This is a text about Outer Wilds so this is the mandatory preface: If you have not played it (yet), stop here. Go buy the game and play it, then come back. No, wait! Also buy the DLC, play it and then come back!

Log 1 - Finding the Stranger

It took me a while to find the entry to the DLC, aka “The Stranger”. I was trying to look at it from a 40 degree angle, but not necessarily from the direction of the Hearthian satellite’s orbit. I assumed that what I saw on the satelite image was another planet, orbiting the sun, and the exact direction wouldn’t matter as long as it was 40 degrees up from the “disc” of the solar system. Upon reflection that was a strange idea.

I spent one whole cycle looking at the solar system from roughly 40 degrees “above” and was getting desperate. Then I found an unknown object to lock onto that didn’t have a name! I flew closer and it looked like another satellite. Could this be it!? The super-nova theme started to play and with little time left I panicked and rushed out of the ship to investigate. What I found was… aah…

Next cycle I thought let’s brute force it like a real Nomai would. I lined myself up, behind the satellite, and kept looking at the sun while following its orbit. Finally, the black dot appeared in front of the sun and when I approached it, I managed to enter the Stranger for the first time. Hurray!

New and untranslatable writing hints at another alien race that visited the solar system at some point. But, like all the Nomai structures, no one’s here. The architecture and a smaller spaceship inside the Stranger’s hangar (?) also has a different style. I can activate contraptions by pointing my light at them, which is new and different from the Nomai orbs, which would float along by looking at them.

I suppose inside The Stranger must feel fairly close to home for a Hearthian. All the wood and green are similar to Timber Hearth, a very inviting place. This is fitting for my own feelings as I’m getting back into Outer Wilds. Let me explain: As you know this is a game you can’t simply play again and re-expierence a second time around. That’s why I was looking forward to the DLC, but holding off on getting it. You can’t have a cake and eat it too, and I was enjoying having a cake for a while longer. Now, finally I’m eating. Being back inside the game with its familiar controls and looks and music is a bit like coming home. Maybe that’s why the start of the DLC is designed like this.

While exploring, I messed around with some of the contraptions. I opened a door by pointing my flashlight at it, and in the same room was a device I could rotate into different positions. I continued to another island and found some wall paintings that looked sort of like Nomai? (It’s been a while, so I might be wrong.) Before I could take a closer look at all the paintings there was a crashing noise and when I ran outside, I saw a bridge burst and a flood of water carried me away.

It could be either the place is breaking apart like Brittle Hollow, or maybe when I manipulated the devices it opened some sort of flood gate. I followed the stream a bit on one of the light-controlled rafts. Then I saw something I wanted to check out and jumped into the water. The stream carried me along and at some point I got zapped as if the water was electrified. It happened twice and I was dead. Ooops, there goes another cycle.

Log 2 - Exploring the Stranger

I’ve dubbed the aliens that used to occupy the Stranger “elks” because of their antlers. Their faces look a bit more like owls. At first I thought the wall paintings looked like Nomai, but if I’m honest I kind of forgot what the Nomai looked like. Even though I met one on the Quantum Moon, but that was too long ago.

The Elks are very fond of slide shows, they have archives of slide reels all over their ship. I learned they received some kind of signal from the eye of the universe, built a ship to come to our system and parked in front of the sun. Some more stuff happened, perhaps while they were already in the Hearthian system. Someone had a vision about the Eye being dangerous, and then they sealed something or someone away in a metal sarcophagus that’s now suspended over the reservoir in front of the dam.

Speaking of the dam, I haven’t yet found out why it breaks when it does. There’s always a short “power outage” before the dam starts leaking and eventually breaking. The environment changes with the ensuing flood, but I don’t think I’ve yet found any place that becomes accessible or inaccessible due to it. In other places like Brittle Hollow or the Twins the changing environment is fairly important, so I’m sure there has to be something here, too.

Curiously, even though the Stranger seems to have big windows, from the outside there’s nothing to see. I suppose what with the elks’ abilities to manipulate light, that makes sense?

After exploring the area for a while longer, the most prominent loose end is a combination lock sort of thing, where I can rotate five rings, each of which have eight different symbols, things like half-moons and a star. That makes 5^8=390625 possible combinations … I think? I’ll have to be on the lookout for these symbols, but haven’t discovered anything so far.

One of the slide show reels revealed that some of the wall paintings are secret entrances. They open when I take the lamps away. This lead to a basement with a bunch of dead Elks holding lanterns around a blue fire. It’s great ambiance for roasting marshmallows. I also found one of the same lanterns the corpses were holding. The lens is adjustable, but since there is no fire in it, manipulating the lens does nothing. One of the basement fires has an open spot that seems to ask me to fill it, but I haven’t found a way to light the lantern yet.

I spent considerable time running and jumping around outside to maybe try and find a way to an area that’s unreachable because of a broken down bridge, but so far no luck. It would be nice to have my spaceship in here. I really miss hopping in and out of the spaceship, so hopefully all the DLC doesn’t play in the stranger and I’ll get a chance to use the spaceship again.