Hiveswap Act 2 — Walkthrough Part 1
Part 1
Jade Trial
Part 2
Notes: If you played Act 1, you can import your captchalogue items from your previous gameplay.
You will automatically start with:
>The Big Book of Beasts
>Lusus medical kit
>Byers
>Spice Bottle
>Pogs
>Pet treats
>Flashlight
But can import the following items from previous gameplay:
>Batteries
Final notes: I’ll just say this here and now — I recommend trying different combinations of objects and clicking on everything because I legitimately enjoy the flavor text. It’s also a good habit to get into if you want to earn all Steam achievements for the game. I won’t say this again because it’ll get repetitive, so just assume that you should check out the map in every scene.
I’m only going to give the bare essentials of what needs to be done in each scene in order to get different outcomes and achievements.
Final final notes: There are a few achievements that require separate run-throughs.
Cell You Later?: don’t use the E-cell batteries……..ever.
Never Be Game Over: Never get a game-over screen.
Born to Die: Get all game-overs!
Before starting, make the decision of which you would like to earn (if any). Follow the instructions accordingly (ie. skip game-over achievements if you’re going for Never Be Game Over, follow all game-over achievements for Born to Die.)
TRAIN YARD (Beginning)
FIRST ACHIEVEMENT
If you import a save from Act 1, you earn the achievement “Continuity Maestro”
There will be a beginning cutscene, then Joey and Xefros will have a small set of dialogue.
At this point, if you’re feeling ambitious, you can earn your first three achievements right off the bat (not including Continuity Maestro):
Help
Click the help button once.
HELP
Click the button 100 times — this doesn’t include clicking away to dismiss the dialogue box, so technically you have to click 200 times. Also, clicking too fast (ie. using an auto-clicker) may result in dropped clicks.
HeLP!!!!
Click the button 1000 times — as with the previous achievement, you technically need to click 2000 times, and try not to program an auto-clicker to click too fast, else it may result in dropped clicks.
With those achievement shenanigans out of the way, head on over to the right side of the map and talk to the two burgundy bloods. It doesn’t matter which dialogue option you choose.
Afterward, go to the cafe doors and choose “Go in.” A drone attack will happen and the title card for Act 2 will pop up.
CHARUN’S CAVE
Joey and Xefros will wake up near Charun’s cave, courtesy of Deercat.
Gone Swimming
For this achievement, decide to go swimming against your better judgment. This results in a game over.
Go into Charun’s cave. Nobody will be home, but you can gaze wistfully at Charun’s troll call card and reminisce on what could have been.
We could have had a fishing minigame, man.
Joey and Xefros decide to do the reasonable thing and rob the place. Sort of. Basically.
CAVE EXPLORER
See all the dialogue that comes from the seven objects in Charun’s hive:
>ground-level junkpile
>junk pile upstairs
>string lights
>barnacle
>canvas
>sculpture with legs in mouth
>mother grub
>mushrooms
If you don’t want any extra flavor text or dialogue, head right back out of the cave from where you came in. Click on the giant trash pile with the ant lusus on it, and Xefros will produce some alright-looking horns just for you.
Now go back inside the cave. Walk through the cave. Leave the cave through the other exit.
ZEBEDE’S HIVE
Yet another could-have-been, ripped from our prying grasps too soon.
Joey and Xefros chat a bit more. Head to the right of the map and attempt to exit through the woods.
Forestry
If you really want to, you can get a Game Over by insisting on leaving through the woods without having done any of the required steps.
Click the door to Zebede’s hive and select “Go In.” Xefros will explain to Joey that he has psychic powers and can unlock the door with his mind.
Select Xefros’ psychic ability and use it on the door. This will prompt another conversation where Xefros unlocks the door.
Click on the door AGAIN and click “Go In” AGAIN.
You are now inside Zebede’s hive.
Have Xefros use his psychics on the bee book that’s on the top of the shelf.
He knocks it down. Switch to Joey, have her Read the book. She learns a bee dance.
BEFORE YOU DO ANYTHING ELSE — if you care about achievements at all, that is — SAVE YOUR GAME. You will be prompted in the near future to make the difficult, life-altering decision between which horns you want to wear on your head.
Have Joey do the bee dance for Zebede’s lusus. The lusus isn’t going to be impressed, which triggers another conversation.
YOU ARE NOW FORCED TO CHOOSE BETWEEN
>CORNUCOPIA HORNS
>TRAFFIC CONE HORNS
Either decision will unlock a corresponding achievement.
Cornucopia Disguise
Choose the cornucopia horns.
Traffic Cone Costume
Choose the traffic cone horns.
Whatever you choose, prepare yourself for another bee dance for the lusus. It’s going to puke on you both and get you really high, I guess, because plot.
Housebreaker
Read the dialogue from the 10 interactive objects in Zebede’s hive.
>front door
>respiteblock door
>large lamp
>brain fruit
>lusus
>book
>shelves
>cornucopias
>science equipment
>small lamp hanging from the ceiling
Leave the hive.
A small bee dancing minigame used to be required before you could leave the map. Due to accessibility concerns, it was scrapped from the game soon after its release, then reinstated in January 2021.
If you want to play it, just use Joey’s new bee dance skill on the tarp with bees drawn on it. If you want to skip it…you’re not missing much, to put it kindly.
Proceed to the forest and exit.
TRAIN STATION
Joey and Xefros arrive at the train station. They’ll chat with each other a little bit and reveal that they need to get some tickets, pronto.
Go to the ticket booth — the thing with the giant fucking monitors on it. Use it and watch Joey accidentally break the machine. You’re not able to get tickets now and have to find some other way to get tickets.
Note: In order to get Third Most Popular Chittr User, you must speak to Chixie, Marvus, Elwurd, and Zebruh several times to get their Chittrs added to your conticks.
This leads us to…
TICKET ROUTES
Listen, I’m not saying that this DOES affect the game later on, but I’m also not saying it DOESN’T.
If you’re obsessed with milking all the content out of this game that you can like me, then go ahead and save before you even enter the waiting area (right of the map).
Once you’re in the waiting area, talk to everyone in the waiting area one time each.
Achievement note: By doing every combination of the following ticket routes, playing around with who you talk to first (ex. talking to Marvus before Zebruh vs. talking to Marvus after Zebruh), plus talking to characters until you get the same message twice, you’ll get the following achievements:
Clownfxxker
See all of Marvus’ dialogue not involving other characters.
Groupie
See all of Chixie’s dialogue not involving other characters.
Talk to Elwurd and Marvus. Don’t talk to Chixie yet.
Elwurd will reveal to you that she can get you two fake tickets for one real ticket.
Marvus will tell you to let him know if he can do anything aside from giving you his actual ticket.
THE ZEBRUH SEQUENCE
Note: You can technically skip TZS (The Zebruh Sequence) if you only want Chixie’s ticket, but I’m including it because it’s basically an essential part of every other ticket route, and it doesn’t make a difference in taking Chixie’s ticket if you do TZS or not.
After speaking to Marvus, speak to Zebruh. He will ask you to get an autograph from Marvus. Say yes and, after you speak to him, go back over to Marvus, who gives you the autograph happily.
Go back over to Zebruh. He’ll say he has no idea what you mean about him giving you his ticket, but if you take his mixtape over to Marvus, then maybe.
Talk to Marvus again and show him Zebruh’s mixtape. You then get an achievement.
A Fire Mixtape
Show Zebruh’s mixtape to Marvus.
Marvus tells you to bring Zebruh over, so go talk to Zebruh and do that. Zebruh will do some brown-nosing and Marvus will invite him to a TV show. Speak to Zebruh once more, but don’t use any items on him.
Now is a good time to save your game again (in a NEW save file, mind you) if you’re like me and want to milk this game for what it’s worth.
Next, talk to Chixie. She will reveal that she’s a vigilante rapper named The Mask. Xefros and Joey will then head off to the side and you must decide whether to stop her or let her do her thing. This is where the ticket routes split up.
TWO AUTHENTIC TICKETS
You’ll need to get both Zebruh’s and Chixie’s tickets. There’s only one set way to get Zebruh’s (which, after explaining the process, I will refer to as “the Zebruh sequence”), but a few different ways to get Chixie’s.
Note: Obtaining two authentic tickets will prevent you from being able to obtain the “Standing Room Only” and “First Class” achievements.
Second note: Using authentic tickets is the only way to get the Sylladex Spring Cleaning achievement.
You must decide to stop Chixie: “Let’s talk her out of it.”
There are actually four ways to get Chixie’s ticket, but the fourth is harder to find by (in my opinion) flawed game design we’ll get into later. For now, you have three choices and can earn an achievement based on each potential choice.
Before you delve into any of those choices, give Zebruh the microphone from Xefros’ inventory. This will convince him to give up his ticket to you and earn you an achievement.
Star Power
Give Xefros’ microphone to Zebruh when he can’t decide if he should be on Slam or Get Culled.
An interesting note on whenever you tattle on Chixie to Elwurd or Zebruh — if you attempt to speak to Marvus afterward, it prompts an argument between Xefros and Joey. Do what you will with the dialogue options you’re presented.
1. TWO AUTHENTIC TICKETS — TOUGH LOVE
Tough Love
Talk to Elwurd and tattle on Chixie.
After speaking to Elwurd, click on Chixie to talk to her. Elwurd will dissuade Chixie from going, and you will get her ticket. Make sure you deny dealing tickets with Elwurd when she asks. Xefros will ask once more afterward when you try to talk to somebody — tell him no as well.
Now with both Chixie’s and Zebruh’s tickets, you can board the train legally. Click on the gate and Wait.
2. TWO AUTHENTIC TICKETS — MEAN
Mean
Talk to Zebruh and tattle on Chixie.
After speaking to Zebruh, click on Chixie to talk to her. Zebruh… convinces Chixie to give up her ticket. And now that you have both Chixie’s and Zebruh’s tickets, you can board the train……and try not to feel awful about what you just did. Click on the gate and Wait.
3. TWO AUTHENTIC TICKETS — ULTIMATE COLLAB
Ultimate Collab
Talk to Marvus and tattle on Chixie.
After speaking to Marvus, click on Chixie to talk to her. We get to hear Chixie drop the f-bomb and Joey gets her ticket! Now you can board the train legally. Click on the gate and Wait.
FAKE TICKETS
ZEBRUH’S TICKET
Give Zebruh the microphone from Xefros’ inventory. This will convince him to give up his ticket to you and earn you an achievement.
Star Power
Give Xefros’ microphone to Zebruh when he can’t decide if he should be on Slam or Get Culled.
Speak to Elwurd.
Shady Deals
Let Elwurd have the pogs.
Then, congratulations! You can now illegally board the train. Click on the gate and Wait.
CHIXIE’S TICKET
Speak to Chixie and decide to try and stop her from staging her protest at Jeevik Week. She’s going to tell you that she doesn’t believe you.
Step aside, then click on Xefros to talk to him (or Joey to talk to her if you’re playing as Xefros). Speak to Chixie again for a fantastically cringe conversation between socially awkward teenagers.
Switch to Xefros after the conversation and use his microphone on Chixie. She’ll cry a little, then give you her ticket.
Next Time Maybe
Talk Chixie out of going to Jeevik Week.
Afterward, speak to Elwurd.
Shady Deals
Let Elwurd have the pogs.
Then, congratulations! You can now illegally board the train. Click the gate and Wait.
Tangent: I mentioned beforehand in the authentic tickets section that I feel like this ticket route is hard to find due to flaws in the game design. The long and short of it is that the game has never given you reason to click on the player characters before — any time you do, you get default text that sometimes doesn’t even change between maps. With a game mechanic like that, it doesn’t make sense to me to have such an important part of gameplay hidden in what is treated like a useless or defunt feature.
THE TRAIN
Rustblood Car
The scene cuts to Joey and Xefros on the rustblood train car. This is also where I forgot what I named the fucking Deercat lusus and got whiplash.
You’ll also get texted by Fiamet, who’s kind of a weirdo.
Do or Die
Get texted by Fiamet.
Standing Room Only
Speak with everybody in the rustblood car — including Chixie.
Talk to Skylla — the brown-blooded troll all the way to the left of the map. You offer to help fix up her lusus. Walk all the way to the right of the train and speak to Martsi — the troll mopping the floor. She refuses to move out of the way, so now you have to go back and talk to Skylla again.
Walk all the way back to the right side of the car again and talk to Marsti. She’ll let you through.
Now… go all the way back to Skylla.
Vet Tech
Give Skylla the animal medicine kit that Joey has.
No, I don’t understand the logic of this either. Now enter into the next train car.
Gold and Olive Car
Basically, you have to talk to everyone in the car, then try to talk to Azdaja and Konyyl (the two fighting on the right hand side).
Note: Make a point of speaking with Cirava as soon as you enter the yellow car. This will add them to your Chittr conticks.
Economy Class
Speak to everyone in the gold/olive car.
You won’t be able to break up the fight and will have to talk to the rest of the car again. Once you get allies to break up their fight, go back and try to speak to them again.
You’ll be challenged to a duel by Azdaja, then given some time to prepare. You can use this chance to speak with others in the car, or you can dive straight into STRIFE by speaking with Azdaja again.
You’ll be entered into battle as Xefros. Nothing you do will be effective, so you’ll have to switch to Joey. As soon as Joey does anything, Azdaja will knock her out, which pisses Xefros off. Xefros leaps in and absolutely fucking owns Azdaja like the boss he is.
X GON GIVE IT TO YA
Defeat Azdaja.
Say your goodbyes and move onto the next car.
Jade-Teal Car
Next is the Jade-Teal car! I’ll end the first part of this walkthrough here and link to my guide for the EXTENSIVE CLUSTERFUCK that is THE TRIAL.
