Outward 2 All Secret Locations & Easter Eggs: What the Community Has Found So Far

The original Outward had secrets that took the community four years to find. Outward 2 launches into Early Access on July 7, 2026, and Nine Dots has already hinted at layers of hidden content buried across the four regions. Here's what we know so far from previews, trailers, and developer interviews.

I'll be honest, half of this is from obsessively watching preview footage frame by frame. The other half is from developer comments they probably didn't think anyone would read into this much.

The Ley Line Network

Scattered under the swamp region are ley lines - glowing cracks in cave floors and bog clearings that amplify ritual magic. The obvious use is standing on them while casting for boosted sigil effects. The hidden use: finding all of them.

Preview footage showed at least six ley line locations. When you stand on one with an ethereal sigil active, nearby ley lines pulse - creating a breadcrumb trail to the next one. Following the full network reportedly leads to something the devs called "the nexus" but refused to elaborate on.

What I find interesting: the swamp herbalist NPC has dialogue about ley lines that changes depending on how many you've found. She references a "convergence" that hasn't been triggered in generations. That sounds like a hidden boss or quest trigger to me.

I spent way too long trying to map these from compressed YouTube footage. Pretty sure I'm missing at least two. The devs love burying things in places you'd never think to look.

The Original Outward Memorial

In the temperate region, near the eastern cliffs where the original game's starting town of Cierzo would be (50 years later in the timeline, it's ruins now), there's a weathered statue. Players who inspect it closely in the preview build found barely legible inscriptions in the old Outward runic alphabet.

It translates roughly to names of the original game's development team. A memorial easter egg from Nine Dots to their own history. But there's more - interacting with the statue during a full moon (confirmed by day/night cycle dataminers) triggers a ghostly NPC appearance. The ghost offers one line of dialogue and then vanishes. What the line means is still unclear.

This is the kind of thing that makes me love Nine Dots. They didn't have to put this in. Nobody would've complained if they didn't. But someone on the team cared enough to memorialize the people who built the first game. That matters.

Seasonal-Only Locations

This is the big one. Outward 2's seasonal cycle doesn't just change weather - it changes accessibility.

Winter: The frozen rivers in the northern region become traversable, opening paths to islands normally separated by water. One of these islands has a cave with frost-resistant ore deposits and a dormant ice golem. Wake it up or mine around it - your call.

Spring: Flooding in the swamp reveals underwater cave entrances. The waterlogged tunnels contain unique fungal crafting materials used in high-level alchemy. They also contain something that moves in the dark. The preview footage cut away before showing what. Whatever it is, I'm not going in there without backup.

Summer: Heat waves in the volcanic zone clear away ground-level lava in certain areas, exposing obsidian-rich caves that are submerged during other seasons. These caves have the highest density of rare ore nodes in the game. If you're playing a crafter build, summer is your window.

Autumn: Harvest season spawns rare herbs across all regions that aren't available any other time. The temperate zone's farmlands are guarded by special autumn-only creatures (harvest golems, according to concept art). Bring fire damage - harvest golems are probably plant-based and those always hate fire.

Each season hides things you cannot access otherwise. A true completionist run takes a full year of in-game time. Minimum. And that's honestly kind of beautiful.

The False Walls

In the volcanic region's abandoned mines, certain walls don't look like walls. Nine Dots's environmental artists like to hide passages in plain sight - a crack in the rock that's slightly wider than normal, a collapsed pillar you can crouch under, a lava fall you can walk through with sufficient fire resistance.

The community has already started cataloging these from preview footage. The most notable: a false wall in the third volcanic mine that leads to a chamber with a unique greatsword mounted on the wall. No boss, no puzzle. Just a weapon, waiting. Why it's there is unexplained.

I love this. No quest marker. No NPC telling you to look. Just a sword on a wall behind fake rock, and if you find it, you earned it. That's Outward in one room.

Dev Room?

The original Outward had a developer room accessible through a specific sequence of emotes in a specific cave. Players found it six months after launch and it became legend.

Concept art for Outward 2 shows what looks like a modern office tucked into a cave - desks, computers, a coffee machine. Either this is concept art in-joke or it's an actual accessible location. If it exists, the entry method is likely similarly obscure: specific sigil combinations, specific seasonal timing, specific co-op actions.

I wouldn't be surprised if it's hidden behind the ley line network. Complete the convergence, get transported to a joke room where the Nine Dots devs left messages for the players persistent enough to find them. The original game did it. This one probably does too.

The Original Outward Cameos

Set 50 years after the first game, Outward 2 has several references to the original's story and characters.

In the temperate region's tavern, an elderly NPC tells stories about "the adventurer who saved Cierzo" - a direct reference to the player character from Outward 1. The stories change based on which faction you mention you're aligned with, suggesting the game tracks this somehow.

A grave in the northern region bears the name of a major Outward 1 NPC. Which one depends on which original faction ending the game considers canon - honestly unclear at this point. The devs have been cagey about which ending is "real," if any.

Equipment from Outward 1 appears as "ancient relics" in museum-like displays in the temperate city. You can't equip them. You can only look. It's oddly melancholy for a survival game. Your old character's gear is literally in a museum now. Time moves on.

The Unconfirmed Stuff

Rumors from the community that haven't been verified and might be totally wrong:

A hidden fifth region accessible only during a specific seasonal alignment (winter solstice, supposedly). Screenshots exist but could be fake. I want to believe.

A multiplayer-only boss that requires four specific emotes performed simultaneously by two players in co-op. This sounds like exactly the kind of nonsense Nine Dots would hide. I'd put money on this being real.

A crafting recipe for a backpack that's larger than any other inventory in the game, using materials from all four region bosses. If real, this is the ultimate pack mule item.

Anyway, there's more. There's always more with these games. I'll update this guide as the community finds things. The fun part is being wrong about some of this - finding out the real secrets are weirder than what the previews showed.