How To Use The Compendium In Mudborne

While you’re free to see the pond and explore pretty much at your own pace as you play through Mudborne, if you’re looking for a little bit more structure to help you get the most out of your time in the ecosystem, follow along with the Compendium guide offering goal-based tasks.

Haru from One Night, Hot Springs, Freya from Coffee Talk, and Eugene from Duck Detective side by side.

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Need to relax but don’t have much free time? Here are the best short cozy games you can beat in just a few hours.

The Compendium asks you to explore the entirety of the pond’s maps, make friends along the way, and breed more than two dozen unique frog species to help restore the area after a hibernation event that seems to have gone awry. Finishing chapters offers plenty of helpful rewards, too.

Every Chapter Of The Compendium

A page of the Compendium in Mudborne for the Long Road Ahead chapter.

In the tables below, we’ve distilled the entire Mudborne Compendium down to a quick-glance guide for you to follow along with, providing answers to some of the trickier puzzles that act as benchmark goals.

Getting Around

Task Name	Goal	Tips
Guiding Light	N/A	Read the text and click the button to continue.
Get Moving	Chase some frogs.	Run around the pond ribbiting at frogs as you run toward them.
Using Items	Chop down a tree.	Any freestanding tree, in the grass or the water, counts.
Excess Baggage	Open your inventory.	The E key opens your inventory for two more rows of storage. Move anything to the hot bar at the top to scroll through or use your numerical buttons to access it quickly.
Taking Out the Trash	Trash an item.	Move any inventory item to the garbage slot, even if you grab it back immediately.
On the Menu	Open a crate.	There are a few free crates right outside the Carpenter’s Shop. Use the sort button at the top of your inventory when using a chest or crate to auto-stash any items that are already in the storage bin.
Look it Up	Check the encyclopedia.	This is where you’ll keep track of all the frog species you breed, the various kinds of mushrooms you’ve found, and where you’ll find all the information about critters (like what they taste like or where to find them).
Moving On	N/A	Read the text and click the button to continue.

The frog in the dream telling you about the Compendium in Mudborne.

Tools Of The Trade

Task Name	Goal	Tips
Closer Look	Inspect a frog.	Using a magnifying glass on items gives you information at a glance in the bottom-right corner of your screen.
Catching Flies	Catch a bug.	Using your net, swing at any group of insects you see around the pond, which all appear only under specific conditions.
BFFs	Equip any frog.	Any frog you catch in your net can be placed in the slot with the heart icon over the trash can, and they’ll follow you around as you explore.
Hammer Time	Bonk something.	Hammers allow you to take any chests, crates, and even assorted frog furniture back to your home to use for yourself.
Axe You a Question	Plant a tree.	After chopping trees, you’ll receive seeds of some kind to replant them to keep the ecosystem plentiful.
Sleeping In	Sleep until morning.	Go back to your bed at the Carpenter’s Shop and interact with it to immediately pass time until the following morning.
All Together Now	N/A	Read the text and click the button to continue.
Drop in the Bucket	N/A	Read the text and click the button to continue.
Stick in the Mud	Get some mud.	While standing in mud, equip an empty bucket and click on the ground to collect a bucket of mud.
Hold Water	Get some water.	While standing in the waters of the pond, equip an empty bucket and click the ground to collect a bucket of water.

Giving Hopert the Loft Key in Mudborne to gain access to the first gate to the Gateway Nexus.

Snug As A Bug

Task Name	Goal	Tips
Grocery Shopping	N/A	Read the text and click the button to continue.
Looking Like a Snack	Eat some bugs.	Use the right mouse button to stick out your tongue while standing in a swarm of bugs to grab a taste for yourself, allowing you to work out each bug’s flavour profile.
Gourmet Chef	N/A	Read the text and click the button to continue.
Nothing but Net	Catch a bug.	Swing your net at any bug to collect it, though you won’t know what it tastes like until you taste it yourself.
Trade Secret	N/A	Read the text and click the button to continue, collecting 20 Dracoflies.

A chest full of mushroom powders in Mudborne.

Mushroom Magic

Task Name	Goal	Tips
Down to Earth	N/A	Read the text and click the button to continue.
Mother Nature	Inspect spores.	When you see a mushroom beginning to bloom in the wild, use your magnifying glass to learn all the details about said mushroom before you even pick it.
Reduce, Reuse, Recycle	Get a composter.	Trade five logs and one bucket of mud to Hopert.
In the Mix	Make leafy compost.	Almost every combination in the composter makes Leafy Compost, but a staple recipe for it is one leaf, one waterproof coat, and one log.
Green Thumb	Get a cultivator.	Trade one log and one waterproof coating to Hopert.
Perfect Conditions	N/A	Read the text and click the button to continue.
Reap the Harvest	Harvest mushrooms.	Collect any fully-grown mushroom that might appear in your composter, which changes based on where you place the machine.
Mushroom Master	N/A	Read the text and click the button to continue, collecting 9 Leafy Composts.

Dendro telling you about lineage in Mudborne.-1

Hop To It!

Task Name	Goal	Tips
Box of Frogs	N/A	Read the text and click the button to continue.
Catch Me if You Can	Catch a frog.	Use your net to catch any frog you see in the pond. You can ribbit at them to draw them in.
You and What Army	Release any frog.	Open your inventory and place any frog from there onto the ground around you.
Home Sweet Home	N/A	Read the text and click the button to continue.
The Birds and the Frogs	Gather Frogspawn.	Follow the steps to begin breeding new frogs by putting two frogs into a spawner together.
Not Mushroom	Get Stout Funnels.	These mushrooms grow in the water during rainy conditions. You’ll see three tall blue mushrooms grouped together, all with white stems.
Daily Grind	Grind mushrooms.	Grind any mushroom you’ve found into a pile of powder.
Toil and Trouble	Make +3A mud.	+3A mud is mud that adds three points of Amplitude to the resulting frog. It can be made with three piles of Stout Funnel powder in the cauldron.
Born of the Mud	Get tadpoles.	Place your Frogspawn and magic mud into a nursery with an empty bucket of water, and wait for them to grow into tadpoles.
One Born Every Minute	Grow new frogs.	Put tadpoles into a feeder, give them the critters they ask for, and wait until they’ve grown into adult frogs.
Spice of Life	N/A	Read the text and click the button to continue.
Key to Success	N/A	Read the text and click the button to continue, collecting two Arches.

The traits page in the Compendium in Mudborne.

A.N.O.U.R.E.S.

Task Name	Goal	Tips
Genetic Makeup	N/A	Read the text to learn all about the seven different traits frogs will take on, and then click the button to continue.
Amplitude
Nobility
Odour
Umbrage
Ribbit
Edacity
Saturation
Full Spectrum		Read the text and click the button to continue, collecting five Frog Ponds.

The dream frog telling you to talk to Dendro in Mudborne.

The Long Road Ahead

Task Name	Goal	Tips
Playing God	Create Vast Mudlurker.	A Vast Mudlurker can be bred by raising the Amplitude of a Common Green frogspawn by three, using your +3A mud.
Time to Reflect	Use the Central Pool.	Unlock the central reflection pool by placing a Long-Legged Dazzler into the reader when you interact with the pool.
See the Future	Find the Predictor.	There are predictor machines in almost every building around the central pond.
Selective Breeding	Find the Breeder blueprint.	This blueprint is in the chest in the Mass Breeding office, which you’ll need to access the dream world to do.
Sleeping Spores	Get Dream Mushrooms.	These mushrooms can be found mud during wet, balmy weather in the dream world.
Lost in a Dream	Check the Reception Notice.	Read the notice board outside the Reception building.
Looking for Clues	Find the Reception Key	You’ll find the reception key after opening the Pontoon Reflection Pool.
Warm Reception	Find a way north.	Place a Vast Mudlurker from your inventory onto the pressure pad nearby to permanently compress it.
Heavy Lifting	Meet the Historian.	Find Dendro on a wooden pier to the north of Reception once the new stepping stones appear.
Down the Ages	Find the Progenitor.	The blueprint is in the Ancestry Research lab, and can be given to Hopert to facilitate for trades.
One Giant Leap	Open the Northern Pool.	Bring a Pungent Green with a Furious Lurker as the previous generation – this pool checks ancestry and lineage.
Learned the Ropes	N/A	Read the text and click the button to continue, collecting a backpack.

At this point, you can proceed into the next chapters at whatever pace you like. You’ll need to cross between worlds several times to get the right mushrooms for frog breeding, but you’re free to explore as you please.

Going to the Reception building as part of the Long Road Ahead chapter of the Compendium in Mudborne.

Breaking The Seal

Task Name	Goal	Tips
So Close, So Far	N/A	Read the text and click the button to continue.
Mile a Minute	Use a Gateway.	You may have done this already if you’ve been exploring the Gateway Nexus.
In Full Bloom	Get the Kindergarten Seal.	Complete the A Bite to Eat chapter and get the seal from the Kindergarten map with the help of Ribbert.
Down the Drain	Get the Residential Seal.	Complete the Down the Drain chapter and get the seal from the Residential District map with the help of Kroaka.
The Ice-Frog Cometh	Get the Control Seal.	Complete the Butter Wouldn’t Melt chapter and get the seal from the Climate Control map with the help of Annura.

Finding a spare bucket in the Kindergarten in Mudborne.

A Bite To Eat

Task Name	Goal	Tips
Sidequested	N/A	Read the text and click the button to continue.
No Filter	Use a filter.	You’ll need to get an Algae Filter from Ribbert, and use a frog with high Edacity (like a Furious Lurker) to clear algae blooms around the Kindergarten map.
Knowledge is Power	Give Ribbert Research.	Head into the Spore Lab and grab the Bug Trap blueprint for Ribbert, clearing a path through the algae going west from the central lift.
Special Delivery	Install a bucket.	Clear the algae leading to the pier north of Ribbert to get a spare bucket, then install it onto one of the broken lifts around the Kindergarten map.
Not the Sharpest Tool	Install a backup bucket.	Get the extra bucket from the maintenance shed, using the feeders to clear a path for yourself through the algae, and fix the broken lift near the center.
Busy Bees	Install an extra bucket.	Clear the algae blocking your path toward the apiary in the northwest area of the map, and grab the buckets from there to fix more lifts.

Trading with Kroaka in the Residential District in Mudborne.

Down The Drain

Task Name	Goal	Tips
Cleaning Duties	N/A	Read the text and click the button to continue.
Home and Dry	Harvest a Mushroom.	By using a Dehydrator with a low Saturation frog (like a Weeny Sponge) indoors, you can dry out the air. This allows mushrooms to begin sporing, which can be hurried along if you’ve got a cultivator with compost inside as well.

Buying an alchemist from Annura in Mudborne.

Butter Wouldn’t Melt

Task Name	Goal	Tips
Work to Do	N/A	Read the text and click the button to continue.
Let it Snow	Get a heater.	Speak to Annura and trade for a heater.
Heating Up	Harvest a Frosty Jack.	Place a heater in the water when it’s sunny.
Cooling Off	Freeze Water	Breed a Common Green in mud made with three Frosty Jacks for Frosty Hollow with minimal Umbrage to do this.
Brass Monkeys	Thaw the Sensors.	Use your Coolers to freeze water to make paths toward the weather sensors, and thaw them using your Heaters.
Turn it On and Off Again	Reset the System.	Use your Coolers to make a path to the XX room, then use a Frosty Hollow and an Evil Lurker to reset the machinery.
Seal the Deal	Make a Seal.	Use the Sealmaker to create the Climate Control seal for the main storyline.

Pursue these goals in Mudborne to learn the story’s truth!

Haru from One Night, Hot Springs, Nikki from Infinity Nikki, and Leah from Pokemon Cafe ReMix standing in a row.

What Does Cozy Gaming Mean To You?

To me, a cozy game is less about what you’re doing and more about how it makes you feel. It doesn’t have to be all cute animals or farming fields (though those don’t hurt); if I can sink into it like a warm blanket, it’s cozy.

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