You need to get to particular regions to progress the story. The game world consists of large regions connected by gates. It’s not really spoiler-free, but it’s all stuff you could (but probably won’t) figure out in the first region. If you have no idea what to do or can barely move without getting killed, check out the Spoiler-Free Primer. Experiment to learn what it takes for enemies to see or hear you. If you can decode what he’s saying, you might not need any help. There’s a yellow character who pops up to guide you. If you haven’t played yet, try it before reading on. This guide is meant to help you get unstuck without spoiling more than necessary. Some things that turned players and reviewers off were fixed in patches, but the core opaqueness remains because it is by design.

Rain World is a masterpiece - equal parts metroidvania, movement puzzler, immersive rat in Manhattan sim - but its strangeness makes it hard to appreciate. If you can't find the next region, the world map will tell you what direction to look in. At that point, the recommended region order helps a lot without spoiling anything but region names. How to Enjoy Rain World A spoiler-free guide to the spoilers TL DR: play as long as you can without help, until you get frustrated.

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