The ingame tips revisited Thread - SONAR

There were some complaints about the game being very hard. Somehow they always recognize the player and hunt her down. How to avoid this?

Well, there are several tips given ingame which appear after the first, the third and the fifth time you died. Here they are again, maybe you want to talk about them:

Tip #1:
"Their big weakness seems to be that you can hear them before they hear you. That sniff reveals them."

Tip #2:
"They probably cannot see you. But they can hear you very well. Especially your sonar pulse. Maybe they orientate like bats. And if they do, maybe their scream for them is like your sonar pulse for you. That given, they always see you, whenever you hear them scream."

Tip #3:
"Maybe you can distract them with something. A rock should do the trick, even though this should make them aggressive and you would have to run and hide. Could you throw them wisely somehow...?"

Togehter with the mechanics you can observe in the game, this should help you to beat it. But maybe not. If so, you can rant here about that and you can also tell, why you think the tips did not help you. And if someone is among you who got an idea on how to beat the game, maybe he or she wants to share his or her experiences here!

Edited by: jimslade

I understand all three tips, but I still feel like I'm missing something pretty important.

My experience with the game:

1. Stand at monster corpse. Gingerly explore area in front of me, knowing there's a monster there. 25% of the time have monster eat me before I'm aware of any sniffing, noises, movement, anything.

2. Assuming I'm not eaten immediately, become aware of sniffing. Now I have two choices - Walk/Run back to the corpse, or try to move forward into the only open space anyway. Doing the first merely resets me to step one, doing the second alerts the monster to my presence.

3. The monster suspects I'm here. I have multiple choices. I could run. This immediately alerts the monster to my presence, and since he runs faster than me, immediately results in my death. I could throw a rock. This immediately alerts the monster to the rock's presence. He runs to the rock, spots me, then runs to me and eats me. If I'm feeling silly, I attempt to run after throwing the rock, which does nothing useful, as the monster runs faster than I do. Standing still also results in immediate death.

To date, the only successful strategy I've found for getting around monsters getting obscenely lucky. (I.e. Not get close enough to the monster that he can sniff me.) I successfully passed the first level in this manner, but I don't think it's going to carry me through the rest of the game well.

Cheers,
-Dirk

Okay... let's see.

I think the major thing is that you are afraid of the sniffing of the enemies. That is a cool thing because you should be frightened whenever you hear that, but maybe the clue is missing that the sniffing does not mean they sense you. Again:

Their big weakness seems to be that you can hear them before they hear you. That sniff reveals them.

This means you can hear them (the sniffing sounds) before they hear you. This works as following: The sniff they do is just some sound those creatures make while walking around. They DO NOT recognize you with that! It is their weakness so you can be aware of them.

Additionally, you are able to locate the enemies by that sniffing. Look at the direction the yellow sniff-particles fly at. The opposite direction is the direction where the enemy hides. The stronger the particle color is, the closer the source of the sound (the enemy) is.

Also it is pretty helpful to use headphones. Because there are several cues in the soundeffects which reveal their position, too. The less reverb there is in the sound and the louder the sound is, the closer is the enemy. I think I don't have to mention the actual location of the sound playback with which you also can anticipate the approximate location of the creatures.

dirkson wrote: To date, the only successful strategy I've found for getting around monsters getting obscenely lucky. (I.e. Not get close enough to the monster that he can sniff me.) I successfully passed the first level in this manner, but I don't think it's going to carry me through the rest of the game well.

When you don't follow a strategy it sure is pure luck which guided you through the first level. And there is not much of a strategy to follow in the first level because here you just have to use basic gameplay elements. It's the first level so there is not everything in it to guide you into the level slowly. The main strategy for that level is to just sneak around the enemies. Try to use the infos I mentioned above and maybe play it again. You hopefully will see that you can beat the level not only by chance.

To summarize, there are three golden rules you should keep in mind:

1. Don't be hasty
2. Listen
3. Work out a plan

When developing this I thought that this riddle could be solved by the player. Could you tell me if you think you were able to solve that somehow or if you would never get the idea and why? That would be very interesting and I might add some further clues...

I am very anxious what you can tell about the later levels. When you play in advanced mode there will come more strategic elements, soon. You will get opportunities to hide, f.e..

Greets,
Jens

I'm really blown away by how your sound design can make me feel while playing. Especially when I'm eaten by invisible monsters...holy cow that noise destroys my brain with headphones on!

I'm trying to use the same basic strategy Jim mentioned, and also unsure if I'm just not understanding something or what. I get that the "sniff" gives them away, but once they sniff me out, what am I supposed to be able to do to possibly survive? I tried distracting with a rock, tried the total stealth approach of not moving and hoping for the best, and nothing seems to be effective. It seems very much luck based rather then skill at this point, unless I'm missing something.

Anyway, thanks for the game, I'm still really enjoying it!

Edited by: jeff3point0

Someone wrote: I'm really blown away by how your sound design can make me feel while playing. Especially when I'm eaten by invisible monsters...holy cow that noise destroys my brain with headphones on!

Thanks!

Okay, I'll just say a few words, because maybe someone else want to share and discuss those things with you, too.

First of all: They can't sniff you out. Their sniff does not work as sensory for them. It's the only thing YOU can rely on in pinpointing them out before they sensed you. If you hear them scream, they know the exact position you were when hearing the scream. That's why they scream constantly when in hunt-mode, because they want to track you down.

They also go into hunt-mode when they hear you (your steps, your sonar, literally every sound you make). So standing still can be a way to avoid them, but due to the fact they run around looking for food there is the chance that they just run into you.

You are in one of the earlier levels, I guess. You should just keep in mind that it is a bad idea to go into the direction you hear the sniff or a scream from. Just avoid that direction and look for ways to circumvent them. Don't run, because you are louder while running.

The rock sure is a way to distract them, but they instantly go into hunt-mode (because they hear something) which means they scream and then get you. So using the rocks is more like a pro-tactic, I guess and you should not need them early in the game. Also, the environment must fit to use a rock (you need a place to hide or a prepared strategy for retreat).

Hope that helps a bit.

Just bought the game and am enjoying it immensely, however I am terrible at it. Can't for the life of me get past the second stage. I am having a lot of the same problems everyone else is having. Is there nothing you can do once you are spotted to avoid the enemies? I try hiding but they always seem to know exactly where I'm at. Throwing rocks doesn't seem to help a whole lot either. I try to progress in this game but am always spotted and it gets insanely frustrating, to the point where I can't play it anymore and make absolutely no progress. This is stage two as I mentioned, I can only imagine the advanced stages.

Edited by: solipants

Hey, don't worry. Sure, the next stages are not easier, but there are only a few really mean situations and there is always a way to avoid those situations. First of all: There always is more then one way to the exit. Try to look for different ways. Then: Yes you can run from an enemy. But it's hard. The enemies do not know exactly where you are, but they remember the last position they heard a sound coming from. So, if you make some noise and the associated particles hit the enemy, he runs towards the exact location you made that noise. Sure, if you make further noise while retreating, he can track you very well.

You said you are in the second level. So you should have found those water pools and small rivers and know that you can hide in deep water. try to use that. If they follow you, dive into deep water and wait until they loose interest. With that technique you can also lure them away from spots they were guarding.

Maybe that helps a bit.

Well, I think it did help a bit to be honest. Finally found the stage 2 exit! Thing is I'm under 1/2 oxygen and doubt I'll be able to beat it on this run. I'll see how far I can get though.

My strategy - so far turned out good:
- stick to the walls - the walking sounds are good for mapping
- use the sonar only in large open spaces, where the walls are far away
- try to maneuver around the sniffing enemies
- when it's not possible to get around them then try this: locate the nearest large "organic floor" (silences the stepping sounds), throw a rock in some other direction, run to the silent spot and hopefully the enemy will go to check out the rock and you can get back on track walking around the organic floor to get away from the last place you made a noise

Edited by: cyberkiller40

I am encountering much the same problems and I understood the tips after deaths but when I used them it became more frustrating, not less - this stems from perhaps just bad luck, I follow the edge using my walking foot steps to map, turn corner, get monster in face, repeat. No time to run, running just makes me more visible to those things, no way I know of to hide other than get to a small corridor that has some twists in it so their scream doesn't bounce around and find me anyways.

Perhaps the tip would be better if it clued you in that those aren't so much as sniffs, which I think many players associate with tracking by smell, but their foot prints which are louder than yours. This would let you know they are on the move and that you are the one tracking them passively at this stage, not the other way around.

Even with this new knowledge gained from this thread though, I am still walking into the bastards or them into me or whatever, even when I hear their deep throbs directionally because even though I know that means one of them is around, it doesn't tell me where I can go to go around them without revealing myself, especially when I hear throbs on more than one side of my character - so it becomes a case of having to know the map by dying, not by the game mechanic the game is named after.

I hope that makes sense and my shared experience relates why this may be frustrating for others as well.

Edited by: CanadianWolverine

I took your complaints very seriously and they were very helpful! Maybe you're pleased with the announcement of v.1.1...!?

Edited by: jimslade

Between this thread and the new changes, I made it to the first exit!

You beat it! I hope you recognized that the "sniff" is now "footsteps"....

Yes, its much more recognizable as footsteps now, mostly because it didn't seem like they immediately scream and run my poor girl's ass down for a meal. I even saw its blue dot once and it didn't automatically mean I was screwed, I just stayed still, then backed slowly away. The heart beat was thumpin and I was like "Oh man, oh man, oh man..." As far as I was concerned, all the necissary information for eeking out my character's last breath was there <3