The Perfect Pencil Walkthrough Part 1 – The Soft Forest

Discover everything you need to know about The Soft Forest walkthrough in The Perfect Pencil, including how to progress in it.

The Perfect Pencil is a story-driven metroidvania where you explore a hand-drawn world. There are shortcuts linking regions to make backtracking easier. When close to important objects or NPCs, your camera head will ping. Hitting enemies fills a Courage bar. Once enough Courage is gained, you can heal yourself.  Learn how to explore the world in The Perfect Pencil and progress in it.

For more information on the game, you can visit its official Steam page here.

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The Soft Forest Walkthrough  

You play as John, a young man who awakens trapped in a strange kingdom. You have an Analysis Ability that allows you to scan NPCs and objects. You explore a large map with new areas unlocked using abilities or items you find. Running out of Willpower you collapse and respawn at a checkpoint. Wrapped Humans and Crawling Creatures can attack you during the journey.

Getting Started

Once you walk into a mysterious world, you hear a voice that says, “Follow Me”. Start moving towards the path on the right after getting control of your character. Keep moving, and you see different umbrellas on your way. It looks like someone else was already here.

You encounter an NPC after covering some distance. He gives you a head camera that fits on your head to scan anything you find. You get a glimpse of a monster who is in charge of this world. The objective here for you is to find a way to get out.

Try the advanced boot camp to see if you can use your Analysis ability properly. You hear a magical sound after taking a few steps ahead. This is basically your convenient personal radar. It beeps louder when you get closer to something, indicating you need to analyze. You can scan the object or an area by holding the ‘Q’ button.

The Soft Forest

Once done, press the red button in front of you. Continue moving to the straight path, and you will get inside the Soft Forest. Eventually, you will find an NPC wearing blue clothes with a pencil stuck in his leg.  Approach him and press the ‘E’ button to interact with him. You get a prompt to leave him alone, take out the pencil.

You have to defeat this NPC after taking out the pencil from his leg. He gets angry about your action as he wants to stay stuck here. Pressing the ‘J’ key to attack him. Continue attacking him to gain Courage, which is a crucial stat to maintain.

Hold the ‘k’ button to charge the healing strike, then attack an enemy to heal your character. Press the ‘J’ key again to attack this enemy. Make sure you defeat this NPC to continue moving further.

There was a golden letter attached to the pencil, so press the Spacebar to take it with you. Press the Tab to open the menu to read this letter. Take a few steps ahead and use the pencil to destroy the medium-sized ball. Doing so allows you to update your map. Press the ‘R’ key to open the map to learn your current location.

Explore the Forest & Scan

Continue moving to get deeper inside the Soft Forest. Interact with the first tree home, and the NPC inside it praises you. Go ahead, and you will see a pillow and mysterious things in front of you. Hold the ‘Q’ key to scan it. Use the pencil to break the blocked path to continue moving ahead.

A human enemy caged rushes towards you to attack you. Use the pencil to take him out in the first place to boost your willpower. Jump to the upper platform on the left and break the ball to update the map. Now, continue moving straight and defeat another caged enemy. Jump down to the lower platform and use the camera to scan. You find a note on the Wiener Schnitzel and mashed potatoes. This letter was from the guy whose leg was stuck in the pencil.

Underground Area

You can find him standing on the upper platform next to you. He pressed the button to block the path to move to the higher ground and open the path below to let you fall. Progressing here can be challenging due to several enemies lurking around. Destroy the path on the left with the pencil and defeat the humanoid caged enemy.

Once defeated, continue moving to the left and eliminate the pillow enemy/wrapped human on the upper platform. You need to defeat two wrapped humans here from the platforms to gain willpower. There are more of these enemies hanging on the ceiling, so jump and attack them.

You can find an NPC sitting in a moving baby bed. Interact with him to exhaust all the dialogues. Choose to get the reward from this NPC to gain Darlingjing Tea. Once done, continue moving to the left and destroy another globe to update the map.

Interact with the cabinet here get the Black Tea or Silver Tea. Choosing the Black Tea allows you to gain potluck tea. You need to find five tea blends that come back here later.

Start Journey to the Right

There’s nothing more in this area, so continue moving to the path on the right. Defeat the caged enemy and keep moving till you find a hotel. Go all the way to the top platform and defeat all the crawling enemies. Break the orb using the pencil to update the map and collect a nice carpet.

Go to the path on the left, and an alarm clock will fly towards you. Go ahead and scan the area filled with colorful pillows. Interact with the pillow NPC and go through all the dialogues. You can collect the alarm clock and its gears from nearby platforms. Continue jumping to the higher platforms while defeating the enemies till you reach the top-most area.

You will see a downed caged enemy. Use the camera to scan it to gain the other piece of the alarm clock. Once you acquire all the pieces, return to the pillow NPC and offer her. You get this special tool that is useful to avoid getting too lazy. This will be transformed into a fragment, collect more to grow your willpower.

Go all the way to the base level of this area and destroy the blocked path on the left to continue progressing. Defeat the fat human enemy here by using the right strategy. He will take several hits to get defeated. Once you eliminate him, go to the right and collect the First Riddle.

Mattress Area

Continue moving to the upper platform and defeat the pillow and caged enemies. Jump above the area to get in front of the strange flower. Once done talking to the flower, use the pencil to kill it. Take a few steps ahead, and you find multiple mattresses. Go past them and move to the upper platform, and defeat the crawling enemy.

Use the pencil to destroy the orb in front of you to update the map. Defeat the two caged humanoid enemies and keep moving to the left. Destroy the blocked path in front of you and collect the lost coin, break another orb. This is a valuable coin that you can swap for something.

Get Safety Pin

Jump to the upper platforms and break the path on the left to get another orb. Interact with the little book house to learn that a small piece of sponge attached to the base of one of the books inside talks about lighthouses. Jump down from where you find the last orb to obtain the Safety Pin.

This is a consumable that is useful to hold the flaps of your flimsy cage together when you need to get back to a safe place. Scam the medical wooden locker, but you can’t open it because you don’t have the right tools.  Continue moving to the left and jump to the higher platform to get inside the new area.

Collect Puzzle

Continue moving up till you find milk feeders inside the wooden structure. Use the camera to scan, allowing you to learn that someone is trying to steal them from it. Choose to take a picture of the engraved cradles. This will be added to the clues section in Treasures.

Continue moving ahead and eliminate the crawling humanoid enemies. This area is filled with comfy mattresses all around. You will find a puzzle from the base level of this area. Collecting it transformed into a fragment, so collect more to grow your willpower.

Defeat Pillow Boss

Go to the center of this area and jump to the higher platforms to break another orb to update the map. You can hold the ‘K’ to charge the healing strike to heal yourself after attacking an enemy. This is the best way to eliminate enemies and stay active. Defeat the humanoid enemies and continue moving to the left to find the pillow boss.

Once you go near him, he gets inside the mattress and rolls towards you to deal damage. Make sure to jump to get behind him and deal damage with the pencil. The best strategy to eliminate this enemy is to jump when he rolls towards you and deal damage from the back. You need to use your healing strike to keep healing your character while fighting him.

Purchase New Ability

Once defeated, go back to the area from where you came. Engage with the humanoid enemy with a horn on its face. Select the first two options while talking to him to unlock the new ability. You need to spend 150 skill points to purchase the Brave-almost intrepid-strike ability.

This ability activates when you execute a Healing Strike, even if your Willpower is full and you don’t need to heal yourself. Courage to charge a blow and hit with a strike considerably more powerful than a basic attack.

You find yourself in a training area with a mattress and a strange flower. Approach the flower and charge a healing strike when Will is full to release an extremely powerful blow. Once done, go to the middle of the area and move up the platform to collect Fearful Pinata. Move all the way to the right and go up the platform to enter the upper area.

Explore the Upper Area

The humanoid enemy in a baby cart rushes towards you to attack. You need to have at least 1 Courage bar to start Healing Strike. Keep attacking this enemy to gather Courage. Once defeated, continue moving to eliminate the smaller enemies.

Get Inside the Yellow Mine

Go to the platform in the middle to break another orb. But defeat the pillow enemy who throws pillows towards you before updating the map. Go to the base level of this area to find the captured NPC. Defeat the pillow enemy first using the right strategy as you did before.

Once killed, interact with the NPC and exhaust all the dialogues. This NPC gives you a shovel that allows you to reopen the passage below the quicksand.

Once done, go all the way to the left to pass through the bridge filled with pillows. Scan the bridge to create a shortcut by tying the sheets together. Use this shortcut to move all the way down to find the pillow blockage below the pillow quicksands.

Choose to remove it by digging like a dog with a golden bone. Doing so allows you to enter the new zone called The Yellow Mine.

Unlock Project Bomb

You find yourself in a whole new area with a Geruald sitting on a chair. Go through all of his dialogues to obtain a new ability called Project Bomb. This is a powerful tool that can be precisely utilized to prevent and respond to threats.

Pressing the ‘O’ key allows you to use this ability in The Perfect Pencil. Go to the left and place the bomb on the orb to weaken and then use the pencil to break it.

Find the Riddle NPC

Go back to the forest and jump all the way to the higher platforms and take the shortcut rope to return to the upper zone. Continue moving to the left and defeat the baby cart enemy. Once eliminated, pick up another Fearful Pinata.

Use the weapon to destroy the blocked path on the left to get to the path to the hotel. Keep moving to the left and break the orb to update the map. Go all the way to the left and move down the platforms to get to the lower level. Take the talk on the left, and you will hear a musical sound. Interact with the NPC and complete the dialogues. You need to complete the riddle to gain rewards.

Choose the egg for the first riddle to gain a Bologna Sandwich. Interact with him again to solve the second riddle. Choosing the water allows you to earn Bergamasc tea. Go past this NPC and break the orb to update the map. Return to the higher platform and continue moving to the path on the right.

Path Towards the Hotel

Jump higher into the space to enter a new area. Defeat the enemy on the right with the best ability, as this one can deal massive damage to you. Jump to the higher platforms from the middle of this area to find the fat pillow enemy.

Eliminate him in the first place because he throws pillows towards you to deal damage. You can also collect another Safety Pin from the platform above this enemy.

Go all the way to the left and go to the higher ground to defeat the humanoid caged enemies on the left. Kill all the enemies from different platforms till you find a white & blue blanket. Interacting with it allows you to create a new shortcut.

Find the Skill Trainer

Don’t need to take the shortcut, but move all the way to the left to defeat the fat enemy. Defeating it can be challenging, so use the right ability. Go all the way to the bottom level of this area while defeating the enemies to gain skill points. Break the orb from this area and eliminate the enemy inside the baby crawler.

Once defeated, go to the left and collect the fragment. Return all the way to the place where you defeated the fat enemy. Go past his dead body and interact with the skill trainer. Exhaust his dialogues and choose the ‘Resolutely prove your audacity and your will, but in a confusing way’ option from the list. You need to consume 100 skill points to purchase Super Focused Strike From The Bold ability.

Hold the attack to charge it up. This technique allows you to strike a blow that’s much more powerful than your basic attack. During this strike, you will feel the thrill of remaining suspended in the air for a few moments. You will again get inside the training area to learn to use this ability. When attacking, hold down the attack button to charge and release a more powerful attack.

Final Road towards the Hotel

Once done, jump to the higher platform to get inside the new area. Continue moving to the right, and you will find a hotel board. Go all the way to the right and interact with the NPC on the bridge. Exhaust his dialogues and use the bedsheet to create a shortcut. Once you go past this NPC, he will hug you from behind to stop you. But you resist it, and it gets him killed.

He drops a crowbar that you can pick up to use later when required. Use all the shortcuts to move down to the area where you find the medical wooden box. Use the crossbow to open it and obtain Plaster Cast. Now, use the same shortcuts to move all the way back to the bridge.

Keep moving all the way to the right and pass through the door to get inside The Hotel. You can also break the orb from the window of the Hotel to update the map before getting inside. That’s where the part 1 walkthrough in My Perfect Pencil concludes.

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