I try to avoid looking things up as I think finding where to go and figuring out what is needed for quests are the main challenges games offer. The developers have given me a specific set of ways to interact with the environment and achieve my in-game goals! Using external tools alters those carefully balanced game mechanics.

One exception is games that have intricate recipe structures that are not outlined in the game and would require a ridiculous amount of guesswork to land on organically. For those I’ll google recipes sometimes.

Games like Elden Ring where certain quests must be done in a certain order or else you can’t do them make me sad because they’re not very friendly to the more whimsical play style that I prefer.