Tunic presents a whimsical and challenging adventure in a vibrant world. With many dangers that lurk in every corner, you’ll need to acquire the right tools for the job. Here’s our Tunic walkthrough for the East Forest to help you get the Sword and Shield.
Table of contents
- The Wooden Stick and the Sealed Temple
- Entering the East Forest
- How to Get the Sword
- The East Belltower and the Guard Captain
- Back at the Overworld, the map, and the Windmill merchant
- How to get the Old House Key
- How to get the Shield
The Wooden Stick and the Sealed Temple
Once you start Tunic’s campaign, head straight along the path until you see a small cavern. Inside, you can pick up your first weapon, a flimsy Wooden Stick. You can equip the Wooden Stick by pressing LB, and assigning a button while it’s highlighted. Although it’s fairly weak, it’s helpful during the early stages since you’ll need to smack a few enemies with it.
Continue north — or straight ahead due to the isometric camera angle — and interact with the Fox Shrine to heal up (as seen in the image at the top of our Tunic walkthrough guide). Let’s call this the Central Fox Shrine.
Past this point, you can enter the golden doors. Advance further and tag the two obelisks to open the pathway. A short cutscene will play where the trapped fox spirit shows three seals that need to be broken. Once that’s done, the Sealed Temple can’t be opened until much later in the game.
Entering the East Forest
Head west from the Central Fox Shrine until you see a telescope and the East Belltower Key. Pick up the key and bring it to a doorway just southeast of the shrine. This will lead you to the East Belltower. There’s not a lot we can do here now, so just follow the hallway and climb down the ladder.
You should then find yourself in the East Forest. Upon reaching the signboard, you can enter Guardhouse 1 to your left. Climb up and exit the upper area to open a chest with Potion Flask #1.
Go back to the signboard, and head to the next section. There’s a shrine here, as well as several paths:
- The narrow path has a couple of chests. There’s also a ladder that leads to the Lower Forest filled with Spiders. You can just pick up the loot since the Spiders are annoying to fight.
- Make a mental note of the ladder to Guardhouse 1 (yes, a means of reaching the upper area of that fortress).
Continue to the lower right edge to see the next part. Before you go to the Hero’s Grave, you can enter Guardhouse 2. Inside, you’ll acquire 2x Bombs.
If you keep going down the ladder, you’ll be in the Lower Forest. Go to the left past the hostiles and open the chest with Firecrackers. You can then climb back up (it’s the same narrow path near the shrine).
How to Get the Sword
Make your way back to the entrance of Guardhouse 2. This time, break the vases so you can traverse the cliffside path to the Hero’s Grave.
There are lots of flying mobs and Rudelings here, but you can squeeze through an opening to the left of the gate.
Loop around and activate the switch to raise the gate. Pass through and go all the way to the end. You’ll now have the Sword in Tunic. This weapon has a wider arc, and it also allows you to destroy bushes (grass cubes) in your surroundings.
The East Belltower and the Guard Captain
Return to the East Forest shrine. Now that you have the sword, you can slash the bushes to climb upward. Follow the bridge until you arrive at the East Belltower’s exterior. Continue going up so you can pull the lever and open the doorway.
Inside, there are a few things worth noting:
- Pull the lever to create a ladder that can be used to climb down.
- The chest on this floor has Potion Shard #1. Each time you acquire three of these, you’ll get an extra potion charge.
- If you haven’t obtained it yet, you can grab Potion Flask #1 as well.
If you use the topmost exit, you’ll be in a chamber with the Guard Captain miniboss. We use the term loosely because it’s quite a chump.
Focus first on defeating the Rudeling so its attacks won’t annoy you. Then, whenever the Guard Captain is about to charge, just dodge and whack it a couple of times. Wait for it to charge once more, attack twice, and repeat until it’s downed.
Head to the next room and open the chest for Potion Flask #2. Continue up the staircase until you’re at the dais overlooking the area. Hit the obelisk to activate it, and then interact with the rope ladder so you have a means of going down.
Lastly, there’s a small nook here at the bottom where the slime mobs are. Slash the bushes and squeeze through to find a chest. There are other items here, too, but you won’t be able to obtain them yet.
The Overworld, the map, and the Windmill merchant
Upon exiting the East Belltower, you’ll be back at the Overworld. The path off to the side here has an Instruction Booklet page. Pick this up because this is Tunic’s Overworld Map, one of the most important page collectibles in the game. Although the directions aren’t clear, you should still be able to take note of the zones and points of interest.
The Windmill is fairly close to this spot. You should head inside, not minding the pitch-black room.
At the very end, a giant skeletal spirit will spawn. Don’t worry because it’s the merchant. You can purchase items from the merchant using the coins you’ve amassed. This includes Potion Flask #3 for 300 coins.
How to get the Old House Key
Before you continue, return to the Central Fox Shrine, and head one screen down and to the left. Slash the plants, and walk along the river’s edge to pick up Potion Shard #2.
Next, from the Central Fox Shrine, go west to where you initially found the East Belltower Key. Remember the telescope there? Well, the important tidbit here is the door down below. This is the Old House, but we need the key for it.
Continue along the path moving down/south until you see several steps. A short distance away, you’ll see a Rudeling and an even tougher-looking variant. If you’re fast, you can dodge and sprint to grab the Old House Key.
How to get the Shield
Make your way back to the Old House, and enter it. Inside, you’ll find a chest with only a single piece of gold. However, there’s a slightly hard-to-see nook that you can go through behind the curtain.
Follow this hallway and you’ll be able to pick up the Shield in Tunic. You don’t need to open your inventory to equip it, as your character will block whenever you hold down RT. Naturally, mitigating hits will slowly deplete your stamina, too.
Finally, pull the lever and enter the next room. This has a Wall Puzzle that requires you to press the D-pad buttons based on the starting point on the left (symbolized by a diamond). In short, you’ll need to press up, right, down, left, down, and right to open it. Inside, you can acquire another booklet page.
That does it for our Tunic walkthrough for the early-game experience in the East Forest to obtain the Sword and Shield. Your next objective takes you Beneath the Well for the Lantern item. This allows you to see in the Dark Tomb, which, consequentially, leads to the West Garden zone.