How to beat the Game™

A more or less detailed guide to Solitude Underwater, describing each part of the game and how to beat it.

Part 0 — The Boat

After entering the game, you start out on a boat as Zane, talking to Dominic using a Walkie Talkie.

To beat this part, walk up to the cabin door and press 'E'. However, you do get achievements for f-ing around with the objects on the boat (shotgun, gold coins, etc.) and talking to Dominic 6 times (any more and he'll scream at you to stop annoying him).

For more info on the achievements, check out my other guide here:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2897649540

Part 1 — In The Cage

1.0 Info

The Cage has four sides (duh).

• The one with the O² canister right next to it and with the Gray Shark outside is considered the "front" side.
  
• The one where the Green Shark lingers is considered the "left" side.
  
• The one you cut and escape from later is considered the "right" side.
  
• The one you push to reach the Cutter is considered the "back" side.

1.1 Pushing the Cage

Your objective is to get the Cage over to the Laser Cutter you lost when the Cage dropped to the ocean floor. You do this by

• pushing the back side of the Cage,
  
• rattling the Cage when the Green Shark is attempting to get inside,
  
• shining your phone's flashlight at the Gray Shark periodically (there are sound cues, but they sometimes seem to play randomly),
  
• breathing from the O² canister in the Cage to... not drown.

The game is quite forgiving in this stage, so even if the Gray Shark isn't there once or twice when you shine your flashlight in its direction, you shouldn't immediately die.
Dev response: the sound cues don't play randomly. I did, of course, realize their meaning, but they play not only for the Gray Shark, but for the Green Shark as well and that thought didn't even cross my mind. The sound cue plays

• when the Gray Shark comes closer,
  
• when the Gray Shark is at the cage (ready to be flashed),
  
• when the Green Shark moves to the left side of the cage,
  
• when the Green Shark is just about to attack.

Get into a rhythm of pushing and breathing from the canister. Tend to the Green Shark whenever you hear/see it by walking to the front-left corner of the Cage and spamming 'E'.

Whenever you stop doing something and start doing something else, quickly tap 'F' twice in the direction of the Gray Shark. Don't leave the flashlight on for any longer, you really don't have the power for that (for this part, aim for 6% usage at max).

While you're pushing, you're faced with badly programmed DBD-esque skill checks. You lose some O² for every one you fail... which is maybe not as bad as the devs thought it'd be. To pass them, listen for the sound cue and get ready to VERY quickly tap and instantly release 'Space' when the needle passes over the highlighted areas. As mentioned, if you miss one or hold 'Space' for too long (because then, your press is counted as multiple inputs), you lose some O² and the skill check ends.
@Dev response: I'm so sorry, mate xd Didn't mean to insult the skill checks that badly and I know the struggle of being a one-man army.

Warning! When you let go of 'E' to stop pushing at the same time you hear a skill check sound cue, the skill check still triggers, just like in DBD. If you mess it up on the way to the O² canister, for example, you could die two steps away from it. Try to breathe right after a skill check to avoid this.

1.2 Cutting yourself free from the Cage

Your objective is to escape from the Cage using the Laser Cutter you just reached. You do this by

• cutting the Cage in three parts at a specific location in the Cage,
  
• rattling the Cage when the Green Shark is attempting to get inside,
  
• shining your phone's flashlight at the Gray Shark periodically (there are sound cues, but they sometimes seem to play randomly),
  
• breathing from the O² canister in the Cage to... not drown.

Basically, instructions are the same as before. Walk up to the front-right corner of the Cage and enter the Laser Cutter view. Now click and hold one of the red flame symbols to begin cutting that part of the Cage. The shark and breathing objectives remain unchanged (which is precisely why we saved half the phone battery for this part. If you don't mess around, 4% should also be enough... just barely).

Part 2 — Ascent

2.0 Info

• Starting the ascent immediately when the sequence starts and not paying attention to the sharks, you die to the Gray Shark anywhere between the 10th and 16th time you hear Zane swim farther up.
  
• Doing nothing but shining your flashlight in front of and behind you, you die to the Gray Shark after anywhere between 16 and 20 seconds.
  
• You have exactly 60 seconds of air. Yes, amounts of a gas are measured in seconds :)
  
• To reach the surface, you have to hear the entirety of one of Zane's upwards movements 30 times. You are left with around 5-10 seconds of air if you make no mistakes balancing fending off sharks and ascending.

2.1 The Ascent

Your objective is to ascend back to the surface while not dying to the sharks. You do this by

• holding 'Space' to swim upwards (in turn preventing you from shining your flashlight or looking around),
  
• looking behind you using 'S' and shining your flashlight at the Green Shark^ in the center of the screen,
  
• looking in front of you and shining your flashlight at the Gray Shark^ (which approaches from any side of the screen, rarely dead-center like the Green Shark, however^^).

^The flashlight objectives are to be treated as if you had limited power, even though you don't. Unnecessarily shining your flashlight aggravates the sharks in this part of the game, making them approach more frequently.
^^The Gray Shark almost always hides in one of the corners of your screen. Move your mouse in a circle when trying to fend off the Gray Shark and make sure to check every last inch of your screen.

Get into a rhythm of swimming upwards for 5 movement sounds' worth of distance, then finding BOTH sharks and scaring them off.
The Green Shark is again very passive, making it almost impossible to die to it. As mentioned, the Gray Shark hides anywhere on your screen, usually far from the center of your view, making it a far bigger threat.

Even if after 5 upwards movements you can only fend off the Green Shark, don't go on. The Gray Shark may still be hiding somewhere or is just about to spawn.

Note: a little trick to make your life easier: having the flashlight on and tapping 'S', then continuing your ascent ('Space'), sometimes gets your flashlight stuck permanently on until you stop ascending and click again. Move your mouse to the top of your screen and move it left and right. If you're lucky, you'll get the usual screen effects of fending off a shark, meaning the Gray Shark was approaching from the top of your screen and the stuck-on flashlight happened to scare him off.
You now have the choice of risking it with the Green Shark and continuing for the usual 5 upwards movements or seeing if you can scare it away as well.

Part 3 — Swimming back to the Boat

Your objective is to swim back to the Boat to Dominic after reaching the ocean surface. You do this by

• swimming towards the Boat by holding 'W' (and 'Shift' whenever possible),
  
• dodging approaching sharks using 'Q' and 'E' appropriately.

Should be obvious, but stopping for too long gets you eaten without warning.
What's not so obvious, even if you constantly swim, but aren't holding 'Shift' whenever possible, you also get eaten without warning.

As you're swimming, you will periodically hear sound cues to warn you of an approaching shark from the left or right. To not die to that shark, dodge in the opposite direction using 'Q' and 'E' appropriately.

If you just dodged a shark and have now depleted your stamina, just dodge back in the opposite direction. I don't know if this actually does anything to help, but it felt like it did :)

Multiple warnings:

• There is a cooldown right after dodging. If you don't feel very safe dodging unnecessarily, just keep going and listen for the sound cues as usual and only dodge when you have to.
  
• Never, ever, fully deplete your stamina. It permanently stops regenerating, which almost guarantees your death.
  
• Don't pause your game during this part. It feels like it's not "fully" paused sometimes and you die instantly after unpausing, as if the shark had caught up to you because you stopped swimming. If you have to leave or take a break, just get killed. This part is only a minute or two long and redoing it won't kill you. The sharks'll do that for you :)

Part 4 — On the Boat

4.0 Info

Back on the Boat, Dominic turns the light off on you and ambushes you with the shotgun. After his long-overdue monolog, you have to play the most horrible minigame in the history of mankind.

4.1 Ambush

Your objective is to not die to Dominic's initial ambush. You do this by pressing 'E' at the right time to dodge his shotgun blast. Just spam 'E' after interacting with the door and you're done.

4.2 Minigame

Your objective is to win the close-up struggle for the shotgun against Dominic. You do this by

• constantly spamming 'Space',
  
• passing the same DBD-esque skill checks you were faced with while pushing the Cage, except now with W, A and D, possibly all at once,
  
• dodging Dominic's punches using 'Q' and 'E' appropriately.

Here's the big "but". The entire minigame is more or less a big Funny™.
You see, the joke is... if you're able to spam 'Space' fast enough, nothing else of this minigame matters because you win solely based on how much you're able to resist Dominic. Failing skill checks and not dodging his punches only set your progress back a small amount, they don't prevent you from making progress.
Just based on that, I'd say use a tool such as Auto Key Clicker[sourceforge.net] or program your own to spam 'Space' as fast as possible (if you're using AKC, an interval of 10ms works perfectly).
You should still be wary of his punches, however, because the progress penalty incurred for not dodging one of them is rather big, actually.
Dev response: Spamming 'Space' is not what progresses the fight, it stabilizes the progress bar. Failing skill checks do not set you back, they are the only thing progressing this scene and failing them causes you to stop gaining progress. I did get Dominic's punches right, however, and dodging them is more or less mandatory to win the fight, as I described.

If you're a purist (or sadist, I dunno) and want to win this fair-and-square... well...

• Learn to coordinate your left hand to passing up to three skill checks at once. There's no "trick" to this, just keep practicing. On that note, the skill checks are the only place where you should be looking. Looking anywhere else will make you fail them.
  
• Recognize when and on which side Dominic is about to punch you and schedule pressing the appropriate button to dodge in your brain.
  
• All while doing this, use your left thumb (very not recommended) or entire right hand to spam 'Space' as fast as you possibly can.

Then there's the compromise: concentrate on dodging punches and spamming 'Space' yourself while ignoring skill checks. Technically viable, but almost impossible. The speed at which you need to spam 'Space' to counter all the progress you lose to failed skill checks is inhuman.

4.3 Dominic held at gunpoint

After winning the 4.2 minigame, you're holding the shotgun and aiming at Dominic. He'll try to talk you out of shooting him. If you let him succeed, he will stab you and you lose anyway. For the love of all things holy, don't do this. You'll have to play the 4.2 minigame again. All the way through.

Just press 'Space' while the game gives you the option to do so.
Then enter the cabin, turn on the lights and press 'E' again on the dashboard to end the game.

Differences in Hardcore

Considering how the entire game works, the differences in Hardcode mode should be pretty obvious, but here's a rundown:

Outside of normal gameplay

First, there is no intro sequence. Instead of on the Boat with Dominic, you start off stranded on the ocean floor and have to push the Cage immediately.

Second, there is no tutorial (which is technically separate from the intro sequence). The game does not give you the option to play or skip it, you immediately have to fend off the sharks and keep your lungs filled with fresh a-... canned air.

Part 1 — In The Cage

For both sections in this part, both sharks are just a lot more aggressive. Instead of only when switching what you're doing, you'll now have to stop after just a few seconds and flash the Gray Shark.

On that note, you're better off flashing in its direction too much rather than too little, for... obvious reasons. Green Shark is still only a threat when it announces itself by trying to get into the Cage and dealing with it doesn't change at all.
Flash Gray Shark before you start and after you stop doing anything, and when you hear the sound cues. You'll be hearing them constantly, but they do correspond to Gray Shark activity. Better safe than sorry.

Part 2 — Ascent

As you might've guessed, the same applies to the Ascent part.
Instead of swimming upwards for 5 movement sounds' worth of distance, only go for 3 at most, then find the Gray Shark as it will almost certainly be somewhere after 3 upwards movements.

A strategy that worked well for me was flashing Gray Shark after every 3 upwards movements, and Green Shark after every 6. If Gray Shark was not there after 3, go for one more, then flash both. Repeat.

Part 3 — Swimming back to the Boat

First, the key difference is that your stamina drains twice as fast compared to Normal mode. You really have to watch your stamina bar now, even more so than in Normal mode, because again, once you're exhausted, you're basically already dead. The joke is, however, it also refills twice as fast, meaning you still spend the same amount of time swimming quickly in the end.

Second, I obviously have no proof of this, but it feels like the game keeps track of how long you take to respond to the sound cue of a shark approaching and kills you once that sums up to some amount.
Dev response: The timer that causes a shark to spawn is reset whenever you successfully dodge the previous one. It has nothing to do with how long you take to respond to the sound cue... which means I'm just trash :) (he didn't say that but it's the only logical consequence)

Third, once you cross the halfway point, the thunderstorm starts. On Hardcore, this actually matters because it will somewhat mask the sound of a different approaching shark. Not responding to this one correctly also kills you, obviously.

Also, ignore my trick with dodging back. It will almost certainly kill you because of the cooldown.

Part 4 — On the Boat

As for evading Dominic's ambush, nothing changes.

And I mean... it's unnecessary to say that the struggle for the shotgun against Dominic is a lot more taxing now and, probably even worse, takes a lot longer while requiring greater effort. The key difference is that all progress penalties incurred are bigger, meaning even if you're using a key spammer like I suggested, it'll take almost twice as long to complete the minigame.
Additionally, Dominic tries to punch you a lot more frequently.
The only light at the end of the tunnel is that the speed or frequency of the skill checks hasn't increased. At least not noticeably.

Conclusion

More nerve-wrecking than Normal mode obviously, but not even necessarily more difficult as none of the game's mechanics change. You just have to pay a little bit more attention to your rhythm. Fall out of it and you die, it's really that easy.

Final words / Dev message (updated)

Credits roll as you "sail off into the sunset"...

Have fun dying!
Thanks for reading and thanks for playing on behalf of the Devs, I suppose :)

P.S. Beating the game once unlocks Hardcore mode. Have fun dying even more :)

@Dev:
Should the Dev read this...
I found your game on Insym's YouTube and was instantly hooked (hehe get it because... yeah no).
The game was a ton of fun to play and especially to experiment with and understand. Hardcore mode also amps it up quite a bit.

Only thing I'd change would be the skill checks, they're absolutely horrible kinda bad :). Failing them instantly because the game doesn't filter for repeated/held inputs gets frustrating reeeaaaallly quickly, especially on Hardcore while fighting Dominic "by hand" (without having software spam 'Space').

Otherwise... good game, well done :) And thanks for taking the time to read this.
If there's any details I got wrong, please let me know and I'll update the guide.

@Dev:
I'm gonna be honest, I didn't expect you to actually read this and then take the time and effort to respond <3 Thanks for correcting some of the stuff I got wrong.
And thank you for the game!

[MaxAkt]

(read from last to recent :>)

(PS It TOOK ME 2 WEEKS TO DO THE SKILLCHECKS, but yeah I couldn't think on how to make them better... They are not great but it is what it is. I am a one man army after all... The hole game (programming, design, some animations, SFXs) was made by me. :))

[MaxAkt]

3) "if you're able to spam 'Space' fast enough, nothing else of this minigame matters because you win solely based on how much you're able to resist Dominic. Failing skill checks and not dodging his punches only set your progress back a small amount, they don't prevent you from making progress."

-Again my fault of the lack of explanation in the mechanics of the game. Pressing Space DOESN'T make you stronger than Dominic it actually just stabilizes the bar in place (maybe it makes you just a tad stronger) but there is a cap on how fast you press the space bar soo you don't have to break your arm as most people did to do it xD. The skill checks are the one progressing the bar if you successfully do them you don't lose progress by missing them. The only thing messing with you is Dominic hitting you. The original strat in playtesting was prioritize dodging and whenever you can hit the skill checks

[MaxAkt]

2)"shining your phone's flashlight at the Gray Shark periodically (there are sound cues, but they sometimes seem to play randomly)"

-That is incorrect but I do not blame you for this one since no one realized. The "swoosh" sound cue is played whenever a shark moves but that includes the green shark as well... Even though it doesn't really matter for defeating him. (for the green shark it plays whenever he appears on the left and before he attacks)

[MaxAkt]

wow Guide!! Thanks for writing all this! :DD I read everything! You are pretty much spot on on how the game works! But I d like to give some info to make your guide even better ;).

1) "I obviously have no proof of this, but it feels like the game keeps track of how long you take to respond to the sound cue of a shark approaching and kills you once that sums up to some amount."

-Nope the timer is set every time either it is from the left or the right it is the same amount of time every time :))