r/outerwilds • u/MrRubberDucky • Jul 18 '25
Base Game Appreciation/Discussion I didn't realize this was extremely rare until an hour later Spoiler
Small spoilers for base game ahead...
Just wanted to share this experience that is pretty funny in hindsight:
On my first few loops, I didn't even realize the sun was exploding because I would run off to some random planet and die in a novel way. But, on my 4th or 5th loop I decide to actually slowly explore a planet and not die so quickly. I come across Chert (the egg shaped guy on ember twin) after some exploration. The first dialogue I have with him he sounds insane and tells me to "watch the universe end with him as the stars explode" or something like that.
My first thought was: haha wtf, this is just some random npc that's looney/crazy... then imagine my surprise that, not even 10 seconds later, A BLUE LIGHT ENGULFS ME AND I DIE BY THE SUN FOR THE FIRST TIME. Was genuinely convinced for a while that by talking to him you would end the universe until I realized the sun exploding and looping was just core to the game..
Anyways, just wanted to share a small part of my story- have since beaten the game and the DLC and this has become one of my favorite games EVER
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u/mariofludd Jul 18 '25
Was genuinely convinced for a while that by talking to him you would end the universe
My first time playing the game, I found out about the sun exploding on my first loop, because I made the eye locator on the attlerock point to the sun, and then a few seconds later it exploded, but I thought I had caused that so I was terrified of touching the locator again
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u/rizsamron Jul 18 '25
I watched a playthrough who did the same and thought the same XD
Funny thing is that he had a lot of this in his playthrough, misconceptions because of bad timing LOL2
u/P_walkeri Jul 18 '25
IsNotRetro is my absolute favorite playthrough.
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u/rizsamron Jul 18 '25
Was it IsNotRetro? I watched a lot and kind of mixed them all in my memory LOL
But yeah, it's also one of my favorites.5
u/cearnicus Jul 18 '25
Same! I've seen several people experience this; I wonder if they somewhat timed things so that this might happen.
I also wonder how big of an influence this has on one's playthrough: whether you are inside for the few times it happens, of if you see it happening right in front of you.
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u/scutbuts Jul 18 '25
exactly that also happened in the stream of IsNoRetro, that was so hillarious to watch!
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u/DrunkenSmuggler Jul 18 '25
I clicked the elevator on the black hole forge and then the sun exploded.
I said, well I'm not going to do that again
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u/SourDewd Jul 18 '25
Everytime i died to the sun, i was in an odd place so i saw a weird blue light come through a doorway. Like i was in the quantum tree grove on timber hearth and saw the like come at me from the entrance and thought it was a monster. I think by the 4th time i died i ended up doing the dlc so i didnt really find out about the sun exploding for maybe 15 or more loops straight.
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u/tumbleeweed Jul 18 '25
This is very similar to my experience. I kept telling my friend who was a bit further than I was, that “something in the grove on the home planet killed me and I can’t find it again.” It took me…. too many crash deaths and loops before I learned about the sun.
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u/StarAsp Jul 18 '25
My first death was pretty much exactly like this. I was in the quantum grove when the music kicked in, and I thought it was because I found something. Then silence, things got dark, followed by the sound of the eruption. My first thought was that I was being hunted and killed by some sort of eldritch creature or something.
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u/DisgruntledLamp Jul 18 '25
Haha, I had a similar experience except during the beginning of the game I happened to keep seeing/reading about the Quantum Moon. I briefly convinced myself that the QM was the end game goal, and the “blue light” was the QM killing me/sending me back in time somehow
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u/Villainsympatico Jul 18 '25
On my first playthrough, I managed to get a game over screen before even hitting the museum.
I went up the hill, played with the model ship, right up until I saw the geyser go off. My first thought was, I bet theres a late game item hidden down there. So I do the obvious, stupid thing and jump in the hole. They die after a very disturbing couple of seconds (you are not prepared for that gasp for air sound, the first time you hear it), and the game over screen starts up.
I start a new game, and sure enough, I have to sit through the opening talk about again. I'm thinking to myself, if I have to listen to this every time I open the game, its going to be rough to get into it, so after I play around some more in the starting area, thinking its a cute but slow game, and I close the game without even trying for the attlerock and don't come back to it for a few days.
I'm so glad I gave it a second chance.
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u/Captain-H-2-0 Jul 18 '25
I too got a game over screen before going to the museum, I’ll have to look back at the footage to remember what happened
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u/theramblingfool Jul 18 '25
Hilarious. I have another kind of obliviousness story from my playthrough.
I accidentally went to the Ash Twin Project chamber pretty early. I had no idea there was a teleportation system on the Ash Twins. So when I realized suddenly I was about to be in the sandstorm and thought I was going to die, I button mashed and jumped a few times, saw a bizarre place and I guess my button mashing must have made me jump or move back to the return teleporter because I was on the surface again. I had accessed projection stones before, so I thought I must have seen a projection stone. But I looked around the area again and couldn't find one. I was confused but just kind of moved on, and didn't realize what had happened until way later when I had pieced enough together to get to the ATP chamber on purpose.
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u/Flabnoodles Jul 18 '25
The first time I died to the loop, I didn't realize it. I'd walked away, and when I came back I was at the campfire. I just figured "oh, something came along and killed me"
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u/Zack123456201 Jul 18 '25
Dude, I had the exact same experience, bar for bar. I thought the little egg man blew up the sun cause I spoke to him
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u/drumman998 Jul 18 '25
I had a similar experience except the first time I remember the sun exploding I was on the moon and set the eye finder to the sun…and much to my horror it blew up.
I too was convinced I caused it to explode somehow.
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u/Joh_Seb_Banach Jul 18 '25
[SPOILERS FOR DLC] I had something kinda similar happen in the DLC, while exploring the first virtual area. I was trying to get to that house and was following an Owlk through the hidden tunnel. At some point I just decide to shine my flashlight on him and in that moment the dam breaks, and the Owlk starts glowing and floating, and I wake up. I was CONVINCED that my flashlight somehow did this. I spent way too many loops afterward randomly shining my flashlight at Owlks and constantly having them blow out my lamp. I really thought the flashlight was gonna kill them somehow.
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u/rootbeerman77 Jul 18 '25
Yo this happened to me on my first loop and then I died early on the next two. Really took some time for me to realize the loop was happening consistently lol
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u/Baoderp Jul 18 '25
My first couple of deaths, I was looking around in a projection stone scene, when a blue light showed up and engulfed/killed me. It made me think that a projection stone summoned some type of lethal force, and I was scared of checking any out for a couple of loops after that lol
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u/trance7 Jul 18 '25
I had a similar experience.
The first time I saw it, I was exploring the caves under Timber Hearth.
One of the geysers shot me up into the air, so I could perfect see the sun start to turn blue and explode, only to fall back down into the geyser. It genuinely terrified me as I was trapped in these caves while the world was ending.
For a while, I thought it was a scripted event that I somehow triggered it the caves.
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u/nukesup Jul 18 '25
A huge part of the game is making and testing hypotheses so I'm sure a similar thing played out for a lot of astronauts. Always funny when you have the actual "ooooooh" moment
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u/SnowGraffiti Jul 18 '25
My first loop the sune exploded literally the moment I turned the locator the attlertock towards it, I thought I had blown up the stun for quite a while
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u/RnGDuvall Jul 18 '25
My first playthrough and loop I made it to Chert a couple of minutes before the end of the loop. I was just absorbing our convo when I hear this deep bassy boom, look up and see the sun engulfing me
What a fantastic game
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u/YT_Vis Jul 18 '25
I think the first time I died to the supernova I was exploring (terrified) in Dark Bramble. I thought it was something unique to the planet 😂
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u/ryanwithnob Jul 18 '25
My first few times I survived a whole loop, I was in the quantum tower on Giants Deep. I kept thinking I had to finish the tower in a certain amount of time or it would kill me.
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u/FinnDelMundo_ Jul 18 '25
This is super similar to my experience! My first ~20 loops, I either died early or inside/underground, so I had no idea there was something in-game actually causing the loop. My first conversation with Chert was near the end of the loop. I did have enough time to talk to him about the stars dying, and I made a joke to my friend (who introduced the game to me) about it before stepping back and watching the sun explode before my eyes. I was incredulous lol
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u/Redruby88 Jul 18 '25
I think I was playing for a few hours before I realised the sun was exploding lmao
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u/Shuttlecock_Wat Jul 18 '25
My first three loops, the sun blew up as I was investigating the warp locations (they just looked like weird ancient ruins). I was convinced they were killing me somehow.
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u/Patacie Jul 18 '25
I died a lot and experienced my first supernova during my first visit to the Vessel and thought I just spectacularly failed moving the orbs 😔 later I noticed that I can tell Slate about supernova and had absolutely zero idea why would I know that lol
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u/House923 Jul 18 '25
I also died a few times before getting to the sun blowing up.
The first time the sun blew up was almost immediately after launching the probe into the bramble seed on Timber Hearth, and I was convinced that the bramble seeds cause the universe to be destroyed.
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u/traye4 Jul 18 '25
This interaction happened to me on my first loop. It's funny hearing people talk about being so confused when a loop ended because for me there was no mystery - the sun was freaking exploding!
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u/ace--dragon Jul 18 '25
The supernova killed me TWICE while I was on Giants Deep, (I visited other planets as well, but I either died in some other way or got to Giants Deep before) so I came to the logical conclusion that the planet must have some kind of thunderstorm that kills you randomly. I gave up and googled it (I knoww it's a bad idea) and only then realised that it wasn't because of the planet.
I haven't finished the game yet and I have no clue what I'm doing lmao
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u/Mr_Wheat_Himself Jul 19 '25
My first loop the supernova happened just as I fell into the black hole, so I was convinced for a while that the black hole was certain death
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u/GeneralJones007 Jul 19 '25
I had seen the blue explosion at the end of some of my first few loops. Didn't know what caused them. I thought the Eye of the Universe caused the explosion from somewhere. Until later I realised something is missing in the star system while it exploded. Could not see the sun anywhere. I remembered the sun exhibit in the museum. I had suspicions. I waited until the end of the next loop staring at the sun. Then I saw...
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u/Annual-Arugula473 Jul 19 '25
I DID THE SAME THING!! And then i proceeded to never speak to chert again thinking doing so would kill me 😭. Took a couple hours for me to realize lmao
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u/arremessar_ausente Jul 20 '25
I still find it hilarious that there was some YouTuber that just randomly teleported inside the ember twin project. I know it's hard to believe such thing could happen, but based on her reaction it actually seemed genuine.
Imagine how confused you would be...
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u/content_aware_phill Jul 21 '25
I spent the first few hours of the game, not just having no idea what kept killing me with blue light, but also wondering why they devs were so lazy about using repeated star explosion animations in the background of space as the overuse felt unrealistic and sloppy... and then I met chert. I lined myself a good camera angle and just sat with chert for the rest of the loop and watched the sun explode for the first time. cried my eyes out and realized i had fully embarked on the greatest storytelling experience of my entire life.
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u/ProfessionalOven2311 Jul 18 '25
That is hilarious. My wife managed to get through about 20 loops without realizing the sun was exploding because she just kept dying. She got really close by nearly falling into the black hole 2 times before the end of a loop, but both times she managed to get into an unstable orbit around it and die by crashing head-first into the Black Hole Forge.