Curse of Resthaven: Tips and Tricks to Unravel the Island’s Secrets

Hello there! I’m Scott Christian, the studio director of Hilltop Studios right here in Toronto, and the sport director of Curse of Resthaven. We make video games with a selected emphasis on sturdy characters, intricate storytelling, distinctive mechanics, and the occasional musical interlude.

Earlier than making video games, I spent fifteen years working as a composer and conductor right here in Toronto, primarily in theatre. That background informs how we method our video games at Hilltop: character, timing, and an excellent dramatic reveal go a great distance. Our debut, Lil’ Guardsman, was a comedic fantasy gate-guard simulator a couple of twelve-year-old put in cost of a fort gate, with the destiny of the world in her fingers.

For our follow-up, Curse of Resthaven, we determined to take a unique flip into gothic horror, creeping dread, and a thriller that unfolds over a repeating six-day time loop. You play as Ambrose, the island’s newly appointed governor, tasked with restoring prosperity to the colony however he additionally has his personal agenda: discovering his lacking niece, Amalia. The issue is that Resthaven is destroyed six days into his tenure… and Ambrose is shipped again to the day of his arrival, the just one to keep in mind the island’s destiny.

Mashing up mechanics from narrative adventures, buying and selling sims, deckbuilders, and roguelikes, Curse of Resthaven challenges you to examine a city full of secrets and techniques, maintain its financial system operating, and enterprise into the unusual wilderness past its borders. You’ve gotten six days to work with earlier than catastrophe strikes and the island resets. Happily, you get to maintain what you study.

Fixing the thriller is simply the first step. You’ll quickly uncover there are three totally different timelines to discover, and solely by reaching all three conclusions will you unlock the fourth, true ending.

Whether or not you’re stepping onto Resthaven for the first time or trying to make the most of your subsequent loop, listed below are a couple of suggestions to aid you get began.

A Few Easy Tips

Curse of Resthaven is a sport about connecting the dots. Its techniques feed into each other, and the finest discoveries typically come from combining info gathered in numerous methods. Right here are some things to take into accout as you examine the island.

• Speak to everybody, and then speak to them once more. Resthaven’s residents have their very own motivations, grudges, and secrets and techniques. What somebody tells you relies on what Ambrose already is aware of, what subjects you deliver up, and what has occurred throughout the present loop. If a personality isn’t being useful, you could merely want to study a bit of extra earlier than approaching them. Your journal could be counted on to let you recognize when to ask somebody about one thing once more.
• Listen throughout interrogations. You possibly can query characters about totally different subjects to uncover clues, advance quests, and study extra about the island. Info gathered from one resident might unlock the subject wanted to transfer the needle with one other. In case you’re caught, revisit folks you’ve spoken to and see whether or not they have a perspective on newly acquired subjects or, higher but, can information you in the proper path.
• Don’t deal with buying and selling as a aspect exercise. As governor, Ambrose is liable for holding Resthaven’s financial system shifting. Service provider ships deliver items to purchase and promote, whereas the island’s companies could be upgraded to produce helpful assets. Cash is just half of the equation: having the proper assets is crucial for pursuing alternatives elsewhere, together with expeditions into the wilderness.
• Experiment together with your method. Not each downside has an apparent answer, and not each promising lead will repay instantly. Attempt totally different approaches, pursue sudden conversations, and see the place your investigations take you. Even a botched loop might train you one thing helpful for the subsequent one.

Make the Most of the Time Loop

The six-day time loop is at the coronary heart of Curse of Resthaven. Every loop begins with the island’s inhabitants returning to their normal routines, however Ambrose retains his information and development. That distinction is the whole lot.

You aren’t anticipated to remedy the total thriller in a single move. As an alternative, every loop offers you one other alternative to apply what you’ve realized, method outdated issues in a different way, and uncover info that was beforehand out of attain.

• Data is your most precious useful resource. A personality who refuses to cooperate on Day 1 is perhaps way more forthcoming when you’ve found what motivates them. An apparently unimaginable impediment may develop into simple as soon as you recognize the proper particular person to speak to or the proper query to ask.
• Plan your days round what you need to study. There are extra folks to query, companies to handle, and locations to discover than you may essentially get to in a single loop. Concentrate on the leads that appear most promising, and don’t fear in case you have to depart one thing for subsequent time.
• Use every reset as a chance. When the island resets, you may take a unique method with the profit of the whole lot you’ve found. You don’t have to repeat the similar actions simply since you did them final time. In case you already know the place a selected lead goes, spend that point pursuing one thing new.

The purpose isn’t merely to repeat the similar six days till you get the whole lot proper. It’s to use what you realized final time to change what occurs the subsequent time.

Enterprise Past the City

Past the security of Resthaven’s fortified partitions lies a a lot stranger model of the island. Expeditions take Ambrose into this wilderness by means of a card-based narrative system that blends roguelikes, deckbuilders, and choose-your-own-adventure video games.

Every expedition attracts encounters from a pool, that means your journey can unfold in a different way from one try to the subsequent. You’ll face selections, uncover unusual occasions, and encounter alternatives that will not seem once more in your subsequent journey.

• Count on the sudden. Expeditions aren’t fastened sequences of occasions. The encounters you uncover on one outing could also be very totally different from these on one other, so keep curious and be ready to adapt.
• Don’t assume you’ve seen the whole lot. There are extra encounters than you’ll expertise in a single run. Returning to the wilderness on subsequent playthroughs can reveal fully new tales and discoveries.
• Keep in mind that expeditions are half of the bigger investigation. The wilderness isn’t separate from the thriller unfolding on the town. Info and assets you collect might help you make progress elsewhere, so think about how an expedition may help your different targets.

Discover Each Nook Of Resthaven

It’s price taking the time to go searching. Past the principal investigation, Resthaven comprises non-obligatory discoveries, together with collectible moth relics and different secrets and techniques tucked away all through the city.

These discoveries reward gamers who aren’t in a rush. You possibly can barely take a single step should you rely closely on the helpful city map + quick journey performance, however you’ll actually miss out on some non-obligatory, flavourful aspect content material. Give your self permission to wander a bit of. In any case, in Resthaven you don’t have anything however time (in six-day intervals)!

And don’t be afraid to revisit acquainted locations. As you study extra about the colony and its inhabitants, places and conversations that appeared unremarkable at first might tackle new significance.

What To Do If You’re Caught

Your journal is your finest pal. Examine your energetic leads for hints about what to pursue subsequent. In case you’ve exhausted all the prospects on the town, it could be time to head again out on expeditions and search for Amalia’s campsites. And your journal will most likely let you know so!

Your journal has one other trick up its sleeve, too. After the opening hours, you’ll unlock a timeline displaying necessary occasions throughout the six-day loop and the place they happen. In case you’re stumped by a “???” on the timeline, it means one thing necessary is going on at that second you haven’t found but. To progress, you may simply want to be in the proper place at the proper time.

The city map is one other easy-to-miss useful resource. It reveals which characters are accessible in every zone at any given time. When you’ve spoken to a named NPC, their query mark turns into a portrait, making it a lot simpler to observe them down in subsequent loops. Nonetheless seeing a “?” in a zone? That is perhaps an excellent place to begin searching for somebody new.

Lastly, don’t underestimate the energy of a bit of group gossip. Some leads require interrogation, however the reply may merely be to ask the townspeople a couple of explicit subject. Resthaven is a small, tight-knit group, and info has a means of getting round.

We’ve designed the investigation round a path of clues(We’ve classed them as  bronze/silver/gold behind the scenes, however you received’t see these phrases in-game.)

• Bronze clues offer you a bit of info and nudge you in the proper path, and many townspeople have them
• Silver clues supply extra particular particulars and deliver you nearer to the fact; fewer townspeople have them
• Gold clues unambiguously reveal the subsequent step in a lead. Just one or two townspeople have them

Comply with the path, and you shouldn’t be neglected in the chilly for lengthy.

Don’t Fear About Seeing All the pieces the First Time

Curse of Resthaven options three branching timelines, every revealing totally different items of the bigger thriller. You received’t essentially encounter each quest or revelation throughout a single playthrough, and that’s intentional.

As you progress, you’ll uncover new info that modifications the way you perceive the island and its folks. Some discoveries will reply questions, whereas others will depart you with much more to examine.

When you’ve accomplished a timeline, New Recreation+ introduces Ambrose’s rising sense of déjà vu, permitting you to fast-track by means of content material you’ve already skilled and give attention to what’s totally different. You possibly can spend much less time retracing acquainted steps and extra time exploring new prospects.

So don’t fear about discovering each secret in your first go to. Listen, observe the leads that curiosity you, and let your rising information information you thru the subsequent loop.

Resthaven has an excellent many secrets and techniques. The trick is determining which of them to pursue, when to pursue them, and what to do with what you uncover.

Six days stay. Good luck, Governor. You’ll want it.

Curse of Resthaven launches October 29 for XBOX Sequence X|S and XBOX on PC.