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Myst V: End of Ages Hints
How do these slates work?
1 of 13: First, you may want to wait a bit until you've progressed through the first couple of ages before reading on. As you start visiting additional places, you'll learn more about the slates in the context of the game.
2 of 13: In particular, you may want to wait until you've found a linking book that takes you to one of the four main ages from the Great Shaft and then look around there.
3 of 13: Once you've gotten to one of these ages, Esher should explain the basics of the slates to you.
4 of 13: The slates are the creation of the Bahro creatures -- their version of writing. The Bahro can understand some symbols, and if you drop the slate, they will obey.
5 of 13: To pick up the slate, simply click on it from the pedestal where it is resting, or by walking over it to pick it up from the ground, if that's where it is. You will then be carrying it as you walk around whichever age you're in.
6 of 13: To use the slate, you will need to drag your cursor to the bottom of the screen. Right-click if necessary to "lock" your view so that you can move the cursor to the bottom of the screen instead of looking down -- you may or may not need to do this depending on which control scheme you've selected.
At the bottom of the screen, you should see icons allowing your character either to raise the slate to get a closer look (a hand on the slate) or to drop it (a down arrow on the slate). Move the cursor around the edges of the slate to select between these functions. (The edge of the slate itself is supposed to be where you can drop it, and clicking on the inner portion lets you zoom in.)
7 of 13: Once you've zoomed in, you can then use the circular cursor to draw on it. When you're finished drawing, move the cursor back out to the edges to drop the slate on the ground or lower it so that you can continue moving around.
8 of 13: Exactly what you're supposed to draw depends on the specific age that you're in -- as the slate is an integral part of many puzzles. You may want to wait until you've had a chance to explore the ages and think about the puzzles for yourself before reading more. (The hints that follow will give a general summary of how the slate works, but they don't explicitly tell you how to solve any particular puzzle.)
9 of 13: When you've drawn something that you want the Bahro to do, drop the slate on the ground and back away. If you've drawn the symbol correctly, they'll do what you ask. Or they may simply make a gesture that looks like they're shaking their heads -- this is a sign that you haven't drawn a correct symbol at all.
10 of 13: The specific actions that the Bahro perform tend to fall in two categories. One is that the Bahro will do something to the age -- you'll usually see a flash of light and then the effects of your command. Make sure to pick up the slate if you still need it, as the Bahro will eventually put your slate back on the pedestal if you leave it on the ground unattended for too long.
11 of 13: Or, the Bahro may touch the slate and then transport it to one of the smaller pedestals throughout the age.
12 of 13: You can then retrieve the slate by heading to the primary pedestal, and then touching the symbol on the pedestal that matches what you just drew. This will teleport you to the matching pedestal, where the Bahro took your slate, allowing you to pick it back up and proceed through the game.
13 of 13: As you solve various puzzles and have your symbols recognized, those same symbols will also usually appear on the bottom of the slate. Clicking your cursor on those symbols will cause the game to redraw that symbol. You probably won't have any need to redraw the symbols that make the Bahro transport the slate to another pedestal, but this shortcut may come in handy for the other ("flash of light") commands.
