After having actually managed to download Braid, I’m really enjoying it. But when I got really stuck on one of the puzzles in world 2 and looked up an online walkthrough, I found that the official Braid guide says

Some of the puzzles will be hard. But when you manage to solve those hard puzzles, you will feel very good about it. The game will feel very rewarding. Don’t rob yourself of that feeling by reading a walkthrough!

So I felt bad about having cheated on the final part of “The Cloud Bridge”, but I’m determined to figure the rest out myself, even though I’m currently totally stuck on two different puzzle pieces.

What I’m wishing I could find for these are not walkthroughs but hints. Something to edge me in the right direction without giving anything away. Even then, I’d only look at the hints for the ones I’m truly stuck on. But I couldn’t find any non-spoiler hints anywhere. So I’ve decided to create a non-spoiler hint guide for Braid. In the places where I’m giving hints that might border on spoiling something, I’ll print it in hard-to-read text that you’ve got to highlight to see well. Today, I’ll be going through world 2.

I urge you to only read the hints on levels where you’re completely stuck. As the official guide says, once you read a spoiler, you can never un-read it.

World 2: Time and Forgiveness

Three Easy Pieces
This level has three puzzle pieces. The first two are so simple as to require no hints. For the third, keep in mind that as it says in the instructions, the only way to get higher is by jumping on a monster. Take a look: there are more than one monster here.

The Cloud Bridge
This is where the difficulty begins to ramp up a bit. The first two pieces on this level are very easy, but I found the second two to be surprisingly hard. This is because the solution requires some totally out-of-the-box thinking. The best non-spoiler hint I can give here is that you’ll need to interact with the puzzle to get those last two pieces. Try jumping at the puzzle.

Hunt!
The one puzzle piece on this level is relatively straightforward to get. If you’re reading this guide and think you’re honestly stuck on this one, I urge you to go back and try more before reading further. But if you honestly can’t figure this one out, keep in mind that the monsters are like trampolines. If you jump from higher up, you’ll bounce further.

Leap of Faith
The final level on world 2 has four puzzle pieces, all easy. I’ll give a number of bulleted hints here, and I urge you to only look at one at a time.

• As it says in the game’s instructions, the way to get higher is by jumping on monsters.
• Looking at the fuses on the cannons helps you determine when they’ll fire.
• Those cannons launch the monsters. They actually catch some air coming out.
• The title “Leap of Faith” should be a hint in itself.

That’s all for world 2. I’ll write up a hint guide for world 3 soon.