Nov 12, 2024

The Rise of the Golden Idol Walkthrough – Prologue & Chapter 1

Rahul Shirke

Welcome to the Into Indie Games walkthrough for The Rise of the Golden Idol.

This walkthrough will walk you through deductions, so that you can get hints on how to solve the game’s many mysteries, rather than getting the answers directly.

For more information on The Rise of the Golden Idol beyond this walkthrough, check out the official website.

Prologue – Constriction

In the prologue scenario, Constriction, we have to figure out who’s getting murdered by whom, and where. This walkthrough of The Rise of the Golden Idol will skip past the clue-hunting, which is straightforward with highlights.

Collect all the clues here first and then open the Events panel to begin piecing things together.

If you examine the nurse, you’ll find that he has an identification on his uniform: Morg Brakka.

From his notepad, you’ll find that he looks after ‘patients’, which, along with the murderer’s straightjacket, suggests that he works in an: asylum.

By looking at the hallway on the left of the screen, we find that the cell opposite 203 is 204. Therefore, the cell opposite 201 must be 202.

Again from the notepad, we learn that the patient in 202 is: “Oriel Toussaint“, a professor.

You can now fill in the Names. The victim is Morg Brakka, and the murderer is Oriel Toussaint.

By examining the straitjacket, we learn that the patient is in: “Red Wood” asylum.

We learn by examining Oriel Toussaint that the murder weapon was a: strap from the straitjacket.

Now we’re ready to fill in all the events:

The professor, Oriel Toussaint, killed Morg Brakka with a strap from a straitjacket in the Red Wood asylum.

Chapter 1: The Curse – Academic Impact

As usual, collect all the names and spots and then, let’s begin with the couple that found the body.

The woman addresses the man as ‘Cyril’, and has a letter addressed to her, calling her ‘Debra’.

The man has an ID card with ‘Bagman’ written on it. Furthermore, they both have wedding rings, implying they’re married.

Therefore, if the man is ‘Cyril Bagman‘, then the woman, his wife, is ‘Debra Bagman‘.

Now we move on to the dead man himself. If you examine the paper he was carrying, you’ll learn that he commented on and approved speech titles with a red pen (also found on him).

As he refers to ‘Nowak’s Algorithms’ as his own work, part of his name is ‘Nowak’.

If you examine the university building in the background, you’ll find that there’s a coat of arms that resembles the lighter and keychain that the dead man has.

We learn that this office is the property of one Sir Isaac, and the letter inside the office has the initials, I. N. This implies the dead man is Isaac Nowak.

With all three individuals identified, we move on to the cause of death.

We learn from the cigarette pack on Nowak’s body that 1. he had plenty of cigarettes, and 2. he smoked a brand that was not sold in the nearby vending machine.

Therefore, we can rule out that he went for the cigarettes, or that he slipped from the stairs leading to the vending machine.

If you look above the vending machine, however, you can see a yellow strip of cloth hanging off the bridge. This strip corresponds to the one torn off of Nowak’s sleeve.

Therefore, he must have fallen from the bridge.

The events are:

Cyril Bagman and Debra Bagman discovered the body of Isaac Nowak, which was there because he fell from the bridge.

Chapter 1: The Curse – Under Construction

There’s a lot of people in this one. As usual, inspect everything to collect all the words and spots.

We have a new panel for Vehicles in this one, but we’ll get to that after figuring out who’s who.

There are three construction workers and a foreman.

We learn from the news reporter that the foreman is the one who’s dead, and his name was ‘Joel Gregson‘. The reporter herself is named ‘Miranda Meadows‘.

We learn from the conversation on the left side of the screen that the shorter worker is named ‘Monty‘ and the long-nosed worker is named ‘Ted‘.

The inspectors have their IDs with them, so those are straightforward. We learn from Inspector ‘Roy Samson‘ that the worker with the moustache has the last name ‘Jenkins‘.

The other inspector, on the ladder, is named ‘Ian Worth‘ according to his ID.

The dead man in the pipe is named ‘Luke Brown‘ according to the military dog tag on his body.

Now, according to the photo in the yellow vehicle, Ted drives the excavator.

The foreman’s note says that ‘Werter‘ should start digging out old electric cables. Therefore, Ted’s last name is Werter, and his full name is Ted Werter.

We also learn here that the operator of the demolisher has the last name ‘Totsky‘.

Now if we check the blue vehicle (the Cutter), we find that the operator is named ‘Bill‘. Also, according to the status lights on the vehicle, it is damaged in the legs.

We know that the worker named Jenkins requested the repair team for his vehicle, so we can conclude that the cutter was operated by Jenkins, whose full name is Bill Jenkins.

This means we can deduce that Monty operated the demolisher, and his full name was Monty Totsky (as mentioned in the foreman’s note).

Therefore, you can fill out the names and vehicles panels as shown below.

Now we finally get to events.

We know that the first dead man, crushed under the pipe, is Joel Gregson, and the dead man inside the pipe below is named Luke Brown.

Common sense would suggest that the sewage pipe was cut using the cutter – but this would not explain how the pipe ended up above the construction pit, nor would it be possible because the cutter was broken “yesterday” (according to Bill Jenkins) and could not move.

This leaves two vehicles: the demolisher and the excavator.

If you look at the construction pit, you’ll find that there were footprints in it. The excavator has treads, so it could not have been the vehicle taken down to the pit.

This leaves the demolisher, which was operated by Monty Totsky.

Our final events statement looks like this:

Monty Totsky used the demolisher on the sewage pipe. This resulted in the death of Joel Gregson. Following this, the body of Luke Brown was found unexpectedly.

Chapter 1: The Curse – Newsflash

Here, we have three scenes, so make sure to check the two accessible open windows on the police building for clues.

Then, let’s start gathering names.

We already know Roy Samson and Ian Worth from the previous case, so those are straightforward.

We learn from Roy’s note that he has been called to Sebastian’s office, and Ian mentions that ‘Seb’ is up on the podium.

Therefore, the police commissioner’s first name is ‘Sebastian’. We learn from the note on the computer in Sebastian’s office that his last name is ‘Walsh’. Therefore, his full name is ‘Sebastian Walsh‘.

The woman in mourning attire has a letter with the initials E. N. We learn from her conversation that her father died.

We also learn that the man on the right has the first name ‘Jack’ and is the woman’s cousin.

From the Isaac Nowak case file in Sebastian’s office, we learn that his daughter is named ‘Elizabeth Nowak‘ (i.e. E. N.). His nephew is named ‘Jack Nowak‘.

You can fill in the names as shown here.

Next, we’ll deal with the conference.

We know that Sebastian wanted to update the media on two things: ‘the high-profile case’ and the ‘string of bum deaths’. These are two cases with internal codenames.

From the conference statements (video camera), we learn that Sebastian and Elizabeth have said that Isaac’s death was a tragic accident.

Furthermore, Sebastian blames the homeless deaths on a ‘drug cult’.

From the case file in Sebastian’s office, we learn that the case regarding the death of a homeless individual was labelled ‘Possum 13‘.

We cannot see the case file name for the Isaac Nowak case, as it has been closed. However, we know that the case was opened on December 4, 1977 according to that case file.

The morgue list lists the body on Table B to be released shortly after that date. As Isaac was not shot dead, he cannot be the body on Table A. And as he was bald, he cannot be the body on Table C either or D either.

If you examine the tag on the bald body in the morgue, it’s tagged Beetle 4, which is our ticket.

Therefore, the conference statement is as follows:

During the conference, Sebastian Walsh claimed:

1. The case Beetle 4 was a tragic accident.

2. The case Possum 13 has a strong drug connection.

Now we get to the Victim panel.

We already know that the bald man was Isaac Nowak, and his case was Beetle 4. His body lies on Table B.

You’ll notice that his photograph has been cut so that his eyes cannot be seen.

Furthermore, the morgue notes suggest that his case is related to Cougar 9, which is the Red Curse case.

Therefore, his death is linked to the Red Curse.

Now we get to the Events panel.

We know that Isaac Nowak was a victim of the Cougar 9 case, i.e. the Red Curse deaths.

We also know that during the conference, Sebastian Walsh declared that Isaac was a victim of a ‘tragic accident‘.

For the connecting statement, you’ll find from the note on Sebastian’s new computer that he was made a board member of Wisdom Interconnected.

The note in Elizabeth’s possession indicates that she is the CEO of the Wisdom Interconnected foundation.

Therefore, the concluding events panel will look like this:

New Wells Police scheduled a press conference to announce that Isaac Nowak had been a victim of the Red Curse.

Before the conference, Elizabeth Nowak offered Sebastian Walsh a board position and a computer.

As a result, during the conference, Sebastian Walsh declared that Isaac Nowak had been the victim of a tragic accident.

Chapter 1: The Curse – Story Conclusion

This is how the first Story panel gets filled out after our painstaking investigations and clues from the main Chapter 1 screen.

Note that the Bagmans’ son is named Brandon and that the Rare Talent Fund is a foundation whose CEO is Elizabeth Nowak.

Also note the forensic lab report (the beaker with blood) saying that there was zero foreign substance present in both the Cougar 9 and Beetle 4 cases.

For the second Story panel, read the notes on Cougar 9 that are revealed after completing ‘Newsflash’.

We learn that the address Isaac was going to (45c Stockyard) was the Steelside Warehouse.

We also learn that a letter was found suggesting the reader ‘talk to the commissioner’, implying it was received by Elizabeth Nowak. Furthermore, the letter’s contents imply she was being blackmailed, and that the writer knew that Isaac was being investigated as a victim of the ‘drug cult’ Red Curse case.

Keeping in mind Luke Brown’s Red Curse death and his connection to the Steelside Warehouse, we can conclude that the Steelside Warehouse was the link to the Red Curse deaths.

Therefore, the letter came from someone from the Steelside Warehouse.

Check out the next part of our walkthrough of The Rise of the Golden Idol here! (Coming soon!)

Thank you for reading this walkthrough of The Rise of the Golden Idol! For more interesting articles on all things indie games, be sure to check out the links below.