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Act 2
This walkthrough will guide you through Act 2 of Scorn, showing you the path through a vast desert and offering solutions to a series of cryptic puzzles involving a mysterious key. During the final moments of Act 1, we saw our protagonist suffer a grisly fate after venturing through a system of labyrinthian mines. Act 2 will pick up after those events.
If you're looking for a specific section of Act 2, hop between each of the main segments of the chapter using the table below:
Act 2 | The Skeleton Key Puzzle | Latch Puzzle 1 |
Latch Puzzle 2 | Latch Puzzle 3 | Latch Puzzle 4 |
Inner Workings of The Skeleton Key Puzzle |
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With Scorn being a mysterious experience that purposefully avoids defining its world, a lot of the terminology we're using for this guide has been invented by us. With that in mind, it can be easy to get lost if you're jumping in midway through the game. If you're confused about any item we're referring to in the walkthrough below, head over to our terminology key for a rundown of the main terms we're using for every key item, weapon, enemy and machine in the game.
Act 2
Following the events of Act 1, we'll find ourselves connected to a purple organism in a strange pod. Disconnecting ourselves, we'll manage to break free and fall out of the pod, landing in a desolate stretch of desert. Here, we’ll regain control.
Follow the path ahead of you and continue through the desert. You’ll be walking for a long time, heading past various ruins, bodies and other landmarks.
As you push ahead, look for a large structure in the distance. It’ll look like a giant tower (It's pictured above). When you eventually arrive at it, you’ll be able to enter through a door at the base of the tower. Head inside and continue following the path. It should loop around, leading you into a confined tunnel.
Follow the tunnel to the end and you’ll discover a loose grate you can push through. The grate will give way to an auditorium. We’re definitely not alone here. In the corner, you'll see an eerie creature crawling over the walls. Head to the opposite side of the room and enter the tunnel below where you first saw the creature. It'll flee once again, leading you into a much larger area.
The Skeleton Key Puzzle
Head through the archway and follow the path to your left. Midway down the route, you'll see a doorway leading to a beating red organism. It's pretty eye-catching, but let's ignore it for now.
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Instead, continue down the path until you reach a locked door on your right. Opposite the door is a skeleton. Interact with it to get a large key. This key is crucial to the next puzzle, so to make things clearer, we’ll name it the "skeleton key".
Skeleton Key Puzzle 1
Directly next to the skeleton, you'll see a contraption with a suspicious key-shaped hole in its centre. Insert the skeleton key into it.
This next puzzle is going to be common in this section, although it will be the easiest of the set. You'll see four circles on this contraption. The outside circle sports a key that can be moved around in small increments. Meanwhile, the three inner circles will each have a triangular latch. Your goal is to move the key and activate it when it aligns with a latch. Every time you correctly attach the key to a latch, you'll move inwards by one circle until you reach the centre. You can see a diagram of the puzzle below.
In this section, the locks are stationary, so move the outer circle around and activate the keys when they align with the latches. For this specific puzzle, the key will need to be positioned southwest, southeast and then northeast to trigger all the latches. You'll then have to move the key north to retract it.
Now, let's return back to the room with the red organism. Head over to the large metal lock in front of the giant fleshy mass and insert the skeleton key (it's pictured above). It'll open the skeletal shutters around the room.
Once the shutters are open, head to your left and look for an elevator. Ride it to the second floor of the room and head through the archway to your right. You'll see the creature from earlier crawling through the archway ahead. Follow it as it flees.
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You'll arrive on the second level of the room we found the skeleton key in. Follow the path to the right and you'll enter a large cylindrical machine. This is contraption is able to build bridges to other areas of the level, so we're going to dub it the "Bridge Machine" going forward. From the control panel ahead, you'll be able to see three archways opposite you.
Walk up to the control panel and access it. You'll get the option to choose one of the archways. First, select the one on the left. You'll form a bridge to the archway, allowing you to cross. On the other side, follow the path and then head into the area to your right.
Skeleton Key Puzzle 2
You'll find another lock contraption like the one we solved earlier, although this time the latches in the three inner circles won't stay still, moving freely.
The idea is to once again line up the outside key with the latches, but this time you'll need to catch the latches as they spin around each circle. The locks will only stop at certain points, so you'll need to figure out which position to place the key in so it eventually aligns with a lock. When the key and the lock line up, quickly activate the key to officially unlock the ring. You'll know the latch is in a spot where the key can activate it if you hear a clicking sound.
Do this three times and then move the key back to the centre to retract it. After that's done, head back to the Bridge Machine and form a bridge into the tunnel directly to your left. Follow the route and you'll eventually come to an area with a giant spinning fan to your left and a pathway to your right. Our goal is to head through the fan, but first, we'll have to stop it by heading down the path to our right.
Follow the pathway and, in the area ahead, take a left. You'll see a device with three fleshy cords connected to it. Through the window ahead of this device is the fan we saw earlier. Rip the cords out one by one to stop the fan dead.
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When you turn around to walk away from the machine, you'll come face to face with the creature we've been following throughout the level, which will proceed to attack you. Following a short cutscene, it'll merge with the protagonist, latching to his back and leaving its arms around his waist. It's not all bad news though. We now have access to the bolt rifle again.
Skeleton Key Puzzle 3
When the nightmarish event is finished, return to the fan and head between the blades. On the opposite side, you'll find a tunnel to your left. Follow it through to a room with another skeleton key puzzle.
The notches you'll need to position the key in to hit the latches are southwest, north and southeast. Return the key to the centre and retract it when you’ve lined up all three. With the skeleton key now upgraded again, take a right and use the elevator beside you.
On the level below, you'll find a key implant machine similar to the ones we found in Act 1. Access the machine to get a key installed in the protagonist's hand. When you're ready, progress to the opposite side of the room. You’ll find a control panel that can be operated with the bolt rifle. It’ll open the door ahead. Head through and you’ll find yourself in the area where we first found the skeleton key.
From here, you'll want to head back up to the area where we found the second lock puzzle. To do that, return to the Bridge Machine via the elevator in the room with the big red organism. Once inside, use the Bridge Machine to cross to the passage on the left. Now you're back in the area with the second lock puzzle, take a left to find a control panel overlooking the interior of the Bridge Machine.
With our newly acquired key implant, we'll be able to use the glowing sphere inside the centre of the Bridge Machine. When accessing it, move the sphere so the arm protruding from it is aligned with the tunnel filled with dead bodies. Activate the arm and it will spray acid into the tunnel, washing them away.
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Skeleton Key Puzzle 4
Return to the Bridge Machine and create a bridge to the tunnel we washed the bodies out of. At the end of the tunnel, you'll find the fourth key puzzle.
The notches you'll need to use to access the latches this time are northeast, southeast and southwest. A newly-added metal cover will prevent you from seeing where the locks move on the left-hand side of the puzzle, so on the final lock, just wait for a click to know when it's aligned with the key. When you’re done, position the key north and retract it.
With all four key puzzles complete, return to the room with the giant red organism. Insert the fully upgraded skeleton key into the lock mechanism in front of the fleshy mass. It’ll cause the bulbs connected to it to move, exposing a control panel in front of you. The lock mechanism will then travel into the shell mechanism to your left, creating another new control panel.
Inner Workings of The Skeleton Key Puzzle
Head over to the newly created control panel and activate it. The machine will strip off the top of the skeleton key, exposing its inner workings. Inside, you'll find four rings with white notches on your right and four canals with red notches on your left.
The idea here is that the white notches on top of the rings need to fit into the canals so that they're aligned with the red notches. However, that's much easier said than done. If you're moving left or right with a white notch, every other white notch will move in unison. If one or more white notches can't move in that direction, then none of the white notches will move.
A similar logic applies to moving the white notches up or down, with all white notches moving in unison. However, if a white notch can't move up or down, the other white notches will still be able to move while the trapped notch stays in place. For those wanting the solution to the puzzle, here are the correct movements needed to solve it:
Movement | Number of Times |
DOWN | 2 |
LEFT | 1 |
UP | 4 |
LEFT | 1 |
DOWN | 4 |
LEFT | 1 |
UP | 2 |
LEFT | 1 |
UP | 2 |
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With those inputs in place, the key will begin to spin, opening the bulbs ahead of you. Cross around and interact with the control panel inside the bulb directly in front of where we solved the skeleton key puzzle.
You’ll open the pod next to you and grab two important new objects. The first is a fleshy key-shaped organism and the second a spider creature that looks suspiciously like a face hugger from Alien.
Shortly after, a man will emerge from the pod to your right. Don't worry about him, he’s not a threat. He’ll flop around for a few seconds before passing away. When you’re ready, leave the room and head towards the locked door opposite where we found the Skeleton Key. Using the key-shaped organism, you'll be able to unlock the door. From now on, we'll call this the "Flesh Key".
Proceed down the path ahead until you reach another locked door. Access it using the Flesh Key and then activate the elevator ahead. When you reach the room below, the protagonist will look down and see the monster's arms begin ripping at his stomach.
These arms will attack us during recurring scripted sequences throughout the rest of the game. Be warned that every attack deals damage, so boost your health following an attack if you’re running low. As for what we’ll call the entity that's attempting to rip us apart, we’ll label them the "Parasite".
When you've recovered, head over to the machine in the right-hand corner and activate it. The protagonist will allow the spider we collected earlier to crawl inside and be prodded by a fleshy needle. It'll then return to you. This spider, which we’ll refer to as the "Stock Spider" from now on, will have healing orbs attached to it. We can use these orbs by pressing RB / the E key.
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When you regain control, head through the door on the right-hand side of the room. Follow the tunnel ahead until you reach a locked door and use the Flesh Key to unlock it. On the other side, take a right again and continue down the path towards another locked door. Rely on the Flesh Key one more time to get it open. Inside, you'll find an elevator. Activate it to bring a close to the act.