Cairn Top 20 Tips and Tricks
Cairn is a very challenging game that doesn’t hold your hand, which means you’ll need all the help you can get to reach the top of Mount Kami if you don’t give up. Here are The Top 20 Tips and Tricks that range from basic all the way to one that is guaranteed to save you hours of wasted climbing and frustration.
Cairn Essential TIPS and TRicks guaranteed to make you a better climber
Explore the Gym.
The tutorial of Cairn happens in a climbing gym, but there isn’t a timer, so look around the gym and you’ll find plenty of useful stuff that will start your ascent of Mount Kami on the right foot. You will find money to buy food and drink from the vending machine, there are pitons, which are extremely valuable, and there’s plenty of posters around the gym with rich lore that will help create a better foundation for the narrative.
Complete The Whole Tutorial
Cairn is a marathon and not a sprint and the tutorial only asks you to complete three of the sections in the gym, but there are 3 great reasons why you should complete the entire tutorial. To begin with, it provides you with a much greater understanding of the types of terrain you will find on the mountain. Failing inside the gym is better than dying and losing lots of progress. Furthermore, you will get an achievement, which is nice and finally, there is a bonus chest in the gym that you can only get if you do all 8 routes with great stuff to help you along your journey including a map that marks the route difficulty for the first section.
Decide The Best Climb Setting
Cairn has an auto limb selection, which works pretty great and you can test inside the gym. If you don’t like how it’s selecting limbs, you can go to setting and take off auto-limb selection.
Don’t Climb Immediately
Cairn requires a methodical and planned approach. Before starting a new section, fully walk around and explore the area. You will get a good look at the different rock faces, you might find a set of stairs around the corner, or even a map from a previous climber marking potential routes and their difficulty.
Limb Placement
Speaking of limbs, Cairn also takes a hybrid approach to where it places your hands and feet. sometimes you will see a nice hold, but instead of putting your hands of feet inside the crevice, it might put it on the outside. Pay very close attention and when it doesn’t put your limb exactly where you want it, push the cancel last limb button, which is O on PlayStation, and then attempt it again. This could be a life or death decision, so make sure it’s where you want it.
Up Isn’t Always Right
Sometimes going up isn’t always the best path. At times, the correct path might involve going sideways or even down and sideways to find the right way. Remember, Cairn is a marathon and not a sprint.
Foraging
When you first get out of the gym, you will be out in the wild. You can’t pack enough rations for your entire climb in your pack, so you will need to find as you go. Don't forget to forage every time you reach a new summit. You will find plenty of rations for your journey including raspberries, herbs, and even fish
Cooking
Speaking off all of the items you can forage, remember that you can cook them to unlock their greatest potential. Certain things can be eaten raw like Raspberries with no adverse affects, but other things like fish will only provide minor hunger benefits when eaten raw. Certain items like thistle will have pros and cons if eaten raw. Cooking will often negate adverse effects, but also offer even greater benefits.
Explore Caves
You will find a lot of caves during your ascent and it’s almost guaranteed to find something. You could get really lucky and find an abandoned pack, but be sure to look around for huge vases, which often have items and don’t forget to forage as you’ll likely find mushrooms, garlic or other helpful plants.
Refill Resources
After completing each section and reaching a new summit, look for ways to refill your rations. Water springs, waterfalls can fill up all of your bottles, and allow you to quench your thirst. You can also find the occasional bear proof box, which will often have rations left from other climbers who never returned for their items.
Save When you Can
Save areas are few and far between. You can only save at designated areas, and the extremely rare story save point. Even if you have full health, hunger and thirst always use these save areas because you can never be sure when your next save will be.
Refill Your Stamina
Your arms and legs will get tired when climbing. They will start to shake, the screen will start to lose color and Aava will start breathing faster. Pushing triangle on PlayStation will give you a well needed second wind that can provide just enough extra needed.
Listen to Aava
She might not talk often, but Aava does provide some audible clues as to whats happening. She will start breathing faster if she is losing stamina, or if you put her limb somewhere that isn’t good she might say something like “ I have zero grip” or “I'm gonna slip”. This is a great opportunity to reposition or take a quick stamina break.
Sleeping
When you set up your tent at a save station, you will have the option to sleep to recover health if you have lost any. However, even if you don’t have a save station, you can just take a quick nap at any point on solid ground to recover health. It’s not as effective, but it works.
Shake Your Backpack
You will find useful items during your journey through foraging, bear boxes, lost packs and more. It might not seem like you have enough space, but if you use L1 on PlayStation you can shake your bag to hopefully create more space. Don’t be shy to really shake the bag. Almost always you can create a little extra space to carry more items.
Use Chalk
Chalk provides a massive increase in grip, but you only have a limited amount of chalk. Use it wisely, typically near the crest of a summit when you really need it. Also don’t forget to recycle your garbage into Climbot who somehow turns garbage into chalk. Don’t ask how, he just does.
Pitons Tip 1
Pitons can serve as a checkpoint during long ascents, but you only have six, which might seem like a lot, but the climbs get much longer as the game progresses. Use them wisely, because you don’t want to be near the top at a very hard section without a piton. As a side bonus, don’t forget to take a well needed stamina refill during a piton belay, which also allows you to get into your back mid climb. Very valuable if your hunger or temperature is low. Finally, the higher up you go, you wont always start from a large plateau. It’s sometimes not a bad idea to use a piton very early in the climb.
Pitons Tip 2
Sometimes during a long climb, there will be mini plateaus, where you can stand, take a break and recover your pitons if needed, which is very tempting. However, it’s probably best to leave them in until you reach the full plateau of the leg. This will prevent you from losing all of your progress, falling back to the beginning and possibly even dying.
Pitons Tip 3
Pitons are your most valuable resource and when you attempt you use one a timing mini game will appear. There is no time limit, so if you aren’t about to lose grip, take your time because if you don’t time it perfectly, you will put in the piton crooked, which will go in, but will break coming out. Too many broken pitons and you wont have any at the top of the mountain where you really need them. If you are getting cold, try to use a piton before your warmth is depleted because the mini game becomes drastically harder to put a perfect piton in.
Climb Time
There is a right time to climb and a wrong time to climb. Pay attention to the time of day of day. Time progresses fast when you are climbing, so try not to start after four or five in the evening, because it will be night before you know it which is cold, and very dark even with your lantern on. This takes an average climb and drastically increases the difficulty because you cant see any holds right in front of you or which path you should be taking, which means you can quickly end up in a bad predicament. It’s much harder to predict the rain, but if it’s raining when you are about to start, consider taking a quick break in your tent to let the time pass. Grip is drastically better in dry conditions as you would expect.
Birds Eye View
Taking a Birds Eye view can provide a lot of useful knowledge as it pulls the camera out and has the ability to ascend, descend and even zoom. However, it has its limits. The real trick that the game doesn’t tell you is to view the path you have taken, which gives you full control of the camera without any limits on zoom, ascent or descent. This is beyond valuable as you can see what lies above. If you were planning to climb to a cave opening on the face of the mountain, you can ascend the camera all the way up and then even go inside to see if there is a save station, water source, forgotten pack or anything else worthy of your time. This will save you hours of time and frustration climbing to somewhere that isn’t worth it.
