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Return to Mysterious Island Hints
How do I work the puzzle on the door of the large safe?
1 of 17: We've got another indication of Captain Nemo's fascination with his Nautilus.
2 of 17: The goal of this puzzle -- like the one on the floor above -- is to form an "N" insignia.
3 of 17: However, it operates differently than the other puzzle.
4 of 17: Try playing with the puzzle, to see what is active, and how things work.
5 of 17: By clicking on the red dots, you can rotate a group of four tiles around that red dot.
6 of 17: Each click causes the four surrounding tiles to move to the next position clockwise.
7 of 17: You'll need to plan out a strategy that allows you to move these "quadra-squares" in such a way as to move each of the 16 tiles into its correct place.
8 of 17: To see what the final puzzle should look like, move back from the close-up view of the safe, and look up and to the left (above the weather instruments on the wall) to see a capital "N" inside of a circle.
9 of 17: The puzzle becomes easier when you realize two things. First, the "N" does not take up the entire 16 squares. It can be formed entirely by the 9 (3x3) center squares.
10 of 17: The second thing is that it will not matter where the blank squares go, as long as they are placed anywhere around the outer edge.
11 of 17: This allows you to focus on the pieces with part of the insignia on them, and not worry about the blank pieces.
12 of 17: For starters, try working from the upper left to the lower right.
13 of 17: For example, look for the upper left portion of the "N", and begin rotating pieces to get that one in place.
14 of 17: As you rotate pieces into their correct position, try to leave the blank pieces around the edge. (This will not always be possible, but do so as often as you can.)
15 of 17: If you are having trouble figuring out how to create the "N", use the circular ring around the "N" as a guide. It is fairly easy to see which parts of the circle are which, and know which section of the puzzle to head them toward.
16 of 17: If you are trying several different methods of moving the same pieces around, it might be helpful to know that if you back away from the puzzle, the pieces will be reset to their original position. This lets you try different approaches, but then "undo" them and start again with the same layout, but another approach.
17 of 17: Using the above suggestions, the puzzle should be fairly simple to solve. However, one complete solution follows. It is not the simplest solution to the puzzle. See if you can find another method that opens the safe with less moves!
