PURE, Part 1: The Descent is a Glulx interactive fiction game written with Inform 7 and is © 2025 by PLAYPURPUR. It was an entry in IF Comp 2025 where it took 52nd place.
In this short body-horror game, you play as the one rejected, the imperfect, the tarnished. If only the flesh you wear could be compounded into clay or ground into dirt. Then you could at least be useful. The Heir, smiling slightly, leads you into a dark dungeon. Soon, you will descend into something magnificent.
Content warning: Violence, gore, sexual themes.
This solution is by David Welbourn, and is based on Release 1 of the game.
SPOILERS AHEAD. Reading a walkthrough prematurely can sometimes diminish one's enjoyment of an interactive fiction game. Please make an honest effort to play the game before reading this walkthrough.
New Game
> tutorial. about. warnings. credits. start.
Start
The someone who loves you is which? Your choice sets the gender of the character called the Heir.
>> male —or— female —or— neither
Dungeon Entrance
No one in this game is willing to answer questions, so don't bother trying.
> x me. i. x key. x soul.
> x Heir. x guards. x Boar. x Eagle.
"Forwards" is coded as a synonym for "north", so you may type "n" instead of "forwards", if you prefer. Likewise, "back" is "south", but the guards never let you go back.
> forwards.
Hollow Landing
> x statues. (man, snake, bird, lion, spider, monkey)
> x door.
> x slabs. (circle, triangle, octagon)
> x man. (might break if dropped)
> take man. drop it.
> x snake. x bird. x lion. x spider. x monkey.
It should be clear that we're counting the balance points of each: snake = 1, bird = 3, lion = 4, spider = 8, monkey = 5. And a circle has 1 side, a triangle has 3 sides, and an octagon has 8 sides.
So put the appropriate statues onto the slabs:
> put snake on circle. (+1)
> put bird on triangle. (+1)
> put spider on octagon. (+1; the Hollow Door opens)
For what it's worth, I learned the names of the doors in this game by closing them after they were unlocked.
> forwards.
Deeper Shadows
You may use west and east instead of left and right, respectively.
> x shadow thing.
> left.
Shadows Reaching
> x table. x gold. x iron. x candle.
> x fishbones. x hourglass. x star. x sun.
> take all from table.
> kiss Heir. (+1)
> right. right.
Shadows Stretching
Each of the four chests has a riddle. Put the appropriate answer to the riddle in each chest.
> x door. x chests.
> x blue. put fishbones in blue.
> x red. put candle in red.
> x yellow. put star in yellow.
> x green. put gold in green. (+4; the Shade Door opens)
> forwards.
Something Waiting
> x door. left. left.
Almost There
> x shadow thing. x machine. x lever.
You cannot remove the shadow thing from the machine. It's doomed. Do the terrible thing and end its misery.
> pull lever. (+1; the Tainted Door is now open)
> right. right. forwards.
A Deeper Red
> overlooks.
> x lift. (buttons 3, 5, 7, and 8)
> x drips. (You see the number 5 on the ceiling.)
> push 5. (You all descend to...)
Descension
BUG: Don't look at the pedestal more than once. The Heir gives you the cage each and every time.
> x door. x pedestal. (The Heir gives you a cage containing a sparrow.)
You can only interact with the cage, not the sparrow. Your key doesn't unlock this cage.
> x cage.
> put cage on pedestal. (The sparrow dies gruesomely, and the Stone Door opens.)
> forwards.
Power
> x Eagle. x Boar. x portraits.
> kiss Boar. (+1)
> kiss Eagle. (+1)
> forwards.
Control
> x statues. x lectern. x door. x hand.
> take Boar's hand —or— take Eagle's hand. (The Helpful Door opens.)
> forwards.
Ecstasy
The remaining guard sacrifices himself without any prompting and the Devoted Door opens.
> forwards.
Love
You've reached the end of PURE, Part 1: The Descent. Stay tuned for PURE, Part 2: The Evolution.
This is the response to CREDITS:
PURE was originally conceptialized for an Interactive Fiction class, and has been expanded as a project since then. A lot of inspiration was taken from Aaron Reed's Blue Lacuna, most notably the keyword highlighting system. This story adapts some riddles that were sourced from Classic Riddles 1-100 on savagelegend.com. The cover art of PURE was drawn by the author.
Items are listed in the order they're acquired.
This is the response to SCORE:
You have so far scored N out of a possible 0, in T turn.
Points are awarded as follows:
🐞 There are several infinite point bugs in this game; that is, you can gain a point by repeating a scoring action over and over again. Possibly this is intended with the kissing points.
I don't know what the intended maximum score is. All things considered, I suppose it doesn't matter too much.
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