Obduction Exploration Guide
© 2016 Cyan, Inc.
Intro
Getting Started
You find yourself in what might be a familiar wooded area by a lake. This is Earth, and as you wander around you’ll realize that this is just one place that people have been taken from. There are signs and picnic tables and a camp fire… oh, and some kind of crazy light that shoots out of the sky and seems to get closer as you explore around.
Use the area to pick up a bit of the story, and become familiar with moving around. You’ll be taken from here soon enough — when the light catches up with you.
Story Bits
The red bar above means you’ve reached a Help section — proceed with caution. Anything after the red bar has the potential to be a spoiler. If you want a more pristine experience you can jump ahead to the next green bar.
This story is about you. The intro in the forest represents your experience of being taken far from home by an organic looking artifact that interrupted your life. You don’t know where this artifact came from, or why it came to you. But this will be your story now.
The Help sections all have this Story Bits section where you can get some revelations about the story . . .
Gameplay Hints
. . . and this Gameplay Hints section where you can get some hints about Gameplay. These hints assume that you’ve done all the exploring you can stand to do, and you need a bit more to get you over a hump. If you haven’t explored, you really should — you may come up with a solution, and you’ll feel really good about yourself. But if you’ve explored, and slept on it, and didn’t have any brilliant insights in the shower, then you’ve come to the right place.
Welcome to Hunrath
Red Rocks
This entire place seems to be from southern Utah or somewhere in Arizona. There are definitely a few things that seem out of place.
Welcome Message
If you weren’t welcomed to Hunrath, you weren’t paying attention. Whether you were welcomed or not, this place seems not very welcoming. Seems kind of deserted.
Farley's House
Yep, there’s that house with the white picket fence. But it’s locked up tight. Maybe later. But at least check out the mailbox, and oh yeah, another strange message kiosk in the yard.
Graves and a Wall
To the right of Farley’s house is a strange graveyard, but beyond that is a strange border or edge. Seems like you could walk right out into that crazy alien landscape… worth a try.
Downtown Ghost Town
Now you’re getting somewhere. Downtown Hunrath, with people everywhere… or maybe not. As you tour this metropolis, make sure you catch one of the highlights…
The Tree
To the right of downtown Hunrath is a fairly large tree. Seems important, you should go check it out, as much as you can.
Red Beams and Blue Blobs
If you haven’t seen the red beam yet, you just aren’t paying attention. And the red beam has a blue beam nearby, and a blue blob. Good thing you don’t die easily in Obduction because the blue blob looks menacing.
Compound with a Waterfall'
If you walked past the blue blob, you have a compound of sorts to explore. Make sure you see everything, but note that the power lines lead to a small shack - don’t forget that fact, or what you find in the shack.
Gates and Flow
Beyond the compound and the windmill and garden is a lovely little river area. And the river flows under some kind of crazy rigged-together structure. And the power lines run to the
other side… just saying.
Story Bits
Welcome to Hunrath — some kind of kludgy home for abductees. Hunrath appears to have been a functional community that has recently been evacuated for some kind of battle — with the Mofang — whoever that is. Mayor Josef’s kiosk messages seem a bit weird — like he takes his position a bit too seriously, maybe. And the imagers themselves are a strange conglomeration of old earth technology melded with some advanced alien stuff.
Caroline Farley seems interesting. She has a nice house, but it’s locked up tight. And she’s managed to leave you a snippet of a warning about the battle — and not trusting people. It was her voice during the intro in the forest by the lake.
The old Hartnell mining town was scooped out of Arizona one night, with the town, the people, and the mining equipment — including the rails. And a graveyard came along as well, and it appears to have been used and reused; this place has been here for a while.
The only live person you meet is a southern gentleman, behind a huge vault door, in a compound whose gate is guarded by a strange blue blob. He seems honest enough, if a bit crotchety, and he’s intent now on going home. Can you trust him? For now, you don’t have much of a choice.
And beyond the crazy desert landscape lies a bizarre, purplish, alien landscape. But you can’t seem to get there right now. And there’s a giant tree in the center of everything that is the lifeblood of this place.
Gameplay Hints
Wait! You’re using the hints already? Might we suggest you take one last look around this area. There are lots of details around that connect together. If you’ve had coffee, or a carrot, or a good night sleep, and you’re clueless, and frustrated, and ready to give up, then please proceed…
Subtle Nudge: Do you know what your goal is? Perhaps you forgot what the guy behind the door wanted you to do. Go check with him again.
Gentle Push: Power and power lines. Seems like the key to that is beyond that strange gate on the river.
Loving Shove: That strange gate is the key. The corrugated metal panels can be moved down into the water. Would they catch any current?
Body Check: That gate can be moved — it rotates around the central pivot point. And the force of flowing water can make that happen.
Well, you made it. Congratulations! Don’t get cocky! Don’t forget what your goal is, but if you do — well there is always that strange dude behind the vault door in the shack. He said something about power, and this section is all about paying attention to connections.
The Bosque
Just relax and enjoy this beautiful oasis here in the desert landscape. Just a short reprieve from the hustle and bustle of opening doors and turning on power. Okay, now back to work.
Giant Stone Sphere
Wow. That’s a large stone sphere sitting on a strange platform. There’s a crazy track underneath it, the power lines even go to it, and you can explore it. Seems alien.
Junkyard
There’s a fence to the left that surrounds a bunch of junk. Can’t seem to be able to get in there, but don’t forget to look up as you follow the fence line — those power lines seem to converge. And there’s a large electrical cable on the ground, coming out of the spot where they converge.
Train Yard
Here’s something you don’t see every day - a huge chunk of a train yard scooped out and plopped in front of us — complete with most of a diesel locomotive. Seems like a good thing to examine. Wait, is that a pipe?
Gas Station
Another strange scoop of Earth, complete with tanks, pumps, and a closed garage door. There’s some strange stuff inside there, but it seems to be locked up for now. What you need must be outside.
The Humming Tower
Find your way through the train yard and past the portion of brick building. The most interesting thing is the huge humming tower in the middle of the water — but no way to get there from here.
Beyond the Tower
Pretty stark out in this area, but exploring reveals a few things of interest amongst the canyons. First, there’s a door in a shallow rock cave, that’s locked with a keypad. If only there was a map to give you a lay of the land. Wait, didn’t you see a rough map somewhere? Further on through the canyons you run into that crazy undulating wall that keeps you from getting into the alien landscape.
Story Bits
In case you failed to notice, Hunrath seems to have been split down the middle by an old wall that bisects this giant sphere. It was built long ago as a way to protect and divide Hunrath. Check out the map on the electrical box for a rough layout.
After passing through a peaceful cottonwood bosque along the river, this back side of Hunrath seems more like the business or warehouse side. There are pieces of a scrapyard, a gas station, a railroad yard, and giant stone sphere. And handily, someone has gone through a lot of trouble to string electricity to various locations.
This whole place is such an odd juxtaposition of technology and history. Items seem to have come from all over earth — with some odd alien stuff thrown in for good measure.
Gameplay Hints
Are you sure? Have you thought about your goal, and connecting things to make that happen? Okay, okay…
Subtle Nudge: Remember your goal? Come on! That guy behind the door? Go check with him again.
Gentle Push: Power, power lines, connections. Follow the power lines — they converge, and an electrical cord snakes along the ground. You should follow that line.
Loving Shove: So that diesel locomotive has a big generator in it. That seems like a good place to get power from. You should get that thing started.
Body Check: Electrical power from a diesel locomotive — you’re going to have to pump some fuel to it, prime it, and start it. How hard can that be? Complicated?
Good job, power is on! Seems like a good time to see what effects that might have. And remember that spot where the power lines converge, near the Junkyard? You probably should check that out. But when all is said and done, you probably want to go back to the guy who told you to turn on the power.
C.W.
Okay, when you ring this guy’s bell again, he comes back with some more info. Listen carefully, because he’s not just whistlin’ Dixie — he’s got another request for you regarding a red beam and the wall around this place.
The Workshop
No need to go too far from C.W.’s shack before you find some more to do. Having the power on will definitely open some doors. And once you find your way to the shop, settle in and explore the various devices and journals and notes. Spend some quality time here, learn the devices and take a few notes. It’ll serve you well.
Ride the Rails
If you explored the workshop area enough, you found a way to get a vehicle to ride the rails. This ought to be fun! But before you go riding off into the sunset, remember what your goal is and what you learned in the workshop.
Through the Dome
We’ll just assume at this point that you did what your were supposed to, got things figured out and got through the wall of the dome somewhere. If you didn’t, well what are you waiting for?
Story Bits
Looks like the guy behind the vault door is C.W. He was waiting for people to return, but they never showed up. This entire area within the fence is his compound. He’s evidently pretty handy — seems to have had a large part in putting together much of the technology that you see here. He built the crazy kiosks — hacking the red-beam Mofang technology to project moving or still images, and to aim upward to disable the wall of the dome.
C.W. has also rigged up some blue-beam Villein technology to an old mine cart. It’s a disabling beam of sorts — it disables Mofang technology. It’s interesting that he set it up to aim right at the opening into his compound.
C.W. and Farley seem to have gotten along just fine, although she’s not as comfortable as the mayor about recording imager messages. Farley was curious about why the Sorians would be giving them the imager technology — is that pertinent?
Gameplay Hints
Don’t get lazy now. There are some patterns you should be noticing - like the fact that C.W. seems to be trying to keep you on task. If that’s not enough then, okay, proceed . . .
Subtle Nudge: Your goal! Something about the red beam and the wall of this place. Just saying. You could have checked with C.W., but we just saved you the trouble. You're welcome.
Gentle Push: The goal is to get through the wall of this place - the edge between this place and the alien landscape. The key seems to be the red beam. What might disable that red beam?
Loving Shove: Disabling that red beam is exactly what you want to do. The key to disabling the red beam was something you read about and even possibly experimented with in the workshop. Think blue.
Body Check: Alright, here’s the deal. The red beam is based on alien technology that can be disabled with the blue beam. You should be able to use that blue beam that’s mounted on the mine cart. But you’re going to have to figure out how that crazy mine cart works.