# The Witness (puzzle game) **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [August 6, 2024, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-witness-puzzle-game/1005336 "2024-08-06T13:19:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 10
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2024, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-witness-puzzle-game/1005336/181 "2024-09-14T23:48:01Z")
> [@Dr.Strangelove](#): > > I won’t give any actual puzzle spoilers unless you ask. Which you might, since it is friggin’ hard. I would strongly, and I mean very strongly, recommend Chronos not ask for hints on this one unless he has agonized over it for a few days. It’s a pretty famous puzzle in the game for a reason. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2024, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-witness-puzzle-game/1005336/182 "2024-09-14T23:51:27Z")
I mean, unless it’s tricking me, I can tell how to solve it (well, to within a few details to be determined). I’ve seen all of those elements before, in puzzles I’ve solved. Now it’s just a matter of putting the pieces together and systematically figuring out where to put the path to make that happen. ---
**Author:** ![Snarky\_Kong](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a183cd/32.png) [@Snarky\_Kong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snarky_Kong)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2024, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-witness-puzzle-game/1005336/183 "2024-09-14T23:52:52Z")
> [@Mahaloth](#): > > Yeah, I know the one you mean. I can think of one more that is harder, but that one is awfully hard. What’s the harder one? My recollection was that the shipwreck puzzle was _by far_ the hardest. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2024, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-witness-puzzle-game/1005336/184 "2024-09-14T23:55:15Z")
For inside-the-box thinking, the desert-shore one was pretty hard, too. Some of the outside-the-box puzzles were arguably harder, but I’m not sure how meaningful it is to rate the difficulty of outside-the-box puzzles. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2024, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-witness-puzzle-game/1005336/185 "2024-09-15T00:00:15Z")
> [@Snarky\_Kong](#): > > What’s the harder one? My recollection was that the shipwreck puzzle was _by far_ the hardest. I think it has been discussed in this thread. Here is a picture of it. I can see how the other one is harder in many ways, but this one had my wife and I discussing and poring over it for a long time. [![](https://i.imgur.com/qIyUN8F.jpeg) ](https://i.imgur.com/qIyUN8F.jpeg) ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2024, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-witness-puzzle-game/1005336/186 "2024-09-15T00:01:23Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > I mean, unless it’s tricking me, I can tell how to solve it (well, to within a few details to be determined). I’ve seen all of those elements before, in puzzles I’ve solved. Now it’s just a matter of putting the pieces together and systematically figuring out where to put the path to make that happen. Cool, let us know. This one bothered quite a few people. I think it was the most notorious puzzle in online discussions at the time of release. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Strangelove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.strangelove/32/6613_2.png) [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2024, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-witness-puzzle-game/1005336/187 "2024-09-15T00:08:35Z")
> [@Mahaloth](#): > > I can see how the other one is harder in many ways, but this one had my wife and I discussing and poring over it for a long time. Hmm. Chronos, **don’t** unspoil this: I said don’t unspoil this! > **Summary** > > While that was another puzzle where I took some time offline to ponder, I found it _relatively_ easy (still on the hard side). Then again, I’m pretty good with colors, color theory, etc., and much less good with sound. Perhaps Chronos will do better with the ship puzzle due to his musical background (tuba playing). > > I got that the ship puzzle was sound-based. But I just didn’t get the long sequence. I’d actually considered the horn/creaking sounds as a possibility but I just didn’t wait long enough. > > Also, for whatever reason I didn’t get the starting note of the short sequence right. My brain just didn’t want to hear it that way. I did use a spectrogram app but even at that, the gap for resetting the sequence wasn’t particularly long. ---
**Author:** ![Snarky\_Kong](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a183cd/32.png) [@Snarky\_Kong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snarky_Kong)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2024, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-witness-puzzle-game/1005336/188 "2024-09-15T00:28:26Z")
Basically agree with this. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2024, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-witness-puzzle-game/1005336/189 "2024-09-15T01:02:08Z")
Both are great, but my wife and I call the multicolor puzzle the “final puzzle” of Witness. I dunno, we just spent a ton of time talking about it and we failed quite a few times before getting a full solution and it worked. The other one? I won’t get into it now. Solved it, though. ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2024, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-witness-puzzle-game/1005336/190 "2024-09-15T21:49:44Z")
> [@DPRK](#): > > > [@Chronos](#): > > > > Speaking of the Saboteur, by the way, I think I’ve realized something about them, based on the win sequence: It’s you. You’re in an endless loop on this island, and every time you finish, you get "It was just a dream"ed back to the start. On one of the prior iterations, you broke a bunch of stuff, in an attempt to break the cycle. Which just resulted in another cycle, with the rules of the island changed to make violence impossible. > > Considering all the positive motivational philosophy you keep hearing, why would you sabotage your own dream? Upon further reflection (or at least a shabby excuse for it), who else but you would sabotage your dreams? 🙂 However, if your ultimate goal is to be free of the endless cycle of death and rebirth, maybe it is in another sense ultimately not sabotage if it speeds you to achieving enlightenment… ---
**Author:** ![Mijin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mijin/32/9369_2.png) [@Mijin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mijin)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2024, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-witness-puzzle-game/1005336/191 "2024-09-15T21:52:35Z")
Huh I don’t recall having much trouble with the multi colour problem. Harder for me was the sound-based puzzle on the ship, because I struggled with _all_ the audio puzzles. Either my sound setup is sub-optimal, or my ears are. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Strangelove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.strangelove/32/6613_2.png) [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2024, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-witness-puzzle-game/1005336/192 "2024-09-15T21:53:28Z")
Hide that in a spoiler! ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2024, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-witness-puzzle-game/1005336/193 "2024-09-15T21:57:32Z")
Don’t worry, I already knew that, because it was implied by the spots of different sizes, that had only showed up in other puzzles of that sort. But I spoilered it anyway in case anyone else is reading this thread without having gotten that far. One could easily discover that puzzle before the part where you learn to understand it. ---
**Author:** ![Mijin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mijin/32/9369_2.png) [@Mijin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mijin)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2024, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-witness-puzzle-game/1005336/194 "2024-09-15T21:57:34Z")
neverm ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2024, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-witness-puzzle-game/1005336/195 "2024-09-15T21:59:13Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > But I spoilered it anyway in case anyone else is reading this thread without having gotten that far. One could easily discover that puzzle before the part where you learn to understand it. Have you solved it? Don’t give up! ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Strangelove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.strangelove/32/6613_2.png) [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2024, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-witness-puzzle-game/1005336/196 "2024-09-15T22:03:03Z")
I’m not sure that we have any well-defined spoiling rules here, but I try to avoid any actual puzzle hints. And while for most puzzles their basic nature is obvious enough not to require a spoiler, for the ship one the fact that it’s sound based is tricky enough that I think it demands one. Even if you had encountered the sound puzzles before, someone might not make the connection immediately since it’s in a different area. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Strangelove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.strangelove/32/6613_2.png) [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2024, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-witness-puzzle-game/1005336/197 "2024-09-15T22:04:52Z")
And I do agree that many of the sound puzzles were somewhat difficult. I used a spectrogram app on my phone to help, though even then I had to brute force one or two (after I had narrowed things down a bit). ---
**Author:** ![Mijin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mijin/32/9369_2.png) [@Mijin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mijin)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2024, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-witness-puzzle-game/1005336/198 "2024-09-15T22:05:43Z")
Understood. I didn’t initially think of it as a spoiler because To me I guessed quite quickly that the sounds were the key, but it’s also true that I had been to the sound part of the island already.. So I get it. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2024, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-witness-puzzle-game/1005336/199 "2024-09-15T22:09:24Z")
> [@Mahaloth](#): > > Have you solved it? Don’t give up! I haven’t even made an attempt at it yet. Once I do, I don’t anticipate it taking long. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2024, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-witness-puzzle-game/1005336/200 "2024-09-16T00:23:30Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > I haven’t even made an attempt at it yet. Once I do, I don’t anticipate it taking long Cool, let us know. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-witness-puzzle-game/1005336.md?page=9) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-witness-puzzle-game/1005336.md?page=11)