Outer Wilds guide: Tower of Quantum Knowledge and the Quantum Moon

There’s only one place left to visit in Outer Wilds, and it’s the hardest to get to. The Quantum Moon is going to be our last stop before the end of the game.

In this guide, we’ll help you visit the Tower of Quantum Knowledge, the last stop the Nomai made on the pilgrimage to the Quantum Moon, and then visit the Quantum Moon.

Tower of Quantum Knowledge

You’ve seen the Tower of Quantum Knowledge before when you visited Brittle Hollow the first time. We skipped it then, but now it’s time to visit.

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Head to Brittle Hollow and land on the Tower of Quantum Knowledge. It’s right along the equator, and has a quantum shard nearby.

To get inside, you’ll have to wait for the tower to fall into the black hole and get transported to the White Hole Station. This takes about 15 minutes, so you don’t necessarily have (or want to) hang around.

Read any Nomai script nearby — there’s a wall to the left of the arch, and a wall on top of the quantum shard. When you’re done, plant your scout on the tower. This will let you follow its signal to find the tower when it’s floating in space.

Now you can wander off in-game, or go make a cup of coffee in real life.

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When the tower falls through black hole, maneuver your ship nearby, and hop out. Head to the base of the tower, and jetpack up toward the top.

At the top of the tower, read the Nomai script on the wall. This is a note for a Nomai named Solanum, and it teaches you the final rule you need to know: To reach the sixth location, the shrine must be on the moon’s north pole.

Drop down one floor to find a Nomai scroll. Carry it back up to the top to read it and learn about the Nomai’s feelings about the Quantum Moon.

Now it’s time to head there. (You’re out of time on this loop, so you’ll have to wait to start another.)

Landing on the Quantum Moon

The Quantum Moon acts like any other quantum object you’ve interacted with in the game. It moves when you’re not looking at it. This means that you might find it in orbit around any planet.

Launch into space, and start looking around at the other planets. You can use your signalscope tuned to quantum fluctuations to help you spot it. You’re looking for a gray moon.

If you don’t feel like wandering around the solar system, pick a planet to orbit, and start spinning in a circle. Eventually (and randomly), the Quantum Moon will show up.

Mobius Digital/Annapurna Interactive via Polygon

The trick here is to never lose sight of the moon so it can’t move. This isn’t easy, though, because passing through the moon’s clouds, or switching to the landing camera both count as looking away.

Instead, approach the moon and stop. Fire your scout off to one side — not at the moon, but off into space — and take a picture. Once you have a picture of the moon, it won’t move as long as that display is up (we learned this on Giant’s Deep in the Tower of Quantum Trials).

Let your scout drift off without recalling it, and make your landing.

Solanum’s Shuttle

Every visitor to the Quantum Moon lands at the south pole. Get out of your ship and look around.

There are two things we’re looking for near here: The Quantum Shrine, and Solanum’s Shuttle. If you don’t see either, spin in place — both the shuttle and the shrine act like quantum objects here.

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Spin until you spot the shuttle. Inside, check Solanum’s recording.

That’s all you have to do here, so head back outside, and spin until you spot the shrine.

Quantum Shrine

Before we head into the shrine, let’s talk about what’s happening here. We know that the shrine will help us reach the Sixth Location, and that to do so, the shrine must be on the moon’s north pole. We’re also about to learn (you’ll see this in a moment) that the moon will take on the appearance of whatever planet it’s orbiting.

So there are three things to remember here:

• The Quantum Moon moves around the solar system.
• The Quantum Shrine moves around the surface of the moon.
• The surface of the moon changes depending on which planet it’s orbiting.

So let’s put that into practice.

Mobius Digital/Annapurna Interactive via Polygon

Unlock the door, and head into the shrine. There’s another switch inside to turn on the lights, and another lock on the inside of the door.

Turn on the lights, and close the door. Read the Nomai script on the wall on your left to refresh your memory.

On the right, there are six icons and an indicator. These represent the planets and the Sixth Location, and the current position of the moon. We’re going to use this to guide us to the north pole and the Sixth Location. To do that, we’re going to use a similar method to move around that we did in the Lakebed Cave on Ember Twin.

Make sure the door to the shrine is closed (so no light can get it), turn on your flashlight, and turn off the lights inside.

Mobius Digital/Annapurna Interactive via Polygon

In the dark, every time you turn off your flashlight, the moon will move to another planet. Turn your flashlight on and off until you end up in orbit around Giant’s Deep — the fourth icon from the left.

Exit the shrine, and head north. (We’re on the Giant’s Deep version of the moon because there’s no landscape to get in the way here.) When you reach the tornado at the north pole, start wandering and spinning around until the shrine reappears nearby.

Get inside, close the door, and turn the lights off again. Do the flashlight trick until the moon arrives around the Hourglass Twins — the first icon on the left.

Mobius Digital/Annapurna Interactive via Polygon

Exit the shrine again, and head north to the pole. Stop just before you get to the pole on your map, and start spinning again. The shrine will appear directly on the north pole.

Back inside the shrine, do the flashlight trick again until the moon arrives in the Sixth Location — the last icon on the right.

Exit the shrine one more time, and head south.

Sixth Location

When you arrive at the south pole, you’ll meet none other than Solanum. Conversation with the Nomai is tricky, though.

Talk at Solanum until she(?) reaches to the stone on your left, and creates six icons. Two stone pedestals will appear on your right.

Mobius Digital/Annapurna Interactive via Polygon

Your job here is to take any two stone icons from the left, and place them on the pedestals on the right. Solanum will then respond with some script on the wall behind her.

There are thirty combinations of stones, so instead of going through them all, here are the highlights (that will fill in your ship log).

• Explain and You
• Identify and Quantum Moon
• Explain and Quantum Moon
• Explain and Eye of the Universe
• You and Eye of the Universe

What have we learned? // What’s next?

We learned a lot more about the Quantum Moon and its general weirdness, and the Nomai. Solanum hinted at what’s going to happen when we reach the Eye of the Universe. And we’ve filled in every rumor and card in our ship log.

What’s next is to end the game, and break the time loops. We know where the Vessel is on Dark Bramble (and how to get there). We know where there’s a working warp core in the Ash Twin Project. And we know the coordinates for the Eye of the Universe from Giant’s Deep. Now we just have to put it all together.