The orange puzzle chain in the Treehouse section is very confusing and badly designed...

[DaemonX_HUN]

...or at least the puzzles there are badly ordered.

Hi there! GOG user here. I completed roughly 250 puzzles so far (including environmental ones) and I never ever used a single help/guide, even if some puzzles were quite challenging.

But I came to a section where I had to look up the solution for one puzzle (4th one in the orange puzzle chain) because I had no idea what to do.

I try to explain how I approached these puzzles and what makes me confused so hopefully, someone can help me (so either I get something wrong, or these are very badly designed).

Picture of the puzzles: https://imgur.com/a/zlLjy (don't watch after Puzzle #5, that's not important)

Puzzle #1
The first puzzle gave me the impression I had to pair the stars together, while also making sure I won't place them in the same section as the squares with the same colour. So I had to separate the white stars from the white squares. Of course, I also needed to separate differently coloured squares from each other, but that was a given, I've learned that a long time ago.

Puzzle #2
This was the same but a little bit easier. Because the stars were orange, the puzzle gave me more flexibility, so all I needed to do I separate the white and black squares while keeping the stars in the same section.

Puzzle #3
This puzzle was basically the same as the first one, but with black stars, so it further strengthened my theory about how these puzzles work.

Puzzle #4 - Source of confusion #1
Then I saw the 4th puzzle and I just couldn't wrap my head around it. How am I supposed to solve this if there isn't a second star to use it in a pair with the first (and only star)? I looked up for the solution online and I think I wouldn't be able to solve this alone. The right solution is to pair a black star with a black square and separate them from the rest of the black squares.

But how am I supposed to know that I can use a same coloured square and star in the same section, when/if the puzzles before it say completely otherwise? And how am I supposed to know that if I pair a black square with a black star, the square then magically starts to act as a star too, so after that, I wouldn't able to use the (transformed) black square in the same region as the other black squares?

It's illogical, there isn't any indication or hint before in the previous puzzles that I have to do this here.

Puzzle #5 - It should have appeared before Puzzle #4
My assumption is that Jonathan Blow made a mistake and he wanted to place the 5th puzzle before the 4th. Because that way the puzzle chain would make sense. The 5th puzzle explains the ruleset that I needed to use in the much more complex 4th puzzle quite clearly, so it would have been good if this puzzle would have appeared before the previous one.

[MobiusPizza]

Originally posted by DaemonX_HUN:

Puzzle #5 - It should have appeared before Puzzle #4
My assumption is that Jonathan Blow made a mistake and he wanted to place the 5th puzzle before the 4th.

Yes I thought just that too. I had some trouble with that puzzle the first time, and for the way that all the other puzzles are, it's quite probable that those 2 puzzles were missplaced.

More than that, the puzzles are good. That kind of puzzle where you mix 2 concepts, tho in this case you fix them in a 3º concept.
More than that, is there any puzzle that you still don't understand why it's solved like it is?

[DaemonX_HUN]

Originally posted by MobiusPizza:

Yes I thought just that too. I had some trouble with that puzzle the first time, and for the way that all the other puzzles are, it's quite probable that those 2 puzzles were missplaced.

More than that, the puzzles are good. That kind of puzzle where you mix 2 concepts, tho in this case you fix them in a 3º concept.
More than that, is there any puzzle that you still don't understand why it's solved like it is?

Well, I don't really understand this puzzle yet. https://imgur.com/a/sIVFC

The white squares are separated from the black ones, and although there is one black square that is in the same section as the three other stars, the third star should theoritically make that square to act as a star too. So basically there are four stars there so I don't understand what can be the problem. Maybe it's because there can only be two (and not more stars) in the same section? Or is it because if a star makes a square to act differently, the square won't act as a star, but the star and a square act as a third type of object instead? So these third type of objects can't be in the same place as the two normal black stars? It's hard, man. :D

[DaemonX_HUN]

I solved it.

[MobiusPizza]

Originally posted by DaemonX_HUN:

I solved it.

haha great. Was it that the 3 black stars couldn't be in the same area?
(I've been many time without playing the game, so I don't remember everything)

[DaemonX_HUN]

The solution was this :D https://imgur.com/SvUQGJa

[MobiusPizza]

Originally posted by DaemonX_HUN:

The solution was this :D https://imgur.com/SvUQGJa

So yes. You did't have to do that last loop, I think. A straight horizontal line should be enougth.

[IHNN]

The way I saw that chain was:
Puzzle 1: Alright, stars pair with stars, so I can separate all the stars from the squares and the squares too.
Puzzle 2: Okay, so stars only care about stars since I can put the oranges with squares.
Puzzle 3: Ahhhh, so stars *do* care about squares- just not ones of different colors.
Puzzle 4: Aaaand one star? Since stars care about squares, can I match a star with a square? (yes)
Puzzle 5: Nothing new, just affirms what you've already discovered (if you figured out 4) or leads you into the realization of how stars actually work if you guessed through the previous puzzle.
Puzzles 6-9: Armed with the new knowledge, here are some puzzles to make sure you have it right.

Swapping puzzles 4 and 5 would result in confusion, guessing, and not understanding the rest of the chain. The way it currently is forces at least some level of understanding or having the right idea to progress, and though the curve is steeper I think that's a good thing here. Peaks and valleys.

[Imminent Orbit]

Originally posted by DaemonX_HUN:

...or at least the puzzles there are badly ordered.

Puzzle #1
The first puzzle gave me the impression I had to pair the stars together, while also making sure I won't place them in the same section as the squares with the same colour. So I had to separate the white stars from the white squares. Of course, I also needed to separate differently coloured squares from each other, but that was a given, I've learned that a long time ago.

Puzzle #2
This was the same but a little bit easier. Because the stars were orange, the puzzle gave me more flexibility, so all I needed to do I separate the white and black squares while keeping the stars in the same section.

Puzzle #3
This puzzle was basically the same as the first one, but with black stars, so it further strengthened my theory about how these puzzles work.

Puzzle #4 - Source of confusion #1
Then I saw the 4th puzzle and I just couldn't wrap my head around it. How am I supposed to solve this if there isn't a second star to use it in a pair with the first (and only star)? I looked up for the solution online and I think I wouldn't be able to solve this alone. The right solution is to pair a black star with a black square and separate them from the rest of the black squares.

But how am I supposed to know that I can use a same coloured square and star in the same section, when/if the puzzles before it say completely otherwise? And how am I supposed to know that if I pair a black square with a black star, the square then magically starts to act as a star too, so after that, I wouldn't able to use the (transformed) black square in the same region as the other black squares?

It's illogical, there isn't any indication or hint before in the previous puzzles that I have to do this here.

Puzzle #5 - It should have appeared before Puzzle #4
My assumption is that Jonathan Blow made a mistake and he wanted to place the 5th puzzle before the 4th. Because that way the puzzle chain would make sense. The 5th puzzle explains the ruleset that I needed to use in the much more complex 4th puzzle quite clearly, so it would have been good if this puzzle would have appeared before the previous one.

Thank you for this post. I know I'm 7 years late, but I found it after searching "one black star" and not having a clue. I agree completely that the 5th puzzle should have come before the fourth.