Do any of you here have theories on things related to the game? I thought it would be nice to have a bit of a collection thread on theories of the game. Like how the rings work, what the tunnels are and stuff like that.

Unfortunately i don't think the game is that deep to have stuff like that floatin around it.

More questions to ponder: - Why does the Child's balloon float despite being filled with water? - Does the Pastafarian's light bridge thing really come from the Flying Spaghetti Monster? - Are the Tunnels artifical or natural? If artifical, what are they for? - Why didn't anyone bring supplies with them into the Tunnels? The game contains some hints, and a few more hints can be found [here](http://run.wikia.com/wiki/User_blog:Mathwiz100/Area_to_Collect_Run_Information_From_Comments). Finally, you might as well post what you came up with so far: > Okay theory 1: The tunnels are huge windtunnels, that take everything that isn't heavy along with them. The rings make objects lighter which causes them to float. It would also explain why the child can fly. Because as I said, some of this is correct.

There's a lot of questions to ponder and a lot to write about, so I'll start with this one. > Are the Tunnels artifical or natural? If artifical, what are they for? I'm pretty sure they're artificial, based on the cutscene 'Obvious'; the Angel seems to know (or have a strong theory on) how the tunnels were formed, and he was an engineer and should have knowledge of this sort of thing. This cutscene seems to give us a lot of hints to how the tunnels were made, so I'll go through the whole thing. Firstly, this exchange in the cutscene backs up the thought that the tunnels are artificial; > *Angel: Have you figured out what the tunnels were made for? > Pastafarian: Based on their noodly appearance... I suspect they're a tribute to the Flying Spaghetti Monster. > Angel: Keep guessing. > Pastafarian: It's also possible that the tunnels formed naturally. > Angel: Are you even trying? > Pastafarian: Don't be rude.* So they likely were not formed naturally (or, the Angel's theory is wrong, though it seems more likely that he is right in this case). The cutscene continues to talk about the wormhole, and how it is connected to the tunnels, and that the tunnels reach the planet. The Angel believe that it should be obvious, knowing these three facts, though the Pastafarian says that one must consider the specific combination of those three facts. I decided that since I know the least about the wormhole, I'd through the game to find info on that first. Firstly, the cutscene "Wormhole in sight". > *Skater: What is that thing, anyway? > Runner: Huh? > Skater: What is it? All I know is we're trying to get there. > Runner: The student identified it as a wormhole. It connects our solar system to some other point in the universe. > Skater: Cool!* So, we know the wormhole connects the solar system to some other point in the universe. Then, the achievement "A Glimpse of New Places" in which one must locate the wormhole. I forgot when I got this achievement, so I headed over to the wiki to refresh my memory. > *The Wormhole can be seen in the background of many levels, but it is most clearly visible from Level T-7. Beating T-7 is the only way to earn this achievement.* And, if you look on the map, T-7 is one of the furthest levels along, far away from Level 1. So what we know about the wormhole is that it connects the solar system to some other point in the universe, and it also is located at the end of T-7. The wormhole is supposedly the end goal of the 'Way Onwards' quest, and what the Skater, Runner and Student are trying to locate by going through all the tunnels they haven't checked. So, we can assume that the wormhole is the way onwards, the way past the tunnels. But the tunnels aren't just connected to the wormhole; they are also connected to the planet. With this, I'm thinking that perhaps the tunnels were built as a bridge between the planet and the wormhole. Though, I'm writing this as I go along, so I decided to go back and check some things about the Planet first; The Planet takes one year to make an orbit, and at the time of the story it was away from where everyone had first entered the Tunnels. So therefore, the Planet moves (orbits) whereas the Tunnels do not, or at least they don't move in the same way. Anyways, that's my background check on the information we have available, so I'll sum it up; the wormhole is connected to the tunnels, and the tunnels are connected to the planet. The tunnels were also likely formed artificially. My current theory would be that the tunnels were built as some sort of connecting bridge so that those on the planet could reach the wormhole, though the question still remains as to why, and this theory still has a few holes in it. Anyways, that's what I'm thinking for the first question. Hopefully, once conclusions for all of these are reached, we'll have a better idea of what the Tunnels are. But it's late here, so I'll continue this tomorrow (read: sometime in the near future). 16/04/17 edit: First up, happy Easter y'all. Second, I didn't want to make another post, so I'll continue on from here. > Does the Pastafarian's light bridge thing really come from the Flying Spaghetti Monster? From the wiki; > An explanation (?) for the Pastafarian's powers: There was one specific area where the Student’s maneuverability got worse, and certain other characters’ abilities got worse. I think this is the Low Power Tunnel part 22 (AKA the bane of my existance, that level always takes me way too long to complete)? The Angel said he couldn't fly that well in that area. I don't have the Student or the Pastafarian unlocked at the moment so I can't test how their powers work in this area, though if anyone else has them and could test out their abilities in the Low Power Tunnels, that'd be great! It'd also be good to know if the abilities only don't work in part 22, or if they're lessened in the whole Low Power Tunnels. I currently dont have any solid theories on why this is, or how the Low Power Tunnels relate to the Pastafarian's light bridge, but I thought it'd be interesting to mention that the Low Power Tunnels have platforms that *darken* and the Pastafaria's bridge is called the *light* bridge. Not sure if it's a coincidence or not, though I thought it was worth mentioning. This is also worth a mention (from the wiki); > The Duplicator's “duplicates” are just images. There’s only ever one of him. It all works because of a bunch of REALLY advanced technology, and if he knew how to use said technology properly, he could travel at a good fraction of light speed without ever falling off. (Actually, all of them could, if they figured out how to control the tunnels’ gravity.) I'm more focused on the "he could travel at a good fraction of light speed without ever falling off". Not too sure what it means just yet, though it's possibly related to the pastafarian's abilities. My two main theories would be either that her powers are related to how the tunnels are 'alive' (such as when the Runner and Student figured out that one didn't need to start over the level over if they just focused) or that her abilities are related to the Low Power Tunnels in some way. I'm not too sure how her abilities work, though, since I don't have her as an unlocked charater at the moment. 16/04/17 edit, but it's later in the day, and a different edit: Let's continue. > Why does the Child's balloon float despite being filled with water? I did my best to look through what we know about the Child's balloon, and I think it's related to the gravity in the Tunnels somehow. here's some screenshots I collected (ignore the actual context of the screenshots and just focus on how the balloon works);    Those three pictures show that when the Child lets go of his balloon, it floats upwards away from him.  The picture shows the balloon tied to the Child's antennae, showing that it's not strong enough to lift him even if he's not holding it (?)  The Child's balloon is affected by the strange gravity in the tunnels, and the picture shows that when the characters switch sides of the tunnels then the balloon is also affected (what I mean is, the balloon is upside down like the Child and the Duplicator in this picture, since they're on the top tiles).  Not too sure how accurate this one is, but I thought it was worth mentioning that the Child bounces slower than the Bunny. Also, these; > Some of the boxes they encounter contain freeze-dried food. Other boxes have jugs of distilled water. This isn’t shown in game, but take my word for it. > The Child says thank you to whoever left water bottles in all the boxes. He needed water to fill his balloons with. I'm not sure exactly how it works, but I do think the balloon is affected by the gravity in the Tunnels, and we know the gravity in the tunnels is not normal (the Student said this; "Oh, and these tunnels manipulate gravity somehow.") And also, the balloon is probably filled with distilled water rather than normal water, though I'm not sure how this affects it. Aside from gravity, I think the Child's balloon is also affected by wind, as he says in the 'Superpowers' cutscene: > *Child: Cool! My power is to control the wind. Then I can go anywhere! > Angel: Ugh... > Child: I can choose where- > Angel: Yes, we get it. Wind control is literally the most popular superpower, except maybe super stregnth.* I'd also like to mention that the child is probably the most lightweight of all the characters, as he can walk on the cracked tiles whereas the others cannot. Basically, things to consider: gravity, weight, wind. Also how the Tunnels affect the balloon in particular, and not just the Child. 17/04/17 edit: I'm not done just yet. Made a couple of edits to what I wrote about the Child's balloon. Now for the last one, and then some other things too. > Why didn't anyone bring supplies with them into the Tunnels? This seems to be the one that we have the least evidence for. I got a few things from the wiki that relates to it, though; > Containers: Generally, the characters carry at most 2-3 things around at any given time (not shown because that would require extra animation work), and store most of their stuff in boxes. This is unrelated to the reason they didn't bring supplies. As I said, that's math-related. > Some of the boxes they encounter contain freeze-dried food. Other boxes have jugs of distilled water. This isn’t shown in game, but take my word for it. We know some of the characters have things that they carry around, for example the Runner has her map. The Student carries some things around in her backpack, as shown below.  And I'm not sure how related it is to the subject, but this cutscene, in which the Angel mentions he would choose hammerspace if he has a superpower. > *Child: How 'bout you? What power would you pick? > Angel: Hammerspace. > Child: What space? > Angel: Basically it's a pocket dimension where you can keep things. That way you always have it with you, but you don't have to carry it.* I'm mentioning this cutscene because I'm thinking perhaps they didn't bring any supplies is weight-related, and that the weight affects the gravity. For example, the Child is light enough so that when he steps on the crumbling tiles, they don't falll put from underneath him. Anyways, that's that done, time go fo over some other things. The Student's science rants. I wrote them down so they were easier to read, but some parts got cut off the screen or covered by speech bubbles. Here's her rant to the Runner when she was talking about the yellow rings, and why the boxes floated. > *Student: I'm not sure yet, 'cause I haven't had time to study it. I was wandering through the box storage area a[nd I noti]ced this one box that had these rings floating next to it. And when I stood on it, I noticed it felt a bit less less solid than usual. Well, not less solid per se, but more springy. Obviously these rings to something, but we're going to need way more than a day to figure out what. So far what I've found is- and keep in mind these are just my initial observations - the box goes where you push it, except that it prefers to move in the plane defined by the rings. In other word, you can move it up and down, but it takes lots of extra force. Same with turning it. Oh, and I also noticed that it won't go outside the tunnel. That ust be why it never moved when we ran on it: we were pushing the box outwards, and it was already at the edge. I think it's tied to the artificial gravity somehow. I assume you've noticed the way gravity changes suddenly at the edge of the tunnel? The rings probably react to the change of gravity and pull the box back in. Or maybe it's the box istself that does it... Actually, that makes a lot of sense now that I think about it. We already know there's some force keeping all the normal boxes and tiles in place. Exc[couldn't read this part]... Except for cracked ties. They're a clear counterexample, so maybe I'm wrong here. On the other arm, the box isn't the odd one out, the cracked tiles are. Remind me to take time to study those too. if we figure out why cracked tiles can leave the tunnel, it should give a clue as to why nothing else does. Anyway, back to the main topic: how these rings work. Clearly they aren't the same as the first rings I found, but at this point I think it's safe to conclude that those ones are malfunctioning somehow. Another thing to come back to later. So I was thinking about that, and I recently spoke with the Gentleman about all these floating batteries. We only did one test before he ran off, and you should speak to him about that, because there's a lot more we could learn from him and his magnets. Or if you find any loose magnets, be sure to hold on to them. Sorry, I'm getting sidetracked again. The point is, I've been thinking about the way the batteries float down the middle of the tunnels, and now I'm thinking this box is similar. The best part is, the box doesn't turn off the moment you tuch it, so it should be much easier to experiment on. I think the first thing to try and find out is what it's attached to. Besides rings, I mean. Later, maybe we figure out how the rings stick to the box without actually touching it, but for now, we'll just accept that they do. You can stick your arm between the ring and the box, and there's nothing but air. Knowing this, we can assume it also explains how the box hangs in midair. Remember, the fewer assumptions an explanation [The Runner decided to talk over this part] -ely it is. But we already made the assumption that objects can be connected without actually [yeah the Runner was talking over this too] -arer to reuse the old assumption, rather than making a new one, 'cause you want to keep our assumption count as low as possible. Heh, sorry, that was kind of a roundabout of saying that. This is [man the Runner needs to get smaller speech bubbles] -ere's another way to t[no idea what it says here either]about it. If you push something, it [and here's our old friend, the Runner's speech bubble, covering up valuable information for the fourth time today] - something else is pushing the ring- in the opposite direction. Well, maybe not the only way, I've read sci-fi books that say gravity technically isn't a force, even though it can counteract forces. Oh, and these tunnels manipulate gravity somehow. So-* And her rant to the Gentleman, talking about the magnets, I think; > *Student: We might be getting close. See, I found these boxes with a couple gold rings attached to them. Wait, that wasn't the first thing. I'll get back to that later. Before that, I was thinking about the law of action and reaction. These batteries are what, a few grams apiece? If you and the battery were the only things in the equation, there's no way it could pull you around, much less that electromagnet. There had to be something holding the batteries in place. My first thought was air friction, because that's exactly what air friction does. Except no it's not; air friction would apply to you too. Except maybe it is, if you take wind into account. I judt don't know, and I haven't sat down to do the math because I've been busy with those boxes I mentioned. Speaking of which, those boxes have a bunch of interesting features. They float in midair and you can push them around, but the important thing is that it's hard to push them in certain directions. Not impossible, just hard. [Gentleman's speech bubble blocking text] -like the batteries: they float down the middle of of the tunnel, [more speech bubble] - the simplest explanation is that-* (Man, the Gentleman is pretty impatient. The Runner let her go on for like, ages, before cutting her off...) Take what you will from those. They don't reveal too much important stuff, but there is a few good points in there that's worth looking over. I'd also like to address this, at the start of the game;  So the Tunnels are restricted for some reason. The thing at the start also looks suspiciously like something at a construction site, furthering my suspicions that the Tunnels are an abandoned bridge that was in the middle of construction, or, something. Anyways, I think that's just about all I wanted to say! Most of this is evidence from the game, facts rather than theories, so I hope it's useful in some way or annother.

Holy crap I was wrong.

Ok, _wow_. Great analysis, sprinqq!

*This post has been removed due to a pun everyone won't get. Sorry for the inconvenience.*

Oops, thanks I fixed it! I knew I had probably made a few typos.. I hope my post was helpful anyways!

> _Originally posted by **[sprinqq](/forums/363/topics/735216?page=1#11174167):**_ > Oops, thanks I fixed it! I knew I had probably made a few typos.. I hope my post was helpful anyways! If've been looking on your profile and your quite new. How, where & when did you came up with this (idea)?

*Deleted post + Missclick - Nevermind.*

Well, first, thanks again to Player 03 for informing me of this forum. Secondly, thanks to whoever created this forum for... well, creating this forum. @Bobiv4: (Quality) levels take time to create. No doubt that they will be completed soon enough, but in the meantime, one must be patient. (Also, cutscenes and animations for said levels can take up time.) @Sprinqq: ...what Player 03 said. I do want to throw in my two cents on your analysis (this is a forum, after all), but that will take a "slight" amount of time. Seriously though, kudos on doing the research and making the inferences that you did... quite impressive, indeed.

(Also, pardon me if my forum writing skills are not superb) So the original questions were: > - Why does the Child's balloon float despite being filled with water? > - Does the Pastafarian's light bridge thing really come from the Flying Spaghetti Monster? > - Are the Tunnels artifical or natural? If artifical, what are they for? > - Why didn't anyone bring supplies with them into the Tunnels? Well, without referencing Sprinqq or doing any research, my initial thoughts would be, in order: 1. Perhaps the "floatability" of the balloon is due to the material from which the balloon is made, not the fact that it has water in it. 2. This feels more like a "science vs religion" question, which complicates it greatly... so for now, I'm going to answer in this way: if one could take photons and solidify them, then that would create, quite literally, a light bridge (which has supposedly been done in the real world before). So, the idea of a light bridge is possible, if you have the right technology. 3. I think that the tunnels could be natural in that the entire structure is a living being (and why not... humans also have their own tunnels, known as "veins"). I also think that the tunnels could be artificial in that they were created by Pastafarians as a shrine of sorts to the Flying Spaghetti Monster. 4. Some Characters probably had the original assumption that they could return back home whenever they wanted to. The question which comes to my mind is... well, what supplies would you need to bring? I'll take a better look at these ideas (as well as Sprinqq's post) when I have time, but meanwhile...

I've been playing run 3 a lot for a while now, so I thought I could stop repeating the same levels over and over again and try to figure out what is going on in this game. I think a good place to start is the child's water balloon. To begin with, is it pure water or could it have something else mixed in with it? One of my ideas is that the balloon is filled with a ferrofluid. To be a ferrofluid, a liquid cannot be a pure element or a molecule. It must contain nanoparticles that are >10 nanometers in diameter and that consist at least partly of iron, such as magnetite or hematite. These particles are so small as to be a negligible and certainly inperceptible size. Because they are evenly distributed throughout the fluid with a surfactant that significantly decreases intefacial tension, or surface tension, ferrofluids are colloidal suspensions- they have properties of multiple states of matter, in this case liquids and solids. But the most significant feature of ferrofluids is that, because of the high levels of magnetized iron they contain, when subjected to a magnetic field, the liquid as a whole, rather than just the nanoparticles, is affected by the field and will, in perfect conditions, essentially float in the air. However, ferrofluids tend to lose potency when no longer subjected to a magnetic field and thus are classified as superparamagnets rather than paramagnets. The practicality of ferrofluids is best demonstrated by the purpose their original inventor, Steve Papell, has for them. In 1963, he created ferrofluids as a project for NASA as a liquid fuel for rockets that could be pulled toward a pump in a weightless environment, such as space, with the application of a magnetic field. I just realized that I inadvertently went full-on lecture mode. Sorry about that. If you're not big on technical details, you can skip to this part. But my point is, if the tunnels are magnetized, then a lot of things would make sense. For example, why there is a gravity-like effect whereas the creatures are essentially pulled towards the nearest side of the tunnel- if in some way the creatures were magnetic/had charged metal on their person, the effects are very nearly the same as a magnet attracting to the magnet with the most disproportionate levels of protons and electrons, in this case the one nearest to the creature/object. However, there are a few smaller details that create inconsistencies with the magnet/ferrofluid idea- for example, it is interesting to note that in certain cutscenes where the child releases the balloon, it drifts upwards, rather than remaining in the center of the tunnel as would be most logical if it were filled with ferrofluids. But if the electron transfer between the child (and other creatures in the scene) diminishes the attracting force of what is acting as the ground, that might be more easily explained. Let me know your thoughts.

Oh yes, and about the falling tiles- even if we postulate that the tunnels are made a material that acts magnetically, that does not explain why the tiles will initially stay in place but fall under pressure. And if we notice that the creatures can fall through the holes in the tunnels, but will sometimes (see A Breath Of Fresh Air) return to the tunnels, where is the gravity for that coming from? I can explain the falling tiles by stating that they are lightly magnetic, with a very low charge disbalance. When a thing that is oppositely charged, most notably the creatures, touches the tiles, electron transfer could render the slight discrepancy nonexistent and remove the magnetic charge from the tiles. That spreads through the touching tiles, and so they all fall. But what is the pulling force that will drag them out, rather than just leaving them floating in the original positions, and why can the creatures fall through the holes in the tunnels? Are they so incredibly light that the pushing force from the creatures can send them through space, so fast, for so long? However, this does not explain why the touching tiles will also fall. It makes sense that they would also lose magnetism, but the force from being stood on should not transfer between tiles. And we have seen that they are not connected, only touching, when they fall through space.

> *Originally posted by **[Moneydigger](/forums/363/topics/735216?page=1#11174855)**:* > > _Originally posted by **[sprinqq](/forums/363/topics/735216?page=1#11174167):**_ > > Oops, thanks I fixed it! I knew I had probably made a few typos.. I hope my post was helpful anyways! > > If've been looking on your profile and your quite new. How, where & when did you came up with this (idea)? Well, I suppose I just enjoy writing a lot- when I saw this forum, I was like, hey, why not? I enjoy reading analysis posts and I enjoy writing them, and a lot of the things in my post weren't exactly amazingly scientific; it's more of just a background reference post for anyone else with a better knowledge of science than me. Even though this is a theories forum, I didn't actually make as many theories as I did collect evidence from the game and wiki related to the questions. In fact, my answers were quite vauge at some points. I can sum up what I wrote in a dot point list; * The Tunnels are artificial, or at least the Angel believes so. * The Wormhole is connected to the Tunnels, and the Tunnels reach the planet; according to the Angel, knowing these three things should make the purpose of the Tunnels obvious. * The Student states that Tunnels manipulate gravity somehow. * Some things to consider in theories; gravity, weight, wind, air friction, magnetic stuff. * The Pastafarian's 'light bridge' is related to the Low Power Tunnels, particularly part 22, where the Angel and Student's (and possibly some other characters) abilities didn't work as well. * The Child's balloon is filled with distilled water, and I provided some screenshots to show how it worked, such as it floated away from him like a normal balloon when he lets go of it. * Supposedly, the reason why they didn't bring supplies is math related. I suspect it's related to weight or gravity, though I'm not sure. As for when I came up with all this; while I went along, quite literally. I wrote this over the time of three days, and while I was writing it I had the game open in one tab and the forums open in another, and I went back and forth finding evidence from the game to answer the questions.

> *Originally posted by **[player_03](/forums/363/topics/735216?page=1#11173419)**:* > Ok, _wow_. > > Great analysis, sprinqq! > *Originally posted by **[mathwiz100](/forums/363/topics/735216?page=1#11175070)**:* > @Sprinqq: ...what Player 03 said. I do want to throw in my two cents on your analysis (this is a forum, after all), but that will take a "slight" amount of time. Seriously though, kudos on doing the research and making the inferences that you did... quite impressive, indeed. Forgot to say this earlier, thank you both!

Guys, I've worked it out. The point involving characters with dimished powers. It's Low-Power Tunnles, part 22. I tested it. The Angel can't fly as well here(thank you dialogue in Going Home Checklist), and the Duplicator seems to make duplicates slightly slower.

> *Originally posted by **[DerpFace2227](/forums/363/topics/735216?page=1#11176630)**:* > Guys, I've worked it out. The point involving characters with dimished powers. It's Low-Power Tunnles, part 22. I tested it. The Angel can't fly as well here(thank you dialogue in Going Home Checklist), and the Duplicator seems to make duplicates slightly slower. This is good! So it's definitely part 22- could you test the Duplicator's powers on some other parts of the Lower Power Tunnels, to see if it's all of the Low Power Tunnel or just part 22? Also, I unlocked the Pastafarian, and I'm not sure if it's intentional or not but when I used her on part 22, I just held left for the entire time and completed the level, no jumps required. Coincidence?

> Also, I unlocked the Pastafarian, and I'm not sure if it's intentional or not but when I used her on part 22, I just held left for the entire time and completed the level, no jumps required. Coincidence? The tunnel layout just happened to work perfectly with the Pastafarian's (new) abilities. The Pastafarian's Light Bridge had a different strength when the low-power tunnels were created a year and a half ago. Also, looking back in "the archives", I should probably inform Sprinqq that the area where the characters' abilities get worse is indeed "an entire set, not a single level". Which would support the theory that the Low-Power Tunnel is affecting the Pastafarian's light bridge.

Also... seeing as [this](https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/castaway/images/d/d5/Screen_Shot_2017-04-18_at_3.22.48_PM.png/revision/latest) was not previously a featured comment, I suspect a hint is being given here...

Please don't quote sprinqq's entire post.

> *Originally posted by **[Xavier85](/forums/363/topics/735216?page=1#11191204)**:* > Other planets are holograms projected by aliens does that count? If you want to start a discussion, you need to give people something to work with. Start by explaining how you came up with this idea. If you have any evidence from the game, that would help too. Does the game mention planets, holograms, and/or aliens? If so, where? And what does it say?