Baby Steps becomes far less frustrating once you stop treating Nate like a normal platforming character. The game has no jump button, no sprint meter, no weapon stats, and no traditional leveling system; your progress comes from learning its physics-based walking controls. Move one foot at a time, keep your weight over stable ground, use the camera to scout every landing, and save your bravado for wide, predictable surfaces. These 10 Baby Steps tips will help new players survive the mountain, understand why they fall, and turn each embarrassing tumble into useful information.
Created by Gabe Cuzzillo, Maxi Boch, and Bennett Foddy, Baby Steps is built around deliberately awkward movement. That design choice is the entire point. The game wants you to feel every slope, ledge, rock, and bad decision. If you enjoy hostile movement systems, Steamoz’s guide to Carrion’s movement tricks offers a useful contrast: that game gives you power, while Baby Steps makes control itself the challenge.
Master Baby Steps’ movement before exploring
1. Learn what each trigger actually does
Baby Steps’ defining control scheme uses the controller’s triggers to place Nate’s feet independently. Rather than pressing forward and watching an animation solve the terrain for you, you’re choosing where his left and right feet go. The exact feel depends on your input device and settings, but the core rule never changes: a step is only safe when the foot lands on support that can carry Nate’s weight.
Start on flat ground and practice alternating inputs slowly. Don’t hold both controls down and expect a clean stride. That creates hurried, unstable movement and makes it harder to understand which foot caused a wobble. Use a rhythm like left, pause, right, pause. The pauses aren’t wasted time; they let the animation settle and show whether Nate’s center of balance is stable.
2. Walk with a rhythm, not a speed target
New players often rush because the game’s open landscape looks like it’s inviting a hike. That instinct is expensive. Baby Steps doesn’t reward reaching the next landmark quickly, and there’s no conventional stamina bar pushing you to sprint. A calm cadence gives you time to correct a foot that lands too close to an edge.
On level ground, use short alternating steps and watch Nate’s hips. If his upper body begins swaying, stop adding movement for a moment. Let the current pose recover before taking another step. On slopes, slow your cadence even further. The safest walk often feels absurdly cautious, but that’s still faster than recovering from a long fall.
3. Keep your camera pointed at the next landing
The camera is more than a sightseeing tool. It’s your early-warning system. Before stepping onto a rock, rotate the view until you can see the surface where the foot should land. A visual line that looks flat from behind may actually be angled sharply sideways. That hidden angle is one of the easiest ways to lose balance.
Scout two or three steps ahead, then return your attention to the immediate landing. Looking too far into the distance makes you miss small stones and dips. Looking only at Nate’s shoes leaves you blind to the route. The best camera habit is a loop: look ahead, frame the next foot placement, step, stabilize, and repeat.
| Terrain | Recommended Pace | Main Risk | Best Response |
|---|---|---|---|
| Flat dirt | Short alternating steps | Overconfidence | Maintain a steady rhythm |
| Loose rocks | One foot at a time | Unstable landings | Pause after every step |
| Side slope | Very slow | Lateral sliding | Approach at a shallower angle |
| Steep climb | Measured micro-steps | Backward loss of balance | Stop and reassess after each foothold |
🎮 Baby Steps
Looking to experience this game? Grab your digital key directly on our store for $9.99.
View on Steammoz Store →Read the mountain and choose safer routes
4. Treat every slope as a route-planning puzzle
The most obvious path is rarely the safest path. A direct climb may look shorter, but a diagonal route across gentler ground usually gives Nate more reliable footholds. Before committing to an incline, rotate the camera and search for flatter shelves, exposed dirt, or wide rock surfaces. You’re not looking for the shortest line; you’re looking for the line with the fewest balance corrections.
This mindset is similar to the route discipline needed in Construction Simulator’s LR 1300 challenge. The destination is only half the problem. Positioning your approach correctly determines whether the next action is easy or disastrous.
5. Never commit to a blind drop
If the camera can’t show where Nate will land, don’t step forward yet. Blind drops are especially dangerous near ridges, vegetation, and uneven rock formations because the game’s perspective can hide the true height of the next surface. Back up to a stable patch, adjust the camera, and inspect the landing from multiple angles.
When you find a drop that looks manageable, take it in stages. Move to the edge, stabilize, then place one foot onto the lower surface instead of walking straight off. If Nate begins tipping, you’ll have a better chance of correcting the movement than you would after launching his entire body downhill.
6. Use landmarks to create mental checkpoints
Baby Steps’ world is easier to navigate when you stop thinking in terms of one huge expedition. Break a route into recognizable landmarks: a distinctive boulder, a bend in the trail, a structure, a patch of unusual vegetation, or a visible change in elevation. Reach one landmark, stabilize, and use it as your next starting point.
This also makes failed attempts productive. If you repeatedly fall near the same rock, you know exactly where your route needs a new approach. Don’t automatically repeat the identical line. Move five or ten degrees to one side, change the camera angle, and test whether the terrain offers a more forgiving foothold.
7. Don’t confuse a broad surface with a stable surface
A large rock can still be a terrible landing zone if it’s tilted. Stability depends on the angle and shape beneath Nate’s foot, not simply on how much terrain you can see. Flat dirt and gently angled ground are usually safer than a broad, polished-looking stone with a steep crown.
Watch the foot animation after contact. If the foot appears to slide, shift weight immediately by slowing your next input. If Nate’s leg settles naturally and his torso stays upright, you can continue. The animation gives you valuable information before the game turns a minor mistake into a full tumble.
Recover from mistakes without making them worse
8. Stop fighting a fall that has already started
Once Nate is clearly losing balance, frantic inputs usually make the situation worse. New players often mash both controls, rotate the camera wildly, and create a second mistake while trying to save the first. Instead, identify whether the next surface is survivable. If it is, focus on positioning one foot toward that surface. If the slope is already too steep, accept the fall and prepare to regain control when Nate stops.
This is where Baby Steps differs from a traditional platformer. You’re not searching for a last-second button combination that guarantees recovery. You’re managing momentum and making the least damaging choice available. A controlled retreat is a success if the alternative is tumbling past the last safe landmark.
9. Use failed attempts as route data
Every fall tells you something specific. Did the foot land on a side angle? Did you approach too quickly? Did the camera hide a gap? Did you step from a stable surface onto loose terrain without pausing? Name the failure before trying again. “I fell” isn’t useful; “my right foot landed on the downhill edge while I was still turning” gives you a fix.
Keep a mental note of dangerous sections and experiment with one variable at a time. Change the approach angle but keep the pace. If that fails, keep the angle and slow the cadence. Baby Steps rewards this kind of tiny adjustment because its physics are consistent enough for patterns to emerge.
10. Protect your patience with short sessions
Precision movement becomes less precise when you’re angry. After several failed attempts on the same incline, take a break or walk somewhere easier. Muscle memory built while frustrated tends to preserve rushed inputs, and those inputs will still be waiting when you return.
Short sessions also help you notice progress that a single marathon attempt hides. You may not reach a dramatic new landmark, but you might learn to cross a rocky patch without stopping or recover from a sideways wobble. Those are genuine improvements. Baby Steps is designed around gradual mastery, not constant forward momentum.
| Problem | Likely Cause | Adjustment | What Success Looks Like |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nate drifts sideways | Crossing a slope too directly | Use a shallower diagonal | Torso remains centered |
| Foot slips on landing | Surface is angled or loose | Pause and choose a flatter patch | Foot settles without sliding |
| Repeated downhill tumble | Inputs are too fast | Alternate slowly and stabilize | Each step finishes before the next |
| Blind fall near an edge | Camera hides the drop | Scout from a safe position | Landing is visible before movement |
Use the right settings and expectations
11. Choose a controller if you can
Baby Steps is playable on PC with different input devices, but an analog controller generally makes the game’s physical movement easier to read. Trigger pressure and thumbstick camera control let you make smaller adjustments than a keyboard can comfortably provide. If you prefer mouse and keyboard, lower your camera sensitivity until scouting no longer causes overshooting, then practice the movement inputs in a safe area.
Keep frame pacing stable, too. The game’s challenge comes from judging animation and momentum, so inconsistent performance can make timing feel less trustworthy. On PC, use the official Steam page for the current system requirements and support information. If your frame rate is unstable, lower demanding visual settings before blaming your inputs.
12. Don’t search for a conventional build or power curve
Baby Steps has no weapon tier list, character class, damage rotation, or stat allocation to optimize. Nate’s “build” is your understanding of movement. That’s important because guides written for RPGs or action games can send you looking for upgrades that aren’t part of the experience. The progression is geographic and personal: you learn how to cross terrain that once looked impossible.
For comparison, Children of Silentown’s guide to what matters without weapons makes a similar point about focusing on the systems a game actually uses. In Baby Steps, observation, rhythm, and route choice matter far more than collecting a stronger item.
13. Expect comedy, not constant efficiency
Nate’s dialogue, animations, and spectacular failures are part of the game’s identity. A fall isn’t always a punishment for poor play; sometimes the game is deliberately setting up a ridiculous physical gag. Don’t skip the humor by treating every moment like a speedrun. Let the game’s odd conversations and environmental discoveries interrupt your route.
The official Devolver Digital game page and the developers’ Baby Steps website both make the tone clear: this is a walking adventure built around awkwardness. The joke lands harder when you’re willing to play along.
Your first-hour game plan
Follow this order when you start
Begin by spending several minutes on forgiving ground. Practice alternating feet, stopping after each step, and rotating the camera without moving Nate. Then walk toward the nearest obvious landmark using a slow rhythm. Don’t attempt a shortcut just because it looks visually interesting. Your first goal is to build a reliable baseline for how the character reacts.
When you reach uneven terrain, scout the route from a stable position. Pick the widest path, approach diagonally if the slope is severe, and pause after every questionable landing. If you fall, identify the exact cause and change one thing on the next attempt. That process is much more effective than restarting with faster, more aggressive inputs.
Finally, remember the central Baby Steps rule: control beats courage. The mountain isn’t asking you to be fearless; it’s asking you to pay attention. Keep the camera useful, give every foot time to settle, and treat each fall as information. Once those habits become automatic, the game’s deliberately awkward movement stops feeling random. It becomes a language you can read—and that’s when the climb really begins.
If you’re coming to Baby Steps from another difficult indie game, Steamoz’s guides to Dins’s Curse survival decisions and City of Gangsters PC performance fixes are also worth bookmarking. Baby Steps has fewer numbers to optimize, but the same rule applies: understand the system first, then push it.