# 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:** 3
**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:** [August 21, 2024, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-witness-puzzle-game/1005336/41 "2024-08-21T01:17:42Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > I’ve also now activated two of the lasers, and found the enclosures for four more, and the trailer for the game makes it seem that there are a total of six, so I think I’ve found all of those (even if I still have some figuring out to do on them). Yes, I want to say it might not be required to turn on all of them, but I did. Didn’t feel like a complete playthrough without getting all of them. I don’t remember if it was 6 or more. I just remember making a point to get them all. Have you ever found any standalone puzzles? Ones, that are around and are clearly not part of the region’s puzzle-set? They would seem pretty out of place. ---
**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:** [August 21, 2024, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-witness-puzzle-game/1005336/42 "2024-08-21T02:15:55Z")
Not for Chronos: Is the maze in the sand an environmental puzzle? With the lines outside the temple? If so, kind of a muted reaction to discovering, IMO, the entire point of the game. I did watch another playthrough where some “puzzle master” made his way through the game. Like Chronos, he didn’t get the environmental tutorial at the top of the mountain, and when finally got his first environmental puzzle, didn’t really care at all. Just wanted to do the panels. And don’t get me wrong, I enjoy the panels more than searching for the lines hidden in the environment, but I think the elevation of your thought process is the entire reason Jonathan Blow made the game. Resetting the gate right at the beginning and realizing it was itself a puzzle was one of the coolest video game moments I’ve had. ---
**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:** [August 21, 2024, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-witness-puzzle-game/1005336/43 "2024-08-21T02:57:29Z")
> [@Snarky\_Kong](#): > > Not for Chronos: My answer to your inquiry is that I’m not sure. I thought so, too, but not sure. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2024, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-witness-puzzle-game/1005336/44 "2024-08-21T03:16:17Z")
Anything that lights up on the monoliths counts as the same category of puzzle, I think. ---
**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:** [August 21, 2024, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-witness-puzzle-game/1005336/45 "2024-08-21T03:17:49Z")
Yes, agreed. What I was asking was did Chronos find a monolith puzzle, or something else interesting. I know there are hidden figures / illusions and such that are in the game but aren’t functional. ---
**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:** [August 21, 2024, 6:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-witness-puzzle-game/1005336/46 "2024-08-21T06:16:50Z")
Well, dang. I’d completed the game previously with about 40 hours in and 450 puzzles solved. But I had not spotted a single environmental puzzle. I very much try to avoid spoilers, so I didn’t even really understand their nature. But **Chronos** made me want to look again. And now I see them all over the place! At least a dozen so far, in the architecture and the sky and reflections in the water and shadows and ones only solvable from the boat, etc. Pretty neat! There must be many dozens more. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2024, 6:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-witness-puzzle-game/1005336/47 "2024-08-21T06:51:29Z")
Indeed. It shows you how many more. ---
**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:** [August 21, 2024, 9:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-witness-puzzle-game/1005336/48 "2024-08-21T09:31:30Z")
Embarrassingly, I had not even solved the “tutorial” puzzle at the top of the mountain. I’d noticed the river before, but simply hadn’t thought to do anything with it at the time. But now that I know what to look for, and the kinds of solutions they go for, it’s easier. Some of them have a few variations from the same basic object. ---
**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:** [August 21, 2024, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-witness-puzzle-game/1005336/49 "2024-08-21T20:36:50Z")
> [@Mahaloth](#): > > Have you ever found any standalone puzzles? Ones, that are around and are clearly not part of the region’s puzzle-set? They would seem pretty out of place. Kind of hard to avoid them; there are plenty. I assume that The Saboteur ripped them out of their original locations and scattered them about. > [@Dr.Strangelove](#): > > Well, dang. I’d completed the game previously with about 40 hours in and 450 puzzles solved. Does it give you your count when you “win”? I haven’t seen any way to track that. And do the trivial ones with just a single line that do nothing but opening one door, or moving something, count? What about single puzzles with multiple solutions that do different things? ---
**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:** [August 21, 2024, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-witness-puzzle-game/1005336/50 "2024-08-21T20:39:34Z")
Just go to load a savegame file and it’ll tell you the solve count. Not sure about the “rules” for how it counts things, though. ---
**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:** [August 21, 2024, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-witness-puzzle-game/1005336/51 "2024-08-21T23:32:21Z")
OK, I checked before and after doing some of the trivial puzzles, and they don’t count. My count also has a +3 on it, which I think are from the three desert-sun puzzles, which are on the landscape rather than on panels. Meanwhile, I’m at a point where I think I might be stuck, not by my lack of problem-solving skills, but by the limitations of my graphics card… I’m in the quarry area (the area with the triad symbol), in the dockhouse. There’s the floor, a low platform, and a high platform. I can get to the low platform, and there’s a ramp from the low platform to the high platform, but there’s a gate in the way. Following the wires leads to a panel about big enough for a trivial puzzle… on the high platform. Now, there are some spots outside of the dockhouse, from which I would have a vantage point on that panel, and from one of them, I can see most of what looks like a trivial puzzle. If I moved up to a higher one, I would be able to see all of it. But if I move too far away, the puzzle just… disappears. It looks like it might be a graphics-engine draw-distance limitation. Is that actually the way to do that, or is there some other way? (If there’s some other way, of course, don’t tell me what it is, just that it exists). ---
**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:** [August 21, 2024, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-witness-puzzle-game/1005336/52 "2024-08-21T23:33:56Z")
Oh, and I also found a seventh of the things I thought there were only six of. Apparently I thought wrong. ---
**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:** [August 21, 2024, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-witness-puzzle-game/1005336/53 "2024-08-21T23:54:03Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > OK, I checked before and after doing some of the trivial puzzles, and they don’t count. My count also has a +3 on it, which I think are from the three desert-sun puzzles, which are on the landscape rather than on panels. On the landscape? ---
**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:** [August 21, 2024, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-witness-puzzle-game/1005336/54 "2024-08-21T23:54:36Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > the trivial puzzles Trivial puzzles? Meaning? ---
**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:** [August 21, 2024, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-witness-puzzle-game/1005336/55 "2024-08-21T23:55:54Z")
I just checked, and there’s no need for any distant puzzle manipulation. A very small hint: The high platform puzzles only need to be solved while standing on that platform. And a still fairly small hint: One of the panels, which I think you can already get to, has multiple solutions. Try them. ---
**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:** [August 21, 2024, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-witness-puzzle-game/1005336/56 "2024-08-21T23:57:43Z")
> [@Mahaloth](#): > > Trivial puzzles? Meaning? The ones that are just a dot and a line, like to open a door or summon the boat. ---
**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:** [August 22, 2024, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-witness-puzzle-game/1005336/57 "2024-08-22T00:17:51Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Kind of hard to avoid them; there are plenty. I assume that The Saboteur ripped them out of their original locations and scattered them about. Ones I am thinking of are the ones that, I think, you find laying around on the ground. One of them is right outside the main first area when you open the gate to go out into the world. I forget the rules of them, but you find them periodically. ---
**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:** [August 22, 2024, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-witness-puzzle-game/1005336/58 "2024-08-22T02:00:37Z")
> [@Mahaloth](#): > > On the landscape? Yes. In the desert area, with the puzzles where you look for the scratch marks in the glare, if you go to the very tip-top of the structure and look to the east, as you shift position, some spots on the ground will shine with sun-glare. Those spots, and the lines carved between them, form a maze, which (if you’re in the right position to get glare in the right places) can be solved. Similarly, if you go back to ground level and look at the wall of that structure, there are two more puzzles there. Each of these three causes motes of light to fly over to one of those black hexagonal-cross-section monoliths nearby. After solving the puzzles, if you go over to that monolith, it has glowing runes on it that appear to be keys to puzzles (though where those puzzles are, I don’t know). Did I actually find something you didn’t? ---
**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:** [August 22, 2024, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-witness-puzzle-game/1005336/59 "2024-08-22T02:11:53Z")
I believe he was just trying to confirm by asking as generically as possible. ---
**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:** [August 22, 2024, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-witness-puzzle-game/1005336/60 "2024-08-22T02:15:34Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Did I actually find something you didn’t? No, you’ve discovered one of the super-big secrets of the game. I didn’t want to say, but you did. It’s called “environmental puzzles” usually. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-witness-puzzle-game/1005336.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-witness-puzzle-game/1005336.md?page=4)