THE LONGING: Tips, Clues and Explanations Guide

The Longing is not the most intuitive game. A lot of questions will arise while playing, some about how to achieve certain things, others simply about how some mechanics work.

This guide is an attempt to explain the usual points of confusion and give tips for the more difficult parts so you can enjoy the game without accidentally spoiling the whole solution while looking for answers.

When you get to a point that raises some questions, come to this guide and look for it.

Corrections, extra info and suggestions for additions are welcomed.

The Longing is designed to be played once. Once you reach an ending, the game will be “locked”.

You can unlock it for a second playthrough by waiting at the end screen.

You don’t really need to wait 400 real-time days; an important part of the game is finding ways to make the time run faster.

There are multiple endings, some of which might not require to wait the full 400 days.

Can I just open the game once, close it, and then come back 400 days later to see the ending?

Yes.

What if I forget to come back? Will I miss the ending?

No, it requires action from the player to activate.

You can’t run.

You can double-click to make the shade walk to that point of the screen. You can also click the crown on the top bar to make it walk home automatically, or the menu that comes out with the arrow near the crown to remember areas to be able to walk automatically to them.

Instead of the left click, you can also use the space key.

It’s a good idea to draw your own map of the game on real-life paper, it will be useful to take notes and mark places.
You can also find a map somewhere in the cave, but it’s not the kind of map you can take with you.

I found the map, now what?

Once you find the map, you might be confused as to how to interact with it. Here’s how: Just wait in front of it.

Actual detailed explanation: If you look at the map, the shade will say that the map requires time to be deciphered. If you wait still in front of it, in a couple of minutes the camera will start slowly zooming out, until it eventually reveals the whole map. That should trigger the achievement.

Each page you read makes the timer advance a minute. A page counts as being read as soon as it appears on-screen, so you can just skip pages by clicking the next page button very fast and it will count as reading the book. The time reduction only works once per page, so re-reading a book is useless. The “idle reading” option will make the shade turn a page once in a while (so instead of clicking 200 times to finish a book, you can leave the shade idle reading). Works with the game closed, but it will only keep reading until it finishes that book; it will not automatically change to another unread book.

Should I actually read them?

You don’t need to read them, but some elements of the game make reference to some of the stories.

Is there secret information hidden inside the books?

You might find some tips… The shade sometimes writes something on the last page of a book

Having paintings on the walls makes the time advance faster while you are home. Also, the name of some paintings might reveal things about the game/thoughts of the shade.

There’s a limit on how many paintings can be hanged on the walls. Once you make a painting you can’t delete it (yet, but an update might be on the way). Don’t worry about spending your papers; you can find more.

Where do I find more paper?
In the Halls of Eternity.

They are scattered through the caves, no need to do anything special except to find them. They are not hidden, but not all of them might be on areas accessible from day 1. Pay attention to the ground! Colored stones are found laying on the ground and are tiny (but shiny!)

You will find them through the cave. You need a mattock to get them. Having them will make the time run faster in your home.

How many colors are there?

5

Do I need more than one of every color?

I think not, but I’m not 100% sure.

Some doors take some time to open, the shade will comment on it.
You don’t need to wait in front of them.

Do I need to wait in front of it?

No. Just try to jump so the shade says it will fall in about a week, then come back a week later.

The door is blocked, can I unblock it?

No.

Is there another way to enter?
Yes.

Tip: Finding the library on the map might reveal where there could be another entrance.

Solution: You need to wait a month for the water to fill the hole in the moss area, then cross and enter the library.

Where are they?

They are not hard to find if you try to explore the cave thoroughly.

Tip: You will find them on the labyrinthine caves with lots of connecting doors you find through the left door of the first hall above the room of the king. It’s a white shining door.

Path to get there: 
From the hall above the king’s room (the one with stairs, 4 doors and 4 crystals on the walls:
– Door to the left.
– First door from the left.
– Bottom door.
– First door from the left (has a sign on top).
– Middle door.
– Keep advancing until you go through another door in the middle, then enter the door to the left.
– Door to the right.
– Keep walking right until you see it.

Are they really endless?
As far as I know, yes, but maybe you reach the end if you walk through months of something crazy like that.

If I explore them, do I need to walk all the way back to get out?

Yes.

Should I explore them?

Yes. You can double-click one side of the screen and the shade will keep walking automatically.

Short explanation: If you keep walking forward, you will find items on the floor, but be careful because time stops counting down when you are inside.

Complete explanation: Every 5 minutes of walking forward there’s a chance of a random item appearing on the floor. There are some useful items there like books and decorations for your home. Eventually only papers will appear from time to time. You can stop exploring them then, as it’s a waste of time.

There is a room with a glass behind which there is a lot of treasure. The shade says it might break it with the mattock.

Is there something I need among the treasure?

Your main objectives and the achievements don’t require getting the treasure.

I used the mattock, now what?

It broke, but don’t worry, there a more in different parts of the cave, you probably can’t access them yet.

So… can the glass be broken? Discover it yourself or read the next spoiler to know the answer.

Yes it can be broken and you can get coins from it. I haven’t done it myself so I don’t know how many mattocks do you need and what more there is to it.

Where do I find it?

If you explore the caves, you will find it.

If you can’t seem to find it: It’s in the mines. To get to the mines you need to go through the door over the map, follow the path and eventually to an area down and to the left. The shade will say they are the mines.

I can see it but…

Tip 1: There’s a sort of puzzle to reach it.

Tip 2: Look around, using headphones might help.

Tip 3: It involves waiting…

Tip 4 (almost the solution): You need to wait over a certain spot.

Solution: One of the structures that support the floor (which is also the ceiling of the area where the mattock is) is crooked. Stand over it (you will hear a sound) and wait until it breaks.

I lost my mattock…
There are more through the cave, probably in areas you can’t access yet.

Use the mattock at the left wall of your home. The whole excavation process might be a bit confusing since you need to mine in different directions when the shade finds hard rocks. You will know you are finished when you have 3 rooms. The room for the bed (empty), the room for cultivating mushrooms, and the bath.

To be able to craft the bed you first need to expand your house by using the mattock, read above.

After that, you will need some materials: 20 moss and 10 wood.

Where do I find the materials?
There’s an area where a lot of moss grows (up and to the left from the first hall above the king). The moss takes some days to grow. About the wood, you will find pieces of wood scattered through the caves. You will probably have to wait to unlock certain areas before you can collect 10 pieces.

You can make a fire on the left part of your home. Making a fire will time run faster while the fire lasts. You need coal, which falls from the ceiling of almost every part of the caves from time to time.

No idea yet. I don’t know where to find lapis lazuli.

I recommend trying to make at least one, then see what happens. If you don’t understand it, come read some tips.

Where do I find sulfur?
In the mines, there’s a yellowish room you can mine with the mattock.

I made a sulfur fire and I have some questions…

Tip 1 (basic explanation): The shade will get out of home and start walking automatically. You can’t go back home for an hour or so because it’s smelly.

Tip 2: If you don’t stop it, the shade will try to go to a particular place.

Tip 3: You might not have unlocked the path to where the shade is trying to go.

Tip 4: You need to solve the mushroom puzzle and the darkness puzzle. They are pretty obscure, I recommend looking at their respective sections to get some clues.

What happens next (BIG spoiler): The shade will wake until it reaches the entrance to the secret tower.

There’s a place in the cave where you can find a spider.

I found it and I’m confused.

Explanation: After breaking its web, it will move a bit down and to the left and start waving another that will allow you to climb. It will take some a couple of days, if I remember correctly (the shade will tell you). You don’t need to wait there.

You can pick and plant mushrooms on certain spots. Once you plant a mushroom, it will take it about 10 hours to grow back.

How many kinds of mushrooms are there?

2: Green and pale-pink.

—

You can eat the mushrooms. Try it.

I’ve tried and I’m still confused.

Eat 3 pink mushrooms to have a dream. There are 3 different dreams you can have, then they will start repeating.

—

Mushrooms found outside your home have some uses to them, but they might be a bit too obscure. You might want to read the first 3 tips if you don’t want to waste too much time growing mushrooms.

Tip 1 (highly recommended): Once you reach a part of the cave that glows green and has a lot of mushrooms on the ceiling, try experimenting planting some mushrooms there, I think they grow faster.

Tip 2: Observe how different mushrooms react when growing near other mushrooms.

Tip 3 (first part of the solution to the puzzle): Pink mushrooms planted near green mushrooms grow bigger.

Tip 4: You can reach a new area by growing mushrooms.

Tip 5: It’s on a cliff up and to the left from the spider. Only the 3 closest planting spots are involved.

Solution: Plant a pink mushroom on the spot closest to the cliff and a green mushroom in the nearest spot to that one, which is a bit to the left (you might need to plant the green one first, I’m not totally sure). When the pink mushroom grows big, you can use it to climb the cliff.

After doing all that I can’t use those mushrooms anymore…

(Marked as a spoiler in case you didn’t complete the rest yet, but if you are in this situation just read it)

There’s a cliff there you can’t climb.

Tip 1: Finding the way to climb is a puzzle, but a pretty difficult/annoying one. I recommend reading the next tip.

Tip 2: Use the glowing green cave to plant some mushrooms, experiment and observe.

Tip 3: Read the mushrooms section for more tips/the solution.

There is a place hard to reach that is in total darkness. You should wait to read more until you get there.

How do I get there?

Tip 1: You need to climb the cliff over the mushroom caves.

Tip 2: A sort of puzzle needs to be solved to be able to climb that cliff, refer to the cliff near the mushrooms/spider section for more clues.

What do I do once I’m there?

You can find tips about it…  The face will tell you.You can find the face once you can cross the stalactite bridge.

Tip 1: Walk through the darkness until you reach a cliff where you can commit suicide but DO NOT COMMIT SUICIDE.

Tip 2: Wait.

Tip 3: If a dialogue option appeared but it ended and nothing happened, move a bit and then wait again until it reappears. Anywhere from the dark corridor to the suicide cliff should work.

Solution: Wait near the suicide cliff and some minutes later a dialogue will appear. You need to choose the answers as if you wanted to escape the caves and go outside. If you choose the wrong answer, walk a bit and wait again. After you do it correctly you should be able to close your eyes.

How does this new mechanic work?

Where is the darkness I need to overcome?

If you had read some in-game tips about overcoming the darkness, this might be confusing and counter-intuitive. If you don’t know where to use the new mechanic, first you need to bring light to the darkness.

Tip 1 (basically the solution): Pink mushrooms glow.

Solution: Grab a pink mushroom and climb the cliff to go to the dark corridor.

Solution 2: You should find some hidden stairs between the mushroom cliff and the suicide cliff. They go up and to the left.

I found it, now what?

Explanation of the situation: If you keep walking through the secret path, you will find a pair of eyes like yours, that is Angst (that’s how a painting of that face is called). If you get too close, she will say “I can see you” or something like that and start walking towards you. You can’t escape. Once it touches you will be awake at home.

Solution: When the eyes appear, before getting to close and triggering the chase, wait without moving and close your eyes. With your eyes closed, walk past it (remember not to double-click).

Ahead is a very long walk in the darkness.

I found an option to commit suicide. Is it for reals?

Yes. It isn’t some kind of test. If you commit suicide, the shade will die and the game will be over.

The king warned me about going to the surface. How close can I get safely?

As long as you don’t actually get out, you are safe. You can’t get out by just walking, so it won’t happen accidentally. If you get outside, the game will end.

Stop reading here unless you found that area.

Can the exit be unblocked?
No.

So…
The only way out is through the well. It’s a bit of a puzzle.

Tip 1: To reach the well, just walk from the blocked exit to the right, it might look like you are going through the wall. You will walk a bit through a dark corridor. It might look like you can fall on the well, but don’t worry, you can’t.

Tip 2: The face gives you advice about people.

Tip 3: People will come at certain hours of the day.

Solution: Wait near the blocked exit, where you can see the surface. That way you can see when the old man approaches. You still have time to walk towards the well and grab the bucket.

“The cave is supposedly full of hidden places” refers to a place in particular: The secret tower.

While you could find the secret tower by exploring the map yourself, it’s really hard to do.
However, the actual way to find the tower doesn’t really require you to look for it. This might sound really confusing but hear me out: Finding it is a cool thing and you should find it while doing a different activity, so my recommendation is to forget about it for the time being. If by the time you have explored every other part of the cave and your home is complete you still have no idea where it is, come back for some tips.

Finding it without looking for it:

Tip 1: It is something you can do at your home.

Tip 2: It is related to the smelly fire.

Solution: Make a sulfur fire at your home. The shade will automatically walk to a place where it can breathe, which will reveal the path to the secret tower.

Finding it while looking for it:

Tip 1: There is a clue at the end of a book.

Tip 2: There is a clue in the last page of the book “The Secret Garden”.

Tip 3: In what area could a tower be?

Tip 4: It’s near the surface.

Tip 4: The entrance is between the exit to the surface and the cliff where you can commit suicide. Listen closely.

Tip 5: During the long, completely dark tunnel between the suicide cliff and the exit to the outside, there’s a point where the floor changes.

Solution: During the long, completely dark tunnel between the suicide cliff and the exit to the outside, there’s a point in which the sound of the steps briefly changes from rock to soil. At that point, you need to advance up and to the right. The shade will soon comment that you’ve found a secret path.

A sure way to not miss it: From the are with the blocked exit to the outside, start walking towards home. When you enter the dark tunnel, keep your cursor on the top-right corner of the screen (and walk manually towards that spot). Most of the way the arrow will just point right. You might have to move it at some point where the shade goes down some stairs, but as soon as you can, move it to the corner again. You need to walk quite some time until you get to the point where you can actually start walking up and to the right.

Where do I find it?

Tip 1: You will probably find it eventually.

Tip 2: It appears either at the library or at the secret tower.

I found it, but I don’t understand how it works…

Tip 1: It’s an obscure puzzle. You need to think outside the box.

Tip 2: Literally outside the box.

Tip 3 (basically the solution): You need to make the book neverending by putting the text in yourself. You might want to close the game for that.

Solution: You need to find the neverending text file on your computer and write text into it; the book will not be actually neverending, just as long as you make it (you can just copy text from another long book and paste it repeatedly). Do this with the game closed.

The file is located in The Longing_Data > StreamingAssets > books_plaintext > notebook.txt

To find the game folders go to your steam library, right-click on the game, choose “Properties…”, choose the “Local files” tab and click the “Browse local files…” button.