Yume Nikki is finally available for everyone on Steam. This incredibly weird Japanese indie was one of the first to really go viral, gaining popularity way before the indie video game boom we have today. It’s simple, crude, and mysterious — as a small 8-bit sprite, you explore dream worlds. Some are silly, some are strange, some are even horrifying — but there really aren’t any concrete answers in Yume Nikki.
Interaction and gameplay is very limited, but you can unlock new “abilities” for the heroine in the form of effect eggs. These special effects change your costume and give you special new skills. Some effects will help you move faster, light up dark rooms, or stab unsuspecting NPCs. Most of them are useless, but if you get them all, you can change a state in the real world, essentially unlocking an ending.
Download Yume Nikki for free on Steam here.
More Yume Nikki guides on Gameranx:
All 24 Effects Locations | Collectibles Guide
Effects are special collectibles available in Yume Nikki. Each effect you unlock will change the main character’s costume, and give you a special sprite appearance. Effects are completely optional, but certain effects are required to find missable scenes.
- Bicycle: Graffiti World – Found on the floor. Hard to miss.
- Doubles your speed, allowing you to catch certain speedy characters and escape from monsters.
- Blonde Hair: Mural World – Examine the strange blonde haired monster’s mouth.
- Gives you long blonde hair. No practical uses.
- Buyo Buyo: 8-B World – Go to 8-Bit World, a sub-area of the hub and talk the strange purple creature in the center of four statues.
- Makes you wobble when you walk.
- Cat: Shield-Folk World – Talk to the pink cat-shaped coin that appears randomly in the Shield-Folk World.
- Adds cat ears to your sprite. Can move NPCs without using the knife to kill them.
- Demon: 8-Bit World – Enter the 8-Bit Basement and find the room with the demon NPC.
- Turns you into a red demon. In the 8-Bit Overworld, can summon the demon NPC.
- Fat: Windmill World – Reach the Docks from the Windmill World and on the second screen, find the NPC on the northern path.
- Makes your character fat. No practical use.
- Flute: Underground World – Enter the Department Store area from the Underground World and find the music room.
- Lets you play a variety of short tunes.
- Frog: Forest World / Dense Woods – Find a frog NPC in the Forest World or the Dense Woods.
- Moves through water at normal speed.
- Hat & Scarf: Block World – Simple, just find it on the ground.
- Gives you a hat and scarf to wear. When it’s snowing, she’ll turn into a snowman.
- Knife: Dark World – Northeast from the path leading to the Wilderness area.
- Sharp knife used for stabbing. You can access certain areas by killing NPCs.
- Lamp: Lamp World – Interact with NPCs in the Lamp World.
- Turns your head into a lamp. Use it to light up the Dark World or the Wilderness house.
- Long Hair: Mural World – Talk to the strange monster with brown hair.
- Gives you long brown hair. No practical use.
- Eyeball Hand: Eyeball World – Interact with the strange stalk with a eye on the open palm.
- Replaces your head with a strange hand with an eyeball. Used to escape to the Nexus quickly.
- Faceless Ghost: Windmill World – Enter the Sewers and reach the second screen of the Sewage Processing Plant. Talk to the faceless ghost.
- Turns your character faceless. No practical effect.
- Midget: Candle World – Catch the Dwarf and talk to him. Use the Bicycle effect to catch up to him.
- Makes your character tiny. Using the action button will summon more tiny versions of yourself. Use it to go through the Sewer Tunnels or to escape the stairs on Mars.
- Neon: Neon World – Talk to the parrot in Neon World.
- Turns your character neon. No practical use.
- Poop Hair: Underground World – Talk to the poop-haired mouth monster NPC in the Storage Room.
- Gives you poop-shaped hair. You can mark locations temporarily with a fly.
- Severed Head: Guillotine World – Use the guillotine outside the bed room.
- Makes you into a bloody severed head.
- Snow Woman: Snow World – Talk to the frozen, ice-y woman NPC.
- Turns you into an ice-y ghost. Used to stop snow or douse fires in certain areas.
- Stoplight: Dense Woods – Enter the Dense Woods area through the Mall, Puddle World or more. Find the bloody corpse and interact with it at the traffic accident.
- Turns you into a stoplight. Swap between green light and red light for different special effects.
- Towel: Dark World – Enter the huge infinite wilderness area and talk to the towel.
- Wraps you up in a towel. No practical use.
- Triangle Handkerchief: Ghost World – Catch the ghost that runs away from you. Use a bicycle or other speed-enhancing effect.
- Turns you into a translucent ghost. Can avoid the beak-faced enemies when they rush you.
- Umbrella: Puddle World – Grab it off the ground.
- Gives you an umbrella. You can stop fires or rains in certain areas.
- Witch: Witch’s Island – Located deep in the Dense Woods, find the train car. Use it to reach the Witch’s Island and talk with the NPC on the island itself.
- Use it to fly from the department store rooftop.
