In The Witness, are there puzzles that DON'T do anything?
Inspired by a recently popular Witness streaming I decided to do the game myself. I completed most of the puzzles without help, but I was surprised that there were some puzzles in the game that seemed not to do anything.
- The room with coloured light puzzles in the town centre (I'm talking about the puzzles themselves)
- The triangle puzzles scattered throughout the island (could be just a tutorial though)
- One puzzle on the second floor of the quarry
- And I think there were some others too that were just... dead ends. They were the final puzzles in a series, but didn't contribute anything to progressing the game. But they were also obviously not just tutorials.
Oh, and I don't mean the ones in the hidden area before the Music Box Challenge. Those are obviously there for the sheer fun of it.
So... do these puzzles have any actual meaning (as in, unlocking/moving something), or are they just there for fun?
1 Answer
For what I remember, the "room with coloured light puzzles" in town centre lets you solve some Environmental puzzles. Which are not mandatory.
Those triangle puzzles are called Discarded panels, you need them to learn how to solve that kind of puzzle for future use:
These panels seemingly serve no purpose, are often hidden or out of view, and do not appear to be connected to anything. However, they can be "solved," even if they don't open any doors. The solutions aren't random and actually teach you an important concept for the end of the game.
Regarding the Quarry, some puzzles turns on devices: an elevator outside and a control panel for a small lift. Other puzzles let you unlock the metal latches blocking the panel to activate the Quarry laser.
But if you mean this one, located inside the control room:
it apparently does nothing, it has the only purpose to teach you
that the symbol can eliminate any rule from the board.
So yes, there are several "useless" puzzles scattered around, you may want to complete them just for completion.
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