Destructoid's Brett Makedonski shared an article last week about his experience with The Witness. Makedonski became one of what The Witness creator Jonathan Blow called the "1%" when he managed to beat the game and earn the elusive Platinum Trophy. When Makedonski shared a screenshot of his trophy on Reddit, however, he realized that other than a scattered applause and congratulations, most The Witness players were desperately asking how he was able to crack a particularly soulcrushing puzzle, aka the "Ship's Red Door."
A cry for help with this specific puzzle became so common that Makedonski was driven to write about it. However, Makedonski admitted that he was only able to somehow brute-force his way through the "Ship's Red Door" after an endless amount of unsuccessful tries.
"When the door opened, I jumped because I was so startled by the sound of not-failure," said Makedonski. "But, I have absolutely no idea why what I did makes sense, why it makes the puzzle work. I just got lucky."
In fact, other Redditors that managed to crack the "Ship's Red Door" puzzle could only approach it in the same brute-force manner. According to Makedonski, everyone "just got lucky and moved on."
Eventually, Jonathan Blow responded to Makedonski's story as well: "Yes, I pretty much figured that one to be one of the hardest individual puzzles in the game."
The puzzle in question is located inside a ship that is wrecked just off the island. At first glance, it looks like a simple grid puzzle:
As we saw from the video, there are two start points to choose from. What's more, all dots must be collected before the line is drawn to the end-point. Here's the twist: there's an invisible mirrored line that you'll have to visualize the route of. Last but not least, there's a pattern that dictates the sequence that the dots must be collected in.
Most puzzles are dictated by visual logic and memorization. Now that we learn that there's an invisible line that mirrors our own, it further convinces us that the key to solving the puzzle lies in the line that we cannot see. However, the invisible element to the puzzle is actually there to distract us from the real key to the solution: the dots.
YouTuber Jeffrey Grubb explains:
Firstly, the "Ship's Red Door" is much easier to solve if you understand the principles behind the "Bamboo Tree" puzzles that are south of the monastery. As you work on the puzzle, you'll hear drops of water and the creaking of the ship. Most will just assume the sounds are simply ambience from the environment. However, each drop or creak produces a different tune. Bringing this back to the puzzle, each dot represents a note. Now, you must match the dots to the notes that are playing from the drops and creaks.
Is your mind blown? Let us know if this helped you with the puzzles at the ship. Are there any other puzzles from The Witness that has left you angry and frustrated? Let us know in the comment section below!
