Navigator

Navigator
Type	Device
Function	Interlayer travel

For the coordinate device from Submachine 3: The Loop, see compass .

The navigator is an interlayer device which can be found in Submachine 8: The Plan and in Submachine 9: The Temple, where it is used to move from one layer of the subnet to another.

Function

The machine is a rather crude mechanism with seven buttons on it and a wire with two electrodes coming out of one end. These electrodes are placed on the user's head, after which the device can be used by pressing the buttons. Each button corresponds to a different layer.

In Submachine 8, at first only the first button is activated, but one can activate all the seven buttons by turning on the beamers of each layer so that the player can freely use it to move himself through the seven layers.

In Submachine 9, the navigator can be used freely through the game, though only a certain number of rooms manifest changes across each layer; an eighth button can be found near the end which, inserted in the navigator's corresponding hole, lets the player access layer 8.

Trivia

Real-life navigator.

• In a forum post Mateusz refers to the compass from Submachine 3 as a navigator as well. This possibly means that there are different types of navigators, and we have seen two so far.
  • In the HD re-release of Submachine 3, the device is held in the inventory and is labeled "navigator". Notes found in the game still refer to it as a "compass", however.

• The navigator device was very likely inspired by a device found in an real-life abandoned factory, although this is not directly confirmed by the author (this might lead to theories about the navigator being created from a previous device that got absorbed by Submachine or modified by the scientists from the Core. That would also explain the "missing" button in the navigator. However, it is likely that the apparatus used as inspiration is totally unrelated to the actual navigator).