Monument Valley is the award-winning puzzle game for iOS and Android platforms. It is a paid game with an additional IAP in-game for the Forgotten Shores expansion, which adds 8 levels to the base game’s 10. In Monument Valley, players guide a silent protagonist princess called Ida across various Escher-inspired levels which involve unbelievable and unreal looking perspective-based puzzles. The gameplay is fairly simple, especially in the beginning chapters, and there is always only one solution for every chapter, which limits the game’s replayability value. You can still easily get stuck in this game, though; this short guide will give you tips and tricks and tell you what kind of elements to pay attention to during Monument Valley.
Perception is the key
Monument Valley’s puzzles are all based around perspective instead of real-world physics. This means that you may be able to get to a certain, seemingly unreachable part of the level by simply rotating the puzzle or moving an object, such as the Totem with Ida standing on top of it. Look for the yellow Totem on certain levels, and for the various level elements with small circles on the sides of them: these elements can be moved around or rotated. Don’t forget that perception is always the most important part: a seemingly worthless object placement may play a crucial role after rotating another part of the level.
Explore and tap the screen!
When starting a new level, or arriving in a new section of it, you should explore around by tapping on various parts of it. Note that unreachable areas don’t react to you taps; reachable areas emit a light white-ish circle around them, even if Ida can’t reach them currently. If you want to examine a part of the level more closely, you can pinch in with two fingers to temporarily zoom closer.
Always keep Ida in view!
A very important tip is that if you don’t see Ida or a path to her on the screen, then you can’t move her anywhere. If you want to discern if Ida can be moved to a certain part of the screen, simply tap on the location to see if she reacts; if not, you have to lay out a straightforward path toward her goal by turning the puzzle or an element of the level with Ida standing on it.
Annoying Crows
You’ll first meet the black Crow people in Chapter 5. These parts will involve Crows blocking off Ida, resetting switches or similar progress-blocking things. Your objective is often to prevent Crows from resetting our switches. These pars are all about timing: you’ll have to use nearby switches or movable elements to trap the Crows. Some levels, such as the 7th one with the cube-shaped level, involve using Crows to flip certain switches once, then blocking them off.
Experiment!
Monument Valley is designed in a way that you cannot get stuck, ever. Maybe you’ll have to go back a few steps and re-evaluate your moves, but you’ll never put yourself into a position in which you have to restart the level, so experiment with various things if you get stuck!
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