Indivisible

Indivisible

235 ratings
A few very important missables and hints (spoiler-free)
By Retro Menace
A few things that can be easily missed / Indivisible doesn't tell you that can vastly improve your experience with the game.
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The game is unfinished, will likely remain that way forever, and Mike Z is scum
Hello to anyone reading this guide! I was very excited for Indivisible when it came out, and made this guide within two weeks of the game's release after having a few conversations with close friends that missed a few things. We were all kickstarter backers who were very excited for the game's release, even though the game launched missing some things that were promised during the backer campaign.

As of September 2nd, 2020, a lot has happened, it seems very likely this game will NEVER receive a major update ever again. This is due to the fact that one of the lead devs on Indivisible, Mike Zaimont, did a hostile takeover of the company and is now the sole owner of Lab Zero Games. [www.eventhubs.com]

Mike did this because Lab Zero was about to become employee owned, and the employees wanted Mike to leave the company due to an immense number of allegations that came out against him that showed Mike harassed basically all of his employees, including making several remarks based on the sex and race of his employees.

These claims were investigated by two companies which are partnered with Lab Zero: Autumn Games (the IP holders for Skullgirls) and Hidden Variable (The developers of Skullgirls mobile). These two companies released a joint statement on the controversy and "[found] their allegations to be credible."

When employees were understandably upset about this and asked Mike to resign, he demanded an obscene payment to leave the company. Not wanting to reward Mike's behavior, the staff began to resign en masse instead.

Everyone who did not quit was laid off by Mike a few days later. Without severance.

Yes, you read that right. The entire development team of Indivisible is now just one guy.

So, at the current moment, Indivisible is down AT LEAST 11 characters compared to what was promised during its kickstarter - the 9 guest characters, plus the 2 base-game character designs they showed off, promised, but didn't make in time for release.

The SOLE PERSON who is now responsible for getting ALL OF THAT CONTENT OUT also just burned so many bridges by doing a hostile takeover, and laying off his entire working staff WITHOUT SEVERANCE, that I don't think many people will be lining up to apply to Lab Zero Games any time soon.

Which is why the title of this section is what it is. There is only one guy who works one this game currently, not many people will want to work for him again, and as a result I don't think this game will receive any major updates ever again.

Consider this a warning. If you're someone who recently bought this game and are looking at guides, I highly recommend you look at refunding it soon, because this game will never be all that it is advertised and the SOLE person who makes money off of this game (other than the publisher) laid off all of his staff IN THE MIDDLE OF A PANDEMIC rather than face consequences for his awful, reprehensible actions.

And if you absolutely MUST play Indivisible... did you know it's available on Xbox Game Pass PC? You can get a month of that for $1 if you've never signed up before! And Mike won't see a cent of it.

More important than spiting Mike, however, is supporting the ex-Lab Zero devs who stood up to him, choosing to lose their jobs in the middle of a plague rather than abide by an awful person.

Kinucakes, one of the artists behind Indivisible, is selling physical art books with proceeds going to support Lab Zero devs who resigned or were laid off by Mike. There may be more efforts to make money for these devs in the future, and if you love Skullgirls or Indivisible like I do, I would look in to supporting the people who made it possible.

Lastly, I would advise people not look on Skullgirls or Indivisible, as works, too harshly now. One of the devs is reprehensible in every meaning of the word, but games are joint projects that are made possible by dozens or hundreds of talented people. The shocking actions of one vile person should not render an artwork void when so many OTHER amazing people made it possible! Remember to celebrate Skullgirls and Indivisible for the amazing projects they are, rather than thinking of them as tainted by a single person.

I will leave this guide up for posterity, as I don't imagine things at Lab Zero will change soon. But perhaps some people will come to this guide unaware of what happened at Lab Zero, or perhaps people may still need some pointers to help.
Intro
Indivisible is a very good Metroidvania. However, it could do a better job explaining things. Some things, as far as I can tell, aren't even explained at all!

Additionally, there are some characters and even a weapon that's completely missable!

Consider this like one of those "5 things I wish I knew before I played this game" articles you see. If you're brand new to the game, or even halfway through, keep these in mind and you'll be able to make the game far more enjoyable for yourself!

Also, I'm going to try and keep this guide as spoiler-free as I possibly can!
I'll be vaguely hinting at things primarily, but I will also put slightly more spoiler-y explanations under spoiler tags.

If this guide helps you, please rate it so other people who need help can find it!
Use the pause-screen map
You can use the map in two different ways in Indivisible. You can either:

Option A - Hold down the 'up' direction. From here, you can hold 'meditate' to zoom the map out, and that's it.

Option B - You can pause, head down to the 'view map' button, and get an actual map that you can zoom in and out of, pan, and it even has a legend!

As far as I recall, the game only tells you about the "hold up to view map" option. Or maybe I just used the wrong map for 90% of the game. Either way, don't be like me, use option B. Use the map from the pause screen. Once the maps get to be MASSIVE you'll be thanking me.

I CANNOT STRESS THIS ENOUGH, USE THE MAP FROM THE PAUSE SCREEN
You can miss Party Members
Not every party member is story critical. Story critical ones are given to you straight away, as soon as they're available.

Meanwhile, others just spawn in the world once certain conditions are met, and are waiting on you to go find them!

No matter who they are (except for The Cowboy) you can tell where a party member is via a blue fire icon on the minimap. And for MOST of the game's "missable" characters, they either stick out like a sore thumb or are on the critical path anyways, so most of them are impossible to miss as long as you look at your map occasionally.

That being said I almost did the final boss while MISSING two of the game's party members! So here are a few spoiler-free hints on where the three easiest to miss / most important to get party members are.

1 - The Ex-Soldier (fairly important, hard to miss)

Once you make it out of the desert, into the port city, and defeat a tank - walk right back where you came from and talk to the one-legged man.

This character is important because he unlocks a fighting-game style training mode. He is NOT playable.

2 - The Cowboy (not very important, very easy to miss)

Once you get to a city made of Iron, with wanted posters all around, why not stand in front of one and appreciate the art? If Ajna turns around and admires it too, you know you've found a winner!

Extra hint 1 : Here are the exact posters you need to find -



Extra hint 2 : Here is the exact spot on the map where they are located -



3 - The Ninja (EXTREMELY Important, somewhat easy to miss - get ASAP)

After Ajna takes a week off, go back to the city filled with fluorescent lights. Get out of the streets and the club, because an old frenemy is waiting for you on the rooftops.

This character is important because recruiting him unlocks a brand new weapon for Ajna! And he's really cool!

If you're having trouble getting to him, because the map is a tad unhelpful here, you can follow this path to get to the rooftops.



I'm still missing characters? Where are Sangmu, Antoine, and the guest characters?

Unfortunately due to time constraints, certain characters that were shown off during the game's crowdfunding run are not yet in the game. These characters are Sangmu, Antoine, and all of the guest characters that the game has lined up, such as Shovel Knight or Shantae.

So if you're missing any of those characters, you're fine, because they literally cannot be obtained yet! They will be added as free DLC at a later point, however. If they are difficult to obtain, like The Cowboy, I will add a few hints on how to get them to this guide!

EDIT: As of September 2nd, 2020, it seems unlikely that development on this game will continue in any substantial capacity. You should assume that the promised Guest characters, Sangmu, Antoine, or any additional, substantial DLC will NEVER materialize.

If you are confused to why that is, please go read the massive section of text at the top of this guide.
Check the 'Abilities' page every now and again
You get many new abilities throughout the course of the game. Most of them are heavily tutorialized. A few are not.

For instance, right after you complete the first tutorial fight, you get an ability called "Indr's Lesson." The game never tells you this, but after I checked my abilities page and saw what it was, it completely changed how I approached combat.

Make sure you check the Abilities page at certain major milestones to see if you gained something extra that you weren't expecting!

To put it in blunt but mid-game spoiler terms? When Ajna gets a new form, you get a new parry option.
Point(s) of No Return
Indivisible has 2 points of no return

The only reason why I spell this out very explicitly is because, during my first play-through, I actually thought the first "point of no return" was actually the game's only point of no return, and I was on my way to a bad ending. I spent an hour or two combing the map for sidequests to fix problems in the world, only to never find them...

But, no. This was not the real point of no return. The game's REAL point of no return came much later, and it is EXTREMELY obvious.

You will know you're at the game's REAL point of no return because you will find the final fast travel point 20 feet to the right of it, letting you go wherever you need before doing the game's final sequence

So, consider this a PSA. The first point of no return is not a REAL point of no return, and you won't lose anything by going into it "too early"!
How to access alternate colors
If you preordered the game, you might be wondering where all your bonus colors are.

I also wondered why I couldn't change my character's colors for the first few hours. And the secret is you'll have to meet someone in order to change your character colors! You'll meet them in one of the game's major cities, and they have an unconventional animal friend...

Or, to put it simply talk to the lady with a llama in Kaanul.
Outro / Edits
This is nothing in-depth or a complete guide. This was just something I wanted to make so people could avoid a few mistakes I made, that I feel unfortunately made me enjoy the game a little less than I could have.

Hopefully some issues (such as the map you get by holding up being so bad) will be resolved with time since Lab Zero has already been so active with patching!

If there are any other good tips for beginners that you think should be included, let me know and I'll add them! I'll also be using this outro section as a section to detail any edits I'll make to this guide.

Thank you for reading!

Edits
  • 10/13/2019 - Added screenshots to help people find The Cowboy. Added a section on how to access alternate colors.
  • 10/16/2019 - Added a screenshot to help people find The Ninja. Added fave-begging at the beginning of the guide.
  • 2/28/2020 - Added an explanation that Sangmu, Antoine, and the guest characters are currently not in the game to the character section. Also, did some slight editing to the entire guide to make it more readable.
  • 9/2/2020 - Things went real bad for Lab Zero since the last time I edited this guide. I added a massive section to the top of this guide to explain that, because workers getting harassed is far more important than anything else I said in this guide, and people need to be made aware of what the situation is there. Especially since said situation makes it seem like this game will never, ever be updated again. So long and thanks for positive ratings, everyone!
33 Comments
skull 24 Sep, 2023 @ 4:17pm 
Isn't the turban guy also missable?
Xeno 25 Jul, 2023 @ 6:43am 
2023 update: Lab Zero games is dissolved. It was purchased by 505 Games. Mike Z no longer has anything at all to do with this game so feel free to purchase and play it without worrying that you’re supporting his douchebaggery. 505 has made it clear they will not be honoring the kickstarter promises, though. All future updates and DLC are canceled. It’s official: the game as it stands now is how it will stay.
Violeta 1 Oct, 2021 @ 3:27am 
This looks more like a gossip magazine text than a guide.
ddssnl504 3 Jul, 2021 @ 8:39am 
You convinced me to buy this game.
MagnaCarta 1 Jul, 2021 @ 12:14pm 
Mike Zaimont is the son of composer Judith Lang Zaimont.
ACoolDude 25 Jun, 2021 @ 5:45pm 
Heya, Just wanted to sort of give an "update", you sadly can't get Indivisible from Xbox Game Pass PC anymore. :(
G I N S Ξ N G 6 Jun, 2021 @ 12:15pm 
To the person a couple of comments below:
Your opinion on OP's opinions on Mike are unnecessary.

It's a fair warning, especially if somebody is considering buying this game. Just because you have a bad take that disagrees with someone doesn't mean they shouldn't be allowed to speak it.
Jack of all games 24 May, 2021 @ 6:18am 
wait is there like a detailed report of the lab zero thing, I want to look into it
Döktor Jönes 25 Apr, 2021 @ 11:05am 
You forgot the bard
cazychel 16 Dec, 2020 @ 1:26pm 
Thanks, especially for the introduction clarifying the situation at the company. I got it through Humble Bundle so I have no qualms about playing it - but I will not buy the DLC, then.