Braid/World 3: Time and Mystery



Important Note! Putting together puzzle pieces from this world will cause a collectible to be lost forever. See the Stars section for more information.

Braid icon Level 3-1.png 3-1 The Pit
This is an introduction level to the new green glow feature. It contains no puzzle pieces.

Jump into the pit and get the green-glowing key from the monstar. Rewind time, jump over the pit and open the gate. Continue through the door to the next level.

Braid icon Level 3-2.png 3-2 There and Back Again
At this level you'll spot a green-glowing key at the top of the screen and a locked gate with a puzzle piece behind it on the right hand side. Climb to the top while dodging the monstars and grab the key. You'll notice that a big metal block has sealed off the path to the locked gate. As green-glowing objects are not affected by any time manipulation, rewinding time will not make Tim drop the key he's picked up. So rewind time until the path is open again. Go and open the gate and grab Puzzle Piece 3-2-1. You're done with this level so continue through the door.

Braid icon Level 3-3.png 3-3 Phase
Begin the level by climbing up the trellis. There are two cannons firing two different streams of clouds; a regular one and a green-glowing one. By pausing (start holding and quickly press  to set the speed of time to 0x) or rewinding time you can bring the green-glowing clouds (not affected by time manipulation) in phase right between the non-glowing clouds, so that they're evenly spaced, alternating between each other. Now there should be a small enough gap between each cloud for you to jump across to Puzzle Piece 3-3-1.

Jump down and continue right. You should reach more treillage to climb soon enough. Climb up onto the lower platform next to the clouds. The way to get the second puzzle piece is similar to the first, although there are fewer green-glowing clouds. So this time around you'll have to jump onto a regular cloud and pause time, wait for a green-glowing cloud to catch up, jump onto it, and jump onto the next regular one. Pause time again and wait for a green-glowing one, rinse and repeat until you get all the way to Puzzle Piece 3-3-2.

Braid icon Level 3-4.png 3-4 The Ground Beneath Her Feet
Starting this level you'll watch a monstar fall to his death. Just to the left of the door through which you entered is a key, but it's out of reach. Move up the ladder and jump down to the green-glowing lever. Operating it will make and equally glowing platform move. Pull the lever and let the platform move to the left. Rewind time to the beginning of entering the level and let time run again. The monstar who fell to his demise before will land on the platform this time. Let him go grab the key from the small crevice and steal it from him when he gets out again. Flip the lever to make the gate reachable again, go open it and grab your Puzzle Piece 3-4-1.

Moving on, you'll find a ladder blocked off by a metal platform. Go flip the lever next to the fire pit. The platform will move and open the path up the ladder. Climb on up only to find your path to the piece being blocked instead. Lucky for us, it's a green-glowing platform. Go to the spot on the platform directly above the puzzle piece and wait there for a wee bit. Now, go back down the ladder and flip the lever again. Start rewinding time until you are back at the point directly above the puzzle piece. Stop rewinding and fall down and collect Puzzle Piece 3-4-2. Rewind back to the lever and flip it yet again, and continue over the platform toward the exit.

Braid icon Level 3-5.png 3-5 Tight Channels
When you enter this level there won't be much to do other than to move right, so do just that. You'll soon encounter a bunny-like creature; a mimic. It will attack when you're getting close to it, so be ready to jump on it. Continue your way right until you reach a ladder, disposing of any more mimics you find popping up from the ground. Climb up the ladder. You'll not be able to reach the puzzle piece above you; you'll have to find something to give you a boost. See a cannon firing fireballs? Jump down the left side of the platform you're on and follow the path of the the projectiles. See the monstars being fired straight into the path of the fireballs? You can use one of them to reach the puzzle piece. Rewind time carefully and guide him along between the fireballs. When he falls to the platform under the piece, be quick to stop rewinding time and use him to reach Puzzle Piece 3-5-2. Continue on right toward the next piece of the level.

You'll soon get attacked by a whole nest of mimics. Jump over the claw and hopefully it'll snatch most of them. Kill of any stragglers and move on. A new nest will pop up, dispose of them if you want to or move on. Drop down in front of the cannon and continue on, jumping over any fireball that might hit you. This is the same stream of fireballs which block off access to the puzzle piece at the end of the level. When you get to the next fireball cannon, use the rewind time feature and try to get the fireballs from the two cannons to hit each other mid-air, destroying themselves. Go right to get to the ladder leading up to the second puzzle piece. Every other fireball will be destroyed on its way here, giving you just enough of a gap between the projectiles to be able to sprint between ladders and climb all the way to Puzzle Piece 3-5-1 up top. Now jump down and move through the door below.

Braid icon Level 3-6.png 3-6 Irreversible
As the name of this level implies, you might end up deadlocking your road to some of the pieces on this level. If you find yourself in such a situation, simply exit the level through any of its doors and go back again, or exit the world via the pause menu and enter the level again. The very first puzzle piece of the level—visible as soon as you enter—is actually really simple to get, albeit perhaps requires a few tries anyway. The trick is simply to not rewind time until the horizontally moving platform has moved past the vertically moving, green-glowing barrier. The simplest way to do this is probably to wait it out on the ground level. Jump over or kill the two monstars and dispose of the mimic attacking you here. If any one of them kill you, rewinding time might break the puzzle, and you'll have to reset the level. When the platform's gone past the green-glowing barrier, climb up the ladder and kill the mimics and monstars in your way, jump down onto the platform and get Puzzle Piece 3-6-2.

Further into the level you will find a ladder leading down into a cavern underground. The second puzzle piece is found here. It will be locked behind two gates this time, but there is only one key. Jump over the claw and grab the key. Jump on back to the gates and open the first, green-glowing one. Rewind time to the point the key is whole again (the glowing gate will stay open) and use it on the second gate. Now, you've opened two gates with one key and you can grab Puzzle Piece 3-6-1 as your reward.

Continue down the ladder found next to the second piece. To your far right you'll catch a glimpse of the third and final piece of this level. The final puzzle piece is a tricky one; it requires you to open three gates with only two keys. You will probably spot a key almost as soon as you spot the piece, but resist your temptation to pick it up. Instead, jump over the three claws and hop down the shaft to the left. Here you'll find a green-glowing key, There's no way to climb back up, so rewind time to get back up again. Use the glowing key to open the first gate. Go get the other key you skipped before and open the green-glowing gate with it. It'll break, but don't worry. Rewind time and it'll be restored, and the second gate will remain open. Use the restored key to open the last gate and reap the spoils of Puzzle Piece 3-6-3.

Climb up the ladders again. When up above ground again, move to the right exterminating all the mimics attacking you. After a bit you will find a puzzle canvas in which to connect the puzzle pieces you've collected into a painting. 'Remember that if you want to collect that secret, hidden collectible, you may not'' connect any pieces just yet. If you do, the secret will be irreversibly lost forever.''' So continue onward through the exit door.

Braid icon Level 3-7.png 3-7 Lair
As soon as you enter the level you will see a monstar with a key fall down a pit on some spikes. Follow him down the pit and land on the key. Rewind time and you'll bring the key back up with you. Jump over the pit and open the gate. Move along and you'll find the very first boss of the game – sleeping. Wake him up by getting close to him or climbing up to the ceiling and dropping down a chandelier. Now when he's awake, rewind time (if you dropped a chandelier) and try to drop the chandelier on his head. You need to hit him five times for him to be out cold and drop the key around his neck. You only have two chandeliers to spare, so rewind time to get them back when you've scored a hit or if you missed him.

When he's down for the count, grab the key from him and make your way through the gate on the right. There are no puzzle pieces on this level, so continue through the exit door.

Braid icon Level 3-8.png 3-8 A Tingling
Starting this level, you will probably notice the first puzzle piece right away. Go climb up the only ladder you have access to and continue all the way to the top of the Monstar-ridden structure. Make your way to the platform right above the green glowing platform, dealing with the Monstars along the way. Having reached the edge to jump back down to the ground, go back the same way you came and continue down to the glowing lever. Flip it and rewind Tim back to the edge, jump onto the platform and scale the ladder to the piece.

If you haven't yet taken the key from the Monstar, do so now and continue to open the gate. The second puzzle piece will be locked behind a barrier, which triggered the moment the level started. There's no getting to it now, so continue right to via the climbable mesh. Be careful of the spikes and fireballs. Move inside the inferno of dangers again via a climbable mesh and avoid all the projectiles. When on the other side there will be a lever, slightly hard to see behind the vegetation. Flip it and watch a platform arise from the fiery pit. Get on it and you'll be introduced to a new mechanic – the green glow of this platform will surround Tim as well. Now Tim is unaffected by time manipulation as long as he's glowing. Rewind time to the point the barrier closing off the piece is all up, and rush toward it. Having grabbed it move along to the right and reach the end of the level.

On this level you will find a total of 2 jigsaw puzzle pieces.