Vane – How to Solve the Cave Puzzle

After finally finding a way out of the desert in Vane, players will enter a dark cave within the valley where a series of pulleys and levers await. If you find yourself stumped while trying to figure out a way out of this cave, don’t worry. In this guide, we’ll explain how to get the ball moving to help you solve the cave puzzle in Vane’s second act.

How to Escape the Cave in Vane

Act 2 of Vane starts players out in a dark cave that contains the remains of some crumbling machinery. The brightly lit exit door is easy to spot from the moment you enter the chamber. How to open this door, however, is not so obvious. The goal here is to find a way to get some of the transformative golden glitter close enough to the door so that you can transform into a child and walk through the exit. This is where the conveyor machinery comes in.

If you’ve already taken the time to fly around the chasm a bit, you will notice that there is a rectangular perch attached to the machinery directly across from the exit door. Just like with the large vane outside in the desert, you will need to gather up several more birds so that all of you can perch atop this contraption and send a ball of golden glitter over to the exit platform.

Free the Birds

Since you are probably already flying around as a bird at this point, soar about the cave and look for birds hanging inside cages. There will usually be several distressed birds flying around nearby to bring attention to the cage. Hold the Circle button to land and perch above these cages and press Triangle to free the imprisoned birds. They will make their way over toward the exit and wait for your signal when the time comes.

Roll the Gold Balls

Some caged birds can only be freed while you are in child form. This is where the next part of the cave puzzle begins. As a bird, fly to the opposite end of the cavern and look for a glitter pile that you can use to transform.

Once you have transformed into a child, walk along the nearby path to find a caged bird within arm’s reach. Interact with the cage using the Circle button to free the bird.

Continue along the path away from the glitter pile. Up the steps ahead, you’ll spot a golden ball. Push the ball off the edge of the ledge to send it along the conveyor line. This is the ball of transformative glitter that you’ll use to exit the cave in Vane.

Remaining as a child, continue following the debris-covered path along the back wall. Near the ledge, you’ll find another smaller golden ball attached to a chain. Push the ball over the edge to send it flying off the beam and onto the platform across the chasm. The ball will burst, leaving glitter on the ground that you can use to transform.

Jump off the edge and fly over to the opposite platform where the ball landed. Transform back into a child using the golden pile and head up the staircase. A short distance away, you’ll spot another caged bird. Make your way over and interact with the cage to send the bird over to the others.

Activate the Mechanism

After freeing the caged birds and sending the large golden ball down the track, fly back towards the exit door and land on top the rectangular mechanism from earlier. While perched, call out to the other birds by pressing Triangle. If you’ve gathered enough birds, the mechanism should lift the track and reconnect the two beams, allowing the golden ball to travel toward the exit.

The second beam will break, causing the golden ball to shatter and leave behind a pile of transformative glitter. Trek through the glitter pile to transform back into a child and push through the exit door.

Free the Birds, Again

You’re not free from the cave just yet. Continue up the stairs to reach the next part of the cave puzzle in Vane.

In this room, there are a series of caged birds surrounding a large column of gold glitter. You will need to go up the stairs around the room and pull the lever that frees each bird from their cages.

Reaching the levers for the first few cages is pretty easy. It’s the last cage that you may have some trouble with, as it requires you to walk along the metal walkway to reach the upper staircase leading to the final lever.

Upon freeing the last bird, the structure will shift and reveal a large ball in the center of the room. The desert outside will go through some changes as well, signaling the end of Act 2. At this point, the game will save and you will have successfully solved the cave puzzle in Vane.