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"If you see a fork in the road inside a cave, most likely one way is right and the other leads to a dead end. But people can't help trying both. Do you want to go up the ladder or go down the ladder?"

In Video Games, especially RPGs and Platformers, if you come across a fork in a dungeon or similar environment, you will usually be provided with clues as to which way to go to advance the plot or find the next boss. Naturally, you'll want to go the other way whenever possible.

Why? There might be cool stuff down there. The game developers wouldn't go through the trouble of creating a corridor with nothing at the end of it... usually. Most of the time you'll find an interesting and useful item that will come in handy when you go back down the right path. At the very least, you'll probably find an interesting monster to fight.

Sometimes you'll get a weak consolation prize, such as a healing item that can be gotten in a hundred other places. Often you'll find an item, especially a weapon, which is particularly effective against the monsters and/or boss prevalent in the area. And sometimes you'll get what seems to be a dead end until you do some careful searching (that is, bump against conspicuous areas whilst pressing the A button repeatedly).

Of course, some games and dungeons avert this, and all you accomplish is slogging through a Death Course with no payoff and wasting a lot more of your HP than you needed to. Many a dead end becomes an Empty Room Psych, to the annoyance of players. But it was worth a try, wasn't it?

This can turn into Guide Dang It! under a couple of circumstances: if which way is the "wrong" way isn't explicitly clear and the game prevents you from returning to try the other path, and/or if the boss at the end of the "correct" path is almost impossible without the shield at the end of the "wrong" path that negates his status effects.

See also Only Idiots May Pass, where the correct path is indicated but you have to go the wrong way in order to access it. Also compare with a specific type of Back Tracking where a new weapon or ability allows you to acquire a treasure or powerup that was previously out of reach. Failing to go the wrong way first may lead to certain items being lost forever. Usually the sidetrack is a Path of Most Resistance.


Examples:

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    Action/Adventure 
  • Devil May Cry: Depending on the game and the level design, the player may arrive at forks or crossroads, with one path leading to the actual "objective" that helps progress the game, while the other is an optional path that may lead to collectibes such as Blue Orb Fragments. How "obvious" the sidepaths are compared to the main paths may also vary, and backtracking may also be involved. Specific examples include:
    • Mission 17 of Devil May Cry 3: Dante's Awakening has a platforming puzzle where you have to jump into floating cubes to reach a door in a ledge, but it's obvious that this room has two ledges; one is an optional path that contains a Blue Orb Fragment.
    • The "Lost Woods" area of Devil May Cry 4 is a series of crossroads where you need to figure out the correct path using light and shadows as your guide. Going into the wrong path however takes you to the "Hidden Pit" where you are forced to fight a group of enemies, though you'll also find a Blue Orb Fragment there for your efforts.
    • Devil May Cry 5 is abundant with sidepaths, the game even has a button that can be held to show you the path to the main objective and differentiate them instead. Many of them (such as in Missions 4, 10, 15, and 16) are of the usual kind that rewards Blue Orb Fragments, Purple Orb Fragments, or Gold Orbs, though there are also unique cases where you can be rewarded more than these; you can find Lady's original Kalina Ann rocket launcher in an optional area of Mission 11, and you can pre-emptively make the Nightmare boss fight easier in Mission 18 by exploring the optional paths. In some of the missions mentioned above (such as 4 and 10), there are also situational dialogue lines that play only when you explore these optional paths.
  • This is very noticeable in The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword. The game's dowsing feature makes it easy to tell which of a set of paths leads to plot advancement, so you can explore the alternatives if you want. Though most of the time you'll run into a Door to Before.
  • The Yoshpet forest area in Ōkami is notable because you have a time limit, and there's always a character pointing the correct way. But if you take the wrong path, you'll always find a treasure chest, some of which you'll need if you want 100% Completion.
  • Very common in the Ratchet & Clank series. Nearly all planets have at least two 'missions'. One is obviously what you came there to do, but the other will most likely net you a new gadget or weapon. (or co-ordinates to a new planet... where you'll most likely find a new gadget or weapon) But if you only do the first, then leave, you'll eventually run into an obstacle on a later planet that, surprise, is only passable if you have the Sidetrack Bonus from before, forcing you to backtrack. Long-time players of the series know to always save plot-vital objectives for last.
  • The Tomb Raider series is generally linear with items strewn along the path, but each level usually has a side room or area that is hidden, difficult to reach, or the area itself contains traps. The hidden areas, usually called secrets, contain extra ammo, health kits, or even weapons. Finding every single secret area isn't required to finish the game, but the bonus items they provide can help. Finding secret areas is almost a must in the console version of Tomb Raider III since most of the game's Save Crystals are found in secret areas.

    Action RPG 
  • In the Blue Cave in Quest 64, there are actual arrows pointing to the right way on most crossroads. Naturally, more often than not, the other way gets you a chest and/or a spirit.
  • In Torchlight, you need to cover every square inch of a level to be sure you've gained the maximum experience, fame and loot from that area. Same applies, of course, to the Diablo series it apes/improves on.

    Adventure 
  • Bearing in mind that the main point of the Monkey Island games is to access as many jokes as possible, it's usually more rewarding to try dialogue options and item combinations that you know aren't going to work, just to see what happens, especially since almost nothing you do can get you killed or render the game Unwinnable.
  • Day of the Tentacle is another LucasArts game with plenty of humor that you'll miss if you only do what you're "supposed" to do. Unlike its predecessor, Maniac Mansion, there's no way you can lose the game, so go nuts!

    Eastern RPG 
  • This makes up the majority of Final Fantasy XIII's exploration. Thanks to the game telling you where you're supposed to go and generous automapping, it's very easy to tell which paths are likely to have treasure (though not all do).
    • Almost every Final Fantasy has some variant of this—typically, the paths keep splitting in two, with one path leading to a dead end that may or may not have a treasure chest, and the other leading further into the dungeon. Usually, there's no way to tell which path will be a dead end, and if the paths get more complicated than a two-way split, it can be impossible to tell whether you're going the wrong way and will hit a dead end soon, or you're going the right way and should head back immediately to check for treasure. And you will want to check for treasure, because the weapons and armor in those chests are often significantly more powerful than anything you can buy in stores at that point in the game. Final Fantasy II is one of the worst offenders here, since going through some doors teleports you to the center of an empty room in which the random encounter rate is significantly increased, forcing you to fight two or three battles just to get back out and try the next door in the hopes that this time you'll get a room with a treasure chest. Final Fantasy VIII, on the other hand, mostly avoids this both through linear dungeon design, and through not having any treasure chests (when the game does give a sidetrack bonus, it's generally a spell.)
    • Final Fantasy VII manages to have a very notable one where you have the choice to take an elevator or the stairs on a tall skyscraper. Naturally the elevator is quite fast but if you take the stairs you'll pick up a few nice items and some interesting dialogue to boot.
    • A particularly nasty example in Final Fantasy IX: in the ice cave, an early game dungeon, go the correct way and find... the boss! And you must face him with only Zidane, the rest of your party being incapacitated, with no chance to save. Where's the savepoint? It's the sidetrack bonus on the other path. Even worse: it's frozen and Vivi has to melt it with fire for you to use it, so if you decide to backtrack after every party member has passed out, you'll find a savepoint you can't use. Better beat the boss first try.
  • From The Legend of Dragoon, backtracking to Lohan after picking up one character lets you buy their Dragoon Spirit about two discs earlier than they would normally get it.
  • In Grandia III, returning to the area where your boat used to be at an island will reward you with a pair of shoes which increase female character's speed when equipped. There's also a Rare Candy hidden at the east end of the beach where you met Alonso for the first time.
  • In SaGa Frontier, during the quest for the Shield card, exploring the caverns in Mosperiburg a bit leads to an Optional Boss fight with a red and black dragon duo, guarding a hoard of treasures and items.

    First Person Shooter 
  • Borderlands series has usually an ammo chest awaiting at the end of a non-story path. There are portions of the map that may not be related to the story path but are an integral part of one or more side missions. However, sidetracking to non-mission areas may reward players with some other interesting stuff:
    • In Borderlands, level transition doors and caves may feature a sidepath leading to a chest and some ammo.
    • Every game features an area near the Noob Cave with a boss ten or more levels above your Player Character, usually being there to tell the player how to identify a dangerous overlevelled foe (Level 10 Bone Head in 1 and Level 30 Iwo Jira in The Pre-Sequel).
    • In Borderlands 2, you can take a detour to the right in Tundra Express and fall into a risc. This area contains a chest.
    • In 1 there's a Claptrap as an Easter Egg above the Marcus' Munitions abandoned shop. When you return to this area in 2 as part of the main story's climax, you can spot this same Claptrap, now dead, and there'll be a chest next to it.
    • The Tartarus Station Hub Level in 1's Claptrap's New Robot Revolution has many hidden chests in zones you'll have to actually look for. For example, climbing atop of the tower will net you a Red chest halfway and two at the top, the entrance to Sander's Gorge has one at one of the cliffs walling it, there's another if you carefully walk a pathway around Tannis's lab (near the entrance to Hyperion Dump) near the beginning of the level, and "helping" and defeating a Claptrap near the entrance to Dividing Faults unlock another chest.
  • Clive Barker's Jericho is an aversion only notable for having so many forks in the road leading nowhere. No pickups, no plot coupons, no clues that you're heading into another gratuitously added dead end.
  • Half-Life subverts this trope. With the developers having stated that when they had multiple paths they would find players would get through one path, turn around and search the other, even thought they ended up in the same place.
  • Left 4 Dead is quite linear, but there is usually a small side room or the like that may contain weapons or healing items if you take the time to explore. Since the game randomizes where and what items will spawn, you'll never find goodies in the same room twice in a row.

    Platformer 
  • A Boy and His Blob for Wii is a major offender. (Although a lot of levels do provide you with fireflies pointing out the path for treasure.) In fact, one level in world 2 is extremely straightforward if you're just going for the exit... and almost maddening if you go through it looking for the treasure.
  • One of the new bonus levels in the Game Boy Advance version of Yoshi's Island is a simple, straight, effortless path to the goal, if you don't mind getting 10/100 points. You want 100% Completion? Better take a detour.
  • Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back has a few of these scattered through levels. Jumping off boxes over instakill water or navigating a room packed with nitro that will kill you just by brushing against it or even jumping up a staircase of nitro will often send the player to a bonus warp room allowing them to get missing boxes or gems from earlier levels.
  • Be sure to search every nook and cranny in the LittleBigPlanet story levels, so you can find Prize Bubbles. They contain new costumes and objects for use in the Level Editor.
  • Ganbare Goemon: Sometimes stages feature two goals, with the alternate route usually requiring a special ability that's acquired later in the games i.e Yae's Mermaid magic/morph that allows her to go underwater.

    Real-Time Strategy 
  • In Dungeon Keeper, completing certain objectives will almost invariably either a) unlock new, harder objectives (objectives that will in all likelihood thoroughly kick your ass), or b) result in your missing out on certain spells that are nigh-essential for completing the game (especially Transfer Creature or Locate Hidden Level).
  • In Warcraft III, when you meet up with Jaina for the first time you are to proceed toward a town. If you backtrack the way Jaina came from there is an artifact for you.

    Roguelike 
  • Because of its randomised dungeons, moving forward in the Diablo series is largely a matter of luck, with the player as likely to find an empty dead end as anything else, but exploring a whole area before going on will naturally yield some treasure and some unique monsters. Diablo III seems to have taken this trope to heart, as every nook and cranny is almost guaranteed to have a little something at the end, if only a pittance of gold or weapons and armor. And that's not speaking of the optional dungeons dotted about at random, each of which has a huge, glowing chest at the bottom.

    Third-Person Shooter 
  • This is a good way to find Power Nodes, ammo, and sudden Necromorphs in Dead Space 2
  • Kid Icarus: Uprising has an arrow that shows you where the next objective is. Almost always, extra treasure chests, hearts, or hot springs can be found by going everywhere but where the arrow points when you get into an open room.
  • In Shadows of the Damned, this is the only way to grab Red Gems without breaking your bank, and it's made worse with the game's harsh Point of No Return tendencies, especially considering it's not always obvious which way is the critical path.

    Western RPG 
  • Happens a few times in Dragon Age: Origins. In the Ruined Temple, for instance, you can make the right turn and skip going straight. You'll also lose out on one of the best swords in the game, and the only one geared specifically for Arcane Warriors. (It's also usable only by Arcane Warriors, and is thus useless if nobody in your party took that specialization.) The game warns you you're entering a boss area by doing an auto-save...usually a good time to check and see if there are other rooms you should investigate before proceeding.
    • Overlaps with Guide Dang It!. Taking certain dialogue options with the Gatekeeper will drag you past a possible sidetrack with several bonuses. You will have to backtrack for it. Woe betide you if you take the dialogue options with the Lady that take you directly to the elven camp...
  • Often averted in Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas. While you can find a lot of valuable stuff if you take the time to look around the Wide-Open Sandbox, most of the time locations are just stuffed with mundane items or Shop Fodder, certainly nothing that could be considered particularly worthwhile to have detoured for. Played straight in major cities and other quest-heavy areas, where it's often to your benefit to look around and break into every locked room in search of equipment, since they're better-stocked than the average wasteland shack.

    Survival Horror 
  • Silent Hill: Homecoming gives us the appropriately named "Hell Descent" stage. Although it's clear that you're supposed to go down, how many players could resist that one little side passage? All you get is a doll that, when you approach it, it whispers "Behind You...". Then you turn around in time to find a monster from nowhere lunging right at you.

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