How to Solve the Phone Book and Oscars Puzzle in Syberia: The World Before
After Kate’s escape from the salt mines, Syberia: The World Before picks up a year later in Vaghen, the game’s main setting. Although there’s plenty of sightseeing to be done, Kate is there to unravel the mystery of the painting she’s found among the stolen treasures in Russia. His only clue is the leather tube that contained the painting.
From this point on you are on your own – players will need to investigate the origin of the leather case to find the next track. You will also have to solve a puzzle to reunite Kate with Oscar, her mechanical companion. Read on to find out how.
How to choose the store to search
After the opening conversation in Vaghen, inspect the old phone book on the coffee table. Each entry can be ruled out as a possibility or checked to indicate it could be the origin of the painting Katyusha showed Kate.
You have to check off the three most likely candidates. The best matches for stores that might have sold the paint box are:
| Store | Phone book location | Map coordinates | Business hours |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lender | First page, bottom right. | D3 | 10:00 – 20:00 |
| General store | Second page, top left. | E5 | 9:30 a.m. – 7:00 p.m. |
| antique dealer | Second page, center right. | C4 | 9:00 – 19:00 |
Once you have selected your candidates, Kate will focus on a map of Vaghen. Like before, check the map coordinates associated with the stores you have chosen. Select C4, D3 and E5.
From here you can observe each location to see if the company in the phone book still exists. Choose the Antique shop at C4 – even though the original no longer exists, there are many similar businesses in the same area.
While you are in the living room, you can use the computer in the corner to delete the three years of emails that have accumulated since Kate left New York in the first game. Doing so earns the Blank slate hug.
After selecting the right store, go to your room, looking around the guesthouse as you do so. Kate’s bedroom is the rightmost of the three doors in the upstairs hall – enter and retrieve the array. It’s on the desk, under your wallet. Take both and head to the lobby on the ground floor. If you want, you can also get backstory by interacting with the bed.
Speak to Frau Wagner at reception for directions to the tram station and any other information you may need. Explore the area around the guesthouse to complete the secondary stage objective, then hop on the tram at the top of the stairs as Frau Wagner said.
After a cutscene in which Kate eavesdrops on a conversation between her traveling companions, you can enjoy the sights of Vaghen for as long as you want before select Continue get off the tram. Once you’re gone, walk in the street until you see the antique shops of Müller and Sohn on your left. There is a note on the doorwhich helps the store stand out from others nearby.
Müller’s is closed for inventory, but Kate sees a automaton in the window created by his late friend and mentor Hans Voralberg. The note on the door says to ring three times in case of emergency, so knock three times on the door to attract the merchant’s attention.
Talk to Herr Müller to find out where the painting was made, then Kate will ask you to try to connect Oscar’s heart to the Voralberg room from the window.
How to Open the Voralberg Sphere and Install Oscar’s Heart
When Kate receives the Voralberg Sphere, you will be presented with the game’s first major mechanical puzzle. Follow these steps to complete it:
- start with pulling the levers on the left and right sides of the sphere. This will expose a dial on each side that cannot be rotated yet.
- Then rotate the sphere so you are looking at the opposite side, near the engraved serial number.
- Under the serial number, adjust plates so the holes at the top of the screen line up, and a button will appear.
- Press the button and the sphere will eject a thumbnail element.
- Take the item and press the button at the end to make it a key.
- Go back to the sides of the device and press the button in the center of each dial. Dials can now be moved.
- Alternating between the two dials, enter the serial number – 293670 – by turning the knobs in turn so that the arrow points to the next correct number in the sequence. One dial has odd numbers, the other has even numbers. If you make a mistake, you will have to start entering the combination again.
- Insert the miniature element into the hole that appears.and rotate it clockwise until the panel comes off.
- Utilize Oscar’s Heart on the revealed compartment.
- Open the lens by by dragging it to the right.
- Insert the miniature element into the heart and rotate it clockwise for several seconds to activate the mechanism.
How to Hunt Oscar in the Antique District
After activating the mechanism, Oscar struggles to control his new body and takes place in the street. Walk to the left and you will come across a wooden chest that Oscar has locked himself in. Talk to Oscar through the keyhole, then watch the lock.
The vault owner, annoyed by the situation, tells Kate to find the correct key in his stall. There is a heart shaped key on the table to the right, a Figure eight key in the drawer at the bottom left of the screen, and the Circle- and Diamond shaped keys on the left panel.
Look at the inlay on the chest, and use the key whose shape matches the inlay. In the image above, for example, the heart-shaped key is used.
When the box opens, Oscar will jump. Approach him on the street and he will flee again. Inspect the stall he ran to. Look under the chest of drawers at the back of the cabin and interact with oscar When you see him. Oscar is unable to move now, so Kate has to find something to help her.
Go back to the main stand view and take the broom to your right. Follow the instructions to push Oscar with the broom, and he’ll come back to the street. Approach him again and he will flee by the neighboring stairs.
When Kate reaches the top of the stairs, Oscar jump over a railing to the street below. When the game switches to first person view, Look for Oscar across the street and to your left, near a simple wooden box.
Call Oscar, and he’ll move again. This time it won’t be in plain sight, but you can hear metal banging to your right. Watch for piles of stirring pots and pans – this is Oscar’s new location. Call him again, and he’ll run down a dead end alley. Go down the stairs and follow him.
After the cutscene, back to Muller then head for the tram at the entrance to the area to get to Silberspiegel HutKate’s next destination.
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