The Witness walkthrough & puzzle guide

The Witness walkthrough is exactly what you want to refer to during your playthrough, as you put your brain through its paces and test your abilities of deduction and puzzle solving. There are plenty of conundrums to get you thinking as you move from area to area, while learning new approaches to the tasks that block your way. As we said in our The Witness review, the game is "as brilliant as it is infuriating" which means it's not uncommon to get stuck as you work your way through over 650 puzzles, and the last thing you want is to run into a logical brick wall that completely halts your progress.

To beat the challenges you'll first have to understand their rules, which can often be inferred from the puzzles themselves or by observing the area surrounding the panels. There are also mysterious recorded messages tucked away in various places, which may (or may not) help explain what is going on. For every area in The Witness walkthrough we'll give you hints for how to get started, which will then lead on to full puzzle solutions for each panel if you're still struggling to crack the code.

• Read more: Hidden images in The Witness

A quick note on controls, as these aren't really explained within the game:
L1 or L2 / LB or LT - sprint when walking
L1 or R1 / LB or RB - quickly switch between panels if they're in a row
R2 / RT - speed up drawing the line on panels
Circle / B - reset the line on panels

Select a location below to get started...

Table of Contents:

Opening Garden
Blue & Green Panels
Pink Trees
Pottery (Symmetry)
Orange Trees (Shady Trees)
Sun Temple (Desert Ruin)
Hedge Maze (Keep)
Pressure Pad Maze
Red Tree Temple (Monastery)
Greenhouse (Bunker)
Marsh
Treehouses
Quarry
Bamboo Forest (Jungle)
Town
Mountain
Mountain Challenge
Secret Rooms
Windmill & Video Player
Secret Ending