When you first started playingAnimal Well, there was likely next to nothing you knew going into the game. The introduction shows four flames with a bell that chimes as they extinguish, before unleashing you as a little blob out into this creepy, pixelated world.
But to progress through the first layer of Animal Well and make it to the credits, you’ll need to collect all four of the flames from around the map. Each one forces you to best puzzles and enemies, some of them pretty extreme, but collecting all four leads you to the bottom of the well.
Since there aren’t precise locations in Animal Well, we’ve done our best to estimate the locations of the four flames for you below, based on the animal you face there, the compass location, and the color of the outline on the map.
You’ll need tosmash the bubbles and take the flames with youto move into the next section of Animal Well. Be sure tograb them when you find themto prevent backtracking later!
Solution
Get the M. Disc to the M. Disc Shrine.
It probably started the heck out of you when the dog spirit emerged from the statue to chase you down when you firstcollected the Disc- it scared us, too! That said, to gain access to the P. Flame, you’ll need toface the dog spirit a second time, which you’ll quickly realize is a trend in Animal Well.
As you continue to explore the biome, you’ll come uponthe M. Disc Shrinein a room just above where the P. Flame is on your map. In fact, you can see the flame through a glass wall in the room below, but the door past the M. Disc Shrine is sealed pretty tight.
To get the P. Flame in Animal Well, you’ll need toget the Mock Disc from the dog shrineand immediatelyrace against the dog spirit to put the Mock Disc into the M. Shrine.
This isvastlyeasier if you’vegotten the Animal Fluteand gained access to fast travel - you’ve got a really, really long run ahead of you if you don’t. This guide assumes you’ve unlocked fast travel, but feel free to use our egg location guide to help locate the eight eggs you need for fast traveling.
It’s quite a long route that requires some pretty tight, timely jumps, so your best bet is tofollow our guidefor the best route.
Make the Red Iguana eat all five hedgehogs.
Hopefully you’ve gotten pretty good at using the Slinky through platforms to make it bounce around and hit switches to solve puzzles, because you’ll be doing quite a bit of it in search of the V. Flame. You’ll beusing the Yoyoand the Slinkyquite a lotin the puzzles ahead.
And it’s a good thing, too, since there are plenty ofswitches you need to hit at the same timethat your blob can’t access without some help from their upgrades. You can alsouse the chinchillas in the area to reach higher platforms or ride across spikes, especially with some occasional extra boosts from the B. Wand.
The trickiest part of finding the V. Flame is thepuzzle with two otters or sea lions(we’re not totally sure what they are, exactly, other than a nuisance). To clear the room, you’ll need tohit two green buttonsbelow your blob, but theanimals will continue going after both the Slinky and the Yoyo.
To handle them, you’ll need to time it just right -drop the Slinky on one button and use the Yoyo to draw the animals to the rightso they let it hit both green buttons within the time frame. It may take a few tries - these little guys are fast.
Something you’ll need to master early on in the area isusing your slinky to bounce around between buttons, which requires you toaim your blob in just the right way while standing in just the right spot. There are several animals in the area who willattack if you hit the wrong button, so be ready to dash out of the room if you see anycrows.
Once you’ve gained access to the very top of this tall platform above an opening in the central area,drop the Slinky onto the green button to fall through the floor, where you’ll immediately be tossed into a puzzle with a second, much tougher iguana.
You’ll need totrick the red iguana into eating all five hedgehogsthat march around the central platform in order to move on and reach the V. Flame in Animal Well.
Drown the Ostrich.
Unless you’ve realized in the area above, where you grabbed the Yoyo, that it wouldmake the rat on the wheel run the other way so the nearby platforms are going down instead of up. No judgment - we did that, too.
The area below featuresplatforms that move vertically and horizontally, and you may rest assured you’ll be doing plenty ofchanging the direction of the platformspretty often in this puzzle. To get started,ride a platformto go one screen left, anduse the B. Wandto jump offso you canuse the B. Wand on the shark’s mouthto get into the next room, which brings you to the main puzzle.
The trickiest part abouthitting all the buttons in the Ostrich puzzleis finding a way to access all three, since you’ll need tojump across cat cagesand deal with anotherseveral mouse head puzzles, all the while constantlychanging the direction of the platformsto access different platforms.
You’ll facemice head puzzlesagain, requiring quite the familiarity withriding the white birds, and there are plenty ofhairpin jumpsyou’ll need to time just right to reach the not-so close platforms. Finally, you’ll reach the Ostrich again, who’s now running on a wheel.The Ostrich will face your blob, which changes which way the platforms move along the bottom of the room.
After you’ve hit all the buttons, you’ll want to remember the room at the start of this area with agreen button opening a platform above four yellow buttons, which are positioned precariously along the wall. No amount of bubbles can help you reach it, but the Ostrich’s wheel seems to be just the right size.
Once you’ve hit all the buttons in the area (ending with the one directly under the wheel),the Ostrich wheel comes loose, and it begins tochase your blob toward the right, back to that area with the buttons you couldn’t hit. You’ll need tooutrun the Ostrich back to the room with the buttonsand reach the right side of the room just in time.
When the Ostrich’s wheel is over the platform,hit the button to open the trap door and drown the Ostrich. It hits all four yellow buttons as it goes down, opening the path to Animal Well’s G. Flame.
Blue Biome
Use the whale’s spray to hit the buttons and open the door.
When you were first doing the Seahorse puzzle in search of the B. Wand toward the beginning of the game, you may have noticed aswitch in a wall near where you got the B. Wand that makes a nearby wall transparent. By hitting the switch, you’ll unlock the second half of the purple biome.
Afterusing the B. Wand and Disc to hit several switchesthat not only create platforms buttrap a nearby hummingbirdwho’s determined to pop every bubble you blow, you’ll come across apenguinthat teaches you all aboutusing your Disc or Yoyo to break ice spikes blocking your paththroughout the area.
It leads you toanother fountain basin puzzlelike the one you needed to finish with the fish fountain at the beginning of the area, but this one has athird platformyou can (and must) adjust tofill the basin with wateras it bounces around the room. Not only that, butthe cranks are hidden at the end of puzzles in adjacent rooms.
The image above isn’t perfect, but in the positions shown, we had just enough water splash off the platforms and into the basin to count. It barely worked, but it did!
Once you’ve gotten past the basin, you’ll come into a curious area with awhaleswimming in the water at the bottom, but don’t get comfortable thinking you’ve made a friend. Not only canthe whale eat your blob if you get too close to the water, but it can alsospray you off your platforms, making it pretty tricky.
You’ll need touse the Disc to break nearby iceso you can navigate a screen to the left, where you’ll findfour yellow buttons beneath a glass platform that you cannot reach yourself. To solve this, you’ll need totoss the Disc from a low platform, and thenbait the whale into spraying the Disc up into the area with the buttons.
The Disc ricochets enough to hit all four buttons, which unlocks the pathway to the left. Here, you’ll find the Seahorse again, stillspraying water at all the platforms and basins in the room.
Your goal in this room is touse the cranks to carefully move the platforms, which you can then use todirect the Seahorse’s water spray to ricochet off the platforms and into the three basins above.
Doing so will unlock a path to the right, so hop that way and enter another screen to the right, where you’ll collect the B. Flame in Animal Well.
What Happens When You Have All Four Flames?
You may think that reaching all four of the flames in Animal Well is the ticket to the end of the game, and you’dalmostbe right.
When you’ve got all four of the flames in your inventory, travel back to thecentral area with the four statueswhere you emerged at the start of the game. When youput the flames into the bases of the four statues, the floor between the pillars will open, creating apreviously inaccessible path.
Down here, there are a handful of pretty major things. First, you’ll solve a puzzle and receivethe Lantern, an item that can ward off spirits as you travel with it lit. It makes you feel invincible for a moment before you follow that path just a little further to come face to face with something terrifying.
The Manticoreis the “boss"of the first part of Animal Well, and it comes at you out of nowhere if you’re not prepared. Able to shoot lasers from its eyes that bounce off surfaces and around the whole room, you’ll need toquickly hit four buttons to open a locked doorto reach the end of the puzzle androll the creditsfor Animal Well.
And whether you continue the game and push into the second layer of Animal Well from there is completely up to you!
