Spider: Rite of the Shrouded Moon is one of our favorite games released so far this year. It’s a fantastic sequel and an amazing exploratory arcade adventure, putting players in the role of a web-slinging spider as he scuttles around …
Spider: Rite of the Shrouded Moon is one of our favorite games released so far this year. It’s a fantastic sequel and an amazing exploratory arcade adventure, putting players in the role of a web-slinging spider as he scuttles around a mysterious estate. It combines the simple task of trapping insects with larger puzzle challenges to create an engrossing experience.
For arachnophobes, though, that experience is just gross. Shrouded Moon always included a way to play as a non-spider, but the option was only unlocked after completing the game and solving all of its primary mysteries—which meant playing the game as a spider to unlock the non-spider protagonist. Not ideal if every step makes you squeamish. Developer Tiger Style has announced a way to unlock that character much earlier, hopefully allowing anyone who avoided Shrouded Moon previously to enjoy the game in its full—but spider-free—state.
The following contains very minor spoilers for Rite of the Shrouded Moon (information on the last unlockable character skin).
The last of the five character skins available in Shrouded Moon is “Odobenus Rosmarus,” a.k.a, the walrus. In order to unlock it without completing the game, you’ll need to input a sort of cheat code. If you’ve already started the game in spite of your spider reservations, this will be simple: just scroll from the map screen to the settings menu. You can do this by tapping on the bottom-left icon from the weather menu.
On the settings page, tap “Save Sessions.” Select your current session—this will show you stats for your save file along with your name at the top. Tap your name and change it to “Rosmarus”. Once entered, head to the “Spider Types” section of the menu (tap the bottom-left corner icon until you reach it). This page contains the different “spider types” you can use in-game, and after inputting “Rosmarus” as your name, they will all be unlocked. Tap on the last one, O. Walrus, to view his image and assign him as your in-game avatar.
For a brand new playthrough, you’ll need to first play through the tutorial level, Carriage House. You’ll have to do this as a spider, but it’s very short—if that’s still too much spider, we recommend asking someone else to complete the level for you and then replaying it once the walrus is unlocked.
At the end of the first level, you’ll be asked to enter your name. This is where you’ll input the code: type the name “Rosmarus” and select OK. Once entered, from the map screen you’ll need to scroll over twice to reach the “Spider Types” menu and select the walrus as described above.
After unlocking the walrus, feel free to edit your save session name back to whatever you want—it’s what shows up on the leaderboards—as the skins will remain unlocked permanently.
That’s it! You’ll now be able to play as a walrus instead of a spider. Why a walrus? Tiger Style explained: “To the casual reader this will immediately make perfect sense. A jumping spider, a member of the Salticidae family, is known for being tiny, jumping a great distance, their colorful courtship rituals, and subsisting on insects. What animal has all those traits while looking nothing like a jumping spider? Why, that would be Odobenus Rosmarus, of course, except an extremely tiny one! The nimble walrus is capable of jumping 30 times the length of its body and also exclusively eats insects during the warmest months. Don’t believe us? Just search for the hash tag #WalrusFacts! Sealing the deal is the fact that the walrus’s scientific name translates from Latin to ‘tooth-walking sea-horse.’ If that doesn’t sound like a tiny spider, nothing does.”
Enjoy your new tooth-walking sea-horse and check out our guide if you need help guiding him around Blackbird Estate. (The guide is full of spider images; there’s unfortunately no code to fix that.)
