Scorn isn't just like any regular horror game. Instead of jumpscares and intense fighting scenes, it's a game filled with body horror and an eerie atmosphere that will cause unease and chill players to the bone. Gamers that prefer creepy to scary will absolutely adore this game; that's exactly what it's going for.
Scorn is filled with sections that require players to complete intricate puzzles in order to move on. One of the first puzzles that players will come across and most likely get stuck on is the crane puzzle, which is what this guide will focus on.
How To Solve The Crane Puzzle
When approaching the crane puzzle for the first time, its mechanisms may seem familiar; that's because it works like a sliding puzzle - a common type of puzzle where blocks or images have to be moved in specific ways to create a bigger picture. In this case, however, players won't be turning the egg-shaped pods into a specific shape, form, or picture, but they have to get a specific piece to a place in particular.
This is the first puzzle that gamers are required to solve after opening the first door in the game. There are two contraptions that players can work with, and they'll have to use both a few times as they complete this puzzle. There's the contraption on the right, the crane that will move around the various pods on the platform. And then there's the contraption in the center; this is a pedestal that can be activated to pick up and move the pod. There are only two pods that the claw can grab: one will break and fall off, which will help to solve the puzzle since it'll allow for more moving space, and the other one can be grabbed by the claw and brought onto the elevator to descend down to the main/Spiral room.
First, players will want to use the contraption on the right to move the crane. The pods should look like this before moving any of them with the cranes.
The objective here is to get the red-tinted pod (Red Pod) to the empty slot with the light. This is much simpler than the second part of the puzzle, but going in blind and not knowing which pods should be moved where can be very complicated and time-consuming - thankfully, this guide will make it much easier.
- Move the two horizontally connected pods in the middle lane right three spots
- Move the Red Pod up one spot up
- Move the Red Pod four spaces left
- Move the Red Pod one space up
- Press and hold 'exit' and activate the pedestal
The claw will grab the Red Pod; however, it will break off and fall down. Players now have more space for moving around space but have to make a second attempt.
These are all the pods in their respective slots after solving the first part of the puzzle; they've been named to make the explanation in this guide easier to follow - it can get quite confusing keeping on track while moving these pieces around.
Pod J is irrelevant for this puzzle since it's four interconnected eggs that cannot be moved out of their designated section.
There are only two pods that are vertically connected; the one on top is the one that can successfully be moved to the elevator. The objective now is to get the vertically connected pods (Pod V) to the empty slot with the light. After returning to the contraption on the right, these are the steps that players have to follow:
- Move Pod I to the empty slot on the far end of the third row
- Put Pod F next to Pod I
- Move Pod E to the empty slot on the far end of the second row
- Move Pod B one space up, six spaces right, and one space down
- Move Pod D one space down and two spaces left
- Move Pod V two spaces up, two spaces left, and one space down
- Put Pod B between Pod G and H
- Move Pod C three spaces right, one space down, one space right, one space down
- Move Pod D one space up, three spaces right, one space down, one space right (it'll be right on top of Pod C)
- Move pod A two spaces right, two spaces up, three spaces right, one space down
- Move Pod E two spaces right, one space up, three spaces right
- Lastly, move Pode V one space up, two spaces left, one space down, two spaces left, one space up
What makes this puzzle so hard to solve is the fact that it's not possible to move pods through some of the space since they don't have any slots at all. This reduces the number of solutions for the puzzle because it drastically hinders movement options for all of the pods involved. Ultimately what had to happen was that all of the pods had to be slowly moved to the right so that the vertical pod could reach the light slot. Once done, it should look exactly like this:
After solving the puzzle, players have to activate the pedestal again. It'll grab onto the top part of the vertically connected pods; the mechanism will separate them and successfully place the egg in the elevator. It can be found on the lower level, in the main room.
Scorn is available now for PC and Xbox Series X.