Neverway Secret Locations & Easter Eggs: What the Prologue Hides

The shrine behind the waterfall took me three playthroughs to find. I only stumbled on it because a shade crawler knocked me off the cliff path during a night fight and I landed in the pool below. Fiona nearly drowned, but I saw the faint glow behind the water and thought, no way. There's actually something there. There was.

Neverway hides things well. The monochrome pixel art, by Pedro Medeiros (Celeste's artist), makes secrets blend into the environment naturally. A hidden path doesn't have a slightly different wall texture -- it just looks like more darkness until you walk into it. This guide covers everything found in the free Steam prologue from Coldblood Inc., releasing in full October 2026.

The Waterfall Shrine

Location: follow the river upstream from the fisherman's dock. Take the cliff path (the narrow dirt trail that branches left from the main river path). At the top of the cliff, there's a broken railing. Fall through it. You'll land in a pool at the base of a waterfall. The shrine is behind the water.

What's there: an interactable altar that seems connected to the dead god's backstory. It grants a permanent buff -- something related to the debt mechanic, though the prologue doesn't fully explain it. The text when you interact reads: "The old debt remembers. Some of it is forgiven."

This is probably missable content that affects late-game progression. My read is that finding these altars reduces the debt burden, which might change the ending or unlock specific abilities. The prologue only has this one.

The Collapsed Mine's Hidden Room

The mine entrance south of the docks is blocked by a nightmare barrier, but the loose ore nodes around the entrance give iron ore. What the game doesn't tell you: one of the ore nodes, the one furthest to the left partially obscured by a dead tree, is actually breakable terrain. Hit it three times with your pickaxe (buy from the general store if you don't have one) and it collapses, revealing a small cave.

Inside: a chest with a ring that reduces darkness damage by half. This is enormously useful and I cannot believe I missed it on my first two runs. The ring stacks with the old woman's charm, making early nightmare realm exploration massively more survivable.

There's also lore here -- a journal page from a previous miner that references "the debt" and "the messenger before you." Fiona isn't the first immortal messenger. Someone else held the position and, reading between the lines, didn't survive it.

The Stray Cat's Gift

You can befriend the stray cat near the docks. It takes multiple visits and fish gifts (the cat only likes raw fish, not cooked meals). At bond level 2, the cat starts following you around town. At bond level 3, it occasionally leads you to hidden items -- a mechanic that shows up as the cat running off toward something and meowing until you follow.

The cat led me to a hidden chest behind the general store (contained a rare cooking ingredient), a loose floorboard in the mayor's house (contained lore about the island's history), and once, during a night fight, to a previously invisible nightmare creature that dropped essence when killed. The cat can see things Fiona can't.

Is this a combat-relevant mechanic? Maybe. A companion that detects hidden enemies has obvious utility in nightmare realm exploration. Max your cat bond.

The Lighthouse Basement

The lighthouse on the island's north point is locked during the prologue. But. If you visit the lighthouse at night after reaching bond level 2 with the fisherman, a brief scene triggers where the lighthouse light flickers. After that scene, the basement door (around the back of the lighthouse) is unlocked for one night only.

Inside: a workshop belonging to a character the game hasn't introduced yet. Notes reference "the signal" and "calling for help across the water." There's a unique crafting recipe on the workbench -- a flare item that creates a temporary safe zone anywhere, even in nightmare realm areas. You can only craft one before running out of materials in the prologue, but the recipe stays in your crafting menu. Save it for a boss fight.

Pedro Medeiros Easter Eggs

If you're familiar with Celeste, you'll spot the visual references. The climbing animation when Fiona scales a ladder or cliff edge is the same key poses as Madeline's wall climb. The journal in Fiona's farmhouse has a tiny Celeste mountain doodle on one of the pages. The general store sells an item called "Mountain Strawberries" that costs an absurd amount and has no apparent use -- pure reference bait.

There's also a screen in the nightmare realm -- deep in, past where the prologue lets you explore before difficulty spikes become lethal -- where the background parallax layers form a shape that looks exactly like the winged golden strawberry from Celeste's Farewell chapter. I might be seeing things. The monochrome art makes everything look like something else. But I'm pretty sure.

The Well's Voice

The well in the town center. If you interact with it during the day, nothing happens. If you interact with it at night, you hear a voice. It says different things depending on your bond levels with the townsfolk. One line I got: "The debt collector comes from beneath, not above." Another: "Ask the fisherman about his brother."

This is apparently a hint system, feeding you breadcrumbs based on your progression state. The voice might be the dead god. It might be something else entirely. The prologue doesn't answer this and I kind of love that it doesn't.

The Beach Cave at Low Tide

The beach east of the farm. At low tide (appears to happen every third day in the prologue), a cave entrance is exposed at the waterline. Inside: a chest with fishing bait, a journal page from a shipwreck survivor, and a strange stone that Fiona comments on but can't identify.

The stone might be a key item for later content. The shipwreck survivor's journal mentions a lighthouse and "a signal that never came." This connects to the lighthouse basement content. There's a narrative thread here about someone trying to reach or escape the island before Fiona arrived, and failing.

The Lantern on the Hill

The highest point on the island, a hill east of the lighthouse with a single dead tree and an unlit lantern. If you light the lantern (carry a torch from your farm), nothing immediately happens. But the next night, the nightmare creatures avoid that hill entirely. It becomes a permanent safe zone.

The implication is that you can establish safe zones across the island by lighting specific lanterns, expanding your operational area at night. The prologue only has this one extra lantern, but the full game probably has many more. It's a minor find but it hints at a significant late-game mechanic.

What I Haven't Found Yet

The shrine behind the waterfall mentions "three altars" in its flavor text. I've only found one. The collapsed mine has a deeper area behind a barrier I can't break. The lighthouse top is completely inaccessible in the prologue. The nightmare realm has at least two branching paths blocked by barriers that require something I don't have.

The full game in October 2026 will have significantly more secrets. The prologue is a taste. A very promising taste.