You've probably felt that specific brand of "Baba" despair. It’s that moment where you’re staring at a screen of stationary rocks and skull-shaped death traps, realizing your brain just isn't wired for this level of logic. But then you hear about it. The rumor of something further. Most players finish the main map and think they're done. They aren't. Not even close. Finding the complete depths Baba Is You hides from the casual observer requires more than just solving puzzles; it requires breaking the very reality of the game world.
It's weird. Arvi Teikari, the developer behind Hempuli, didn't just make a puzzle game. He made a recursive nightmare where the map itself is a level. If you've spent hours trying to figure out why you can't reach that one weird icon in the water, you're starting to touch the "Depths" of the game's architecture.
Getting to the Depths isn't a linear path. It's a glitch-like descent. You basically have to treat the world map like a puzzle. You aren't just moving an icon; you are manipulating the rules of the level selection screen itself. This is where the game stops being a cute indie title and starts feeling like a cosmic horror story written in basic code logic.
The Path to the Depths: Breaking the World Map
Most people stumble into the Depths by accident or after reading a cryptic hint on a forum. To get there, you need to understand that "Map" is an object. In the level "The Lake," or more specifically, the secret areas surrounding it, you start seeing rules like "LEVEL IS PUSH" or "LEVEL IS BABA." This is the first hint. You aren't just playing the levels; you are interacting with them as physical blocks.
To find the actual Depths area—the one that leads to the true ending—you have to reach the "Center" of the map. This involves transforming a level into an object you can enter. Honestly, it’s a bit of a mind-melt. You have to navigate to the "Map" area, which is its own distinct zone. From there, you use the "Level" and "Transform" mechanics to turn a standard stage into a gateway. Specifically, the "Depths" is a hidden world located "below" the standard map. It’s essentially Level 10 of the hidden world layers.
Once you are there, the music changes. The atmosphere gets heavy. You’re no longer in the whimsical forest. You are in the basement of the game’s logic.
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Why Complete Depths Baba Is You Is the Ultimate Test
The puzzles in the Depths are notoriously mean. They rely on "meta-logic." In a standard level, you might make "Rock is Push." In the Depths, you might have to make "Level is Win" while you are inside that level, which involves some truly galaxy-brain positioning of text blocks near the edges of the screen so they interact with the level's outer boundary.
There's a specific trick involving the "Empty" keyword. For a long time, players didn't realize "Empty" was a selectable property. In the Depths, if you don't account for the space where nothing exists, you’ll never see the true ending. It forces you to think about the grid not as a series of tiles, but as a mathematical coordinate system.
The Recursive Loop
One of the hardest parts of finishing the complete depths Baba Is You experience is the "Meta" world. You enter a level, solve it to turn the level into a cursor, then use that cursor to move another level. It’s recursive. It’s like a dream within a dream, but instead of Leonardo DiCaprio, you have a small white sheep-thing and some very aggressive crabs.
If you’re stuck on the "Depth" level itself, remember: BABA IS NOT YOU is sometimes the only way forward. We’re so used to being Baba that we forget we can be the wall. Or the flag. Or the text itself. In the Depths, "You" is a fluid concept.
Reaching the "Final" Final Ending
So, you’ve cleared the Depths. You think you’re a hero. But then you realize there’s a layer called "The End." And then "Way Out." And then "Center." This game has more layers than an onion left in a dark cellar for three years.
To "complete" the depths, you have to find the "Galleries." These are secret areas that act as a museum of the game’s development, but they are also puzzles in their own right. Reaching the absolute finality—the "All Symbols" clear—requires finishing the Depths and then using the map-warping mechanics to reach the "???" world.
It’s worth noting that Arvi Teikari didn't design this to be easy. He designed it to be "fair" in the most brutal way possible. Every piece of information you need is on the screen. The problem is usually that our human brains are too stuck on "how games are supposed to work" to see the solution. We assume the borders of the screen are solid. In the Depths, the borders are often just another thing you can break if you find the right word.
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Technical Nuances and Common Roadblocks
Let's talk about the "Level is Transform" mechanic. This is usually what stops people from finishing the Depths. You need to transform a level into something else—like a key or a flag—to unlock the path further down.
- The Cursor Problem: You need the cursor to be "You," but you also need the cursor to "Open" a level. If "Cursor is You" and "Cursor is Shut," you need something that is "Open" to touch it. But if you aren't "You," who are you?
- The Text Problem: In the Depths, text is often floating in places you can't reach. You have to use "Shift" rules to move the text into the playing field.
- The "Wait" Command: Seriously, don't forget the spacebar. Sometimes you just need to wait for a "Move" command to cycle through.
It’s frustrating. I’ve spent three days on a single screen in the Depths just to realize I needed to move a single "IS" block two squares to the left before entering the level. That’s the "Baba" experience. It's a mixture of feeling like the smartest person alive and a total idiot, often within the same sixty seconds.
Actionable Steps for Completionists
If you are genuinely trying to wrap up the complete depths Baba Is You saga, stop trying to "solve" the levels and start trying to "break" the map.
- Focus on the Map Rules: Look for areas on the overworld where text is near a level icon. If you can push that text, you can change the properties of the level itself.
- Turn Levels into Objects: Use the "Level is Baba" or "Level is Push" rule on the map to move levels out of the way or use them to trigger pressure plates on the overworld.
- Master the "Empty" Rule: If a puzzle seems impossible because you’re trapped, try to make "Empty is You." You will literally become the air. It’s the only way to bypass certain "Wall is Stop" barriers in the deep-end puzzles.
- Visit the Hidden Map: Deep in the Depths, there is a way to turn the entire map into a level. If you see the word "Win" on the overworld, your goal is to find a way to make "Baba Is You" and then touch that word.
The journey through the Depths isn't about reflexes. It’s about unlearning every rule you’ve ever followed in a video game. Once you stop seeing "Baba" as a character and start seeing it as a variable in a logic equation, the Depths start to make sense. Sorta.
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Reach the "Center." Find the "Way Out." And remember: the game ends when you say it does, or when you finally manage to turn the entire world into "Win."
Complete the Map area first. This unlocks the true Depths entrance. From there, you'll need to solve at least 3 levels in the Depths to unlock the "Meta" world. Only after clearing Meta and the subsequent "Center" puzzles can you truly claim to have finished the game's secret heart. It's a long road, but the feeling of finally seeing that "All Symbols Found" screen is a high you won't get from any other puzzle game.