It took me three evenings to finish Limbo, and I’m glad to say that I did it with no walkthrough and no hints. In fact, I plan to get all the game’s trophies with the exception of that one that would have you complete the game in one sitting with five or less deaths. That’s crazy talk. During my second playthrough when I’d died more then ten times before chapter ten, I realized that making it through the entire game with five or less deaths was just not gonna happen. There’s also a hidden level that has you jump over a bandsaw in pitch darkness so that there’s no way to know where to actually jump. Not sure if I’ll finish that hidden level. But the main game I’ve completed.

So this is the third and final article full of Limbo hints. Once again, this is not a walkthrough. If you want walkthroughs, get ye forth to YouTube. You’ll find many. But playing without walkthroughs is such a rewarding experience, and you will enjoy the game more. But… for those times when you’re absolutely stuck, I bring you hints. Not solutions, just gentle nudges that may help you figure out the solution without walking you step-by-step through every little thing you need to do.

Something else I’ve just figured out: I think the chapters in the XBox version of the game and the Playstation 3 version of the game are numbered diferrently. I’ll bet they added more checkpoints (chapters) to the Playstation version. That said, since there are no actual numbers applies to the chapters, the numbering may be really confusing. I’ve named the chapters so that you can go by the descriptions of the elements within each chapter rather than counting white blocks.

That said, here are a few brief hints.

Chapter 20: Twin Cannons
Notice that the top cannon moves
It can destroy more than just you

Chapter 21: The Slow-Sliding Block and the Elevator
At the beginning of the level, you will have to use the same technique more than once. Probably more than twice.
You need two boxes to climb the sliding platform.

Chapter 22: Giant Blocks and the Zipline
Note what all the controls are doing
Momentum is helpful in slowing its reversal

Chapter 23: Spelunking Neon
Timing is key. You’ll have to jump _before_ it’s safe.
It’s going to take more than one press of the switch to get that block where you need it.

Chapter 24: Sawblades and Anti-Gravity
Timing is critical. Jump an instant before gravity reverses.

Here’s the second part of the Lungfishopolis Limbo hints extravaganza. Remember – this is not a walkthrough. If you want walkthroughs, there are plenty on YouTube. But I urge you *not* to use walkthroughs. Limbo’s puzzles can be very challenging, but if you can suck it up and just spend some time and experiment, you can figure them out. And it’s very rewarding – you’ll enjoy the game more. But for when you’re absolutely stuck, I bring you hints. Not solutions, just gentle nudges that may help you figure out the solution without handing it to you outright. Unlike part one of our hints, this article covers every chapter, since the puzzles get a bit harder as the game progresses.

Chapter 10: The Flood
That broken box doesn’t need to float any higher.
Look closely at the water levels, and look at what the levers do to change the water levels. Think Archimedes.

Chapter 11: The Parasite
Sunlight burns the parasite and makes you change directions.
The rising water will cause floating objects to move upwards.

Chapter 12: The Hotel
You can see when the electricity is on and when it’s off. Watch the letter H.
The glass is breakable.

Chapter 13: The Bandsaw
You can control your speed when under the influence of a parasite. Slow down and look around.
Notice the handle on the end of that platform.

Chapter 14: The Elevator
You do need that box.
Notice the handle at the bottom of the elevator.

Chapter 15: The Fly
You’ve got an analog stick. Use it.
Be sneaky.

Chapter 16: The Gear
You need two boxes to get up there.
Set that rope to swinging before you jump on.

Chapter 17: The Machine
Pay attention to exactly what the magnet does.
You’ll just have to wait while things move.

Chapter 18: The Factory
You’re safe while you’re hanging on the edge.

Chapter 19: Minecart Ride
The gears take some time to reverse directions. Use this to your advantage.
Make sure the minecart is still rolling a bit uphill when you jump off it.

Because I don’t have an XBox, I don’t have access to XBLA games until they’re released on other platforms. This is why I never got to try Braid until it was released on Steam. When I eventually got access to the game through Steam, I found out just how hard its puzzles really were, and I was eventually forced to look up walkthroughs, and found this. It was that page that motivated me to create the Braid Hints pages that I posted on this site back in 2009. Those pages continue to be the most popular posts on this site. So now that Limbo has finally come out on PSN and I’ve been able to play, I find it apropos to write up some Limbo Hints.
This isn’t a walkthrough – I’m not going to provide hints on each and every level. If you’re interested in walkthroughs, there are plenty on YouTube. but I’d urge you not to use walkthroughs. The game’s puzzles are sometimes very challenging, but if you can suck it up and just spend some time and experiment, you’re likely to figure them out. And it’s very rewarding – you’ll enjoy the game more.

But for those times when you’re absolutely stuck, when you’ve spent a half hour and more than two game sessions trying to figure out what the hell to do on this or that damn puzzle and you’re at your wits end… I bring you hints. Not solutions, just gentle nudges that may help you figure out the solution without handing it to you outright.

First, a few pointers about the game in general.

• Remember your controls. Aside from the jump button, there’s also a button that lets you pull things. The game doesn’t present you the controls explicitly, so if you haven’t realized that you can pull things, you’ll never get past the first chapter.
• You can swing on ropes as well as climbing them.
• If you can’t get past a certain part and you keep dying, then you’d might as well experiment. Sure, you might get killed, but if you keep dying anyway then what does it matter?
• A couple of Limbo’s toughest puzzles involve waiting. It’s hard to do nothing, and it’s certainly not the first thing you’d think to do, but if it makes sense for the puzzle you’re on, give it a shot.

Okay, now some specifics. I’m not going to cover every chapter, because while there are plenty of parts in the game that may have you scratching your head for a few minutes, there are relatively few that have a chance to hang you up indefinately.

Damn that spider! I can't get near him without being speared like a fish, and he's blocking my progress! There's not much to my left other than an unreachable bear trap in a tree, so what am I supposed to do?

Firstly, that spider isn’t nearly so coordinated as you might think. Try experimenting. Risk dying. Play around while you’re close to him and see what happens. Stop reading right now and go back to the game. Only read the next paragraph if you absolutely need to.

If you’ve gotten your hands on the bear trap, made use of it, and still are stuck, you should note that repetition has value.

What am I supposed to do here? To the left, there's an odd machine with a lever that does nothing. Then there's a ramp that I can get to if I jump hard enough and a frog-looking thing hiding under a ridge. Over to the right there's a hanging rope that I can pull, but it doesn't do much.

As you may have noticed when you first ran up, that frog really wants the glowing stuff growing on the underside of the ramp. Know what I call that? Bait. Stop reading right now and go back to the game. Only read the next paragraph if you absolutely need to.

Impact will knock that crap on down for the frog. From there, it’s all about you mustering whatever speed and timing you can. Good luck.

Come back soon for a second batch of hints on Limbo.

Happy Black Friday!

Sola Rola is a pretty cool little puzzler, very much like those handheld games where you try to roll the ball bearings into their slots. But in space!

Play Sola Rola

This is the fourth part of my series of Braid hints. It’s not a walkthrough, because simply giving the puzzles’ answers would ruin the game. But I got so frustrated at the game that I gave in to temptation and looked online to find answers to a puzzle in both world 2 and world 3, so I’m now providing the spoiler-free hints I wish I’d had access to.

The official walkthrough 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!

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

World 6: Hesitance

World 6 introduces the ring. The ring that slows time. And creates all kinds of freaking difficult puzzles…

The Pit?
There’s actually no puzzle piece here.

There and Back Again
1. (very easy)
No hint.

Phase?
1. (easy)
It might take a bit longer than you like to get there, but two steps forward one step back is still progress.

2. (medium)
Take note that you can climb all the way to the top.

Cascade
1. (medium) – this is the one at the upper left
You’ll need to use the ring, and you’ll need to have some pretty good timing. Thank goodness for the rewind button.

2. (very hard) – this is the one just above the door
There are many many steps involved here, as you’ll notice if you’re manage to get the key. Put the ring in a hard-to-get-to place.

3. (easy)
You’ll need to use the ring here too.

Impassible Foliage
1. (hard)
There are two challenges in getting this puzzle piece. Firstly, getting past the plant. You need to find a way to use the ring to slow it without slowing yourself. Secondly, actually getting to the puzzle piece. If you’re having trouble with this, just enter the level, stand still, and watch what’s going on. You might have to kill a couple monsters while watching, but just watch.

2. (very hard)
To me, this is one of the hardest puzzles in the game. Obviously, bouncing off of one monster doesn’t get you up there. You’ll likely spend a lot of time in trial and error to get two through. It’s tedious. Experiment with different positions for the ring. It’s helpful to remember that you can jump up through certain portions of floor.

Elevator Action
1. (medium)
This is one of my favorite puzzles in the game. The solution is so elegant. I’m really hesitant to give even a hint, since finding the answer is so fun. Getting past the cannons is pretty easy, it’s getting out that’s the trick. I urge you not to read this hint: How can you slow down not just one or two, but all the cannons?

2. (very hard)
This was the last puzzle piece in the game that I ever got. The thing I wish I’d known was that one of those two moving platforms is actually blocking the other one. Knowing this by no means makes the whole thing easy, but it sure helps.

3. (medium)
The trick here is to realize that once you’re on either of the glowing platforms, you’re immune to both rewinding and to the ring’s time-slowing.

In Another Castle
1. (hard)
It’s all about the glowing section of floor to the left of the lever.

This is the fourth part of my series of Braid hints. It’s not a walkthrough, because simply giving the puzzles’ answers would ruin the game. But I got so frustrated at the game that I gave in to temptation and looked online to find answers to a puzzle in both world 2 and world 3, so I’m now providing the spoiler-free hints I wish I’d had access to.

The official walkthrough 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!

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

World 5:Time and Decision

World 5 introduces your shadow self. After you rewind, a shadow copy of yourself will re-perform whatever actions you have.

The Pit
1. (very easy)
No hint.

So Distant
1.(easy)
Your shadow self can’t pick up this puzzle piece, but it can help you to get it.

2.(easy)
Look! There are two tasks, and there are two of you. Have one do each.

(No Name) – It’s not clear whether the game developers intentionally left this level unnamed, but there is in fact no name.
1. (hard)
The pit is too far to jump, but it’s so close… How about a relay?

2. (medium)
Have your shadow self create a diversion.

Crossing the Gap
1. (easy)
Notice that a new monster comes out of the cannon when the first one dies.

2. (medium)
You should probably be pulling that lever earlier than you think.

3. (very hard)
I figured this one out purely by accident while screwing around and trying different things. Just as you can jump on the monster’s head, it can jump on your shadow’s head.

Window of Opportunity
1. (hard)
The real you needs to pull that lever to get the platform to move – your shadow self can’t do it. Getting to the lever and pulling it is easy. Getting back out is what’s hard. Let your shadow self help you. You just need to time things right.
2. (very hard)
It took me forever to figure this one out. Hard to give a hint without giving it away, but just keep in mind that in order for your shadow self to pull a lever, he’s got to be in the right vertical position.

Lair
1. For the most part, this is just like the earlier Lair level. The main difference is the fairly easy puzzle at the end. The lever and door are at opposite ends, so you and your shadow self will need to go in opposite directions. Keep in mind that just because you can’t see something happening, it doesn’t mean that it’s not happening…

Fragile Companion
1. (very hard)
This one is so simple, but so damned hard. This is the only level in world 5 that I looked up online. Yes, I cheated. Here’s a hint: you don’t need to use the monster. The second one is almost a spoiler, so read with care: start rewinding mid-jump.

Brains be damned.  Holy crap, I want to play this game.

Now, I’m sure that at this point, I should point out all of my journalistic neutrality and professionalism seeing how I’m going to be reviewing the thing, but I say fuck that.  I review games because I love games and I find nothing wrong with showing an enthusiasm for an interesting title.  My editor would, no doubt, disagree as I have been chided in the past for being overly enthusiastic when dealing with PR.  Whatever.  I don’t think that there’s anything wrong with telling people that you’ve enjoyed their past work.  I still play the games and review them as I see fit.  But I digress.

Puzzle Kingdoms feels more like a successor to Puzzle Quest than Galactrix did despite Galactrix’s changes to the formula.  For all that Galactrix changed though, it still had a Puzzle Quest in space feel to it.  Instead of spells you had weapons and you could mix and match them as needed.  You still matched gems, only they flew in from different directions.  Don’t get me wrong, it’s a great game, but the changes to the game seem to have come about as a result of the change in setting rather than a desire to drive the genre forward.

Yes, I’m using the word genre.  I’m not sure how many games one needs to make a genre official but now the matching gems as combat style of games has Puzzle Quest, Galactrix, Puzzle Kingdoms and Henry Hatsworth under it’s tent, I’m calling it a genre.  I’m groundbreaking like that.

Any who, in Puzzle Kingdoms the goal is to do battle with other forces by means of matching tiles.  How the matches are made makes up a key difference here though.  When you’re in battle, you match tiles by taking a symbol and pushing it on to the game board, at the top/bottom of a column or beginning/end of a row.  The column/row will then move in the appropriate direction to accommodate your new tile.  As you can see all of the options for adding new symbols to the board, as well as the matches your opponent needs to make, you have a lot more control over denying them matches as well as making beneficial matches for yourself.  They can see the board too though, so you do have to be thinking ahead.  Something I rarely do, to the detriment of plenty of dead peasants and soldiers.

Matches can be made in matches of three or more in a line, or three or more in an L shape.  No diagonals here, which is fine with me as it’s complicated enough.  Combat tiles can be matched to do damage, but the majority of your destructive force is going to come from your troops.  Puzzle Kingdoms doesn’t have spells like Puzzle Quest did, although it does have spells, instead you recruit troops from the various bits of real estate you conquer.

Troops cost varying amounts of money, do varying amounts of damage and have differing power up requirements.  When you make a match, if the match is needed to power up a troop, they’ll get say, one of three symbols filled in.  Once all symbols are filled in, they can attack and you can either attack at your next round, or hoard your attack.  It’s similar to the notion of using color matches to fuel spells or weapons in the previous PQ games but with two major differences.

The first difference is that if you are able to get more than one troop fully powered up, when you attack you’ll attack with both troops as well as an added bonus.  This would be the reward part of hoarding your attacks.  The risk part is your second difference.  Troops can be killed and if they’re killed, you lose the ability to attack.  Sure, you can still match attack tiles to do damage, but if you want to attack with a troop, you’ll have to get one powered up all over again.

The ability for your enemy to essentially destroy all of your weapons adds a real nice twist to the gameplay. You can retreat at any time if you’re getting your behind handed to you, and go recruit more troops, however all of your progress in the battle is lost.  Similarly, if all of your troops die, then it’s back to the map with you.  Recruiting more troops to replace those fallen in battle costs money, money won during battles, however if you don’t have enough money to recruit troops and there’s still real estate on the map to conquer, well, it’s game over for you.

Your troops are all under the command of a hero, and it’s the hero that you work towards leveling up.  Leveling them up gives combat and defense bonuses to your troops as well as the ability to cast spells during battle so you want to make sure you’re making the right choice for your hero but at the same time, you need to make sure that you’re bringing the right mix of troops into battle with you.  It sounds complicated, and when I first started playing I thought I had waded right into it, but it all comes together very smoothly.

Now, these are all impressions from a demo, and  things could very well go right off the rails as the game progresses, but so far, there’s a very solid gameplay framework there.  The game has the standard “two pictures talking to each other” method of storytelling common to both Puzzle Quest and Galactrix and I must admit, I’m a bit tired of it, but at the same time, I’d rather the time be spent on making sure that the gameplay is up to par.

The game certainly seems like it will be a lot more complicated than either of the previous Puzzle Quest games, with choices in which hero to use, which weapons to use, which troops to recruit which I think will be a welcome change, despite my initial misgivings.  In Galactrix, I once I found a weapon loadout that worked, well I stuck with it because I got very good results with it.   The game never made me switch up my tactics all that much.  As long as I kept leveling up, and bought ships with more cargo space as money allowed, I was good to go.  I can already see that Puzzle Kingdoms has the potential of hammering you for such lethargy.  Even the simple choice of which troops to recruit, the cheap, peasants or the beefier, yet more expensive swordsmen makes me spend more time preparing for battle than either PQ games ever did.

So far, I’m quite excited for the game, and the fact that the demo runs smoothly on my aging laptop doesn’t hurt, I just hope that the full release lives up to the demo.  It will be interesting to see where Infinite Interactive goes after this one, as the resource management aspect of the game has somewhat of an RTS feel to it.  You could very easily take the game and make it into an Advanced Wars type of affair, only without the need for proper troop placement.  At any rate, I know I’ll be keeping an eye on what they’ve got cooking.  Two good games and a high potential for a third tends to spark my interest.

The game ships in May for the Wii and the DS.   A PC date has yet to be released.

This is the third part of my series of Braid hints. It’s not a walkthrough, because simply giving the puzzles’ answers would ruin the game. But I got so frustrated at the game that I gave in to temptation and looked online to find answers to a puzzle in both world 2 and world 3, so I’m now providing the spoiler-free hints I wish I’d had access to. I’m happy to say that I got all the way through world 4 without looking online for any help. World 4 is also my favorite level in the game.

The official walkthrough 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!

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

World 4: Time and Place

World 4 introduces the ability to control time by moving left and right. In fact, you can’t help but move time backward and forward by moving left and right. It’s critical that you understand how this works and what it means in order to solve world 4’s puzzles.

The Pit
1. (easy)
This level is so easy that I’m hesitant to provide any hint. But here’s something: monsters can carry keys.

Jumpman
1. (medium)
Keep in mind that since your movement left and right controls the monsters’ positions, even going so far as to resurrect dead monsters should you move back past where you stomped them, the monsters will always be in the same spot when you’re at a certain left-right position. You may have to find another route.

2. (easy)
You’ll do a lot of dying and rewinding here. If you get frustrated, try the other door.

3. (very easy)
No hint.

Just Out Of Reach
1. (easy)
No hint.

2. (medium)
Before getting too frustrated, check out the entire map.

Hunt!
1. (medium)
Not as easy as the first hunt, is it? The key here is understanding how the left/right time movement thing works. The monsters will come back to life if you move left beyond the point where you killed them. So you’ve got to kill them in a specific order. Also, since time only moves forward as you’re moving right, you can’t kill the monsters without a tinge of rightward movement – you can jump on a monster as many times as you like, and if you’re not moving right, it shouldn’t die. You can use this to your advantage.

Movement By Degrees
1. (easy)
Things can happen offscreen. There are often sound cues you can listen for to determine when something happens.

2. (medium)
If you’re finding that you can’t move quickly enough, make sure you know how to rewind at x8 speed. That will move you very quickly indeed.

Movement, Amplified
1. (easy)
Rewinding isn’t the way to move faster. Try the cloud bridge.

2. (very easy)
No hint.

A Fickle Companion
1. (hard)
This one infuriated me more than any of the other puzzles on this world until I realized exactly how the level works. The key thing (no pun intended) to realize here is that when you carry the key to the right, and then move back leftward, it will follow whatever path back that you’d taken before. So if you move left along a different path, you’ll lose the key. But you can’t get the key up to the door without moving left a bit. So how do you move the key leftwards? The answer to that question is similar to how you’ve solved some previous puzzles.

2. (medium)
This one is one of my favorites in the game – it’s just so clever. You want a hint? You’ve got to use the monster.

And that’s it for world 4. More to come soon.

This is the second part of my series of Braid hints. It’s not a walkthrough, because simply giving the puzzles’ answers would ruin the game. But I got so frustrated at the game that I gave in to temptation and looked online to find answers to a puzzle in both world 2 and world 3, so I’m now providing the spoiler-free hints I wish I’d had access to.

The official walkthrough 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!

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

World 3: Time and Mystery

World 3 introduces glowing objects, which are unaffected by rewinding time. These open up all sorts of possibilities for new puzzles.

The Pit (easy)
This level is so easy that no hints should be required. Just play around with reversing time, and the solutions should quickly come to you.

There and Back Again (easy)
The solution here is the same as that in the pit. If you’ve passed the previous level, just do more of the same.

Phase (easy)
This level’s clouds do more to introduce you to glowing objects that are unaffected by time reversal. Reverse time and observe the clouds.

The Ground Beneath Her Feet (average)
This level took me a while to figure out. The first hint I should give is that there’s no way for you to fit inside the nook that holds the key. The second hint is a bit of a spoiler: Monsters can carry keys.

For the second puzzle piece, just play around with rewinding things and observe. Note that the platform is glowing, and will be unaffected by rewinding. If you’re still stuck after doing that, you should note that when rewinding, you can generally move through walls and platforms, and hover in the air where a platform once was.

Tight Channels (average)
For the first puzzle piece, just note the glowing cannon and monsters. Rewind time to see how they behave.

For the second, you need to make use of the diagonally-firing cannon.

Irreversible (easy)
For a level that I found so easy, this seems to have given a number of people some trouble. For the first puzzle piece, the most important thing is that you simply look at the moving walls and platforms and see how they’re behaving. Look at which is glowing and you should understand the problem and the solution. The level’s name is a bit of a hint here.

The second piece is easier. It’s just essential that you understand how glowing keys and glowing doors behave – their state isn’t affected by rewinding. Glowing keys remain used when you rewind after using them, and glowing doors remain unlocked when you rewind after unlocking them.

Lair (easy)
Lair is a level without much puzzle – just a Super Mario-like boss.

A Tingling (hard)
This is the level on which I looked up the answer. (shame) Hopefully, it’s the last in the game for which I have to do that. What I wish I’d known is that you have to leave the immediate area of the first puzzle piece in order to get it. I feel that with that knowledge I could have gotten it.

That’s all for world 3. More to come soon.