In Blacktail, players will be traversing the woods in search of lost spirits, which will be aided by the ability to teleport across the map. As Yaga wanders, she will pick up skills, scrolls, and other useful items that will need to be spent back at the Hut. Being able to return to the Hut at will is crucial in order to make sure Yaga has the skills to survive her encounters in the woods.
Blacktail is a fantasy, folkloric adventure through the woods, where a teenager named Yaga is searching for her twin sister. Yaga also has another voice in her head, guiding her through various encounters and making ominous comments on occasion. The game will also ask Yaga to make some moral choices, guiding her to become a light or dark being herself.
Making Friends to Fast Travel in Blacktail
Many modern games have a fast travel mechanic that allows players to traverse large swathes of the map after unlocking certain areas or objects. This is meant to make the map easier to get around, as it can take a long time to get across larger maps. In Blacktail, the map is smaller, but fast travel is still useful for getting to and from the Hut, which functions as the player’s home base. Players might guess that they could utilize the campfires to fast travel as in the Horizon series. However, in Blacktail the campfires are only used for cooking and players must find another way to traverse the map.
Yaga will have to reach the Hut before she can attempt any kind of fast travel. This will happen soon after the initial tutorial in Blacktail. While at the Hut, make sure to give the black cat sitting next to the stairs a pat on the head. Once Yaga leaves the Hut, she will continue to see the black cat throughout her wanderings in the woods. The black cat is the only way to fast travel, and there is only one of him.
This means that players can only travel back and forth between the Hut and the last place Yaga used the black cat to travel, much like lanterns in Bloodborne can only take players back to the Hunter’s Dream. Players can save this checkpoint to an extent. For instance, if they use the black cat to go back to the Hut, go elsewhere searching for collectibles, and then by using the cat at the Hut can travel back to where they were before. However, for the most part, players in Blacktail will be using the black cat to travel back and forth between the Hut, allowing them to make any upgrades or change skills before returning to where they left off from. Don’t forget that Yaga can reward the black cat by offering him a fish at the Hut as well.
Later in Blacktail, after the boss fight with the Shade of Dragoy, players will also be able to use a type of teleportation, but this is mainly only used for getting across hard-to-traverse terrains, like rivers. To do this, simply shoot an arrow at a glowing blue statue, and Yaga will teleport across to it. This is not true fast travel, but it does unlock new areas of the map for Yaga to visit.
After crossing into new areas, the black cat will reveal there’s even more to him than meets the eye. He can also be rewarded by bringing a fish back to the Hut for him to eat. The black cat is a central part of this game, and a strong friend for Yaga to have. And the further she wanders in Blacktail, the more useful the black cat’s fast travel back to the Hut will be.
Source: YouTube|Focus Entertainment