The Big LucasArts Playthrough

[Zeusthecat]

Can anyone tell me without any level of specificity whether I am stuck on a notoriously difficult puzzle or if I am just missing something that should be obvious?

[SecretAsianMan]

I don't know the notoriety of this puzzle, but you are overlooking something.  The solution is simpler than what you are attempting, although perhaps less intuitive from an adventure game perspective.

[bkbroiler]

I don't recall that being a notoriously difficult puzzle. I think you're overcomplicating it. 

[Ben X]

You're overlooking a regular Lucasarts puzzle trope. Vague hint:

 

using an item with similar properties to the item you need.

[Zeusthecat]

I'll probably start clicking these spoilers soon at this point. I wrote down a list of possible things to try yesterday and unfortunately had no success. One thing that keeps bothering me is how Blondebeard keeps changing which direction he is facing between his reservation book and the podium. I mean, there has to be some significance to the fact that he is not standing there in a static position. I also think I might revisit the barbers and try a few things with those combs and that barber book. I think it's a little suspicious that I am able to try to grab the jar of combs but am stopped by the barbers.

 

Also, apologies if this has been a little frustrating to follow. I have a very strong desire to solve all of these puzzles myself even if it takes a few dozen hours to get through what would otherwise be a fairly short game.

[syntheticgerbil]

If it makes you feel any better, I hated this fucking puzzle.

[Zeusthecat]

Okay, I just went to spoiler town. The only possible thing I can think of based on what you guys have mentioned is the jaw breaker that the third barber is enjoying. I have already tried using every item with him, talking to him, and looking at him so the only other possible thing I could try is to push him (which I could have sworn I already tried). If that ends up being the solution then that irritates the shit out of me. 

[bkbroiler]

uh oh

[Ben X]

lol

[Zeusthecat]

Well hot dog, I finally made some fucking progress. I would have never associated the word 'crunchy' with a jawbreaker before but I have since learned the error of my ways. And I have no idea how I managed to never try pushing Cutthroat Bill considering how goddamn thorough I was with every area. I guess these games are good at continuing to put giant blind spots on my brain.

 

So after getting the jawbreaker and giving it to Blondebeard, I was slightly bummed to see that this puzzle was much more complex than I had anticipated. I was hoping I would just get the tooth and be able to continue on with my adventure but there were a few additional steps to figure out before I could do that. The first couple steps were easy: give the gum to Blondebeard after the jawbreaker loosened his tooth then use the pin I had to pop his gum bubble. The next part however, had me stumped for a bit. I first just tried to pick up the tooth and walk out but was caught by Blondebeard as I tried to leave. Then, after some inventory experimentation, I discovered that I could put the gold tooth in the chewed gum I had and blow my own bubble with the tooth inside. I thought I would then be able to leave with the gum and tooth hidden in my mouth but was stopped in my tracks again and forced to ponder my options some more. Luckily, it didn't take me too much longer to realize the connection between the gum bubble with the tooth, the open window, the mud puddle outside that I was able to pan for gold in, and the last remaining balloon that I had in my inventory. As soon as I put those pieces together, I was certain that the solution to the puzzle was to inhale the helium from the balloon and then blow a helium filled bubble that would float out of the window and drop the tooth in the mud which I could then get using my pie pan. Sure enough, everything played out as expected and I was able to finally give the tooth to Bill and continue on with my adventure. I am super stoked that this game made me feel so smart right after making me feel so stupid and that that puzzle turned out to actually be pretty sweet in the end.

 

After finally recruiting Bill it was on to Act 3. Thankfully, this act was amazing and gave me a nice reprieve from all the intense puzzle solving. I loved just about everything going on here. The barber pirate song was amazing and hilarious. The way they completely ignored Guybrush because they were too busy whale watching was hilarious and reminded me of his pirate crew from SoMI. The insult fighting was an absolute joy to go through once again, especially with the rhyming aspect. And the French villain guy who stole my map was also a great character. This act was definitely a standout moment in my LucasArts playthrough.

 

After I had made my way through all the pirates, upgraded my cannons, and defeated the asshole that stole my map, I finally made it to Blood Island and the start of Act 4. I played a few minutes into this and quit shortly after talking to my crew and learning of their plans to mutiny and go back to being barbers. Now that I finally have a new area to explore I'm excited to start getting buried in puzzle hell again.

[bkbroiler]

The "Pirate I Was Meant To Be" song is probably my favorite part of any Monkey Island game. So hilarious. Also I think, like you said, the way the rhyming works with the insult fighting and how it clues you into the fight with the main villain is really cool.

 

Enjoy Blood Island! I think it's a really cool location.

[SecretAsianMan]

The barber's song is my absolute favorite Monkey Island thing.  Please tell me you listened to all the lyrics even after recognizing which one would end the song.

[syntheticgerbil]

Stupid ass chewing gum puzzle. Too many aspects to it to even be plausible.

[bkbroiler]

"Uhh.... door hinge?"

[SecretAsianMan]

"Uhh.... door hinge?"

 

God that still cracks me up.

[bkbroiler]

I impressed some people once in real life by using that "rhyme." That was a great day of living off someone else's talent.

[Zeusthecat]

The barber's song is my absolute favorite Monkey Island thing.  Please tell me you listened to all the lyrics even after recognizing which one would end the song.

Hell yes I did. The more I think about it, that whole song sequence and the way you end it by using the word 'orange' just might be one of my favorite sequences I've ever seen in a video game. So damn good.

[Zeusthecat]

I made quite a bit of progress over the weekend. Everything has been pretty obvious and straightforward on Blood Island so far and I feel like I might be getting kind of close to the end.

 

After first arriving on Blood Island, I went through all of the areas and worked through all of the interactions available to me in each area. I picked up a number of new objects including a cushion, a magnet, 5 Death Tarot cards, an auger, a hammer, a chisel, a big block of tofu, a pepper, some brochures, a recipe book, a bottle of shaving cream with a cork lid, and possibly a couple other things. From my interactions with various characters around the island I found that I needed a hangover cure for the guy at the lodge place, a tar substitute for my barber pirates, and some kind of disguise to trick the island cannibals into letting me join them for their volcano sacrifice. With these items in hand and these goals in mind I started getting to work.

 

The first thing I did was to systematically go through every item and attempt to use it with every other item in my inventory since these are often the easiest interactions to miss and it doesn't take long to go through them all. In doing this, I found that I could put the pin through the cork and magnetize it with the magnet (it looks like I'll be making a homemade compass with this at some point), I was able to use the auger on the tofu to create a mask which I assumed would work as my cannibal disguise, and I was able to put shaving cream in the pie pan. After going through this process, I then revisited each area to start knocking out some puzzles.

 

Several puzzles came pretty easily at this point. I was able to use the auger (or chisel?) to get a bunch of cheese which I was then able to give to the lactose intolerant volcano after using my disguise to trick the cannibals. Then, thanks to the new lava presence, I was able to use the remainder of the cheese with the pot on the barbecue pit and take that to the barber pirates as a tar substitute, scoring me some hand lotion in exchange. Then, I discovered that I could give the biscuit I had to Old Blind Pew and take some of his fur afterwards to use as one of my hangover cure ingredients (which was spelled out in the recipe book I had picked up). Next, I was able to get the egg out of the tree at the beach by putting the cushion on the ground and using the mallet to hit the tree and knock the egg down. This gave me all three of the ingredients I needed (the pepper being the third) and I was able to cure the guy's hangover. After talking to him and learning about his family history, I ordered a few drinks and ended up with an umbrella in my inventory. Then, after poking around some more I found that I was able to "borrow" his tip jar and was able to use my mallet on a nail sticking out of the wall in the room upstairs which netted me the nail and a painting.

 

With the hangover cured, the pirate tar situation resolved, and the volcano erupted, I took a minute to go back through my items. This time, I found that I could magnetize the nail I had picked up, I could take the lid off the jar, and I could poke holes in the lid. After doing this it was clear that I would need to use the jar to capture those fireflies near Elaine but without some kind of bait or other incentive, it appeared that I didn't quite have what I needed yet to get them. So I continued on and ended up finding the solution shortly afterwards when I discovered that I could use my umbrella on the windmill to get up to where a barrel full of sugar water was. I was then able to put some sugar water in my jar and use that to capture the fireflies. With my new lantern in hand, I then went to the lighthouse and found that I was able to put it on the lantern post. I played a bit more beyond this but did not make any further progress.

 

From what I can tell, the two most obvious things I need to figure out are how to get into the crypt and how to repair the mirror in the lighthouse. I'm not sure about the mirror but I am pretty sure I will need to fake my death somehow to get into the crypt. I suspect there is something I will need to do in the area with Old Blind Pew to make this happen but haven't quite figured it out yet. I'm thinking that I maybe need to slide one of my death cards through the crack in the door and hopefully that will lead to the grave digger/tombstone chiseler guy being convinced I am dead and putting me in the crypt.

[Udvarnoky]

This is my favorite section of the game.  I wanna take the atmosphere of Blood Island out behind the middle school and get it pregnant.

[Zeusthecat]

I volunteer to help raise the baby if your relationship doesn't end up working out.

[bkbroiler]

This is my favorite section of the game.  I wanna take the atmosphere of Blood Island out behind the middle school and get it pregnant.

I call secondsies

[syntheticgerbil]

So today when stuffing concert tickets in an envelope for my new mind numbing job, I noticed an address for Chowchilla, California. I now suddenly understand where Chowchilla Charlie came from.

[Udvarnoky]

Oh, since we failed to inform you of the Full Throttle easter egg in time, here's one you can trigger on Blood Island: on the beach (the location with the Flying Welshman, not the crew), "Use" (the hand icon) the beach something like 30 times.

[Zeusthecat]

Oh, since we failed to inform you of the Full Throttle easter egg in time, here's one you can trigger on Blood Island: on the beach (the location with the Flying Welshman, not the crew), "Use" (the hand icon) the beach something like 30 times.

 

Thanks for that, it was quite awesome.

 

Upon resuming last night, I spent a good chunk of time just going back through each area and trying random things out. As I went through this process I made 2 key discoveries. The first was that I could fill up my measuring cup with seawater and combine it with the cork and magnetized pin to complete my compass. The second was that I could take the portrait that I picked up from the wall of the lodge and put it on the door at the top of the stairs. Unfortunately, even after completing those two steps I remained stuck for awhile and didn't see any obvious next step involving the compass or the portrait. So I continued going back through all the areas thinking that I would somehow need to fake my own death and get in that crypt in order to progress further. As I was going back through all the areas I eventually found myself staring at that poster again and decided that maybe I should spend a little bit more time focusing my efforts there instead. So I went through a few items and found that I could cut the face out of the portrait and then use the porthole to spy on the Goodsoup bartender guy. He went on for a bit about how he loved having so much money before commenting on how creepy the painting on the door looked and going back downstairs. At this point, I still had the cut out face from the portrait so I followed him down to try using that on a few things. Luckily, it didn't take long for me to discover that I could swap out the face for the mirror and after doing so, I was finally able to fix the mirror in the lighthouse.

 

With the mirror fixed, I headed back to the beach where the Lost Welshman was waiting. I talked to him for a bit and was able to convince him to take me to Skull Island after I gave him my homemade compass. After arriving at Duck Island, I made my way to the top of the cliff where a dweeby guy agreed to lower me down to the pirate hideout. Unfortunately, he lost control halfway through and dropped my ass on a big rock. So I went at it a second time and found that I was able to use my umbrella while falling to slow my descent and help me land right where I needed to.

 

After entering the hideout, I had an interesting conversation with the main pirate in charge and was excited to see that he was a reseller of treasure and stuffed animals and wanted to pass the savings on to me. Since I didn't have any money, he agreed to give me the diamond I was looking for if I could beat him and his henchman at a game of poker. Unfortunately, I had no money for the buy in so after I wandered around some more and attempted to steal some of their treasure a few times, I got tired and stopped playing for the evening.

 

I've given it some thought since last night and I think I know roughly what I'll need to do to get the money for the buy in, beat them at poker, and get the diamond. Since Goodsoup was going on about how much money he inherited, I assume I'll be able to get some once I fake my death and end up in the Goodsoup family crypt. Then, during the poker game, I'm betting I will have to switch out my cards with some of those death tarot cards whenever the dweeby guy opens the door and causes the lights to almost go out. This should net me the diamond which will finally let me lift the curse on Elaine and Guybrush will immediately get clocked in the face.

[Zeusthecat]

I played some more this weekend and haven't managed to make any more progress. I'm still pretty sure that the first thing I need to do is to fake my death to end up in the Goodsoup family crypt but so far I'm not seeing any clear way forward. I think the solution might involve the bottle of lotion somehow since that hasn't come into play yet and I went through so many steps to obtain it. But there is also the segment in the pirate hideout on Skull Island where the dude repeatedly opens the door and almost blows the candles out. 

 

The pressure to finish this game is mounting as I get closer and closer to starting Grim Fandango and having my head explode.