How did I just solve this puzzle?

[JohnJSal]

I'm in the third world (the green, jungle world -- not sure of the name), and I reached an area that sort of looks like an alien spaceship with bridges on either side and those base four number panels at each bridge to activate them.

I explored a bit but didn't find any solutions to the patterns I needed, so I just started messing around with them. It took all of three seconds to get the bridges to appear, with what seems like a fairly random pattern.

How was this supposed to work? Did I just guess right or was it really meant to be a "just put in any pattern" type of solution? That was pretty underwhelming, either way.

[Halloween Jack]

@johnjsal Did you investigate the machine in the Hunrath gas station that helps you understand how those devices work?
If not (or, if you did and you still didn't get it), congratulations, you managed to brute force it.
Either way, enjoy the spoils (read: further progress) you are now able to access.
Cheers!

[JohnJSal]

Originally posted by Halloween Jack:

@johnjsal Did you investigate the machine in the Hunrath gas station that helps you understand how those devices work?
If not (or, if you did and you still didn't get it), congratulations, you managed to brute force it.
Either way, enjoy the spoils (read: further progress) you are now able to access.
Cheers!

Hmm, yes I did test out that machine, but where was I supposed to find the actual patterns to use to activate the bridges? I don't recall seeing any numbers or patterns anywhere, but maybe I missed it. I'll go back and check my photos. I know I have some pictures of sheets that have patterns on them, but still, I don't think they refer to this world or the bridges.

[Halloween Jack]

There are journals and books littered through the game world to provide these hints for you.

[JohnJSal]

Oh crap, after reloading my save file, one bridge is completely deactivated (and I was placed back on the other side of it, away from the two seeds), and the other bridge was only partially activated. Perhaps I did something wrong after all?

[JohnJSal]

Ok, I'm very tentatively looking online for some general hints, but all I'm seeing are the actual solutions. No one is explaining where or how you are supposed to figure this out on your own.

I know that the Villein number system is somewhat explained in the gas station, with the machine to experiment with it, but how are you supposed to figure out the bridges in Maray? Is it really just trial and error? I understand there are general clues to the number system, but I'm wondering if there are any clues to these bridges specifically.

One comment I read elsewhere says that it basically is trial and error in order to figure out what each of the numbers does to the bridge. This is very confusing and not at all intuitive, unless there's more to it that I'm missing.

[Halloween Jack]

The general hints are found in the game, and with a little puzzling (pun intended), the player is expected to figure out the hints to take the next action.

There isn't one place that tells you to use any one code for the bridges - the information in the journals and books provide hints to tell you how you can figure out how to solve them.

That said, you can also brute force them, as many, many players (this one included) have done. It's not a big deal if you don't figure out this one bit of the game and instead use a series of lines that make the bridges complete.

Another way to say it: There's more to it that you're missing.

Best recommendation: play the game. Stop looking for hints outside the game. Play the game instead.

[JohnJSal]

Originally posted by Halloween Jack:

The general hints are found in the game, and with a little puzzling (pun intended), the player is expected to figure out the hints to take the next action.

There isn't one place that tells you to use any one code for the bridges - the information in the journals and books provide hints to tell you how you can figure out how to solve them.

That said, you can also brute force them, as many, many players (this one included) have done. It's not a big deal if you don't figure out this one bit of the game and instead use a series of lines that make the bridges complete.

Another way to say it: There's more to it that you're missing.

Best recommendation: play the game. Stop looking for hints outside the game. Play the game instead.

I do my best never to use hints, but honestly, in this case I would never have figured this out myself. I did brute force it, but like I said, when I returned to the game the bridges were no longer activated, so I wasn't sure what had happened or if I really was supposed to use a certain pattern and not just guess. It didn't seem to save my progress correctly.

In order to even begin to understand the bridges, I had to (just right now) learn how base 4 number systems work, and more importantly, I had to read that each five-dot section of the panel represents a digit. I don't know how in the world I would have figured that out on my own, and that is a part of knowing that each digit controls one section of the bridge.

[Halloween Jack]

To save your game, exit to the Main Menu and watch to ensure a small loading circle appears in the top right corner of the screen. This will indicate the game has saved where you were when you eixted to the Main Menu.

If you do not see that icon, resume the game, move a bit, try again.

Once on the Main Menu, go to Load Game and look to make sure the topmost image is where you were in the game you just exited. If it is, use the small arrow on the far right side of the screen to make a copy of your current game and thereby ensure your progress is saved.

Originally posted by johnjsal:

In order to even begin to understand the bridges, I had to (just right now) learn how base 4 number systems work, and more importantly, I had to read that each five-dot section of the panel represents a digit. I don't know how in the world I would have figured that out on my own, and that is a part of knowing that each digit controls one section of the bridge.

You should have seen information about the number system and learning how it worked in the journals and books. If you didn't, that means you haven't found those books/journals (or maybe another item near them, in a house?) yet.

[JohnJSal]

Originally posted by Halloween Jack:

To save your game, exit to the Main Menu and watch to ensure a small loading circle appears in the top right corner of the screen. This will indicate the game has saved where you were when you eixted to the Main Menu.

If you do not see that icon, resume the game, move a bit, try again.

Once on the Main Menu, go to Load Game and look to make sure the topmost image is where you were in the game you just exited. If it is, use the small arrow on the far right side of the screen to make a copy of your current game and thereby ensure your progress is saved.

Originally posted by johnjsal:

In order to even begin to understand the bridges, I had to (just right now) learn how base 4 number systems work, and more importantly, I had to read that each five-dot section of the panel represents a digit. I don't know how in the world I would have figured that out on my own, and that is a part of knowing that each digit controls one section of the bridge.

You should have seen information about the number system and learning how it worked in the journals and books. If you didn't, that means you haven't found those books/journals (or maybe another item near them, in a house?) yet.

I did close to the menu before exiting, not sure what happened though.

Perhaps I did miss something. I feel like I've checked everything and everywhere, but you never know with games like this. But still, even with a full understanding of the number system, where is the connection between that and how the bridges work? Maybe I missed a reference to the bridges too, or I'm forgetting that I read it.

[arensb]

Originally posted by JohnJSal:

How was this supposed to work? Did I just guess right or was it really meant to be a "just put in any pattern" type of solution?

That's how I solved it, so at least you're not alone.
Basically, I drew a line, saw that some bridge segments appeared, drew some more lines, and played around.
According to the machine in the garage, the resulting pattern is a number, but I don't know whether it represents anything.

[Halloween Jack]

The bridge controls were designed so a player could either utilize the number system to solve each one and so those who might not be inclined to take the time or effort to bother about the number system would be able to brute force their way through them with a smaller effort.

[Chazz the Elder]

Okay -- big hairy spoilers here.

The number system is base 4. So each digit in the number system can have the values 0, 1, 2, or 3. The values are 0: nothing, 1: railings, 2: bridge deck, 3: railings and deck. A bridge is typically five segments, one segment for each digit. So to turn on the entire bridge, you need the code for the number 33333 (base 4). Which is 1023 (base 10) but it's easier to stay in base 4 because that's how the patterns go.

And yes, I did figure that out myself, from the various documents, the Hunrath garage machine, and by generalization from the gate controls which are a single digit terminal.

[TaterShovel]

I just brute-forced a solution here, too, but my answer isn't the "right" answer:


Apparently, you can still get across the bridges by only activating the deck, or option 2 in Chazz's post above. So entering 682, which is 22222 in base 4, will work just fine.

[Different Name]

This was the one puzzle I had to go online to get the solution for. It requires developing skills in somewhat advanced mathematics and xenolinquistics. I still haven't completely wrapped my mind around the answer.

[Koopaloop]

This was one of my favorite puzzles from the game. I felt so smart having figured it out without hints :). That said, it's a tough one if you're not mathematically inclined so I can understand many people needing hints.