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Sentinel: Descendants in Time Hints
How do I solve the puzzle with the sliding bars?
1 of 24: As always, begin by experimenting to find out what is active, and the results of activating any of the mechanisms.
2 of 24: In front of you is a row of 10 switches. Facing you, beyond the switches, are two horizontal steel bars.
3 of 24: What happens when you click on any of the 10 switches?
4 of 24: Clicking any of the 10 switches moves two of the bars in opposite directions.
5 of 24: What happens if you click the same switch again?
6 of 24: Clicking the same switch moves the same two bars back in the reverse directions.
7 of 24: It seems that the 10 bars are "out of alignment"... Perhaps all that's needed here is to bring the bars back into alignment.
8 of 24: This looks fairly simple. But what happens as you continue to play with the 10 switches?
9 of 24: The first thing you should notice is that, just as each switch causes two bars to move, each bar can be moved by two separate switches.
10 of 24: And no pair of switches controls the same pair of bars. (That is, if one switch caused bars #1 and #2 to move, and another switch caused bar #1 to move as well, the second bar that would move with this second switch would NOT be #2, but would be a different bar.)
11 of 24: But there's something even more insidious -- continue to play with the switches to find out what.
12 of 24: You should eventually notice that each bar is not limited to just two positions (right and left), but each bar actually has three positions -- left, center, and right.
13 of 24: And as you move a bar with either of the two switches associated with that bar, it will move through a four-position "cycle": left-center-right-center (and then repeat).
14 of 24: The goal of the puzzle is to align all 10 bars in their center position.
15 of 24: Begin by taking note of each bar-pair that is moved by each of the 10 switches.
16 of 24: Now, knowing which switches move which bars is still not enough information, because the bars begin at random positions, and each has 3 possible positions.
17 of 24: You'll need to know the starting position of each of the 10 bars (i.e., when all of the switches in the left bank of 5 are in the left position, and all of the switches in the right bank of 5 are in the right position).
18 of 24: As it turns out, six of the 10 bars are already in the center position.
19 of 24: There are bars #1, #2, #3, #5, #6, and #7.
20 of 24: Bars #4 and #10 are in the "right" position, and bars #8 and #9 begin in the "left" position.
21 of 24: So the goal of the puzzle is to move bars #4, #8, #9, and #10 to their center position, while leaving the remaining bars in their original position (even if they might be moved temporarily while solving the puzzle).
22 of 24: If you are analytical, you may wish to solve this entirely on paper -- using only the information presented above.
23 of 24: Or you may wish to use a more "trial-and-error" method of setting and unsetting switches, as you learn more about their movements and interaction.
24 of 24: In either case, it should be a fairly straightforward puzzle to deduce.
