Kolzig

The Witness by Jonathan Blow

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So, I've read some spoilers of the +1 stuff, but it's made it even more cryptic. Can someone give me a pointer where I should be looking?

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Dewar:

Go to the top of the mountain. There's a panel that is conveniently placed that will show you what to look for. They are not really like the regular panel puzzles, they are more about getting the right perspective and actually noticing them.

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Dewar:

Go to the top of the mountain. There's a panel that is conveniently placed that will show you what to look for. They are not really like the regular panel puzzles, they are more about getting the right perspective and actually noticing them.

 

You mean the river? I did see that panel and fiddled with it a few times. I guess maybe I wasn't standing it quite the right location.

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Yep, the river.

 

If you want the solution:

 

Press the button/key you press to enter the mode you interact with the puzzle panels. Start at the circular "starting" point of the river and draw a line from there to where it terminates. Complete the puzzle.

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Ah, ok, I picked up on what you meant after thinking about it a bit. Thanks for confirming. I would have never figured that out on my own. I have more questions, but I think I'll see if I can figure it from there.

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No problem! I plan on going back and finding the many I missed. There are a few that I know where they are but can't quite line it up so I can complete them.

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What a disappointing ending! I'll go back to try doing some of the things I missed so far, but there's one puzzle that I'm just not getting anywhere with - the one where you go down some stairs hewn into sandstone and there's a door. I'm not sure I want it spoiled either, so maybe I'll just sit on it for a while.

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Just 'finished' the game. Those pillar puzzle were a cake walk

435 +75 with no cheating, help or drawing on bits of paper.

Haven't found this credits sequence so got a bit of searching left

Holy moly, I think JBlo is Mngton when he's sleepwalking, no wonder it took so long to make the game! I'm around 284 +10 with no direct puzzle spoilers, a few smartphone photos, and one very messy side of paper.

I just found how to do the deserty ones, so have torn through a load. I have also made decent inroads into the village, at last!

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Just a general tip for everyone (and apologies if this has already been mentioned, or is super obvious): try out alternate solutions to puzzles you have already completed, or even deliberately try an incorrect solution (most puzzles with errors will flash red at the relevant parts). Sometimes the rules you've reasoned from correct solutions are incomplete, so more testing of hypotheses are required (inductive vs deductive reasoning).

 

I've finished the game properly now, and my mind feels surprisingly clear.

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I have not been enjoying the final area. The entire idea of having an open world where you can choose what puzzle you want to do next is completely broken when you suddenly have a single path you must follow. Also, by far the most puzzles that have made me sick to my stomach, hurt my eyes, etc.

Edit: Also, it inflames my guilt that I could be something better with my time. Maybe I'm just in a bad mood today.

Edit2: And now I'm playing again, I don't understand me.

Edit3: All right, managed to get the first ending with 9 lasers. I'm sorta bummed that I needed three hints of varying sizes to get there. Though I suppose if I discounted two of the hints, I'd only have need one (fairly large) one to actually beat the game. I plan on getting the other two lasers, but then I think I'll be done. Not interested in trying to figure out the +1s at this time.

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Just got to the ending. Having set my expectations low...

 

it was fine. Appropriately serene I guess.

 

I feel compelled to admit publicly that I "cheated" once, with a puzzle in the final area. I didn't look up a solution, but I read a comment on here that got me thinking in a different (and ultimately the correct) direction. Not sure why I feel the need to confess this like a sin, but I do. I guess I get the sense that The Witness demands that kind of "purity" from me, which is a somewhat gross thought.

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I too got to the end. Had somewhere over 400+70 but unlike Mington I used graphing paper quite a bit, including little cutouts of tetris blocks.

For the most part I liked the puzzles in the final area. Didn't like the ones that were just normal puzzles with busted screens and the changing color panels are just hard to look at. But I liked the big floor puzzle, the puzzle where you have to go back and forth with the two paths (I feel they could have done more with this concept actually), and especially the one where you have to solve an increasing number of puzzles simultaneously.

 

There's that white panel on the ground right before the column puzzles. I assume it lights up if you've found/solved all the others? Even though I've solved several, I still don't have a strong grasp on how those puzzles work.

 

As for the ending itself...eh, I get it I guess but it's certainly underwhelming. I like that the theme of the game is so positive though.

 

I still have three areas that I have mostly done but want to go back and finish (the town, Flower Tower, and the uh...desert temple thing), plus I'll probably try and track down all the solo doors.

Gotta watch all those sweet vids

 

Dunno how diligent I'll be about the remaining +1 puzzles. That could get...tedious.

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Chris said something in the latest podcast about how consuming games quickly and ravenously in order to "participate in the conversation" surrounding it does a disservice to this game in particular, which would benefit from a slower and more piecemeal approach.
 
I definitely did feel like I was rushing through The Witness faster than I normally would for exactly that reason. Especially towards the end, when I admit my reason for playing started to shift from the pure joy of solving puzzles to being able to say I'm "done". I don't really regret playing it the way I did, since I've enjoyed talking about this game while everyone else has been playing it, but I do see that it was a trade-off. 
 
Fortunately, there's 2 or 3 lasers I've yet to set off, as well as a bunch of other hidden puzzles to find and solve, and I fully intend to come back and tackle them on a more leisurely time line.

I also doubt how many of the + puzzles I'll end up doing. I've found several of them that I thought were really cool! But there are so many and while finding them is fun, searching for them seems much less fun.
 

The first time I realized I had to be on a moving boat to solve a + puzzle I thought it was rad. Then there's the green one that surrounds the boat wreckage that makes you feel like a minor bad ass. But I assume there's many more puzzles that use that idea, which seems tedious.

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Just a heads up, the latest Giant Bombcast totally spoils the key to the flower tower! I hadn't done it yet, which is a shame but now I have to deal with the bloody elevator!

 

I have set up 2 more laseres though, in the desert ruins and the dockyard(?). I'm playing on PC so don't have trophies to tell me the names of the areas. 

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Chris said something in the latest podcast about how consuming games quickly and ravenously in order to "participate in the conversation" surrounding it does a disservice to this game in particular, which would benefit from a slower and more piecemeal approach.

 

I definitely did feel like I was rushing through The Witness faster than I normally would for exactly that reason. Especially towards the end, when I admit my reason for playing started to shift from the pure joy of solving puzzles to being able to say I'm "done". I don't really regret playing it the way I did, since I've enjoyed talking about this game while everyone else has been playing it, but I do see that it was a trade-off. 

 

Fortunately, there's 2 or 3 lasers I've yet to set off, as well as a bunch of other hidden puzzles to find and solve, and I fully intend to come back and tackle them on a more leisurely time line.

I also doubt how many of the + puzzles I'll end up doing. I've found several of them that I thought were really cool! But there are so many and while finding them is fun, searching for them seems much less fun.

 

The first time I realized I had to be on a moving boat to solve a + puzzle I thought it was rad. Then there's the green one that surrounds the boat wreckage that makes you feel like a minor bad ass. But I assume there's many more puzzles that use that idea, which seems tedious.

I am, unfortunately at times, a Bartle achiever. I love exploring and learning new mechanics, but once the initial shine has worn off, I get this drive to "beat" a game just to say I've done it. I've gotten so mental about it that now I keep a yearly tallied list (which also serves to reduce the amount of games I purchase and don't play, but still.) So I guess once I felt like I had explored most everything there was left to explore, the drive to finish was all that was left, and this game doesn't benefit from that at all.

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Heh, I haven't done that area (I think), and I didn't notice myself getting spoiled. I guess I'm lucky!

edit: just did the monastery, did not like it very much

Even if you know what you're supposed to do, lining the branches up indoors is just annoying. It doesn't take creative thinking to stand in the right spot, it takes fiddling.

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Got my 11th laser, so now come some ending questions:

So nothing really seemed to change when I got the 11th. Did I miss something, or is the other ending(s) based on completing other types of puzzles? I've seen three of the videos that you get with the hex puzzles. Does finding all 6 of those give you anything?

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Dewar:

 

How did you unlock things when you got 7 lasers?

 

It is worth suffering through the puzzles you feel are bullshit to get all 11 lasers: there's a nice chunk of additional game to uncover once you have. This does not apply if you consider the tetris pieces 'bullshit'.

 

I've completed the Challenge and am going through and cleaning up. I think, unlike a lot of people, I don't feel like I rushed it - I've been playing at a leisurely pace, it's just that I get stuck for far less time than other people.

 

It's funny how many people are gravitating towards the videos as Important Content. Still, probably a better problem to have than no-one understanding your nested metaphors and assuming you made a game about the atomic bomb.

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I went to the top of the mountain and didn't see anything different. I guess maybe I didn't look hard enough.

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You are in the right place. Here is a bit more direct hint:

Re-examine the box that the statues are holding.

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Ah, I would have never found that.

Also, was not expecting yet more puzzles. I guess I'm not quite done with this yet.

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Thanks for the tip, I also stalled out a little after getting the lasers. I also still need to find a few more hexagons and a bunch more +1s.

 

Regarding the +1s

I was right with my initial impression that there's probably way too many for me to find them all on my own. Some of them seem annoyingly glitchy too. However some of them have been cooler than I thought they'd be and use pretty interesting mechanics. There was one that really surprised me near the starting area and I'm wondering how many of them will be surprises like that.

 

Anyone have any tips on tracking these down? I know the obelisks tell you the general direction but that doesn't seem like enough info. If the Witness is a 100 hour game, I don't want to spend 60 hours just tracking these things down.

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I've definitely gone through the game quickly, but I think it had more to do with the game design itself than my desire to be in the conversation. The puzzles are pretty bite-sized and aside from the occasional stumper I can knock them out pretty quickly, so I found myself getting deep into a "just one more" mode. I mean there's usually a pretty glowing wire leading to the next puzzle in an area...it's hard to resist just taking a peak at what's next. Then all of a sudden it's 2am and I'm very upset with myself.

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I've done the quarry and I swear I have no idea what makes the pointy triangle things click and work. Sometimes they work in just two squares, usually they need space. No need to spoil it for me, I just feel dumb at the moment.

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Minor hint

 

Watch the puzzle completion graphic carefully on some of the simpler (but not simplest) puzzles.

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