Part 8: Submachine 4: The Lab

Part 8
Submachine 4: The Lab

Let's continue right where we left off.

♫ Thumpmonks - Submachine 3 - The Loop
The music for the Looping Traps is somewhat of a remix of the main music in The Loop, as you might expect. Because it's really very similar, I'll just link the track of the previous game here.


As soon as we go right, it's clear that this section of the Loop is actually cut off from the rest. In fact, it's just a 3x3 square of rooms.


In the bottom right room, we find a Note.
Huh, that was just what I was thinking. Those coordinates, how did they work again?


RTL
To the left, we find our tenth easter egg Secret. Going further, there's another of those pole things.


Going up, we find a device with numbers. Each side can be set to three positions, and there's a button in the middle to activate it.


The top left room has a locking mechanism, and both of the other top rooms have a pole in them.


As you may have guessed, the numbers on the device correspond to coordinates. Setting them to a certain room activates the pole in this room, allowing me to click a button.


Each of the poles activates a light on the locking mechanism, and once we get all four, it opens up, netting us an Orb.

And that's all we can do here. Let's see, what's next on our list?

laboratory: 001; ancient section: 104; looping traps: 690; basement section: 529; lighthouse digouts: 462; tomb trap: 770; the ship: 800.

Back to the basics.

♫ Thumpmonks - Submachine 4 - Basement
This basement theme is rather different from the original, it's mostly ambient sounds. I think it fits, though.


The room to the right has a Secret in the power socket.


The device actually charges up our Coil with power. Useful!


RTL
There's another tricky Secret in the room down the ladder, hidden against the right cable. To the left, we find a Note.


I'm starting to wonder the same thing, is there an end to this submachine place? But I won't give up! At least I got a good Coil right here!




The Coil loses its charge after one use, so we run back to the charger, give it some more juice, and use it on the device on the right.


Let's follow the laser beam.


Another Note to the right.


So Murtaugh made us do that puzzle in the Loop for no reason?

The people who left these Notes seem terribly depressed though. The good news is that we found some new coordinates to check out, a brick room at 551. Let's keep that in mind.


The puzzle here is a bit of trial and error. Turns out you need to put the CD (which we picked up a while ago) in the claw to the left, and then place the Orb on the pedestal.


After a few seconds, the orb breaks, and the Chestkey falls out. Remember how the place in the Ancient Section needed a charged Coil too? That's why I go and make sure it's charged up properly... just to promptly forget about it and leave it in the charger. I'll have to come back for it later.

laboratory: 001; ancient section: 104; looping traps: 690; basement section: 529; lighthouse digouts: 462; tomb trap: 770; the ship: 800; brick room 551.

We're done here, let's go to the next place in our list, the Lighthouse Digouts.

♫ Thumpmonks - Submachine 2 - Digouts

To the left we find this thing with two floating blocks. We have hit two bells which made blocks float, so I think it's clear what we need to do to unlock this thing. There's also a Note.

I like these Notes from other explorers. They help you realize how strange this place actually is.


Speaking of strange, to the left are these blocks, floating(?) in the void. Are we really under the Lighthouse right now?


To the right of the portal, we first pick up another Secret from the ground, and then find a pipe with fast flowing water or something.


To solve this puzzle, we need to take a quick trip to the 'Brick room' at 551, which turns out to be part of the Digouts.
The portal room here has the 14th Secret.


To the left is another part of the pipe with flowing water. Pressing the button stops the flow. We also find a Note.

Shit, I hope she's okay. I wonder how long ago she left this note here. _{Don't sign your posts.}




Back in the 'main' part of the Digouts at portal 462, the flow has stopped too. We can now use our old hammer to knock off the lock, so we can grab the Turbine.

laboratory: 001; ancient section: 104; looping traps: 690; basement section: 529; lighthouse digouts: 462; tomb trap: 770; the ship: 800; brick room 551.

We're done in the Digouts for now, so let's go to the Tomb Trap. As the name indicates, this is only a single room, with no way in or out, except for the portal.

How did that portal device end up here anyway?

♫ Thumpmonks - Submachine 4 - Ancient Section

There's a Note here, and we can zoom in on some symbols on the right wall.
This Note is obviously here to tip us off that there is in fact a clue. But it was one that took me a while to get. The wall symbols are actually coordinates: 043.

laboratory: 001; ancient section: 104; looping traps: 690; basement section: 529; lighthouse digouts: 462; tomb trap: 770; the ship: 800; brick room: 551; second tomb: 043.

"Second tomb" is just the wiki's name for this area, and I suppose it's a good enough description. Let's explore.


RTL
Some weird, glowing blob in the middle room, and a few things to the left. First, there's the bell and block, the third of four. Secondly, there's a Note.


This Note is yet another hint. We need to do literally as it says, but it took me a while to get the solution.

One drop of water from the test tube we carried all the way from the Lab...

This removes the test tube from our inventory and gives us the Sceptre. And that's all we can do here. Luckily, most of the areas the portal takes us to aren't so large they cause confusion. If you're playing the game normally, it's already confusing enough, trying to find out where you have to go next.

laboratory: 001; ancient section: 104; looping traps: 690; basement section: 529; lighthouse digouts: 462; tomb trap: 770; the ship: 800; brick room: 551; second tomb: 043.


Next time, we'll explore the Ship, finish the game, and collect the reward for finding all Secrets.