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The Witness: how to open the white door with the blue and green maze boards

The Witness doesn't insist on linear exploration, but that white door is really bugging you, huh?

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The Witness: how to open the white door with the blue and green maze boards

After you solve the first puzzle in The Witness, you set out along a path, pausing to take in a beautiful view, and maybe spotting the back of a locked door or finding some interesting things in the surrounding area.

You'll almost certainly see the white door, though - and when you do, it is perfectly okay to feel slightly sick. You've been solving little mazes up till now, and now here's this complex, terrifying thing - multiple possible start points? Black dots that beep angrily at you and glow red? Black and white something or others? What the heckies!

You should try and solve this puzzle for yourself; it lays an important foundation for later mysteries. But if you're stuck, we're here for you; just try to read along one line at a time, and don't look at the galleries until you're sure there's no other option. Is this a puzzle game (fun), or data entry (work)? The choice is yours.

In any case: the solution, my seraphim, is right in front of you. Well, actually - it's down the road a bit, in the form of two more puzzles.

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How to solve the blue maze board

Trot a little further along and you'll come to a pair of maze boards standing around in the middle of nowhere. You'll probably see the blue ones first, as they're in the open, apparently in some kind of field. Solve this entire maze board with your very own brain, and you'll be half way to opening that door.

(You don't need to exit and enter the board's puzzle interface every time you solve an individual puzzle, by the way; on consoles, just move the right analog stick or tap either of the bumpers to move between terminals. You need to complete them in order, though; each becomes available as you solve the previous one.)

The first three or four terminals can be solved without understanding the secondary rules - in fact, the solution I provide for the third puzzle is unnecessarily complicated, because I didn't understand it myself - but after that you'll need to figure out what's going on.

Think about what you're doing when you get a successful result. What's happening on the puzzle board? Yes, you're getting the power connected from the start to the goal - but what else? Once you cotton onto it, you'll have no trouble at all.

Did you figure it out?

I'm going to tell you in a minute.

This is your last chance to experience a truly wonderful bit of brain blossoming.

Oh, okay.

One last chance.

Fine. Here it is: you need to wall the black squares off from the white ones. Yeah, I know; it's super obvious now, isn't it? Anyway, here are the solutions.

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How to solve the green maze board

The green maze board is inside the white sort of barn or pavilion thing. This board presents a different kind of puzzle to the blue one, and if you've been off chasing secrets you might already have figured out how to solve them.

I feel like this one's much more obvious than the blue board, but I'm going to give you a few lines of spacing in order to avoid spoiling it, if you want to have a go yourself.

Have I mentioned that I think it's really important to try this for yourself?

I'm sorry this is so annoying for those who just want the answers immediately, but this game is going to be so boring if you don't engage with it.

I actually have moral qualms about providing these guides, because this is such a fun game to solve for yourself, but also I very much enjoy earning my living solving puzzles for you: so.

Okay, I think that's enough: you need to hit every one of those little black squares on your path from start to goal. Yeah, not too tricky - although at least one of these terminals was a real pain in my arse. Here are the solutions.

How to open the White door

This is it. Having solved those green and blue maze boards, the white door - is still shut?

Yes. I'm sorry. As far as I know the green and blue boards have no effect on the actual game world.

But. They teach you everything you need to know to open the white door. Go back and look at that maze terminal again, bearing in mind what you just learned solving the green and blue maze boards.

Ha! Not so tough now, is it? It takes a bit of figuring out, but you know what you have to do, right? Yes you do, because you've just been doing it. It's actually a pretty easy maze, once you have two sets of secondary rules to consider.

Not enough help for you? Well, alright then, here's the solution. But please: don't click that link till you've had a go. You'll be glad you didn't.

Inside you'll find - well, I won't ruin it for you. Also, I don't know what it means. Yet.

Back to The Witness walkthrough.

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The Witness

iOS, PS4, Xbox One, PS3, PC

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About the Author
Brenna Hillier avatar

Brenna Hillier

Contributor

Based in Australia and having come from a lengthy career in the Aussie games media, Brenna worked as VG247's remote Deputy Editor for several years, covering news and events from the other side of the planet to the rest of the team. After leaving VG247, Brenna retired from games media and crossed over to development, working as a writer on several video games.

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