5 Things to Keep In Mind When Solving Puzzles In The Talos Principle 2

Croteam’s philisophical puzzler The Talos Principle 2 comes equipped with one of the smoothest difficulty curves I’ve seen in years, but I’d be straight-up lying if I said I didn’t get stumped more than once. Thankfully, after much puzzle solving, we have a few tips that should help out the occasional stumped puzzle-solver.

1. Driller Holes Normally Aren’t Traversable Directly, But There Is One Exception

Believe it or not, this works!

One of the mechanisms you’ll come across fairly early in the game are Drillers, which simply make a hole in specific walls that you can shove devices through. Sadly, you’re not normally meant to go through these tiny holes (even though I’d argue you could easily crouch a bit and fit through), but there is one exception to this rule that I had to learn for myself. Later down the road, you’ll come across a device that makes tubes of anti-gravity that’ll pull whatever’s caught in it towards a wall. Turns out this is one of the exceptions to this rule with the Drillers, because you can absolutely pull yourself right through the hole by using one of these tunnels. The tutorial never mentions this, and I only found out through screwing around with it, despite not believing that’d even work, let alone be potential puzzle solutions.

2. Names Of Puzzles Can Sometimes Hint At How To Solve Them.

A reference and a puzzle solution in two words.

This one seems a bit obvious, but its also something I’ve often wrongly disregarded. Most of the time, these titles are either witty jokes, references, or just normal looking titles, but there’s been a few times that I did happen to pay attention and benefitted from it. For example, in a later area, one puzzle was simply titled “Recycle”. Whereas I might’ve been stumped a bit longer had I not paid attention to the title, it was me noticing that very title that clued me in to “recycling” one of the devices I was using to hold down a button by funneling it through some antigravity tunnels. Not all of these titles will lead to solutions, but sometimes, if you get stumped, pop out of the puzzle and back in to check the title. You’d be surprised how many indirect hints are left in plain sight like this.

3. Don’t Forget That Some Of The Fans Are Detachable.

Not all of them are removable, but always investigate regardless.

This is a super easy thing to forget as these fans are normally not just sitting on the floor like a lot of the other items you can pick up. Certain fans actually have detachable fan sections for use in the puzzles, but since they aren’t just sitting in the open as often, its easy to just forget you can pop those things off. So if it ever feels like your puzzle is one piece short, take a look at the local fans.

4. Not All Things Have A Greater Purpose In The Puzzle.

Ended up never even needing that blue laser emitter for this puzzle. It’s there, just never used for the solution.

Many a time I have toted around a crate, or a jammer, or, hell, literally anything you can pick up that I swore up and down was used as a component for a puzzle, just to find out it’s either only used temporarily and meant to be left behind, or just wasn’t even used at all. Some items really are only there to be used once, and in some cases, can even wind up being red herrings. Be careful not to fall into that trap of thinking that everything has a place in the puzzle. Some parts are one-and-done, and there are literally just some parts added in to screw with you and overthink the puzzle. If there’s an overabundance of moving parts, chances are, the puzzle isn’t as complicated as it makes itself out to be if you take a moment to consider which parts are actually going to be needed. Don’t feel bad if you fall victim to a red herring, I did it far more than I’d like to admit.

5. Double Up On How You Use Your Items

Believe me, you’ll be using this tactic a lot.

Sometimes you might have, say, a button, a jammer, and two of those blue gates you can use the jammer on so you can pass through. Problem is, you only have one jammer, and if you have to push down the button yourself to disable the second gate, well, you aren’t gonna be passing through without that gate coming back to bar your path forward. The solution? Make sure the jammer is both jamming one of the gates and sitting on the button to disable the other one. It seems simple enough, but its a process that can easily get swept up in the puzzle-solving system if you aren’t careful. Always consider if you can double up on the jobs a single device performs.

Hopefully these tips help make your puzzle solving sessions a bit smoother, but if you need a bit more help, we have a plethora of guides to help out with. You can also check out our full review of The Talos Principle 2 here. As always, stay tuned for the latest news and guides for The Talos Principle 2!