3. Ori and the Will of the Wisps Story walkthroughUpdate notes

Warning: You must avoid touching the purple tainted water from the beginning of the game until you finish the Wellspring escape. If you fall in the water, just immediately quit out to the main menu without jumping out of the water or dying. If you do that, you can just continue from your most recent checkpoint. If you die or jump out of the water, then go to ‘backup saves’ on that save file and load the previous checkpoint to negate touching the water.

Beginning until Wellspring Glade

From the beginning head right until you can drop down, picking up any Spirit Light orbs you see along the way. I won’t be pointing out and numbering every Spirit Light orb, as I am not 100% sure if they count as collectibles, and the Hand to Hand quest will reveal all of them on the map (along with every other secret/collectible), leaving no need for a step by step on finding them all. I will still point out the other things (life cells, energy cells, gorlek ore, and shards) along the way.

Follow the only path open to you at the moment (dropping down through logs) until you reach a fireplace. Grab a torch with cn_X. Continue down through the tunnels, breaking open a wood wall to the left and climbing up over the wall to reach a bird with a backpack named Tokk. He will task you with finding a Keystone before he will give you the 2nd. Continue past him to the left along the upper route and drop down to the bottom of the shaft at the end to reach your first forced combat. A door will close and a fast-moving, clawed enemy will attack. Take it out with your torch and go left through the door.

Climb the walls of blue moss to the top of the shaft and go left at the top to get the Keystone. Return to Tokk on the right and speak to him to get a 2nd one, then continue up to the right to open the Keystone Door. Go right and you’ll be attacked by Howl, who will chase you to the right. He has a very easy pattern which is essential on Hard mode. Stand to the far right and wait for him to jump forward. The instant he does, jump toward his snout and smack him twice in the face with your torch. If you get the two hits in before he attacks, he will retreat then jump forward again. Repeat this two hit pattern each time he jumps forward and retreating to the right when he retreats to finish him off.

Close Call

Fended off Howl

Close Call

Go left after the fight and drop all the way down the shaft into Howl’s Den. Continue to the right when you land and you’ll reach your first Spirit Tree where you’ll unlock Spirit Edge (the sword). Climb up the area to the right, making sure to break the wall on the far right of the upper half of the area to get the Magnet Shard. You’ll drop back down to the ledge above the spirit tree and meet a group of Moki who will task you with seeking out Kwolok. Drop through the log to their immediate left and head down to the shaft until you see a platform suspended by vines to the left. Pull/push the nearby stone out onto the hanging platform and continue left to reach another forced combat area. Dispatch the enemies and carry on to the left and down to another Spirit Tree where you will receive Double Jump.

Climb up the wall on the left to grab the Sticky Shard above the tree. Make your way back up to the hanging platform and continue right to reach the first Spirit Well. Just seeing the well activates it for use later as a warp spot. Down to the left from the well, activate the lever to lower the hanging platform. Return to its location and drop down the shaft to reach it, then push the stone off it to the right until it drops off the ledge to block the purple laser. Continue pushing it to the right until you can jump up to get the Keystone. Now climb all the way back up out of this shaft to where you first landed on the bone spine in Howl’s Den. Left from there you will reach the Keystone Door, with the 2nd Keystone directly above it. Go left through the door, but before climbing up break open the grey stone wall on the left.

Use the blue moss to reach the far side of the pit with the tainted purple water and make your way up to find Life Cell 1/24 on the top left. Return to the right through the opening where you broke the wall and go up to the right. Double jump across the shaft to the lower of two wooden breakable walls and break through. Go right across this room and up, grabbing Life Cell 2/24 behind a breakable wall on the right side of the room. Once you reach the top of the shaft, the path up and to the left is the way forward but you should see a Moki to the right that will give you Sidequest 1 – A Little Braver. He tasks you with bringing him a Howl Fang, which can be found by going directly to the right from his location. Past the spot where you fought Howl you’ll find a room with spikes at the bottom and the fang. Return to him to complete the quest and receive Gorlek Ore 1/40.

Jump up to the ledge above him to the left and continue left until you reach a jumping enemy. Look for a breakable wall on the right side (below the ledge to continue on) and find the Reckless Shard behind it. Use double jump to reach the ledge above and go left to reach the next Spirit Tree in a watery area where you’ll receive the Regenerate ability. Climb up to the left out of the area and continue up to the left to reach the fireplace where you got your first torch at the game’s start. Climb up one more level and look for Lupo to the right to purchase Map 1/9. Continue left and you’ll reach the spot where the tree broke and you fell down at the game’s start. Break the wall on the left and use the blue moss to reach the Resilience Shard across the purple water.

Return right and climb up the tree that broke, going right at the top to reach a small scene with Shriek and the ability merchant. If you can afford it, buy the Spirit Smash ability as this will allow you to open access to secrets and collectibles in several locations. He will also give you a ‘Rumour’, marking the location of the first of five spirit shrines which reward you with shard slot upgrades. To the right of him the upper path leads to the rest of the story while the lower path will lead to Gorlek Ore 2/40 and Energy Cell 1/24 in two recessed alcoves in the ceiling as well as a breakable floor with Life Cell 3/24 inside on the lower right from those two. You’ll also run into Spirit Shrine 1/5 on the way up out of the area, which will reward you with Shard Slot Upgrade 1/5 if you complete it.

If you climb up out of that area (or skip those collectibles for now and go across the top from the ability vendor) you will eventually run into a large stone statue on the right. Climb it to run into Tokk again and hit the lever to lower the water level. Return to the previous room and drop down into the now waterless area to find the next Spirit Tree and obtain Spirit Arc (the bow). You’ll see a small blue ‘eye’ in the ceiling. Shooting it will raise a platform on the right. When the platform rises step into it and let it take you down to Energy Cell 2/24. Climb out and shoot the eye again while standing on top of that same platform then climb up the wall on the left to get out.

Take out the flying enemy then shoot the eye above to raise a blue bounce pad on the left. Bounce off it to a beam above, then shoot the next eye above to have a wall on the left slide out. Jump off this and climb up to the top. You’ll see a grey orb behind the left wall and an eye to the right. You’ll need to climb to the top of the wall then jump off and fire your bow at the eye on the right while in the air to open the wall to the grey orb. Grab it and go to the right side of the room. Take out the flying enemy and climb up the blue moss. Jump onto the beam and hold cn_LSu to spin around the beam. Jump off once spinning fast to get enough height to shoot the next eye down a narrow spiked spot to the right to open the path to the 2nd grey orb.

Return to the large stone statue and the two orbs will fly into its eye sockets, opening the way forward. Enter its mouth and you’ll find Twillen the shard vendor. If on hard I suggest upgrading Resilience if you can afford it. To his immediate right a rock slab will drop down when you run under it. Step under just enough to trigger it and back out quickly, then jump on top of it to ride it up to a secret area with Life Cell 4/24. Continue right and shoot the eyes in the stone frog (fish?) mouths to make your way up to the top of the area. A Moki on a bridge will give you a ‘rumour’ about the first of the 8 Spirit Trial races. Make your way to the top right to hit a lever and lower the tainted purple water again. Go down the ramps where the water was.

At the bottom shoot the eye in the last stone frog just above the water and jump onto its stone tongue, then shoot it again to ride the tongue to the left (toward the vertical pole in the water). Drop off and use double jump to reach the pole without touching the water. Go left into the next room and you’ll see two of the blue eye targets in the middle room and one up high. Shoot the high one to pull a stone block down from above, and the left of the two middle ones so its tongue makes a ramp. Push the stone up its tongue until past the halfway point, then shoot the eye on the right so its tongue makes a ‘V’ with the left one. Shoot the left one once more to retract its tongue and send the stone down to the pressure plate. Push it the rest of the way onto the plate to open the way forward.

You can get over the wall on the left with a well-placed double jump or just shoot the eye near the upper right to use its tongue to get over. Use the next two purple eyes to reach another lever on the left to lower the water once more and drop down. Shoot the eye above you at the bottom level and use its tongue to reach yet another lever on the left to open a stone barrier over to the right, then use the eyes on that side of the room and their respective stone tongues to climb out through that opening. Now that the water is at its lowest, you can make your way down through the shaft on the right side of the area. Midway down break the grey stone wall on the left for Energy Cell 3/24.

Drop down to the bottom of the shaft and go right to reach another shaft with large vertical poles. You should see Lupo in a little alcove at the top of the shaft. Go all the way to the bottom of the shaft and you’ll run into a beetle that will try and rush you. Jump onto a wall to have it hit the wall and get dazed, then attack its rear. Or simply jump onto the wall on the right and up to the lever, to open the path forward and ignore the beetle entirely. Drop back down from the lever and cross the room to the left. Make sure to activate Spirit Trial 1/8 on the left before jumping across to the right to exit the room. Through the door that lever opened you will drop down to the next Spirit Tree and obtain the Dash ability. Make your way to the right and up the shaft, then back to the left to return to the previous vertical shaft with all the vertical poles.

If you’re struggling getting past the falling stone slabs just right of that spirit tree, step under the first and back out to activate it, then walk under it and do two dashes followed by a jump to get past the rest. When you reach the first tall shaft with the poles, climb up the poles using double jump and dash to reach the top. Make sure to buy Map 2/9 from Lupo while you’re here (unless you’re conserving funds on Hard mode). To the left of Lupo you’ll reach the bottom of the earlier shaft you fell down. Kill the flying enemies and the pink blob on the vertical wall to the right, then double jump/dash to reach the wall that blob was on. Climb to the top of this shaft to reach Life Cell 5/24 as well as Spirit Trial 1/8’s starting point.

You don’t need to beat anyone on the leaderboard for the achievement. Just run all eight races from within the story mode and beat the purple ghost Ori that races alongside you. The times are very generous. If you’re struggling and have triple jump, make sure to go into the menu and reactivate it while the 3-2-1 countdown timer lights are lighting up. The game takes away your shards but you can re-enable triple jump before the races start to make them easier. Drop back down to the area with the bounce pad. Directly to the left you will find some more falling/smashing stone slabs. Trigger the first then jump onto its side to ride it up and shoot the blue eye on the right. This opens a door at the end. You’ll need to dash off the ledge under the first couple, then jump and dash again midway across to reach Quickshot Shard at the end of the passage.

Return to the bounce pad and bounce up, then climb up to the top of the shaft. Look for a purple target on the right (similar to the blue ones you’ve been using to activate the stone tongues). Double jump and dash across the gap to reach it and shoot it to open the way forward. Continue to the right and you’ll run into the Horn Beetle. It has three attacks: rear back and slam ground to cause a wave of flames (double jump over it), charges at you and jumps at the last second (just keep backing away until it jumps then dash under it), and just jumping left and right repeatedly (just dash underneath it to stay at its rear). Dodge its attacks as above and smack its big orange backside until it dies to unlock Take the Bug by the Horn.

Take the Bug by the Horn

Defeated the Horn Beetle

Take the Bug by the Horn

Past the bug you’ll reach a spot where a worm above will be spitting purple projectiles at you. Stand on the loose stone ground beneath its ledge and dodge its shot to break the ground, then proceed down the shaft below to reach the next Spirit Tree and obtain the Bash ability (at long last!). Work your way back up by bashing off the enemies, white hanging lights, and purple projectiles. If you bash off the projectiles 3-4 times without touching the ground, you’ll unlock Juggling Act here.

Juggling Act

Juggled 3 or More Projectiles in the Air for Over 5 Seconds

Juggling Act

Look for the turret firing the purple projectiles horizontally and deflect one up into the purple wall above to open the way to a lever, then bash off another to reach the lever and activate it to open a stone door down to the right. That path leads down to Mouldwood Depths which we aren’t ready for yet, but if you go down there and bash off the projectiles fired by the worms on the first two ledges past that stone door, you can reach Life Cell 6/24 in an alcove to the upper right there. Return back to the lever’s location and continue using the projectiles to make your way to the top of the shaft. At the top, use the vertically-firing turret’s projectiles to bash diagonally up and to the right. Use double jump to get around the lower lip of the wall hanging down just enough to touch that wall, which will allow you to jump/dash over to the right to reach Energy Cell 4/24.

Bash out the top of the shaft through off the same worm’s projectiles you originally use to break that floor and open the shaft, then use it once more to bash up onto its ledge. Again, use this first worm’s projectile to bash over the spikes on the right, then keep bashing off the hanging white lanterns to reach the far side. From there, just keep running to the right until you run into a cut scene with Kwolok, who will direct you to restore the marsh by reactivating the Wellspring. Go left from Kwolok and you’ll have a short scene where the Moki open a way forward. Continue left to reach the shaft leading up to Wellspring Glade. Talk to the Moki at the base of the shaft and he will start Sidequest 2 – Hand to Hand by giving you a treasure map.

Go up the shaft to reach the village, making sure to bash off the purple projectiles fired by the first worm you see to break the wall on the right and collect Gorlek Ore 3/40 on your way up. Bash off a projectile from the 2nd worm you see to break open the way into the village. As you enter, Grom will complain that you broke his wall and you’ll unlock Home Sweet Home.

Home Sweet Home

Reached the Wellspring Glades

Home Sweet Home
Offline Mode - These achievements require play in game modes that do not necessitate a connection to any online services.Single Player - These achievements can be obtained by a single player.Main Storyline - These achievements are gained automatically by progressing through the main game modes.

Wellspring Glade to Wellspring

Talk to Tokk as you enter town to progress Sidequest 2 – Hand to Hand. He will give you a wanderer’s pouch. You can use one Gorlek Ore with Grom to begin Sidequest 3 – Rebuilding the Glade by repairing the spirit well in the town’s center. This sidequest won’t be complete until the end of the game when you have all 40 ore. Talk to the Moki to the left Grom (just right of the shard vendor) to activate one of his projects for building homes for the Moki townsfolk. This also counts as Sidequest 8 – Family Reunion. I have numbered it number eight because we won’t be doing it until near the end of Act 1 after having found many other sidequests. If you have the Spirit Smash ability (hammer) you can break open the ground to the left of the Moki by the shard vendor and get to Gorlek Ore 4/40 below.

Continue out the left exit from town. You’ll have to bash off some enemies and hanging white lights to make it through this tunnel. At the far end you’ll need to bash off another white light to go up through a gap in the ceiling. Before exiting out the top of the tunnel and going left toward The Wellspring, look for Gorlek Ore 5/40 in the upper-right corner of the tunnel across a spiked gap with one of the spitting flytrap plants in the middle. I like to refer to them as snakes since that is what they remind me of. Go left from the top of the shaft (going right up the slope leads to the bear’s cave) to reach The Wellspring. The door is closed so you’ll need to drop down through the sloped log to the right of the door and make your way to the bottom-left corner of that room to destroy a blob of corruption and set the gears in motion to open the door.

To get out of the room you’ll need to wait till the middle spiked gear turns to where its opening is nearing the hanging white light to the right, then jump over to the light and bash up through the opening into the gear. Once inside jump onto the mossy circle in the middle and wait for the opening to rotate around to the upper right. Jump and dash out to the right. Don’t mind the spikes, just land on them then jump an dash to the right to get to the ledge to climb out. If the flying enemy is close enough you can bash off it to avoid hitting those spikes. Before going into the large door you just opened, go directly to the left and break through the wall to reach a vertical shaft. Drop down to the bottom left to hit a lever then make your way to the top of the shaft to get the Life Harvest Shard.

Return to the large door and enter. Jump across the blue mossy gears to the right and destroy the blob of corruption to the right of the 3rd gear. Jump onto the lower gear and jump off as it spins toward the wall on the right to get over to the next room. Jump off the vertical pole onto the nearby spinning gear and jump off as it spins you upward on the left side so that you launch up to the top of the room where you can destroy another blob of corruption. Platform up to a stationary gear with spikes on the bottom, and moss with a vertical pole on top. Use your bow to shoot a blob of corruption up and to the left at the top of the screen to set the next gear in motion. Jump up to its mossy side as it spins, then off to the ledge on the upper right.

On the far right up here you can jump onto a hanging pole and it will fall down through a barrier as it opens, as well as through a couple of lasers. Slide down to the bottom and jump over to the left to reach Gorlek Ore 6/40. Climb back up and jump across the poles hanging from the ceiling. Continue left across a mossy gear to a room with a horizontal pole above a small pool of tainted water. Spin on the pole and jump off to launch up to the vertical wall above. Make your way up (jump/dash) to the corruption above and destroy it to set more wheels in motion. Drop down and jump onto the half mossy half spiked wheel on the left and launch off it up through the poll. Drop down to the left below the all-mossy wheel and continue left and over the short wall.

Drop down through the beam here and go right across a pool of tainted water to reach the next Spirit Tree and obtain the Grapple ability. Grapple via the small blue flowers to get out of the area and return to the right. When you reach the round closed door grapple up to a lever up and to the left above the door via two blue flowers and activate it to open the door. If you go to the right before exiting you can use grapple to get up to Lupo above the all-mossy wheel from before and purchase Map 3/9. In the lower-left corner of this area (down by the first door you entered) you can obtain the Thorn Shard, as well as Energy Cell 5/24 and Life Cell 7/24 in this room now that you have Grapple. These three can be seen in the collectibles video beginning at 11:54, but I suggest coming back for them during post-game mop-up for expediency unless you’re on Hard and feel like you need them.

Exit via the round door you just opened on the upper half of the room. You’ll see Tokk just outside. He will give you Sidequest 4 – Lost Compass. Shoot a blob of corruption just off the screen up and to the right of Tokk to drop a blue flower for a shortcut. Go to the right of the flower and grapple off it to launch up and to the left. Grapple off the next flower above to the left and let yourself fly up and start to fall to the left of it, then grapple off it again so you go up to the right underneath the platform above to reach a small secret area with Life Cell 8/24. Now grapple off that same flower again to launch up and to the left and grapple off the next flower above to reach the higher ledge. Go left and grapple your way up through the spiked shaft to exit out on a higher ledge above. From this ledge you can jump/dash/glide over to the highest platform in the center area, with Spirit Trial 2/8’s activation point.

From here you can follow along the collectible’s video starting at 14:45 to get Ultra Grapple Shard, Gorlek Ore 7/40 & 8/40, Energy Cell 6/24, and run Spirit Trial 2 (by ore #7). Again I’d suggest returning for all of this during mop-up as the launch ability and the map reveal from Hand to Hand makes cleaning stuff up much faster. If you look at the map for this area, there are four doors. Make your way to the 2nd highest door to enter the next area. Talk to the Moki immediately inside this entrance to advance Sidequest 2 – Hand to Hand and get the herb pouch from him. Drop down to the base of the shaft on the left and enter the forced fighting area on the left. Once the enemies are dispatched you can destroy another blob of corruption on the left to set the large rotating room in motion.

You’ll need to rotate the room three times via levers to reach the exit on the far side, but before you exit make sure to climb up the left side of the room using the two mossy gears to reach Gorlek Ore 9/40 in a hidden alcove above. Once you exit the right side of the large rotating room, make your way up via grappling the two gears and the flower above, then grapple your way up the spiked path on the left. Destroy the blob of corruption to set the final wheels in motion. The wheel right next to you has Tokk’s Compass above it to the left so go through an opening and ride it around to grab the item, then exit the door below. You’ll find Tokk standing right outside and can give him the compass to complete Sidequest 4 – Lost Compass now. He gives you Gorlek Ore 10/40 for your trouble.

Use grapple to go up the two gears up and to the left from Tokk to enter the door into the final area. Inside, look for Mysterious Seed 1/6 to the right by a small table apparatus (hidden in a secret area behind a foreground wheel). Grapple up to exit via the top and walk left to get snagged by the corruption, which begins the first major escape sequence. Make sure not to touch any purple water during this escape if you’re going for High and Dry. Dash, bash, jump and grapple your way to the right to finish the escape. At the end you’ll unlock Let the Waters Flow, as well as High and Dry if you didn’t touch any corrupt water up to this point in the game. You will also likely have unlocked Did I Do That by now as enemies frequently kill themselves on the environment. If not, just use bash to knock enemies into water or spikes to finish it off.

Let the Waters Flow

Cleared the Watermill

Let the Waters Flow
High and Dry

Avoided Touching any Corrupted Water

High and Dry
Did I Do That?

Defeated 10 Enemies using Environmental Hazards

Did I Do That?

Ending Act 1

Warp to the portal nearest Kwolok at this point and talk to him to open the path forward to your pal Ku. You can also take some time at this point to explore and get upgrades. Starting at 17:16 in the collectibles video, you can follow along and explore to get Energy Cell 7-13, Gorlek Ore 11-16, Shard Slots 2 & 3, Life Cell 9-12, Map 4/9 from Lupo, and the Deflector & Arcing Shards as well as completing some quests (namely Into the Burrows). One of the two 25% damage upgrades can be obtained at the entrance to Midnight Burrows. Bash off the three hanging blue light flowers without touching the ground in a specific order to open the damage bonus tree or the Midnight Burrows entrance. Numbering the lights 1-2-3 from left to right, the sequence for the burrows is 1 2 33 1 2 1, and the sequence to open the door to the 25% damage tree to the right is 1 2 1 3 3 2 1. We will get the other 25% damage bonus soon once in Silent Woods.

Talking to Tokk near these hanging lights starts Sidequest 9 – Into the Burrows. You can finish this one now as well if you like, but I’ll leave off the detailed walkthrough of that area for the end of the game.

You can start start Sidequest 5 – Into the Darkness (can’t finish it until after Mouldwood), and Sidequest 12 – Replanting the Glades by talking to the Moki down by the closed cave in town and the seed planter guy respectively. Talking to Lupo in town will start Sidequest 6 – The Silent Map (just exploring Silent Woods). Now go ahead and get on over to Kwolok if you haven’t already and continue past him toward Silent Woods. In the first area you come to with grey sludge on the bottom that’s a one-hit-kill, go up through the opening in the top and right to reveal a spirit well, then left to talk to Kii the treekeper to begin Sidequest 7 – Treekeeper. He will give you a Lifeless Branch. Warp back to town and talk to the seed guy to advance it. If you haven’t already done so, build huts for the Moki (Grom’s 2nd project, costs 4 ore) then talk to the Moki just to the right of the shard vendor.

He will give you a key and ask you to check on his family in Silent Woods to advance Sidequest 8 – Family Reunion. Warp back to the well in Silent Woods and talk to Kii to let him know there’s no hope. He will give you Mysterious Seed 2/6 (Tree Seed), which completes Sidequest 7 – Treekeper. Continue left and drop off the ledge to the hanging house below. Enter with the key the Moki gave you and grab the Petrified Doll. Warp back to town and talk to the seed guy to plant his 6th seed task, The Last Seed. This grows a spirit tree in the town center that gives you the other of the game’s two permanent 25% damage boosts. Talk to the Moki that asked you to check on his family and he will rush off, completing Sidequest 8 – Family Reunion.

Now that that’s all wrapped up and you’re ready to tackle Act 2 overpowered, return to the spirit well in Silent Woods. Drop back down to the grey sludge area and continue right. One of the two Keystones is in the far right end at the bottom, above the sludge. Time your jump carefully in relation to the bubble nearest the keystone to get it, then use the other to get back to the platform. Use the bubble nearest the platform to get to the ledge by the Keystone door, and climb up the wall to a secret area above to get the 2nd stone. Open the door and continue forward to reunite with Ku. You’ll ride Ku’s back for a short bit.

The first vertical air current you reach has a floating gas bag enemy on the right. Lure it over and ride the current up to the ledge above, then back away and flap your wings with cn_X to push the gas bag to the right. Jump into the current and flap again to push him the rest of the way to the wall which blasts it open to reveal Gorlek Ore 17/40. These numbers are based on the ones you could explore and obtain before ending Act 1. After going up the first set of air currents you’ll reach a spot with a large tree stump in the middle that is flaming on top. Fan it with your wings to activate its current and ride that up to a secret area with Gorlek Ore 18/40.

Act 2 - Windswept Wastes

Once Act 1 is over and you’re separated from Ku, warp back to the spirit well by the Treekeeper quest guy and go to the far end (above the family reunion house). Dash off the left end of the ledge, then double jump and dash mid-air followed by floating with [cn_Rt] to get to Gorlek Ore 19/40 on the far left. You can grab Energy Cell 14/24 and Gorlek Ore 20/40 in Kwolok’s Hollow nearby as well. Check the collectibles video at 34:55 for these two. Now warp back to the spirit well on the right half of Silent Woods. Make your way up and over to the northwestern exit from the room. You’ll see a gap in the floor here that leads down to the spirit shrine for Shard Slot 4/5 once you complete it. Now go back up through the gap and to the right to drop down to the Feeding Grounds. Moving right you’ll run into Shriek and begin a short hide and seek sequence. Rash right and grapple up into the hiding spot above.

Wait for him to turn around, then drop down and dash into the air current holding [cn_Rt] to ride it up. At the top, dash right onto the pole and climb up behind the tarp to hide. Once Shriek turns again, dash left onto the platform and left again, then grapple to the hanging mossy rock. Shriek will smack it with its head. Once it looks away jump and dash left onto the sand wall, then quickly jump and dash right onto the platform above where you were and right again. Keep going right as fast as you can and you’ll drop down onto the spirit well at the entrance to Windswept Wastes. You won’t be able to complete this area as you need all four wisps to enter the Windtorn Ruins at the end, but we are coming here first to grab the Burrow ability so that we can be more efficient picking up important abilities along the way.

Continue right along the path and grapple up to the bluish purple flower, then go directly right to reach a secret area containing Gorlek Ore 21/45 above a sloped sand ramp that disintegrates. Continue right and you’ll see a large pot above an arc of ground made of the disintegrating sand. Directly left of this in a secret area above the helmeted enemy on the left vertical wall you can get Life Cell 13/24 if you have triple jump. If not you can use burrow to launch up into it off the nearby sand once you have it. Past the pot you will jump off a couple of disintegrating sand platforms to a curved bridge. On the right side of the bridge you should see a sign. There is a small opening in the ground immediately right of the sign. Slip down through this narrow gap into the area below and go down to the bottom-left corner to find Life Cell 14/24.

Climb back out and go to the upper-right corner above the curved bridge to activate a lever which creates a vertical disintegrating sand platform to the left. Jump onto this and jump again to reach the vertical wall to the left of it as it disintegrates. Climb up to the hidden area above. You should see four vertical sand pieces. The turret on the left is firing but the first vertical sand regenerates too fast. What you need to do is jump up right after it fires so that you make the sand disintegrate before the next bullet comes out. Dash right from it to get rid of the 2nd, then dash right again to get rid of the 3rd and 4th so that the purple projectile breaks open the wall and collect the Last Stand Shard. Drop down out of the area and dash left to the upper-left ledge in the area you came from.

Make your way left through the tunnel beyond. You’ll reach a Gorlek Miner who wants a canteen of water for the trade quest which we don’t have yet. Continue past him and grab the Burrow ability from the Spirit Tree. If you burrow through the sand to the left of the tree and launch yourself out the top with cn_RB you can reach Spirit Trial 7/8’s activation point (or do it later when we return here). To the right of the tree, use the hanging ball of sand to launch up into a secret area above to find Lupo and buy Map 8/9 (numbered based on the collectibles video). Now head to Silent Woods via warp. In the far northwest corner, you can combine Grapple, Bash, and Burrow to launch yourself up along a series of blue flowers, balls of sand, and hanging white lights to reach the Overflow Shard as well as Spirit Trial 4/9’s activation point.

Warp back to town and use your feather on the coals in the middle of town to create an air current. Ride it up with cn_RT and talk to the Moki on the ledge to the right to reveal Gorm’s last Sidequest 3 – Rebuilding the Glades task (which costs 10 ore). Now exit the town via the top-right exit to reach a mole-looking guy named Veral by a bubbling pot. Advance Sidequest 2 – Hand to Hand by giving him the herbs to receive spicy soup. Now jump over to the right side of the pot by him and fan it with your feather so it spits out a ball of fire. Juggle this ball of fire to the right and down to melt the shrine on the left in order to thaw the area.

This can be seen at 38:10 in the collectibles video. Swim underneath through the water to reach the Catalyst Shard (combine overflow and catalyst for constantly regenerating health/energy). You can come back after getting Light Burst in Bauer’s Reach if struggling. Now exit the town on the left side and go up through the tunnels to the sloped area where we went left to go to Wellspring earlier in the game. This time go to the right into the cave and use your feather on the Bear’s nose to make him sneeze and open the path to Bauer’s Reach.

Act 2 - Bauer’s Reach

Climb over the bear and use the hanging white lights on the right to reach the ledge above and to the left of him. Push the stone off the ledge to break open the area below. Drop down into that area and fan the bubbling pot with the feather, then use bash to juggle the flame it spits over to the shrine on the right to melt the ice in this first area. Now use the thawed ‘vines’ (that suck you into venus fly trap plants if you stay on too long) to reach the lever on the upper-right to open the way forward. Bash off the white lights through that new opening and drop down to the area below. Kill the corrupted Gorlek to the right, then fan the pot and juggle the flame again to the shrine to the right. This one is a little trickier.

Fan the pot again and bash off the flame to get up out of the area, then use the hanging ‘vine’ on the right to go up. Make sure to stop in the small alcove to the right just above the bottom of the vine to find Lupo and buy Map 5/9. As you make your way up you will see an ice wall blocking the way to the spirit well. Directly to the left of this, use the thawed ‘vine’ to reach a secret area in the upper-left corner with Gorlek Ore 22/40. Continue up to the top but before going right to reach the spirit tree, go left and burrow through the sand to reach an area with the Lifeforce Shard at the top. Use burrow to launch through the disintegrating sand platforms to get up this area. This shard is the best damage boost shard, giving a 30% boost when above half health.

Now return to the right and continue past Tokk to reach an area with a keystone door. You’ll need to go up the frozen waterfall on the right to reach the pot. Fan it from the left and dash off the left side of the ledge. Hold left to drop down to the raised platform near the shrine below and use bash to deflect the flame onto the shrine once it arrives. Grab the four keystones in the area and drop down through the ground to the left of the bubbling pot to find a secret area with Gorlek Ore 23/40. Once you reach the Spirit Tree and obtain the Light Burst ability, go inside the house to the right. Use light burst to light the lantern, opening the door to Mysterious Seed 3/6.

Exit the house and go to the bridge on the left. Aim a light burst projectile straight up, then jump up and bash off it to reach the platform above for Gorlek Ore 24/40. You’ll need to melt ice walls using light burst and bash off it to get out of the area. Return to the previous area and drop all the way down, past the spirit well. At the bottom of the area go to the far right and use light burst on the hanging lantern near the crazed gorlek to open the airway, allowing you to float upward. Ride the air currents up and look for an alcove on the left with a campfire. Talk to the Moki there and give him the soup to receive a hat and advance Sidequest 2 – Hand to Hand. Use light burst and bash off it to reach the plants above, jumping off them to reach the ledge above that Moki.

Use another light burst and bash off it to reach the upper-right ledge. Use light burst on the hanging lantern above the shaft you just climbed to open the door on this side of the spirit well. Return to the beginning of the area above where the bear is sitting and go left to where a beehive sits by a frozen waterfall. Wait for 5 bees to come out of the hive, then jump into the air and start swinging your blade. You can jump again any time the blade connects with an enemy, making it easy to stay airborne and kill 5 before touching the ground to unlock Bring it On. If you have the upgraded Spike ability (explosive impact) you can also easily get Damage Spike if you allow several bees to get close together and throw a spike into them.

Bring it On

Defeated 5 Enemies Without Touching the Ground

Bring it On
Damage Spike

Defeated 3 Enemies with a Single Spike

Damage Spike

Climb up the frozen waterfall and melt the shrine with light burst to reach Gorlek Ore 25/40. Warp back to the spirit well above the Moki at the campfire and go right. You’ll reach a room with a large spiked pit and a tree on the right held up by ice. Throw a light burst at the ice from the ledge by the spikes, then immediately retreat and climb up the ledge to avoid the snowball that comes down. Burrow down through the snow where the ball collided to reach Life Cell 15/24. Continue to the right and in the next area with the water at the bottom, swim down into a secret area on the lower left to reach the Fracture Shard. On the far right past this watery area you can drop down to the bottom of the shaft to reach an area with air currents and spikes everywhere. Grab the four keystones and open the door to activate Spirit Trial 3/8.

Make your way back up the shaft and to the right for a forced battle area with several crazed gorlek enemies. Once everything is dispatched the shaft will open at the bottom, allowing you to ride the air currents up. Make your way all the way to the top of the shaft and go left to trigger a cut scene and the avalanche escape. You’ll unlock Icy Escape.

Icy Escape

Escaped the Avalanche

Icy Escape

Warp back to town and give the hat to the Moki left of the shard vendor to receive an empty lantern and advance Side Quest 2 – Hand to Hand. You can use burrow to obtain Life Cell 16/24 on the lower right side of the village in the water by Lupo’s hut. You should have enough of Silent Wood explored by now that you can talk to Lupo in his hut to complete Sidequest 6 – The Silent Map. Do a few more of Grom’s Sidequest 3 – Rebuilding the Glades tasks while you’re here, or just leave them for the end once you have all the ore. You can also get Energy Cell 15/24 in a hut at the top of the town and the Bounty Shard on a limb to the left of the fire pit/air current if you’ve done enough of Grom’s rebuilding tasks (or via tricky jumping for the shard).

Act 2 - Mouldwood Depths

Now warp to the spirit well nearest the path down to Mouldwood Depths (just below the town in Kwolok’s Hollow). Go to the right and down from the shrine to reach a large stone idol at the entrance to Mouldwood. When you get there several Moki will open the path downward. Before heading down go directly to the right to find the Splinter Shard in an alcove. Once you float down through the spikes into Mouldwood Depths, look for a green spider with two of the blue plants you can grapple that pull out of the walls when you do on either side of it. There is an alcove here in the ceiling above the one on the right with Gorlek Ore 26/40. From here, we are going to ignore collectibles in Mouldwood until we finish the area to turn on the lights. You can go around nabbing them as soon as you get the Flash ability, but it’s just easier after the boss battle.

There is only one path to take through Mouldwood, essentially. You have to burst orange sacs that release little firefly faeries that you follow around. Go right from that first green spider until you reach a corner with one of those sacs. Break it open and follow the firefly down the shaft to the area below with the green bug enemies. Keep following it left across the adjacent room to the first keystone then break the next sac near the keystone and follow that firefly back across the top of the room to the first shaft’s bottom. Now go directly right across the spiked pit, using grapple on the blue flowers to reset your jump/dash to make it across. This next room won’t have a firefly at first, so you’ll need to go right then down via small sanctuaries of light, moving quickly through the black area.

At the bottom it’s best to bash off the 1st purple slime enemy to the next, and from that one to the left to reach a blue flower you can grapple to get to the keystone. Immediately break the sac to the left of the keystone before the darkness swallows you. Follow the firefly back up and out of the room to get back to the keystone door and open it. Grapple the flower or bash off the spider’s projectiles just inside this door to go up beside the spikes. Use the other two blue flowers via grapple to reach the upper-right ledge with the spitting worm enemy. Cross to the right and break the two pink spiney blobs on the floor in the area to allow the light shafts to shine down to the floor below. Return down to that floor and cross to the right, dashing between shafts before the darkness kills you.

Continue right past a beehive and spider. You should see a blue bounce pad in the darkness. The bounce pads, flowers on the walls, and hanging lanterns are small pools of light that save you from death, but you have to traverse between them quickly. Bounce to the right off the pad to land by a glowing orange blob. Jump right from it to another bounce pad, and right from that to a small ledge with orange glowing flowers on it. Move right away from the flowers (slightly) and quickly jump/grapple up onto the blue flower above. Stay on top of it as it retracts back into the wall on the left. Jump onto the bounce pad on the right and launch up to the left to reach the area’s spirit well (whew!).

Step off the well to the left and use your bow to shoot the sac up on the ceiling above. Follow the firefly down the shaft to the left, all the way to the bottom. You’ll see a keystone door to your left. Break the sac to the right and follow the new firefly. It will turn upward near a bounce pad. Jump off the pad to the ledge above on the right and break the sac. Immediately jump over to the hanging cocoon and jump off or slide down the left side to get the 1st keystone here before the firefly moves away. Follow it across the room to the left to the next keystone, then back down to the door. Break the lower of the two sacs just inside the door (not the one up above the blue flower) and follow that firefly down another shaft and to the right. You should see a bounce pad just as it starts to fade.

Bounce off the pad to the right and bash off the hanging lanterns to reach the ledge on the right. You should see a beehive ahead in a lighted area (whew!). Rather than going to the right, you can lure the bees over to the left and bash off them to reach the beam above, then bash off them again to get up to the next firefly sac. Break it and follow it up through the next area, using the blue flowers and hanging lanterns to keep up with it. It will reach a room with cocoons and go down, so make sure to slow your descent with cn_RT as you follow it. At the bottom go to the right to gain Flash from the Spirit Tree. Hurray, no more being afraid of the dark!

If you look at your map, you should see the spirit well from earlier with a shaft leading down on both the left and right side of it. You can’t get to the boss from the spirit well as there is a breakable wall to the right. From the spirit tree, look for a shaft that leads up on the right side of the spirit well in the previous rooms and go up that, using your Flash ability in the dark areas. Once you reach the top and are on the same level as the spirit well, break through the wall on the left to allow for easier access to the area for mopping up, then go right to meet up with Mora. There is an achievement for beating her without taking any damage that must be done during the story, so quit to the main menu and make a backup of your save file. A TA user has confirmed that if you take damage during any phase, just die to restart that phase and do that until you beat each phase flawlessly.

The achievement is extremely easy to do on Easy or Normal difficulty with the following setup. If you’re following along with this guide you should already have the two 25% damage boost upgrades from the trees, as well as the Lifeforce and Reckless Shards. If not, go get those four things now as well as the Finesse Shard and Spirit Surge shards. Lifeforce adds 30% damage when above half health. Finesse is 20% chance for 50% extra damage. Reckless adds 35% damage (take 35% more too but we are going flawless). Spirit Surge boosts damage based on how much spirit light you currently have, up to a 6000 spirit light cap. Also buy the Spirit Spike if you haven’t and upgrade it.

With this setup, it only takes ONE spirit spike to end each phase on easy difficulty. Normal shouldn't be much slower. Just keep your distance at the beginning and throw a spike, then as soon as the blue flower drops throw another. Climb up the shaft during the chase part and throw a 3rd once she enters the next area, followed by a 4th as soon as she starts screaming to shut off the lights. Doing that should kill her before she can even attack beyond her one at the start of the fight on Easy (and again nearly as quickly on Normal).

Dark Triumph

Fended off Mora

Dark Triumph
Untouchable

Defeated Mora Without Taking any Damage

Untouchable

One important thing to do before leaving even if you don’t mop up collectibles is to use your flash to go down the left side from the spirit well to the very bottom-left room (or go after defeating Mora). Talk to the Moki there and give him the empty lantern to receive the Mouldwood Silk, which advances Sidequest 2 – Hand to Hand. This lets you advance it again in Luma Pools easier/faster. While you’re here once Mora is defeated and the darkness is gone, follow along with the collectibles video (or use the maps on the hints/tips page) to mop up the collectibles in Mouldwood. This section starts at 45:47 and includes Spirit Trial 5’s Activation point, Lupo for Map 6/9, Spirit Surge Shard, Life Cell 17 & 18, Gorlek Ore 27, Mysterious Seed 4/6, Energy Cell 16 & 17, and Shard Slot 5 (spirit shrine). You’ll unlock redundant achievements if that shard slot was your 5th, Shine Bright and Fully Slotted.

Shrine Bright

Completed all Spirit Shrines

Shrine Bright
Fully Slotted

Upgraded all Shard Slots

Fully Slotted

You can also pick up the Gorlek Ore 31/40 and Life Pact Shard in Inkwater Marsh on your way to Luma Pools if you wish. I accidentally got the Ore out of place when making the video (which is why it’s numbered oddly, as I get three more in Luma Pools before I get it). You can see the Ore at 54:28 and the Shard at 51:26 in the video. I would suggest just leaving both until after Luma Pools, when we go to Midnight Burrows to clear it.

Act 2 - Luma Pools

Teleport to Inkwater Marsh upper left spirit well and go left and up through a fallen tree to see the sign pointing to Luma Pools. You’ll have to bash off purple projectiles from a worm to go left, then several worms’ projectiles to go up through a shaft. As soon as you reach the top, you’ll need to swim through another vertical shaft with air bubbles floating up. Small flowerlike things (sea anemone) on the walls that you touch to retract the barriers blocking the bubbles from rising. Grab a bubble to replenish your air periodically if you didn’t buy the Water Breath from the abilities vendor in town as advised in the collectibles video (or go buy it now). Swim to the top of the shaft. Exit via the top right for a water current to spit you out to the next area.

You may have cleared this area and started the water wheel going for collectibles at the end of Act 1. If not, let the water current push you to the right and swim down out the bottom of it. Water Breath is VERY handy for this bit. If you don’t have it, grab air periodically from the small air pocket above the water snake on the left, then swim right and wait for him to shoot a projectile at you. Bash off it to redirect it into the wooden barrier on the right to break it. Swim right and use a snake’s projectile to break the right barrier again if you need that air pocket. Bash off a projectile to direct it upward into the corruption at the base of the wheel to destroy it and set the wheel in motion. Swim up to the top-right and hop onto the wheel to ride it up, then jump over to the right wall and from there onto the platform above the wheel.

Jump/dash and glide with cn_RT to the left to reach the entrance to Luma Pools. Bounce off an air bubble rising out of the water to reach the middle plaform. You can get Gorlek Ore 28/40 now (or much easier later with Launch). To do it now use your feather from a few feet back from the ledge to blow one of the bubbles to the right. If you’re too close to the edge, it will blow too far and pop on the thorns above so just back up more if needed. Once you do that, immediately use grapple off the blue flower above, then bounce off the bubble to reach the ore. Talk to the Moki on the ledge to the left to receive Sidequest 10 – Kwolok’s Wisdom. Don’t worry if you forgot to talk to him, you can return at any time after fighting Kwolok and it just skips the first step of the quest and gives you the Amulet anyway.

Wait at the ledge to the left of the Moki and bounce off another bubble to land on top of the giant pink flower. From here you can bounce off another bubble and use some well-placed bashes off the two blob enemies on the walls as well as the flying enemy to reach the top-left corner for a lever. If you’re struggling to make it up this way, you can kill the flying enemy and use the Spirit Smash hammer to break open a small space near the door for more bubbles to make the trip up easier. Once the door is open head into the next room and drop down. Dispatch the enemy on the narrow beam above a pool of water and drop through (the middle path in the water is blocked by a purple wall). Swim down to and bash off the torpedos fired at you by the plant on the right to break open the purple barrier.

Break the starfish on the bubble producing plant as well, then swim up and bounce off a bubble to reach the ledge above on the left side of the pool with the bubbles coming out. Blow a bubble to the right with your feather and immediately dash right toward it, grapple off the flower above, and jump up to bash off the bubble up into a recessed area with Gorlek Ore 29/40. This is a tricky one to do now and can be seen at 52:20 in the collectibles video, or nabbed much easier later with Launch. Drop back down and this time fan a bubble to the left with your feather, then immediately grapple up and onto the ledge above. Jump left over the spikes and bounce off the bubble to reach the upper-left ledge. You’ll see Tokk standing here with water to the left and a blue grapple flower.

Grapple off the flower from and jump up onto the ledge above to the right with a Moki beside a small pool of water. Give him the string from Mouldwood to receive a spyglass and advance Sidequest 2 – Hand to Hand. Drop down into the water to the left of Tokk. There are bubbles here if you don’t have water breath but by now I hope you do. You’ll see another sea anemone to the right of the bubbles and several more below. You have to hit them in a counterclockwise order, so swim through the first, then down through the new opening to the 2nd which will release a water current pushing you to the right into the 3rd. Once you regain control swim up to the 4th one on the left as fast as you can because the opening closes very quickly.

Without water breath if you get closed off from the 4th one, immediately quit to the menu because you’re trapped and will drown. Once you manage to hit the 4th one in time, jump out of the water to the right and hit the 5th to drain some water into a lower area. This also makes the spirit well you passed a few minutes ago accessible now. You can grab Gorlek Ore 30/40 if you want to swim out the left side of the upper part of the room, but you’ll also run right past it getting the next Lupo map shortly. Swim down to the lower area and have a torpedo follow directly to the right of where they launch to break a purple barrier and get the Ultra Bash Shard. You can also use a torpedo to break open the shortcut to the right, but there’s no need to now and you’ll have water dash soon.

Now lure another torpedo and have it follow you all the way up and to the left past the sea anemones. Jump out of the water and bash off it to deflect it up to the purple stone barrier above. Hop out and use triple jump or another bubble bounce to reach the ledge above. The next room is a forced battle. You can just bash off the crabs to knock them into the water for an instant kill, and deflect the snakes’ projectiles back to them to kill them quickly. Drop down into the water in the next room to see several spinning spike obstacles. There are two purple barriers here, one to the left (the way forward) and one to the right blocked by a barrier with an anemone. Swim down to the left and hit the anemone to open the torpedo spitter.

Have its torpedo follow you up to the right. Quickly hit the anemone to open the barrier and swim through, then bash off the torpedo to break open the purple stone barrier. Go through this narrow passage to the right to buy Map 7/9 from Lupo. Break open the shortcut on the right side and you’ll be back where Gorlek Ore 30/40 is (or was if you got it earlier). Return to the room with the spike obstacles in the water. Swim down and lure another torpedo out, but don’t go to the other purple barrier yet. Instead, swim all the way up to the right and jump out of the water, then bash off the torpedo when it exits the water (be quick, they’re fast out of water) to reach the Energy Harvest Shard above. You’ll also see the area’s spirit trial start point nearby.

Finally return to the spike obstacle water and lure one more torpedo out. Swim up to the left between the spike obstacles and bash off the torpedo to break open the path to the left. Swim up and jump out of the water in the next room to meet up with Kwolok once more. Once he leaves, drop into the water and deflect one of the snake’s projectiles into the starfish on the bubble plant to release it. Hop back out to where you met Kwolok. Bounce off a bubble onto the small ledge on the left to get Mysterious Seed 5/6. You’ll notice that I accidentally got Gorlek Ore 31/40 out of order in the collectibles video and collected it here rather than while on the way over to Luma Pools. I mentioned it earlier before entering the area.

Once you get that seed climb up the wall on the right and make your way across the ceiling by bashing off the white light. You’ll probably want the Sticky shard equipped if you don’t already. Hang on the small bit of vertical wall to the left of the white light and wait for a bubble to start rising up. Drop off and dash over to bounce up off the bubble and reach a ledge above. Swim down the water on the left and lure a torpedo up to break the starfish on the bubble plant. Swim back down and lure another torpedo over to the air pocket on the left. Jump out of the water and bash off the torpedo to reach the keystone. Swim up and jump out of the water onto the left ledge. Use your feather to blow a bubble to the right, then quickly climb up the wall and jump over to bounce off it for the 2nd keystone.

Go right and use grapple to reach the 3rd keystone above the pool, then grapple again to reach the ledge above. Jump off the left side and grab the 4th keystone. Make your way back up, making sure to activate Spirit Trial 6 above the keystone door while you’re here. Ignore the keystone door for now. Go up to the left to a room with tons of bubbles. Bounce off one and dash right to reach a hanging white light, off which you can bash to reach Gorlek Ore 32/40. Return to the room to the left with tons of bubbles and use them to bounce your way up to the upper-right corner. You’ll need to tag a sea anemone on the ceiling of the room to open the way to that upper-right corner. Hit the lever there to open the door to Energy Cell 18/24 and make your way back across the bubbles to reach it.

Go back to the keystone door and through to reach the area’s Spirit Tree and the new Water Dash ability - cn_RB when under water. This will allow you to break the starfish on bubble plants, but you still can’t break open the purple walls and will need torpedos for them. Break the starfish off the two bubble plants in the water below, and use water bash to hit a pressure plate in the lower-right corner of the water beneath the tree. Exit the room on the upper-right (the door the pressure plate opened). In the next room you’ll need to hit the four anemones in a very short time. Starting with the lower left one, then quickly water dash out of the water straight up into the 2nd. Grapple and dash to the right to reach the 3rd, then drop into the water and swim down to the 4th. This opens the large stone barrier to the right.

Before leaving the room, grapple off the blue flower in the top middle once more and jump over to the upper-left corner of the room for Energy Cell 19/24. Use a torpedo from this right side of the room to break the barrier in the middle of you wish, though it isn’t necessary. You can get Life Cell 19/24 now as well, though it is very tricky. It can be seen at 56:25 in the collectibles video. What you need to do is get into the very small pool of water right beside the exit to this room (where the large stone barrier was removed after hitting the anemones). Once a torpedo is fired at you from the left, launch yourself diagonally up and to the right out of the water with water dash. You have to go high enough that the torpedo goes over the exit/wall when fired, but not so high that you’re too far away to bash off it.

Once you get the angle right bash off the torpedo mid-air to angle it up and to the right as its trajectory will always arc downward. You need it to hit the purple stone wall to the right to open the spot with the life cell inside. This may take a few tries as it is the trickiest life or energy cell in the game to obtain. Now teleport back to the spirit well near the Luma Pools entrance and head left. You will enter the same forced-combat room as before, but now that you have water dash it will trigger a 2nd round of combat. Dispatch all the enemies to drain the water from the room and open the barrier on the ceiling. Bounce off a bubble and grapple up to reach Life Cell 20/24. Continue left across the lowest path in Luma Pools previously not accessible because you need water dash to get past some falling stone slabs.

You’ll reach the area’s 2nd spirit well and continue through another short bit of swimming before exiting the water to meet some Moki worried about Kwolok. Go right from them to trigger a short escape sequence followed by his fight. If you’ve been following along with this guide the fight will be a breeze, even on Hard difficulty as the Overflow + Catalyst Shards combination breaks the game. If not, you may struggle with the 2nd half of the fight because the room fills with water and you can’t regenerage. However even without overflow/catalyst the fight can be made extremely easy the same way as Mora’s fight. Combine the upgraded Spirit Spike and have the two 25% damage upgrades along with the Reckless, Lifeforce, Finesse, and Spirit Surge shards to do absurd amounts of damage. You will easily kill him in under 2 minutes on Easy or Normal, and likely even Hard mode. This will grant the Timely Demise achievement along with Guardian’s Rest.

Guardian's Rest

Fended off Kwolok

Guardian's Rest
Timely Demise

Defeated Kwolok in Under 2 Minutes

Timely Demise

After the fight you can swim back through the escape sequence area and hit a sea anemone hidden inside a sandy area that requires burrow to access in order to grab Gorlek Ore 33/40. Return to the Moki at the very beginning of Luma Pools to advance Sidequest 10 – Kwolok’s Wisdom. He will ask you to take the amulet to the shrine by where you very first met Kwolok at the beginning of the game, so teleport to the nearest spirit well there and complete that quest. Now teleport to town and talk to the stats guy Motay above the shard vendor to give him the spyglass for a canteen to advance Sidequest 2 – Hand to Hand. You can also knock out Sidequest 5 – Into the Darkness now that you have the flash ability. Just go into the cave and activate flash then make your way to the acorn at the end. Exit and give it to the Moki to complete the quest.

Act 2 - Windswept Wastes

Time to return to Windswept Wastes. Since we went there earlier to get Burrow, you can simply teleport to the Silent Woods spirit well nearest to the entrance to the area. Go right from the spirit well and burrow down into the sand nearby to grab Gorlek Ore 34/40. Directly east from the spirit well approximately midway across the area you will reach a sloped area of disintegrating sand that angles up and to the right. Directly beneath this you should see a shovel in the sand. Whether you’ve spoken to Tokk further in the area or not, you should be able to dash with cn_RB into the shovel to obtain an Eerie Gem. This starts Sidequest 11 – A Diamond in the Rough if you haven’t already. Tokk is right beside the other spirit well in this area, on the northwestern side. You don’t need to talk to him though as he just tells you to find someone who knows a lot about gems.

Teleport to town and talk to the shard vendor Twillen to complete the quest and receive the Secret Shard, which will make nearby secret areas on your screen transparent, allowing you to see what’s inside. At this point since we’ve already explored most of Windswept Wastes earlier when we came for the Burrow ability, just follow along with the collectibles video starting at 1:01:02 to get Energy Cell 20-22, Gorlek Ore 35, Life Cell 21 &22, Last Stand Shard, Lupo for Map 8/9, Spirit Trial 7’s activation point, the Turmoil Shard, Gorlek Ore 36/40, and Mysterious Seed 6/6. On your way up through the area, make sure to stop by the Gorlek Miner (not to far from the area’s spirit tree) to give him the canteen and receive the Map Stone Fragment to advance Sidequest 2 – Hand to Hand.

You’ll place this in a map stone in the Windtorn Temple after the escape to reveal ALL secrets/collectibles on the map. When you reach the top of the area you’ll need get extra height to burrow-dash through the hanging sand ball to go up. You can either burrow down into the sand on the left side and lure a projectile out to bash off or throw a light burst shot and bash off of it. Burrow-dash through the sand and bash off the white light, then dash through and bash off a 2nd sand ball and light to reach the upper-right ledge and the entrance to Windtorn Ruins. You can actually make it up here as soon as Act 1 is over assuming you got the burrow ability on your way up, but you can’t enter until you have all four wisps. They’ll open the door and allow entry.

Windtorn Ruins isn’t really a dungeon. You just follow along the only path and pass by several mosaics, revealing more of the story and lore behind the game. Once you reach the bottom of the ruins you’ll need to burrow up through some sand to reach the only spirit well in the area. Destroy the green corruption on the wall to the left of the well to knock a pillar over and reveal the path forward. Proceed down the fallen pillar for a poignant cut scene and the start of the worm chase escape. This one isn’t too bad but will require some well-timed dashes, burrow dashes off hanging sand balls, grapples, and bashes to escape. It is the hardest sequence in the game on Hard mode in my opinion, assuming you have all the upgrades for the final encounter with Shriek. Once it’s over you’ll unlock Quick Sand.

Quick Sand

Escaped from the Ruins

Quick Sand
Offline Mode - These achievements require play in game modes that do not necessitate a connection to any online services.Single Player - These achievements can be obtained by a single player.Main Storyline - These achievements are gained automatically by progressing through the main game modes.

You can head to the final area now and do the mop-up later. The Launch ability obtained there makes mop-up much, MUCH quicker and easier. But I’ll assume you want to knock out a few things now. If not, skip down to the Weeping Ridge area below to continue through the final area.

Follow along with the collectibles video for this starting at 1:04:45. Teleport back to the spirit well inside the ruins and go to the left. When you drop down burrow through the sand below to reach Energy Cell 23/24. Go left from there past the spot where the chase started to find a map stone. Insert the fragment into it to complete Sidequest 2 – Hand to Hand. This reveals all collectibles and secrets on the map as well as unlocking Mark of the Trader. I know I haven't included the location of every spirit light orb in this walkthrough, but in my opinion it would make it overly cumbersome to read for the vast majority of users. Completing this quest will show you every spirit light orb you haven't already gotten in the normal course of play, allowing for easy mop-up.

Grab Life Cell 23/24 from the tunnel between Wellspring, Luma Pools, and Inkwater Marsh (it has three forks). Energy Cell 24/24 is located due east from that life cell near the Inkwater exit of the tunnel. Assuming this is your last Energy one you’ll unlock Powerful. The final life cell and more ore are inside the final area.

Mark of the Trader

Completed the Trade Sequence Quest

Mark of the Trader
Powerful

Maxed out Energy

Powerful

We are going to leave off finishing the Midnight Burrows area until after we explore the final area and get Launch to make it easier. If you want to do it you can, it’s just slightly trickier. Skip down to the Midnight Burrows section below if you wish to. Teleport back to town and have the seed guy plant any seeds you haven’t planted yet, as you should have all six now. This completes Sidequest 12 – Regrowing the Glades.

Act 3 - Weeping Ridge

Teleport to the eastern spirit well in Silent Woods and burrow through the sand down to the left to reach a short scene with Shriek. Your foe will retreat allowing access to this area. You’ll recognize it as the Feeding Grounds you passed through (and had to hide from Shriek) on your way to Windswept Wastes at Act 2’s start. Float up the air current with your feather, then jump off the pole to the right to the platform. Grapple to the hanging wall above and jump over to the sand wall. Burrow through and exit to the left to reach Weeping Ridge. Go left and hit the lever on the elevator to start it rising. You’ll have to battle some crazed gorleks as it goes up. Eventually it will break down, so exit to the right once it opens.

Make your way to the right and down through this tunnel to reach the final Spirit Tree and obtain the Launch ability. If this is your final ability (having purchased all of the ones from the vendor) you will unlock Tools of the Trade (along with Mad Skills if you upgraded all of the ones that can be upgraded with him). I’ll include those achievements later when we visit the town. To use launch assign it to cn_X cn_Y or cn_B. I found it easiest to have my blade on X, my launch ability on Y, and regenerate on B by default through most of the final area. Note: Your Launch ability will be reset (aka able to be used again) any time you go through one of the blue-glow portal doors or any time you Bash off a projectile/enemy. Your Launch ability, in turn, resets both your dash and bash.

So you could jump, dash, launch, dash, bash, launch, dash, bash, launch, etc. Theoretically you could stay airborne indefinitely through judicious use of launch, bash, dash, and portals. Explore this tunnel for spirit light orbs if you wish then return back the way you came to the elevator. Make sure to grab Gorlek Ore 37/40 on your way up from the tree in an alcove to the upper-right before exiting back to the elevator. Make your way up through the two lasers above the elevator with launch and clinging to the walls, then go left to enter Willow’s End.

Act 3 - Willow’s End

Immediately from the start look for two spinning objects to the right with round platforms in their center. Jump through the gap in the lower one onto the platform in its center, then wait for a gap in the upper one to grapple up to its central platform. Launch up from the top one when its opening is facing up and dash right into the blue glow portal door. You’ll exit into a short tunnel leading to Gorlek Ore 38/40. Exit the tunnel back into the main area and glide down to the lower-right side with cn_RT. You’ll see a portal door above blocked by corruption. Continue to the right and up through this tunnel by launching and landing on the small safe platforms between lasers. You can shoot the explosive mines with your spirit arc bow before launching over to their ledge.

At the top break the orange blob (aka corrupted heart) to release a giant ball that will begin an Indiana Jones-like escape (briefly). Don’t worry, the ball isn’t a one-hit kill unless it pins you against a wall. Dash back to the right and fall down past one laser to a small ledge on the left with a barrier that is breakable from the far side. Make your way back up to the top of the tunnel and destroy the other corrupted heart, then fall through the portal revealed. At the bottom you can go through the portal on the ball that rolled down if you want 100% map completion, but there isn’t anything important inside. Cross over past the two spinning objects back to the area’s entrance and continue straight across to the left to reach another tunnel you must make your way through.

Use grapple to connect to the blue moss-covered spinning objects. Jump off them as you approach the direction you want to go to get thrown forward. You may want to stop off on the small ledge on the left with the green life orb plant to get a checkpoint. Make your way until you’re crossing the top and see two parallel lasers that aren’t turning on and off like the rest. Launch through the portal to their immediate left and float down to the left to launch through the next portal. Destroy the corrupted heart inside to drop a stone down into the purple one-hit-kill river below but don’t drop down. Instead, launch up through the portal that was above that stone to find Life Cell 24/24 and unlock Healthy.

Healthy

Maxed out Life

Healthy

Go back through the portal and drop down where the rock fell. Cross to the right to get back to the area’s starting point and launch up to a small floating platform below the portal above. Jump up and launch up through the portal to get to the next part of the area. You’ll need to launch upward again immediately when coming out the other side, then cling to the wall on the right. Shoot the mine above with your bow or just jump up and launch past it. The large ball of energy to the left should start firing projectiles at you, so bash upward off one then launch up through the gap above. You’ll see a spirit well on the left and Lupo on the ledge to the right. Buy Map 9/9 from him to unlock Cartographer’s Protégé.

Cartographer's Protégé

Bought all Maps from Lupo

Cartographer's Protégé

Break open the portal to the right of Lupo but don’t enter it. Instead launch up to the platform above to the right with a crazed gorlek on it. Cross to the right and launch up to the vertical wall above the pool of purple sludge. Drop off, dash right, and launch up. You’ll see a portal on the wall to the right but don’t enter that (unless you need to enter/exit it to reset your launch ability). Drop down to the right past the life orb plant and glide down to the portal on the bottom right. This area is a square with portals on the top/bottom/side of each corner except this lower-left one, which only has the one portal. Make your way to the lower-right corner, breaking open the right portal on the upper-right corner on your way there.

Bash off a projectile from the left in this lower-right corner to direct it down through the portal beneath you and drop through the portal after it. Stand on the ledge nearest the portal where you exit and wait for the projectile to come out of the portal above. Bash off it again to direct it into the portal on the right and follow it through that porta. Wait on the ledge near the where you exit (on the upper-left corner of this square area) and bash off the projectile yet again to send it downward. Launch up through the portal above to come out back at the bottom-left corner where you entered the room. You’ll see a purple stone wall to the right. Once the projectile arrives on one of its infinite circuits between the portals, bash off it to deflect it into the wall then destroy the corrupted heart inside.

Return to the left and go through the portal you passed earlier just to the left of the green life cell plant. This will spit you out into a tunnel above, so launch up to the wall above you. Dash left off the wall; bash off a projectile from the enemy, and launch up to the left through the next portal. Make your way through this tunnel via launch, burrow dashing off the hanging balls of sand, and bashing off projectiles from the enemies to destroy the corrupted heart at the upper-right end of the tunnel. Return back to the portal at the tunnel’s entrance and leave back to the main area. Cross up and to the left from where you exit back to the main area to reach a bridge where the core of the corruption is in the background. It will “add corrupted hearts” to your map, but if you completed Hand to Hand earlier that’s irrelevant.

Launch directly up from here to reach the area above. You’ll see a spinning object to the right with a portal in it. Wait until the portal is on its approach, then jump up and hold your launch to release it when the portal is facing you to reach the next tunnel. Grapple to the blue flower above, then drop off and launch into the next portal as it spins to face you. Upon exiting grapple upward through the tunnel across three blue flowers then launch through the portal near the laser. Try to time it so you exit the spinning object to the right of the laser when its portal is facing away from the laser or the walls (preferably up and to the left to land in a secret area and compose yourself). Glide down to the right through the tunnel and launch up through the next portal to destroy the next corrupted heart.

This one gives you a nice little shortcut, so just drop straight down through the new openings to get back down to the main area without having to reverse navigate through that tunnel. Go left when you land, dashing underneath a large round boulder as it falls to create a new portal below. Continue left through this very short tunnel to a portal that leads down to the Willow Stone fight. Assuming you have collected the Overflow+Catalyst shard combination by now, as well as all those damage upgrade shards and the 25% damage upgrades I mentioned for Untouchable and Timely Demise, you should be able to destroy this boss any way you see fit. I just stayed airborne and wailed away with my sword, but the spirit spike should work just as well as it did on the other two bosses. Once it’s defeated the next bit of corruption is destroyed and you unlock Laser Brain.

Laser Brain

Defeated the Willow Stone

Laser Brain

Drop through a portal to the left or right and glide with cn_RT, then launch up through the top-middle portal to exit. Cross back through the short tunnel here to the main area again. Jump up and launch through the portal on the upper-right that was revealed when the round boulder fell. Upon exiting continue down to the lower left through multiple lasers. When you see a crazed gorlek make sure to break open the wall to the right of him to reveal a shortcut back to the spirit well. Go left from the gorlek into an area with a three lasers spinning on a central axel. On the left side of the room you can see the 2nd to last corrupted heart through a narrow log. Jump onto the small floating platform on the lower-left side of the room, clinging to the left side with the sticky shard. Once a laser passes, jump up and quickly launch up through the log to destroy the corrupted heart.

Drop back down and drop through the portal in the lower center of the room, directly beneath the axel with the three lasers. You’ll exit out into the final corrupted heart tunnel. Jump up onto the platform inside the spinning object when the opening is facing you and dodge the three lasers inside as the opening rotates around. Once it rotates to the upper-left jump up and dash through to get to the portal. You’ll exit out into an area with wind currents, so just hold/tap cn_RT and maneuver through the area carefully. When you’re inside the giant round stone that spins with the ‘safe’ tunnel through its center, make sure to exit it to the right first to get Gorlek Ore 39/40 before exiting to the left. Go up and destroy the final corrupted heart, then break open the portal to the right and exit.

Exit back out to the main area (or teleport to the spirit well) and go up to where the core of the corruption was. A doorway is now open that leads to the final boss. When you exit, go left to activate the nearby spirit well. You can go ahead and fight Shriek now by launching your way up to the right, but let’s mop up a little first.

Midnight Burrows

Teleport to Midnight Burrows to complete Sidequest 9 – Into the Burrows. If you didn’t drop down into it to activate its spiritwell earlier, just warp to the nearest one up at the split between the burrows and Luma Pools paths then drop down into its entrance shaft and trigger its spirit well on the lower-left side before continuing.

From the spirit well at the lower-left side (western side) of the burrows, go directly to the right and drop into the portal at the bottom. You’ll come out the other side and see the first keystone to the right on a thorny wall. Launch up to grab it and fall back through the portal. When you exit, drop through the portal again and this time launch straight up to grab onto the wall above to the left. You can let yourself keep falling through the portals and jumping straight up to build up momentum if you don’t have launch. Go up onto the ledge to the right with the worm and jump up into the portal above at the right end.

Upon exiting you’ll see a portal to the left and right. Go into the left one then down through the lower of the two portals to the left. You’ll come out in the area between the upside-down V shaped tree above, with thorns and a pink blob enemy to your right. Drop down and bash off the hanging white lights to get to the right side of this area for the 2nd keystone and a lever that raises that upside-down V shaped tree upward, repositioning its portals. Now bash to the left across the hanging white lights down here and exit via the portal on the left side. You’ll come out by a lever that doesn’t stay switched when activated. So hold cn_RT and pull the lever for a few seconds to completely raise the door above.

Then either launch up to the door or drop down through the portal below so you exit from the right side of the upside-down V-shaped tree onto the hanging platform, allowing you to dash through the door before it closes. Go right to the end of the platform and jump over the first portal you see at the bottom to the 2nd one on the lower-right side of this section. You’ll come out on the opposite side of the thorn-covered wall. Launch up to get the 3rd keystone and break the wall to the right to open a shortcut to the game’s earlier area. If you don’t have launch just keep jumping at the peak of your jump when you exit the portals and go back and forth between the two until you gain enough height to reach it.

Return to the previous room (where you went through the stone door as it closed from the lever that doesn’t stay switched) and this time exit via the top-right side into a long tunnel with thorn-covered round obstacles in the middle and long continuous portals lining the floor and ceiling. Make your way across this tunnel to the left to reach the 4th keystone. Return to the ledge where the worm enemy was earlier near the start of the area and launch straight up past the spider enemy (or bash off its projectiles). You’ll see another green spider above. Go left through the keystone door to reach the Curious Tablet quest item. Drop back down past the two spiders and go to the right end of the platform where the worm was.

From the end of the platform launch directly up to the right of the portal immediately above you to reach a 2nd portal in the upper-left corner above. You can get there via a different portal that spits you out from the left side of the upside-down V-shaped tree, but it’s easier like this with launch. Go through the portal to reach the Deflector Shard. Return to Tokk at the area’s entrance by the hanging light puzzle to hand in the tablet and complete Sidequest 9 – Into the Burrows.

Now that you have all the Ore except for the final one in town, let’s head back to town and complete the last couple of sidequest objectives. Gorlek Ore 40/40 is on the upper-left side of the town in a secret area. You can get to it once the flower guy has planted the blue moss, but now you can just launch up to it. Now that you have all the ore, return to Grom and have him complete any tasks you haven’t done already. If you’re missing the final task that costs 10 ore, talk to the Moki above and to the right of the fire pit (the one you can fan with the feather to create an updraft). Once all his tasks are complete you’ll unlock Fixer Upper. If it was your last sidequest (which it should be), you’ll also unlock Completionist.

Fixer Upper

Completed all Wellspring Glades Projects

Fixer Upper
Completionist

Completed every Side Quest

Completionist

Travel around the map via the spirit wells to visit the eight Spirit Trial races. You don’t need to beat anyone on the leaderboards. When accessing them from the story, you just need to beat the purple ghost that is your default opponent the first time you run the race. They aren’t available via quick access until you’ve completed them once from within the story. Once you’ve beaten the default ghost on all eight you’ll unlock Speed Demon. You’ll also gain more Spirit Light from these for the next step, purchases. I never went to Spirit Trial 8’s activation point thus far. You can see it at 1:14:09 in the collectibles video.

Speed Demon

Completed all Spirit Trials

Speed Demon

Warp back to town. Assuming you have enough cash, make sure to buy all shards you haven’t already purchased and upgrade any that can be upgraded at the shard vendor. Also buy all abilities and upgrade them all at the ability vendor. Assuming you’ve been following this guide, you should have all the other shards from the game and will unlock Shard Hunter and Shard Specialist, as well as Tools of the Trade and Mad Skills. If you’re playing on Hard you may not have enough money to do both, so I’d suggest making a backup save and doing the abilities on that, then reloading your main save and doing the shards as they count as collectibles, I believe. The ones on the map do but I am not certain if the vendor-purchased ones are considered collectibles.

Shard Hunter

Unlocked all Shards

Shard Hunter
Shard Specialist

Upgraded all Shards

Shard Specialist
Tools of the Trade

Unlocked all Abilities

Tools of the Trade
Mad Skills

Upgraded all Abilities

Mad Skills

The only mop-up left would be to go around the map and collect all the Spirit Light orbs. The prevailing wisdom is that these count as collectibles too, but as I mentioned before I feel the walkthrough would be overly cumbersome including text directions to each and every spirit light orb. If you follow along with my 100% completion video you will find them all. Alternatively, just use the map reveal you get when completing the Hand to Hand quest to go around with Launch at this end-game mop-up section to collect them all much quicker. On my speedrun on Easy, I left nearly every collectible on the map other than stuff that was directly in my path of travel, and it took less than two hours to go around collecting everything once I had Launch, including all the spirit light orbs. Once you collect them all, assuming you have all the ore, life cells, energy cells, shard slots, shards, and abilities you should unlock Lost and Found.

Lost and Found

Found all Collectibles

Lost and Found

Willow's End - Final Battle

Now you can warp back to the upper willow’s end to fight Shriek and finish the game. Shards I suggest (as for all bosses) are as follows: Overflow, Catalyst, Lifeforce, Finesse, Spirit Surge, Reckless, and any other two you like (I almost always keep triple jump slotted). From the well just launch up to the right to the small floating platform and up again to reach the ledge above. Walk right to trigger a cut scene, after which you’ll fight this final boss. With all the upgrades, this one should go as easily as the others. Just take out your upgraded Spirit Spike and throw it at Shriek’s head. Even on hard it shouldn’t take many hits to end each phase. After the first phase you’ll have a brief chase sequence. His attacks are somewhat random. Sometimes he will go into the background and a rain of projectiles will begin falling. Just bash off of them until he returns.

The final phase is aerial combat with no solid ground. Don’t forget that bashing or launching resets your jump, as well as resetting each other. You shouldn’t have any trouble at all staying airborne. On easy difficulty Spirit Spike did so much damage I actually skipped the final aerial combat phase entirely. For beating Shriek you’ll unlock Stone Cold. Completing the game you’ll unlock Destiny, and if you’ve done this on Hard mode as your initial run you will also unlock Hardcore Fan.

Stone Cold

Defeated Shriek

Stone Cold
Destiny

Completed the Game

Destiny
Hardcore Fan

Completed Hard Mode

Hardcore Fan

Your next step will be a Lightless, Shardless, Zero Deaths (Immortal) speedrun in under four hours on Easy difficulty. Having played through on hard, you will find it immeasurably easier on easy difficulty and shouldn’t have much trouble even lightless/shardless. Any time you die, just quit out and go to the ‘backup saves’ on that save file to load the previous checkpoint. This should only cost you a couple minutes’ progress if that each time you die, making it much better than creating manual backups every 10 or 15 minutes, and has been confirmed to unlock the Immortal achievement. If you’re struggling with the speedrun aspect, make a backup at the start of each area (Wellspring, Bauer’s Reach, Mouldwood depths, Luma Pools) and run through the area once or twice to get the path down.

I have a lightless shardless speedrun video below that only took 2 hours and 20 minutes, leaving you loads of time to spare. You can collect life cells and energy cells to make it easier. You can even get the two 25% damage upgrades (Tree Keeper quest and light puzzle at entrance to Midnight Burrows). Just don’t buy anything or equip any shards. At the end of this playthrough you’ll unlock Lightless, Shardless, Immortal, and Look at the time.

Lightless

Beat the Game Without Spending any Spirit Light

Lightless
Shardless

Beat the Game Without Equipping a Shard

Shardless
Immortal

Completed the Game without Dying

Immortal
Look at the Time

Completed the Game in Under 4 Hours

Look at the Time

That should be your 1000/1000. I hope you enjoyed this game as much as I did and thank you for reading!

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