Monument Valley: Tips and Playthrough Video for the Baffling Puzzler

Monument Valley can be a confusing game at first glance: its worlds are built to mess with players' perceptions of them. However, by keeping a few good tips in mind, it's possible to master Monument Valley. And if not - we have playthrough videos of the entire game to help you out.

The trick the game pulls, similar to an M.C. Escher painting, is that real-world perspective is essentially useless. Mainly, if a place looks like it can be traveled to, then it can. So when manipulating objects, don't consider their absolute position, consider where they are relative to Ida. This is often the key to many puzzles: moving an object in one spot where according to its perspective, Ida can reach it, then moving it with Ida on the object, to where she needs to go. This is the backbone to the majority of the game's puzzles.

Remember that the key rule to interacting with Ida is that she can only move where you can see her, so if a path is hidden to you, it's likely that it is not the right path - at least for this perspective. Maybe a quick rotation will do the trick? Don't be afraid to experiment - there's no way to die or otherwise fail at the game.

If a location can be traveled to, it will illuminate with a circle around it. This doesn't mean that Ida will travel to it, just that it's actually possible to go there. This is worth keeping in mind if one gets stuck.

The crows can be tricky, but it's often just a matter of timing to get out of their way to let them pass. Remember that objects can be moved while the crows are on them. Ida is the only character in the game who can cause parts of the level to be non-manipulatable. If the mechanism doesn't change into an unworkable state (the handles on cranks will retract if Ida is on their manipulatable portions) then it can be manipulated.

Keep these tips in mind, and the world of Monument Valley can be explored in all its glory.