knot-here.world

guesswork, the 14 October update

On 14 October the map game made way for something new. The site now opens on “ready for guesswork?”, and once you hit enter a voice reads you a story, so turn your sound on. You pick what to do at every step, and every path ends with “Your time is up.” The ticking clock is only a sound, there’s no timer on your choices, so take your time.

The coin is the whole point. Whatever you pick last decides which song plays when it’s over: push back or do something nasty and it lands on bitE, give in or go along with it and it lands on body. In the site’s code the two sides are literally called MAKE and LET. Both songs came out 16 October, the same day the full tracklist showed guessworK is track 5 on marroW. Now and then a line plays in a cursed voice instead of the normal one, so it’s worth a few runs.

Both clips play straight from knot-here.world. Rather earn them? Play it and see which one you get.

There are 13 endings, 7 for bitE and 6 for body. Here’s how to get every one of them.

1. the rabbit was rotten · bitE

   Follow the sun, wait for the owner, steal the rabbit, then bite into it. Or scavenge, ask the way into town and bite into it there.

2. the dust covers you · body

   Same two routes as the rotten rabbit, but let death take you instead.

3. poisoned in your sleep · body

   Follow the sun, wait for the owner, beg them to share, then thank them for the meal.

4. poisoned in the dark · bitE

   Follow the sun, wait for the owner, beg them to share, then complain.

5. you chop your own leg · bitE

   Follow the sun, go in and look for food, then swing at them with the axe.

6. the trick · body

   Follow the sun, go in and look for food, pretend the hut is yours, then thank them for the meal.

7. poisoned in your own bed · bitE

   Follow the sun, go in and look for food, pretend the hut is yours, then kick them out in disgust.

8. into the darkness · body

   Scavenge, ask to come inside, tell a joke, then run away when they reach for the axe.

9. the axe swings · bitE

   Scavenge, ask to come inside, tell a joke, then tell another one.

10. you both die · bitE

    Scavenge, ask to come inside, share the rabbit, then poison it.

11. impaled in your sleep · body

    Scavenge, ask to come inside, share the rabbit, cook it to perfection, then accept their offer to stay the night.

12. the axe comes down · body

    Same as impaled in your sleep, but decline, then try to reason with them.

13. consumed by guilt · bitE

    Same as impaled in your sleep, but decline, steal the axe, then swallow the poison.

Getting in

The game opens on a mirror. If you let it use your camera, your reflection shows up in the glass while a narration plays. You can skip this or say no to the camera, and either way nothing gets recorded or uploaded. Then it asks “Do you wish to enter the body?” Hit enter and you’re on the map.

You start with one item, a single match, and it stays in the first inventory slot the whole game. Don’t worry about it until the very end.

How things work: click a place on the map to go there. Click things in the scene to pick them up. To give someone an item, click it in your inventory and choose give, or drag it onto the scene. If you see “there is nothing left for you here”, you’re done there for now.

The map

Eight places. The mountain is at the top with the cave just below it to the right. The heart sits in the middle, the forest is on the right, the desert on the left, the swamp below the heart, the crocodile far right, and the wishing well at the bottom.

Walkthrough

There’s some freedom in the order, but this route works and avoids the two ways you can mess things up.

1. Mountain: meet M

   M is hunched over a workbench making things out of junk. She mutters in clicks and hisses, but she’s telling you what she needs: something a snail makes, something a crow drops, and a stone that hangs from a neck. So that’s snail stew, a crow’s feather and a diamond necklace. Everything else in the game is about getting those three.

2. Forest: take the axe

   There’s an axe stuck in a stump. Click it to pull it out.

3. Swamp: meet the Jester

   He’s leaning out of a cypress and grinning, and he’ll make fun of what you’re wearing. Whatever you answer, he ends up asking for thread. Meeting him before the cave isn’t strictly needed, but then the game points the thread out to you.

4. Cave: give the axe to the Butcher

   The Butcher lost his axe and talks about it like it’s a person. Give it to him and he walks straight out. Now take the spool of thread from the cave. Then don’t go back in (see the warning below).

5. Swamp: give the thread to the Jester

   He’s thrilled and hands you snail stew. That’s one of M’s three.

6. Wishing Well: ask for water

   The well lets you type a wish. Ask for water, or anything to drink, or a bucket. It gives you a bucket of strange water. Any other wish just gets you a riddle pointing to the heart. This is also where the best secrets are, see below.

7. Desert: give the water to the Shadow

   A shadow made of dust is dying of thirst. Give it the water and it presses a diamond necklace into your hand, one it stole from its mother, and asks you to return it because it can’t face her. Then it sinks back into the dust. That’s two. Right after, the game asks if you want to call the shadow back. Say yes, it’s a new lore scene (see Secrets).

8. Crocodile: get the feather

   A huge sleeping crocodile has a crow’s feather stuck in its teeth. You pick what to do. The safe way: hum gently to open the jaw wider, then wait for a deeper breath. The jaw goes slack and you can take the feather. Grabbing its tail or reaching in from above wakes it up and makes it angry. If that happens, ask it nicely and it calms back down. While it’s angry, going for the feather or touching its teeth makes it lunge, you get thrown out and the crocodile starts over. That’s three.

9. Mountain: give all three to M

   Hand them over one at a time. When she has all three she finally finishes what she’s been building: the effigy, made of wire, bone and fabric, like a little person. She tells you to take it to the heart.

10. Before you burn it: the crystallized clip

    Optional, but don’t skip it. Go back to the Wishing Well and ask for crystals, gems or a song. Full details under Secrets. Once the effigy burns, this is gone for that playthrough.

11. Heart: burn the effigy

    The heart is a grave in a clearing with wildflowers. Go there with the effigy and you set it down in front of the grave. Now use the match on it. The effigy burns and Kid Knot comes out, laughing and rambling, and the ending reveals marroW.

Characters

MMountain

Makes phantoms out of junk on top of the mountain and talks in clicks, “tkk” and “shhk”. She wants the snail stew, the feather and the necklace, and turns them into the effigy.

ButcherCave

Lives in a cave with meat and hooks on the walls. Lost his axe, calls it “him”, and wants it back more than anything. Do not steal from him.

JesterSwamp

Grinning in a cypress tree, roasting your outfit. Out of thread. Trades it for snail stew.

ShadowDesert

Rises out of cracked earth, thirsty, saying the river is dark. Trades the water for his mother’s diamond necklace. Call him back afterwards and he talks about a drawer, the diamonds and his body moving without him.

The CrocodileCrocodile

Half underwater with the crow’s feather in its teeth. A little puzzle about being patient.

The Wishing WellWishing well

A ring of old stone with dark water that doesn’t reflect the sky. You type to it. Gives you the water, plus a few hidden answers.

Kid KnotHeart

The one the whole game is about. Freed when the effigy burns, and says random unhinged things while the ending plays.

Items

Secrets

• The Shadow’s story. Added in an update on 7 October. After the Shadow gives you the necklace, the game says “you feel its presence still, would you like to call upon the shadow?” Say yes and he rises back up: “I told you, I don’t have time for this... Unless... have you seen him?” Answer Who? or No, I haven’t and you get a short video: a little wooden cabinet with drawers and a necklace hanging off it, then just the necklace, then it falls apart. Over it he says “My body has betrayed me… Ever since I found the drawer...” and “I saw the greed in his eyes. The diamonds. The diamonds.” The two answers get slightly different lines. Who? ends with “Only then will the waves crash and the sun be set free.” and No, I haven’t opens with “He must be here. The teller knows no bounds.” If you already gave him the water before the update, just go back to the desert, it asks you the same thing. Works any time before you burn the effigy, so you can see both versions.
• The crystallized clip. Added in an update around 30 September. Before you burn the effigy, ask the Wishing Well for crystals, a gem or a song (singles and crystallized work too). It asks “Oh, you seek cᵣyₛₜₐₗₛ? Then I must drain down to the bedrock.” Say yes, the well drains, and you get a clip of crystallized.
• Say brakence to the well. It doesn’t want to talk about him, or claims it hasn’t heard that name in years. It picks one at random.
• Say hypochondriac to the well. It tells you that’s not what you want anymore. Make of that what you will.
• Thank the well and it says it does what it must.
• Kid Knot’s lines are random. Each ending shows two of six possible lines before the same last one, so friends might get different endings. One of them is about being crystallized.
• The forest after the axe. Once the Butcher has his axe back, go to the forest and you can hear someone chopping deep in the trees. It stops once the Jester has his thread.

After the ending

Hit “return to the world” and the map has changed. Everyone is gone: the mountain is bare, the cave is empty, the well is dry and the grave is open with wildflowers growing inside it. A “begin again?” button lets you start over.

Your progress is saved in your browser, so you can close the tab and pick up where you left off. To wipe it and start fresh at any point, open knot-here.world/?reset.

Lore links

• The night before the game went up, jesteR, butcheR and m talked in the official Discord. butcheR’s axe is broken and m fixes it, m is collecting junk and asking for dirt, and kid knoT comes up. Then m posts the link. Read the whole conversation.
• In the Discord, m is “writing a letter”, finishing a “sun gift” and says the kid must see the sun, then ends with “Sun, I need your help.” In the game, the mirror narration at the start is a file called SUN_LETTER, M builds the effigy, and burning it frees Kid Knot, who can ask if the sky is still up there.
• The jester has been around since the start: the still-here.world audio file is named after it.
• The marroW cover is the art you saw at the very end of the old map game.
• The drawer. On 7 October brakence posted a clip of Problem Child: a wooden cabinet with necklaces hanging off it, in the sand between driftwood. The same day the game got the Shadow’s new scene, with what looks like that same cabinet and a necklace on it. Problem Child came out two days later, on 9 October. Watch the clip on X.
• The body. The game asks “Do you wish to enter the body?”, the map is shaped like one, and now the Shadow says his body moves without him. There’s a song called body on marroW too, which came out on 16 October.