Chapters

"What if... I use the brush! Just like she would!"
- Pizza, finding the Brush outside Chicory’s room

This page covers the main story of Chicory: A Colorful Tale, which is divided into chapters. For information on sidequests or collectibles, see respective character or location pages.

Prologue

Pizza picking up The Brush

The player takes control of Pizza, the janitor of the current Wielder, Chicory. Pizza talks to themself how cool Chicory is while they clean the Wielder Tower. While Pizza is cleaning the studio, all of the colors vanish suddenly. Leaving the room, down the hall to the left, The Brush is found lying on the ground, outside Chicory's room. Pizza can choose to take The Brush or not. The prologue ends after Pizza takes the Brush and leaves the Tower through the door in front of Chicory's room. Choosing to not take the Brush three times in a row causes the credits to play over a blank background.

Chapter 1: The Dark Forest

See also: The Dark Forest

Outside the Wielder Tower, Pizza can explore Luncheon and talk to the residents. Pizza finds Blackberry by going down and to the right, then follows her to reach Supper Woods. After exploring through Supper Woods, Pizza reaches a large black tree. Inside, Blackberry introduces Pizza to corruptions, explaining that they don’t know what they’ve gotten themself into, before being taken into the darkness. Pizza then completes the first boss fight.

Chapter 2: A Wielder's Duty

See also: A Wielder's Duty

Pizza wakes up in Blackberry’s house. The Brush’s paint now glows in the dark. Pizza admits that they took the Brush, rather than being given it, and Blackberry explodes at them, saying to return the Brush to Chicory. Pizza travels through Yum Cave as a shortcut, and return to the Wielder Tower to do so. Chicory acts cold and distant, and simply says that Pizza can take the Brush for themself. Pizza is excited, and leaves. Outside the Wielder Tower, they meet Turnip, who says that weird things are going on at the Wielder Temple, and that the Wielder should investigate. Pizza says that they’re the new Wielder, and follows Turnip.

After helping Turnip not get lost through Nibble Tunnel, Pizza stops at Potluck, their hometown. Pizza greets their parents and sister, the former giving them the Camera Map, and the latter introducing them to the Art Academy.

Progressing onward, Pizza goes through Appie Foothills, seeing that the entrance to the Wielder Temple requires a code. They go to visit former Wielder Cardamom in Elevenses, who gives them the code to open the entrance to the Wielder Temple. Soon after they open the entrance to the temple, Pizza gets a phone call from Chicory. Exploring through the temple, Pizza learns about the origins and history of the Brush, before fighting the second boss fight in the dark.

Chapter 3: Portraits of Chicory

See also: Portraits of Chicory

Pizza wakes up again, outside the corrupted tree in the Wielder Temple. More corrupted trees have since sprouted, blocking the way they came in. Luckily, Pizza has gained the ability to swim through their paint to go through small cracks, and uses this to find another exit to the temple. Pizza decides to go talk to Chicory again about what’s going on.

They find Chicory outside the Wielder Tower, trying to paint something. She says that nothing is coming out the way she’d like, and Pizza sheepishly asks her to paint them with the Brush. Chicory obliges, and they make conversation while she does. They both express their insecurities, Pizza looking up to Chicory, and Chicory thinking she shouldn’t be looked up to. When Chicory finishes, she asks that Pizza paint her as well.

Pizza and Chicory trade portraits, but notice that while they were painting, multiple black trees had sprouted around the Wielder Tower, reminding them that Pizza has work to do. Chicory says the nearest corruption is in Gulp Swamp, and Pizza goes on their way. At the entrance to Gulp Swamp, they encounter Blackberry. Blackberry heard that Chicory had officially given the Brush to Pizza, and talks poorly of her as a result. Pizza defends Chicory from her. Moving on through Gulp Swamp, Pizza finds the corrupted tree and enters it. The corruption morphs into the first two bosses, before instead morphing into Chicory. “Chicory” says that giving Pizza the Brush was a mistake, and initiates combat for the third boss fight.

Chapter 4: Into the Depths

See also: Into the Depths

Pizza returns to Chicory, and tells her what they saw. Chicory says that all the corruptions are coming from her, and kicks Pizza out of her room. Outside the Wielder Tower, Pizza receives a letter from the bug queen saying that the Wielder’s assistance is needed in Feast.

On the way to Feast, Pizza travels through Dinners and meets up with Clementine. The two have a chat in the slice shop. Pizza also gets their transit pass while in the city.

Descending into Feast, Pizza meets Prunus, the royal bug ambassador, who can translate the bug language for them. They visit the queen, who informs them that the corruption’s roots have twisted their way underground into Feast and that the Wielder needs to handle them. Pizza fights the fourth boss, in which the corruption shifts to mirror Pizza themself.

Chapter 5: The Source

See also: The Source

After defeating the previous boss, Pizza realizes that if the corruptions can mimic them as well, they can’t just be coming from Chicory. They go back to the Wielder Tower, and enter Chicory’s room, to discover it overtaken by corruption. They find Chicory in its center, and help her out of a depressive spiral where she blames herself for everything that’s happening. The encounter with Chicory constitutes the fifth “boss” encounter, though Pizza never attacks once.

Chapters 6 - 9: The Wielder Trials

See also: The Wielder Trials

After Chicory has calmed down, she explains that as part of a Wielder’s training, there are 5 Wielder Trials. One of them was exploring the Wielder Temple, which Pizza already completed. The other four are as follows:

• Collecting brushflowers in Banquet Rainforest.
• Exploring through Spoons Island and drawing a self-portrait there.
• Climbing to the summit of Dessert Mountain and singing a traditional song at the top.
• Facing the corruption in Brunch Canyon.

They can be completed by Pizza in any order. Between the second and third trials, Chicory will also offer to hang out and have a bite with Pizza, at either the holey shop in Potluck, the Luncheon cafe, or the slice shop in Dinners.

Chapter 10: The Brush

See also: The Brush (chapter)

After the completion of all Wielder Trials, Pizza and Chicory ready to face the largest corruption, at the top of the Wielder Tower. Before Pizza goes up to fight it, Chicory says that she believes the brush must be destroyed. Regardless of Pizza’s agreement or disagreement, she wishes them luck.

Pizza ventures through the corruption, before being met with a corruption mimicking Chicory. The corruption feeds into Pizza’s insecurities, before trapping them in claws of paint, and taking the Brush from them, saying that it’s time they gave it back.

Pizza wakes up in their parents’ house, and makes a slow trek back to Luncheon and to Chicory. Pizza asks Chicory if she really chose them to have the Brush or if she thought it was a good idea, and Chicory says that even though she didn’t, Pizza had already proven themself enough by the time she decided they could have it. Pizza expresses that they feel something is still missing, and in reaching out for it once more, grows a new brush tree, similar to the ancient one in Banquet Rainforest. Both Chicory and Pizza express amazement at this development, and Pizza, taking their second chance, goes back up to face the corruption one last time.

For the final boss, Pizza fights off the Brush itself, and apparitions of themself and Chicory, before being captured once again in tendrils of paint. However, the real Chicory comes to their rescue, with her own brush, saying that watching Pizza do it made her realize she could do it too. Together, Pizza and Chicory face further shadows of Chicory and Blackberry, and, once again, the Brush itself, slowly regressing into its earliest form. Chicory traps the Brush, and Pizza delivers the final blow, destroying the Brush for good, and letting its color rain down on the world below.

Post-Chapter 10

Pizza and Chicory contemplate what happened, and the future for them and for Picnic as a whole. They decide to transform the Wielder Tower into a school to teach anyone who wants their own brush how to grow one as well. In the process, Chicory finally moves out of the tower, ready to leave all the associated bad memories behind. She packs up her things, and gives Pizza a flag to place wherever they think she should live. Once Pizza has made their choice, Chicory moves into her own yurt, which Pizza can visit at any time.

After the final boss, Pizza is free to interact with any other characters or wrap up any unfinished sidequests or collections they may have. Most characters will remark on the destruction of the Brush and the new way of things moving forward.

After completing the game 100%, and seeing everything Picnic has to offer, Pizza will receive a phone call from Curry. Going to their house, they will find all the developers’ Picnicsonas (Curry, Pancake, Shroom, Marzipan, and Egg) visiting, and offering developer commentary. Additionally, Prunus will tell Pizza that he found a wife on Spoons Island and that they’re having a family together, and he leaves to raise them in Feast, seeing as his services to Pizza are not currently needed.

Trivia

• Chapters were added to the game relatively late in development, as the developers realized that they wanted healthy and simple points at which the player can take a break from the game if they so choose.
  • This is why every chapter screen has the option to save and quit the game.