Riven (2024) Spoiler Tagged Hint Guide

Are you sick of googling one (1) puzzle and having the whole game spoiled for you? Well, this is my remedy for that.

With this guide you can go as fast or as slow as you like through the world of Riven. Spoiler-tagged hints and solutions make sure you only get the kind of push that you want, when you want it.

How To Use This Guide

What this guide is:

This guide is two things.

1. An if-you-are-stuck reference for first-time Riven (2024) players, including those who have played Riven (1997) before. Hints and solutions are given only for particular sections where it is likely you will feel like you have done everything you can and are resorting to randomly clicking on objects in the environment and are feeling that puzzle-game frustration arise to the point of just quitting and doing something else.

2. An optional and missable achievement guide, if you want to collect everything on your first playthrough, which can save some time if you're into that sort of thing. These will be spoiler tagged. No unmissable achievements because you really can't miss 'em.

What this guide isn't:

This guide is not a lot of things.

Mostly it's not a comprehensive walkthrough to Riven (2024). There are plenty of websites dedicated to those sorts of things, and a few that already have thousands of words saying walk here, click this lever, walk there, then click that switch, go through that door to progress kind of walkthroughs, when by just playing for a bit you can figure those things out easily yourself.

This guide assumes that you are playing to get your money's worth out of the game and will challenge yourself for a bit before resorting to hints or a solution.

The order of the guide isn't the only way to progress.

For readability's sake, the chapters in this guide are sorted by the path of least resistance of what I think most people will take through the game. If you are astutely observant you can veer off the path and find some neat things quite early on and I 100% encourage you do that rather than follow this guide's suggestions. Explore, get lost, it's fun!

Once you arrive at a new area, even in a different order, the "stuck" moments will present in the same way for 95% of players for that area, so you can skip around a bit if you need thanks to the spoiler tags and the relatively intuitive island names making for good chapter titles.

Hints will be given in order of strength.

The first hint will be the weakest, through to the last hint before the solution, which is the strongest. And then there's the solution, which is like, super strong.
.
.
.
.
Anyway, onto the guide!

General Tips

1. Go everywhere.

Seems intuitive, but if you don't understand something or can't solve it right away and there is still a path you know of that you haven't seen, go there first and come back. Odds are you will learn something or possibly even acquire a tool that will clear things up.

2. Press "X" to take in-game screenshots.

Don't understand something? That's OK! You're not supposed to yet. Take an in-game screenshot. It's saved in the Notebook, in the pause menu. You can also write notes on the screenshot in the Notebook, all without having to alt-tab out of the game. This especially applies to written clues. It can help you avoid backtracking when you run into something that requires it, and god knows that it can take a while to backtrack in this game, which is annoying when you know you saw the clue but didn't screenshot it.

3. Get some paper and a pen ready.

I know I just said you can use the Notebook to write down notes, but you might think that it's only for if you want to over-analyse everything. Unfortunately unless you have a photographic memory you are going to need to do some storage of drawings, numbers, and symbols later in the game, as well as very light addition and subtraction (it's not that bad). And bad news for if you think you can just look up these solutions - they are randomised every playthrough, so you will have to do them regardless if you want to see the ending yourself. Optional but highly recommended.

4. Read everything.

If you don't like reading and skip some texts like the starting journal, you will be making the game much more difficult on yourself, which goes for pretty much all the written texts in this game. Don't worry - there aren't too many things to read, but the few that there are are crucial to progressing through the game's puzzles, and they often straight up contain clues that you cannot get anywhere else. Thankfully the writing is characterised and excellently done... not to mention the beautiful calligraphy!

5. Press "R" to use your tool.

You'll know what the tool is when you get it. This hotkey saves you from a bit of hassle getting it out of your satchel every time which is especially clunky with high FOV.

1A. Temple Island

First Steps

Congratulations on taking the plunge. Armed only with a measly satchel, someone else's journal, a staggeringly dangerous picture book, and your noggin, you teleport directly into a cage that locks itself immediately. Well done - you are trapped. You should have brought some food. Maybe a water bottle? Oh well, there are more pressing concerns.

After a short cutscene, you are let loose on the first island, the Temple Island. First things first - like I said above, read the journal in your satchel. It's a bit of reading, but it will give you some context as to what you're doing here, and what you should be looking for. Be thankful that you can read it quickly if you like, instead of having the exposition dumped onto you in the opening cutscene (which would have dragged on for ages.)

The Temple Island serves as a sort of tutorial for the game. You'll learn some about how both the game and the world work(s). You can't do anything wrong, so play with everything, and see where you can go.

Missable achievement:
Cho? Discover the fate of Gehn's man.
Look down the cliffs behind the starting cage to find the body of the guard from the cutscene. Do this immediately as he leaves once you move on from this location. Must not have been a very strong poison in that dart.

The first place you need to go to progress is the huge golden dome. If you can't reach this location, read on to the first puzzle hint and solution.

The Revolving Room

If you are like me, you will get stuck fairly soon, and I don't blame you. There is one part early on in the game that bars your progress that is extremely counterintuitive. It has to do with the revolving room near the beginning location.

The room revolves, but it doesn't revolve the way you want it to. Not to mention, the exits it does open to are barred by sliding gates! What to do?

Hint: You need to get through the wooden door at the back side of the revolving room - but it's locked with a padlock.
Hint: You can search the accessible areas forever and never find a key. Is it possible there's another way to open the wooden door?
Hint: The stranger who freed you from the cage is your friend, and when they opened your cage, they left behind a clue. Could they be helping you again here, in some way?
Hint: It doesn't have anything to do with the beetles in the revolving room, and you don't need to cross the bridge to the temple.
Hint: You don't need a key, or any tools to open the wooden door.
Hint: The stranger who freed you left another clue on the frame of the wooden door. Its location is important.

Solution: You can remove the hinge by the small dagger on the frame by clicking on it, which will cause the door to open. You can then rotate the room to allow you to pass through to unexplored areas via the wooden door entrance. You can now play around with the unexplored areas to find new interactable objects that will allow you to progress through to the dome.

Optional Achievement:
Visual History: Discover the story of Gehn told through art.
Open all 5 beetles and look through their peepholes.

First Time In The Golden Dome

Progress here is not gated by any puzzle. Explore and you will find a contraption that opens a door to the next area.

Optional Achievement:
Collateral Damage: Cause the Boiler Island bridge to collapse.
At the back exit of the Golden Dome, interact with the bridge mechanism.

Your curiosity and exploration will lead you to the next island.
.
.
.
.
.

1B. Jungle Island

Welcome To The Jungle

This island is much larger than the first and contains the biggest puzzle elements, but your first time here won't be challenging.

Go everywhere you can, click on everything you see, and allow your restless soul to be OK with the fact that there's going to a lot things you don't understand.

Missable achievement: the first time you enter the area with a lot of tree stumps, there will be a floating starry void patch to the left. Cross the broken edge of the path and check it out for an achievement. Once you leave this area and come back, it will be in a containment box and the achievement will be locked for the rest of this playthrough.

You will naturally or even accidentally find the way to the next island by poking around.
.
.
.
.
.

1C. Boiler Island

Is It Getting Hot In Here, Or Is It Just Me?

It's nice to have a change of scenery, isn't it? Here comes the second real puzzle of the game. Poking around randomly here won't do you much good. You actually have to do some certain things in a certain way to progress.

The Boiler

After a few minutes on the island, you'll realise there's not a simple way forward, and no easy paths like on the Jungle Island to explore. Think about the location and where a possible way forward to go could be.

You only have one option to go forward: through the boiler into the pipes below.

If you really can't figure out which knobs do which or what the valve in the centre of the lake does or what the game wants you to do, try these hints.

Hint: The door is closed and there's no button or lever to open it. Is there another way to open it?
Hint: What could the red light above the door be telling you?
Hint: It's too hot and wet and unwalkable inside, so the door is automatically shut, and will reopen when it's safe. How can you make it safe inside?
Hint: Some contraptions don't function without power or steam being directed their way.
Hint: When the valve in the centre of the lake is pointing at the boiler, everything you need to get in is on the lake side of the boiler.

Solution: Turn the valve in the centre of the lake to its middle position. At the control panel, turn the left wheel to remove the water. Then redirect the steam pipe with the left valve. Pull the lever on the right to turn off the heat. Finally, pull the switch on the right to raise the walking platform. The boiler door will now open automatically when you walk up to it.

The Pump

You may get stuck like I did at the flooded cave with a non-functioning pump. It's actually much simpler than you think. You will feel like a fool for getting stuck when you figure it out.

Hint: You can solve this without leaving the island.
Hint: You can open the hatch at the top of the ladder next to the lake once you're at the top. Why are they making it slightly easier to backtrack?
Hint: The pump has two pipes, one goes to the ocean, the other to...

Solution: Turn the valve in the centre of the lake to its 90 degree position to send steam/power to the pump. It's now active and you can progress.

There are no more puzzles for progression left on the island, but definitely some cool things to explore and find. Be sure to read the journal in the lab to the end, mostly because it's enjoyably written and some articulated worldbuilding, but also because it progresses you toward an optional achievement for later on.

Optional achievement:
The Watcher: Watch the fire marble polisher for 15 minutes in a single playthrough.
The left lever releases the brake, the right lever gives the polisher gas. Waste a quarter of an hour in front of the machine while it runs to earn a badge for your silliness.

Again, you will easily find the way to next island from here.
.
.
.
.
.

1D. Survey Island

I Didn't Bring My Yard-Stick

Survey Island marks something of a fork in the road. There's now a bit of sleuthing to be done to find your progression path. Your route to the next chapter can depend on whether you got a certain item from Jungle Island earlier, in which case you have two options, or if you didn't, you only have one (not counting returning the way you came, which is not ideal). You'll know if you have that item, so don't worry you might have accidentally picked it up and forgot. Although you might have, so just check your satchel.

Either way, there's not too much to the surface layer of this island. I'll assume you can figure out what to do with the sliding puzzle overlooking the giant blocks in the main part of the island (you got this!) and give hints on how to go forward.

If you've explored the whole island to the best of your abilities and you're stuck with the only option you can see being to take the Mag-lev back to Boiler Island, it doesn't have to be this way.

Hint: Check out the room you arrived on the island in.
Hint: Once you turn a Mag-lev train around, you don't have to immediately leave.

Solution: There's a door on the other side of the Mag-lev arrival room. Turn it around and get out to access it.

Missable achievement: When you spook the guy in the hallway, give chase to see him leaving on a secret Mag-lev. If you are fast you will get the achievement.

If you do have a certain item, there is another secret-ish way off the island, but if you haven't found it naturally by now, I'm not going to tell you. Sorry!

Anyway if you haven't veered off the beaten path, take the Mag-lev Express to Jungle Island. Or you can just go back the way you came. Maybe you like riding the minecart? I'm not your dad.
.
.
.
.
.

1E. Back on Jungle Island

A New Perspective

This time, you arrive on Jungle Island's secret backdoor. You have two paths here: one on the left, and one on the right. You can choose either first, but I would recommend the left to reduce backtracking. Either way you will need to return to the Mag-lev and turn it around to access the other at some point. Both will open many doors for progress.

You're going to gain access to a lot more of the island than you did the first time. As always, go crazy and see what you can find. This island is, out of the main 5, the most interesting and gives the most information when it comes to codebreaking, the rebellion, and submarines. It's also where you're going to want to start thinking about breaking out the pen and paper, or that handy photographic memory you think you have.

Optional achievement:
The sign of five: Intrude on a Rivenese villager's privacy.
At a high point in the village, you can interact with a village hut's door knocker. Use it 5 times.

Read on only if you are stuck as to what to do next.

If you haven't managed to crack open those crazy spinning eyeball domes yet, you still don't have a clear goal as to what to do with all this information. If you have explored as much of the island as you can, opened as many paths as possible, and are still stumped by what those eyeball domes are for, then think really hard about it. Maybe look at them from a new... perspective.

But seriously, here's the hint: have you found that tool yet?
Hint: It's on the beach, to the left of the lounging creatures.
Hint: Look at a dome through it.
Hint: There's an invisible ink marking on one of the eyeballs. Can you figure out what it means?
Hint: Every dome has a matching spyglass (also called a zoetrope viewer). There's a button on top of each zoetrope viewer.

Solution: Look at any dome through its zoetrope viewer, and click the button when the marked eyeball passes through it. Woah! That's new.
.
.
.
.
.

1F. The Stars

Where Am I?

Say hi to the Starry Expanse. Also say hi to this game's version of fast travel! If you're like me, you will say, "Wow, that's cool," out loud, quickly followed by "Thank God this game has fast travel." If you went back from Survey Island just to ride the minecart you might be disappointed at how quick the minecart got obsolete. Things change, man. Sorry.

First up, see what you can do in here. It's not all that much. You have to travel to each island and open its dome in order to connect it to the network before you can quickly go back there, but you have more options now, and can go in both directions.

However, on your first journey inside, you don't have to immediately turn around and go crazy activating all the other domes, like I did, although you will want to eventually. There is somewhere you can go. See if you can find it first.

Hint: Go to the centre console and look around at the domes.
Hint: One of them is different from the rest. No, not the one you came from, a different one.
Hint: You can rotate reality with the centre console. Hope you're not in VR!

Solution: Rotate the platform to line up with, and go inside the only other activated dome.
.
.
.
.
.

1G. Prison Island

Freedom Is A State Of Mind

This island is very straightforward, no puzzles (yet, we will be getting to those!). Give it an explore. A strange doorbell and a zoetrope viewer lie directly ahead of you. But don't leave until you've met someone. Explore some more. If you're cataclysmically lost...

Solution: At water level, the guard rail is broken.
Further solution: Go through, past the strange totem, and climb the ladders to the top. Listen carefully to what she has to say, and see if you can figure out what it is you have to do next.

This conversation is all there is to do on Prison Island, for now. And unfortunately the easy part of the game is over. You're about to try and figure out the first puzzle that requires some good old fashioned 1990s adventure puzzle game esoteric puzzlin'.

Head back to the Starry Expanse.
.
.
.
.
.

2A. Getting In (1/2)

Not A Walking Simulator Anymore

Whatever you do, don't read this section until you've at least talked to Catherine.

First I would encourage you to think about what you've seen so far, and your goal right now, which is to find the Moeity rebels and get them to help you trap Gehn. You know from the opening cutscene that they took your Trapped Linking Book, so if you can convince them you're a friend, they might give it back to you and help you find a way to find him.

But how can you find the rebels' hiding place?

Finding The Rebels

Are you going, "That's great, Catherine, but I've explored like crazy and still haven't seen any rebels."? Well, first explore some more. Then try these hints.

My first, broadest hint is that by now you should know that the invisible ink that you can see with your tool is painted by the rebels as a way to communicate with each other. With some critical thinking I think this hint could have saved me an hour of wandering around banging my head against walls.

The second broad hint is that I still don't think you've explored the village lagoon thoroughly enough.

The third narrower hint is the rebels have found a way to avoid Gehn's oppressive rule, and somehow evade execution, even after being captured alone.

Stronger hint: Find a way to get a look at the village from high above.

Stronger hint: You'll need the submarine to access the rebels.

Very strong hint: Find a way to close the platform underneath the gallows lift on the lagoon. Go to the submarine and take it to the gallows location. Ride the gallows lift to the top.

Very strong hint: When you open the cage, where does the prisoner go?

Partial solution: Use the invisible ink viewer to examine the prison cell.

Full solution: There's a hidden switch at the back of the prison cell. Activate it and follow the path to find the entrance to the rebel hideout.

Now mess around with the interactable objects in this room. If you have been learning as you go, this location and its responses might give you an idea on what to do next. Take a mental note of the symbols you see here. You don't have to write them down. A few in-game screenshots works fine.

Knock Knock

These hints are meant for those who have found the hidden rebel hideout entrance and are stuck as to what to do there.

By clicking on things in this room, you learn that you can input 6 symbols before the symbols reset. What does this mean?

Hint: It's a 6 symbol code.

Solution: Nice try looking straight for the solution, but the code is randomised every playthrough. You're going to have to do it yourself.

Hint: Go back and recheck the lab on Boiler Island. A note there is written about rebel activity, by Gehn. He also discusses an object that might seem familiar.

Stronger hint: The totems with spinnable eye pieces on Jungle Island hold significance for the rebel effort.

Hint: Remember that the rebels communicate with invisible ink.

Partial solution: The rebels have hidden symbols viewable from near each totem with the invisible ink viewer. You'll know you have it in frame when the viewer glows orange. Take a screenshot.

Solution: There are 6 totems and symbols to find. 4 of these are easily accessible on Jungle Island, you should have seen them already. 1 is well hidden on the Island. 1 is not on the island - but you should know where it is by this point.

Now find the totems, and try your best to find the symbols too.

The Hidden Jungle Island Totem

Try these if you have found the 4 totems on Jungle Island in plain reach and are super stuck and need a push.

Hint: Read Gehn's journal in his lab if you haven't already.
Hint: What's making the water crack apart in the ocean around the islands?
Hint: Water on Riven has a special otherworldly property.
Hint: Gehn uses this property to make his submarine docks artificially dry.
Hint: Can you find a way to manipulate this property, maybe in the village?

Strong hint: The village's steam cooker, shaped like a shark head, has a lever on its side that you might have missed. I know I did. Closing this redirects the steam somewhere.

Solution: The totem is in a secret passage in one of the submarine docks under the steam cooker. If the submarine is blocking the way, move it to the centre island and walk back. The docks stay dry for 1 movement after they are occupied.

Finding The Symbols

These are heavy hints to finding the symbols. Read this only if you have found all 6 totems and simply cannot match a symbol to one or some of them. If you skipped to this section, remember to use your invisible ink viewer to find them. Press X to take a screenshot once you have them in frame, and the frame is glowing.

General hint: You will want to stand near the front of the spinnable eyepiece of each totem to find most of these.

From (in my opinion) easiest to hardest:

The totem in the deep forest: It's in the trees. Perspective matters.
The totem underwater: Look up.
The totem by the minecart: The moths glow. (Oh my god, is that how they make the paint?!)
The totem in the cave: Still water makes for a good reflection.
The totem by the tree: It hasn't bloomed yet. Follow the pipe.
The totem offshore: Look for rebel daggers. They will help you.
The totem offshore: The rebels have left you an object in the environment to use.

Once you have screenshots of all 6 symbols, you're halfway there.
.
.
.
.
.

2B. Getting In (2/2)

Codebreaking

Armed with all 6 symbols, you triumphantly return to the hideout entrance and interact with the matching 6 plaques. And of course nothing happens.

You're missing some information, but hopefully you have an idea of what's happening here. If you truly don't understand, first go to the schoolhouse in the village. There is a piece of paper on the left, next to a wooden shark game, that are both crucial to understanding what to do next. Play with the game and read the paper. Try to connect the dots.

Hint: You need to do some translation.
Hint: Writing down your working with a pen and paper is almost necessary here. Make it neat - you will need this again later.
Hint: The wooden shark game helps match our (arabic) numbers to square numbers.
Hint: Arabic numbers, to the wooden shark game's square (D'ni) numbers, and finally to the paper's circular (Rivenese) numbers. Each number set has its own rules.
Solution: Write down the numbers 1 to 12 on a piece of paper and with the information you have from the schoolhouse try to match the other two number sets. There's not enough information to easily get 12 but if you are really keen you can find patterns to deduce all 12 numbers for all 3 languages. Right now you only need 1 - 6 in Rivenese.
Come on, give me the solution: This guide's not for that. I believe in you!

Cracking The Code

Once you have 1-6 translated to Rivenese (circular) numbers, you're almost there.

Hint: You have to input the symbols in a certain order.
Hint: Find a way to match the animal symbols to numbers.
Hint: The symbols are linked to the totems.
Hint: The order of the totems is the order you need to input the symbols.
Hint: Totems only have one interactable piece. They will tell you the order.
Hint: The rebels are helping you orient the interactable piece with invisible paint.
Heavy hint: The interactable piece, once oriented to match the paint, gives you the number of the matching symbol's place in the order of the code, in Rivenese.
Solution: You can't even google this one, it's random each playthrough. Go to each totem in turn and match the number to the animal symbol. Therein lies the code!

Once you have the information you need, you can go to the rebel hideout entrance.

Missable achievement: Once you enter the correct code, the plaques will lock and you won't be able to get this achievement on this playthrough. Enter these codes from the original Riven (which was always the same solution) for the achievement:


Solution: Input the symbols in ascending order, from 1 to 6. If it doesn't work, you unfortunately have to go back to all 6 totems and make sure you got the symbol matched to the right number.

Congrats! You can now go somewhere new.
.
.
.
.
.

3A. Finding Gehn (1/2)

The Rebel Hideout

The new location only has one path. Take the books you are given. Read the journal, it has clues in it you need, which are helpful to screenshot for later.

Missable achievement: If you want, you can finish the game right now! Save your game first, and go through the Trapped Linking Book to, well, trap yourself for all eternity. You'll earn an achievement and the credits will roll. Congratulations on beating Riven.

Missable ending achievement: Catherine's journal holds a combination in Rivenese. If you can figure out where and how to use this combination now, save your game and use it to really ♥♥♥♥ things up.

For the rest of us... return to the hideout entrance to start the third act of the game.

The next puzzle is finding Gehn, wherever he is. He's been mighty elusive this whole game. Thankfully Catherine has written you a note and put it in her journal, on the first page, that will point you in some kind of direction. The rest of the journal will help you get there. He's likely at his outpost on Age 233. You're to go there and get him to use the Trapped Linking Book, well, trap him for all eternity. She also tells you that the combination to release her is at this outpost.

Optional achievement:
Hidden in plain sight: Use the secret entrance to the Moiety caves.
On your way out of the hideout entrance room, before going back to the prison cage, slide the door that you opened in the dark walkway back closed to find a new passage. This allows you to skip the submarine sequence.
If you're coming from the other direction, you need the randomised solution from Catherine's journal. Go to the room with interactable blue lights and input the solution to open a passage in the wall.

Where Is He Hiding?

To find Gehn, you will need to combine all the information you've gained from every island in the game. As this is the grandest puzzle, I really encourage you to try and figure this out yourself. After all, puzzles are the gameplay of Riven, and in games like these spoiling yourself early ruins the mystery. You can never go back to "not knowing" how to beat Riven once you know.

This section is for those who have returned from Tay and can't figure out where to even start with finding the entrance to Age 233, let alone a way to unlock a path there. This mostly includes those who haven't read/skipped through the texts in the books.

Hint: Seriously, if you don't know where to go, read the books (especially Catherine's) again. They're better written than this guide, and plus they have pretty pictures.
Solution: Return to a great gilded beacon of Riven.

You now know where to go, but it's inactive. Look around. Can you find a way to activate it?

Golden Activation

This section is for those who cannot figure out how to activate the machinery of the Golden Dome.

Hint: Look around the book in the Dome. Are all the nearby lights on?
Hint: Follow the pipes and look through the windows.
Hint: Have you connected every spinning dome to the network yet?
Hint: Starry marbles are key.
Hint: Have you fully interacted with everything in the Starry Expanse?
Hint: The lasers in there aren't just for show.
Solution: You need to link each dome to the centre of the Starry Expanse with its marble laser. The centre must be oriented correctly to the dome you want to link.

Dome Sweet Dome

It's possible that you're stuck because you can't find the locations of some of the domes or zoetrope viewers on Riven. Here's a hint for each island.

Temple Island: This one is extremely difficult.
Jungle Island: You need administrator access for this one.
Boiler Island: When one door closes, another opens, and closes again, and opens another one.
Survey Island: Just because it's broke don't mean it ain't workin'.
Prison Island: Do a 360 and leave.
.
.
.
.
.

3B. Finding Gehn (2/2)

That's A Lot Of Things To Interact With

This section is for those who have powered up the Golden Dome.

If you have power going there and nothing has changed... either you haven't done the previous steps, or you haven't found the small button on the right side of the railing in front of the Linking Book.

You're presented with an obtuse puzzle. You'll need to figure out what the colours, the sliding gauge, and the grid represent. The information you need is available to you by this point.

You'll need to be precise, as a lengthy animation plays every time you try inputting a solution, and there's more solutions than there are permutations of a shuffle of a deck of cards (which is more than the number of the atoms in the universe, by the way). Nobody's got that kind of time!

Get out your pen and paper, and the number translation notes you made earlier. Or keep using the text field in the Notebook, if you're a masochist. Or your photographic memory, if you are literally Albert Einstein.

For the grid with the coloured marbles:
Hint: Where have you seen a similar grid before?
Hint: A certain island has the same grid.
Hint: If you didn't complete the sliding block puzzle game the first time you saw it, now's the time.
Strong hint: The same island has a secret area related to that game's solution that you'll need to get to.
Strong hint: To access the secret area, match the two grids found on Survey Island.
Strong hint: Nothing in the secret area affects the rest of the islands, it only gives you information for the puzzle at the Golden Dome.
Partial solution: Match the eyeball symbols to their colours in the secret area.
Partial solution: The eyeball symbols match to colours which match the 5 coloured marbles at the Golden Dome. One light isn't working, but you can still match it by process of elimination.
Solution: Match the coloured marbles to their island, then to their respective slots on the grid at Survey Island. This is the location the marbles need to be on the grid at the Golden Dome.

For the sliding gauge with 5 coloured tabs:
Hint: The gauge refers to the power setting of each marble.
Hint: Marbles are colours are eyeballs are islands.
Hint: Inspect Gehn's lab thoroughly.
Hint: The table where you can place the marble from the cave has information you'll need.
Hint: There are notes under an interactable object.
Hint: The gauge refers to strike force compensation. There's a optimal strike force that each marble needs to compensate for by sliding its matching tab.
Hint: Gehn's scribbled out the optimal strike force value because he hates giving you solutions as much as I do. Can you figure out a way to figure out this value?
Hint: It's not by looking harder at the page, but it is in the same room.
Solution: There's a sliding gauge in the lab that is the same as the one in the Golden Dome. Mess around with the device with the cave marble in the receptacle until it seems right. This is your playthrough's optimal strike force value.

Now you will need to do some math to figure out the compensation values, but with D'ni numbers that you haven't seen before.

Hint: Or have you seen them before?
Hint: Gehn prefers to use D'ni numbers.
Hint: Check out his journal in the lab. He uses D'ni numbers as dates for his entries.
Partial solution: You need to figure out what each D'ni number on the strike force compensation note means and add/subtract it from your found base value.
Solution: Once you add/subtract the 5 D'ni numbers from the base value, you have the position that the corresponding eyeball's coloured marble needs to be on the sliding gauge at the Golden Dome.

But how to figure out what the previously unseen D'ni numbers represent? This will be very satisfying if you can do it yourself without looking it up. Pretend you're in 1997 and you don't have dial-up yet!

Hint: You need to extrapolate from the information you have in your translation notes and in the world.
Hint: The Rivenese translations don't help you here.
Hint: This is made harder by the fact that D'ni numbers don't use a base 10 system like our numbers do. Make a list of them in order of Western numbers and try to do some pattern recognition.
Hint: The Golden Dome sliding gauge tabs cannot overlap one another, so the results will always be in the order of the colour of the tabs.
Hint: The order of the coloured tabs in the Golden Dome is also the same as the eyeballs in the strike force compensation note that tells you what D'ni numbers to add/subtract for each eyeball/colour.
Solution: Not in this guide, sorry. You have everything you need!

Now you will have to make sure the 5 coloured marbles are in the correct slots and the 5 coloured tabs on the gauge are on the right alignments. BOTH of these need to be 100% correct to progress. When you close the machine, you'll know you got it right if the button on the left glows, which you can click to activate the Golden Dome mechanism.

Don't worry too much if it doesn't work the first time. It's deliberately difficult. No one can hold the line of translation from eyeball to colour to Western numbers to D'ni numbers in their head. Double check your notes and the hints in this guide and try again.

Again, the solution is randomised. You can't look up a full solution even if you try. If you've made it this far, I believe in you!

Before travelling through the book, save your game in a new slot.
.
.
.
.
.

4A. A Different Age

Age 233

Again, make sure you saved your game before coming here.

First, there are a few missable ending achievements. I would recommend doing what you want the first time you arrive here and getting your own ending naturally, but if you want to avoid the maximum amount of backtracking and sitting through cutscenes to get them later, you can do them in this order.

Missable ending achievement (no real spoilers, but this is how you get it):
Finality: Suffer Gehn's wrath.
After the lengthy monologue, Gehn will invite you to go through the Trapped Linking Book. Politely do nothing. He'll then say OK, whatever, and let you leave.

You then need to travel through the Starry Expanse back to the Golden Dome. Go to Age 233 for the second time.

He will offer you the Book for a second time. Refuse, and your only option will be to go back to Riven yet again. Then go to Age 233 for the third time.

Refusing the third time will get you an interesting ending and unique achievement.

Missable ending achievement:
Perhaps it would be best: Immediately acquiesce to Gehn's command.
Reload the first save you made, before his initial lengthy monologue. Watch it again, but when he offers you the book the first time, immediately accept. You might have to spam click and walk forward as soon as he opens the book, it's a bit clunky for some reason.

Once Gehn is in the book, you're on track for the proper ending.

Make sure you get the combination for Catherine's prison before leaving if you want the good ending. If you can't find the combination...

Hint: It's not your typical combination.
Hint: Remember Prison Island's front door and what it was like when you tried to get in the first time.
Hint: It's sound-based. Turn on your Logitech Pro speakers.
Solution: It's the 5 sound long music box on Gehn's bedside table. Write your interpretation of the sounds down as you can't take it with you. This is random every playthrough.

Optional achievement:
A great deal of history: Watch all of Gehn's imager recordings.
In Gehn's bedroom, he has an imager viewer. There are codes on a note in the same room. Watch all 3 recordings.

Optional achievement:
The journey of another: Finish reading every journal.
Read Gehn's journal to the end. If you read Atrus and Catherine's journals too, it will pop here.

Head on back to Riven.
.
.
.
.
.

4B. The End

The proper ending to the game only has two small puzzles. At this point they will be obvious and easy in comparison to what came before. You shouldn't need help to complete them.

In case you just want me where they are to tell you so you can finish the game as quickly as possible, here you go.

Step one: Free Catherine from Prison Island with the sound combination you found in Age 233.

Step two: Signal Atrus by destroying the Star Fissure containment shielding, located directly in front of the cage you first arrived in Riven in. The contraption requires power. Follow the pipe. Use the combination in Catherine's journal, and your Rivenese to D'ni translation notes, to activate the contraption, and use it to pull out the telescope.

You can do these steps in the opposite order to get a bad ending, but if you've already gotten a bad ending, you've already got the achievement, and this bad ending isn't very interesting. Up to you.

Congratulations! You've completed Riven.
.
.
.
.
.

Thanks for reading this guide!

I really enjoyed writing this and spending more time in Riven. This guide was what I was looking for when I first played and ended up getting spoiled when I just needed a push to move on.

This guide was current upon release. Some things may change in future patches. I won't be updating it for those, sorry. My time with Riven is over. Turns out there are bigger and better things in life than playing video games all the time :>

If you found it helpful, dropping a nice comment would make me happier than an award!

Edits:
28/04/2025: Fixed capitalisation

[preacher]

Thank you so much for making this. Gave the right helpful hints and didn't complete the game for me!

[Fenzz]

Incredibly well made guide! Thank you so much.

The achievement for the old Riven rebel entrance code can still be achieved by just pulling up another slab afterwards resetting them. And then entering the old code. Anyway, that worked for me.

[Greenheroes55]

@jjemb right, I did notice a comment suggesting it was only possible later on, maybe I should've @LinkSamus3 instead.

[jjemb]

@Greenheroes55 You're correct, but I didn't want to start the guide with a suggestion to immediately go for a game over when you can just get it later on!

[Greenheroes55]

you can get the achievement for trapping yourself right away when he hands you the trapping book.

[Lacharoksa]

You did a perfect job of spoiler tagging so I could uncover just the bits of information I needed when I needed them. 99% of the time I was most of the way to a solution and had just missed a lever or something. Took me back to the Universal Hint System, which is a fantastic site but only has a guide to the original Riven; this guide perfectly addresses that gap!

[ArgRIB]

okay, more than one word, but it was just that one part. I was so... dang bro, how could I missed that?

[ArgRIB]

It was "There's a sliding gauge in the lab" and I was: "There is?"
I totally overlooked the obvious the past 10 times I looked through the room.

[jjemb]

@ArgRIB I'm glad to hear! Out of curiosity what was the one word you needed?

[ArgRIB]

I love the step by step hidden spoilers. Good job with that. I just needet to read one word to go one and finish that game. So you made it possible for me to go there without beeing hit in the face with a complete spoiler.