Windlands 2 Cheats and Tips
Pull Yourself Towards Your Next Swing
Windlands 2 features a unique grappling hook swinging mechanic, adapted from the original title Windlands, that lets you shoot hooks (out of either hand) at designated surfaces across the game world.
As such, when swinging, you can reach your destination faster by tugging or pulling on your grappling hook(s). Aggressive tugs propel you in the direction you’re tugging quite fast, and you can use the momentum to go further than you regularly would. There are some segments of the campaign, particularly in the Mountain area, where this trick is necessary to proceed.
Also, note that pulling yourself into your swings engages your arms (albeit very slightly, unless you’re wearing weighted gear as detailed further below), which helps you burn a few more calories while playing.
Deploy Long Ropes to Swing Farther
Swinging from tree to tree is hard work. Sometimes you might lose momentum and get stuck mid-air. Or you may need to make a much longer swing than is permissible with the (shorter) default grappling hook length. That’s where the rope extension ability comes in.
You can deploy longer ropes while swinging by holding the lower face buttons (A and X) on your Oculus Touch controllers or their equivalent on the Vive Wands/whichever controllers you’re playing with.
When you want to rev up your momentum again after getting stuck between swings, just fully extend your grappling hook(s) so that you’re hanging at the bottom of the long rope, and then let go of the button that extends them. Your ropes will recede back to regular length, pulling you forward (or upward) in the direction of the surface you’re hooked to.
Use Hangtime Between Swings to Shoot Enemies
It’s necessary to shoot enemies while mid-air in order to complete Windlands 2. This is because almost every boss battle past the first one (the giant robot spider), which you fight on the ground, is designed to keep you swinging from point to point.
However, you’ll probably spend about 30 minutes to an hour stumbling around and figuring out how to get a grip with the game’s controls anyhow. Instead of learning how to shoot your bow mid-air on the spot during one of those compulsory boss fights, I recommend that you practice this technique on some of the earliest enemies that you encounter.
Use Objective Markers if You Get Lost
It’s deceptively easy to get lost in the vertical playhouse that is Windlands 2. I found myself swinging in circles for at least an hour, practically ignoring the geographical signs telling me “This is where you go next!”. Unfortunately, the game is quite linear, and all that swinging can get monotonous if you aren’t moving from objective to objective.
Which is why you should definitely not do what I did, and instead try to follow the objective markers that developer Psytec has laid out for us poor souls.
