• 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|

Stoze

Member
It feels like we should now be able to more or less say what the top consistently hardest individual puzzles are. I made a shortlist of ten potential contenders just going by my rough estimate of questions I remember seeing in this thread (in no particular order):

Mountain floor panel

Shipwreck vault

Double RGB panels in container

First red tetris panel/Green tetris panel on quarry door

Colored stars on town door

Last of the six synchronized panels in the mountain

Mountaintop floor panel

Container lock panel in town

Beach vault

Color gradient panel in cave

Does that sound right?

About half of those I completely agree with and are my hardest, here's some I'd take out for me personally:

Container lock panel in town, container double RBG, quarry tetris panel, colored star door in town, possibly even Mountain floor puzzle

Replace with:
Blue & yellow mountain air bridge paths, one or two of the cylinders at the bottom of the mountain (forget which), tinted yellow Town door (with stars and tetris), parallel Tetris in cave
 

Feep

Banned
About half of those I completely agree with and are my hardest, here's some I'd take out for me personally:

Container lock panel in town, container double RBG, quarry tetris panel, colored star door in town, possibly even Mountain floor puzzle

Replace with:
Blue & yellow mountain air bridge paths, one or two of the cylinders at the bottom of the mountain (forget which), tinted yellow Town door (with stars and tetris), parallel Tetris in cave
I would add the
busted elevator
puzzle, personally.
 

Squozen

Member
I managed to get about 15 minutes in before I felt like I wanted to puke. Guess I'm one of the ones susceptible to motion sickness! I liked the puzzles I managed to complete before I had to quit out and go for a walk outside...
 

Creamium

shut uuuuuuuuuuuuuuup
[postgame] I made it to the
pillars in the Challenge once so far. It's nerve-wracking when you get close, then lose time on one of the puzzles anyway. I've seen some of the completion vids, and some get crazy luck on the triangle puzzles, I always get pretty hard ones. I even use the rest function on ps4 sometimes, but I try do only do it for the triangle puzzles, otherwise you lose too much time. I'm definitely muting the music from now on though.

I set this as a goal and I really want to get it. The luck factor makes this a pain though.
 

rafaelr

Member
I set this as a goal and I really want to get it.

pretty much in the same boat,
having to rely on the luck of the draw for some puzzles can get really frustrating rather quickly. i´ll keep trying but have to admit this has been taking away from the overall joy/experience i´ve had with the game.
 

CloudWolf

Member
While most of the puzzles are great, some really are just annoying.
Fuck those sound- and "stand in a very specific spot so that the light/shadows fall just right"-puzzles
 

mclem

Member
The
triangle puzzles
are right there.

Well, not quite

I did actually reference Slitherlink - or Loopy, as the collection calls it - early in the thread, at the time I didn't know that such puzzles were in the game (hopefully it didn't inadvertently spoil anyone!). As it happens, I had seen some of the triangle tutorials at that point in the proceedings, but hadn't made the mental leap to Slitherlink rules; the few I'd seen were one-triangle ones and I was interpreting it as an arrow at first.

Anyhow, Slitherlink has one key mechanic that's different from Witness puzzles - the line in Slitherlink must form a single closed loop, rather than head from a specific start to a specific end. The skillset is very similar - methods and shortcuts you pick up from Slitherlink can also be applied - for the most part - to The Witness, but you need to be careful about that little nuance.

Of late I've been playing Pearl from the collection, which I think could fit quite nicely in The Witness (although, that said, the mechanics might be too difficult to teach in the Witness's format)
 

GlamFM

Banned
Booyah!

aqvRzv6.png


Question time!

I found this:

http://imgur.com/KfAHsIe

What does it do?

And where?
 
Booyah!


Question time!

I found this:

http://imgur.com/KfAHsIe

What does it do?

And where?

non-explicit:
If you've been doing the environmental puzzles, then you might be aware there's a certain formation you'll need, but you currently can't make it happen. This helps with that.

Hint:
it's for the obelisk near the town and pier. If you done puzzles for it, go and take a look what formations you still need. There should be a familiar one, if you think back to the beginning.



explicit:
This activates the gate in the beginning.
 

GlamFM

Banned
I've found those all over the place...I assume that they're
just tutorials for those last few triangle puzzles in the challenge.

Also, congrats on the Platinum!

Oh really? That´s the first one I saw - where did you find more?

The weird thing is that it has the shape
of the doors in the Tree Temple.

I feel like there could be an entire section that we are missing.

Maybe?

Edit: probably not.

non-explicit:
If you've been doing the environmental puzzles, then you might be aware there's a certain formation you'll need, but you currently can't make it happen. This helps with that.

Hint:
it's for the obelisk near the town and pier. If you done puzzles for it, go and take a look what formations you still need. There should be a familiar one, if you think back to the beginning.



explicit:
This activates the gate in the beginning.

thank you!
 

Creamium

shut uuuuuuuuuuuuuuup
I "cheated" the challenge btw, no way I could have done it as intended.

Rest mode on PS4? There's no shame in that. I'm doing that now, and even with that it's tough. I couldn't even solve some of the triangle puzzles I've been getting after working on them for minutes on my iPad.
 

GlamFM

Banned
Rest mode on PS4? There's no shame in that. I'm doing that now, and even with that it's tough. I couldn't even solve some of the triangle puzzles I've been getting after working on them for minutes on my iPad.

You save a lot of time when you have someone else taking pictures.
 
End Game
Challenge question
I'm sure this has been asked before
but what's the point of the 3 puzzle panels above the cage room with the last video and in the cave with the record player? They change pretty rapidly when the challenge is going and they're not interactive. Seems odd.
 

C4Lukins

Junior Member
Sad to say, as a huge fan of Braid, I have not enjoyed most of my time with the Witness.

It just feels like a dead empty world.

Super disappointing. It is not a bad game by any means, but it is not fun for me and that is what I am looking for in my gaming experiences.
 

Huggy

Member
I have beat the game and watched the credits:

The game closed and now all the puzzles are unsolved again. Do I have to do them again? I rather want to continue with the non-laser puzzles I skipped
 

Bowlie

Banned
End Game
Challenge question
I'm sure this has been asked before
but what's the point of the 3 puzzle panels above the cage room with the last video and in the cave with the record player? They change pretty rapidly when the challenge is going and they're not interactive. Seems odd.

If you pay attention you'll see what they are doing.

answer:
it's a clock
 

Llyrwenne

Unconfirmed Member
1. Is in the Swamp/Marsh.
2. Is near the peak of the mountain (iirc).

Both are things you already did, except you now have to do a variation of them. Also the shape of the first one will not help you at all in finding out where it is.

Thanks you two!

Did the first one on top of the mountain a long time ago and forgot it was part of that obelisk. When I went back I instantly realized that of course there's two sides. Also had been looking at the thing sticking out the water for a long time before, as I was sure it did /something/, but didn't find it at the time. Got all known puzzles now though, so yay.
 

mclem

Member
Endgame spoilers

How long actually is The Challenge timer, anyway? There's what sounds like an alarm clock towards the end of the first track, does that come at a meaningful moment in the timer?

It took me a bit less than ten tries - because I cut some attempts off early - and I'm trying to deduce how long that actually was, because I think I overestimated a little.
 

Yrael

Member
Ended up returning to finish up the game, and wahey, got the Platinum trophy after the sixth attempt.

http://i.imgur.com/3nKIRam.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/PwTT9xr.jpg

I attempted to capture a video while walking around one of the two columns at the end and then put the PS4 in rest mode (I didn't trust that I'd manage to do them both in time), but then I discovered that I was an utter dumbass and the video was too out of focus to see the dots - by trying to save time, I ended up wasting time. Fucking hell, lol. I ended up tossing the video aside and doing the two column puzzles in a panicked frenzy with the cymbals in the music crashing (and my heart pounding), and probably two or three seconds left to spare when the puzzles were done. Luckily for me, they turned out to be easy ones. I should have just...attempted them to begin with. >_> Lesson learned.

Endgame spoilers

How long actually is The Challenge timer, anyway? There's what sounds like an alarm clock towards the end of the first track, does that come at a meaningful moment in the timer?

It took me a bit less than ten tries - because I cut some attempts off early - and I'm trying to deduce how long that actually was, because I think I overestimated a little.

I don't think so...I think that's just
part of the original music (the "alarm" being the triangle instrument), which was chosen for its build-up.

Spoiler for post end-game: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O2gDFJWhXp8&feature=youtu.be&t=9m39s
 

lt519

Member
You save a lot of time when you have someone else taking pictures.

Would you say the time required to complete individual puzzles is on the order of the puzzles in the mountain
where the wooden panels drop after a certain amount of time?
Haven't tried it yet, just knocking out all the panels in the area.
 
Finally was successful in beating
the challenge last night after casually poking at it for a week. God it was satisfying. I'm at 513 +44. Getting there. I still don't know why people have a third set of numbers for puzzle count (like 513 +44 +3). I watched / listened to the video you get for beating e challenge and found it utterly fascinating.
Oh how I adore this game.
 
Finally was successful in beating
the challenge last night after casually poking at it for a week. God it was satisfying. I'm at 513 +44. Getting there. I still don't know why people have a third set of numbers for puzzle count (like 513 +44 +3). I watched / listened to the video you get for beating e challenge and found it utterly fascinating.
Oh how I adore this game.

The 3rd number is how many obelisks you completed.
 

GlamFM

Banned
Would you say the time required to complete individual puzzles is on the order of the puzzles in the mountain
where the wooden panels drop after a certain amount of time?
Haven't tried it yet, just knocking out all the panels in the area.

Hard to say.
You´re on an "overall" timer, not individual timers per puzzle.

If you split it up you probably have less time per puzzle, but there are a bunch of puzzles where you can just breeze through.
 

mclem

Member
Would you say the time required to complete individual puzzles is on the order of the puzzles in the mountain
where the wooden panels drop after a certain amount of time?
Haven't tried it yet, just knocking out all the panels in the area.

I'd say you've got much longer than those. On those I felt I had to start pretty much immediately and think on the fly to get to the end in time, whereas on The Challenge I had a bit of time to think before inputting. That might be affected by the fact that I'm very good at straight top-down-viewpoint mazes, so I may have saved time on those that gave me leeway later.
 

lt519

Member
I'll probably try it, I enjoyed the mountain puzzles a lot last night, more of a what I was asking for.
Do I need to do all the puzzles in the room before activating the challenge? Kind of bored of them, did like half, but if I can skip it I'd be fine with that.
It'd be fun to test my skills since I've been whining that the regular top down puzzles have been too easy so far.
 

cyba89

Member
It feels like we should now be able to more or less say what the top consistently hardest individual puzzles are. I made a shortlist of ten potential contenders just going by my rough estimate of questions I remember seeing in this thread (in no particular order):

Last of the six synchronized panels in the mountain

Funny thing is I read about a lot of people struggling with this while I
already got the solution for that one with the fifth panel.

Hardest for me was
the mirror lines tetris puzzle at the lowest floor in the caves. That's the only puzzle in the game where I needed a slight hint (after being stuck on that for 3-4 hours).
 
I'll probably try it, I enjoyed the mountain puzzles a lot last night, more of a what I was asking for.
Do I need to do all the puzzles in the room before activating the challenge? Kind of bored of them, did like half, but if I can skip it I'd be fine with that.
It'd be fun to test my skills since I've been whining that the regular top down puzzles have been too easy so far.

No, you do not. You can skip them and go straight for it.
 

mclem

Member
Funny thing is I read about a lot of people struggling with this while I
already got the solution for that one with the fifth panel.

Fundamentally, it's chance, based on how you solve the Tetris block first time. If you draw it anticlockwise the first time (IIRC), you'll find that the last panels only require light modifications of that. If you don't, you'll have to rethink that panel before you can arrive at the solution.

In a sense, it's a microcosm of the general teaching methods of the game as a whole; you need to be prepared to rethink things you had previously assumed were correct. I suspect a lot of people who got stuck on that had rethinking the tetris segment as a major stumbling block for a while.
 

GlamFM

Banned
Soooooooooo after getting the Platinum...

Is there more to it?

Anyone completed all the obelisks?

More hidden doors, more hidden stuff?
 
Top Bottom