GK1 The Pit Tower

Normal solution

Hints are given below when you expand the boxes.

Note

This level takes place in a tower, and is split across five floors. In this guide, the bottom floor of the tower (where the player enters) will be called Floor 1, and we'll count upwards through Floors 2, 3, 4, and finally 5 as the top floor.

Spoiler: Hint 1 (what to do)
This level marks the halfway point of the game, and it's a doozy. The Pit Tower is a showcase of how Beards interact with other game elements. It should be clear what your goal is if you explore the level.

Spoiler: Hint 2
You need to spell THIEF to cross the bridge to the exit. Each block is on a different floor of the tower, guarded by a Beard.

Spoiler: Hint 3
Just focus on getting the blocks out of the tower first, and worry about spelling later. Be patient, be willing to die, and watch the Beards carefully to see what behaviours you can exploit.

Spoiler: Hint 4 (Beard tips 'n' tricks)
This set of hints flags up some general Beard behaviours you may need to exploit. The Beards push you in the same way you push blocks. If they walk into you, they'll push you in the direction they're stepping; if you can't be pushed because there's a wall behind you, that means you get smashed.

Spoiler: Hint 5
As you saw in the previous level, Beards can't fling. You can outpace or escape them by flinging.

Spoiler: Hint 6
Beards want to take a direct route towards you, and won't pathfind around obstacles. You can trap them behind walls this way.

Spoiler: Hint 7
Beards won't step onto grass. If you're standing on even a single tile of grass, they can't touch you. That is, they treat grass as a wall.

Spoiler: Hint 8

Beards push and smash blocks like you do, although they'll never do so intentionally. If they're trying to walk towards you and a block is where they want to step, they'll just push the block out of the way or smash it. (This means that by the time you get to a floor, the Beard may have pushed the block out of position following you on the floors below. If that happens, just smash the block yourself to reset it.)

Spoiler: Hint 9 (T...)
The T on Floor 1 is easy. There's really only one way to push it that gets it out of the tower.

Spoiler: Hint 10
Just push the T north from where it starts.

Spoiler: Hint 11 (H...)
The H is tucked in the west wing of Floor 2, with you in the south wing. You'll need to fling into the north wing where the Beard is first so that you can access the east and west wings. You'll have to get past the Beard to do that, but you should know how to do that...

Spoiler: Hint 12
Remember how you got past the Beard in the previous level, Lesser Pit? It's the exact same trick here.

Spoiler: Hint 13
There's a bit of wall in the northwest corner of the south wing. Fling west into that, than immediately fling north to outpace the Beard. Now you should be in the north with him, and your next goal is the east wing. (See Hint 15 for a diagram.)

Spoiler: Hint 14
Walk as far south possible without falling down, then fling east to get into the east wing. (See Hint 15 for the full diagram.) If you need to make space between you and the Beard, you can fling east or west within the north wing, or just let him push you away (so long as he doesn't smash you against the wall). Now you can get to the H. How are you going to get it out?

Spoiler: Hint 15
You'll fling in this rough path to push the H out of the east side of this floor Fling into the west wing, and push the H north, then east to get it out of the gap in the east wall of the east wing.

Spoiler: Hint 16 (I...)
On Floor 3, the I is tucked in some paths in the grass. You'll find that you can't push the I onto grass, which means you'll have to push it through the S-shaped path to the hole in the west wall. How can you get the Beard out of the way?

Spoiler: Hint 17
Beards are so law-abiding, they won't ever step on grass. Exploit that fact.

Spoiler: Hint 18
What path don't you need to use? It doesn't matter if the Beard blocks that path - it might be a useful place to trap him.

Spoiler: Hint 19
Get the Beard trapped in the blue zone to the south here while you extract the I from the grass Lure the Beard into the southernmost path, then step north over the grass. The Beard will stay down there while you push the I out through the grass and through the west wall.

Spoiler: Hint 20 (E...)
By the time you get up to Floor 4, the Beard has probably knocked the E off its starting blockpad. It's helpful to smash and reset the E so you can start from a clean state here.

Spoiler: Hint 21
This is basically a harder version of the I block, where there's less grass and you don't have a useful place to lose the Beard. But the same basic idea applies.

Spoiler: Hint 22
You want to get the E block out through the hole in the west arm of Floor 4, and you'll need to use the grass squares as obstacles to push the block into the right position.

Spoiler: Hint 23
As always with this kind of puzzle, work backwards. To get the E block into position, it needs to end up south of the little grass square northwest of the blockpad (so you can push it west out of the tower). To get there, it needs to be pushed north from somewhere else. And so on...

Spoiler: Hint 24

Bounce the E between grass squares like so to push it through a gap in the west wall From its starting position, push the E south, east, south (it should now be in the southeast corner but you can step on the grass to get around the block), west, north and west out of the tower. (If the Beard is giving you trouble here, remember that you can outpace him by luring him to one side of the floor, then flinging to another. You can also make a little space by walking over a grass square, so that he has to go around it.)

Spoiler: Hint 25 (F...)
Again, by the time you get to Floor 5 the Beard has probably knocked the F out of position, so smash it and reset it before you start. (It's probably ended up in the northwest corner.)

Spoiler: Hint 26
There's not much going on up here, but your problem will be getting the F out of the tower completely. Where is the only place the F can go? Where does that lead? Plan ahead here.

Spoiler: Hint 27
There's a shaft in the southwest corner that drops you into a dead-end in Floor 3. How does that help?

Spoiler: Hint 28
Where do you go if you fling north from that dead-end? You should end up outside the tower!

Spoiler: Hint 29
Is the Beard on Floor 3 getting in the way? Try sticking to the east side of Floor 5 for a few turns so you lure the Floor 3 Beard that way.

Spoiler: Hint 30

Start by pushing the F into the little southwest pocket as shown here, then follow it down and push it north To rescue the F from its starting blockpad, push it south, west and south (taking care to outmanoeuvre the Beard). When it falls into the shaft to Floor 3, go to the east side of Floor 5 and waste a few turns there - this makes sure that the Beard on Floor 3 is too far away to block the F in the next steps. Fling back to the west, and FLING south into the shaft, so that you fall onto the F directly instead of falling north of it. Step south, push the F north, and fling north to follow it out of the tower. Then step west and push the F east to get it onto the ground floor.

Spoiler: Hint 31 (...THIEF)
By now, you should have extracted all the blocks, and they should all be lying outside the tower. Standard word-building procedure applies now: where can you build the word THIEF? Where would it be easiest to build the word? How and where can you move the blocks?

Spoiler: Hint 32
In this case, two of the blocks force you to write the word THIEF in a particular area.

Spoiler: Hint 33
The T and F blocks end up against the northern wall, and you can't get north of them. So you'll have to push the other blocks up to meet them.

Spoiler: Hint 34
The F is almost in the northeast corner, so you have a lot of space to the west of it in which to place blocks. So in this case, it's helpful to build the word backwards - go from F to EF to IEF...

Spoiler: Hint 35
It helps to go to where the blocks have landed, and then fling yourself in the direction you expect to push the blocks so you can plan your route. Try this with the E and see what problems may arise.

Spoiler: Hint 36
You can push the E block east, north, east and north to get it in the same row as the F in the right position. The only problem is, if you then pushed it east, you'd end up with ETF because that T is in the way...

Spoiler: Hint 37
So get the T out of the way.

Spoiler: Hint 38
Smash the T! It's okay, the T was so easy to get out of the tower that it hardly matters if you have to get it again.

Spoiler: Hint 39
Build HIEF in the northeast corner where the F ends up, then push the T into position.

Spoiler: Hint 40 (full solution)

When you push the blocks out of the tower, they'll land in the positions shown on this map. Push them to the north wall as shown by the arrows to spell THIEF Get the H out of the tower: climb to Floor 2 of the tower (ignoring the T block) and walk to the northeast corner of your platform, luring the Beard to the southeast of his platform. Fling west and north immediately. Walk south to the southern edge of the Beard's platform (the Beard will push you west as you do), then fling east to the east wing of this floor. Step south again, fling into the west wing where the H is, and push it north and east out of the tower. Get the I out of the tower: climb to Floor 3. Let the Beard here chase you through the grass into the southernmost path, then step north over the grass so that the Beard is stuck south of the grass. From its blockpad, push the I north, west, south, east, south and west out of the tower. Get the E out of the tower: climb to Floor 4. From its blockpad, push the E south, east, south (it should now be in the southeast corner but you can step on the grass to get around the block), west, north and west out of the tower. (If the Beard is giving you trouble here, remember that you can outpace him by luring him to one side of the floor, then flinging to another. You can also make a little space by walking over a grass square, so that he has to go around it.) Get the F out of the tower: climb to Floor 5. From the F's starting blockpad (you will probably have to smash and reset it), push it south, west and south (taking care to outmanoeuvre the Beard). When it falls into the shaft to Floor 3, FLING (don't just step) south into the shaft, so that you fall onto the F directly instead of falling north of it. Step south, push the F north, and fling north to follow it out of the tower. Then step west and push the F east to get it onto the ground floor. Assemble THIEF: From where it lands on the ground floor, push the E east, north, east, north and east (to bump into the F and spell EF). Push the I north, east, north, east, north, east (to get IEF). Push the H north, west, north, west, north, east (to get HIEF). Enter the tower again, push the T north out of the tower, then east to get THIEF and close the bridge to the exit.

Present solution

Spoiler: Hint 1 (present location)
Look carefully along the west side of the outer level area. It looks kind of hard to access.

Spoiler: Hint 2
In addition to the present, there's a vertical HIT wall that can be activated nearby, a bit to the south.

Spoiler: Hint 3
How can you get to the present? Follow the path of flings back.

Spoiler: Hint 4
Making the HIT wall is a thing to try. Now, how can you get there?

Spoiler: Hint 5
You start your long flinging journey somewhere in the SE.

Spoiler: Hint 6
There's no way to spell HIT and THIEF at the same time.

Spoiler: Hint 7 (solution)

Break the H, I and T blocks out of the central tower as described in hints 9–19 for the regular level. Make HIT in the NE corner of the level (Push T east into the corner. Push I alternating north and east to get it next to the T. Push the H alternating north and west, then a final east push to get it next to the IT). Go to the SE corner of the level, up the stairs and stand south of the non-activated THIEF bridge, fling north (fly straight through the exit), then west, south, west (using HIT as backstop), north to the present.

Extras

Spoiler: Achievements
There are 0 achievements available for this level.

Spoiler: View squares
There are 2 view squares on this level: In front of the tower. On top of the tower.

Spoiler: Hanging men
There is 1 hanging man on this level: Stand on the east staircase between the E and I floors in the SE corner where it turns. The hanging guy can be seen in the SE corner of the screen.

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