What is the Golden Path in Tunic?

As you assemble the instruction booklet in Tunic, the game’s primary goal slowly unfurls: follow the Golden Path. However, one thing that is left out from the instructions is what exactly the Golden Path is. Is it a physical location? Does it have something to do with the secret save file? No. Neither. The secret of the Golden Path is both one of Tunic’s best-hidden secrets and has been in front of your face throughout most of the game.

In order to interpret the Golden Path, you’ll need to have collected all the pages of the manual, except for the cover. Once you have the guide assembled, you may be puzzled by one particular page which shows a five-by-five grid made of shining gold. Each segment of the grid has a number on it, but it might not be immediately apparent what the numbers indicate.

Each number indicates a page in the manual. When you examine these pages, you’re looking for a series of 90 degree turns that, at this point, you will probably recognize as a code for the Holy Cross (the d-pad or arrow keys depending on your input method.)

In order to decode the Golden path, you need to take these little snippets of angles and paste them into their corresponding spot on the grid to make one tremendous path to follow with your cross. You then take this to the closed door at the top of the mountain and very meticulously follow it.

A couple of things to keep in mind: One of the pages doesn’t show anything resembling a piece of Golden Path. Specifically, this page describes the save system. You may have already discerned the secret behind this page; i.e., going to the save screen, selecting a file, then canceling causes a strange save file to appear that simply sets a grey fox on a gold path. It’s a confusing piece of misdirection, but the true secret behind it is that this path’s angles are supposed to be slotted into the Golden Path grid.

The other little trick to remember is that whenever you see a line splitting a path, you need to press that direction a second time.

It can be somewhat difficult to get the path absolutely right without making any mistakes in interpreting the pages. So, in case you need to check your notes, the solution is:

Up, left, down, left, up, left, down, left, up, right, up, right, up, left, up, right, down, right, up, left, down, left, up, right, up, up, left, up, right, down, right, down, right, up, right, down, left, down, right, up, right, right, down, right, up, right, down, right, up, right, right, down, left, down, left, down, right, down, right, down, left, left, down, right, down, left, down, right, up, right, down, right, up, right, right, down, down, left, up, right, up, left, down, left, up, left, up, left, up, right, right, up, left, up.