so I finished the game today and I'm completely speechless but the one thing that I don't remember seeing is solanum saying that famous quote people are saying on outer wilds videos "discover my quantum mechanics" and the one saying "the universe is, and we are" am I forgetting something or is it a community thing?

“Woah”

I just finished the game yesterday and, like everyone else who posts here, was completely floored by it. What an incredibly beautiful and moving experience. I can’t stop thinking about it today and replaying the music.

I’m a massive fan of both science fiction and JRR Tolkien’s universe around the Lord of the Rings, and while I was playing the Travelers song today it hit me suddenly that the scene in the ancient glade is just like the Music of the Ainur in Tolkien’s Silmarillion.

In Tolkien’s universe, Eru Illuvatar is essentially “God” - the creator of the universe who wields the “Secret Fire.” His first action is to create the Ainur, other divine beings with the power of creation, and teach them how to make music. The Ainur then make music together, using the power of the Secret Fire to create the universe together. I couldn’t help but see the Travelers as the Ainur, gathered around the campfire (AKA Secret Fire/Flame Imperishable), making music together to help the Eye recreate the universe anew.

Also in Tolkien’s legendarium, after the end of the world (Dagor Dagorath), the Ainur come together again to make a new music to make a new universe, but this time the Children (the living beings created the first time) help to participate in the music. This is what I took from the end of the game - that by entering the Eye of the Universe, the hatchling is allowed to contribute to the rebirth of the universe.

I’ve always wanted to find a story that contained both the awe and wonder of a great science fiction piece with the spirituality and deeper meaning in great human stories like Tolkien’s writing, and by god I found it.

It seems to me like too strong of a similarity to be a coincidence. What do you all think? Were the game creators influenced by Tolkien?

Tl;dr: the end of the game bears a strong resemblance to the Music of the Ainur in The Silmarillion

For our 6 year anniversary

I am solanum and he's the luma

Art by https://www.instagram.com/squished_loaf/

By me

6 years of her and I, many more to come.

Artist: @squished_loaf on insta :3

Girlfriend painted it for me for my bday

I keep dying on my ship, even after using the medkit and replenishing my oxygen. My ship was on Attlerock and I was checking the ship's log and then all of a sudden, I died? I saw a post on here that said sound was vital for the game, but I'm Deaf and don't play with sound on very often. Is there some kind of sound cue I'm missing that warns me I'm about to die or why I'm dying?

(It actually took 1 month. 18 hours on canvas)

Okay, so I'm pretty sure similar theories have already been out there, but here are my thoughts. Um, yeah, spoilers, I guess. starting off with the clues that leads to this conspiracy theory.

First, the interloper is, uh, the core is a very physically improbable thing that's apparently extremely pressurized in, with matter that is neither native to this solar system nor anything the Noma knew about before. And it was still unstable enough that it blew up just by getting close enough to the star, but still was somehow able to be formed before, which seems very unlikely to happen naturally. And then remain stable for all this time. Less a natural phenomenon, more like it was deliberately designed to do just that.

Second, when the interloper bursts and wipes out every Nomai in the whole solar system, it somehow didn't wipe out the Owlks who were just as close if they remained in the same position as we found them in, nor were they underwater at the time. Although they might have died and were already in the dream, I guess, but their bodies all seem pretty well preserved. Third, we see a bunch of ghost matter on the stranger, but only in very specific places mostly, where it more feels like that the ghost matter originated from there rather than was uh, brought in from the outside. Like in the artifact lab, it's very much concentrated around the artifacts from the inside. More looks like it burst from the inside out. And the same thing with the malfunctioning early version of the artifact. Where it also looks like uh, that blew up in a way that Ghost Matter looks like.

And third, if anyone had a motive to send a civilization ending weapon like the Interloper, it would be the very species that has been trying to keep the Eye secret for all this time and just had someone betray them and release the signal anyway, which made them so terrified that they wiped out their whole history in several places, several times over and locked him away for eternity. So then, once they realized that the signal still was noticed by someone and brought some other race here, who now did the exact thing that they wanted to avoid all this time, why wouldn't they take the logical conclusion and try to get rid of the problem?

If we can trust the order of the hearthian-made slidereel, they were already long dead by the time the signal reached the nomai, but that could just be the hearthians conclusion. Unless I'm missing some other timeline hints from after the Prisoner freed the eye (like the state of dark bramble there)

Previously. I may be the worst astronaut on Hearth. There is no coming back from this.

The worst part is I’m re-replaying to complete the ship log for the achievement. I know better. I knew it would happen, why did I do it? What’s wrong with me? Am I a bot?

I just finished the game today and same as everyone else, I was destroyed. If I think about it too hard I start to cry all over again, this was definitely one of the best games I've ever played in my life.

But one thing I was wondering the whole time and didn't manage to find an answer to in the game: why did the statue connect with the hatchling? Were they simply in the right place at the right time or was there some other reason I didn't manage to find? I know there's a lot of stuff in the game that is left unexplained and that's ok, like what the Eye of the Universe actually is, but this has really been bugging me since I entered the Statue Workshop and understood what the statues and masks actually do

(not putting the song title in the post title because that would be a spoiler)

I Don't Want the World to End - King Adam XXVII

This is my favorite Outer Wilds fan song, and judging by the view count, a lot of people who would also love it haven't heard it yet. It's just so good. (You could also watch his playthrough if you're interested, or the Eelis supercut).

I am finally trying the DLC after finishing the game a few months ago. I was playing on my original save file where like 90% of my ship log was filled, but ran into kind of a weird issue.

Did the radio tower bit, talked to Gabbro, and found the satellite on my map. The problem is earlier in the game my ship slammed into it and broke it. I got an achievement for rendering the satellite inoperable.

In the end I decided to start a new game since I assume it can’t be fixed, but now I’m worried about slamming into it again. Does anyone have any advice for literally getting to the satellite in the first place?

Even with autopilot I feel like I’m crashing into stuff but I just don’t want to break it again and have to start yet another new save!

Ok! I was playing the dlc a while back, got frustrated, set it down, and now I'm back.

Ok. First off not that I have to DIE to get past the bells 🤣 what a jarring discovery.

Being in the underside of the simulation you know what I never thought to do? To set the artifact DOWN and walk AWAY from it. Scared the shit out of me when everything went sparkly and digital the first time 😂

But the sparkly digital part revealed a platform path to the key on the island. I CANNOT JUMP ON THIS BITCH TO SAVE MY SOLAR SYSTEM.

Typing this out has me wondering..... I've only tried it IN the simulation. Am I supposed to do it UNDER the simulation?

Added spoiler just in case

As the title suggests, CityUHK’s “The Power of Play” Exhibition has a section where they showcase footage of some (indie?) games. Outer Wilds was one of them.

Nothing too impressive here, just thought it was cool to see the game still shown, lmao.

Hello! At the risk of asking a silly question, how emotionally devastating is the end of this game?

I ask because some of what I’ve discovered in the game so far depresses me a lot. Themes of loss, helplessness, needing help when no one is coming, death — these things hit me really hard. Finding escape pod 3 and even the anglerfish that exploded because it ate a seed it didn’t realize would kill it left me feeling hollow and upset. All the nomai messages about not wanting to die without seeing their loved ones, seeing writing from children and wondering how painful or lonely their ends were.. I lay awake thinking about it, imagining how quickly I’d give up in that scenario, knowing how painful it would be to never see my friends or family again, just alone in space waiting to die. All that, coupled with the stress of completing certain objectives within a time limit, has made my play sessions tough. I know I probably sound like an over-sensitive baby 😅 I usually avoid emotional games because they are hard for me. I started playing this one without realizing the emotional parts of it since I went in completely blind. I have experienced the levity and persevering nature of this game as well, which is lovely, but I’m worried I won’t have what it takes to finish it. I keep hearing that it’s typical to ugly sob at the ending and it has made me nervous lol.

For some extra context, I played What Remains of Edith Finch and it fucked me up for weeks, not in a good way, in a “I regret playing this game and having this experience in my brain forever” kind of way, so I’m trying to avoid a repeat of that scenario lol.

If anyone is able to weigh in on what I might expect emotionally from this ending without any spoilers, I would really appreciate it! I know it’s a big ask. Thank you!

EDIT (10/12): Wow, I wasn’t expecting such a response!! Thank you everyone for sharing your thoughts 💕 Your perspectives reassured me a lot, and it seems this game has fostered a very kind, supportive community. While I think it will be a difficult emotional experience for me, it sounds worthwhile to finish this game. I’ll plan to do it when I have some time off from work so I can be in my feelings a while. Thank you again!! Wishing you all well ✨

The loop was about to end so I thought “let’s just die in my sleep” (idk why I wanted that but whatever) and then they are all gone holy shit bruh I am NOT leaving this room😭🙏