Top of the Class

Top of the Class, for the devoted. The game describes it as: Solve all thirty required puzzles within ninety minutes of the journey clock.

Narrated guide

Narrated video coming soon

What the game counts

The journey clock must read 1:30:00 or less (5,400 seconds, a provisional threshold) at the moment the 30th required room settles. The clock starts at zero when the journey begins in the refectory, so the lessons and starters count. It runs whenever you can move, including while the spell list is open (C), and stops on the pause plate, in the Codex (Tab) and on every screen opened from the pause doors. It is shown at the top of the screen when Settings has Exploration clock on, and on the pause plate as "MM:SS walked". A restart from the autosave rewinds the clock to that room's entry, and loading a manual save rewinds it to that save, so a botched room costs only the time spent in it. Restarts count against Never Looked Back. The five optional rooms are not needed.

Before you start

• Learn the rooms on an earlier journey; this route assumes you know each one.
• Turn on Exploration clock in Settings and keep the spell list on screen (L).
• Choose spells from the list with Alt held and a click (pad: L2, then the D-pad), then hold Ctrl and press the slot number. Rebind only in halls and passages, where the clock runs but nothing waits on you.
• Hold Shift (pad L1) to hurry at 6 m/s instead of walking at 4 m/s everywhere except the whispering stacks.
• Make a manual save at the start of each chapter, so a disaster costs one chapter's progress rather than the run.

The route

1. Lessons and starters: bind Heat, Draw, Supply liquid and Chill once and do all six fittings. Then bind Tether over Supply liquid and Orient over Chill before stepping into any chapter 1 room.
   These four spells cover both teaching rooms; the second pair covers every chapter 1 room with no further binding.
   What you see: "The last seal glows (6 of 6) and both grilles open."
2. Chapter 1, via the refectory's west arch: Shelf passage (X on the Folio, Draw, wait three seconds, carry it to the bench). Vent antechamber (Orient on the Hood, Handle the Door, walk through). Then east from the court: Counterweight repair room (Tether on the Connector, then lever, Brake, Catch, Supplies) and Bell chamber (Heat on the Bearing, about seven seconds, Pull). Then north: the dark frieze by hand. Up the stair: the sagging gallery (Draw on the Cart from the floor, climb while it rolls, cross, Return).
   This order walks each passage once. The frieze gate opens the stair to the gallery, and the gallery gate opens the long passage east.
   What you see: Each room ends with "<room> settled."
3. Chapter 2: bind Grip surface, Sever, Supply liquid, Tether on the passage. West: Projection workshop (Grip surface on the Strip, Handle the Carriage to haul it to the far end, at once Handle the Shoe, then the Hatch) and Cable winding room (Guide, Tail, Crank five times, Clutch). East: Glazed inspection room (Sever on the Stem, Vine, Shutter) and Botanical stair vestibule (Supply liquid three times on the Root, wait five seconds, walk up, Return).
   The court's enclosure gate needs the carriage held at the far end of its rail, the drum wound and the shutter open, plus a hand on the enclosure handwheel. The botanical tread raises the treads that lead to that handwheel.
   What you see: "The handwheel loads the enclosure cable against its carriage clearance and keeper."
4. Still in chapter 2: climb the living treads in the court and Handle the enclosure handwheel. Bind Place sound over Sever and do the whispering stacks (Whistle, Panel, wait, walk the ledger to the Keeper). Bind Span over Grip surface, go through the risen enclosure gate and up the stair, and in the warmth-seeking vine cast Span on the Span, walk up it and Handle the Return.
   Span bypasses the vine's twelve-second growth. The stacks are the one room where hurrying fails you.
   What you see: "A woven span joins the two existing side landings."
5. Chapter 3: bind Supply liquid, Grip surface, Climbing growth, Sever. West: Resonance laboratory (Supply liquid four times in each outer goblet, X four times on the middle one, tap all three, Compare). East: Striker test lane (Grip surface on the Strip, Release). North: counterweight lift (Climbing growth on the Wall from the maintenance platform, climb, Upper gate). Up the stair: stalled orrery (brake on, Sever on the Strap, Wheel 0 once, Wheel 1 twice, Wheel 2 three times, Bar). Then Reverse-view alcove (Ornament three times, Latch) and Lens-cleaning room (Supply liquid twice on the Lens, look through it).
   One loadout serves the whole chapter. Climbing to the gate skips the lift repair; cutting the strap skips the coupled-ring sequence.
   What you see: "The bar passes through all three aligned slots."
6. Chapter 4: bind Orient, Tether, Heat, Spring surface. Pendulum maintenance bay (Brake, at once Orient on the Arm and Tether on the Eye, Pin). Water-junction room (Handle the Elbow's handwheel once, Valve). The cold furnace ducts (at the archive door: Panel, Heat on the Pad, about six seconds, Latch, Door). Receiving shaft room (Spring surface on the Pad, Pad once, three seconds, Release). Bind Suspend and Draw over Orient and Tether. Float test basin (Suspend, Draw on the Stop, Socket). Down the stair: the drowned hall (Suspend, Draw on the Frame, about nine seconds, walk through).
   The pad route thaws the furnace latch without the long water run. Suspend and Draw replace six water doses in the basin and four in the hall.
   What you see: "The exposed pad warms the frost-bound latch locally."
7. Chapter 5: bind Supply liquid, Span, Suspend, Chill. The choked cistern: quench both blossoms, Span both gaps, Suspend the Trellis, cross and Handle it four times from the island, Trellis catch, Student. While the student walks out, do the thermal latch vestibule (Isolation, Chill on the Latch, Latch, Door), bind Grip surface over Span, and do the drip-ladder passage (Grip surface on the Rungs, climb, Return latch). Then by hand: Door service antechamber, Alignment records room, and last the ward register.
   The student's walk takes about fifteen seconds and finishes without you. With both blossoms dark, leaving the cistern is safe.
   What you see: "The student is safe and the ward register retains its tested safe routing. The mechanical campaign is complete; you can continue exploring."

Split targets (estimates from route lengths and the game's timers, not measured runs)

Watch for

• The projection workshop's carriage must still be at the far end of its rail when you set the Shoe, or the court's enclosure gate will not rise.
• Rebinding a slot never dismisses what that spell already made; the cistern spans stay while you swap Span out.
• Reading the room card or hunting for a fitting costs clock; the pause plate and the Codex do not.
• If a room goes badly, hold R for one second: the clock rewinds to that room's entry.

What breaks it

• More than 1:30:00 on the journey clock when the 30th required room settles.
• A failure in the sagging gallery, whispering stacks, receiving shaft room or choked cistern costs the time spent, unless you restart.

Rooms involved

Shelf passage, Vent antechamber, Counterweight repair room, Bell chamber, The dark frieze, The sagging gallery, Projection workshop, Cable winding room, Glazed inspection room, Botanical stair vestibule, The whispering stacks, The warmth-seeking vine, Resonance laboratory, Striker test lane, The counterweight lift, The stalled orrery, Reverse-view alcove, Lens-cleaning room, Pendulum maintenance bay, Water-junction room, The cold furnace ducts, Receiving shaft room, Float test basin, The drowned hall, The choked cistern, Thermal latch vestibule, Drip-ladder passage, Door service antechamber, Alignment records room, The ward register.

Spells

Heat, Draw, Supply liquid, Chill, Tether, Orient, Grip surface, Sever, Place sound, Span, Climbing growth, Spring surface, Suspend.