I solved the entire Quantum Moon puzzle extremely early, having only learned the first rule, I didn’t even get to visit all the planets yet.

I haven’t seen any stories similar to mine here, so I thought it would be interesting to share. It happened a while ago, so my memory is a bit hazy, but I still remember my general thought process and timeline of events. Here is what happened:

At this point it’s still really early in my playthrough, I haven't even visited Brittle Hollow, The Twins, or Giant’s Deep yet. I was still exploring each planet for the first time and decided I will try visiting Giant’s Deep for the first time.

I visited Giant's Deep, did some exploring, landed on the north pole, and learned the 1st quantum rule. I already tried landing on the Quantum Moon many times, and I knew this would allow me to explore the Quantum Moon so I went there next. 

After doing some moon exploring. I noted that the Quantum Moon had areas that were blocked off to the north with mountains that I couldn’t reach. I tried leaving the moon and coming back by landing on the north pole to see what is past the mountains (similar to reaching the north pole on Giant’s Deep), but this didn’t work. I figured I had to somehow use the ship or shrine on the moon to teleport.

I remember playing around with the shrine for a while. For example, one thing I tried was putting my scout in the shrine without taking a photo, teleporting the shrine, then taking a picture with the scout to look out the door in the shrine’s new location.

Eventually I had the eureka moment. The light switch in the shrine was a big hint to me, I realized being in pitch black darkness is probably considered not observing the shrine, so I entered the shrine, turned out the lights and my flashlight, and the shrine teleported. I had just figured out the 2nd quantum rule.

Although, I thought the shrine itself would teleport to another location on the same moon. I didn't expect the shrine to stay in place while the entire Quantum Moon moved to a different planet. Cool!

I started exploring all the different versions of the Quantum Moon using the shrine. I noticed that the mountains on all the moons are blocking passage to the north except on Giant's Deep moon, so I tried putting the shrine far north on Giant's Deep moon and changing locations, then I can explore what’s beyond the mountains on the other moons.

Then I had to do the same thing again to see into Giant's Deep's storm and Dark Bramble's vines from the north pole. When I got to the north pole I thought there would be something, but there was no payoff. Just an empty north pole.

I could’ve solved it right here in record time, but unfortunately it didn’t occur to me to try opening the door in the 6th location, so I left the north pole and explored all the different moons again, until a while later when I went to the north pole again, and tried opening the door to the 6th location and it worked. I had just solved the Quantum Moon.

This 3rd rule part took me a long time to solve, but even in retrospect the puzzle didn’t seem unfair to me. I realized the game is blocking my path north, so I correctly thought that getting to the north pole is the goal of the puzzle, but then when I got to the north pole and saw there is no payoff, it should’ve hinted to me that perhaps the payoff is unblocking the door to the 6th location.

The full Quantum Moon puzzle took a while to solve, needing multiple loops. But it never seemed “unfair” or like I needed to come back later with more information, even without knowing the 2nd and 3rd rules. It was really fun experimenting and exploring on the moon. Looking back, I feel like the environment and shrine were intelligently designed to nudge me in the right direction. It almost feels like I was reverse-engineering the quantum rules using only the environment as my guide.

And now for the implications of solving this too early:

I can understand if you think this would ruin the game for me, but the information dump was so large, and I had no context to understand what was being said. I barely scratched the surface of the story at the time; I didn’t even realize this was a “piece together the story” game yet. Silly me didn’t even make the connection that Solanum was a Nomai, and that the Nomai created all the structures and writings I had been finding across the solar system. My two big takeaways were the information about the Eye, and that I kept on seeing Solanum’s face when I died, so I assumed she must be connected to my death somehow.

I imagine a normal playthrough would be something like “Wow I found an alive Nomai, this is so amazing”, but in my playthrough I didn’t know how Solanum connected to the world outside of the Quantum Moon, I thought the information provided was not explanations to the story, but instead cryptic clues that I would need to apply to future quantum puzzles. I incorrectly thought that this was just the first breakthrough in what would be many Quantum puzzles.

One last thing I find kind of funny: When I eventually found the 2nd and 3rd quantum rules much later in my playthrough, I still didn't realize finding all 3 rules is the intended solution. I remember thinking: "There are multiple ways to solve this puzzle, that’s so cool. You can either experiment with the Quantum Moon itself to figure it out on your own, or you can learn the rules by reading Nomai writings on other planets, or do a mix of both." I didn’t realize until I finished the game and read discussions and playthroughs online that what I’d done was not the intended way of solving the Quantum Moon.

me and my partner both recognized it as "omg Quantum shard!" But honestly the more i look at it the more scary it looks

dish just released this video some hours ago, the second half to her previous Outer Wilds video, and I couldn't stop watching, had to finish the entire thing.

One of my favourite playthroughs of Outer Wilds I've ever seen, please please watch her reaction! She speaks at the very end of the video about what she believes the game is about, what it means to her and it is one of the most incredible things I've ever heard about this game. She is so openly emotional about how much the game affects her and I couldn't help reliving those emotions I felt playing while watching her discover the secrets of the universe. Will get you teary-eyed

I think this is my favourite playthrough I've ever seen, up there with AboutOliver's, so please go watch this and support her!!

To be clear I'm not talking about people who are asking for help getting past a tricky part in the game. I'm talking about people who ask, "what should I explore next?" Or "what happens if I do _?" It seems like the obvious answer is... Just try it! Why go to a forum and ask people what will happen when you could just do it?

Especially in a game where you get to reset again very soon anyway and there are no permanent gameplay decisions.

Do people do this for other games, in other forums? Is this a reddit problem? Or is there some kind of selection bias going on here, where a forum like this attracts people like this?

I finally got into the Ash Twin project. End Times started playing just as I removed the warp core. The music stopped and now I’m dead.

Sooo…is that it?

Not my picture (from tv2.dk), but thought this looked familiar and ominous!

Honestly the idea was better in my mind 😅.

probably my last post here until I get the dlc

I wanted to play this game with someone but I didn't have any friends that wanted to play it so I decided to write about my playthrough here , I hope you won't mind if i think of you as friends

I told him you’ll be massively confused until the last 22 minutes

It just occurred to me that when starting the time loop to be able to find the eye, even if the sun station had fired, the plan would still have a big problem.

When people talk about how this plan should work, they say that the idea was that the Nomai would turn on the project, then the they would link with the masks once the eye had been found and then those Nomai could turn the project back off so the sun station never fires and the sun doesn't go supernova after they've located the eye. For those Nomai it would seem as if the eye had been found instantly.

But every loop where the eye would not have been found would still happen. In those loops the masks wouldn't link, so those Nomai would know that the sun is just going to explode, and that version of them would just die and never find out where the eye is. Yes, in the far future the masks would link at some point and the eye would have been found, but every Nomai that lives in the loop before that would never know where the eye is. It would feel like they had skipped through time to the eye being found for the Nomai who exist then, but in every other loop the Nomai would still exist, and would they all agree to never know what the eye is so a different version of them in the future does know?

Dlc spoilers.

Ok so I went to all forbidden archives, but my hidden gorge and reservoir still has "there is more to explore here. The only question mark rn is the sealed vault but I still can't figure why the codes are burned everywhere! I also think there is a secret room in the hidden gorge, in the shrine but Idk how to reach it.. I feel close to the finale but I can't figure out what to do! Help pls!

True

Peaker the peak

Your scout made it to the next universe 😭

I do still have some questions like where did dark bramble come from? What exactly is the eye of universe is it like eternal? It's the starter of every new universe and how did it like pull everyone that i met right here there might be something I'm missing , what is the dlc about like vaguely

and what will be the point of dlc knowing that we can't save the universe anyway

Before I start the DLC, I want to get all the achievements for the base game (except for the archeologist achievement, and the beginners luck achievement). But there’s two that I simply cannot get. I can’t get the Hotshot achievement (where I have to land on the sun station), and the deep impact achievement (Where you have to enter giants deep really fast). Any help would be appreciated.

My project Hail Mary crossover art 😁

Hi,
I believe I am close to finishing this game - I found the spaceship and I think I need to get the Ash Twin core to get away from this system. I also found the Eye coordinates from the tracking module deep down. I will look around if I can somehow change the trajectory of that comet so the Sun would not explode. Please do not spoil beyond that.
However, the thing I am confused on is the timeline or how the loop works exactly? Did the Nomai die from the first Sun explosion? This gave enough energy to the Ash Twin to send the commend to the Probe station to fire. The station exploded because of it firing at the max power. The loop then ran 9 million times without anyone noticing it until the moment if finally found the Eye which activated the memory statues. The statues picked us because we were passing by (I am pretty sure there was another guy looking at it at that moment though).

So now we have the memory about the loops. But it is not us that being sent through the loop, but our memories, right? So what happens with me between the loops?
Is it like a constant race for my memories reaching my body 22 minutes each time? So the final me that manages to escape will get a memory of me dying 20-ish times during this playthrough?
But if the Nomai died from the Sun explosion, then they should ALL be around just without the memory of the loop since there are like 5 statues? So it cant be that.
Thank you!

How can i make it less scary, last time i played i turned the lights off and heard them scream, i go in TERRIFIED and i check the first room on the right, i turn back and the owl thing lunges at me and lets out a scream and this KILLED me, i need help because i love this game but im just too scared

I've gone to every planet, I've gotten the Eye of the Universe coordinates from Giant's Deep's core, I've found the Quantum Moon's sixth location and the Vessel in the Dark Bramble. It feels like I've done everything, but I don't know where I'm supposed to go.

My best guess is to use the Vessel in Dark Bramble to fly to the Eye since the coordinates are in Nomai, but I don't know how to free the Vessel from the Dark Bramble, input the coordinates, or start up the Vessel

I'd very much appreciate any hints, I've been playing the game on and off for a little more than a year or so and I think I'm just a hair's length away from beating it.

EDIT: I did it! Thank you everyone for helping

We even got to roast a few marshmallows over the fire at the end.

So I played outerwilds a year or so sgo, ever since I've been amazed by space. Watching hundreds of youtube videos explaining different planets, understanding black holes, simulations of comsic evens, and even quantum physics! (I understood nothing.)

Point is, outerwilds gave me the thrill of outerspace, and now I'm wondering, if there are any games that gives you this feeling too? To embark onto different planets and just, experience it? (OTHER THAN NO MANS SKY)

Currently stuck and don’t know what to do. I feel I’m really close to figuring it out but I just need some hints. Currently I can break one seal by going into the water when in the dark cove. But besides that I’m stuck. Any help will be appreciated.

I kinda wished the ending involved a choice

Yeah I know, original title... but let me explain.

Obviously sploiers ahead

I did find the ending tragic and emotional. I did love the game.
However I feel that events in the endgame are presented in a way that blunted the emotional impact that they could have had on me.

The endgame is a very linear and one-way sequence of events. You can only go forward. It's a fitting contrast to the rest of the game. The realization that my freedom of choice had been taken away from me was an intense moment. I felt regret.

But after that... I kinda stopped caring. Because I felt I had been cheated. I had not made a conscious choice to end the universe. Quite the contrary I hoped the Eye would reveal a way to save it (I still liked to be naive about it, sue me). When I realized what was going to happen it was evident I could not do anything anymore. So... why care?

Saying goodbye to the explorer companions (and to the whole universe by extension) would have been more emotional for me if I had made a conscious choice to go on the universe-ending path.

Am I the only one that feels that way?