Outer Wilds: How To Start Echoes Of The Eye

The first and only expansion for Outer Wilds is finally out, and you should not be surprised to find that just starting Echoes of the Eye is its own little devious puzzle injected into the heart of the original's main adventure. You only receive one clue when starting the game with the expansion installed for the first time, which you can accidentally miss quite easily. If that's you, or if the clue just hasn't been enough to go on, here's how to start Echoes of the Eye in Outer Wilds.

From this point on, we're going to dive into the specifics on how to find the new biome where most of the expansion takes place. Outer Wilds is all about the thrill of discovery, and even just eventually figuring this initial puzzle out brought a big smile to my face. If you want to go in without any knowledge, stop reading right now. Last warning.

Your first stop should be the Observatory on Timber Hearth, which will now feature a brand-new exhibit. This features a look at a new radio station elsewhere on the planet, which the exhibit says is responsible for collecting all the photos that allow your in-game map to function in real time. You should head there immediately, with the small structure easily visible from a low orbit around Timber Hearth. Inside you'll find log describing some of the first photographs sent back by a singular satellite orbiting the entire solar system, with Hornfel puzzling over a strange object he spotted in one.

If you look around the room, you'll see four photos on the wall. It's not immediately clear which one bears the abnormality that Hornfel's is referring too, especially since some, at first glance, suggest the existence of two quantum moons. The one that you need to focus on it the one you'll see on the right of the room, with the description reading "Satellite Angle: 40 degrees". This shows a small eclipse of the sun being cast by an invisible object. Curious indeed.

Next you should head over to the satellite that takes the pictures in question. At this point you might need to just start a new loop, since you will need to get there relatively quickly as soon as the loop starts for the easiest way to see the new celestial object. The satellite is on your map now, so you can quickly set your ship to autopilot to it. Be careful though, as any nudge from your ship might fling it out of orbit and break it, which won't help you.

Once there, grab your space suit and head outside. On the side of the satellite is a monitor that measures at what degree it has rotated around the solar system. All you need to do is position yourself parallel to the lens, facing the sun, and wait until it reaches 40 degrees. At that point you should see the eclipse starting over the sun, which is your cue to head back into your ship and fly right towards it.

As you approach, you will be sucked into the orbit of a giant, invisible spacecraft, and this is where the majority of Echoes of the Eye will take place. Once discovered, you'll be able to set a marker for the craft from your discovery log, meaning you won't need to make the same trip to the satellite every single loop. Now it's your job to figure out why this thing is here, who it belongs to, and just how it connects to the puzzling tissue of the rest of Outer Wilds.

Outer Wilds: Echoes of the Eye is out now on PC, Xbox One, and PS4. It retails for $15. A Nintendo Switch version of Outer Wilds is expected later this year.