The Cave walkthrough

Having a walkthrough for The Cave to hand can help you to navigate Ron Gilbert's classic adventure, as there are plenty of puzzles to solve and traps to catch you out if you're not prepared for them. Taking inspiration from Maniac Mansion, you have a selection of characters to choose from, and the protagonists you take with you will shape how each run through the story plays out. The Cave was actually delisted from console stores back in 2018, making it a Steam exclusive for the last few years, but after being added to Xbox Game Pass in 2023 the game has been given a new lease of life with fresh players discovering this quirky adventure. To assist you if you get stuck, follow this complete The Cave walkthrough to get past any tricky sections, and as a bonus assist all of the collectible Cave Paintings locations are also included.

Table of Contents

• Before We Descend...
• The Campfire
• The Gift Shop
• The Knight's Castle
• The Hillbilly's Carnival
• The Mine
• The Adventurer's Pyramid
• The Twins' Mansion
• The Time Traveler's Museum
• The Zoo
• The Scientist's Silo
• The Monk's Temple
• The Island
• Return to the Gift Shop

Before We Descend...

When you begin The Cave, you'll have your choice of three characters out of a total of seven. Choosing different combinations of the Knight, Hillbilly, Time Traveler, Adventurer, Scientist, Twins, and Monk changes the layout of the game. As you descend, you'll encounter unique levels for your party, though there are caverns that remain constant for every playthrough. There is a pattern to the game, and it looks like this:

The levels shown in orange are unique levels for the seven playable characters. If you don't have that character in your party, you'll skip those levels. Make sense?

With an understanding of the game's layout, we can take you through it all. We'll lead you through the constant caverns first, and then we'll check out the unique character caverns.

One last note: some characters can bypass certain obstacles. For example, the Twin's ghost ability can change how you solve a switch puzzle, and the Time Traveler's "pass through" ability allows her to skip numerous gates. For this guide, we will ignore these shortcuts. Chances are, your party will have to take the long route anyway. Sound good?

Now let's get our team together, shall we?

Continue to The Campfire...