puzzles
*Collectable Locations
*Illuminaries + Their Locations + Their Puzzles


Lots of these puzzles can get pretty confusing, and also very frustrating, so if you don't get it the first time that is okay!

Before you continue, I strongly recommend that you play Contrast through at least once without using a walkthrough. Carry on.

Act I

You are Dawn, Didi's imaginary friend. She relies on you for many things, such as company when her mother goes out to sing, or in this case (and most cases) physical obstacles. The first thing you will want to do is pick up the first collectable, Didi's drawing of her family, on the chair on the right side of the room. Then turn around and turn out the light to initiate the first cutscene.


After her mother leaves, Didi will want to sneak out of her house through the window (how did it even get open?), but is unable to do so alone because someone moved the cart she usually lands in. This leads you to your first puzzle! Use your new ability to warp into the shadows, and travel across the line to the balcony. Then warp out of the shadows, go down the stairwell, and push the ash cart as close as you can to the wall so Didi can jump into it. After she makes it down, proceed to follow her.


This leads to puzzle two! Apparently Dawn is too big to go the way Didi is going, despite the fact that she is a toothpick, and must find another way. Use the shadow Didi created with the carts to make your way up to a ledge. You will warp out of the shadows automatically. Getting back into the shadows will require that you jump and click at the same time. When you successfully do this, proceed up the shadows until you make it to the balcony. Straight ahead is your first Luminary, a collectable that is also vital to the game. Simply walk through this to collect it.


Go down the stairwell, and turn right immediately after. There will be your second collectable, Kat Knight Premiering at the Ghost Note, by the group of tables.


There will also be an optional puzzle to collect a second Luminary if you turn left after collecting Kat's poster. You will want to jump into the shadows behind the bicycle leaning against a trash can. Walk up the shadow until you get to the rotating peddles. Get on top of one, and use it to hop onto the light post shadow and then the balcony to collect your second Luminary. You can then jump off the balcony and continue walking down the street.


Before you head to the Ghost Note to meet up with Didi, there is another collectable. Turn right towards a store called Pompeii and The Plump, and your second collectable, Carmine Bruni Acquitted of Murder for the Second Time, should be on a table.

Continue to the Ghost Note.

Upon entering the Ghost Note, Didi will reveal that you are an acrobat. Interesting! But more importantly, Didi's mother named Kat is asking you to put on the spotlights. You will need to turn on the power before anything, and that is to your right. Next you will need to angle the spotlights. The first two are on the ground floor. One is on your left and one is on your right. You will need to shine them until they focus on a member of the band. To get to the third spotlight on the second floor, you will need to use one of the band member's shadows, but it does not matter which (I usually prefer the man playing the saxophone on the left). Before you shine the spotlight, keep walking around the top floor until you find the collectable, Department of Child Services Notice, on the table by the pictures. Then proceed to fix and aim the third spotlight. This will initiate a cutscene.


After Kat sings, go through the glowing doorway to eavesdrop on her and the man. You then find out that this man is Johnny, who is also Didi's father. Didi will want to run after him, but before you leave the Ghost Note, you need to travel down the stairway and down the hallway beside it to pick up another collectable, Check from Johnny Fenris to Kat Knight: Insufficient Funds. If you want to get all collectables you need to make sure you do this, because after you leave the Ghost Note with Didi the door will shut behind you making it impossible to retrieve the collectable after this point. After you collect this, you can now leave the Ghost Note.



Travel down the path until you reach the gate with Didi. The gate will open, but before you approach Didi by the fence with caution tape, you will want to do some roaming around first. The first thing you will want to do is attempt to enter the store titled Dirty XXX. This is directly to your right when you exit the gate. Walk as close as you can towards its door, and you will get the achievement "Not That Kind of Game!". Keep walking towards your right and walk through the floating figure to start up a shadow. Maneuvering through this puzzle will not only get you the Luminary, but it will get you an achievement as well.


To get through this puzzle, you will need to jump onto Didi's knees, then on top of her head, and when her mother reaches out her arm you will need to jump onto it and travel as far as you can, and then cast out of the shadows and onto the balcony with the Luminary.

Once you are on the balcony, do not jump off back into the streets! Instead, jump towards the area I've shown in the picture, beyond the gates and onto the stone stairs. Travel up the stairs and into the room. Activate the power box on the wall, and you will get the achievement "To The Heroes Among Us". You can now leave this area and head towards Didi.


Once you get your new ability, break through the fence. Didi will run through the alley, but do not go after her yet. Go back to the area where you activated the shadow for the Luminary and the achievement. Directly behind the floating object, there should be a similar looking fence with a Luminary behind it. Break through it with your new ability to collect the Luminary. You can now go back to Didi and enter the bar.

Keep walking inside the bar until the cutscene initiates.

After the cutscene, and before you start messing with the shadows, snatch up the collectable, World's Fair Poster: Featuring The Great Vincenzo, off the table in the back corner.

Act I - cont'd

(there is apparently a character limit on sections, my apologies for the interruption)

Then, head over and maneuver the cart until your shadow looks somewhat similar to this.

Go into the shadows, hop up until you reach the railing shadow and you're on the second story of the bar, and then warp out. Then exit the bar through the doorway and take a right onto the metal path and stairway. Go up the first set of stairs, but do not bother going up the second. Use your shadow abilities to make it across the wall and onto the other path and stairway. There is also a Luminary, which means you should now have 5/10. Then enter the bar again, and go into the manager's office. Here you will find three objects, the film reel which you need to collect for Johnny, a collectable Newspaper Article, and a Luminary (6/10 now).


Head back outside and jump off the path. Break through the wooden fence with your ability, and follow Didi. The light is broken where you need to cross over, so you need to insert three Luminaries. Once the light is finally working, there are two achievements associated with crossing over. "My God, It's Full Of Stars!", is when you fall when trying to cross over. "Now That's Thinking With The Shadows" is when you make it over during your first attempt. I have yet to get this one because I suck, but I'm sure you'll get it! On Plasma SKX's All In One guide, he states that you can get both of these achievements in the same playthrough. You have to fall first, and then be sure to make it on your second try and you will have both achievements. I can not confirm this though because like I said I have never gotten the success achievement.
After you've put the three Luminaries in the broken light, Didi will guide it around you so you can travel with shadows over the gap. What you will need to do to make it over this gap is warp into the shadows and when the signs seperate in the middle, you will need to warp out of the shadows and jump at the same time so you can make it over, and as soon as you make it to the second sign, warp back into the shadows. Once you make it over, Didi needs help getting over. On the back of the sign, you can use your ability to smash through the wood supporters. The sign will then fall, and Didi can make it over.

Follow Didi across the fallen sign, and to the cinema. Before you enter, get the collectable taped to the front of the ticket booth, Due to change in management, we are currently closed for business. Then proceed to enter the theater.

Once again, Didi can fit in something that you can't, and you have to find your own way. You need to arrange the cardboard cut out people to where they look like this.

You need to jump on the woman's dress' tail, and then onto the creepy man's arm, onto his head and onto the large man's arm. Then jump onto his hat and onto the second floor of the theater.

When you make it onto the second story, there is a collectable on a table (Prison Release: Johnny A. Fenris, Crime: Passing Bad Checks)

To make it into the room, you will need to warp into the shadows right by the table you got the prison release from, and travel through the window. Then warp out of the shadow.
After the cutscene, the two gangsters will start beating up Johnny, and you have to do the same window trick to get into the room with the projector. Turn on the projector, and they will stop beating him up.
Something I've noticed is that it doesn't matter how quick you are in turning on the film, Johnny will always get his finger broken.
The gangsters will then talk about seeing Kat, and they exit the building. Didi is scared and she runs out of the building, forcing you to run after her.

As soon as you exit the cinema, there is an optional puzzle to get a Luminary. There are two umbrellas that you can retract, however to complete this puzzle you only need to retract one, which would be the one furthest to the right. Once you do that, hop onto the shadow that the chair is making, and get on top of the shadow that the chalkboard sign is making, and wait for the umbrella's timer to go off. Then, make your way through the rest of the shadows to get the Luminary. On the second umbrella's shadow, you have to do sort of a double jump. It may look like you're sliding and that you're incapable of jumping again, but really you can and that's the only way you can get on top.


Once you're done with that puzzle, keep going to the right and use your smash ability to break through the wooden fence. Make your way over the fallen sign again and keep going straight down the road. Do not go into The Excelsior Hotel yet, go past it and on the left there should be a floating object to trigger a shadow puzzle. This is for a Luminary. When Kat shows up in the puzzle, you will first need to get to the end of her hair, and jump on her shoes when they get close by, use her shoes to take you across, and then jump over to the balcony to get the Luminary.

You can now go into The Excelsior Hotel. When you enter, after the cutscene is over, turn around and get the collectable off the table. (Johnny's $20 Debt.)

Then head towards the elevator. You're going to want to take the cart with suitcases and push it into the left elevator.

Then, climb on top of the elevator and climb onto the second floor. Go to the elevator and push the button. Go to the opposite side of the room and there should be two levers to control the height of two different lights. Make them look like this, and hop onto the third floor using your shadow abilities.


While you are on the third floor, go past the alarm and the elevator and make your way to the other side. There should be an open door and a staircase inside, and the 9th Luminary should be at the bottom. This staircase is also important because if you mess up you can use this to go back instead of using shadows.


Now, go back to the third floor, and push the elevator button. This will give you more time when you have to push the alarm. When you push the alarm, you need to go straight forward towards the shadows and warp into the shadow when it comes so you can get a ride up the wall and go to the light fixture on the actual wall. There is a Luminary here, which makes 10/10 for Act I.


When you get to the top, go straight forward into the room and break your way through two wooden doorways. You will now be outside on a metal pathway. Make your way around it and jump onto the wooden platforms, but they will begin to fall and you will need to immediately warp into the shadows.

During this scene, you need to walk on to Kat's shoe, and let her take you up to the chair. You then need to get on top of her cigarette and when she picks it up and smokes it, jump on her head and then Johnny will reach to grab her shoulder. Run across Johnny's arm and jump onto his head, and then hop off in front of the door and unlock the door for Didi.

Act II & Act III Coming Soon!

So I hope this helped some of you having trouble with the puzzles, finding collectables and the Luminaries. I am in the process of making Act II and Act III walkthroughs.

If you need some more ellaboration or a bit more detail about any part of Act I, do not be afraid to ask.

Feedback is really appreciated because this is my first guide.

Thanks everyone. :)

[profkaos]

thank you!

[IbukiNeo]

I can confirm about the two achievements 'Now that's Thinking Woth Shadows' and 'My God, It's full of Stars!'
Fall of first and respawn, I then reset check point which took me back to the managers office after I picked up the film reel. Go back and complete it without dying and the other achievement will pop up!!

Great and useful guide, would recommend myself!

[UncleJazz]

aww, no act II

[Phil-is-Offi-Cool]

Wow, this was great!! Thanks alot!