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Honkai Star Rail The Stars Are Cold Toys Activating Mechanisms
Screenshot by PC Invasion

How to solve Activate All Mechanisms puzzle in Honkai Star Rail

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Honkai: Star Rail spends a lot of its early hours guiding you through the frozen planet of Jarilo-VI. Along the way, you will learn the basics of Trailblazing and encounter a few puzzles. Here is our guide explaining how to solve the activate all mechanisms puzzle in Honkai Star Rail.

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Note: We’ll have a Honkai: Star Rail guides and features hub once the game has officially released, so stay tuned.

Honkai Star Rail – How to solve the Activate All Mechanisms puzzle

Once you reach Trailblaze level 24, you can access the lengthy In the Sweltering Morning Sun mission. It includes several sub-missions. One of them is called The Stars Are Cold.

Honkai Star Rail The Stars Are Cold Toys Mechanism Gate

Screenshot by PC Invasion

In The Stars Are Cold, you must turn a large gear and crisscross a wide gap a few times and activate three mechanisms. Only by activating all of the mechanisms can you open the gate that leads to the sub-mission’s boss battle.

The puzzle begins shortly into the sub-mission. Shortly after finding a keepsake trinket on the ground, you encounter Echoes of two major characters. Investigate them to prompt some dialog. Then head up the stairs to reach a “mechanism gate.” It has four glowing points of light. Each point of light corresponds to a nearby mechanism you must activate.

Honkai Star Rail The Stars Are Cold Toys First Mechanism Energy Hub

Screenshot by PC Invasion

After discovering the gate, head back down the stairs and past the echoes to interact with the first mechanism energy hub. This turns one of the four glowing points on the nearby gate from red to blue. Now you just need to activate three mechanisms (the one you just activated doesn’t count).

The first of the three mechanisms is located down some stairs to the right. Defeat an enemy guard and interact with a “controller” that looks like a pot-belly stove. The controller opens a gate to your left. Head through that gate to reach one edge of a large, partially ruined gear. You will interact with this enormous gear a few times to clear the area.

Honkai Star Rail The Stars Are Cold Toys Controller Turn Counter Clockwise

Screenshot by PC Invasion

When you first reach the edge of the large gear, head forward to its center. Then follow the arm extending to the right. Defeat an enemy and activate mechanism 1. You learn that the next mechanism is on the opposite side of a gate. Nearby, there is another controller. Access it and choose the Turn Counter-Clockwise option.

Now, start across the reoriented gear. Head along the right arm again, which now leads to a new balcony. As you proceed along this balcony, you learn how to unlock the Cavern of Corrosion. Keep going from that portal to find mechanism 2. Defeat any guards and activate the mechanism.

Honkai Star Rail The Stars Are Cold Toys Backtracking Through Gate

Screenshot by PC Invasion

After some dialog among your party members, turn right and descend some steps to arrive at another controller. Open the nearby gate and pass through it to arrive near a mechanism you already activated. Then head right to reach the same controller you previously used to turn the large gear. Choose the Turn Counter-Clockwise option yet again.

With the gear turned, backtrack through the gate you just opened a moment ago. Proceed past the portal and start across the large gear. This time, head right along the arm to reach mechanism 3. Activate it to finish solving the puzzle. Now you’re ready to pass through the gate and face the area boss.

Honkai: Star Rail is available via its official website.


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Author
Image of Jason Venter
Jason Venter
Jason Venter is a contributing writer for PC Invasion since 2022 who can trace his love for video games back to the Apple IIe port of Mario Bros. in the late 80s. He remains a diehard Nintendo fan to this day and loves JRPGs, adventure games, and platformers in particular, but he still plays games in most genres and on most hardware. After founding indie gaming site HonestGamers in 1998, he served as an editor at Hardcore Gamer Magazine during its entire print run. He has since freelanced for a variety of leading sites including IGN, GameSpot, and Polygon. These days, he spends most of his time writing game guides and entertaining readers with his fantasy novels.