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Complete Broken Age Walkthrough (with Achievements)

By Brittlebear

A complete guide to Broken Age, with achievements and easter eggs. Providing a text-based step-by-step guide with visuals.

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Created by

Brittlebear
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Category: Walkthroughs

Languages: English

Posted

Updated

14 Jun, 2014 @ 3:31am

28 Jun, 2020 @ 6:23pm

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Guide Index

Overview

The Games Basics

Vella Act 1 - Vella Home & Maiden Feast

Vella Act 1 - Meriloft

Shay Act 1 - The Daily Grind

Shay Act 1 - The Break Out

Shay Act 1 - Manual Override

Vella Act 1 - Shellmound (End of Act 1)

Vella Act 2 - Bossa Nostra

Vella Act 2 - Getting Into the Control Room

Vella Act 2 - Escaping the Control Room

Vella Act 2 - Build/Plant a Bomb

Vella Act 2 - Escape the Red Hanger

Shay Act 2 - Fixing the Ship

Shay Act 2 - Superconductive Gyroscopic Hypercan

Shay Act 2 - Hypergravity Thrusters

Shay Act 2 - Ship Sealant

Shay Act 2 - Radiation Suit

Shay Act 2 - Electronics Genius

Vella/Shay - Act 2 Plague Dam (Finale)

Easter Eggs

Achievements

Comments

The Games Basics

Clicking around the screen will move Vella or Shay to that location.
Click on everything, it will allow you to get items in your inventory and often the characters will give you hints to an items usefulness later.
Use your inventory items, which can be found by hovering over the bottom left corner of your screen.
Explore and play around. If you just explore and get creative you will figure out much of this game without any kind of guide or walkthrough.
Hit Esc to get to the menu and to save your game and exit when you want to.

Vella Act 1 - Vella Home & Maiden Feast

Vella's Home

Get the towel
Get the cupcake.
Give the cupcake to Grampa and split it with him
Get the knife
Achievement: Question your elders
Exhaust your dialogue options between all the characters in Vella House.
Give knife to Vella's mom

Maiden Festival
Talk to all the girls
Talk to blue girl for a drink, giving her the corset
Talk to blue girl again to borrow the water again
Give the yellow girl the water
Give the yellow girl the towel
Use the corset on the bird
Use the knife on the dress
Achievement: Escape the Maiden's Feast
You will get this automatically.

Vella Act 1 - Meriloft

Talk to Car'l (cloudshoes lady)
Go right and talk to M'ggie and get the ladder from her
Go further right and use the ladder on a nest to retrieve your knife
Give the knife to Car'l
Climb down the ladder on the bottom right, to the maidens festival
Talk to the girl and get some appropriate sized shoes and use them on Vella
Use the ladder on Jessie's nest and go to the left
Go to the left of the tree and grab a low branch. Fall down the glowing hole by the tree's trunk
Get the peach from a nest to the left
Achievement: Produce Distributor
This one is a bit of a pain. When you get the first peach have Vella eat it. Then grab the branch and get another peach. When you meet Curtis in the next area (End of Act 1, Vella) you can give it to him for his detox smoothie. Finally, you'll need to come back and grab a third after all that for the answer to a riddle.
Go right and talk to Gus
Achievement: Hygiene Demerits:
Talk to Gus until you get this achievement.
Go back up the tree, then fall down a hole in the clouds to the right
Help Gus and get Jessie's egg
Give Jessie her egg back and get a golden egg
Achievement: Mother and Child Reuinion
You will get this automatically.
Walk back to M'ggie and walk beyond her to the golden egg in the distance
Use the ladder on the nest up to the golden egg
Use the big cloud-shoes on the ladder
Get the golden egg
Go back to the main area with Jessie and then walk down the path to the bottom left
Talk to f'ther
Put anything in a basket
Climb the ladder to speak to lightbeard
Get the third golden egg
Put all the golden eggs in all three baskets
Achievement: Something Not Light About Her
You will get this automatically.
Climb down the ladder to Shellmound

(At this point you will need to play through Shay's story to continue. If you already did Shay's part of the story, scroll down to the (Vella Walkthrough Act 1; Part 2).

Shay Act 1 - The Daily Grind

Click on the blanket
Choose to eat any cereal - go through them if you like, they're pretty funny
Achievement: Picky Eater
Don't choose any of the cereals, the last one is Splargh.
Pick-up the excited spoon, after you get the achievement.
Achievement: Is Something Wrong?
Don't pick up the spoon, let it prattle on until you get the achievement, then pick it up.
Achievement: Are You Trying to Get Rid of Me Sir?
Use the spoon on everything, around your various environments or your other inventory items. You won't get this achievement until sometime in Act 2, but you have to start it here.
Use the spoon on the cereal bowl
Choose the Explore the Fungus mission
Walk right and click on the fungus, retrieving what will soon be Grabbin Gary.
Achievement: Gary Has His Reasons
Use Grabbin Gary on anything you can, in the environment around you or your inventory items. Eventually you'll get the achievement.
Choose the run-away train mission
Click the mountain to tell it to "open up"
Quickly, click the mountain again so it closes its mouth
Achievement: Whoops
You will get this automatically.

A mysterious wolf fellow will give you a screwdriver and tell you to meet him.

Shay Act 1 - The Break Out

Click the blanket
Get the compressed air, which is a yellow tank under the missions cancelled sign
Use the screwdriver on the vent to right.
Click the now open vent, and retrieve the inflatable 'raft'
Use the compressed air on the inflatable 'raft'
Use the inflated dummy on the bed
Escape through the air vent
You will meet the mysterious wolf again, he'll tell you to go to the space weaver room to the left with a star chart.
Enter the space weavers room
Use the Talon Nebula Space Chart on the space weaver
Click the space weaver to speed up his speech
I recommend saving at this point for the upcoming achievement.
Go back and talk to the wolf Marek
Rescue the creatures
Achievement: Flawless Execution
Rescue the creatures without missing once. There are 3 sections in which you save creatures, you will need to be flawless in all three sections, this guide will add an alert for when you should save so you can reload the game as needed.
The following is similar to a mini-game, much like a crane-game one might find at an arcane.
You wait and lower the arm when it's over the creature to pick it up, using the left and right arrows on the screen to move around.
Give the space weaver the Danger System 5 Star Chart
Save your game here, before leaving the Space Weavers room, for the Flawless Execution Achievement
Rescue creatures again

The ship is now locked up, from here you'll return to your room and the next day you'll need to find a way to get everything manually overridden.

Shay Act 1 - Manual Override

It is important in this next sequence that you do NOT re-enter the teleportation units once you've gone through them once, you will ultimately end up going through each of the three teleporters and not returning through it, your aim is to make Shays head tiny! More on that later.

Also all 3 main objectives can be done in different orders, this guide will be doing all three at once.

Return to Marek(wolf-guy) after Shay wakes through the vent in his room
Run through all of Mareks dialogue to get a few essential items, the Prima Doom Space Chart and the Omicron inhibitor
Go back to Shay's Room, exit to the hall to the right, enter the Kitchen (The large door with a spoon)
Pick up the Knife from the table in the bottom left of your screen
Leave the kitchen, to the right down the hall, then through the green door in the large room, which leads to the teleporter hub.
Go down the red teleporter to the Trophy Room (Junk Room)
Pick up the Hazard Suit Helmet (baby suit, radiation helmet)
Exit to the right through the vent (DO NOT GO BACK THROUGH THE TELPORTER)
Return to the teleport hub, go through the blue teleporter next.
(Detailed instructions: Exit to the right and back to the Marek's control room, go through the space weavers room, to the main room, then through the green door to the teleporter hub. Finally go through the blue teleporter.)
Shays head will be very small now, go to the left and exit this hall, to the next hall with 2 doors
Go through the first door in this hallway with the large smiling face on it
If you didn't before, play the game with the yarn friend, by talking to him and doing the 'attack protocol'
Now help the yard friend out with the Crochet Hook in his back by offering to fix it
Back out in the main hall go through the next door to the left with the ice cream mountain on it
Walk to the opposite side of the room and pick up the Whipped Cream Gun
Leave the area, go back down the hall and to the Space Weavers room.
Talk to the Space Weaver and choose to go the Cozy Cluster.
While he's busy with his count-down, go down the ladder, and use the Crochet Hook on the pattern. But be quick!
Add stitches to alter the pattern. Use the picture below for reference.
Achievement: Doomed
You will get this automatically.
Return to the teleporter hub (green door off the main room)
Go through the only teleporter left, the yellow teleporter, and the final teleport to shrinking your head completely.
Move to the left of the core room
Put on the Hazard Helmet
Walk through the shield
Use the headset on the Fusion Orb
Achievement: Inhibited
You will get this automatically
Leave the area back up the teleporter
Go through the blue teleporter again
Go right through the moon door, and right again through the air lock
If you didn't before, approach the tentacles on the ship and retrieve a present.
Go back inside the airlock and open the present to get Grabbin' Gary. Go back outside

[/i]

Easter Egg: Smelling Salts

If you go into space and use the knife on the hose, Shay will suffocate in space. When he is brought back inside he's revived using some familiar looking Smelling Salts, from another Double Fine game, Psychonauts.

Attach the compressed air to Shays helmet

Attach the whipped cream gun to Shay

Use the knife on the hose attaching Shay to the ship

Move up

Move up and around the large antenna, and to the left to find the manual override for the boom arm controls.

Use the knife on the hatch

This is your last chance to get the Gary Has His Reasons Achievement, once you attach Gary to the controls you won't get him back.

Use Grabbin' Gary on the controls

Achievement: Armed

You will get this automatically

Float back to the ship (right) and into the airlock

You're finally ready, make your way back to Marek!

Save your game here for the Flawless Execution Achievement

Talk to Marek.

Do the same mini-game as before and that's it for Shay.

Now to do the Final Act 1 section for Vella.

[/list]

Vella Act 1 - Shellmound (End of Act 1)

After you complete Shay's portion of the story and Vella's through Meriloft you may now do the final section for Vella!

Click the upstairs stained-glass window
(breaking off piece)
Click the axe by the door
Talk to Curtis, the man in the house you just fell through
Listen to Curtis, that snake is mean
Look at the art above the fireplace
Talk to Curtis again to obtain the artwork
Achievement: Not Good With Directions
Ignore Curtis's warning and head left outside his house, running into a snake. Let the snake attack Vella until you get a cutscene and are once again in Curtis's house.
Move right out the door and down a path
Use the axe on the tree
Continue to walk right into Shellmound
Talk to major, tell him his bucket hat is fancy, get yourself a bucket!
Get driftwood from the beach
Return to Curtis with the driftwood and let him carve it into a stool
Put the bucket on the Trees branch (nose)
Torment the tree with the stool until it vomits sap into the bucket
Give the sap-filled bucket to the major, to fix his sand problems
Walk past the fishy maidens up the stairs to the temple
Tell them you'll get more holy tear gas, to get the tear gas gun
Talk to them about passing and a riddle
Present the priestesses with the peach
Enter the temple
Use the 'art' from Curtis on the Node to the right
Use the glass from the window on the middle terminal
Click colorful crystal 'search beam' on the middle column
Put the coil on the bottom and the stain-ed glass on top
Leave the ship and go back to the beach
Use the holy tear gas on the chum by the beach
Use loaded gun on the maidens
Click the perfume to retrieve it
Use the perfume on Vella
Talk to the mayor to begin the Maidens Feast
Using the detonator in your inventory, shoot 3/4 legs off of the beast with the laser
Get picked up, use the ladder on the creatures mouth
Once on the ground, use the laser on it's mouth

Achievement: Little Things Can Surprise You
You will get this automactically
Achievement: Please Don't Tell Anyone
You will get this automatically
Prepare for your mind to be blown
End of Act 1

Vella Act 2 - Bossa Nostra

Bossa Nostra

Click around to wake Vella
Pick up the talking knife
Go right, to the next area
Get the Helmet from the wall
Use the knife on the long dangling pipe, to get a short pipe
This part is randomize, so use trial and error with your short pipe on the various vents until you get the middle of the 3 possible platforms to pop out of the wall
With the middle platform extended, climb to the top of the long pipe and use your knife friend
Use the longer pipe between the vents, again randomized play with it until a cutscene is triggered.
Floating around, Vella will need to use the helmet to attract the yarn mechanical arm. This requires some amount of timing, so that Vella holds it out while the hand is closest to her.
Now you have the yarn hand, you need to grab Shay's boot when Vella goes by it, and when the large hand is clenched.
With the boot and yarn hand as one, time it so Vella uses her new item on the large mechanical hand and magnetizes herself to it.
Finally, jump off the large hand into the open porthole.

Vella Act 2 - Getting Into the Control Room

Go left, following the hallways until you reach the hall that ends with Shays room.
You will need to move some debris out of the way went you reach it. DO NOT MOVE IT BACK! Leave the path open!
Achievement: "That kind of thing can be pretty convincing."
It is suggested you save manually before talking to Shay's Mother. Talk to Shay's mother, exhausting her dialogue her and do so again later, when you get into the control room with her.
Talk to the picture of mom on the control room door, going through the dialogue.
Go into Shay's room, then down the vent to see Marek
Go through Marek's dialogue, and get access to the room on the left.
Enter Marek's room and then go to the trophy room from there
Examine the various trophies of Shay's childhood (including a tolerance for snake strangling)
Take the teleporter out of the trophy room, and similar to before with Shay, we want to increase Vella's head size with each new teleport.
Go through down the blue hallway with the childrens missions and take the blue teleporter baxk to the teleporter hub.
With Vella's head 2x bigger then normal, go to the control room and fool Shay's mother into believing Vella is Shay.

Achievement: What Can I Say? I Know Boots"

Answer all of Shay's Mothers questions correctly on the first try.

You can figure out the answers to mom's questions from the trophy room, but here they are to save time (and get the Achievement):

"MIster Huggy"
"Please, can we not do this..."
Purple, Size 4, Polka Dot pattern

Enjoy some juicy plot.

Achievement: There is Hope

You will get this automatically.

Vella Act 2 - Escaping the Control Room

Achievement: Not Everyone has the Stomach for Perfection

Exhaust the dialogue with Marek from the video screen.

Collect the fork
Talk to Shay's Mother going through her dialogue
Click on the orange orb (Sun Strobe) near the ceiling
Achievement: No Retreat
You will need to execute the next sequence of the game, escaping the control room, flawlessly. So I highly recommend saving at this point. Much of this sequence has to do with careful timing. Quick version: You must make the repair robot go through all the rooms without it turning back once.
You are now seeing things the way Shay's mother would have, as the giant sunny face. So move from room to room and examine your options. Unlocking doors as you go.
In Shay's room you can use the mechanical arm to lift the debris off of Inflatable Shay, and proceeds to deposit him in the kitchen (This will be useful later).
Achievement: Turn That Frown Upside Down
Remove 8 sad faces from the Bossa Nostra, go ahead and make all those sad robot faces happy again!
Going as far as you can to the right, you will see a robot with a flashlight, and the repair robot. Your task will be to lure the repair robot to the control room to fix the control rooms locked door. The robot will repair any circuit you overcharge, as long as it's close-by, and in the dark. If there is a light on near the circuit, the robot will assume everything is fine. If you want the achievement you will need to do this section without once messing up (having the robot turn back).
When the robot is almost at the control room, it will be sucked out the window. Drat!
Go to the kitchen, you didn't quiet lose the repair robot yet! Click the monitor until it's set to Taco Pill Tuesday, and use the new mechanical arm icon to bring the little robot back inside.
Before you go, set the monitor back to Good Morning!
Lower the mechanical arm with cereal, pause it before it go back into the ceiling.
Continue to lure the repair robot to the control room. Done!

Vella Act 2 - Build/Plant a Bomb

Go to the Ice Cream Avalanche Room, use the cloud-shoes on Vella and climb the mountain
Put ice-cream into the helmet like a bowl
Move the debris in the missions hallway to block the path
Go to the teleporter hub and take the middle one down to the Fusion Generator
Place the Fusion orb into the ice cream filled helmet
If you didn't before, go to the Sun Strobe (in the Control Room) and from the machine go t the kicthen and set the middle terminal to Good Morning! Lower the mechanical arm, but pause it before it goes back up, so there is cereal dangling. Exit the Sun Strobe.
Go to the kitchen and click on the cereal. Some will drop on the floor.
Chase the cleaning robot, but cut it off by using the blue teleporter (the one on the right), and click on the garbage disposal.
Pick up the cereal and place the Fusion Orb in the disposal

Achievement: Holy Smokes

You will get this automatically.

Vella Act 2 - Escape the Red Hanger

Escape the Red Hanger

If you haven't already, use the Sun Strobe (in the Control Room) to remove the debris in Shay's room and get the Inflatable Shay moved to the kitchen.
Leave the Control Room and enter the Kicthen
Pick up Inflatable Shay
Head to the Ice Cream Avalanche room, and using the whipped cream gun to reinflate the Shay doll.
Go to the Train room, ride the train with your inflatable Shay.
When asked to do the wave, say yes and retrieve some Spare Yarn.
Combine the Spare Yarn and the Fork
Go to the Space Weaver room and place the Fork & Yarn onto the Space Weavers head.
You now need to get a Space Chart from Marek, so go to Shay's room and hop down the vent.
Looks like you can't go this way, so go to the teleport hub and take the left teleporter down to the trophy (junk) room.
Go left into Mareks room, examine the panel to the right of the door.
Achievement: Greetings From Obvious Town
Talk to the maidens, exhaust their dialogue
Talk to the maidens and offer them your cereal.
When they reach for the cereal they will do so with a Hook, quickly grab the Hook from them
Examine the open panel again and trigger an alarm
Now Marek is busy trying to fix the panel, hurry back to Shay's room and down the vent
In Mareks computer room examine the computer and lock Marek in the other room
Grab the Star Chart next to the computer
Return to the Star Weaver, and give him the Star Chart
It won't work because you're already at the destination
At this point you would be expected to complete Shay's side of the story up a point where Alex gives Shay a melody (when Shay gives Alex a Tune Pipe) which is the ships return command. The tune would match the pattern you need to display.
Give him the chart again but this time, using the hook make the following pattern:
If done correctly the Space Weaver will be ready to move the ship
Achievement: Go With Your Instincts
You will get this for completing the complex puzzle.
Go to the Control Room and talk to Shay's Mother to trigger a cutscene
After the major plot developments, you can now examine a family portrait on the computer controls, the symbols on which will help you in Shay's section of the story to come.

Shay Act 2 - Fixing the Ship

Fixing the Ship

After a cutscene between Shay and his dad you'll find yourself on the shore of Shellmound.
This is a good time to explore the area.

Move left to the main town of Shellmound
You can explore and talk to people but there isn't much to do here yet.
Pick up the hexipal on the beach.
Walk up the mountain and into the defunked ship.
Talk to Alex to figure out your mission.

You now need:

Superconductive Gyroscopic Hypercan
Hypergravity Thrusters
Ship Sealant
Radiation Suit
Electronics Genius

The following 5 sections will be broken down by which item you're after but you can get them in any order or do several at once.

Shay Act 2 - Superconductive Gyroscopic Hypercan

Talk to Alex and receive the Superconductive Gyroscopic Hypercan Schematic.
Exit the ship, go across the town, left past the tree and to the woods, continue left to the mean snake.
Let the snake squeeze Shay until it passes out and pick it up.
Check Curtis's mailbox and retrieve a Missing Person Flyer.
Return to Shellmound and use the snake on Marshall Dune the mayor.
Retrieve the Tuner.
Show Marshal Dune the Superconductive Gyroscopic Hypercan Schematic, get the Hypercan Sand model.
Put the Hypercan Sand Model in front of the tree.
Show the tree the Missing Persons Flyer
Get the Hypercan Model and bring it to Curtis

Achievement: Get Hyper

You will get this automatically

Shay Act 2 - Hypergravity Thrusters

Go up the ladder in Curtis's Cabin to Meriloft
Talk to F'ther and find out the Lightbeard is stuck.
Climb the ladder and find out about the knot by talking to F'ther. Take notice of the knots shape, but don't try to solve it by yourself. You need a knot specialist.
It is recommended you save before talking to Carol to make sure you get the right diagram for your knot for the Knot That Difficult Achievement
Return to Shellmound and talk to Carol, she's a knot specialist.
She'll make you a knot diagram but need a pencil
Go to the ship and ask Alex for his pencil
Use the pencil on Carol, and retrieve the knot diagram
Examine the diagram, paying attention to the shapes you see.
Return to Meriloft and climb the ladder.
Achievement: Knot that Difficult
You must complete the knot puzzle the first time without messing up. So save here before you talk to F'ther so you can reload if you need to.
Help F'ther with the knot based on the diagram. Dialogue options will change acording to the knot and diagram you are using.
Achievement: "My Lightness!"
You will get this for completing the knot puzzle, if you did it on the first try or not.
Retrieve the Hypergravity Thrusters and arrive back at Alex's ship.

Shay Act 2 - Ship Sealant

Talk to Shay's father and find he need the ship sealant to have an exact pH of 7. You can use the spoon on the mixture to see what the pH is
Make your way back up to Meriloft and all the way to the peach tree.\
Fall down the center hole by the tree trunk
Go left and talk to Hunter for a Fruit Tapper
Pick up a peach
Go back to Jessie and her egg, use the fruit tapper on the egg
Pick up the egg shells
Return to Shay's father and balance the solution
1 Egg sell will raise the PH by 3, 1 peach will lower it by 2. So you only need to add each once.
Use the spoon to check the pH, if it's 7 then Shay's father will give it to Alex.
Achievement: "I'll be the undercarriage on this baby is shot"
You will get this automatically.

Shay Act 2 - Radiation Suit

Go to the maidens feast area of Meriloft
Achievement: Sick of Fish
Talk to the jailed Lightbeard three times for the achievement.
Talk to Twyla, the downtrodden maiden, about a new radiation suit.
Give her the baby radiation suit (The one you've had since Act 1) as a template, now you need material
Go to the peach tree and talk to Dead-Eye Courtney and Dawn for their robes, they won't give them up without a fight
Go to the eastern cloud and talk to Vella's sister Rocky and M'ggie, they want to sell Shay and cupcake
Go to Brommel and Ch't and ask about how to get money, get a coin.
Give the girls the coin for a cupcake
Take the cupcake to Walt'r who licks it clean, ew
Take the slobbery cupcake to Brommel who will frost it and give you a cane.
Return to the peach tree, show them the cane and retrieve the Dead-Eye Robes
Give Twyla the Dead-Eye Robes and get yourself a fancy new Radiation Suit
Achievement: "What's up with all the feathers?"
You will get this automatically

Shay Act 2 - Electronics Genius

If you didn't before pick up the hexipal on the beach in Shellmound
Talk to Carol about her wire, she need hooks before she gives it up
Next we need the fish plague out of the talking trees branches, to get it you'll have to tell him a good tree joke.
Achievement: Make Like a Tree and Laugh
Save at this point, before talking to the tree. You will need to tell the perfect tree joke, on the first try. The jokes are random, but the jokes will always be 2-parted and about trees. Though the tree will not like jokes about saws, tree racism or non-sequiturs.
Tell the tree a joke it likes
Achievement: How'd I do?
Talk to the tree again after telling him the joke. [Note] Not all of the successful jokes will have a follow up for this achievement, it is suggested, if you have one of those jokes, to go back to your manual save before talking to the tree and try to get a different successful joke for this achievement. A successful joke: Did you hear about the First National Tree Bank > It closed down > Don't worry, it just opened a new branch
Retrieve the fish plaque and show it to Carol
Show Carol the Knitting Hook and get the wire
Now you can fix the Hexipal, but you'll need to complete Vella's section up-to Escaping the Red Hanger, where she can examine a Family Photo of Shays to help you with the puzzle.
In the photo are a series of symbols that are a combination.
With the combination either written down, screenshot, or remembered, take the Hexipal to Alex's ship.
Combine the wire with the robot and examine it
You can now rewire the robot, but once you've placed three wires you can't place any more.
Use Shay's Family Photo from Vella's side of the story as your guide to connecting the symbols
To see if you've done the wiring correctly place the hexipal into the Diamond Charging Station Pillar, on the left side of Alex's ship
Achievement: "And They Do Windows!"
Repair the robot.
Don't worry, if you get it wrong just take out the hexipal and try again.
When you've done it correctly the hexipal will spring back to life.
Show Alex the hexipal who is now your Electronic Expert, who will help repair the ship

If this is your last piece of the ship needed you'll be treated to a cutscene and arrive at the Plague Dam!

Vella/Shay - Act 2 Plague Dam (Finale)

The two ships have crashed! You will now be switching between Shay and Vella frequently to fix various puzzles and problems.

Start as Shay, talk to everyone.
Use the Grabbin' Gary Controller in Shay's inventory to grab Alex's ship
Achievement: He Must Have A Reason
When Hope (Shay's Mother) disables the Grapple Arms, talk to her. Explain Shay must have a reason for what he's doing, even if she doesn't understand.
Switch to Vella, go outside the control room and pick up the Robot
Go to the large room with a hole in the ceiling, and use the Death Ray Remote
Achievement: The Next Logical Course of Action
When Alex disabled the Death Ray, have Shay talk to him. Explain that Vella must have a reason, even if he doesn't know what.
As Vella, go to Shay's room and down the vent to Mareks computer room. Grab some Scrap Wire for Vella to repair the robot
Achievement: We Talked That Fight Right Out of You
Exhaust the dialogue with Marek from the video screen.
Play out the cutscene, combine the scrap wire and robot
Rewiring the robot should be simple, the colors are all marked with burn marks from where the robot was previously wired. But take note of the pattern, because Shay will need to do some re-wiring of his own later.
Switch to Shay, you can now wander the ship
Go down the ladder, and go through Shay's fathers dialogue
Examine a book in the bottom left corner of the room, it will give you a combination of symbols to wire a robot to play a harp, copy the combination for later
Head left, and notice the rogue robots
Enter the room on the right, the music room
Pick up a Broken Radio in the lower right corner
Go back to the Control Room, and show the radio to the dancing robot
The robot will fix the radio, show the radio to Alex
Go back down the ladder and left, and left again to the room with the rogue robots, show them your newly acquired robot
Achievement: The Next Logical Course of Action
Show the robot on its dancing wiring to the rogue robots.
Rewire the robot with the pattern you found in the book, using the charging station to see if you've done it correctly
Achievment: "Eh, eh-eh. Eh eh, Eh-eh!"
Wire the hexipal with the following symbols: BLUE: Left-right arrows to Up-down arrows YELLOW: Left Right arrows to little space-ship RED: Left Right arrows to Down Triangle If you do this correctly, you'll get a treat from the Double-fine team.
Make sure to you take note of the wiring, you'll need to know it for Vella's robot later - take a screenshot or write it down, since the only way to get it back is to re-do this process and all progress made after this point.
With the robot ready to play the harp, bring it to the music room
With the rogue robots distracted, walk past them to the power generator room
Examine the switch on the wall, get a small mallet
Go to the room to the left, flick on the power generator, and return to the music room
Pick up the robot and rewire him to the swinging pattern Vella's robot used
If you need to you can switch back to Vella and examine her robot for the layout
Give the swinging robot the small mallet
Place the robot at the drum
Move Shay to the Control Room
Switch to Vella, rewire Vella's robot to play the harp
Place the harp-playing robot at the bottom of the Space Weaver, distracting Shay's Mother
Go to the Control Room, examine the computer controls, you want the controls on manual
Position Vella outside the Space Weavers door
Switch to Shay, use the Grabbin Gary Remote
Switch to Vella, use the Death Ray Remote
Achievement: Dammed
You will get this automatically
Achievement: Unbroken
You will get this automatically
The End

Achievement: Let's Get The Good Time Over With
Beat the Game with a save-file time of under 60 minutes. Tips: Skip every cutscene, double click all room transitions, skip through dialogue as much as possible. In the beginning, do all 3 missions with Shay, ending with the train mission to save time. You can't skip the end of Act 1 cutscene, and you can't do the Shay and the snake puzzle any faster. Use your save slots to their fullest, and pause screen as much as needed. Screenshot your various wiring puzzles, and use back-up saves often. It's a tough one, but if you're fast enough and ignore (or at least skip through it quickly) almost all of the dialogue you should be able to do it. Good luck!

Easter Eggs

Smelling Salts from Psychonauts
If you let Shay suffocate in space, when he is retrieved into the ship, he will be revived by some familiar looking smelling salts.

Unlock 8-bit Retro Mode

Set your resolution to 640x480, in the options menu.
There will be a new buttons for Shay and Vella in the lower right corner.
You can now toggle this mode by clicking those buttons.

Achievements

The Achievements are in the guide as you play. But if you're looking for one specifically, this is the run-down of all achievements.

3.3
Get every Achievement.
Is Something Wrong?
Shay Act 1
When Shay is having breakfast, don't pick up the spoon until you get the achievement.
Picky Eater
Shay Act 1
Don't choose any of the cereal options, ending with Splargh.
Whoops!
Shay Act 1
You'll get it when you retract the bridge during the train mission
Flawless Execution
Shay Act 1
You must rescue the creatures flawlessly, meaning, the grabbing arm cannot miss once, during all 3 different times you play this mini-game. See the Act 1 Shay mission section for recommended times to save, to get this achievement.
Inhibited
Shay Act 1
When you inhibit the Fusion Orb you will get this Achievement.
Gary Has His Reasons
Shay Act 1
Use Grabbin Gary on everything you can. You can use him on items in your inventory or the environment.
Armed
Shay Act 1
Used Grabbin Gary on the arm controls in space.
Doomed
Shay Act 1
Use the Space Weaver to get to the Prima Doom Sector.
Question your Elders
Vella Act 1
Get through all the dialogue in Vella's house with all the characters.
Escape the Maiden's Feast
Vella Act 1
Escape the Maiden's Feast.
Hygiene Demerits
Vella Act 1
Talk to Gus (guy hanging from a branch in Meriloft) until you get the achievement.
Mother and Child Reunion
Vella Act 1
Give Jessie her egg back.
Something Not Light About Her
Vella Act 1
Finish the Meriloft section of the game with Vella.
Produce Distributor
Vella Act 1
Using the peach found in Meriloft, first have Vella eat one, get another, give it to Curits for the Achievement. You'll need a third one for the Shellmound riddle.
Not Good For Directions
Vella Act 1
As Vella, get attacked by the snake until she passes out.
Little Things Can Surprise You
Vella Act 1
Fight Mog Chothra!
Please Don't Tell Anyone
Beat Act 1!
Are You Trying to Get Rid of Me?
Shay Act 2
Use the spoon on everything, similar to the Grabbin Gary Achievement, but you have the spoon a lot longer then Gary.
Get Hyper
Shay Act 2
Build the Hypercam
Knot Too Difficult
Shay Act 2
You must beat f'thers Knot Puzzle Correctly the first time! Go to Shay Act 2 - Hypergravity Thrusters for more details.
"My Lightness!"
Shay Act 2
Do the knot puzzle.
Sick of Fish
Shay Act 2
Talk to the jailed Lightbeard three times.
"What's up with all the feathers?"
Shay Act 2
Get the feathery radiation suit.
"I'll bet the undercarriage on this baby is shot."
Shay Act 2
Get a pH level of 7
Make Like a Tree and Laugh
Shay Act 2
Tell the perfect joke to the tree on the first try, see Shay Act 2 - Electronic Genius for more info.
How'd I do?
Shay Act 2
Talk to the tree again after telling him a joke.
"And, They Do Windows!"
Shay Act 2
Repair the robot!
There is Hope
Vella Act 2
Meet Shay's Mom
No Retreat
During Vella Act 2 - Escape the Control Room, Make the repair robot get to the control room flawlessly, leading it from room to room without it retreating. Recommended to use saves liberally.
"That kind of thing can be pretty convincing."
Vella Act 2
When Vella Talks to Shay's mom for the first time, exhaust all dialogue. Do so again when Vella unlocks the control room.
Not Everyone has the Stomach for Perfection
Vella Act 2
When locked in the control room, talk to Marek through the video screen, exhaust his dialogue.
We Talked That Fight Right Out of You
Vella Act 2
When talking the President Evil, exhaust his dialogue.
Turn That Frown Upside Down
Vella Act 2
When using the Sun Strobe, turn 8 monitors from sad to happy faces.
Greetings From Obvious Town
Vella Act 2
Talk to the Maidens in the ship, exhaust their dialogue.
Holy Smokes
Vella Act 2
Use the bomb on the disposal
Go With Your Instincts
Vella Act 2
Set the Star Chart using info gained from Shay's part of the game.
Dammed
Complete Act 2
"Eh, eh-eh. Eh Eh, Eh-eh!"
For Shay or Vella set their Robot in the Finale to:
Blue: Left-right arrows to Up-down arrows
Yellow: Left Right arrows to little space-ship
Red: Left Right arrows to Down Triangle
You are rewarded with a double-fine treat.
He Must Have A Reason
Shay Act 2
When Shay tried to use the grappling Arms have Vella explain the Shays mom that he must have a reason.
The Next Logical Course of Action
Shay Act 2
Show the dancing robot to the rogue robots.
She Must Have A Reason
Vella Act 2
When Alex disables the Death Ray have Shay explain that Vella must have had a reason.
Unbroken
Beat the game.
Let's Get This Good Time Over With
Beat the Game in under one hour.

40 Comments

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NeedTorches 16 Jan, 2023 @ 10:33am

i am not a king i am not a god i an needtorches

Aziz 3 Oct, 2022 @ 9:49am

thanks a lot ♥

SixthBlackWing 27 May, 2022 @ 10:09pm

Knot Complete Puzzle -
https://www.appunwrapper.com/2015/05/07/broken-age-act-2-walkthrough-guide-untying-the-knots/

Hexipal/Speedrun Help -
https://psnprofiles.com/guide/2761-broken-age-lets-get-this-good-time-over-with-speedrun-walkthrough

Suggested above - save after adding wires to hexipal, connect 1-2, 3-4, 5-6 and copy the shapes to each node. load save for time

Velral 14 Mar, 2022 @ 11:20pm

Thank you for this guide! Managed to 100% complete the game using these tips. It was a fun 30 hours to do everything. :D

Bouma 29 Nov, 2021 @ 7:35am

This guide is pretty good. Helped me out a lot. Thanks!

Ron 24 Oct, 2021 @ 9:20am

Wow this must be one of the neatest guide i've seen on steam, I haven't even began to use it but I already gave you an award! cheers!

aquatorrent 22 Mar, 2021 @ 9:32am

some extra info:
"That kind of thing can be pretty convincing." will be obtained after you can exit the control room (not through the electrical machine).

"Flawless Execution" will be obtained after you finish the Prima Doom mission - you can get it at the end of Act 1

it might be obvious, but "3.3" achievement doesn't need to be done in one save

alternative solutions for tree jokes: https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=444565569
(some of the solution won't give you the "How'd I do?" achievement though)

this can help for the knot puzzle:
https://www.pocketgamer.com/articles/065186/how-to-solve-the-knot-puzzle-in-broken-age/
you need to figure out the pattern by yourself though. i only know 2 patterns:
1. the one that looks like carol (you'll see a long knot at top and a big, bundled knot at the bottom)
2. headache something (it's like a rectangle with a circular knot in the middle)

tutorial for hexipal puzzle: https://youtu.be/MkSDeeWClGk?t=310

👻 Spooky XTS 🎃 6 Mar, 2021 @ 9:40pm

Thanks for the guide :)

👻 Spooky XTS 🎃 6 Mar, 2021 @ 9:24pm

TY Law_Dawg! I've been back and forth from this guide and the danged portal trying to figure that out for a while now. Kudos!

Samraidho 27 Jun, 2020 @ 7:48pm

This one is great and I'm giving reward!

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