Generally, except as mentioned below, it is harmless to have characters examine things, get advice, or tell legends or stories, and it's up to you whether you want to give those commands. DON'T have Praxix tell his legend about magic, however, because it uses up some of his air essence, and you begin with only just enough to get through the game. (Nasty trick.)

Before you select Start, you may wish to read the Background. You can also Change Name away from "Tag", if you like.

Beginning

Enter (the provisioner's shop). Tag - buy - map. Exit. Proceed. Enter (the Lands End tavern). Esher - look around. Exit. Bergon - accept (Minar). Proceed.

The Nymph Stone

Minar - scout. Right. Minar - scout. Praxix - examine - bodies. Proceed. Minar - scout. Follow smoke. Knock. Tell truth. Minar - look around. Exit. ("The water that heals, the fire reveals"... interesting.) Praxix - examine - bag. Proceed.

Esher - examine - stream. Find gold. Find gold. Praxix - cast - Elevation - Tag. Proceed. Praxix - cast - Glow - staff. Enter cave. Proceed.

Enter pool. Leave tube. Tag - hide. Wide path. Left. Tag - pick up - torch. Back. Right. Tag - pick up - blue amulet. Proceed. Tag - pick up - cover. Tag - drop - blue amulet. Junction. Smelly Pool. Dive. Tag - pick up - blue amulet. Surface. Back. Tag - examine - Minar. To cave. Proceed.

Upstream. Upstream. Build raft. Launch raft. Cross. Cross. Cross. Cross. Praxix - cast - Glow - map. Praxix - examine - map.

The Dwarf Stone

Minar - scout. Tag - get help. Enter. Proceed. Proceed. Proceed. Parley. Bergon - tell truth. Bergon - accept. Hurth - tell story - elves. (Note the Elvish words in this story, particularly the suffix "-la" on a name, meaning "is here", and the word "B'ran" meaning "friend".)  Proceed. Proceed. Hurth - examine - runes. Proceed. Proceed. Proceed.

Back. Praxix - cast - Tremor. Proceed. Enter. Praxix - cast - Flare. (Note the color and texture of the residue from mixing air + fire to cast Flare.) Praxix - cast - Elevation - Bergon. Hurth - scout. Right. Fight. Praxix - cast - Mud. Bergon (or Hurth) - flank. (Note the color and texture of the residue from mixing earth + water to cast Mud.) Combat. Combat. Combat.

Return. Back. Up. Left. Praxix - cast - Elevation - Bergon. Praxix - cast - Wind. (Note the color and texture of the residue from mixing earth + air to cast Wind.) Bergon - leave Esher. Up. Minar - look around. Tag - pick up - spyglass. Down. Right. Exit.

The Elf Stone

Split up. Return. Proceed. Praxix - examine - stump. Praxix - cast - Tremor. Down. Back. Stream path. Approach. Approach. Talk to Elf. Speak Elvish. [Type:] Tag-la ("Tag is here"). (Change your name here, of course, if you've changed your name in the game.) Speak Elvish. [Type:] B'ran Agrith ("Friend of Agrith"). Praxix route. Down. Proceed. Esher - examine - walls. Proceed. ("Oh dear," said Praxix. "I hope this isn't one of those underground mazes." Grrr...) Left. Left. Left. Left. Up. Elf home. Follow Elves. Praxix - cast - rain.

The Spirit Stone

North route. Enter. Bergon - confront or ignore (choose either; it doesn't matter). Down. This Level. Hurth - scout. Around orcs. Right. Praxix - examine - runes. Praxix - speak. [Type:] Lorem. Back. Past orcs. Praxix - cast - Tremor. Praxix - cast - Elevation - himself. Proceed. Proceed.

Praxix - cast - Tremor. Combat. Combat. Praxix - mix - reagent - water. Praxix - use mix - Bergon. Proceed. Enter tunnel. Left. Old mine. Praxix - examine - walls. Back.

New mine. Enter cleft. Praxix - examine - walls. Back. Enter cleft. Hurth - examine - walls. Bergon - ask miner - orcs. Bergon - ask miner - orcs. Bergon - ask miner - mine. Tag - pick up - red rock. Back. Back.

Right. Crude path. Down - Bergon - Hurth. Hurth - Jump. Hurth - look around. Hurth - climb up. Back. Ornate path. Esher - examine - door. Open door. Praxix - examine - runes. Praxix - mix - reagent - fire. Praxix - use mix - vault. Hurth - examine - coffin. Hurth - examine - white stone. Back. Back.

The Earth Stone

Proceed. Praxix - cast - Flare. (If you missed the color and texture of the residue of air + fire before, you can note it now.) Proceed. Praxix - ask tree - paths. Milky Way. Praxix - examine - mechanism. Praxix - cast - Glow - staff. Down. Right. Praxix - examine - device. Back. Proceed. Proceed. Praxix - cast - Wind. Back. (Note the rune mentioned at the second pit.) Back. (Note the rune mentioned at the first pit.) Control room.

(The device connects any two of the various mine pits. The first dial is the source and the second is the destination, but you can only get into the three pits you've seen.) Left dial - [second pit]. Right dial - [first pit]. Push button. Wait. (You should see "something peculiar" in the room description.) Back to pits. Down. Praxix - pick up - pick-axe. Mine rock. Proceed. Proceed. Praxix - drop - pick-axe. Control room. (This would be a good place to save the game, just in case.)

(Now you must figure out the rune for the third pit. The dropped pick-axe will act as a marker: when you succeed in teleporting it to the first pit, you'll know you've found the rune for the third pit.) Left dial - [pick any of the four unknown runes]. Push button. Wait. (Repeat with a different setting on the left dial if necessary. When you see the "something peculiar" again, you've done it.)

(Now, swap the positions of the two dials.) Left dial - [first pit]. Right dial - [third pit]. Push button. (Do not wait this time! You have to catch the tunnel while it's being connected.) Back to pits. Down. Follow light. Cross. Proceed. Tower. Up. Accept. Down. Praxix - mix - reagent - fire. Praxix - use mix - stones. Back. Courtyard. Praxix - cast - flare. Proceed. Esher - examine - Hurth. Proceed. Hide. Follow orcs. Tag - inventory. Tag - use - red rock. Run for it. Proceed.

The Anvil

Hurth - examine - shadow. Hide. Praxix - mix - air - water. Proceed. Bergon - stay. Bergon - ask Umber - mudwargs. Bergon - get advice. Praxix - examine - Umber's sack. Praxix - mix - black reagent - fire. Praxix - use mix - staff. Leave.

Curio shop. Hurth - look around. Praxix - reply. Praxix - examine - gray stone. Tag - Buy - gray stone. Tag - trade - spyglass. Proceed.

Tavern. Order meal. Esher - examine - other table. Praxix - cast - Invisibility. Tag - eavesdrop. Tag - eavesdrop. Tag - eavesdrop. (Note of the name of the "drunkard" mentioned.) Exit.

Inn. Check in. Bergon - accept. Exit. Wharf. Yes. [Enter the name you heard in the tavern.] (If you got it right, the harbormaster will reply "Now that's a laugh.") Zephyr. Bergon - tell truth. Bergon - accept. Camp out. Praxix - mix - gray reagent - fire. Praxix - cast - Tremor. Praxix - use mix - sheriff. Relax. Praxix - cast - Elevation - Tag. (Now you know where the island is.) Praxix - cast - Wind. Tag - pick up - pouch. Save the game. (Logic grid puzzle ahoy!)

As hinted in Tag's internal-thought text, you want to cast Lightning, which is fire and water with a pinch of earth. However, Tag does not know which color and texture of powder is for which element. You must use the mentions in the Dwarf Stone section of the color and texture of a residue on Praxix's hands to figure it out.

The possible colors are blue, yellow, red, and white, and possible textures are coarse and fine. Colors mix in the usual way of primary color paints (e.g., red + blue = violet). Medium texture means the powders were one coarse and one fine; coarse or fine texture means both were coarse or both were fine. Drawing a table like the one below may help:

Element	Texture	Color
earth
air
water
fire

For example, say air+fire = coarse pink, earth+water = fine violet, and earth+air = medium pale blue. Since the residue of air and fire is coarse, they must both be coarse; since the residue of earth and water is fine, they must both be fine:

Element	Texture	Color
earth	fine
air	coarse
water	fine
fire	coarse

Pink is red + white, so of air and fire, one is red and one is white. Violet is red + blue, so of earth and water, one is red and one is blue. Pale blue is blue + white, so of earth and air, one is blue and one is white. Therefore, you can deduce that air is white (the common one in the two pale colors), thus fire is red (to make pink with white air), earth is blue (to make pale blue with white air), and water is red (to make violet with blue earth).

Element	Texture	Color
earth	fine	blue
air	coarse	white
water	fine	red
fire	coarse	red

You may also encounter all three residues being the same texture. For example, air + fire = medium orange, earth + water = medium orange, and earth + air = medium yellow. In this case, since all the residues are medium texture, you can't immediately deduce the individual textures beyond the fact that air and water are the same, and earth and fire are the same.

So, first do color. Air and earth must be yellow since their mixed residue is yellow. Therefore both water and fire are red, because air (yellow) + fire = orange, and earth (yellow) + water = orange.

Element	Texture	Color
earth		yellow
air		yellow
water		red
fire		red

To deduce the textures in this situation, select Mix and look at the list of powders. You'll see that you only have seven left, not eight. Disregard the powders of colors that could not produce the colors you observed in the combinations (e.g. in this example, if there were a blue powder, disregard it: a blue powder could not yield yellow or orange residue). Of the remaining texture+color combinations, the missing one must be the air essence, because the Wind spell used up the last of that. So, in this example, you should have a coarse yellow powder, a fine yellow powder, a coarse red, and a fine red. The missing one is the air essence. So if you were missing coarse yellow, that is air; therefore water is also coarse; thus earth and fire are both fine (because they have to be the opposite textures of air and water):

Element	Texture	Color
earth	fine	yellow
air	coarse	yellow
water	coarse	red
fire	fine	red

Once you think you have it figured out:

Tag - mix [fire essence] - [water essence]. Tag - add pinch - [earth essence]. Tag - cast - mixture.

Huzzah! Your journey is at an end.

Extras

For further entertainment, you may be interested in:
Lists of bugs in Journey: Graeme Cree, XyzzyNews
Posts about this game at The Digital Antiquarian and SPAG
Source code

Last updated: 4/28/2021