60 steamworld dig 2 - finished the trials successfully!

Dear Readers,

I finally succeeded in the Trials! Here's how it went down:

I got the Rocket and Escape trials very early and survived them with good chunk of health left. I had used up the survivor mod insurance thingy but I still had a good amount of health left.

It was nerve wracking doing the rest but I felt pretty good about getting to do the hard ones first.

I didn't resort to farming for those blood stone thingies but I wasn't far from doing it!

When I finally got to the end I got a special artifact as proof with the description "We apologise for the inconvenience" and a phrase in Swedish that translates to "They should be good to dig!"

And that's that for this wonderful series within a series of games. I took a look through the other artifacts and some descriptions were amusing with some fun pop culture references. I was more comfortable looking at them in docked mode. I should've gone into detail on them as I was collecting them. No worries though.

59 steamworld dig 2 - failing again in the trials

Dear Readers,

I got a bit of practice in the Trials, so let's try again.

I died many more times and it was incredibly frustrating. That one with the rockets is awful and that fire shooting pattern in the acoknights one is bad as well. The escape one is almost as bad and the fear factor affects my judgement and I end up losing more health than usual.

I noticed in the YouTube video I looked up that they had farmed bloodstone thingies from enemies and you can turn them into hearts with the Re-Circle of Life, so I decided to try that out.

58 steamworld dig 2 - the extra challenging trials

Dear Readers,

I went to that place unlocked in the sky above the Windy Plains and took on the Trials.

There are several scenarios here and they come in randomised order. I know this because I took them on and died a number of times!

There was this wall jumping one call Trial of Skillness that nearly made me give up entirely. There was a part where I just couldn't reach with wall jumps. I looked it up on YouTube and it turns out you have a better wall jump if you don't slide along the wall. Just jump as soon as you hit the wall and you have a better jump. I absolutely had to look that up because I was getting tired of it very fast.

Trial of Flight. This was about avoiding the fire spitting thingies. It was quite fun dodging around and trying to gain momentum to progress. The tribute to Bowser from Mario 1 at the end of this was really nice too!

Trial of Buttons. This was a fun reference to Portal with the scary Vectron DOS prompt thingy drawing the ASCII cake reward.

Trial of Acoknights. A tough lava conveyor belt one. The Return to Sender mod is handy here instead of having to jump over the flaming spears.

Trial of Escape. A nasty Vectron sequence with lots of those evil exploding ghosts and metallic chasers. Very hard to outrun.

Trial of Rockets. Constant Rosie Rockets coming at me and I have to deflect them into boulders to open the way forward. Tough and very messy. Takes a lot of patience and health.

Trial of Crushers. The one that's mainly made up of those fist blocks and has a bit with a trick out that loops you if you go up the outside of the fists. Not too bad if you can get a groove going.

With the levels shuffling around every time I die, I got to experience all the trials in some form and I am now able to pass each one, though not all in one go. At the moment, the Escape and the Rockets are the toughest ones because I lose the most life on them. The Acoknights one is another where things are a bit rough for me.

If I could just get lucky enough to pass the harder ones earlier without too much damage I'll be flying. I just need some more practice.

57 steamworld dig 2 - the reward for 100% artifacts

Dear Readers,

That reward for collecting all the artifacts was kinda weird. I didn't quite know what to do with it. I went flying all over the desert and couldn't really find anything.

I decided to go fight Rosie again and run the game ending. She was a lot easier to defeat this time with my extra bits of abilities.

It is a nice sequence of images and I forgot to mention the delighted cultists, who were only too happy the planet was shaking apart.

This time my ranking was this:

Time: 22:31:39, bronze

Deaths: 14, silver

Wealth: $20,483, gold

Secrets: 100%, gold.

That's all the secrets in the game. I decided to look for this thing in the desert skies again and I found it in the Windy Plains. You don't have to fly all over the place for it because you can just hover at the very top of the screen and go right until you see the entrance to the "strange and wonderful place".

This strange and wonderful place turned out to be an extra set of platforming challenges. First one you go without the jectpack, the second without the hook shot on top of that. I had a quick go and it was tough alright. At one point a lava pool was used for a soft landing and there was one part that was a trick out. I had to go up the left side of a wall with punching blocks instead of the right. I'll give it another go next time.

56 steamworld dig 2 - yarrow 100% cleared of secrets

Dear Readers,

I headed to Yarrow, the only place left in the game that still had secrets to be found. I had 90% of them found already.

I found a shiny spot at the upper-leftmost point and dug down to find Luke Yonker! He gave me a blueprint and some chat. He was fascinated by this place and its wildlife.

I found the artifact I was looking for in Leaky Lodge. The Eye for Weakness revealed a shiny spot under a big boulder. It would've been tougher to find without it.

The last artifact I found along the left side of the mine as I continued downwards into Yarrow and I now had 100%!

I headed back to town and Davy gave me his last blueprint. It was kind of a cryptic one. It was called Sigillum Caelum et Infernum and the description was a poem of some sort? I'll have to look into it.

I equipped Aramid Armour and Cougar Paws just for the heck of it. I didn't really need cogs anymore.

55 steamworld dig 2 - finding the last secrets in the temple of the destroyer

Dear Readers,

I worked my way down to the Temple Bowels and investigated that switch that was now active for use after I lit the three torches in remote locations.

A sign here said "Ronald's Treasure Chamber. Only Operating Acolytes of level VI or higher may enter."

I didn't know what this meant, though I assumed it was something owned by the cultists. I pulled the switch anyway. I found myself in a room called Ronald's Treasure Chamber.

Inside this place I found many cogs together and a new upgrade! This was the Long-Range Grappler and it made my hook shot even longer! Much longer than the screen even allowed to display! Not sure how useful it'll be now that I can fly forever but we'll see.

At the very bottom of this area I found a secret passage that led to the last artifact in this area. It felt like going up on the ceiling in Super Mario Bros world 1-2, only it was underneath the stage. With that collected I now had 100% secrets found in the Temple of the Destroyer.

54 steamworld dig 2 - the secrets of the temple of the destroyer

Dear Readers,

I decided to explore the Temple of the Destroyer, starting with the new entrance I found above the main one in the Windy Plains.

I found some cogs and resources in this small but packed area! I was quite pleased with it. I also found one of those torches that made one of those three lights light up. Just one more to go.

I had 71% of this area explored already. Near the start of the main entrance was a fire golem I overlooked completely. I got it to move and it led the way to a cave called Demon's Crib. This was a deadly area with a rising lava level. There was a hidden artifact where I had to dive down into the actual lava and swim through it to a chamber in the bottom right to reach it. I had to escape quickly just to survive.

I then went down through the Conveyor Maze and gathered all the stuff I missed before up until the warp point. To the right of the warp point I found another fire golem and made it get out of the way of another torch to light, which was the last of the three lights I had to do. I'll make my way back to that switch eventually.

I continued and found another cave called Roasted Romp. It wasn't especially hidden but I did overlook it completely. In here was a platforming challenge with punching blocks and it was very easy to navigate with my jetpack which was nice.

I went back to town and upgraded the jackhammer to the Mjolnir Drive, which was the final upgrade in the entire game. I had every piece of equipment maxed out now! There was still equippables. I equipped the Mid-tile Express and the Aquatic Regenesis.

I continued exploring the temple until I got to the Hanging Lava Gardens warp point. I had the area 84% explored of secrets at that stage. I'll continue later.

53 steamworld dig 2 - windy plains 100% complete

Dear Readers,

Next area I chose to explore for secrets was the Windy Plains, where I had found 85% of its secrets so far.

I gave the place a good combing over but there was only one unexplored part and that was above the entrance of the east temple. There was another entrance and above that again was an artifact. With that collected, the Windy Plains was now 100% complete with all the secrets found. That's it for today! Next is this new entrance into the Temple of the Destroyer to find all its secrets.

52 steamworld dig 2 - temple of guidance 100% explored

Dear Readers,

I returned to the west temple, the Temple of Guidance, which was 82% explored for secrets. I got to searching.

Fen got nostalgic of the moment we first met when we came across their old totem. I remember it well and I remember this music too. It's just awesome.

There wasn't an awful lot to find here and I cleared most things fairly quickly. I reexamined the area and took a lot of time when I found that I didn't explore the pyramid where one of the doomsday thingies was. I went there and found the thing and cleared the Temple of Guidance of secrets 100%.

51 steamworld dig 2 - staying up in the air forever with air cooling!

Dear Readers,

With the Air Cooling upgrade to my jetpack I took to the skies and stayed up there to my heart's content! What I wanted to do was find the last secret and I thought maybe there was an island in the sky that was hiding a cog or something.

I filled in the dark part of the map over the entire area on the top layer, then on the layer under that until I came to a stop at the animated sign welcoming me to El Machino. The cog was really close by. I collected it and I now had the West Desert area explored 100% for secrets. Flying is nice but at the same time I'm thankful I didn't have to literally fill the whole area in on the map. A lot of the airspace is just nothing after all and I didn't have to explore it entirely.

50 steamworld dig 2 - exploring the west desert

Dear Readers,

I decided to visit the west temple where I started the game and see if I could find anything there.

I couldn't warp there unfortunately because there were doors I couldn't go through in time. I decided to hike westwards out of town.

I got to an area called the West Desert and it was 0% explored for secrets. Lots of goodies to find here! I found a cave called Tenacious Trollies and went inside. It was another puzzle oriented trolley stage and it was easier than the last one I did. Plus, I was upgraded so much that since I could shoot bombs while in the air, I didn't have to push or stack a single trolley! Haha!

I explored further west until I got to the point where I fell in to the temple because of the earthquake. Remembering it all now! I went further west until I got to my old campsite at the very beginning. Then I climbed up the cliff until I met Zebulon Yonker, one of the brothers! I was wondering when I was going to find another one!

He gave me a blueprint that makes the game more difficult. I thought I had found everything but the rating was at 85% for this area. I went back to town and upgraded the Jet Engine to Le Rhone 69 and equipped the Air Cooling.

The Air Cooling is an amazing upgrade! It happens so fast I can stay in the air forever while flying!

49 steamworld dig 2 - getting 100% secrets in archaea

Dear Readers,

I continued exploring Archaea for secrets until I got to the bottom. I found more cogs and artifacts and this time I went past the sign that said "DEATH AHEAD".

It was a good idea to avoid this area before because I badly needed the hook shot and jetpack. I'm not sure if I didn't have them before but I just wanted to avoid going this way. The path itself was full of spikes all over the place, save for a few resting spots on walls and ceilings. I found more cogs and more stuff to dig up. With that, I now had 100% secrets found in Archaea!

I headed back to town and equipped the Maverick Afterburner to make the jetpack faster.

48 steamworld dig 2 - finding secrets and shortcuts in archaea

Dear Readers,

Now that I had the game beaten, it was time to explore and look for treasure, secrets and puzzles! I started by upgrading the Jackhammer twice to the "Ivan Drago" Mark IV and equipping the Sky Assailant, which lets me use Pressure Bombs while in the air.

I started looking for secrets in Archaea, the main mine below town. I had 75% of them found and it was a big area to cover. I dug up all the stuff in the tutorial area, found an artifact there, and kept going down the main mine, excavating everything I could find.

I was glad to complete Rapture Rock Hollow, as I was stuck on that one for a while. I just needed the jetpack and hook shot really for that remaining cog near the top.

I was thinking of a cog that was out of reach and ended up finding a shortcut to the east temple! Right at the Golem Altar. I found a lantern here that lit up one of three lights I found at a switch earlier. There was a fire golem here too but it didn't do much but be in the way. Above this area was a path to another artifact. I headed back to Archaea because I wanted to focus on that area.

I worked away until I got to the Lower Mining Outpost, then took a break. 84% of secrets found in Archaea now.

47 steamworld dig 2 - the credits and ranking with more to come

Dear Readers,

Back on the surface it looked like it was the end of the world and the town was crumbling into chaos and fire. The townspeople were queueing for the professor's rocket.

The mayor blubbed it was mayors and childbots first! His mother said there were still bots in the mine so they had to wait. The Professor said she could hold the launch for a minute or two but after that they had to blast off.

A shiner chancing his arm pretending to be Barnacle Jones said something unintelligible. Very funny disguise! The real one was close by though.

Just then, I appeared with Rusty in a flash next to everyone, who looked at us. They were glad to see us and we all had to rush on to the rocket. There was no time to go back for Fen.

After that, the credits rolled along with drawn scenes of the dramatic escape on the rocket as the planet crumbled. Other rockets fled the planet as well. Many of these scenes had me looking in the distance sadly. 

The planet crumbled into huge chunks that drifted in space around the core of it that was still intact. In the last few scenes I was there with Rusty, planning to rebuild the world and find Fen.

That's it for the game's story! I didn't particularly like Fen that much but they turned out to be a good companion and assistant for Dorothy. Their taste for destruction was sometimes amusing alright.

In my ranking, it shows I beat the game in 18:55:26, earning me a bronze star; I got 12 deaths, earning me a silver star; I obtained $16,574 in wealth, earning me a gold star; finally in secrets I got 72%, earning me a silver star.

This final scene with Dorothy and Rusty became the title screen. A very nice one. I was able to resume my save from before the boss fight so I think I'll do that. I'd like to find more of the secrets.

I really liked this game as well as the original one. That original one made more of an impact though. This one really developed the world into something bigger but that first one was very mysterious. Both games are excellent and well worth playing. I'll be playing more of this to find secrets! Then I have to decide what to play next... hmm...

And yes, I'm pretty happy to see Rusty back and ok! What would a sequel to this game be like? SteamWorld Rebuild maybe.

46 steamworld dig 2 - rescuing rusty

Dear Readers,

Rosie attacked in her big mech suit powered by poor Rusty! Time to fight back!

I hit a bomb she shot back at her and then whittled the machine's health while it was down. She got up again and made some more attack patterns. She shot a lot of stuff at me, made dirt and wall blocks appear all over the place and chased after me.

The upgrades really came in handy here. I outlasted her the best I could and deflected her bombs back so I could whittle more of her machine's health down. Eventually I got it down to nothing and the machine became a flaming wreck.

Rusty said the reactor was going to blow and the quakes were going to destroy everything. He said in his heroic way that I had to get out. I said in my heroic way that we were going to make it out together!

I picked Rusty up and threw him over my shoulder. Fen looked at the reactor and knew we had to get out of here now. I thought about the professor's rocket and said we had to get back to town now!

I was slowed down a lot with Rusty. I couldn't even use the Portal of Pardon! I had to walk slowly.

When we passed the Vectron portal machine thingy, Fen said this was the only way out and insisted we use it. I argued I didn't want to leave them behind but they weren't having any of it. They told us to use it. I told Fen I'd come back for them... They said they knew I would. 

Fen warped us out and all went white...

45 steamworld dig 2 - rusty found!

Dear Readers,

The door in the Oasis was now open so I went through to get to the bottom of all this.

Fen asked was I sure and I said yes. Sounds like a big decision... perhaps an endgame one? We went in to an area called The Reactor.

A tunnel led the way and I saw another one of that thing that let me warp to Vectron. It wasn't working though. I continued and finally came face to face with Rusty!

Rusty was stuck inside this big contraption piloted by Rosie. She said we shouldn't have come back here. I told her to let him go. She said a lot of her kin were hurt trying to capture him and now that she had him as a battery, she was finally strong enough to keep our kind out.

I said she lied to me. She said she used me, like a tool. She used me to break all those things Rusty built to draw the power from her Fusion Distillery. She declared that was no more though.

She showed me the reactor that was making the rumbling. She said she was going to use it to create more Moon Juice to stop her kin from wandering off and to stay safe. She wanted to control them to show her the respect she said she deserved.

Rusty weakly said the reactor was unstable Vectron tech. Rosie shouted back at him, saying he was unstable and she was in control now.

A boss battle followed!

44 steamworld dig 2 - the door in the oasis

Dear Readers,

I headed to the quest marker in Yarrow. It was at a point I couldn't reach before but now I could thanks to the jet pack and the ramjet thingy. When I reached the marker it was a pipe like the one I saw in the Oasis.

I found myself in an area called the Sludge River Bend. Here there were bombs I had to hit to open the way forward and to find cogs behind obstacles. Sometimes I had to go back to the first dispensers to hit bombs all the way to the right but I got all the cogs here.

Along the way I thought maybe I should've been more careful when talking to Rosie about stuff and trusting her so much.

When I got to the Oasis, Rosie and her kin were all gone. The warp was blocked and the huge stone door was open. I unblocked the warp and headed through the door.

43 steamworld dig 2 - the oasis is blocked off

Dear Readers,

I went in to the Device of Destruction room in the East Temple, the last one I had remaining, and destroyed the device easily.

Just then there was a big earthquake. I was confused and thought that would've been the end of them.

So what was going on? Why more earthquakes? Where was Rusty? Fen suggested asking Rosie.

I went to town first to cash in. Barnacle Jones said the professor's rocket was ready. He himself was excited at the prospect of finding more business in outer space. I talked to the professor and she said that last quake came out of Shiner country. Hmm... Time to go back to Rosie I think. The professor's rocket was ready to leave the planet alright.

I wasn't able to warp to the Oasis so I had to warp to Below the Wall, the next one closest to it.

When I got to the Oasis it was rumbling and the entrance was blocked by a huge door and boulder behind that too! I had to find another way in. It just so happens that that part in the jungle where there was lots of stuff overhead I couldn't reach before was the way to go.

42 steamworld dig 2 - maximising most of my equipment

Dear Readers,

I found a place called The Sun Armory and decided to explore it.

Inside was the Ultra Composite Armour. I thought it was a new ability but it seems to be just an armour upgrade. There wasn't much else to this place.

The path continued right but there was also a huge load of resources below. I continued right until I got to the warp marked Inner Sanctum and headed back to town to escape the casting cultists and to cash in my overflowing supply of ore.

Davy gave me a new blueprint as well for something that replenishes health when in water, which is nice. I upgraded to the Phoenix Armour and equipped the True Survivor, which is like life insurance that works once, then replenishes back in town, which seems very valuable.

I gathered more stuff, then went back to town to upgrade to the Templar Pickaxe and the Bomp Bah Bomb, maxing out on a lot of the equipment now.

I continued along the path, beating up the cultists as I went along. It's really funny beating them up because they sound important and intimidating when they're summoning their fire attacks and then there's that abrupt silence when you smack them with your pickaxe and bring them down to earth! It's pretty satisfying!

The path finally ended at the cave with the quest marker. I went inside.

41 steamworld dig 2 - mine cart puzzle madness

Dear Readers,

I continued through the basement of the east temple, fighting those bomb bird things as well as the cultist fire summoners, uncovering resources along the way. I came across a cave called Mine Cart Madness. No not the one from Donkey Kong Country!

This one wasn't a speedy level either but it was a puzzle one. I had to hit the minecarts to get them onto the pressure switches. They could only take so many hits though and I had to get other minecarts to stop the ones I was hitting so I could get them to fall into place. The final puzzle was especially troublesome here because I had three carts to deal with. With a few headscratchings and attempts I was able to pull it off eventually.

I pressed ahead for a while after this cave and reached another cave with a warp point called Armory Entrance. I'll explore this place more next time.