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The Black Mirror Hints
How do I solve the sliding-tile puzzle?
1 of 19: This puzzle won't be available until you've figured out what to do in the Belfry.
2 of 19: TIP: Save your game right before starting the puzzle, since it doesn't have any kind of "reset" button.
3 of 19: Examine the puzzle carefully to see what your goal might be.
4 of 19: Check to see what parts of the puzzle are active, and what you are able to do with the puzzle.
5 of 19: Have you seen anything anywhere that looks like this puzzle?
6 of 19: Look carefully through William's diary. There is a drawing of this puzzle... along with some kind of side notation.
7 of 19: Looking at the puzzle itself, you see a figure in the shape of a "+" sign, containing 13 moveable pieces, six of which are black, six of which are white, and one of which is red. What else on the puzzle board is black, white, or red?
8 of 19: At each of the four points of the "+" is an imbedded jewel that you cannot move. Apparently, these are indicators as to what color of tile you want in those rows and columns.
9 of 19: But they appear to be the opposite of the pieces that are there now.
10 of 19: The side notation to William's drawing seems to indicate that black and white should be interchanged.
11 of 19: If so, that means you'll want the big row of tiles to be all white and the big column to be all black (except for the red piece in the center).
12 of 19: Check the Tile Start and Finish Positions to see a sketch of the starting configuration of the board and the desired ending configuration.
13 of 19: The challenge is, of course, to move the tiles around until they're in the ending configuration.
14 of 19: The one limitation is that a piece can only move along the track to an empty adjacent slot, and cannot jump over pieces in its way.
15 of 19: There are four empty slots in the starting configuration that you can use for workspace. You'll need to make the best possible use of the "open" slots, as you shift the pieces around.
16 of 19: It may be useful to move the white tiles around so that all of your empty workspace is in the big column. See Opening Moves.
17 of 19: NOTE: You can save and restore your game at any time, even without exiting the puzzle view.
18 of 19: Try moving pieces around to get them more toward the ending configuration. The first thing to do is start working on getting the tile positions closest to the imbedded jewels set correctly. Then you can work on the inner ones.
19 of 19: There are, as usual with this type of puzzle, many different solution paths, some of which are longer than others. Below are three graphics that guide you through one possible solution from start (after the above-mentioned opening moves) to finish.
