Welcome to the first part of our walkthrough for MIO: Memories in Orbit.
In this walkthrough, we’ll navigate the frozen landscape of the Dwellings zone, unlock our first ability, and take down two bosses.
For more information about the game, check out their official website here.
Table of contents
The Beginning
After the opening cutscene, you’ll reach a small parkour segment. Drop down to the lower platform to get started.
Continue heading right, jumping across the platform. You can double jump, but your other abilities will come later.
Eventually, you’ll reach a platform as a hook grabs you from above. This will take you to the main game.
You’ll find yourself in a dark room on an operating table. You can’t check the map since you’re not connected to the Spine. So start moving left.
Jump to the platform on the right. You’ll find a Junk Pile that you can break for some Nacre (currency). Then continue on the main path on the left.
You’ll face an enemy up ahead. Take it down and continue moving along the path.
There will be two more enemies up ahead. Take them down and climb up to the pipes above you.
From the second pipe, you can double jump to reach a hidden platform on the left. This leads to the note Flash Memory. Pick it up and return to the room where you fought the two robots.
From here, you can jump up the pipes to find another Junk Pile guarded by a small robot.
When you’re ready, head back down and go left through the door to reach the next section.
As you move along the bridge, you’ll see a small cutscene, and one of your health bars will disappear. Continue heading left.
Keep moving forward, and you’ll soon reach a room with the Nexus Attuner. These are this game’s version of checkpoints. Interact with it to save your game and heal.
There’s a locked door on the right that requires the Silo Access Badge. Return to the Attuner and use the pipes to head up and reach The Severed Spine.
The Severed Spine
Go left to spot something lying on the ground. It’ll talk to you when you get close, but won’t do anything else.
Keep going left, and you’ll soon enter a building. Once inside, you’ll be able to interact with the panel to call the elevator.
Before you head up, though, go left through the grate to reach a hidden location. Drop down and interact with the Strange Tube. You’ll talk to an NPC named Samsk, who asks you to look for Tomo.
Return to the room with the Elevator and use it to go to the Spine. Head to L1: The Spine
Open the door on the right and continue moving along the bridge. You’ll spot an NPC standing up ahead. There’s another if you keep heading right, but it requires a key (Aviaries Passepartout)
Return to the elevator and go left to spot another locked door that opens from the other side. You’ll also hear someone talking from the other side of the door. Use the elevator to go to L2: Apartments.
Open the door on the left and continue forward. There will be a group of enemies up ahead. Take down the two robots on the bottom floor.
Then jump to the chandelier and use it to reach the platform on the left. Jump over the third robot and take it down.
Continue heading up, and you’ll spot a door on the left. Open it and head outside to reach a frozen section. This is the start of the zone Dwellings.
Before we go further, you should have around 50 Nacres by now. So go back to the room with the enemies and drop down to the red vines to die and return to the Attuner.
You’ll see a small cutscene. When you respawn at the Attuner, you’ll see the text “Nacre droplets lost to the point: 50”.
Go to the upper level of The Severed Spine and head left. You can now talk to Shii, the being that you saw lying down in the bowl.
You’ll also unlock the option to offer your Nacre to the Pond (the round bowl). When you offer enough Nacre, you’ll unlock the map. But since we have no way to farm at the moment, we’ll just have to return here later.
Dwellings
Head left from the entrance of the Dwellings. You’ll be able to glide across the icy surface.
On the left, in front of a locked gate, you’ll find Rostam. He’ll tell you that the gate on the left leads to Metropolis.
Go right, under the block of ice, and continue heading down. You’ll have to fight an enemy after dropping down a ledge on the bottom floor.
After taking out the enemy, jump back up and return to the location shown in the image above. Double jump to cross to the right side.
This takes you to the upper section where you fought the enemy just now. Jump across to reach the icy floor and slide forward. You’ll fight two more enemies up ahead.
After taking them down, continue forward. You’ll see a round basin in the lower area. You can use it to heal up, but it’ll cost you some Nacre. There will also be some robots on the lower floor that you’ll have to defeat.
On the left, slide down the icy floor. You’ll automatically jump across a red grass ground and reach the other side.
Continue making your way forward past the enemies in the next few areas. You’ll eventually spot a hole in the ground. Head down.
Drop to the ground and interact with the door to release the NPC stuck there. This is the other side of the door from The Spine.
Talk to the NPC (Rad), and she’ll give you your first Modifier: Analyser. Analyzers are perks that you can equip on your character to gain additional effects. This one, for instance, lets you see the health of the enemy, including bosses.
Unlocking the Map
With the shortcut unlocked, use the elevator on the right to return to Shii. You can offer the Nacre you’ve gathered so far to unlock the map.
Talk to Shii, run through his dialogues, and then choose the “Look through his eye” option. This lets you see the map for the first time.
Also, equip the Modifier by resting at the Attuner before you return to the main path.
After rescuing Rad, go left from her location and jump over the rocks. We’ll be heading down.
Take down the robot and continue heading right. There’s another drop-down on the right.
You can spot an enemy on the left ledge. There’s a path on the right that you can take for another Nacre Basin and a Junk Pile. There’s a third path leading down.
Take down the enemy on the ledge and continue heading left. You’ll have to fight a few more robots.
You’ll spot an object on the ground up ahead. Going near it triggers a guantlet. So be ready to fight off the robots that spawn.
Take down the enemies and interact with the Container to open it. This gives the Protective Overlay Modifier.
Return to the section where the path split off and go down. If you’re low on health, you can use the Nacre Basin on the right to heal up.
Slide all the way to the left to reach a platform. There’s a floating enemy above you. You can use consecutive upward strikes on it to reach the item on the upper platform. But don’t worry if you can’t get to it right now.
Continue moving forward, sliding across frozen ground, and you’ll reach an area with some flying enemies past some red grass ground. Take down the enemies. Then use a double jump to get to the platform on the right.
Take down the enemy on the upper ledge and keep heading left.
You’ll spot a door that you can open on the left. There’s a hidden path on the right.
Exploring the Hidden Path
Take the hidden path first. Drop down to the lower platform, then to the pipe underneath.
Go left and climb into the broken pipe. Follow the path to reach a blocked-off dome in a new zone. Pick up the item on the ground to collect the Kinetic Thrust, one of the most powerful modifiers in the game.
Return to the entrance of the section and continue heading down. You’ll have to fight a bunch of robots going forward, but this area is pretty straightforward.
You’ll open a few more doors along the way. Eventually, you’ll drop down to a large staircase. Go right and break the crystal wall by striking it to open a shortcut to a Nacre Basin. When you’re ready, head left, down the staircase, and drop down to the lower section.
Go right into the room full of broken robots to face the first boss of the game.
How to Beat Egis, Worn Out Sentinel
Egis is a pretty straightforward fight. The boss has two phases, but his relatively simple moveset makes it easy for you to dodge pretty much all the attacks he has in his kit.
On top of that, all of his attacks are telegraphed well in advance. Here’s a quick list of his moves:
- Dash attack: A horizontal dash attack that covers a decent amount of distance
- Three hit combo: Egis will attack three times in quick succession
- Diagnoal Slam: Egis jumps up and slams down diagonally towards the player.
- Ground Slam: Egis will disappear and slam down from above after appearing.
During the second phase, the boss doesn’t gain any new moveset. But he will start chaining some of his hits together in quick succession.
However, after his attack chains, he also gets stunned for a short duration, giving you a clear opening to deal a lot of damage. Just keep moving and jumping over his dash attacks, and the boss will go down in no time.
Unlocking the Hairpin
After defeating the boss, go through the door on the right. Drop down to the lower levels.
You’ll reach another Strange Tube. Interact with it to talk to Samsk. After the conversation, you’ll see a small cutscene.
When the cutscene ends, you’ll be teleported to a digital world. You have a new ability, Hairpin, in your arsenal.
Use it to complete the short parkour segment, and you’ll find yourself back in the real world.
Back on the main path
Once you’ve unlocked the Hairpin, return to the door that you saw at the start of the hidden path and head through it.
You’ll find an NPC on the other side of the door. This is Mel, Dr. Halyn’s Property. Interact with her.
After the conversation, she will go to The Severed Spine and become a merchant.
Use Hairpin on the grapple point above you to reach the upper section. Break the Junk Pile on the left for some Nacre. Then continue on the path to the left. You’ll have to fight a few more robots along the way.
After defeating the enemies, continue climbing up using the icy ledges. You’ll have to reach the top-left section of the area.
From the slope on the top-left, jump across three ledges. Instead of continuing right along the main path, drop down on the right.
Pick up the unknown object (Coating Component) on the ground on your left. Then go all the way to the right to spot another ice wall. Break it to open a shortcut back to The Severed Spine.
Return to where you dropped down from and continue along the main path. Take down the enemies along the way and then slide up the frozen wall and jump to the upper platform.
There are some flying enemies in the area. The main path is on the left in the middle part of the room. You’ll find some Crystallised Nacre near the wall.
But before you head through, head to the top-right section of the area using the platforms. You’ll find a deactivated robot impaled in the ice. Interact with it to Absorb Tendrils and increase the damage you deal permanently.
Head through the wall on the main path. You’ll spot a Nacre Basin up ahead. Go up using the grapple point.
Continue moving forward. You’ll run into a Crystalliser up ahead that will condensate your Nacre Droplets, so you don’t lose them if you fall.
Use it if you want, and then head through the door on the right. This will trigger another gauntlet. Take down the enemies, and the door on the right will open, allowing you to move on.
Use the grapple point in the next room and continue heading up to reach the other side of the door where you talked to Rostam. Unlock the door to open the shortcut back to the Apartments level of The Severed Spine.
Go left from the door to find another Nacre Basin. It’s a good idea to heal up. You’re about to head into another boss battle.
How to Beat Acat, Nacre Engraver
Acat is the boss guarding the gates of Metropolis, the next zone of the game. Like Egis, he’s a very easy encounter requiring you to understand the basics of movement and using Hairpin.
The biggest weakness of the boss is that he can only hit forward. As long as you keep using the hairpin to get to his back and hitting him constantly, he should go down pretty easily.
When his second phase begins, he will leap into the air in the middle of the arena. Then slam down three times, creating shockwaves that travel vertically. Use the grapple points in the arena to stay airborne during this transition.
During the second phase, he gains a few new movesets, but the core idea of the boss is the same. Stay on his back, keep attacking him, and don’t get caught by his attacks.
Reaching Metropolis
After beating Acat, head left through the open door. You’ll find a Torn Overseer on the ground. Interact with it to send it back. Then open the gate on the left and head through.
Continue moving forward and go through another door to reach a broken building. Jump to the left part of the room to find a Mechanical Remains. Interact with it to find the first Old Core in the game. This is a special type of currency that you can use to purchase upgrades from Mel.
Drop down through the opening and continue moving forward. Eventually, you’ll reach the gate leading to Metropolis.
You can go inside and run all the way to the end of the path to unlock the Attuner. But before we head further in, we need to return to The Severed Spine.
This concludes the first part of our walkthrough for MIO: Memories in Orbit. For other interesting articles related to indie games, click the links below:
- Into Indie Games Homepage
- My Winter Car Walkthrough & Guide Hub
- Heartopia Walkthrough Hub
- Ancient Farm – Guides And Walkthrough Hub
- DuneCrawl Complete Walkthrough
Muhit Rahman lives off two things: gaming marathons and endless cups of tea. He writes guides, reviews, and occasionally forgets that real life doesn’t come with checkpoints. His favorite genres are Soulslike and Metroidvania, with Dark Souls III, Hollow Knight, and Dota 2 forever holding top spots on his all-time list.
