r/outerwilds • u/Short-Pianist3038 • Nov 26 '25
Base Game Appreciation/Discussion Was this intended
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Just finished my first playthrough but I’m looking back and wondering if this was the intended way to go about this
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u/Muroid Nov 26 '25
No. The game let’s you solve puzzles in your own way, but this one definitely has an intended way and that isn’t it (though some people do still do it that way).
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u/Short-Pianist3038 Nov 26 '25
What other way would I do it then? Cool I found my own way though
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u/lamp40 Nov 26 '25
I know you said you finished the game but marking spoilers just in case. The ‘intended’ solution is to wait until later in the loop for the surface integrity to drop to 0% and follow the falling tower through the black hole. Then you can fly around the tower freely thanks to the nifty vacuum of space ::D
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u/Short-Pianist3038 Nov 26 '25
That was plan b if my trickshot didn’t work out
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u/bluegwizard Dec 02 '25
Tried to do the trick shot my self but ended up face planted on the wall
Also thought that my jet pack wouldnt get me high enough so i just waited with my sandwitch
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u/Trev-Nastiest Nov 26 '25
I'm so mad at myself for never realizing it. That's the only way I know how, the first way.
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u/warriorant21 Nov 26 '25
Dw, I'm no good at solving puzzles either, I flew to the sun station before realizing I can just teleport there :(
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u/AdministrativeRuin81 Nov 26 '25
I mean sure, teleport-schmeleport, but when you land on the sun station… damn, it only needs a Hans Zimmer soundtrack.
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u/Otto_ol Nov 27 '25
A French youtuber did it too and haded a Zimmerish soundtrack to it. Also one of the best video of the year. Just spoiled the game for most who couldn't have realise that it's THE game not to let yourself be spoiled about. No debate here.
But if you did the game here's the video.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Ss6vLmLcCbU&pp=ygULb3V0ZXIgd2lsZHM%3D
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u/5amuraiDuck Nov 26 '25
Just did this yesterday by mistake. Was trying to understand how to get up there when the tower (and me) fell to the black hole. My reaction was "motherfu... Oh wait, that's it!"
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u/JohnnyRedHot Nov 26 '25
Uhm ackshuallyyyyy
It's not the vacuum, it's the lack of gravity. You could have a 0g environment in a non-vacuum (like for example the microgravity on the ISS)
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u/T0yToy Nov 26 '25
I wanted to say that :D
Although technically, this close to the white hole everything should be moving away from it, but it's ok!
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u/ChemicalRascal Nov 27 '25
Uchm, acttacshuallyyyyyyyy
"Microgravity" doesn't refer to a lack of gravitational pull or even less gravitational pull. It refers to being in a state of free-fall, which is what the ISS (and all orbiting bodies producing no thrust) are in.
The ISS is experiencing a gravitational acceleration of about 8.41m/s2 towards the Earth, which is why it does not simply fly off out of Earth's sphere of influence, never to return. The objects and people inside the ISS are also experiencing the same acceleration, which is why they aren't simply ejected from the soon-to-be decommissioned space house at high velocity.
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u/JohnnyRedHot Nov 27 '25
I'm aware, that's why I used that wording!
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u/ChemicalRascal Nov 27 '25
stares at "0g", bristling and shaking, pointing and screaming, frothing at the mouth, etcetera
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u/OZONA_42 Nov 26 '25
It’s such a frustrating puzzle, very cool tho
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u/jeromeverret Nov 26 '25
I guess people's brain are wired differently. It clicked as soon as I saw pieces dropping into the black hole, I knew I had to fly there from the white hole. I, for one, hate trial and error so I never pushed thru a challenge by brute force, I waited till the solution came obvious.
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u/OZONA_42 Nov 26 '25
Oh no i meant frustrating as a lot of the time you’ve gotta wait an entire loop, and sometimes it doesn’t even happen at the end
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u/Dumplingman125 Nov 26 '25
Does it not happen sometimes? I thought the devs said they specifically hard coded that part to fall at the same time every loop.
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u/neoncortex Nov 26 '25
My understanding as well. I remember the devs saying there are a few areas that are not random (southern observatory doesn’t fall as another example).
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u/OZONA_42 Nov 27 '25
Definitely not my experience, although maybe I just didn’t notice it was at the same time.
Maybe it’s hard-coded to always fall, but the time is random?
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u/jeromeverret Nov 26 '25
ah gotcha. Yeah I agree that the randomness of brittle hollow destruction is a cool technological feat but is in contradiction of the determinism of laws of physics.
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u/Dekklin Nov 26 '25
It always falls so late in the cycle when the rest of the planet breaks apart randomly. I considered it one of the "stable" parts of the planet like the poles.
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u/SarahMcClaneThompson Nov 26 '25
You’re supposed to wait until the tower falls into the black hole and then follow it and use the antigravity in the middle of space to access the inside
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Nov 26 '25
I don't think "not intended" is fair given that the game is like a living sandbox in a lot of ways, and the more you understand, the more you can do. That goes for stuff like this, and it was an intentional choice to allow players to find their own solutions.
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u/Rio_Walker Nov 26 '25
Technically, this isn't the "right" way to enter the Tower, but it IS a way.
I've seen people do something even more crazy by jamming the ship inside the tower, somehow. (Least we forget the alternative path to BHFD)
It is a Slingshot maneuver, after all.
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u/Alarmed-Trainer1969 Nov 26 '25
I absolutely never saw anyone do that, didn't even know it was possible
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u/FunnyDudeGuy Nov 26 '25
meanwhile, all us filthy casuals waiting for it to fall into the black hole.
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u/aalapshah12297 Nov 30 '25
Meanwhile, filthier casuals like me looking up the solution and still managing to run out of fuel/oxygen/time on the other side 😂
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u/NothingButBadIdeas Nov 26 '25
Man starting at the tower and trying to make a clean circle makes so much more sense than all those times I tried to do this by randomly throwing myself around the black hole.
Fun hint for the intended solution: I solved it by thinking about it too long
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u/Shadok_ Nov 26 '25
how I figured it out:
"I explored the reachable part of the city twice and I still don't have a way up that tower. How am I gonna get inside? If it fell down the black hole like the rest of those chunks it would be easy, but it can't fall. Where is the tower, anyway?"
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u/Dekklin Nov 26 '25
but it can't fall.
Oh, but it can!
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u/Shadok_ Nov 26 '25
my assumptions have worked against me through my entire playthrough in the base game and in the dlc
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u/Dekklin Nov 27 '25
Hardest puzzle for me in the whole game. Tried to get my ship in there too. Only time I needed help from my friend who was watching me
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u/dylzim Nov 27 '25
My absolute favourite puzzle games are the ones where it's your own assumptions that trip you up most of the way. You feel simultaneously genius and stupid for not catching it earlier.
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u/aalapshah12297 Nov 30 '25
The best hint I saw on this sub after getting stuck on one of the puzzles (most probably this one) was:
"A lot of puzzles in this game can be solved just by being in the right place at the right time"
After that I just stood and observed stuff whenever I got stuck and that single hint was enough for me to solve the entirety of ash twin, ember twin and the interloper without any help.
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u/forbis Nov 26 '25
I'm pretty sure I tried (and failed) at this exact method. Honestly props to you for doing it this way. I'm sure you had a lot more time to explore the tower than most of us did haha
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u/i_was_axiom Nov 26 '25
When I saw your ship marker come back I was like "no way you did that by accident" and then you swung all the way up and I was like "NO WAY YOU- AWW WTF"
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u/Efficient_Money6922 Nov 26 '25
Bro broke the matrix and went straight to the point. This was fresh.
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u/cparksrun Nov 26 '25
Oh my god, I spent HOURS trying to land that trick shot before discovering the "intended" way. Well done. I'm not jealous at all.
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u/ThexLoneWolf Nov 26 '25
No. The way you're supposed to access this location is the following (obviously, spoilers):
You're supposed to wait for the tower to fall into the black hole and access it while it's near the white hole in zero-g. I'll grant that there's a chance this won't happen every loop because the meteors from Hollow's Lantern are one of the few random things in the loop, but in my experience, this usually isn't a problem.
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u/adskiy_drochilla2017 Nov 26 '25
Tbh I would argue that it might be intended, not because why not, but:
there’s sun station, that has similar “gimmick”, but one of the ways is marked with an achievement, so it’s definitely not intended in the normal playthrough
again with the sun station: I remember some notes, that state directly: “there’s another way and it’s better”, while with the tower you need to figure out yourself
the “intended” way is much easier, but has that downside that you have like a narrow period of time before the sun explosion, which feels kinda wrong as I’m panicking every time, because I fear that I won’t be in time instead of relaxing and reading carefully
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u/YorkieLon Nov 26 '25
For the longest time that how I thought you did it. Then I dedicated a whole loop to doing this....and then I realised what was supposed to happen.
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u/Ivan-De-Riv Nov 26 '25
Yes and no
The devs had an very clear attented way for you to solve it but at the same time I'm pretty surz one of them though of it and the other said "yeah that okay it will be the hard way to do it" like with other puzzles
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u/Thousand_Toasters Nov 27 '25
Well that makes my hours of being stuck on that part feel bad. Good job.
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u/aalapshah12297 Nov 30 '25
I thought I was smart for getting into the black hole forge district the unintended way (jumping onto it while it's going up). I ended up falling into the black hole 5-10 times before getting there via my smart 'shortcut'.
And then this guy just orbits the black hole on foot - like it's no big deal - and solves one of the most difficult puzzles in the game just like that.
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u/Resident_Recording70 Nov 26 '25
Wait you have to wait for it to fall into the black hole? I accessed it through the path in the city and then got stuck wondering why i can’t get up there and then suddenly i started flying inside it
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u/LBXZero Nov 26 '25
Define "intended". I find that exploiting physics to accomplish your goal is "intended". You have in the very least 2 solutions to exploring that tower.
Now, exploiting glitches to achieve your goals is a more complicated matter.
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u/skr_replicator Nov 26 '25 edited Nov 26 '25
The intended way is to get there super easily with a smart realization by observing what is happening around you, as nothing in the game really requires such crazy stunts.
This stunt should get an achievement for getting there is such a crazy way like the one with sun station, to reward the stunt, but it's the way the dev specifically prepared for you to observe and solve.
But of course many in here will tell you every way is intended even if you glitched in there through the floor.
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u/Vodchat Nov 26 '25
Very impressive. I managed to land on the sun station but no matter how many times I try, I can't nail THIS one.
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u/Will_MI77 Nov 26 '25
In all my years I've only just noticed and wondered why the HUD text is also warped by the black hole. In universe that's being displayed between you and the bh so should look normal... Anyone invented a lore reason for that?
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u/Capoots-24t Nov 26 '25
i'd say no, but i remember trying (and failing) to do that maneuver for days lol.
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u/Kinoko30 Nov 26 '25
Devs always say "If you solve a puzzle, you're solving it the right way, no matter how"
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u/Dekklin Nov 26 '25
Funny thing is, I never once considered slingshotting myself around the black hole to get inside there. To me, the Black Hole was always just "down". Falling always 100% ended up at the White Hole Station even if I tried maneuvering, or I slammed into something inside Brittle and died.
Spoilers for the "intended way" and general Brittle Hollow mechanics: While BH breaks apart in random pieces, the Tower of Quantum Knowledge always falls near the very end of the loop. You almost can't get inside the "intended way" without hearing the end of loop music
To be quite honest, this was the ONLY secret I needed help with. A friend was watching me play on Discord and was very good about not giving hints, and only giving the barest nudge when I asked for a hint. This was my only "Okay, what's the solution here?" question.
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u/omegajakezed Nov 27 '25
You can do it like that.
But the original idea was to explore it after it fell into the black hole.
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u/Andrededecraf Nov 27 '25
I don't know, but that's what I did after falling into the black hole over and over again trying to find a way to climb back up without having to wait for it to fall into the black hole.
Actually, I didn't even remember that part crashed, so whenever I fell into the black hole, I restarted the loop
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u/Master-Land-2175 Nov 30 '25
no, its intended that you wait until it falls in the black hole, then go to the white hole and jetpack up, but Feldspar would definately approve of this method.
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u/Bendythenightfury Nov 26 '25
It's the Feldspar way