How to Solve the Act 2 Puzzle in Scorn

Scorn throws some tricky puzzles at the players pretty quickly even after Act 1, but Act 2 features a puzzle assembly that, while not separately very difficult, might result in players getting lost. The progression path seems pretty clear: you see one door with a singular light blocking your way, with the key hidden by a curious apparatus with what appear to be 4 plant bulbs steeped in red light. Players might be wondering how this puzzle is ultimately solved in Scorn, but the true trick is making sure you know where to go.

How Do You Solve the Puzzle in the Red Room in Scorn Act 2?

Assuming you first saw the red room from where you enter, starting Act 2 part 2 in Scorn, take the following steps to gain the precious tool kept guarded by the red room:

• Leave the room, and take a left, continuing down until you see the door with the single light on the panel. Across from that door is a corpse with a cylinder key, interact with it to take it.
• Use the key on the combination puzzle above it; you’ll need to solve 4 in total, to get 4 separate rings on the cylinder key which you’ll need later.
• Go back to the red room and use the cylinder key on the console to the right to open the gate, and a path to your left toward an elevator, which you must take.

• Up the elevator, you’ll see a tunnel to the right leading to a set of 4 retractable chambers leading to different paths. Use the terminal on your right, hit ‘right’ once, and ‘use’ to extend the path along the middle.
  • You’ll come across a spinning fan and a creepy creature that does not look safe. If you’re seeing these, that’s a good sign, and you unfortunately must follow the creature.
• Up a ramp, you’ll see the creature go into a narrow doorway to the left, and you must enter. Through the tunnel on the other side, take another left to a hallway leading to a generator with 3 cables — unplug them, turning around. Brace yourself for an event that happens next, and maybe don’t be eating at that time. You’ll get the bolt gun.
• Go back down the ramp to see the fan no longer spinning, and enter through the opening on the left. You’ll see a second combination puzzle up the ramp in the next area. Complete it, then turn right and continue to another elevator.

• Outside the elevator, you’ll see another terminal where you can get a new arm key tool, and a console you can plug your bolt gun to open a shortcut to the area you got your cylinder key and go back to the red room, up the elevator, and to the retractable tunnels again.
• This time, use the terminal and use the path selected by default. You’ll come to a fork, the right side leading to another combination puzzle, and the opposite side leading to a console you can use with your arm key tool. Use it to direct a pipe toward the retractable tunnel with bodies inside, and hit ‘use’ to dissolve them, opening the 4th path.

• Enter the tunnel to the other side, where you’ll instantly find the 4th, trickiest combination puzzle. Be sure to check our guide if you get stuck, and once you’ve solved it, go back to the red room by taking a left on the retractable path, down the tunnel, and down the elevator.
• Use the console you used the first time you opened the gate here, and it’ll release all 4 bulbs. Go to the middle console and use it to open a secondary puzzle for the cylinder key, for which we have the exact solution. Once you complete this, go and collect the 1-light key and a curious additional item from the red room’s bulb apparatus. Go through the door outside the red room to the left with this key.

Beyond that, the path becomes completely linear to reach Act 3. Again, it’s not that any particular puzzle in this act is very difficult, but it can be easy to lose track of your path without a map. Good luck on the next section, there’s a reason you’ll find the game’s first health station along the way.

Scorn released on October 14, 2022, for PC and Xbox Series X|S. It is also a Day One Xbox Game Pass exclusive.