About the Game
Slide animals to save baby penguins and escape with walruses. Change the rules with simple items like a hammer, a spring, or a magnet. Discover emergent uses of these tools, and how they interact with other mechanics. Explore an open world of nested puzzles by gaining new capabilities and knowledge.
Puzzles are designed to showcase with a "simple, but difficult" philosophy, with each puzzle bringing a new idea. They're carefully designed to be instructive, tight, and deducible.
Featuring
Penguins, walruses, and fish! Each introduces opposing win criteria.
Rapidly expanding set of mechanics and interactions.
Over 300 diverse, hand-crafted levels. No filler!
An interconnected network of puzzles with item-based progression and metagame twists.
Journal for tracking mechanics, which also lists entries needed for the current puzzle.
A tiered hint system that teaches a deduction-based approach.
16 biomes distinguishing areas and mechanics, with original music.
Puzzle editor with Steam Workshop support for sharing custom levelpacks.
Accessibility
No time-sensitive inputs, with undo and redo binds that work through resets.
Use a controller, keyboard, or mouse with customizable binds. (Note: Puzzle editor requires a mouse.)
Colorblind friendly with customizable colors.
Most puzzles are optional for progression, and a setting makes any puzzle skippable.
Warp navigation system for quickly returning to anywhere you've been.
Solutions, [redacted], and [redacted] are saved, so meta goals don't require any repeat work.
Screenshots
8 images
Version Information
Steam Patch Notes
Official update history
- your playtime
- your discussions, questions, and issue reporting
- your content and views on YouTube/Twitch
- your custom levelpacks uploaded to Steam Workshop
- your reviews and additional recommendations outside of Steam
So it's about time that I've returned the favor and released the next patch, which primarily fixes some things I broke in 1.2. But it also contains some new features that I plan to build on in the next patch.
Aside from this, I'm excited to announce that Simplified Chinese translation of the level names and hints is very close! I think it's realistic that the next patch will include these, and so the game can finally be marked on Steam as supporting Simplified Chinese. Of course, all credit goes to our fellow community member, post-launch contributor, and custom levelpack creator "Cloudy", who has taken on this gargantuan task themselves.
Puzzle changes
- Rework bottom of Foreboding to make secret more interesting and also to spread out the puzzles.
- Tweak Mjolnir.Propagation again to fix cheese introduced in 1.2, while still keeping the puzzle easier than pre-1.2.
- Add fog to extra Trapped tile that was added in 1.2 to prevent it from being used to reach Interlock and Unit.
- Add tiles on top row of Moonwalk that were removed in 1.2.
New features
- Add "Enable VSync" toggle to Video settings.
- Add visual effect and (another) sound effect upon revealing a secret puzzle.
- Add difficulty rating system where a puzzle can be rated in difficulty between 0 (easiest) to 5 (hardest). This rating is communicated by the number of grey orbs that appear on the shackle of the level's lock.
Bugfixes
- Fix typo on Illusion's bonus solution localized text.
- Fix wording on Resilience's bonus solution that broke when localization was added.
- Fix wording on MASK And Single Koi's bonus solution.
- (Only relevant for custom levels) Play secret sound/visual effects whenever a secret is revealed, even if it happens as side effect to landing on a non-secret duplicate.
Misc
- Performance and functionality improvements for shoreline effects in water shader.
- Puzzle editor's test mode now saves progress identically to main game, so QoL features in main game will now be present in test mode.
- Don't open directly to "Required for current level" journal submenu even if it was last open for another level.
- Don't unlock journal section upon unlocking an entry that belongs to multiple sections.
- More hint fixes!
Usually after a big update there will be a few small follow-ups and this update is no exception. MacOS build is here (which was missing for 1.2.1), and the first two bullet points below are important to remove some UI friction. But otherwise this is one of the smallest updates since launch.
Patch notes
- Journal entry NEW now fades on hover instead of disappearing completely.
- Update wording on (post-Replication) bonus solutions for Movement and Ground Rules to clarify what counts as a move.
- Permute colors in Moonwalk.Reciprocity to prevent pointless (post-Transplant) import from even being possible.
- Remove all saved (post-Transplant) imports for the new secret for Ground Rules, which players might have unlocked in an old version game.
- Add keyword NONE for the empty import symbol.
- Add icon for MacOS.
- Updated hints for a few levels.
Edit: Instead of getting 1.2.1 ready for MacOS, I decided to just release 1.2.2 on all platforms.
Puzzle changes
- Add destructible wall to G to force the more interesting solution.
- Tweak G.Blocked to make one export path different from the solve path.
- Rename G.Blocked to Diplopia to emphasize some of its unique properties.
- Change Foreboding to make its secret not required to reach endgame puzzle.
- Remove hammer from Crowdsurf.Buffer to not make it about timing differences.
- Remake Herrings.Konigsberg to remove the sliding component. It now has 7 bridges!
Bugfixes
- Fix crash when loading puzzle containing custom biome with invalid fields.
- Fix localization for multi-line entries in credits.
Misc
- Add bind prompt for slow time to Hook, Linger, and Timing. Remove it from Buffer.
- Fix some typos and other errors in hints. Thanks to Cloudy who is flagging these while translating to Simplified Chinese!
Since it's impossible for me to make an announcement about only a single thing, I'll use this as a gentle reminder for everyone to go vote for Gentoo Rescue at the Thinky Awards. The deadline is Sunday 23:59 UTC. Thanks so much to all of the support!
Anyway, that's all for now. Happy new year!
- Made Transplant.Inductive easier by giving no option but to use the cane to change the parity of the traps.
- Moved Transplant.Base so that it must be played before Inductive.
New features
- Locks for levels that contain a colored pinwheel will now have a rainbow glow. This fixes a design issue with some metapuzzles, and I regret that it took so long for me to realize such a simple fix!
- Updated block icon in puzzle editor. Also added keyword BLOCK for it.
Bugfixes
- Journal entry for importing to multiple animals now correctly unlocks if the import removes multiple items.
I've taken a small break from Gentoo Rescue development, but I'm back with a relatively large "small update". Most new features and bugfixes are for custom levelpacks, but there's also a new puzzle being added to the main game. Before going into details, I want to officially announce that Gentoo Rescue is now part of two Steam bundles! Definitely check them out if you're already a fan of Gentoo Rescue. Also, be sure to recommend Gentoo Rescue to anyone that has enjoyed these other puzzle games!
Gentoo's Demon Wormholes with Thinky Award winners Can of Wormholes and Maxwell's puzzling demon.
Gentookeeper with another great 2025 puzzle game Glowkeeper.
Puzzle changes
Adding an endgame optional puzzle called Pogo based off of the interaction from the puzzle Bypass in workshop levelpack Levels that shouldn't exist by Mountebank. It also has a bit of a Hollow Knight (and Silksong) inspiration, which may be evident from the name.
Bigger features
The game will now autoload your solution to the hub puzzle, if it exists and if your saved inputs are empty. There was previously no way to recover your solution to a hub puzzle. This is more relevant for custom levelpacks, which might just be a single standalone level.
A teleporter that goes to itself is now officially supported. How do you think it will work? Try it out in the puzzle editor, or in some of the custom levelpacks. \[Another shoutout to Mountebank for discovering this through editing the puzzle files manually!]
Smaller features
Moved "Undo or Reset" bind prompts from the center of the screen to the top.
Added A/B/C/D/E/F letter icons to button, gate, and trap icons used in hints.
End game popup for custom levels no longer shows the message intended for the main game.
The ending lock break animation can now be canceled with redo. It was already cancelable with undo.
Bugfixes
Fixed journal entry record button in the puzzle editor.
Removed item particle effects that would linger past an undo or reset.
Fixed a bug where the import/export prompt would not show for levels with no imports while an animal is moving.
Fixed (I think) an inconsistent bug that made it possible to import with grey animal. If this ever happened to you, then this bugfix should retroactively remove them.
Bind prompts at the top of the screen (which were in the early levels of the game) will no longer be shown in custom levelpacks.
Improved the beginning of the launch animation for animals that will bounce.
Lessened the desynchronization between game logic and animations that can occur for very long moves involving many teleporters. This is still technically an issue at very fast movement speeds, but for normal speeds it should match very well now even for the longest Rube Goldberg machines that you can create in the editor.
Fixed the speed of (Lemniscate.Rift spoiler) animals that are bouncing off of teleporting animals to match that of a normal bounce.
Definitely check these out once you've completed the main game!
It's the last day of the 20% discount, so I wanted to squeeze in this small patch that fixes some bugs introduced in the major patch last week. These are mostly relevant for custom levelpacks, although the visual bug could be observed in the main game.
- Fixed a visual bug where loading a puzzle while animals are in motion could cause them to show up in the loaded puzzle.
- Fixed a bug where sometimes a puzzle under a grey animal could be mistakenly marked as visited after an export.
- Fixed a bug where the hub and sublevels under selectable animals would not initially be marked as visited.
- Fixed a bug where creating a puzzle that is solvable in 0 moves could softlock in the puzzle tester.
Steam workshop
- There are already several levelpacks on the workshop now, and I look forward for more to come!
- There is a new main menu button "Custom". The first time you select this, you'll directed to the Steam workshop page for Gentoo Rescue. There you can subscribe to custom levelpacks, which can can be played through the "Custom" menu.
- One can also bypass Steam workshop by manually installing a custom levelpack into the directory: `<game install>/GentooRescue/Custom/`. Note that custom levelpacks installed this way will use the name of their hub level as the name of the levelpack, and that this name should not clash with any other manually installed custom levelpacks. Steam workshop levelpacks have a unique ID independent of its title.
- Your time played and progress on each levelpack is stored by profile, and the levelpack saves are separate from the main save (and each other). They are also tracked by Steam Cloud, so your progress will stay when switching devices. You can find these saves in the Custom subdirectory of your player directory.
- Solutions are now saved in the same file as the rest of your progress instead of a separate file. This affects the main save (`progress.sav`), but it was mostly done for custom levelpack support.
- Added button in the puzzle editor to upload to Steam workshop. You can (and should) specify a title/description through this interface, not Steam's.
- Steam workshop uploads will automatically generate a preview image based on your currently loaded puzzle, but you can manually specify an image by placing it at:
I recommend a resolution of 800x800.<game install>/GentooRescue/Images/<levelpack title>.png - Subscribed Steam workshop levels will be copied to `<game install>/GentooRescue/Workshop` upon entering the "Custom" menu. This allows for offline support.
- The guide should cover all of the essentials.
MacOS support
- I'm excited that more people can now play Gentoo Rescue!
- Any serious MacOS specific bugs will get the highest priority for the next small patch. Please report any to the discord!
Puzzle changes
- I've refined some hints in various levels. I've been doing this every patch without noting details, and will continue to do so. Keep the feedback coming!
- Removed unintended solution from Quasar in Pickpocket. Maybe the first cheese found? Not sure it qualifies a cheese because it was more difficult than the intended solution.
- Swapped the positions of Vantage and Jailbreak in Path of Plain.
- Changed Transpositions (in Exfiltration.Temporary) to make all swap imports clearly impossible, which allowed for the removal of the blue colored wall from Temporary.
- Removed the blue colored wall from Foreboding.Flutter because it wasn't important. Same for Liftoff.Balance.
- Added fog to a tile in Sustain to make an aspect of the meta puzzle of reaching the bottom left puzzle easier. More specifically, a bomb import is now clearly useless.
- Renamed Sustain to Herrings, Implant to Transplant, and swapped the names of Y and V. Bonus points to anyone that can figure out why these changes were done!
Puzzle editor
- Added a button to record journal entries to the puzzle editor. Click "Journal" in the editor, then confirm "Record". This will load the current puzzle in test mode. Upon exiting test mode, all journal entries that you performed during testing will be written to the current puzzle's list of 'Required for current level' journal entries. This replaces the old method of entering the IDs by hand.
- Added icon for normal/plain walls with the keyword PWALL. This can be used in your hints.
- Fixed puzzle test bug where exiting the puzzle under test in the puzzle editor could cause the puzzle to be modified.
Performance improvements
- The goal was just to reduce loading times for custom levelpacks. However these optimizations will also benefit the main game, particularly for those on lower-end machines.
- Optimized walls and tile objects.
- Animals and items are now pooled instead of being allocated/destroyed on the fly.
- Moved some important work from scripting to C++: tile generation/arrangement, animal organization, and loading static puzzle state.
Settings
- Gridlines are enabled by default at the smallest nonzero thickness.
- Added more ticks to the low end of the "Base speed" Gameplay slider.
Misc
- Reworded some journal entries to remove slight spoilers. This comes at the cost of making a few entries less descriptive, but I think the tradeoff is worth it.
- End popup on the hub puzzle now includes the total time played.
- Mouse autohide is now disabled while in the Create submenu.
- Increased size of some small text in various places. This was mainly done to help visibility on Steam Deck.
- The music track will not be restarted upon changing biomes if the old and new biome use the same track.
- Increased teleport animation speed to better match internal logic. This may be relevant for some cursed custom levels.
What's next?
- General bugfixes.
- Continued minor improvements to hints/puzzles, as needed. Watching your gameplay videos/streams really helps me spot tweaks that I can make, so keep sending those my way!
- Puzzle editor improvements and polish.
- I'll be streaming playthroughs of workshop levelpacks soon at https://www.twitch.tv/jagriff/.
- I may also start making YouTube videos with some puzzle design examples / challenges, or other general dev commentary. Please let me know if there's any interest for this.
Dream goals. Ordered by insanity (ascending). Don't count on these happening unless Gentoo Rescue becomes so popular that I can afford to quit my real job.
- Localization support. This would have limited use on its own. Maybe community language packs?
- Official support for Simplified Chinese, Japanese, and maybe other languages?
- A DLC secret area with new or expanded mechanics? I intentionally left a place for this in the hub.
- Mobile port? Switch port?
- Challenge mode. Maybe this would have to be a separate game? I originally planned to ship with a score-based "roguelike" mode with leaderboards, but it was over-scoped and there were some design challenges that I couldn't address in time for launch.
- Multiplayer. This would certainly have to be an entirely separate game. If you've played Ricochet Robots, then you might have an idea for how this would work.
One more round of bugfixes before I transition to new features. Unless something higher priority comes up, the next patch will focus on improving the custom levelpack experience with a dedicated menu and custom level progress saving.
On a separate note, Gentoo Rescue is currently part of the Steam Summer Sale for 10% off. If you are enjoying the game, please recommend it to others while it's a bit cheaper.
Input
Repeated undo/redo that occur from holding the bind will no longer perform the undo/redo of a reset. This makes it easier to undo/redo back to the start/end of a solution without accidentally going past a reset. Non-repeated undos/redos can still undo/redo a reset, of course.
Changed default keyboard bind of advanced bind "Slow" from Shift to Alt. Shift clashes with WASD, which means you could not move with WASD while slowing unless you specifically added binds "Shift+W" for move up, "Shift+A" for move left, and so on. This won't change anything for current players.
Bugfixes
Beam effect for special thing in Replication was broken.
It was possible to activate the special thing in Replication multiple times.
There was a rare situation that would cause the rocket particle and sound effect to play even though the item wasn't used.
Double-clicking "Return to game" in the pause menu will no longer cause the pause menu to reopen.
Speaking of custom levels, we already have a few community members creating them. Until Steam Workshop is ready, join the Discord to play and share custom levels. As we start to get more, I would like to do some regular streams, say 1-2 times per month, where I play some community levels.
Also I want to give a shout-out to Discord user StarlitEternity who has routed and completed a low% run of the game's "true ending". They managed to reach this ending while only completing 55 levels for a progress of 16.9%. Wow!
Puzzle changes
- Made Moonwalk much easier to solve by moving the red goal. Players were too easily reaching the optional hard levels before realizing that they could just complete and leave the world, so having an easy solution to this early world puzzle will better teach how the meta structure of the game works.
- Moonwalk.Reciprocity now has the walrus start with the spring. Also added an extra tile in the bottom left to make the main deduction a bit easier to spot.
- Added 2 fog columns to Liftoff.Countdown to make one of the early deductions easier.
Misc
- Mouse users can now perform moves using LMB click-drag-release. This is not tutorialized anywhere, but there is feedback in the form of a stretching arrow in the direction of the drag. Some people will like this much more than LMB to select and RMB to move.
- Gameplay setting 'Selection ring' will now also control whether the two different mouse arrows (one for RMB movement and one for LMB drag movement) are displayed.
We're a week away from the 1-monthiversary, and only 13 reviews away from the magic number of 50 required for "Very Positive". Please continue to help spread the game around to other puzzle enthusiasts.
Puzzle changes
- Added hints for remaining levels. I am done! Feedback for improvements is still welcome, of course.
- Moved the yellow goal location on Lemniscate. The old version was straight-forward from the starting position, but it was very easy for players to accidentally fall into an impossible state without realizing it. This is one of the biggest sins in puzzle design, and it should not occur unless the "realizing it" step is part of the main idea of the puzzle. In this case it wasn't.
- Added 2 fog tiles to Pivots. This increases the uniqueness of the puzzle, making it more deducible.
Misc
- (Post-Inception) Unused exit spirals now animate by being pulled to the center instead of flashing.
- Increased the size of grid lines because the lowest nonzero setting was unusable with FXAA, and barely usable with TAA/TSR.
- Changed the look of the grid lines to be more "natural". You can still increase "Grid darkness" if you like the artificial look. I like the lowest nonzero thickness with darkness turned all the way down. I'm considering making this the default in a future patch. Thoughts?
- Hint menu in puzzle editor now has a scrollbar so there is no longer a soft limit to the number of hints that can be added to a puzzle.
- Don't show the journal entry tag icons in the "Required for current level" menu for undiscovered journal entries.
- Added mention of font under assets in credits.
Bugfixes
- Prevent animation of exit spirals when first loading a puzzle in the puzzle editor.
Puzzle changes
- Replaced Trapeze (level in post-Accumlation world Crowdsurf) with a completely new puzzle. The old version wasn't an amazing puzzle, and its idea also had already appeared in a similar form in another level. So I made a completely new level that explores a novel idea. I'm granting anyone that beat the old puzzle progress on this one because I don't want to spoil 100%-ers, but there is no relation between the old Trapeze and this new Trapeze. Give it a try!
- Added blue wall to hub puzzle. This prevents another scarlet herring (see 1.0.3 notes), and should better hint at how to reach one of the endgame areas.
- Hints for a couple of levels added.
Misc
- Flashing export spirals are now much bigger. I noticed players were having issues finding out what to do immediately after completing Inception. Hopefully this helps!
- Fade "undo or reset" message when pause or warp menus are opened.
- Tweaked tile shader to not show grid lines (when enabled) on the sides of tiles.
Bugfixes
- Fixed flashing "water" in the black background of the space biome when using "Medium" graphics settings preset.
- Using the "quick exit" bind while the end popup and journal are both up will no longer close the end popup.
Current Release
Build 24759718
Uploaded Oct 10, 2026
System Requirements
How to Install
GentooRescue.exe to play
Troubleshooting tips
• Run Redist/_CommonRedist installers if game won't start
• Add folder to Windows Defender exclusions
• Run as administrator
Download
Direct link available
Needed when extracting (WinRAR / 7-Zip) — not a site login.
D6F3CC1A
0f91a04cb75c1044d4bb7a3e73f9d057377d232d32cffce30acb81cd756cda68
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Download Gentoo Rescue for PC with a direct link or via torrent. Get the full version of Gentoo Rescue for free. Gentoo Rescue is a Casual released by Jagriff.