Peeling Grounds and Sanded Wayfarer

This article explains several terms/things. The primary term is peeling grounds, the others being:


 * Sand places
 * Sand appearance
 * Liquid Sand

The 3 terms mentionned above can all appear in Peeling Grounds. On PC they are affected by the dune settings you have in-game.

Peeling Grounds
Alternative Names: Clipping Terrain (or terrain clipping)

Definition: Places in OOB where the sand or snow surface becomes non-solid and permits one to slip "under the sand" (as if the ground itself was peeling off and allowed you to slip under it). Once the camera is inside peeling grounds, the sand or snow surface around you becomes invisible and you can see what is under.

Structures and environment can be seen under the surface of Peeling Grounds, which are obviously not visible when standing over solid sand and staring at your feet. Sometimes hidden things, possibly forgotten by the developpers, can be found as well (such as War Machine parts or buildings). They are also the place to visit to be sanded (or even sometimes disco on PC). This is shown in the galleries below.

Peeling Grounds come in all sizes. These places can be identified as follow:


 * Huge plains, also known as unsolid grounds, that exists on both the West and North side of every levels (Reminder: the mountain indicates the North ). They are usually located under "hills without texture" / fake sand or snow. They are the main Peeling ground zones.
 * Oftentimes the Northern peeling grounds are hidden beyond blackness, so you can't see them, except when a level is rather long on the South-North axis (PD, SC, UG, Paradise). Because of the invisible ground on top of them in many cases however, only the UG ones can be observed from inside, when visiting the 2 big plateaux far North that stick out of the invisible ground.
 * The topography plays a mojor role in exploring these plains on the West side, as they don't really exist in OOBs with a flat sand surface, such as the Tower level (you can't walk under the sand when far West there).

It is rather easy to stumble into Peeling Grounds when exploring the OOBs and you probably will, even without searching for them, by exploring a little.

It seems the peeling grounds are shorter on the West and North side of levels on PS3 compared to PS4 (the sandbanks extend less). The PS4 peeling grounds length should be compared to PS3/PC. PS3 sandbanks always extend less than on PC however, whatever the dune settings.

There has been observations of the disapearance of peeling grounds, North of the Underground level on PC for unknown reasons (possibly West too): they are replaced by invisible ground and look like the South or East parts of the map, without the possibility to become sanded.

Sand Appearance
Alternative Name: Sanded Appearance, Sanded Wayfarer, getting sanded...

Definition: A wayfarer has a sand appearance when they turn the color of the sand, or a color derived from it. Some say this color actually corresponds to the color of the surface particles that can be seen OOB (in starfield areas mostly), simply floating in the air.

In Peeling Grounds you can be "sanded" at many places. These special Peeling Ground areas are called Sand Places: for more information on how to find them, see sand places.

Below are galleries showing different sanded colors you can get per level:

Useful knowledge

 * Hint-SMALL-75x43.gif Using the screensaver in a Sand Place triggers the Sanded Wayfarer, if it doesn't work by itself (it usually works after moving for a while in a sandplace otherwise, if not immediately).


 * Companions-SMALL-75x43.gif When sanded, the game seems to register you are actually surrounded by sand, and therefore makes the wayfarer have the same head animation as they would after crossing a sandfall. This usually leads to an endless head shaking every second or less, as long as you or your companion are sanded (see video above). It can hint you on whether your companion is sanded ! Even if you can see your companion sanded on your screen, if they don't shake their head they are probably not on their side. However, when sit or faceplanted, a wayfarer stops shaking their head. Chirping a lot makes it stop too, for a brief moment.
 * PC-only-SMALL-75x43.gif On PC this head shaking thing can also tell you if your companion has the same dune settings as you: if you can't get sanded with the screensaver when they shake their head near you, it probably means you can't be sanded in the same sand place as them (unless you change dune settings, more about this below in sand places). If the players have different dune settings, one might already have a sanded appearance and chirp wildly, while the other does not see anything special and chirps wildly, because they don't understand the enthusiasm. You can see both wayfarers sanded on your screen even though the other one doesn't.


 * PS4-SMALL-75x43.gifPC-SMALL-75x43.gif When sanded on those platforms, your scarf goes wild. This means it fast oscillates around you (rather in a vertical circle than horizontal, see video above recorded on PC), though it won't hint you on your current companion's status (sanded or not). Note that it often makes you loose your scarf for the current level, after spending a while sanded (It will just be invisible, you can still fly after).

Additionnal information

 * When sanded, the wayfarer is a single color at a time, though this color is not static: lighting and shadows still apply to it, thus slightly changing the tone of the color. These colors depend on the surrounding fog tints and vary between levels, as well as within each level depending on the wayfarer's position along the Z axis mostly (South-North). Moving vertically (jumping, flying) doesn't make you change color at all.


 * The camera almost always needs to be inside the concerned sand place as well as the wayfarer to be sanded.


 * By turning the camera around or moving a little you can make a grainy texture appear and disappear on your robe sometimes (Is it random? Investigation-SMALL-75x43.gif).

Sand Places
Alternative Name: Texture Pits

Definition: Locations in peeling grounds where a wayfarer can be sanded (see sand appearance above).

Whenever you momentarily stumble into peeling grounds under solid sand, you should be able to turn sanded (see the last 3 galleries under the peeling ground headline above for examples). This also includes the peeling grounds slope entrance. Solid sand is basically the regular sand or snow on top of which you walk a little everywhere, both in-bounds and out of bounds.

However this is not always the case when inside the huge peeling ground plains of the West and North that take place over unsolid ground, where sand places are dispached following a similar pattern for every levels.

To find the sand places inside these plains you can simply walk into them until you "randomly" stumble over a sand place and turn sanded (maybe use the screensaver button regularly to check). But here is an explanation for those interrested otherwise:

The sand places extend infinitely from South to North inside the Western peeling ground plains (East-West for the northern peeling grounds, that take place in UG level). You will cross them all by walking to the West, starting from the peeling grounds entrance (very easy in BB or Snow level for example, where you can quickly locate the entrance with "liquid sand or snow", see below).

The sand place succession pattern is almost the same for the West and North peeling ground plains, and you can have a look at them in the gallery below that compares them (sand places drawn to scale on the cross sections). The two cross section segment pictures were taken in BB and UG for reference, with ultra dune settings.

There are small horizontal lines over the Western peeling grounds fake sand, that can help you spot the start and ending of some sand places.

The spoilers below explain what is drawn on the cross sections above

As explained in Peeling grounds, the sandbanks can extend more or less on the West and North side of every levels depending on the platform you play on. This can lead to more, or larger sand places to explore on the most outer parts of each level OOB, for PS4(?) and PC.

Different kinds of sand places exist but only one type corresponds to the sand places from PS3 and PS4 (the ones active when using medium or high dune settings). PC players can have access to the second type too, by using low or ultra dune settings (remember you can change them anytime you want in-game). The sanded wayfarer will be the same in either sand place type.

Sanded feet in levels
When walking anywhere over solid sand or snow you can sometimes see your feet getting partially sanded (even in-bounds). This is more clear in some locations such as the entrance of the Underground level, because of the dark blue sanded color there, that is different from the color of the sand. The amount of Sanded Appearance differs, just a little at the toes or the edge of your robe when sitting usually.

For PC it doesn't seem to be dependant on the dune setting in-use, just like when entering a big peeling ground plain West or North, against the slope, because it corresponds to a "solid sand" limit. (unless you sit over unsolid ground in the West of tower level OOB for example, over the peeling grounds).

It seems whenever you manage to clip under solid sand, you can be sanded (sometimes simply dropshooting on the ground is enough to get partially sanded, and trigger a "wild scarf" for a brief moment).

Special Sand Places



 * PC-only-SMALL-75x43.gif On PC, when far enough North in a few levels you can be disco instead of sanded (rainbow colors). This happens mostly in the North side of UG OOB, where you can observe the disco wayfarer glitch, though it can be observed as well in PD OOB (North edge of the Western peeling grounds plain), and disco feet in SC (very hard to find a place for it). The color of the disco sanded appearance will change a lot while walking: bright green, yellow, pink etc.


 * In Sunken City, you can be sanded during the history lesson.

Liquid Sand / Liquid Snow
Alternative names: Liquid Sandfalls (probably depending on size of the effect).

Places in Western Peeling Ground plains entrance, where sand structures appear: Liquid Sand looks different, depending on the platform, but the places where it appears are the same.

It looks a bit like sandfalls in-bounds, but they are dynamic, see the main article. It usually looks like alternating holes and hills along the North-South axis (on PC at least).

They take place over a short slope (the West edge of solid sand), on top of which you can be sanded regardless of screensaver use, and dune settings on PC.

Although they can look intimidating (snow level mostly), they are absolutely harmless and you can go in safely.

You can play with the screensaver button to try and make them bigger (PC verified. other platforms?). This is useful in Tower level to manage to be sanded (because you can't really walk into the West peeling grounds otherwise). Even with this technique it can still be tricky to manage to put both the camera and wayfarer inside the liquid sands there.

Trivia
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Quotes
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