The Last Guardian: 6 Tips and Tricks for Beginners

Watch Trico for Clues

From its sheer size to the way the camera swings in its direction, Trico is framed as your main focus throughout The Last Guardian, especially if you get stuck on one of the game’s platforming puzzles.

The massive bird-dog gives clues across your journey, ranging in subtly. Many times, if you’re lost, you can find Trico staring intently at a ledge you should climb onto, or fiddling with a chain you need to pull. In certain situations, you’re able to climb aboard Trico, and it will walk you right up to your desired direction. Even when these more obvious guides don’t appear, Trico is constantly providing you with information through its curiosity. In one level, you’re meant to utilize a torch to get Trico’s attention, something you may realize much faster if you noticed Trico intently staring at the line of torches in the previous room.

Whenever you’re overwhelmed with The Last Guardian’s large environments and complex ruins, take a minute to see things through Trico’s simple eyes.

Listen to the narrator

If you’re having an exceptionally difficult time with a puzzle, The Last Guardian may start throwing you more overt forms of help. The narrator that opens the game returns in some areas, offering a few cheeky lines to players that are lingering a little too long.

These notes may mention a handy mechanic you should be taking advantage of, or let you know that your objective is very nearby. If you’re way off the mark, the narrator might ruminate on how useless your current actions are for the situation.

You really should listen to the narrator all the time, anyways. The looming voice presents a nice thematic touch to the largely wordless game. Just make sure to take his words a little more literally if you feel lost.

Stone Guard Strategies

The Stone Guards serve as immediate antagonists throughout many of The Last Guardian’s levels. They raise from their stony slumber when you’re near, and will chase you down until Trico comes to your rescue. If you run into a Stone Guard and Trico is nearby, sprint right over to your buddy and watch it stomp the living hell out of these statues.

Other times, though, you’ll need to avoid these soldiers while trying to give Trico access to your location. A nearby lever or chain, when used, may open a door to your companion, and save your life. Gates controlled by chains, in particular, take a long while to open, so you’ll need to keep the guards off your back.

You run quite a bit faster than the statues, and should one catch you, you can break free from its grip by quickly pressing the d-pad directional buttons, L1, R1, Square, Triangle, Circle, and X. We recommend button mashing for the fastest escape. The more stone soldiers that surround you, the harder it will be to break free, but should you manage to, the soldier that held you will be temporarily stunned.

Lead your pursuing group of guards as far away from your objective as possible, then sprint past them and back to your goal. While they turn around and chase after you, you’ll have a bit of time to activate whatever needs it. In the case of chain-controlled gates, Trico will shove itself under the gate as you open it, keeping your lifting progress while also swinging at any nearby guards. If you partially lift the door, then head over to Trico, you can find a little safety space and hopefully get your friend to knock out the group of soldiers.

If Trico can’t keep them all occupied, keep leading enemies away and then sprinting back to where you need to be, remembering to button mash out whenever you get caught. 

Don’t rely on platforming clues

The Last Guardian offers fewer visual cues in its environments than some other PlayStation exclusive, traversal-heavy games (cough Uncharted cough). Ledges you’re meant to grab won’t be painted some bright hue, the level layout often won’t spell out a clear direction, and there are more climbable objects around than you need to bother with. In fact, it’s not uncommon to find red herring ledges and crates scattered around ruins.

Approaching these levels as you would others will likely just overwhelm and distract you. One area in particular, early in the game, is surrounded by climbable pipes. You could spent quite a while thinking they’re key to progressing, but in fact, the solution is far simpler.

Instead of trying to spot obvious objectives around you, spend your time thinking how Trico can get around these areas. Look upward to tall pillars — Trico can jump surprisingly high while carrying you. Trico can also stand against a number of walls or position itself in front of out-of-reach ledges. And with so many ways to use your dog-bird, don’t be afraid to step away from one ledge and try reaching another. There are quite a few things to climb, but very limited ways to reach your goal.

Don’t accidentally fall off things

If you’re accustomed to climb-heavy games like Uncharted, you’re likely going to find yourself on a ledge in The Last Guardian and instinctively pressing X in hopes of climbing upwards. Sadly, instead of lifting yourself, you’re going to plummet to your death.

In this game, the X button is used to let go of objects, rather than hop aboard them. Technically, the control scheme makes sense. The North-most Triangle button is used to jump upwards, and the bottom X button is used to drop down. But thanks to the X button’s near universal labeling as the ‘jump’ button, you should take extra care not to accidentally let go of any high ledges.

You’re Smaller Than You Think and Also Your Bones are Made of Steel

The Last Guardian’s protagonist is tiny — tinier than you’re probably used to. If you’re not really aware of his size, you might miss out on some key traversal opportunities. A minuscule hole in the wall you nonchalantly pass by could actually be one large enough for you to fit through. Similarly, this boy can walk right between the bars of some closed gates.

On an unrelated note, you’re also invincible. Yes, you can jump into an endless chasm and trigger a respawn, but you can also fall from any height and survive. Even the most disgustingly large drops leave the boy merely handicapped for a few seconds. He will limp slowly, as if he’d broken his leg, but soon return to his normal self.

In other words, you are an indestructible ant. Have fun.