Cube Escape The Mill: Unravel the After-Story of Laura’s Return to the Lake & Achievement Guide

Cube Escape The Mill, the sixth chapter of Cube Escape Collection, bears a close relationship with Case 23. As Cube Escape Case 23 narrates the solving of Laura’s suicide from Dale’s perspective, The Mill tells the other side of hunting down the corrupted soul at the lake from Mr. Crow and Mr. Owl’s perspective. Compared to Case 23, Cube Escape The Mill is less opaque. It explains the logic of cleansing the corrupted soul more straightforwardly. The game also has a clear structure of level progression. It is based on the architectural structure of the mill and how it is related to the lake’s water level. This post explains the story and the background information for The Mill, and provides achievement guides!

What to Play Before Cube Escape The Mill

According to the timeline, Cube Escape The Mill happens after Laura’s death and parallels with Dale’s investigation into Laura’s case. Therefore, players can play through the Rusty Lake games about Laura’s death, her life story, and the detective’s story to better understand what is going on in Cube Escape The Mill.

To go through Laura’s life story, there is Underground Blossom. The game explains thoroughly how Laura was brought to the city and how she develops depression afterwards. In Underground Blossom, Laura was left with Harvey by Rose and had a very difficult childhood and teenage years. However, the ups and downs of her life came when Bob entered her life and when she was robbed of the protective timepiece. The loss of her identity has been the theme of Laura’s life and the trigger for her to commit suicide.

Cube Escape Case 23 has direct connections to The Mill because they happened at the same time. However, they tell the story from different angles. Case 23 Chapter 1 and 2 tell how Dale was investigating Laura’s case. Later, Dale called the phone number to the lake. He also found the two cubes, the white and the black ones, needed for the cleansing of the corrupted soul as well. Later, he was sent to the lake by Mr. Owl as part of the effort to collect the lake’s memory. Thus, it is highly recommended to play Cube Escape Case 23 and The Mill one after another.

Generally speaking, Cube Escape Case 23 and The Mill together directly explain Dale’s role in saving the lake. Underground Blossom and Cube Escape Seasons focus more on Laura’s story.

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What Happened in Cube Escape The Mill

In general, the main plot of The Mill is that Mr. Crow and Mr. Owl need to collaborate with Dale. Mr. Owl explained in the letter to Mr. Crow that they need to adjust the water level of the lake and put the good memory (the white cube) into the lake to erase the corrupted soul. Mr. Owl chose Dale, a character related to the lake since childhood (from Cube Escape Birthday), to help them save the lake.

The Mill separates the storytelling into different sections: the living room, the attic, and the basement. Players start from the living room, progress to the attic, and then finally finish the mission in the basement. Each area has its unique function specifically in the story.

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Furthermore, the puzzle solving in the living room and the attic is to prepare for the memory extraction and communicate with Dale Vandermeer. Mr. Owl managed to transport Laura’s body from the crime scene to the lake (corresponding to the scene where an unknown force pulled Laura away in Case 23 Chapter 1). Mr. Crow extracted Laura’s memory from the living room and put the cubes into the basement.

Unfortunately, Mr. Crow and Mr. Owl still failed the task of preventing the corrupted soul from haunting the lake. Mr. Crow extracted both the good memories and bad memories from Laura, which ended up in the emergence of the corrupted soul.

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Is Cube Escape The Mill Worth Playing

Cube Escape The Mill is one of the more technical puzzle-solving games in the Rusty Lake universe. The mill layout picture on the wall might remind players a lot of Cube Escape The Cave, in which players need to learn to drive the submarine. In this game, players need to find out how to change the water level and put in the cubes through the mill.

Compared to a story plot that relies more on the time stamps, Cube Escape The Mill presents the story through its architectural structure. The game explains to the players how they should relate each room together and figure out the function of each part of the mill by showing the structure of the mill. Players make progress by figuring out how the mill changed the water level of the lake.

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With all that said, The Mill may strike the players as a more holistic puzzle-solving game instead of one that has many mini-games. The final goal is always clear: find the body, put in the cubes, and change the water level. However, it is also more challenging, like handling the submarine, when the game asks the players to use the facilities in the mill.

As to its role in the Rusty Lake universe, Cube Escape The Mill plays a pretty critical role in explaining the story. Mr. Owl’s letter clarified why they needed Laura to return to the lake. Her memory was crucial to purify the corrupted soul. Dale’s role as someone who can connect Laura’s case with the lake stood out in the game as well.

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How to Collect All the Achievements

There are 8 achievements in total in Cube Escape The Mill. Players need to unlock some achievements first before further progressing the plot, or else players will not be able to return to the previous story plot to collect the achievements. In that case, players need to play through the game again to collect them.

The sequence of collecting the achievements is:

Fine Dining ➡️ The Basement ➡️ The Old Crow (Adjust to 3:25 first before dialing it to 6:10) ➡️ Fun Time with Laura ➡️ T-Pose ➡️ Undead Cow ➡️ Free Bird

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The Attic	Collect the grandma’s gold tooth and make the key to the attic.
The Basement	Put in 1384, the passcode to the green door, and open the door to the basement.
T-Pose	Click Mr. Owl, and he will make a T-pose, after Dale was transported to the lake.
Free Bird	Click the corrupted soul several times at the end to let it free Harvey.
Fun Time with Laura	Click the direction control buttons several times to make Laura’s body move around in the room after she was hung up.
Fine Dining	Click Harvey to collect its poop and feed the poop to the grandma.
Undead Cow	Keep clicking on the cow’s eye after the cow’s head was cut off.
The Old Crow	1. Adjust the time to 3:25 on the clock in the attic. (The clue is from the typing machine in Chapter 2 of Case 23) 2. Click the crow that appeared at the window of the attic.

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FAQs

What is the brain code in Cube Escape The Mill?

The brain code is 257. After extracting the white cube from Laura’s memory, players need to put the white cube into the water tank in the basement. The code appears in the window right next to the water tank. Put the brain code into the memory extraction machine, and players can start extracting the black cube. An easier way to pass the memory test mini-game is to take a picture of the screen and finish the game according to the picture.

How to milk the cow in Cube Escape The Mill?

There is a pot with a seed in the attic. Players need to:

1. Fill the cooking pot with water in the living room.
2. Pour the water into the flower pot.
3. Click Harvey to collect his poop.
4. Fertilize the seed with Harvey’s poop.
5. Use the scissors to cut the grass.
6. Feed the grass to the cow, and click its mouth several times to make it chew down the grass.
7. Put the empty pot under the cow’s nipples.
8. Click the nipples following the hints provided on the wall: Each nipple has a corresponding symbol, and the sequence of clicking each symbol is on the frame of Mr. Owl’s letter on the wall.

Conclusion

Cube Escape The Mill is like a paired story with Cube Escape Case 23, and together they form a complete explanation of why Laura needs to return to the lake and why Dale needs to reach the lake as well. As the latest generation of the families related to the lake, Laura and Dale play the critical role of saving the lake from the corrupted soul. Laura’s good memory can cleanse the lake, and Dale will sink into the great depths of the lake to explore more memories related to the lake.

On the other hand, it is also interesting to know the lake from Mr. Crow and Mr. Owl’s perspective, because they are the main drivers of the Rusty Lake plots. No matter which Rusty Lake games players play, they can always find the traces of how Mr. Crow and Mr. Owl control the whole situation. In sum, although Cube Escape The Mill does not offer an extensive story like Underground Blossom or The White Door, it still fills up many blanks of the Rusty Lake universe, and the puzzle design of the mill is unique to play through as well.

🏚️Need help solving Rusty Lake puzzles or unlocking every achievement? Check out our Rusty Lake guide hub, featuring complete walkthroughs, puzzle solutions, story explanations, achievement guides, and everything you need to explore the strange and mysterious world of Rusty Lake!