The Outer Wilds Iceberg EXPLAINED!

You should watch my Outer Wilds Timeline video.

I like to think that in shipless speedruns, as soon as hatchling takes off without their ship, Slate just looks at the sky where you went and goes: what the actual fuck

I wouldn't say they didn't try to explain why Brittle Hollow starts breaking at the start of the loop. A computer in the Hollow's Lantern volcano says "WARNING: Increased solar activity detected. WARNING: Increased volcanic activity detected."

The two Stranger hangers is one of my favorite pieces of game design. Players will probably search the first hangar thoroughly, not notice the second hangar is a second hangar, and not search the second hangar -- letting the game hide something in it to be discovered elsewhere.

35:00 I disagree they actually explain it in the base game. The twins transferred sand for the entire time they were around. Maybe it’s transferred faster because of the supernova but that was happening all the time. Brittle hollow starts collapsing during the loop because the supernova increases the volcanic activity of its moon and starts the bombardment. You can read nomai text inside the moon that explains the situation.

About the alternative endings, there's 2 more: if you take out the warp core and go into the stranger it mentions you surviving the supernova and wondering if there's anything to eat, if you stay in the dream world you fade to black with the note: "How much time has passed? They don't even bother to hunt you anymore. Time passes, and passes, until your life before is some half-remembered dream. If only you could wake up."

The probe in the eye is probably the most missable thing on your first play-through and it’s such a nice touch when you find out you can actually see it

For the ship log, I assumed that the hatchling was the one rewriting all this info in each loop. Neat that there is a better explanation.

Something interesting I haven't heard anyone else talk about regarding EotE is that every slide reel up until the point where the "Prisoner" is locked up are all in that painted or hand-drawn art style. The very last slide reel chronologically in this era would be the one showing the prisoner being locked up and the signal blocker being turned back on (the un-burned version of this slide reel being the vision the prisoner shares with you). The very next slide reel chronologically depicts the crowd leaving the site of the submerging sarcophagus to go burn slide reels. This reel, and all subsequent reels created post-submerging, are in a filmed or "3d" visual style. This implies the prisoner was a sort of archivist in their life before and was responsible for all of the artwork up until their imprisonment. Once the prisoner can no longer create the slide reels, the artistry and creativity of the projections is replaced with a more raw footage sort of depiction for any slides relating to the 3 codes, burning slide reels, or the secret in the tower. Possible rebuttals of this theory cite that the error reports and simulation explanations are in the painted style as well, though this is easily explained by the prisoner still being free and complicit with the creation of the simulation when these reels would have been created. Another inconsistency are the footage accounts of the three test chamber experiments, though these are viewed through projection staffs rather than slide reels and thus depict the test subject's point of view.

28:41 Very minor correction, but the statue used in your ship's computer is the same statue you paired with and that's why it's your memories being updated in the log. In the video, you say that Hal tells you "that the ship actually actually uses a piece of another statue as a hard drive" but it's actually not "another" statue than the one they're standing next to.

Regarding the anglerfish in Ember Twin, there is Nomai writing above the room which says that the anglerfish most likely died of starvation, meaning the anglerfish possibly crashed into Ember Twin while it was an ocean (potentially in an ice cap like the jellyfish in Giant's Deep), tried to swim around in the caves looking for food, but couldn't find any/got trapped and starved to death in that specific room.

2:38 Imagine if this was your first time waking up in Outer Wilds, and you die instantly from a speeding object sent on a one-way mission for you. You'd be terrified of starting every subsequent time

cool iceberg ! Few things worth mentionning : -The theory that the scout is the new eye of the universe : It emits a signal, and in the next universe, it's the only thing older than the universe itself :) -Origin and lore of Dark Bramble ? How did it appear, how it breaks spacetime, how it screwed the previous planet, etc -Dark Brambled's weird behaviour lured the Nomai in, what they though was the eye of the universe was just the Bramble boucing the Eye's signal, like it does for your scout or any other object you track through signals in the Bramble. Might seem obvious in retrospect, but a lot of people don't think about it -The landing view in your ship has an altimeter -A few cool things about the Sun Station : -There's a drawing on a wall depicting the sun and the Eye on a scale, which I think implies the Sun's sacrifice is necessary for a discovery as important as that of the Eye, or that its supernova brings just the right amount of power in order to discover the Eye -A computer mentions that its last orders were 281,042 years ago, meaning the Nomai died around that time. However, what does a year mean if you think about it ? If it's based on the revolution of a planet, should we interpret that as meaning that it's the revolution of their original planet ? But they don't seem to have one since they've been a space travelling species for quite some time and Esker's clan probably always lived on the ship, so does the concept of years, or even days, make sense to them ? I'm probably looking too much into it and it just means "a long ass fucking time ago", but I still think that's interesting. Quick correction towards something you said : Even in the final game, the convienient timing thing regarding planets suddenly changing their behaviour is adressed. For the twins, Chert mentions something about how the sand eventually reverses (I'm assuming every 22 minutes or so ?), and the loop we see ourselves in is just it going in one specific direction. Regarding Brittle Hollow, the explanation is a little shaky but a text in the Hollow's Lantern mentions recent increased solar activity as a cause for increased volcanic activity.

Side note about the first fact: not only does the logo collapse, the stars in the background also explode , leaving only the campfire as a light source

As far as the protagonist’s name goes, take this with a grain of salt because it’s secondhand information, but I’ve heard that in the Italian version they’re called “Pebble”, in keeping with the rock-based names of the Hearthians. I obviously now refuse to refer to them by any other name.

Also, the cloaking device is a LCD screen. If you come up to the glass with the sails you can see the RGB subpixels.

Honorable mentions: The O in the Outer Wilds logo may have teased Echoes of The Eye all the way back on the base games launch. The song that plays when your at the Sun Station is The Search in reversed, symbolizing the nomais will to go against nature. There was also a simulation control panel room that was originally going to be in Echoes of The Eye but it was cut from the game due to the game being really close to launch.

Had to immediately hit the like button because of you putting the DLC relevant bits at the end of each section. Extremely considerate of players like me who are in between finishing main game and DLC but are still endlessly curious.

I’ll be honest, I was sobbing during the prisoner’s cutscene, that song is so beautiful

Wild timing isn't that wild, in the final game it is explained that the hourglass twins exchange sand on a cycle, after it goes to one it returns to the other, and Brittle Hollow breaks apart because the Lantern's volcanic activity increases due to the Sun approaching its last moments.