Hook Gun and Goop Gun
Each of you carries one of Dr Dahne's prototypes for the whole game. Here is what each tool does, how it grows at each upgrade and which puzzles need it, as the game's own settings define it.
Who gets which
At 2-4 Experimental Prototypes the two guns hang on takeout machines in R&D. Either of you can take either gun; whoever takes the Hook Gun is the Hook Gun player for the rest of the run, and the other player becomes the Goop Gun player. Only there can a gun be put back. At every later takeout each of you can only take your own gun.
Hook Gun
Fires a hook on a cable. It reaches 8 m, flies at 24 m/s and comes back at 40 m/s.
Pull things
Hook a chain, handle, button, slider or block and hold Pull hook to pull it toward you. Some chains have no hand grip: only the hook can work them. Pulling at a wrong angle for 2 s lets go.
Grab items from afar
Hook an item the game marks as hookable and it goes straight into your inventory. Some slots can be used with the hook the same way. Only the first hook does this.
Quickzip to energised goop
With the Goop Gun player's goop charged with energy, hook it and pull to fly to it in 0.4 s, onto the ledge above if there is one. The second hook must be in the gun. Some air vents and parts of the living maze block quickzip.
Connect to energy
The hook head also connects to energy sources, batteries and goop. With the upgrade's second hook, the gun mixes the elements of whatever the two hooks are connected to.
Pull the Goop Gun player
The other player can be hooked too: pull and they are yanked along for 1.4 s.
Monkey bars are for both of you
The handles you swing on are grabbed by hand, not with the hook: both players use them, and the tutorial teaches them before you have any gun.
Goop Gun
Fires blobs of living goop in an arc (no maximum range is set: gravity alone brings them down). The gun holds up to 3 goops; recall one by aiming at it, or hold Recall Ability to call them all back.
Shapes
Goop takes its shape from where it lands, and more goop on the same spot makes it bigger:
| On the floor: a block | 1 × 1 × 1 m |
| Second goop on it: a block twice as tall | 1 × 2 × 1 m |
| Third goop: three times as tall | 1 × 3 × 1 m |
| On a wall: a small node | 0.6 × 0.6 × 0.6 m |
| Second goop on a node: a platform | 1 × 0.4 × 2 m |
| Third goop: a bigger platform | 2 × 0.4 × 3 m |
Weight and targets
Each goop weighs 1 on a pressure plate, so a three-goop block weighs 3. Goop targets swallow the goop; most take one, a few vent fans take three. Goop that hits a surface it cannot stick to comes back to the gun.
Energy charges
Goop picks up a charge at energy sockets, and you can switch which of your goops is active. Charged goop is what the Hook Gun player can quickzip to.
Time-glass panels
In the Temporal Research Centre, goop shot into a time-glass panel comes out of its twin in the other era. You cannot pass through it yourself.
Gooping the Hook Gun player
Goop sticks to the other player as well: one goop halves their speed, two or more stop them in place, and each goop adds to their weight. The posters in R&D say it best: do not goop your colleagues.
Decontamination
Walking through a decontamination doorway in the Farpoint Outpost calls all your goop or hooks back and wipes the goop's charge. You keep the gun.
Upgrades
The guns grow twice. The checkpoint state files set both tools' stage at once; what each stage changes is in the tools' code.
| Stage | From | Hook Gun | Goop Gun |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2-4 Experimental Prototypes | 1 hook | 1 goop |
| 2 | 4-5 Upgraded Prototypes | 2 hooks | 2 goops |
| 3 | 6-1 Norček Proprietary | no change | 3 goops |
At the third stage only the Goop Gun changes: the code gives the hook nothing new. The Director agrees on the radio:
Got your upgraded gear? I say that, though I only gave the least incompetent one of you an upgrade. Tested it? Happy? Great - let's go.
Chapters without the guns
You start 4-1–4-5, 6-1 without the guns (they are not in your inventory when the checkpoint loads) and pick them up again at the R&D takeouts. Before the final choice in 7-5 The Fate of Two Worlds you hang them on two racks.
How the game teaches it
The intake posters at the start of the Exotic Matter Laboratory, with the game's names for the keys:
- Hook Gun Aim and press [Use Ability] to fire - press [Recall Ability] to recall the projectile Press & hold [Pull hook] to pull objects towards you
- Goop Gun Press & Hold [Use Ability] to aim, release to fire While aiming at the projectile, press or hold [Recall Ability] to recall
- Goop Gun You can carry multiple charges. Press [Switch goop] to switch your active goop.
- Hook Gun Connect to an energized goop and press [Pull hook] to pull yourself to it.
- Goop Gun Charge your goop at energy sockets.
Which puzzles use them
What the rooms of each puzzle hold for each tool. Puzzles played before you have the guns, or while you are without them, are listed at the end.
| Puzzles | Hook Gun | Goop Gun | For both |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jigsaw Pieces 2-2 | pull points 16, hookable items 28 | goop targets 8, pressure plates 2 | – |
| Particle Accelerator Lock 3-3 | pull points 17 | goop targets 2, pressure plates 2 | – |
| Laser Crystals 3-7 | pull points 5, hookable items 79 | pressure plates 1 | – |
| Six Rings 3-9 | pull points 15 | – | – |
| P.A.T. Manual Override 3-11 | pull points 13 | goop targets 1 | monkey bars 2 |
| Restart Generator 5-1 | pull points 31, hookable items 1 | goop targets 9, pressure plates 1 | energy sockets 9, monkey bars 1 |
| Time Machine Activation 5-2 | pull points 2 | – | – |
| Thieves of Time 5-3 | pull points 1, hookable items 88 | goop targets 4, pressure plates 3, time-glass panels 4 | energy sockets 2 |
| Greenhouse 5-4 | pull points 2, hookable items 27 | goop targets 2, pressure plates 7, time-glass panels 4 | energy sockets 12 |
| Ghosts of Our Past 5-6 | pull points 2 | – | – |
| Beyond the Rift 7-3 | pull points 65, hookable items 160 | time-glass panels 12 | energy sockets 26, monkey bars 11 |
| Farpoint Outpost 7-4 | pull points 31, hookable items 156 | – | energy sockets 16, monkey bars 4 |
Counts are of the objects in the puzzle's rooms in the game files; a room can serve more than one checkpoint.
Played without the guns
Wellness Check, 3D Printer Grid, Floppy Disk Doors, 3D Resin Mixing, Circuit Matching, Routing Power
Achievements
Two achievements for each tool can only be earned in that role.
Goop Lookin'
Gooped your partner
As the Goop Gun player, hit your partner with goop once.
Goop Gun player onlyYour partner can only get it by playing the other role, so swap roles on a second run (the main menu has a Swap Role button).
You’re Chatty for a Statue
Use the Goop Gun to lock your partner in place
As the Goop Gun player, keep gooping your partner until more than one goop sticks and locks them in place (the exact count is not confirmed in play).
Goop Gun player onlyYour partner can only get it by playing the other role, so swap roles on a second run (the main menu has a Swap Role button).
Now I’m Hooked
Hooked your partner
As the Hook Gun player, hook your partner and pull them.
Hook Gun player onlyYour partner can only get it by playing the other role, so swap roles on a second run (the main menu has a Swap Role button).
Danger! High Voltage
Use the Hook Gun to grapple to an Energized surface
As the Hook Gun player, hook onto energized goop and quickzip to it. The Goop Gun player charges goop at an energy socket and shoots it; the game teaches this in the Temporal Research Centre (5-1).
Hook Gun player onlyYour partner can only get it by playing the other role, so swap roles on a second run (the main menu has a Swap Role button).
What the files do not settle
Which way the pulled player is yanked, exactly when a goop is crushed, and what the third goop element the files name does in play: these need a playthrough to confirm.