TL;DR: play as long as you can without help, until you get frustrated. At that point, the recommended region order helps a lot without spoiling anything but region names. If you can't find the next region, the world map (only showing region connections, no detail) will tell you what direction to look in.
Rain World is a masterpiece — equal parts metroidvania, movement puzzler, immersive rat in Manhattan sim — but its strangeness makes it hard to appreciate. Some things that turned players and reviewers off were fixed in patches, but the core opaqueness remains because it is by design. This guide is meant to help you get unstuck without spoiling more than necessary.
If you haven’t played yet, try it before reading on. There’s a yellow character who pops up to guide you. If you can decode what he’s saying, you might not need any help.
- Avoid fighting. Sneak, wait, and watch. Experiment to learn what it takes for enemies to see or hear you.
- Use the map all the time. Always be mapping.
If you have no idea what to do or can barely move without getting killed, check out the Spoiler-Free Primer. It’s not really spoiler-free, but it’s all stuff you could (but probably won’t) figure out in the first region.
The game world consists of large regions connected by gates. You need to get to particular regions to progress the story. Since every region is connected to several others, there is more than one way to go, and there are some really wrong ways. This is, in my view, the hardest thing about the game.
Luckily, there’s really only one manageable path for a first-time player: the one recommended as “easy” in the Storyline region routes guide. This is a perfect spoiler-free form of help because it tells you the names of regions but nothing about their contents or global arrangement.
The problem with only knowing the name of the next region, however, is that you don’t know what direction it’s in, so you can go pretty far astray just looking for it. This is not so bad because exploration is the point, and you can always turn back if you find the wrong region. But if you’ve looked and looked for the next region and can’t find it, the world map will point you in the right direction. It shows how the regions are connected and roughly where they sit in relation to one another.
Show world map
The wiki has a page for each region with a full map and a list of creatures that live there. Only use these if you’re very stuck.
Difficulty modes take the form of different playable characters: the Survivor (original) and the Monk (easier). If you like hard games like Hollow Knight or Dark Souls, stick with Survivor. If you love Rain World's style but aren’t into hard games, the Monk could certainly help. You’ll still need the region routes.
For the Monk, enemies are rarer and less aggressive, and food is less of an issue. Region gates are also easier, though explaining how is a spoiler. These changes make exploration easier at the cost of some of the core sneaking, fighting, and foraging loop. Full details are on the wiki, but I don't recommend reading that as it’s full of spoilers.
Final link going to the wiki is not valid as it appears the community was transitioning away from it for a while. Maybe https://rainworld.miraheze.org/wiki/Slugcat#Campaign_Modes is equivalent?