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.