One of the optional things you can complete in Chapter 1 of Life is Strange: Double Exposure involves the Abraxas Puzzle Box. It’s an easy little side task that’s easy to miss if you don’t know where to look.
Life is Strange: Double Exposure is filled with side tasks for Max to complete, and many of them aren’t required to progress. However, completing them anyway may or may not unlock additional content further down the line, so exploring every scene thoroughly is recommended.
How to find the Abraxas Puzzle Box in Life is Strange: Double Exposure
To find the Abraxas Puzzle Box, you’ll need to approach Reggie after heading to campus to meet with Yasmin, but before you enter the building itself. You can find Reggie sitting in the shelter just beyond the R.I.P. Graffiti Rock, which is close by when the cutscene with Amanda ends.
If you’ve already completed Chapter 1, don’t worry; you can go back to this specific point by opening the Main Menu, selecting “Chapter Select,” then “Chapter 1,” then “Back to School Blues.”
As you approach Reggie, you’ll automatically enter into a cutscene where you’ll see him throw a wooden box to the ground in frustration. After the cutscene ends, you can either pick up the box immediately or talk to Reggie. Talking to him will open a dialogue to talk about Safi and the previous events of the chapter.
After the discussion ends, interact with the box and select “Take” to spark another cutscene with Reggie, during which he’ll tell you that it’s an Abraxas Puzzle box and there are goodies inside, but only for those who are able to open it. It’s designed to test a key Abraxas virtue — the eye for detail.
How to solve the first layer of the Abraxas Puzzle Box in Life is Strange: Double Exposure
To solve the first layer of the Abraxas Puzzle Box, you’ll need to first inspect it thoroughly. Start by rotating it in all directions to see what’s on each side. The side you need to worry about first, though, is the one with the Founder’s Statue:
Interact with this side, and Max will comment that it’s missing something — his second bird. This is your hint for which side you need to inspect next, so now you’ll need to find the side with a bird on it:
After interacting with the side that shows a bird, Max will notice that the center image is surrounded by Max, and ask Reggie for a lighter. Reggie will use his lighter to melt the wax, and the center image of the bird will fall out. When you’re looking at the Abraxas Puzzle Box again, rotate it until you can see the Founder’s Statue and the option to “Place bird.”
Do this, and then the box will open, only to reveal another slightly smaller box that will presumably need to be solved later on. Reggie will hand over the Puzzle Boz to you, and you’ll stash it away in your bag.
How to solve the second layer of the Abraxas Puzzle Box in Life is Strange: Double Exposure
The next opportunity you’ll have to mess around with the Abraxas Puzzle Box won’t come until the final scene in Chapter 2, when Moses is waiting for you down in the Dark Room after you’ve retrieved Safi’s camera from the hiding place in his office.
When you get to Max’s house, make sure you’re in the Dead World and then head to the kitchen to find the Puzzle Box sitting on the counter next to the sink:
The second layer of the box is much more difficult than the first, and you’ll need to know a little something about constellations (something we saw a lot of in the previous scene) in order to complete it. Or, you can just keep reading, and we’ll give you the answers.
However you choose to proceed, interact with the box and rotate it until you find the side with constellations and four movable pegs:
Interacting with this side will zoom in slightly and allow you to move the pegs. To get this right and complete this layer, you’ll need to move the pegs in the following configuration:
- Move the first peg down two notches
- Move the second peg down two notches
- Move the third peg down one notch
- Move the fourth peg down two notches
In the end, it should look something like this, completing the shown constellation:
Completing this face of the box will cause a panel to pop open and a dial to be ejected from the side of the box. Take the dial, then find the face that matches it to add the second dial, as shown below:
This will cause both dials to become movable. While this might seem daunting, as there are a lot of possible combinations with two moving dials, the answer is pleasingly simple. All you need to do is leave the outer dial completely alone, instead turning the inner one that you just placed to the right twice. When you’ve done that, the box lid will pop open.
Removing the lid from the box will reward you with an Abraxas Pin, making Max an official member of the Abraxas Society.
What happens when you solve the Abraxas Puzzle Box in Life is Strange: Double Exposure?
Honestly, not a whole lot. There is an achievement for completing the Box, so it’s definitely something you should do as you progress through the story, but other than that, it’s all a bit anticlimactic.
The next time you hear anything about the Box will be in the third scene of Chapter 3, when you’re in the Admin building talking to Vinh and Diamond. This discussion seems to be the trigger for Max getting a text message in the Dead World from an unknown number, congratulating her on solving the box and welcoming her to the Abraxas Society.
After that, the only time it comes up again is during Chapter 4. While Max is at the Krampus Party in the Living World, and after coming up with the plan to expose Lucas with Safi, you can walk by a couple of students in the corner near the pirate and cat mural. They’ll shout out, “One of us!”
Published: Nov 3, 2024 07:40 am