Lightbringer – Hints and Tips

Cydonia Mars, otherwise known as Lightbringer: Adventure on Mars, is a pretty nice adventure game. It came from a time when things like the Face on Mars sparked the immagination among the magically minded layman. The good news is that the game enshrouded in all of this martian mythology turned out to be at least moderately entertaining, if still very tough. Here is a quick guide through the many puzzles you will encounter.
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CONTENTS

1. The Lander
2. The Hovercraft
3. The Tholus
4. The Triskellion Object and Discus
5. The Face On Mars
6. The Pentapyramid
7. Upper Floor Puzzles
8. To The Garden
9. Inside The Garden
10. Terraforming and Returning

The Lander

After your three-person lander crashes, hook the cable in your inventory to the Auxiliary Computer Uplink to your left and then use your suit computer (represented by the helmet) to select Lander Uplink. Dump all the fuel from the fuel tanks.

Use the patch from BIN2B (COMPA1) in the Ready Room behind you (turn to your left after you enter the room) to patch the Engineer’s leaking faceplate. Use the fire extinguisher (in a cabinet to your right upon entering the Ready Room) to extinguish the fire down below (climb down the shaft in the Ready Room). Take the laser torch from the cabinet to the left of the outer door in the Ready Room and use it on the steel beam above the Commander’s feet to free her.

The Hovercraft

Open the Mainbay door (in the room where you extinguished the fire), turn to your left, go forward and then open the Automatic Door of the Hovercraft. Go to the control console and click on the button labeled “Engines.” Open the door. Outside, fly the Hovercraft down the canyon. Click on the button labeled “Jump-jets” to get out of the canyon.

The Tholus

Besides the landing site near the canyon there are three others. The Face on Mars (you land near a cave opening) is the closest. To the south is the Tholus (there’s a landing area at the top of a swirling rock mountain). Past that is the Pentapyramid (a series of steps lead to a stone portal).

Fly to the Tholus. Click the Hovercraft’s Remote Arm button to pull a plug out of the target-like stone at the top of the mountain. Shut down the engines and enter the hole.

The Triskellion Object and Discus

Go down twice to reach the Tholus Underdome. Go to the dark red sphere on the wall (the Triskellion Object). It is composed of three circles on the outside of a center which dispenses the nine pieces you’ll need to place in the Discus (opposite of the Triskellion). Clicking the circles rotates the nine planets. The combinations that dispense pieces are (top, left, right), Mercury, Venus, Pluto; Venus, Earth, Jupiter; Earth, Mars, Neptune; Mars, Mercury, Saturn; Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune; Saturn, Mars, Uranus; Neptune, Uranus, Mercury; Uranus, Venus, Pluto; and Pluto, Jupiter, Saturn.

Mercury is grey, Venus is orange, Earth is blue and green, Mars is orange and blue, Jupiter has dark stripes and a blue ring, Saturn is orange with an orange ring, Uranus is blue with a blue ring, Neptune is blue and Pluto is green and blue. Each piece has a symbol for that planet drawn on it (make a reference list of the symbols and their planet names for this walkthrough).

Each piece must be placed in the Discus in order of size. Jupiter must be placed first, then Saturn, Neptune, Uranus, Earth, Venus, Mars, Mercury, Pluto. They can only be placed where the pointing finger cursor indicates. Completing the Discus puts a small discus in your inventory (allowing you to automatically translate spoken aUI).

The Face On Mars

Enter the cave, and then go through the antigravity field. Go forward to the platform and go down the circular steps to the Brainframe—a floating inverted blue pyramid. Below it are groups of symbols that tell you what order you must strike the five gongs up above. Return to the center platform and face the door you came in. Go forward once and turn right, to go clockwise around the circle. Skip the first gong and click on the second, then return to the first and click on it. Go clockwise again and skip the second and third, clicking on first the fourth and then the fifth. Return to the third and click on it and then go back down to the Brainframe.

Note the three colors that flash (red, yellow, green, blue or white). The codes for Red are one small dark square, the symbol for Venus and the bottom half of a circle. Yellow: two squares, Venus, half circle. Green: three squares, Venus, half circle. Blue: four squares, Venus, half circle. White: headset, Venus, bottom half circle.

Access the control panel below the Brainframe and click on the symbols for the first color and then press on the center symbol. Do the same for the second and third color. Access the inverted pyramid again and three more colors will flash. Enter the symbols for them. Access the inverted pyramid once more and three more colors will flash. Enter the symbols for them. The blue pyramid should then turn into a star, and then become a talking head able to answer your questions.

The Pentapyramid

Fly to the pyramid and climb the steps. Open the stone portal. Climb down the stairs at the end of the tunnel. To open the door nearest the stairs select the symbol for Neptune on your discus, click on the Use button and then click the hand cursor on the door).

The first door contains the Judge Trial puzzle. Pick up the ten tokens, and examine them. They are all similar, but a red stripe across the bottom third of each one has a star or two triangles or three circles or four squares inside of it. Place the square with the star at the top of the Tree of Life, the three squares with two triangles beneath it, the three squares with the three circles beneath them and finally the three squares with the four squares at the bottom.

Turn around as if to exit. Do not exit up the ramp, however. Instead, turn right and climb the stairs to a ledge with a golden sphere on it. Open the sphere take what’s within and then exit up the ramp. Turn around and click on the right side of the door to advance to the next doorway. Repeat this sequence for all the other puzzles in the Pentapyramid.

The Mercury symbol opens the Laborer Trial puzzle door. Rotate the outer ring. Move the green block in the yellow section up one. Move the red block in the yellow section up one. Rotate the middle ring. Move the green block in the green section down one. Move the yellow block in the yellow section down one. Rotate the inner ring. Move the green block in the green section down one. Move the yellow block in the yellow section down one.

The Jupiter symbol opens the Merchant Trial puzzle door. Pick up the ten gemstones. Pull both levers down for the Merchant with two items. Place one gemstone in the now open drawer. Pull the first lever up, the second down for the Merchant with four items. Place two gemstones. Pull both levers up for the Merchant with five items. Place three gemstones. Pull the first lever down, the second lever up for the Merchant with six items. Place four gemstones.

The Venus symbol opens the door to the Scholar Trial puzzle. Pick up the 16 Chakra coins. Place two of a color in the hands of the statue corresponding to the color (two coins are not used). You now have Chakra teardrops in your inventory. Place them on their corresponding spinning colors. Arrange the spinning colors from top to bottom (beginning with the white plume at the top) in the order of the spectrum (white, violet, blue, green, yellow, orange and red).

The Uranus symbol opens the door leading to the Warrior Trial puzzle. The checkerboard has 21 squares (numbered top to bottom) The warriors must jump the other warriors with the gold warrior ending in the center (10 to 1, 1 to 12, 9 to 20, 20 to 13 and 13 to 11

Upper Floor Puzzles

Enter and climb the steps to the top. Click on the panel with the yellow sphere. Locate the Pentapyramid model on the diorama. Ignore the red top but rotate the five symbols below it so that they read (top down) Jupiter, Uranus, Venus, Neptune and Mercury.

Opposite of the diorama is the Sphere Control Panel. Click on it and four spheres light up. Each sphere has a yellow triangle that must be brought to the front of the sphere, apex pointing up to open an area where you can place the objects you found in the spherical chests. Place the red Diorama Crystal in the center of the configuration above the chair. Get in the chair and enter the five symbols that represent the word “open” (verb). Look them up on your computer, under Dictionary (the second symbol is a circle not an oval). Take the blue energy ball which appears.

To The Garden

Return to the Pentapyramid’s Great Hall and enter the crevice containing the pentagonal elevator. Click on the three pieces and stand on the elevator after they are arranged. Once inside the Capstone Timeship place the blue energy ball in the bowl.

Exit the ship and climb down the golden spire into the Whalesong Chamber. Stand in front of the area with only a single horizontal bar blocking the way out (this is the opening). Click on the four seashells in the following order. The top one on the left, the bottom one on the left, the top one on the right, the bottom one on the right.

Click on the opening and climb on back of the whale, and then click in front of the whale to be taken to a subsurface cavern where you’ll find a portal with pieces of the door labeled with a circle, a square, and the written letter “e”. Click on first the square, then the “e” and then the circle to open the door.

Inside The Garden

You must find 13 purple triangular pieces hidden throughout the garden. There is one on your left and one on your right in the first area you find. Go forward and find another near the stone with the symbols. To cross the bog logs first jump on the fourth one on the right side, then the one above it. Then jump diagonally to the one to the left beyond the center two. Then jump to the one just below the top one and finally jump to the top one. To the left and right are two more purple pieces. Advance up the stairs and find a piece to the left. Four other pieces are near a path to the left of the colored stones, and the last three are near a path to the right.

You’ll find a stone with a gold ring on it. Click on it and a white shape will appear. Click on its center corners to find adjoining white shapes. Clicking on the corners of those shapes will eventually reveal the pattern (see accompanying screenshot), that allows you to take the golden ring.

Go to the path left of the colored stones and assemble the pyramid on the circle near the tall pink plant. The symbols on the pyramid (once translated) tell you to use the laser torch on the vegetation blocking the light from the flower above and get another ring.

Return to the colored stones. The ambassador will appear in the clearing and give you the third ring once you talk to him. Take the three rings to the Brainframe in the Face on Mars. To cross back over the bog stumps jump over the first stone to the one below it, jump left to the next stone, then forward to the next and then jump to the stone just below the bottom stone. Finally, jump to the bottom stone.

Terraforming and Returning

On the left side of the Brainframe is the Terraforming Console. Place the three rings (red is first). The Defense Field Console solution is to click on the stones until you have the following colors. Top Arm (from the center: orange, red, green, purple, blue, yellow. Left Arm (from center): red, blue, yellow, orange, purple, blue. Right Arm (from center): blue, purple, yellow, green, orange, red. Then press the center stone to enter the code (lights will flash to signal that you have entered the correct code).

All that’s left to do is to return to the landing craft, climb up the shaft to the top, strap yourself down and push the big red button to your right.