Best Shortcuts To Use In Atomfall

Summary

• Atomfall lacks fast travel, but has varied shortcuts for interconnected world exploration.
• The Secret Tunnel feels less valuable compared to other shortcuts due to proximity advantages.
• Skethermoor entrance to the Interchange is a useful, guarded shortcut to reach distant areas quickly.

One of the main critiques of Atomfall is its lack of fast travel. For a game so focused on exploration and backtracking, you would assume that you’d have the option to jump between waypoints, but instead you’re stuck walking everywhere.

However, this becomes much less of an issue when you consider the wide selection of shortcuts that make the world feel more interconnected, and encourage deeper exploration. Finding these shortcuts can be a challenge, and some are more useful than others, but which is the best?

4

Secret Tunnel

Wyndham Village To Skethermoor

With how useful most of the shortcuts are in Atomfall, it makes it all the more surprising how useless the Secret Tunnel feels in comparison. You’ll likely find the Wyndham Village entrance first, which is found in the basement of the pub Grendel’s Head.

After exploring the basement, you’ll find a slightly hidden entrance to the tunnel that takes you through some Oberon-infested caves, and then out of a bunker into Skethermoor. This is a cool addition, and it makes sense lore-wise to have this route for smuggling, but with how easy it is to get between Wyndham Village and Shethermoor by just going through the gates, this shortcut ends up feeling like a riskier longcut.

3

Slate Mine Caves

Slatten Dale To Skethermoor

If you head east instead of north after exiting the tutorial bunker, then you’ll likely come across your first hostile outlaws, and then finally discover the entrance to the Slate Mine Caves. First, you might want to avoid the NPC you see lingering around one corner of the caves, and just head out to the other side of Slatten Dale this route will lead you to, and that in itself is actually a pretty useful shortcut too.

But, if you’re feeling a bit braver, you can approach this NPC, and realize it’s one of the first friendly faces you’ll come across being Reg. Not only is Reg a useful, if not well-hidden, trader, but he’s also standing near the entrance to Skethermoor. Since there’s usually no direct route between Slatten Dale and Skethermoor, this is definitely one of the more convenient routes.

2

The Sewer Tunnels

Slatten Dale Entrance

The Sewer Tunnels are one of two complex shortcut webs that you’ll come across in Atomfall, and the first entrance you’ll find will be in Slatten Dale. Before even heading into Wyndham Village, there are two entrances to the Sewer Tunnels on the Northern side of the region.

The first entrance is near a small pond close to the entrance to Wyndham Village, and if you manage to fight off the piranhas, you’ll be able to use this route to get to an alternate entrance to Wyndham Village. The second entrance is more versatile, letting you roam the sewers more freely, but you’ll need to buy a key to the entrance from Molly who hangs out by her campfire along the walls of Wyndham Village.

Wyndham Village Entrance

Wyndham Village is one of the locations that is least in need of any good shortcuts. There are official gated entrances that you can take to Casterfell Woods, Slatten Dale, and Skethermoor, and while it’s technically trespassing, you can quite easily get into the Interchange as well.

Because of this, the Wyndham Village entrance to the Sewer Tunnels will likely not be a heavy-traffic route for your character. The route is pretty useless early on, taking a lot of effort to get to, and just being a slightly more inconvenient way to get to Slatten Dale. Once the internal gates open up more, it could be worth going out of your way for, but there are still usually easier ways to get everywhere.

Casterfell Woods Entrance

Like Slatten Dale, there are two entrances to the Sewer Tunnels in Casterfell Woods. The most obvious is right in the middle of the map, and also happens to be in the middle of the druid territory. This is one of the more useful entrances, since it’s a great way to get into the middle of Casterfell Woods quickly, but it will, of course, also spit you out right by a bunch of hostile druids, so be warned.

The southern entrance is a bit better hidden, and since the southern side of Casterfell Woods is a bit more isolated connections-wise, this is also a useful route to keep in mind. This entrance is worth considering if you want to get near druid territory, without actually going right into the lion’s den.

1

The Interchange

Slatten Dale Entrance

The Interchange is undoubtedly the best way to get around the map of Atomfall, especially by the time you’re in the second half of the game, but during your first visit, likely through the Slatten Dale entrance, it will be anything but inviting.

During this first visit you won’t have access to much of the massive building, but later on in the game, this entrance will actually be useful as an exit. It’s easy to get to from the main control room, and it’ll put you in a nice open spot in Slatten Dale that is easy to traverse.

Wyndham Village Entrance

While you’ll need to open the Wyndham Village entrance to the Interchange eventually, there’s no rush since it’s one of the less useful Interchange shortcuts. It’ll only grant you access to a small part of the Interchange, and the entrance is guarded and counts as trespassing when you’re actually in Wyndham Village.

In spite of this, the Wyndham Village entrance is guarded incredibly poorly by the Protocol, and while this isn’t a particularly useful way to get around the map (since Wyndham Village is central enough anyway), it is one of the best ways to quickly get to the central chamber of the Interchange.

Casterfell Woods Entrance

The Casterfell Woods entrance to the Interchange is useful for how much of the Interchange it opens up for you. It’s an area you’ll need to open to progress the story, but as an actual shortcut it’s one of the less useful Interchange entrances.

This is because the door to the Interchange is located right next to the gate between Casterfell Woods and Wyndham Village, so it’s not particularly convenient in comparison to the overworld route between these two locations. However, Casterfell Woods is quite isolated from Skethermoor and Slatten Dale, so this is a good way to get between these three zones, especially for Skethermoor since it doesn’t have a sewer tunnel.

Skethermoor Entrance

Aside from the Slate Mine Caves entrance, Skethermoor is one of the more isolated regions, especially given how useless the Secret Tunnel between it and Wyndham Village is. Because of this, the Skethermoor entrance to the Interchange is one of the most useful shortcuts in the game.

The entrance gives you access to otherwise tricky to reach areas of the Interchange, and it’s the quickest way to get to somewhere like Casterfell Woods from Skethermoor. However, this comes with the caveat that it’s well-guarded in Protocol territory, but if you’re aligned with the Protocol, or just very sneaky, this shouldn’t be too much of a problem.