Bridge and the first key
Also searched as: How do I start / how do I open the drawbridge / sandcastle key
The short answer
The starting beach has 4 fixed puzzles in any order. Once you have the 4 red gourds, walk the gold key through the area's 5 key cutters - three on the north side, two on the beach - and put it in the drawbridge to drop the deck.
- Players
- 2 players or more
- Time
- 20-30 minutes
- Location
- Starting beach
- Reward
- Bridge opens + first gold key
In the sources this site checked (the games.gg Chinese guide, Sportskeeda, and SolveBase's gameplay video), those 4 puzzles on the starting beach are the same layout in the same order, and only the later towers change with player count. Which means any guide's opening steps apply to your group.
Before you start
- At least 2 players: the mechanical arm and the cave crate are physically impossible alone
- Grab a flashlight while you are here - night falls very fast on this island
- Take a radio, you will want it the first time the team splits up
Step-by-step 6 steps
- 1
Blue Room - one person gets locked in, the other reproduces the pattern
Take the first left off the starting path into the blue room. The player who goes in gets locked inside and sees a pattern on the screen; they have to describe it to the teammate outside, who recreates it on the pin board by the door. Match it and the gourd is yours.
Faster: Describe by shape plus position, never "I think it is the third one" - you may be counting from opposite ends.
Schematic: separated communication. One side can only look, the other can only act, and the channel between them is cut on purpose - orange barn, silent room, interrogation room and beach house all fit this model. - 2
Green Structure - several switches at the same moment
On the left of the starting area. A set of switches here has to be active at the same instant. Take your positions, count 3-2-1, press together.
- 3
Mechanical Arm - build up to reach a high switch
Walk the starting path to its end and look for the L-shaped machinery. There is a switch no single player can reach: one stands on another's shoulders, goes up, and presses it. The gourd drops.
Faster: The person on top holds still and the person below does not move. Agree who is going up before anyone climbs.
- 4
Cave Crate - one holds the telescope, one runs to the box
There is a sealed crate near the rocks. Go to the right of the map and use the telescope to activate and mark it; the activation only lasts while someone stays at the telescope, so a second player has to sprint out to the crate and open it inside that window.
Faster: The moment nobody is on the telescope the crate deactivates. One holds, one runs - you cannot both leave.
Schematic: holding vs pressing. This game has both kinds of mechanism - if your switch drops the moment you let go, that is usually where the problem is. The release behaviour of this particular timer has no source we could check yet, see the sources page. - 5
Cut the gold key on all 5 cutters
With the 4 gourds done, walk the key cutters in this area: three on the north side, two on the beach. Passing the key through each one in turn brings its shape closer to the lock.
Faster: It has to be all 5. Skip one and the shape never matches.
- 6
Put it in the drawbridge
Insert the finished key into the drawbridge mechanism and the deck comes down. On the far side you will see a blue doorway, one cutter, and a locked door - that is the map room, and it stays locked until the red tower is done.
Where it goes wrong
These are the places players actually get stuck most often. Working through them in order usually finds the cause.
Other Drawbridge area puzzles
After finishing: Opens the red area, and you get a sight of the map room (unreachable until the red tower is cleared).
More videos
Click a thumbnail to play it here, or click the title to open the original on YouTube.
Where this solution came from
The 4-puzzle layout and the flow of 4 gourds to 5 cutters to the bridge is identical across the games.gg Chinese guide, Sportskeeda, and SolveBase's gameplay video - which is all those three cover; they say nothing about a universal "only fixed layout in the game". The three-on-the-north-side, two-on-the-beach cutter split is also consistent across those three.
Puzzles in this game are not assigned in a fixed order: each tower needs a set number of gourds and has more challenges around it than that, so you choose which ones to clear, in any order. That is why two guides list different puzzle line-ups for the same tower — neither is wrong. Unless a coordinate is credited to a named source it is a community measurement, and later versions can shift it; once you are in the area, trust the landmark over the number.