Your overall objective in Riven is to stop Gehn and free Catherine to save the five islands and the people that once inhabited them. The means to this end can be found on all the islands, and you must solve puzzles and perform many tasks to get there.
Overview
To get to Gehn and Catherine, you must to figure out how to power up the Great Golden Dome, which is the power source to all the Fire Marble Domes found on each island. Each one contains a linking book to Gehn's world. Therefore, to get to Gehn, you must get to any one of the linking books.
The key to starting up the Great Golden Dome is the Marble Puzzle, the solution to which can be found on Plateau Island with the Map Table Puzzle and the Underwater Viewing Chamber. First, you must gather clues to understand the technology better and learn the D'ni number system. You must also get to the Moiety Age to recover your stolen trap book.
When you've accomplished all these tasks, you can get to Gehn's World, trap him in the book, save Catherine, and put an end to Gehn's megalomaniacal reign.
The Order of the Guide
Although Riven does not play absolutely linearly, the order of this guide is a good one to follow, since it alleviates lots of unnecessary backtracking and movement around the islands. Links are embedded throughout the text, however, to help you jump backward to something you might need to accomplish before you solve a later puzzle. Likewise, the guide is set up to let you just see the solution to any single puzzle without revealing the solution to the entire game. We've omitted lots of unnecessary navigational guidance, except as deemed necessary. |
