When you first awaken in the bio-mechanical nightmare world of Scorn, one thing is made immediately clear: you’re on your own. The game gives you zero guidance, explanation, or standard tutorial. It’s almost Myst-like in its opacity… just less sunny and inviting, and more relentlessly bleak and slimy.

Given the obscurity of the Scorn’s introduction, getting through the first stretch can be a challenge, especially with the tough puzzles riddling the halls that are required to progress. But once you make it through the prologue area, you’ll be rewarded with the the first weapon in the game (which we’re calling the “rifle,” though it functions a bit more like a slaughterhouse bolt stunner than a traditional gun), which will assist you through the subsequent, more combat-centric levels.

Here’s how to get your hands on the rifle in Scorn.

Getting to the elevator

When you first awaken in Scorn, you’ll find yourself standing in front a door with a strange, cryptic panel next to it. Ignore this door (and all other identical doors in the area), and instead walk down the hallway to your left. Keep going until you reach a platform overlooking a large area below.

From here, head down the path to your right, and pry open the door at the end of the hall. Stick your arm in the machine to your left to have a grotesque key implanted in your arm. Now head to the device facing the large door in the center of the room, which you’ll now be able to insert your hand inside of to control. Toggle to the left to open the latch, then toggle right to slide the door open. It will start to close as soon as you exit the contraption, so sprint (using L1) to the door as fast as possible to make it through in time.

You will now find yourself standing in the large room that the previous platform overlooked. Head to the right and through the door, where you’ll find yourself in a room with a decidedly unhygienic-looking surgical contraption. Look to the left to find the elevator. Insert your hand into the controller to get to the second floor.

Claw puzzle

Head down the hall and onto the platform. Here, you’ll see a grid on the wall before you, with strange, egg-like orbs–some solo, and some connected in pairs–filling the slots, and two contraptions on the platform you’re standing on. The one on the right controls a claw to move the orbs along the grid; the one on the left makes another claw grab at the top-left slot of the grid.

This puzzle is essentially just a large-scale, slightly more horrific version of those sliding tile puzzles you probably played with as a kid. To start, jump on the right contraption, and move the solo glowing orb into the upper-left slot on the grid. (To do this, simply move to connected horizontal two-piece standing in its way above to the right and out of the way). Get on the left contraption to make the claw grab and break the orb, thus freeing up a slot on the grid and making it easier to complete the puzzle.

Your ultimate goal is to get the other glowing orb (which is connected to a second orb below it) into the top-left slot. This process can be quite a bit tricky, depending on how spatially-minded you are, so don’t worry if it takes some trial and error. The basic strategy is to move all the orbs as far right on the grid as possible to clear a path for your glowing orb, without blocking your path. There is no one right way to accomplish this task. For one possible (and imperfect) solution, check out the video below:

Once you get the second glowing orb into the upper-left of the grid, hop back on the contraption to the left. The claw will grab the orb and turn it around, unveiling a mangled, bloodied humanoid creature within it, and send it down to the first floor on an elevator of sorts. Time to go meet your new friend!

Dismembering the creature

Take the elevator back down to the first floor. Before introducing yourself to your new “companion,” climb to the top of the tower in the center of the main room. Here, you can interact with the contraption to get a bird’s-eye view of the area, and adjust the three junctions of the rail that wraps around the room.

To get the creature where we want him, make sure the bottom right rail junction is open (i.e. leading into the room), and the other two are closed (i.e. continuing the loop around the room).

Now, head back down to find the creature. You’ll see him in an opening on the ceiling, facing the center of the room. Interact with the contraption facing him, and use the crane to scoop him out of the opening and bring him down to the chair below. Time to take him on a ride!

Push the cart the creature is sitting in along the track. It will stop a short ways ahead; use the contraption at the stop to grotesquely drill some piece of metal into the creature, then continue along. Eventually, you’ll come to a stop in front of the surgical device in the elevator room.

Use the outer contraption to pick up the creature and place him in the chair of the surgical device. Then hop on the surgical device’s control panel. The machine will proceed to scoop the creature out of his shell, and drop him into a hole below, leaving his dismembered arm behind. Pick it up, and head out the door back into the main room.

From here, continue along the perimeter, and into the other room you haven’t yet explored. Here, you will find another hand machine, just like you used on yourself earlier. Stick the creature’s arm into the device to implant the key into it, then head back out into the main room and find the large door with two contraptions in front of it.

Stick the creature’s arm into the left device. This will unlatch the locking contraption, and allow you to use the right device to open the door.

Note: You can also get the door open by wheeling the creature into the room where you found the second hand machine, and using the saw chair there to set him free. He will follow you around, stick his arm into the hand machine, and then into the door device, allowing you to unlock it. However, he moves at a snails pace, and is ultimately a sad sight to behold. Better to just put him out of his misery and spare yourself the time and… well, scorn.

Getting the rifle

Head through the large doorway, and take the elevator up at the end of the hall. You’ll find yourself in a large corridor, with two doors leading into new areas on either side of the hall. However, before venturing into them, head to the far end of the corridor. Stand on the platform to unlock the rifle. With your first weapon equipped, you’re now free to take on the subsequents puzzles and enemies in subsequent areas, and continue your exploration of the disgusting labyrinth that is Scorn.