In the beginning, you wake up in the hammock of the tree of life. Climb down and go to Una the Stargazer. She tells you to get the balalaika and gives you a lantern.
Go left and jump down the valley, climb up the hill and enter the Forbidden Cave. Jump past the scorpion and down the hole to enter the Forbidden Cave. Jump past the rats and scorpion and pick up the balalaika and an extra spirit point. Climb up the hole and jump passed the scorpion. Note: you can die here by letting the scorpion sting you, which will give you +1 wisdom, but you’re going to probably die again from a different creature attack later and lose the wisdom point. So just get past this easy enemy.
Go back to Una. Touching her gives her the balalaika and she rewards you by teaching you the dreamsong and gives you musical notes. She tells you to go seek Ahab in the eastern sea, so leave her caravan and go right to the Eastern Sea.
Jump into the sea and swim to Ahab’s slave whale and jump on. Ahab tells you he won’t help until he has the cello.
Swim down and find the white whale. Go near it and it will swallow you. Throw a musical note to Jonah and he’ll give you the cello. When you are spit back into the ocean take the cello back to Ahab.
Ahab gives you Charon’s Obol so you can enter the underworld and plead with Dante to forgive Ahab’s curse. Swim down and to the left to the entrance of the Underworld. Avoid the rats and flying devils and jump down to Dante. He will say you must find his drum. Ride the lava bubble up and to the left to enter the Cave of No Return. With the Obol, Charon will take you across the little lake so you can enter the Cave of No Return and get the drum.
In the Cave of No Return, ride Charon’s ferry across the water to the left side of the cave. Jump up the wall and get the drum. Throw some musical notes at the crab guardian and it will produce spirit so you won’t die so easily.
Go back to Charon’s lake and swim down to fall through the secret waterfall and then in the next pond do the same. You’ll be back in the underground air pocket. Swim out of the underground air pocket and back into the ocean. Go right and up, back to the entrance of the underworld. Jump back down to Dante and give him the drum. Dante will now tell you to find the clarinet and give it to the Piper, but he starts a countdown by beating on his drum. You must finish the game before the drum stops.
Ride a lava bubble up to the top of the underworld and jump off to the left right before the bubble pops at the ceiling. Go left and climb out the exit to end up in the valley.
Climb up the hill to the left, jump in the sea and swim left to enter the Western Cave. Inside the cave, jump and climb your way all the way to the top and exit the top.
Optional but recommended: fall down to the left to find the Yeti. He’ll give you his broken heart.
Walk across the clouds to the tree of life. Jump past the empty houses, all the way to the top and go right. Avoid the piper at the top. His musical notes will “kill” you and send you back to the hammock. Jump into the void to the right of the tree top and fall down on the clouds near the top of the Eastern Cave. Inside the cave, climb up to the right where you’ll find the clarinet.
At this point you can win the game by going back out the entrance you just came in and then going to the piper. But it’s hard to approach the piper because he can see you coming and his musical notes will send you back to the hammock.
So instead, jump down the Eastern Cave until you come across Yeta, the female Yeti with the broken heart. She’ll give you her broken heart and she’ll unlock the River in the sky.
Go down and left to exit the Eastern Cave. Cross the Eastern Sea and climb up the cliff, pass by Una and the cross the steppes all the way to the left. When you get to the Western Sea, you’ll see the River in the Sky which looks like rain falling upwards.
You can climb it like a ladder, up to the Yeti. Touching him now causes Yeta to transport there. Reunited, they award you with moccasins. Climb up to the piper who doesn’t play his pipe cause he can’t hear or see you with the moccasins. Touch him and he explodes with musical notes and disappears.
A balloon falls from the sky. Ride it to the top of the clouds and you have won.
The four main characters, Una, Ahab, Dante and the Piper appear and play the dreamsong on their instruments. They each have some wisdom and tell your accomplishments. You’ve won the game.
Extra: The Well of Hope is another shortcut back to the top of the Eastern Cave. It lowers and raises on its own and if you can reach the bucket while it drops into the ocean, you can ride it like an elevator into the sky and then jump off onto the clouds.
Other things to do: unknown. The shipwreck was originally meant to play a role but it didn’t make it into the final game. In the original story there is a map in the shipwreck.