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Surprisingly tight with its puzzle based platforming,Chained Togetheris a sleeper Indie hit that’s highly enjoyable with the right group and a solid challenge on your own. Scaling up a seemingly endless peak of floating props with a drop to the bottom or the last checkpoint just one slip or mis-timed leap away.
It’s a tough climb ahead and you’re going to need every bit of help to get to the Garden at the very top and there’s some nasty platforms and tricky puzzles waiting for you up in that sky. So whether you’re playing by yourself, or with a group of squabbling friends, here’s some helpful beginner tips for Chained Together.
Climb Around On Solo Mode For A While First
Whilst Chained Together is all about thechaos of climbing in multiplayer,you can still free climb by yourself if you want, and it’s worth doing. Going up by yourself lets youscout out what areas will give you the most grief, how you should be platforming and will let you have a general gist of what to expect.
Trust us when we say thatmultiplayer makes it so much harderand everything takes so much longer. Going by yourself lets you grab all thosehidden wingsinstead of dragging extra players around as some of them are hidden in some very tricky spots.
Also, whilst you’re scouting out the route, don’t take everything you see as exactly what your friends will be running into as theyadd a few new platforms for multiplayer. It’s nothing major, but there’s a fewspecial multiplayer-onlytype obstacles.
Bring A Full Group If You Can
In multiplayer theminimum number of peoplethat can play the game is two, because obviously you need to be chained to someone after all. But themaximum is fourand it’s recommended to try and at least fill that roster out if you may.
It’s not a major requirement if you can’t field the extra friends, but havingfour people substantially extends the chainand there’s someparticularly pesky platformsthat you can cheese by just dragging people over them. Whilst thiswon’t work in two player, with four there’s enough weight on the chain to dangle one or two people over the precipice without trouble.
Don’t Worry About The Timer
As you and your group are going up towards the top you may notice thaton the top left of the screenis a little timer. In general, just ignore this. It’s usedprimarily for the high score boardand people that like to show off super fast ascents orspeed runs. You definitelywon’t be setting recordson your first go.
On your first go up, justdelete that information from your brainand focus on finding the best way for your group. Rushing everyone to the top tohit the fastest timewill just cause more chaos and the faster you go, the quicker you will fall.
There is an achievement called"Climb Faster"that’s tied to beating the entire map in under one hour and 50 minutes.
Stick It On Beginner Mode First
If you’re aren’t tackling Chained Together for the very first time, or haveinfinite time for the evening, then play the game on Normal or Lava. Otherwise, you really shouldset the difficulty level to Beginner. Whilst that may seem counterintuitive to most people, it’s theonly way to play the gameand retain your sanity.
On Beginner you canreset your position to a checkpointor the last highest point your group got to. On Normal, if you fall you can goall the way to the bottom of the mapto start over. Same with Lava. So unless you want big arguments to start, or to frustrate yourself further,just keep it on Beginner. It doesn’t change anything but yourability to spawn on the map, any other option is really not worth the anguish.
Closed Loop Chains Cause Too Much Chaos
So when you’re setting up a multiplayer room with your friends you’ll find that there’s afew customisation optionsfor your game. One of them lets you select the type of loop you’re chained into,Open or Closed. Keep it on Open.
The Closed settingconnects the first person in the loop directly next to the last person, hence the closed loop. But thatsubstantially shortens the length of the chainand keeps everyone in one tiny chaotic ball. This makes platforming a nightmare as there’sless room for error, and everyone has to coordinate their jumps to happen at the exact same time. Unless you want another screaming match, keep the chain loop set to open.
Take It Slow
Whilst you have a timer ticking overhead constantly, it’s going up not down. So you haveinfinite time in which to clear the mapand you should use that to your advantage. There’s often going to be moments as you’re going up where the group will need topause and figure outwhere to go next.
The route isn’t always clear and often you’ll leap onto something that you’llphase through, bounce off, or just not mantle ontowhen you really should be able to. Sotake a breathafter each section to figure out what you need to do next, who should be jumping, and how the group can make their way across. It’sa long way downafter all.
Avoid Mantling If You Can
On the topic of mantling, avoid it if you can.It’s buggy, just a few seconds too slow and sometimes at certain sections on the map it will just straight upstop working. On timed sections thiscan and will soft-lock youas your character freezes up and you just fall.
Or you may be leaping towards something with the intention of grabbing it, and your character just won’t, and you’ll fall. So try toland your whole body on platformsif you can as mantling at the moment is far too slow and unreliable.
The Prop Hitboxes Are A Little Funky
It’s not just the mantling that’s causing a lot of problems as some of the hitboxes on the props are eithera little funky, or completely broken. In general, it’s worth selecting someone in the group, ideally the person at the front, as the Guinea Pig. Ideallythe person at the front, because there’s going to be a lot of platforming props that will bug out.
It seems to happen the longer a game is going for. So either it’sa memory leak, or just hitbox detectionrunning amok. But there will be moments when you leap onto something and you’ll justslide off, or bounce off something invisible, or not climb at all. So pick aSacrificial Lamb in the groupto test any section that looks a little treacherous.
Communication Is Key
In most games you can skate by without having to say anything, mainly because there’s a workaround. In Chained Together,if you’re not talking, you’re the problem. This game is all about communication and talking your way through each platform.
Because, if someone jumps when they’re not supposed to, gets stuck or falls, then there’s a chanceeveryone is going to get dragged downwith them. There’s no way to cut stragglers loose sothewhole group needs to be talkingnear constantly. Especially in the second to last challenge as you need to run throughabreakable door puzzleon a collapsing treadmillin a specific order. So it’s vital that you open your mouth and talk.
Falling Off Isn’t Failure
This is a tip that applies more to afour or three person groupas the more people on the chain, the less likely you are to drag everyone off. As you’re climbing, especially in a Four-Man Chain,someone is going to get accidentally dragged offa platform eventually.
But if you do,you’ll just dangle and your friends can pull you up. Or in some cases, swinging someone on the chain from below can let youcheese some tricky parts. So if you fall off,don’t get exasperatedor feel like you’re letting everyone down. It’s going to happen a lot, so try anduse it to your advantageif you can. Although, just don’t startswinging around wildlyas that definitely will pull everyone down with you.
