Whoa! This is such an awesome innovative puzzle game. I think it has a balance of difficulty with enough puzzles that can be solved to unlock new puzzles. But it also has challenging puzzles that are optional.
The general pattern is "Object has SomeProperty," e.g., "Baba is You" (the game's title). But soon the player learns how it is necessary to to think outside the box.
Steam Game Time: 2.2 hours (cumulative game time)
20230321 (AM Hours):
This game was so fun. I would have played more but the Steam Deck ran out of battery.
Steam Game Time: 3.0 hours (cumulative game time)
20230323 Snapshot:
This entry should cover play on the 21st and 22nd. I'm trying not to obsess over any single puzzle. To clarify, at least during these two days I switched to this mindset.
Steam Game Time: 6.0 hours (cumulative game time)
Last Played: 20230322
[20230322][20231019 Edit]
20230324:
Steam Game Time: 9.1 hours (cumulative game time)
20230331 Snapshot:
I've been playing on and off over the last few days and decided to not submit individual entries. I'm trying to go in order of areas by number and not lingering too much when I get stuck on a level. One of the tougher mechanics for me to deal with is "shift." Meanwhile "on" is challenging but somehow logically reasonable to deal with.
Steam Game Time: 24.4 hours (cumulative game time)
Last Played: 20230331
[20230331][20231020 Edit]
20230404 Snapshot:
I'm pretty close to the point where I'm stuck on all levels which I have access to, and I'm unable to make new progress. I did, however, solve one or two difficult puzzles.
Steam Game Time: 30.6 hours (cumulative game time)
Last Played: 20230402
[20230402][20231020 Edit]
20230404 (AM Hours):
I figured out "Lovely House" (and it followed that I figured out "Skull House" which is the same). I also figured out "Lock the Door" in the Deep Forest area. I still have "Insulation" left though.
Steam Game Time: 31.6 hours (cumulative game time)
[20230404][20231020 Edit]
20230414 Snapshot:
Steam Game Time: 31.9 hours (cumulative game time)
Last Played: 20230406
20230417 Snapshot:
By now I've definitely completed a number of puzzles that stumped me, only to encounter more difficult puzzles. The other day I completed the primary campaign level, but I'm far from being able to 100% the game.
I'm stuck on the following levels (though some I just open and immediately exit the level whenever I feel I've already spent an overwhelming amount of time on them):
10: (dot)
9: 04, 09, 11, (dot)
7: 05, (2 dots)
???: 04
6: 08, 12
5: E
I tried spending more time with "Insulation" (5E) but did not succeed at solving it. One interesting position was facing left above "Wall." This stacks two walls to the far left, but it doesn't make use of "up" and it doesn't really seem to give any advantages to the word "wall."
Steam Game Time: 41.0 hours (cumulative game time)
Last Played: 20230417
20230704:
I occasionally turn this game on and think about a problem or two.
Steam Game Time: 42.4 hours (cumulative game time)
Last Played: 20230702
20251030 Snapshot:
Steam Game Time: 44.9 hours (cumulative game time) / 43h 3m (Playnite)
Steam Game Time (20260404 Correction): 43.0 hours (cumulative game time) / 43h 3m (Playnite)
Last Played: 20231109 Remark: The Playnite time does not align with the Steam game time.
Rating: 5.8/5
20251030:
Gameplay Log:
Played a couple of easy levels to get in the mindset. Then went to a difficult level (5E) and tried to think through it for about an hour. XD
Steam Game Time: 46.2 hours (cumulative game time) / 77 minutes (session game time)
Steam Game Time (20260404 Correction): 44.4 hours (cumulative game time) / 77 minutes (session game time)
20251031:
Today I took a look at some other levels. Wasn't able to make progress on any of them and kind of felt like perhaps this is the end of the game for me. As in, I don't think I'll mentally be able to dedicate time to solving these harder puzzles. I still think the game is by far one of the best games I've ever played.
Steam Game Time: 47.8 hours (cumulative game time) / 1.6 hours (session game time)
Steam Game Time (20260404 Correction): 46.0 hours (cumulative game time) / 1.6 hours (session game time)
Remark: the recently played page currently says 47.8 hours but the game page says 46 hours. This 1.8 hours difference is about the same difference as the difference between the game page and the Playnite time I recorded in the 20251030 snapshot. How strange.
20260403:
I played a bit of this game. I was able to solve a few puzzles in Volcanic Cavern: #09 (Join the Crew), #11 (Trick Door), #12 (Trapped), and #13 (Tunnel). However, I spent a lot of time not figuring out #04 (Mouse Hole) and some time not figuring out Extra #1 (Coronation).
Steam Game Time: 48.3 hours (cumulative game time) / 2.3 hours (session game time)
*I took a screenshot where the starting time is 46.0 hours. There's an inconsistency between the recently played page and the game page. This has been a problem in the past. I've gone ahead and added corrections to 20251030 and 20251031 entries based on the remark indicated in the 20251031. It seems to line up correctly. That is, assume the Playnite time of 43h 3m is correct, and that I had accidentally used 44.9 hours from recently played page instead of the game page.
20260404:
Thought I had a solution to a puzzle (floating platforms) and then realized I didn't. Eventually tried to play the world map bonus level (with the two "Defeat" tiles) and couldn't complete that either.
Steam Game Time: 52.7 hours (cumulative game time) / 4.4 hours (session game time)
20260405:
Today, among the puzzles I tried, I figured out the solution to Rocket Trip #08 (Bottleneck). There were several key steps:
1) Have to use EMPTY AND STAR/ROCKET IS PUSH because EMPTY IS STAR/ROCKET won't work, each for different reasons. Why not star: star becomes defeat. Why not rocket: rockets cannot be walked across
2) Positioning to get across the skull in certain moves restricts where the action must occur.
3) There's a key reason two stars are supplied and a key differentiation between star and rocket in this level: ROCKET IS STOP. This goes together with the following: when EMPTY IS PUSH, this limits your movement
4) By this point, the above results in determining the solution: can walk on the stars when EMPTY IS PUSH
Then while entering the above into my blog, I decided to play Rocket Trip #12 (Guardians) before going to sleep. I managed to figure it out! I think having completed Rocket Trip #08 gave me a better understanding of EMPTY.
1) I first tried inserting all the text, but since that didn't use the ICE it was unlikely to be the solution. Furthermore, the text doesn't reach all the way to force all the UFOs to alternate and finally even getting to the WIN, there'd be no way to extract it.
2) So then I tried to focus on how to work with EMPTY IS PULL.
3) Similar to Rocket Trip #08, the key lies in the following: staying mobile.
4) Once I figured out that movement is retained while on ICE, then it became a question of how to use that knowledge.
5) It took a while to realize that I had to combine EMPTY IS PULL with TEXT IS PULL
Locked behind #12 was #13 and #13 was not too bad. However, while I completed #13, I don't fully understand the solution. Somehow EMPTY IS OPEN with EMPTY HAS KEY and BOX IS SHUT results in being able to open the BOX on contact and revealing the key. Prior to this I had not written EMPTY HAS KEY and discovered the first part on opening the box on contact but that didn't really make sense to me either. In any case, this completes Rocket Trip area!
Steam Game Time: 56.8 hours (cumulative game time) / 4.1 hours (session game time)
20260406:
Steam Game Time: 57.2 hours (cumulative game time) / 0.3 hours (session game time)
20260411:
Gameplay Log:
- start 57.2
- mouse hole. after the initial half of the session going after the same solution I've been trying. it finally occurred to me the dynamic I was missing. well maybe a lot of little things together. components/solution:
- I've been pushing into that hole when action needs to happen outside. two objects need to be pushed. rock and something else. since rock is push, that something else is not bat. so bat should be sacrificed at beginning to get key out. then the word bat is combo. push rock and word bat to the key. I think prior to this the "anti" idea that when pushing a sequence of items, only every other item advances the key, which when dealing with the attempt of bringing the key into the hole is a hindrance. but in this real solution it is an advantage.
- end/start 57.8
- coronation!
- so... I was playing around and I think the first eventual click in my mind was... let's assume that since rock is defeat and the likelihood for removing it with swap is low then lets try for text is win. and from previous success with swap, it would have to be pushing the rock and having the text land on me. from there it required some trial and error. having text is swap prevents text is win, so there must be some special manipulation around pushing words to get to the text being on baba. some trial and error lead me to the solution. by accident i got text on me next to swap and moved on to swap and so swap and another word (push) were together. ah! now I just need to do that with "win" and "swap"
- end/start 58.0
- trying a level 1 to show Ben Keke [#01 Tour on 9. Volcanic Cavern]. it was full of Keke is you and baba is you and fire o n keke is defeat... and i couldn't figure it out even though i had already done it at some point.
- and then... I was just checking some missing levels.
- end/start 58.7 hours [I'm a little surprised that trying that level and checking missing levels adds up to 0.7 hours...]
- insulation!
- I remember countless hours spent on this level, and others I've managed to beat recently. anyways... I this is one of a few levels that seems to have a distraction unused word - at least im my solution. so... I initially tried passing through with the skull tonthe right which is two deep. I was able to sit onnthe stone (when set to wall is stop). and realized I could walk off it. soon after I tried the upper wall. but then instead of trying the lower wall I tried some other ideas that likely I tried in the past. then I tried seeing if the skull moves a block to the left if I could manipulate some text around. which had me spending time near the bottom and realizing oh, maybe I can pass through the bottom. and with some trial-and-error I was able to get it. set up [Keke] [is] [push]. Push Keke to the correct spot. remove [push] (and [up] at some point). change [wall] [is] [hot] to [wall] [is] [stop]. then complete [Keke] [is] [skull] to be on the stone. can walk through after!
- end 59.2 hours
Steam Game Time: 59.2 hours (cumulative game time) / 2.0 hours (session game time)
20260412:
Gameplay Log:
To recap the recent days:
- Fully completed 6. Rocket Trip: #08 Bottleneck, #12 Guardiians, and #13 Sky Hold - all on 20260405
- Fully completed 9. Volcanic Cavern: several levels on 20260403, #04 Mouse Hole on 20260411, and (dot) Coronation on 20260411
- Fully completed 5. E Deep Forest: Insulation on 20260411
Left to finish:
- 7. Flower Guardian: (2 dot) Out at Sea
- 10. Mountaintop: (dot) The Floatiest Platforms
Notes for Out at Sea.
- Hmm... [ice] [on] [lava] [is] [push]. If it were possible to get lava out there with ice on top of it, they occupy one space but ice would get pushed out. but then lava wouldn't be pushable since then... so likely that's not the situation
- I still feel like it's gotta be two ice and a text. And somehow the text or ice is pushable separately until the right time in which [text] [on] [ice] [is] [lava] or [ice] [on] [text] [is] [lava]. but then we lose the ability to push ice.
- so what if we have [ice] [is] [push] and some other sentence on the other direction. we have the words [lava] [on] and [text]. But [lava] can't transform and [text] [is] [lava] isn't necessary as a persistent sentence.
- so instead if we have [lava] [is] [push] that would help for getting to the box. but in that case how does the ice open the door.
- staring awhile and consider the above idea with two sentences... it'd be nice to have an extra word... in which case can transform the existing ice into a word.
- maybe easiest thing is to assume [lava] [is] [push] is necessary... absolutely necessary
- I know from previous that if there are three items in the way, I can step onto the belt and exit...
- hmm... I pushed two ice and a lava through. the text on the left is [ice] [is] [push] and I also have [lava] and [on] so if somehow I could get [lava] [on] [ice] [is] [push] to occur after I make use of [ice] [is] [push] that would be awesome; or even swapping out [lava] for the [ice] somehow
Steam Game Time: 61.0 hours (cumulative game time) / 1.8 hours (session game time)
20260415:
Out at Sea continued...
- Thinking through the problem... it finally dawned on me that it would be good if Lava and Ice text were right on top of each other. Then both [lava/ice] [is] [push].
- Fully completed 7. Garden: (2 dot) Out at Sea on 20260415
The Floatiest Platforms
- Hmm... By accident I had two rocks to the left with [rock] [is] [push] and it allows the Baba on the left side to just stay on the platform while the other falls off.
- I think... I didn't understand [lonely] [Baba] [is] [defeat] before. Before I thought it meant if there was only one Baba then you lose. But what it really means is that Baba only survives if it overlaps with another object, such as rock or tiles. And I'm not sure how it comes into play other than the obvious. From an obvious point of view, stay on a tile or move a rock to walk on rock. Otherwise Baba is defeated.
VHVH-DHLV
- I took a break from the main game and played a custom level. This level allowed for A and D to jump left and right. And a hidden property that is not obvious, but kind of informed from the beginning is that sentences can be made across the boxes (hinted by [Keke] [is] [blue] at the start. Anyways the solution consists of [flag] [is] [flag], [keke] [is] [flag] (one-time), [baba] [is] [safe], and [flag] [is] [win].
Steam Game Time: 57.3 hours (cumulative game time) / ?.? hours (session game time)
*The steam game time for this game has been screwy. I'm not sure how, but maybe either playing locally or on the Steam Deck as well as the computer messes things up. The Steam store page says I've played 11.3 hours last two weeks. This is consistent with the starting time of 46.0 hours.
20260416:
Steam Game Time: 57.7 hours (cumulative game time) / 0.4 hours (session game time)
20260418:
I don't remember if I played yesterday or not. But today I was playing The Floatiest Platforms while on the stationary bicycle. I mainly stared at the level and made roughly the following thoughts / actions (recollecting various components):
- the main win condition is [flag] [is] [win]
- can that be altered? seems unlikely
- can either assume then that we do in fact have to get the key to the door, is there any other way?
- likely dismiss turning rock into key, since once the rocks are bridges, seems not possible to reclaim them
- in terms of pushing the key across, it would be nice to get the two Baba's one step closer together
- I decide to put effort into that
- at times I thought, would a vertical offset be useful, I decided horizontal was likely the better way
- in one situation I pushed the two rocks to the left (nothing new)
- in another situation to the right, and decided to use two rocks on the left side to be a bridge for Baba to walk further
- then it finally clicked: get the two Baba together due to an insight I made the other day: [lonely] [Baba] [is] [defeat]
- how: three rocks form the bridge between the two; off to the right of that bridge use the text out of order to allow the Baba to move right; the right-hand Baba stays in place due to the text, while the left-hand Baba converges onto the right-hand Baba. Now they're together and can walk across the entire level no problem
After completing The Floatiest Platforms, I played the one level with the Door on the main map and turned into Baba. Place Baba onto the Flag to enter a . Solution (?) overview:
- Since [key] [is] [key] then use [baba] [is] [key]; have to ensure [key] [is] [you] first
- need both [key] [is] [you] vertical and [key] [is] [melt] at same time
- melt the door to get access to... wait... I think winning the level is different from the main map business. For that... I think just use [level] [is] [Baba] which can be done after [key] [is] [you].
Entering the special area, I saw that I had previously completed the first three levels there. I had yet to complete the fourth level, which would fork into three directions worth of levels.
Steam Game Time: 58.4 hours (cumulative game time)
20260425 Snapshot:
While likely I have detailed screenshots spread across the last several days, it's probably easier to just try and summarize the progres:
- ???: I completed the special area mentioned above except for a level with a question mark on it (12 numbered levels and four dice levels).
- ABC: The special area has an "ABC" tile which leads to another area. I completed the six levels there (five numbered and one dice level) which gives the icon on ??? a flower (same as completing the areas on Map)
- Then there's an isolated dot on Map which is a secret level where I completed and got an orb.
- In total I've obtained 186 spores, 11 flowers, and 1 secret orb. Looking it up, there's 231 levels in the base game "Baba Is You"
Steam Game Time: 65.4 hours (cumulative game time)
Last Played: 20260425
20260425:
I spent some time playing to verify some of what I said below and searching for a way to access the "?" level in "???".
Steam Game Time: 66.2 hours (cumulative game time) / 0.8 hours (session game time)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baba_Is_You
https://store.steampowered.com/app/736260/Baba_Is_You/
