Starter Guide to The House of Da Vinci 3

There are countless puzzles big and small in The House of Da Vinci 3, the masterful conclusion to Blue Brain Games’s acclaimed trilogy.

To help you in your quest to reach the end of the game and rescue Giacomo from his time-travelling predicament, we thought it would be a good idea to break down a few of the early puzzles and explain a bit about how the game works. 

This isn’t a walkthrough. We’re not baking the cake for you, but rather giving you a recipe so you can get there yourself in a (mostly) spoiler-free way.

Good luck!

Look Everywhere

The first thing you have to do in The House of Da Vinci 3 is find the pieces of your shattered Oculus Perpetua. Without it, you’ll have no way of dealing with the rats that are blocking the way out of the catacomb. 

There are several puzzles in The House of Da Vinci 3 that involve mechanisms with missing parts, and in this opening section you’ll need to scour the catacomb for all the bits you need. 

You start by shoving the statue that’s to your left when the game begins. The statue tips over and a partially folded tool clatters on the ground. Once you’ve unfolded this in your inventory, you use it to open the gate that’s straight in front of you. 

At this point the game helpfully zooms in on a piece of the Oculus Perpetua hanging from a chandelier, and another trapped in some kind of pulley mechanism to your right. To get them you’ll need to scour your environment looking for tools, parts, and so on. 

You get the picture. A lot of The House of Da Vinci 3 is just looking for stuff, so keep those eyes peeled..

Look for Hidden Compartments

Hidden compartments are a huge part of The House of Da Vinci 3. 

The gameplay is linear, with areas that you’ve completed closing off behind you and items vanishing from your inventory once they’ve fulfilled their purpose. If you’re stuck, it’s normally because you can’t find something. 

And if you can’t find something, it’s often concealed in a hidden compartment. 

The first of these is located in a vaulted hall just beyond the catacomb. There’s a lectern, lit up by two candles. Zoom up to it and then move around to the back and you’ll see a nondescript panel beneath two white buttons. Slide these together to open the panel. 

In general, you should always be on the lookout for concealed drawers and opening mechanisms. Always subject everything to full 360-degree scrutiny. 

Using the Oculus Perpetua

The Oculus Perpetua has two functions. 

At certain moments in the game you can use it to create a portal to the past, where you can make changes that affect the present. 

For instance, in the catacombs you create a portal leading to a point in time when the building was still under construction. Here you open a panel in a pillar revealing a chain with a dodgy link. By fiddling with the mechanism you can break this link, which in turn drops a heavy metal lid onto a well. 

When you return to the present day, the well is covered and the rats are nowhere to be seen. 

The other function of the Oculus Perpetua is to expose the inner workings of machines. You’ll use this ability immediately after blocking the well. 

Head down the corridor and up some stairs. You’ll find a door with an elaborate locking mechanism operated with three wooden handles. 

Using your Oculus Perpetua lets you see into the lock and move these handles to the correct positions.

In general, it’s a good idea to look at every environment and object through your Oculus Perpetua, just in case. 

What Am I Thinking?

Moments later you’ll come up against your first puzzle of the type we like to call What Am I Thinking?

If you’ve played The Witness before, you’ll know what these puzzles are all about. Each one has its own logic that you need to work out through experimentation. 

First you need to remove the panel from the front of the dragon-headed stove by sliding the two catches outwards. This allows the dragon to breathe fire.

Next you need to use your Oculus Perpetua to expose the symbols on the stove, before bringing the rectangular symbol around to the front. 

Finally, you need to pull the handle on the stove to swing the dragon head around so that it’s facing the pillar on the stairs. Then turn the handle on the bellows to make it breathe fire. 

You’re unlikely to be able to solve a puzzle like that at first glance. You need to play around with the game to work out what it’s asking you to do. 

And that’s the key to completing The House of Da Vinci 3. If you can get the hang of looking everywhere, finding hidden compartments, using your Oculus Perpetua, and thinking laterally about some of the more obscure puzzles, you’ll be just fine.

You can download The House of Da Vinci 3 for yourself via the App Store now.

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