The Circular Oasis is a barren desert accentuated by an inset oasis and Tower. And that central feature may be more important than you realize, when it comes to playing “Find the Switch” with a Sphinx and “Find the Beam” with Pandora. Featuring one of the most difficult puzzle pieces of all, this guide will help you figure out both of the Oasis’s Statues in order to collect their illusive (or perhaps illusory?) Stars.
The Star Statue Puzzles in The Talos Principle 2 are puzzles dotted throughout the 12 regions of game, with 2 Statues in each region. Solving them allows you to acquire Stars, and once you have them all, you’ll be able to enter the Astronomical Temple near the Megastructure.
There are 3 different kinds of Star Statue Puzzles: Prometheus Puzzles, which require you to chase his sprites through the region; Pandora Puzzles, which require to you connect her box to a beam to activate; and Sphinx Puzzles, which require you to solve a key placard.
Circular Oasis (South 3) Pandora Puzzle
To solve the Pandora puzzle in the Circular Oasis, start by taking a look at the statue itself, on the east side of the explorable area. Notice that this Pandora’s box doesn’t have a Green Receiver, but actually has a Red Receiver, unlike usual (Image 1).
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To start, head to Puzzle 2 (Image 2), and use the Connector readily available to connect the Blue Generator in the Puzzle (Image 3) to the Blue Receiver on the region’s Tower (Image 4).
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Next, you may need to navigate the puzzle slightly to bring the two Connector from the side of the puzzle into the main part of the puzzle, and to ensure one opening in the spinning platform is facing the Red Generator, and that the other is facing the passage to the right (Image 5).
Once you’ve done that, use one Connector to connect to the Red Generator and place it on the spinning platform (Image 6). Then, grab the third Connector of the puzzle and connect it to the now-red Connector (Image 7), and then also to the Connector on the spire that rose out of the Tower, which rose out to the right of the Blue Receiver on the tower (Image 8).
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The final result of Puzzle 2 should look like Image 9 below.
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To get the beam to Pandora, head to Puzzle 3 (Image 10) and then look in the left-front corner. If you have completed the puzzle (and only if you have completed the puzzle), a Connector will be there, hidden away (Image 11). Take this connector and place it on the moving platform you used during the puzzle (Image 12), and then use the box to power the platform to take both you and the Connector up (Image 13).
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Once at a good vantage point, connect the Connector to the now-red spire on the Tower (Image 14), and then to the Red Receiver on Pandora’s box (Image 15), which will complete the puzzle.
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Now all that is left is for you to return to the Statue and collect your Star (Image 16).
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Circular Oasis (South 3) Sphinx Puzzle
To complete the Sphinx Puzzle in the Circular Oasis, star by heading to the Statue, between Puzzles 3 and 4 (Image 1), and get a good look at the Key on the placard (Image 2), which renders a map of the region. The top of the map corresponds to the north side, with the “filled in” structure on the top edge of the circle being the structure with the Gate and Elevator.
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To actually complete the Puzzle, you will need to go to the places indicated by the three X’s on the placard and flip a switch. The first one is on the side of Puzzle 1 (Image 3). Go around the Puzzle to the left, and look for two sloping pillars going into the ground (Image 4). On the pillar to the right, hidden from view by a lip on the structure, is the first switch (Image 5).
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Next, go next door to Puzzle 2 (Image 6). Once again, go around this puzzle to the left, until you get to a point where the building looks a little like a ribcage (Image 7). In the first “gap” between “ribs”, there will be a switch, nestled right in an indent in the center of the gap (Image 8).
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The final switch is down in the “Oasis” area, which you can access by first going to the structure with the Gate/Elevator (Image 9) and taking that Elevator down (Image 10). Once down there, go straight forward and slightly to the right until you reach a Terminal (Image 11). The Switch will be just past the Terminal, requiring you to tread water to activate it (Image 12).
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Once you have flipped all three switches, you will get an audio cue, letting you know that you should head back to the Statue to collect your Star (Image 13).
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Collecting both Stars in the region will make progress toward opening up the Astronomical Temple outside the Megastructure, but you will need all 24 Stars from each of the 12 Regions in order to do so. Check out our other Star Statue guides for information.
Graves is an avid writer, web designer, and gamer, with more ideas than he could hope to achieve in a lifetime. But, armed with a mug of coffee and an overactive imagination, he'll try. When he isn't working on a creative project, he is painting miniatures, reading cheesy sci-fi novels, or making music.
