The Talos Principle: Reawakened – In The Beginning

The Talos Principle: Reawakened went a little further than other remasters. Not only did the original game get an Unreal Engine 5 upgrade, it added a whole new expansion called In the Beginning, with 18 new puzzles for players to solve.

Additionally, 16 out of 18 of these puzzles were made in collaboration with select members of the community, making this expansion, at least from a gameplay perspective, by Talos Principle veterans, for Talos Principle veterans.

It’s not surprising then that many of these puzzles are being called some of the most difficult ones in the whole series. This guide will show you how to solve the Reason’s Retreat puzzle, which is one of the more confusing puzzles in the expansion.

The Talos Principle: Reawakened – In the Beginning – Reason’s Retreat Puzzle Guide

Like a few of the more complicated puzzles featured in the new expansion, blocking and unblocking lasers play a critical role in solving the puzzle. That’s probably the best hint I can give before getting into the actual solution, so if you just wanted a nudge in the right direction, there you go.

Phase One – Acquiring the third connector

When you enter the puzzle area, if you immediately turn right and head down that path, you’ll see it just leads to a shield that blocks you from going forward. To start the puzzle, you need to walk straight ahead and turn right at the far corner. As you can guess from the phase title, you’ll need to grab the third connector that’s available in this puzzle. It’s waiting for you behind multiple shields that cannot all be deactivated at the same time. From here on out, all connector’s will be C1, C2, and C3.

• Grab C1 when you turn the corner, head into the center area of the puzzle and activate the fan in the corner.

• Fly up to the pressure switch and connect C1 to the red node next to where you found C1, and the red laser generator that’s currently behind a shield. Place it on the pressure switch, which will keep the wall panel on one side of the center room moving back and forth.

• Jump back down to the ground and grab C2, and connect it to the blue laser generator and the blue node that sits above the moving panel.

• Place C2 down somewhere in the center area so that the panel will move in and out of the blue laser’s path. The easiest way to do this is to just place C2 down close to the actual wall, so the physical panel will get in the way of the laser.

• With the panel moving in and out of the blue laser’s path, this will cause the blue shields next to the red node where you found C1 to oscillate, allowing you to step between them as the deactivate and reactivate, so you can reach C3, which sits behind both shields.

Phase Two – Get the lasers in the way of each other to solve the puzzle

Now that you have all three connectors, you can solve the puzzle. As the phase title suggests, it’s all to do with getting the lasers in each others way in the correct order, so that the blue laser is able to hit the node that will deactivate the shield blocking the way to the tetromino.

• First off, bring C1, C2, and C3 all to ground level, and place them to one side of the center puzzle area. Then take C1, and connect it to the red laser generator, and the red node behind that’s behind the wall opposite the wall with the moving panel. Grab C2 and connect it to the blue laser generator and the blue node that sits above the moving panel. Connect them and place C2 down so that it is not in the path of the red lasers.

• You can now pick up C3 and walk it all the way around the puzzle’s center area to the path initially blocked when you entered the puzzle area. Connect C3 to C1 and the red laser generator to create a triangle through the provided window.

• Your laser layout should now look something like this, with a triangle between the red lasers and the blue laser not in their path.

• Grab C2 and keep its connections to the blue node and blue laser generator, but this time, connect it to the red node that deactivates one of the sets of shields that blocked your way to C3. This will cut off one of the red lasers beams in the triangle you created.

• Stand in front of the blue laser that is heading towards the red node for a moment, so that the red laser is able to reconnect. Once it does, step out of the way of the blue laser.

• When you step back out of the way, instead of the blue laser blocking the red laser, the red laser will block the blue laser’s path.

• Head back to C3, and pick it up. Walk up the stairs behind you, and place C3 on the pressure switch at the top of the stairs.

• There should now be a blue laser travelling through to the blue node deactivating the shield blocking the tetromino. Walk over to the tetromino to solve the puzzle.