The Witness Puzzle Help Thread (Spoilers)

@winternet: Thanks. I had read a bunch of that thread the first time I looked for it, but had missed the guys talking about this exact symbol. I'll try what they suggest tonight.

I want to solve those last two so bad, I have had no trouble the entire time but this shit is making me want to scream, fuck these shapes I just don't know how to do it and its pissing me off I feel like I totally understand the concept Draw the lines around the symbols in that shape but I just CANNOT do it and I don't know why.

@evilsbane: What exactly are you having trouble with?

I'm in the area at the 'end' where there are a bunch of blue slanted pillars with puzzles on. I've activated all the ones on the left hand side and got the lift?? to raise from the sea but am currently stuck on the right hand side pillars. Specifically I can't work out a solution to the one that is just drawing the line over the black hexagons. I feel like I'm missing something super obvious but can't find any working solution. Any hints?

@agentape: There's no easy trick. Outside of giving you the solution, I would just say look at the corners because those are the spots that have very limited viable paths. Once you know what you have to do to get through those sections, filling in the rest should be fairly simple.

uhhh... (endgame)

what?

@fatalbanana: Vauge: Think about what you're doing in each of the smaller puzzles and what implication that might have on the larger puzzle.

Explicit: The way you solve the smaller puzzles determines which polyomino gets assigned to that tile in the larger puzzle.

@fatalbanana: Congrats! By completing those puzzles you have created another puzzle!

HINT: The four puzzles you solved are now the tetrominos for the larger puzzle

More specific HINT: There's mulitple solutions for each of the four puzzles.You have to find out which combination of tetromino shapes made by the four puzzles lets you solve the larger symmetry puzzle.

@starvinggamer: yeah, I got that part what's throwing me off is the larger puzzle is a 5 by 5 grid and the smaller ones 4 by 4. Plus the double line isn't helping either. I think I'm just overthinking it.

@theblue

@fatalbanana: Yeah, basically you need to figure out what combination of shapes can combine to make something parallel.

So when I went around trying to find all the + puzzles, I noticed one on the electric fence in the starting area, but at this point I had of course already opened the gate. I just started watching the QL, and I think it's possible to get that line puzzle done while the fence is still on. Is there a way to turn the fence back on, or are you pretty much screwed unless you already knew about the + puzzles at the beginning?

@sergio: I believe the only way to do it is to start a new game. The game makes a number of auto saves so you can just reload after solving it.

There's actually a way to turn the electric fence back on...

@beachthunder: Oh yeah? I never really went back to the area, I just watched a video of a couple secrets after finishing the final challenge. Does it count for the plus number?

Thanks, that's all I wanted to know -- for now.

@theblue: I'm pretty sure it does.

@starvinggamer: Got it, thanks!

Regarding the floor puzzle in the entry area (under the roof), does anyone know if the different end points correspond to the environment somehow? A simple yes/no with a slight hint maybe would be good.

@flashflood_29: Yes.

@josephknows: Thank you! Off to go hunting! This is one of my favorite elements of games: environment interaction and evolution.

@flashflood_29: Now that I think about it, maybe you should just say what exactly you know that's 100% confirmed about that whole thing so that you don't end up on a wild goose chase. It's really weird talking about things in this game just to avoid spoilers!

@josephknows: Well I don't know what it affects. I'm just going to go looking for a grid like area with four (or was it three) gates/doors/something in the config of the ground puzzle.

@flashflood_29: Have you just activated it?

Can black and white squares occupy the same space as tetrominoes?

I'm doing the challenge and I need help trying to figure out which one is real. Any ideas? Thanks. I am putting the PS4 into rest mode while I try to solve it. It's the easiest way.

@jdmathews17: They randomize every run, so even if we tell you which is the correct one, the next time you come up to it you'll be served up a different combination of three panels.

@jesus_phish: I think they're asking for some way of identifying correct solutions. I can make a reasonably good guess at first glance which will be correct, but sadly, I just can't really articulate why one looks correct over another. The best I have is that the less cluttered the board looks, the more likely it is to be correct...

@jdmathews17@beachthunder - As far as I know they all come with 9 dots in them anyway. I agree with you that it's difficult to articulate which one is correct at a glance.

If I had to guess at a way to solve them, if you can connect any three of the colours in a row in any direction then you can't solve that one. Taking the ones given, the middle one is the solvable one. The first one and the second one both have a diagonal row of white, green and purple blocks which make it impossible (maybe) to separate them without mixing two other colours together.

@jesus_phish: It works for those examples, but definitely not inherently true:

@beachthunder: Is that one that actually comes up though? That one seems way, way too obvious for it to be included. It's something I might keep an eye out for, run the challenge a few times and see if there's a pattern in those puzzles.

Without more examples to look at it's difficult to pull out a rule that makes it clear which of the three is meant to be solved. Maybe there is no rule. Maybe you just have to be quick about it.

@jesus_phish: Incredibly unlikely that it would ever come up. Just saying that it doesn't work as a rule.

Here's the Witness video with Jonathan Blow eyeballing those puzzles and very quickly working out which is viable:

@beachthunder: Yeah, that totally dismisses my theory. The second puzzle he solves goes against what I said.

@beachthunder: What's the guess?