Vellie and Vellie Cave

Vellie is the opening area of Owlboy and the place the game uses to teach you what it is. It is a floating settlement just outside the capital city of Advent, home to Otus, Asio, the Professor, Geddy, Toby, Bomboman and Mandolyn. The first dungeon, Vellie Cave, sits underneath Otus's house. This page covers both, in the order you meet them.

The area is small but it hides three things players routinely miss: a permanent health upgrade, an achievement tied to a drum kit, and a coin bank that funds your first shop purchases. None of them are on the critical path, and all three are easier to do now than to come back for later.

Vellie hub: the checklist

Before you go underground, walk the island. The buildings and exits are:

Two of those are worth doing immediately. The hot spring gives a permanent life increase the first time you sit in it and unlocks the Hot Spring Mastery achievement. Bomboman's drums play a short sequence if you jump on them in the right order; completing it unlocks Music Master and produces a key that matters much later, in Mesos. The optional content page has the full list of these detours.

Talk to Asio on the roof before you leave. The scene establishes the relic, the pirates and why Otus is sent out, and it is the last quiet moment before the game starts moving.

Vellie Cave: the first dungeon

The cave entrance is below Otus's house. The dungeon is short, but it is where the game stops explaining and starts expecting. Its enemies, as listed by the community wiki, are Gawks and their young Peeks, Torques, Wards and a Masked Tortoise. The cave holds 300 Buccanary Coins and the Teleporter Device at the end.

A route that works:

1. Enter and clear the first Gawk room. Gawks hang from ceilings and hide in the ground; they chase in packs. Clear the room only if a door needs it, otherwise fly past.
2. Use Geddy on the first switch. Put him down on the plate, then pick him up again after the door opens. This is the game's way of teaching the carry-and-drop loop.
3. Break the barrels. Some block the path, some hide coins. The speedrun route breaks only the top barrel to squeeze through, but on a first run break them all.
4. Cross the Ward corridor. Wards slide along vines and fire energy blasts; blaster shots do not hurt them, but a spin attack does.
5. Take the side room with the red chest. Red chests sit in the ground and need to be pulled out; they are the main coin source in the cave.
6. Reach the teleporter chamber. The Teleporter Device is the reward at the end. Pick it up before you leave.

The Teleporter Device is the most useful item in the first half of the game. It lets you call a gunner to your side, or to your feet while flying, without carrying them across the room. After you have it, puzzles that require a gunner on a distant switch stop being a commute.

What the cave is doing

Vellie Cave is not a random dungeon. Twig, the troublemaker who dresses as a spider, deliberately leads Otus and Geddy down there while the pirates attack Vellie and steal its relic. The dungeon is a distraction, and the game tells you so after you come back up. That is why the relic is gone when you return and why the story moves to Tropos next.

The cave also sets up the game's structure: a hub, a dungeon, a tool, a story beat. Every later area follows the same shape.

Coins and what to do with them

The cave's 300 coins are a meaningful start. Coupon rings are worth 3 coins each, red chests hold more, and some destructible scenery hides a few. You do not spend coins when you claim a shop prize; the shop checks your total and hands over the trinket. That means the 300 from the cave counts toward the first paid canteen even after you have claimed the free one.

The coins and trinkets page lists the thresholds. The short version: claim the free Cool Canteen as soon as you reach the shop, then aim for the Nice Canteen at 750.

Leaving Vellie

After the cave, the route goes up. Vellie Outpost connects to Tropos, the second hub, and the game opens into its middle section. If you are following a route, the Tropos and Owl Temple walkthrough is next. If you want the whole shape first, the walkthrough hub lists every area without story spoilers.

One last thing: the hot spring and the drums are still available after the story moves on, but the evacuation scene changes who is standing where. Doing them first is simpler.

If you get stuck

The cave's most common dead end is the switch room where Geddy has to stand on a plate. The game does not spell out that you can put him down; players who keep carrying him see a closed door and assume a missed lever. Put him on the plate, walk through, then call him back with the Teleporter Device once you have it.

The second dead end is the Ward corridor. Wards are immune to blaster fire, so players empty a reload bar and conclude they need a different gun. A spin attack kills them. If a Ward is blocking a narrow corridor, spin through it rather than shooting.

The third is the exit. The Teleporter Device sits at the end of the last chamber, and it is easy to leave the room without noticing the pickup prompt. If you reach Tropos and cannot call your gunner, go back.

Achievements in Vellie

Two achievements can be earned here, and both are easy to postpone by accident:

Neither is on the critical path. The hot spring is a short scene and a permanent life increase; the drums are a jump sequence across the bongo set. If you finish Vellie without them, you can return later, but the evacuation changes the NPC dialogue and makes the scenes feel out of order.

_Checked 2026-11-03 against the community area documentation, the Steam store description and the official achievement list for app 115800._