A Guide Guide to the Gauntlet Puzzle in Maray

Congratulations! You have made it to the first of the greatest challenges of the game: what is affectionately called the Gauntlet. This is a confusing puzzle that will have you running back, forth, sideways, and diagonally. Here, maps and diagrams are necessary because it is easy to get lost. This is a geometric puzzle, so it is very important to be aware of the shapes you encounter, on floors and on walls and ceilings.

The puzzle is on a grand scale, arranged in two complicated sub-puzzles that occupy two worlds: Maray and Hunrath. The rudimentary map with which you are provided offers very little assistance except to denote geographical locations of the various nodes of the puzzle you will encounter.

This world is all about swapping. Surely you have acquired a working knowledge of the way swapping works. There is a swap radius that varies from swap device to swap device. Most are the same, but some have smaller or larger radii depending on the part of the puzzle you are solving. This radius indicates the space around it which will be swapped with you. You have probably noticed by now that the ambassador swap seed takes scoops of landscape with it, as we have seen in the previous pods of this world. You have encountered three so far in Maray. The first drops you off at the previously locked door, the second drops you off at the door lock, and the third takes you to Hunrath where it deposits a brother swap device. The nearby swap device in Hunrath then transports the sandstone arch that, when brought to Maray, makes a convenient path for you to progress in the world.

This is all very useful introductory information. You’re about to swap a bunch of bits of Maray and Hunrath with each other so many times it will make your head spin. You’ll be spinning other things, too.

Let’s get started!

Three Spheres; Seven Pods So far, you have encountered three swap pods in Maray. It is important to number them, and when they come in pairs or trios (as they shall very soon), it is best to label them by group. You have stepped through the membrane and arrived at the bridge port. Presumably you have managed to build the bridge from the port to the first sphere. You have noticed that in order to build a bridge you must enter numbers in the console. It doesn’t matter what you enter. Any random combination will ultimately lead to the desired effect. On you go to the first sphere. You notice that it has immediately become complicated because there are two swap devices in this sphere instead of only one. This is Swap Pod Group 4A and 4B. On the floor you find circular lines surrounding each device, but they are not identical, and one superimposes the other. It would appear that one affects the function of the other, but which? Let’s think back on what we have learned about how the pods govern the space around them. The swap with the laser cart between Kaptar and Hunrath serves as a good example. What you learned there was that you swapped the entire sphere in Hunrath with the wood shack in Kaptar. In Hunrath, this opened the track behind the little house that had originally been blocked by the sphere. The pod swapped with the shack. You were then able to drive the laser cart behind the little house and swap. The swap brought back to Kaptar the little shack and the laser cart, while sending the sphere back to Hunrath. In this way you were able to disable the Mofang device, and you also learned about the swap radius of any given seed generator. Here in Swap Pod Group 4 you have two pods, circles on the floor around them, and an understanding that there is a swap radius. How may you apply that last bit of information here? Open—but don’t swap!—each pod and watch what happens with the golden light. It flows through the lines on the floor until it makes a final circle. This indicates the swap radius. Pod 4A has a smaller radius than pod 4B: the gold light fills the small circle. Pod 4B on the other hand fills the circumference of the entire sphere. Therefore you can surmise that Pod 4A will swap its small area, while 4B will swap the entire sphere with both swap devices. Let’s experiment. Swap with 4A first to see where it will take you. You arrive at the scrapyard in Hunrath, encircled by the cart track. All right. So part of the scrapyard will have been swapped to Maray in place of Pod 4A. Return to Maray via 4A. Now try Pod 4B. If your guess is correct, then 4B will take the entire sphere, including Pod 4A, to the scrapyard. Indeed it does. This means that a larger portion of the scrapyard has been transported to 3

Maray. What does this mean for you? If you swap back to Maray via Pod 4B, you would end up where you started. But if you return via Pod 4A, then you would take with you only your small circle. Whatever parts of the scrapyard swapped with the large sphere from Hunrath to Maray should be in Maray in place of the sphere. There would now be open space. Swap back to Maray using Pod 4A. You speculated correctly! The space that 4B had taken up is now gone, and you find at the other end where the sphere had been is an exit that leads to the next sphere. Walk out onto an elevator platform and take the elevator down to the lower level. From here you can see how the spheres work. There’s an outer casing, like an igloo, with a basket-like feature at the base. Inside this casing are the swap spheres that you can swap back and forth between worlds, and whatever contents are swapped are supported in the basket. You now know what you must do. Find a way to eliminate the sphere within the outer casing and presumably you would open the exit to the new area. Take the bridge up to the second casing, Swap Pod Group 5. Things suddenly have got a lot more difficult. Now instead of two seed pods you have three. The room rotates, and there are three entrances. Clearly this won’t be as straightforward as the last pod puzzle. That was just a warm-up.

But do not be dismayed! First, look where the exits are and what is special about them. One appears to lead to the Mofang device, the other to the next sphere encasement. But for both of these you need to build a bridge. Alas, there are no number consoles with which to do this. Our apparent objective for the puzzle in this sphere is to locate the device that will build the bridges. Follow the same steps as above. Open each device—without swapping—to discover the swap radius of each pod. Pod 5A is surrounded by Hunrath rock. Obviously this one goes to Hunrath. As there is already some Hunrath landscape here, it follows that there is a brother swap pod somewhere in Hunrath that you haven’t 4

been able to explore yet. Pod 5C is similar to Pod 4A: it has a small area to swap with Hunrath. Pod 5B is the largest, as it takes the entirety of the sphere to Hunrath. What do you want to do first? Randomly swapping would be a sort of brute force way to do it and it would give you the desired results eventually. But if you want to work it out, you may follow the method below. Consider swap pod 5A with the Hunrath rock. Open the device and swap to see exactly where in Hunrath it takes you. You find yourself in a new place, a cavern within the sandstone that appears to have functioned as a mine. Also, you find two more swap pods: the Hunrath brothers of the Maray swap pods. On opposite ends of the cavern are nooks; one of which contains a chair with a piece of paper on it. You also see connectors for bridges. Now you have to build bridges in Hunrath as well as Maray. At this point it would be a good idea here to label the pods more clearly as the Maray group (5Am, 5Bm, 5Cm; 5Ah, 5Bh, 5Ch). You had sent 5Am back to Maray when you swapped, so, using pod 5Ah, swap again back to Maray. Now you will find the sphere the way it was when you came upon it. You need to access 5Am, but you can accomplish that only with either 5Bm or 5Cm. We know that 5Bm will swap the entire sphere to Hunrath. That means it will also swap 5Ah and therefore not allow you to access 5Am. The other option is 5Cm. Its swap radius is a small circle, so that should allow you to access 5Am in Hunrath. Swap to Hunrath using 5Cm. Now you have access to 5Am, which contains the necessary Villein console for building bridges! Use the device to build the first bridge. Go across to the blue chair and read the paper left there that explains the Gauntlet’s purpose.

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You have three more bridges to build, but how? If you swap to Maray via 5Am (the one that contains the console), you can bring the console back to Maray. Swap, and now find that the console is in Maray facing the platform where the Mofang beam device once stood. It isn’t necessary to build this bridge, but you can still build the bridge that links this sphere with the next. This is where the rotator button comes into play. Exit the sphere, and just outside, press the rotator button. The Villein console is now in place to build the bridge to the next sphere. Enter random patterns until eventually build the bridge. Now there is one bridge left to build, in Hunrath. Swap back to Hunrath using 5Am. The console is now in position to build the last bridge. Once you have done so, walk across to the other side. Shooting off to the right you find a locked door. Further on is a large open space.

You’ve accomplished all that is necessary for Swap Pod Group 5. It is time to move on to the third and final sphere. At this point, it no longer matters which of the Group 5 swap devices you use, so choose the one you like best, and swap back to Maray. You are now free to move on to the next encasement sphere in Maray. Across the bridge leads you to the final pod, Swap Pod Group 6. Happily, you find only one swap pod, so it appears that it may be a simpler puzzle than Pod Group 5. However, seeing how there is only one seed pod here even though the other ones were in groups, something does not seem quite right. What you learned from the previous two groups is that in each individual group the pods worked together in some way. It must be that Pod 6 will interact with another pod—probably from Pod Group 5 since you do not see any other device in this sphere. First, it is important to see where Pod 6 takes you. After you swap, you find that the entire sphere has now taken up that previously empty space in Hunrath across the bridge that leads to the locked door. By now you have understood that the lines in the floor form “pathways” that indicate the swap radius. Here 6

when you swap, the whole sphere swaps with you, leaving, probably, an encasing of Hunrath stone behind in Maray. The problem , though, is if you keep swapping back and forth from device 6, that’s not going to get you anywhere. You must use the pods from Pod Group 5. Swap to Hunrath via Pod 6, and then back to Maray via any device from Group 5. Once back in Maray, you see you now have a scoop of Hunrath rock there the swap device had been. Swapping has opened up a new section within this sphere encasement, revealing a second swap device. When you draw a diagram of this Pod Group, you find that it takes after Group 4. There are two swap devices: one of them, A, contains a small radius; swap Circle A is set within a larger one, B, whose radius encompasses he entire sphere. Circle A is currently in Hunrath. Your next step is to swap using device B, which will swap the entire circumference of the sphere to Hunrath. This also brings the Hunrath rock back to Hunrath. Now, Circle A is back in Maray. Unfortunately, this still does not open a path to the exit beyond. Return to Maray via a swap device from Group 5. Device 6A is now back where it was at the beginning. You must swap one more time. When you use device 6A again, you swap the Hunrath rock that is currently encased within Circle B. After swapping to Hunrath, return to Maray via Pod Group 5. The path to the exit is now open to you! You’ve now completed Part I of the Gauntlet. Well done! But be warned, you aren’t finished with these seed pods just yet.

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Rotation, Rotation, Rotation If Maray has taught you anything so far it is that no puzzle solution exists without the solution of another puzzle. Remember, for instance, how you got into Maray in the first place. It took three pods in three worlds just to get to the Mofang technology disabler! The original swap point sticks out like a sore thumb in Hunrath, but it brings you only to a locked door. It’s not until you’ve traveled through the majority of Kaptar that you find another swap pod that brings you to a console to unlock that door. And once you get though that door you need to swap out of Maray in order to build a bridge with Hunrath rocks so that you can get to the next building! Symbiosis seems to be a major facet of this world in terms of puzzles. And with such a grand-scale world come grand-scale puzzles. They seem daunting. But another feature of this world is that persistence and endurance are key. You may be bald from pulling your hair out by the time you’ve solved it, but you will have solved it, and that’s what matters. You have come to another puzzle, a difficult one, which follows a difficult one. You’re probably feeling overwhelmed, but don’t panic. When you discover that in order to solve this puzzle you need to use parts of the previous puzzle, life begins to seem unfair. However, soon you will realize that it’s not so much what to do or how to do something that’s difficult, but it’s the time consuming task of getting it done. You will learn that the keyword clue to this puzzle is rotation. Swapping plays a major role in this puzzle, also, and you will see how. But first, let’s take a survey of the playing field. After the triple header swap puzzle you come to a building with three levels, each level accessible only by a single elevator. You will be using all three levels equally. When you first arrive at this building you are on the second level. It has two entrances/exits: the first is the path to the swap pods puzzle from which you just came, and the second is into some structure with a high-walled corridor that comes to a dead end. The top level is the roof of the building which overlooks what appears to be a maze. The lowest level contains a formidable looking machine like a giant swap pod—which is exactly what it is! This building is more or less the control center. Let’s take a closer look at the roof.

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For this puzzle it is a good idea to make diagrams because things will get messy once you begin to move things around in order to understand how they work. A number of things are helpful at this stage. First, from the roof view you see below you a giant circle: the maze proper. In the circle are four smaller circles. There are parallel lines that form patterns and shapes on the surface. Next to you is a pole with two glowing white buttons on the top. This pole controls the rotation of the maze: the button on the right rotates the maze counterclockwise; the button on the left rotates the maze clockwise. The smaller circles are aligned at cardinal points: north, east, south, and west (henceforth N, E, S, W). Three of the four circles (N, S, W) have what appear to be exits. You may now realize that the second level of the control center serves as the entrance to the maze. The parallel lines you see on the surface outline the corridors you have to walk through. The agenda is clear: access all cardinal points by manipulating this maze and its constituent parts.

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That seems simple enough, but wait. It’s about to get a lot more complicated. The large circle contains four smaller circles, and these smaller circles contain two shapes of corridor: an elbow shape (A) and a curved shape (B). Somehow you should be able to align these corridors in order to access the three bridges jutting out at the N, E, and W sides. You may rotate the maze all you want, but you will not find a way through with the corridors set this way. Something else needs to be done. The enormous swap device on the lowest level might help there.

Take the elevator down to the lowest floor and enter the room with the swap device. This is Megapod 7. When you pull down the switch that activates the machine, the light that surrounds you is golden. Looks like you’re going back to Hunrath. Press the blue button and swap to Hunrath. Now you find yourself in yet another area of Hunrath hitherto unexplored. It seems that not only did the entire room with Megapod 7 swap with you, but so did the second level of the control center. In fact, it is the small circle at the S end of the maze with the elbow-shaped (A) corridor. Now you know the extent of that which swaps with you between Maray and Hunrath. The space to which you swap is filled with wooden staircases. These serve as vantage points useful in examining what you are about to do with this “semi-sphere.” If you go out from this area and explore what lay beyond to the right and left, up the staircase you will find a control with two buttons. These buttons rotate the semisphere either clockwise or counterclockwise, sort of like the giant Kaptar sphere. Using your boundless swap knowledge, you may assume that however you alter the semisphere in Hunrath, so it will appear in Maray. Be sure to explore the footpaths here also. One side takes you to the locked door by the river and swing bridge—it would be a good idea to unlock it now. The other side takes you to the locked door you encountered while working out the swap puzzle. It would be a good idea to unlock and open this one, too. 11

Now you have a direct route between the Pods 5-6. This is a clue that may as well have come to you giftwrapped with a big sparkly red bow! Megapod 7 is surely linked to one or all of Pods 5-6, and you will find out how soon. For now, experiment with the semisphere to see how it functions. Rotate the semisphere 90 degrees in any direction and swap back to Maray using Megapod 7. Go up the elevator to the top level and observe the change you just made. The circle in position 1 has been rotated 90 degrees. Your supposition that the changes you applied to the swapped semisphere in Hunrath would be swapped to Maray is correct. If you wish, you may experiment with all the circles following the above instructions—just remember where you’ve dropped your circles! Just a little tip: a perfect marker is circle #4, which has no exit. Getting to the N exit is fairly simple, and requires rotating circles #3 and #4 from their starting positions by 180 degrees (2 rotations). Circle #1 may remain in its starting position. Now your path to the N exit is clear. There’s a second solution to this puzzle which requires using Pod Group 5, but that is still to come. Another useful tip: since circle #4 has no exit, you may leave it in its current position. Take the open corridor to the N exit where you will find a single-digit Villein console. Clear the panel (this is the number zero) and the tram door above you disintegrates. The ultimate goal for the maze puzzle is to get to the tram port. There’s a path that leads to a dead end also, but it is meant to show you that you have to find a way to exit out of

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position #4. That was easy. Now it is time to think about how exactly this maze works, and this will involve Pod Group 5. In order to rotate the circles you swapped to Hunrath and back to Maray using Megapod 7. When you swap, it means you are transporting yourself and your swap radius in exchange for something else. This means that when you swapped to Hunrath via Megapod 7, something was sent back to Maray in your place. The only way to see what was swapped is to return to Maray using another swap pod. Using Pod 6 would be disastrous—remember all that swapping? Let’s keep Pod 6 clear. Pod Group 5 is the only other option, and luckily it doesn’t really matter whether you use A, B, or C.

At the moment, the circle in position 1 is in Shape A, the elbow shape. Now go to Pod 5 and swap to Hunrath. Go through the now unlocked door to the semisphere, and you will notice something exciting and new! The semisphere here has a straight corridor, a third shape. This is Hunrath’s very own original semisphere, the “unswapped” semisphere. What does this tell you? The circles in the maze in Maray are actually semispheres that you swap back and forth. This means there are five semispheres: two each take Shapes A and B, and one takes Shape C. The puzzle has just gotten easier by getting more complicated.

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This is a shape you really can use in Maray. In order to take it to Maray, swap using Megapod 7. Go to the elevator and ride it to the top level, and look at what you’ve done. Shape C has been swapped to Position 1. You can make an alternate path to the N exit using Shape C. You will have to rotate Semisohere 2 to get there, but by now you know how to do that. When you want to rotate the shape instead of swap the shape, always use Megapod 7 to get to and back from Hunrath. Properties of the Maze 1. There are five semispheres: one of Shape C, and two each of Shapes A and B. 2. Circle #4 has no exit, rotate counterclockwise 2 turns, and leave it at that position. There’s nothing else to do with it, but it is useful in marking where your circles are positioned. 3. Rotate semispheres with Hunrath rotation control, accessible via Megapod 7; rotate large circle on roof of maze with rotation control shaft. Both rotate clockwise and counterclockwise. 4. To change “shape” swap semisphere to Hunrath via Megapod 7 and return to Maray via Pod Group 5.

Since Shape C is currently in place at Position 1, you know that Shape A is in Hunrath. If you were to rotate the maze and put Semisphere 2 in Position 1, and then swap to Hunrath via Megapod 7, you would then bring Shape B to Hunrath and send Shape A to Maray. Experiment some more if you wish, but remember to keep note of what you’ve swapped and rotated where. But again, Semisphere 4 helps to mark where you’ve put your semispheres.

Say you wanted to change Semisphere 4 into Shape C. You would need to swap Semisphere 1 back to Hunrath via Megapod 7, and return via Pod 5. Then, rotate the maze clockwise once to put Semisphere 4 into Position 1. Swap to Hunrath via Megapod 7, and then back to Maray via Pod 5. Go up the elevator to the top floor and look at your maze. You have successfully made Semisphere 4 into Shape C. Now change it back. Using what you have learned you should be able to solve the rest of the maze fairly quickly. It’s just a matter of deciding which shape to put where. First you have to decide which exit to take first. Since the tram port is your ultimate destination it makes sense to open the corridor to the E exit. There may be various ways to do this, but here is one solution (see following page). This takes you through a new membrane. And this membrane brings you through another membrane. Beyond this membrane you find another single-digit Villein console. Reset it to zero and watch the tram door open above you. Return to the maze. Getting to the W exit is simple. Leave all Semispheres in their current shapes and simply rotate the maze clockwise one turn. The way is open to you (see solution on page 16). 14

Bravo! You have now come to your final destination! But before you enter the tram port, follow the footpath down to another Villein console. You have another bridge to build. Enter random numbers until you have the bridge in place, then carry on to the tram port. Explore the area as you wish, but then go down to the lower level. You will discover another urgent message from Mayor Josef, asking you to hurry in less than perfect English—why is he speaking this way? To the left of the screen is a glowing white button. Push it, and it calls the “tram,” which opens for you on the upper level. Sit inside and take a lovely one-way trip to the next puzzle of Maray, which, unfortunately, is also very difficult. Never fear! You’ve completed the fearsome Gauntlet, so you can accomplish anything!

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This fan-made guide has been made for public use by Briana “Baladria” Jackson

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