Sunken Glades

A comprehensive walkthrough for the Sunken Glades area in Ori and the Blind Forest, detailing navigation, enemy encounters, and collectible locations.

You now have control of Ori exclusively, who has many abilities and movement traits already and also acquires many more as the game progresses. For now, Ori can move and jump. So, to begin, head to the west. At the jump area, note that you have to hold the jump button if you want to go higher, so you need to hold it to get Ori on top. Continue west, drop down to the log, and press down and the jump button to jump down through the log.

Down here, continue west and jump down again. Be sure that you jump down on the west side because at the bottom you'll find the "purple plants." These things can damage you if you touch them, so stay away for now. Down near the purple plants, continue west and jump on each log in the water to get across it. On the other side, you will find a short, circular plant on the ground. We will call these "life plants" because you restore health when you open them. To do this, jump on top of it. For now though, you should have full health.

A healing plant!

Go west from the life plant and jump over the purple plants. You will find Energy Cell #1. This gives you an energy bar to the left of the life bar, and you can use energy to perform certain activities. For now, the only thing you can do with energy is save your game by creating a Soul Link. This not only saves your game, but also respawns you in the exact location that you Soul Linked. You will be Soul Linking a lot in the game, especially before tough obstacles, so try to think of it as a game mechanic more than a save crystal.

After creating the Soul Link, jump down and head to the west. It appears that your way is blocked by a cracked wall, but then a ram pops out of nowhere. The ram can one-shot you if he hits you, and if he does that, you simply respawn at the location where you did a Soul Link, which was right before this. To get past this part, you need to stay near the cracked wall. As the ram gets close, jump high so that the ram does not hit you. Instead, the ram hits the cracked wall, breaking it in the process, and then a rock falls on top of it.

When enemies such as a ram die, they drop Light Spirits. This is basically experience. When you obtain enough Light Spirit, you will be able to pick new abilities. For now, you do not have enough Light Spirit, but you will soon. Continue west and jump up on the big log. Up it, you will find a blue glimmer; when you pick it up, you gain the ability to use Spirit Flame, which is your basic attack.

Blasting purple plants with Spirit Flame.

You'll be using it right here. Go east and you will encounter a new enemy, which I will simply call frogs. This is because what they do is spring up in the air and hop down on you, just as a frog would. The trick to beating them is to not be under them where they land, and to do this, you should simply run right into them. They will hop up in the air and drop down to where you were instead of where you are now. As you do this, repeatedly tap the Spirit Flame button to damage them. You should be able to kill each of them after they hop just once. There are three of them in total, and you receive Light Spirit for each you kill. After you kill all of them, be sure to check under the big log to the west (the one that you just went on). Under it, you will find a Spirit Container, which gives you a boatload of experience.

Continue west. You will come across a hanging plant. For now, all you can do is destroy it with Spirit Flame; it will drop some experience when you destroy it. You need to pick up these orange spheres; they will not gravitate toward you (although there is a low-tier ability that enables this). Also, even though these hanging plants can only be destroyed now, please take note of them. In mid-game, after you get a skill, you will be able to use them for something else. And don't worry; they respawn, just like most other things in the game.

If it hasn't happened already, your Spirit gauge will become full. When this happens, you will gain an ability point, which can be used in the abilities menu. To access this menu, you need to be at a Soul Link (or any place where you can static save). At the Soul Link, tap the Soul Link button again and you will enter the abilities menu. There are three ability trees: an orange (offensive) tree, a purple (efficiency) tree, and a cyan (utility) tree. You can only choose one ability for now, and the choice is entirely yours. You will probably get all of the first-tier abilities pretty early anyway. My personal recommendation is Spirit Magnet, which allows the orbs to float to you. Rekindle is also a good choice because you can reuse Soul Links. And, of course, more firepower with Quick Flame is also useful. Do note, though, that it doesn't really matter because you will be picking up all of them at some point.

The Ability Tree. Earlier levels should be filled out first.

Head east to reach the water again. Just as before, you need to hop on each of the logs to cross back to the other side. But unlike before, there is a slime on the ceiling now. It will shoot three projectiles when it sees you, all in angled directions. You need to dodge the projectiles while tapping Spirit Flame to kill it. When that's done, head across the water. Destroy the purple plants to reveal a wind plant. These plants blow up wind, which allows Ori to fly upward as much as the wind will allow. Before using it though, destroy the purple plants next to the wind plant. Go through the newly-opened area to find a Spirit Well, which is basically a static save point that also fully replenishes your health and energy. These are scattered all about and you should always save/replenish when you see them.

Use the wind plant now. Remember to hold the jump button to fly up even higher. You will land on the wooden pole, with a slime right in front of you. Spirit Flame him down and dodge his projectiles with a small jump in the air. With the slime out of the way, jump up the log and go west to find a hidd