How many times did you use the hint book?

[MichaelSon]

I used the hint book in the game to be honest, sometimes because I was just tired instead of making a break and giving it a new try the next time.

I am wondering how many times you have been using the hint book?

[Gins]

Once, because I didn't find the Bite of a Thousand Needles 😑

[Alexandra IDV]

21 minutes ago, Gins said:

Once, because I didn't find the Bite of a Thousand Needles 😑

I understood it was referring to the plant, but was way overthinking it - I thought I would have to make the plant bite into something that I would then bring with me, and did end up having to use the hint book. Felt like a fool, hahhh.

[Gins]

9 minutes ago, Alexandra IDV said:

I understood it was referring to the plant, but was way overthinking it - I thought I would have to make the plant bite into something that I would then bring with me, and did end up having to use the hint book. Felt like a fool, hahhh.

I somehow made a connection to Stan's toothbrush and tried to break in.

[LowLevel]

I don't really remember how many times I used it, but certainly not more than 10.

 

I used it at least two or three times while I was a member of LeChuck's crew, not because the puzzles were difficult, but because I am not a fan of that chapter. The small, enclosed environment bored me a bit and I wanted to move on to the next chapter as soon as possible.

 

[Gins]

Can you retroactively add an option for 0 times?

[MichaelSon]

1 hour ago, Gins said:

Can you retroactively add an option for 0 times?

 

I looked around but seems like that is not possible.

I didn't think to add this option as I didn't expect anybody to comment on this topics who didn't use the hint book at all.

But I agree, it is a good and interesting point to figure out.

[Jake]

I added a “never” option. Hope that’s alright!

[cinnamon]

Zero, but I was very tempted during the last chapter in the second ring because I couldn't clearly tell what the in-game rule expected of me. So I spend time looking too much into background details and trying to interpret them, when the solution was much easier. 

It did help that I took a break to go for a walk with my dog and then return back to the game with a fresh mind.

[BillyCheers]

I'm usually someone who uses a walkthrough pretty quickly when I get stuck. I also found Thimbleweed Park relatively difficult and often used the hint system. So I was very surprised (and pleased!) that with ReMI I always got further without major problems. Now and then I had to think for a moment, but then the solution came to me relatively quickly. I used the hint-book only three times and two times the solution was already clear to me, but I just hadn't executed it "correctl"y or had to leave the room once and enter it again (for the key in the chicken).
Therefore, I can't say that I found the game particularly difficult. I found the puzzles always very logical and there were always enough clues to get to the solution.
The difficulty level was perfect for me, especially since the scale of the game was still large enough for me.

[Gins]

5 minutes ago, cinnamon said:

Zero, but I was very tempted during the last chapter in the second ring because I couldn't clearly tell what the in-game rule expected of me. So I spend time looking too much into background details and trying to interpret them, when the solution was much easier. 

It did help that I took a break to go for a walk with my dog and then return back to the game with a fresh mind.

Regarding that puzzle, what WAS the puzzle actually? I feel like I solved it by accident.

[cinnamon]

2 minutes ago, Gins said:

Regarding that puzzle, what WAS the puzzle actually? I feel like I solved it by accident.

Well the way I understood it at least, was

Spoiler

to assign coins to each statue according to their "rank", which Guybrush notices when he examines them, which fits with the "being observant" rule of that ring.

 

[ThunderPeel2001]

I started playing on Casual, but then regretted it after a few puzzles. But before I did, I looked up a hint to make the mop head. (Not sure what I was expecting to be honest.) Then I switched to hard and never used the Hint Book... although I came close once or twice.

1 hour ago, Gins said:

Regarding that puzzle, what WAS the puzzle actually? I feel like I solved it by accident.

 

The coins should be distributed in a way that reflects their wealth status (as indicated by the size of their treasure chests and happiness level). That's all. Just remember that it's a puzzle for pirate: More booty = more happiness. (May not be reflected in real life.)

 

[Lagomorph01]

Nope. I didn’t really need to. I honestly think hard mode should’ve been called normal mode, because it was still way to easy. I was hoping to be stuck for at least a couple of weeks, not sail through it in one.

[BaronGrackle]

Playing on my own, I think I would have powered through. But with my kids... we had an opportunity on Friday to play a few hours, but the Scorched Alaska puzzle was roadblocking us...

 

Instead of throwing those hours away and trying again next weekend, we used the Hint Book to confirm that our solution was on the top deck. After that, we figured out to use the Knife on the cannon light, instead of just using the food on the cannon light itself.

 

Hint Book is a timesaver. The game's fine in its own way, but... I'm kind of ready to be finished now. We've got two golden keys and were making steady progress when we stopped for the night.

Edited October 2, 2022 by BaronGrackle

[ThunderPeel2001]

The hint book is excellent, to be fair. I've looked at it randomly now I've finished the game, and the hints have always been excellent. No idea why people post in forums for help when the best help is in the game already (although maybe some people are afraid they'll be penalised for using it?).

Edited October 2, 2022 by ThunderPeel2001

[JacquesSparkyTail]

Just the once. For some reason i knew i needed to make carla forgive me but using the forgiveness frog never occurred to me. I think because of some of the wording used when the characters talked about it, i assumed it was to be used to gain forgiveness for an action from a previous game. Then i got hung up on the idea that it must be for wally. 

[Gins]

3 hours ago, ThunderPeel2001 said:

The hint book is excellent, to be fair. I've looked at it randomly now I've finished the game, and the hints have always been excellent. No idea why people post in forums for help when the best help is in the game already (although maybe some people are afraid they'll be penalised for using it?).

To share the adventure with other humans and to hear hints from them is more satisfying to some than a prebaked automated answer.

[BillyCheers]

On 10/2/2022 at 10:01 PM, BaronGrackle said:

After that, we figured out to use the Knife on the cannon light, instead of just using the food on the cannon light itself.

I had the exact problem. 😅

I was trying to use the scorched Alaska again and again with the cannon till ill looked it up in the hint book. 

[KestrelPi]

I didn't keep count but I think it was probably around 5-6 times in the end. As far as I can remember there weren't any puzzles where I had no idea what to do.

 

A good example of this was the fish eating contest: I knew I needed to pepper the fish, and I knew I needed unpeppered fish for myself, but I was working under the assumption that it was to do with the order in which I put the pepper and the fish in the bucket, and so had to end up getting a hint at which point i realised it just wanted me to take it the unspiced fish out of my inventory when it came my turn. I kept trying to put more fish in the bucket or time the spicing of the fish or something.

 

So there were several moments like that, where I knew exactly the puzzle logic that I was trying to implement but didn't get exactly what the valid action was to carry it off.

 

Most of the time when I used the hint book it did actually tell me stuff I already knew, and it was really just ome implementation thing I was hung up on. I didn't feel too bad about the hints I got because by the time I asked for the hint I felt I already had 'worked out' the puzzle, and I was just hung up on mechanics. I think there was only one time when I thought I really should have solved that myself, and but I don't remember which puzzle it was.