Big Walk Wiki
The Five That Change How You Play
Most of Big Walk's objects are toys. Five of them change what your group is capable of, and a group that has all five plays a noticeably different game from one that has none.
The item scanner
Marks nearby interactive objects on your screen. It sounds minor and it is not: Big Walk hides levers, doors and challenge pieces in dark corners, tall grass and cluttered interiors, and without a scanner the answer to "is there anything here?" is a ten-minute sweep by four people.
If your group has any habit of dropping things, keep one on a walker at all times. It is the single best insurance policy in the game.
Backpacks and hip bags
Found inside the blue spiral structures dotted across the island. A backpack takes an item of any size; a hip bag takes only smaller things like radios and walkie-talkies. With both, one player can carry three objects at once — one in each bag, one in their hands.
Two things worth knowing:
- You cannot put one on yourself. A teammate has to equip it for you, which is why Big Pack and Big Help are two of the achievements solo-minded players never get. It also means a duo can equip each other and a lone wanderer cannot.
- Bagged items survive a long fall. Anything in your hands can be lost down a slope; anything in a bag stays with you. Carry keys and gourds in a bag, not in your hands.
Walkie-talkies
The long-range voice channel, and the reason a scout is viable at all. Some are colour-coded — the colour is cosmetic, the radios all work together. Press to talk and you hold the channel: only one person can transmit at a time, so a group of twelve needs the same discipline a real radio net does. They also carry typed messages, which matters for anyone who cannot use a mic.
Certain challenges deliberately jam them. If a walkie-talkie goes dead inside a challenge area, that is the design talking, not a bug — the puzzle wants you to solve the communication problem another way.
Flare guns
Kept in the tall cylindrical structure, reached by climbing to the top and dropping in. There are four, in different colours, and they do two jobs at once: light up an area, and put a visible marker in the sky that the rest of the island can navigate towards. For "come to me" over a distance nothing else comes close.
The GPS box
Sits near the Green Tower, next to a wooden sign printed with two pairs of coordinates. Carry the box and it reads out your current position; walk until your reading matches the sign and you are standing on what the sign was pointing at — one target is a switch, the other a locked box holding a gourd.
It is a two-player puzzle by construction. The switch and the box are far apart and both have to be handled at the same time, so bring a friend and a walkie-talkie.
Everything Else, Briefly
| Item | What it does | Where it turns up |
|---|---|---|
| Foldable map | The Map Room's map, in your hands, out in the field | After the Red Tower opens the Map Room |
| Compass | Cardinal directions while you move | Around the starting area |
| Binoculars / telescope | Zoom in on distant ground; the telescope also lights up what it finds | Scattered; common near lookouts |
| Key cutter | Shapes a raw tower key into a usable one | Stations near each tower — see the walkthrough |
| Radio | Plays music. No gameplay function whatsoever | Music area, near the radio stations |
| Lamps and torches | Light. Hold one up and it lights a much wider area | Everywhere, especially near tunnels |
| Paintbrush | Draws on the ground and paints players | Near painting areas; the metallic colours are hidden in the tunnels |
| Laser pointer | Points at a spot everyone can see | Scattered |
The radio stations are worth the detour. If you find an area with music playing and no challenge in it, look around for a station — switching it on adds its playlist to every radio your group carries. It does nothing for progress. It is a soundtrack for the walk, and on a four-hour trek that turns out to matter.
Carrying Rules Nobody Tells You
- Do not press the throw button while holding anything important. Throwing launches the object a long way, and out in open country a thrown gourd or key can be genuinely hard to find again. This is the most common self-inflicted disaster in the game.
- You do not have to hold the button to hold an item up. Keep the raise held for a moment and the pose latches; let go and your character keeps holding it. Perfect for walking a long stretch at night with a lamp in the air.
- Raised light covers more ground. Same lamp, much wider pool of light. On tunnel and night sections it is the difference between a group and four people alone in the dark.
- Put valuables in a bag. Bagged items do not drop when you fall.
When Something Is Lost
Work down this list before anyone panics:
- Search the drop point, downhill first. Objects roll. A scanner makes this trivial.
- Check every teammate's hands and bags. In a twelve-player group, "lost" usually means "someone else picked it up and forgot".
- Go to the Lost & Found. The hall in the starting area has a table that collects what the group was holding when the last session ended. Reopening the save is how things get there, so a session that ends with the key in someone's hands is a session that hands it back to you next time.
- Challenge items go home. Anything a challenge needs that has gone missing turns up back where it started, so return to the challenge and pick it up again.
Persistent connection or lobby problems are a different kind of missing — the online fix guide covers those.
Gadget Questions
Where do I find a backpack in Big Walk?
Inside the blue spiral structures spread across the island. Some hold a backpack, some a hip bag, and at least one holds both. A teammate has to put it on you — you cannot equip your own, which is why the Big Pack and Big Help achievements need two players.
What does the item scanner do?
It marks interactive objects near you on screen, which makes searching dark or cluttered areas fast instead of miserable. Keep one in the group at all times, especially if you tend to drop things.
How do I use the coordinates in Big Walk?
Carry the GPS box found near the Green Tower. It reads out your current position, and the wooden sign nearby prints two pairs of coordinates — walk until your reading matches to find a switch and a locked gourd box. Both have to be handled at once, so it needs at least two players.
I lost an item — can I get it back?
Usually. Search the drop point downhill, check everyone's bags, then look at the Lost & Found table in the starting area hall, which collects what the group was holding when the last session ended. Items a challenge needs reappear at that challenge.
Do the walkie-talkie colours mean anything?
No. The colours are cosmetic and every walkie-talkie talks to every other one. Only one person can transmit at a time, though, so the channel is a shared resource.
Does the radio do anything useful?
No — it is purely music. Switching on a radio station out in the world adds that station's playlist to the radios your group carries, which is a quality-of-life thing for long walks and nothing more.
For which tool to reach for in a given mess, see the communication tools guide. For where these items fit into finishing the game, see the walkthrough.