Aura: Fate of the Ages Hints

How do I solve the puzzle upstairs with the eight spheres?

  • 1 of 24: Before you can progress to solving the puzzle with the spheres, you will first have to activate the apparatus.
  • 2 of 24: The purpose of the apparatus (eventually) is to convert the grain of life into the star dust...
  • 3 of 24: ...so you'll have to use the grain of life here, somehow.
  • 4 of 24: Place the grain of life into the golden vase at the top of the puzzle.  (Now, on to the puzzle....)
  • 5 of 24: The object is to place each sphere (the four on the left, and the four on the right) in its correct receptacle among the eight points of the circle in the middle.
  • 6 of 24: Look closely at each sphere.  (You can get an enlarged close-up view by clicking on any one of the spheres.)  Have you seen anything recently that resembles the glyphs on the eight balls?
  • 7 of 24: Check out your journal.
  • 8 of 24: Note the page with the eight glyphs.  The eight glyphs in the two outer columns are the same as the glyphs on the eight spheres.
  • 9 of 24: But what about the other four glyphs?  You may recall seeing them elsewhere.
  • 10 of 24: The center column of four glyphs are on the wall in the adjacent room.
  • 11 of 24: Have you taken the time to look at the four glyphs on the wall in the next room?  What does this elevator-like panel seem to be telling you?
  • 12 of 24: Okay, now you know that the eight spheres contain the eight symbols from the left and right columns -- but not the middle.  (This may take some getting used to.  The drawing is two-dimensional, while the spheres are quite "3D", and sometimes don't look exactly like the drawing.)
  • 13 of 24: The clue is trying to tell us that each of the four glyphs in the first column relates to another glyph from the third column. 
  • 14 of 24: And that the relationship between each set of two glyphs in each row is somehow established with a number from one to four.
  • 15 of 24: How can this information help with placing of planets around the circle?
  • 16 of 24: If you were to try all the planets around the circle, you would find that for three of the planets, there isn't any choice where they should be placed.  If the planet will only go into one spot, that is where it must be placed.
  • 17 of 24: Now that you have three planets correctly placed, can you think of any way to figure out how to place the others using the clue from the journal?
  • 18 of 24: The journal clue is trying to tell you how far apart each of the specified shapes should be placed.
  • 19 of 24: To make this simpler, let's refer to the eight receptacles around the circle in the middle as "compass points".  Now, back to the clue, let's label the middle column "is __ compass points away from".
  • 20 of 24: And our clue would now read, for each row, "Glyph A in row one is __ compass points away from glyph B in row three".
  • 21 of 24: Furthermore, the number of compass points "away from" each other can be in either direction.
  • 22 of 24: Thus, a sphere placed at the "N" point of the compass is two "compass points" away from one placed at the "E" point of the compass.  Similarly, a sphere placed at the "N" point of the compass is two "compass points" away from one placed at the "W" point of the compass.
  • 23 of 24: Once you've got all eight spheres positioned correctly, there's still one more thing you'll have to do.  Remember the grain of life?
  • 24 of 24: Click on the button in the center of the circle to activate the device and retrieve the star dust.