Gameplay

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Nine Sols contains many gameplay mechanics and interfaces.

Core Mechanics

Some core game mechanics include the following:

  • Game Modes are a way to adjust the difficulty of Nine Sols by fine-tuning the amount of damage dealt and received.
  • Combat includes a variety of abilities, equipment, and upgrades, which allow the player to inflict or avoid various types of damage.
  • Exploration is a key element of the game, involving a wide variety of terrain, objects, and mechanics. Exploration is heavily linked to game progression in various ways. It allows the collection of items, interacts with upgrades and skills, and unfolds the story of Nine Sols.
  • Skills are a large set of unlockable abilities and upgrades that enable both combat and exploration.
  • Achievements can be obtained throughout the course of the game. Some are obtained in the course of necessary game progression, while others require special optional actions to be taken.

Other Gameplay related pages:

Menus

The game is typically paused when any menu or interface is open, except for the hacking interface. Some interactions, such as using a Root Node, involve a short amount of time during which Yi is vulnerable to any incoming damage.

Menu Types

Prominent menus and interfaces throughout the game include:

  • The main menu, which is accessible from the title screen. It allows save management and adjustment of game options.
  • The pause menu, which is opened by pausing the game. It allows options to be adjusted as well as returning to the game or quitting to the main menu.
  • The status menus, which are accessible using a dedicated button or from Root Nodes. This interface is divided into multiple pages including the status page, inventory of items, the Skills menu, the Database, and Jades. The status page allows adjustment of Spell Styles, Azure Bow arrow type, and Transmutes at any time, as well as viewing the levels of various equipment and the amount of Jin currently held.
  • Various interaction menus, which appear when interacting with characters or objects such as Root Nodes, Recording Devices, or Transporters. Depending on what is being interacted with, these may include options to access dialogue, give items to a character, buy or recycle items, activate devices, and more.
  • Various collection popups, which are displayed when collecting an item, gaining a new Database entry, or gaining a skill in the Limitless Realm.
  • Various banners, which appear in the top right when something in the map or Database has been updated without a collection popup.
  • The Hacking Interface, which is accessed by interacting with a hackable object.
  • Various dialogue interfaces, which may appear during interactions or cutscenes. Some dialogue appears in the world during animations, and will advance or vanish automatically after a delay. Other dialogue appears in dedicated interfaces which must be advanced manually, and may allow the player to select between various dialogue options.

Menu Navigation

Menu navigation is performed using a hard-coded set of controls, which cannot be changed in the options. In many menus, navigating downward from the bottom menu item will cause the selection to jump back to the top item, and vice versa.

Menu Navigation
Action Keyboard/Mouse Controller
Select option or advance dialogue Z, Space, or Left click
Back X or Esc
Alternate action C
Directional movement or hacking W/A/S/D or arrow keys
Prev/next page Q/E

Saves

Four save slots are available in Nine Sols.

The game saves automatically upon visiting a Root Node, and at various important gameplay moments. A save and quit function is generally not available; returning to the main menu will not save any progress since the last automatic save.

When Yi picks up an item in the world, the game will save the fact that the item was picked up, but will not save Yi's location. Quitting without obtaining another save event, and loading the save again, will cause Yi to spawn at the most recently visited Root Node or other respawn point with the item in his inventory.

On Windows, saves are stored in C:\Users\<User>\AppData\LocalLow\RedCandleGames\NineSols and are named saveslotN with numbers 0-3.
The game will make a separate save folder before Point of No Return and name the folder saveslotN_BeforeNoReturnPoint.
Once the game is fully completed, loading that save again will return the game state to an earlier state, where the Tianhuo Research Institute has been explored up to Eigong's soulscape pod, but the latter has not been entered.

Besides 4 main save slots, there is a fifth unaccessible ingame saveslot4, that's created to save progress in Memories of Battle mode on test patch.

Game UI/HUD

  • Heart - HP Bar
  • Internal and Direct Damage
  • Medicine pipe charges
  • Qi bar
  • Mystic Nymph
  • Azure Sand charges

Original Soundtrack

The Nine Sols Soundtrack is a series of 72 beautiful pieces, weaving themes together throughout the game. The songs blend traditional Chinese instrumentation with techno, rock, and orchestral music. The soundtrack makes extensive use of several key leitmotifs representing different ideas and characters.

Soundtracks

1 - Nine Sols
2 - Awakening
3 - A Glimpse of the Future
4 - When Peaches Ripen
5 - Festival
6 - Sacrifice
7 - Beneath the Surface
8 - Wuji
9 - Echoes of the Solarians
10 - Inner Voice
11 - Intruder Alert
12 - Memory of You
13 - Take a Tour in New Kunlun
14 - Crossing Blades
15 - Hammer of New Kunlun (Kuafu's Theme)
16 - Ten Seals of the Sols
17 - A Place for Restless Souls
18 - Faded Memory
19 - Walk Me Through History
20 - In the Thick of Battle
21 - Stargazer
22 - Malice
23 - Tempo of Growth
24 - The Puppeteer (Goumang's Theme)
25 - Fly Through My Mind?
26 - Main Theme I (feat. Shuanshuan)
27 - There’s Always Time for Tea
28 - Stop at Nothing
29 - Hide and Seek
30 - Rhythm Chop
31 - Death Trap
32 - Jaws of the Machine (Yanlao's Theme)
33 - Eternity in an Instant (feat. Fengxian)
34 - Alchemy
35 - My Dream
36 - Little Rat
37 - Worse than Death
38 - An Eye for an Eye
39 - Ballad of Warriors (Jiequan's Theme)
40 - Moments of Delight
41 - Crawling Under
42 - Last Man Standing
43 - Veil
44 - Peaceful Mind
45 - Path of Sorrow
46 - Removing the Facade
47 - Falling Down
48 - Smile at My Cursed Dream (Lady Ethereal's Theme)
49 - Your Hope
50 - Staircase of a Thousand Steps
51 - Duelist's Delight
52 - Silent Lullaby
53 - Their Faces, Your Voices
54 - Feast
55 - Our Passion (Fuxi & Nuwa's Theme)
56 - Two Bodies, One Soul
57 - Whispers from the Past
58 - The Sealed Wine
59 - Finding Our Way
60 - Long Awaited Death (Ji's Theme)
61 - Slumbering Sin
62 - Choice
63 - No Turning Back
64 - The Sols
65 - My Will Is Our Truth (Eigong's Theme)
66 - Shadow of Penglai
67 - Farewell
68 - Last Wish
69 - The Path for Us All (Yi's Theme)
70 - The End of New Kunlun
71 - The Lone Sol
72 - Main Theme II

Fonts

Fonts used ingame:

  • Noto Sans - User interface
  • HenMadeComic - Dialogues (most likely made and copyrighted by Red Candle Games, inspired by Action Man or other comic fonts)
  • DejaVu Sans - Fallback font (if others didn't load for whatever reason)