Map room: how to read a coordinate
Also searched as: Map Room / where is the map / folding map / how do coordinates work
- Players
- 1 player or more
- Time
- 5 minutes, provided the red tower is cleared
- Coordinates
- 3560, 1425
- Reward
- Folding map + compass + laser pointer + Big View achievement
The short answer
Take the gold key on the red tower roof, cut its shape on the cutter at the tower's base, open the map room door. Inside is the whole island as a 3D map built into the floor, and you also pick up the folding map, the compass and the laser pointer. How to read a coordinate: for a 4-digit number, take the first two digits as a grid line - 4166 means line 41 vertical, 1899 means line 18 horizontal, and where those two lines cross is your cell.
The map room is the island's decoder. Without it every later coordinate puzzle is just noise, which is the real reason 4166/1899 has the highest stuck rate on the site. The red tower is the only tower where doing it first pays off everywhere else, which is why the community puts it first.
Before you start
- Any 5 puzzles around the red tower (collect the 5 control panel parts)
- Technically 1 player is enough, but bring everybody in to collect a map
Step-by-step5 steps
- 1
Collect all 5 parts
Finish any 5 puzzles around the red tower and fit the 5 parts into the control panel on the tower top.
- 2
Take the key and cut it
Bring the gold key down from the tower top and give it its shape on the very obvious red cutter at the base of the red tower.
- 3
Open the map room
The map room is a large blue building with a long red staircase beside it, right next to the first radio transmitter you meet after crossing the drawbridge. Insert the key at the door.
- 4
Take three things
Folding Map, compass, Laser Pointer. The folding map is the one you must take - every later coordinate puzzle depends on it.
Faster:Everyone should come in and take one. The map is a personal item, not a shared one.
- 5
Learn to read a coordinate (the most important paragraph on this page)
The grid lines around the floor map are numbered. A four-digit number is not a code, it is "which line to walk": 4166 means vertical line 41, 1899 means horizontal line 18, and the intersection of those two lines is the cell. Go find that cell on the ground.
Faster:You can also read it as 41.66 x 18.99 - the first two digits pick the cell, the last two subdivide it.
Schematic: how to read a coordinate. 4166 means vertical line 41, 1899 means horizontal line 18, and their intersection is the target cell.
Where it goes wrong
These are the questions real players search for most. Working through them in order usually finds the cause.
After finishing:The whole island, the ability to read coordinates, the Big View achievement, and the prerequisite for every coordinate puzzle after this.
Video walkthrough2 videos
Click a thumbnail to play it here, or click the title to open the original on YouTube.
Where this solution came from
The map room entrance (3560, 1425) and the red tower (3670, 1400) come from Screen Hype. The reading rule - first two digits are a grid line - is stated the same way by allthings.how, bizznerd and bigwalkguide.com.
Puzzles in this game are not assigned in a fixed order: most of them reward the same generic red gourd, so you can clear any set of challenges around a tower. 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.