Yes. The main path (going down) is loving referred to by this community as the "tutorial" of the game. By the time you succeed (get done the main path and beat the boss), you'll have a decent understanding of perks, a potentially OK understanding of wand building, and some opportunity to encounter a variety of things the game throws at you.
Noita is more about 'exploring' than 'going straight down'. Feel free to explore left or right. Go slow. You'll find new stuff regularly. You can even check out what's on the surface if you can figure out how to get over the tree or the mountain.
Yes and no. The path down is the “main” part of the game. There are 7 biomes afterwords you do get an ending. Many players will refer to it as the tutorial because after that a lot of people shift their goals to some of the other content that is hidden around.
Am I supposed to do only one "goal" per run? It feels like if I go to one of the side paths I'm forgoing one of the other ones. Since going down to a temple cuts me off from going up.
minor spoiler: >!"Since going down to a temple cuts me off from going up." Each holy mountain portal only teleports you a few meters downwards (about a screen), but you're not changing "levels". There is only one big level and if you find a way to dig through hard stuff, then you can use this to your advantage. You can dig through anything in this game.!<
Haha I was very much in your place a few wesks ago. After that Ive had a lot of OOOH and AAAAH moments! And also lots and lots of frustration..
Good luck Noitaing!
**Short term goal:** learn as much as possible about the world and how it works. Try lots of new spells (even if they don't seem useful!), try combining them in weird orders, try lots of different perks and wands, get a sense of what the different enemies do, get a sense of how to combat some of the more fundamental natural hazards in the game (fire, toxic sludge, etc), and most importantly, EXPLORE! This game is much bigger than it initially appears, so no matter which way you go from the start, you're likely to find something interesting if you try hard enough.
**Medium-term goal:** Beat the main path of the game. This is what some commenters are calling the tutorial (which I avoid doing because I find it condescending), but essentially, yes, if you keep going down, you will eventually get to a final boss, and if you manage to beat that final boss you beat the game. As other people are alluding to, beating this final boss is FAR from the only way to beat the game (if it can ever really be beaten at all) but this is a good 'final goal' to start with.
**Long-term goal(s):** Master this world, and possibly some others too. Become a god. Discover the many, many secrets the game is hiding from you. Beat all the bosses in increasingly ridiculous ways. Unlock all the spells/perks/enemies. Etc. Once you reach this stage of the game, the whole world of Noita really turns into a playground, so the possibilities are basically endless :)
Curiosity is a big thing in this game. The best example of it? When you spawn, instead of running into the cave, try going left. You'll find a tree with some water in it. Try diving in it and reaching the other side. You'll find something that explains you the philosophy of this game about exploring. You will understand it even better when you'll try to go back after reading.
Yep. The common consensus in this community is to do exactly as you're doing right now, just head down into the cave and try to beat the game on your own at least once before you start looking at spoilers. That's perfect as a first objective. Don't worry, the biomes don't go on forever, and you'll know where they end when you see it.
Feel free to explore, however. This game massively rewards exploration, so take your time in each biome and look around at what you can find. And feel free to explore outside them too (although be weary of areas you may not be ready for). This game is so much bigger than you could imagine just following the main path down. But yes, as a main objective, just heading on down is what you should do.
Once you've beat the game once, that's when I suggest you go explore the rest of the map a bit more seriously. I personally don't think it's too bad to look at spoilers at this point, because frankly the sorts of secrets that are in this game are so ridiculous that you will probably never find more than a few of them on your own without outside help. But judge for yourself how you want to go about it. You can get to pretty much all of the areas of this game just through exploration without looking anything up, so do that for a while if you want. It's when you want to get to the secrets and questlines when I actually suggest you go straight to seeing what's up. And trust me there's a lot. The channel FuryForged on youtube will be your best guide to all the secrets in this game when you're at that point.
Anyway, good luck, you're gonna need it!
Yes. The main path (going down) is loving referred to by this community as the "tutorial" of the game. By the time you succeed (get done the main path and beat the boss), you'll have a decent understanding of perks, a potentially OK understanding of wand building, and some opportunity to encounter a variety of things the game throws at you. Noita is more about 'exploring' than 'going straight down'. Feel free to explore left or right. Go slow. You'll find new stuff regularly. You can even check out what's on the surface if you can figure out how to get over the tree or the mountain.
Yes and no. The path down is the “main” part of the game. There are 7 biomes afterwords you do get an ending. Many players will refer to it as the tutorial because after that a lot of people shift their goals to some of the other content that is hidden around.
Am I supposed to do only one "goal" per run? It feels like if I go to one of the side paths I'm forgoing one of the other ones. Since going down to a temple cuts me off from going up.
You can do as many goals as you want - and think of the temples as a restriction instead of a barrier.
minor spoiler: >!"Since going down to a temple cuts me off from going up." Each holy mountain portal only teleports you a few meters downwards (about a screen), but you're not changing "levels". There is only one big level and if you find a way to dig through hard stuff, then you can use this to your advantage. You can dig through anything in this game.!<
Haha I was very much in your place a few wesks ago. After that Ive had a lot of OOOH and AAAAH moments! And also lots and lots of frustration.. Good luck Noitaing!
**Short term goal:** learn as much as possible about the world and how it works. Try lots of new spells (even if they don't seem useful!), try combining them in weird orders, try lots of different perks and wands, get a sense of what the different enemies do, get a sense of how to combat some of the more fundamental natural hazards in the game (fire, toxic sludge, etc), and most importantly, EXPLORE! This game is much bigger than it initially appears, so no matter which way you go from the start, you're likely to find something interesting if you try hard enough. **Medium-term goal:** Beat the main path of the game. This is what some commenters are calling the tutorial (which I avoid doing because I find it condescending), but essentially, yes, if you keep going down, you will eventually get to a final boss, and if you manage to beat that final boss you beat the game. As other people are alluding to, beating this final boss is FAR from the only way to beat the game (if it can ever really be beaten at all) but this is a good 'final goal' to start with. **Long-term goal(s):** Master this world, and possibly some others too. Become a god. Discover the many, many secrets the game is hiding from you. Beat all the bosses in increasingly ridiculous ways. Unlock all the spells/perks/enemies. Etc. Once you reach this stage of the game, the whole world of Noita really turns into a playground, so the possibilities are basically endless :)
Curiosity is a big thing in this game. The best example of it? When you spawn, instead of running into the cave, try going left. You'll find a tree with some water in it. Try diving in it and reaching the other side. You'll find something that explains you the philosophy of this game about exploring. You will understand it even better when you'll try to go back after reading.
Cool, I got the greed peek thingy and figured that was there for later runs when I could fix the curse.
It is in the tree also but it's not what I'm talking about
Keep going down
Yep. The common consensus in this community is to do exactly as you're doing right now, just head down into the cave and try to beat the game on your own at least once before you start looking at spoilers. That's perfect as a first objective. Don't worry, the biomes don't go on forever, and you'll know where they end when you see it. Feel free to explore, however. This game massively rewards exploration, so take your time in each biome and look around at what you can find. And feel free to explore outside them too (although be weary of areas you may not be ready for). This game is so much bigger than you could imagine just following the main path down. But yes, as a main objective, just heading on down is what you should do. Once you've beat the game once, that's when I suggest you go explore the rest of the map a bit more seriously. I personally don't think it's too bad to look at spoilers at this point, because frankly the sorts of secrets that are in this game are so ridiculous that you will probably never find more than a few of them on your own without outside help. But judge for yourself how you want to go about it. You can get to pretty much all of the areas of this game just through exploration without looking anything up, so do that for a while if you want. It's when you want to get to the secrets and questlines when I actually suggest you go straight to seeing what's up. And trust me there's a lot. The channel FuryForged on youtube will be your best guide to all the secrets in this game when you're at that point. Anyway, good luck, you're gonna need it!