400 Years Guide & Walkthrough

400 years is a puzzle game where you must embark on a journey to stop a calamity and save the world. You take control of the protagonist, a stone golem. Your ability to wait for seasons or years will help you navigate through an ancient world to complete your quest. Time will solve many problems you may face for you, but do not wait too long, because you only have 400 years. The slow relaxing pace of this game requires patience, but it also allows you to interact with the world around you by utilizing time as a factor of game play.

There are many impassible obstacles you will face on your journey, many of which are lakes or towering cliffs. Without the ability to jump, you must rely on time and the seasons to your advantage. Simply waiting for winter will freeze over lakes allowing you to walk over them. Do not be afraid of lakes though because your character cannot drown (stones do not need air). Waiting in place for years or more will cause trees to grow allowing you to climb them to great heights.

Keep in mind that trees can be positioned strategically in specific places allowing you to climb them. Simply wait for fall, collect seeds from a nearby tree, and then plant them in an ideal spot. After, just wait and watch your newly planted tree grow from a mere sapling to an entire fully grown climbable tree.

Sometimes you must rely on nearby settlements of humans for help. By carrying wheat, (don’t wait for time to pass while carrying it, or the grain will turn to dust) you can plant them nearby and allow their small town to flourish. Well-fed populations of humans will build bridges to places normally unreachable by your character.

Start walking to the right side of the screen straight through the water.

Eventually you will come across a small pond that is impossible to climb out, simply wait until winter (hold the spacebar), and then cross when the surface has frozen over.

Continue walking until you encounter a tree, simply walk up to the base of the tree and climb up.

Once you are up, you will find another tree that is too small, wait for about a decade or so until the tree is large enough to climb. Climb up then wait until chestnuts appear (in fall time).

Pick up the chestnuts, carry them to the right, and then plant them near the cliff. (If you advance time before planting the chestnut, it will disappear. Simply wait until fall and pick up another.)

Once waiting for another decade or so, the tree will be fully-grown. Climb it and wait until winter to cross the water.

Once you reach a village, cross the lake on the right side when the water is frozen and wait near the edge of the water until fall. Wheat will grow and you can pick it.

Pick the wheat and carry it back to the village, simply keep walking under the lake and to the left. Once reaching the left side of the village, plant it and wait for it to grow. Once you reach fall again, repeat this step and keep planting it repeatedly on the entire left side of the village.

Now you must wait for the village to develop. Over time they will construct a bridge across the lake and even construct a secondary village near the initial patch of wheat.

Once the second village has constructed another bridge, cross it and wait for winter, then cross the body of water. Stop halfway in the middle of the lake, and then wait until it melts. You should fall through an underwater tunnel.

Keep walking to the right until you reach some stalactites and wait for a long time, (almost 100 years). Once you have waited long enough they will allow you to climb them. Proceed to the right through some water until you see a boat.

The boat will drop its nets in the summertime, climb them and then head left until you reach a village. Climb the tree once it has grown on the left side.

Pick up a chestnut at the top and head to the right until you reach the boat on the opposing shore. Climb out of the water and plant your chestnut near the cliff.

Wait for your tree to grow and then climb it once it is tall enough.

Keep climbing the mountain until you find a hole, climb into it and then block the lava flow. Wait for years and watch what happens as time passes.