Sharks on many planes

A guide to Nine Sols for SoulsHaters

So, I've never played any classic Soulslikes/Metroidvanias/Soulsvanias/DarkCastlePrimes. None of these are really what I would call "my thing" in terms of gaming, and becoming whole-ass genres unto themselves (including the weird fandom parts) has only cemented my lack of desire to get to know them better. (Nine Sols may technically be more of a Metroidvania than a Soulslike BUT you have to understand, I'm really proud of the pun I made in the title so ¯|(ツ)/¯)

However, as I have mentioned before, Nine Sols is an exception. This is largely down to its environmental storytelling and taopunk aesthetic slamming all my buttons, but there's also a very important part of this that I didn't mention in my last post, namely the difficulty options. In addition to Story Mode, there are options that allow you to adjust at a minute percentage level both the amount of damage you do to enemies, as well as the amount of damage enemies can do to you.

This is great because it allows people like me who are Not Good at these kinds of games a lot of flexibility and leeway in terms of getting through it. There are still some challenges I wish they also had difficulty sliders for (namely the precision platforming and perfect parrying), but those challenges are much more doable when you have flexibility elsewhere, even though it may take…some time (audience members when I streamed this will recall several incidents of me failing extremely embarrassingly extremely often ^^). So, I'm writing this guide for people like me who have heard great things about the game but are turned off by it being ostensibly a member of the Git Gud genre.

I don't plan to spoil the plot of the game in this guide, but if you are someone who prefers to know nothing about a game before going into it, 1) why are you still reading this lol you'll be fine and 2) that's cool, I will put each section in a collapsible "details" widget. Simply click the black triangle next to each question to toggle between hiding and revealing the answers.

I am not affiliated with Nine Sols, Red Candle Games, any gaming company, or any of the sites I link to in this "guide." I just really like this game despite it not usually being my thing and I want to make it easy for other people like me to enjoy it to its fullest too!

Do I need to play this game to get why it's so good? Can't I just watch it on YouTube? Trust me, I am an inveterate "thanks I'll just watch the cutscenes"er, and you can indeed watch many of them on YouTube and be fine, but with Nine Sols, there are certain things in the game that really hit different when it's *you* that chooses whether or not to do them within the immersion of the plot (or when you are watching/talking to someone playing it in real time). So yeah, you could just watch it but then if you tell me "I don't get why you like it" I'll probably say something like "well, it just hits different when you play it yourself" ^^; (this is a joke, you might not like it anyway and that's ok)
Does Story Mode mean I don't need to fight/parry? / Do the difficulty options mean everyone can play Nine Sols? You still have to fight and there are some challenges that depend on specific moves the game wants you to use (including parrying). As I mentioned above, despite the granularity of the difficulty options for combat, there are several parts of the game where you do need to hit certain timing/button combos with precision and I'm not going to lie, it can get very frustrating.

I do think that a lot of people who think they can't play Nine Sols can in fact play it, but I'm not going to deny that there *are* people who, due to disability or other reasons, will not be able to play the game by themselves. (That said, there's nothing wrong with handing the controller over to someone who is better at those skillsets to do for you, if you have a willing helper available. In my opinion it's still worth watching them do said challenges as some of them are nice little environmental storytelling pieces.)

I would say that if you find games like Super Mario World or Battleblock Theater doable though challenging and have the time/patience to either try a challenge repeatedly or put the game down and come back to it later, you can probably get through this. In terms of overall difficulty with settings on easiest, I would say that it's at the level of what you'd see in a level of, say, Super Mario Maker 1-2.
How many endings does Nine Sols have? Nine Sols has 2 endings.
Do I have to collect everything? It depends. I recommend collecting all of certain items for story reasons, and especially if you are interested in both endings.
Is there a map? Yes, there is a basic map that you fill in as you explore each area and there are ways you can gain access to information such as how many special items are in each area and where they are. There is also a site with an interactive map where you can reveal the locations of every category of special item in every area within layered tiers. It's https://ninesolsmap.com.
Do I have to do things in a certain order? You get leeway to choose what order you do things in for parts of it; the game more or less points you in the right direction and blocks you from certain areas until certain plot points are unlocked. There is a *chance* you might end up in a situation where a given area is harder than expected because of e.g. the upgrades you selected but that's mostly it.
  • One thing I will advise in terms of timing is to follow the suggestions given in certain item descriptions (see above) *when you get them* instead of saving everything for the last minute. Let's just call that a lesson learned (as well as an example of how I can make things harder on myself even when I say I want to take it easy ^^).
    • Do I have to get every achievement? As far as I know, getting all the achievements doesn't unlock anything extra other than whatever inner satisfaction you normally get for getting achievements.
    Do I have to read every description? It adds a LOT to the story and worldbuilding (2 of the high points of the game in my opinion) if you do.
    Is there anything I need to pay attention to so I don't miss stuff? Don't skip paying attention to the backgrounds; you don't have to do hidden object scrying or anything, just don't take them for granted and soak them in, they were designed very intentionally and build a lot of atmosphere.

    Also, talk to your friendly NPCs when you see them, especially if they've moved from where they were last. Do a lap of your home base each time you go there to see if anything has changed. There won't always be different dialogue but there sometimes is (and some of it is required for the true ending) so it's generally worth it to check.
    Is the entire story contained in the game? There is additional story media for the game universe. Do you need it to understand the game? Eh…I don't think you need it to understand the story that the game tells. But it does add a layer of depth to some side characters' backstories. For me, as soon as I finished the game I wanted more of the universe and that's why I sought out the extra stuff.
    Is there a walkthrough you recommend for the game? Tee Bee Aitch, ehhh…I played this game in 2024-2025 and at that time there wasn't really a good one available. I used one that was on a site that was on a site which is now full of genAI crap, I don't know if I would recommend it anyway, it was just…OK. It seemed to be one that had been made after just one or maybe two playthroughs so there was stuff I ended up doing differently just because that's how I did it.

    A GameFAQs walkthrough has been released since then, but I only learned that because I did a search for "nine sols walkthrough" so I could see if a newer walkthrough than the one I used existed so I have no idea how good it is or if it uses genAI or anything (to be clear, fuck AI). It did win featured FAQ for June 2026 so that's good maybe?
    Is there a wiki for the game that isn't Fandom.com? Yes! It's at https://ninesols.wiki.gg. It's pretty good, although there are some stubs and a few frustrating tautological loops.
    How do you pronounce the names in Nine Sols? While the (minor) voice lines in Nine Sols are in Taiwanese and Mandarin, most of the names in the English version use Mandarin pinyin spelling and pronunciation. Here is a pronunciation guide for some of the names and terms in Nine Sols, which is what I used while I was streaming the game since in the English version it only shows the (unmarked, so you can't tell which tones to use) pinyin and not the hanzi. It is still missing some of the words (names of places, names of enemies, names of items) so if you are curious, I would recommend finding a guide on pronouncing Mandarin pinyin and using that. (if you know me, which is probably like 99% of people who will read this, you can also just ask me and I'll help)
    What are some content notes for Nine Sols? I can't claim to know every trigger that may exist, but
    here are some common/main themes in Nine Sols some individuals may find disturbing: murder (obvs), body horror, maiming, genocide (implied), torture, darkness (as in literal lack of light but also this is not what one would call a "cute" game), infectious disease, family trauma/loss, drug use, brainwashing, manipulation, betrayal, war crimes
    And
    here is a list in no particular order of less frequent/emphasized potentially disturbing content in the game: abduction, ritual murder, cannibalism, imprisonment, infrequent jumpscare, questioning reality, scientific malpractice, animal/creature death, potential trypophobia, potentially fatphobic term used in affection, potential implied incest between NPCs, emetophobia

    At the end of the day, maybe you'll still find that Nine Sols isn't for you. And that's fine, different (brush)strokes etc. But hopefully this guide will have at least reduced some of the friction for you!

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