Clockwork Traveller

Do you recall Nick’s 10 things you didn’t know about Spiral Knights forum thread? I have been looking on and off for #10 the last four years just to discover that OOO pulled another Aurora Islands – Stone Grove on us! There’s a hidden switch slightly off screen on the core terminal that will open the hatch!

It’s kinda stupid, considering that we knew all along that there is a model for the open hatch in the game files, but everyone always considered it to be just some unused piece of artwork. But that’s not the case!

Here’s the gateway from the side. I tried to get a better screenshot, but unfortunately, there’s always a beam in the way.

Getting the core to open is a bit of a hassle. You need to throw a vial at the switch (guns don’t quite seem to reach it) and you need to aim carefully to hit it (OOO made the corridor very narrow). Here’s a render of the map with the location of the trigger (the little red dot, the arrow is pointing to):

For illustration, this is where you need to stand. Notice those three blocks in the corner? They are kind of a give away. OOO put them there deliberately to make hitting the switch by accident harder. Extra meanness: you can’t see the opening animation from where you are standing. I really wonder how often players have already triggered the hatch without ever noticing it.

The only thing I haven’t figured out yet is how you actually enter the core (if that’s possible at all – it might just be a gimmick). Spiral Knights really knows when it’s the best time to crash! I’ll have to try again later.