Rain World – Quick Guide to The Watcher DLC

The Watcher DLC Guide for Noobs

Maps

This is a basic version of the game map. It shows how different zones connect to each other, where you can find echo locations, and other helpful stuff. This map is most useful after you’ve beaten the main story if you want to explore all the areas and find all the secrets.

Click to enlarge…

Used to check the easiest way to move between regions and the “normal” path that you can follow if you ignore rifts and simply collect Echos when possible.

Timeline

Just a reminder an official timeline confirmed by Rain World devs.

Echoes

List of all echoes and where they lead:

• Verdant Waterways -> Fetid Glen
• Salination -> Shattered Terrace
• Fetid Glen -> Shattered Terrace
• Cold Storage -> Salination
• Heat Ducts -> Stormy Coast
• Aether Ridge -> Torrid Desert
• Badlands -> Shrouded Coast
• Signal Spires -> Shattered Terrace
• Turbulent Pump -> Heat Ducts
• Stormy Coast -> Signal Spires
• Shrouded Coast -> Cold Storage
• Torrid Desert -> Badlands
• Desolate Tract -> Turbulent Pump

General Mechanics

This section provides tiered hints (Minor Nudge, Moderate Hint, Major Help) for various mechanics and regions in Rain World.

Gates

• Minor Nudge: Note what happens when you attempt to use the gate. Pay close attention to your screen.
• Moderate Hint: Specifically, observe your UI elements.
• Major Help (if truly stuck): Remember the symbol required by the gate; you’ve seen this symbol associated with karma levels before. What does it mean that this symbol also appears on the death screen? What is the correlation? When you die, your karma symbol (on the wheel) usually goes down. When you survive a cycle, it goes up. The gate requires a specific karma level or higher. You might currently be at the lowest level, but surviving cycles will help you raise it.

Karma Flowers

• Minor Nudge: It appears near where you last died. What spawned there? Why wasn’t it there before?
• Moderate Hint: What did you possess just before you died? What happened on the death screen related to your karma level?

Echoes

• Minor Nudge: What happened here seemed a bit paranormal? Is there something specific that makes them appear? Sometimes a place is worth returning to, even just for the view.
• Major Help (If truly stuck): Persevere against all odds. Your major hint is that reaching these requires survival under specific conditions related to your karma level.

Overseer Callouts (Yellow Guide)

• Minor Nudge 1: Maybe the location it’s pointing towards is interesting or important?
• Minor Nudge 2: You’ve seen runes like these before, but don’t know their meaning. Perhaps you’ll learn their significance based on what happens next?

Taming

• Minor Nudge: How might you attempt to tame or befriend an animal in real life?
• Moderate Hint: Lizards often try to eat you. Does that hint at what might satisfy them? What kind of food might they like?

Passages (Achievements/Progression)

• The Survivor:
  • Minor Nudge: Think: what fundamental action directly correlated with gaining progress on this passage?
• The Chieftain:
  • Minor Nudge: You know the fifth karma symbol represents the Survivor. The third symbol is favoured by Scavengers – they even use it on their tolls. Could it signify ‘a gathering’? This passage relates to Scavengers and survival.
  • Moderate Hint: This involves Scavengers and survival, suggesting creatures working together. The passage relates to helping each other.
  • Major Help: Acting non-threatening (like putting down spears) helps avoid conflict. To gain Scavenger trust, try giving them something they need. Giving them something they love (like pearls) is even better for building reputation, though gifts of needed items (like spears) are a good start.
• The Dragon Slayer:
  • Minor Nudge: These progress pips fill with specific colours. These colours belong to a certain category, and other colours exist within that same category.
  • Moderate Hint: The colours that fill the pips correspond to certain creatures found in the world. Identify the common trait linking these coloured creatures. Then, look for other creatures whose colours share this trait. You need to perform a specific action involving these creatures.

Regions

Outskirts

• Minor Nudge: If exploring broadly doesn’t lead anywhere, try meticulously exploring every corner of the current region.
• Moderate Hint: The ‘View Map’ button can reveal areas you might have missed. Pay attention to your yellow overseer; it provides more than just visual guidance.
• Major Help: Look for a room or exit pipe that clearly indicates passage to a new region.

Industrial Complex

• Minor Nudge: The transition here is significant. Take time to learn: How do new objects work? What new food is available? How do creatures interact with each other and with you? Observing details might be useful later.
• Moderate Hint: Remember you can backtrack. If lost, use the map and follow your overseer. Your main goal is finding the way forward to the next region.

Drainage System

• Minor Nudge: This area primarily tests your swimming abilities. You can return the way you came or restart the cycle if needed.
• Moderate Hint: Avoid jumping underwater; the small speed boost isn’t worth the significant oxygen loss. Pace your swimming by periodically surfacing or finding air pockets, timing movements with Slugcat’s strokes.

Garbage Wastes

• Minor Nudge: Similar to Industrial Complex, experiment with the new creatures here. How do they react if you attack, avoid, or interact with them in other ways?
• Major Help: This region is maze-like. Apply the exploration and survival skills learned previously. Remember your map and overseer.
• Scavengers (Specific to Garbage Wastes & Encounters Elsewhere):
  • Minor Nudge: These creatures appear numerous and coordinated. What might that suggest about their intelligence or social structure?
  • Moderate Hint: Every creature has motivations. Observe Scavenger behaviours (pointing, emoting, trading). How can understanding their goals and communication benefit you?
  • Major Help: Rain World’s creatures have complex behaviours. Consider non-violent approaches. Can you prove your intent or improve your relationship (‘reputation’) with them? Learning to understand creature behaviour is crucial. (See ‘The Chieftain’ passage hints for interaction ideas).

Shoreline

• Looks to the Moon (Location):
  • Minor Nudge: This area might seem like a dead end. Explore the chamber as you wish, then find shelter for the cycle.
  • Moderate Hint: After sheltering, you’ll experience a dream sequence. What did you see? How might it relate to your actions in the chamber? What changed after the dream that might provide a new direction or objective?

Shaded Citadel

• General:
  • Minor Nudge: It’s extremely dark here. Is there a source of light available or a way to create one?
• Scavengers & Lanterns:
  • Minor Nudge: You might have seen Scavengers carrying lanterns. Taking one might anger them. How could you acquire a light source without causing hostility? What might appease them if you did take one?
• Kelp:
  • Minor Nudge: How does this creature detect you? Understanding its senses is important.
  • Moderate Hint: A single spear won’t kill it, but hitting its stem (its only vulnerable point) has an effect. Observe what happens. Could this effect be useful defensively?
  • Major Help (if truly lost): Combine the previous hints: The creature is blind (relies on other senses), and hitting its stem disrupts it temporarily. Stealth and careful strikes are key.
• Memory Crypts (Sub-region):
  • Minor Nudge: This section is a dangerous race against time, balancing risk and reward. Reach the end before the rain arrives.
  • Moderate Hint: Waiting for the patrolling creatures (‘birds’) takes a long time. Is there a way to make passage safer or faster? What nearby resource could help you navigate past them?
  • Major Help (if truly lost): Why do the flashlight-like blue plants grow here specifically? Try picking one up and using it. Consider why items appear in certain locations – it’s often a gameplay clue.