44 chibi-robo! let's go, photo! - fetching horse mackerel

Dear Readers,

I started with more jobs from K&M, Laroque and Clayra.

K&M talked about the sea and wanted me to bring them horse mackerel from the fridge. There were a few fish in there and I had to look it up. I picked the one with the fins on its back and underside and the little marking behind its... gills? Anyway the chefs were pleased.

Laroque asked me if I was doing swimmingly and I said I was. I wonder if there's a right answer here. He wanted help with the smoglings again. I beat them with 38 seconds to spare. I got a silver trophy too.

Clayra's Chibi-tots hid again and I got the first two rounds correct but not the last one, where everyone but two were wearing bow ties and threw me off.

I had enough points to buy a Wii U Game Pad Silhouette Film and unlocked another page.

No. 29 was a tall box with a letter opening

No.30 was an inverted triangle

No.31 was a tall rectangle

No.32 was an airplane, presumably a model one. Can't imagine anyone trying to get just the right photograph of a plane.

43 chibi-robo! let's go, photo! - shooting down the ufo

Dear Readers,

I took on Drake's job again. I was never unsuccessful at it but I never got the UFO. I aimed to do that as my main priority this time.

When the UFO appeared it hovered across the screen and I put all my focus on it. Drake appeared and said I unlocked the secret level. This was another mixture of balloons, clay targets and UFOs to shoot. I got on pretty well with a very good score! I didn't earn any extra trophies though. Maybe it'll unlock another job from Drake further down the road.

I bought a GameCube Silhouette Film when I got back to the office as I had enough happy points.

42 chibi-robo! let's go, photo! - success with ratatouille

Dear Readers,

I took another go at some of the jobs I failed at last time I tried them.

K&M's ratatouille recipe I tried again and this time I used the skinnier pepper along with the aubergine and tomato. They were delighted! They said chilled ratatouille was ideal for the hot days and was best when made with fresh seasonal vegetables. They said it was a good way to get your vegetables in the summertime. I'll take note of that! :)

It might be fun to try something like ratatouille sometime... It's in popular culture thanks to the movie and I have been curious of it since I watched it. I guess it's more ideal in the summer. I'll look into it!

41 chibi-robo! let's go, photo! - taking a picture of the drink cup with help from a friend

Dear Readers,

I took a picture of the fast food drink cup! It was when I put my 3DS in sleep mode and went on a trip to town to meet a friend of mine. He helped me take the picture.

It wasn't easy to take the picture because it was so dark in the fast food place, too dark for the 3DS camera to recognise anything anyway.

We found a place under some bright lights indoors to take the picture so he helped by holding the drink cup in the air and I finally got my NostalJunk after a few tries. Hooray!

40 chibi-robo! let's go, photo! - spotpass competition end notice from 2014

Dear Readers,

I put the 3DS in sleep mode for the first time since I started playing this game and I got a notice on the Chibi-PC.

The title of the notice was "Notification of Closure (all contests)", informing me that all contests for NostalJunk entries have finished as of 08/12/2014. Not sure if that's the American date format or the European one.

I have no recollection of there ever being a competition for these things. Maybe I did when the game released and saw that it didn't have any bearing on a complete game experience when I was sizing it up. If it was required for the game I wouldn't have bought it at all. I'll be fine without it and I'm glad about that.

Still, it's a thing with online gaming and DLC I dispprove of and shake my fist at it.

39 chibi-robo! let's go, photo! - not a good day at work

Dear Readers,

A few days have passed, so some jobs came in again. All from K&M, J Bear, Clayra, and SGX.

K&M talked about the beaches in Nice and asked for ingredients to make ratatouille. I got a tomato and an aubergine, but the pepper I got was wrong. There were two different kinds of red peppers and I got the big bulky one, so I guess that was wrong. They were all sad.

Joshy Bear had the same mission and goal for me, to get 80% of the place clean. I pushed it too far and collapsed. Yeesh.

Clayra's Chibi-tots had the same hide and seek challenge for me. I got two of the attempts correct. 

SGX had the measuring test again and once again I was bad at it, only passing one of the attempts.

Not a good day for work! Oh well!

38 chibi-robo! let's go, photo! - drake looks for an evildoer in peaceful times

Dear Readers,

I went back on my freelance cleaning jobs. At the desk, Drake said he couldn't find any evildoers. He did see the smoglings, but noted they were scattered and disorganised. He said the world was at peace, but that was the problem. He asked me if he should go to Outer Space in order to seek evil. I said yes and he agreed sadly but started to make preparations. I hope he'll come back... it will be sad to see him leave.

I found one of Joshy Bear's dancers stuck to the back of the desk clock! Was he here last time I was here? Sneaky!

At the garage, the robot gave me another quiz. He asked for the name of the villain who first appeared in episode 3. I said it was Zader 8 and guessed correctly! Yay!

This time, the Chibi-tot was inside the precarious pipe bridge, looking as carefree as ever. Yeeks. I was still able to chat to it though.

37 chibi-robo! let's go, photo! - why is the distance test so freaking hard

Dear Readers,

I started the game with more jobs in my job mail. Maybe they replenish after every day?

I had jobs from K&M, Clayra, SGX and Laroque.

K&M talked about the sea and then asked me to fetch some salmon. I saw some other fish in the fridge but straight away noticed the familiar pinkness of salmon. I brought it to them and they were delighted.

Madame Clayra's Chibi-tots wanted to try a new game so I obliged. The new game was the same as the old one but now I had another bow-tied Chibi-tot to find. I had to make two guesses per round. I got the first level completely wrong but I got the other two completely correct. I earned a silver trophy! Woo!

I bought the Game Boy Silhouette (No.25) when I got back to the office.

SGX had another distance test for me. I got the first one wrong, the second one right barely, and failed the third one as well. Still, I got points and SGX was positive. This is a hard job though.

Laroque wanted more help with the smoglings invading his garden. He tried to swat them with his own paws but he was too stiff and slow for them. It was the same dig, trap and whack job from last time. I did very well here and completed it with 29 seconds left and over 30 Watts remaining. Woo! Got a bronze trophy too.

36 chibi-robo! let's go, photo! - exploring the secluded garden

Dear Readers,

I decided to explore the new area, the Secluded Garden.

I wandered around, scaring a butterfly and picking up sticks. I found one of Joshy Bear's dancers in a bucket.

Drake was surprised to meet me here on on patrol! He asked me if I wanted to take part in his quiz and I agreed to. He asked me if justice was "seigi" in Japanese! Wow! That must've been a unique localisation task. I looked it up and said yes. Then he asked if the opposite of Justice was Evil. I said yes. Then he asked if everyone had a sense of justice. I said yes. He gave me my result which was a fail! I had another chance so I said no to the last two answers. Fail again! He wouldn't let me take the quiz again sadly. I wonder which is yes and which is no...

I explored the garden more and picked up acorns and more sticks. It was true to its name alright as it was very secluded. It wasn't even proper outdoors. It was like a lean-to glasshouse. Some pots and other things kind of thrown around the place too.

I found 2 batteries here, though I don't now what I'll use them for.

Then there was that pot that turned out to be a tunnel to a way to climb to an upper area. Nice bit of exploring here, though I didn't see much else to do. Nothing that made me need two extra batteries anyway.

I revisited the garden until I met Laroque again. He wasn't in the fountain, he was just sitting in the garden enjoying the place. He asked me to count the dandelions and I found 6, telling him the number. He was happy. He also said he loved when it rained as it cleans him but didn't like when the ground got soggy.

It is a lovely little garden. It looks like the owner has the good sense to not caretake it to death. It doesn't look like it rains in here so I'm not sure what Laroque is talking about.

35 chibi-robo! let's go, photo! - a recipe for madame clayra

Dear Readers,

With the jobs done and new Silhouettes bought, I needed more Happy Points, so I wandered for more work to do, including the new garden area.

At the desk, I found a NostalDud, so I picked it up. Drake also asked me about having a nemesis again, so this time I said yes when he asked if he should find himself an adversary. I don't know if it's a good idea that he ends up tilting at windmills, but maybe something will unlock. Maybe he can help me with those smoglings in the garden. I found another NostalDud stuck to a wall.

At the garage I found another NostalDud under some dust.

I then printed Silhouette No.24. This unlocked a seventh page of Silhouettes:

No.25, a Game Boy

No.26, a GBA SP, which I already have from stamps(I think)

No.27, a GameCube

No.28, a Wii U Game Pad

It'll be fun taking pictures of these!

At the kitchen, I told K&M about Clayra's errand for a cake for a sweetheart. The mustard one said something about refusing to give up the ketchup one before they got on topic and said they needed to put their heads together on this one. I don't know who's whose sweetheart here, apart from the mustard one's jealous dedication.

I cleaned for a bit and asked them again. They came up with a choice for me and I chose Love Love Peach Cake. They gave me a chalkboard with writing on it for Madame Clayra.

I filled a stamp card and sent it away. I now had a choice so I asked for a surprise instead of a specific one.

I went back to the kitchen and K&M were still there instead of Clayra.

I then got a delivery and it was No.29, some kind of tall box with a slot near the bottom? Some kind of upside-down postbox?

I went back to the kitchen and Clayra was finally there. She was delighted with the recipe and gave me 5 Happy Points. Woo!

Lots going on. I'll talk about exploring the garden in the next post.

34 chibi-robo! let's go, photo! - finishing longer tasks with the extra battery

Dear Readers,

There were some jobs from K&M, J Bear and Drake, so I took them on. Should do better now with my extended battery.

K&M shared an amusing memory of their trip to Italy and asked me to fetch three ingredients for Bolognese Sauce. They didn't tell me what they were though. I fetched ground beef, an onion and a tomato and they were delighted! For getting the fifth thing from them correct I got a bronze trophy. Yay!

Joshy Bear gave me the same job and I was able to reach 80% cleanliness this time thanks to the new battery. I got 86% with 10 Watts remaining.

Drake gave me the same job and I was just as able to take it on. I didn't destroy the UFO so maybe I'll prioritise that next time.

I had enough Happy Points to buy No.21, 22 and 23, so that's what I did. I didn't take any pictures though.

33 chibi-robo! let's go, photo! - telly disappears!

Dear Readers,

When I got back to the Curator's Office after Laroque's job, Telly was nowhere to be seen and mysterious music played.

I found Telly on the shelf next to the printer, laying motionless. I found his chip on top of the printer. I set him up and he was awake again. He thanked me but had absolutely no explanation as to what happened.

What's going on?

32 chibi-robo! let's go, photo! - fighting smoglings for laroque

Dear Readers,

I got a new job from a new character in a new area! I went there with my new battery! Let's go!

I went to an area called the Secluded Garden. A character named Laroque, a lion head shaped water fountain was being harassed by these small round black things with what looked a bit like Guy Fawkes masks. They sprayed his favourite flower with soot-like dust and destroyed it. He burst from the wall, revealing his stone lion body and went after them. However, he could only move slightly before collapsing in front of the fountain.

When I arrived he was sitting in the water and he welcomed me. He called those black things Smoglings and asked me to remove them from his garden. I had to do a search but I do recall them from Chibi-Robo Park Patrol. I didn't finish that game because of the over-reliance on the touch screen. Maybe I'll go back to it someday.

Laroque asked me to dig a hole to drop the smoglings in, as using my Chibi-Blaster may harm his flowers. Drop them in, then give them a whack. I ran around an area, digging holes, letting them fall in and giving them a whack with the Chibi-Spoon when they fell in. I had 10 seconds remaining and less than 10 Watts remaining when I got them all!

Laroque was happy. He gave me some Happy Points and resumed his peaceful water fountaining.

31 chibi-robo! let's go, photo! - face on my egg

Dear Readers,

I used egg-shaped Silhouette Film to take a picture of an egg. The egg grew eyes and a tongue and munched on my head for a while! I jumped out of its mouth and took it back to the future as it growled and gave out to me.

Telly said to throw it into the exhibition transporter thingy quickly as it was getting rowdy. I'm glad how it turned out and it had a score of 78%. It is funny how sometimes these things grow a face.

30 chibi-robo! let's go, photo! - visiting the second exhibit room now filled

Dear Readers,

Mr Curator was showing us the magazine in which he and the gallery were featured. He said he never even heard of this magazine before and Telly told him it was a popular sub-culture magazine.

Telly wasn't too impressed with the photographs in the magazine as it looked like they didn't photograph Mr Curator completely, focusing mostly on the exhibits. Mr Curator was worried he'd become famous and lose his right to a private life. He laughed off the notion and Telly even added he'd still be able to walk down the street without being mobbed.

I visited the now filled exhibition room 2 and found Mr Curator reminiscing there. He talked about how he was hooked on NostalJunk from the start as a boy but few took it seriously back then. With the technology now, there are new possibilities. He was fulfilling his dream and commended me on my work helping him.

I looked at the exhibits. Mr Curator had commentary on each of them of course. With the toilet paper he wondered if there were different craftsmen for each one, even though they all looked the same.

The Pac-Man mug he said was a well-loved souvenir throughout the ages, even today. Good to hear mugs are still popular in the future and again I hope toilet paper still is. The mug had a stamp on it.

The rolling pin was brown like the shelf it was on, but the rolling pin I photographed was actually grey. I won't complain about it though. I do not want to retake that picture. Mr Curator said machines did the work of rolling pins now.

The t-shirt looked horrendous, like it was a t-shirt of a t-shirt. Not taking it again though. Mr. Curator talked about how people used it to express themselves with humour or with something quite bold.

The GBA SP had extra details filled in from my drawing, including the different markings and ports. Note the lack of headphone socket. The backlit version wasn't even released here. I always disliked these things about the SP and never bought one. Mr. Curator said pockets must've been quite small indeed, which gives me hope that pockets in the future are bigger.

I took the helicopter to the new exhibit and then back to the office. By the way, isn't it weird how I warp to some places and fly by helicopter to others? I think it's weird.

Back at the office, Telly and Mr. Curator congratulated me for achieving over 3,000 visitors. Mr. Curator gifted me with a bigger battery! Yes! At last! Now I can have up to 100 Watts!

The gallery's total visitor count is 5,244, which is nice! I also got new jobs, including one from a new person involving gardening. Maybe a new area? We'll see next time.

29 chibi-robo! let's go, photo! - taking photos of toilet paper, glove, shopping bag, pac-man mug, slipper, rolling pin, t-shirt and game boy advance sp

Dear Readers,

I had a lot of Silhouette Film at this point, so I decided to photograph as much as I could identify.

I picked No.05 and took a picture of a roll of toilet paper. It said it was paper roll so I was on the right track! When I transported to the past I came out of the centre of it before taking it back. I hope there is toilet paper in the future...

I picked No.12 and found a glove to photograph. When I warped to the past I appeared underneath the glove, as if I was slapped down by it. When I took it back however, it appeared as a jigsaw piece and faded away. Mr. Curator said it failed and in this case it was a NostalDud. Funny. I then noticed that it used up the film and I'd have to buy another one! Happy Points down the drain! Funny but also cruel!

I picked No.15 and found a Penney's bag I had lying around. When I went back to the past I came out of the bag. Unfortunately this also turned out to be a dud!

Then I picked No.16, using my Pac-Man mug this time. I got it 100% perfect and it wasn't a dud! Yay! I went back to the past and appeared underneath it. I flipped it out before taking it back. I felt like telling myself to be careful.

Then I picked No.18, using my own slipper. I folded it down to make it look more like the silhouette and got 80%, but it came back as a dud as well sadly. I appear inside the slipper when I go to the past.

Then I picked No.20, the rolling pin. I got 73% and appeared underneath it and it came out as an actual rolling pin, though it didn't look the same. Hard to know what's correct.

I picked No.08, the t-shirt. This was incredibly frustrating as my t-shirts are bigger than what the silhouette asks for. I ended up having to fold it in so many ways and caught some of the room in the frame. It looked terrible but I got 83% and it wasn't a dud according to the game. I didn't argue, I shoved it into the exhibit and got it over with.

I then used the GBA SP one, taking pictures of the handheld on Google images because I don't have one. None of them worked so I ended up drawing the silhouette out in MS Paint, which itself was frustrating but I got it 98% and non-dud. It went into the exhibit. I never liked the GBA SP apart from the flip lid thing.

With that last photo, I filled the second exhibit room and Mr. Curator came into the room all excited and holding a magazine where he and the gallery were featured. Hooray!

28 chibi-robo! let's go, photo! - winning bronze in hide and seek

Dear Readers,

There were job listings from K&M, SGX and Clayra, so I took them on.

K&M spoke of the director's cut of a film and its significance, praising each other's culturedness. They asked me to fetch a cut lemon from the fridge which was another very easy task! I'm beginning to wonder why they gave me the harder ones first.

K&M's reactions are a little weird when I bring them the thing they want. There's this purple swirly thing in the background that feels like it implies they're horrified but they react that way no matter what. I got them their cut lemon and they were pleased.

SGX wanted to do another distance test. Ugh... I got the first two attempts correct so I was quite pleased! The third one was a big long distance and I didn't manage to do so well there. Still, glad I passed.

Clayra had the same hide and seek job for me again. This time I was better prepared to complete all the rounds, including the one where the odd one out was the one without a bow tie.

When I finished, the Chibi-tots told me something they overheard from Clayra. She said "ooh, he's so wishy-washy! Must I make the first move?' Well, that's what she says... and a couple of other things I didn't note or could make sense of straight away.

I went back to the office and bought Silhouette No.19, the pique cap and No.20, the rolling pin. I found out that even though I already had the rolling pin printed from the stamps, I had to buy it from the catalogue anyway to unlock the new page, which is kind of flawed, but I guess the stamps win me another chance of taking a good photo.

The new page of Silhouettes were mostly boxy kind of shapes but I couldn't tell what they were exactly. There was also the eye shape I got from stamps earlier, but of course, I'll have to buy that again. Oh well.

27 chibi-robo! let's go, photo! - napping bear and alien in the microwave

Dear Readers,

I went back to the desk to do more free-roam cleaning.

The robot asked me another trivia question, the title of episode eleven of Geotron X. I said it was The Demise of Zader 8 and it was correct! Yay! I'm back winning!

I returned to losing when I ran out of battery before I could pick up the battery, so all that was for naught. Oh well.

I went back and cleaned the whole place up.

Then I went to the garage. No one was here but I found Joshy Bear sleeping in the drawers of the toolbox. He said he was on downtime without his backup dancers. Lots to vacuum here so I did that before going back to the office.

I filled a stamp card again so I sent that off.

Then I headed for the kitchen. I found Miss Clayra in the microwave slowly turning around! She was okay though. She asked me to ask K&M for a cake recipe for your sweetheart. I also found one of J Bear's backup dancers near the battery. Quite a bit going on! On top of that, the bin gave me an extra two stamps! She said a nice stamp for a nice robot. How kind!

I returned to the office and a package came in. It had Silhouette No.26, which looked like a Game Boy Advance SP opened up. It was also green tinted unlike the other pieces of film. I bought Silhouette No.18, the slipper.

26 chibi-robo! let's go, photo! - choosing manly food and shooting ufo

Dear Readers,

I had more jobs from K&M and Drake, so I took them on.

First was K&M. They talked about manliness and how it was pathetic if a man saw a pretty girl he didn't speak to and how a man should be daring enough to express his feelings. Very interesting piece of advice!

They brought the conversation back to food by saying men liked to eat meat, so this time they wanted me to fetch chicken from the fridge. This was much more straightforward than the one about the English Breakfast! There wasn't even an access to the upper shelf or a basket! The chicken was right there in front of me too! There was other stuff like the beef steak and what looked like Wagyu beef steak. I would've much preferred those myself but they wanted chicken so I got them chicken. They were very pleased.

I went back to the office and took on Drake's job, another blaster mission. It was pretty much the same as last time. I got a score over 60 and there was a UFO near the end. I shot it but it didn't count as I had to shoot it a few times. I was low on battery though.

I now had enough Happy Points for the Ping Pong bat Silhouette so I bought that.

25 chibi-robo! let's go, photo! - hide and seek with miss clayra's chibi-tots

Dear Readers,

The next new job in the list was from another new character named Miss Clayra. She taught at the Chibi-tot Kindergarten at the Sunny Kitchen and the job was simply to visit and play.

Miss Clayra was also a bus driver. She drove this strange flying schoolbus full of Chibi-tots and she was like some kind of pink slug alien thing who dressed well with matching clothes and hat. She landed in the kitchen and parked her schoolbus on a shelf overlooking the kitchen. I warped in beside her as she was unloading the Chibi-tots. She was delighted I was here to play with them. She didn't say it too loudly but she wanted a bit of peace.

The Chibi-tots wanted to play hide and seek of course! Every Chibi-tot I've met so far loved hiding in places for me to find them and these ones were no different.

The music that played here was really nice! It was kind of like jazzy music you'd see in an old Peanuts cartoon.

One of the Chibi-tots had a bow tie and seemed to be the leader. He said they were going to hide behind food and I had to guess where he was hiding.

They rushed between three fruits and I had to guess where the bow-tied one was hiding. I got the first two rounds right but not the third one, where everyone else had a bow-tie that time. I wasn't quite prepared for that.

I passed the job at least. The bow-tied Chibi-tot asked me how it felt being an average robot and I gave an "X" gesture. He wasn't impressed.

I returned to the office and bought Silhouette No.16, a coffee mug. This unlocked a new page of Silhouettes.

No.17, a ping pong paddle

No.18, a slipper without a back

No.19, a pique cap

No.20, the rolling pin I already obtained from stamps

I wonder if I only need to buy the first three to unlock a new Silhouette page after this? We'll see.

24 chibi-robo! let's go, photo! - cleaning for joshy bear, a very nice bear

Dear Readers,

I took a look at the museum's new visitor counter and it said we had 2,653 visitors! Telly advised me to look for more NostalJunk as it was all about the novelty value.

Some new Job Mails came in from new characters as well as ones I knew already. The news ones were from J Bear and Clayra. I chose the Joshy Bear one and this was about cleaning the Latenight Garage with the Vacuum Cleaner and Toothbrush.

Joshy Bear put on a big song and dance routine when I arrived. He was a bear shaped sponge and scrubber and he needed some help from a "cleaning genius" like me. Nice bit of charm he's turning on. He asked me of I was wondering why a star like him would need a cleaner and I said no. He thanked me and said he was still starting out his showbiz career. He asked me to pick up rubbish, vacuum and use a new tool, a toothbrush for cleaning stains. He said to aim to get the room 80% clean, but not to sweat it if I was running low on battery and to bring the dust bag to him for emptying.

He went cleaning as well by doing a kind of break dance and scrubbing in just one place. There was groovy music playing and it was quite fun being around him. He was a very easy-going client to work for. It was funny the way he changed the dust bag. He just threw my one away and puke/printed another one out his mouth.

Unfortunately, I was only able to get 46% of the room cleaned before I had to quit from low battery, but he was nice about it.

A groovy tune played when using the toothbrush, as if to convey there was some kind of joy in cleaning. 

23 chibi-robo! let's go, photo! - taking a photo of pot noodle beef & tomato flavour

Dear Readers,

It's been a while but I took another photograph, using Silhouette No.14, the Instant noodles. I used a Pot Noodle, Beef & Tomato flavour for it.

When I took the picture, the flap opened and revealed lots of colourful bits of food inside. Pot Noodle doesn't quite have that much, but it's still delicious!

I now had 5 exhibits, so Telly told me a new exhibit was opened by Mr. Curator! He arrived and was delighted with our hard work, which inspired him to expand to the new exhibit. He did a fist bump thing with Telly, but he was so but he used his finger. He announced the museum was open for visitors and revealed a visitor counter on the wall!

I decided to visit the exhibit and I found Mr. Curator there. He was sad with the low number of visitors, even though it just opened. He was worried people would forget about the NostalJunk. Then he said he was only joking, saying he wasn't worried at all since we had so much on display already.

I looked at the Pot Noodle in the exhibit and the narrator said it was a seafood flavour, which was kind of funny. I also found a stamp on the lid when I rotated it.

I examined the other displays for stamps and the disc had one. After that I looked at the new empty exhibit room before returning to the curator's office.

22 chibi-robo! let's go, photo! - there is no pleasing the fussy mustard bottle

Dear Readers,

I bought No.15, the shopping bag and got back to cleaning.

I had another chance to answer K&M's question about going somewhere on holiday. I chose the only remaining answer, hoping it wouldn't upset the mustard one this time. I chose the one about the aurora. Unfortunately, this one upset him too. It's a pity his character ended up being a bottle of mustard...

21 chibi-robo! let's go, photo! - everywhere seems to get dirtier now

Dear Readers,

Back to cleaning. I talked to Drake and he said people have been responding to him better since he took my advice about kindness and everything. He was happy.

The robot gave me another trivia question. This time it was who or what got slimed by a jelly monster in episode five. I said it was Professor Boffin's luxury car as that seemed different from the others. This was the first time I got it wrong! He told me to try again but I didn't have any more trivia chances on this trip. Next time.

I got to more cleaning and I was now reaching 100% capacity in the dust bag regularly. It's no achievement anymore. I also ran out of battery just a tiny bit away from the socket when I got back, but thankfully none of my progress was gone since I already warped back.

20 chibi-robo! let's go, photo! - succeeding in the jobs finally

Dear Readers,

I had another chance to fetch ingredients for a Full English Breakfast and it was third time lucky as I brought the correct ones!

The full bacon, the egg and the sausages were what was needed. They were delighted and gave me enough Happy Points for me to buy more Silhouette Film. I bought No.13, the egg.

I also had another shot at the distance test job from the robot. I actually passed this time but just barely! I got the first measurement, missed the second one completely, and barely scraped a pass on the third. I got Happy Points but not enough to buy more film, so I went to work again at the desk.

I answered more of the robot's trivia. I said "Billy Wilson" to his question and got it correct. I had a lot to clean in this area and earned enough to buy No.14, the noodle cup.

19 chibi-robo! let's go, photo! - more cleaning at the desk

Dear Readers,

I went back to the desk and talked to Drake. He asked me if it seemed like he considered my point of view. I said yes and he was again inspired, calling me a gentleman and said he was inspired by my example.

I pressed the camera button a few times and more pictures started appearing! One was of Drake and another was of a UFO. Interesting. Not sure what to do with them though.

On another trip, the robot asked me more trivia, this time being the title of episode 8 of Geotron X. I said it was A Sinister Trap and it was correct! That was obvious but it was fun.

I filled another stamp card and got a rolllin pin shaped Silhouette, No.20.

I also let enough dust build up that I hoovered to max out the bag's capacity! The bin was finally satisfied but didn't seem to give any extra rewards.  11 Happy Points was good though.

I had enough to buy the hand Silhouette (No.12) and unlock a new page of Silhouettes.

The new ones were:

No.13 an Egg

No.14 Cup Noodle container

No.15 Shopping Bag

No.16 Cup

All nice recognisable shapes this time!

18 chibi-robo! let's go, photo! - sometimes stamps are on trash

Dear Readers,

I went back to the garage and took the robot's quiz again. This time he asked for the title of episode fifteen of Geotron X. I said it was ZaderWorld and it was correct! Wondering now if I'm just lucky or are all the answers correct no matter what I choose?

Lots of dirt to clean up here too. Many many pieces of litter. One even had a stamp on it, which was nice!

There was so much dust the bag reached 99% capacity! Not sure how, but that was nice. The bin still wasn't satisfied though.

17 chibi-robo! let's go, photo! - offending mostardin again

Dear Readers,

K&M asked again for suggestions on their trip. I offended Mostardin again by suggesting the Thousand Islands. When he apologised later I tried giving the "X" sign to see if he reacted differently and he didn't.

The kitchen was noticeably dirtier. I even had 96% of the dustbag full. The bin still asked for more though.

I was able to buy another Silhouette so I bought No.11, the rounded rectangle.

I made a few more trips to the kitchen until it was clean. Then I tried another area again.

16 chibi-robo! let's go, photo! - messing up the english breakfast again

Dear Readers,

Some jobs popped up so I took them on.

First was from K&M. I tried the Full English breakfast one again and I got it wrong again when I brought back sausages, bacon and a half orange. They gave a clue this time though and said it was eggs, sausages and full cut bacon, only with some letters in those words missing to keep me guessing.

The job went missing from the list. I'll have to wait until it comes back later I suppose.

I took on Drake's Justice Training job. It was another shooting one but more challenging, called Technical Mode.

This time the balloons broke into smaller balloons and there was another round where balloons and clay targets were both involved. I matched the quota of 55 just barely but I got it! Lots of Happy Points as reward too!

I bought Silhouette No.10, the strange rectangular shape with the top corners cut off.

15 chibi-robo! let's go, photo! - the battery high above the kitchen

Dear Readers,

I tried taking a picture of the t-shirt silhouette, but I couldn't get the angle right as my t-shirts are so big. I'll try again later.

I went to the Sunny Kitchen to see how the area changes on different trips there. I hoovered which took most of the battery, but I saved up for the carton silhouette (No.09)

I chatted with the K&M chefs and they were discussing taking a trip. They asked for a suggestion and I chose some Worcestershire place. The mustard one got offended. Later on, he apologised and I accepted. They talked about going to New York.

I found the battery in this area by climbing up the hanging utensils and reaching a far corner high up above the kitchen. Chibi-Tot hides here too sometimes. Not much else to it though.

Some more jobs popped up so I tried those out.

14 chibi-robo! let's go, photo! - filling up the stamp card

Dear Readers,

I went to the garage again and again had very little to do besides get the stamp and the Chibi-Tot. The stamp was on the top shelf again and the Chibi-Tot was near the battery.

When I got back to recharge, the prize film from filling my stamp card before the last trip arrived! I opened it up and it was in the shape of an eye. Interesting. I wondered if it wanted to take a picture of my eye but the camera still faced outwards so probably not. Why would an eye be NostalJunk anyway? Haha.

13 chibi-robo! let's go, photo! - revisiting the latenight garage

Dear Readers,

I decided to revisit the Latenight Garage over and over to see what changes take place.

The robot's question this time was about Geotron X's special attack from episode two and I said it was Geotron Thunder, which was correct! It sounded like the most correct one. There was a stamp behind the toolbox and that was that. The robot said tools made him feel positive.

I went back to recharge and had enough Happy Points for another film, so I bought the last new one that was shaped like a t-shirt, No.08. This unlocked more Silhouettes which were a drink carton, a rectangle with the top corners folded in, some kind of pill or Tic-Tac, and a glove. Some were cheaper too. Interesting.

I went back to the garage and there was a lot of dust to hoover up and rubbish to pick up. I tried to get it all and to organise it as best I could with getting the battery and everything but I couldn't hoover up the final patch of dust. When I returned to recharge I was warped on the far side of the desk and I collapsed from running out of battery when I tried to get back! I can see how this game can get tricky now!

I recharged and returned. Very little to do but I found a stamp on the top shelf.

I did manage to fill up a stamp card though! I sent it off but didn't get anything back yet.

12 chibi-robo! let's go, photo! - revisiting the starfall desk to observe changes

Dear Readers,

I went back to the Starfall Desk. The robot was here again and he said factories made him feel sleepy for some reason. I just did some chores before going back to recharge.

I went back and Drake was here instead. He said he was forgetting things lately and asked me if he was losing his sense of justice. I said no and he said I was too kind and he strived to be more kind from now on. Aw!

I climbed to the top shelf for the first time before doing any chores and found a battery up there. I also dropped down onto the lamp to find Chibi-Tot. Then I found a stamp behind the printer before returning to recharge. Got a good amount done.

I returned to the area and the robot was there again. He said stationery made him feel excited for some reason. I explored around. There wasn't anything to clean up at all. Chibi-Tot was in the drawer beneath the calendar and there was another stamp behind the printer. I wonder if there are different phases to different places or is it all random?

I went back there one more time and Drake was there. There was a stamp on the wall in the top shelf area and Chibi-Tot was using books to hide on the second shelf. Again, nothing to clean.

I'm getting more used to the ins and outs of the routine of the levels. I'll figure it out as I keep going.

11 chibi-robo! let's go, photo! - failing with the tape again

Dear Readers,

I took on the Distance Test job from SGX. I failed this one completely. I just can't get a sense of measurement at this weird scale without looking at the numbers and they don't let you look at them.

I failed all the jobs in this set so I only got 2 happy points.

I had to go back exploring. I met SGX again in the Starfall Desk. He gave me another quiz question, the name of a robot when it got upgraded in episode 10. I said it was Super robot thingy x and he said it was correct. Good guess!

Next I tried to fill the dustbag without picking up any rubbish. Telly still told me to empty the dustbag before going back to him. That means I can't build it up between recharges. I don't think I'll ever get it to 100% capacity... and the bin will always give out about the bag having space for more.

It seems this is how the game goes, doing little paid jobs and then doing my side hustle cleaning up dust and litter in the same places until I can afford to buy film. I wonder if I can take on the jobs again, since they disappear from the list.

10 chibi-robo! let's go, photo! - full english breakfast job

 Dear Readers,

For Film No.07 I chose a random game disc I had nearby, which was New Super Luigi U for the Nintendo Wii U. I popped in through the hole in the centre and picked it up, taking it back to the future.

I looked at it in the exhibit and it came up as "CD" and Mr. Curator described them as being obsolete and people started using them as drink coasters.

After I was finished, more job mails came in, one from K&M, one from SGX. I took the one from K&M and went to the Sunny Kitchen, where they were making a reference to Breakfast at Tiffany's. They decided to make a Full English Breakfast! There's the European localisation at play right there!

I had to get three ingredients. I brought back an egg, pork belly and a packet of sausage like things. They were not happy with it and said the boiled egg was wrong. That wasn't boiled, it was fresh from the fridge! Maybe the localisation isn't so good after all... I mean the whole thing relied on guesswork and there was nothing else in the fridge that matched what they wanted.

9 chibi-robo! let's go, photo! - cleaning up at starfall desk

Dear Readers,

I returned to Starfall Desk. This time the robot was here instead of Drake. I answered his quiz.

He asked the title of episode thirteen and I said it was the Nightmare Reawakens, which was correct. Woo! I figured, since it was thirteen.

I did my tiny bit of cleaning, ran short on my tiny battery, went to the bin with my tiny bit of rubbish. I wonder if it's possible to reach 100% capacity in the dust bag? It doesn't seem possible somehow.

I returned after recharging and Drake was here again, planning his patrolling schedule. I found a stamp on the sticky tape dispenser. I hoovered up some more.

I returned after recharging again and found a stamp on a book. I stepped on the camera button and it printed a picture of some kind of telescope in the room? Afterwards, I climbed to the next shelf and didn't find much, but I did see Chibi-Tot on top of the lamp.

I returned, where Telly told me I had enough points for the next film. No.07 looked like a media disc like a CD or DVD, so I bought it. I'll think about what disc to photograph next time.

8 chibi-robo! let's go, photo! - cleaning up in the sunny kitchen in many small trips

Dear Readers,

I explored the Sunny Kitchen some more. I didn't explore the other side of the sink yet.

I found some more stuff to vacuum and pick up and a microwave, which opens from the top like an oven door, which is weird. I've only known microwaves to open from the side like a regular door. There was a Chibi-Tot in the corner to the side of it.

On my next trip I climbed to the window sill. I found Chibi-Tot under some leaning books.

On my next trip after that I cleaned up 3 stains and barely made it back. 

Very poor battery life and not much to do adventure wise. I guess it's meant to be a very small game, earning bits here and there and buy some film for photographs.

7 chibi-robo! let's go, photo! - exploring the three areas as a free robot

Dear Readers,

I headed to the Sunny Kitchen where I met the ketchup and mustard chefs. They were thinking up recipes and just had a little chat with me. That was it. There was some rubbish and dust to wipe up so I took care of that. There was a bin here as well on top of the electric hob. Kinda dangerous.

I only stayed a little while because I had to recharge again. Hopefully I can upgrade my battery at some point like in the other games.

I then headed to the Starfall Desk. Drake asked if he should look for a nemesis like the heroes on TV. I said no and he thought maybe that was a good idea after all, to just focus on patrolling and keeping the peace. I gathered some rubbish, put it in the bin and headed back to the office.

I had enough to buy more film so I bought No.05., some kind of cylinder shape. I didn't know what to photograph.

I continued exploring and went back to Latenight Garage. That weird thing with the bedpan hit me on the head happened for no reason. I explored as much as I could and found a Chibi-Tot behind rolls of duct tape and a stamp on an object at the corner of the table. I found a battery that lets me continue for longer, though I had to cross a treacherous narrow platform with a turn to get to it. I was pleased with that tiny bit more exploration I was able to do.

I returned and recharged, then came back to this area. I explored it more, reaching the top shelf and finding another Chibi-Tot. There was nowhere else to go so I just decided to do the robot's quiz for the heck of it. He asked what the animators did on episode 16 and I said they gave it their all. It was correct and he gave me 3 happy points. He said there was a time when the kids loved him and then he thought those kids must be adults now. That's kind of sad.

I printed out Silhouette No.06, which looks like a fast food drink cup. I'll have to remember to take a picture of one next time I go to a fast food place!

6 chibi-robo! let's go, photo! - taking pictures of my uncle's book and a coca-cola can

Dear Readers,

I finished all my jobs, so I decided to take more Silhouette Photos for the exhibit.

I had no idea what No.02 was supposed to be. A box with two dots in the middle like eyes or something? I skipped for now.

No.03 was shaped like a book or a magazine or something. I used a book my uncle wrote and it was indeed a book that the game wanted! It was cool seeing my uncle's book in the game and put into an exhibit, described as a precious tome! The game just wanted a book of course, but it was lovely seeing my uncle's book there.

No.04 was a soda can. I used a Coca-Cola can. I couldn't get it 100% but it was funny when it grew a face and a butt! It got cheeky with me so I ran around it until it got dizzy and fell out by itself. I picked it up and put it in the exhibit. Telly wondered if this strange creature was really a Nostaljunk. It was a nice surprise to see it turn into a character!

I didn't have enough for more film and there were no more jobs, so I went exploring. There was a printer nearby and that was it for this area. I headed for the Sunny Kitchen.

5 chibi-robo! let's go, photo! - gyro duck hunt style job with drake redcrest

Dear Readers,

I decided to keep doing jobs for now and took on the Justice Training from Space Hunter Drake Redcrest! I remember him well from the first game! I took the job and warped to the Starfall Desk.

On arriving, Drake made a dramatic entrance and asked me to hit 20 moving targets with my newly acquired Chibi-Blaster, which came into my possession the moment I arrived. I had the option of using the gyro controls so I took it! Been ages since I used the 3DS gyro :) 

I didn't get a perfect score but I got 69, which is a nice score! There were two phases, rising balloons and clay targets, so yeah it was kinda like Duck Hunt. It helped that I was using a swivel chair to move around too! I got a bronze trophy.

After finishing, I went straight back onto the PC, but Telly advised me to recharge, so I did. Very helpful of him.

I printed out the last Silhouette Film, a soda can. This unlocked a new page of Silhouette Film.

4 chibi-robo! let's go, photo! - sous-chef job gathering pork belly

Dear Readers,

I decided to explore the Latenight Garage a bit more. I couldn't do all that much since my battery only goes up to 50 and it depletes fairly quickly.

I found a tiny stamp and some rubbish. I forgot to mention the bin last time. She has a nice voice and she thanks me for my waste. Very polite machine!

I showed Mr. Curator the tiny stamp I found. He said they were made by the NostalJunk Society and if I collected enough of them and mail them in, I could earn a special Silhouette Film copy. Nice! He gave me a stamp book to fill and showed me where the mail box was.

Next I decided to do another job. This one was from K&M and was titled Go Fetch, Sous-Chef. K&M stood for Ketschbourg and Mostardin and it took place in the Sunny Kitchen. I took the job and warped there.

The two chefs were busy fetching ingredients and were expecting me. They were nice, had funny French accents and asked me to get them pork belly from the fridge.

The food in the fridge wasn't labelled because it was a guessing challenge. There were a few cuts of meat in there but I picked the one that looked like slices of streaky bacon could be cut from it. It was correct and the chefs were delighted with me! I got full points and success on this.  It was cool and a little weird to see them go cooking and then squirt ketchup and mustard out the tops of their heads, but it was cool.

I had enough Happy Points to buy another Silhouette Film Print, so I got one. I think I'll continue doing the jobs for now.

3 chibi-robo! let's go, photo! - vacuuming in the garage

Dear Readers,

The garage area was unlocked and I decided to go there via the area map. Telly gave me a vacuum cleaner and told me to clean stuff up. Not part of a job or anything, just to go do vacuuming. All part of being a Chibi-Robo.

A little robot came up to me and introduced itself as a Chibi-tot. He looked up to me and wanted to see my cleaning abilities. I cleaned up a bit and he was pleased. He said he wanted to be like me someday. Cute kid.

The robot from last time was here too and gave me a quiz based on a TV show within the game. No way I could've known the answer! I'll come back to him later.

2 chibi-robo! let's go, photo! - exhibition room and first job

Dear Readers,

I had a huge amount of trouble starting this new series of blog posts. The title of the game has a comma in it and the labels are separated by commas, so I accidentally gave this two labels, them being "Chibi-Robo! Let's Go" and "Photo!".

Anyway, I digress.

I do like the title generally though because it rhymes in the same way "Come on Barbie, let's go party" does. But I digress again.

I met Mr. Curator in the Exhibition room. He was doing the thing with his fingers that artists do when they visualise a scene. He was praising the very green thing I took as my first photo. Seriously I don't know what's going on. Maybe it was because I was playing in low lighting conditions. He showed me the button in front of the exhibit, which explained that badges were something a fan of a band used to stick on their clothes to show their devotion. It's a lovely idea. If only it wasn't green or a 2 Euro Coin. That doesn't sound like a very rockin' band!

Afterwards he left and I left too via the helipad. I don't know where he went but I went back to Telly. He wanted to show me more stuff on the PC.

By the way I have a jump in this game, which is a little weird. I didn't have one in the first game.

Telly taught me about Happy Points, which I obtain by doing Jobs for people. I can then use these points for buying more Silhouette Film. He said he took the liberty of getting me some Job Mails I can do for these points. I don't remember consenting to these jobs! :(

I picked the first one, titled Distance Test. A robot named Super Geotron X said he prepared a test for me to see how accurate a robot I was. This was located in the Latenight Garage. The moment I clicked on the Take Job button I was teleported to the garage straight away! Yikes.

Super Geotron X made a dramatic entrance introducing himself. He was a bit bigger than myself. He wanted to see my measurement guessing abilities by giving me a roll of tape and pulling it to however long he wanted me to bring it to. This was tricky as I didn't have a feel for the measurements in the game. I only got one of his guesses correct so he gave me 10 Happy Points.

I warped back to Telly, but not in the exact spot. The Home Portal needed recalibrating.

1 chibi-robo! let's go, photo! - my first photo

Dear Readers,

I've been itching to give this game a proper go. It's called Chibi-Robo! Photo Finder in the U.S. I've still got Zip Lash on the backlog for a long time but I will get back to that someday.

I am Chibi-Robo! I open my eyes in a dark place and head toward the red light. Before all this I turned on SpotPass for this game, though I don't know what good it'll be nowadays. The red light happens to be a button, which makes me fall through a trapdoor when I press it.

Meanwhile, my assistant, which looks like an anthropomorphized smartphone wonders where I am. He's talking with an old man who tells him no need to fret. I drop down on his beret covered head and onto the desk next to the smartphone critter. Apparently, the home portal needed to be configured. His name was Mr. Curator and he was delighted I showed up at all.

He announced his plan to open up a NostalJunk museum and I was the only one who could help him. He showed me something called Silhouette Film and gave it to me, telling me I'll be using this to capture stuff for exhibits. The smartphone then introduced himself as Telly, which is a bit confusing as my assistant was an actual telly in the original game. He showed me a special PC laptop, which he called the Chibi-Robo Portal Console, or Chibi-PC for short. He then told me to step on the pad and showed me how to use it.

It's cute the way I step left and right to navigate my way around the Chibi-PC! The 3DS camera's viewfinder came up and I chose the film with the circle shape on it. I decided to take a picture of a 2 Euro coin to fit the shape. Telly then transported me into the past to cut the shape out of the photo in the form of a badge and bring it back to him. So it sounds like this game takes place in the future of whenever and wherever now is! He also took a keepsake photo, whatever that is. After this, I put the badge in the exhibition machine. For some reason the photo came out green? I'm not sure what's going on.

Mr Curator was delighted and went to the exhibition room. Telly said I could go there via the Chibi-Copter, which he pilots himself, and taught me how to charge myself to keep my Watts up. After recharging, I went to the Exhibition Room after Mr Curator.

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.

40 steamworld dig 2 - navigating the grand lava river

Dear Readers,

The Device of Disaster in Yarrow was now open to take care of, so I went in there and smashed it. Another earthquake happened. I resolved to ask Rusty to explain himself when I find him.

I went back to town and upgraded the lamp to the Sol Invictus. I tried out the Eye for Weakness as well.

Now to warp to the Temple Bowels and wow it's been a while since I was here. I flew off to the right and hookshotted when I needed rest. I made my way past obstacles and fire golems. Eventually I came to a big drop down to a warp point at The Grand Lava River.

This river I had to fly across and attach to blocks whenever I could to rest. I eventually found a cave called the Infernal Crates. A puzzle oriented cave where I had to turn the conveyor belts on and off to ensure a safe path for crates to reach the pressure switches to open the way forward. I had to explore every inch of the place as there was a sneaky hidden tunnel that lead to another puzzle for an artifact. I solved the rest and grabbed the cog and left.

The river got more dangerous when cultists started showing up. I was able to handle them and they helped open the path ahead too with their spears when they tried to get at me. I continued until I reached the end of the river and there was another big long drop down to the next warp point called the Basement Entrance.

I headed back to town to cash in and decided to upgrade the water tank to the Nautilus II. I wanted to install the Moisture Vaporator, which constantly replenishes my water supply. Don't wanna be stuck for it anymore!

39 steamworld dig 2 - clearing out the mosquito minefield

Dear Readers,

Beyond the Mosquito Minefield warp point was a lot of digging and a ton of resources! I gathered all I could and went back and forth to town in order to cash in.

There were so many of those pink flying things I was able to shoot them with the hook shot and level up to 14, which unlocked a lot more stuff to buy in town.

I decided to upgrade the backpack again to the Bag-Avad Get'a because I wanted the Yuppie ki-yay mod for the 30% increase on cash ins. I didn't need to use cogs for it either so that was nice.

I went back to the minefield and it was vast and full of resources. I grabbed everything I could and hookshotted many of those pink flying things out of the way. It was pretty fun to just root around like this. A passage on the left led to an artifact too. 

It had to come to an end when I reached the bottom where there were green pools. To the right of them I found a passage underneath that led to the quest marker cave.

38 steamworld dig 2 - obtaining the ramjet vigor

Dear Readers,

After doing the Lime Loop I dug a little further to find the Aeronaut's Station. It was one of those places where there was a barrier right after it so I had to do this cave in order to progress.

I navigated the tunnels until I found a new ability, the Ramjet Vigor! With this I was now able to fly through some blocks as well as defeat enemies just by flying! This was very handy to get back out and to explore more near the entrance for more cogs.

I found another tunnel that led to the other side of the obstacle outside and cleared it. Then I came to the Mosquito Minefield warp point and went back to town.

I decided to upgrade the backpack to the Mammoth Pack.

37 steamworld dig 2 - exploring lime loop

Dear Readers,

I decided to explore the tunnel in Yarrow called Lime Loop.

This level was just one screen! However, it looped and wrapped around just like in an early NES game like Balloon Fight or something. I had to press a switch and find a secret tunnel that acted as a short cut so I could make the door in time. Then after getting the cog I had to uncover the passage to the right in order to get the artifact. Nice and simple. Good to have these now and again.

36 steamworld dig 2 - exploring bushwhack beehive

Dear Readers,

Bushwhack Beehive was the name of the next cave. I burrowed down to it from the Mushroom Pond. I started seeing acidic enemies that flew around now.

Inside the Bushwhack Beehive were a lot of these flying enemies. I collected everything I could in there but there were these dirt blocks that were too high to reach. I tried hitting the acid bees towards them but I kept failing as the blocks were just too out of reach and the bees didn't fly near them. Then I found a bee that flew diagonally. I waited patiently for it to make its way between me and the blocks and it took ages but I got it eventually, revealing another artifact. 

That was really difficult and slow to do! I know there's a better way, but I had to be level 14 before I could equip an upgrade to allow me to shoot Pressure Bombs in mid air! I could definitely come back and grind. Seems like an easy grinding spot.

I went back to town and bought Clifford's blueprint, which allows me to shoot three grenades at once and it only uses one bar of water. Seems nice enough.

I went back into the mine and dug around a lot. I cashed it all in and bought a Barren North Pickaxe. This made digging the blocks a lot easier and faster. I found a cave called the Lime Loop. Will explore next time. I did find a cog to the right of the entrance by diving into the green goo and going into the out of reach spot. That upgrade for brief resistance was handy after all.

35 steamworld dig 2 - exploring mushi mushi snuggery

Dear Readers,

I dug deeper to a cave called Mushi Mushi Snuggery. It was very dangerous with all the acid drops and everything, but thankfully I'm now able to defeat the snails with two hits of my pickaxe.

Above the cave door there was a cog surrounded by bouncy jellyfish and the bad jellyfish that shoot at you. I clung onto it with the hook shot and lured the jellyfish to melt the dirt obstacle so I could collect it.

Inside the cave was a treacherous path with those deadly jellyfish shooter things. I had to navigate around carefully and lure them to shoot and reveal treasures.

I got everything there, then dug down further to another warp point called Mushroom Pond. After this I went back to town. I cashed in and bought the Full Moon armour.

34 steamworld dig 2 - jet packing around hodge-podge hang

Dear Readers,

I dug a little deeper in Yarrow and found a cave named Hodge-Podge Hang.

This cave was pretty wide open with precarious platforming. Thankfully I had the jet pack and I was able to explore well enough. The acid bombs melted the platforms too so it wasn't easy to hold on to them for very long. There wasn't a lot to explore, just wide open space and a bottomless pit. I found secrets by flying under to the right and going up the right wall and going all the way to the top left of the area.

Just a short session today so I went back to town and I had enough artifacts for a new blueprint. It was for an attachment that dealt more damage against enemies and I equipped it. It'll be handy for those dangerous snails.

33 steamworld dig 2 - passing through leaky lodge

Dear Readers,

The cave below the acid swamp looked like it joined with the one below the impassable wall, so I went inside. This place was called the Leaky Lodge.

There was a lot of dangerous stuff leaking alright and I had to navigate all the way around it. Had to be careful of those snails as well. I heard a cog rattling at one point and I had to pause and look very carefully but I found a narrow passage to dig through to get it. There was a big drop with lots of snails at the bottom. I ran out of grenades to shoot at them so I had to take them out carefully with my pickaxe. After this was the cave I saw under the wall so yes, they connected.

I dug a bit more and found acid bombs that exploded and made everything melt around them. Very dangerous, considering the falling boulders as well. I gathered resources and went back to town, upgrading the water tank to The Cisterns of Mercy.

There was one secret I couldn't get to at the Leaky Lodge. I saw one of those cracks but I had to hit the other side of it though. I'll have to come back to it later as I didn't know where it was.