How to Fast Travel in Animal Well

Animal Well is a game that communicates almost exclusively in riddles, even when it comes to its core gameplay mechanics. Take fast travel, for example. At the start of your journey, you might wonder if fast travel is even possible. You don’t even get a map until you’ve explored the opening sections of the game, so who’s to say if Billy Basso designed the game with fast travel in mind? Are you destined to backtrack everywhere?

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Fortunately, Animal Well does, in fact, feature a fast travel system. To unlock fast travel, you’ll first have to find eight eggs. Eggs are hidden all across the map in treasure chests, so as long as you have a keen eye for exploration, you should hit this goal before too long. For reference, there are sixty-four eggs in the entire game. Once you hit this eight-egg threshold, return to the room to the left of the central hub that has the large peacock in it. It’s marked by a giant egg on your map, so you can’t miss it.

Screenshot: Shared Memory / Kotaku

If you have eight (or more) eggs in hand, the bottom-most door will open on the left. Go through here, and pass through the hallway. You’ll enter a room with a treasure chest on a small platform. Jump over to it and open the chest to obtain the Animal Flute. Use this item immediately to awaken the sleeping chinchillas all around you, and then use them to jump up to the entrance on the top right side of the map.

Screenshot: Shared Memory / Kotaku

Inside this room, you’ll see a crow’s head and a small shrine that looks like a flute. Jump in front of that shrine, and play the Animal Flute again. This will open the crow’s mouth. Leap into it (don’t worry, it won’t bite), and you’ll find yourself in a new room on the bottom-left corner of the map. This is your fast travel hub!

Screenshot: Shared Memory / Kotaku

All across the well, you’ll see animal heads that correspond to different sections of the map. If you’ve passed by these heads during your travels, they’ll immediately open up for you. Otherwise, you’ll need to explore some more to unlock every single fast travel location. Each corresponding animal head you’ll find in the world will have that same flute shrine in the same room, so just play the Animal Flute in those spots if their mouths aren’t already open for you.

Screenshot: Shared Memory / Kotaku

How to instantly warp using the fast travel songSo that’s a nice shortcut and all, but can you really say Animal Well has fast travel if you have to backtrack to those heads? Fortunately, the game features a solution for this too.

In the fast travel hub with the six animal heads, you’ll see a ladder at the bottom of the room. Climb down that, and you’ll enter another room with a fish that pops its head out of the water. Jump down to the small shelf of land by the water, and you’ll see the fish pop its head out repeatedly, this time facing different directions each time.

Screenshot: Shared Memory / Kotaku

If you piece together that each direction the fish faces has a differently pitched sound effect, you may realize that this is, in fact, a song you can play using your Animal Flute.

If you just want to know the song outright, play the following notes on the Animal Flute: Right, Right, Left, Left, Down, Down, Up, Up.

If played correctly, your character will instantaneously warp back to the fast travel hub. This works anywhere on the map, so you can enormously cut down on your backtracking time. Make sure to put stamps on your map to help you remember where each animal head will warp you to, and explore the well to your heart’s content!

Screenshot: Shared Memory / Kotaku

How to play the other secret warp songIn true Animal Well fashion, even fast traveling has layers of secrets for you to uncover. Admittedly, it’s not a game-changing secret like the first fast travel song, but it does come in handy if you’re determined to uncover every secret in the game.

You can uncover this song after you first see the credits of the game, and it won’t do you much good before then. Needless to say, light spoilers are ahead.

To find the other warp song for yourself, you’ll need to obtain the UV Light. This is one of four secret items you’ll discover as you progress into Animal Well’s “second layer,” which involves collecting all 64 hidden eggs. Once you find this item, return to the house that you found after watching the credits roll. Travel to the right until you reach the screen with the ominous-looking donut floating around, and use the UV Light. You’ll see a string of arrows written on the wall to the left, followed by a swirly symbol.

Screenshot: Shared Memory / Kotaku

If you’re here just to reference what the song is, play the following notes: Down-Right, Up-Left, Down-Right, Up-Left, Down-Right, Up-Left, Down-Right, Up-Left.

Playing this will warp you to the top of the “well” you find after first finishing the game. This song is very handy if you want to access those endgame areas again, but won’t do much for you before then. Still, make sure to memorize this one once you can make use of it. It’s just two notes repeated over and over, after all.