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Order of the Sinking Star Walkthrough Part 3: South Skipping Stones

Part 3 of 7: Skipping Stones to Lonely Homes south walkthrough - soft stone and lily-pad rules, Level 1 Screens 1-13 with treasure notes, Level 2 co-op C1/C2 solutions, and the Screen 5 left series.

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By GameClue19 min read

Spoiler warning: this guide may discuss puzzles and story details. Hints stay hidden until you choose to reveal them.

This is Part 3 of GameClue's seven-part Order of the Sinking Star walkthrough. From the Crossroads, sail south into Skipping Stones to Lonely Homes. Part 0 covers hub habits; Part 1 is North; Part 2 is East Mirror Isles. Here stones skip across open water, lily pads ride currents, and timing matters as much as pathing.

Skipping Stones to Lonely Homes - South world.

Soft Skipping Stones rules

  • Kick a stone into open water and it skips in a straight line until something stops it.
  • If a skip lands on shore, the stone becomes a normal pushable rock. If something stops it while it is still over water (another stone, a sailor, a submerged rock), it sinks and turns into a walkable tile.
  • Two-stone paving is the core move: send a stopper across first, then skip a second stone into it so the second sinks in the gap.
  • On land, push one stone one tile at a time. You cannot shove a chain of two stones.
  • Lily pads drift the way they are hit. Side hits slide them sideways; head-on hits keep the stone direction.
  • White streaks are currents. Pads ride them; skipping stones do not. A stone already riding a pad travels with it.
  • A drifting pad stops when it bumps another pad. A pad wedged into a corner with land on two neighboring sides is stuck for good.
  • A stone sunk inside a current cuts that current. Later boards use this to bend flow.
  • Pads pause briefly before they start drifting - use that beat to step on.
  • Hold Ctrl (or R2) to slow time while still moving; hold Alt (or L2) to speed long waits. Undo dims the screen. R resets to the area checkpoint but does not restore stones you already lost off-map.
  • Tab opens the map. The South map wraps from bottom to top.

Route structure below follows GameRant's Skipping Stones to Lonely Homes hub plus its Level 1 and Level 2 solution pages, cross-checked with WikiTactics' Skipping Stones boards, sinkingstarwalkthrough's South writeups, and Gamer Guru's South video companion. Level 1 is thirteen solo screens with optional treasures; Level 2 adds a second sailor (C1/C2) across twelve screens, then a Screen 5 left series.

South companion video - Skipping Stones to Lonely Homes solutions and treasures (cross-check with Gamer Guru South coverage).

South overview and Level 1 opener

Soft tip: grab the map early in Screen 1, then work east and south through lily-pad currents. Stones you leave behind stay put across screens inside the same level, so plan which rocks you ferry forward.

South overworld map - Tab wraps top and bottom.
Screen 1 entrance - map ledge across the waterfall current.
Level 1 early screens - pads, stones, and currents.

Level 1 - Screens 1 to 4

Soft tip: Screen 1 teaches pad launches into the waterfall current. Screens 2-4 chain pad timing and the first two-stone bridges into later rooms. Optional treasures sit on side islets; missing early spare stones can soft-lock treasure 6 later.

Screen 2 - pad launches and crossings.
Screen 2 second half - ferry a stone with a pad.
Screen 3 - dual pad drops into the current.

Level 1 - Screens 5 to 9

Soft tip: Screen 5 introduces two-stone paving across open water. Screen 6-7 teach ferrying a rock onto a pad, then using brown rocks for Treasure 1 before you clear the brown orb. Screens 8-9 stack multi-pad currents and timed dual-pad rides.

Screen 5 region - paving bridges and pad launches.

Level 1 - Screens 10 to 13 and Treasure 2

Soft tip: Screen 11 can divert a current by stacking skips, then offers a timed dual-pad grab for Treasure 2. Screens 12-13 close the solo chain; Screen 10 is the return ride to the ruin and back toward Screen 1. South 1 also hides four more optional treasures later - early spare-stone setups matter for the last one.

Level 2 - Co-op sailor screens

Soft tip: Level 2 adds a second sailor. Label them C1 and C2 however you like until the finale, where the Level 1 sailor must be C1. Steps below name who acts. Pink and blue stones are just color cues on shared boards. Hold slow-mo for mid-current stone handoffs.

Level 2 - two sailors sharing stones and pads.
Screen 5 dual-sailor series after the main Level 2 chain.

Screen 5 left puzzle series

Soft tip: after the main Level 2 chain, Screen 5 opens a left-hand series of dual-sailor boards. C1 is the Level 1 sailor; C2 is the newcomer. Expect submerged stepping stones, paired pad launches, and teleporters at the end of several rooms.

Optional South 1 treasures

  • All six South 1 treasures are optional - no unlock gate and no achievement, but companion lines change and finds go on display.
  • Treasure 6 needs two early setups: in puzzle 1, prefer the stone route to the map and park a spare stone far left instead of spending both pads; in puzzle 7, push a stone north onto the dark island before leaving the golden platform area.
  • Later treasures sit on side islets off puzzles 2, 3, 7, 11, and the final stretch - use two-stone paving and timed pad rides.

Next: Part 4 West

When South's ships and teleporters are clear, return to the Crossroads and head west into Beamcasters for Part 4. Part 5 covers Gold and Part 6 covers the Antipode High/Low finales.