Vane – How to Solve the Desert Puzzle

After you make your way through the prologue in Vane, you’ll take flight as a bird and begin soaring over a barren desert landscape. Knowing how to navigate through the desert can be tricky, as you’ll need to gather up your fellow bird friends in order to make progress. If you’re feeling stuck, we’ll help you by explaining how to solve the desert puzzle in Vane so you can gather enough birds around the weather vane to proceed to the next section.

Find the Windsocks

Windsocks are the keys to solving the desert puzzle in Vane’s first Act. There are several windsocks stationed throughout the desert, each with a group of birds gathered nearby. It’s up to you to find these windsocks and tell your fellow bird buddies to meet you at the large weather vane elsewhere in the desert.

When you approach a windsock, press and hold the Circle button to land and perch on top of the structure. Once you are perched, press Triangle to call out to your bird brethren. The nearby birds will flock to your location and sit with you on the windsock. This will cause the windsock to turn and point toward the large weather vane, and the nearby birds will take off in that direction.

There’s a good chance you’ll discover the large weather vane before you have gathered enough birds to trigger its interaction. When looking for windsocks, keep an eye out for a shiny glint of light in the distance. You will need to track down at least four different windsocks in order to free enough birds to topple the weather vane.

Once you’ve gathered enough birds, land and perch on one of the blades of the vane by holding the Circle button as you did with the windsocks. While perched, press Triangle to call out to the birds around you. If enough birds come to perch on the vane, the whole structure will topple, revealing new details in the valley below.

Escaping the Cave Station

While exploring the desert for windsocks, you may fly into a dark cavern that contains several mechanical tracks and levers. Perching on one of these mechanisms will grant you the Cave Station trophy. This area should not be confused with the cave puzzle that you will visit next in another part of the desert.

If you choose to fly deeper into this cavern, you will find a chamber that contains a glowing golden pile of glittery material on the ground. Landing in this gold glitter will transform you back into your child form, allowing you to trek up the surrounding staircases and earn the Transformation trophy. Other than unlocking two trophies, it appears that the cave station is an optional area in Vane.

To exit this area as a child, ascend the nearby staircases and go through the shutter door closest to the ground. This will lead you back outside to a small oasis in the desert, where you can find a windsock. We aren’t sure what’s through the shuttered passage higher up the wall, but you are free to explore this doorway instead if you wish. Trek through water or jump off a ledge if you wish to transform back to a bird and take flight again.

There you have it. Once you have gathered enough birds to topple the large vane, the desert puzzle will be complete and you can move on to solving the cave puzzle in Vane’s second Act.