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Item broom swap

Broom swap

Swap Cursor

The Swap cursor

The Swap is an upgrade for the Broom that allows you to swap any two tiles.

Description[]

"A note next to the broom extension: 'Hello, Young. Use this SWAP upgrade on two tiles to switch their places. It may be a while before you can use this everywhere, but it should serve you well for the time being.'

Location[]

It's found in GO, and is unmissable.

Usage[]

Although this upgrade is disabled everywhere but a few specific screens in the normal game (see below), completing the normal game and beginning New Game+ allows the Swap to be used almost everywhere. This is a very significant upgrade, as it lets Young pass through almost any wall or barrier in the game.

Many cards and secrets require the use of the Swap to get to areas that would normally be considered out of bounds.

Techniques[]

If you find yourself completely stuck in a wall with no way to swap out, use the pause menu and choose "Save and go to the title", then "Continue" to resume from your last checkpoint. In the post-game of Anodyne, this is the equivalent of dying and respawning from your last checkpoint.

Be sure to save at every checkpoint you find (especially in DRAWER and Blank) to avoid having to redo a lot of gameplay if you get stuck.

Swap Train[]

2-Train[]

2-train

2-train method of swapping through walls.

Traversing through solid walls can be done by swapping a floor tile into the wall where you are trying to enter. The most obvious way to do this would be to have a 2-tile train where you move the hind tile into the next wall in front of you where you're going. This technique results in always standing on floor tiles, and is generally safer, since you can move freely around in your 2-train without getting stuck.

1-Train[]

1-train

1-train method of swapping through walls.

A more efficient way to move through walls is the 1-train. For this technique, you only need 1 floor tile with you. Simply move the floor tile into the wall where you're trying to go, and then be sure to select it before moving into it again. This will repeatedly put a wall tile underneath where you are standing. If you're inside a wall, then the physics of the wall don't affect you, or rather, the wall acts as a floor.

You can use this technique to tunnel through walls, but not holes, since a hole tile underneath you would cause you to fall in and teleport back to where you entered the screen. Also beware of swapping into spikes with this, as the spikes will damage you, and knock you around.

If you move into the floor space without first selecting it as your first tile, you will be stuck. For this reason, the 1-train is considered riskier than the 2-train method above.

Screen Transitions[]

After scrolling the screen, the Swap turns off, and you must turn it back on with C and then press C twice more to select two tiles. If you've scrolled yourself into a solid wall, there might be a way to recover by using the Swap.

Scrolling East or South[]

East Swap Traversal

Grabbing the "default tile" from out-of-bounds left after a screen scroll east.

In most areas, after scrolling east or south, you can reach out of bounds (left or up) with the Swap to grab a blank floor tile to add to the visible tiles. Once you've got a floor in front of you, you can use the 1-train method above to start moving around. Alternatively, you can grab another blank floor tile from out of bounds and build a 2-train.

Grabbing a tile from out of bounds left or up always gives you a tile with the "default tile". For most maps, this means it is a black or transparent tile with floor physics. If you attempt to put a real tile out of bounds, the tile will be deleted; i.e. grabbing a tile from that same out-of-bounds spot again will still give you the "default tile" regardless of what you tried to store there.

In GO and Blank, the "default tile" has wall physics not floor physics, so traversing those areas after a screen scroll relies on "real" floor tiles for you to work with. This mechanism is fundamental to the design of the puzzles and Card Gates in Blank. However, see also the Wiggle Glitch, which still works in GO and Blank.

Scrolling West[]

After scrolling the screen to the west, you can reach out of bounds to the right. However, the tile you get will be a copy of the tile on the left edge of the visible screen (not the next screen over) from one row down. If you're trying to traverse a screen that is completely made of solid walls, this strategy will probably not work. The exception is that if you're on the bottom row of tiles, reaching out of bounds to the right will give you the "default tile" as above.

If your goal is to travel west through several screens of solid walls, one strategy is to stay near the top edge of the screen. Get your "default tile" tiles from out-of-bounds upward rather than to the right.

Scrolling North[]

North Swap Traversal

Grabbing the "default tile" from out-of-bounds left after a screen scrolls north.

Scrolling north is the most tricky direction. After scrolling north, if you would end up in a wall tile, you are pushed up one more tile. If the screen you're entering is a completely solid wall you will be stuck, as you will be surrounded by solid walls.

If you are on the bottom edge of the screen, reaching out of bounds downward will give you the "default tile". However, this isn't very useful, because if you've scrolled the screen north, you'll either be too far away from the bottom edge of the screen or standing on solid ground, which you would probably be able to use instead of reaching out of bounds.

If your goal is to travel north, one strategy is to stay near the left edge of the screen so that you can reach out of bounds to the left for the "default tile", even if you got pushed away from the bottom edge of the screen.

Limitations[]

No-Swap Areas[]

There are still some areas where the Swap cannot be used, such as the Debug World and Turquoise DRAWER, no matter how far in the game you have progressed. When you attempt to use the Swap, the game simply shows a textbox that says "The swap won't work here.".

Object Physics[]

Objects, such as gates, chests, and NPCs, are not affected by the Swap. For example, the 47 Card Gate in Blank cannot be circumvented by the Swap, since the swap does not affect the gate itself, or the wireframe cubes around it.

There are some areas of the game that have invisible blocker objects that you cannot pass by using the swap. These are typically located behind the trigger zones of doorways to other areas to prevent you from Door Hurdling, jumping over the trigger zone, and scrolling the screen out of bounds.

BG2 Physics[]

Technically, the Swap only affects the BG1 layer of tiles. Some areas have tiles in BG2 that cannot be affected by the Swap, and they serve as impassible walls. (However, the Wiggle Glitch can still penetrate them.) Examples of such BG2 tiles are the top halves of the large trees in the Woods, and the water channels in GO.

List of No-Swap Areas[]

Before completing the game, the Swap can only be used in these areas:

After completing the game and beginning New Game+, the Swap can be used everywhere except for these areas:

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