Deponia 2 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 “Chaos on Deponia.” Many hints given; all missable achievements marked; pointless whining provided free of charge.

Introduction

I created these Deponia: The Complete Journey guides (links to the others are at the end, under “LINKS”) 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. Not to mention that in at least 3 instances (across several different guides, to be fair), i found information that was flat-out wrong. </RANT>

Therefore, i tried to organize this guide in such a way that you can search it for the obstacle you’re trying to pass (like getting the Tournament Hand, for example) and find all the information you need 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.

The Chapter numbers here correspond with Rufus’ Plans, which are numbered across all three games in “The Complete Journey” trilogy, and which are reflected on the world map you’re shown when you choose “New Game” from the Main Menu. Chapters I through III were covered in the first installment; this guide covers the second installment (Chapters IV through VII). I hope that numbering my Chapters in accordance with how they’re marked within the game will reduce confusion in the long run.

Note that if you look at Rufus’ Plan (by clicking the light bulb on the upper left of your inventory screen) at the very beginning of this game, the number shown in the lower left corner is “IV.”

“CONTINUE” BUG! WARNING!!!

Do NOT rely on the “Continue” button for picking up where you left off after quitting the game! Always save your game, and then load the save file!

Sometimes after using the Continue button from the Main Menu, you may find yourself with no cursor, unable to click anything — the only way that i know of to fix this is to quit the game, restart, and go back to an older save file. Other times, you may lose some progress (like everything you did between entering the location you were last in and quitting the game).

Speaking of saving and bugs: when overhauling this guide in 2021, i noticed that sometimes the wrong scene would be shown on the “Load/Save” menu, making it hard for me to find the file i was looking for. In those cases, there seemed to be a correlation between the image shown on the save menu and whatever was on the screen the last time i opened Rufus’ Plan. To correct the save file thumbnail, i only needed to return to the game, view Rufus’ Plan, and save again.

keyboard shortcuts

These are taken word-for-word from the “Hints” section behind the “Bonus” button on the Main Menu:

• Press “I” to open the Inventory. (that’s a capital “i,” in case you were wondering)
• Press the “Space” bar to show all hotspots and to pause a cutscene.
• Press “Esc” to go back to the main menu and to skip dialogue lines as well as cutscenes.
• With the keys “+” and “-” you can decrease and increase the sound volume.
• Press “M” to mute and unmute the game sound.
• “F5” takes you directly to the Load/Save menu.
• “F8” opens the Settings menu.
• “F9” saves a quicksave, overwriting any existing one.
• “F10” loads a quicksave, if one exists.
• By pressing “F11” you can take a screenshot.

I make no warranty that these all work the way they say they will (in fact, three of them didn’t work for me).

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.
• 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.

MISSABLE ACHIEVEMENTS

If performing an action will prevent you from obtaining any missable Steam achievement, a clearly marked “missable achievement alert” 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.

This installment of the trilogy has several missable achievements that require preparation across more than one area and/or Chapter, as described in the following three sections of this guide.

Disclaimer:

For my missable achievement information, i relied almost completely on people who are better at figuring these things out than i am; for this particular installment of Deponia, i was unable to find a guide that clearly specified which were missable and which weren’t. Further, there were a few of the achievements for which i couldn’t find any definitive information about what exactly was required to earn them.

The above disclaimer was written when i first published the guide in 2017… i did NOT re-research the achievements when i overhauled it in 2021, since i figured any new data i found out there was at least a little likely to have been influenced by my guide. …Also i didn’t feel like it.

Pin-Up Goal, Cheater

On the Main Menu, you’ll see a button marked “Bonus;” if you click that, you’ll find a button marked “Puzzle.” If you click that button, you’ll see a jigsaw puzzle. …Probably an incomplete jigsaw puzzle, i’m guessing, since you’re here reading this explanation.

This area is connected to two achievements: Pin-Up Goal and Cheater. The central idea is that on your travels, you’ll collect the pieces needed to complete this alluring portrait of Rufus’ secondary obsession (after himself, of course):

The twelve small, innocuous items you need to collect are scattered throughout Chapters V and VI, hidden in the scenery; descriptions and screenies are provided at the end of this section if you need help finding them. Notes about the pieces:

• they are NOT highlighted by pressing the spacebar
• they do NOT look like puzzle pieces in-game — they’re more like rectangular scraps of paper
• they do NOT appear in your inventory when you click them

…was that a list of NOTES or a list of NOTS? I don’t care that joke wasn’t funny, i’m leaving it in.

The difference between Pin-Up Goal and Cheater lies in the way the pieces are collected. The two methods conflict with each other, so it’s not possible to earn both achievements on a single play-through; in fact, according to many accounts, they can’t even share a save file — after completing one achievement, you must start a new game before beginning work on the other.

I’m describing Pin-Up Goal first because it more closely embodies the main objective of collecting the puzzle pieces. However, you should know that its requirements are extremely strict and very touchy, so if you’ve played any part of Chapter V at all, there’s a chance you’ve already disqualified yourself from receiving it on this playthrough. Therefore, you may need to start with the easier one: Cheater (described below).

To earn Pin-Up Goal, you must collect all 12 pieces in one continuous timeline. For example, let’s say you made it to the beginning of Chapter VI before deciding to work on this achievement; if you were to collect all the pieces in VI and then go back to an old save file to pick up the ones from Chapter V, it wouldn’t work, because that’s not a continuous timeline.

Although the use of save files doesn’t itself nullify Pin-Up Goal, you do need to be very careful that your files are sequential, and that you never click any puzzle piece more than once. In other words, you CAN use save files to take breaks and then continue where you left off; you CAN’T use them to backtrack. Do NOT save your game, click a puzzle piece, and then later load that save file to continue, because that’s a failure (see flow chart ➞).

Double-clicking any puzzle piece is a failure, too, so be careful.

If you’re doing well in your pursuit of this achievement, you’ll hear a musical sound each time you collect a piece. If you don’t hear the musical sound when you click an item, you’ve probably already failed. Check your Bonus Puzzle screen for an obvious sign you’re in trouble:

If you fail Pin-Up Goal and want to try again, you need to start a new game from the beginning of the installment (Chapter IV). The first time i went after this achievement, i tried jumping directly to Chapter V from the world map after starting a new game. The chimes were going off with each click as if everything were okay, but then the final two items didn’t make sounds and didn’t register. I ended up having to start over AGAIN from Chapter IV.

If you fail Pin-Up Goal and are NOT playing “The Complete Journey,” you may need to refer to a guide specifically written for the standalone “Chaos on Deponia” about these achievements; apparently there’s some kind of bug in that game that makes failure permanent or some crazy thing.

By the way, i wrote a “sprint-through” for people who have already finished playing through the second installment and now need to go back for this achievement (and others):
[link]

This achievement also requires you to click a total of 12 hidden puzzle pieces, but at least one of those pieces must be a repeat.

Ideally, what will happen is this: you’ll load a save file from Chapter V or VI, locate an uncollected puzzle piece, and save your game. Then click the piece, load your save file, and click the same piece again; repeat this click-load-click sequence until the achievement is earned. A total of 12 puzzle-piece clicks are required, so you’ll need to tap that thing anywhere between 1 and 12 times.

…Or consider finding a pair of pieces that are close together, and doing a “save-click-(walk)-click-load” on them, reducing the number of times you need to reload.

Some players — but not not all — experience failure when they try the above method beginning with a save file that was involved in a successful run on Pin-Up Goal. If the instructions given in that second paragraph didn’t work for you, the first thing you need to do is go to the Main Menu and click “New Game;” you’ll then be presented with the world map, from which you need to pick a Chapter at which to start.

Some sources say you must start at Chapter IV (Grandma Utz’s Hut) and work your way back to Chapter V, while others report success after jumping straight to Chapter V (Floating Black Market) or Chapter VI (Red Rust Sea). Personally, i don’t think the time you might save by starting at Chapter V (or VI) is worth the risk of possibly having to start over a second time… but i’m just here to give you the info, not tell you how to use it.

The Puzzle on the Bonus screen is completed in random order, so unfortunately you can only learn from it how many pieces you already have, not which ones.

Chapter V

1. Bozo’s Cutter: stuck to window on right side (cannot be collected in Chapter VI)
2. Doc’s Replacement Parts Store: on shelf near Lamp
3. Doc’s Office: by square window under entrance
4. Tavern: on shelf by bottle closest to bathroom
5. Gadget Shop: on “!” box on left side (cannot be collected in Chapter VI)
6. Marketplace: on orange counter between Bellevue and Dark Alley
7. Old Town: condiment label on table
8. Rebel Hideout: by game pieces on lower left

Chapter VI

1. Porta Fisco, Quay: box in trash where the Power Inverter was found
2. Porta Fisco, Seer’s Tent: on rug hanging by entrance
3. Isla Watchit, 1st area: right side, near a thing that looks like an upside-down red “U”
4. Isla Watchit, 2nd area: left side, near poster of Radio Tower

Supercool, Animal Lover

Each of these achievements requires multiple actions in multiple locations; any action that isn’t necessary for the storyline — and is therefore missable — is also marked within the body of the guide with a “missable achievement alert.”

1. Fetch the Stick for Clever-Byte 3 times (section 2.1):
   This task entails first using Stick on Clever-Byte (which makes Rufus throw it), then clicking Stick as it lies on the ground (which makes Rufus fetch it). Now do both those steps two more times.

2. Sing the Dumb Bum song for Spunky Goal (section 2.2):
   Ideally, this will be done when you first talk to Spunky in the Tavern; to do it, you need to go through all of the following dialogue with her:
   1. “You have to come with me to see Doc.”
   2. “You must come with me! Something went wrong with the surgery.”
   3. “What do i have to do to make you come along?”

   Her response to that last bit is “Hmm… you could sing the dumb bum song for me.” …And he does. …Twice, if Bozo is present at the time.

   According to some accounts, it may also be necessary to use all of the pick-up lines under “Hey Baby…” when talking to all three Goals.

3. Recite a line of poetry to Crane the Poet (section 4.8):
   If things go for you the way they went for me, you should not need to do anything special to accomplish this part (it’s part of the storyline, as far as i know).

   Other guides say there is more poetry-reciting needed to earn this achievement; but for me, after fetching the stick 3 times and singing the song — as well as going through all of all three Goals’ pick-up lines, because i’m just compulsive that way — i got Supercool by choosing only the first line of those available when talking to Crane about poetry.

   So if you believe you’ve fulfilled the first 2 requirements but don’t get the achievement with one line of poetry, try reciting all lines to both Crane and Seagull.

1. Kill the canary (section 1.1). This is part of the storyline & can’t be missed.
2. Talk to Baby Goal about bugs (section 2.2):
   Ideally, this will be done when you first talk to Baby in the Tavern; to do it, you need to say “Hey, Baby!” and then “What’s a nice girl like you doing in a place like this?” She replies that she’s naming the bugs on the counter. At the end of the conversation, Rufus cripples one of the healthy bugs so that the one that was already crippled won’t feel lonely.
3. Let the reanimated Zebrafish die (section 4.5).
4. Make cat food (section 7.2). This is part of the storyline & can’t be missed.

Thank you to commenter DeltaStrata for letting me know about that first requirement! It does become relevant if you want to — or need to — start a new game in pursuit of this achievement rather than going back to an old save file (because it obliges you to start at Chapter IV).

Collecting Agent (introduction)

You must accumulate 26 items in your inventory to earn this achievement. Throughout the first half of the Chapter V portion of this guide, you’ll find “Collecting Agent note”s about which items you should use and which you should not use if you hope to get this achievement. Additionally, each section begins with a list of the Collecting Agent items you’ll gather while playing through that section.

Section 4.4, “COLLECTING AGENT (finale)” provides a bit more information, including a complete list of all the items, which itself is probably more helpful than all the other scattered notes combined.

Although i’ve put a lot of effort into making this guide Collecting-Agent-compatible, i think you’ll find that the method i was obliged to use here is less than ideal. Therefore, i’ve also written a very terse walkthrough guide for experienced players who only want to earn Collecting Agent (it’s no help at all with anything beyond the achievement). It’s kind of more like a “sprint-through.” All rights reserved on that word i made up. I highly recommend using this other guide instead:
[link]

0.0 Tutorial (missable achievement)

missable achievement alert

You must complete the tutorial without skipping it to earn Huzzah — once more from the top.

The achievement isn’t awarded until after Chapter IV has officially started (following two cut scenes, the Huzzah song, and a conversation between Doc & Grandma Utz).

CHAPTER IV: GRANDMA UTZ’S HUT

1.1 terrorize Grandma Utz

The official title of this section — if we’re going by the text on Rufus’ Plan — is actually “Tell how Rufus found the hammer.” If you don’t know what i mean by “Rufus’ Plan,” please visit the section titled “general tips for surviving on your own,” above.

1. click red Toolbox (it’s on floor near Doc’s face)
2. click Hammer inside Toolbox; Rufus throws it at John Thomas (the canary) for some reason
3. click Hammer to pull it out of post; Rufus drops it and it lands under striped Tablecloth
4. click Hammer again; instead of picking that up, Rufus takes Tablecloth, knocking over lantern and setting table on fire.

   The only hint i’m giving you in this section is that examining Tablecloth in your inventory will give you an idea what needs to be done next: Doc says “No doubt burns so hot that it can’t be extinguished with a wet tablecloth.”

5. click Bathroom Door to open it and reveal John Thomas, who is being intermittently electrocuted
6. click Box in which canary is lodged; he falls head-first into toilet
7. take Power Inverter out of Toolbox and use it on Box in Bathroom
8. click Flush Handle (hanging from chain in Bathroom right next to Box); John Thomas gets sucked up into tank over toilet (cuz the Inverter made the flush go backwards, get it?)
9. click Flush Button on sink; the dazed canary drains into Sink along with some brown water
10. use Tablecloth on Sink to wet it; it gets stuck
11. click Button next to Sink to start garbage disposal (if you don’t see Button, Rufus may be standing in front of it); Sink contents are sucked down drain and chewed up in disposal.

    … Luckily they don’t make us look at the implied mangled corpse of the canary, nor the tears of abject grief shed by Grandma Utz over his horrific torture and death. Hopefully she won’t even notice before Rufus knocks her entire house into the sea at the end of the next scene.

12. take Soaked Tablecloth from disposal and use it on Fire; Rufus FINALLY picks up Hammer.

    …Sadly, he does not bash his own face in with it.

1.2 destroy Goal’s Escape Pod

Rufus is tied to a giant saw blade, telling Doc about his new escape plan, noticeably not using the Hammer that he murdered an elderly woman’s pet canary to acquire.

You can’t open the inventory menu here nor aboard the escape pod, and if you want to look at Rufus’ Plan, you can only do so by quickly clicking the little light bulb icons that sometimes appear on the right side of the screen. Just FYI.

1. click green Bellows near Rufus’ foot; Doc is knocked unconscious by the ricocheting cork.
   Don’t worry about Rufus saying you “have to hurry” if you’re poking around looking at stuff after this step. There’s no rush.
2. click Panhandle near Rufus’ foot to knock Knife into Rufus’ hand and onto your cursor
3. use Knife on Fireworks above Rufus’ head; black powder falls out of Fireworks down into pan, and Knife disappears
4. click Panhandle again to flip black powder into Bellows
5. click Bellows to puff black powder into Bunsen Burner; gas tank explodes, knocking Doc out of the way of guillotine and starting a cut scene that ends aboard the escape pod
   

   missable achievement alert

   
   Pressing Eject-button aboard the escape pod prevents you from earning Blow Job, which requires you to blow dust off of Badge (by clicking it) 5 times.

6. click Eject-button — with any diagram showing on Badge, doesn’t matter — to start a cut scene, the Huzzah song, and another cut scene

CHAPTER V: FLOATING BLACK MARKET

MAP

Making all these maps line up the way you might expect them to would have required flipping some of them sideways or backwards (which i didn’t do), and stacking others up (which i couldn’t do). In an attempt to make things a bit more clear, i rotated a few of the orange door arrows so that they point towards the maps to which they lead, instead of pointing the direction they do in-game when you mouse over them. I’m betting you can adapt.

When you first enter The Dock from The Harbor, it looks like there’s no entrance to Bozo’s Cutter on the right side… you need to walk over to where the Fisherman is, and the screen will scroll so that you’re able to see the door.

BTW, inside the Cutter, you’ll see that the exit is labeled “To the Harbor,” but it actually leads right back to the Dock.

There are Town Maps (teleport points) located at The Dock, Little Venice, The Marketplace, Bellevue, and Outside Doc’s Workshop (labeled “Industrial Park” on the Town Map).

(the entrance to Doc’s Workshop is on the right side of the area called “Outside Doc’s Workshop,” shown top row center in the “Chapter V world overview,” above)

There are a few spots that are not entrances when the Chapter begins, but become entrances later on. To avoid spoilers, i haven’t marked those “late bloomers” on the maps:

• the hatch atop the Submersible in Little Venice will lead to Donna’s hideout inside the Submersible (section 3.2)
• the wood door in Dark Alley will lead to the Rebel Hideout (section 3.4)
• the small tan door next to the Pharmacist in The Marketplace will lead to the Platypus Bataka arena (section 5.2)

2.1 find Doc’s workshop

• Stick
• Electrical Tape
• Insulated and Highly Charged Stick
• Cartridges, Remote

Collecting Agent note: you need to do all the steps described in this section.

After destroying Goal’s escape pod and falling from the sky, Rufus finds himself aboard Bozo’s Cutter.

1. click door marked “To the harbor,” which takes you to an area called “The Dock” (of course)
2. after an automatic conversation with Fisherman, you’ll be looking at the Town Map; you only have one choice here, so…
3. click “Industrial Park,” which takes you to the area called “Outside Doc’s Workshop” (of course); you only have one choice here, so…
4. enter door marked “???” on right side.

   The area you just moved into has two entrances, each of which is labeled differently. The door that leads in from the outside (the one you just used) calls it “Doc’s Workshop,” which — to me — is a general term describing all three of the rooms that lie behind that front door.

   When you’re on your way back outside from the deep interior, the door leading to this room is labeled “Doc’s Replacement Parts Store;” i’ll be referring to it by that name within this guide, because it feels more specific to this room.

5. bypass CleverByte:
   • pick up Stick, then use it on Clever-Byte; Rufus throws it, but the dog won’t chase it
   • click Stick to have Rufus fetch it; this makes Clever-Byte laugh, and Lamp (roughly center screen) flickers on
     

     missable achievement alert

     The next bullet point prevents you from completing the first part of Supercool, which requires you to fetch the Stick for Clever-Byte a total of 3 times. For more information on this achievement, see the special section near the beginning of this guide.

   • break Lamp with Stick; Stick falls to floor, buzzing with an electrical charge that prevents Rufus from picking it up
   • grab Electrical Tape off shelf, then use it on Stick to create Insulated and Highly Charged Stick
   • use Insulated and Highly Charged Stick on Clever-Byte; Rufus shocks himself with it, making the dog laugh so hard its brain explodes
6. go through door behind Clever-Byte to enter an area called “The Lock”
7. click door on right side of Lock to enter the area called “Doc’s Office;” an automatic conversation with Doc starts as soon as you enter. From it, you learn:
   • Doc wants Rufus to bring him a bunch of empty brain implant Cartridges (good ones);
   • the Cartridges can be found at the Gadget Shop, which is “right by the Harbor, outside the city gate;” and
   • “Bozo said something about a tavern…”
8. go all the way back Outside Doc’s Workshop for a brief scene with some masked guys (Liebold and Garlef) talking about the Organon
9. go to The Dock; you can either use the Town Map (that black and white billboard thing that brought you here in step 3), or you can take the scenic route:
   use lower left exit to go to Marketplace; click archway on the far right of Marketplace to enter Harbor; and finally, click the exit on lower right side of Harbor to enter Dock (for more navigation help, see the section titled “MAP” above)
10. Wink & Nod beat up Rufus (yay) in a cut scene, during which we learn that they believe Rufus has the ascension codes, and that they report to someone named Donna
11. enter Gilligan’s Gadget Shop (green door on far left side of Dock) and talk to Shop-O-Mat; pick any of the dialogue choices you like — they all end up the same way
12. watch the cut scene showing Rufus enjoying his “free colorful lollipop” as Goal’s surgery goes awry. Goal wakes up and leaves in a huff, then Doc gives a speech about the three parts of Goal’s personality; when it’s over, you’ll have Cartridges and Remote in your inventory.
13. talk to Doc; one thing he says is potentially helpful but can’t be repeated, so i jotted it down for you:

    “Nice office” > “What’s that funny apparatus in the lock next door?” >
    “Don’t you mess with that, kid! It is part of an experiment designed to revive dead brain tissue by means of well-aimed electrical impulses. But there are a few obnoxious side effects that so far I haven’t been able to remedy. …The electrical field is so strong that space will fold around the generator. And the resulting creases are really hard to iron out.”

2.2 talk to the different Goals

Collecting Agent note: you need to do all the steps described in this section.

1. go to Harbor and click purple door (roughly center screen) to enter Tavern; click “Down” to go to the lower level.
2. talk to Goal:
   • you’ll be asked to choose a facial expression and an opening line, but neither of these makes any difference — they all end up the same way
   • after you choose “You have to come with me and see Doc” from the dialogue menu, you’ll get a Peanut Bowl in your inventory.
3. combine Cartridges with Remote (section 2.1) in your inventory to create Remote including Cartridges.

   This item is used to cause Goal to switch between her three personalities: Baby, Lady, and Spunky. To use it, click it in your inventory, then click on Goal; two cartridges will appear over her head, each leading to one of her two other selves.

   The first time you use Remote including Cartridges, both cartridges will be marked “?”; the green one on the left leads to Spunky Goal, the blue one on the right leads to Baby Goal. The Goal you encountered before using the Remote was Lady, whose cartridge is red.

4. using Remote including Cartridges to switch between them, exhaust every bit of dialogue from all three Goals — many of the things she says place crucial pieces of information and hidden hints on Rufus’ Plan
5. talk to everybody in Tavern about everything they have to say; you can do this in any order, but section 2.3 lists them in the most helpful order.

   Section 2.3 is like an appendix to this step; you may want to look over at least the non-hidden parts of the information it contains.

“Where’s Goal?!?”

If at any point you come to the Tavern looking for Goal and don’t find her there, it’s because you left her in the middle of a “personality end-game.” …What i mean is that near the end of each quest for a specific Goal, there’s a portion where she leaves the Tavern to participate in the “finale” of that quest; after that point, you must complete whichever one you were working on before you can regain access to her other personalities. If you don’t remember where you left her, check these locations:

• Rebel Hideout (Baby Goal quest)
• Old Town (Lady Goal quest)
• Platypus Bataka Arena (Spunky Goal quest)

2.3 tavern conversation notes

• Bathroom Key

Collecting Agent note: this entire section pertains to you.

Most of the spoiler-hidden stuff is just direct quotes from the Tavern NPC’s. I included it in case you get stuck later and need to look it over for inspiration; i hid it because i figured you might not want to have the most helpful bits pointed directly out to you until after you’re stuck and seeking inspiration. Not all of this conversation ends up on Rufus’ Plan, but a lot does. Assume it’s NON-REPEATABLE unless otherwise noted.

The stuff that’s not spoiler-hidden is more in the walkthrough vein — it’s answers for people who came here specifically because they needed help with something in the Tavern.

Goal’s dialogue isn’t included here, by the way, just everyone else’s. You should talk to her (all 3 of her) first.

You can maximize your conversational efficiency by talking to the rest of the characters in the order listed below, since some parts of some conversations add new options to other characters’ dialogue menus, and it’s too complicated to document every instance of “if you don’t see this, go talk to that character.”

1. Gulliver, the bartender (he has dialogue pertaining to all 3 Goals):
   • Rufus: “I, um, need to use the bathroom.”
     Gulliver: “Then you should sign this waiver first.”
     Rufus: “Who would sign this nonsense?”
     Gulliver: “Well.. the owner of the drugstore, for one.”
   • Rufus: “It’s pretty dark in here.”
     Gulliver: “If you think this is dark, just wait until the generator breaks down again.”
     Rufus: “Does that happen often?”
     Gulliver: “Unfortunately, yeah. It’s the salty air. Almost the same effect as sugar in the tank.”
   • Rufus: “Can’t the jukebox play a different song for a change?”
     Gulliver: “My favorite is the ‘Mating Song of the Junk Crabs.’ But only when the door’s closed. I have enough complaints about crab bites as it is.”

   By the way, each Goal will react differently to some of the repeatable parts of your conversation with Gulliver. It’s not necessary to switch her around and talk to him over and over, but it is sort of entertaining.

2. Bozo (he has dialogue pertaining to all 3 Goals, but is mostly relevant to Spunky):
   • say “What were you going to say earlier? Something about a very special ‘boarding maneuver?'” This allows you to ask him for advice on all three Goals, and listening to this advice puts some very helpful info onto Rufus’ Plan.

     If you don’t see that option on his menu, it’s because you didn’t exhaust all of all 3 Goals’ conversation (which you really, really should do); so go talk to Spunky Goal and say the following: “You have to come with me and see Doc.”

   • Rufus: “I am really going to impress [Lady Goal] with my gentlemanly manners.”
     Bozo: “Whoa… don’t you think you had better have someone give you a few tips first? Go talk to Seagull. He lives uptown. If anyone can help you, it’s him.”
   • Rufus: “I do believe Spunky Goal likes me.”
     Bozo: “Believe me, I know that kind of woman. … The only thing that helps is the right choice of words. It was the same with my Bambina. I only had to say the one, all-important sentence, and the tigress turned into a docile kitten in an instant.”

   • Warning: the following dialogue choice makes Bozo leave the Tavern, ending the conversation and preventing you from talking to him any further:

     “I think you should pay a visit to your Bambina.”

     If you’re trying to get Bozo to leave the Tavern and can’t find that option, here’s what you need to do:
     talk to Spunky Goal and say: “You have to come with me and see Doc.”
     Then ask Bozo about the “special boarding maneuver,” followed by: “I do believe Spunky Goal likes me” and “Tell me more about your Bambina.”

   Note: Bozo keeps saying the Weapons Shop is in Little Venice, but if we’re going by the labels on the world’s various doorways, it’s actually the area next to what you’ll come to recognize as “Little Venice.”

3. Garlef, the guy sitting upstairs (dialogue pertinent to Baby Goal’s quest):
   • Rufus: “Take me to your leader.”
     Garlef: “Forget it. The way to our hideout is top secret.”
     Rufus: “I thought you meet in the basement of Janosch’s mama’s house?”
     Garlef: “Maybe. But only members know our secret knock.”
   • Rufus: “You’re a professional Rock-Paper-Scissors player?”
     Garlef: “Yes. … Scissors is my forte. I’ve been training it for years, and I can do it in my sleep.”
   • (this one is repeatable) Rufus: “I want to play!”
     Garlef: “…Those aren’t official tournament fingers. They might be loaded. Come back when you have an official tournament hand.”
   • to get Bathroom Key, follow this dialogue path: “You’re part of a resistance movement, or so i’ve heard?” > “May I join you?” > “Please, let me join you! I want to impress a woman!”

     If you don’t see that first option on his menu, it’s because you didn’t exhaust all of all 3 Goals’ conversation (which you really, really should do); so go talk to Baby Goal and say all of the following: “You have to come with me and see Doc.” > “Can’t you remember anything?” > “Janosch, Janosch. What’s up with that Janosch?”

4. Nod, the guy in the ski mask (dialogue pertinent to Baby Goal’s quest):
   • (this one is repeatable) Rufus: “Do you also like to play Rock-Paper-Scissors?”
     Nod: “Sure. Unfortunately, I left my tournament fingers in the hideout today.”
   • Rufus: “Where’s your pal?”
     Nod: “Wink? He’s guarding our secret hideout. Even though he’s not really qualified. Blind as a bat in his right eye.”
   • A good chunk of your conversation with Nod is necessary to proceed through section 3.2, so be thorough. Specifically, you must use all of following dialogue:
     • “I think an apology would be in order.”
     • “Unorganized Crime…what is that, exactly?”
     • “May I join you?”
     • (pick any of the first 4 options on the next menu, the ones in which Rufus is describing what he has to offer; this adds the next option):
     • “How can I prove to you that I’m reckless enough?”

     (this text included simply to give you a bigger target to mouse over)

3.0 BABY GOAL QUEST

The following elements of Rufus’ Plan are covered in sections 3.1 through 3.4 of this walkthrough:

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

3.1 loot the Gadget Shop

Collecting Agent note: you need to do all the steps described in this section.

From talking to Baby Goal, we know that she wants to join The Resistance. From talking to Garlef, we know that in order to join the Resistance, Rufus needs to beat him at Rock-Paper-Scissors; and for that, he needs a Tournament Hand.

If you didn’t talk to those people and don’t know those things, go to section 2.2.

Perhaps you noticed that there’s a Tournament Hand hanging inside the Submersible in Little Venice; i recommend going there and clicking around for clues on how to get at it. When you try to open hatch, Wink says something very helpful: “The way you stomp around, I would notice you even if you were hidden using The Golden Dragon of Invisibility from Gilligan’s Gadget Shop.” And observe the Periscope as it blinks at Rufus, noting that there’s only one eye (his left). … (i mean “his left eye,” not “his eye left”).

1. go to Dock and enter Gadget Shop (BTW, the conversation with Shop-O-Mat about the gadgeteer is for entertainment only)
2. try to get Indestructable [sic] Sunglasses of Eternal Darkness:
   • click Anti-Gravity Socks to try them on; Rufus flies up to the ceiling
   • take Indestructable Sunglasses of Eternal Darkness, then go “Back down from ceiling.”

     Maybe these Sunglasses can help you get away with shoplifting? Use them on Shop-O-Mat to see what happens. …Wellp, that didn’t work, but Rufus says something helpful: “Indestructible? No way. It’s broken. And I’m sure you don’t have to pay for samples that break when you try them on.”

   • use Indestructable Sunglasses of Eternal Darkness on Shredder to break them.

     Try using broken Sunglasses on Shop-O-Mat again; still no luck, but Rufus’ repeated remark “A clue would be just the ticket” is slightly more helpful than it might seem… It would’ve been much more helpful if he’d said “a Revelation would be just the ticket“…

     Before reading on, see if you can put together that spoiler, a conversation you’ve had with one of the NPC’s around town, and an object in this room… Hint: the conversation i mean is the one with Pharmacist in Marketplace

3. get an insight:
   • go to Marketplace, then go up To the Pharmacist.

     Talking to Pharmacist, you learn about the juice of Cucumis Agnitio, the “Cucumber of Revelation;” if he won’t accept anything from your inventory as a coupon for a free sample….

   • go to Harbor and enter Tavern.

     If you haven’t yet received Bathroom Key from Garlef (the guy sitting upstairs), go talk to him until you’ve exhausted all his dialogue. If you still don’t have the Key after doing that, please refer to section 2.3.

   • use Bathroom Key on Bathroom Door (far right). When Rufus emerges, Nod tells him he has some toilet paper stuck to his foot; he removes it, putting Shred of Toilet Paper in inventory.
   • go back to Pharmacist and give him Shred of Toilet Paper to receive Cucumber of Revelation
   • return to Gadget Shop, use Cucumber of Revelation on Juicer Hat.

     Rufus has a vision of himself handing broken Sunglasses to Shop-O-Mat, but the robot’s response is different in the vision than it was when we tried it in step 2 above. So maybe you need to try it again now…

4. get The Golden Dragon of Invisibility and broken Sunglasses:
   • take Indestructable Sunglasses of Eternal Darkness off counter, then hand them to Shop-O-Mat; he’ll put them on to prove they’re not broken
   • take The Golden Dragon of Invisibility; Shop-O-Mat will pretend not to see it happening in an effort to prove the Sunglasses are working
   • right click The Golden Dragon of Invisibility in your inventory to use it
   • while invisible, click Indestructable Sunglasses of Eternal Darkness; this will place Left Frame, Sunglasses Lens, and Right Frame into your inventory

Collecting Agent note: If you touch The Golden Dragon of Invisibility anywhere outside the shop, it disappears from your inventory. To retrieve it, just go back to the Gadget Shop, and you’ll automatically get it back as soon as you enter.

3.2 get Tournament Hand

missable achievement alert

If you’re working on Collecting Agent, you should ONLY do step 5 (get Razorfish) in this section!!! Then skip to section 4.1 and start Lady Goal quest, since you can’t finish working on Baby Goal without messing up Collecting Agent.

1. repair broken Sunglasses (section 3.1):
   • combine Left Frame with Sunglasses Lens in inventory to create Left Frame with Lens
   • combine Left Frame with Lens and Right Frame in inventory to create Repaired Sunglasses [Left Lens]

   If Lens is in the wrong Frame, use Screwdriver (from Doc’s Office) on Repaired Sunglasses [Right Lens] to dismantle the pieces and try again.

   missable achievement alert

   The next step is one of the two actions that prevent you from earning T-415411293, which requires you to use Repaired Sunglasses (either lens) on “Eyes in the Trash” (the colony of junk crabs) in Dark Alley.

   Collecting Agent note: it’s safe to do T-415411293 as long as you dismantle Repaired Sunglasses when you’re done (and don’t use them on the Periscope, because that makes them go away).

2. go to Little Venice; use Repaired Sunglasses [Left Lens] on Periscope, then click hatch to enter Submersible
3. open Door to Radio Room, which is right next to where Rufus is standing when he enters; after some dialogue with Cletus, you’ll have Slides in your inventory.
   Note: on the dialogue menu that appears, only the first option (“Where are you anyway?”) is unique; the other three all lead to the same conversation, which ends with Cletus hanging up.
4. there’s a red Button on lower left of Radio Station; click it to open pink door and reveal Kitty.

   Could that be Donna’s cat, the one Nod told you [not] to shave? We’ve only seen one item that seems remotely plausible for use in shaving anything (emphasis on “remotely”)…

5. get Razorfish:
   • go to Harbor and enter Tavern.
     For some clues on what to do next, click Razorfish (“It seems to have some sort of motion sensor“) and talk to bartender (and/or refer to section 2.3, specifically Gulliver’s 2nd bullet point).
   • grab Sugar Dispenser, then exit to Harbor
   • use Sugar Dispenser on Generator to make it break down
   • enter darkened Tavern and click Razorfish; with the lights out, the motion sensor isn’t triggered, so you’re able to take it

   Collecting Agent note: you can use Sugar Dispenser as many times as you like without losing it. Also, don’t forget to skip to section 4.1 from here.

6. return to Little Venice and enter Submersible. Save your game!
7. use Razorfish on Kitty.

   After a brief scuffle with the real Kitty, Wink and Donna appear, and you’ll have to try to talk your way out of trouble. If Rufus won’t shave Kitty, it means you missed some key conversation in the Tavern; refer to section 2.3 for help.

   missable achievement alert

   To earn What women want, one of two things is required; i don’t know for sure which, so the safest theory is presented first, even though i think the second one is more likely to be correct:

   1. talk Donna out of feeding Rufus to the sharks on your first try.
   2. talk Donna out of feeding Rufus to the sharks without skipping the minigame (yeah, it turns out this is a minigame, apparently).

   mini game: (don’t) feed the sharks

   If Rufus ends up on the Dock, you’ll know you “failed” the “minigame” (sadly we don’t get to see him being torn to shreds by a shark). You’ll then need to return to Submersible to try again; when you arrive, a dialog box will pop up asking “are you sure you want to skip this minigame?” If that second theory above is correct, clicking the green checkmark (to say “yes, skip it”) would be the thing that prevents you from earning the achievement. So click the red X (to say “no, don’t skip it”) instead.

   Either way, you should probably save your game before shaving Kitty. Oh yeah, and don’t forget you can teleport to Little Venice from the Dock via the Town Map.

   The correct answers are as follows:
   “What did she say?” then “That I’ll be made into shark food?” and finally “Go ahead”.
   By the way, that first dialogue option (““What did she say?“) seems to change randomly after the first time you choose it; as you return to that menu, it may be that, or “Will you please tell me now what that winking means?” or “What are your plans for me?”

8. enter Bridge via the door just left of where Donna is sitting
9. take Tournament Hand from cockpit

3.3 mini game: Rock-Paper-Scissors

Once you have Tournament Hand (section 3.2), go to Tavern; talk to Garlef and say “I want to play!”

Just in case there are one or two people out there who’ve never played Rock-Paper-Scissors (a.k.a. Roshambo), it goes like this: at the count of three, two players each present one of the following hand signals:

• a flat hand (Paper)
• a fist (Rock)
• two fingers extended (Scissors)

A winner is then determined using the following rules:

• Paper covers Rock
• Rock crushes Scissors
• Scissors cut Paper

In this minigame version, you add and subtract fingers to create your “weapons:”

• 4 fingers = Paper
• 2 fingers = Scissors
• 0 Fingers = Rock

When you first start out, Rufus refuses to use the add and subtract buttons on the right side, so it may seem to you like there’s nothing to be done about the number of fingers displayed; there is something to be done, just not yet. Click stuff and see what happens. Don’t worry about messing anything up: you can’t.

Note that it is not possible to win the first round, so don’t give up hope when you lose. Also note that there’s no penalty for clicking the little “X” to skip this minigame. Just sayin’.

If you ask Garlef “What’s the stake?” before beginning the game, he tells you that the “first person who has no fingers left to surrender after a lost round loses the game.” This might cause concern that the game will end if you lose all your fingers, but it won’t, so don’t worry.

Here’s why it won’t: after the round on which your last two fingers are surrendered, you have another round to play. If you were to lose that round, the game would be over (because you wouldn’t have any fingers to surrender); but you CAN’T lose that round… because Garlef ALWAYS plays Scissors, and zero fingers (Rock) ALWAYS beats Scissors.

Only Rock beats Garlef’s signature move — Scissors — but with a hand full of 4 fingers, all you can play is Paper. Because Scissors beat Paper, you’ll lose the first round, which costs you 2 fingers… which allows you to play Scissors with the remaining 2 fingers.

Of course Scissors vs. Scissors is a tie; the two of you could keep throwing Scissors at each other all day, or you could find a way to cause one or the other of you to lose… There aren’t that many things to try here, so maybe you should just try them all before i tell you the answer in the next paragraph.

To break the Scissors-Scissors tie, you need to “load” your Tournament Hand by pressing the razorfish button on the left side. Because you “cheated,” you’ll lose the round and your last 2 fingers; but with zero fingers remaining, you can finally play Rock, which beats Scissors.

Now that you’re winning fingers back and they’re no longer attached to your Hand — because Garlef cut them all off — you’re able to choose how many to display; but since Garlef always plays Scissors, just keep playing Rock until you’ve taken all his fingers away from him.

When all his fingers are gone, Garlef can only play Rock; so add 4 fingers to your Hand to beat him with Paper.

3.4 follow Goal to Rebel Hideout

missable achievement alert

Step 1 prevents you from completing the second part of Animal Lover, which requires you to talk to Baby Goal about bugs. For more information on this achievement, see the special section near the beginning of this guide.

1. after beating Garlef at Rock-Paper-Scissors (section 3.3), talk to Baby goal and tell her “It is done. We are resistance fighters!” She leaves to go to Rebel Hideout, the location of which you’ve hopefully already figured out, because i’m about to tell you.
2. go to Dark Alley off right side of Marketplace
3. enter Rebel Hideout:
   • click Door to try out the secret knock.

     Does Rufus say he’s getting mixed up because of the “snappy groove they play in the marketplace,” or that he “just can’t get the marketplace rhythm out of [his] head”? Go to “Settings” and turn the music all the way down, then try again.

     Once Rufus uses the new knock, Liebold peers out the little window and asks Rufus to use the old knock, because he can’t remember the new one. Unfortunately, Rufus can’t remember the old one…

   • click Crate to hide in it (after you knock, three bars over the little window start to fall down, one by one; you need to be inside Crate before they’re all gone).

     If you make it into Crate in time, Liebold comes out looking for Rufus, then has to use the old knock to get back inside. If Liebold doesn’t come out after a few seconds, it means you didn’t make it into Crate in time; just knock on Door and try again.

   • after tricking Liebold into disclosing the old knock, try Door again and you’ll get in.

     You’ll see a dialog box that says “Finn suggests to turn on the music,” but that’s only there to let you know you can if you want to (i.e. i found no evidence that it’s required). If you click the green checkmark, the music will come back on without you having to return to the Settings menu

4. to figure out what you’re doing here at Hideout, talk to Goal and Janosch. Just for fun, talk to Liebold and Garlef multiple times to hear all the different things they have to say.
   

   missable achievement alert

   If you’ve already won over Lady and Spunky Goal, step 5 will put you on a straight track out of Chapter V; therefore this would be your last chance to earn/work on the following achievements:
   
   With love from Porta Fisco requires you to read all the Greeting Cards next to Platypus Trapper in Old Town (keep right-clicking until the achievement pops up).

   Pin-Up Goal requires you to collect several items from Floating Black Market; for more info on this achievement, including a list of the items you need, see the special section near the beginning of this walkthrough.

5. trump Janosch’s battle plan:
   • use Slides (section 3.2) on Slide Projector to start a slide show. If there’s a woman who can’t be wooed with a slide show, i haven’t met her.

     If at any point your slide show seems to have stopped — and you see Janosch’s “snacks and armchair” plan projected on the Screen — just use Slides on Projector again to start over.

   • choose a description for the “smeared fingerpaint” blob; this one is pretty easy, since there’s only one good answer available: “A symbol.”

     I recommend intentionally picking the “bad” answers first, though, as the reactions Rufus gets may give you an idea how to handle the slides that follow the first one.

     …What you should learn by doing this is that everybody gets mad at and refuses to listen to Rufus when he laughs at Janosch’s speech impediment. Incidentally, Janosch is going to repeat Rufus’ entire presentation word for word.

     So… you need to choose descriptions that won’t make Rufus laugh when Janosch repeats them…

   • for the remainder of the slides, choose descriptions that don’t contain the letter “s” or the digraph “th.”

     “Sigh. Just tell me the answers already.” Okay, fine, here they are:

     • “An Organon bombing fort”
     • “Our enemy will try to eradicate Deponia”
     • “Our team will dare to attack”
     • “I obtained topographical data locating one particular Organon fort”
     • “…detonate a bomb here and put an end to all life, marine and on land”
     • “Goal and her brain implant might mean an important trump in our hand”

When you succeed, there will be a cut scene that ends with Rufus and Goal back at the Tavern. You won Baby Goal! If she was your third and final Goal, you’ll be automatically whisked to section 6.0.

4.0 LADY GOAL QUEST

The following elements of Rufus’ Plan are covered in sections 4.1 through 4.8 of this walkthrough:

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

4.1 get Seagull’s advice (& Crane’s stuff)

Collecting Agent note: you need to do all the steps described in this section.

1. go to Bellevue (it’s the door next to Town Map in Marketplace); try various items from your inventory on Fine Nose sensor to see if you can get it to open the gate for you before i blab the answer in the next step
2. use Peanut Bowl (section 2.2) on Fine Nose to disable it with influenza
3. double-click door of house on right side to enter Seagull’s House.

   Talk to Captain Seagull to learn the connection between Lady Goal and platypus eggs (amongst other things).

4. examine (right-click) everything in the room; if you do this right, you’ll end up with five Memos in your inventory:
   • examine Goldfish Bowl to get Bread Memo
   • examine Books to get Candle Memo
   • examine Window to get Coal Memo
   • examine Flowers to get Water Memo
   • collect all four of those Memos (in any order) to receive Thread Memo

   If you’re having trouble locating any object mentioned in those spoilers, remember that you can highlight hotspots by pressing space bar.

5. exit to Bellevue, then enter door below Hoedown the Gardener; inside you find Crane the Poet
6. hand all 5 Memos to Crane one at a time; each authorizes you to take the item it describes
7. take Bread, Candle, Coal, Water, Thread (in any order)
8. after you give Crane the last Memo, he tells you to “take everything you can find;” after that, you’re also able to grab the Urn containing his mother’s ashes

4.2 get Platypus Field Guide

Collecting Agent note: you need to do all the steps described in this section.

So according to Captain Seagull in section 4.1, you need to get platypus off the menu at Chez Schlumpi; but you don’t really know how to do that, and in fact aren’t even able to pick up the Eggs you’ve seen lying around. Maybe it’s time to find someone who knows stuff about platypuses…

1. go to Bellevue, click door on far left to enter Old Town, and talk to Platypus Trapper. He has lots of things to say about platypuses, some of the most useful of which i’ve included here:

   “I supply them to the platypus restaurant. I’m also a bookmaker for platypus betting, and chairman of the Platypus Club. Platypuses even inspire my poetry.”

   (“What if there’s a shortage?”) “Now that would be a disaster. The restaurant would have to completely change its menu. But it’ll never come to that. There are unguarded nests everywhere in the Floating Black Market. … In every generation, there’s an especially vicious platypus that guards the nest of the pride. So you’re interested in nest guardians? Club members get to read all about them in the platypus field guide.”

   “Upon registration [with Platypus Club], every new member receives the latest edition of the platypus field guide. I hid some trial membership cards in the restaurant’s fortune cookies. With a little help from Dame Fortune, you might be able to join the inner circle of platypus enthusiasts.”

2. to get a Fortune Cookie, first you need to right-click Take-Out Menu…
   

   missable achievement alert

   
   You must complete the minigame without skipping it to earn All mine!

   mini game: take-out menu

   The idea in this puzzle is to get something for nothing (a Fortune Cookie for 0.0c) by taking advantage of the specials.

   

   how to play

   Click one of the Menus (upper left side) to put the pictured food on the tray; you need to figure out how to resize and/or trade those items until the bill is 0.0c.

   Look at the chart below the Menus to see the kinds of exchanges you can make. The top part of the chart indicates that you can reduce your bill by by downsizing a drink or burger; the bottom part of the chart (marked “CHANGE IT”) shows the ways in which some items can be traded for others. You should be especially interested in the fact that drinks can be downsized to nothing (which is free).

   Click an item on the tray, then click the chart to indicate which downsize/supersize or trade you want to make.

   If you have 2 burgers or drinks and want to trade them both in, you need to click the item in the back — when you mouse over the rear one, both items will be highlighted to indicate that they both will be selected if you click there.

   The one hint that got me through this whole thing was: you only need ONE cookie.

   how to win (spoiler alert!)

   1. choose Menu 2, which gives you 1 medium drink, 2 small burgers, 1 fortune cookie
   2. trade both small burgers ➞ large burger
   3. trade large burger ➞ large drink
   4. downsize large drink ➞ medium drink
   5. downsize both medium drinks ➞ small drinks
   6. trade both small drinks ➞ 2 small burgers
   7. trade both small burgers ➞ large burger
   8. trade large burger ➞ large drink
   9. downsize large drink all the way to nothing (the asterisk-like symbol on the left end of the scale)

3. when you finish the puzzle, you’ll receive a free Fortune Cookie; right-click it in inventory to open it and see if you won a trial membership. You didn’t. To get another Cookie and try again, just right-click the Take-Out Menu (don’t worry, you don’t have to play the minigame again).

   Optional: keep opening Fortune Cookies until one of them tells you directly (and humorously) what to do next.

4. go to Dock, give Fortune Cookie to Fisherman; he’ll find an ID Card inside and give it to you
5. return to Old Town; give ID Card to Platypus Trapper to receive Field Guide
6. examine Field Guide in inventory …this may look like a suggestion, but it must be done before you can collect any Platypus eggs!

   Right-click each illustration in Field Guide for some indispensable clues (that one is just a suggestion… but it’s a good one).

By the way, the Bell on the counter seems to be there for entertainment only. I spent about half hour trying to get something to come of ringing it, to no avail. Well, it was amusing, but that’s it.

4.3 Earth Platypus

Collecting Agent note: do this section THROUGH STEP 7 ONLY; then go to section 4.4.

“It says here that earth platypuses hide their eggs in the soil.”
“Earth platypuses hatch in frozen soil with the first ground frost.”

1. go to Bellevue and locate the Egg sitting in the small dirt-themed alcove in the foreground; you can’t access it because Rufus is unable to get past the Rake blocking the entrance
   

   missable achievement alert

   
   Step 2 prevents you from earning Bloody nose, which requires you to step on the Rake in Bellevue 10 times.

2. click Tree on right side to knock its leaves off; Hoedown the Gardener becomes enraged and punches Rufus so hard he lands in Marketplace. Fun fact: from now on, Rufus will exit to Marketplace this same way any time you click Hoedown or Tree 😀
3. return to Bellevue; Hoedown has removed Rake to clean up the leaves, so Rufus is free to enter area containing Egg
4. click Egg to start minigame; if Rufus won’t touch it, examine Field Guide (section 4.2) and try again
   

   missable achievement alert

   
   You must complete the minigame without skipping it to earn Garden work.

   mini game: meerkat mounds

   Here you see the Egg sitting on a 4×4 grid of Mounds of Soil; if you click it, a Meerkat moves it to a different spot. Your task is to trap the Meerkat, freeing you to take the Egg. …Or maybe it’s actually the Egg that you’re trapping? I dunno, whatever.

   how to play

   First i’ll number the mounds so they’re easier to talk about:

   1

   2

   3

   4

   5

   6

   7

   8

   9

   10

   11

   12

   13

   14

   15

   16

   As a general rule, the Meerkat moves like the knight in chess: one space diagonally and one space straight (e.g. from 1 to 7 or from 1 to 10). Unlike the knight, the Meerkat is also able to move from any corner into the opposing one (e.g. from 1 to 16 and vice versa).

   If you’re unfamiliar with the rules of chess and are wondering why the Meerkat won’t go to space 2 or 5 from space 1, the easiest way to think about it may be this: he can’t go there because if that were possible, the instruction would just be “move one space,” making whoever wrote the rulebook (or the walkthrough) look like an idiot for including that whole bit about the diagonal.

   The more complicated (and accurate) answer is that the knight is technically drawing an invisible capital “L” as it moves — e.g. from 1 to 5 to 9 to 10 — so won’t ever land in a square next to the one in which it started.

   …I hope i didn’t just make things worse. If so, kindly unread one or both of those paragraphs.

   The trick is to chase the Meerkat onto a mound from which there are no more than 3 possible exits, then block those exits with the Meerkat Trap and Rocks; then click him again to drive him into your trap.

   Hint: every mound around the edge has exactly 3 exits; the only positions you can’t use as starting points are 6, 7, 10, and 11.

   how to win (spoiler alert!)

   meerkat position:

   tool positions:

   meerkat position:

   tool positions:

   1

   7, 10, 16

   9

   2, 7, 15

   2

   8, 9, 11

   12

   3, 6, 14

   3

   5, 10, 12

   13

   4, 6, 11

   4

   6, 11, 13

   14

   5, 7, 12

   5

   3, 11, 14

   15

   6, 8, 9

   8

   2, 10, 15

   16

   1, 7, 10

   When you’re done with the puzzle, you’ll have Earth Platypus Egg in your inventory.

5. go to Dock, take Bucket from pole near Fisherman, return to Old Town
6. use Bucket on Tub full of Dirt to create Bucket with Soil.
7. Kate Spade. …oops, i meant to say: take Spade.
   

   missable achievement alert

   
   If you’re working on Collecting Agent, DO NOT continue to step 8! Go straight to section 4.4 for the wrap-up (yes, you’re almost done).

   According to the Field Guide, “Earth platypuses hatch in frozen soil;” hopefully that gives you an idea where you’re headed next…

8. hatch Earth Platypus:
   • go to Doc’s Office
   • combine Earth Platypus Egg and Bucket with Soil to create Bucket with Soil and Egg
   • use Bucket with Soil and Egg on Freezer
   • the freshly-hatched Earth Platypus is too aggressive to be picked up, so click red Switch (Rufus is standing in front of it) to defrost Freezer, then click Switch again to seal the critter in a block of ice
   • use Spade on Frozen Earth Platypus to collect Earth Platypus

   missable achievement alert

   Animal Husbandry requires you to have all four hatched platypuses in your inventory at the same time; therefore, if you want this achievement, do not put any platypus onto its nest until you’ve hatched and collected all 4 of them.

9. go to Bellevue and place Earth Platypus on its Nest

4.4 COLLECTING AGENT (finale)

missable achievement alert

In section 4.5, your inventory starts to shrink, so this is the point at which to get Collecting Agent wrapped up. For more information on this achievement, see section titled “Collecting Agent (introduction)” near the beginning of this guide.

If you’ve just freshly arrived here looking for help with this achievement, allow me to recommend my dedicated “Collecting Agent” guide:
[link]
So far, 17 Collecting Agent items have been listed here; the remaining 9 items aren’t used until later on, so they haven’t been mentioned yet. That means that if you’ve been following this guide in pursuit of this achievement, you may have a lil’ more work to do.

So here’s the part where i need to balance the needs of people who have been following this guide up to this point with the needs of people who have not. For the latter group, i’ve rearranged the list as it exists so far so that the items are grouped by their area of origin. The numbers in parentheses tell you which section(s) of this guide to consult if you need help acquiring those items.

Most of these can just be picked up at this point. Where further instructions are needed to reveal or acquire an item, i’ve included the section and step numbers you need; those “further instructions” contain spoilers, so view at your own risk!

• #18: Hand-Held Vacuum Cleaner (Seagull’s House; see section 4.6, step 2)
• #19: Expired Pills (Dumpster next to Pharmacist in Marketplace)
• #20: Crank (Doc’s Replacement Parts Store) or Flying Platypus Egg (Old Town)
• #21: Screwdriver (Doc’s Office)
• #22: Water Platypus Egg (Harbor, underneath ramp near Gondolier)
• #23: any sheet music (Tavern; see section 5.1b, step 3)
• #24: Antenna (Little Venice)
• #25: Hook (in Jar of Hooks at The Dock)
• #26: Bait (in Trash Can aboard Bozo’s Cutter)

The order of this list was determined only by how convenient it might be for you to walk around to get the things; i started in Bellevue because that’s where Rufus was when i sent followers of this guide to this section from 4.3.

• Lit Candle instead of Candle (#9)
• Lint instead of Urn (#13)
• Bucket with Soil instead of Bucket (#16)
• Flying Platypus Egg instead of Crank (#20)

…you might not be able to pick up the 26th item. In that case you may need to first clear space in your inventory, pick up the item, then refill that cleared space in a backhanded manner. I know of two techniques for doing this:

1. the Sunglasses method:
   • combine Sunglasses Lens with Left or Right Frame
   • pick up 26th item
   • use Screwdriver to dismantle Frame with Lens back into 2 pieces (thereby forcing one piece into the 26th slot)
2. the Golden Dragon method:
   • remove Golden Dragon of Invisibility from inventory by clicking or right-clicking it
   • pick up 26th item
   • enter Gadget Shop; Golden Dragon is automatically recovered, forcing it into 26th inventory slot

4.5 Water Platypus

• Water Platypus Egg
• Bait
• Expired Pills
• Tigerfish / Zebrafish / Frankenfish with Egg / Zebrafish with Egg
• Water Platypus

“It says here that water platypuses… hatch in the mouths of living zebrafish.”
“It also says here that zebrafish are freshwater fish.”

1. go to Harbor, pick up Water Platypus Egg from underneath ramp near Gondolier; if Rufus won’t touch it, examine Field Guide (section 4.2) and try again
2. get Fisherman to catch you a fish.
   If you’ve tried pestering the guy sitting at the Dock, you may have noticed that Rufus has promised to prove that he too is a fisherman; let’s start there:
   • go to Dock, show Razorfish (section 3.2, step 5) to Fisherman; he believes Rufus caught it himself.
   • when he asks what your secret is, answer “I use a special kind of bait;” Fisherman says if you bring him your special bait, he’ll give you a Tigerfish
   • enter Bozo’s Cutter, take anchovy Bait out of Trash Can, and return to Dock
   • show Bait to Fisherman.

     He’s convinced that Rufus’ story is true, so baits his line and pulls a fish out of the water; unfortunately, it falls right back in before Rufus can pick it up.

     To figure out how to prevent fish from falling back in the water, you’ll need to put the following two things together in your head: 1. an observation that the Fisherman used his own Bait — not Rufus’ — to catch the fish, and 2. the fact that you’ve (hopefully) been carrying around a certain inventory item for a while now, waiting to find a use for it. Just in case you don’t already have the item i mean…

   • go to Marketplace, go up To the Pharmacist, click Dumpster to collect Expired Pills, return to Dock
   • use Expired Pills on Bucket with Bait, then show Bait to Fisherman again.

     This time, when Fisherman pulls a fish out of the water, it’s too sleepy to escape, so Rufus is able to retrieve Tigerfish (for which he gives up his Bait in exchange).

   So now you’ve got a dead Tigerfish, but according to Field Guide, you need a live Zebrafish; look at the illustration in the Guide to see if it gives you an idea what to try next… hint: one difference between the two species is the color of their stripes…

3. go to Doc’s Replacement Parts Store and use Tigerfish on Paint Bucket to create Zebrafish.

   That takes care of one problem, but the thing is still dead; for a hint, go see if Doc has anything useful to say (if nothing strikes you, i’ve transcribed the quote i mean at end of section 2.1).

4. put Water Platypus Egg into Zebrafish‘s mouth (by combining them in inventory), creating Frankenfish with Egg
5. enter Lock (the middle room in Doc’s Workshop) and use Frankenfish with Egg on Electrodes to revive it, creating Zebrafish with Egg.

   Now all you need is some fresh water… Where have you seen fresh water in this town (other than in your inventory)? Think “indoors“

6. go Outside Doc’s Workshop; Rufus will say “What’s that twitching?” and tell you that the fish needs to get into some water… use Water (section 4.1) on Zebrafish with Egg to keep it alive a little longer. If you leave the area without doing this, the fish will die and you’ll need to go back to step 5.

   En route to your Zebrafish depository, this “twitching” thing will happen at least once more; just keep using Water on it until you reach your destination (ima tell you where that is in the next step).

   missable achievement alert

   Step 7 prevents you from completing the third part of Animal Lover, which requires you to let the Zebrafish with Egg die at least once. For more information on this achievement, see the special section near the beginning of this guide.

   Animal Husbandry requires you to have all four hatched platypuses in your inventory at the same time; therefore, if you want this achievement, do not put any platypus onto its nest until you’ve hatched and collected all 4 of them.

7. place Zebrafish with Egg in Goldfish Bowl at Seagull’s House to hatch Water Platypus
8. click Goldfish Bowl to collect Water Platypus
9. go to Harbor and place Water Platypus on its Nest

4.6 Flying Platypus

• Crank / Flying Platypus Egg
• Hook / Hook on a Thread
• Hand-Held Vacuum Cleaner
• Lint
• Windsock, Antenna / Landing Net
• Flying Platypus

“It says here that flying platypuses hide their eggs in high places.”
“Flying platypuses hatch in free fall from the highest point of their habitat.”

1. get Flying Platypus Egg:
   • go to Doc’s Replacement Parts Store, pick up Crank
   • go to Old Town, click “Up” (next to Take-Out window), and use Crank on Crank Handle to install it
   • click Crank to reel in Flying Platypus Egg; if Rufus won’t touch it, examine Field Guide (section 4.2) and try again
2. go to highest point of Floating Black Market, which is Crow’s Nest over Seagull’s House:
   • go to Bellevue, enter Seagull’s House
   • click or right-click Books; this creates a new hotspot on upper right of bookcase labeled “Pull here for secret door”
   • click “Pull here for secret door” to open bookcase and reveal a ladder
   • climb ladder To the Crow’s Nest. Poke around for hints… you know the drill.
     Note in particular the connection between what Rufus says when trying to grab Windsock and when examining Pipe
3. launch Flying Platypus Egg:
   • use Urn containing the ashes of Crane’s mother (section 4.1) on Pipe to bring Windsock to half-mast so you can reach it; click and right-click it for hints:
     “Now it’s no longer the highest point on the island.” / “If I could stretch the pants leg, it would make a terrific catapult. But what should I use to fasten it?“

   • go to Dock, take Hook from Jar of Hooks, return to Crow’s Nest
   • combine Thread (section 4.1) and Hook in inventory to create Hook on a Thread
   • use Hook on a Thread on “Windsock, half-mast;” after Rufus attaches it, it will stay on your cursor so you can fasten the other end to Grommet on lower left
   • put Flying Platypus Egg into “Attached, Yet Insufficiently Taut Windsock.”

     Sounds like you need to make Windsock more taut, huh? If you don’t have any ideas how to do that, try mulling over the spoiler in the first bullet point of this step; if you still don’t have any ideas, try this spoiler: you need to return Windsock to full mast, i.e. to undo what you did in the first bullet point

   • return to Seagull’s House; open Lint Trap (if you don’t see it, click Hatch).

     Examine Lint inside Lint Trap; it turns out this is the “heap of ashes … that [you] dumped into the Flag-O-Mat.” …which is the action you performed in the first bullet point … which is the action you need to “undo” in order to make the Windsock more taut. Rufus won’t touch Lint with his bare hands, so…

   • take Hand-Held Vacuum Cleaner and use it on Lint to collect it; this returns Windsock to full-mast.

     By the way, Lint can be used on Pipe the same way Urn was in the first bullet point (like if you needed to bring Windsock back down to half-mast because you got curious and used the Vacuum before attaching it).

   • return to Crow’s Nest.

     When you examine “Heavily Taut Windsock with Egg,” Rufus tells you that all he needs to do is untie the knot… but when you click it, it turns out he can’t untie it. Maybe you should try cutting the thread

   • use Razorfish (section 3.2, step 5) on “Heavily Taut Windsock with Egg” to cut thread and launch egg into freefall.

   When you succeed, you’ll see a little scene in which the egg flies up over Seagull’s House and hatches there.

4. grab Hanging Windsock
5. go to Bellevue; Flying Platypus is seen circling up near Crow’s Nest.

   Before you can catch it, you need to lure it down to where you can reach it… imagine this thing is a bird, then think about how you might entice a bird to come closer using combinations of items in your inventory and things in the environment…

6. catch Flying Platypus:
   • put Bread (section 4.1) into Birdhouse near entrance; the Platypus comes closer, but you can’t grab it with your bare hands. Perhaps the Field Guide has some tips…

     The Guide‘s illustration of Landing Net resembles Windsock you took from Crow’s Nest, but with a handle attached to it. If you don’t have anything in your inventory that might be used as that handle…

   • go to Little Venice, pick up Antenna, return to Bellevue
   • combine Windsock with Antenna in inventory to create Landing Net
   • use Landing Net on Flying Platypus to collect it

   missable achievement alert

   Animal Husbandry requires you to have all four hatched platypuses in your inventory at the same time; therefore, if you want this achievement, do not put any platypus onto its nest until you’ve hatched and collected all 4 of them.

7. go to Old Town, place Flying Platypus on its Nest

4.7 Fire Platypus

• Lit Candle
• Fire Platypus

“It says here fire platypuses hide their eggs in hot geysers.”
“Fire platypuses hatch in blazing fire.”

1. locate Fire Platypus Egg:
   Go Outside Doc’s Workshop and look carefully at the green pipe that extends into the sky over the door to his Workshop — there’s something in there marked “Egg in the Funnel”.

   Trying to pick it up just makes Rufus utter a mild curse, so maybe you need a way to force it out of there… Hey, how about that Furnace?

   If you’re unsure what needs to be done to Furnace, may i recommend trying to use Candle (section 4.1) on it? Rufus responds “I would, but it’s not burning. Also there’s no coal in the oven.“

2. extract Fire Platypus Egg from funnel:
   • go to Tavern; use your Candle (section 4.1) on their Candle to create Lit Candle; return to Outside Doc’s Workshop
   • use Coal (section 4.1) on Furnace to place it inside
   • use Lit Candle on Furnace; Egg is forced out of funnel and sits atop it
   • click “Egg in the Funnel.”
     If Rufus won’t touch it, examine Field Guide (section 4.2) and try again.
     When Rufus does touch Egg, he drops it into another pipe, triggering a minigame…

   missable achievement alert

   
   You must complete the minigame without skipping it to earn Egg race.

   mini game: pipe maze

   how to play

   The egg is traveling counterclockwise around a maze of pipes; your goal is to make it exit the bottom of the maze (via the pipe with red arrows on it) by switching the connectors around to alter its path. The connectors are numbered 1 through 8, and each has two possible positions: one with a blue stripe, one with a pink stripe.

   how to win

   The spoiler-hidden steps below describe my thought process in solving this puzzle; the hope is that at some point you’ll be tipped over the edge of solving it yourself (or maybe just satisfy some curiosity about how it was done). Beneath those steps are non-hidden screenshots of the complete solution.

   I started with the end of the path. Obviously, the egg is traveling the wrong direction to get out that pipe on the bottom, and i couldn’t see how connector #8 could do any good in its default pink position, so i switched it to blue.
   

   Then i followed the pipe leading into #8 and found that the other end wasn’t attached to anything, so i switched connector #5 from pink to blue.
   

   To reach connector #5, the egg would have to come from either #4 or #3. Connector #4 didn’t look promising, since the egg would need to be traveling clockwise to get there from connector #7; so i assumed the next stop was #3, and switched that from pink to blue.
   

   The other end of the pipe leading out of connector #3 wasn’t attached to anything, so i switched #7 from blue to pink.
   

   But now that whole part leading to connector #8 was effectively a closed system. So i thought… #7 needs to be pink, because it’s useless in the blue position (the egg is traveling the wrong direction to ever get there). Therefore the next connector i need to switch is #4 (from pink to blue).

   Now to get the egg to connector #4, all i need to do is switch #2 from blue to pink.

   Solution summary:

   If every connector is in its default position (shown on the left), just switch them all.
   #1 and #6 have no impact on the solution, but why not do ’em anyway.

   Before:

   AFTER:

   

   

3. when you’re done with the minigame, there’ll be a Fire Platypus in Furnace; click to collect it
   

   missable achievement alert

   Animal Husbandry requires you to have all four hatched platypuses in your inventory at the same time; therefore, if you want this achievement, do not put any platypus onto its nest until you’ve hatched and collected all 4 of them.

4. place Fire Platypus on its Nest

4.8 invite Goal to dinner

• Invitation for Lady Goal
• Radio Equpiment Memo / Radio Equipment

1. once you’ve placed all 4 Platypuses on their Nests (sections 4.3, 4.5, 4.6, and 4.7), go talk to Seagull and tell him “I did it.”

   Turns out Seagull has changed the conditions of the deal; now you need a good romantic poem before he’ll make the dinner reservation. He won’t accept any of the ones Rufus comes up with, so…

2. get help with poem:
   • go talk to Crane; mention poetry (“You know quite a bit about Poetry, don’t you?”) and then recite some for him.
     

     If you’ve completed the first two requirements of Supercool, you should receive the achievement after choosing one poem to try on Crane. If not, refer to the section covering Supercool near the beginning of this guide.

     If none of the bad poems in your repertoire inspires Crane to overcome his desire not to help, try to think who else in this town writes poetry…

   • go to Old Town, talk to Platypus Trapper, and say “So, when you’ve got the time…” to get him to share his poem with you
   • go back to Crane the Poet and recite “Platy-poo;” its terribleness is more than he can bear, so he finally agrees to help.

   Crane explains that he’s going to give Rufus a bug to stick in his ear so that he can whisper the right words to him during his date; this conversation will not put a new item into your inventory, but it will unlock the next part of your business with Seagull.

3. go talk to Seagull; say “I know which words i’ll use to impress Goal” then “I may not be good at waxing eloquent. But I’ve got this.” After Rufus tells him about the prompter, Seagull gives you Invitation for Lady Goal, and you’re transported to Harbor.
   

   If you’re working on Pin-Up Goal, please look at the missable achievement alert below RIGHT NOW!

4. enter Tavern, give Invitation for Lady Goal to Lady Goal, and watch the scene that ends with Rufus standing alone in Seagull’s House
5. take Radio Equpiment [sic] Memo from Seagull’s desk
6. go see Crane and give him Radio Equpiment Memo; Rufus will automatically take Radio Equipment. To get an idea why you want this thing, right-click it in inventory.
7. go to Old Town and watch the scene with Seagull and Goal (…it’s too soon to call them “SeaGoal,” although that does have a better ring to it than “Goafus” or “Rufoal”…)
   

   missable achievement alert

   If you’ve already won over Baby and Spunky Goal, step 8 will put you on a straight track out of Chapter V; therefore this would be your last chance to earn/work on the following achievements:
   
   With love from Porta Fisco requires you to read all the Greeting Cards next to Platypus Trapper in Old Town (keep right-clicking until the achievement pops up).

   Pin-Up Goal requires you to collect several items from Floating Black Market; for more info on this achievement, including a list of the items you need, see the special section near the beginning of this walkthrough.

   Warning: the spoilers below disclose the location of a Pin-Up piece (including a screenie).

   NOTE: If Lady is your LAST Goal, inviting her to dinner (step 4) will impede collection of the Pin-Up item that’s found in Old Town (because Seagull’s arm will be blocking it after that, and then the Chapter ends). It does still seem to be possible, though; look for the tiny white triangle protruding from behind his forearm, and carefully click it:
   
   However, if you want to do this with a minimum amount of help from me and my screenies, you should probably hunt down all eight of the Chapter V puzzle pieces before handing over the Invitation. To be clear: if Lady is NOT your LAST Goal, this issue does NOT apply to you.

8. give Radio Equipment to Platypus Trapper so that Seagull is being fed his lines of terrible poetry, then watch the scene in which it totally does the job

You won Lady Goal! If she was your third and final Goal, you’ll be automatically whisked to section 6.0.

5.0 SPUNKY GOAL QUEST

The following elements of Rufus’ Plan are covered in sections 5.1b and 5.2 of this walkthrough:

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

5.1a Bozo’s pick-up line: HINTS

If Bozo is still sitting in the Tavern, you’ve arrived here prematurely; go look over section 2.3 to get caught up.

If you’ve already sent Bozo out of the Tavern, you’ll find him waiting for you at the Weapons Shop. When you talk to him, he enters the Shop to talk to Bambina. Unfortunately, just as Bozo’s about to deliver “the line” that you need, the Gondolier from the Harbor shows up and wrecks the mood.

In order to proceed, you need to get that Gondolier out of your way.

This is a really tough puzzle with a lot of walking around, and nobody would blame you for skipping straight to the solution in section 5.1b. Either way, this seems like a good time to make sure you know that you can double-click on a passage to a new area to pop there automatically instead of walking slowly over.

• if you haven’t talked to/messed with Gondolier at the Harbor, do so
• be sure you’ve checked out the interactable objects at Weapons Shop
• when Bozo enters the Shop, watch the whole scene between him & Bambina without esc’ing through it; you’ll see something near the end that you may find helpful: the Gondolier’s song appears to travel through the pipes
• check the hidden hint that appears on Rufus’ Plan after Bozo talks to Bambina the first time
• after Bozo’s first attempt with Bambina fails, talk to him and say “You just don’t know the right moves;” his response is helpful, but not repeatable, so i wrote it down for you:
  “It was that gondolier. … May the junk crabs get him. … Junk crabs – those pesky parasites that hang out in flotsam. Those critters are a real plague. Rumor has it they came to the Floating Black Market stowed away in some transport crates.”
• look over section 2.3 to see if anything Gulliver said helps you
• Here i’ve prepared a set of visual clues for you (NOT spoiler-hidden, so scroll carefully)… each screenie-bit below depicts a thing you should locate and investigate.

  If you don’t feel like figuring out where these things are or what’s learned by checking them out, it’s all laid out in the list that follows the images (also NOT spoiler-hidden).

  

  

  

  

  

  

  Information collected from above locations:

  • Weapons Shop, Pipe Valve: “That can be used to close the pipe.”
    Pipe Opening: left-click to learn that sound travels through the pipe to other locations … yes, i said “locations” with an “s”…you can change where the sound goes by messing with Pipe Diverter in Marketplace

  • Outside Doc’s Workshop, Airbag Crate: “According to the delivery note, the crate contains a replacement airbag for the canal gondolas.”
  • Dark Alley, Eyes in the Trash: “It seems to be a colony of junk crabs.”
  • Marketplace, Pipe Diverter: “The red pipe leads towards Little Venice. The green into the heart of the industrial park. And the yellow into that dark alley.”

    PLEASE NOTE that this information may be a little confusing. For one thing, the red pipe leads to The Weapons Shop (NOT to the area with the Submersible in it). For another, you may know “the heart of the industrial park” better as “Outside Doc’s Workshop.”

  • Tavern, Jukebox: “I hope there’s also something useful in there.”
    Jukebox Flap: “The flap is screwed down.”

  • Harbor, Generator: “This generator provides the tavern with electricity. It’s pretty careless, setting it up out here… where any random, well-meaning citizen can kick it, stick bananas in the exhaust, or pour sugar in the tank.”

If you need me to say it more plainly — or if you just skipped straight to the end hoping for a more direct hint — the gist is this: your goal in this section is to somehow lure the Junk Crabs into the pipe in Dark Alley, then divert them to someplace they can wreak havoc on the Gondolier.

5.1b Bozo’s pick-up line: SOLUTION

IF YOU WANT HINTS BEFORE GETTING THE ANSWERS, go up to section 5.1a before you even look at the “items” listed below this paragraph! (Sorry, i couldn’t fit both parts into one section — i exceeded the character limit :P)

• Screwdriver
• “The Mating Song of the Junk Crabs”

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

1. make sure you’ve sent Bozo out of the Tavern by suggesting he pay a visit to his Bambina (see section 2.3 for more information on how to do that)
2. go to The Weapons Shop and talk to Bozo; reassure him that “It’s going to be great,” and he’ll go talk to Bambina.

   Unfortunately, just as Bozo’s about to deliver “the line” that you need, the Gondolier from the Harbor shows up and wrecks the mood. In order to proceed, you need to get that Gondolier out of your way…

   As spoiled above in section 5.1a, our first task is to find something that attracts Junk Crabs; hopefully, Gulliver’s dialogue (section 2.3) clued you in that his favorite Jukebox song is just the thing you need…

3. get sheet music:
   • go to Tavern. If you can’t see inside Jukebox, you’ll need a tool to open it up…
   • go get Screwdriver from Doc’s Office, then come back to Tavern and use it on Jukebox Flap; you’ll see a guy named Alex sitting inside there, playing a keyboard
   • click Jukebox and select the song “The Mating Song of the Junk Crabs” (top button); this puts the sheet music we want to steal onto Alex’s music stand
   • if Sugar Dispenser is still sitting on table, pick that up
   • exit to Harbor and use Sugar Dispenser on Generator to knock out lights inside Tavern
   • re-enter Tavern to find Alex asleep
   • take “The Mating Song of the Junk Crabs“ sheet music from inside Jukebox
4. exit Tavern and give “The Mating Song of the Junk Crabs” to Gondolier at Harbor
5. if you’ve messed with Pipe Diverter in Marketplace at any point, go there to make sure it joins red pipe (Weapons Shop) to yellow pipe (Dark Alley)
6. return to Weapons Shop and have Bozo take another shot at delivering the line (by saying “You’re not going to give up just like that are you?”). This time, when Gondolier plays, Junk Crabs in Dark Alley hear their favorite song and scuttle up into the pipe after it.
7. turn Pipe Valve to trap Crabs at Weapons Shop. Now you need to send them somewhere they can be “unleashed upon the Gondolier”…
8. go to up To the Pharmacist at Marketplace; click Pipe Diverter so it joins red pipe (Weapons Shop) to green pipe (Outside Doc’s Workshop)
   

   missable achievement alert-o-rama!

   Step 9 is one of two actions that prevent you from earning T-415411293, which requires you to use Repaired Sunglasses (sections 3.1 and 3.2) on “Eyes in the Trash” (the colony of Junk Crabs) in Dark Alley. Note that if you’ve already done steps 6-8, you’ll need to “undo” those before you can do the achievement: switch Pipe Diverter so it connects red to yellow, then open Pipe Valve; Junk Crabs will return to Dark Alley as soon as you leave Weapons Shop.

   Step 9 also prevents you from earning Endurance test, which requires you to make the Gondolier replace his airbag 10 times: go to Harbor, kick Bumper to set off airbag, watch Gondolier swim off to get a new one. Then leave Harbor, come back, and kick Bumper again. Repeat until you get the achievement.

   
   Step 11 prevents you from earning Deponia Idol, which requires you to make the Gondolier sing all 4 songs from the Jukebox. To do this tedious thing…

   • enter Tavern, click Jukebox, choose a song the Gondolier hasn’t yet sung for Bozo and Bambina
   • exit Tavern, use Sugar Dispenser on Generator to kill it
   • enter Tavern, take sheet music
   • exit Tavern, give sheet music to Gondolier
   • go to Weapons Shop, have Bozo try the line again (by saying “You’re not going to give up just like that are you?”); Gondolier shows up and sings the song you gave him
   • repeat until all 3 non-Junk-Crab Jukebox songs have been sung for Bozo and Bambina (step 11 covers the Junk Crab one)

   Be sure to put “The Mating Song of the Junk Crabs” back on the Gondola when you’re done!

   Step 11 also prevents you from from completing the second part of Supercool, which requires you to sing the dumb bum song for Spunky Goal. For more information on this achievement, see the special section near the beginning of this guide.

   If you’ve already won over Baby and Lady Goal, step 12 will put you on a straight track out of Chapter V; therefore this would be your last chance to earn/work on the following achievements:
   
   With love from Porta Fisco requires you to read all the Greeting Cards next to Platypus Trapper in Old Town (keep right-clicking until the achievement pops up).

   Pin-Up Goal requires you to collect several items from Floating Black Market; for more info on this achievement, including a list of the items you need, see the special section near the beginning of this walkthrough.

9. return to Weapons Shop and open Pipe Valve; Crabs crawl out of green pipe into box marked “Airbag Crate” Outside Doc’s Workshop
10. go to Harbor and kick the Gondolier’s Bumper to set off his airbag; he swims off to get a replacement… that’s filled with Junk Crabs
11. go to Weapons Shop and have Bozo try the line one last time; sit back and watch the Gondolier’s longest, yet also most enjoyable performance to date
12. go to Tavern, save your game, and use the magic line on Spunky Goal

5.2 mini game: Platypus Bataka

possible missable achievement alert

Two different guides i read said that you need to win Platypus Bataka without using the Training Dummy in order to earn Shut up, Simon — but i know THIS IS NOT TRUE! I personally earned the achievement after using the Dummy a LOT.

Based on my experience, on a comment in the comments section, and on the fact that a slightly greater percentage of Steam’s “Complete Journey” players have earned Shut Up, Simon than have earned Egg Race or Garden Work* — both of which are “don’t skip the minigame” achievements, and you would need to play those minigames blindfolded and suspended upside down in a shark tank with no internet access to make them harder than the task suggested by those other guides — i think the most likely requirement for Shut Up, Simon is:

Don’t skip the Platypus Bataka minigame. …Remember, this is just a theory, so don’t hold me to it. I don’t even know for sure that this achievement is missable.

Here’s what i was doing when i got Shut Up, Simon: i lost the first battle (probably also the second), went through one training session, fought at least once more, trained until Rufus said he was ready, then fought until i won. Unfortunately i don’t remember at what exact point the achievement appeared**… i didn’t know there would be a quiz later (i wasn’t writing a guide at the time).

* Those percentages were 18.3% vs 17.7% as of this writing, in case you were wondering and didn’t feel like looking it up.

** Commenter Natrea reports that the achievement pops up during the cutscene after defeating Goal.

As Goal prepares to attack you, she broadcasts her intended target with her eyes and right hand:

You need to very quickly move the cursor (which looks like a set of blue square brackets) to the area of Rufus’ body she’s going to hit, and CLICK. You only have a about 2 seconds to do this, maybe less.

If you succeed in blocking her, you get to hit back. Once again, observe her stance to figure out where to strike:

Very quickly move the cursor to the area of her body she’s NOT defending, and CLICK. You only have about 2 seconds to do this.

Continue until somebody loses. Probably you.

Rufus loses the game after being hit three times. Goal, on the other hand, takes 5 hits, then enters “Rrrrrrrage-MODE!!!!” which allows her to attack you 5 times in a row (even if you block every attack). If Rufus is still standing at the end of those 5 turns, you win!

After you lose, Rufus ends up in the training area with Simon the Training Dummy, who holds in store for you a minigame inside the minigame. It’s like a chestburster inside a clown!

If you’re having trouble with the “fighting” part, training with the Dummy will make those battle timers a little longer, giving you a little more time to prepare your blocks and attacks. Once you’ve trained to the maximum, the “about 2 seconds, maybe less” you started with becomes “about 3 or 4 seconds,” giving you a better chance of escaping this little corner of heck.

Click Training Dummy to start the game. Each round of training goes like this:

1. After a brief warning countdown, Simon displays a random sequence in which several of his body parts are highlighted one at a time.
2. You repeat the sequence by clicking the same body parts in the same order.
3. If you succeed, Simon adds 1 step to the sequence.
4. You repeat the +1 sequence.
5. If you succeed, Simon adds another step to the sequence.
6. You repeat the +2 sequence. If you succeed this time, you win the round!

The first round you play, Simon begins with a sequence of 3 body parts. Every time you win a round, that starting sequence gets longer by 1, so by the time you reach round 5, the starting sequence is 7 body parts long. Luckily, the number of steps he adds within each round does not also get bigger — it’s always 2.

You may have noticed that there’s an “X” button on the Training Dummy screen, and wondered if you’d still get credit for training if you were to click that to skip the Simon minigame. The answer is yes, BUT i don’t know for 100% sure that it won’t impact the achievement; so if you want to try it, you should save your game first.*

There are three ways to tell whether you’ve completed all 5 training rounds, thereby reaching the “maximum:”

1. Rufus says “There. That should definitely be enough now. I’m in top shape now.”
2. Training Dummy is no longer clickable.
3. Training indicator underneath Rufus’ health meter on battlefield shows 5 colored-in biceps instead of grayscale ones:

When you’re ready to try fighting Goal again, click the door marked “To the fight.”

* If you want to save your game — like if you need to log off and meditate or drink for a bit before continuing — you must first exit to the Marketplace via the door on the left end of the training area. To reenter the arena, use this door ➞

When you finally win Platypus Bataka, you’ll find yourself back in the Tavern. You won Spunky Goal! If she was your third and final Goal, you’ll be automatically whisked to section 6.0.

6.0 Chapter V finale

After winning over your third Goal, you’ll find yourself at Doc’s Replacement Parts Store watching some dialogue with the Resistance. They plan to “shnatch ze cartrishesh” with the ascension codes — “sacrifishe”ing Goal in the process — to prevent them falling into the hands of Unorganized Crime, who are currently holding Doc and Goal hostage in Doc’s Office. “Ash shoon ash ze clock shtrikesh ze vull hour,” Janosch plans to send Garlef in to deal with them in some unspecified manner. …or to “die vor ze good caushe,” one of those two things. Rufus asks them to give him a little time to think of a better plan.

1. click Door behind Janosch; after a brief conversation with an unidentified yet familiar-sounding person behind that Door, you’ll get temporary custody of Liebold’s Remote, which you should use on Liebold
2. enter the Mysterious Anomaly that opens
3. talk to Future Rufus; it doesn’t matter what you say to him — i.e. there’s no point at which “you must say X in order for Y to happen” — so just enjoy the show.

   The conversation ends with Rufus (your Rufus, the Present one) going through the portal on the right and landing in Doc’s Office; he asks Nod and Wink to wait before shooting their way out through the “weird extremists.”

   With Doc unable to voice his objection (because he’s gagged), Rufus is now able to open that Drawer by the ramp; so on your way by…
   

4. open Drawer, then click Remotes inside to collect Donna’s Remote and Liebold’s Remote (again)
5. talk to Goal (currently “Lady”); mention the Remote you found to learn that she’s unwilling to go along with any plan that involves the removal of her Cartridge.

   It’s necessary to say either “I found this remote” or “Doc mentioned that Donna has an implant” to Goal in order to unlock the dialogue required in step 6. The bit about the remote appears on her menu after you do step 4; the one about the implant only appears there if you first talk to Doc and say “This element on Donna’s temple – is that also an implant?”

6. distract Lady Goal by telling her “Doc keeps a bottle of champagne in his office;” Rufus automatically takes her Cartridge
7. combine Lady Goal’s Cartridge with Donna’s Remote (the blue one) in inventory
8. use Donna’s Remote on Donna to put Lady Goal’s brain inside Donna’s body. After a brief scene in which Donna-Goal “takes care of” Wink and Nod (by shooting them in their backs), Rufus gives Donna’s Remote to her
9. click crowbar lying on floor next to Nod’s body (or gun next to Wink’s) to collect Crowbar and Weapon
   

   missable achievement alert

   
   Step 10 prevents you from earning Pre-paradox, which requires you to exit Doc’s office via the Mysterious Anomaly.

10. go Into the Lock; Rufus talks to Past Rufus through the door and gives him Liebold’s Remote
11. use Crowbar on Electrodes to open the portals
12. when Past Rufus asks “what am I thinking of right now,” you need to give the nonsensical response that Future Rufus gave when you had this conversation the first time (it was the last menu option, “Zeeblezooble”)… unless you want to see Rufus dissolve painfully at the hands of a “time paradox,” that is. Don’t worry, you can dissolve him (did i mention painfully?) as many times as you want until you get it right.

    If you have anywhere to be IRL within the next 15 minutes or so, you might want to save your game here and come back later; there’s a huge amount of dialogue coming up, with no breaks.

13. click on Clock to make it strike the hour, cueing the Resistance to enter; after some hijinks with them, Rufus is talking to Donna-Goal through the door.

    Now prepare yourself for well over 100 lines of exposition and backstory in a segment i like to call: “OH MY GOD, THEY’RE STILL TALKING.” At least we get an idea why Rufus seems to prefer Lady Goal to the others: she’s even more of a selfish monster than he is…

14. Huzzah.

CHAPTER VI: RED RUST SEA

The Chapter is labeled “Red Rust Sea” on the New Game > World Map, but when mentioned in the dialogue, the body of water is referred to as “Rust Red Sea.”

I’ll be using that first version (“Red Rust”) in the guide, but wanted to mention the other version (“Rust Red”) just to make sure all my search engine bases are covered. All two of them.

7.1 find the rebels’ hideout

• Secret Knock Note

During the scene that sets up Chapter VI, Rufus runs into Janosh, who asks him to pay a visit to his new “Reshishtance Shell Norf” in Porta Fisco, giving him Secret Knock Note to facilitate that.

There’s some disagreement among the crew over where you should go first, but the Radar map seems to side with Goal and Bozo that Porta Fisco is the way to go (because it’s the only location other than the one where you started that’s marked with a name)…

1. while looking at the Radar map, click topmost location to go to Porta Fisco
2. go through green pipe on lower right to reach an area known only as “Entrance”
3. click door to start the…
   

   mini game: secret knock

   The secret knock for this door consists of 4 sets of 1 to 5 knocks. Each of the first three sets is followed by a response; those responses — combined with Secret Knock Note — are the key to figuring out how to get inside. Hmm, three symbols, three responses… hmmm…

   One potential obstacle in getting through this puzzle is the interface — some players might not notice the checkmark and “X” buttons at the top of the door. Use the checkmark to indicate you’re done knocking a set; use the “X” if you mess up and want to start that set over.

   Another possible issue is the muddiness of the responses — they are very quiet and very fast. It might help to keep your eye on the blue window, because the text “*knock*” will flash there once for each knock in the response.

   

   

   On with the spoilers!

   Basically, you’re going to build yourself a series of little equations by putting together your knocks, the symbols from Secret Knock Note, and the responses,:

   • your first knock PLUS the first response = your second knock
   • your second knock MINUS the second response = your third knock
   • your third knock PLUS the third response = your fourth knock

   For example, if your first or third knock was 2 and you got a response of 2, your next knock would be 4.

   If you play around with this you’ll find that the responses are always the same:
   first response = 1; second response = 3; third response = 4
   You’ll also find that sometimes doing the math leaves you with numbers you can’t knock, i.e. less than 1 or more than 5. So you’ll need to find a starting number that allows you to stay within the limits…

   Only one number will work as your first knock: 3 . Below is the complete solution:
   

   • knock 3 times (the response is 1 ➞ 3 + 1 = 4)
   • knock 4 times (the response is 3 ➞ 4 – 3 = 1)
   • knock 1 time (the response is 4 ➞ 1 + 4 = 5)
   • knock 5 times

4. enter Rebel Camp; talk to everyone, examine everything.

   If you go through all the dialog, you’ll eventually be presented with the choices “Restore,” “New Game,” or “Quit.” The last two buttons actually work — i.e. they really do what they say they’re gonna do — so click “Restore” to dismiss the popup.

7.2 get access to the Gadget Shop

• Ice
• Torch / Burning Torch
• Tire
• Bait Fish
• Can of Tuna

In section 7.1, Janosh said he sold the Torpedo Equipment to the Gadget Shop in Floating Black Market; but if you go there and try to enter it, you find it’s locked. From looking around the outside of the Shop, it’s pretty clear where this is going (you need cat food), but significantly less clear how to get there…

One of the few hints i have for you in this section is that your quest begins with some things Rufus described as “boring” when you examined them, followed by an idea how they could be made less boring. (The things to which i refer are found somewhere in Porta Fisco…)

1. get Torch:
   • board Cutter, right-click Radar (that green grid thing behind Bozo) to bring up Radar map, and click the location that’s up against the eastern edge; this takes you to North Pole.

     Look around, then go back Into the Cutter… there’s something different here: a cup of Tea on the table that wasn’t there before… Go on, click it.

   • out On Deck, click Snow Pile to collect Ice, then go Into the Cutter
   • use Ice on kidney Tea to cool it down, then click it to make Rufus drink; he runs outside to relieve himself, melting a hole in the ice
   • take Torch
2. get Tire:
   • go to Porta Fisco and use Torch on Burning Barrel to create Burning Torch
   • enter Street Canyon (the large archway top center of Porta Fisco’s Quay)
   • use Burning Torch on Mountain of Tires, then click the Burning Tire that fell out to collect Tire
3. make cat food:
   • go to Rebel Camp
   • use Tire on Service Hatch (far right side) to hang it up there; Rufus wants the Baby Dolphins to jump through the burning hoop, but “they still need a little incentive…”
     Try using items from your inventory on Tire as it hangs on Service Hatch; if nothing helps:
   • board Cutter, go to Floating Black Market, and click bucket next to Fisherman to collect Bait Fish. Return to Rebel Camp.
   • use Bait Fish on Tire
   • …collect Can of Tuna from Service Hatch, and never speak of this again.

   If you’ve completed the first three requirements of Animal Lover, you should receive the achievement here; if not, refer to the special section near the beginning of this guide.

4. go to Floating Black Market
5. use Can of Tuna on Bowl in front of Gadget Shop to make Cat reveal the cat flap that Rufus couldn’t see without murdering something first, apparently. Let’s hope he didn’t put ground glass in the “tuna” while we weren’t looking.
6. Rufus is too “muscular” to fit through Cat Door, so ask Goal if she can squeeze through; Baby won’t, but Spunky can and does, unlocking the door on her way out

7.3 obtain torpedo gear

• Prize / Torpedo Equipment

According to what we learned in section 7.2, you need lottery numbers from the Seer — the guy inside the purple tent at the Quay in Porta Fisco — in order to win “some fully functional torpedo equipment.” He won’t just give them to you, though, so maybe his new career as a couples counselor can be used as an “in”…

1. go to Porta Fisco’s Quay and ask Goal to go with you “to the fortune teller.”

   If you ask her and she won’t go, try using Remote to switch her to Baby.

   If you don’t see the option to ask her, it means one of two things:

   • either you haven’t yet talked to anyone who knows the couples counseling service exists, and therefore Rufus doesn’t know about it (in which case you need to go talk to Seer, saying specifically “Are you some sort of psychic?” then “You do couples counseling now?“)…
   • …or you’ve already taken Goal to the Seer and unlocked the next part of your quest (in which case you’ll see “Find the lottery numbers in the stars” on Rufus’ plan), and so are ready to skip directly to step 3.

   You might want to save your game now, just in case you miss the achievement that’s coming up.

2. find a way to win the lottery:
   • with Baby Goal present, ask Seer “How do I prevent Goal from marrying Cletus?” then “What does our future together look like?” This puts a new option on the dialogue menu…
   • tell the Seer “This is all humbug. You’re holding the ball upside down.”

     To prove that he isn’t holding the ball upside down, Seer shows you the arrow on the bottom, holding it there until you do something; this gives you control of your cursor and — more importantly — of your inventory…

   • use Remote to switch to Spunky Goal
   • start asking the Seer questions, and note the pattern of responses:

     When you ask a question as it first appears on the menu, Seer doesn’t answer (he just says “I don’t understand what that has to do with your relationship”).

     When you ask the question again (rephrased for couples counseling), Seer answers it. The first time Spunky Goal hears this response, she comments, “This is humbug! Let’s get out of here.”

     The second time Spunky hears that same response (because you asked the same question again), she says, “This guy is starting to drive me crazy. May I slap him?”

     The third time Spunky hears that same response, she loses her temper and attacks Seer, making him change his answer.

     possible missable achievement alert

     The next bullet prevents you from taking Goal back to talk to the Seer, which may prevent you from earning A bond for life, the requirements for which are a little vague.

     I say “possible” and “vague” because (1) i didn’t do anything special to earn this achievement, and (2) the instructions i read about it after completing the game are phrased cryptically and seem to indicate requirements that i didn’t meet. Both guides i found were written for the standalone “Chaos on Deponia,” so who knows: maybe different rules apply to players of that game than to players of “The Complete Journey.”

     Both of those other guides state that you must witness “all the angry scenes of Goal” at the Seer. I would interpret this to mean that you need to ask the Seer all 5 questions three times, so that Spunky Goal attacks him once for each question. I’m 99.9% sure i did not do this (that’s a 0.1% allowance for the fact that nobody’s perfect).

     So i guess if you get through this part without earning the achievement, try loading an old save file and doing that thing i described in the previous paragraph. Be sure to ask about lottery/wealth last, since that ends the conversation.

   • keep asking about money (“What are this week’s lottery numbers?” > “Will we be rich? Lottery winner rich?” > “What was that about our wealth?”) until Goal attacks Seer and he provides a lead on the winning numbers: “they are written in the stars.”

   You’ll know you’ve succeeded when you suddenly find yourself out on the Quay.

3. board Cutter and go to North Pole
4. examine Pole Star (the brightest one of the bunch) to get winning lottery numbers.
   You don’t need to write them down or anything — Rufus will remember them. In case you’re just curious, though, they’re: 4, 8, 15, 16, 23, and 42.
5. go to Floating Black Market, enter Gadget Shop (if you can’t get in, go to section 7.2)
6. click Lott-O-Mat to get Prize
7. use Prize on Shop-O-Mat to collect Torpedo Equipment

7.4 fix Radio Tower

• Broken Transmitter / Transmitter
• Shoe / Broken Umbrella
• Bananas
• Canister, Hose / Diesel
• Power Inverter
• Air Freshener Trees
• Wading Pool

1. go to Isla Watchit (2nd location from top on Radar map)
2. go through passage on right to reach Radio Tower
3. pick up Broken Transmitter and take it back to Doc aboard the Cutter; he fixes it and gives back Transmitter
4. return to Radio Tower (the area) and use Transmitter on Radio Tower (the structure); Rufus is struck by lightning and is therefore unable to make the repair….
   

   hinterlude*

   …However, he did get some new info on his Plan, and Goal got some new options on her dialogue menu(s) — be sure to talk to both of her personalities. When you’re done doing that, examine everything, and you’ll have a lot of helpful information about what’s going to happen next: you need to use Goal as a human lightning rod so Rufus can climb the tower without being struck. If you’re not sure how to do that, tell Baby Goal “I keep getting hit by lightning,” then ask her about the thunderstorm rules.

   At the end of that conversation (the one mentioned in that last spoiler), Rufus rattles off a list of elements of the upcoming task: “Water, tree, umbrella, lottery.” I’m guessing one of the things that brings people to this walkthrough for help is “lottery” (which is covered in sections 7.2 and 7.3), and another big one is “tree.”

   Below are three tree hints for you. Viewing all of them is almost the equivalent of reading the answer, so use caution where applicable; i recommend starting out with EITHER both of the first two OR just the third one.

   The first two hints come from Janosh; they’re essentially non-repeatable, so here they are, translated into English for your convenience:

   • Rufus: <examining Canister as it sits on the floor> There’s no more diesel.
     Janosh: …we need it to run the turbine in the sewers. Lucky for us, the winds out there are offshore right now. As soon as the wind turns, the stink in here becomes unbearable.

   • Rufus: Isn’t it a little risky to operate directly under the nose of the Organon? Speaking of which… you’ve got a booger there.
     Janosh: A booger? Icky icky icky. But that is exactly the point. You can’t see right under your nose. And down here in the sewers, nobody wants to smell either. We are even almost out of air fresheners.

   Your third hint comes from Mike D of the Beastie Boys (bet you didn’t see that coming), who once said: “I got the trees on my mirror so my car won’t smell…”

   In summary: steps 7 and 8 below will be guiding you to make it stinky inside Rebel Camp using the Old Power Turbine in Entrance area so they’ll break out the tree-shaped air fresheners.

   * “hinterlude” = “hint” + “interlude.” May history remember that i was the one to coin that.

   Goon of Porta Fisco said he would trade his Umbrella for something to eat, and Rufus is convinced bums eat Shoes, so…
   

5. to get Shoe, go to Floating Black Market and say the following things to Fisherman:
   • “Get off it. You’re afraid of the Organon too.”
   • “If you’re not afraid then why did you stop fishing?”
   • “Could you please catch a boot for me?”
   • “I won’t go away until you catch me a boot.”

   Now DON’T MOVE. Don’t click anything. After 90 seconds, Fisherman will give Rufus a Shoe just to get rid of him.

6. go to Porta Fisco; trade Shoe to Goon for Broken Umbrella
7. get Diesel:
   • enter Rebel Camp and take Canister off floor
   • go to Seer’s tent; steal his Bananas by clicking them a total of three times
   • board Cutter and go to North Pole; grab Hose from the Deck
   • go to Isla Watchit; use Bananas on Exhaust to “put [Diesel Generator] out of commission”
   • use Hose and then Canister on Diesel Generator to collect Diesel
8. get Air Freshener Trees:
   • go to Porta Fisco; pick up Power Inverter from trash pile near archway
   • enter Entrance (the area that leads into Rebel Camp)
   • use Diesel on Tank to fuel Old Power Turbine
   • use Power Inverter on Hatch to reverse the airflow
   • press Button to start Turbine (Rufus may or may not do this step automatically)
   • enter Rebel Camp and collect Air Freshener Trees
9. while at Rebel Camp, pick up Wading Pool (if it has Baby Dolphins in it, go to section 7.2)
10. go to Isla Watchit’s Radio Tower (the second area)
11. place Wading Pool on Plateau, click Pump to fill it with water, and ask Baby Goal to stand in it (or you can have Rufus automatically perform all three actions by giving Wading Pool to Baby Goal)
12. give Broken Umbrella, Air Freshener Trees, and Prize (section 7.3) to Goal as she stands in Pool
    

    missable achievement alert

    
    Step 13 prevents you from earning Woooghieee, which requires you to use the repaired Transmitter on Radar aboard Cutter.

13. use Transmitter on Radio Tower

7.5 prepare & deploy dolphins

• Straight Bananas

1. cheer up Dolphins:
   • go to Rebel Camp at Porta Fisco, then click “Back” to reach the area where an inattentive sewer worker is carrying crates back and forth past a manhole.

     If you click Drain to open it, the worker just walks around the hazard… but Rufus said it was funny, so you’re on the right track.

     Try various items from your inventory on Drain to see if you can improve its comedy potential; if nothing works, make sure you’ve stolen Bananas from Seer’s tent by clicking them a total of three times.

     If you place a Banana peel near the hole, the worker steps on it and slips off in the wrong direction. …the WRONG DIRECTION… (that’s a hint)

   • go to Floating Black Market, enter Gadget Shop (if you can’t get in, go to section 7.2)
   • use Bananas on Banana Straightener to collect Straight Bananas
   • return to Rebel Camp and use Straight Bananas on Drain
2. click Lock (green lever on pipe) to release Dolphins and send them out to Entrance
   

   missable achievement alert

   Step 3 prevents you from traveling around Red Rust Sea via the Radar map, making this your last chance to complete Pin-Up Goal and Cheater. For more information on these achievements, see the special section near the beginning of this guide.

   Step 4 starts the minigame — completion of which takes you out of Red Rust Sea forever — which impacts all of the following:
   
   Flipper out, which requires you to complete the minigame without skipping it.

   
   Freestyler, which requires you to say “We could practice a little freestyling” to Goon, the bum standing outside Entrance in Porta Fisco.

   Tease the dragon, which requires you to use all the following dialogue on Toni:
   “The dolphin pool needs to be cleaned, recruit.” > “By the way, i want my coffee black for the meeting, recruit.” > “Drop and give me twenty, recruit.”
   WARNING: the “New Game” and “Quit” buttons on the resulting popup actually work! Click “Restore” to dismiss the popup and move on.

3. go to Entrance, use Torpedo Equipment (section 7.3) on Dolphins
4. board Cutter and right-click Radar to launch the…
   

   mini game: dolphin puzzle

   how to play

   • On the green grid, you see three dolphins and a Submarine; the goal is to move one of your dolphins into the same square as the fleeing Sub.
   • On each turn, you can move each dolphin one time — either send it forward one square or rotate it 90° — by clicking one of the red arrow buttons on the lower right. After selecting a move for one dolphin, the next will be highlighted. When you’ve moved all three, the Sub makes its move, and a new turn begins.
   • The arrows on the buttons are relative to the dolphin’s orientation (the halo things indicate their “fronts”), which means if you click the up arrow on a dolphin that’s facing down, it will move down.

   It’s not possible to map out an answer to this puzzle, because the Sub doesn’t take the same route every time. All i can give you are these…

   tips

   • Corner the Sub rather than trying to catch it in open water; the best spots are the upper right and lower left corners, because once your prey gets its back up against the wall there, it has less “wiggle room:”
     
     The Sub seems to prefer the northern half of the map, so you may find it easiest to corral it into the upper right corner; however, i feel the lower left corner makes the best trap.
   • The Sub can move diagonally, so you’ll need all 3 dolphins (plus 2 walls) to catch it.
   • If you don’t like the way things are going, use the Reset button on the left side to start over.
   • Get a piece of paper and draw a north-facing dolphin with its flippers labeled “LEFT” and “RIGHT;” then when you’re trying to figure out which arrow to click, turn the paper so that your drawing is facing the same way as the dolphin you want to move.
     
     Use of crayon & green paper optional.
   • The Sub is actually avoiding the square in front of any given dolphin’s nose rather than the dolphin itself; therefore, it’s possible to chase it towards a dolphin as long as that dolphin is facing away from it. One way to take advantage of this:
     • position a “goalie” dolphin near the area in which you want to corner the Sub
     • rotate the goalie so that its nose is NOT pointing at any square you want the Sub to pass through
     • use the remaining 2 dolphins to chase the Sub into your trap

     In the screenshots below, notice how Dolphin A (shown in white in every image except the last one) sits in the same spot for most of the game: that one was my “goalie.”

   Below are screenies of a successful trap. Since the Sub avoids the squares in front of the dolphins’ noses, i’ve marked them with a purple tint to make them more visual; i’ll be referring to these in the next paragraph as “danger squares.”
   
   
   Notice that on its 19th turn, the Sub didn’t move, even though there was an open square nearby. The reason is that the only square available to it — the one to the southeast — was a “danger square,” and it will not move into a “danger square” no matter what, not even to escape one in which it’s already sitting!

   In case it wasn’t clear: the “turns” number written on each screenshot indicates how many turns had been taken when that image was captured; the first one is zero because it represents the state of the playfield before any moves have been made. To make it a little easier to tell what’s going on while still keeping the images cropped to a manageable size, that number is marked on the same grid square in every screenie.

7.6 board the submarine

After the dolphins catch up with Donna-Goal, Rufus and the crew are out at sea aboard the Cutter, with a vague set of tasks before them as unclear as the water they’re floating on…

1. click Hatch on right side, then tell Bozo “The hatch won’t open;” this puts a hidden hint on Rufus’ Plan that suggests we’ll be looking underwater for another entrance
2. look for a “back door:”
   • open Locker and collect Diving Suit from inside
   • place Diving Suit on Hook
   • click Diving Suit to climb into it and be lowered into water
   • once below, all you can do is press a Button that does nothing, and collect 2 Hoses.
     After you’ve taken them both, the weaponized dolphins swim past in the background with evil red eyes and a dramatic music sting.
   • return to surface via the arrow in upper left corner of screen

   The dolphins have abruptly developed a hatred for Rufus, and i believe the idea here is to channel that into finding (or creating) an entrance to the Sub.

   The most helpful clue about what to do next comes from dialogue that doesn’t happen until after you’ve already started doing it, so i’m going to “cheat” and present it to you now: “The dolphins absolutely want a target.”

3. create a Rufus decoy, part one (the body):
   • combine 2 Hoses in inventory to create Long Hose
   • use Long Hose on Water Faucet
   • click Hose lying on the deck to get it on your cursor, then click Diving Suit to attach it there
   • click Water Faucet to fill Diving Suit with water

   So yeah, this seemed promising… until nothing came of it, not even a single clue. But since this step is called “part one (the body),” you’ve probably already guessed that what your decoy is missing is a face…

4. create a Rufus decoy, part two (the face):
   • enter Cutter and use Remote to switch to Spunky Goal
   • go back out On Deck and ring Bell three times; the third time, Spunky smashes the door into Rufus’ face, leaving a clear, face-shaped Dent …so clear, in fact, you could probably use it as a mold…
   • open Lamp and take Candle from inside
   • inside Cutter, put Candle in Pot to melt it, then click Pot to collect Pot with Wax
   • out On Deck, use Pot with Wax on Dent in door to create Impression
   • use Impression on Diving Helmet to complete decoy
5. talk to Bozo and ask him to help lower the dummy.

   After a brief conversation with Bozo and an explosion underwater, Ray Coolsen (the decoy) emerges in a knot. Rufus clears out the Suit to make it available for his own use.

6. click Diving Suit to go back underwater and discover that a Hatch has appeared
7. click Hatch. Huzzah.

CHAPTER VII: BLAST TOWER

8.1 teleporters

Rufus and Doc are now in the teleporter area, and Doc is spinning a yarn about how everybody aboard the cutter was kidnapped by Donna-Goal, but she only took Goal-Goal with her, so i dunno how that works. Anyway, the Goals and Cletus are planning to go to Porta Fisco aboard Argus’ cruiser, and Rufus needs to navigate the teleporter maze to catch up with them. The solution is at the end of this section.

There are two areas here; since they don’t really have names, i’ll be calling them “Area 1” and “Area 2.” The one with Doc sitting in it is “Area 1,” and the one with the Resistance fighting in it is “Area 2.”

Each of the three teleporters you see in Area 1 leads to a teleporter in Area 2, as shown on the map below. The cabinet in Area 1 that’s labeled “1A” leads to the cabinet in Area 2 that’s labeled “2A,” and so on:

Your goal in this section is simply to get Rufus to teleporter 2A. …Yes, of course there’s a catch.

Each of the teleporters in Area 1 is occupied: 1A has a platypus in it, 1B has a frog in it, and 1C has a fly in it. If movies have taught us anything, it’s that getting into a teleporter with another organism makes crazy stuff happen. …as long as that organism is bigger than, like, bacteria or eyelash mites, i guess. And these organisms are definitely that.

The basic rules of the teleporters are as follows:

• When Rufus enters a teleporter with an animal in it, he comes out the other end merged with that animal:
  

• When merged-Rufus goes through a teleporter, he comes out the other end separated back into himself and the animal:
  

• When Rufus enters an empty teleporter that has an animal sitting in the other end of it, he and the animal switch places:
  

• When merged-Rufus enters an empty teleporter that has an animal sitting in the other end of it, he and the animal switch places, AND he becomes unmerged:
  

To enter an occupied cabinet, make sure your cursor says “Transporter” before you click (otherwise Rufus will just talk to the animal inside).

And by the way, victory happens when Rufus arrives at teleporter 2A as himself (not merged).

The basic rules of movement are as follows:

• In Area 1, non-merged Rufus can walk between any of the three teleporters.
• In Area 2, non-merged Rufus can only walk between 2B and 2C.
• Fly-Rufus can move between all 3 teleporters in Area 2, but can’t enter an occupied cabinet.
• Platypus-Rufus and Frog-Rufus cannot leave their boxes; pretty much all they can do is turn around and go back where they came from.

There was one detail i failed to figure out that prevented me solving this puzzle on my own… Before i tell you what that detail was, here are some hints: (1) the platypus is the only animal of the three whose sole purpose is to be in your way; and (2) there are holes in the doors for a reason…

…And the big secret is: it’s possible to make Frog-Rufus eat the fly through the holes in the transporter doors.

Here’s the map again so you can see it at the same time as the instructions:

1. enter 1C with fly (exit 2C as Fly-Rufus)
2. enter 2A as Fly-Rufus (exit 1A as Rufus) ➞ fly is now at 1A; platypus is now at 2A
3. enter 1C (exit 2C)
4. enter 2B (exit 1B) ➞ frog is now at 2B
5. enter 1C (exit 2C)
6. enter 2B with frog (exit 1B as Frog-Rufus)
7. as Frog-Rufus (in 1B), click the fly (in 1A) to eat it
8. go back through 1B as Frog-Rufus (exit 2B as Rufus) ➞ frog is now at 2B
9. enter 2C (exit 1C)
10. enter 1A (exit 2A) ➞ platypus is now at 1A; Rufus is himself at the end of the puzzle

missable achievement alert

Climbing the ladder next to teleporter 2A prevents you from earning Behind the mirror, which requires you to enter teleporter 2A as non-merged Rufus

8.2 (not) the end

1. once through the teleporters (section 8.1), climb the ladder next to the last one
2. after the scene with Cletus, Goal, and Argus, go through door to Bomb Control Room.

   Cletus is here messing with the bomb Controls, and Donna is standing lifeless nearby, her implant empty.

3. click Bag to collect Cartridge and Donna’s blue Remote
4. use Cartridge on Donna to put Baby Goal’s brain into her body.

   After a brief conversation, Baby Donna Goal walks through the door and Rufus follows, arriving to find that Lady Goal has won over Baby, instead of the other way ’round. Rufus and Baby Donna Goal go back out through the door.

5. use blue Remote on Donna to put Spunky’s brain into her.

   After a brief conversation, Spunky Donna Goal walks through the door and Rufus follows; this time, the conversation with Lady takes a better direction.

   When Rufus returns to Bomb Control Room, Cletus is gone and the door leading to Controls is open.

6. click Controls; Cletus appears and locks Rufus inside the control room
7. click Controls again to restart bomb timer; Cletus comes in to stop it, leaving door open
8. click anywhere outside control room to have Rufus walk out and close the door behind him.

   A free-for-all breaks out; Cletus attacks Rufus, and Spunky Donna Goal attacks Lady Goal. Cletus gets hold of Donna’s Remote and switches her to Baby Donna Goal, giving Lady Goal the advantage in that fight. Donna’s Remote lands on the floor, and you regain control of Rufus.

9. press Donna’s blue Remote to put Spunky’s brain back into Donna’s body and turn the tide in that scrap.

   If you can’t press Remote, it’s because Cletus is on top; click him to switch places.

   If at any point you find that Cletus has switched Spunky Donna Goal back to Baby Donna Goal, just push the Remote again. Punching Cletus (clicking him while Rufus is on top) seems to reduce/eliminate his interference with the button.

10. click Spunky Donna Goal to talk to her four times (if you can’t talk to her, click Cletus to put Rufus on top, then try again):
    • “Spunky Goal!” (“What?”)
    • “Lady Goal still has her remote!” (“So what?”)
    • “Grab the remote!” (“Got it! Now what?”)
      

      missable achievement alert

      Talking to Spunky Donna Goal the 4th time ends the fight, preventing you from earning Not in the face!, which requires you to punch Cletus 10 times (by clicking on him). Rufus has to be on top for punching to happen — click Cletus to switch positions, if necessary.

    • “Press it! Press the Remote!”

    Spunky Donna Goal presses the red Remote, switching Lady Goal to Goal Donna (Donna’s brain in Goal’s body); Goal Donna socks Spunky Donna Goal, and Goal’s red Remote lands near Rufus’ head.

11. grab the red Remote.

    Cletus throws Rufus off the balcony, but won’t kick him over the edge because he still has the red Remote with Lady Goal’s brain on it.

    This is your last chance to create a save file before the next installment of the trilogy starts, and before the final missable achievement. …And wouldn’t it be a pain to have to come all the way back here if you were to accidentally press “esc” at the wrong moment or something…?

12. get the red Remote out of your inventory and use it on Goal Donna to switch her to Lady Goal.

    You may miss seeing it because it happens so fast: Rufus drops the red Remote off the tower; Cletus freaks because he doesn’t know Rufus switched it to contain Donna’s brain. Then Lady Goal, having misunderstood the conversation she overheard, knocks Cletus out because she thinks he was the one who started the bomb countdown. Before she’ll help Rufus up off the ledge, she needs to take him on a little guilt trip…

13. Lady Goal asks if Cletus was lying about the bomb; eventually, in order to continue, you have to tell her he wasn’t.

That’s it, that’s all i can help you with in this installment, except for this one last…

missable achievement alert…ish

To earn Thanks in the standalone “Chaos on Deponia,” you must let all the end credits roll. However, when you’re playing The Complete Journey, this isn’t the end, so the credits don’t happen here.

All i know about the trilogy version of this achievement is that (1) i got it without having to go back for it, and (2) i tend to patiently watch everything — without clicking to speed it up or pressing “esc” to skip it — the first time i play through a game. I have no idea if that 2nd point has any bearing here; in fact, i would guess it does not, and that the achievement is only missable in the standalone version (again: that’s a GUESS). Hopefully you saved your game after step 11 as instructed just in case anything goes wrong.

LINKS

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