Barrens

Niko looking at The Tower upon entering Barrens.

The **Barrens** is the first major location Niko and the Player arrive in. It's a desolate land filled with multiple abysses, ruined machinery, and abandoned factories. Many Phosphor shrimp exist in this area.

## Overview

The Barrens is the second main area in OneShot. As its name implies, it is a desolate area. It has a small number of NPCs and structures. In it, Niko must fix the Rowbot, so they can get to the Glen.

## Map

Map of Barrens (view full image).Map of 2014 Barrens (view full image).
## Sublocations

### Entrance

After exiting the Starting Area, Niko ends up at the left-most side of the Terminal Room in this area. When they exit for the first time, a cutscene is played showing them stepping out with the Sun as they look at the Tower from a distance.

The Barrens are for the most part abandoned, save for a few robots.

### Outpost

The area where Prophetbot is found in. The nearby building is the actual outpost, which contains the generator for the Barrens, a PC, and an overview map of the World. In another building, the crusher can be found, which is used to make the crowbar.

### Docks

The docks of the Barrens. There is a rusty Rowbot present there that, upon using the wet sponge on it, and subsequently, given the Amber, can take Niko to the Glen.

### Cliffs

A maze of cliffs can be found along with a few notes from past residents of the Barrens and a safe containing a gas mask and a strange journal. This is the first place where square particles are witnessed, appearing only after the safe is unlocked and walked away from.

### Lookout Point

Silver resides in a building here. One of her screwdrivers can be taken from that building.

### Mineshaft Entrance

Silver will not allow Niko to go here alone. Inside, a camera can be found. Solstice begins here. If Niko approaches the ledge for the first time, they will comment about seeing a faint yellow glow in the distance. Looking again, the yellow glow would have disappeared. Silver will then tell Niko to take a step back due to the unsafe environment. On a New Game+ run (required to begin Solstice), Niko will get a vision of Prototype. Along with that, the strange journal starts to glow. Solstice can be ignored or aborted in the next room.

### Old Factory

The robot factory has fallen into disuse, but some machinery is still in operation. Niko cannot approach this area without a gas mask. The sponge and gloves can be found here.

### Dormitories

The dormitories are still attended by robots, one of which is the Blue Guardian. Some robots will follow Niko around this area.

### Shrimp Swamp

There are several sparkling pools full of Phosphor shrimp, one of which has formed a bubble containing a rare form of blue phosphor. There are also several smoke vents in this area, making this area also inaccessible without a gas mask. Some notes suggest the pools of shrimp play an important role in consuming the noxious gases before they can waft in significant quantities to other areas.

### Mines

The mines can be accessed by observing the journal whilst standing on the clover after Niko observes a distant yellow light in the mineshaft entrance. Terminals can be found in the mines, all of which have been powered off; one of which later turns on which catches Silver's attention. There is an entrance which leads to the room where Proto can be found. If you've reached the terminal room the solstice has begun and the rowbot is now covered with squares so the normal endings are no longer possible.

## Strategy

Oneshot is a game that has lots of hints of what to do in its world building so this is not the intended way to get through its just for people who are stuck.

1. Going upwards from the start of the barrens leads to a pipe in this mini house thing.
2. To the right of the Prophetbot there is a factory with a crusher machine.
3. Crush the pipe in the machine to make a crowbar.
4. In the house above the Prophetbot you can pry open a box to get the broken battery.
5. To the north east there is Silver's home and the mines.
6. Pick up the screw driver in Silver's home and interact with the rope in front of the mines after talking to them.
7. In the mines pickup the camera and use the screw driver on it to get the lens.
8. Then combine the Broken Battery with the lens to make the empty battery.
9. Use the sun on the empty battery to charge it and put it in the generator in the house above Prophetbot.
10. Then go and interact with the computer that now has power.
11. If you do not know what to do from that you can ask again and it gives more detail explanations.
12. Then go to the safe in the cliffs and put in the code from the document to get the gas mask.
13. Head to the medical area past the vent area and pick up the syringe.
14. Go to the shrimp swamp and find the bubbled pond and use the syringe to get the goop. Then go to the top of the swamp and find a vent that is leveled and trap the gas in the bottle. Then you should inject the goop into the bottle through the cork.
15. In the first vent area near the look out there is a building that has a boarded up room that you can get into with the crowbar as well as some gloves.
16. Pick up the sponge and bring it to the area above the entrance.
17. Combine the acid made from the goop and the gas with the sponge to make it wet and use it on the Rowbot. It should be obvious what to do now as it's basically just a cut scene.

## Trivia

* If the map 007, "Barrens", the internal folder for all Barrens maps, is viewed using RPG Maker XP, a picture of Niko drawn using the map's tileset can be seen. Backgrounds like glen/barrens water don't show up in RPG Maker XP. In-game renders and more about unused maps.
* There is a ":3" emoticon made using the map's tileset that can be seen on the map file of the entrance area. Seeing it in-game is not possible.
* According to a journal entry in the Swamp, the sole reason the poisonous gas doesn't spread is because the native shrimp consume the gas.
* The mineshaft entrance is an unused fast travel destination. Fast travel can be used here when it was entered from lookout point but not from inside the mines because the map lacks any fast travel related trigger. Fast travel points naturally re-enable fast travel so it's safe to assume mineshaft entrance point was cut.