Rain World (2017) is my favorite game of all time — equal parts metroidvania, movement puzzler, ecological sci-fi, immersive subway rat sim — but its strangeness and difficulty make it hard to appreciate. It got mixed reviews at first, and while some frustrations were fixed in patches, the core opaqueness remains because it is there by design. It’s easy to get stuck in a difficult area or go far in the wrong direction. This guide is meant to help you get unstuck while spoiling as little as possible.

If you haven’t played yet, try it before reading on. There’s a yellow character who pops up to guide you. If you can decode what he’s saying, you might not need any other help.

TL;DR: Play as long as you can without help. If you get lost, start with the recommended region order to see what region you should aim for. If you can’t find the next region, the world map will tell you what direction to look in.

Gameplay basics

• Avoid fighting. Sneak, wait, and watch. Experiment to learn what it takes for enemies to see or hear you.
• Use the map all the time. Always be mapping.

If you have no idea what to do or can barely move without getting killed, check out the Spoiler-Free Primer. It’s not really spoiler-free, but it’s all stuff you could (but probably won’t) figure out in the first region.

Region order

The game world consists of large regions connected by gates. You need to get to a few particular regions to progress in the game. Since every region is connected to several others, there is more than one way to go, and there are some really wrong ways. This is, in my view, the hardest thing about the game.

Luckily, there’s really only one manageable path for a first-time player: the one recommended as “easy” in the Storyline region routes guide by AndrewFM. This is a perfect spoiler-free form of help because it tells you the names of regions but nothing about their contents or global arrangement.

For the last third, I recommend the slightly harder path because the easy one skips most of the new late game regions in favor of ones you’ve already seen. I think my path is the order intended by the developers.

World map

The problem with only knowing the name of the next region, however, is that you don’t know what direction it’s in, so you can go pretty far astray just looking for it. This is not so bad because exploration is the point, and you can always turn back if you find the wrong region. But if you’ve looked and looked for the next region and can’t find it, the world map by Jochem will point you in the right direction. It shows how the regions are connected and roughly where they sit in relation to one another.

Detailed region maps

The wiki has a page for each region with a full map and a list of creatures that live there. Only use these if you’re very stuck. After you play through an area, these are very fun to look through.

What about easy mode?

Difficulty modes in Rain World take the form of different playable characters: the Survivor (original) and the Monk (easier). If you like hard games like Hollow Knight or Dark Souls, stick with Survivor. If you love Rain World’s style but aren’t into hard games, the Monk could certainly help. You’ll still need the region routes and it still won’t be easy.