Notebook territory

From puzzles you solve by looking to puzzles you solve by writing things down. Nothing here tests your reflexes at all.

Climbs puzzle2.4 → 9.5 for you7 rungstypical step +1.6

Start at the bottom: Unpacking. Where you get on is the rung after the deepest one you have marked beaten.

1 rung sits easier for you than the one before it. The order is authored for an average player and your aptitudes disagree with it here. It is left as written rather than re-sorted: the curator’s claim is about what each game prepares you for, which is not the same claim as “this one scores lower”.

These numbers are for an average player. Calibrate and the whole path re-reads itself against you.

1
Unpacking
2021 · Witch Beam · ~4h
2.4PUZ
Puzzles whose right answer you already know. It builds the habit of reading a space for intent, with nothing riding on getting it wrong.
Start here
2
Dorfromantik
2022 · Toukana Interactive · ~15h
4.0PUZ
Spatial reasoning with a scoreboard attached. The first rung where a solution has to account for the moves it makes impossible.
+1.6 jump
3
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
2017 · Nintendo EPD · ~55h
4.5PUZ
Puzzles as physics rather than as locks. Several solutions, all of them legitimate, which is the idea Outer Wilds later takes to its conclusion.
+0.5 step
4
Portal
2007 · Valve · ~3h
6.5PUZ
One mechanic, taught properly, then examined from every angle. The cleanest tutorial in games, and a real step up in what it expects you to hold in your head.
+2.0 jump
5
Outer Wilds
2019 · Mobius Digital · ~22h
6.2PUZ
The lock is your own understanding. Nothing in the world changes when you solve something — you do. Expect to take notes; expect them to be the save file.
−0.3 stepEasier for you than the rung below
6
Into the Breach
2018 · Subset Games · ~15h
7.8PUZ
A puzzle wearing a strategy game. Every turn is a solvable board state, and it will show you precisely how badly you read it.
+1.6 jump
7
Baba Is You
2019 · Hempuli · ~20h
9.5PUZ
The rules themselves are the pieces. The ceiling of this axis in the catalogue, and the only rung where being good at puzzles is not obviously an advantage.
+1.7 jump