Region 4: Overgrown City Ruins

The ruins are where The Merlies' scale trick pays off: fallen billboards, sagging shop fronts and electric cables strung between what used to be streets. For humans this is decay; for tiny birds it is the most exciting playground in the game. The official description names the traversal directly — climb electric cables and fallen billboards, and explore everyday objects that have taken on gigantic proportions.

The ruins are the richest scrap source shown so far. A lamp becomes a cozy house, a slate becomes a huge map, an ice cube tray becomes a store room — the upcycling examples the developers themselves use all come from this human-made layer of the world. Explore slowly: the official store text warns that every thorn, rock and tree can be an obstacle here, and the path is often hidden in the wild maze.

Cable climbing is the signature movement of the ruins. Squad members that can grip and climb vertical human structures turn the district from a wall into a web of routes — the abilities hub covers which squad skills open which kinds of passages.

• Birds comfortable on cables and vertical surfaces
• Room in the squad for scrap hauling
• A mental note of shortcuts back to the village