We Were Here Tomorrow Optical Puzzle Guide: Laser Beams, Crystals & the Correct Order

Few co-op puzzles test a partnership quite like the We Were Here Tomorrow optical puzzle. One player is sealed in a chamber of laser emitters, glowing sockets, and numbered targets, while the other stares at a wall of unmarked crystals and a poem that reads like a riddle. Neither of you can solve it alone, and that is exactly the point.

This guide breaks the We Were Here Tomorrow optical puzzle into three manageable phases: powering the laser array, identifying the crystal substrates, and routing the beam through the facility in the correct order. Everything below is drawn from player experience with the chapter, so you will know exactly what to say over the walkie-talkie before frustration sets in.

How the We Were Here Tomorrow Optical Puzzle Is Structured

Like every challenge in the series from Total Mayhem Games (their official site is the best place for series news), this puzzle splits two players into separate spaces connected only by a walkie-talkie. You cannot see each other's rooms, you cannot ping objects for your partner, and the design leans hard into that information gap. Community reports from players who have cleared the chapter agree on one thing: the puzzle is less about raw logic and more about describing what you see accurately.

The asymmetry works like this. One side of the facility controls the lasers, while the other side can read the documents and inspect the crystals up close. The two chambers are also stacked vertically — one player is literally above the other — which makes directional descriptions even more unreliable.

A few details worth noting before you start. Both players have matching symbols above their stations, and certain doors are open to one player but locked for the other — those symbols are the game telling you who belongs where. And yes, the announcer's safety briefing is pure flavor gold: warnings about incineration, vaporization, mandatory safety goggles, and a ban on jumping (and, apparently, Dutch people) set the tone for a puzzle about a very large, very dangerous beam weapon.

Phase 1: Power the Array and Light the Four Numbers

The opening half of the We Were Here Tomorrow optical puzzle teaches you the vocabulary. The laser array starts offline, and you will find two types of insert pieces whose behavior stays consistent for the rest of the chapter.

Your first objective is to light four numbered targets and open the door. The trick that stalls most pairs: the beam passes through a lit number and keeps going. That means a single placement can serve double duty — and it also means moving one orb can silently unlight a target your partner already counted.

1. Establish who holds the starting laser before touching anything.
2. Use orange orbs to run beams horizontally, then purple pyramids where the beam needs to climb a level.
3. Call out every number as it lights up on your side — the counts are not always identical for both players.
4. If a target refuses to light, describe the room by its door symbols rather than "left" or "right," because your layouts do not mirror each other perfectly.

Phase 2: Learn the Crystal Substrates

This is where the We Were Here Tomorrow optical puzzle earns its reputation. The crystal-side player picks up a document on the nature of the crystal substrates, a whiteboard listing the gem family, and a terminal containing a poem. The laser-side player, meanwhile, can see three gem pedestals near the end of the route — orange bases with crystals growing out of them — but has no idea which gem is which.

Identification is the crystal-side player's entire job here. The cat-class variants are distinguished by how many rectangular clusters sprout from the base, Rupium looks like curved trees sprouting leaves, and Pingosius is the spiky one the game explicitly forbids you from touching. The lore is clearly having fun — one researcher note claims the gem "reflected their soul" — but mechanically, the spikes are simply a trap.

Phase 3: Follow the Poem and Route the Beam

The final phase of the We Were Here Tomorrow optical puzzle is all about order. The poem terminal holds the key:

To pierce the eye and mend fractured light, begin with the mirror once truth shines bright. The serene stone second to steady the flow, and the fiery heart blooms with a final glow.

It is not a great mnemonic — players in one recorded run openly laughed at it — but it decodes cleanly.

Three practical warnings from player experience. First, expect the error message "Wrong crystal configuration. Check notes for more information" — it simply means the order or the gem is incorrect, so walk the poem back line by line. Second, beams that cross each other can block a route, and some emitters cannot rotate past certain angles, so rerouting sometimes means borrowing your partner's only remaining purple pyramid. Third, the blueprint found in the room (affectionately nicknamed the "big honkin' pew pew machine" by players) insists the beam be "precisely calibrated before augmentation" — the final shot must pass through the gems and fire up into the apparatus sitting between the two levels, not merely graze a crystal.

When the sequence is right, the targeting array reactivates, the elevator opens, and you get the game's cheerful parting reminder about blindness and disintegration. Stay safe, people.

Troubleshooting the Tough Spots

Even a well-organized run through the We Were Here Tomorrow optical puzzle hits snags. Most of them trace back to a handful of root causes.

A few habits will save you serious time:

• Read documents verbatim. The poem, the substrate notes, and the blueprint all matter, and paraphrasing loses details.
• Describe by shape and symbol, never by direction. "The room with the double circles" beats "the room on the left" every time.
• Appoint a navigator. One player tracks the overall route while the other executes placements.
• Do not hoard components. Orbs are usually recoverable, but pyramid placements can lock in, so agree before placing the last one.

For a series built on this formula, this is one of the longer tests — community reports describe pairs spending the better part of an hour on it, with most of that time spent aligning vocabularies rather than solving logic. Published guides for the game's other chapters, such as the Chapter 3 cable-and-battery puzzle, suggest the layouts are fixed rather than randomized, so once your pair cracks it, the solution holds for future runs.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the We Were Here Tomorrow optical puzzle? It is a two-player, walkie-talkie-only challenge in which one player routes laser beams through emitters while the other identifies crystal substrates from written notes. The goal is to calibrate a large beam weapon by passing the laser through the correct gems in a specific order.

What order do the crystals go in? Follow the poem: mirror first, Rupium second, and the fiery Catimus gem last. If the machine flashes a wrong-configuration error, one of those three steps is out of place or the beam clipped the spiky Pingosius.

Do you actually have to touch Pingosius? No. The lore warns that researchers who handled it reported hallucinogenic experiences, and mechanically the spiky gem only produces failure states. Keep the beam well away from it.

How long does the optical puzzle take to solve? Based on player experience, plan for roughly 30 to 60 minutes, with most of that spent on communication rather than logic. The We Were Here Tomorrow optical puzzle rewards pairs who read documents aloud and describe rooms by their symbols — those teams finish dramatically faster.