Introduction - Outer Wilds Guide - IGN (2024)

Welcome to the Outer Wilds wiki guide. In this guide we will be helping you solve puzzles within the game and uncover all the secrets and oddities within it. This page contains the introduction area to the game and the initial systems it teaches.

Upon starting the game you'll wake up on your home planet of Timber Hearth in Hearthian village, looking up at the stars with a crackling campfire nearby. You'll have the fun option of roasting marshmallows on this fire if you so choose.

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Nearby you can talk to a fellow Hearthian named Slate, who informs you that you are an astronaut for the clan, and that today is your Launch Day. He let's you know that you'll need to get launch codes from Hornfels at the observatory before you can lift off and to bring them back here where the docking bay is once you've finished in the area.

Think of this initial area as a tutorial to get acquainted with some of the controls and systems of the game. There's a handful of people to talk to but we'll highlight the ones that help teach you some vital knowledge.

First up is controls with a toy model ship, after jumping up a series of rocks (press and hold A, then release to jump), you'll find a model shop docked on an outcrop overlooking the village. Interact with this ship to get a sense of how flight is going to work in the game.

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Flight can get quite tricky and you'll need to be careful not to crash into things (lest you wish to be continuously repairing your ship). While easier to do in first person once on the ship this model toy example teaches how there's up and down thrust as well as a horizontal thrust. Use the left stick to move on the horizontal plane (forward, back, and side to side) and the triggers to control your verticality (up and down). Play around with this a bit to get a feel for how this works. It becomes even more challenging in zero gravity, but we'll get there in a moment.

Speaking with the Hearthian playing the banjo named Gneiss, you'll find that there are several space explorers on other planets using various instruments that she made. There's Chert and his drums, Riebeck using a banjo, Gabbro with a flute, and Feldspar using a harmonica, though she informs you that Feldspar's been missing for awhile.

To find these musicians you can used your Signalscope out in space to track down the sound of their instruments. How does one do this? Well thankfully we have Tephra and Galena to teach us using a quick game of hide and seek. Speak to them, and they'll initiate a game of hide and seek where you'll use your Signalscope to find them using the radios they hold.

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To use your Signalscope press Y and it will bring up a strange instrument in your first person view with two half rings. As you aim in different directions you may notice these rings coming together and glowing green. This indicates the direction of a point of interest. Walk in that direction to find it.

Keep in mind that it will point towards DIRECTLY where the noise is, not in the direction of where you need to got to get to that point.

You'll find Tephra on a rock outcrop behind a waterfall:

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While Galena can be found hiding behind some barrels you'll have to jump across a ramped building to reach:

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Further up the path on the way to the observatory, you'll find a sectioned off area with a note in front of it explaining that contained ahead is a section of Ghost Matter, a freezing cold and invisible substance that will burn you as you walk through it.

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If you walk to the right to the nearby camera and look through it, you'll easily see a cloud of green energy in the snapshots you take. Keep this in mind later as you explore.

To the right of the fenced off Ghost Matter, you'll find a cave with a sign next to it that reads "Zero-G Cave." Inside you'll find a Hearthian named Gossan who claims there's a "satellite" in need of repairs in the zero-g cave (it's really broken mining equipment), and asks if you'd be willing to go fix it. While this seems like a distraction from your main task, this area will teach you about flying in Zero Gravity, so it's a good idea to at least try it out.

Head to the lift and activate it sending you deep underground. Down here it will be super dark. Click in your right analog stick to see with your flashlight.

Head through the archway to where you'll com to a wall with a suit hung on it. Press X to put on the suit.

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This suit's controls work exactly like flying the model ship earlier, only now you'll be in first person making it a bit easier to control.

Go up using RT to scale the wall, and land on a small platform. Ahead you'll find a massive drop off. Head on down, but be careful to use your upward thrust to soften the gravitational fall. Next head into the pit up ahead, where now you'll be in Zero Gravity. Down here you'll need to position yourself in front of 3 separate repair points on the mining equipment. After positioning yourself you can lock on to the broken area by pressing in the Left analog stick and then repair it with X.

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Make sure to keep an eye on your fuel gauge in the top left corner, and note the oxygen gauge as well, something that will come into play later.

Note that while in flight in Zero Gravity, you can use A to stabilize yourself to whatever speed the object you're trying to reach is going. This can be extremely helpful once planets are in orbit and moving around the sun in space.

After repairing all three break points, use your remain gin fuel to thrust yourself upward out of the Zero-G Cave. Then, replace the suit back on the wall and head on out and up towards the observatory.

After leaving the Zero-G Cave, head left toward the Observatory. Once inside, first you'll see a large statue of a strange head and a Hearthian named Hal standing near it. He informs you that its a representation of a race called the Nomai, and until now Hearthians hadn't known about the Nomai having fur.

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This race's trace artifacts left on many of the planets will be some of the most mysterious parts of the game.

Head to the right into the observatory and up the central spiral to find Hornfels in front of a computer. Speaking with him, he informs you that in addition to your first voyage, this is also the first voyage being done with the added use of a Nomai translator tool, allowing you to decipher scrawling of the mysterious race left on the different planets. When prompted that you're ready, he'll give you the launch codes to the ship and you can be on your way.

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However, not so fast. As you exit the observatory and pass the strange statue, it turns to look at you and its eyes open, showing a vision of everything you've done thus far. Creepy.

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Make your way down to the launch area and you can use them on the elevator to reach your ship, and make your way into the vast explorable distance beyond!

One more quick thing of note. Eventually as you journey through space, you're going to die. Inevitably from either the sun exploding (as we find out shortly is inevitable) or from your own initial mishaps of a first time explorer. Strangeness is afoot, as when you die your progress is reviewed by some strange beings (probably the Nomai given the process is similar to the event in the Observatory), and you're sent back to the starting point of the game, only you keep any progress you've gained, but you'll always wake up once again near the campfire, and head out from this point. Got it? Good! NOW GO EXPLORE!