• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

The Witness |OT|

carlsojo

Member
I had one mother of a "Eureka!" moment on how to get into the swamp earlier today, only to get stymied very early in the next series of puzzles.

Then I started cutting up my graph paper. Blowing through them now, but I keep having to cut out new shapes.... :lol

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CaG9Vk3UkAAlU4Z.jpg

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CaG9U4HUsAAt88-.jpg

(not spoilers)

Someone suggested something like this, or Legos, earlier. Some of these become kind of hilarious once you can physically arrange them, but I'd never have come close to the solution without something physical to manipulate.

I know exactly which puzzle you're talking about because I had to do the exact same thing.
 

GhaleonEB

Member
I know exactly which puzzle you're talking about because I had to do the exact same thing.

The one with the (early swamp puzzle)
single dot in the center completely broke my brain. I solved it in about 2 minutes after I had shapes to move around. The realization that you just have to cover each block with a shape, and it doesn't matter which, so long as they are contiguous. My god.

I realize this is exactly what everyone was trying to hard to tell me a couple days ago, and I just couldn't get it. I took one day off the game, and realized what you guys were all but shouting at me, literally while I slept. (Thanks for being patient, I can't believe how obtuse I was.)

This game. This freaking game.
 

KDR_11k

Member
Enjoyed of what I played so far. I just don't think I can complete this. I feel nauseated after every play through. Which sucks because the game has been amazing so far. It's just not worth going through that every time :/

I think sitting back twice my usual playing distance helped me with that, if it's indeed caused by FOV.
 

amlabella

Member
Okay, I decided to get down to it and just make this list:
1. Connections, Season 1, Episode 10, narrated by James Burke: "Yesterday, Tomorrow and You" (1978)
2. Richard Feynman Messenger Lectures, Lecture 5: "The Distinction of Past and Future" (1964) / "The Pleasure of Finding Things Out", BBC Horizon interview with Richard Feynman (1981)
3. "Nostalghia", directed by Andrei Tarkovsky (1983)
4. "The Secret of Psalm 46", by Brian Moriarty (2002)
5. ????
6. "Simply Stop Looking", by Gangaji (????)

These are the results of my quick-and-dirty search. I can't match up video 5 by searching for the text.

Awesome work, thanks for the info!
 

Big-ass Ramp

hella bullets that's true
I think the problem I'm having is that I can typically make it through a series of puzzles, but then I keep getting hung up on the final puzzle. So when other people would just go do other puzzles, I feel too invested to just give up.
 
Challenge, after seeeeveral attempts I failed the very last remaining cilinder puzzle because the game gave me the worst possible configuration.

Going to sleep now, pissed as fuck.

Edit:
And I had like tree attempts before the music went off.
 
The one with the (early swamp puzzle)
single dot in the center completely broke my brain. I solved it in about 2 minutes after I had shapes to move around. The realization that you just have to cover each block with a shape, and it doesn't matter which, so long as they are contiguous. My god.

I realize this is exactly what everyone was trying to hard to tell me a couple days ago, and I just couldn't get it. I took one day off the game, and realized what you guys were all but shouting at me, literally while I slept. (Thanks for being patient, I can't believe how obtuse I was.)

This game. This freaking game.

lol, I had the same problem actually visualizing the Tetris puzzles. I completed the area with extreme trouble using graph paper and sheer force of will, wish I had thought of legos
 

SirNinja

Member
I ended up solving one puzzle a very different way. Not sure if what I did was technically cheating, but I just had no clue how to solve it otherwise...

It's one of the
color puzzles in the building on the side of the mountain. There's several floors, each lit a different color and connected by an elevator. The color of the symbols on the elevator panel change depending on the light, so different solution-line configurations will take you to different floors
. It was pretty easy until the game threw a very nasty curveball by
having one of the wires broken. On that floor, you can see the room above is lit with a green light, and you're supposed to just figure out what the colors are supposed to be next. A wrong answer takes the elevator all the way back down
.

I don't know if I was just tired or overly stupid or both, but I just couldn't do that puzzle. I tried looking for a pattern in
the ways all the colors changed between all the different floors
, and tried to figure it out using
the different colors of the bell peppers (?) growing in the room
, but nothing worked. I ended up solving it by
taking a screenshot of the panel, pasting it into Photoshop, and lowering the red and blue values of the image until the image was both sufficiently green AND there was a clear, unique combination of colors on the board. I booted the game back up, tried it
and it worked perfectly.

Of course, that wasn't the intended way of solving it, but at the time I was utterly stumped. What likely-obvious thing did I miss?
 

Stoze

Member
Obviously that wasn't the intended way of solving it, but at the time I was utterly stumped. What likely-obvious thing did I miss?

That's actually a cool way of solving it, I wouldn't really consider it cheating.

As far as the actual solution;
You basically do the same thing, but in game. Go back down to the first floor and look at the panels with the blue screen overlaying them and then back up to see through yellow and blue screens to see what the panel looks like under green. Then you can pinpoint together which colors are which on the elevator panel.


You can even go outside the bunker and look through the green window at different flowers to help discern colors/make your conclusion as well.
 

Grinchy

Banned
I finished the Desert section earlier and it's definitely my least favorite part of the game so far (at ~300 +18 or so). I just hated the puzzles through the whole thing. But I made it through and now I can go get stumped by some puzzles that actually require logic.
 
I'm working through the desert area, and I had to bruteforce two panels:

I discovered the trick of noticing the reflections, but the top two panels, outside of the middle third panel, never had a reflection on them no matter where I seems to stand, so I just spent a few minutes brute forcing them. Where the heck was I suppose to stand to see them? Or, was I suppose to notice something else?

That's the most frustrated I've been so far (outside of some colorblind issues). Decided to take a break after that. I'm really curious once I'm done to see what everyone's favorite areas were, and least favorite areas.
 
I had one mother of a "Eureka!" moment on how to get into the swamp earlier today, only to get stymied very early in the next series of puzzles.

Then I started cutting up my graph paper. Blowing through them now, but I keep having to cut out new shapes.... :lol

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CaG9Vk3UkAAlU4Z.jpg

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CaG9U4HUsAAt88-.jpg

(not spoilers)

Someone suggested something like this, or Legos, earlier. Some of these become kind of hilarious once you can physically arrange them, but I'd never have come close to the solution without something physical to manipulate.

Cutting out shapes for yourself really is a massive help. I don't think I could have done some of the later puzzles at all without them.

Highly recommended for anyone playing this game to do that. It's pretty fun to do, actually.

I beat the game and I'm wondering what this
challenge
is? Do I have to get all the
+'s
?

You need to
complete every area so that you have all 11 lasers pointing at the mountain. After that check out the statue holding a box on the top of the mountain and go from there.
 
I'm working through the desert area, and I had to bruteforce two panels:

I discovered the trick of noticing the reflections, but the top two panels, outside of the middle third panel, never had a reflection on them no matter where I seems to stand, so I just spent a few minutes brute forcing them. Where the heck was I suppose to stand to see them? Or, was I suppose to notice something else?

That's the most frustrated I've been so far (outside of some colorblind issues). Decided to take a break after that. I'm really curious once I'm done to see what everyone's favorite areas were, and least favorite areas.

It took me a while, but you can totally get the reflection on the panels, you just gotta stand in VERY specific spots. You'll need this later on in this area. Keep a keen eye for any sort of glimmer, because they are there. I think the middle one you gotta stand directly under it, and the left one is off to the left side.
 
Of course, that wasn't the intended way of solving it, but at the time I was utterly stumped. What likely-obvious thing did I miss?

So:
Floor 1 is pure red light, floor 3 is pure blue light, and floor 5, which you can't reach, is pure green light. Floor 2 is lit by the mixed red and blue light from above and below, and floor 4 is lit by mixed blue and green light.

On floor 1, one set of squares (call it set A) appears black. On floor 3, another set (set B) appears black. So you know that on floor 5, a third set of squares will appear black.

On floor 2, sets A and B appear to have different colors. On floor 4, set B and another set, set C, appear to have different colors.

So knowing this pattern, on floor 5 you know set C will appear black.

How long is this game? How many lasers do I want?

7 lasers to get to an ending. 11 lasers to unlock the big secrets.
 

Future

Member
Game is fun but man do I not feel rewarded for doing anything. I'll power through an area and do a bunch of puzzles and not really realize what I've opened up, what I've done, what progress was made, etc. Eventually I just wander off into a new area and go through a bunch of dead ends until I find the next puzzle segment. Often I'll see a new puzzle paradigm without tutorial and be confused trying to figure it out

Saw an audio tape and thought that would provide some narrative of what might be going on. After a few minutes I don't even know what I listening to haha. I'm sure this all makes sense in the end but geez I wish the game was making some effort to get me interested in what's going on

Puzzles themselves are smart and intuitive. Wife enjoys figuring them out with me which is a plus. When I get stuck I typically just leave the area.... Hope I'm not making life harder for myself by doing that. Wandering more I realized this area is a a lot bigger than I expected
 
One of my laser doesn't point at the mountain is that normal?

That's normal.

^oh...
weird, people saying this game is like 50 hours for an ending, and im nearly there in under 10?

Those numbers are coming from people going for
all lasers
at minimum, I assume. Still, I did all that and beat the game in 25 hours so I think those 50+ numbers were a bit of an exaggeration unless you're talking about finding every "+" puzzle or something.

Of course, it's a puzzle game, so times will vary wildly.
 

GhaleonEB

Member
Cutting out shapes for yourself really is a massive help. I don't think I could have done some of the later puzzles at all without them.

Highly recommended for anyone playing this game to do that. It's pretty fun to do, actually.

Yeah, it was actually quite fun. As a kid I used to graph RPG dungeons for utility and fun (still have them laying around somewhere). This was the closest I've come to that in a long while, very old school stuff.
 

aro52

Member
Windmill spoilers

I have 2 of the hexagonal puzzles unlocked. Anyone have more?

Also, any hints for opening up the left hallway?
 
Windmill spoilers

I have 2 of the hexagonal puzzles unlocked. Anyone have more?

Also, any hints for opening up the left hallway?

All six have been found, but getting them all will take some doing.

You won't be able to open that hallway, or get all the videos, by looking for them.
 
I've been staring at this large panel at the top of the mountain for a while now. Still can't see any perspective that would work. :/
Oh man. THAT puzzle....

I spent forever trying to find a perspective that matched up with the
nearby audio log
and getting super frustrated that it wasn't working before I eventually threw that idea out the window and noticed the real solution
s
Seaky little bastard, that one.
 

KeRaSh

Member
Bought this yesterday because I was really bored and I love logic puzzles. I'm starting to develop a minor OCD about solving all puzzles in any given area before moving on and doing them in a "correct" order. I wish there was a statistics menue or a map that shows you which areas you have cleared and which puzzles you are missing.

Also, am I supposed to figure out what all the symbols on some line puzzles are supposed to mean or is there an area that eases you into the mechanics that I missed?
I stumbled into an area with these symbols or 3+ different colors in the puzzles and I have absolutely no idea what I'm supposed to do.
 
Challenge question
I know you unlock a video pattern here but what happens if you just enter the patters under the windmill without actually unlocking them in game?
 

Neverfade

Member
Really? I found that to be one of the better explained ones. :3

Unless you're starting with the sidehouse, don't do that.

I don't really know what you mean by sidehouse. I started in the building on the left as you go down in there. It was pretty easy to figure out the first puzzle
lifted the ramp
and then there's your typical tutorial-style series of panels which I happened to solve the first two of and have no idea why they are valid solutions...
 
I finished the Desert section earlier and it's definitely my least favorite part of the game so far (at ~300 +18 or so). I just hated the puzzles through the whole thing. But I made it through and now I can go get stumped by some puzzles that actually require logic.

I'm stuck here at the moment. I think I'm right at the end but I just can't work out how to see the whole solution for that one with two rows of |/|/|/|/|, I can only see the middle portion. I'm sure I've solved everything else in the room though
 

Henkka

Banned
Uuugghhh, that elevator in the greenhouse.

I have to figure this out.

I solved that pretty quickly, but I pretty much just guessed. Probably my least favorite area so far, never felt like I understood how the lights and the colored glass affected the logic of the puzzles.
 

The Technomancer

card-carrying scientician
I'm stuck here at the moment. I think I'm right at the end but I just can't work out how to see the whole solution for that one with two rows of |/|/|/|/|, I can only see the middle portion. I'm sure I've solved everything else in the room though

The first part
you can extrapolate from what you see on the edge of the middle

the last part
I just brute forced though, don't know how you're supposed to do it
 
Im enjoying the game so far but i just finished the sun temple bit and it totally sucked.
I mean once you figure out the whole
reflection / sunlight
trick (which is really cool at first) its only a matter of
finding the right spot to view the puzzle.
Which get really boring after the 9th or 10th time you've done it.
 
I assume the quarry is supposed to be the triwing tutorial? Can't figure out shit, captain.

When you make the ramp go up with the triangle shaped line puzzle, pay attention what happens on the board. There are 3 black hexagons/dots on it and normally you'd need to go through all of them with a line, but in this case you can't.

I don't really know what you mean by sidehouse. I started in the building on the left as you go down in there. It was pretty easy to figure out the first puzzle
lifted the ramp
and then there's your typical tutorial-style series of panels which I happened to solve the first two of and have no idea why they are valid solutions...

Then look at those two results and what do you see? What was there before and what's now? That's the key.
 

Trojan

Member
Question on post-game:

So I beat the game and unlocked all 11 laser, but now I have no idea what else to do. I've beaten about 430 +55 but obviously there are still a lot of puzzles left for me...I just don't know where they are. I have 5 of the video clips as well and don't know where the 6th one is.

What am I supposed to do at this point?
 

HoodWinked

Member
Question on post-game:

So I beat the game and unlocked all 11 laser, but now I have no idea what else to do. I've beaten about 430 +55 but obviously there are still a lot of puzzles left for me...I just don't know where they are. I have 5 of the video clips as well and don't know where the 6th one is.

What am I supposed to do at this point?

examine what exactly did each laser do on top of the mountain, if 7 did that then what would 11 do?
 

TTG

Member
Can someone further on in the game give me a clarification on a couple of panels that I completed?

1. the very last panel in the white building that first introduces the upside down "Y" is
what looks like that grey black/white panel that's on the door of the little stone bunker that's right off the starting path(the map is inside the bunker).

2. The big tetris panel
that's underground in the purple area
.

If these unlocked something and I'm blind, please let me know. If it's related to stuff that's not pertinent right now(I've got 5 lasers up), then I guess that's that.
 

aro52

Member
Late/post game question:

If I enter the mountain and finish, will I still have access to the island with my progress? Or should I focus on the other puzzles first, if I wanna try to get everything?
 
Top Bottom