Myst Walkthrough: All Ages, Puzzle Solutions, Endings, and Achievement Cleanup

Myst is a puzzle game about paying attention before touching everything. The modern Cyan release on Steam is a 2021 reimagining built for flat-screen and VR play, and it adds helpful features such as photo captures and optional puzzle randomization. That last option matters: if you started a randomized run, use this walkthrough for the route, puzzle logic, save points, and achievement cleanup, but read your in-game clues instead of blindly copying every fixed number.

Spoiler warning: this guide explains all four main Ages, the fireplace route, the bad endings, the good ending, the white page, and the bonus Rime Age. If you want the cleanest first-play experience, read the first two sections, then come back when a puzzle stops being interesting and starts being a wall.

Best Completion Plan#

1. Decide whether you are playing with classic puzzle answers or randomized puzzles. Randomization changes the value of memorized answers; it does not change the larger route.
2. On Myst Island, turn on all eight marker switches and learn the library map/tower system before entering any Age.
3. Prepare the four main Age entrances on Myst Island: Stoneship, Selenitic, Mechanical, and Channelwood. You can visit them in any order.
4. Save before using each linking book. Once you enter an Age, you normally need to solve its return route to come back.
5. In each Age, collect the red and blue pages, but do not trust either brother. The pages are for story and ending setup, not because Sirrus or Achenar deserve your confidence.
6. Before the fireplace endgame, make a save. From that one save you can see the Sirrus ending, the Achenar ending, the D’ni-without-white-page ending, and the best ending.
7. For the good ending, open the white-page vault on Myst Island before linking to Atrus.
8. After the good ending, return to Myst Island for the Rime bonus route and achievement cleanup.

Route Overview#

Part	Main Goal	Key Risk
Myst Island setup	Read Atrus’s note, turn on marker switches, use the fore-chamber, library map, and tower clues.	Skipping notes makes later puzzles feel like random code locks.
Stoneship entrance	Use tower dates, the observatory, and constellation symbols to raise the ship.	Randomized runs may not use the classic symbol set.
Selenitic entrance	Set generator power and solve the spaceship music puzzle.	Save before the final music input if you care about first-try achievements.
Mechanical entrance	Set the clock tower and gear controls to open the giant gear.	Do not confuse the clock time with the gear lever code.
Channelwood entrance	Open the cabin safe, light the furnace, and ride the tree elevator down.	Move quickly once the tree elevator begins lowering.
Four Ages	Find pages, learn each Age’s rule set, and unlock the return book.	Leaving without notes can make the fireplace and ending route harder to understand.
Fireplace and endings	Use the page 158 pattern, choose a bad ending or the green book, and bring the white page for the best ending.	Touching the red or blue final page locks you into a bad-ending route unless you reload.
Rime Age	Unlock the bonus Age after helping Atrus, then solve the furnace, observation, and crystal-room cleanup.	Rime is a reward route, not required to finish the main story.

Classic Answer Table#

This table is for classic/default puzzle logic and for checking your work. If your game uses randomized puzzles, treat the “how to solve” column as the real answer and the fixed value as a warning label.

Puzzle	How To Solve It	Classic Value
Fore-chamber imager	Count the marker switches on Myst Island.	08
Stoneship entrance	Point the library tower at the ship, read the dates, enter them in the observatory, then match the constellations to the library book.	Leaf, snake, and beetle symbols switched on at the pool.
Selenitic generator	Use generator buttons to total the tower voltage clue without overloading.	59 volts
Spaceship music	Use the Selenitic book’s keyboard diagram and match each organ note on the sliders.	C, high C, high E-flat, F, B-flat.
Mechanical clock	Point the tower at the gear, read the time and gear clue, then use the clock tower controls.	2:40, then gear levers 2-2-1.
Channelwood cabin safe	Point the tower at the tree/elevator and read the safe clue.	724
Stoneship compass	Use the telescope to find the lighthouse bearing, then press the matching compass direction.	135 degrees, southeast.
Selenitic maze runner	Learn which sound means each direction, then follow the sound chain without backtracking.	N, W, N, E, E, S, S, W, SW, W, NW, NE, N, SE.
Fireplace	Use the partly burned book and copy page 158 exactly.	Use your own page 158 pattern.
Rime unlock	After helping Atrus, use the Rime information added to the library and fore-chamber setup.	Use imager code 40, then reveal the hidden access route.

Myst Island Setup#

Begin by reading the note from Atrus near the dock. It points you toward the fore-chamber and the marker switches, which is Myst’s way of teaching you that the island is one large machine. Walk the island and turn the marker switches on. There are eight: dock, sunken gear, observatory, spaceship, pillars/pool area, generator house, clock tower, and cabin.

Go to the fore-chamber by the dock. The imager panel wants the number of marker switches, so enter 08, press the front button on the imager pool, and listen to Atrus’s message. That message is a clear warning about the red and blue books in the library: the trapped brothers are not neutral quest givers.

Inside the library, insert the loose red and blue pages near the books if you want the story setup. Then look at the island map. Each active marker switch appears on it. Moving the red/white map beam rotates the tower behind the library toward one landmark. Use the two paintings to open or close the hidden corridor behind the bookcase: one painting opens the bookcase route, the other restores the library door.

The tower gives two things for each selected landmark: a view confirming the direction and a clue plaque. The basic loop is always the same: select a landmark on the map, go up the tower, read the clue, then solve that landmark’s entrance puzzle on Myst Island.

Opening The Four Main Ages#

Stoneship Entrance

Point the library tower at the ship. The tower gives you three dates. Enter those dates in the observatory chair and record the constellation shapes. Then use the Stoneship book in the library to match those constellations to symbols. In the classic solution, the required symbols are leaf, snake, and beetle. Turn those symbols green at the pool/pillar puzzle, and the sunken ship rises.

Open the raised ship and use the linking book inside to enter Stoneship Age. Save before you link.

Selenitic Entrance

Point the tower at the spaceship. The tower clue points you to the generator value. In the classic route, set the generator to 59 volts. The community walkthrough references use a button combination that totals 59, but the real rule is simpler: add values until the meter reads the target without overloading the system. If you are cleaning achievements, save and experiment with both circuit breakers before leaving this puzzle behind.

Inside the spaceship, use the piano/organ and the Selenitic book’s diagram. The classic note sequence is C, high C, high E-flat, F, B-flat. Match each note on the sliders and press the button. If you want the first-try music achievement, save before committing the slider solution, because “close enough” can still be wrong.

Mechanical Entrance

Point the tower at the sunken gears. The classic tower clue gives the clock time and the gear lever sequence. Set the clock tower to 2:40 to raise the walkway, then use the levers inside the clock tower to set the gears to 2-2-1. The giant gear on the island opens to reveal the Mechanical Age book.

Channelwood Entrance

Point the tower at the tree/elevator landmark. The classic clue leads to the cabin safe code 724. Open the safe, take the matches, light the furnace, and open the valve. The tree elevator outside begins moving. Get into it while it is low enough and ride down to the Channelwood linking book.

If you miss the elevator, reset the furnace/valve and try again. This is one of those Myst moments where the puzzle is already solved but the timing still asks you to act.

Stoneship Age Walkthrough#

When you arrive in Stoneship, go up to the telescope and find the lighthouse bearing. In the classic solution, the lighthouse is at 135 degrees, which corresponds to southeast on the compass. Do not press random compass buttons yet, because the wrong input can drain your battery and force extra setup.

The three pump buttons control which areas are flooded. Use them to drain and flood the lighthouse as needed. The safe route is:

1. Drain the lighthouse area and go down to the chest.
2. Open the chest’s drain valve while it is underwater-drained, then close the valve again.
3. Reflood the lighthouse so the chest floats.
4. Open the floating chest, take the key, and use it on the locked ladder above.
5. Charge the lighthouse battery fully.
6. Drain the lower tunnels and go to the compass room.
7. Press the southeast/135-degree compass button.
8. Use the lit ship cabin route to reveal the return book.

Stoneship has both red and blue page rooms. Sirrus’s side is the more polished room, and Achenar’s side is harsher and more disturbed. Explore both before leaving if your version lets you carry both pages. If it only lets you carry one page at a time, take one, return to Myst, place it in the matching book, and come back for the other.

Selenitic Age Walkthrough#

Selenitic is an audio Age. If you are playing with weak audio, captions, or in a noisy room, slow down and use the game’s visual feedback where it exists. Your first job is to visit the sound stations and learn the sound/symbol pairings. The classic stations are water, thermal, clock, pipes, and wind.

Use the central compass/antenna machine to locate each sound. The community route checks give this classic order for the door puzzle: pipes, water, wind, thermal, clock. The important idea is not the words, but the chain of sounds you hear from the machine. Match that chain on the sliders to open the route to the maze runner.

Before entering the maze runner, save. For a clean route and the “Never Lost” style cleanup, do not press backtrack. Learn the direction sounds, then use this classic sequence:

N, W, N, E, E, S, S, W, SW, W, NW, NE, N, SE.

If you make a mistake, reload rather than trying to repair a cleanup run. If you only care about finishing, you can learn the maze by trial and sound memory, but achievement cleanup is much easier from a fresh save.

Mechanical Age Walkthrough#

Mechanical Age is built around a rotating fortress. Enter both brothers’ rooms, take notes, and find the red and blue pages. The simulator is there for practice; the real rotation controls are on top of the elevator after you send the elevator down and step out.

Before rotating the fortress, align the lift from the corridor mechanism so the elevator system can expose the real controls. Then use the simulator to understand the sound/position relationship. In the classic route, you rotate the fortress to the two side islands, record the symbols, then rotate back to the original island and enter those symbols on the pedestal by the large gears.

Do not rush the rotation controls. Community notes warn that the pointer movement is timing-based, and the easiest mistake is overshooting a direction because you hold a lever too long. If you are not sure where the fortress is facing, go back down and check the view before entering the final symbols.

Channelwood Age Walkthrough#

Channelwood is a water-flow puzzle stretched across bridges, trees, and elevators. Start at the windmill and open the valve to send water into the pipe network. Each pipe lever changes the water’s direction, and each powered device makes a sound when water reaches it. Follow the sound of water as much as the shape of the walkway.

Your ground-level priorities are:

1. Power the sunken bridge lever and raise the bridge.
2. Extend the telescopic pipe so the later return route can connect.
3. Power the first elevator and ride up to the tree paths.
4. Open the stair/door route from the first tree level so you have a reliable path between levels.
5. Power the second elevator and reach the higher rooms.
6. Collect the red and blue pages, then power the return elevator that leads to the Myst linking book.

Close elevator doors before pulling elevator levers. It sounds minor, but it is one of the most common Channelwood frustrations because the puzzle can look broken when the elevator is simply not sealed.

Fireplace And Endings#

After collecting pages from the four main Ages, you should have heard enough from Sirrus and Achenar to know that both are manipulating you. When each brother has five pages, they point you toward the burned fireplace-code book and page 158. Read the book in the library, copy the page 158 pattern, enter the fireplace, press the red button, reproduce the pattern, and press the red button again.

Inside the hidden fireplace chamber, stop and save before touching anything. You now have three meaningful objects: a red page, a blue page, and the green linking book.

Choice	Result	Use A Save?
Take the red page and complete Sirrus’s book.	Sirrus is freed and you are trapped.	Yes. Reload afterward.
Take the blue page and complete Achenar’s book.	Achenar is freed and you are trapped.	Yes. Reload afterward.
Use the green book without the white page.	You reach Atrus, but cannot help him.	Yes. Reload afterward.
Use the green book while carrying the white page.	You help Atrus and get the best ending route.	This is the ending to keep.

To get the white page, return to Myst Island before using the green book. Turn every marker switch on, then turn the dock marker switch off as the final step. The vault opens and reveals the white page. Take it, return to the fireplace, use the green book, and give the page to Atrus.

After Atrus returns, go back to Myst Island. The red and blue prison books are gone, and the Rime bonus route becomes available through the library/fore-chamber setup.

Rime Bonus Age#

Rime is not required for the main ending, but it is part of the broader Myst/realMyst cleanup path and appears in the 2021 Steam achievement set. After the best ending, check the Rime book information in the library. Then go to the fore-chamber, enter 40 on the imager panel, press the front button, and press the back button to reveal the hidden panel change. Use the newly opened access route and the Rime information to reveal the Rime linking book.

On Rime itself, start by entering the building and restarting the furnace. The room warms, ice clears, and the door to the corridor opens. Ride the lift to the observation area, pick a color, and pull the lever for the aurora-style sequence. Then use the lift’s side button to reveal the small chamber and crystal book, and continue to the crystal lab.

The crystal room is a color-and-shape puzzle tied to Catherine’s note. Community achievement guides agree that this is a common missed cleanup area because players assume the good ending is the full ending. Take your time here, then use the Myst linking book to return.

Achievement Cleanup Notes#

The official Steam page for the 2021 Myst lists 30 achievements. Some older realMyst community guides list different totals and names, so use them as route support, not as a perfect checklist for the 2021 app. The safest cleanup strategy is to save before every Age, before the Selenitic spaceship and maze runner, before the fireplace, and before Rime.

Cleanup Area	What To Do Before Leaving	Why It Matters
Myst Island	View the three observatory star patterns, open the fore-chamber message, solve the safe, raise the ship, and find the white-page vault.	Several early achievements are tied to using the clue chain rather than skipping straight to answers.
Selenitic entrance	Save before matching the spaceship notes. If you miss the first-try input, reload.	Music-input cleanup is much easier before you leave for Selenitic Age.
Selenitic Age	Tune the sound stations cleanly and finish the maze runner without backtracking.	The maze achievement is route-sensitive; the fixed sequence only helps if you start clean.
Stoneship	Do the lighthouse chest/key sequence, charge the battery, use the 135-degree compass solution, and explore both brothers’ rooms.	The Age is short, but the water pump state can make simple cleanup feel messy.
Mechanical	Practice rotation, visit both side islands, look through optional room details, and return only after recording the symbols.	Most mistakes here come from rotating the fortress without knowing where it is facing.
Channelwood	Ride the tree elevator routes, view the brothers’ upper rooms, and make sure the return elevator is powered.	Water-flow state is the whole puzzle. Leave yourself a working return path.
Fireplace	Use one save to trigger the red-page, blue-page, no-white-page, and white-page outcomes.	Ending achievements are easiest when separated from a single fireplace save.
Rime	Unlock it after the good ending, run the furnace, watch the observation sequence, and solve the crystal-room interaction.	Rime cleanup is easy to miss because the story already feels complete.

Common Mistakes#

• Using fixed answers in randomized mode: if a value does not work, do not assume the guide is asking you to brute force. Return to the tower, book, or in-world clue that generates the answer.
• Forgetting the library books: the books are not just lore. They contain diagrams, constellations, fireplace patterns, and the logic behind several Ages.
• Entering an Age without saving: Myst is not hostile, but it can strand you until you solve that Age’s return route.
• Trusting Sirrus or Achenar: the red and blue pages are not a moral choice by themselves. The fireplace chamber is where the actual ending decision happens.
• Skipping Rime after the good ending: if you are only finishing the story, you can stop after helping Atrus. If you are cleaning achievements, go back.

Video Reference#

Sources And Credits#

Official metadata and screenshots are from Myst on Steam by Cyan Worlds, Inc. Route, ending, and achievement cleanup notes were cross-checked against community walkthrough and achievement references, plus the verified Video Games 101 full walkthrough video.