The first loop
Echo Weaver starts you with a short clock. The published opening is a right-side climb, a control panel that opens a door, then a drop to the left. Pick up the first time crystal, avoid the fire, and use a launch to rise. The next room is dark. The floor is full of holes. Double jump across. Dropping through is not a death; it just spends the loop.
- Climb right and use the control panel.
- Drop left. There is no fall damage in this stretch.
- Take the first time crystal and rise past the fire with a launch.
- Cross the holed floor. The middle platform to the left holds another crystal.
- Start the machine that opens the sluice.
- On the lower left, take the crystal that unlocks a permanent shortcut.
- End the loop yourself once that shortcut exists. You do not have to die to bank the knowledge.
The gate and the pizza cat
On the next loop, go right into the Assembly. Talk to Intermind, the pizza-slinging cat from the press materials. The elevator wants a code you do not have yet. That code is on the next page.
The Assembly Gate closes about ten seconds after the loop starts if you have not synced. That timing is a community measurement, backed by the Miller Time achievement: enter the Assembly Gate before it closes, without syncing. If the gate is already shut, end the loop and move earlier. Do not look for a hidden switch on a closed gate.
What you are not missing
Slide jump is a small reward you are meant to find, not a required upgrade. Grapple is taught somewhere else. A developer reply on Steam said both of those outright. If the first half hour feels like you lack a dash, you do: there is no air dash. Sprint, double jump, and the glaive are the movement set.
