The Witness - The Symmetry Puzzle Solution

Images and solutions for every puzzle in The Witness in this complete walkthrough and puzzle guide.

Guide by Larryn Bell Contributor

Additional contributions by Bill Lavoy

Updated on March 8, 2019

We call this the Symmetry Puzzle because that is the trophy that you'll unlock when you complete it. It's definitely more complex than the last one, but it's still not that difficult. As you might imagine, the puzzles will get worse as you get further into the game. Follow our guide to solving the Symmetry Puzzles in The Witness and you'll make it through.

Just as the game teaches you how to approach each puzzle, and then allows you to figure the rest out for yourself, we'll have to remove the training wheels for this part. It would be too complex to try and guide you to each puzzle, so we'll ask that you simply follow the wires as we taught you to do in the first puzzle. If you still need help, you should be able to identify the puzzle that you're stuck at just by viewing the images that we post of each solution.

The Witness - The Symmetry Puzzle Solutions

After completing the first set of puzzles, follow the path in the grass. It will take you through a narrow passage with rocks on either side, and down to what looks like a boathouse. This will be where you need to solve your next set of puzzles.

The first puzzle is going to unlock the door. For the next sequence of puzzles, you’ll notice that you have two lines. You need to guide those lines from the start to the finish without getting stuck or bumping into the opposite line. The only part that throws you off is the fact you’re controlling two lines using only your analog stick (assuming you’re on console). Here’s how you open the door.

Go through the door and all the way to the back of the boat house. There will be five puzzles that you need to solve to activate the wire and lower the gate. You can view the solutions below.

Turn around and follow the wire to find three more puzzles. You need to complete them from left to right in order to activate the next one.

Follow the wire over the top of the center console and solve three more puzzles. The one on the left looks like it’s been melted, but solving it shouldn’t be too hard. It follows the same concept at the rest.

Once this is solved, exit the boathouse through the door you entered, turning left and following the path that now has an activated wire running over it. This will lead you to a locked door. We took the images after completing it, so our door is already open.

When you reach the locked door, open it using the puzzle solution below.

Once through the door you can go three ways; down the path to the left, to a door you cannot open in front of you, or down the path to the right. Choose the latter to find five new puzzles that you need to solve to begin the process of activating the next door.

With those five puzzles solved, follow the wire as it runs counter-clockwise. This will bring you to another block of six puzzles, and as with everything else in this game, you’ll need to complete them.

Finishing those six will light up the wire leading to seven more puzzles. You’ll find the solutions to each of them below, but we encourage you to try them on your own first.

If you continue to follow the wire, it will lead you up the path you skipped when you opened the first door at this section of puzzles. You’ll now notice that you can solve the puzzle on the second locked door. Doing so will open it.

Pass through the second door and notice that a path leads up the steps to your final (mandatory) bank of puzzles, but there is also a path that leads around the left side of the rock. Take the path around the left side of the rock and you’ll find another audio recording.

As you backtrack and climb the stairs you’ll find six more puzzles. The one at the front right is ready to be solved, as is the one on the front left. Doing this will lead you to the next puzzle on that particular side. As with everything you’ve experienced so far, solving one puzzle will lead to you unlocking another. We solved these puzzles in the following order, which is the same order that images will appear below – R1, R2, R3, L1, L2, L3.

Your final act before you finish the Symmetry Puzzle will be to activate the lever you found by solving the previous six puzzles. This will cause some cool things to happen, concluding with a beam of light shooting across the map. We have no idea what it does yet, but it feels like progress.

The Witness - Bonus Symmetry Puzzles Solutions

We have no idea what the following puzzles are for since we activated the beam of light, plus the one after it, without touching these, but here are the solutions just the same. Do you recall the puzzles that you solved to open the second door before finishing the Symmetry Puzzle? Closer to the water’s edge are a few more puzzles. These are solved by looking through the puzzles themselves and tracing the objects in the background. Of course, we’ll provide you with the solutions.

Start with the first puzzle, which you can identify easily enough. It has one wire only, and it’s lit up in a way that lets you know you can interact with it.

Follow the now activated wire to the second puzzle. Again, look to the background to see the mechanic you need to master in order to find the solution. Or, you could just look at the images below.

Continuing to follow the wire, you’ll end up at the third puzzle. If you stand on the puzzle’s left and look to the right, you’ll see the objects that you need to trace. This makes this puzzle a little more difficult.

Move to your right once again, following the wire to find the next puzzle. The solution to this can be found in the image below.

The wire will now lead you to the final puzzle, but you need to stand behind it, with the activated wire on your left if you wish to solve it. This one took as a minute, but you can see what we mean in the image below. We’re not quite sure yet what the point of solving these was, but they’re done.