Stuck in the Abyss, how to get back out?

[Televangelist]

So I'm a little disappointed with the design of the abyss, to say the least.


I start the game, finished Energy Temple, finished Kelp Forest, and so then the Abyss looks fun.  The game gives me all the tools to get down to the bottom, it's a minor challenge but good times along the way.

And then:  Impossible-to-open door.  She's "seen the symbol before", great, it won't open.

These sort of arbitrary blocks on non-linear progress are annoying (especially since the game implied that if I wanted to head down this way, I totally could)... but what's more annoying is, I have no way to get back up to Open Waters and explore a different area.  I saved down here, and it's total darkness between me and that turtle higher up in the Abyss that will take me home.  Tried about 10 runs, no luck.  Anyone have a map of the abyss they can share?

[Televangelist]

Hmm... fish form + carrying spell + jellyfish makes for an interesting sort-of-solution to this.  Incredibly tedious (since the jellyfish flee the second you switch to fish form, but just might do the trick.)

[Televangelist]

Okay, so I made it back to open waters...  but while I was down in the abyss, I did find a King Jelly miniboss down there.  Seemed damn tough (was barely able to get it to final form, using just Energy Form, would probably take a lot of practice to beat it currently), does beating it reward anything that would make it worth my time to learn it now rather than coming back later?  (i.e. does it give me a power that allows me to unlock new areas?)

[Sindhi]

Defeating the jelly miniboss  gives you the jellyfish costume, which is a powerful protection when you are in normal form; you can cruise past herds of "monsters" without having to stop and fight. Also you get one butt-ugly helmet. Stock up on food first and try again; if you go to the southeast corner of the abyss you'll find the turtle and the ice veil and you can get Dumbo ice cream, which helps you to see. And some of the glowing plants are there... don't know if you can take them with you, though.

Also, if you go up to the veil (use Ekkrit if you haven't done Mithalas) and meet Li, who can unlock the door to the sunken city, and if possible get sun-form so you can see in the Abyss. I went to the Kelp forest also right after the home waters and used Ekkrit to cross into the veil since I didn't have beast form (or spirit form) which you get in Mithalas. However, I heeded the Abyss warnings and after venturing in in the dark for a few minutes, got the hell out of there.

[Televangelist]

I have the turtle in the Abyss tagged already.

Can I access the Ice Veil yet?  Have just beaten Energy Temple and and the Kelp Forest.

[Zoko]

You've gone a bit ahead of yourself here, and I have to admit I've never seen anyone so dedicated to get into the abyss before getting the proper "utilities". The fact that you go completely blind while down there and the only way to cure that is by attracting glowing fish that may or may not be in your vicinity should have been a clue that you're not supposed to be down there yet. Take the other available path, in your case Mithalas.

About the arbitrary block on non-linear progress: in this case its the darkness, not the door. And perhaps not all that arbitrary seeing how far you've managed to go. The thing about the door is that you should have seen those symbols somewhere before, and it was hinting that you should explore there more.

[Televangelist]

Huh!  For me, it was fairly obvious that the Abyss was designed to allow you to explore it without the 'light up the whole place' form -- what I figured was that beating the Abyss that way would unlock the 'light up the whole place' form.


You have two entrances into the Abyss via Open Waters; the first gives you a taste of what you're in for, the second gives you the tools (light-up fish that circle you in different patterns according to which song you sing) to get down there.  You have to dodge the spikes yourself, and vary up your songs as you progress to make sure your glowy fish avoid the nasty little carnivorous plants that will eat them.  Eventually you get down there, and you find a save point, more light-up fish in case you've lost any, and the cavern starts lightening up a bit.

And then, later on, you have the stationary glowy things that you can put in bubbles via fish form, allowing you to drag them around with the Bind spell, which in turn attracts Jellyfish to follow you and light the way.  It's slow-going progress, sure, but it feels just about 'right' in terms of challenge level.

Is there anything stopping me from finding the Abyss' entrance to the Frozen Veil, at the moment?

[Sindhi]

Spoilers:

You might need spirit form to get into the frozen veil; as I recall, you do. However, you will not get sun form by completing the Abyss in the dark, and you can't complete the Abyss without the spirit form to get to the whale and health upgrade (and an easter egg), which you get by completing Mithalas (along with beast form which gets Naija up any current), and sun form is in the temple in the Veil, along with Li (in the Veil, not the temple), whom you need to get into the sunken city and to defeat the Creator. So while we are all impressed that you got to the transit turtle without sun form, you are really doing a lot of stuff with one hand tied behind your back. But you will love the frozen veil; it is just magical, with dolphins, whales, otters, gently falling snow and great music....one of my favorite maps...and you can defeat the mini-boss mantis shrimp there with the forms you have. However, I found him much tougher than King Jelly...bring lots of ingredients and recipes for both. Just because Mithalas has five battles doesn't mean it is tougher than the Abyss, but I think you may miss things like getting memories (for the final ending) wandering around there in the dark...oh, double-click on the mini-map for the world map. There is a lot of help in the gameplay forum, and you can do a search for the threads you need; there is a great Adobe reader set of maps from Momruoy with icons on them of what is there, currents marked, and so on.