Tool Unlocks and Backtracking Routes

Tool Unlocks and Backtracking Routes

Broken Reality 2000 loves placing a glowing prize behind glass, surrounding it with neon clutter, then acting shocked when you forget where it was. If you keep finding camera marks, distant bugs, red chains, or floating @ symbols that do nothing, you have not missed a secret handshake. You need a later tool.

The unlocks below are grouped by tool, not forced into one perfect order. After reaching Nexus, you can visit parts of E-World and Grifton in either order. Save at a Save Vending Machine before leaving a region, and note any barrier whose symbol does not match your current kit.

1. Liker

Prerequisite: Start the game and enter NATEM through the computer and VR setup in your apartment.

1. Finish the apartment opening and step outside into Minami Beach.
2. The opening Liker sequence triggers as you arrive. On version 1.0.8 or later, this sequence cannot be skipped.
3. The Liker slot and the Liker achievement confirm the unlock. Speak to the tutorial bot and Like the entrance ad to continue.

What it recognizes: thumbs-up prompts, ads, computer-like buttons, movable quest props, and ZIP-folder chests. When a quest asks you to throw an object, pick it up with the Liker and charge the throw before releasing it.

Return value: Use it on Minami ads, the garage-door button uphill from Pawn Show, ZIP chests, shopping counters, and later puzzle screens. It does not override a numbered Like gate. If an Are You a Bot? barrier demands a total, NATEM still wants its precious engagement metric.

2. Card

Prerequisite: Reach the main street in Minami Beach.

1. Cross the first bridge and enter UniversalSoulBank on the east side of the street, opposite the hotel side of the district.
2. Speak to the banker bot at the counter. No side quest is required.
3. The Card slot and Card achievement appear after the conversation.
4. To leave the bank, withdraw money from the large ATM and use the pay panel beside the entrance.

What it recognizes: ATMs, rectangular pay panels, store counters, and marked goods.

Return value: The Card opens Darsha's latte job at Mamba Cafe, which sends you to Chronixx in the hotel, and lets you use the XOXO shop. Later, it pays for entry to places such as Shame, RCADE, and KinoMAX.

3. Camera

Prerequisite: Bring $500 to the shop district near the ramen stand in Minami Beach.

1. From the fountain and ramen stand, find Pawn Show beside WeWorkout.
2. Enter and pay the clerk $500 for the Camera.
3. The Camera achievement and its tool slot confirm the purchase.
4. Continue uphill to the garage house and finish its short photo task to learn QR scanning.
5. Later, Likey D' Like beside the stone train station teaches the hacking view.

What it recognizes: camera-frame photo spots in normal view, QR-style marks in scan view, and linked orbs, cubes, triangles, or hidden objects in hacking view.

Return value: Photograph the early markers around Mamba Cafe, the hotel, beach, fountain, and Art Factory alley. Scan the mark beside the water route beyond Furrobotto to raise a bridge. After learning hacking, connect the orbs at the fountain and stone train station, then revisit locked shops and hidden routes in Nexus, Grifton, the Crypts, Museum, and Cloud.

4. Katana

Prerequisites: Camera scan view and at least 300 Likes.

1. Pass the fountain, speak with Furrobotto, and remove the 300-Like barrier.
2. Cross the bridge, turn right at the wall of pop-ups, and follow the narrow waterside route.
3. Just before entering the water, look left and scan the marked object. Cross the bridge that rises.
4. Enter Master Chozai's house. The doors lock behind you, which is NATEM's relaxed onboarding style.
5. Go upstairs to the room with two dancing cats and take the Katana from the wall.
6. The Katana achievement and its tool slot confirm the unlock. Cut the pop-ups inside the house to escape.

What it recognizes: pop-up walls, hostile face programs, reachable green bugs, exposed batteries, and cuttable brush.

Return value: Clear the pop-ups near the Yellow Bro wreck, Art Factory alley, beach routes, Nexus entrance, and E-World corridors. The standard Katana cannot sever the heavy red chains at Veblen Tower, the Mansion, or the side of The Future Is Now tower.

5. Bookmarker

Prerequisites: Reach Nexus by train and bring the Katana.

1. Cut down the two floating faces whose beams block the Nexus exit.
2. Take the escalator into the central plaza and face The Future Is Now tower.
3. Go northeast to the robot at the desk and accept the quest about the secret server and its legendary blade.
4. Cut the pop-ups on both sides of the desk area, then collect the Bookmarker inside.
5. The Bookmarker achievement and its tool slot confirm the unlock.
6. Place a bookmark on one floor plate, walk onto the paired plate, and trigger the bookmark to return. The shields drop and let you leave.

What it recognizes: The Bookmarker creates a return point and teleports you back to it. Paired floor plates are its main puzzle language. Its display also points toward tracked objects such as bugs, dynamite, and nearby ZIP chests.

Return value: Pair the pad across the broken Minami water route with the pad under the beach gazebo to open the lighthouse entrance. You still need the Hoverboard to cross the ocean. The Bookmarker also solves switches and return puzzles in the Crypts, Museum, Social Jungle, and Cloud. Place a marker before risky drops; NATEM cannot monetize your dignity if you teleport back first.

6. Bow

Prerequisites: Enter E-World, have the standard Katana, and accept ESZY's pest-control job.

1. Follow the opening E-World walkway to ESZY at the desk near the central mall and Save Vending Machine.
2. Accept the request to remove 15 large green bugs.
3. Cut reachable bugs around ESZY, the controller-style wall symbols, Red Ocean Computers, the central mall ceiling, and the upper balcony route. Follow the quest counter; several distant bugs require arrows later.
4. When the counter reaches 15, return to ESZY and collect the Bow. Its achievement and tool slot confirm the unlock.
5. The Bow initially has no usable arrows. Speak to Toxicoman inside Red Ocean Computers, accept his job, and cut every Fuji product pop-up in E-World.
6. Return to Toxicoman with $1,000 and buy the Arrow upgrade.

What it recognizes: distant bugs, flying drones, Bow targets, balloons, exposed batteries, and the yellow weak points on hanging stalactites.

Return value: Shoot the unreachable E-World bugs to open the infested wing, pop the balloons that create stairs, and continue ESZY's 50-bug follow-up. Earlier Bow checks include the Minami rooftop target challenge, KinoMAX drones, Crypt stalactites, seven targets in the Mansion, seven targets in the Museum, and ring-framed targets in Cloud.

7. Hyperlinker

Prerequisites: Reach Grifton, pay $1,000 to enter RCADE, and bring the Camera, Liker, and Katana.

1. Inside RCADE, speak to the Yellow Bro standing beside the Hyperlinker. You must complete three coworker jobs, one at a time.
2. For Darsha, go to the tree-filled nook past Catcoin near the giant DVD screen. Use the hacking Camera to reveal the upside-down missing worker, switch to normal view, and take the photo. Return to Darsha.
3. For Nino_Rata_Pro_Emo, use the Liker to throw paint buckets at five security cameras. Check the alley across from Shame, the ACAB entrance, the dumpster past Catcoin, the lower steps, and the small shelf above that route. Return when the counter reads five.
4. For Eli, enter Token Laundry and scan the computer to open the evidence room. Scan the three boxes, take package 02300, and carry it back to Eli's room. Entering the room places it in the marked trash point; speak to Eli afterward.
5. Return to Yellow Bro and take the Hyperlinker. The Hyperlink achievement and tool slot confirm the unlock.

What it recognizes: floating @ symbols. Aim at one and fire to pull yourself toward it. Release when you are over a safe landing point.

Return value: Follow the @ chain above Grifton, reach the upper Art Factory route, enter the Minami sewer below the Ferris wheel, reach hidden Nexus and Museum platforms, and cross major gaps in the Crypts, Social Jungle, Mansion, Museum, and Cloud.

8. Hoverboard

Prerequisites: Hyperlinker, Camera, Liker, Orcell's Art Factory quest, and 1,500 Likes to remove the factory gate.

1. Return to Minami Beach and enter the Art Factory.
2. Photograph the five marked paintings. Put the Camera away whenever a security camera watches you, or the building will eject you.
3. Turn the photos in to Orcell to receive the WeWorkout membership.
4. Enter WeWorkout and speak to Mameitor. Pick up the dumbbell with the Liker and complete 30 reps to gain Strength.
5. Go below the pier with the Ferris wheel. Use the nearby @ point to reach the sewer entrance, then break the Strength-marked rock.
6. Follow the sewer walkway and use the wall-mounted @ points to zigzag through the tunnels.
7. At the far end, find Brice the Nice beside the stranded Hoverboard and pick it up.
8. The Hoverboard achievement and tool slot confirm the unlock.

What it recognizes: open water, flooded floors, and ring courses. Hold the ride input for extra speed.

Return value: Ride into the Minami ocean to reach the lighthouse, offshore rings, island ZIP chests, and the final Minami shard. In Nexus, cross the water beside The Future Is Now tower and reach the chest near the Grifton escalators. In E-World, cross the flooded Universum Plaza routes and enter the keycard maze. The board also reaches water-bound routes in the Crypts, Social Jungle, and Cloud. It does not cross the green waste in the Museum trash exhibit.

Version check: Steam patch 1.0.6 added the menu's Unstuck button as a last resort for bad geometry. Patch 1.0.8 made the opening Liker sequence unskippable, and patch 1.11 fixed the evidence-computer scan used during Eli's Grifton job. If one of those exact interactions still fails, confirm that your game is updated, save and reload, then try the interaction again. Count a tool as unlocked only when its normal pickup or hand-in completes, its tool slot appears, and its matching achievement fires.