Stumped by The Witness? That's OK, as a puzzle game wouldn't be good if it were easy.
Since its release late last January, Jonathan Blow's Myst-inspired 3D puzzle video game has become quite a hit and quite a head-scratcher, too.
There are more than 650 puzzles to solve in The Witness one puzzle that Blow says can only be solved by less than 1 percent of players. If players look and listen closely, however, they'll get through the game and these tips will help.
First, learn The Witness' puzzle language. Half the fun of solving the puzzles of The Witness is figuring out how to solve them. So get lost, wander around and explore every inch of the island.
Along the way, you will come across symbols before you're able to solve them, and that's fine. There are tons of easier puzzles elsewhere that will be stepping stones to the more difficult ones. So, look for the puzzles that are simply laid out in rows. Those will help you learn the rules for each symbol.
Second, when you do start solving some puzzles, don't expect to be rewarded. The Witness doesn't give players extra tools or items or power-ups for completing a puzzle.
The reward players get in The Witness is the privilege to solve more puzzles. Solving one puzzle should arm you with the know-how to solve other puzzles that are based on those same rules. And that's the whole draw of playing The Witness – to solve its puzzles.
Third, trying to work a puzzle backwards can actually help solve the puzzle. Most puzzles usually involve drawing out a contiguous line.
Sometimes, finding out where to start that line or where to go after finally finding a starting point can get tricky. Players could work the middle, but what ends up being most effective is starting at the end and working backwards.
Fourth, a pencil and paper will come in pretty handy. The Witness starts off easy enough drawing lines through simpler puzzles. But then things start getting more challenging.
That's when physically drawing out lines in a notebook helps, since some puzzles will just get too complex to keep track of in your head. Sketching out a few thumbnails of a puzzle will help, and the act of doing so may even help relieve some puzzle-solving stress
Finally, taking a picture of a puzzle is totally normal. Feel free to whip out your smartphone, or for PSN players, take a screenshot of a puzzle.
Lines players draw while solving a puzzle will fade away if they're incorrect. Some puzzles will take multiple attempts so taking a photo of those failed attempts will help in avoiding the same mistake.
Also, some solutions to puzzles can be a distance from the puzzle they're connected to, so it can be helpful to snap a photo to have a visual you can refer to later in the game.
Blow says it will take at least 80 hours of gameplay to complete The Witness' puzzles. The tips above should help players finish the game without having to cheat too much going through online walkthroughs.
