Scorn Walkthrough Act 1: How to complete the prologue, and the first puzzle

Here’s your comprehensive introduction to alien tech.

Guide by Kelsey Raynor Guides Writer

Updated on Oct. 20, 2022

You could ask me what Scorn is, and I probably wouldn’t know what else to say other than it’s an incredibly visceral horror experience inspired by the art of H. R. Giger and Zdzisław Beksiński.

Based off that alone, you know that you’re certainly in for something equal parts strange and beautiful, but Scorn has a very intrinsic way of scaring you senseless, too. That said, getting around the alien world of Scorn and solving its many obtuse puzzles can take some sweet time when you don’t know the ins-and-outs of alien technology.

For those who need a push in the right direction, this walkthrough will help you through Act 1, and show you how to beat the first Scorn puzzle. As with any walkthrough like this, please take this as your spoiler warning for the following.

How do I complete Act 1 of Scorn?
Scorn Prologue Walkthrough
Scorn Act 1 Part 1 Walkthrough
Scorn Act 1 Part 2 Walkthrough

How do I complete Act 1 of Scorn?

Act 1 is delivered in a prologue and two parts, so we’ll guide you through each of those separately.

Scorn Act 1 Prologue Walkthrough

Hopefully, you’re well-prepared for what Scorn entails. If not, I don’t recommend having snacks around, as this game is more than likely to make your stomach turn on occasion. Be it from the guttural noises you’ll continually encounter, or the strange creatures you stumble across, Scorn is guaranteed to be one thing: gross.

Without further ado, you’ll stand up following the first cut scene and will be facing a door that you can’t interact with. Turn around and follow the tunnel you’re in, and you’ll eventually come to an opening with a large alien structure for you to gawk at. Continue on and through the tunnel again, and you’ll then come to another opening with a door to your left, a structure in the middle with a path spiralling around it that can be walked up, and a path to your right.

A tall landmark with a path spiralling around it can be seen in Scorn's Act 1 — Pretty, right? Not for long.

Head down the path to your right, and interact with the door at the end of this path. You’ll be able to squeeze through, with the door closing behind you.

In the next room, ignore the skeletal throne in front of you. Facing it, however, you’ll want to head left and stick your hand inside the rather phallic-looking pillar.

A rather phallic looking pillar that the player must put their arm inside in Scorn's Act 1 can be seen — Why did they make it look so phallic?

Then, there’s another pillar in the middle of the room that requires both your arms are put inside it. With your arms in, interact with each side of the door ahead to open it. Then, you’ll want to sprint through the newly-opened door before it closes again.

A pillar that requires the player to insert both of their arms inside is shown in Scorn's Act 1 — This pillar sits in front of the grand-looking door in this room.

Make your way through the door and down the tunnel, and you’ll emerge at the bottom of the structure with the path spiralling around it. This marks the end of Scorn’s prologue.

Scorn Act 1 Part 1 Walkthrough

This is where things begin to get a little more difficult. This room has multiple exits for you to venture down, and a rail track around the spiral structure that also goes into each room.

From where you entered, go down the first path to your right, and you’ll come to a room with a shell-like seat that has a claw and a hoist above. You do not need to interact with these just yet, and instead can go into the small alcove on the left of this room, which is an elevator; interact with the pillar here to ascend.

The player faces an elevator shaft in Scorn's Act 1 — Stick your fingers in the alien looking pillar inside the lift to activate it.

Head through the tunnel until you come to an opening. Emerge at the opening to find two separate pillars you can interact with that will then allow you to start your first Scorn puzzle. You can roam the tunnels and explore the rest of the area here, but there’s nothing of note to do just yet except complete this puzzle.

The centre-most pillar will reveal a claw when interacted with, that will seemingly try to clutch and crush whatever is in the place it reaches for; at this moment in time, however, there’ll be nothing in that spot.

The pillar to the right is where things get interesting. For this guide, we’re going to refer to the small, movable shell-like items as eggs. I don’t know if they are eggs, or shells, or whatever else, but we’re calling them eggs for clarity. This rightmost pillar will let you move the eggs along the beams in different directions. Some eggs are attached to another, and some particular spaces along the beams cannot be used. Your aim, with this puzzle, is to bring a specific egg (marked below) into the space which the claw tries to grab when activated.

Two pillars required for a puzzle in Act 1 of Scorn can be seen — This puzzle is tricky, but you'll get there eventually.

A puzzle involving egg-like objects in Scorn Act 1 can be seen — The circled egg is the one you want to move into the top left position, but see that little egg with eyes next to it? You can crush that one first to free space.

I could try to explain this puzzle, but it’s one of those that mainly consists of trial and error. If worse comes to worst, and you think you’ve messed up, you can always reload your save to emerge at the structure with the spiral path, and try again.

You want to essentially try to clear space along the top and middle beams, gradually getting the ‘chosen’ egg over to the left, and the rest of the eggs over to the right. It’s a little tricky, but you’ll no doubt be able to figure it out now that you know what your goal is! You might've also noticed a singular egg that looks similar to our 'chosen' egg; if you can slot this into the illuminated slot as soon as possible, you can actually break this egg to free up more space.

Once you finally have the ‘chosen’ egg in the right place, go and interact with the middle pillar again to have the claw pick it up. The claw will place the egg on a lift of sorts, and it’ll descend.

The end of the puzzle involving egg-like items is shown in Scorn's Act 1 — Here's my end result!

Now, head back to the lift from earlier that brought you to this level, and make your way back downstairs again.

We’re now going to refer to the ‘chosen’ egg as a ‘dishevelled creature’. Again, I do not know what this thing is, so that’s its nickname for now. Back in the main room that has the structure with the spiralling path, you’ll hear the dishevelled creature whimpering. Walk around and look up, and you’ll eventually see it dangling up above.

Below the dishevelled creature is a skeletal throne of sorts, and just behind that is another pillar. Interact with the pillar to control the claw here, and use it to grab the dishevelled creature and lower it down into the throne.

A creature dangles beside a claw-like machine in Scorn's Act 1 — Using the pillar in front of you here, lower the creature into the strange-looking seat.

Now, I’m not quite sure if this next part is at all necessary, but considering it’s what I did before continuing, I’m advising you to do it too just in case it is important for continuing Scorn.

Push the creature along the tracks until you come to the next small structure that seems to have a head of sorts sticking out of it. With the creature underneath it, interact with the nearby pillar to essentially give the creature a bad time.

A creature is seated below an alien machine in Scorn's Act 1 — I'll be honest, this part made me weirdly sad.

With that out of the way, leave the creature be and finally ascend up the spiral staircase in the centre of the room. Interact with the pillar at the top and you'll be able to adjust the tracks down below. You’ll want them to resemble the below image.

A top-down view of the main room in Scorn Act 1 is shown, with directions on where to take the creature — Here's the route you want to take.

Now, go push the creature along the tracks again and into the room with an empty skeletal seat and another pillar to interact with. With the creature slotted into place, interact with the pillar and use the claw to pick him up and move him over to the seat on the right of the room.

A creature is picked up by a claw-like machine in Scorn's Act 1 — Use the pillar in this room to pick the creature up and move him into the shell-seat. Then free him, I guess.

Then, interact with the smaller pillar in front of where you just placed the creature, and this will remove the shell from him. Head over to him and remove the final pieces of the shell. Now, a lot of standing around is to ensue while you wait for this creature – who somehow reminded me of a baby giraffe - to find his feet.

When the creature is finally stood up, he will slowly follow you around. There are two exits for this room, and one is illuminated; this exit also has another phallic looking structure in the wall, and you’ll want to bring the creature here.

A creature puts their arm inside a rather phallic looking pillar in Scorn's Act 1 — Again, why is it so phallic?

He will, of course, fall over along the way. Interact with him to pick him up and force his hand inside the phallic structure. He’ll then fall, get up again, and continue following you. Continue to leave the room, and you’ll come to a door which, again, has two pillars in front of it.

Two pillars in front of a large door in Scorn's Act 1 can be seen — Bid farewell to your little friend.

When the creature finally makes it, you’ll want to have him stick his arms inside the pillar on the left. You can then put your arms into the pillar on the right, and you’ll be able to sprint through the door up ahead, leaving your new alien friend behind. Supposedly, there is a way to let him live and have him around a little while longer, but I did not stick around to find out how I do that.

Continue on, put your hands inside yet another pillar, and you’ll begin to ascend on another elevator.

Scorn Act 1 Part 2 Walkthrough

In the next room, you’ll want to keep left and go through the tunnel here; this marks the start of Scorn’s Act 1 Part 2. When you emerge, you’ll see a pillar up ahead with a circular pedestal that can’t be interacted with just yet, but remember it for later.

Turn around and exit this room to emerge in the main room, and keep left again. When you come to two pipe-like structures on your right, there’ll be a pedestal next to them that you can stand on. A pillar will rise as a result, revealing the first weapon in Scorn for you to collect.

The player faces two pipes in Scorn's Act 1 — Facing these pipes, U-turn, and stand on the pedestal behind you.

A player retrieves their first weapon in Scorn's Act 1 — This weapon looks cool, but that's about it.

Now, go back on yourself and into the first room with the pillar; this time, you can interact with it. Four or five luminescent enemies that look like light bulbs will appear, and a capsule will appear. The capsule will be collected and moved away by a claw.

Follow the direction that the claw went, and use your new weapon to get rid of the bulb enemies. You’ll need to get relatively close to them to smash them with your weapon, but also be cautious that if you find yourself in their line of fire, their gas will damage you.

You’ll eventually find yourself at yet another pillar that requires both of your arms. This will let you control a helmet-like item, that can be used to move the capsule from earlier into a slot along the tree-like structure ahead of you.

The player faces a tree of alien bone mass and more, with a helmet-like item they must move around in Scorn's Act 1 — Use the pillar to control this helmet like item in the air, then have it pick upthe capsules, and place them into the alien tree. Don't forget to activate the pillars that emerge as a result!

Right now, there’ll be one capsule in front of you to slot into the tree, and a capsule to your left, too. Each time you slot a capsule into the tree, a pillar will emerge in front of it to interact with. After slotting these two capsules into the tree and interacting with their corresponding pillars, you’ll see an opening emerge behind it; don’t bother exploring here unless you want to check out the scenery. Now, facing the main pillar in front of tree, you’ll want to go right.

Look out for yet another pillar with a circular pedestal on it; it’ll be identical to the one from earlier that unleashed the bulb enemies and required your weapon to use. Interact with it, and the third and final capsule will emerge. Return to the tree, taking caution of the bulb enemies, and have the final capsule slotted into the tree.

You can now, finally, go to the pillar directly in front of the final capsule that requires you shove all your fingers inside. A cut scene will ensue, and that marks the end of Act 1 Part 2 of Scorn.

If you have absolutely no idea what’s going on in Scorn right now, other than the fact that this is all clearly some weird alien technology, then you’re not alone. Maybe, just maybe, we’ll get more answers in Scorn’s Act 2. Or even Act 3, and Act 4, only time will tell.