Hardest, Stupidest and Craziest Puzzles in Myst History?

Jairden · **Joined:** Thu Dec 14, 2006 5:52 pm **Posts:** 181

Hardest: For me, anything do do with color recognition, be it the first Dream puzzle, the marbles on Riven, or the Revelation door. Oh yeah, and the rainbow reflectors puzzle in Jhanin in Exile. Or some of the clues for Kadish Tolesa

Of course, these are hard for be because I am colorblind.

Stupidist: I must agree, the "move the slider" at the beginning of Revelations about had me murdering our dear friend Atrus.

Craziest: Hmm...that silly, sound recognition maze in original Myst, can't remember what the age name was..eww so much!

isomorphic · **Joined:** Tue Feb 13, 2007 4:36 pm **Posts:** 92

I didn't find Riven that hard - I only used a borrowed guide for learning the D'ni numbering.

The sliders puzzle at the beginning of Myst 4 almost had my entire family murdering Atrus, despite the fact that I was the only one playing. I'd say that was the most unrewarding.

lego_addict · **Posted:** Thu Jun 21, 2007 12:47 am

I'm colourblind (not black and white, fortuneately), and I have no problem with colour puzzles. I'm also quite musical so I do quite well at sound puzzles. I have almost-perfect pitch (which makes both listening to myself play and listening to school recitals a small dose of psychological trauma), which is great for some puzzles

Hardest: Kadish. Oh... I hate that place. I always use a walkthrough for that.

Stupidest: Move the slider definitely deserves a place waaaaayy up there. Maybe also carrying the stuff to the spirits in MIV. As soon as you get close whatever you're holding (dandilion puffs for me) just blow up.

That or the Sanctuary in TPOTS. I mean, come on... I have better things to do than sit around on my tushie for 15 minutes... I bet it's better in multiplayer though.

Craziest: I think Ahnonay wins this one. I had to use a walkthrough (I'm a very weak willed person :lol:

) but it was just crazy. You have this teensy tiny little age, and then you find out it's actually the largest Age in all of Uru.

rebekah · **Joined:** Sat Jan 06, 2007 9:04 pm **Posts:** 47

Quote:

Most hated: all puzzles involving sound recognition: Monkeys in Haven, spider chair, etc. I always require help on these--they all sound the same to me!. Some of us just have a tin ear!

The rocket puzzle/organ-- OMG. Thank heavens I was able to count the number of times to move the slider. About the only notes I count tell the difference in were the two at the ends.

raistlin75 · **Joined:** Mon May 21, 2007 5:51 am **Posts:** 134

LuigiHann wrote:

14. You can jump once, but that's it
-That doesn't make any freaking sense!
15. These are one-jump fireflies. Now shut up and make it so you only have to jump once.

"These are one-jump fireflies".... hilarious Luigi. Best line of the best post of the month. I'm still frustrated that an explorer with 2 arms that obviously work can't pick something up. It took me an hour to get those darn baskets lined up right so I wouldn't roll off of them or accidentally jump. If they want us to buy that, the character should be an amputee with no arms and you can link by pressing your face into a linking book.

A lot of great posts so far and some puzzles I had forgotten, like the endgame puzzle from Myst IV where you had to match up all those fragments of conversation with objects.

Someone mentioned that (and it's true) it is hard to judge some puzzles because once the frustration factor sets in, out comes the walkthrough. I honestly don't think I'd have finished any of the Myst games without access to a walkthrough at some point. I think it's nearly impossible for anyone to get through the entire series on their own brain power. Not because we're stupid, but just because the puzzles vary so wildly. Sometimes you need nearly perfect pitch or have to be a math wiz or work out a long logic puzzle without much information.
In the pre-internet days I had a lot more patience with games because hints required buying a clue book or calling a 1-900 number for $2 a minute. Now you just tab from one window to another and get the solution instantly, so I know I don't challenge myself as much as I used to.

One that I'd like to add to the growing list is the vault combination at the end of Kadish Tolesa. Even knowing the solution, it doesn't quite make sense because you have to assume one of the numbers without anything to back up the assumption. That's just not acceptable in a logic puzzle. It's the perfect example of something that would drive you to a walkthrough when they could have given more information. It still would have been difficult, but it would at least make logical sense.

ces · **Posted:** Sat Jun 23, 2007 5:09 pm

Luigi, that was great! I just laughed and laughed.

BTW - that's the only age I haven't finished of the original 4 ages.

I also need a walkthrough for all puzzles that are sound based.

LuigiHann · **Joined:** Thu Oct 12, 2006 10:07 pm **Posts:** 837

raistlin75 wrote:

I'm still frustrated that an explorer with 2 arms that obviously work can't pick something up. It took me an hour to get those darn baskets lined up right so I wouldn't roll off of them or accidentally jump. If they want us to buy that, the character should be an amputee with no arms and you can link by pressing your face into a linking book.

Even he can pick stuff up

Rusty_Russell · **Posted:** Sat Jun 23, 2007 5:54 pm

Quote:

One that I'd like to add to the growing list is the vault combination at the end of Kadish Tolesa. Even knowing the solution, it doesn't quite make sense because you have to assume one of the numbers without anything to back up the assumption. That's just not acceptable in a logic puzzle.

Can you back that up? What number do you have to assume? 1 = 1st is given: the light is on for you.

Alahmnat · **Posted:** Sat Jun 23, 2007 8:23 pm

LuigiHann wrote:

Even he can pick stuff up

*falls over laughing*

mystysteve · **Joined:** Thu Feb 15, 2007 5:50 am **Posts:** 46

Hardest: The Riven fire marbles, or Spire's spider chair (Myst 4).

Stupidest: The final Dream puzzles in Myst 4. The rainbow clouds were never that big a deal for me... In fact, everything in Dream was pretty easy. Thing is, it was also all lame.

Craziest (in a good way): All of Ahnonay. No contest. Definitely one of my favorite ages.

Kam · **Joined:** Sun Aug 27, 2006 12:27 am **Posts:** 240

Stupidest: The pod ages.

Hoe KanDat · **Posted:** Mon Jun 25, 2007 8:51 pm

The hardest one for me was the spider chair in M4. I was so proud i had finished 1 to 3 without any hint or walkthrough all by myself. But here i found myself surfing the internet for a hint on this one. The other one that i found very hard was the little puzzle in the classroom of Riven where you could figure out the numerical system. It took me ages.

The most stupid one for me was the time puzzle in the watchers sanctuary. Why on earth do i have to stand under a spotlight for 15 minutes just to be able to continue my way. It had a strange effect on me as well. As a result i started waiting in a lot of spots in a lot of ages for nothing. I just stopped thinking logically.

The craziest one for certain was Ahonnay. This concept of timetravel was so irrationally new it took some time before i figured that one out.

But having said this, this concept of time travel does give me hope that, since the D'ni art of writing does know a way to travel through time, someday the DRC will find us a linking book to Riven before it was destroyed.

Sh'aeri · **Posted:** Tue Jun 26, 2007 9:40 pm

Hardest: I'm a major brain-dead idiot, so they're all hard to me.

Stupidest: The pods, hands down, the pods. Close second runners up are the Ancients puzzle in Revelation - I am a child of air and the ^%$*(#$ pollen keeps falling off my hand! The Monkeys. DEATH to the monkeys. Why can't Sharper go and hunt them and bring back their pelts!

Craziest: Ahnonnay. What is with the "touch the cloth then link back to relto" thing...how in great Caesar's Ghost are we supposed to know that?!?! BUT the Quab Kicking is cool. I still love that age for one reason and one reason only...SWIMMING!

Just keep swimming, just keep swimming....

Ed Oscuro · **Posted:** Tue Jun 26, 2007 11:37 pm

I just popped in Uru tPotS again to finish off the game (I had the last shell cloth on Ahnonay) and those 625 D'ni seconds in the Watcher's Sanctuary flew by.

I had to visit a walkthrough to refresh my memory, and honestly I skipped the pellet portion of the puzzle. Dumb.

The earlier pellet-making puzzle seemed even lamer, in my opinion.

Hardest: Figuring out the grid squares for the previous puzzle never was something I wanted to do. Luckily it was all done for me! Also, from what I've played, Myst IV seems pretty tough. Haven't gone far in III and have to beat Riven still.

Craziest: Rime gas

Least favorite age: Selenitic Age, in general. I guess it looks better in realMyst, however.

Favorite Age: Hmm!

LuigiHann wrote:

Even he can pick stuff up

Or kick it. Honestly, I've had good luck with that puzzle the last few times I've played it. It's aggravating, for sure, because it takes a while to load if you make a mistake, but it's just a matter of doing a trial run and hoping that you don't end up losing your fireflies on the steam vent (yeah, you gotta back up immediately, but sometimes when you link in they've completely disappeared).

NomadMolly · **Joined:** Thu Nov 09, 2006 12:58 am **Posts:** 159

Well, I can see how everyone might hate the "Now move the slider" puzzle, but I teach acoustics and I'm always looking for examples to show my students how 2 simple sine waves add to a compex wave and how that is affected by amplitude, frequency, and phase. That puzzle is the BEST teaching aid I have ever had so I LOVE IT!

Ok, I'm a nerd professor.

Hardest, Stupidest and Craziest Puzzles in Myst History?

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