Willow the mole sits right in the middle of Winter Burrow’s late-game tool upgrades and story, and both of her tunnel quests are easy to break if you approach them the wrong way. The upside: once you know where to go, what to dig, and what not to do, her entire questline is short and cleanly structured.
Where Willow is and what you need before you go tunnel hunting
Willow lives in the White Pillars region, a birch forest tucked to the southwest of your home tree. You can’t reach her with your starter tools: you first need to push Bufo’s quests far enough to unlock stronger mining gear.
| Step | Requirement | What it unlocks next |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Finish Bufo’s core quests | Complete “An Axe for Bufo” and his later pie-baking tasks | Granite Pickaxe blueprint and access to the rocky southwest routes |
| 2. Reach White Pillars | Granite Pickaxe crafted and equipped | Path to Willow through granite rocks southwest of home |
| 3. Start Willow’s line | Talk to Willow in White Pillars | Notebook search and, soon after, the best shovel blueprint |
To get from your burrow to Willow once you have the Granite Pickaxe:
| From | Direction | Landmark | Action |
|---|---|---|---|
| Your burrow clearing | Southwest, then west | Western exit out of the main area | Leave through the western passage |
| Next snowy area | Southwest | Granite rocks blocking a path | Break rocks with the Granite Pickaxe |
| Beyond the granite | Southwest then west | Visual shift to pale birch trunks (“White Pillars”) | Follow the path into White Pillars |
| White Pillars interior | Down, then west | Small dead-end with a mole NPC | Talk to Willow to start her quests |
Willow’s early tunnel quest near your burrow
Willow’s first tasks revolve around a forgotten notebook and an existing tunnel just outside your home.
| Quest beat | What to do | Where it happens |
|---|---|---|
| Find Willow’s Notebook | Return home; the notebook lies on the ground right outside your burrow. Inspect it. | Directly in front of your burrow entrance |
| Return to Willow | Bring the notebook back and speak to her again. | Willow’s dead end in White Pillars |
| New shovel blueprint | Receive the recipe for the strongest shovel, then craft it at your workbench. | Your burrow’s crafting area |
| Find another tunnel entrance | Use the upgraded shovel on a suspicious patch of ground near where the notebook was. | Snowy ground just outside your burrow |
That “suspicious patch” is a small, disturbed area or branch-like shape in the snow very close to where the notebook lay. Stand on it with the new shovel equipped and dig; an entrance appears.
Once the tunnel entrance is open, you must interact with it to complete the objective. That interaction is what advances the quest state for Willow’s “Find the tunnel” request.
The tunnel bug that can soft-lock Willow’s quest
There is a known progression bug tied directly to Willow’s first tunnel near your house. It triggers if you dig, walk away, and sleep without ever inspecting the entrance.
| Action | Result |
|---|---|
| Dig the tunnel in front of your house with the Flint/strong shovel | Entrance opens and appears in the snow as expected |
| Go inside your burrow or sleep without pressing the inspect button on the tunnel | On the next day, the tunnel remains visually open but loses its interaction prompt |
| Check the quest log | Objective still says “Find the tunnel near your house” and will not update |
| Try common workarounds (reload, restart, re-dig, talk to Willow again) | No fix; the game treats the tunnel as non-interactive but also not completed |
This leaves the save effectively stuck: Willow keeps repeating her “go find the tunnel” dialog, the objective never clears, and you cannot progress her story or the related achievement.
Developers have acknowledged the issue and are working on a patch. There is no reliable in-game workaround for a save that is already affected.
Practical takeaway: when you dig the tunnel near your house for Willow’s quest, always inspect it right away before going to bed, entering your burrow, or leaving the screen. Treat the “inspect” interaction as part of the same action as digging.
How to avoid getting blocked on Willow’s second tunnel quest
Later in the game, Willow asks you to “find another tunnel entrance” again, this time after you have already explored more of White Pillars and advanced other characters’ stories. Players have run into a similar issue here: opening the entrance, saving or leaving, and returning to find the interaction gone.
The safest pattern for any Willow tunnel is:
- Approach the suspicious patch with the correct shovel equipped.
- Dig once, wait for the full animation, and the entrance to appear.
- Immediately move onto the tunnel and trigger the inspect interaction.
- Watch for the quest log updating before you leave or sleep.
If you already opened a second tunnel, saw the inspection text once, and then lost the ability to interact while the quest still says “open up the tunnels”, that save can be stuck in the same way as the first-tunnel bug. The only current prevention is to avoid stepping away from a freshly opened entrance until you are sure the objective has advanced.
How Willow’s tunnel work connects to Moss, Aunty, and the Mole Artifact
Willow’s tunnel quests sit on top of a wider chain that also involves Moss and your Aunty. Several upgrades and objectives must be completed before Willow offers her late-game tasks.
| Character | Key quest beat | Why it matters for Willow |
|---|---|---|
| Aunty | Receives a berry from Willow, then later bakes a pie for Willow | Pushes story forward and keeps pointing you back to help Willow |
| Moss | Receives a shawl, teaches a mushroom stew recipe, unlocks Flint Axe | The Flint Axe is required to cut vines and plants on the way to the Mole Artifact |
| Willow | Notebook and tunnel near your burrow | Unlocks the strongest shovel, proves the tunnel network is active again |
| Willow (later) | “Find A Mole Artifact” and “Hazelnuts for Willow” | Leads to the mole helmet, a bigger backpack blueprint, and the “Willow’s Epiphany” achievement |
To reach the Mole Artifact for Willow’s later request, you must first finish the stew for Aunty, craft the Flint Axe, and then return to Willow to unlock the new objective. From her clearing, the route to the Artifact looks like this:
| Step | Direction from Willow | Landmark | What to do |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | East | Larger White Pillars area with trees and a bird’s nest | Leave Willow’s dead end and walk right into the next area |
| 2 | East along the bottom | Path near a bird’s nest and hazelnut trees | Hug the lower edge and move right until a southern gap appears |
| 3 | South | Two stone pillars or thick green vines blocking a path | Cut vines and plants with the Flint Axe and pass between the pillars |
| 4 | Further south | Spiders, webs, and tall grass | Fight or avoid enemies while following the narrow path downwards |
| 5 | Far south dead end | Spiky plant, then a half-buried grey helmet in snow | Chop the spiky plant, then interact with the helmet to collect the Mole Artifact |
The tunnel quests and the Artifact hunt are separate objectives, but both are checked by Aunty’s dialogue and by the game’s late-story flow. If Aunty keeps telling you to help Willow, the usual gaps are either an uninspected tunnel entrance near your house or an uncompleted Mole Artifact run.
What to do if you are already stuck on a Willow tunnel objective
Right now, a tunnel that has visually opened but no longer responds to input while the related quest is still active is not recoverable from inside that save. Standard troubleshooting steps — sleeping again, leaving and returning to the area, re-crafting tools — do not bring the inspect prompt back, and Willow’s dialogue does not move on.
The only practical options in that situation are:
- Wait for an official patch that explicitly mentions fixing stuck tunnel quests and, ideally, repairing affected saves.
- Start a new playthrough and handle every Willow tunnel in one motion: dig, then immediately inspect before you do anything else.
Given how short Winter Burrow is for many players, restarting is painful but not as daunting as in a long RPG. If you restart, prioritise Willow once you have the right tools so you can confirm both tunnel objectives and the Mole Artifact are safely cleared before you commit time to optional decorating or farming.
Handled carefully, Willow’s tunnels turn from a potential dead end into a neat bit of worldbuilding at the edge of White Pillars. The key is simple: whenever you drag a tunnel back into the light of day, talk to it before you walk away.
