What’s up with that floating ghost head in Gatorman Village? A comprehensive guide on solving the Midnight Man puzzle answers this question and more!
Introduction
So if you’re anything like me, you saw the floating head in Gatorman Village and realized that he’s related to a puzzle using the obelisk portal. But, you couldn’t quite wrap your head around it so you looked up what the deal was with the floating head is about and see posts about “The Midnight Man” and assume the man in the hat is him, but then you keep reading about an imp and you realized that you definitely missed some puzzle shenanigans.
Well, even if none of that applies to you here’s the Midnight Man Puzzle for Dummies.
Note: This guide will be more like hints while hiding the direct answers under spoilers (shoutout to the individual who made the SIT courses guide).
Puzzle Mechanics
First, you need to keep in mind the layout of the Village. Its 3 rooms in total, 1 on the left with the floating head, 1 in the middle(or “bottom”), and 1 on the right where the group of Gatormen (and 1 sigma gatormale) are worshiping the obelisk(AKA the portal to the shadow realm).
Next, understand how the hands work.
The left-hand controls where the portal to the shadow realm and the normal world appear.
When it points left, the portal appears in the left room, pointing down means it appears in the middle room, and right means it appears in the right room.
The right-hand controls which room will appear in the shadow realm. Only 1 of the 3 rooms in the Village can exist at a time in the shadow realm.
Only the right room will exist in the shadow realm if pointing right. if pointing down, only the middle room will exist, and if pointing left, only the left room will exist.
Step 1 find the ghost guy
Step 1: Which room was the ghost head in? How do we get to the shadow realm version?
Answer: Turn the right hand so its pointing to the left. This will reveal the rest of the ghost-headed man, letting you interact with him.
After talking to him, he will tell you about Midnight Man.
Step 2 finding midnight man
Step 2: How do we reveal/summon the Midnight Man? What is missing in the first bit about how the hands work?
Hint: What DIRECTION is missing when talking about the hands?
Answer: Turn the left and right hands so that they both point up. This will reveal Midnight Man.
Step 3 trick the trickster
Step 3: The Midnight Man isn’t going to give us what we want in the shadow realm, even if we chase him into one of the rooms.
Hint: How do we trap him in the normal world?
Hint 2: If you’ve already explored the Village, then you know that there is a rock in the normal realm that increases in muscle needed to push it every time you push it.
Hint 3: You know how to spawn the portal and the shadow version of any room where you need them.
Answer: (Note: When I solved the puzzle, the rock required 9 muscles to move it away from the room entrance, which also means it took 8 muscles to block the entrance. So, I’m not sure what the minimum stage the rock has to be in to trap the guy.) Make sure the portal is not in the middle room. In the normal world, go to the middle room and move the rock in front of the doorway to block the exit. Go into the shadow realm and turn both hands so that they are pointing down. Chase the Midnight Man into the middle room, follow after him, and chase him into the portal leading back to the normal world.
If everything works, you can talk to the Midnight Man and ask him to free the trapped man, then talk to him to finish the quest.
That's everything we are sharing today for this Shadows Over Loathing guide. This guide was originally created and written by Dundo. In case we fail to update this guide, you can find the latest update by following this link.