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.