Goatchild: Advent of Vantelieth

With the recent release of patch 1.4 of Goatchild: Nightmare, as well as finally having written an outline of Advent of Vantelieth's story from beginning to end, I've given myself a much clearer direction of how the game should progress in terms of both story and gameplay. This will definitely help me to release updates far more frequently than before once I've finished quite a long list of character sprites to be done. Fingers crossed!

With that said, I intend to speed up the development of Chapter 2 for a release later this year or sometime early next year, if I can manage it with my rather hectic schedule... so I figured now would be a good time to reveal the numerous secrets hidden within the first chapter! Note that this does not cover all minor details and MASSIVE SPOILERS will follow from here; read this at your own peril.

Badges

As mentioned previously, badges are achievements awarded to players for accomplishing a difficult task or discovering a well-hidden secret. Some badges are difficult to obtain even should a player know how to obtain it. The six badges hidden in the first chapter are obtained as follows:

Badge of Madcow's Bane (Easy/Normal/Hard):
See Secret Boss section.

Badge of the Squirrel Hunter:
Kill ALL of the Squirrels hidden in the woods during the hunting segment, before encountering the Garden of Mercy. Badge will be acquired after entering the cave.

Badge of Desperation:
Shoot Watcher during the chase sequence. This is the only instance in which Watcher can be shot without causing a game over.

Badge of the Golden Rat:
DO NOT kill the rat holding the Messenger's Key to obtain said key—interact with it instead. If the rat was spared, a golden rat will immediately spawn in the giant hallway leading to the Garden of Mercy. Kill the rat before it despawns to obtain the badge.

Badge of Garden Silence:
Kill the Garden of Mercy before it finishes its flowery diatribe.

Badge of (????)-in-Hiding: Look around the grassland while fighting the Garden of Mercy. Shoot the hidden enemy to obtain the badge. Note that the Garden of Mercy will teleport the player in front of it should they wander off too far.

Watcher's Affinity

Watcher's disposition towards Cygna will change depending on two factors: whether or not the player interacted with the Garden of Mercy in the settlement and whether or not the player exhausted all of Watcher's dialogue during the hunting segment. If the player interacted with the Garden of Mercy and didn't exhaust all of her dialogue, Watcher will behave noticeably more distant. Should the player earn Watcher's friendship by exhausting all of her dialogue regardless of whether or not the Garden of Mercy was examined, certain dialogue will be altered in this chapter and in future chapters.

An Unforeseen Encounter
There is a hidden cutscene involving a major character in future chapters which takes place in the isolated prison containing the Warden's Key. To trigger it, enter this room BEFORE pushing the button on the dragon statue located in the upper floor.

The Secret Boss

And finally, the hidden boss. To spawn this boss, first be sure to keep the Keeper's Bell in your inventory after ringing all of the bells. After killing all of the Garden of Mercy's minions, look for the Painted Woman in the room located upstairs in the right corner. Give her the Keeper's Bell to obtain Madcow's Regalia. Use the regalia in front of the bars located in the room you obtain the Deliverer's Key. After this, the boss will spawn in the dark room located beyond the left door downstairs of the lowest floor past the library. Stealth is key to winning this battle. Victory will award the player with three Great Essences and a badge depending on the selected difficultly (all of them count towards the same badge).

Stay tuned for additional updates regarding progress of the second chapter and what to expect!