THE WALKTHROUGH FILM
18 SCENES · 7:04 · NARRATED · HOW TO BEAT ALL 16 SECTORS
SCENE 1/18 · 0:01 / 0:16
Tap the picture to pause. Space plays and pauses, arrow keys step a scene, M turns the narrator off. The words stay on screen either way.
THE FILM
HOW TO BEAT PIXELATED REALITY
The whole build, sector by sector
This is the whole build, start to finish. Sixteen sectors, twelve memories, two bosses, four endings, and three doors at the end of every sector. Watch it once and you can beat the game without ever getting stuck.
THE RULES THAT COVER ALL SIXTEEN SECTORS
HOW EVERY SECTOR OPENS AND CLOSES
›Every sector OPENS on a short film: a letterboxed moving picture of the place you are about to be dropped into — parallax, weather, the sector number and its title, and narration that types itself out. Tap the screen or press E to move it on; SKIP in the corner passes it entirely. It pauses the world and costs nothing.
›Every sector then CLOSES at the three doors. Walking into a new sector never happens straight away: the hall folds shut behind you and you land in a corridor with THREE DOORS along the far wall.
›One door is the way on. The other two are sealed. The way on is the door whose mark matches the mark shown in the strip along the top of the screen (TRIANGLE, DIAMOND or CIRCLE).
›Walk to that door with the arrow keys / WASD / on-screen stick and press E (or tap INTERACT). A wrong door slams, goes dark and cannot be tried again — so look before you press.
›Something walks in behind you while you choose. It is slow (27 in sector 1 up to 53 in sector 16, against your 74), it cannot reach the doors, it backs off for three seconds every time it touches you, and it can never take your last heart — an exit cannot end a run.
›If you cannot read the marks: after two wrong doors the right one glows green and the strip says so. It also starts glowing on its own after eleven seconds. Nobody gets stuck here.
›Clearing it pays 60 coins, then the next sector opens — and a new sector always starts you back at full hearts.
›Which one follows you out changes with the sector: The Hollow closes 1, 2 and 7; The Static 3, 4, 9 and 10; The Swarm 5 and 13; The Watcher 6, 8 and 11; The Drowned 12; The Auditor 14; The Layover 15; The Stag 16.
EASIER THAN IT LOOKS — WHAT THE GAME DOES FOR YOU NOW
›A hit lands once, then gives you 1.7 seconds of grace. Nothing can take a second heart inside that window, however many things are on top of you.
›Every sector starts at full hearts, so a bad sector never follows you into the next one.
›Everything that hunts you is slower: The Static 44, The Hollow 46, The Watcher 46, The Pixel Man 46, The Red Shift 50, The Drowned 42, The Swarm 56, The Auditor 48, The Stag 50, The Layover 52. The two boss halls walk at 44 and 46, and their lunges are only 1.5x speed.
›The patrol cone in the facility and the drowned chapel is narrower and shorter than it looks, and it takes 1.4 seconds of being seen before it costs you anything.
›A chase always ends at the room's far door: you never have to fight or outmanoeuvre anything.
›Cutscenes cost you nothing — they pause the world, and SKIP is always in the corner.
›A sector exit cannot end a run: the thing that follows you out backs off for three seconds on contact and can never take your last heart.
›Every sector exit, chase and stealth room is read with the same controls — keys or the on-screen stick work identically at the doors.
ON SCREEN IN THIS SCENE — 5 ENTITIES
YOU — JOHNPLAYER
The boy you play. Four skins — the boy, the pixel, the hollow and the devil — bought with coins from the club trader, with hats on top. Speed 50 walking, 82 running.
Where: Everywhere.
THE PIXEL MANGUIDE
Your guide and the answer to the whole game. He meets you on the west road, outside the arcade, at the school, in the memory house, at the source — and finally in Version 0, where he says what he is.
Where: Every act of the story.
THE TOWNSFOLKCHARACTER
The town repeating itself. The man on the east street never finishes the same sentence twice, and the woman walking the middle street is still looking for her son.
Where: Chapters 1 and 4, Millfield.
THE STATICCHASE
Walks straight at you at speed 44 — no weaving, no pauses. Nothing you do makes it lose interest.
Where: Chapter 9 merge hallway, the sewer junction, the sector 3-4, 9 and 10 exits, and as the boss of the collapsing hall under the source.
WHAT FOLLOWS YOU OUTSECTOR EXIT
The exit hunter, re-skinned and slowed per sector: speed 27 in sector 1 up to 53 in sector 16, against your 74. It walks in behind you, backs off for three seconds every time it touches you, and can never take your last heart — the exit cannot end a run.
Where: Every sector exit. The Hollow closes 1, 2 and 7; The Static 3, 4, 9 and 10; The Swarm 5 and 13; The Watcher 6, 8 and 11; The Drowned 12; The Auditor 14; The Layover 15; The Stag 16.
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