darwins trash is a puzzle game that is basically just a f*cked up version of puzzle bobble (perhaps better known in the west as "bust-a-move"), where you travel through a dungeon fighting off increasingly horrifying monsters. there's a bit more to it than just that though, which is what this guide is going to help you with.

the game is made by a fella named bankbank, who has previously put out a variety of similarly weird games on steam with wainstop james. wainstop has quite the legacy of putting out quality bullsh*t, and some of its members were also responsible for the xblig legend that is "re: get to schol on time". frankly i reckon that its probably also formed out of the ashes of famicon, another art collective that made the "bart the general" web series.

on steam

you'd have to ask bankbank for the answer to that one.

as i mentioned before, this game is just a messed up version of puzzle bobble. you fire out tiles which land on and attach to other tiles and 4 or more of htem make a match. what happened when that match is made depends on the colour of the tiles and if the removal of said tiles causes others to become "orphaned" (i.e. not attached to the mass). if latter is true then they will fall to the bottom of the well and turn into knives which will deal damage to the enemy.

colour wise:

RED will heal you
GREEN will charge your shield
BLUE will charge any actives you have on your items
YELLOW will give you money AND deal damage to the enemy

"Choose one of the four items...you must..."

in this game, you have an inventory: a pickaxe, a helmet, a shield and a ring. at the start of every run you start with two of four possible items.

Pickaxe of Expertise
"This item is highly volatile... choose carefully... beware..."
This item will make all yellow matches deal +1 extra damage to the enemy. Inexplicably named "Pickaxe of Woe" in the selection screen.

Helm of Insight
"A clever and wise choice that will assist you greatly!"
Gives you the Passive effect "GUIDE", which shows the trajectory of your potential shots with a line.

Shield of Destiny
"Your destination will be clear, walk without fear!"
Gives you the Passive effect "SHOTSHOW", which displays all potential places for a tile to lock into in its current rotation, to prevent you from missing shots and losing health.

Ring of Switching
"Only suitable for those who comprehend insanity..."
Contains the Active effect "SWITCH", which swaps your currently held piece with the piece that would be given to you after the current shot.

Frankly I still don't see any purpose in picking anything other than the Helm of Insight and the Shield of Destiny. Both of these items have ridiculously useful passives that save your ass so much bother, and the other two don't really give much of a benefit. The "SWITCH" effect is far too situational and not especially useful early game whilst you'll get items with a better damage boost later on too. Just be aware that it's pretty rare in my experience to get a replacement item that possesses the "GUIDE" or "SHOTSHOW" effects, so you probably don't want to be relying too hard on them. You're also very likely to lose either or both of them as you get to the late game as well, thanks to the cursed chest event.

• In most cases, Helm of Insight & Shield of Destiny.
  
• Alternatively, Helm of Insight & Pickaxe of Woe/Expertise.
  
• Ring of Switching is far too situational to be useful, especially in the early game.

"You may proceed..."

1) Your health. Replenished by matching red tiles or by item passives and actives. Raised by items.
2) Your shield. Replenished by matching green tiles. Raised by items.
3) Charge bar. Fills up by matching blue tiles. Allows you to use the active effect on one of your items.

4) I don't know what this does. genuinely, i have no clue. It turns grey progressively based seemingly on how big your match is. matches of 4 seems to only ever fill it by 3 pieces, and matches of 5 do all four pieces...but more than that seems to be random? and as far as I know it doesnt connect to any mechanic that im currently aware of. all i know is what i just said and that if you gain an affliction from an enemy attack, then it will be displayed over this icon.

5) Your items, including what they do and what they passives/actives are if applicable.
6) Your current gold. Raised by matching yellow tiles, increased with item stats/passives and also the mining and gambling minigames.
7) Pillars. entirely cosmetic, their purpose is to serve as the barriers that allow you to bounce tiles to make more precise matches.
8) The next piece that you will receive.
9) The aiming device for firing off tiles. If you have the guide passive, the line will change colour to the same as the tile youre about to fire.
10) Mass of tiles that you're tasked with dealing with in each round.
11) Orphaned tiles that are currently falling. Once they disappear off the bottom of the screen, a knife attack will be dealt to the enemy based on how many tiles fell.
12) Current enemy health.
13) Enemy name.
14) Damage the enemy will deal to you if it attacks.
15) Turns left before an attack will occur. This counter will reset if a match is made.
16) Visual of the enemy you're fighting.
17) Plinth. entirely cosmetic, its purpose is to hold the enemy visual.

Apart from the obvious stats like Health & Armor, there are some other weird ones to keep in mind as they can be boosted by items.

"Damage" increases the amount of damage dealt when yellow pieces are matched. It is ALWAYS referring to yellow damage and nothing else.

"Fall DMG" or "Orphan DMG" increases the amount of damage dealt to an enemy by the knife attack spawned from falling pieces. It's displayed as "Fall DMG" on chest and shop screens, but in game as "Orphan DMG".

"Resist" & "Shielding": I have no clue what the difference between these two is yet. my best guess is that Resist will decrease the chances of gaining status effects from enemy attacks and Shielding increases armor efficiency (i.e. a 10 damage attack will only take away 6 armor or something). [NOT CONFIRMED, PLEASE DO NOT TRUST THIS INFO]

"Charge" presumably increases the amount your active is charged by when blue pieces have been matched. However, I'm not quite sure of this as most actives seem to charge pretty quickly anyway.

"GUIDE"
Displays a line showing your shot trajectory.

"SHOTSHOW"
Displays all potential places a piece could lock into, to help prevent missed shots.

"DOUBLEBLU"
[NOT CONFIRMED] Doubles the amount of energy gained from blue piece matches for faster active charging(?)

"FALLHEAL"
[NOT CONFIRMED] Heals you when pieces fall to the bottom of the well, amount varies depending on number of pieces(?)

"REGEN"
Regenerates a small amount of health after every shot.

"SWITCH"
Swaps your currently held piece with the next one in the queue (displayed to the left of your aiming arrow).

"SHIELDORO"
Replenishes your shield by a finite amount.

"HEALO"
Replenishes your health by a finite amount.

these are dealt by certain enemies when they attack you. cant say for certain which enemies will cause which affliction, but in any case here's what they are and what they do. you can only ever have one of these at a time.

• NIGHTMARE - every rotation of the currently held piece causes HP loss
  
• POISON - every piece shot causes HP loss
  
• DISEASE - can no longer regen HP by matching red pieces (can be cured with healer event or active effect)
  
• PETRIFIED - can no longer rotate pieces
  
• FEARED - can no longer use active effects
  
• BLIND - can no longer see a preview of the next piece nor the amount of damage you'll do

thanks to bankbank for this info

There are a variety of event you'll rapidly hit upon whilst playing the game. here's a few that i've seen so far:

The Chest:
- Gives you a choice of one of two random items when opened.
- Usually are very beneficial upgrades, but can be ignored entirely if you don't want either item.
- The game threats that taking these items is a negative thing but I'm not sure if there is any actual effect from taking them.

The Miner:
- hey merry christmas you're a pebble now
- Move diagonally along the yellow boxes to collect coins. Certain ones are worth more.
- Ideally, you'll want to also head towards one of the boxes at the bottom which are open-ended. Achieving this counts as "winning" the minigame, and you'll get to keep the coins you've collected.
- Not winning means you get nothing, simple as that really.

The Shopkeeper:
- Like The Chest, but you can acquire both items on offer
- Items cost money, but again you can simply leave if neither item appeals to you.
- You get achievements for both leaving without buying anything and for buying both items.
- kind of a mixed bag event tbqh, i usually get better stuff from the chests.

The Fairy:
- Does one of two things
- If you're at full health, she will offer a HP increase for money
- If you're not, she will heal you to full health for free.
- Always worth grabbing the HP upgrade if its available, tbh.

The Blacksmith:
- Upgrades a random item in your inventory
- Entirely optional, though frankly I don't see why you would bypass it if you have the money since these are rarely negative.

The Jumpscare:
- Likely the first negative event you'll encounter
- As the name implies, it does a spooky scare at you and takes away a random amount of health from you. As in, it reduces your maximum.
- As far as I know, this is only temporary for the following fight, and upon winning said fight you regain it all back.
- Mostly a minor annoyance as a result.

The Cursed Chest:
- Rather than giving you anything, this chest spawns a monster that will take a random item in your possession away from you.
- You cannot get the item back, it's gone for good.
- There's PROBABLY a status effect on an item you can get which will prevent this from happening? Probably?? I've never seen anything that would potentially do so though.
- Not usually a massive setback in my experience, but more of an active issue than the jumpscare event.

The NPCs:
- Sometimes you'll come across monsterfolk that don't wish to fight, but merely talk at you very fast and then ask you a question about something they just said.
- These questions are always yes/no questions about a specific fact of what they just said, usually stated near the beginning of the speech for the sake of making it fairer on you.
- Pay attention when they come up and they won't be much of an issue, not that I'm exactly aware of any inherent negative effects from answering them incorrectly.

The Toll:
- Sometimes you will come across a lovely lad who will kindly state that they will kill you unless you pay 10 coins.
- They are not bluffing. Pay the 10 coins.
- there MIGHT be a chance that not paying will let you proceed anyway but I've not gotten it enough times to find out.

- Currently the game does not play nicely with the Steam Overlay whatsoever. You won't be able to press Shift+Tab or whatever key combo you have to activate it, you won't be able to take screenshots and most importantly you won't be able to use Steam Input to use a controller.

- The game DOES have built in controller support, but you *must* disable Steam Input first to make it work. Achievements will still pop, however.

- Annoyingly I actually think it's best with a controller, as well.

Controls on xbox controller:
analog stick n dpad: move your aimer around
X button: fire
A and B buttons: rotate piece
Y button: use active
left and right bumpers: precise aiming

- The game will inexplicably freeze when you game over until you hit A to move on to the main menu. I think it's meant to be displaying your endgame stats here but a bug prevents it from doing so. Just press the button to get back to the main menu.

- sometimes when answering npc questions, the darwins trash symbol >||< will appear. i cannot tell you why this happens, because i frankly have no bloody clue what purpose it serves. it is currently one of the games mysteries along with that plus icon in the main game ui.

now go play, this game is fun as hell and you should sort of actually comprehend what the heck is going on for once!!