The Horns: Walkthrough Guide, Tips and Tricks

The Horns
By: Fluttermind LLC

The Horns is the latest game by Fluttermind, the developer of Incoboto Mini. It’s a horror choice-based text RPG in which you need to pick up items, figure out when to use them, and make difficult choices to survive. Not everything is obvious, so I’m putting together a little guide to help players jump in without having to waste too much time learning the ropes. Feel free to ask for extra help in the comments section.

Tips & Tricks:

– Keep an eye on the bar at the top. It shows you when you’re near an enemy. That way you can try and prepare for it. You can still get harmed from other events, but the enemy attacks are something you know is coming and won’t take you by surprise.

– You have two health meters — Life and Sanity. If either drops to zero, you die. So uhh try not to let that happen.

– Just about every item can help you in combat, but some only minimize the effects of the attack, while others get rid of the enemy altogether, allowing you to keep your Life and Sanity fully intact. I’ll discuss individual items below.

– In combat, the red skulls show potential Life loss. Red eyes show potential Sanity loss. All combat items reduce these values by some amount: a mirror shard reduces enemy power by one, a potion of concealment reduces how much an enemy terrifies you by 2, and so on. If you get rid off all the skulls you’ll kill the monster. Get rid of all the eyes, and you’ll successfully evade.

– Your companions aren’t just extra weight. They can help you in various ways, even if it’s not clear at first. Once they recover some memories, they may learn they used to be a doctor or a psychiatrist. If you lost Life or Sanity, you can ask them to heal you. But they get tired for a few turns, so you can’t do it constantly. But it’ll definitely help keep you alive longer.

– Companions can also distract enemies in battle, but you should only do that as a last resort. If you can avoid it, do so.

– Companions can also complete certain other tasks if they discover they have a skill. But be careful, as they could die in the process. And if they die, they won’t be able to heal you anymore.

Items:

All items reduce potential Life loss or potential Sanity loss in combat. You can see how much by examining the item during battle.

Rusty Key: This opens any lock. They’re all the same key. Can occasionally be used for other purposes, too, like uhhhh…breaking a lock?

Glass Shard: If you use this in battle, it won’t kill the enemy, but it will lessen the damage you take. Also has other purposes like cutting or smashing things. Experiment!

Black Potion: This creates smoke so you can get away from an enemy, unscathed.

White Potion: This seems to have a possibility of helping you or hurting you, depending on when you use it. I think it helped me in battle once but harmed me in another battle. I’m not sure, though.

Dark Prism: This seems to teleport you back a few nodes, so you have a chance to pick something up on the way back to the enemy. It could turn your luck around! Probably don’t use it if you have something else that can already save your bacon.

Compass: This gets you to the end of a chapter faster.

Rope: This can get you out of a battle unscathed.

Rusty Axe: Great for battle, but has other purposes, too.

Lantern: It shines a light that brings attention to you. This means other people may come, or an enemy could find you.

Walkthrough Video:

There are several possible endings, and I don’t think I’ll play again to try and find them. But below you can see a full playthrough where I survived to the end.

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