Chain

Chain
Identifier:	Orpheus-5
Area:	Orpheus Ascending
Puzzle Type:	Main
Previous Puzzle:	Vastness
Next Puzzle:	Equilibrium

Chain is the fifth puzzle in Orpheus Ascending, part of the Road to Elysium expansion for The Talos Principle 2.

Puzzle elements

• Blue door
• Connector
• Emitter
• Receiver
• Switch

Overview

When you enter the puzzle, you find yourself at the top of a staircase looking down on a long wide room. In front of you is a grate with a switch on it, and a connector is lying by. To the right is a blue door guarding access to the Sarabhai Fragment.

When you turn the switch on, a wall descends in front of you, revealing a three tier display of lasers behind it. On the lowermost tier is a chain of sixteen fixed connectors. The leftmost connector is connected to a red emitter to the left, and each connector is connected to its neighbors and a receiver above it.

The second tier has all of the receivers that these connectors activate. Going from left to right, the first five receivers are red, and the remaining eleven are blue. There is a glass shield in front of the receivers, which means that they cannot be targeted by the connector that the player holds.

The third tier has a series of sixteen blue doors, each controlled by the receiver just below it in the second tier. There is a red emitter on the far left, and a red receiver on the far right, which controls the blue door to the Sarabhai Fragment outside.

Hints

A beginning hint:

[ hint ]

Notice that the name of puzzle is Chain, which draws attention to the fact that each interior fixed connector is connected to its neighbor, and therefore is energized by its neighbor. Only the leftmost connector is connected directly to the emitter, and every subsequent one is chained.

Exploring the mechanics:

[ hint ]

Think about the mechanics of a connector. If a connector receives light directly from a single source, what happens? If it receives light from two different sources, what happens? What if it is chained to another?

A large hint:

[ hint ]

Since the connectors are chained, it is possible to push back on the chain from the other side, but you will have to count properly.