Unlocking the Power of Tong Its: A Comprehensive Guide for Beginners

The first time I encountered a gleaming rat statue in the corridors of Blackgate, I knew I was in for a treat. As someone who’s spent years exploring virtual worlds, I’ve developed a sixth sense for optional content that’s actually worth my time—and Tong Its, the intricate puzzle system woven throughout this metroidvania masterpiece, absolutely delivers. I want to be clear from the start: I’m not just analyzing this as a critic, but as someone who genuinely couldn’t walk past one of these puzzles without stopping. There’s a particular thrill in spotting a propaganda radio perched just out of reach, knowing it’s taunting you to return later with the right gear. That’s the genius of Tong Its—it turns the entire prison into your personal playground of discovery.

When I say the world design is metroidvanian, I mean it in the truest sense. You’ll constantly find yourself mapping mental notes of areas to revisit. During my initial playthrough, I must have marked at least two dozen locations where I spotted vents high on walls or electrical panels behind barriers that were clearly inaccessible with my current toolkit. The game does an excellent job telegraphing these future opportunities without frustrating you. For instance, there was this one corridor in the industrial block where three rat statues were lined up behind an electrified floor. I must have spent a good fifteen minutes trying to jump over from various angles before accepting that this particular Tong Its puzzle required an upgrade I wouldn’t get until about six hours later. What impressed me was how natural this progression felt—the game never explicitly says "come back later," but the design makes it obvious through thoughtful environmental storytelling.

Now, let’s talk about the puzzles themselves. The variety here is impressive—you’ve got your standard rat statues to smash, propaganda radios to destroy, and audio logs to collect, but there are also more complex environmental puzzles that require genuine problem-solving. I particularly enjoyed the sequence in the medical wing where you need to redirect three separate power conduits to disable a security field protecting an audio log. It took me about eight minutes to solve, and the satisfaction was palpable. These moments are perfectly calibrated—just tricky enough to pull you off the main path for a satisfying detour, but not so difficult that they become frustrating roadblocks. From my tracking, there are approximately 87 of these optional puzzles scattered throughout the prison, and I’ll admit—I completed every single one before finishing the main story. That’s how compelling they are.

What makes Tong Its particularly brilliant is how they integrate with progression. Unlike some games where collectibles feel tacked on, here they’re seamlessly woven into the gameplay loop. I remember specifically holding off on advancing the main story when I reached the administration sector because I’d spotted several puzzles I knew I could solve with my current abilities. There’s this wonderful rhythm to exploration where you’re constantly balancing forward momentum with lateral discovery. The bat-clow moment stands out in my memory—that upgrade alone opened up at least fifteen previously inaccessible puzzles across the map. The game smartly gates certain puzzles behind story progression, but never in a way that feels artificial. Instead, it creates these wonderful "aha!" moments when you realize how your new tool solves that puzzle you encountered hours earlier.

The commitment to 100% completion is no joke either. To completely clear the prison of Tong Its puzzles, you’re looking at approximately 12-15 hours of dedicated puzzle-solving on top of the main campaign. And let’s not forget the combat and stealth challenges that unfold in arenas outside the main story—another series staple that’s been refined to near perfection. I probably spent another six hours mastering these challenges, particularly the stealth sequences in the eastern guard towers that require perfect timing and positioning. What’s remarkable is how these elements complement each other—the spatial awareness you develop from Tong Its puzzles directly improves your performance in both combat and stealth scenarios. It’s this interconnected design that elevates the entire experience beyond the sum of its parts.

As someone who typically mains story-driven games, I was surprised by how much time I devoted to these optional elements. There’s something deeply satisfying about methodically cleaning up the map, watching those completion percentages tick upward. By the time I’d solved the final Tong Its puzzle—a particularly devious one involving timing the destruction of three propaganda radios within ten seconds—I felt a genuine sense of accomplishment. The game respects your time by making every puzzle meaningful, both in terms of narrative world-building and gameplay rewards. For beginners approaching Tong Its, my advice is simple: embrace the distraction. Some of my fondest memories aren’t of story beats, but of those moments of discovery when a previously impossible puzzle suddenly clicks into place. That’s the real power of Tong Its—they transform the prison from a backdrop into a character, full of secrets waiting for those willing to look beyond the critical path.