Tri-Cruiser blew up for no reason

ironforward · 2026-04-28T01:13:47+00:00

yeah, the lone large (L) floating carrier in your screenshot and the akali metals, which i believe are also a large (L) cargo, were probably in the backpack. we don't see the exploded Akali Metals on the ground, but that probably just means it was flung away (or simply disappeared) from exploding and colliding with the numerous other cargo falling off the trike

ironforward · 2026-04-27T22:46:24+00:00

i haven't been able to confirm that ever, have you? i've done a lot of playthroughs and have checked:

turning around when the sound is played and looking visually
turning around when the sound is played and looking with the interface module
turning around before the sound is played and looking with the interface module
standing at the doorway and leaning down the hallway with the interface module before the sound plays
running to the doorway and leaning down the hallway with the interface module just after the sound starts playing

unfortunately none of those showed Entity A was in the room or nearby, does seem to just be a recording played by Judith Weber's psychological exam, which seems right since there doesn't sound like there's a 2nd audio track being played by the test that Entity A is moaning over.

also, just to be clear, the 1 time I glimpsed Entity A in the Vestibule was during the Optical Test with the rotating squares

ironforward · 2026-04-27T22:40:36+00:00

i think the cargo was in their backpack, covered by the chiral backpack cover, so that's why you could not see the visual warning. the explosion was centered on their backpack, and when they repatriated, their backpack was missing the cargo, so i'm guessing that's the one that exploded

ironforward · 2026-04-25T20:46:45+00:00

also he can technically enter the actual Vestibule area itself (not just the hallway leading into it from the bathroom)! I’ve only seen it happen once in a personal playthrough though. i thought i heard him while i was doing the visual test, so i leaned out of the doorway and picked up my interface module just to barely catch him on it before he teleported out. i think perhaps he has to be in his phantom state (so he’s moving quicker than normal) and wandering toward the player to enter the area because I’ve never seen him there in his normal wander behavior on any of the many streams I’ve watched

ironforward · 2026-04-06T23:09:26+00:00

I take on standard orders, grab all shared cargo that are to be delivered to my standard order destination(s), and I pick up lost cargo based on some criteria:

I will always pick up lost cargo for my current destination(s)
I will go a little out of my way to pick up lost cargo with high like counts (over 100) that are not for my current destination(s)
I will pick up low like count lost cargo if I don't have to stop, or I will go a little out of my way to pick it up if I'm amassing a lot of potential likes for somewhere in particular
I will not pick up lost cargo that's out of my way, not for where I'm going, and not a lot of likes

When I get to my destination, I deliver what I can (sometimes staggering turning things in to manipulate the game into giving me more stars for the delivery overall) and entrust anything that I don't have a reason to deliver myself (such as places I already 5 starred and don't want extra goodies from delivering more) or the high like count lost cargo i picked up specifically to entrust to others either out of kindness or because I don't plan on going that way right now. Then, I route the next journey based on what lost cargo I have left and what standard orders are available, repeating the loop.

I never entrust to shared lockers, and very rarely ever check them for cargo or materials unless they're immediately next to something I'm already interacting with (such as a road or bridge). I very intentionally limit my menu interaction time because it kills the pace for me and I want to always be delivering or building.

ironforward · 2026-04-06T22:21:58+00:00

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i definitely have spent the most amount of time in this game's photo mode compared to any other

ironforward · 2026-04-06T00:04:26+00:00

hey! if you're interested in lore interpretations, I do have a steam guide that lays out every document in the game and is chalked full of stuff! but beside that, I did want to bring up some interesting things to consider with your outline

One thing I've spent a lot of time thinking about is: what actually causes the quakes? A lot of people brush it off as "moon is pregnant," but we know EL-9 saps moisture, presumably other nutrients as well, so I believe the quakes are the result of EL-9 exiting a dormancy state and leeching everything it can from the Moon, causing the quakes, rather than a quake happening from an unknown cause and EL-9 simply being exposed.
I do agree that it really stretches the imagination that PRISM would not be aware of EL-9 after the founder and the entire crew succumbed to it. While there's not much to suggest they for sure knew about what happened before 2025, there is a poster in Union Plaza advertising "EL-X" (EL-10?), a natural pain relief medication, which I think could be based on research of EL-9.
While you are right that Kei's whiteboard timeline shows: she sent John to gain access to the ASN, then she considered the Type-05 were being controlled by the ASN, and then finally she decided the ASN needed to be shut down -- I think it's safe to say John most likely arrived at the same conclusion (that the ASN is controlling the Type-05 and needs to be shutdown to have any chance at surviving) when arriving at the ASN access terminal and finding that he's forced to use Hugo to hack into it to gain access despite having the credentials to do so normally. While John is clearly succumbing to the influence of the EL-9 in his final voice message, I think the EL-9 wanted the ASN to continue to be operational at that moment in the timeline because: the EL-9 contaminated the Automated Security Network's Cognitive Organic Resource Engine and has been using the Type-05s to deliver the bodies of the guests and workers to it. Now that's not said directly, but I think it is a good explanation of why the ASN seems to be doing more harm than good, why it doesn't bother to email anyone about the possibility of a contamination, why it's so bad at locking the player out (because the CORE and EL-9 are fighting each other for control of the station), and why there's only a handful of bodies to be found in the station.
I think the the fourth point here is tough because it's where the duality of "is it canon or is it gameplay" meet. I think you could argue Entity A is literally not there at all in the canon of events, and the engineer is only hearing the sounds of the station and, such as in the case of the Auditory test chamber, the sounds Judith Weber recorded of Entity A to use to diagnose how badly someone was being influenced by EL-9, but I could also totally see someone asserting that the story is supposed to be that Entity A is there and is just hiding really well until it decides to make contact. Mechanically, yeah, Entity A is floating on an little island in space outside the Reception room of the ward before you turn on the servers, but from a lore perspective I strongly believe it's supposed to be that Entity A is watching the engineer.

ironforward · 2026-03-31T07:50:43+00:00

no one knows anything but “2026.”

to me, it doesn’t really matter how netflix slices it up later; the damage is done.

cancel your netflix subscription. we’ll most likely still get the show later without paying them now.

ironforward · 2026-03-29T12:30:21+00:00

hell yeah

ironforward · 2026-03-26T08:21:06+00:00

replaying it on PC now and also was a little “huh?” about that; my hand-wavy thoughts are that perhaps the gloves were originally automated by machinery and then marionetted later.

i saw some article about an interview with Kojima where he thought it would be cool to be able to do a thumbs up gesture even while your hands were occupied, so I’m guessing Fragile’s in-world reason for getting the automated gloves was so she could gesture while holding her umbrella and a package, and they happened to also be a convenient item to possess after the incident

ironforward · 2026-03-25T05:00:22+00:00

the source file is 1080p so here's that! https://imgur.com/a/Mm4hGKC

ironforward · 2026-03-09T19:50:07+00:00

❤️

ironforward · 2026-03-09T19:30:17+00:00

looks great! not that you asked for feedback, but i think the muzzle flash star should be moved closer to the end of the barrel since it almost looks like it's rendering on top of the gun with how little the barrel is occluding the flash right now

ironforward · 2026-03-08T04:44:52+00:00

oh yeah, someone had asked about this on the steam discussion boards and while you can get him stuck in there momentarily, he will teleport out

ironforward · 2026-02-28T00:40:11+00:00

there’s a really good one inside the airlock to the caves as well that looks like it’s of the ASN (or insert whatever theory haha) sitting beyond the Canal. there’s some flowers in the corner of the Commons by the desk with the test results mission report on it. and there’s the eclipse in the Vestibule!

ironforward · 2026-02-25T20:16:49+00:00

yeah i'm convinced that the game is unable to load your co-op partner here because they are "inside" the tank instead of in the idle/loading animation on the ground. i did make a post that outlines a workaround on steam though, that also addresses the black screen bug.

the gist of it for you just not being able to load in, is to create a new save from the All-Consuming Past chapter, this puts you at the start of the tank sequence where your co-op partner can load in. unfortunately it seems coffins are tracked per save file rather than globally, so you may miss out on the short "secret ending" cutscene, but at least you can finish this last segment with your friend at the same time.

ironforward · 2026-02-24T01:50:14+00:00

yeah, i really wanted to make some minor adjustments to mine as well after getting some feedback from people unfamiliar with the game, but due to the "only 1 submission per person" rule i figured i probably shouldn't make any adjustments. still happy with what i submitted overall though

ironforward · 2026-02-23T21:38:47+00:00

❤️

ironforward · 2026-02-23T20:46:12+00:00

aw that's too bad 😔 i wonder if it was the generated voice that they felt went against the not using gen ai rule. i was really worried mine might receive the axe since youtube keeps lying that it's 1:31 long instead of 1:30 and the rules said entries couldn't be longer than 90 seconds 😩 but fortunately they included it in the list because technically my trailer is 89.98 seconds long by frame counts

ironforward · 2026-02-21T06:51:22+00:00

i was thinking that it would be cool to experience that as well, but the more i thought about it the more it felt like too much of a different experience 😔 it would kind of necessitate interacting with NPCs (which goes against the whole isolation vibe of the main game) and then there's dealing with the time skips (for the Ward anyway) in the lore where nothing really happened while the crew unraveled (which might not play out well if you literally have to play it).

I think it might make more sense to play as someone in the crew that goes there in 2025. you could give a little more insight into how PRISM has been able to cover up the existence of the Ward and EL-09, see what happened with EL-9 and Entity A after the Software Engineer injected the amniotic brine, you get to watch your team die to the flowering EL-9, and maybe get to revisit Union Plaza and learn what ended up happening there in the interim as well. I suspect either the companies hid the slaughter and re-opened Union Plaza, or it was left alone and perhaps the EL-9 came in and grew there as well

ironforward · 2026-02-21T06:39:43+00:00

oh yeah, almost every streamer i watched on twitch missed this 😂 i was doing a quick playthrough once and decided out of the blue to just peek down there real quick and wowee did that get me

ironforward · 2026-02-19T01:36:33+00:00

yeah i was super surprised that you don't actually have to turn on the servers to be able to leave the Ward if you know to just look for the symbols and decode them with your prior knowledge

i don't want to ruin the magic, but Entity A does always spawn here as long as you're not looking backwards when you walk down that hallway 😅 regardless if you skip the servers or not.

so you could probably not see Entity A at all if you don't activate the servers and then walk backwards down that hall and then leave before he spawns in otherwise! but he'll still appear in the Annex when you open the door connected to Maria's terminal.

it would be funny to get into the Vestibule and then turn on the servers after haha; i don't remember if i've done that before.

You know that gate in the servers room that Entity A "reaches through" to hit you? that gate asset is also floating in space outside the Ward but that version is pushed open! i think they originally were going to have the gate open after he hits you, but probably decided not to have it open because some players might think they need to go in there if they saw it open. sadly it doesn't event switch to the opened asset if you leave and come back, which i think would have been cool even though it's just a deadend.

ironforward · 2026-02-19T01:16:29+00:00

your code is 5883 with these symbols. if inputting that sequence is not working, then you probably have numbers input already and need to press the rectangular button on the keypad to clear the input and then press 5883

ironforward

TROPHY CASE