Early in Psychonauts 2, you’ll start to encounter special black Mental Connections that are impossible to reach. Mental Connections are “grapple points” — basically, allowing you to zip into them and travel to areas that are otherwise unreachable. You’ll unlock the Mental Connection power from Professor Forsythe very early in the game, then you’ll start running into these incredibly annoying progression blockers. Black Mental Connections are all totally optional, but you’ll need to use them if you want to reach every collectible in a brain.
To ride on these “Dark Thoughts” you need to unlock a very specific upgrade, and its one I recommend getting as early as possible. To get the upgrade faster, you can replay levels and look for collectibles that give you +1 rank. Nuggets of Wisdom are an easy find, as well as emotional baggage, Half-a-Minds, and more. By replaying levels and clearing out the collectibles, you can unlock the required upgrade much faster. And save your credits! If you waste them, you won’t be able to unlock the “Dark Thoughts” upgrade when you reach Rank 30.
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How To Grapple Black Mental Connections | Dark Thoughts Guide
By the third level of Psychonauts 2, you’ll start to encounter “Dark Thoughts” — black Mental Connections that you can’t grapple to. These are 100% optional paths that are never required to reach the end of the main story. But, they are required if you want to find hidden collectibles and other secrets.
- How To Grapple Black Mental Connections: To unlock this ability, you need to unlock the “Dark Thoughts” upgrade for your Mental Connection power. This is the fourth power upgrade, and only unlocks at Rank 30.
Rank 30 won’t be possible to reach until at least the 4th / 5th level. But, you can get there earlier by hunting for collectibles in the first two levels and trying to clear out as much as possible while on the “Secret Mission” section of the story.
Make sure to save 5 credits for the Dark Thoughts upgrade. Each upgrade costs more credits — Lvl. 2 costs 1 credit, Lvl. 3 costs 3 credits, and Lvl. 4 costs 5 credits. Save your credits, and you’ll be able to unlock this power instantly at Rank 30.