Nothing’s worse than fumbling around in the dark. Okay, maybe it’s not completely dark in MIO: Memories in Orbit, but without a map at your disposal, it might as well be.
Luckily for players, there is a map in MIO: Memories in Orbit, but you won’t be able to open it right away. For the first leg of your journey, you’ll be without one entirely, which essentially means you’ll have to rely on the ol’ noggin for finding your way around the desolate ship. Eventually, though, you will unlock the map, but it’s going to take a bit of farming first.
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How to unlock the map in MIO: Memories in Orbit
To unlock the map in MIO: Memories in Orbit, you need to give Shii Nacre Droplets to fill the pond. Shii can be found just above the Nexus at the starting area of the game once you’ve made your way through the tutorial.
Nacre is the currency you get from destroying hostile enemies or piles of junk, and it’s represented by the top pentagon icon in the top right corner of your screen. There are two main ways of giving Shii your Nacre: either dying or directly handing it over. If you die, you respawn at the Nexus and all of the Nacre Droplets you’ve collected automatically go to the pond. If you’d rather skip that painful step, you can simply speak to Shii and donate your droplets to the pond instead.
After filling the pond a bit, you can open the map by choosing the “Look through his eyes” dialogue option when you speak to Shii. A map will pop up, showing all the places you’ve traveled, as well as icons marking any attunement stations you’ve encountered thus far. Nothing is clearly labeled, though, so it’s not an entirely helpful diagram—though seeing where you haven’t been yet is incredibly useful for progressing in a metroidvania.
After first unlocking the map, the only time you can open it is when you’re here at the pond next to Shii. That means if you’re out and about and you get lost, you’re out of luck. You’ll have to either stumble your way through your confusion or trace your steps back to the safety of the pond to see where you need to go next.
If you donate even more Nacre to the pond, however, you’ll rejuvenate him, and you can take the map with you wherever you go. This makes reading the map even easier since it shows you exactly where you are—unless you’re in a new area, which won’t update your map until you visit an Overseer. It takes a few hundred Nacre to restore Shii, but I recommend making this a priority on your to-do list because of how beneficial it is to your exploration, so you’d best get out there and start farming enemies.
Can you fast travel in MIO: Memories in Orbit?
It may not seem like it at first, but there is in fact fast travel in MIO: Memories in Orbit. You won’t be able to do so, though, until you’ve mended the Torn Overseers for each region. There’s one for each region, and when you find and mend them, they’ll then fly off to set locations where you can interact with them, just like you would at the one by Shii.
When you interact with them, you’ll have the option to view the map. On this map, you can then select other Overseers you’ve mended. This is the only way you can fast travel; you won’t have access to this mechanic when you open the map from the menu while you’re out and about.
The post How to open the map in MIO: Memories in Orbit appeared first on Destructoid.
