Having beaten Golden Light a number of times now, and achieving every ending, I wanted to share some tips that I learned along the way. These are generally considered to be intermediate / advanced tips. If you want beginner tips, or gameplay basics, there are other well-written guides that will give them.

• Under most circumstances, avoid combat. Even if you are attacked. Most enemies, even Eye Takers, lose interest if they can't hit you immediately. Dash away (a lot quieter than running), until they run away. Doesn't work for all enemy types, but works for most.
  
• Get pets. As soon as possible. Especially the Eye Taker. Pretty useless against bosses, but super useful against anything else. Trivializes many tricky encounters with enemies such as Eye Takers and Strangers in a Bag.
  
• The panic level is the second level of each biome (or, every level in the Library). Keep a close eye on the number of locks remaining, and unlock the chains as you go. Save a key near the elevator as the last one, then it should just be a short sprint to the exit.
  
• Gather as many mementos as possible, as quickly as possible. Just keep at least a couple of lobotomizers on hand as you do so. Each level spawns one memento. Additionally, the She statue in each level will spawn a memento on destruction about 75% of the time. So, unless you're playing a pacifist run, it's worth finding the She statue, then, just before leaving the level, destroying it and harvesting the memento.
  
• Meat holes won't contain keys, so don't look for them there. In fact, most meat holes will only hurt you. Use a map to find the ones that actually contain items. Mementos will often be found in them.
  
• Don't let the Gut stay angry with you. Seriously. This can start a snowball effect as it sends more mimics your way, which you will then need to fight off, which will only anger the Gut more. As someone who accidentally let this get to the final level of anger, I don't recommend it.
  
• Take your time. Don't rush from a level if you feel that it's safe to continue exploring. It is always useful to find and identify additional resources.

• As soon as you enter the Eternal Field after completing the Corridors, go up to the sky bridge near Val. Go up to the top and you'll find Carl. Carl is a turtle that, when picked up, stays with you for the rest of the game and reduces the damage you take by 25%.
  
• If you die and get sent back to the Eternal Field, make sure to prepare before going back to the level that killed you, especially if it was a boss. Otherwise, you'll be going up against the same challenge with even less preparation. Either jump back into an earlier dungeon and work your way back to that level, or visit Son (found near the cemetary) and ? (lives in an outhouse on top of the labyrinth, you'll need to jump from a sky bridge) to buy mementos and weapons, respectively.

Given that I avoid combat most of the time, my weapons rarely see use. This gives me the freedom to be more selective with my weapons, and carry around powerful ones for bosses and emergencies. Here are a few general tips:

• Find Huggs and use him whenever your weapons get even a little low. No one ever died from taking care of their weapons too well.
  
• Use Crown. Weapons that don't have status effects attached to them are dead, and they do 50% less damage.
  
• The sewer shield is fantastic. It does a lot of damage, and reduces damage you take by 50% when wielded. Wield it when you don't need anything else.
  
• There are few problems in the game that a shotgun can't solve. Especially a super shotgun.
  
• Needle's Crutch is a very useful, very powerful weapon that can make short work of just about any boss. Too bad you need to fight a rather annoying boss to get it.

• As mentioned in the Weapons section, taking good care of your weapons is very important. Keep an eye out for Crown and Huggs. They'll keep your weapons in good shape for very little gold.
  
• Look out for Laugh in Eye (really, given how big he often is, he's pretty hard to miss). Always buy some lobotomizers. You really don't want to use them up and then be forced into picking Hypochondriac.
  
• If you have Carl, Glutton will refuse to work with you. Don't do it. The benefits of keeping Carl (25% damage reduction) outweigh Glutton's uses.
  
• NPCs react in different ways to taking damage:
  
  • Some will do nothing (Map, Pipe Snake, Laugh in Eye)
    
  • Some will run away (Glutton)
    
  • Some will sit there, but set off an environmental effect (Crown will set off a fire, not sure who else)
    
  • Others will attack indiscriminately (Condemned, Lloyd, Huggs, Bartering Mimic, Cult members)
  An important thing to note on that last point is the word indiscriminately. If these NPCs take damage, whether it was from you or not, they will become hostile to everything, including you. Condemned and Lloyd are particularly tough to take down if you have to fight them, and I was recently one-shot by Huggs in the Corridors because a stray mimic damaged him. Watch your pets, stray mimics, and your nose.

Mementos are extremely useful, although some players turn away from them after accidently choosing one of the game's harmful ones. The benefits far outweight the risks, however, and gathering as many helpful mementos as possible is very important to a player's survivability.

Memento strategy, in general, should focus on the following:

• Pets
  
• Defense
  
• Movement
  
• Attack (unless playing pacifist)

In addition, always keep at least a few lobotomizers on you at all times. Sometimes, you can't avoid bad mementos, and Laugh in Eye doesn't spawn in every level, so it's good to have backups.

Top Tier Mementos:

Mementos to Avoid:

Most mimics have telltale signs if you look closely enough. It takes some getting used to. Here are some examples:

• Meater: Always glow.
  
• Treeter: Can be differentiated from normal trees by the fact that Treeters sway.
  
• Deeeeeeeeeer: Unlike the normal wooden bases that other deer heads are mounted on, Deeeeeeeeeer heads are mounted on meat.
  
• Mr. Window: Fingers protrude from their window frames.
  
• Mr. Gaze: Eyeballs instead of lenses. Not normally necessary to look to closely though, as these mimics move around a lot.

As part of your playthrough, you'll want to join a cult. It'll anger the Gut a bit, but it's definitely worth it. Joining a cult will offer you both immunity to the respective status effect, and will allow you to emit clouds of that effect when you take damage.

They'll begin spawning in the Factory, and will continue to appear until you join one. There are four possible cults to join:

• Poison: Most recommended. Poison is a very common status effect as clouds of poison appear quite often.
  
• Gold: Recommended. Gold Hunger comes up fairly often, as both key vendors and Golden Eye Takers emit clouds of this. Also, this cult comes with the added effect of doubling your gold intake whenever you pick any up. Very useful for the Val ending.
  
• Fire: Not recommended. Fire doesn't appear naturally all that often, and it's pretty easy to put out once you catch. Additionally, fires that start when you take damage make it hard to see.
  
• Bleeding: Very not recommended. Bleed is a very situational status effect, so your immunity won't be used much.

In general, the bosses in this game are hard, and require a lot of getting used to. It's a bit counterintuitive, but it's generally better to avoid boss battles unless you have a specific reason for fighting them, such as wanting a weapon they drop or going for the genocide ending. Even if you are attacked by a boss, it's usually better to run away if possible, rather than stand and fight. As such, learn the sounds that each boss makes, go around them, and invest in movement mementos in case they attack.

If you do chose to fight, here are a few general tips:

• Movement is very important. Some of these bosses hit hard, but you can outrun all of them, especially with the proper mementos. Don't just stand in one place against a melee boss and tank the hits. It's better to run around and stay out of their attack range.
  
• Guns. Especially shotguns. Especially super shotguns, if you can find one. Stay out of their attack range as much as possible.
  
• Plan out your fight. You'll generally have lots of time to do so, as only two bosses will attempt to seek you out. Know where you're going to fight the boss, and clear out any potential hazards.

Tactics by Boss:

• Carre: Tricky to take down without a gun, which might be a problem so early in the game. But, pretty trivial if you have one. Stand back, and takes shots with a pistol or a revolver.
  
• Meall: Take shots, run / dash away until it calms down, repeat. The tricky part here is the Condemned that litter the level, who very, very ready to attack at the slightest provocation, even if it's something as simple as a mimic stepping on a trap.
  
• Needles: Only boss that you don't want to try to outrun. It takes a bit of practice, but you can actually outmaneuver its attacks by moving clockwise or counterclockwise. From here, melee weapons can actually be a viable strategy, since they are more likely to hit its constantly-shifting hitbox.
  
• Gut Divers: Pretty easy boss fight with practice. Fit them in a large, open area, and you should be able to get away from its attacks. The problem here is the environment. Unlike most other bosses, this one comes to you, and so you will have minimal time to prepare, and less time to familiarize yourself with the level. If this happens, it can be very easy to trip meat traps, alert Mr. Windows, or accidentally retreat down a corridor full of dangers.
  
• Maneater: Tricky boss battle, as it's actually quite fast. Shoot it a few times, then run away.
  
• Castle: Also pretty tricky. Don't let Castle hit you. It will hurt, a lot. And it has a lot of health. It can't keep up if you run though, so hit it and run away.
  
• Gutworm: Frustrating boss fight until you figure out the trick that makes the fight way easier. When it appears, just run around the elevator. It can't destroy that. So, just keep running in circles, attacking its tail.
  
• Scourge: I have killed Scourge, but not enough to have a consistent strategy in place. If I figure one out, I'll update this.

There are five endings to Golden Light: three normal and two hidden:

Standard Endings:

• Torture Room: Just walk through the final door on level -21. Simple as that.
  
• Murder Room: Walk through the final door after killing every boss. Note that this includes Scourge. Your notebook keeps track of which bosses you kill, and they don't need to be done sequentially.
  
• White Room: Pacifist run. I'll probably write a guide for this.

Hidden Endings:

• Field Room: See my guide for this ending: https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2842236738
  
• Val Room: Very secret ending. See my guide for this one as well: https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2843228005