Deponia 1 walkthrough with missable achievements

Overview

Tired of walkthroughs that assume you’ve been following them all along without trying anything on your own? I was, so i wrote this one for “Welcome to Deponia.” Many hints given; all missable achievements marked (including Junkyard King); snarky complaints provided free of charge.

Introduction

I created these Deponia: The Complete Journey guides (links to the others are at the end, under “Next…!”) based on my dissatisfaction with the way other walkthroughs are organized. When referring to other guides, i found information to be grouped in a way that catered to readers who were following them to the letter start to finish, whereas i was only checking here and there to get past specific frustrations. I’m guessing i’m not the only one who does it that second way.

<RANT> So for example, when it turned out that my problem was an item i’d missed, i then had to go digging around in other parts of the guide to figure out where that item came from. Worse, there were occasionally two actions that needed to be performed, but the first was described in a completely separate part of the guide and not mentioned anywhere in the vicinity of the hurdle that blocked my path, leaving me totally baffled as to why the second action didn’t work. I was also thwarted by minigame “help” that assumed you hadn’t even tried to work it out on your own at all, and therefore only needed to be given a series of blind clicks to get through; a practice sort of like giving someone driving directions while specifying neither the start point nor the street address of the destination. Not to mention that in at least 3 instances (across several different guides, to be fair), i found information that was flat-out wrong. …And then there was that annoying one in which every other instruction had the phrase “go ahead and” tacked on at the beginning … i don’t care if the guide offers easy solutions to all my real life’s real problems, screw that. </RANT>

Therefore, i tried to organize this guide in such a way that you can search it for the obstacle you’re trying to get past (like getting the Headphones for example) and find all the information you need to pass it collected right there without having to do very much additional rummaging around. Please note that this method does not always provide the fastest way through the game, if that’s what you’re looking for.

I’ve also made an effort to provide hints to tip you over the edge of figuring out a problem yourself before being handed the answer. However, extensive hints are difficult to work into a walkthrough without making it REALLY long and requiring readers to mouse over a LOT of spoiler text (which is unsearchable, making the guide MUCH harder to use), so perhaps a separate “cluethrough” is in order to do that up right. All rights reserved on that word i just made up.

missable achievement alerts

If performing an action can prevent you from obtaining any missable Steam achievement, these alerts will let you know. The achievements that you can’t avoid earning are not mentioned in this walkthrough; i’ve only covered the ones that you have to do something special in order to receive.

Junkyard King

On the Main Menu, you’ll see a button marked “Bonus;” if you click that, you’ll find another button marked “Sculpture.” If you click that button, you may see a sculpture, or some scattered junk, or a blank wall — it all depends on what you’ve done in-game so far.

This enigmatic area is connected to an achievement called “Junkyard King:” the idea is that on your travels, you will collect the parts needed to complete this work of repurposed art. These eleven small, innocuous items are scattered throughout Kuvaq, the Junk Mines, and the Lower Ascension Station, hidden in the scenery. Each item you find (and click on) will appear on your Bonus Sculpture screen.

Note that the items don’t appear in your inventory when you click them, they just make a musical noise and disappear; also note that they are NOT highlighted when you use the space bar to view hotspots.

The items must be collected in a continuous timeline in order to complete the Sculpture and earn the achievement. That is to say, if you miss one piece, you can’t just load up an old save file, click that one piece, and be done; in order to succeed, you would have to then play through the rest of the game and collect all the pieces that followed the one you went back for.

Within the body of this guide, i will not be spoiling the locations of the Junkyard King items; instead, you will be warned at each “no turning back” point, i.e. the point at which you’re about to do something that will eliminate the possibility of collecting the pieces in that location. If you need to know how many pieces and/or where to find them, scroll back up here for some spoilers.

If you look at the Junkyard King icon or the completed Sculpture, you can see how each piece fits into the finished product:

• hat (frying pan): Toni’s House attached to pipe next to Oven
• goggles (yellow hex nuts): Behind Toni’s House in trash near support beam on lower right
• right (his right) eye (headlight): Front of Town Gate in right-hand (your right) headlight of Truck
• left eye (clock): Town Hall behind plant next to Lotti
• shoulders (lunchbox): Alley on floor between Detonation Plan and Lonzo’s Bar

Hey look, it worked out that the picture of the lunchbox got its own line. It must be because lunchboxes ROCK! (…That’s not a gameplay hint, so if it confuses you, don’t worry about it.)

• ears (headphones): the Turn inside Crane
• beard (fork): Viaduct under platform in front of Doc

• head (jug): Candy Shop next to Anchovy Machine
• hair (rusty, bent saw blade): Front of Tower near Barrel with Water
• shirt (cheese grater): Cable Chute in trash on lower left
• neck (broken pipe): Wrecked Cable Boat to right of couch

general tips for surviving on your own

• Consult Rufus’ Plan often. Any time you hear a “ding” and/or the sound of a pencil scratching on paper, and see a light bulb or an exclamation point appear on the upper right side of the screen, that means there’s new information for you on the Plan; if you see a little green checkmark icon, that means you’ve completed one of the tasks on the Plan.
  
  To view the Plan, you can either click on one of those icons, or open your inventory and click the light bulb in the upper left of that screen. You will find LOTS of good hints there. Mouse over any drawing without a green checkmark on it to see what you should be working on.
  Note: if you hold your mouse over a drawing on the Plan and no mouseover text appears, try pressing “Esc” to go back to the Main Menu, then clicking the “Continue” button.
• Talk to everyone about everything. Sometimes a character will give Rufus information that unlocks the next segment of his Plan; other times you’ll be given subtle hints on how to solve a problem. If you’re stuck and have a lot of patience, talk to everyone again: you could discover that some character has a new hint for you, or you may see that a question you already asked is still on a dialogue menu, underscoring the importance of the information it leads to.
• Examine everything you can (right mouse button), including items in your inventory. Even if you don’t get a helpful hint or a ray of inspiration, there’s a pretty good chance you will at least get entertained.
• Hold down the space bar to see all the interactable objects marked on the screen. Note that NPC’s will sometimes not be marked even though it is possible to interact with them.
• If you try something and it doesn’t work, pay attention to what Rufus says about the failure. He’s not always helpful, but sometimes he really is.
• One running source of frustration for me over the course of this trilogy was the fact that some actions had to be repeated in order to get results, and the first attempt offered little to no feedback that would lead me to expect it to work if tried again (and — sometimes — again). So if you’re stuck and you really prefer to do without assistance, you can sometimes get through just by talking to everyone a second time, or clicking on everything a second or third time.

CHAPTER I: Kuvaq

1.1: Suitcase

• List, Bolt Cutter
• Can o’ used Oil / Empty Can / Provisions
• Plunger, Mouse Trap / Trap with Bait, Toothbrush
  
• Detergent, Pot / Pot with Water / Pot with Detergent
• Hand Torch, A Bunch of Notes, Fork
• green Sock, blue Sock, yellow Sock / Pair o’ Socks

NOTE: If you’re already consulting a walkthrough on this very first section, please take a moment to review my “general tips for surviving on your own” (above) before reading any further. Figuring out how to figure things out will make this game a lot more fun for you 😀

1. click Suitcase to collect List.

   Notice that after you did that, there was a “ding” sound, and a light bulb appeared on the right side of the screen; that means there are new tasks on Rufus’ Plan. If you need more information about the Plan, see “general tips for surviving on your own,” above

2. click arrow marked “To the Living Area” to go down to middle level of house
3. open Locker Door on left side; grab Bolt Cutter from behind it
4. get Provisions
   • click floor near bottom of ramp to go down to bottom level of house
   • click Crumbs on the Sofa to learn that there are Wasabi Peas inside there, and that Rufus wants something to put them in before picking them up
   • click on ramp to walk back up it, then go In Rufus’ Room; click Oil Can on windowsill to collect Can o’ Used Oil
   • go To the Living Area and use Can o’ Used Oil on Washbasin next to Bathroom (or on Sink next to Sofa) to empty it out and create Empty Can
   • use Empty Can on Crumbs on the Sofa to collect Provisions
5. catch Toothbrush
   • try to grab Toothbrush sitting on Washbasin next to Bathroom (if you can’t see it, try closing Locker Door); instead of going quietly into your inventory, the Toothbrush springs to life and hides in Dark Corner near top of ramp
   • open Bathroom Door and move Rufus aside so you can see Plunger on back of door; take Plunger
   • use Plunger on Closet (at bottom of ramp) to reveal Mouse Hole
   • click Mouse Hole to collect Mouse Trap
   • combine Provisions with Mouse Trap to create Trap with Bait
   • use Trap with Bait on Dark Corner to collect Toothbrush
6. get Pair o’ Socks
   • go In Rufus’ Room; click Cushion next to Suitcase to reveal a Green Sock hidden underneath (which you should pick up)
   • go down to bottom level of house and click Coat to collect blue Sock; if you examine it in inventory, you’ll learn Rufus is holding out for a matching pair
   • click Fridge Door to open it, then grab Yellow Sock from inside.
     Yellow and blue make green, so the idea here is to somehow use these two Socks from the bottom level to create a match for the green one found on the top level… examining one of the items in the house (the Detergent) sort of provides a clue: “I’ve only used it once. But all my clothes got discolored.“
   • on middle level of house, grab Detergent from inside Locker; this is what we will use to “discolor” the non-matching Socks
   • to wash Socks, you also need water, so press green button on Sink to fill Pot and collect Pot with Water (if Pot was already in your inventory, just use it on the Sink or Washbasin to get the same result)
   • combine Detergent and Pot with Water to create Pot with Detergent. Try to put any Sock into Pot with Detergent for a clue: “I may not be an expert but I’m sure I need a hot wash. Too bad there’s no boiling water.“
   • put Pot with Detergent onto Hotplate next to Sofa (once there, it will be called just “Pot”)
   • put blue Sock and yellow Sock into Pot; nothing happens because the Hotplate is cold
   • go In Rufus’ Room and click Torch on windowsill to collect Hand Torch; if you try to use this on Oven or Pot (as it sits on Hotplate), Rufus says that he needs “something flammable to start the fire”…
   • collect Toni’s Notes from around the house:
     • bottom level of house, on Fridge Door (“♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ Post-It”)
     • bottom level of house, on Sink (“Malicious Memo”)
     • bottom level of house, on Sofa (“Nagging Note”)
     • middle level of house, on Bathroom Door (“Chafing Chit”)
     • middle level of house, in Toni’s Room (“Severe Slip”)
       click Door of Toni’s Room to open it, then click arrow marked “In Toni’s Room” to try to enter; the Note will appear attached to a booby trap

     once you’ve collected all five, you will have A Bunch of Notes in inventory

   • put A Bunch of Notes into Oven (the little door below Hotplate), then use Hand Torch on Memos in Oven to start a fire. If you try to take Socks out of Pot, you’ll find it’s too hot; you need a tool of some kind to fish them out of there…
   • take Fork out of Sink and use it on Pot to receive Pair o’ Socks.
     If you only have one Green Sock in your inventory after completing this step, go get the other one from Rufus’ Room (see first bullet point under step 6)

   If you find you have Pot with Detergent in your inventory but not enough Socks to put into it, it probably just means you’ve already put the missing Socks into the Pot, and then picked the Pot up off the Hotplate before lighting the Oven. All you need to do is put Pot with Detergent back onto Hotplate, then continue with any other instructions from step 6 that are yet undone.

7. go In Rufus’ Room and place Bolt Cutter, Provisions, Toothbrush, and Pair o’ Socks into Suitcase
8. the Suitcase is too full, so remove Bolt Cutter by clicking on it in the list view; once done, Rufus automagically pops to Behind Toni’s House for a conversation with Wenzel

1.2: Escape Pod

• Wrench
• Mailbox
• Seat

1. stow the Suitcase
   • open Door of Pod, then click Storage Space inside to open it
   • click on Battery to pull it out of Storage Space so you’ll have room there for Suitcase
   • put Suitcase into Storage Space by clicking them in that order
     Note: If you click Wenzel’s “talk bubble” and nothing happens, try standing closer to him.
2. stow the Battery
   • pick up Wrench near bottom of ramp
   • use the door left of Wenzel to go Into Toni’s House; once inside, go down ramp and click arrow marked “In Front of Toni’s House” (next to Coat on far left).
     (By the way, i rang the doorbell In Front of Toni’s House no less than 100 times in a row to see if anything would happen, and nothing did. There, i just saved you the trouble.)
   • once you’re In Front of Toni’s House, use Wrench on the “saddle-shaped” Mailbox to collect it
   • go back Behind Toni’s House and use Wrench on Pod’s Seat to remove it
   • use Mailbox on Base Plate (where Seat used to be)
   • stow Battery inside Mailbox by clicking them in that order
3. click on Control Panel of Harpoon to launch the mini game
   

   missable achievement alert

   
   You must play this minigame without skipping it to earn Bullseye.

   mini game: calibrate the harpoon

   <–The crosshairs move like the knight in chess (one square straight, one square diagonally). Your goal is to move the crosshairs over the portion of track with the flashing orange stripes on it (second square from left on the top row). –>

   Mouse over the panel with the lever (lower left side of screen) to see arrows that indicate the movement effected by each terminal. For example, the arrow on the terminal on the left side of the panel tells you that shifting the lever into that position will move the crosshairs one square left, one square down-and-left.

   Below is the solution, where the numbers indicate the order in which you should hit the squares:
   

4. Toni will be waiting for you when you finish. Don’t worry about the letter she gives you.
5. use Hand Torch on Fuse to launch Rufus into the next scene

1.3: Organon Cruiser

• Robot Arm

1. Rufus is now hanging by a chain underneath the Organon Cruiser; the only thing you can click is the Chain, so do that. Then do it again. Then click arrow marked “Chute.” Finally we’re aboard the Cruiser!
2. get Robot Arm:
   • open Suitcase (on lower right, near where Rufus first came on deck) and grab Socks and Provisions from inside
   • use Provisions on Cogwheels (underneath the middle chute)
   • quickly use Pair o’ Socks on the Hatch that opens right above Cogwheels. Make sure your mouseover text says “Hatch” (not “Maintenance Arm”) before clicking; if you miss, it’s okay, just put more Provisions in the Cogwheels and try again
   • click “Hatch with Sock” (which you just created) to open it
   • click Maintenance Arm behind Hatch with Sock to get Robot Arm
3. use Robot Arm on red Hatch (left end of deck) to make a hole.
   Goal and Argus appear for some dialogue.
4. click the hole you made in red grate to climb In the Hatch; this puts Rufus inside the compartment up on the left side where the Levers are
5. click any Lever. Doesn’t matter which one.
6. after a scene in which Goal falls and Rufus is thrown off the cruiser, you’ll find yourself at Front of Town Gate, ready to begin the next set of quests

VILLAGE CENTER MAP

As you’re going to be spending a lot of time crossing through Village Center — which is is very large and can quickly become very tedious — you should know that if you double-click any arrow, Rufus will pop over to it, skipping the long walk.

2.0: ESPRESSO QUEST OUTLINE

The following elements of Rufus’ Plan* are covered in sections 2.1 through 2.8:

• Find Goal
• Elbow through the waiting line
• Give Wenzel a stern talking-to
• Trick Wenzel into believing there’s a water vein in his basement
• Convince Wenzel to stop blocking the line
• Talk to the mayor
• Come up with a plan to brew the ultimate stimulant
• Gather ingredients
  • Water: Clear, Energized, Exhilarating
  • Powder: Black, Stimulating, Hot
• Brew the stimulant
• Wake up Goal
• Talk to Goal

*If you don’t know what i mean by “Rufus’ Plan,” please see the section near the beginning of this guide titled “general tips for surviving on your own.”

2.1: get Recipe

• Recipe

1. Rufus has just been thrown off the Organon Cruiser and is standing at Front of Town Gate between a mechanical Bull and a wrecked truck… go through doorway To the Village Center
2. since Rufus specifically mentioned the crowd gathered around the door on the right, you should probably go there, Into the Town Hall
3. talking to various characters inside Town Hall, you learn that many citizens of Kuvaq are asking the Mayor for custody of Goal, that there are a lot of people in line ahead of Rufus, and that Wenzel is holding up the entire line.
4. go To the Assembly Hall to learn that Goal is back there and in need of some really strong coffee to help her regain consciousness
5. go all the way back out To the Village Center, then go Into the Alley
   

   missable achievement alert

   The Detonation Plan puzzle in the Alley must be done correctly on the first try in order to earn Demolition Expert.

   The instructions for the puzzle are described later in this guide (section 2.3, “elbow through waiting line”), since correct placement of this alert can itself be considered a spoiler if players wish to discover for themselves the point at which this puzzle needs to be done. So i put the alert up here and the instructions down there — each with text pointing to the other — to avoid accidentally telling people more than they want to know.

6. go Into Lonzo’s Bar and talk to Lonzo. When you ask about the beverage you seek (as described in step 7), the conversation is ended and a few options disappear off his dialogue menu, so plan accordingly.
7. mention “the girl” and then ask Lonzo if he serves anything that “can give someone a real boost;” he will give you a Recipe for Espresso
8. if you talk to Lonzo again (as he’s sitting behind the keyboard) and explore all his new dialogue options, Hannek will have a new hint for you the next time you talk to him
9. take note of the fact that when you exit Lonzo’s Bar after receiving Recipe, the door to Emergency Station on right side unlocks

2.2: trick Wenzel

• Dentist’s Drill
• Balloons / Balloon filled with Laughing Gas
• Hook / Balloon with Hook
• Key of First Aid Kit

1. from Village Center, go Into Wenzel’s house, then talk to him; he has a LOT of helpful things to say, but for the sake of moving the waiting line along, these are the most useful tidbits:
   • the reason he’s not using his Waiting Number is that he figures he wouldn’t have a chance with the Elysian woman unless “[he] were rich or found a water vein”
   • the “weird stick” he got out of Rufus’ chest is a Divining Rod, a thing that’s used to find water veins

   Once you succeed in convincing Wenzel to take his turn, you’ll no longer be able to ask him the questions you see on his dialogue menu, so you probably want to ask them all now. To get the most out of his advice, make sure you have Recipe (section 2.1) in your inventory.

2. Wenzel mentioned his Basement as a place to look for water, so go there (the stairs are directly left of Divining Rod). There’s just a Pipe down here, but don’t Pipes often contain water?
3. try using things from your inventory on Pipe. If nothing has any effect, you may need to go pick up the correct one: go to Alley, enter Emergency Station, and take Dentist’s Drill from right side (if you don’t see it, make sure Lever is in top [green] position)
4. by using Dentist’s Drill on Pipe, maybe Rufus can “Trick Wenzel into believing there’s a water vein in his basement,” as recommended by this game’s first hidden hint… no luck, there’s nothing coming out of the holes. For inspiration on what you might be able to do about that, see step 5
5. if you go out To the Village Center and look around, you may notice that there’s a giant pot of water conveniently located right over Wenzel’s house. Let’s go on a reconnaissance mission! (…or you could just read what i wrote about it and then skip to step 6)
   • double-click arrow marked “To the Water Reservoir” above Wenzel’s House to have Rufus pop up to it. Or, if you prefer to spend the next 32 seconds watching him walk slowly up there, single-click the arrow. Whatever.
   • if you pull Tap of Reservoir (the chain hanging over Pipe), water emerges from Pipe and enters the rightmost of the 4 green funnels; the feedback here is a little lacking so i’ll just tell you that was the right idea, but the wrong place to send the water
   • cick Pipe to see that when Rufus kicks it, it spins around and lands in the same unhelpful place
   • examine Chimney for a clue; what you should hopefully glean is that you need to somehow open the protective cover over Wenzel’s chimney, then get the water to go in there
   • go back Into Wenzel’s House, and go up Into the Bathroom. There are only two objects here, and one of them is a Furnace, a thing that’s typically found at the other end of a Chimney. You still can’t reach the protective cover from here, but at least you can interact with this end beyond looking at it. Maybe you just need something that can go up through the Furnace to the Chimney….
6. get Balloon filled with Laughing Gas:
   • go to Town Hall and enter Assembly Hall
   • click Doorknob just over Goal’s head to open closet
   • take Balloons from on top of Cardboard Box
   • go to Alley and enter Emergency Station
   • make sure Lever is in top (green) position
   • use Balloons on Laughing Gas to get Balloon filled with laughing Gas
7. if you experiment by putting Balloon filled with Laughing Gas into Furnace, you’ll see an exterior view of it exiting Chimney and floating away; you should then repeat the last bullet point under step 6 to get a new gas Balloon.
   What you need is something to prevent Balloon filled with Laughing Gas from escaping… you need to…
8. get a Hook:
   • from Village Center, go Into Toni’s Shop
   • she won’t let you take a Hook from jar on right, so you need to distract her…
   • try to take Vouchers from the pile of orange things at the left end of the counter; Toni will get so mad that she needs to meditate to calm down
   • take Hook while she’s meditating.
     NOTE: on one of my dozens of playthroughs, i encountered a bug wherein Hook appeared to no longer be clickable once Toni was meditating; i solved this by using “Esc” to go to Main Menu, then clicking “Continue” — it was fine after that.
   • because Rufus hurt himself stealing her merchandise, Toni gives him Key of First Aid Kit
9. flood Wenzel’s house
   • combine Balloon filled with Laughing Gas and Hook in your inventory to create Balloon with Hook
   • put Balloon with Hook into Furnace in Wenzel’s Bathroom; it will rise up, catch on the Chimney cover, and stay there, holding it open
   • exit Wenzel’s House and go up to Water Reservoir
   • click Pipe to kick it; the heavy, speeding hunk of metal is stopped dead in the correct position by your wee Balloon
   • click Tap of Reservoir to dump the water out
10. go back inside Wenzel’s House; Rufus will automatically go into the Basement for an auto-dialogue scene

2.3: elbow through waiting line

Instead of steps, i begin this section with a series of increasingly more helpful hints. Please note that there’s a missable achievement alert hidden in here (more info on that above in section 2.1), so you should save your game now if you want to experiment without missing an achievement.

Try not to look past the hidden text if you want to try to figure this out on your own, because i didn’t use spoiler tags on the solution (so as not to render it unsearchable).

• hint: You need to give the three people ahead of you in line a good reason to leave.
• hint: You can’t annoy them into leaving, so it will need to be something bigger.
• hint: MUCH BIGGER. Think “urgent.”
• hint: …something like an explosion.
• big hint: Try Detonation Plan in Alley; you’ll need to grab Magnets from Town Hall and use them on Detonation Plan to get started. This puzzle bears a touchy missable achievement alert, so please save your game before trying anything, and also check out section 2.1 above for more info on the alert.
• hint: If you want to experiment in order to figure out how Detonation Plan will help, try this: place the red Magnets in random locations on the map, click “Back” to exit map view, ring Blast Signal (bell next to Detonation Plan), and return to Town Hall to see what — if anything — has changed. Then try to figure out why that change happened. Be sure to save your game first.
• hint: The people you’re trying to get rid of are wearing exceptionally weird hats.
• hint: Maybe you should ask them about those hats.
• hint: Did that guy say something about roofs?
• hint: Have you maybe seen those same odd hat shapes somewhere else?
• near-spoiler hint: Each hat corresponds to a roof in the Village Center.
• near-spoiler hint: Now you know where those guys live…
• near-spoiler hint: One of the roofs might not look like a roof to you. It sure didn’t to me.

• Magnets
• Waiting Number

1. use Detonation Plan to eliminate competition:
   • go to Town Hall; collect Magnets off bulletin board
   • go to Alley; use Magnets on Detonation Plan (if Magnets were already on Detonation Plan, just right-click it to enter map view)
   • in map view, place one red Magnet on each of the two towers above Alley entrance (the two highest spots on map), and another on the spot that’s below and to the right of the parking-meter-looking thing in front of Toni’s Shop (it’s the rightmost spot on the bottom row).
   • click “Back” arrow on upper right to exit map view
   • ring Blast Signal (bell next to Detonation Plan)
2. return to Town Hall; the 3 guys with weird hats are all gone
3. pick Waiting Number up off floor just inside entrance, then wait for scene with Wenzel to finish.
   If Wenzel doesn’t appear when you pick up Waiting Number, and your attempt to enter Mayor’s Office just makes Lotti yell at you, go to section 2.2
4. enter Mayor’s Office — you must DOUBLE-CLICK door to get around Wenzel
5. Talk to Mayor Lotek. If you want to hear everything he has to say, mention “the elysian girl” last, since the end of that conversation causes him to leave the office. He gives a couple helpful clues that you will not be able to repeat, so pay careful attention!

2.4: gather ingredient “Clear”

• Divining Rod
• Key of Booze Cabinet
• Glass
• Booze (“Clear” / “Clear Water”)

“Legend has it that your father once found clear water. They say that there are still a few bottles hidden away in the town hall.” –Wenzel

1. enter Mayor’s Office at Town Hall.
   If you can’t get in and Wenzel is standing in hall, you must double-click door to get around him.
   If you can’t get in and Wenzel is NOT standing in hall, check sections 2.2 and 2.3 to see what you’ve missed
2. see that Water Emblem on front of desk? That’s the key to continuing… well, it’s actually more like a keyhole. Perhaps you have something in your inventory that might work as a key…? If not: go to Wenzel’s Basement and get Divining Rod
3. use Divining Rod on Water Emblem; desk Drawer opens (or closes and reopens, if it was already open) to reveal a secret compartment containing Key to the Cupboard (which will be called Key of Booze Cabinet in inventory)
4. open Globe and pick up Glass to reveal Keyhole
5. use Key of Booze Cabinet on Keyhole
6. take Booze from inside Booze Cabinet; this is the “Clear Water” called for by the Recipe (marked just “Clear” on Rufus’ Plan).
   You might not get a green checkmark next to “Clear” on the Plan nor a red one next to “Clear Water” on the Recipe when you collect this ingredient, but that’s ok, you’re still on the right track.

note about desk Drawer

The Drawer has three “settings:” sleeping compartment, secret compartment, and closed.

When you first encounter the Drawer, it’s in “sleep mode,” and has Mayor Lotek sitting in it. After the conversation with Lotek ends, the Drawer closes; when you reopen it using Bell, it’s still in sleep mode. You can see the green Cushion on which Mayors of Kuvaq have traditionally rested their heads.

When you use Divining Rod on Water Emblem, the Drawer is toggled to “secret mode,” revealing Key of Booze Cabinet.

If for any reason you want to switch the Drawer back to its sleep setting — and i’m not saying there will be a reason to do that, but i’m also not saying there won’t — just use Divining Rod on Water Emblem again to toggle it back.

2.5: make Coffee Powder

• Handcuffs
• Asbestos Gloves
• Lock Pick
• Syringe
• Stimulant (“Stimulating” / “Extraordinarily Stimulating”)
• Dissector’s Scalpel
• Chili Pepper (“Hot” / “Hot Beans”)
• Dud / Black Powder (“Black” / “Black Powder”)
• Coffee Powder (“Powder”)

“I still have some [stimulants] left in the medicine cabinet in my office. But no one except me is allowed to access it.” –Gizmo

1. from Village Center, go to Alley and enter Emergency Station on right (if you can’t get in there, see section 2.1, step 9)
2. unlock Doctor’s Cabinet:
   
   • hold mouse just underneath Lever until you see a down-arrow and the word “Lever;” click to shift Lever down to middle (blue) position.

     Handcuffs (hanging from the scales) and Lock Pick (behind Cell Grating) are revealed but can’t be collected yet.

   • click machine hatch — currently labeled “Police Box” — to knock Foot Fetters onto floor
   • shift Lever to bottom (red) position
   • click Fire Extinguisher in machine hatch to move it onto floor. It is not used further.
   • put Foot Fetters into machine hatch — now labeled “Fire Fighter’s Cabinet” — by clicking them in that order
   • shift Lever to middle (blue) position. Foot Fetters will fall out of top of machine and knock Handcuffs onto floor; pick them up
   • shift Lever to bottom (red) position, and take note of a few details that emerge:
     • look over at the right side of the screen; there’s a roof-support pole there, and at its base, the rounded corner of the brown floor piece that covers the Fire Escape while the Lever is in the other two positions. To see what i mean, try shifting the Lever around while paying attention to the floor inside the compartment thing.
     • hold your mouse over that corner piece until you see the mouseover text “Hatch,” partly because the sight of it might inspire you, and partly because you’re going to need to know where that is 3 bullet points from now
     • i wonder where that Fire Escape leads? only one way to find out!

     

   • take Asbestos Gloves from right side of compartment
   • use Handcuffs on Hatch; this prevents platform from closing over Fire Escape when you shift Lever
   • shift Lever to middle (blue) position
   • make your way back to Front of Town Gate; you’ll see a fire pole behind Bulletin Board
   • climb fire pole to return to Emergency Station the sneaky way; Rufus is now inside the cell, so he’s free to…
   • take Lock Pick
   • use Lock Pick on Cell Grating to let Rufus out
   • shift Lever to top (green) position
   • use Lock Pick on machine hatch, now labeled “Doctor’s Cabinet”
3. take Syringe from Doctor’s Cabinet; Rufus will automatically also grab the Stimulant that’s in there with it — this is the “Extraordinarily Stimulating” called for by the Recipe (marked “Stimulating” on Rufus’ Plan)
4. click Dissecting Scalpel on right side of compartment to collect Dissector’s Scalpel
5. from Village Center, go to Toni’s House
6. use Asbestos Gloves on Chili Pepper In Front of Toni’s House to collect it; this is the “Hot Beans” called for by the Recipe (marked just “Hot” on Rufus’ Plan)
7. go Behind Toni’s House and pick up Dud
8. use Dissector’s Scalpel on Dud in your inventory to get Black Powder (marked just “Black” on Rufus’ Plan).
   Now you have all three ingredients of Coffee Powder, so it’s time to …
9. make Coffee Powder:
   • return to Village Center, then go Into Toni’s Shop
   • place Stimulant, Chili Pepper, and Black Powder inside Grinder
   • click Crank to grind up the ingredients
   • open Grinder, then click it again to collect Coffee Powder (marked just “Powder” on Rufus’ Plan)

2.6: gather ingredient “Exhilarating”

• Sign
• Red Curtain
• Syringe with Taurine (“Exhilarating” / “Revivitalizing Liquid”)

“I once heard that it’s supposed to be revitalizing to drink the blood of a bull.” –Wenzel

“Revitalizing Liquid” is misspelled on Recipe, so i’ll be alternating the wrong spelling with the correct one to increase the odds that people will be able to find what they’re looking for regardless of which spelling they search for.

1. go to Front of Town Gate where the mechanical Bull is; your first hint on what to do next is to think about something you might have seen (and/or currently have in your inventory) that somehow relates to Bulls, and figure out something you can do to or with that item that elicits a reaction
2. if you don’t have Sign (which you may have noticed is a picture of a cow wearing makeup), go get it from Lonzo’s Bar in Alley
3. use cow Sign on Bull (or on Bulletin Board) to get its attention and make it turn around. If you examine Bull now, you may notice Rufus says different stuff about it: the age requirement for riding has gone up to 12, and he adds “The bull’s spirits really need to be a-pumpin’ before I’m gonna ride it.” So, maybe you need to… make the Bull mad?
4. if you want to make a Bull mad, anybody who’s ever seen a Bugs Bunny cartoon knows you need a red cape… i guess you’ll just have to make do with the Red Curtain that fell onto the floor of Lonzo’s Bar back in section 2.1. Use it on Bulletin Board to drape it there, bringing Bull’s blood to a boil and opening the “taurine tanks”
5. you need that taurine, but how do you extract it? Some kind of… sucker-outer thing? Maybe one designed for blood? If you don’t have anything in your inventory that fits that bill, you may need to go to section 2.5 and complete step 2, “unlock Doctor’s Cabinet,” which will lead you to a Syringe
6. use Syringe on Bull to collect Syringe with Taurine; this is the “Revivitalizing Liquid” called for by the Recipe (marked “Exhilarating” on Rufus’ Plan)

2.7: gather ingredient “Energized”

• Sponge / Wet Sponge
• Key of Truck
• Glass of Energy-rich Water (“Energized” / “Energy-rich Water”)

“Energy-rich water? The only energy I know of is in car batteries you find in the trash heaps everywhere.” –Wenzel

1. more than one NPC has mentioned car batteries to you, but you haven’t seen any lying around… There is a wrecked truck at Front of Town Gate, though; maybe if you could pop the hood you’d find one under there. Your first hint towards getting into the truck comes from the comments Rufus makes when first examining it: “The windshield is encrusted with dirt. There’s a sign behind it. Maybe the name of the driver?”

   Next hint: when you were talking to Hannek in the Alley, he said “I have a whole collection of car keys for cars that have been scrapped ages ago.” Then when you said “Maybe you have my key, too?” he asked for your name…

2. clean Windshield so Rufus can see inside:
   • go to Wenzel’s House, go up to Bathroom, take Sponge
   • go Into Toni’s House and use Sponge on Pot (the one you washed your Socks in) to get Wet Sponge
   • back at Front of Town Gate, use Wet Sponge on Windshield to clean it
3. examine clean Windshield to get information about driver
4. go to Alley and talk to Hanek about keys (if you don’t see that on his menu, ask him “What exactly are you guys doing down there?” …and shame on you for not talking to everybody about everything like you should). Give answers to convince him that Rufus is the owner of the wrecked truck sitting in Front of Town Gate: your name is Sugarpuff, your favorite color is pink, and your hobby is ballet (as long as you’ve examined the clean Windshield, you can also just guess at the answers until you get them right). Succeed, and you will collect Key of Truck
5. go back to Front of Town Gate, use Key of Truck on Truck Door
6. pull Lever inside truck to unlatch Hood, then click Hood to open it. Inside you find a Battery; Rufus says he can’t remove it, but still wishes to somehow “access the power that’s harbored within.” Maybe you could open it up… or at least poke holes in it
7. use Dentist’s Drill on Battery (if you don’t have Dentist’s Drill, you can find it at Emergency Station with Lever in top [green] position)
8. If you don’t have anything in your inventory with which you might collect the Acid spewing out, go do steps 1 through 4 in section 2.4
9. use Glass on Acid to collect Glass of Energy-rich Water (marked “Energized” on Rufus’ Plan).

   NOTES:
   Each time you combine Glass with another item, its name changes:

   • Glass + Booze = Glass of clear Water
     
   • Glass + Syringe with Taurine = Glass of revitalizing Water
   • Glass + Booze + Syringe with Taurine = Revitalizing Water

   So if you don’t have Glass but do have one of the combo items from that list, use the combo item to collect Acid.

   The name of the inventory item you create in this step will depend on what (if anything) you combined with Glass before collecting Acid:

   • Acid + empty Glass = Glass of Energy-rich Water
     
   • Acid + Glass of clear Water = Energy-rich, clear Water
     
   • Acid + Glass of revitalizing Water = Energy-rich, revitalizing Water
   • Acid + Revitalizing Water = Energy-rich, revitalizing and clear Water

2.8: wake up Goal

• Energy-rich, revitalizing and clear Water (“Water”)
• Espresso
• Hand Torch
• Funnel

1. go to Alley and enter Lonzo’s Bar
2. use Coffee Powder (section 2.5) on Tray over the Espresso Cup
3. create Energy-rich, revitalizing and clear Water, by combining the following items:
   • Glass of Energy-rich Water (section 2.7)
   • Syringe with Taurine (section 2.6)
   • Booze (section 2.4)
4. use Energy-rich, revitalizing and clear Water on Filler Cap, which is near Lonzo’s left hand
5. when the lights come back on and the dust settles, you’ll have Espresso in your inventory
6. go to Town Hall and enter Assembly Hall; if this is your first visit here since getting into Mayor’s Office, you’ll witness a conversation between Gizmo, Lotek, and Wenzel about Goal, at the end of which the Mayor states that whoever wakes her up gets to keep her
7. use Espresso on Goal… or try to, anyway
8. talk to Gizmo to see if anything he says gives you an idea how to get at Goal without him interfering — try not to look at step 9 if you want to figure it out yourself
   • hint 1: There’s talk of emergencies, and how he will only respond if one is actually happening
   • hint 2: One of these emergencies can be created right there in the Assembly Hall
   • hint 3: There sure aren’t very many interactable objects in this room…
   • hint 4: If you’re still stuck and nothing in your inventory seems to be helping, first make sure you didn’t skip step 7, then go look around Behind Toni’s House to see if you missed picking up anything there
9. go Behind Toni’s House and pick up Hand Torch and Funnel
10. use Hand Torch on Cardboard Box in Assembly Hall closet; when Gizmo goes inside to put the fire out, Rufus locks him in
11. even though Gizmo is safely out of the way (safe for Rufus, not Gizmo), you still can’t poison — er, help Goal due to interference from the other two men. To create another distraction, steal Stethoscope off podium; Gizmo immediately escapes from the cupboard and comes up on Stage, wanting to know who stole it
12. to continue, you need to plant the Stethoscope on someone, and there’s only one person here that will work on: click Mayor Lotek (or his Bag). A fight between him and Gizmo ensues; after a few exchanges, you’ll regain control of your cursor, freeing you to get at Goal
13. use Funnel, then Espresso on Goal
14. after the cut scene, you’ll find yourself in Emergency Station along with Goal and Gizmo
15. talk to Goal to learn that for your next quest, you need to find a radio to contact her fiancé, Cletus

3.0: RADIO QUEST OUTLINE

The following elements of Rufus’ Plan* are covered in sections 3.1 through 3.6:

• Gain access to the post office
• Gather Gift-Coupons to order a package
• Manipulate the postage so the package gets filled with bubble wrap
• Fill the package with bubble wrap
• Manipulate the pigeons to sabotage the delivery
• Intercept the delivery
• Direct the Mail-bot’s attention toward the bubble wrap
• Distract the Mail-bot with bubble wrap
• Open the safe
• Find a radio
• Obtain earphones
• Obtain a mic
• Power up the back-up radio
• Contact Goal’s fiancé
• Go back to Goal
• Break out
• Rescue Goal from the claws of Wenzel

*If you don’t know what i mean by “Rufus’ Plan,” please see the section near the beginning of this guide titled “general tips for surviving on your own.”

This segment seriously triggered my decades-old PBFPSD (Post Babel Fish Puzzle Stress Disorder). Even using a guide to assist my struggle, i was still stressed out (…although in retrospect, the guides themselves may have actually contributed to that quite a bit). This walkthrough almost didn’t get written because i was dreading this part that much. Proceed with caution.

…and booze. Caution, and booze.

(Google “Babel Fish Puzzle” if you’re lucky enough to have avoided that horrendous bit of gaming infamy and are curious as to why i would joke that it gave me PTSD… it’s just too painful to recount here. Not to mention irrelevant.)

3.1: gain access to the post office

• Mayor’s Clock

“The post office will be closed until the clock on the sign is back.” –Lotti

1. first thing to do after waking Goal (section 2.8) is go to Town Hall. Talk to Lotti, examine the “Opening Hours” thing, and try to enter Post Office for some good hints.
2. enter Assembly Hall to find Mayor Lotek passed out on the stage; take Mayor’s Clock from around his neck
3. return to Town Hall, use Mayor’s Clock on Opening Hours (next to Lotti) to unlock Post Office
4. enter Post Office and talk to Postbot about Radio calls — you’re gonna need every hint you can get for this razzafrazza Radio quest. His circuitous dialogue is delivered in long monotone speeches that don’t leave you very much time to absorb and remember the large amounts of confusing, ambiguous information being presented. On top of that, YOU CAN’T REPEAT IT. I have collected his Radio-related dialogue here in case you want to bash your brain against it for a little while before moving on with the walkthrough:
   • “Where can I make a radio call?”
     PB: Outgoing radio calls can be made from every registered private radio device.

   • “Where would I find one of these registered private devices?”
     PB: There is no radio device registered for long distance calls.
     R: What’s that supposed to mean? It has to be possible to make outgoing calls somehow.
     PB: Not while using a private radio device.

   • “Are there other radio devices registered?”
     PB: There are three registered devices for local calls.
     One is situated in the Mayor’s office.
     Another at the front desk counter in the town hall.
     The communications system of the emergency station is the third one.
     R: But it’s only possible to make internal calls from there? Well, that’s perfect.

   • “Are there absolutely no long distance devices?”
     PB: There are no long distance devices except the listening post of the post office and the reserve system in the vault.
     R: Well, so there are two of them after all!
     PB: Both devices are not cleared for public use.
5. stop by Operator’s Platform (left side) to get some info out of Telephone Operator. He’s slightly more helpful and less confusing than Postbot, and his dialogue is repeatable, but he makes no mention of the three local call devices, which is a pretty important clue.

Tip

Rufus’ Plan has some very helpful hidden hints — those things marked with a — about what needs to be done at Post Office; to unlock them you need to do all of the following:

• exhaust all of Postbot’s dialogue about Radio calls and devices; this includes all 4 questions transcribed above in step 4 (they disappear from the dialogue menu if you’ve already asked them)
• tell Postbot he’s “no fun” (if you don’t see that option on his menu, that means you’ve done it already)
• examine either one of the Cats (see step 2 in section 3.3 below if you can’t find the Cats)
• talk to Telephone Operator about pigeons

The result:

3.2: get gift Vouchers

• Tranquilizer
• Dart / Prepared Dart
• Funnel / Blow Pipe
• Vouchers

“They’re gift vouchers. You hand them in at the post office and they deliver the merchandise.” –Toni

1. the distraction technique you used on Toni to steal her Hook isn’t going to work for Vouchers, so you’re going to need a more elaborate scheme. Think about that theft… was there perhaps something that happened then that hasn’t gone anywhere yet? I’m talking about when Toni gave you Key of First Aid Kit; you should go see where that Key leads you…
2. go Into Toni’s House and walk up the ramp to the middle level; use Key of First Aid Kit on First Aid Kit, then take Tranquilizer from inside. …Using Tranquilizer directly on Toni doesn’t help, so maybe you need to be sneakier about it… and just maybe something you’ve seen lying around Kuvaq seems like the perfect way to sneakily tranquilize someone….
3. go to Lonzo’s Bar and grab Dart off dartboard
4. combine Dart with Tranquilizer to create Prepared Dart. If you try to use Prepared Dart on Toni, Rufus tells you “All that’s missing is a blow pipe. And a sufficiently safe distance.”
5. go to Assembly Hall and retrieve your Funnel from the Stage
6. combine Funnel with Prepared Dart to create Blow Pipe. Now all you need is that “sufficiently safe distance” Rufus mentioned… you definitely can’t do this from inside the shop, so…
7. stand outside Toni’s Shop; if you’re inside it, just go out the door. If you’re starting from Village Center, look for the down-arrow in front of the shop marked “To Toni’s Shop,” and go there
8. next to the door leading Into Toni’s Shop there’s a Window; use Blow Pipe on that; you’ll see a short scene in which Toni becomes very mellow
9. go Into Toni’s Shop and take Vouchers

3.3: manipulate the postage

“I like popping the bubbles in bubble wrap. Unfortunately I only ever need bubble wrap to pad packages that contain smaller objects which have accidentally been put into boxes of postage level 3.” –Postbot

Why do we want to “manipulate the postage,” you ask? Short answer: because it says so on Rufus’ Plan (if it doesn’t say that on your Plan, see “Tip” at end of section 3.1). Slightly longer answer: because we need to distract Postbot with bubble wrap, and bubble wrap is only used when incorrect postage is applied.

1. go to Post Office
2. click yellow Hatch to the right of Postbot to reveal an orange Cat, click brown Hatch to the right of that to reveal a white Cat.

   A helping of hints ‘n’ info for you:

   • use Vouchers (section 3.2) on Postbot to observe the process you’re about to mess up. You’ll never run out of them, so do it as many times as you need to try to figure out what to do next.
   • The biggest, most helpful hint is given when Rufus examines the white Cat: “A cat licks the stamps? Well, I hope it knows what it’s doing. A bit too slow or a bit too fast and, whoopsidaisy, the package gets the wrong postage.”
   • since that big, helpful hint underneath the spoiler tags in the previous bullet point came from the white Cat, let’s start there: what do you have in your inventory that might make the postage Cat lick stamps “a bit too slow or a bit too fast?” When you find something that seems to have had some effect, submit a Voucher to see what happens
   • Postbot said bubble wrap is “only” used with “postage level 3,” but that is not true, and you therefore might become confused when you see bubble wrap being put into a “postage level 2” box but then are unable to continue. As you experiment and observe here, know that the most important part of what Postbot said is “postage level 3” (NOT “bubble wrap”).
3. spoiler part one: what you need the white Cat to do is go faster to apply too much postage; to effect that, use Espresso on him. If his eye isn’t twitching, use it on him again. Then submit a Voucher and see what happens…
   …Well, you got bubble wrap, but Postbot said that package was “postage level 2,” and we’re shooting for “postage level 3.” What can you do to increase the amount of postage applied even further?
4. spoiler part two: in order to reach “postage level 3,” you need the orange conveyor-belt Cat to go slower; to effect that, use Tranquilizer (section 3.2) on him. If he’s not nodding off, use it on him again. Submit a Voucher to Postbot and see what happens.

correct Cat settings:

Your next mission: get that bubble wrap back out of the package and to some place where it can distract Postbot. SIGH.

3.4: sabotage the delivery

• Planet’s Magnetic Field
• Note

“Did you know they take their bearings from the planet’s magnetic field? I once tied strong electromagnets ’round their necks. The fools immediately flew the wrong way.” –Telephone Operator

Why do we want to “sabotage the delivery,” you ask? Short answer: because it says so on Rufus’ Plan (if it doesn’t say that on your Plan, see “Tip” at end of section 3.1). Slightly longer answer: because we need to get the bubble wrap back out of the “postage level 3” box so we can distract Postbot with it and get into the Vault.

Your first hint is that i only called this section “sabotage the delivery” because the full text of the Plan entry i wanted to use — “Manipulate the pigeons to sabotage the delivery” — is too long to fit in the menu sidebar.

Your next hint is this quote from Mayor Lotek that you probably forgot about: “Well it does work. I sleep like a baby. The only downside is that carrier pigeons are constantly crashing into my window.” And what was the “it” he was talking about “working?” The device that Rufus’ father installed in the desk to correct the fact that it’s “not aligned correctly with the planet’s magnetic field.”

1. there have now been two mentions of the “planet’s magnetic field:” one in relation to the messenger pigeons on Operator’s Platform at Post Office, and the other in relation to Mayor’s Lotek’s desk…
   • go to Mayor’s Office
   • if Drawer is closed, ring Bell to open it
   • if you see an empty Drawer, that means it’s in “secret compartment” mode; use Divining Rod on Water Emblem to toggle it to “sleeping compartment” mode
   • click green Cushion in Drawer to move it aside, then grab Planet’s Magnetic Field from underneath it
2. go up to Operator’s Platform, use Planet’s Magnetic Field on Cupboard or Cabinet (the door is called “Cupboard” and the interior is labeled “Cabinet,” so you’ll see different mouseover text depending on whether the door is open or closed)
   

3. click Cabinet (with Planet’s Magnetic Field inside it) to start the mini game
   

   missable achievement alert

   
   You must play this minigame without skipping it to earn That seems about right…

   mini game: Planet’s Magnetic Field

   The idea here is to redistribute the rectangular lights at the top in such a way as to cause the large box full of bubble wrap to be dispatched via the small carrier pigeon; the overloaded pigeon will then crash, breaking the box and dumping bubble wrap on the floor. …i guess Deponian bubble wrap is really heavy or something.

   To change the rectangular lights on the top part, manipulate the round lights in the bottom part; mouse over them to see which ones you can move. Note that other walkthroughs i saw provide the exact series of clicks you need from start to finish, so save your game before clicking anything in case you end up wanting to make use of their help.

   Notice that the number of rectangular lights in each section corresponds with the number of round lights underneath that section.

   Also notice that the help you get in-game by clicking the (?) button on the puzzle has two pages, and there’s a hidden hint on the 2nd page (that you can view by clicking the giant red “!”).

   The starting arrangement:

   The target arrangement:

   

   

   One final note: between the time i originally published this guide in 2017 and when i overhauled it in 2020, the conclusion of this puzzle was changed in a confusing way. As it stands now, it appears to never end, to never be “won;” when you arrange the lights correctly, Rufus reacts exactly the same way as he would if you’d done them incorrectly. Then, even after you’ve completed the task this puzzle was designed to unlock (distracting Postbot in steps 4 & 5 below), it’s still possible to enter the minigame. At least in my game it is. There doesn’t appear to be any functional reason for this open-endedness… unless perhaps you count “sadism” as a “functional reason.”

   I have no idea whether this change impacts the missable achievement; originally, you received it as soon as you clicked the puzzle’s “Back” arrow after correctly arranging the lights. Hopefully this is still the case.

   That’s all i got for ya, sorry. Good luck with that. <paragraphs of deranged ranting about this razzafrazza puzzle withheld for your convenience>

   missable achievement alert

   
   Step 4 below removes the possibility of earning Missing Postage.

   You need to make the orange Cat go fast and the white Cat go slow, which is the opposite of how it needs to be to make the bubble wrap appear. So, assuming you’ve already correctly drugged the Cats (section 3.3, steps 3 & 4): first use Espresso twice on the orange one to speed it all the way up, Tranquilizer twice on the white one to slow it all the way down, and Vouchers on Postbot to get the achievement.

   backwards Cat settings for achievement:

   orange:
   
   fast (twitching)

   white:
   
   slow (napping)

   correct Cat settings for gameplay:

   orange:
   
   slow (napping)

   white:
   
   fast (twitching)

   Then set the Cats back the way they should be by using Tranquilizer on the orange Cat twice, Espresso on white Cat twice.

4. go to Post Office, use Vouchers on Postbot; the small pigeon crashes and dumps a large box of Bubble Wrap on the floor to the right
5. Click Bubble Wrap. …then click it two more times <annoyed face>. There’s some auto-dialogue, and Rufus walks out into the Hall to give Postbot some privacy
6. open Vault:
   • enter Post Office
   • collect Note from behind Postbot’s desk; you will use this to determine the 4-digit combination
   • click Note in your inventory and return to the Post Office view with it on your cursor. Rather than using it on something as is the most common practice, you’re going to hold it in front of something and then gain visual cues from that…
   • hold Note over the grid of numbers on the left so that the edges line up as well as they can; when positioned correctly, you’ll see one complete set of three digits through each hole
     
   • the number next to each hole indicates which digit in that set you should be paying attention to (i.e. since the top hole is marked “1,” make a note of the 1st digit in the set of numbers it reveals). Start with the topmost hole and follow the arrows around to the other holes, noting the correct digit for each one.
   • click Clock Face (which is actually a number pad) and enter the combination: 3649

3.5: get Headphones

• Two Replacement Cats / Cat
• Nodding Bird
• Balloon filled with laughing Gas
• Stunned Parrot / Parrot
• Headphones
• Microphone

“I’m as chilled out as can be. What, pray tell, should wear me out here?” –Telephone Operator

To get through this section with a minimum of help from me, you may benefit from having the following concepts laid out for you:

When talking to Operator, Rufus asked a question that wasn’t about some recognizable element of gameplay like pigeons or phone calls: “Don’t you get tired at some point?” We can imagine he hoped Operator would go on break so he could steal his unattended Headphones (called “earphones” on the Plan). You should therefore consider your mission in this segment to be to cause Operator to take a break.

Talking to Operator directly doesn’t seem to phase him, so in order to mess with him, maybe you need to increase his workload, which was mentioned in response to another one of those questions that seemed at the time to not be about gameplay elements: “Everything’s calm here. Except for those strange radio calls from this… ‘Cletus’ or something … I haven’t had any work at all this morning.”

Since Operator monitors phone calls, maybe you can get to him via one or more of the three public “local call devices” that Postbot mentioned:

1. “One is situated in the Mayor’s office.”
2. “Another at the front desk counter in the town hall.”
3. “The communications system of the emergency station is the third one.”

If you have young children in the room with you, please send them to bed now so they don’t hear me swearing at this quest segment.

1. manipulate local call device #1:
   • go to Mayor’s Office and take a look around. There’s something here that seems like it might pair well with an item you hopefully picked up at Post Office; if not…
   • go to Post Office and open Replacement Cat’s Hatch just inside door; click Replacement Cat that pops out to collect Two Replacement Cats. If you can’t open Replacement Cat’s Hatch, go to section 3.4
   • use Two Replacement Cats on Teletypewriter in Mayor’s Office (this will leave one Cat remaining in your inventory)
   • if you’re curious about your level of success, go back to Operator’s Platform and examine/talk to Telephone Operator
2. manipulate local call device #2:

   HINTS:

   Local call device #2 can be difficult to find if you rely solely on what the NPC’s tell you about it, because the information they give you is somewhat misleading. Postbot tells you it’s “at the front desk counter in the town hall,” but there’s no object there that fits that description. Then if you find it on your own — by looking somewhere other than where he told you to — and examine it, Rufus claims it’s not a local call device, but a long-distance one (which, if true, would mean that Postpot and the Operator lied about there only being two of those in existence… and that breaking into the Vault was unnecessary).

   So instead of listening to those two muttonheads, listen to this muttonhead (i.e. me): the device you seek cannot be found by looking “at the front desk counter in the town hall.” It does, however, have some kind of observable connection to that location: think intercom … …that’s not labeled “intercom,” because of course it isn’t..

   P.S. Don’t allow yourself to be deterred or misled by Postbot’s half-truth, “ONE is situated in the Mayor’s Office”…

   SPOILERS:

   • our target object here is Communicator in Mayor’s Office; the only thing you seem to be able to do to Communicator is push its button, so maybe you need to find something to push that button for you…
   • go to Post Office, enter Vault, and pick up Nodding Bird. If you can’t enter Vault, go to section 3.4
   • use Nodding Bird on Communicator to find that this one runs on magic or possibly despair, rather than water like the real-life “drinking birds.” Based on the amount of force the thing seems to apply, i’m guessing it’s despair.
   • you might want to stop by Operator’s Platform to see how your victim is doing
3. manipulate local call device #3:

   HINTS:

   Local call device #3 makes my brain hurt. Your first hint is that it begins with a “Nodding Bird” of a different kind; your second hint is that the first hint is a play on words.

   

   When you click Emergency Phone outside Wenzel’s house, you are connected with Gizmo, who expects an emergency to be reported; what you need to do here is find someone or something to recite a list of emergencies into the Phone…

   …think about Hannek’s wife… mumble mumble… that’s all you get, sorry.

   SPOILERS:

   • get Parrot:
     • go to Emergency Station, use Balloons on Laughing Gas to get another Balloon filled with laughing Gas
     • use Balloon filled with Laughing Gas on Parrot in Alley; it will pass out, making it useless to Hannek, so he allows you to take Stunned Parrot
     • use Espresso on Stunned Parrot to wake it up (it will be called just Parrot after that… examine it for a clue)
   • teach Parrot some useful things to say:
     • go Into Toni’s Shop and give Parrot to Toni (or put it on Pole next to door)
     • there will be some auto-dialogue, and Toni will kick Rufus out; go right back in and take Parrot back
   • go to Village Center, find Emergency Phone near Wenzel’s House and use Parrot on it; he sits on the handle and begins to repeat to Gizmo everything Toni’s told him about Rufus’ various crimes, busying the phone line for what we can imagine will be a very long time
4. go to Operator’s Platform to see that Telephone Operator has completely lost his s**t, so you’re free to take his Headphones (lying on the desk in front of him)
5. you still need one more piece of equipment to make Radio work, so go to Assembly Hall and take Microphone off podium
6. go to Vault, use Microphone and Headphones on Radio
7. click Radio to place a call, then wait out brief cut scene
8. most of the conversation with Cletus is backstory; in order to move on, you need to demand passage to Elysium
9. celebrate the most unpleasant part of the Deponia trilogy being behind you. Hooray!

3.6: get Goal & get out

missable achievement alert

Step 1 starts you on a straight track out of Kuvaq, so this is your last chance to collect the first 5 sculpture pieces. For more information, please see the special section near the beginning of this guide titled “Junkyard King.”

1. go to Emergency Station and click Bed Sheet. Gizmo locks you behind Cell Grating, you lose a whole bunch of stuff out of your inventory, and there’s a scene with him and Bailiff Argus
2. since both your inventory and the interactable objects in this room are quite limited, you’ll probably soon figure out that you should use Cat on Tree (far right side), even if it’s not clear why until after you do it: Gizmo’s firefighter mode is triggered, allowing Rufus to escape down the fire pole
3. go to Wenzel’s House; after the scene with Wenzel and Toni, enter Basement
4. click Cupboard to find Goal. The Organon show up for another auto-dialogue scene.
5. now you need to prevent the Organon getting through the Basement Door; use Divining Rod on Basement Door to barricade it
6. watch the cut scene showing the extremely implausible way in which Rufus escapes
7. huzzah!

CHAPTER II: Junk Mines

4.1: switch on the mine-bike

• Avial Power Inverter
• Bi-Nausal Power Inverter, Dorsal Power Inverter
• Halogen Lamp

1. Rufus and the unconscious Goal are now at the Junk Mines in an area called “the Turn;” cross the bridge by clicking the other end of it
2. note that from that lower ring on which Rufus is now standing, he can’t walk “To the Tunnel;” you need to either go Up onto the upper ring first, or double-click the Tunnel to teleport over there.
   Pick one of those methods and go To the Tunnel now.
3. click Mine Bike to get in it and learn that it’s broken
4. go To the Viaduct, talk to Doc; there’s a lot of dialogue here, and you need to hear pretty much all of it in order to continue. Of particular importance at this point:
   • Who are you? > I’m a handyman myself
     The dialogue that results from these options is all backstory, but you need to go through both of them to unlock the submenu described in the next bullet.

   • Just as a thought: In case a fellow handyman faced a problem…
     This option leads to a submenu with some important topics, the first of which is “When the mine bike doesn’t start for example;” you must select this to get an Avial Power Inverter from Doc. If you don’t see that option, it means you skipped step 3. (If this is your first time encountering a Power Inverter, i recommend examining this one in inventory to learn an enduring truth of the Deponian universe)

     The other two topics here — the ones about “my girlfriend” — must both be explored in order to unlock the submenu described in the next bullet.

     If you need to come back to this mine bike/girlfriend submenu, note that after you choose “Just as a thought: In case a fellow handyman faced a problem…” once, it changes to “I have some more interesting challenges.”

   • You seem to know your ways around women …
     This option appears on Doc’s top-level menu when you unlock it as described in the previous bullet point; it contains 4 bits of dialogue that you’ll soon find are much more helpful than they might seem.

     If you need to come back to this advice submenu, note that after you choose “You seem to know your ways around women …” once, it changes to “Again about women…”

5. return to Tunnel and use Avial Power Inverter on Mine Bike; the Power Inverter will fly into Junk Heap
6. click Junk Heap to start the minigame
   

   missable achievement alert

   
   You must assemble the inverters without skipping the puzzle to earn to DIY’er.

   mini game: assemble Power Inverters

   The idea is to put all parts together the right way to make 3 power inverters, each of which will consist of one of each of the parts (i.e. 1 Muff + 1 Bushing + 1 Bevel + 1 Corpus = 1 Inverter). Click on a part, and then click on the Corpus you want to attach it to.

   • Small Hint: Doc will pretty much tell you exactly how the parts need to be assembled, as long as you ask him the right questions…
   • Medium Hint: …”The right questions” will look more like “the wrong questions,” so ask them all if you haven’t already. If you see numbers 1 through 4 on yellow panels over the parts, that means you’ve already asked the right ones, because those are Doc’s hints; click them to hear his words again.
     
   • Big Hint: You need to talk to Doc about women to get the required info. If you don’t have “you seem to know your way around women” as a dialogue option with him, step 4 above explains how to unlock it.

   SOLUTION:

   • Conical Corpus + Clamp Bushing + Cobalt Muff + Bevel with 2 Spokes
     = Avial Inverter
   • Spherical Corpus + Screw Bushing + Emerald Muff + Bevel with 4 Spokes
     = Dorsal Inverter
   • Edged Corpus + Push On Bushing + Mauve Muff + Bevel with 3 Spokes
     = Bi-Nausal Inverter

   In case you prefer your spoilers in image form, here’s how the parts match up with the corpora:
   

   And here’s what all 3 completed Inverters look like:
   
   (yours will disappear out of the workspace as you complete them, so you won’t see them all lined up like this in-game)

7. use any of your new Power Inverters on Mine Bike; Rufus will remove Halogen Lamp to your inventory and install Power Inverter in its place
8. click Mine Bike to get in, then hold your mouse over the Bike and click “Set Off.”
   Rufus is flung through an area called The Outer Turn, where he notices a Lever lying on the ground as he flies by. Rufus ends up back where he started — facing the other direction — with a new hidden hint on his Plan and a flashing red Switch over his Bike.
9. press Switch to send Rufus and Mine Bike up into Control Center
10. go out To the Tunnel via door on left; press Button to open a passage between lower and upper levels so you can get to and from Control Center on foot

mine bike navigation

At this point in the game, Mine Bike has three possible positions, each of which leads to one or more of the other positions:

1. in Tunnel, facing Viaduct (right)
   choosing “Set Off” from here takes Rufus around Outer Turn, ending in position 2
2. in Tunnel, facing left, red Switch overhead
   • choosing “Set Off” from here turns the bike around, ending in position 1
   • pressing Switch lifts Bike into Control Center, which is position 3
3. inside Control Center
   choosing “Set Off” from here takes Rufus around Outer Turn, ending in position 2

To launch Mine Bike after clicking it to climb in, move your mouse near the bike until you see an arrow marked “Set Off,” then click.

To get out of Mine Bike, move your mouse until you see an arrow marked “Dismount,” then click. In the Tunnel, this arrow can be found just about anywhere that isn’t over the Bike itself; in Control Center, you need to move your mouse over the floor on the left side to find the “Dismount” arrow.

4.2: illuminate the Outer Turn

• Signaling Lamp
• Cloth / Cloth with Alcohol
• Dirty Mirror / Polished Mirror
• Key of Trackman
• Wrench
• Fuse

This seems like a good time to make sure you know that you can double-click a passage to another area to pop there magically instead of walking slowly over.

1. go to Viaduct, and try to go To the Outer Turn; you’ll discover that it’s too dark to walk in there to pick up that Lever you saw, and you’ll also get a hidden hint on Rufus’ Plan
2. you may notice there’s a Signaling Light near the entrance, but it’s not turned on… if you want to change that to see if it will help: go to Tunnel, go “Up” to the upper level, and pull Lever located outside Control Center to turn Signaling Light ON. If you can’t go “Up,” see section 4.1, step 10.

   Once you’ve done that, return to Viaduct; if you try to enter the Outer Turn now, Rufus says that the “dim red bulb doesn’t exactly help.” …When you switched on the mine-bike earlier, you got a bright, non-red light bulb out of the deal, so let’s try using that next.

   While you’re running back and forth turning the light on and off, pay close attention to anything that changes besides the light!

3. turn Light OFF using Lever in Tunnel. Go to Viaduct, click Signaling Light to open cover, and click Red Signaling Light to remove Signaling Lamp to your inventory
4. use Halogen Lamp (section 4.1) on Signaling Light to install it. If you want to see whether the new bulb helps, turn the Light back ON, and try entering Outer Turn again; this time, Rufus says “Too bad the spotlight doesn’t go ’round corners.”
5. luckily there’s a thing here that can make light go ’round corners; click Mirror to collect Dirty Mirror.

   You can get some helpful clues by trying to use Dirty Mirror on Signaling Light; Rufus says different things depending on the state the Light is in, so i have compiled his quotes for your convenience and/or sanity:

   • cover closed, red bulb installed:
     “I could hold up the mirror and reflect the light into the cave.”
     “But first off this bulb is too dim.”
     “And second I can’t stand here all day holding up a mirror.”
   • cover open, red bulb installed:
     “I could hold up the mirror and reflect the light into the cave.”
     “But first the spotlight is turned off.” (he says this whether Light is off or on)
     “And second I can’t stand here all day holding up a mirror.”
   • cover open, white bulb installed:
     “Right on …”
     “…. hm. A dirty mirror.”
     “It won’t reflect like this.”
6. prepare Mirror:
   The two problems Rufus identified with Mirror — its dirtiness and its need to be held up by someone other than him — can be addressed in any order. I will be starting with the dirt.
   • go to Tunnel, enter Control Center, and pick up Cloth; if you use this on Dirty Mirror, Rufus says “this dry cloth just spreads the dirt around” …so you need to do something about it being dry
   • go to Viaduct and grab Doc’s Booze; during the conversation that ensues, Doc will tell you exactly what to do next (if you need to hear it again, click Booze again)
   • use Cloth on Booze to wipe the bottleneck clean; now you have Cloth with Alcohol in your inventory
   • use Cloth with Alcohol on Dirty Mirror to produce Polished Mirror. Now you just need to find someone else to “stand here all day holding [it] up…”
   • use Polished Mirror on Skeleton to hang it up in front of Signaling Light; if you can’t do that, you need to turn Signaling Light ON, as this causes the arm it’s hanging from to move down, putting Skeleton within your reach. If you examine Signaling Light now, Rufus tells you “The mirror is hanging too low” … d’oh! (if he says anything other than that — or if you’re unable to examine Signaling Light at all — it means you missed step 4)
7. adjust arm…thingy:
   I don’t know what it’s officially called, but i’m talking about that tall contraption from which Skeleton is hanging. Hopefully you’ve realized that when the Signaling Light is ON, the arm is down low, and when the Light is OFF, it’s up high. However, in its “down” position, the arm holds Mirror too low to reflect light into Outer Turn, and in its “up” position, there’s no light! You need to get into that Maintenance Hatch at the base of the arm to see what can be done about that, but it’s screwed shut…
   • maybe you noticed the locked Key Box in Control Center; to open that, you need Key of Trackman, which is that Key hanging around Skeleton’s neck. If you can’t reach it, turn the Light ON to move the arm DOWN.
   • go To the Tunnel and enter Control Center; use Key of Trackman on Key Box and take Wrench from inside
   • go to Viaduct, use Wrench on Maintenance Hatch, take Fuse from inside
   • use either one of your Power Inverters on Maintenance Box; with the power inverted, the arm is now UP when the Light is ON, and DOWN when it’s OFF. The Outer Turn has been illuminated!
8. quit complaining about all the walking back and forth, i played this part through like 28 times. ALL FOR YOU!!!

4.3: get Goal…

• Lever
• Bottle / Filled Bottle
• Leg of Skeleton

1. go To the Outer Turn and pick up Lever; if you can’t get in there, go to section 4.2
2. go to Tunnel and use Lever on Shunting Lever Box
3. you need the Mine Bike to be parked in Tunnel, facing left, with the flashing red Switch visible above it; if it’s not there (or if it’s facing the wrong direction), climbing in and clicking “Set Off” will fix that no matter where it is.
   For more info on manipulating Mine Bike position, see “mine bike navigation” tip at the end of section 4.1
4. pull Shunting Lever (the one you just installed); Mine Bike moves to rear track
5. get in Mine Bike and Set Off; Rufus drives To the Turn (where Goal is)
6. go To the Crane and open Maintenance Box; click Defective Fuse inside to remove it
   

   missable achievement alert

   
   Step 7 prevents you from earning Newton would be proud, which requires you to plug any Power Inverter into Crane’s Maintenance Box

7. use Fuse on Maintenance Box
8. pull Crane Lever and listen to what Rufus says when it fails to help (this may sound like a thing you’re doing only to “see what happens,” but you must do it for step 9 to work)
9. go to Viaduct, talk to Doc about “interesting challenges,” and tell him you’re “too fidgety” so he’ll teach you how to meditate. If you don’t see that option on his menu, make sure you’ve done steps 7 & 8.

   After Doc says “Lodge your leg behind your head and fixate on a point on the horizon…,” you need to right-click the Horizon to examine it, or he won’t continue. Rufus must listen to the entire speech in order to proceed.

   I’m about to explain how to translate Doc’s dialogue into an answer, but it’s possible to just guess that answer when the time comes to give it (plus i’ve provided it in a spoiler); therefore, if you’re not interested in being walked through this, you can safely skip past the box to step 10 without worrying you’re missing something crucial.

   Doc’s meditation tips

   As Doc speaks, the sky gets all funky and things change color; several of the sentences he utters refer to things that can be seen in the sky:

   • “I have fixated on the strange blue shape to the right.”
     If you look at the column of letters that’s by itself on the far right, you’ll see two “blue shapes” there: a letter “I” and a letter “R;” it will soon become clear to which he’s referring.
   • “Now I let my eyes wander to the north until I see a blue pole.”
     He must mean the letter “I” here, since it’s a “blue pole” and is “north” of the “R.”
   • “Now i gaze far over to the west to that green thing.”
     Once again we have some ambiguity: there are two green letters on the far left (west): “S” and “V.”
   • “And then in a straight line to this blue thing down there.”
     There’s only one “blue thing” below the “S” and “V,” and that’s the letter “E”

   At this point, the letters we’ve collected are “R + I + (S or V) + E”

   The next thing Doc says clears up that leftover ambiguity: “I AM A RIVER.” What you should get from this is the fact that while picking letters out of the sky, he was spelling the word RIVER; therefore, by “the green thing,” he meant the letter “V.”

   When it comes time for Rufus to meditate in step 14, the letters in the sky will be different, and so will the word he creates from them. Therefore, Doc’s instructions should be seen as a road map — pick out the letters that are in the same locations as the ones Doc picked out.
   

10. for your convenience, here’s a summary of what Doc said Rufus should do in the Crane:
    • put your leg behind your head
    • examine horizon
    • find letters in sky
    • “tell the world who you are”
    • drink

    You may have guessed that there’s at least one inventory item you need to complete this process: something to drink. Since Doc won’t let you take his bottle to the Crane, you need to get your own…

11. get Filled Bottle:
    • go To the Outer Turn, grab Bottle
    • go to Viaduct and ask Doc to show you how to meditate again
    • when Doc puts his leg behind his head, instead of right-clicking Horizon, use Bottle on his Booze to get Filled Bottle. You don’t have to stay for the entire demonstration this time.

    Did you notice in step 10 i said “at least one item”? That’s because there are actually two items you need, and here’s your hint about the 2nd one: like most people, Rufus is unable to put his own leg behind his head.

12. click Skeleton to collect Leg of Skeleton
13. go to the Turn, get in Crane
14. meditate:
    • put your leg behind your head (use Leg of Skeleton on Seat)
    • examine horizon (right-click sky)
    • find letters in sky (see “Doc’s meditation tips” above, or look at the spoiler)
    • “tell the world who you are” (choose “PUPUP” from the menu)
    • drink (Rufus does this automatically if Filled Bottle is in your inventory)

    Notes:
    If you don’t like either of the solutions i offered for finding a meditation word, you can always guess until you get the right one; after a wrong guess, just right-click the sky to try again.

    If you didn’t have Filled Bottle in your inventory when you chose the correct word, you can get back on track easily like so: go get Filled Bottle (step 11), get back into Crane, right-click Filled Bottle in your inventory to drink.

15. click Crane Lever to put Goal on Mine Bike

4.4: …and get out

1. if Goal is not lying on Mine Bike, go to section 4.3.
   If you’ve just finished pulling Crane Lever to put her there and are still sitting in the Crane, get out of the Crane and go “Up”
2. click Mine Bike to get in; Rufus automatically drives to the Tunnel
3. the Mine Bike is facing the wrong way to get into Control Center, so “Set Off” to go around Outer turn and come back facing the other direction
   

   missable achievement alert

   Hitting the red Switch with Goal on the Bike (step 4) traps you inside Control Center, preventing you from collecting sculpture pieces from around the Junk Mines. For more information, please see the special section near the beginning of this guide titled “Junkyard King.”

4. click red Switch to enter Control Center and start the minigame
   

   missable achievement alert

   
   You must play this puzzle without skipping it to get Master of Switches.

mini game: mine labyrinth

I passed this part by just trying every permutation of Levers and Switches until i found one that worked, so i can’t help you figure out what each setting does or why. However, if you want to go the ham-fisted route like i did, i can give you some hints there to speed up the process a little:

• there are only 72 possible permutations, 4 of which count as success
• the red and green levers do not match each other in any solution
  (by itself, this HINT eliminates 36 of the 72 permutations)
• the yellow lever is forward in all 4 solutions
  (by itself, this SPOILER eliminates 36 of the 72 permutations)
• the bottom right switch is red in all four solutions
  (by itself, this SPOILER eliminates 48 of the 72 permutations)

And now for the answers (a big thanks to TTRM for letting me know there was more than one solution, and for submitting two of them!)

Solution 1:

• Yellow & Red Levers forward
• Green Lever pushed back
• bottom left Switch is green
• bottom right Switch is red

Solution 2:

• Yellow & Green Levers forward
• Red Lever pushed back
• bottom left Switch is yellow
• bottom right Switch is red

Solution 3:

• Yellow & Green Levers forward
• Red Lever pushed back
• bottom left Switch is red
• bottom right Switch is red

Solution 4:

• Yellow & Green Levers forward
• Red Lever pushed back
• bottom left Switch is green
• bottom right Switch is red

When you’ve got your Levers and Switches ready, Set Off. If you got it right, Rufus will immediately say “Now we’re really going places;” then you’ll see a scene with some Organon, then a cut scene, then some singing (huzzah).

CHAPTER III: Ascension Station

5.0: missable achievement minefield

This short chapter contains 5 of them, and it also involves a LOT of blocking you from getting to certain areas at certain times. The following missable achievements can (and probably should) be worked on right away:

• Gourmet
• Lever Lover
• History of Deponia
• Paradox
• half of Junkyard King (2 of the 4 items can be accessed as soon as you arrive; the other two, not until section 5.4).

Details on all these achievements are provided at their respective “last chance” points; you might want to skip ahead and read up on them.

5.1: repair Cotton Candy Machine

• Anchovies on a Stick / Stick
• Neutral Cotton Candy, Calzone Cotton Candy

Rufus has just brought Goal to the Ascension Station and set her down in a pile of rose hips in the Candy Shop. Time for a snack!

1. repair Cotton Candy Machine:
   • the Cotton Candy Machine in Candy Shop (where we begin this chapter) doesn’t seem to be working; maybe you can fix that using the set of 3 Switches …er, make that 2 Switches (the middle one broke when you clicked it)… How do the Suspicious Lamps factor into all this? Simple: they don’t. The Switches and Lamps are not needed for anything but a missable achievement; you can safely ignore them without hindering regular gameplay in any way.

     Here i am adding an extra paragraph to pad this spoiler out and make it look like it contains a lot of information so it will be a slightly bigger surprise when you read it. Blah blah blah, la la la …padding! OK, i’m tired of that now. You probably are, too.

   • maybe you could get a better look at the machine if you moved that Shelf out of the way…. (click Shelf to move it)
   • click Plug that was behind Shelf; Cotton Candy Machine is now plugged in and ready to go!
2. get Cotton Candy:
   • if you try to grab Cotton Candy directly from Machine, Rufus says “I think some kind of stick has to go in there,” so let’s look for a stick
   • click Anchovy Machine over by where Goal is, then grab the Anchovies on a Stick it barfs up
   • right-click Anchovies on a Stick in your inventory to eat the fish and be left with Stick
   • use Stick on Cotton Candy Machine to receive Neutral Cotton Candy
3. get a different flavor Cotton Candy:
   • pull Lever to left of Cotton Candy Machine to change flavors; Rufus says “Now it’s set to ‘calzone’,” and the little illustration at the top of the machine indicates a brown confection is being served
   • right-click Neutral Cotton Candy in your inventory to eat it, leaving Stick
   • use Stick on Cotton Candy Machine to receive Calzone Cotton Candy

5.2: get Elevator code

• Bucket, Soap, Mop
  
• Bucket with Water / Bucket with Soapy Water / Mop with Soapy Water
• Mop Handle
• Phosphor Cotton Candy / Glowing Phosphor Cotton Candy
• Chewing Gum / Chewed Gum
• Mosaic Stone / Mosaic Stone with Chewing Gum
• Torch Light

1. go To the Lobby, examine Mosaic Table to learn you need more light to view it properly; be sure to open Hatch and examine the Niche it reveals
2. go To the Concourse (it’s the archway between Mosaic Table and Candy Shop). If you examine Mosaic Table on the left side of Concourse, you find that this one also needs more light; the Dirty Mosaic Table on the right apparently needs to be cleaned
3. go To the Elevator (if you stand in front of Dirty Mosaic Table, you can see the door at far right end of Concourse)
4. click arrow marked “To the Platform” to learn that elevator won’t work without a code, and also to unlock both a new path and a hidden hint on Rufus’ Plan. It’s a pretty good hint.
5. clean the Mosaic:
   • open Utility Cabinet at base of Elevator; take Bucket, Soap, and Mop.
     All attempts to combine or use these items result in Rufus asking for water, so let’s go find some of that.
   • go To the Concourse, walk over to the left so you can see the door To the Lobby, then go through it
   • go To the Tower (if you stand in front of Mosaic Table in Lobby, you can see entrance on left side)
   • use Bucket on Pool (lower center) or on Barrel with Water (lower right) to get Bucket with Water
   • use Soap on Bucket with Water to create Bucket with Soapy Water
   • use Mop on Bucket with Soapy Water to create Mop with Soapy Water
   • go to Concourse and use Mop with Soapy Water on Dirty Mosaic Table.
     Mop with Soapy Water breaks, leaving Mop Handle and Mop in your inventory.

   Examine freshly-cleaned Mosaic to learn that we could probably get Elevator password if we had more light…

6. illuminate the Mosaic:
   Each Mosaic has a Niche in which to place a torch, but we don’t have one of those; we do, however, have access to a substance that gives off light: phosphor
   • from Lobby, go To the Candy Shop
   • get green Phosphor Cotton Candy from Cotton Candy Machine (if you need help operating Machine or switching flavors, see section 5.1).

     If you place Phosphor Cotton Candy into a Niche, Rufus says that it fits, but “to shed light on the mosaic the cotton candy would have to be on fire or something.” There’s a way besides setting it on fire to make this specific flavor Candy give off light… think about toys you had as a kid (or now, it’s all good) that were “glow-in-the-dark”…

   • use Phosphor Cotton Candy on any light source — Suspicious Lamps in Candy Shop, Lit Archway in Lobby, or Lamps on Concourse — to create Glowing Phosphor Cotton Candy
   • go to Concourse, open Hatch of right-hand Mosaic Table (the one with a Hole in it)
   • use Glowing Phosphor Cotton Candy on Niche

   Examine illuminated Mosaic Table to learn that we can probably get Elevator password if we repair that Hole…

7. repair the damaged Mosaic:
   • pick up Mosaic Stone from floor in front of left-hand Mosaic Table on Concourse
   • try to put Mosaic Stone into Hole in right-hand Mosaic Table… it won’t stick; you need something sticky. Good thing there’s a Candy Shop nearby.
   • go to Candy Shop, click Chewing Gum Dispenser near door to collect Chewing Gum
   • right-click Chewing Gum in your inventory to transform it into Chewed Gum
   • use Chewed Gum on Mosaic Stone to create Mosaic Stone with Chewing Gum
   • use Mosaic Stone with Chewing Gum on Hole in right-hand Mosaic Table to start the mini game

   missable achievement alert

   For all intents and purposes, completing this minigame prevents you from earning History of Deponia, which requires you to illuminate and examine all three Mosaic Tables (two on Concourse, one in Lobby). For each Mosaic, you need to open its Hatch, put Glowing Phosphor Cotton Candy in the Niche to illuminate it, and right-click the Mosaic Table to examine it.

   By the way, i did NOT find any evidence that skipping this puzzle will cause you to miss any achievements.

   mini game: repair the mosaic

   The goal is pretty straight-forward: put the broken pieces on the left into their correct positions on the right, using the lines of the cryptic image they create as a guide. After clicking a piece to pick it up, click the right mouse button to rotate it.

   To get you started, here’s the mosaic with all the pieces that don’t need to be rotated already in place:
   

   Here’s the completed mosaic:
   

   The piece with the Chewed Gum on it doesn’t fit; you need to try to force it into the puzzle three times in order to break the Mosaic and move on.

8. once Mosaic Table is broken (which counts as repairing it, oddly enough), you’ll see a Fusebox; click to open it
9. pick up Torch Light to reveal Fuse Switch behind it
10. press Fuse Switch to reboot the system, which resets Elevator code
    

    missable achievement alert

    
    Step 11 prevents you from earning Paradox, which requires you to use Pebble (found on Concourse) on the glowing Pool at the Tower.

11. go to Elevator and click Controls; Rufus automatically enters Elevator and goes up to Platform for a cut scene

5.3: sneak past Argus

• Pebble
• Embellishment
• Slingshot / Slingshot with Pebble
• Flag
• Greasy Mop
• Hook
• Lampshade
• Organon GetUp / Improvised Cletus Costume
• Backup Cartridge

1. upon reaching Platform for the first time, Rufus sees an Organon Cruiser arrive at the Ascension Station. Nothing’s going on up here yet, so go back down To the Concourse and watch the scene that plays out between Cletus and Argus.
2. follow Cletus up to Platform and talk to him. A lot. How did he get up there without the elevator code? That’s not a hint, by the way, i’m actually wondering. And is it just me, or does Cletus’ shirt remind you of tighty whities?
3. according to the way that conversation ended — as well as the new additions to Rufus’ Plan — you should go to Candy Shop to pick up Goal next
4. oops, you only got as far as Concourse, because Rufus doesn’t want Argus to see him; the hidden hint that just appeared on the Plan recommends that next, you should…
5. dim the light:
   • take Pebble off floor, use it on Lamps for a clue. Rufus won’t throw it; he wants “a weapon to use it with.” If nothing in your inventory makes you think “that looks like a weapon to use a Pebble with,” you should…
   • go to Platform, take Embellishment from post near Elevator door. Examine it in inventory if you still don’t see where this is going: you need to use Embellishment as a Slingshot …somehow
   • hey, is that your Chewed Gum lying on the floor of Concourse? Click Mosaic Stones to get it back
   • used Chewed Gum on Embellishment to create Slingshot
   • use Pebble on Slingshot to create Slingshot with Pebble
   • use Slingshot with Pebble on Lamps

   Rufus’ Plan suggests that after dimming the light, you should…

6. craft a Cletus costume:
   • go to Platform and examine Cletus for ideas: “Greasy hairdo, ugly cape, and stiff collar”
   • there’s a thing up here that could pass for an “ugly cape:” click Lever under Flagpole and take Flag.

     To craft your costume, you need to combine items in inventory to create a single usable thing. Now that you have one piece of it, you can test out potential costume elements by trying to combine them with Flag and seeing what Rufus says about it.

   • you already have something that could pass for a wig (the Mop); when you try to combine it with Flag, Rufus says something pretty helpful: “the hairdo isn’t greasy enough yet“
   • go To the Elevator, use Mop on Oil Tank to create Greasy Mop.

     If you’re having trouble identifying the final piece of the costume, start examining things; when you find it, you’ll know, because Rufus will say “Looks like an anti-scratching collar for a Dog. Or like the collar of Goal’s fiancé.“

   • the final piece of the costume is the Lampshade you knocked down in step 5, but because Argus is standing right there, you need to somehow reach it without walking over to it… like maybe with some kind of… long thing….? Try using Mop Handle on it and see if Rufus’ response helps you.
   • combine Mop Handle with Embellishment in your inventory to create Hook
   • use Hook on Lampshade to collect it
   • combine Lampshade with Flag to create Organon GetUp
   • combine Greasy Mop with Organon GetUp to create Improvised Cletus Costume
7. while standing on Concourse, right-click Improvised Cletus Costume to put it on
8. try to walk past Argus; he stops you and sends you back to Platform for “the cartridge”
9. get Backup Cartridge:
   • go to Platform, talk to Cletus
   • say “The Organons said something about a backup cartridge…”

     If you don’t see that option on his menu, it means you were lazy about talking to him the first time and didn’t explore all his dialogue. Tsk tsk. The best way to make it appear is to just listen to everything he has to say, because why are you even playing this game if not to enjoy the story? But if you’re dead set against doing that for some reason, here’s the entertainment-free method of reaching the required option:

     • ask “What’s the agreement between you and the Organon?”
     • say “Alright. Great. There’s no one who hates Deponia more than i do.”
     • choose any option from the Deponia-bashing submenu to make the “exit option” (see next bullet) appear
     • exit submenu by choosing “Let’s just say I hate this place;” you will be taken back to main dialogue menu, from which you can now select the option “The Organons said something about a backup cartridge…”
   • insist “I need the backup cartridge.”
   • say “Goal is unconscious;” Cletus finally gives you Backup Cartridge
10. go back to Concourse and right-click Improvised Cletus Costume in inventory to put it on
11. walk towards Argus; he stops you for a chat. Try not to think too hard about the plot hole that convinces Argus to let “Cletus” pass through to the Lobby.

5.4: get Goal…

• Anchovies on a Stick / Bait / Glowing Bait
• Cartridge
• Bozo’s Key
• Duster, Degreaser, Steel Brush

1. back at the Candy Shop, Rufus discovers Goal is missing; pay attention to what he says at the end of his little speech: “Maybe there’s a trail“.
   There are two things different about this room from the last time you were here: Goal is missing, and there’s a big Puddle of Phosphor on the floor. Examine that for a clue.
2. follow phosphor trail:
   To find Goal, you need to illuminate bits of the trail by using Torch Light on a series of Phosphor Traces on the floor; each time you do this, a new piece of the trail will be revealed.
   

   

   This list details the location of each bit of phosphor you need to find, and what is revealed by using Torch Light on that bit:

   • Candy Shop (reveals trail that leads to Lobby)
   • doorway between Candy Shop and Lobby (reveals trail that leads to lower level of Lobby)
   • lower level of Lobby (reveals trail that leads to Tower)
   • Front of Tower (reveals trail that leads to Piece of Fence on the right)

   P.S. Your target in the Candy Shop is labeled “Puddle of Phosphor,” but all the rest are labeled “Part of Phosphor Trace.”

3. click Piece of Fence to reveal a passage to a new area: Behind the Tower
4. use Hook on Grating to open path to Cable Chute
5. enter Cable Chute.
   There must be some reason Rufus mentions that the Whale “looks hungry,” but when you offer it the only foods you have available, nothing seems to tempt it. The most helpful feedback results from offering it Anchovies on a Stick, to which Rufus responds “It doesn’t even seem to see them,” implying you need to somehow make them more visible
6. clear path to Wrecked Cable Boat:
   • if you don’t have Anchovies on a Stick, go get one from Candy Shop
   • use Anchovies on a Stick on Phosphor Puddle or any Phosphor Trace to create Bait
   • use Bait on any light source — Torch Light in inventory, Lit Archway in Lobby, or Suspicious Lamps in Candy Shop — to create Glowing Bait
   • go to Cable Chute, use Glowing Bait on Whale or Hook
   • Whale rams window, clearing path to Wrecked Cable Boat

   missable achievement alert(s)

   Entering Wrecked Cable Boat (step 7) prevents you from returning to Candy Shop, which interferes with all the following:

   Gourmet, which requires you to eat every kind of food from the Candy Shop: Chewing Gum, Anchovies on a Stick (both of which were necessary in order to progress the story), and all three flavors of Cotton Candy (that’s the missable part). If you don’t get the achievement, try also eating Glowing Phosphor Cotton Candy.
   
   Lever Lover, which requires you to click the useless Switches in Candy Shop over and over…and over…and over….

   
   Junkyard King. For more information, please see the special section near the beginning of this guide.

7. enter passage To Wrecked Cable Boat that’s at right end of Cable chute
8. go Into Wrecked Cable Boat for some auto-dialogue with Doc and Bozo
9. you’re now looking at Goal; the only thing you can do is click her brain implant, so do that. After more auto-dialogue, you will have Cartridge in your inventory. According to the Plan, next you need to…
10. clean Goal’s implant:
    • near bottom of ramp are a Duster and a Key; click them to collect Duster and Bozo’s Key
    • click arrow marked “To the Wrecked Cable Boat” to go out onto the deck
    • use Bozo’s Key on Chest
    • clicking Chest closes the lid, so you need to right-click it to collect Steel Brush and a bottle of Degreaser
    • right-click Cartridge (not the Backup) or use any of your cleaning tools on it to launch what appears to be a mini game, but isn’t really. There’s no penalty for clicking the “X” to skip this part if you get frustrated or bored (if you don’t see the “X” button, it’s because you’re missing one or more of the cleaning tools).

      When you mouse over any of the three hotspots here, you see text that tells you the component’s name and its current state; Reading Head and Chip are “clean,” the Contact Pins are “dusty.” If you use Duster on the latter, the Contact Pins become “greasy” and the other two components become “dusty.”

      Clearly this is not going to end well. Just keep messing with it until Rufus says he has “an ace up [his] sleeve,” then use the Steel Brush on everything to “win.”

11. when you emerge from the Cartridge-“cleaning” sequence, you go straight into a scene in which Goal is revived
12. now you’re talking to Goal; this is all backstory and entertainment here
13. when you select “enough talking” from the bottom of the first menu, you’ll move on to the next set of dialogue options about a “perfect plan.” No matter which plan you choose, Goal will come up with a better one.

5.5: sneak past Organons

• Straw
• Fork
• Platypus Soft Toy

missable achievement alert

Once you enter Pool in step 2, you will no longer be able to collect two of the three remaining sculpture pieces, and the third becomes inaccessible when you pull Crane Lever in step 5. For more information, please see the special section near the beginning of this guide titled “Junkyard King.”

1. go Behind the Tower (that small area just outside entrance to Cable Chute), click Stack of Needles to collect Straw
2. go to Front of Tower, use Straw on glowing Pool to send Rufus snorkeling
3. navigate trash heap In Front of Tower:
   Remember that if you’re having trouble finding any of the objects i describe, you can hold down the space bar to highlight hotspots.
   • enter Trunk; Rufus emerges from Right Window
   • enter Left Window
   • click Crank to open French Door
   • enter French Door
   • take Fork
   • click Pipe to make Rufus stick his hand up through it
   • use Fork on Horn
   • click Horn to launch Fork; it knocks support out
     from underneath trunk lid, which slams shut, opening Canopy Top
   • enter Canopy Top

   

4. get past the *#@$^%*#@$&% Platypus Soft Toy:

   Step one: do not listen to any walkthrough that claims all you need to do is walk back and forth over the Toy until you randomly arrive at the Crane!!! It is not true, and trying it may cause your mouse to abruptly defenestrate and your keyboard to somehow mysteriously become lodged in your shattered monitor.

   If you’ve lost interest in trying to figure this out on your own, skip down to “SOLUTION”, below.

   First, realize that what’s preventing you from reaching Fence Exit is the light that’s shining on the floor right in front it. Then notice that when the Platypus Soft Toy squeaks, the light is sometimes — but not every time — moved away from the Exit. I believe that if not for my failure to notice these details, i could have gotten through this puzzle without needing to buy a new mouse afterwards; maybe there’s still hope for you.

   

   

   Mull over the default series of events, taking special note of the limited variety of reactions you get from the Organons when stepping on the Platypus Soft Toy:

   • Rufus enters that back area for the first time, rosy-cheeked and optimistic about the future, unscarred by a lengthy scuffle with a Platypus Soft Toy.
   • Rufus crosses from right to left, stepping on Toy and making it squeak.
     Organons don’t really pay attention (“Forget it, there’s nothing there”).
     Light remains in front of Fence Exit.
     Even though he’s very near Fence Exit, Rufus won’t enter it.
   • Rufus crosses from left to right, stepping on Toy and making it squeak.
     Organons notice the sound (“Now I hear it too. Hello? Hello, who’s there?”).
     Light shines on Toy for a few moments, then goes back to Fence Exit.
     Both Toy and light block Rufus’s path to Fence Exit, so he can’t enter it.
   • Repeat 2nd & 3rd bullet points until you hear a little snapping noise inside your brain.

   So here’s the deal: there are two places to stand, and two light positions; unfortunately, these are synched up in a way that prevents you from reaching Fence Exit. You need to break that synch; you need the light to be moved to the Toy while Rufus is standing to the left of it (closer to Fence Exit). The way to do that is to execute one cross without squeaking the Toy
   

   SOLUTION

   • click Platypus Soft Toy to pick it up.
     If Rufus is standing to the RIGHT of Board when you do this, he’ll walk over the Toy before picking it up, ending up on LEFT side.
     If Rufus is standing to the LEFT of Board when you do this, he’ll stay on LEFT side.
   • cross to the RIGHT. Rufus might not walk over the first time you click, but just try again and he’ll go.
   • use Platypus Soft Toy on Board to put it back where you found it
   • cross to the LEFT, squeaking Toy along the way; Rufus automatically enters Fence Exit after a short pause
   • have your monitor send me a nice thank-you note for saving its life
5. go up To the Crane and click Crane Lever to get the Organons out of your way
6. sit back and watch the long scene that ends with Rufus standing at the Elevator

5.6: …and get out…?

1. go up to Platform for some dialogue between Rufus, Goal, and Cletus
2. you now have four dialogue options; the last one, “you go ahead and sort that out between the two of you,” will set Goal and Cletus to arguing, leaving you free to…
3. click Bag to collect Cletus’ Rags
4. right-click Cletus’ Rags in your inventory to put them on
5. talk to Cletus, and say “don’t make me laugh;” the conversation that follows ends with Cletus dropping trou to show Rufus the birthmark on his butt
6. click Cletus’ Speedos (“aw, do I have to?” yes. yes, you do); this puts a pair of pink underpants on your cursor
7. click the pink underpants onto Flagpole to run Cletus up it “and see who salutes” (which is just part of an old expression, BTW, not a hint)
8. when the auto-dialogue is done, you’ll be staring at Goal’s face; the only option is to eject her brain implant, so do that
9. Argus shows up and talks about Rufus with a familiarity i’m pretty sure he could only have attained by watching over your shoulder as you play. …HE’S RIGHT BEHIND YOU!!!
   Next we see Rufus and Goal in the Cable Boat; talk to her.

   missable achievement alert

   
   Choosing the wrong dialogue will prevent you from earning Loving the Truth, which requires you to click ONLY the #2 dialogue option on each menu:
   

   • “Say Goal…”
   • “It’s like this…”
   • “Well…”
   • “It’s just that…”
   • “Alright then. I’m going to tell you now.”

   
   I was unable to test this myself, but one commenter confirms that a single incorrect choice will cost you the achievement [thanks, Robin Lionheart!].

10. you’re now back on Platform for a scene in which Goal demands Rufus restore her memories of her time on Deponia; when it’s done, go to Concourse for more talking
11. Goal’s Cartridge is here, lodged between the cheeks of a Reading Machine; pick it up
12. go to Elevator for another conversation, this time with Cletus and Argus. When the dialogue menu appears, you need to say “You’ve won. Here’s the cartridge” to move on to the cut scene
13. after the cut scene, you’ll be looking at Argus and an armed officer (if you click on either one of them, Argus punches you)
14. mouse over the edges of the screen to see that there’s a Ramp to your right, a Handrail to your left; turn right towards Ramp (or turn left twice if you want to take the scenic route)

    NOTE: i believe this is your last chance to create a save file before the next installment of the trilogy starts (if you’re playing The Complete Journey).

15. now you’re looking at Prime Controller dangling the Cartridge in front of you; click a Handle on the flying television set to start the next cut scene
16. Rufus is now lying in the Stack of Needles Behind the Tower, talking to Bozo; choose whichever option you want, Rufus will just give a thumbs-up and take you to the final cut scene, and then the singing (huzzah).

Next…!

“The End” is immediately followed by the tutorial of the next game in the trilogy, which begins with a…

missable achievement alert

You must complete the tutorial (for the 2nd game) without skipping it to earn Huzzah — once more from the top.

If you’re NOT playing “The Complete Journey,” you may wish to look into an achievement called “Droggeljug” which was not covered in this guide.

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