Walkthrough for Sentient Beings by Tristin Grizel Dean
walkthrough written for solutionarchive.com by Andrew Schultz
This is a really good game! If there is one frustration, it'd be that the final specimen to
find may be really tough, because you think you've looked everywhere.
So this guide doubles as a relatively quick walkthrough and reference to what is missing and where.
See the end for the locations of the specimens in the world and in storage.
There's no one way to go through this game. In fact, it encourages thinking on your toes, if
you want, for the light and dark phases, which change if you walk around. But ... BUT ... you can
also manipulate the light cycles by looking a lot, since there is no time limit in daily cycles.
>Z doesn't register a change of day, but >L does.
This walkthrough focuses on minimal non-waiting moves and attempts to give a clear path through with
just four trips. This is the minimum, as you have six jars, and thus a maximum of six specimens to
take for any one trip. (There are small bugs as of January 2023, but we won't take them as a
loophole. The key one is TAKE ALL if you have five specimens lets you hold over 6 items.) The
walkthrough tries to play in a non-cheating manner, not taking advantage of the over-capacity bug or
the ability to find a specimen and leave it for later. While a nocturnal specimen would, fully
logically, disappear in the daytime, it would violate the spirit of TALP. Also, I believe the
walkthrough I've chosen makes for the shortest number of rooms traversed, though you may want
or need to sleep a bit in case of mis-typed commands or general miscalculation.
The key meta-command to remember is SETTINGS and then 1. While >L.L.L.L.L.L is also possible,
it's good to know there's an author-blessed method to fast-forward time. It's
possible you will deviate from the walkthrough, which affects timing. Some things are present at
only daytime or nighttime, and if you give a few extra commands the parser rejects, that counts as
turns. Any one chunk of day or night lasts 24 turns, unless it's forced to end with the
auto-sleep.
One other thing: GET ALL and GET SPECIMEN seem to be the same thing, but GET ALL somehow blocks you
from PUT SPECIMEN in the specimen collection. This seems like a nontrivial bug to find during
testing, and I only found it because I hit the game REALLY hard trying to minimize a path through,
and I got lazy. Perhaps Adventuron could handle the parsing better as well, and that should not be
the programmer's responsibility. This is hopefully not to spread blame around, but to
say--writing a programming language is tough. Writing a fun game is tough. Things slip through the
cracks, especially when this isn't people's paid job. I want to make sure this guide
doesn't put you in an unwinnable situation, and I want to give help in case you fell into my
trap (GET ALL).
However, GET SPECIMEN isn't that tough to type! Thanks to Adventuron's mouse-friendliness,
typing is reduced by semi-permanently hovering your mouse over where SPECIMEN is. If you have this
walkthrough open in another window, alt-tab to the window and use page up/down.
Oh, also, it's slightly faster not to start with the tutorial. You avoid some timed text.
Anyway, let's go!
>>X FLASHLIGHT
>>I
>>X BADGE
You see a number. It seems constant across games.
>OPEN DRAWER
>25594
(Or whatever the number is.)
>X DRAWER
>GET ALL
>DROP FLASHLIGHT
>CLOSE DRAWER
>OUT
>OUT
Write all these below down. These are the diurnal things. We're going to assume it's light
right now. You can, if you want, type >MEASURE as a command, have it rejected, and then use the
up arrow to save a bit of time. Also, you can use an abbreviation. (Sadly, H and O aren't
abbreviations!)
>MEASURE TEMP
>MEASURE LIGHT
>>MEASURE OXYGEN
>>MEASURE HYDROGEN
Write down these numbers. They're random.
Note there's also a nitrogen setting. It's useless for the purposes of this game, but the
author makes sure hydrogen + oxygen + nitrogen = 100%.
I always got hydrogen of 16 and oxygen of 26.
>E
>X HOOKS
>GET HOOK
>X POND
Note we could GET SPECIMEN, but GET ALL is shorter. Note how we saved a turn by waiting for two
specimens to appear. Hooray for chiseling!
>GET ALL
2/24.
Now for that one in the pond.
>HOOK SPECIMEN
3/24.
>X POND
>GET ALL
4/24.
>SETTINGS
>1
This brings nighttime. Note from here, the exact moves of the walkthrough mean you find one specimen
later on just before day breaks. I'll note it.
>X POND
>X HOOK
>GET ALL
6/24.
>MEASURE TEMP
>MEASURE LIGHT
These aren't recommended, as they cause day to break too soon in your journey.
>>MEASURE OXYGEN
>>MEASURE HYDROGEN
Note there's a very slight bug here--HOOK SPECIMEN when you already have 6 lets you carry,
technically, 7 specimens in 6 jars. I'm being Captain Nitpick here, but in case you use a
different path through and somehow only bring 5 specimens, well, you can cheat a bit. A bit of a
buffer.
Also, for prospective authors: with regard to these very obscure bugs, they are worth fixing if you
see them (or, more likely, your tester finds them,) but you don't want to fear missing them too
much or stretch to find them. It obviously doesn't ruin the game, here, and in fact it's a
bit of a neat loophole. And if people love the game, they'll maybe even feel bad noting
something like this. (I do.)
We have all we need from our first trip.
>W
>IN
>SET CONTROLS
>1
The numbers for light and temperature will almost certainly be different than what's below. If
you forgot, well, then, go outside and scan again.
>1
>18
>2
>13000
>3
>26
>4
>16
>5
>SET CONTROLS
>2
>1
>5
>2
>72
>3
>26
>4
>16
>5
Now you can store stuff!
>OPEN BOX
>PUT SPECIMEN
Note PUT ALL just drops everything. PUT SPECIMEN is needed to start putting stuff away.
>OUT
>E
>HOOK SPECIMEN
7/24, now. Let's get some water for another area.
>GET WATER
>GET WATER
You need to do this twice, as there are two places to pour water.
>W
>W
You may wonder if we are skipping stuff. Yes, we are! But it's in service of a slightly shorter
route overall. Trust me. No, really!
I'm assuming it's night for this bit.
>S
>W
Here this is a bit time-based.
>X BULB
(or, if it's day, CUT BULB--here I suppose TAKE BULB's warning message doesn't wholly
conflict with CUT BULB, as the cut is only a small one.)
>GET ALL
8/24.
>W
>CLIMB VINES
>U
There's stuff here on Cliff east, but the PUT SPECIMEN bug as of January 2023 may rear its head
if we get the west cliff one last.
>W
>DROP WATER
>X GRASS
>GET ALL
9/24.
>E
>>X VIEW
>>YELL
>YELL COOEE
>DROP WATER
>X GRASS
>GET ALL
11/24.
>D
>E
If it's not daytime, wait until it is.
>SMASH ROCKS
>E
>N
>E
>IN
>OPEN BOX
>PUT SPECIMEN
Now you may see a power failure. If not after this errand, after the next.
IN CASE OF POWER FAILURE:
- If the first bulb is green, turn switch 1 on.
- If the number of red bulbs is odd, turn switch 3 on.
- If there is only one yellow bulb and more than one green bulb, turn switch 6 on. Otherwise, turn
switch 7 on.
- If a green bulb is next to a yellow bulb, turn switch 6 off. Otherwise, turn switch 8 on.
- If there are two red bulbs next to each other, turn switch 4 on. Otherwise, turn switch 9 on.
- If any even switches are turned on, turn switch 10 on.
Step 1: do nothing
Step 2: 3 is on
Step 3: 7 is on
Step 4: 8 is on
Step 5: 4 is on
Step 6: 10 is on
>OPEN PANEL
>FLIP 3
>FLIP 4
>FLIP 7
>FLIP 8
>FLIP 10
Okay, everything's good again.
>OUT
Since when the power failure occurs is random (I've had it from 10-14 specimens,) time for this
walkthrough may be disrupted.
>W
>S
>W
>W
>D
>E
Here some odd bugs related to GET ALL began to surface. Apparently GET SPECIMEN works okay, and even
better, you can mouse-click. The best part about this is that you can just put the mouse over one
incidence of SPECIMEN, and the next one will appear in the same place.
So, no joke ... you want to type GET SPECIMEN or click on it.
Again, GET ALL at your own risk, as of January 2023. Save beforehand.
These next two parts must be done at night.
>W
>PUSH STONE
>X AIR
>GET SPECIMEN
14/24.
>S
>X PETALS
>PUSH PETALS
>GET SPECIMEN
16/24.
>N
If it's not day now, it needs to be.
>>SETTINGS
>>1
>X BUDS
>GET SPECIMEN
17/24.
>X GREENERY
>GET SPECIMEN
18/24.
>E
>IN
>OPEN BOX
>PUT SPECIMEN
Last go round!
>OUT
>W
>S
>GET THORN
>W
If it's not day...
>>SETTINGS
>>1
>X LEAVES
>CUT BULB
>GET SPECIMEN
20/24. This is the last time you need to manipulate day/night.
>W
>GET GLOB
>D
>PUSH MUSHROOM
>GET SPECIMEN
21/24.
>E
>PUSH MUSHROOM
>GLOB BURROW
>X POOL
>GET SPECIMEN
24/24.
>W
>U
>E
>E
>N
>E
>IN
>OPEN BOX
>PUT SPECIMEN
Endgame.
>SECURE ROBOT
>>LAUNCH
The code is pond cave brambles vines vines cave. You may have to go out and explore. Whichever it
is, you need to match the number with the area.
field = 1
pond = 2
brambles = 3
vines = 4
cave = 5
cliff = 6
So the code is 253445.
But you don't need to work through all this. You can just cut to the chase.
>LAUNCH CODE
>253445
>LIFT OFF
And you win!
Below is a list of what to find, where, in case you are missing one.
Note diurnal storage is west, nocturnal east, and things are numbered
1-2-3-4-5-6
7-8-9-10-11-12
==============================
Diurnal-1: (Field East) X GREENERY, day only *
Diurnal-2: (Field West): X BUDS, day only
Diurnal-3: (Brambles East) PUSH PETALS, day or night
Diurnal-4: (Brambles West) CUT BULB first, day only
Diurnal-5: (Brambles West) SMASH ROCKS, day only
Diurnal-6: (Pond) HOOK SPECIMEN, day only
Diurnal-7: (Brambles West) X LEAVES, day only
Diurnal-8: (Pond) X HOOK, during day
Diurnal-9: (Field West) PUSH STONE, night (this may be a bug or may be me
misunderstanding--it's only collectible at night, but you can see it in the day, and it's
diurnal)
Diurnal-10: (Cliff West) POUR WATER/X GRASS, day or night
Diurnal-11: (Pond) X POND again, daytime
Diurnal-12: (Pond) X POND, during day
Nocturnal-1: (Cave West) PUSH MUSHROOMS, day or night
Nocturnal-2: (Field West) X AIR, night
Nocturnal-3: (Brambles East) X PETALS, night
Nocturnal-4: (Brambles West) X BULBS, night
Nocturnal-5, Nocturnal-6: (Cave East) X POND, day or night
Nocturnal-7: (Pond) X HOOK, during night
Nocturnal-8: (Cave East) PUSH MUSHROOMS/GLOB BURROW, day or night
Nocturnal-9: (Cliff East) X GRASS, day or night *
Nocturnal-10: (Cliff East) YELL COOEE, day or night
Nocturnal-11: (Pond) HOOK SPECIMEN, during night
Nocturnal-12: (Pond) X POND, during night
==================================
Also "an exercise for the reader" is to figure a way through this game with just 3 trips,
assuming the TAKE ALL loophole isn't closed. This may take longer to plan, but the basic idea
is:
--get 5 jars filled early, probably just to the west of the field. Then go to the pond. X HOOK and X
POND at day and night. GET ALL. Then HOOK SPECIMEN and SETTINGS 1 and HOOK SPECIMEN. This first trip
gets you 11.
--the second trip, clear things out and go to the cave. With 4 or more specimens, GLOB BURROW and
then X POND and then get all. Return.
--get the remaining 6 items your next trip through. Note if I'm off by one, Cliff (East) allows
TAKE ALL to get to 7 items.
Also, trips of 9-8-7 seem possible, but we would need the 8 in the pool. The pond is critical to all
this.
