To make it to the top of Kami, the mountain at the heart of Cairn, you’ll need to develop skill and intuition for climbing and use all the tools at your disposal. There’s a lot in the game you’ll need to learn through experience, particularly as you reach the more treacherous challenges at higher altitudes. Here are a few tips that’ll help you reach greater heights and see fewer dangerous falls as you make your way to Cairn’s summit.
It’s all about planning, patience, and stamina
The climbing gym at the start of Cairn is a great way to get some training that will save you on Kami, and it’s worth trying all of its available walls to see what you’ll face ahead. The gym will teach you three things: to plan your route, climb slowly, and conserve your stamina.
You can check the wall ahead of you by angling the camera so that your protagonist, Aava, looks straight up, or by pressing L1 to get a zoomed-out view of the whole area. It’s always worth it to check your path so you don’t hit a point where you’re trapped or snagged and forced to climb back down, wasting energy and items.
Patience is a virtue in Cairn; you almost always want to climb slowly and carefully, even if you’re on what appears to be an easy stretch of wall. The trick to climbing successfully is picking good handholds and footholds. Aava’s limbs start to shake when one is getting tired, indicating that it’s in a bad position or her weight is distributed poorly. Stay in a position like that too long, and she’ll slip and fall. If you move too fast up the wall, you’re more likely to commit to bad holds without realizing it, only to find that Aava is tiring out and unable to move to a more solid position before falling. Going slow lets you be sure the holds you’re using are safe before moving on.
As you go up a wall, you also need to manage Aava’s stamina. When you’re in a solid position, you can hit Triangle to have Aava shake out a tired limb, regaining stamina for the next push. You can tell how much stamina Aava has by the color that flashes when you press Triangle. Green means you’ve recovered well, while yellow indicates caution, showing you that you need a better rest position soon or you’re going to be in trouble. Stamina recovery is essential to avoid falling, so stop frequently for a quick rest.
Through it all, pay close attention to Aava’s reactions and what she says. Slowly, regular breathing means she’s doing well through the climb, but when her breathing starts to quicken, it means she’s tiring out and getting worried. You’ll need to find a more natural, comfortable position so she can rest and recover stamina.
Drop pitons frequently
Pitons are essential, and you’ll want to get into the habit of putting them down at regular intervals on every wall. Clipping into a piton stops you from falling off the mountain, while also acting as a checkpoint so you can quickly return if you should slip. You can also use pitons to rest by hitting X to “off belay,” which fully restores Aava’s stamina. And when you off belay at a piton, you can access items in your backpack, giving you a chance to eat food or refill chalk.
You can place a piton by holding Up on the directional pad, but you’ll then have to hit X at the right moment as a slider moves across a bar to complete the placement. It’s essential to practice your piton timing — getting the right timing doesn’t just save you from breaking pitons, it can allow you to place one fast in an emergency when Aava’s about to fall. But don’t wait to hear Aava panicking before you set a piton. Train yourself to place them regularly when things are going well, so you’re not trying to place one in a panic to avoid a fall.
You’ll find lots of pitons on Kami, and Climbot can make one piton from two sets of piton scraps, so don’t worry too much about running out or wasting them. They’re essential to a successful climb.
All holds aren’t equal
Especially when you’re first starting out, you might wonder why Aava keeps getting tired or falling when you’re climbing a wall that seems like it’s full of holds. The answer is that some holds are smaller and tougher to use than others, and it’s not always immediately obvious looking at them that a grip isn’t great. Vertical cracks, for instance, seem like they should be useful for climbs, but they can tire you out quickly. Look for big ledges to stand on and hold with your hands to provide Aava with more comfortable positions where she can rest, and try not to use smaller holds for very long. Listen for Aava to remark about whether you’ve picked a good position to know that she’s comfortable — and restore stamina often.
When you climb slowly, you can test each hold before moving to the next to see how Aava handles it, and you’ll be able to tell if you should move Aava back down to a more stable position. You always want to watch for how Aava places her hand or foot, also; you’ll sometimes place a hand or foot on what you think is a grip, only for Aava to flatten that hand or foot against the rock, which means she’s braced but not holding anything. It’s usually a good idea to stop and reset that limb before moving on, because she’ll tire out quickly without a solid grip.
Don’t forget chalk
Chalk greatly improves your grip and can be essential to get over tough walls. You’ll almost always have chalk available, and it’s almost always a good idea to use it. You can quickly add chalk to your hands by holding Right on the directional pad, making your next 12 handholds extra grippy. Chalk is great for making bad holds a little easier to grip, and even makes it possible to move over rock that doesn’t have good holds so you can reach a better spot, as long as you’re quick about it. You should use chalk often, especially when holds are small or spread out — Climbot creates more whenever you compost trash, so you’ll always have a healthy supply.
Manually choose Aava’s limbs for extra control
Cairn’s developers suggest you use its automatic system for choosing which limb Aava moves every time you take a new foot- or handhold, but there will be lots of moments when you’ll want to move a foot and the game will suggest you move a hand or vice versa, and moving the wrong limb can sometimes be disastrous. You can choose which limb to move yourself by holding R1 and highlighting it using the right analog stick. Choosing limbs manually is essential when you’re trying to quickly leave a dangerous position to get to a safer one, but it’s also just good practice to make sure you have complete control of Aava and are making exactly the moves you want to.
Change your approach depending on the kind of rock you’re climbing
Most rock walls are gray and craggy, but you’ll sometimes see smooth, glossy brown rock mixed in across a wall. This rock is more slippery, with holds that are often smaller, and it’s too dense for you to place pitons into it, making it potentially dangerous. Check your route and watch for patches of brown rock so you can either climb around them or plan a smart route over them. Chalk and food boosts are great for dealing with these climbs as well.
Be sure to explore
Kami was once home to a people called the troglodytes, and while you’ll find very few of them left during your climb, you can still visit their homes, temples, and villages. Making your way into different caves and structures can help you find save points, vital supplies, and special items to make your climb easier. Troglodyte pitons are the greatest prize — they’re indestructible and can burrow into any kind of rock — but you might also find things like upgrades for your chalk bag, recipes for different kinds of food, and lots more. Exploring caves and troglodyte structures can also help you find alternative, often easier or safer routes up the mountain.
Ice can be easier to climb, but slower
Late in your ascent up Kami, you’ll start to come across ice walls. Aava is ready with ice axes and spikes for her feet, and these are automatically equipped whenever you aim a limb at ice. These walls can be easier to deal with than rock because you can make a handhold or foothold anywhere, but you’ll need to go more slowly and recover stamina more often as you climb, because overall, climbing ice takes more effort. Try to pick cracks in the ice to place your ice axes and shoes. If an axe or shoe bounces off the ice before settling, that’s a bad hold, and you should move it to a better one, because Aava will soon slip. If you’ve got no crack to dig into, you can create one by holding down Square and then releasing it, kicking your foot or slamming your axe into the ice. The effort drains your stamina faster, though, so be sure to take frequent breaks.Making your way to the top of Kami is a tough journey, but it’s also a rewarding one. Take your time and be careful and you’ll keep the climb from going from challenging to frustrating. You can start your ascent today — grab Cairn today at the PlayStation Store.