Broken Age
45 Achievements
10-12h
Knot Too Difficult
Clear up a tangled situation in one attempt
6.0%
How to unlock the Knot Too Difficult achievement in Broken Age - Definitive Guide
While this trophy is based on an unmissable storyline event, it is perfectly possible not to complete this puzzle correctly on your first attempt, therefore the trophy itself is missable.
To retrieve one of the ship's parts, Shay must rescue Brother Lightbeard who is stuck on a cloud. He does this by untying the knot that is holding the cloud together. Both the knot and the three steps of untying that knot are randomly generated. Make a MANUAL SAVE before attempting this puzzle. If you get it wrong then you can reload the save, but you will have to go retrace all of the steps below because the game will generate another random knot for you.
To start the puzzle, Shay must stand on the ladder that leads up to Lightbeard's cloud. While on the ladder, talk to F'ther and ask him to untie the bow on Harm'ny's cloud. When F'ther asks why, say that it is because it is in the way of saving him. Do not skip this bit of the conversation because this is where you will be shown an image of the knot that you must untie. Once you have seen the image, you must find a knot expert for advice.
Return to Carol in Shellmound. Talk to her and ask her about knots. She will ask you to describe the knot that you need to untie. Below are the eight different knots that you could have and the description for each of them:
Once you have described the knot, you will need to go to Alex to borrow his Space Pencil. Give the Space Pencil to Carol and she will draw a Knot Diagram for you. Return to Meriloft and get back on the ladder that leads up to Lightbeard's cloud. Talk to F'ther again and ask him to have another go at untying the knot. At this point, the Knot Diagram will appear on the screen with numbered images. These images are the three directions that you must tell F'ther so that he can untie the knot. The diagram will include 3 out of a possible 12 images. While all 12 of the images are below, remember that your Knot Diagram can contain any three of these 12 images and they will likely be in a completely different order to those in the screenshots below.
If you have identified the knot correctly and given F'ther the correct instructions, he will finish untying the knot and the cloud will unravel, at which point you will unlock this trophy.
I already got through, obviously missing the trophy, but your solution is AWESOME!
Thank you!
If you want to solve the puzzle yourself, just make a manual save before you start fiddling with Lightbeard's cloud and go back to that save once you know the solution to unlock the achievement.
The steps to solve the puzzle are as follows:
Missable
This trophy is earned in Shay Act 2. This is one of the more difficult ones and took me multiple attempts to get right. I suggest saving manually before talking to F'ther so you can reset if needed. The Knot is random however and if you reset it will change.
You have to return to Meriloft and try to climb the ladder on the left of F'ther, this will bright Lightbeards cloud down. Then talk to F'ther while still on the ladder and ask him to untie the bow because it is in the way.
He will then show a picture of the Knot to you. Take a photo if you can it will help you later.
Then go back to Shellmound and talk to Carol about Knots. You have to pick the right description of the knot you were shown, the one I finally got the answer right on is below. Carol needs a pencil so go to Alex and ask for his. Take it back to Carol and she will draw descriptions.
Go back to F'ther and ask him to untie it. You have to describe the drawings to him. This is very challenging because some of them don't really make sense. The knot I had was "An Elephant trying to eat its own trunk". The untying sequence was Pull the Finger, Tug on the Piggies Tail and Pull Apart the Fighting Snakes.
If you get all three instructions correct, the trophy will pop. If not just restart and try again. For reference I've included the Knot I was given so if you get the same one you will know what to describe it as.
Shay - Act Two
- RANDOM PUZZLE -
During the game you will end up in the clouds (make a manual save here) as Shay and be tasked to untie a knot to help the man atop the ladder. Use THIS LINK for help with this.
Ask the man you see when you enter the clouds for a description of the knot, then say you need more help. From here, go back to the sea town and speak to the woman for help. She will need a pencil that you can borrow from the man in the mountain where you fixed the death ray as Vella. Speak with the woman again after describing the knot for a diagram (this is where the link will help). Now go back to the man in the clouds and say "let's fix this knot" and tell him the description of the knots in order they are in the note. If you chose the correct description and gave the correct advice the achievement will unlock. If not, reload to be given a new knot to work with.
I recommend saving before getting this trophy and if nothing works, try again from the save. You will untie the knot according to the plot, but for the trophy you need to do it the first time. Algorithm of actions:
- Save.
- Climb the stairs to Lightbird and while on the stairs talk to the bully.
- Ask him to untie the knot to save "His Holiness", then ask him to describe the knot.
- When the node is shown, take a screenshot.
- Get off the stairs and run to the beach.
- Talk to Carol and ask her about the knots.
- She will ask you to describe the knot, look at the screenshot and try to do it (in principle, it’s not difficult, I had this option (Like a bucket of fingers), another time like this (Like a face that's really a cow's udder). It turns out that that she has nothing to draw how to untie...
- We go to Alex and ask for a pencil, return to Carol and give it to her. She draws and gives you a piece of paper with instructions.
- We return to the bull, climb onto the ladder and try to untie it. I had this option (Pull the finger > Pull apart the fightingsnakes > Loves me... Loves me not), and another time this option (Make the water come out of the cup >Steal the banana > Pull the finger).