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Sentinel: Descendants in Time Hints
How do I work the puzzle with the rotating doorways?
1 of 63: This is the last puzzle in Sanselard -- and can only be reached after solving all of the puzzles on the upper level of Sanselard.
2 of 63: After you have synchronized all of the light towers, an elevator will open in the middle of Sanselard -- where once there had been a circular disk with the diagram on it showing the link between the two towers.
3 of 63: Take the elevator down, and follow the path in the snow.
4 of 63: You should see a stone structure (behind the elevator that brought you to the lower level of Sanselard), with what appears to be a closed doorway, and some kind of pedestal with a wheel on it, in front of the doorway.
5 of 63: Note that this puzzle CANNOT be reset to its original position. Once you have moved it, in any way, you'll need to be able to solve it "from any position", not via a "step-by-step" procedure. These hints will go through that process.
6 of 63: Have you tried to see what is active?
7 of 63: The only thing you can work with here is the wheel on the pedestal.
8 of 63: Clicking anywhere on the wheel causes it to rotate counterclockwise; you cannot change that direction.
9 of 63: And each time that the wheel rotates, so -- apparently -- does the doorway (or, rather, some kind of large disk that is blocking the doorway).
10 of 63: You should take time to rotate the wheel enough time so that the door-disk has made at least one complete revolution.
11 of 63: Did you notice anything about the various "doorways", as the large disk rotated?
12 of 63: Not all are closed stone doorways.
13 of 63: You may see one (or more) that looks like glass.
14 of 63: And yet another appears to be completely open.
15 of 63: What can you see, when either the glass door, or the free opening, is in place?
16 of 63: You should notice that behind this large disk is... another door!
17 of 63: But clicking on the wheel continues to rotate the outer disk, and doesn't have any effect on what is behind it.
18 of 63: Is there anything else active on the control pedestal?
19 of 63: What about the handle to the right side of the wheel?
20 of 63: It looks like it has five positions it can be in.
21 of 63: Clicking on the handle moves it to the next position...
22 of 63: ... first upward, and then -- after reaching the top -- further clicks move it back down again.
23 of 63: The handle cannot be dragged to a specific position; nor can it reverse direction in the middle.
24 of 63: It must make a complete cycle, before starting over again.
25 of 63: What happens if you move the handle, and then click on the wheel?
26 of 63: You may think that nothing happened...
27 of 63: ... but it did. So how can you tell?
28 of 63: For starters, did you notice -- when you first rotated the large disk -- that one of its eight positions was a glass window?
29 of 63: If you went up close when the disk was set to the glass window, you would have noticed that behind it was... another solid wall!
30 of 63: While you have the window in place (or, for that matter, the position that rotates an uncovered opening in place), try moving the handle into the second-from-bottom position, and then turning the wheel again.
31 of 63: There is ANOTHER disk behind the first one, and it rotates in the same manner!
32 of 63: Setting the handle back to the lowest position, and turning the wheel, causes the large front disk to turn again.
33 of 63: But if the front disk is set to either the window or the opening, then you can see a second disk behind it, which will turn if the handle is in the second position (from the bottom).
34 of 63: Perhaps there's a pattern here...
35 of 63: You might be able to infer, from the fact that there are five possible positions for the handle, that there are not one or two doors, but five.
36 of 63: And that would be correct. You are going to have to open five successive doors to enter this building.
37 of 63: So how to do that? How can you know how far to rotate the inner discs, so that THEIR openings are aligned with the ones in front, thus creating a complete passing into the building?
38 of 63: You could try to start from the beginning, and rotate the outermost disk until the opening (not the glass window) is in position.
39 of 63: But then, when you move the handle up one position, and use the wheel to rotate the second disk, you may notice that the first disk ROTATES WITH IT, and is now out of position!
40 of 63: Continue to play with the first two disks, to see if you can see any pattern that will allow you to move only one of the disks, without affecting the other.
41 of 63: What happens if you set the front disk to the glass window?
42 of 63: Now try to move the second disk (i.e., setting the handle to the second-from-bottom position, and turning the wheel).
43 of 63: The front disk stayed in place! It remained with the window in position.
44 of 63: It seems that a disk with its glass window in position will not move, when the disk behind it rotates.
45 of 63: So let's see if we can use that fact to solve this puzzle.
46 of 63: If the front disk is not set to the window position, reset the handle to the bottom position, and rotate the wheel until the glass window is in place.
47 of 63: Now that you can see through it (although not walk through it), you can watch the disk that is immediately behind it.
48 of 63: Set the handle to the second-from-bottom position, and rotate the second disk until ITS window is in position.
49 of 63: You should now be able to see through the two windows -- and see the third disk.
50 of 63: Move the handle to the middle position, and turn the wheel until you can see ITS window in position.
51 of 63: Continue this process, until all five disks have been rotated so that their windows are aligned with each other. You should now be able to see into the building.
52 of 63: To make it clearer, you can move away from the pedestal, and walk closer to the doorway. Can you see inside?
53 of 63: What's that inside the room? It looks like the object of our exploration -- the Sanselard crystal!
54 of 63: Now -- how to get into the room, and retrieve the crystal...
55 of 63: Since we can now see through all five layers of "doors", it is fairly easy to work with the disks from back to front.
56 of 63: And fortunately, when you move a disk that is IN FRONT of another disk, the disk behind doesn't rotate!
57 of 63: So now, all we have to do is to rotate the disks FROM BACK TO FRONT, until their opening -- not the window, but the clear opening -- is in position.
58 of 63: (The clear opening can be identified by the fact that it has some brass tubing at the top arch of the opening.)
59 of 63: Start with the handle at the top position, and rotate the last disk until you can see the clear opening in place.
60 of 63: (If you are not sure, feel free to continue to rotate the disk until you have seen all eight possibilities. Be sure you can identity clearly which one is the opening.)
61 of 63: Move the handle down one position, and do the same with the next-to-last disk.
62 of 63: Continue forward, until you have rotated all five disks so that their clear opening is aligned.
63 of 63: The puzzle is solved, and you can now enter the building, and retrieve the crystal!
