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https://imgur.com/a/HD2BgcI
S tier: Phasic Dials, Logic Grids, Pattern Grids, Rolling Blocks
A tier: Sightseers, Glide Rings, Wandering Echoes, Matchboxes, Shifting Mosaics, Match 3
B tier: Sentinel Stones, Music Grids, Hidden Pentads, Armillary Rings, Skydrops, Crystal Labyrinths, Light Motifs, Hidden Rings
C tier: Hidden Archways, Hidden Cubes, Memory Grids, Shy Auras
D tier: Morphic Fractals, Flow Orbs
(I won't rank the Monolith puzzles or Mysteries, as they're kind of a one-time deal.)
As for the Logic Grid rules (which really should be a separate tier list):
S tier: Search the Environment (fun but rare), Connect all [black/white] cells, one symbol per [black/white] area, Area numbers
A tier: All [black/white] regions have x area, Letters, Don't make certain patterns, Underclued grids
B tier: Galaxies, Lotuses
C tier: Darts, Off by One, Viewpoint numbers
Granted, it's more interesting to see how 2-3 rules applies consistently make for some interesting mathematical restrictions.
https://imgur.com/a/88M0FWO
In terms of the listing, some comments:
D Tier: Not too many puzzle types down here, but I really despise Underclued grids and all three types of "Hidden" objects aren't really puzzles, so that's why they are down here.
C Tier: Some surprises for me here. I've grown to dislike the Music Grids, even though I am musically inclined. They just don't seem to really work well in the context of puzzle solving. Memory Grids are here because of the fact that they are extremely hard to solve while only glimpsing once, especially on higher difficulties. Skydrops are here because they are pretty mundane to solve, but I have to admit that they are probably the most fun puzzle to solve in this tier, and I think it should be no surprise to see Fractals down here.
B Tier: Off by one is my second least favorite Logic Grid type, but is an interesting puzzle idea, so that's why it's in this tier, Matchbox is in B tier and not higher because they are somewhat mundane to solve, Glide Rings, while fun to solve, can be a bit frustrating, so that's why they are in this tier, Rolling Blocks are in this tier because some of them can also be very frustrating, but I think they are one of the more innovative puzzle types in the game, Sentinel Stones are in this tier because of one reason: They are tied to two Mirabilis which are my most hated ones to get in the entire game, Shy Auras are in this tier because while they are innovative, the vast majority of the ones you see outside of their Enclave are the Covert types, and that isn't really a good way of doing things. I would have liked to see more of the different colored ones out in the wild. Sightseers are in this tier for one reason only and that is because they can be very frustrating and time consuming to solve, the Monolith Fragments are in this tier because they are fairly challenging, but mundane to solve, and finally, the Hidden Pentads are in this tier and not higher because of several unsolvable ones found in the wild.
A Tier: There are several puzzle types in this tier that almost made it to S tier for me: Shifting Mosaics, Pattern Match, Pattern Grids, and Phasic Dials. Galaxy, and Viewpoint are in this tier because they are extremely innovative and challenging puzzle conditions to solve, but can sometimes be frustrating to solve, Size Defined is in this tier for pretty much the same reason, Logic Grids are in this tier because as a whole, the majority of the Logic Grids rules are in this tier or the lower tiers, Pattern Match/Pattern Grids are in this tier only because of their rarity, Phasic Dial is in this tier only because the six color Phasic Dial puzzles are worth the least amount of Mastery XP points out of all of them, Shifting Mosaics are only in this tier because the majority of the ones you find outside of Shifting in Phase Enclave are extremely easy to solve, Armillary Rings are in this tier because I enjoy solving them very much, though I can see this as being controversial because of how mundane they can be sometimes, and because of the issues they are having at the moment and Flow Orbs are in this tier only because of how frustrating they can be to get the GM times in.
S Tier: Let's get the simple stuff out of the way: Environment is easily the most innovative Logic Grid puzzle type in the game, but they are also the rarest Logic Grid puzzle type in the entire game and that is a shame because you could've done so much more with them. Area Size, Letters, and All Connected are both in this tier because while they are simple at first, both of them can easily become very complex, especially when used together with other Logic Grid rules, and mostly because I'm very good at these three kinds of Logic Grids. One Symbol per area is in this tier for much of the same reasons as listed above, except that I'm a bit worse at them than the other three mentioned above. Crystal Labyrinths are in this tier because while they can seem mundane, I very much enjoy a good maze. Light Motifs are very innovative and while they can sometimes be easy to solve, some of them are very hard to solve. Match 3 is in this tier mainly because they are tied to one of my favorite types of video games to play, and because they can be some of the most complex types of puzzles to solve, and last but not least, the most controversial placement of my tier list: Darts.
At first, I didn't like Darts very much, but after solving many, many Dart puzzles, I have come to realize that this is yet another extremely simple Logic Grid puzzle rule that can become some of the most challenging puzzles to solve in the entire game, especially when combined with things like Viewpoint, Galaxies and Lotuses.
Be sure to tell the folks over at Lunarch that they are very pretty to manipulate and look at, but rough to solve if you don't know any tricks for hacking them.
I suspect they're Julia sets of some form or another, likely less complicated than a Mandelbrot set (makes the processing power of morphing a touch easier on our CPUs). I regularly see about 3-5 types in a given Morphic Fractal, and keep in mind that some of them have twofold, fourfold, and eightfold kaleidoscopic variants. In any case I'm also curious about the mathematics behind these puzzles (and, if it's not too much to ask, how exactly the solution zones are determined).
As someone with perfect pitch, I love the melody/harmony Music Grids, but the percussion ones are a little more difficult, let alone when the two are mixed.
Also I'm seeing a lot of low-ranking Memory Grids in these tier lists (myself included), and I can think of a couple of reasons: first, flat Mastery rewards; second, the way in which the pattern reveals itself never quite feels consistent (slow or fast; rows, columns, diagonals, or checkerboards), so there's no easy way to mentally prepare for them. Perhaps that was by design, but it winds up killing the fun of them a little.
The trouble with Off By One is that it totally catches you off guard, especially if there are no 0 Area or Viewpoint Numbers.
Rolling Blocks: cue the Bloxorz comparisons (there is also a game called The Last Cube, as well as Stephen's Sausage Roll)... Really though, I like them too, but there's too little diversity in the open world compared to the couple of Enclaves that use them.
Shy Auras are definitely innovative, but yes, there aren't enough non-Covert types (and none in Shady Wildwood!). Still, it is a bit of a fun challenge guessing which type a Covert Shy Aura really is (and the challenge that arises sometimes if it's a Red/Coy or Blue/Skittish one).
Sightseers become easy as pie once you're familiar with the Lands — I frequently solve them in 30 seconds or less (I've even solved some in as few as 5 seconds!). The main trick is to realize what it's looking at, which, I will admit, can take a bit of photographic memory. After that, it's figuring out the angle, and then adjusting the distance using parallax as my guide (the "compare" feature is insanely helpful for this). It basically boils down to applying the two main Insights the game offers for this puzzle type. All that said, some of the ones in Serene Deluge are kinda mean, in part due to the landscape of that area.
Mildly based take on Logic Grids. This is perhaps part of why I ranked the puzzle types in a separate tier list (and with one less tier). Also: not enough hard/interesting Pattern Grids in the wild. I love them too, but they consistently rank low on my list of Masteries.
I'm always happy to see it when someone else actually likes Phasic Dials! They remind me of other cute little "unlock this passageway using shifting rings" puzzle types I've seen in other games. I only wish there was an extreme version of this kind of puzzle in the game, like nearly every other puzzle type (I mean, there is a little bit of wasted space in the Vault of the Vitric...).
You and I are kind of the opposite when it comes to Wandering Echoes and Flow Orbs. I don't like the latter puzzle personally because... I can be a little clumsy with platforming (there are times when I've struggled a tad bit to hit an orb, disrupting the flow, particularly when ascending or descending steeply, but this is almost never an issue with Wandering Echoes).
Environment Puzzles are cool, rare, and special (cue The Witness comparisons...). I can't imagine it would be the easiest task to have a few more of those coded in though, especially with everything else the puzzlemaking crew was doing.
Crystal Labyrinths always seemed to be a little "meh" for me — it's just a maze, nothing more. Same with Match 3, which has always felt a little overdone on the internet since the 2000s (that said, I'm immensely appreciative they went with the puzzle version and not the arcade version, even in the speed challenges). I also ranked Light Motifs a little lower because here in 2024, after games such as The Witness and Superliminal, like the Skydrops, they're kinda simple by now.
I wonder if you like Darts in part because they remind you a little of something like Picross. Seems they're a puzzle mechanic that's either loved or disliked.
D tier:
- music: only relies on audio memory, which i doubt the majority of players where expecting in a puzzle game. The skills upgrades makes it so you need to only hear once + complete everything in one go. However, at lvl 3 or higher, i'm pretty sure most of us already gave up on those bonuses. Then, at very high lvls, we are getting mutiple chords, which are pretty much impossible to distinguish which tiles to click. You either brute force those through dozens / hundred tries, or you spam foresights, which gives a major clue (considering the limited number of black squares)
- memory: usually, when a game asks us to memorise a picture, we usually get some time (usually few seconds). But here, it's less than 0,5s. So it's more about flash memory rather than actually memorise a pattern. However, i can understand if this decision was made to limit cheating.
- fractal: while they visually look nice, the process of solving them is rather tedious and frustrating. It's essentially a blind search over a fairly large "range" (you can go fairly far from top to bottom), with no possible way of keeping track on general areas we checked (over than pure memory). And then, there are the patterns that are similar to the target, but no matter how you try to fix (with very small movements), you can never get the target, because the actual target is actually far from your current location. I wish the search range wasn't that big, and to have clear unique visible clues to figure out if we are actually closer fo the target or not.
- match 3: while unlike mobile games, those match 3 have an actual unique solution, it still generally need several trials and errors, making upgrades skills less effective. It's just so difficult to plan multiple tiles movements + gravity interactions at the same time, even when knowing a general goal (ex: 1 pink at the far left, 2 pink at the far right: you want to move 1 pink mostly toward right)
- labyrinth: there are several design flaws about those. 1) You hardly see the actual walls / floor / roof, so most of the time, you are blindly running into invisible walls / falling through inexisting floor. Then, those labyrinth's rewards are based on a very tight timer. This essentially require players to know the layuot beforehand, which is near impossible to plan from the outside (with all the reflections), making bigger times near impossible to reach. Finally, those timers? You only get 1 chance to beat them. Once you reached the end, that's it. That's your permanent time, no second chance to improve your time to increease the rewards (like flow orbs) Spoiler for enclave inside pyramid: there are also labyrinths design flaws: multiple entrance points (which might glitch timers?), large gaps with no floor (especially the corner of 3 missing floors), and also near impossible to normal double / triple jump to the floor above without jump pads (especially for an optional puzzle in the maze at top part)
- wandering echo: once you touch the echo, you have no idea of it's trajectory. So sometimes, you end up getting lost at the very start. Then, there is the unknown timers (which affect rewards from upgrade). With those unknown timers, players have no idea if they can just follow the echo by foot, or if they need to reach a jump pad nearby (which must bee found too if you don't know the area well). Finally, there is an enclave about mechanics with echo, like warping (which as far as i'm aware, NEVER happens in the rest of the game ever), or falling teleport (which can have random end points. Again, i never see this being used ever).
- hidden cube: definitely the hardest of the 3 hidden objects. The only real clue is a specific sound (which btw will screw deaf players). However, for the players who want to play on low settings, those cubes are actually near invisible. Like more invisible than usual. This makes much more difficult to find the cubes, especially on dense environement.
- shy orbs: there is really nothing tbh. Once you learn the 4 ways to approach them ( stay still near spawn point, crouching, walking backwards on 1st person (make less sense at 3rd persno, but it works), and jump + glide + land still (then repeat) ), it's only a matter of finding them
- sky drop: mostly a matter of finding the start by following the trail. Special mention with the sky drop challenge, with a GM time (and probably the other times too) being too unbalanced and strict. Not to mention, the area seem bugged and doesnt save progression (so you are always left with 1-2 puzzles remaining) Lastly, the upgrade skills (for bonus rewards) are very hard to pull off, because of a tight timer. Also, not sure if this is intended or not, but those doesnt work in the challenge.
Pretty sure that it is intended that you cannot combo Skydrops in the Challenge because of a major reason: You don't get XP until the end of the challenge or some other way that I can't figure out how to replicate (I think it was flying out of the area, but I cannot remember how I managed to get it to credit me XP without finishing the puzzle. It's a flat 25XP per Skydrop solved, which if you think about it, if you average ~4 minutes a challenge, and you get 625XP per challenge, you can extrapolate that this might be a decent way to level Skydrop Mastery, if you aren't good enough at the combos outside of the challenge.
- hidden ring / gates: more manageable hidden objects to find (compared to hidden cubes). Might still give a lot of trouble finding all the rings in enclaves. Then in the main island, finding all those are still a big challenge. Might require some kind of hint to localise a general search area (like a search circle on the map for nearest hidden object)
- sentinels: decent fun and quick break between logic boxes. Although can be annoying to be precise with lasers, and will reequire a bit of spatial awareness.
- dial: either you are lucky by brute force it, or you take some time to figure out dials "delays". The only complaint i have is with the upgrade skills, which barely gives you enough time to even analyse the puzzle (especially with lot of dials + buttons with big dials numbers)
- rings: like the sentinels, it can be a quick and fun break. However, some rings puzzles are more frustrating than usual. There are the moving rings, which forces you to wait for the correct timing (which can take some time). Then, there are those that require near
pixel-perfect placement + aiming, which is very frusrating when the environement is uneven. This is especially the case with the enclave about rings puzzles.
B tier:
- light pattern: another nice break puzzle. Unlike the sentinels or rings puzzles, light patterns ask you to figure out the starting point of the pattern, which might require some clever exploring the nearby area.
- matchboxes: while finding 1 colored box can be tricky, finding the 2nd one can be an interesting challenge, since it can be seen from any unknown other direction, at an unknown distance (including higher, or hidden inside a cliff). I do wish we had some kind of clue as to where to search the 2nd box (like a circle on the map / ground)
- pentad: a nice hide and seek in a visual search area (although you might need to go outside to reach more hiding spots). That being said, few search areas can be very large. Finally, i feel like the skill upgrade goes too slowly to make an acual difference. I would rather have a slightly faster size reduction, even if it stop shrinking at a certain size (also having the last object anywhere in the reduced sphere, not necessarly at the center)
- pattern grid box: there is 2 main kind of puzzles. Those you can see / figure out a simple enough pattern / logic (assuming enough clues). Then those you have absolutely no idea what is going on. Worse, even after getting the solution (like with foresight spam / brute force), players still have no idea about the pattern's logic. I feel like there is a need to add an explanation to patterns at the end, as well as making foresights hinting more on the pattern logic rather than filling 1 tile like a normal puzzle. Maybe a similar hint system from Professor Layton's games.
- logic grid (environement): While it looks like an interessing concept, i feel like there is a bit too few of these in the game (although might be limited because of having only 2 colors). However, the one at the galaxy trial feels very unatural compared to other environement puzzles.
A tier:
- sightseer: a fun and clever way to use the environement for a puzzle, testing your spatial awareness and memory. There are still a few issues. The game doesnt tell us you can make the lens transparen while enlargened (by right clicking, not sure if you can change controls for this) The uneven environement can be tricky to get the precise location of your character (ex: you migh fall off the edge). Finally, few sightseer actually require you to go fairly far (notable exemples are the "logic dial" enclave; and the pyramid enclave, which some sightseer requires you to unlock more areas first.)
- monolith: similar to matchboxes, but on a much bigger scale, and the blue lasers from the monolih helps players finding the fragments. However, those puzzles can glitch if you close the game, making the lasers dissappear until you find a new fragment. That's why it's better to complete an entire monolith in one session.
- flow orbs: a mini parkour to test routing. While GM times are a nice additions, i feel like Island of Insight wasn't made with "try hard" parkour in mind. For most GM times, you have to simultaneously manage player running + direction, camera controls to see where u are going, and managing gliding parts + higher speed. Unless you have a great setup (controler, multiple mouse button), this can become extremely tedious to grind GM times.
- rolling blocks: there are 2 puzzle groups: those you have to pass all targets once (often requiring trials and error), and those you have to make the box fit in a specific area. However, i feel there is a lack of interessing puzzles involving managing multiple boxes placements in a limited area. But maybe it is hard to come up with those kind of puzzles.
- shifting blocks: the classic moving block puzzle, with a bit of mechanics / goals variety. There are classic looking puzzles (move gold block to target), "rush hour" puzzles (taking the mechanic from another puzzle game of the same name. While the movements can be tedious, at least there isn't 50 puzzles like this), fitting / boxing puzzles (using all blue blocks to form an optimised shape, to solve the puzzle), ...
S tier:
- gliding rings: interesting concept that use our full mobility. There may be a bit too few of those availible in the main island. Also, i feel like there is a missed opportunity to not make it a linear time trial (with time penalty if you take the ring way off-center). Just don't make GM times too tight.
- logic grids: i'm regrouping all the rules / symbols, as some puzzles shine as a specific combinaison of rules (ex: the "snake" pattern). While i will admit i did used multiple foresights on very hard puzzles (even sometimes exploiting the hint system to cheese some information), i like puzzles where you only need logic to complete them (i'm just not an expert on very advanced logic / planning far ahead. And yes, few foresights could have been avoided if i payed more attention). Special mention about underclued grids, which ask you to find the logical conclusion with very limited informaion. This is a very efficient way for players to learn new tricks, new logic.
Off topic: the hint system. On puzzle grids (logic, music, and i guess memory?), it is very exploitable, and might need some balancing. Not sure how to balance hints on music grids (because of their very high requirement from players looking for actual puzzles). Maybe check if a wrong black cell is near a wrong white cell (like: being off by 1 space, without precising the direction). On logic puzzle, maybe have a small spark penalty / hints used, depending of puzzle difficulty + base sparks worth, with a fixed min spark value
Ex: lvl 3 puzzle is worth 60 sparks (made up value), using a hint reduce the reward by 10 sparks, down to a minimum of 20 sparks.
Lvl 9 puzzle is worth 180 sparks, mabye have 1 "free" hint, then reduce the reward by 5 sparks / hint, down to a minimum of 50 sparks.
The main idea is: the easier the puzzle, the lower the base reward, the harsher are the hint reward penalty. The harder the puzzle, the higher the base reward, the softer are the hint reward penaly (which may include free hints)
Lot of other puzzle typers are lacking a kind of hint system. It can include a general search location / direction (matchboxes, sightseer, fractal, mazes, hidden objects, ...), or a movement based (rolling blocks, shifting block, match 3). However, the player might need to tell the game he type of puzzle hint he is looking for (is he searching for a hidden gate, or for the 2nd matchbox?)
- Morphic Fractals: bad
Every other tier features good puzzles even if I complain about them in this post
D Tier:
- Memory Grids: there's only one thing it does and beyond two or three pips it's just tedious. The grid format and UI just doesn't lend itself very easily to this method of doing memory games.
- Shy Auras: they're fine. But it's just one puzzle. Once you've figured out how to do it, the puzzles can't get much more complex or interesting. Plus they're only introduced late and only featured in the enclave that functions as the tutorial. And I dislike how ALL the auras in the hub world seem to be the white ones.
- Phasic Dials: interesting concept but feels very one-note. The puzzles don't expand beyond the level of complexity seen pretty early on, and even if they did it feels like the only way to expand them is to just make so many dials that it's too complex to be fun. Dunno, there might be a twist to them but I haven't seen it yet.
- Hidden Rings: fine, not bad, but the worst of the hidden stuff because there is absolutely no additional hints as to where they are (like the audio clues for the other hidden objects). They're the most visible from far away to compensate but not if the area is cluttered or the ring is close to the scenery.
C Tier
- Glide Rings: hit or miss for me. Some of them are fun and interesting and others are meh. The main issue is the issue all the movement-based puzzles have, and that is just how floaty movement is in general. This makes all these puzzles feel weirder than they need to be, and a slight movement error can be difficult to correct. Still it's C tier, so it's not bad or anything, just average.
- Hidden Arches: I like them, but they aren't amazing. Not bad, not amazing, just in the middle. There's not much you can do to make the puzzles more interesting beyond the very basic stuff, so this is as high as they go.
- Wandering Orbs: I appreciate how the orbs feel cheeky to me, like they're laughing at me when I am not fast enough to catch up. Because they don't all require you to constantly be in the air with all those floaty physics, I like them more than the Glide Rings.
- Flow Orbs: best of the movement puzzles because it allows for the most depth and the most strategizing. For the record, I suck at these. I've gotten a couple master times but mostly I settle for gold, or - in a couple cases - completing them at all.
- Sightseers: Decent perspective puzzle but my only complaint is that you either know it or you don't. If I look at the pic and know where it is I can solve in 10 seconds. If I look at it and don't immediately recognize it I'll probably never get it.
B Tier
- Music Grids: I am a musician so I am probably rating these way too high because I never found them stupidly hard. However, the UI for this - using the logic grid setup - is EXTREMELY counterintuitive for listening and writing the music. What I love about the puzzles, though, is the potential for exponential increase in difficulty. I loved the five-star puzzles later in the game and would love to play even more difficult music puzzles. But I also recognize that the vast majority of players are NOT going to jive with this and so any crazy music enclaves would have to be saved for the day we get a level editor
- Match 3: classic. I was raised on Tetris Attack, so I like match 3 puzzles where I can make moves even if they don't result in a match immediately. But these are fine. I suck at them. I suck at match 3 so bad.
- Pattern Grids: these ones feel like they're either super easy or stupidly hard, and the difference between them is not gradual. But they're fun. Unfortunately they don't scale as exponentially as music and logic grids do.
- Hidden Cubes: I thought I would hate these but then I got the upgrade that increased the sound and now I love hunting down those cubes. It's best when there are a lot of cubes in a small area - this incentivizes me to hunt them all down, like I did on the bridge in Autumn Falls. If there are lots of cubes over a wide area, I usually only grab 'em if they're on the way and I don't look too hard.
- Sentinel Stones: these seem to be unpopular for some reason. You're all wrong. I love these things. For some reason I just jive with all the perspective puzzles and love finding ways to orient myself. These would be A tier if they scaled more. All the puzzles are basically the same complexity, over and over.
- Skydrops: Again, perspective puzzles. I love seeing these everywhere. It's like little pieces of candy strewn about the landscape.
A Tier
- Crystal Labyrinths: yeah that's right I love mazes and am putting this in the A tier. You can't stop me. I love how these scale in complexity as well, so you can get some crazy brutal ones like the ones toward the endgame. Not only that but you can put other puzzles inside the mazes. Classic A tier puzzle.
- Light Motifs: when I first saw these I thought there was no way they'd find a way to make them interesting, but then they did. Once you figure out how the pattern works, it's really fun to try and triangulate where the origin point is and chase it down. Like Skydrops, solving these is like finding pieces of candy along the trail.
- Matchboxes: You'll notice all the perspective puzzles are bunched at the top. These are just about my favorite of the lot. Good matchbox puzzles require me to *really* know the landscape of an entire area and I feel smart once I figure it out. I *still* haven't found them all in the Dyad enclave.
- Rolling Blocks: I am not good at these ones - really, any puzzles that require me to imagine orientations of 3D objects - but I think they're great. Once you start seeing them in the main overworld, that's when you get the good ones with the gnarly shapes.
- Armillary Rings: Love these. The only reason they don't get to S tier is that they only scale so much in difficulty. The Eye of the Needle enclave is the best it gets, which tops out at A tier.
S Tier
- Hidden Pentads: yeah I'm putting these in S Tier. Unlike the other hidden object puzzles, once you activate the pentad, you know exactly the region you are meant to be looking in, so you're never searching the whole haystack for a single needle. (Plus, with the upgrade, once you have four you are guaranteed to find that fifth one without too much fuss if you're willing to wait a bit.) There's so much potential for these to have a nearly infinite amount of possible hiding places.
- Shifting Mosaics: I suck at these ones but the instant I found the first mosaic I knew this would be a good puzzle design. It really forces me to work on my spatial recognition, which I struggle with hard. And there are so many ways to introduce new complexities or clever designs that are just very fun to solve.
- Logic Grids: naturally these are #1 to me. There is the most potential for puzzles here. Most other types, no matter how much I like them, really do one or two things. Logic Grids do everything, and they scale exponentially, meaning there is no point you can say you've done the hardest possible puzzle. A few of these have utterly destroyed me. But I also like solving the easy ones. It's a nice morale boost after struggling with the lotus puzzles for the billionth time.