Outpath: Hidden Secrets Guide

A guide on how to unlock Outpath’s hidden secret, possibly some lore, and how the game became an ARG without David knowing what an ARG is.

WARNING! SPOILERS AHEAD!

This guide contains a number of spoilers for how to obtain the last secret. I try to leave something up to the imagination of the reader, but I can’t do this for everything.

If you want a cryptic riddle, the following will be your guide:
To finish your journey, become lucid and send yourself the last message. When asked for the password in the sea of data, give it letter by letter.

Prerequisites

In order to discover this secret, you’ll need to first finish the game. This will take ~20 hours if you’re being efficient.

Some tips on doing this:

Using markets with the skill that has markets generate credits, in combination with clickers (I found 1 clicker / 6 markets was a good ratio) will rapidly produce credits for you to immediately expand areas or purchase upgraded research.
Dark Star generators require dealing a certain amount of damage to fully charge, so they’ll be incredibly efficient in the sky.
Star fragments can only appear at night and will disappear at day, so if you’re using the meteorite scanner, be aware of this.

Once you’ve beaten the game, you’ll need to re-enter and open your mailbox, where you’ll find a message waiting for you.

Finishing Your Journey

After you’ve finished the game, you’ll still need to get the achievement “My Journey”. A short explanation for this can be found in my other guide “A Comprehensive Achievement Guide for Outpath”, all the way at the bottom. It’s the first spoilered text. If you want want a longer explanation, that can be found here.

First, close the game. Then, you’ll need to go into your save data folder. This is located at %LOCALAPPDATA%Low/DAVII PROJECTS/Outpath.

Inside there, you’ll find a number of files, but the ones we’re interested in are titled “SaveFile[number].es3”. These each correspond to a given save game.

You can use this chance to “back up” your save file, beyond the normal measures the game takes. Make a copy of your file and put it somewhere else you can access. You can copy this file back later if the save editing goes wrong.

Open the file you’ve completed the game on in any text editor. If you don’t know if you have one, you can select Notepad, but know that it might be a little bit more tricky. I personally use VSCodium, a version of VSCode without Microsoft’s tracking.

MICROSOFT WORD IS NOT A TEXT EDITOR. It might sound silly to say this, but I know people who would think that it is and wonder why their game doesn’t work.

Once you have the save file open, look through it for “BottlesManager.instance.notesAlreadyInInv”. You’ll probably find the area around it looks like this:

"BottlesManager.instance.notesAlreadyInInv": {
    "__type": "System.Int32[],mscorlib",
    "value": [
        149, 150, 151, 152, 153, 154, 155
    ]
}
"BottlesManager.instance.lettersToSpawnNext": {
    "__type": "System.Int32[],mscorlib",
    "value": [
        
    ]
},

You’ll notice that you have letters 1-7, and the BottlesManager says you have the notes 149-155 (interesting — both of these have seven numbers).
Maybe you should try sending yourself the eighth letter?

Exact instructions are listed in spoilers here.
Are you sure that you want the answer now?

Alright. Add the number “156” to lettersToSpawnNext.

After you’ve made the change to your save file, close it, then open the game again and load your file. Your mailbox should have a letter waiting for you. Read it, and you’ll get the achievement.

Finding the Preserved Rare Item

After you’ve finished your journey, you’ll need to look at the game’s data. This is not in the game’s “save data” directory, but instead is where it runs from.

In Steam, right click Outpath, hover over “Manage…” and select “Browse Local Files”. You’re going to need to open the following folders:

Outpath_Data
Outpath_Main

You’ll see a file called “Rare Item Preservation.zip”. Open it, and explore through it. You’ll come to a file “Goodbye.png”, but it’s password protected.

Hints are below.
Enter the password, letter by letter.
I’m talking about the in-game letters.
Put in the password in the order given to you by the letters.
1072019-

The ARG

On this Journey, you’ve completed the game, edited save files, and viewed an encrypted file that required all of this. You’ve done more or less everything the game offers to you. So what does this mean?

The method to discover the eighth letter was communicated to the discord community through David’s insistence that I knew how to get it. At this point in time, I was on island 4/5, and there was some joking about how I was being gaslit about knowing something I didn’t.

Once I beat the game and started digging around, though, I couldn’t figure out anything to unlock it. Frustrated, I resorted to a trick I learned while playing David’s previous game (Himno: The SIlent Melody) — save editing. I had gotten a little bit of a reputation on the DAVII PROJECTS Discord server for being able to do some wizardry with saves, recovering lost items, creating weapons that healed enemies, and exploding item slots. I took a guess at what the last letter’s ID might be, and re-opened my file.

The letter read:

Originally posted by David:

Thank you for all the love you were able to give me. During those years, I was happy and didn’t even know it. Now, you’re all over the world; it’s the least I could do for you. Thank you.

When I first read this, I thought it was meant for the player, talking to all of us as a whole. I met people living in a large number of places, and while it was worded in a somewhat odd manner, it meant a lot to know that I was one of the first people to obtain this in what could be argued was the “legitimate” manner.

Recently, however, I was shown how to get the secret in the game data, and was presented with an alternative theory — David was speaking to the subject of the photo.

I’ve had an experience that very much suggests one theory over the other, but following this guide, you might come to a different conclusion.

It’s funny — David made an ARG without knowing what one is. We were discussing this (again, on the Discord) and I brought up how this was essentially an ARG. The person I was talking with explained that they had mentioned it to David, and how he wasn’t aware of it. After explaining what one was to him, he agreed that he made a small-scale ARG.

Credits

Some people who deserve some additional thanks, and whom this wouldn’t be possible without:

David, for having made the games he has. The way he’s interacted with the community is nothing short of wonderful. It’s been a great few years, and I look forward to several more. And again: thanks for letting me find the letter in the way I did, it really did mean a lot.
The old Science Team of the DAVII PROJECTS Discord server. I would never have been as interested in editing the save as I ended up being without people being willing to put up with my shenanigans, and y’all made things really fun. I have some fond memories of us messing around. Hope y’all are doing well, wherever you are.
Supierb, of the DAVII PROJECTS discord, for explaining to me how to get the secret, and the implications of it. This guide simply couldn’t have happened if they hadn’t explained how to get it, and if you’re looking for information on the “Subject Theory” (as I’ll call it) they’re probably the best source to talk to.

By arden