Scarf

The Scarf is a piece of cloth worn by the Wayfarers.

Scarf basics

 * It appears on the back of the Robe attached at neck level. The color of the Scarf matches the color of the Robe a Wayfarer is wearing.
 * The symbols on the Scarf are like the fuel in your tank or stamina left. This is often called "fly power".
 * Its length is dependent on player actions and events.
 * The Scarf grows as you progress through the game by picking up collectible Symbols. Be careful with War Machines as they like to munch on your scarf!
 * Length indicates the maximum fly power.
 * The length of your scarf resets once you finish the game (during the next journey, gather the Symbols again to fly further and longer).

Getting and extending the Scarf
You get the Scarf when you pick up the very first symbol in the title sequence of the game (if you skip that symbol, then any other Symbol that you pick first).

Picking up the collectible Symbols extends the scarf (to a certain length, see Scarf).

After your first Journey, you can choose "Chapter Select" in the menu. Doing so brings you to the middle of the circle of buildings in the first level.

You will have the Scarf from the first Symbol, so you do not have to walk back to collect it. Get the two Symbols around the big ruin in the middle and then choose a level.

If you do not pick any Symbol in Chapter Select and go to a level, the game adds a little scarf. This also happens if you lose all the scarf in the Underground level and enter the Tower.

Using the Scarf



 * Symbols/pattern embroidered on your Scarf indicate how much "fly power" you have (like a fuel tank).


 * Pressing the corresponding "fly" button on your controller, mouse, keyboard or screen will make you fly up, see Controls. Use movement buttons/sticks to fly in a certain direction.
 * No symbols/an empty scarf means you cannot fly and if you are mid-flight you will fall/glide until you hit the ground.
 * Use your fly power wisely. It's often better to not keep the button pressed down, as it rapidly consumes your flying energy. You get to fly longer by "pumping", i.e. pressing the button every second or two, rather than holding it down.
 * You lose vertical velocity if you hit an obstacle, so rather than bashing your head with a fly button (and losing power rapidly), go around the object and then resume flying.
 * Moving the camera will not only help to see where you go. Moving your camera to the "down" position (toward the ground) when flying is helpful, see Dive Boost (DB).

Gaining fly power
Also called (re)charging the Scarf.

There are many expressions used to say "get symbols on your scarf, so you can fly".

Depending on Scarf length it can take some seconds until an empty Scarf is completely filled with Symbols again. In most cases it's a good idea to charge your Scarf fully.

Scarf recharges:


 * Upon contact with cloth objects/wildlife, see Entities like Flyer, Carpet, Banner. Every cloth object or "animal" will charge your scarf, except for Gary and Larry who are too small to give you energy.
 * Companions : The Chirp of, or bodily contact with your Companion will recharge your Scarf. Tandem Flying only works though, if both chirp regularly or try to touch each other while flying.
 * A White Robe's scarf will recharge upon landing on a solid surface, giving the White Robe significantly more mobility than a Red Robe has.
 * on recharging:
 * When picking up a white glowing symbol, your scarf is recharged for the duration of the pickup animation. For efficient flying, start flying away from the Symbol during the pickup animation toward your next target.
 * Avoiding an empty scarf: while in mid-air aim immediately at the next scarf-recharging thing.
 * Chirping at flyers from a certain distance makes them fly towards you so that you can keep on flying without having to land. Chirp repeatedly at flyers while flying up or away, and they will come and charge you again.

Flying alone and with a Companion
Chirping helps both players to stay afloat and fly over long distances. This is called Tandem Flying.

Chirping helps both players to stay together and fly over long distances. It's extremely important to "chirp the scarf" when you are with a Red Cloak Companion and even more in the Snow level, where a Red Cloak's scarf-energy just fades away.

Maximum scarf length
Scarf length can be measured by the number of symbols embroidered on it. The maximum achievable length appears to be 28 symbols for both Red Robe and White Robe travelers. The screenshot shows a White Robe traveler with the longest possible scarf (Tower level).

Length can be measured by the number of symbols visible, in this case also 28 (including a smaller one where the scarf is attached, and two partially visible ones in the twisted section). This number doesn't match the number of glowing Symbols collected, though, as each of those adds slightly more than one embroidered symbol worth of scarf length.

A total of 16 symbols can be collected before entering the Tower (not counting the very first one from the title screen as it doesn't add length to WR). Some of glowing symbols appear to add one symbol to the scarf, but some add more like two when picked up. A White Robe dropping into Chapter Select starts with a Scarf length of eight symbols. Assuming you don't skip any symbols, the last one you need to collect for full length is in the Kelp room of the Underground level.

A Red Robe in Chapter Select starts with a Scarf length of two and a half symbols. Full Scarf length is reached upon collecting the first two symbols in the Tower level (again, assuming no skips and no losses).

The scarf length in Paradise is always set to maximum, which is 28 symbols for both White Robe and Red Robe.

If you collect Symbols in Chapter Select whilst wearing a White Robe and then change to a Red Robe, you'll change back to a 2.5 Symbols long Scarf. Since you already picked the Symbols, you won't be able to extend it in Chapter Select. In that case, go to the menu and choose Chapter Select again, the glowing symbols will reappear. Pick the two Symbols and you will be able to proceed to Broken Bridge with six symbols on the scarf not "two and a bit".

In the game code

 * The number indicating Scarf length in the code does not match the number of Symbols on your Scarf.
 * Journey defines player's scarf length as a number between 0 (no scarf) and 30 (maximum 28 symbols scarf).
 * The length of CS scarf is 4 for Red Robe or 10 for White Robe.
 * The first symbol, which the player usually acquires around the broken shrine statue in CS, extends the scarf by 4. This is true only if the player started a new game with no scarf.
 * Throughout the game some symbols extend the scarf by 2, some by 1. There seems to be no specified pattern behind this. One possible explanation is that the game tries to round values, since they are not stored in the floating point format.

Chapter Select scarf
"CS scarf" is a community term for a short Scarf. The Companion is assuming that someone used one of the buildings in Chapter Select (CS) to meet them. They didn't pick up the symbols in the levels before.

Other reasons for a CS scarf:


 * scarf got eaten by War Machines (WM) in Underground (UG)
 * player does not want or need a long scarf
 * in the Snow level its length decreases through "freezing off"/wind.

Quotes
"We greeted each other with the typical chirp fest, and I noticed right off the bat that their scarf was a CS scarf."

- Zerathine