Psychonauts glitches, easter eggs, etc! [spoilers]

[Toliver]

Here's a screen cap of the tiny Censors in Raz's level. They're easy to battle but there's a swarm of them (about 6 or so total). See how they're smaller than Raz but still have wickedly long arms for punching him.

 

Regarding arrowheads...

There's an arrowhead on the top of the tree stump/pole next to the Scavenger Hunt Condor Egg in the Reception area. This one arrowhead is equal to 10 points.

That's the highest value of an arrowhead that I've encountered, yet.

I guess the more difficult it is to get to an arrowhead, the higher its value.

This makes me wonder about the value of the arrowhead at the cave opening at the Lake (containing the Mountain Lion & the Diver's Helmet). Will have to report back as I am approaching that point in the game again.

[Toliver]

Ooh, and about the same place where the mini-censors are, you might get hit by censor beams (??), but there are no censors to shoot at you.

Yes, I believe there is a Large Censor shooting at you there, but not in the immediate area. If you continue forward from where Raz encounters the tiny Censors, you'll come to a rock shelf that Raz has to climb up in order to continue. At the top of this rock shelf is a large Censor who shoots the Censor Beams. He is just very far away when he starts shooting at you.

I'll be going through that point again soon and will check this out to be certain.

[Toliver]

Looking at them more closely, each of the "celebrities" in the "Read" posters all over the Lodge interior are holding a brain instead of a book.

So it's not books they're talking about...which makes perfect sense for the theme of the camp.

[Toliver]

This makes me wonder about the value of the arrowhead at the cave opening at the Lake (containing the Mountain Lion & the Diver's Helmet). Will have to report back as I am approaching that point in the game again.

I'm a doofus. I zipped through last night and the only thing up at the cave opening are Psi Cards. My memory is going...

Yes, I believe there is a Large Censor shooting at you there, but not in the immediate area. If you continue forward from where Raz encounters the tiny Censors, you'll come to a rock shelf that Raz has to climb up in order to continue. At the top of this rock shelf is a large Censor who shoots the Censor Beams. He is just very far away when he starts shooting at you.

I'll be going through that point again soon and will check this out to be certain.

I went through that level again last night.

There are three sets of Censors in this area. When Raz first enters it, the Tiny Censors (that you see in the screen cap in the post up above) attack him. As he moves further into the wide open area, the mid-size Censors (with some whiney fireballs) attack him. Finally, standing on the rock ledge ahead, waiting for Raz, is the Large Censor who shoots the Censor beams.

Interesting that there are no Muscle Censors in Raz's level...

[Thrik]

Man, and I thought I had a keen eye for detail! Excellent work Toliver.

[Byakko]

So it was strange to see Dogan without a brain at the lake before seeing the cut scene where it was removed. Just seems out of order....

 

The Brain Tumbler Experiment Level was created before Dogan was de-brained. Considering it's all in Raz's mind and is not physically the Dentist's tower or the Dentist/Dogan themselves, it's most likely a mixed up memory from Dogan/Oleander from that point of time; where he WAS being de-brained.

 

By the time Raz CAN complete the level/memory, it's just too late. Although he does get to see the tank plan and stuff.

 

Okay, here's some stuff I noticed. I'm pretty sure you guys have seen them too, but I just wanted to know what you think of them:

 

1) Somewhere in the Woods area (sorry, I can't remember exactly where. Near Ranger Cruller I think.), there's a large sinister tree that looks like it has a mouth and eyes. It's mouth is very large (practically the whole tree) and it's holding/crushing a truck. The truck's rusted so it must have been a long time ago. I've tried punching it, but the other powers don't really work because it doesn't register as an actual 'object' but as part of the scenery.

 

It kinda reminds me of the Whomping Willow from Harry Potter.

 

It may have been a plot point in previous revisions of Psychonauts, who knows?

 

2) Ever saw the faces in the sky? It's kinda amazing. Day time has the huge Sunny-Face in the sky (ironically, I first noticed it while up on the Main Lodge roof talking to the suicide kids). While on the Thorny Towers side of the lake, the sky has insane twisted faces in the clouds; that even reflect in the lake water!

[Toliver]

The Car-Crushing Monster Tree is where you can find the Cherry Wood Pipe for the Scavenger Hunt. I also noticed how the tree looks like a monster. It's funny but it's more noticeable that it's a monster from further away.

I figured it was put there to scare the kids away from the GPC/Wild Woods (which is the next area).

Janitor Cruller is in the Reception Area and Ranger Cruller is in the GPC area. But I knew what you meant.

 

As for the faces in the clouds, I haven't noticed the day clouds having faces...I will have to take a closer look. I didn't even notice the faces in the night clouds until I'd gone through the game 4 or 5 times. Guess I was too focused on Raz's immediate surroundings to notice that.

[Toliver]

I'm working on a Deep Arrowhead Lode Map. I'm not sure how I'll be able to post the final map. It's going to be a printable JPEG. And it won't include the Lungfish Lair Battlegrounds...just the Camp areas.

I'm surprised at how big some of the lodes are. If you pick your lodes carefully, you could hit just 5 or 6 lodes with the Dowsing Rod and have enough for the Cob Web Duster.

I'll post more on this later.

[Byakko]

I also noticed how the tree looks like a monster.

 

I went back there to check it out again. It actually looks like Oleander! Specifically, it looks exactly like the head part of the Monster-Figments you find in his Basic Braining level (the one that look like gorillas with helmets).

[Toliver]

I went back there to check it out again. It actually looks like Oleander! Specifically, it looks exactly like the head part of the Monster-Figments you find in his Basic Braining level (the one that look like gorillas with helmets).

Went back in yesterday and saw that it does look like the Oleander figment. If I recall it correctly, the helmet on the figment has horns (like a Viking helmet) and so does the car-eating tree in the Reception area. Very cool!

[Byakko]

In the G-Men HQ, if you look at the wall directly in front of the door you walk in, there's a pin-up board with some criminal profiles.

 

One of them has this hairy guy with a patch, if you look at his name, it's pretty scrawled but it definitely looks like 'Tim Schafer'. The 'Tim' is clearer.

 

I'm not sure if the guy in the picture DOES look like Schafer, but yeah.

[Toliver]

I was abe to reach a ranking of 24 before going into the Brain Tumbler for the first time. Woo-hoo!

I discovered that two Scavenger Hunt items I had previously thought were only reachable with Levitation, were reachable without it. I was always one-item short of completing half of the list (and getting the 4 rank ups) and always waited until I got Levitation to get the Scavenger hunt items I thought were out of reach.

I believe you only need one of these two items (see below) to complete half of the list. The Condor Egg is easy to get to...you don't need Levitation to get it.

Here's how to get to the Fossil in Sasha's lab...Raz is standing on the stairs in the middle of the room:

And here's how to get to the telescope in the GPC area...Raz is standing on the the boulder next to the boulder that is next to the little boulder that has the crow feather on it (so he's two boulders away from the feather). The GPC is behind him:

When you Double Jump to land between the two trees, you have to immediately Double Jump again to get up behind the tree and get the Psi-Cards. If you don't do the second Double Jump soon enough, Raz will start sliding down the hill and you'll have to try it again. Once you're behind the tree, follow the little "trail" that will take you up to the telescope.

By getting to a rank of 24 before going into the Brain Tumbler, you end up achieving the ensuing rank-ups sooner in each level so you're stronger earlier in the game.

I had mentioned in an earlier post that I thought the programmers had set it up so that a lot of areas in the game where you thought you needed Levitation to access, were actually reachable by Raz without it. This is more proof of that.

This is so freakin' exciting it makes me realize I have to get a life!

 

edited to add: Regarding the second Scavenger Hunt item mentioned above (the Telescope), there may be another Double Jump involved. I went through it again last night and found that you Double Jump off the boulder to get to the tree area, then Double Jump to get further up the slope and then one last Double Jump from the top of the slope to land behind the tree where the Psi-Card is hiding.

 

I also found I could use the Double Jump to get the Psi-Cards on the lower tree limb on the giant dead tree in the Reception area (that has the fire ring next to it). This is the tree that has the Dinosaur Bone on it. If you Double Jump on the right side of the limb (facing the tree) you can bounce up off the tree trunk and Double Jump up again onto the tree limb. It's a heckuva lot more trickier than getting to the Psi-Card behind the tree (as mentioned above). The Double Jumps on the dead tree have to be a lot more accurate in order to get up to the Psi-Cards on the lower limb.

More proof that you don't need Levitation to get some of the Psi-Cards.

[Toliver]

I've made a Deep Arrowhead Lode Map (yes, I have no life). I went back over it a couple times to verify the amounts and general areas where the lodes could be found.

I won't post the actual map here since I wanted to keep it large so it would be printable on a letter-sized (8&1/2 x 11) piece of paper. If you print it out, make sure you set your printer to "Landscape" since the map is horizontal.

Here's the link:

Deep Arrowhead Lode Map

Now I am puzzled by two lode amounts, one in the Campfire area for 34 points and one in the swamp in the Reception Area for 76. All the rest of the lode amounts end in either 0 or 5.

Channeling my best Boyd, I wonder about the significance of those two different numbers. What do they mean? What is the government conspiracy behind them? Is it someone's birthday? 3-4-76? If you add them up 3+4+7+6 you get 20 and if you add those two digits you get 2+0=2, which could be Boyd & the Milkman. What does it mean?

 

edited to add: This map does not include the Deep Arrowhead lodes in the Lungfish Lair Battle areas. Besides, if you've gotten that far in the game, you should already have enough arrowheads to buy everything.

 

edited to also add: This map is from the PC version of the game. I don't know if the deep arrowhead lode locations are the same for all game platforms.

[martmeister]

That's really awesome with the arrowhead map!

[Toliver]

Going through the game again last night, I was in Gloria's Theater and, by accident, I discovered you can use the Cobweb Duster on the Teleport Creature!

In the level, there's a cobweb just in front of the stage where the Teleport Creature sits. Raz was looking at him instead of the cobweb when I used the Cobweb Duster and the creature's head got stuck to the end of the hose. While the hose was on, his head was stretched out (because he doesn't ever move) and when I shut off the Duster, his head went back to normal and he made those cursing/grumbling noises at me.

It was a funny surprise to say the least.

[Poopdogjr]

Thats awesome. I gotta try that one of these days.

[martmeister]

Everyone responds to the cobweb duster. Try it on your camp mates and watch their reactions. I think Cruller's is amusing.

[PlayMeLikeAFish]

Yeah, quite a lot of stuff changed between the development pics and the final product; go through them carefully and you'll find no end of small changes.

 

As for that 4th picture, I'm not really sure what exactly it's from. Schafer calls the image "SoundProof" and captions it "Man, why did we cut this awesome room?".

 

Where did you get your info? Are there interviews with Schafer where he talks about the cut stuff? Please direct me to them if there are!

[Toliver]

I encountered two more game glitches that I thought I would post.

The first is a trampoline glitch in the Waterloo World level.

This (see image) is the trampoline next to the hungry peasant's house. I had Raz jump onto the trampoline to access the roof. Instead of bouncing up, you can see that Raz got stuck. The trampline is locked in the "down" position with Raz on the edge. He kept "sliding" (like he does on rails) on the edge of the trampoline and no matter what I did, the trampoline wouldn't "unbounce" and I couldn't get Raz to stop sliding. I had to reboot the game to get past this glitch.

 

I thought the second glitch was very funny. Whenever I enter the Asylum grounds I always make it a point to do something to the annoying crows. Unlike their seagull counterparts on the mainland, the crows will attack Raz before flying off so I always like to strike first. They'll even attack you when you set them on fire (and they're all aflame) whereas the burning seagulls will just try to fly off.

However, this one time (see image) there was a crow that didn't fly off. No matter what I did to it, it just sat there. I could hit it and the crow would move like a football would when you kick it but it didn't make any moving or flying motions. It was like a crow lump. I ended up leaving the area and when I re-entered it, all the crows behaved normally. This has happened twice in two different run-throughs of the game (out of the 20 or so times I've been through it).

[Toliver]

I found another small glitch in the game.

I was in Sasha's mind in the Shoe Box arena. I was near the base of the ladder that leads up to the platform between the Shoe Box tower and the first Censor Spigot. I had just blasted one of those Whiney Fireballs to my left when I noticed that there was a lit fuse just hanging in the air. It wasn't connected to a Whiney Fireball that I could see. Using a Psi-Blast on it had no effect. I went on to finish the Shoe Box level and moved on to the rest of Sasha's mind level. When I went back into Sasha's mind later in the game (you go back in after you gain the power of Levitation) to pick up any remaining figments, when I got to the Shoe Box level, the lit fuse was still there, hanging in mid-air.

I wasn't able to get a screen cap of it but if it happens again, I'll make sure I get a screen shot of it.

 

Edited to add: I went through the game again and found the floating fuse again. Here's a screen cap:

[Fyrsten]

Hey!... So finally I´ve got a profile here, and somethings I wanna get in on closer;

 

Yeah... I really like the idea of Lungfish censors... like... Mothra-style.

 

I already think that the little fish-army and Ol(l)y did it... Mothra/ coachamara, heeellooo?... (by the way, I only meant to be demeaning against cheerleader/popchicks, like Ed Teglees former-love)

[Fyrsten]

I know you´ve been in on this a little, but I´m still slightly confused about it!... All right, so you´re in Raz´ mind, fight the shady lungfish and get as high you can to the tower, but there´s still a distance!...

 

You go to the lake, to be able to get closer to tower, meeting a brainless Dogen (though you haven´t actually seen his brian get stolen!?...), you go to Milla and the others, where Raz & Lilli discuss what-would-be Dr. Loboto, but you (Or Raz, for that matter), haven´t actually seen him yet, so how can he know about all of this?...

 

Unless, that whole "The World Shall Taste My Eggs!"-bit was supposed to be a vision of Dogens situation!?...

 

Also, when you finally see Dogen gets his brain stolen, Loboto turns to Lilli, but meeting her a little later at the lake, she still have her brian, although, she COULD be a little too tough for Loboto to handle ("the lass has spirit, eh?")!?...

[Toliver]

Lilli never gets her brain stolen. Because she has a cold, she can't smell the black pepper from Loboto's peppermill arm so she can't sneeze her brains out. So he just kidnaps her which is why Raz has to get to the Thorny Towers Asylum and Dr. Loboto's lab.

Raz doesn't go to the lake to get to the tower. He goes to the lake at night to meet up with Lilli (if you keep going back to Ford's sanctuary to use the Brain Tumbler to finish up other levels, Ford yells at you that you're supposed to meet Lilli at the beach). It's also about that time that he calls you into his observation area and shows you all the brainless kids and says you have to recover their brains at the Asylum. That's when he asks you if you're ready to take on this new challenge and if you say "no", he slaps you until you say "yes" (which is funny).

It's possible for Raz to see Dogan getting his brain removed while Raz is in his own Brain Tumbler Experiment level after he's seen the brainless Dogan in the real world at the beach/lake. I think the makers of the game didn't care that the timeline could end up out of order because what happens in the mind-levels isn't really reality. It's a mixture of the Coach's mind and Raz's mind so Raz may just be seeing a memory from the Coach's brain.

[Fyrsten]

Lilli never gets her brain stolen. Because she has a cold, she can't smell the black pepper from Loboto's peppermill arm so she can't sneeze her brains out. So he just kidnaps her which is why Raz has to get to the Thorny Towers Asylum and Dr. Loboto's lab.

Raz doesn't go to the lake to get to the tower. He goes to the lake at night to meet up with Lilli (if you keep going back to Ford's sanctuary to use the Brain Tumbler to finish up other levels, Ford yells at you that you're supposed to meet Lilli at the beach). It's also about that time that he calls you into his observation area and shows you all the brainless kids and says you have to recover their brains at the Asylum. That's when he asks you if you're ready to take on this new challenge and if you say "no", he slaps you until you say "yes" (which is funny).

It's possible for Raz to see Dogan getting his brain removed while Raz is in his own Brain Tumbler Experiment level after he's seen the brainless Dogan in the real world at the beach/lake. I think the makers of the game didn't care that the timeline could end up out of order because what happens in the mind-levels isn't really reality. It's a mixture of the Coach's mind and Raz's mind so Raz may just be seeing a memory from the Coach's brain.

 

I understand the Lilli-part, just forgot/ haven´t noticed!... i think I get what you mean with Dogen, but how can Raz agree with Lilli on Lobotos features, when Raz haven´t seen him at the time (the two love-birds chat right after Milla has told Raz his dad is coming)?!...

[Toliver]

I experienced another glitch when playing the game.

I was in the catwalks portion of Gloria's Theater level. There's a fenced-off area with a vault, a piece of luggage and a Life Restorer (the green glowing helmet, not the gold one) in it. You have to climb down a ladder to get there. Once you do, a bunch of Censors and whiney Bombs appear.

I had finished off the Censors and bombs and matched the piece of luggage to its tag. All that was left to do was to hit the vault to trigger the slide show.

The problem was, the vault got stuck running in a corner of the area. I have a screen cap but it doesn't show much other than a vault running in place in a corner.

No matter how many times I hit the vault, it never stopped running and never opened up. At first I tried leaving the area and then coming back but the vault was still stuck in the corner.

So I saved my place, exited the game, rebooted my computer and when I went back in to that level, the vault was no longer stuck in the corner. Of course, because of the weird way it saves your place in Gloria's Theater level, I re-entered the game further back than I would have liked, but at least it got me past the glitch.