Rules you should know
To get here, you need to have cleared the Volcanic Cavern (and all the worlds necessary to open that one). I won’t assume you’ve cleared more than that but you should know all the rules so far, including:
Group (Cavern 5, 6, 9)
Facing (Cavern 11-13)
Mountaintop
Well, it’s the only one left.
It’s also the smallest world.
Here it is, the final world of the main game. There are only 9 levels total, and you need to complete 6 to clear it. It only teaches one new concept - Lonely.
I’d say clear whichever levels you can. If you solve a couple levels you’ll know enough about Lonely to get through the endgame.
Remember that hints are invisible until the text is highlighted. Bold text discusses the rules. Italic text discusses all objects of the named type. Regular text discusses the actual instances. Text “in quotes” refers to the actual text in the level.
Stuck elsewhere? Navigate using the following pictures:
Mountain 01: Shuffle
Difficulty: *
About the Level
New material: connecting word Lonely
How does Lonely function in a sentence? Try escaping the pen. What happens? Where exactly does this go wrong? What does that tell you about Lonely?
Hints
Gentle Nudge: Honestly, there's only one thing you can do here... so you should do it.
Mountain 02: Love At First Sight
Difficulty: **
About the Level
New material: noun Bird
It should be obvious what the Bird is.
Hints
Gentle Nudge: What do you think the win state will look like? Are you sure Flag will be Win?
Bigger Nudge: How many things can you get across the rubble? What are all the ways you can use these things?
Mountain 03: Solitude
Difficulty: ***
Hints
Gentle Nudge: Which is more likely, getting the Key to the Box or getting the Box to the Key?
Bigger Nudge: Why is there a Skull instead of an empty space? Why is there a Skull instead of another wall?
Mountain 04: What Is Baba?
Difficulty: **
Hints
Gentle Nudge: How many times can you change Baba's movement? Where should you do that?
Mountain 05: Connector
Difficulty: ****
About the Level
New material: noun Sun
Hints
Gentle Nudge: The Sun cannot be moved. How will you get rid of it?
Bigger Nudge: How will you arrange the rules needed to get rid of the Sun? Where will you arrange them?
Even Bigger Nudge: There are two sets of individual Walls, each with its own arrangement. Why is this?
Specific Hint: Usually once you set up your rules, any movement at all will break the rules due to the Lonely "Is" piece. Can you make an arrangement that will not immediately break?
Mountain 06: Floaty Platforms
Difficulty: **
About the Level
The way this level is designed, it’s easy to imagine you’re on platforms suspended in air, and if you walk off the Tile, you’re falling to your death. That’s what it looks like, but that’s not what’s really happening. Sure, that assumption won’t prevent you from solving this puzzle, but it will come back to bite you in another level.
Hints
Gentle Nudge: How many spaces do you need to fill to get both Babas to the lower platforms? How many spaces are between the left and right sides?
Bigger Nudge: How many pieces you do have on the top half (not including the two Babas)?
Another Big Nudge: Remember that Key is Push and Door is Push.
Mountain 07: Seeking Acceptance
Difficulty: *****
About the Level
New-ish material: Rubble
We’ve seen Rubble in the other levels, but this is the first time it has an attached rule.
Hints
Gentle Nudge: Getting out of the starting area requires that one piece of Text be pushed against the far right Wall. Is it still possible to use every single piece of Text?
Bigger Nudge: Why do you suppose there's two columns of tile - a left side and a right side?
Specific Hint: You need the Bird at the start to break up Lonely Baba is Tile, but what other purpose will the Bird serve at the end of the level?
Mountain 08: Tectonic Movements
Difficulty: ****
About the Level
I’m just here to tell you this level feels like something out of Chip’s Challenge.
Hints
Gentle Nudge: There are four entrances into that central area from the start. Each has one use. What order will you use them?
Bigger Nudge: Look at the room with "Flag." How will you approach and leave this room?
Speicific Hint: Why do you have access to the phrase "Pillar is Push"? How many times will you amend this rule?
Mountain Extra 1: The Floatiest Platforms
Difficulty: *****
About the Level
Remember Mountain 06? Remember how I told you not to make an assumption about it? That’s because the assumption will prevent you from realizing the solution to this level.
Hints
Gentle Nudge: What exactly has changed from Mountain 06 to this level?
Bigger Nudge: What are the exact conditions that kill Baba? Can anything be done about that?
Specific Hint: Doesn't everything feel a little claustrophobic?
World Complete
That’s the final world of the main game. If this is your seventh world cleared, you’ll unlock the final gate to the top area of the overworld. It’s not necessary to go there to finish the game, but chances are, if you’ve gotten this far, you’ve already finished the final level and you’re looking for endgame content. Make sure you have at least gone to every single world so far and learned all the rules before attempting to find the endgame. If you’ve been following this guide so far, you are ready. The next post will detail the normal ending and the normal solutions to the rest of the overworld, but after that I’ll get into the endgame.
In the meantime, do these hints work? Anything spoil too much? Do the hints actually help or are they too vague? Maybe you thought of a really good hint yourself? Send them to me. (Don’t comment them below.) You can find me @keyofw on Twitter or keyofw on Reddit. DM me anytime.