metzomagic.com Walkthrough
Riven
Developer:  Cyan
Publisher:  Red Orb

Walkthrough by Steve Metzler (1997)

Riven, the sequel to Myst, is much larger than its predecessor. This walkthrough takes you on one of the shorter paths through the game, but you may wish to stray from this path occasionally, in order that you might take in all of the sights and sounds that Riven has to offer.

I did quite enjoy solving the puzzles in this game. Some of them are very challenging. Which is presumably why you're reading this in the first place. Well, I shan't delay you any longer. Here we go!

Tips
Before you do anything else, download, unzip, and execute the Riven 1.02 Updater (because this file can be quite difficult to find on the web these days, we have archived it here for you :-) This patch fixes problems with FMV clips that play twice. It also fixes a problem later on that would prevent you finishing the game!
... and ...
Warning: don't mess with the cone-shaped device until the very end of the game, or you'll be sorry!

'Super Dome' Island
You begin the quest to rescue Atrus' beloved Catherine as Atrus packs you off to Riven using his hypnotic little book. Immediately, you find yourself transported into a tiny prison cell. There is no apparent way out. A loquacious native eventually appears. He wrests the Prison Book, the one you're supposed to use to trap 'Gehn' with, away from you through the bars of the cell. He is then struck down (by a dart?) and dragged away. His assailant sets you free.

Directly in front of you is a strange cone-shaped device. Walk forward and have a look. Note the pipe going into the rockface. It powers the device. Turn around, go back past the prison cell, and up the steps next to the cliff. When you reach the top of the steps (where a narrow bridge spans the sea ahead of you) turn left twice. Go through the doorway into the pentagonal room, and have a look through the portcullis that blocks the other doorway. There's a walkway there that spans the chasm next to the cone-shaped device. The object of your first puzzle is to open that portcullis so you can cross the walkway. Easier said than done! You might want to try to work this one out yourself first, because it's quite an ingenious puzzle. You can figure quite a few things out by looking through the pinholes in the concave portions of the walls as the room is rotated. If you get stuck, the solution is as follows:

Exit the room and turn around. Press the button located on the wall to the right 4 times. The room rotates one position clockwise each time. It's pentagonal in shape, so it will rotate to 5 possible positions, aligning the 2 doors to different positions each time. Now you have to find another way in! Turn around, and go left down the other side of the cliff steps. When you arrive at the bottom, turn to the left twice and you will encounter a locked gate. At first, it appears that you require a key, but you can crawl under the gate by clicking when the hand cursor is toward the bottom of the screen.

Enter the pentagonal room and head through the opposite doorway. Go to the pipes and look up to see the steam escaping from the top of the vertical pipe. Throw the switch, and the steam is now diverted to the cone-shaped device (note the symbol for it on the plate above the switch). Turn around and head back for the doorway. Push the button on the right hand wall twice, then flip the switch on the left hand side of the doorway to the up position. You'll see the portcullis in the opposite doorway rise. Head through the newly opened portcullis (a bronze door set into the cave wall still blocks your path) and turn to the left. Press the button on the wall twice, then turn to the left and flip the switch on the left-hand side of the doorway to the up position. This action causes the portcullis which blocks the door to the chasm walkway (which you can't see at the moment) to open. Now we just have to get back there! Head through the opposite doorway, to wind up where you began this exercise. Then turn around, press the button on the wall twice, and head through the now open portcullis to find yourself on the walkway across the chasm. Whew!

Cross the walkway and enter the golden dome. Continue following the walkway through the dome until you emerge outside again. As you continue along the path, on your left you see a steam switch at the end of a small promontory. Throw this switch. It powers a section of bridge you will need to lower in order to get back to the dome later on! Turn around and continue along the pathway in the direction you were originally headed. Just before you enter a tunnel, there is a sort of lift you can stand on. If you turn to the right, there's a button on the wall, but it doesn't work yet. Continue on through the tunnel and throw the steam switch located on a small balcony at the end. Then turn around and go all the way back through the dome. Just before you exit the dome, you can try throwing the switch on the wall next to the entrance. It raises and lowers the chasm walkway. The steam switch on the small balcony powers it. Go back through the pentagonal room and cross the walkway over the sea that is directly in front of you. Proceed into the tunnel. Halfway through the tunnel is a door set into the wall to the left. Enter, and look through the porthole to the right. Throw the switch on the wall, and you see a door opening somewhere. Exit this room, and continue on down the tunnel. Open the door at the end of the tunnel and proceed into the temple. Exit via the door to the right (which you saw being opened while looking through the porthole). Push the button on the gizmo to the right of the metal steps. A rail car pulls up as a result. Get into the car, sit in the driver's seat, and hit the rotary switch to turn the car around. Then throw the knife switch to move the car forward. Enjoy the rollercoaster style journey to the next island.

Island of the Wooden Eyes
Exit the car and head to the right. You'll see a small orb that resembles an eye carved from wood protruding from a rockface. Touching the orb causes it to rotate, revealing a symbol on the reverse side. Make a note of this symbol (hey, it's a walkthrough, but you have to do some work yourself. Don't worry. There'll be a re-cap later on in case you miss something)! Also note the animal sound that is made when the orb rotates. Turn around and go into the cave. Head up the steps. After going up a few steps, turn around and note the animal shape formed by the mouth of the cave, the eye of the animal being the wooden orb you just found. Turn around again, keep going up, then proceed downwards after you exit the cave.

Below, you see two creatures sunning themselves on a rock in a small alcove. You should only move forward when their heads are down, or they will flee! If you get close enough before scaring them away, one of them makes a strange sounding bellow (sounds like ... 'Gehn'). The significance of this sound will become more apparent later on. Step off the walkway onto the beach. Turn right and go all the way to the end of the alcove. Then turn left and head towards the rock in the water. Another wooden eye! Again, note the note the symbol and sound. The large rock itself is the animal's shape. Return to the walkway, and continue in the direction you were proceeding before you stepped onto the beach. The steps head upwards into a cave. Go through the cave to emerge at a lake in the middle of a crater. Head down the ladder, and touch the wooden eye in the basin to reveal another symbol. Remember the sound this creature makes. Turn the valve on the side of the basin, and it fills up with a bit of water that takes the shape of the creature. There's another ladder leading down to the lake. You may explore further if you wish, but the walkway dead-ends at the lake and there is nothing more you can do here at the moment. So, turn around and head back up the ladder. Go back through the cave, along the walkway by the beach, and this time head up the steps and go all the way to the top of the hill. Cross the wooden bridge, and you wind up on a stone path (actually, a trough!) in an area with a lot of tree stumps. Head for the wooden door set between two trees directly in front of you. Go through the door, and down the steps. Just after passing through the first tree, turn to the left. Leave the path and go down the small steps amongst the luminescent mushrooms. Advance forward a few times to find another wooden eye. This one doesn't have an animal shape associated with it, but it does have a sound! Note the symbol. Then return to the path and continue in the direction you were headed before you made this detour.

Enter a second tree, and follow the Y to the right, down another set of steps. At the end of the path, just before you reach a totem-like statue, are a pair of lamps. When you are standing right between the lamps, pressing the small button atop the lamp on the right opens the mouth of the statue. Proceed into the statue until you cannot advance further and you are automatically turned around. Flip the lever on your right to the upward position. The door of the statue closes, and you are conveyed upwards to a series of metal catwalks. Exit the tree, then make the first right. In front of you is a spinning metal dome. To stop it spinning, look through the eyepiece of the device at the end of the catwalk. You have to press the button just before the yellow symbol appears in the eyepiece. Make a note of the symbol for later reference (Note: if you didn't manage to note the symbol on the first go, you can start the dome spinning again by pressing the button on top of the device)! Once you have stopped the dome spinning, go to it via the catwalk. Have a look at the device in the centre of the dome. You see a book through the glass, but you don't have the code to open the device yet. Turn around, then head up the metal steps to the left. Enter the chamber at the top, and sit in the chair between the two levers. Hit the left hand lever. The top of the chamber opens and the chair rises. You are now at the very top of this island. Look down to see the lake which you visited earlier. Hit the lever on the right to close the aperture in the platform below. You are going there shortly. Hit the left hand lever again to lower the chair, and then exit the chamber. Go all the way back past the dome, and into the tree lift again. Move the lever downwards to operate the lift. Next, hit the lever on the left to open the door of the statue's mouth again. Go back outside, and when you enter the tree with the dome atop it, follow the Y to the right. Go up the steps and through the wooden gate onto a wooden catwalk. Turn to the right, and proceed through a cave all the way down to the lake.

Follow the wooden walkway around the edge of the lake, and head up the ladder. At the top of the ladder is a dwelling. Follow the walkway around the left-hand side of the dwelling, and go up another ladder. At the end of the next walkway is a metal submarine perched on the edge of a cliff. Hit the lever on your left to lower the sub into the lake. Now we have to make our way back to the sub. Are we having fun yet? So, go back down to the lake, up through the cave, onto the stone trough pathway, across the wooden bridge, down the steps to the walkway along the beach, into the cave, and down the two ladders to reach the sub! You might want to save the game here, then play around with the sub for a while. Try docking at a few stations. Anyway, here's the shortest way to accomplish things here (from the sub's original position):

Once inside the sub, hit the rotary switch to turn the sub around. Then hit the lever on your right to advance, and then once again. Exit the sub here, and proceed up the metals rungs set into the side of the cliff. When you emerge into the room at the top, note the position of the 5 switches in front of you. They control the positions of the ladders at the various sub docking stations. Flip the 3 switches that are pointing downward to the upward position. Now all 5 ladders are in the water and you can dock anywhere you please. Go back down to the sub. Hit the rotary switch to turn the sub around. Then hit the lever to the right to advance forward. Now you are at a junction. Move the slider switch over to the left to select the left hand track. Move forward again, and exit the sub when it halts. We're going to school! As you enter the classroom, turn to your left and get close to the execution 'toy'. Each time you pull the ring on the toy, one of the hanging figures drops down a random number of notches (until the big fish at the bottom eventually gets him. Ouch)! The corresponding number in the Rivenese system appears in a window at the bottom of the toy. Operate the toy until you have learned to count from 1 to 10, making note of the symbols. At this juncture, it would be a good idea to match the symbols you found on those wooden eyes to the numbers you have just learned. Finished with classroom activities for today, and satisfied that you have indeed learned something useful, head back out to the sub.

Hit the rotary switch to turn the sub around. Then move forward. At the next junction, make sure the slider switch is still to the left to select the left hand track, and advance again. Exit the sub, and make your way to the centre of the strange platform (but only if you did this first). Pull the triangular handle to lower the harness, then climb on the harness and take a ride to the top. Have a look at the prisoner in the cell there. Don't bother to open the cell yet, as you don't have enough information to progress further once you have done so. For now, follow the metal catwalk downwards. Lower the ladder at the end of the catwalk, and climb down to the wooden walkway that skirts the lake. Then turn around and head back through the cave to the top of the hill. Bear to the left when you reach the stone trough path, and head past the stump with an axe stuck in it. Have a good look across the water to the two islands connected by a footbridge. You'll be heading for that shortly. Go down into the hole at the end of the trough, and hit the lever on your left. Enjoy the trip through the water, which is held at bay by a tunnel of magical golden bands.

Boiler House Island
You arrive, after having been unceremoniously dumped from your conveyance, on a platform overlooking a lake set in a crater. Head down the ladder to the beach, then proceed to the centre of the lake via the catwalk. Move the valve you find there towards you to the next (middle) position, then head for the boiler house. Note the blue flames at the base of the boiler. You'll have to turn them off before you can go inside:

Head up the steps to the boiler, turn left, go to the back of the boiler, and turn right to face the boiler. Turning the valve on the right extinguishes the flames. Then turn the wheel on the left to drain the boiler. Turn to the left, and move that valve to divert power to the grate which is inside the boiler. Then turn to the right once more, and push up the lever to elevate the grate. Now you may enter the boiler via the front door.

Once inside the boiler, head down the central ladder and through a dark tunnel. Continue up the ladder to emerge at the end of a pipe overlooking the sea. Climb down from the pipe, and follow the path over the crest of the hill to the top of the crater. Continue downwards to the balcony which overlooks the lake. Open the trap door set in the floor of the balcony to give yourself access back to the lake. Head down the ladder to the beach, go around the boiler house, and out onto the catwalk to the centre of the lake again. Turn the valve upwards to the position it originally occupied. Head back up to the balcony, open the double doors, and enter. Proceed to the end of the catwalk. There is a strange device here that looks something like an inverted colander. Look upwards, and you will see a rapidly rotating fan. You'll need to turn off this fan in order to gain access to the ventilation shaft. Turn around, and head back towards the double doors. Close them from the inside to reveal two hidden passages. Nasty trick, that! Take the left hand passage and go down the steps. Open the door at the bottom of the steps to reveal another spinning dome. Move forward through the open door, then turn around immediately and close the door from the inside to reveal another hidden passage! Head down this passage, and you see the device that will enable you to stop this dome spinning. Look through the eyepiece of the device, and try to depress the button just before the symbol turns yellow. Memorise this symbol for later on. Now, exit the hidden passage and walk up to the dome. Then look upwards. Note the large hole in the ceiling here. This is another important piece of information.

Head back up the stairs, and continue straight through when you reach the top. You wind up on another walkway along the edge of the crater. About halfway down the walkway as you approach a building in the distance, there is a lever off to the right with a cable running through it. Throwing this lever turns off the ventilation fan. Now, head back to the end of the catwalk where the colander and fan are located. Time to catch some frogs! Open the colander (it's a frog trap, actually) via the handle at the top. Then take a pellet from the cup on the right, and place it in the depression in the centre of the open trap. Don't close the trap! Move the large lever on the left of the trap to lower it. Wait a while until you hear the trap spring shut, then press the lever again to raise the trap. Opening the trap reveals a brightly coloured frog. Ribbit! The sound made by the frog before it escapes is one you heard earlier. When you are finished catching frogs, look upwards to see the now idle fan. Click on it to start climbing up the ventilation shaft. At the other end of the shaft, move the grating and climb down into the laboratory. Lots of interesting trivia to view here.

Nothing is really important in the lab with the exception of the book (Gehn's journal) immediately in front of you. Open it and have a good read. Of special note is the combination which has been placed on the central devices inside those domes you have been opening:

Remember how you learned the Rivenese number system in the school? Their number system is a base 25 system (whereas ours is base 10). We know that 5 = a rotated '1', and 10 = a rotated '2', so what might 15 look like? 20? Well, they look like this. So, now you should have enough information to translate the sequence of 5 numbers written down in Gehn's journal into our own number system. For example: the number '19' would be constructed by combining the symbols for '15' and '4'. Not particularly useful right now, but take note of it for later on (Warning: the sequence is different for every run of the game, so you'll have to figure this out on your own. Tricky devils)! Exit the lab via the front door (the back door leads down to another rail car station) and head to the right. Lo and behold! A way back to the 'Super Dome' on the island where you began this adventure. Cross the long expanse of footbridge and flip the lever on the right towards the end to lower the final section of the bridge. This action will only be possible if you threw the steam switch down below earlier on. If you neglected to do so ... well, it's a long way back -- but such is the life of an intrepid adventurer!

Meanwhile, Back at the Dome
You're back on the island where you began this little adventure. This time, however, you have a chance to tidy up some of those loose ends that we left dangling earlier on! Proceed onto the metal catwalk inside the dome, and make the first left to go outside again. A gap in the walkway! Turn around, and press the button on the wall. The lift, which was inoperable from below, rises to bridge the gap. Cross over the lift and head around the bend in the walkway. To your left, note the spinning dome below. at the end of the walkway, hit the lever on the right to raise the bronze door. You can begin to see how all these places are related now! It's the pentagonal room again. Don't bother to rotate it again just now. Instead, turn around and go back to the dome. Enter the dome, head to the left, and rotate the wheel at the end of this section of the catwalk to finally hook up all the bits of the catwalk! Now, follow the catwalk to the bottom of the dome and go outside. Follow the path until you come to the place (just before the tunnel) where the lift was. It has been replaced by another lift. Turn to the right, and press the button on the wall to take the lift down. Turn around, and follow the stairs up to the device in front of the spinning dome. Look through the eyepiece. Once again, depress the button just prior to the symbol turning yellow, and make a note of the symbol. Turn around, go back up the lift, along the walkway into the dome, and up to the top level of the catwalk inside the dome. Make the first right, and hit the lever on the inside wall to raise the walkway across the chasm. This action will save you some time later on. Now, turn around, head back out the second doorway to the right, and over the water across the long footbridge to the previous island. Enter the lab through the front door, turn around and press the button on the gizmo next to the door to summon a rail car. Exit via the back door of the lab to find the waiting rail car at the bottom of the stairs. New destination ho!

'Finally, a Map!' Island
When you reach the new island, exit the rail car, head through the doorway, and up the steps outside. You arrive at the edge of a strange lake (don't worry. No real elephants were used in the making of this adventure)! Enter the building in the centre of the lake (head through the crack in the wall, and upwards in a lift). Walk forward onto the platform that overlooks ... a map of the five islands of Riven! You haven't visited the small one on the upper right-hand side yet. Each time you depress a button on the panel in front of you, the water on top of the corresponding island changes shape to match the contour of that island. Before you proceed any further, make sure you know which of the actual islands you visited corresponds to each of the rough angular shapes on the panel. Looking straight ahead, and then to the right, ought to do the trick (look for features that you recognise on each of the distant islands)! Then, for each of the islands in turn:

  1. Press the button for the island.
  2. Turn around, and head into the mushroom-shaped structure located in the middle of the water (on your way there, you can see to your left the spinning dome on this island. Make a mental note of where it is located on the island. You'll need this information shortly).
  3. Under a magnifying glass, you'll see the corresponding island shape of the button you pressed outside.
  4. On each of the islands you have previously visited, try to remember where the spinning dome was. Press that area on the island shape under the magnifying glass. A 3D relief map of the area will pop up. You may rotate your view of it by using the handle on the magnifying glass. Try to locate a representation of a spinning dome in the area you have selected. You may have to try several areas on each island if you're not sure where the dome was located!
  5. Make note of: which area on each island you located the dome in, and where exactly it is on the 5 x 5 grid for the area. I have made a drawing here for each island if you get stuck:

'Super Dome' Island
Island of Wooden Eyes
Boiler House Island
'Finally, a Map!' Island
The Fifth Island

Now, head around the catwalk until you find the device that will allow you to stop the dome here from spinning. This time, you can't get a clear sighting of the symbol that turns yellow! Well, you'll have to do without this information. Okay, now back down to the rail car. Get into the car, just turn it around (don't move it forward), and get out the other side! Open the door, and head towards the end of the hall. Hit the lever on your left to summons a very strange lift. Take it down to the floor below. Exit the lift, go through a doorway, and onto a path. Follow the path straight ahead through another doorway, up some steps, and sit on the throne (pun intended)! Press the button on the lever to your right to rotate the throne into position. Then hit the lever on your right. A viewing device flips down. Look into it. Now you have to match spinning dome symbols to colours. The symbols on the six positions of the wheel correspond to spinning dome symbols. We only know three of them at this stage. Here's the coloured lights they match up with.

Exit this view, and hit the lever on the right again to retract the viewing device. Hit the lever on the left this time, and another viewing device drops into place. If you press the hexagonal button on the left hand side of this device (you may have to try this a few times), you'll eventually see a woman appear in the room being viewed. This can only be Catherine, held captive somewhere! Now, hit the hexagonal button on the right. As you press the tabs on the outside of the viewing device, your view will cycle through various vantage points of the lake on the Island of the Wooden Eyes. Keep going until you see an animal shape. Take note of this shape, because it's the missing fifth animal shape which you couldn't see when you were on the Island of the Wooden Eyes earlier!

You're finished here, so retract the viewing device, and hit the button to rotate the throne back to its original position. Head back down the path and make the first right into a rail car station. Use the rail car to return to the Island of Wooden Eyes.

Island of the Wooden Eyes Revisited
Exit the rail car, and head through the door into the lift. Yes, you've been here before! Take the lift up one level, then hit the lever on the left to open the statue's mouth. Go up the steps, and take the right hand fork of the Y in the tree. Head up the stairs, open the wooden gate, and make a right onto the wooden catwalk. Follow the path down to the lake, and climb up the ladder which you lowered earlier. Free the prisoner by pushing the button on the wall to the right of the cell. Hey, where did he go? Opening the circular grating on the floor of the cell and clicking on the water produces a hidden switch. This switch causes a secret door set into the wall of the cell to retract. Enter the new opening, head into the dark tunnel, and proceed through 6 completely black frames until you emerge from the darkness again. The tunnel dead-ends at a body of water. Protruding from the left-hand wall of the tunnel is a stick. Pull it to turn on a light (Note: if you have not installed the 1.02 Upgrade, simultaneously banging on the Alt key while clicking on the stick will get you over this one)! Turn around, and proceed back the way you came, turning on lights (that have magically appeared!) along the way. When you pass through a doorway, turn around and open the newly discovered door to your right. Proceed through it into a large circular chamber.

You should now have enough information to solve this puzzle. You have to push down 5 of the stones in the correct order. Well, remember the wooden eyes? Each one (with a single exception) had a Rivenese number and an animal shape associated with it. Here's the solution.

When you have pressed the stones in the correct order, a niche in the wall opens. It contains a linking book. To where? Open it and touch the pretty picture to find out!

Prisoner of the Moeity
When you arrive at this strange place, turn around and head into the cave. As you approach the idol in front of you, two of the locals sneak up behind you and zap you with one of their noxious little darts. You wake up momentarily as you're being transported across the lake in a boat. The next time you wake, it's in a cell. Walk up to the wooden door of the cell and take a look outside. Then go have a look out the back window. As you return to the centre of the room having looked out the back window, you should be visited by a confidante of Catherine's. She presents you with Catherine's journal, and the Prison Book which Atrus gave you to trap Gehn with. It was taken from you at the very beginning of the game. You may save the game here and try using the Prison book -- if you desire a sneak preview of the credits! This is the first possible game ending, and quite an undesirable one. But it gives you a good idea of the book's purpose. Hey, wouldn't it be great to be able to save off your day before you went to work or school in the morning, in case ... but I digress.

Have a good read of Catherine's journal. It contains a note that repeats what Atrus told you at the outset, just so you remember what you're supposed to be doing! If you're not asleep yet, a good distance through the journal are some handy tips for operating the cone-shaped device. Write down the 5 number combination (Warning: the combination is different for every run of the game, so you'll have to figure this out on your own!) for opening the portal underneath the device, and note the reference to a 'stop' on the left hand side of the device. Some time after you have finished reading the journal, the girl returns. This time, she presents you with a useful linking book ... the one back to the circular chamber. Go for it!

Finding Your Marbles
Okay, the end is rapidly approaching! One last big puzzle. Head back to the very top of this island, where the tree stumps are located. Head past the stump with the axe in it, and ride the car through the strange tunnel back to Boiler House Island. Go around the boiler house, and up the ladder to the balcony above. Head through the double doors, then close the doors and go through the right-hand passage, along the walkway past Gehn's laboratory, and over the long footbridge back to the 'Super Dome'. Enter the dome, then make the first left and go back outside again (be sure the chasm walkway bridge has been raised, first!). Head through the pentagonal room, then turn around and press the button twice so that the room is rotated to allow access to the chasm walkway. Go through the room and up the now elevated chasm walkway to the very top of the 'Super Dome'.

Have a good look at the grid in the centre of the walkway (the 5 Riven island shapes again!), and note the 6 coloured marbles lined up next to the grid. Well, we can deduce something straight away from this! The last marble is the colour violet, and we haven't seen that colour before. So, it must be the colour of the broken light, and thus, the colour corresponding to Boiler House Island! The solution to this puzzle concerns placing the coloured marbles on the grid so they occupy the exact positions of the spinning domes on the 5 islands. We know all 5 positions, and 3 colours with certainty, so a bit of guesswork is required. Each time you have placed the marbles, turn around, walk forward one frame, then turn around again and pull the lever located on the wall to the right. After the device has locked into position, press the white button located above the lever. If you hear a deep rumble, you've hit paydirt! If not, raise the lever and try placing the marbles differently. You're trying to fill the 2 remaining positions with 3 marbles to choose from, so it would be a good idea to keep a record of what you're doing! Have a decent go at it (it's a fun puzzle!), but here's the solution if you get stuck.

Now that you've solved the marble puzzle, the spinning domes have power! You may have tried opening the domes previously, using the combination from Gehn's journal. If you did this, you would have noticed that the books inside were unusable. Well, they aren't unusable any longer! Find your way back to the spinning dome on this island, and move the 5 slider pieces to the positions you figured out from Gehn's journal. The interior part of the dome opens. Touch the book, watch the nice FMV sequence, then touch the picture ... and we're off to see The Wizard!

Gehn
Imprisoned again! And none of those linking books which you can reach through the bars have power. Press the button on the square panel to summons Gehn. After listening to a long monologue, touch the Prison Book when Gehn offers it to you. Congratulations! Atrus' plan worked and you've managed to trap Gehn (far too easily, I thought)! You take his place outside the bars. Turn to the right and head down the manhole in the floor. It's Gehn's room. On the table next to the bed is a small silver globe. Touching it causes a sequence of sounds to be played. You should save the game here, because you will invariably need to play the sequence a few times later on in order to solve a puzzle. Exit Gehn's room, and hit the lever on the spherical boiler. This device powers the books! Now, find the switch on the window sill that retracts the bars of the cage. Find the linking book with one square on it, and use it.

Catherine
Exit the dome by pressing the button on the floor. Then cross the walkway, enter the building, and stand in the cage. See the three switches on the wall? you have to strike these to reproduce the sequence of sounds you just heard from the silver globe device in Gehn's room (Warning: The sequence is different for each run of the game, so I can't help you much here ... but, I think it's always some combination of exactly 5 strikes)! Then hit the lever to roll back the cage. If all goes well, you've just rescued Catherine! She tells you to signal Atrus by using the cone-shaped device on the fissure. Well, you have all the information you need. What are you waiting for? Catherine used the dome, so you'll have to stop it spinning again before you can follow. Travel back to Gehn's place, then use the 'Super Dome' Island linking book to return there (again, you will have to undo some things which Catherine changed when she went ahead of you).

The Star Fissure
I trust by now you can make it to the cone-shaped device on your own. Thanks. First thing to do here is look at the lower left leg of the rig the device is sitting in. There's a stop pin there (which Catherine hinted at in her journal)! Flip it upwards. Then use the combination which you also found in Catherine's journal to open the portal underneath the device (Note: a '2' in the combination would represent the second button from the left on the portal). Flip the lever on the right downwards, then keep hitting the button until the device shatters the glass that protects The Star Fissure. If you've done everything correctly up to this point, then you have managed to save the day! Atrus and Catherine are re-united (if you tried to open the portal and lower the device earlier without rescuing Catherine first ... oh dear! Hope you have a saved game somewhere before that)! As Riven destroys itself, you dive into The Star Fissure and follow that book!

Copyright © Steve Metzler 1997, 2002. All rights reserved.