Upon entering the land of Myst, the strange calm is the first thing that strikes you. Then, the sights. A switch box before you, the crow's nest of a sunken ship to your right and a peculiar gear structure atop the hill ahead of you. The first thing you must do in Myst is explore. See the sights, play with the switches and mechanisms, start to understand how the strict logic of this magical place works.
The first puzzle is simple enough. A note on the ground telling of a recorded message in the strange pool-like device that lies behind the secret door on the pier. Count the switch markers on the island, then input the number into the message pool's control panel. After exploring the island throughly, you'll find that there are 8 markers.
Something is rotten in the land of Myst, that is certain. Betrayal, murder, deception. And, most importantly, tower rotation. As books are the source of Myst's magic, so is the library the hub of the whole game. Read the journals within. Discover the secret of the hidden doors( pay attention to the pictures on the wall.). The map on the wall is the key to the tower rotation, move your hand over it to see how it works. Then, of course, there are the two special books. Each a prison for a brother. Each brother blaming the other for the foul doings and each crying out for the colored pages that will lead to their freedom. But who to trust?
The tower rotation is paramount to solving the immediate mysteries of Myst. The path to the tower elevator lies through the library's secret door. The tower is rotated from the Myst map and gains you information on how to open the portals to the adjoining realms of Myst. After reading the journals, you'll have an idea of these other realms and what they are like- you should also have gotten an idea of where the portals for them lie. Rotate the tower toward each of Myst's main attractions- the Rocketship, the pirate ship, the huge tree behind the shack and the gears. It will take some time to get through the rotations, as you have to go to the tower's top after each rotation.
4 Clues, all told. Some are obvious, others less so.
1. The Rocket Ship: 59 Volts, the tower sign said. Obviously, the reference is to the ship's power source. Pay attention to the wires that go from the ship to the power station. Enter the power station and set the power level up to 59. If you scurry quickly over to the rocket, you'll find that the door does not open. Look around( at the path of the wires) and you'll spy two towers- one is rather hidden behind the power station. Climb the towers and pull the breakers. The door, you'll find, will open quite nicely now.
Inside, you'll see two things- a musical keyboard and a control panel with a large lever and five small adjustable ones. If you read the journals( you did, didn't you?) you would have come across the keyboard illustration- complete with five keys numbered. Play the keys on the keyboard- make sure you hit the right notes in the right order( the book listed the order, 1 through 5. You'll probably want to write them down somehow.). Again, nothing happens.
Go to the front of the ship and start playing with the control panel. Move the little buttons and everything should become obvious. Hope your musical ear is up to par, as you'll need it to adjust the panel's controls to match the corresponding keyboard notes. Again make sure that you have the proper notes in order. Once you've got it, or if you just want to test the sounds, pull the big lever. If you did it right, the portal book will appear in the porthole. One word of warning: If you had a great deal of problems with the sonically based puzzle to open the rocket's gateway, then know that all the puzzles that lie ahead through this location's magical book are sound based.
The Gears: 2:40. 2,2,1.
As with all the other early Myst puzzles, the answer to this puzzle lies somewhere other then at the giant gear. Obviously, 2:40 is a time of day, but the 2,2,1? Have you tried to reach the seemingly unreachable clock tower? And, more importantly, have you played with those two dials on the shore( and the button beside them.)? That device sets the cloak-the small dial sets the hour, the larger sets the minutes. Each turn sets them ahead one click. Press the button when you've got it right and the bridge appears.
Cross over and you'll find the door and a switch marker. Once inside, you'll see three interconnected gears with numbers on them. Pull one chain and the top and middle gears move, pull another and the middle and bottom move. Note how they move the farther you pull the chain. The trick is to adjust them to get the 2,2,1 combination the tower sign had listed. When that happens, you'll see a suspiciously familar gear in miniature open up before you. Check out the gear on the top of the hill and see the magic you have wrought.
The Pirate Ship: October 11, 1984, 10:04 AM/ January 17, 1207, 5:46 AM/ November 23, 9791, 6:57 PM.
One of the strangest and most interestingly mysterious places in Myst is the planetarium. And after getting these very specific dates from the tower, you should have a good idea of the planetarium's purpose. You do remember Myst constellations, right?(Again, check out the journals in the library.)
Input each of the date/ times and take careful note of the constellation that the computer displays. Three different sky symbols: the Leaf, the Snake and the Insect- in that very specific order, by the way. Have an idea of what those boxes in the courtyard are for and the sunken ship in the reflecting pool? Touch the correct symbol, in the correct order and you'll see the ship rise to the top of the pool. And in concordance, you'll see the sunken pirate ship arisen from it's watery depths in the sea as well.
The Tree and the Cabin: 7,2,4. Easy one, right? Sure. That's the combination to the lock in the cabin. Inside the safe are matches for the furnace. If you have trouble striking the match( the safe door tends to close if you click on the wrong spot.) click on the very end of the match box( the right end). Place the lighted match over the small square near the base of the furnace and play around with the valve adjustment wheel. You'll soon start to hear a cantankerous pumping sound and the furnace dial starts to act oddly.
Check out the tree as this sound is going on and maybe you'll be able to catch sight of a man-sized, lit cubby space in the tree. Slowly adjust the pumping of the furnace so that the cubby starts to head down after it is high above you. Bear in mind that you have to run from the furnace to the tree in time, so adjust the speed by turning the valve accordingly. Once down below the tree, you'll find the portal to the fourth realm.
There are some important notes to remember will solving the mysteries of Myst( Myst, by the way, is the name of the starting world. The four other realms have their own names.). First off, you have three saved games to use. The best method is to always have one game saved in the land of Myst- preferably with all it's puzzles solved. That way, if you get stuck in one world, you can go back and try someplace else. Remember: Once you enter a new realm, you are trapped there until you solve the puzzles that lead to the Myst portal book.
The lands that the Gear and the Tree lead to are the easiest to solve, so you might want to start with them. The Pirate ship and rocket ship lands each have a rather challenging puzzle in them.
As you journey through the Myst realms remember that you won't get penalized for playing around and exploring. You cannot be trapped or killed anytime during the game except at the very end when the final pages come into play. Your main goal when exploring the other realms is to find the blue and red pages, then find the Myst book. The Myst book transports you back to the Myst library.
If you don't want to have to go through each world twice to regain both both pages( you can only carry one page at a time), then get the blue pages- Achenar gives you more pertinent information for completing the game. Remember after you've solved a world, it stays solved. The puzzles in Myst have one set solution, so once you know what to do, it's a breeze to travel anywhere you like.
