The workers’ quarters portion of Signalis is a long and harrowing one. But once you’ve collected all the keys, taped someone’s favorite cassette back together, and gone through somebody’s mail, you’re left with an astrolabe and a spot to put it. Rest assured, this is the final puzzle of the workers’ quarters, but it is also, fittingly, the most obtuse.

To solve it, you’re going to need to look to the stars, or rather, the planets. Locking your belongings away is neither the typical form nor function of an astrolabe, but the box it holds shut is also mentioned as being mysterious, so just go with it.

Finding the astrolabe

The astrolabe is found in the library, which you can enter once you find the library key in post office box 512. Once you enter, there’s a Kolibri Replika in a bad way, but more importantly, there’s a vending machine. Unfortunately, it isn’t full of snacks. Instead, there’s only an astrolabe, which seems like an odd thing to put in a vending machine.

Actually getting to the astrolabe isn’t as straightforward as punching in a grid position. The automatic controls are disabled, so you need to manually position the arm. Unfortunately, it slides until it’s blocked. To actually get to the astrolabe, you’ll need to move the arm all the way around the vending machine, back to the bottom, and up from underneath it.

Need more specific instructions? Right, up, left, up, left, down, left, down, right, down, right, down, right, up, right, up.

Reading the stars

If you either first examine the astrolabe or slot it in the box in Adler’s study, you may be confused by what it depicts. There’s a star at the top, a big button in the middle, and three rotating discs between them. What does it mean?

For the answer, you’ll need to go to the briefing room on the south side of floor B8. Inside is a star map. The big giveaway to this puzzle is that Heimat is depicted in the same shape as the star on the top of the astrolabe. The key here is to let Heimat reach the point in its orbit where it matches what is on the astrolabe, then make note of where the other planets are in that position.

Aligning the planets

Back in Adler’s study, you’re going to need to move the discs on the astrolabe to match the star map when Heimat is at the top of it. This means the symbol on the outermost disc will go in the bottom-left, the middle with the plus (+) symbol goes in the top-left, and the inner-most disc is set to the bottom-right. Once these are in position, smack the middle button. The box should open.

Inside you’ll find one of Adler’s diaries. More importantly, you’ll also find your goal: the administrator card that lets you into the mines and onto the next chapter of Signalis. For more on the survival-horror game, check out our Signalis review.