Pentiment: How to Solve the Volvelle Puzzle

Are you wondering how to solve the Volvelle Puzzle in Pentiment? The volvelle puzzle is one of the only puzzles in the game that takes multiple steps, which are missable. Solving this puzzle will earn you two different achievements, additional dialogue check options, and evidence for convicting one of the murder suspects. Here is everything you need to know to solve the volvelle puzzle.

How to Solve the Vovelle Puzzle in Pentiment

There are a handful of ways you can solve the Vovelle Puzzle. Each solution will be determined by your choices in-game, like the background you chose. Some of these steps are missable, and you must complete this by Act 1 because it provides evidence of one of the murder suspects. I will provide you with each possible way to solve this puzzle so you can do so regardless of your choices.

Investigate the Cellar

You can access the cellar immediately after you arrive at the abbey for the first time in the game. Head to the Church, and you will find the door to the cellar next to Father Mathieu. Once inside, you will want to head to the right until you come to a statue of a virgin mother with a child.

Look at the statue by using the Investigate icon. Move your mouse cursor around until it touches the key that the baby is holding. The pointer will turn red when you have touched it correctly. The statue will slide into the wall revealing a secret entrance into the Library. There is nothing more for you to do with this entrance for now.

Volvelle

The next step is finding the volvelle. Before you head into the scriptorium, head to the Prior House in Old Bailey, and inspect the round item with four colors and constellations. That is all you can do with it for now. Go ahead and head into the scriptorium now.

Prior Ferenc’s Book

After dialogue with the fellow monks, you will see Prior Ference enter the room and quickly write something in a book. You will need to help Illuminata with collecting books before you can investigate. Once you do investigate the book and you will find the key to the cipher written. Head back to the volvelle.

How Your Choices Affect the Rest of the Puzzle

If you took the Heavens and Earth background, you could skip down to the next section because you can solve the puzzle with no additional step needed. Otherwise, you must either talk to Werner or sneak into the Library at night.

Talk to Werner

You can talk to Werner, who lives in North Town. He will explain how constellations work and provide you with the last part of the clue to solve the cipher.

Sneak Into The Library

On the second night before going to bed, you can sneak into the Library using the secret entrance in the cellar. On the Library’s second level, you will find a book on a podium. The book will explain how constellations work and provide the final clue you need.

Let’s Solve it!

Now that you have the key, you can solve the volvelle puzzle. First, you need to rotate the wheel so the matching color lines up with the upside-down triangle. After that, match the color’s symbol to find the appropriate letter. Do this for all four colors until you achieve the word in the picture above. After you solve the volvelle, you do not need to do anything else for this puzzle. You have earned every possible achievement for doing so. However, the clue it leads to is important for other aspects of the game.

What’s Next?

The volvelle will lead you to Brother Gerhard’s grave in the abbey’s cemetery. This will be important later in the game if you investigate a specific character. Here is a hint if you choose this path: come back the next day and investigate the grave again to progress this branch of clues.

Pentiment is available now on PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S.