Antichamber

Antichamber

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Failing Forward Walkthrough
By bunner
The complete guide to completeing and/or speedrunning the puzzle "Failing Forward."
   
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Step 1: The Bridge
The bridge is the first part of Failing Forward, and is impossible to cross- at first. In order to cross the bridge, you have to jump off the bridge, go back into the antechamber, and go back to the bridge, 5 times in order to get across.

The bridge will visibly grow longer on both sides as you come back to it, and can be completed. However, if you're speedrunning this, you jump 5 times, and then jump across.
Step 2: The Flips
After getting across the bridge, you are met with a dead end containing a picture/quote. Go up to the quote (And click it if you want to.) and turn 360 degrees to be met with another room.

Inside the second room, you're inside of a room with a blue middle, the one in front of you has a black middle, and the one farther away has a yellow middle. Use the flipping panel (Not sure what to call it) at the end of the blue room to get into the yellow room, and walk into the back wall middle, pushing to the left once inside. You will eventually fall through another secret wall, and end up in the black room. Go into the middle of the black room and look down.
Step 3: The Maze
After falling through the black room, look around the room you're in to find a circle on the wall. Look into the circle and walk backwards, aligned with the circle. Once you enter the next room, look to your right and enter the green room. Pass the object (Not pass through) and go into the next room.

Inside the teal room, walk up the steps to the platforms on the sides, and walk to the center. Walk toward the exit of the room to the wall, then turn either way. Turn from there and walk up the steps that appear, stopping at the landing. Turn and walk to the center, and then you are free to exit the maze.
Step 4: The Doors
Inside the room there is a green block and a blue block, both having a different sized white block inside, with movement trackers inside those.

The trick to this puzzle is hard to catch on, and is tricky to perform, but is done with the following:
  • Step 4-1: Approach the doors, and walk around using shift, closing the green door.
  • Step 4-2: Soon after this is accomplished, run around, opening the blue door.
  • Step 4-3: Wait until the green door opens again while the blue door is still open. Pass through the door at this time, as you have a limited window.
Step 5: The Second Bridge, The Jump, and The Final Door
Once you get through Step 4, you enter a pink room, with a bridge that you are able to jump onto in the middle, with eyedoors at both ends.

To solve this puzzle, you must jump onto the bridge, look at one of the eyedoors, and quickly jump into the opening of the second eyedoor. This trick isn't hard to do unless you have a crappy computer, but it's not easy, either.

After this you're in a room with a hole in the middle, with the room looping infinitely. Jump down the hole onto the trampoline pad, and jump back up onto the floor you entered from, noticing the change of room.

At the end of the hallway is a door, with a laser a little bit back. This is one of the, if not the, trickiest parts in the entire puzzle, due to the timing.

To enter the door, you have to trigger the laser and run in, but the problem is that you must stop triggering the laser to the door as it's rising so it keeps momentum, but not too much so that is slams shut. There is also a glitch where the laser doesn't respond, but you can counter this by finding a different sweet spot.

Once you've done all of this, hooray! You solved the puzzle, and what do you get? A dev room? A pink cube? No! An empty room. Oh well, at least you get the bragging rights for solving it now.
9 Comments
GameBoyTM101 31 Mar @ 2:28pm 
More than a decade later, I finally did it. That final door was such a pain.

Rumor has it that this was originally a route to an alternate ending, dubbed "garden" based on the unused track associated with it, but it was evidently cut and all that's left is this empty room.
Supersonic Pixel Junkie 19 Apr, 2022 @ 12:50am 
Why would someone lookup how to play a puzzle game? Doesn't that kind of defeat the purpose?
Fae 17 Feb, 2021 @ 8:09am 
step 4 makes my brain hurt, it doesnt want to work
bunner  [author] 24 Jul, 2017 @ 11:35am 
at the start, obviously

But seriously, in order to get to failing forward you have to solve the red version of Laying The Foundation. (Warp to Laying The Foundation and turn around.)
bunner  [author] 29 Jun, 2017 @ 2:36pm 
lol yeah there's nothing at the end of the puzzle

it's just there because f-ck you that's why
Blinky 29 Jun, 2017 @ 2:32pm 
Fuck this, I just wasted 5 minutes of my life thinking I'd get something cool.
The Sojourner 17 Jul, 2015 @ 11:52am 
"Birdcall balls"... sounds like a very interesting name (I almost think of them as "pigeon balls" with a hint of vibraphone).
bunner  [author] 17 Jul, 2015 @ 7:24am 
I never knew about the cube speedrun tactic. In fact, I thought of the speedrunning as going to the puzzle from the antechamber with nothing in hand.

I actually considered the term "Perception Swappers" but because of the step name, I just kept with Flipping Panels.

Well, there is the fact that they make bird sounds, and then there's the soundtrack cover... I just go with captain obvious names. Although I could probably take to calling them 'Birdcall Balls".

Oh, it would've been cruel if the sign was recycled. Especially for people who are trying to 100% the game (i.e. get all the signs and rooms) since if they already got the sign, they just wasted their time.
The Sojourner 14 Jul, 2015 @ 12:43am 
" The bridge will visibly grow longer on both sides as you come back to it, and can be completed. However, if you're speedrunning this, you jump 5 times, and then jump across. "

That is something I never knew until now. I guess I didn't take the title to heart enough. Usually what speedrunners will do (and what I did the first time too) is grab a red cube from the red cross and use that to propel themselves up to the ledge at the other end (thus confusing the meaning of the moral of the sign at the end).

For step 2, I call those things "portal windows."

For step 4 (which is indeed not at all obvious!), I once saw the term "riot balls" for those things. I also like to call them "chaos balls." At every place you visit, they destroy some form of regenerating white matter, often in a chain reaction style.

...and not even a sign at the end (not even a recycled one) :( It's almost like that unobtainable pink cube under the black spot in Impossible Paths .