Outer Wilds: Echoes of the Eye - How To Reach All Three Forbidden Archives

If you’ve reached Part 3 of our Outer Wilds: Echoes of the Eye walkthrough, you’ll already know how to travel to the Other World. There are three primary locations in the Other World — Starlit Cove, Endless Canyon, and the Shrouded Woodlands. Each of these areas contains a location called the Forbidden Archive. These Archives contain important information you need to complete the DLC.

We’re very close, and solving these locations is incredibly difficult. Even if you’ve found clues, each area is a terrifying miasma of darkness. You’ll only have your Artifact light source to explore, and these areas are guarded by stalkers. Yes, you’ll encounter actual aliens in these sections, and they’ll hunt you voraciously if they even get a hint of light. Getting around them is hard. Solving the mysteries and unlocking the Forbidden Vaults can feel practically impossible. Here’s exactly what you need to do for each one.

More Outer Wilds guides:

Starlit Cove – How To Reach The Well & Forbidden Archive

From the Ritual Room, go upstairs to the central village — which forms a circle around the well.

In the village, your goal is the well. It is in the center, and guarded by a stone sentry. It is impossible to approach from the bridge while the lights are lit up. Go around the exterior, using Focus to teleport to the hand devices.

How To Put Out The Lights: Reach the back of the village, and find stairs leading down. Sneak past the sentry (use Conceal) and hop onto the boat. It can go left / right by shining light on the crystals.
- Go forward and look right, using Focus on the rocks. About halfway between the dock and the ruined house, there is a crack in the rocks with a hand device.
Teleport to the hand and use the elevator to reach the upper section of the village. At the top of the lift, Extinguish the Porthole device to turn out all the lights.

Beware, this alerts all the creatures in the village. All of the stalkers will appear below, taking the elevators down.

Use the hand device to teleport down, then teleport across the gap immediately — use the back path to the elevator leading to the cave path.

Down the lift, check if the creature is on the left / right path. Use Focus and only briefly leave your light on — take the path around the creature, and run through the cave to the well.

In The Well: There are two more stalkers in the underground well chamber. Use Focus to spot them from the balcony, then run to the back hallway. There’s a hole in the center of the basement room, so don’t attempt running down the center! There’s a lift down the stairs.

How To Deal With Stalkers: Use Focus to slow them down and blind them. They’ll only slowly approach. When you have distance / break view, you can conceal to lose them.

To escape down the well lift, make sure the stalkers are NOT following you. You have to enter the hallway in darkness or the stone sentry will spot you. Down below, you’ll find a theater and slide repository. The slides here are intact and not burned. There is unique information here.

It shows you that when an alien dies, their projected body remains on the other side.
A slide shows two artifacts by a green fire. One lights when you fall asleep. Another lights when you die.
Another slide shows the alarm bell failing to wake up an alien.

Keep this information in mind for later.

Endless Canyon – How To Open The Lower Floor Door & Reach The Forbidden Archive

Reveal the bridge, then enter the huge building. The Forbidden Archive entrance is at the bottom floor — you can reach it by using a porthole device in the Mess Hall.

There are no enemies here yet. Explore and practice the path to the Porthole and back — the porthole creates a bridge that allows you to access the bottom floor.

From the musical outdoor stage, look for these two candles. There’s an invisible bridge leading across the chasm.

How To Unlock The Tree Mural Door: Go to the outdoor stage and look for two candles on the cliff’s edge. There is a hidden bridge that leads to another Porthole that will put out all the fires in the large building.

With the lights out, the stalkers will appear. Sneak back through the darkness to the Mess Hall, light the Porthole to create the bridge, then sneak downstairs to the door with the Tree Mural. It is only open when the lights are all out.

Run across the secret bridge to the elevator. It will take you down to the Forbidden Archive. Once again, there is no code. But, you will learn an incredibly powerful trick. Place your lantern on the ground, then walk out of range in the Other World to easily spot stalkers and locate secret passageways.

Walk through the fire to reach your goal.

Shrouded Woodlands – How To Reach The Lodge & Forbidden Archive

Travel to the Shrouded Woodlands, and reach the large open forest where stalkers patrol. Drop the lantern Artifact and walk outside, then follow the stalkers that exit the houses — they’ll lead you to a secret underground path under one of the trees.

Once you’re ready to complete the Shrouded Woodlands, you’ll have to prepare to solve the final puzzle — you need to enter the large gathering building before the dam breaks.

Drop the Artifact and walk out of its sphere to scout ahead easily.

How To Get Rid Of All Stalkers
- All stalkers will disappear after the dam breaks in the Stranger, clearing the entire area of enemies.
- Go to the Shrouded Woodlands and extinguish the porthole to make the shortcut door disappear. Then leave.
- Next, go to any other Mural Temple (Green Fire Room) and travel to the Shrouded Woodlands via boat. I recommend using the hidden dock in the Starlit Cove — the River Lowlands green fire.
- With the shortcut door unlocked, you can access this area from the boat dock.

Return to the Shrouded Woodland area and follow the stalkers into the building. Wait for the dam to break and clear the area — and because you’re in a different Mural Temple, you’ll remain. Follow the underground path to the large building, then walk through the large fireplace to find a hidden elevator. Take the elevator down to the Forbidden Archive.

Inside this Forbidden Archive, you’ll learn another important piece of information.

A Slide Reel shows an inhabitant stepping off the boat when transitioning between areas in the Other World.

Believe it or not, we now have everything we need to complete the DLC. Strap in, let’s go solve the final puzzle and complete the final challenge of the Stranger.