How to play guide for Endling

This page is a basic **how to play guide for *Endling***.

## Basic gameplay

In *Endling*, the player takes on the role of a mother fox. The fox is confined to predefined paths and can only move left or right along the current path, and can change paths where they intersect by pressing the interact button.

The game begins with the fox in a burning forest. This prologue is completed as follows:

* Jump up to the right
* Run right
* Jump up to the right again
* Run right until a tree falls and blocks the path
* Dig under the tree
* Continue running right until blocked again by a falling tree
* Head back left just past the Preserved Species sign
* Jump up here and keep running left until reaching a climbable pipe
* Climb the pipe and run right
* Continue to the cliff until driven off
* Climb out of the garbage
* Limp right to the road for a near miss with a vehicle
* Keep limping right to a wall
* Take the nearby path to the left and keep going left
* On reaching a fence, take the nearby path to the right
* Continue until reaching an small cave opening
* Go inside
* Give birth to cubs
* Change the coat of the cubs as desired and accept when ready

The main game now begins. The first two nights are simple. The fox merely needs to find some food for the cubs and then return to the lair. For the first night, hold A to leave the lair, head right until prompted to use the sense button to sniff for food, and follow the green scent trail to find it.

The second night is similar: by going to where the first fish was found, continue across the water, follow the path over land to another lake, and catch a fish not too far into this lake.

On the third night, one of the cubs is kidnapped. Upon going out, there will be a pink scent trail for the fox to follow. As various objects are encountered relating to the cub's story, images of what happened will be shown. One object is just a few steps to the right. The next is farther to the right, and the last one is just before the lake where the first fish was caught. It will then be time to find food again. Return to the path leading the lair and head toward it, but take the first intersection instead. Follow this down until there is a chance to sneak up on and pounce on a mouse. Take it back to the lair.

On the fourth night, the remaining cubs start coming with the mother fox, so the game becomes more complex. The cubs will use up the food energy as they move about. The goal for most nights is to get enough food to keep their energy high, ideally maxed out when possible, while trying to explore new areas and trigger events. Contrary to what the game says, it isn't necessary to return to the lair before the night ends, but dangers tend to increase the longer one stays out.

As the nights continue, environmental and other changes will open up more of the map. Eventually, other lairs will be discovered. On some nights, the mother fox will pick up scents of the missing cub. Always try to follow the scent to find the three traces before returning to the lair.

### Finding food

There are several sources of food available in the environment, though food generally becomes more difficult to find as the game goes on. Be careful about feeding the cubs when the energy bar is already full since this might cause trouble finding food later on.

**Fish.** Found in lakes where water ripples and they can be seen jumping, they can easily be caught by using the pick up button at their location. But fish seems to be a very limited source of food and likely will only be found on the earliest nights.

**Berries.** The bushes the fox can jump into sometimes have berries. Just jump into the bush to get the berries, jump back out, and drop them using the pick up button to feed the cubs. Berries regrow every day.

**Garbage bags.** The mother fox can dig into garbage bags to find food, but this comes with a risk. The fox might get a plastic bag caught on her head; rapidly click interact to avoid suffocation. Bags may have between zero and three items of food, which can vary a lot in how much energy they provide.

**Rabbits and rats.** A usually rich food source, rabbits and rats tend to run from one patch of trash to another. These patches are where they can be pounced. It's necessary to sneak close to avoid scaring them off. Rabbits also have holes they can hide in, though they often don't stay in them for long.

**Pigeons.** In later nights, pigeons become a common food source, though a more difficult one to acquire. It's necessary to sneak up on them and pounce before getting too close, or else they will fly away.

**Badger‘s dens.** Later in the game, badger dens become available for fast travel if she’s been actively saved by the mother fox. One of these also automatically provides food to the cubs when traveled through.

**Cub skills.** Cub skills such as Climb, Dig, and Squeeze Through provide access to food in various areas. These need to be unlocked by triggering certain events in various areas.

### Threats

There are a variety of threats to be encountered in the environment as well.

**Refugees.** Commonly during the day, you may encounter a human who strolls around outside of Care Corp. They will be walking around either visibly hungry or sick. They do not actively chase the mother fox, but they will fight her if she runs into them. You cannot win a fight with any human if injured.

**Owls.** Owls need to be sneaked past, or they will wake and attack one of the cubs. If this happens, the mother fox can scare away the owl in time to save the cub if quick enough. Pet the cub to help it calm down after the experience.

**Traps.** There are two kinds of traps: metal jagged hinged ones that snap shut on the fox's leg, and triangular wooden ones that close around and capture the fox. The first is best jumped over, though the fox, while she'll be injured for a time, can escape by rapidly pressing interact if she does get caught. The second can be disarmed if the fox approaches it carefully; the option to disarm will appear when close enough to the trap. One cub can also learn a Disarm Traps skill late in the game that allows him to disarm both kinds of traps.

**Furrier.** The Furrier is a human that will try to catch the mother fox and kill her using a hatchet. If caught, escape is possible by rapidly hitting interact fast enough, though the fox will end up injured in the process. After an escape, the Furrier will stand in one spot for a time, nursing his injury. It is usually not possible to get past him even in this state, though. In general, the Furrier is best run from and avoided where possible.The Furrier becomes faster and becomes tougher to fight as the game progresses. Later in the game, the fox can scratch posts to bait the Furrier to search in a specific location.

**Scavenger.** The Scavenger is another human, the one that kidnaps the cub early in the game. During later nights, he takes positions from which he can watch paths and snipe at the fox if he spots her. A cone of light reveals where he is currently looking. There are bushes and other obstacles along the path that block his line of sight, and getting past him is a matter of moving from cover to cover as he looks away. Be ready to run in case he looks back quickly, but be careful about running if he's not already looking where the fox is, since running seems to immediately draw his attention.

**Guards.** In some areas, a human will have a dog and a light set up along a path. In order to cross the light, the mother fox must sneak past it while the dog is sleeping. If she is spotted in the light while the dog is awake, it will chase after and kill her if it catches up to her. A dog will wake up if the mother fox either barks or sprints. If a guard dog is awake, it will go back to sleep after a short while.

## Tips and tricks

* Keep an eye on the cubs, as they can't always follow the mother fox through some intersections. For example, if the fox had to climb, at least some of the cubs won't be able to follow. This can also happen when the intersection requires a long drop or high jump. They can also fall behind in water, especially when in water too deep for them to walk, but shallow enough for the mother fox can walk.

* Try not to go back into the lair without the cubs' hunger bar at least half full. The next night may be one where the pink scent trail of the missing cub appears, and it's usually hard to both find food quickly enough to prevent a cub from starving and follow the cub trace safely. Many times, there may be no food at all along the pink scent route.

* It isn't necessary to hold down the sense button to follow a scent trail. It only needs to be pressed occasionally to keep the scent trail visible, which allows the mother fox to move faster and run more often

* Pink scent trails, while not permanent, can stick around until the next trail arrives. However, some scents are urgent to the story and therefor last only 1 night. So keep your nose ready!

* Berries are the only infinite food source; they come back every new night. Fishes, apples, mice, eggs, and cub skill foods do not come back once fended off of.

* Few locked paths can be unlocked by going to it.