Cube Escape: Paradox Walkthrough

Cube Escape: Paradox is Rusty Lake’s 2018 premium release, made alongside a short film of the same name. Detective Dale Vandermeer wakes in a room with no memory of how he got there, and has to work his way out twice: once in the free first chapter, and again in the second, where the room has changed and every puzzle has a second layer. This walkthrough covers both chapters.

How the game plays

• Controls: mouse.
• Menu: the gear icon in the top right.
• Inventory: down the right side of the screen.
• Saving: automatic. The save folder depends on your operating system and version.

Chapter one

Look under the television and plug in the plug with the intact cable. Turn right.

Zoom in on the cage and pull the cover off, letting light in for Harvey the parrot. Look in the mirror: frost on it means Dale is cold. Take the KEY from the box on the left cabinet and look at the box on the right.

The tile box

Slide the tiles onto the pictures that match them. Take PHOTO FRAGMENT 1 from the opened box. Turn right.

Take PHOTO FRAGMENT 2 from behind the picture. Take the CIGAR from the ashtray on the left cabinet. On the right cabinet, read the leaflet, “Mental health and fishing”, open it and note the handwritten line: “Not the blue vial! D.” Turn right.

Zoom in on the switch and turn the light on. Take the COAT from the hook. Unlock the bottom drawer of the cabinet with the key and take the WOODEN CUBE. Open the other drawers for the SCISSORS, the PENCIL and PHOTO FRAGMENT 3. Cut a BRANCH from the plant with the scissors. Read the sheet in the typewriter: “I woke up in this room. I felt different, less real. Where is she?”

Turn right. Take PHOTO FRAGMENT 4 from behind the lamp on the left. Turn to the mirror: Dale’s reflection wants the coat. Give it the COAT, and Laura’s ghost peers out from behind it. The reflection wants a cigar; give it the CIGAR, and Laura peers out again.

Set the WOODEN CUBE into the slot on the cabinet. Turn right twice and pick up PHOTO FRAGMENT 5 from the floor. Turn to the cabinet with the frame and put the fragments in. The photograph turns over.

The typewriter

Type THE WOMAN. A sheet appears on the right with a man’s silhouette emerging. Shade it in with the PENCIL, and shade the door and the woman that appear next, then the knife cutting the woman’s throat, and the key. Take the KEY. The text in the typewriter has changed. Turn to the television wall and unlock the upper part of the right-hand cabinet.

Take the HANDLE and open the Evidence folder for the SLIDE, the NEWSPAPER and the CASSETTE. Open the CASE 23 folder on the shelf and put the newspaper in its place; note the symbol that appears. Switch on the projector on the shelf and put the slide in. Turn round, zoom in on the wall, fit the handle to the screen and pull it down.

Take the PHOTOGRAPH of Laura Vanderboom and note the clock on it. Move the screen to get the two symbols: IV for the dot, V for the cross. On the desk clock, the small hour hand carries a dot and the big minute hand a cross. Set them accordingly and take the MATCHES from the compartment. Put the cassette in the recorder and listen to Mr. Crow and Mr. Vandermeer. Mr. Vandermeer’s odd phrase, read backwards, is “channel six six nine”. Give the reflection the MATCHES.

Click the mirror and remember the shapes the reflection draws in smoke. Put the photograph in CASE 23 and note the new symbol. Open the cabinet under the projector, enter the smoke shapes, and take the TAPE. Repair the cable of the second plug under the television with it and plug it in. Tune the television to 669: the man says “012”. Go to 012: “067”. Go to 067 and read the message. Type THE LAKE on the typewriter, cut the page along the line with the scissors and fold the halves to read it. Dial the number on the telephone. Soul addresses “Mr. Vandermeer” and suggests looking through the keyhole.

Zoom in on the front door keyhole and remember the positions of the symbols on the pupil of the eye staring back. Set the desk clock to that position and take the TRIANGULAR KEY. Take the LIT CIGAR from the reflection.

The files and the books

With the triangular key, open the top and bottom drawers of the left cabinet under the picture. Among the files, six carry drawings hinting at the order of the books on the shelf: Caroline Eilander, Jacob Eilander, Vincent Van Gogh, Robert “Bob” Hill, Ida Reiziger, Aldous Vanderboom. Take the PRESCRIPTION from Laura Vanderboom’s file, and note that there is a file on Detective Dale Vandermeer. Open the right cabinet’s top drawer with the triangular key for SLIDE 2 and the bottom for the HANDKERCHIEF.

Arrange the books on the shelf by the television in the order the files gave. Open the last book, read it, and take the pages with hints, plus the GLASS EYE and the IRON CUBE. Put the prescription in CASE 23; another symbol. Put the glass eye in the skull’s socket on the wall and the iron cube in the slot beside the wooden one. Put slide 2 in the projector, turn round, move the screen aside and look at the symbols projected on the frame.

Note TV 588 written at the bottom and the circled positions with symbols. Tune to 588 and remember the order of pictures: Mr. Crow, Detective Dale Vandermeer, Laura Vanderboom, a spilled vial, a dark silhouette. On the coded cabinet in the right-hand cupboard, set the symbols accordingly and take the GLOBE KEY. Click the arrow on the globe to see the changing pictures, then join the dots on the map to repeat the route. Open the globe for the GLASS and the NEWSPAPER ARTICLE.

Zoom in on the bottles and put the BRANCH in the middle one, which has a branch drawn on it. Press the caterpillar until it has eaten every leaf and made a cocoon; click the cocoon for a butterfly. Drop a MATCH in the right-hand bottle and click it until it cracks, then take the FISH HOOK. Put the article in CASE 23. Fill the GLASS with WATER from the jar on the top shelf.

The cloud of dots

Turn round and zoom in on the sofa the butterfly circles. Use the scissors to pull a THREAD from the seam. Pour the glass of water into the left-hand bottle at the globe. With thread and hook, fish out the GLASS EYE and put it in the skull.

Zoom out. A cloud of black dots shaped like a skull appears: drag it onto the skull. It becomes a clock; drag it onto the desk clock. It becomes a typewriter; drag it there. Then a television, a door, a mirror, each onto its object. Zoom in on the mirror and press the dark dots, and a dark silhouette is reflected. Click it.

The room plan

You are now a figure in a grid of rooms, moving between a floor plan and the rooms themselves. Drag the square above the one you stand in to the position on the right. Press the circle on the right and zoom into the room. Walk the figure onto the shadow, click the circle, and move to the square on the right. Approach the picture on the wall and press the circle that appears. Arrange the squares on the map as the picture shows and click the circle.

Go left into the lift and click the circle to rise. Click the figures on the right for an Easter egg. Go left. Take the lift down, go to the picture and switch to the plan. Rearrange the rooms, zoom back to the figure. Back in the lift, up, right, and up again to the top screen. Stand at the picture, switch to the plan, rearrange, zoom in. Lift down, go left, push the glass over, picture, plan, rearrange, zoom in. Turn the lever to open the valve cover the water drains through; plan, rearrange, zoom in. Go right and up in the lift; turn the lever so the water wheel pours water into the pipe; plan, rearrange, zoom in. Lift down, get into the bathysphere and dive. Go left, open the red curtain, plan, rearrange, zoom in. Go right, lift down, right. The figure says his head hurts and everything looks slightly blurred.

BURN, LIFE, RED

Wipe the blood off the floor with the HANDKERCHIEF. Lift the board for PART OF A FLYER. Lay it over the leaflet on the telephone table to read BURN. Type it. Click the sheet that appears, cut along the dotted line with the scissors, lay the picture half over the top half, and burn holes with the LIT CIGAR through the dynamite, candle, cigar and matches. That gives LIFE. Type it, cut, overlay, and burn the fish, the insect and the shrimp. That gives RED. Type it, cut, overlay, and burn the rose, pomegranate, strawberry, lips and heart. That gives TV 910.

Tune to 910 and watch, ending with “Look behind you”. Turn to the screen with a woman’s silhouette behind it, move it aside and click Laura. She says “Move my face”. Slide her face in the direction opposite to her gaze, repeatedly; a dark silhouette appears beside her. Keep going until she closes her eyes and vanishes. Take the SCRAP OF DRESS from the screen and put it in CASE 23: it gives the order of the symbols revealed on the evidence.

Set those symbols on the coded cabinet and take the cassette Harvey’s Song. Play it. Turn to the cage: the parrot flies out. Take the GLASS CUBE from the cage and set it in the chest’s slot. Open the chest’s lower doors for the RED VIAL. Give it to the reflection and take the KEY it offers. Unlock the front door and go out.

The forest

Follow the crow. At the end, take the MAP from Mr. Crow. Open it and follow the route from the red circle, your position, to the X. Click any silhouette you see and keep going. Follow the route drawn on the stone, and at its end pick up the CROW STATUETTE. Continue to the X, clicking silhouettes, to the next stone and its route, ending at the WOMAN STATUETTE. On to the next X, past the headless animal to its head. A shapeless heap blocks the way and turns into a dark silhouette: click the circled point on it, and keep clicking the points quickly, or it throws you to a random spot on the map. Reach the next stone, follow its route, pick up the MAN STATUETTE and head for the exit on the map.

At the gate, set the statuettes in the niches and go through. At the lake the dark silhouette cuts Laura’s throat. Take the BLACK CUBE.

End of chapter one.

Chapter two

The windmill and the box

Zoom in on the model windmill on the cupboard. Note which arrow is lit on the direction indicator and how many squares are lit in the centre. Hold the sail with that number of squares drawn on it and turn it to the lit direction. Repeat until the secret compartment opens, and take the PAPER. Turn right.

On the chest, the symbol box: slide the tiles onto their matching pictures and take the second PAPER. Turn right. Take the BURNING CIGAR from the ashtray. Open the leaflet on the right cabinet: this time, “Not the red vial! D.” Turn right.

Open the three unlocked drawers in the left cabinet for the SCREWDRIVER and the third PAPER, and note the fish in one drawer. The light switch is broken: unscrew the cover with the screwdriver and solve the circuit puzzle to complete the electrical path. Switch the light on. Zoom in on the projector and open the battery cover: oil leaks out. Turn right. Take the fourth PAPER from the lamp on the left. Turn left to the frame by the clock and put the four papers in. The reassembled postcard says to watch channel 945. Plug in under the television and tune to 945. Mr. Crow advises you to “go deeper into your mind, look at the picture and burn your soul”.

Zoom in on the picture on the wall. Use the BURNING CIGAR on the dark silhouette in the mirror within the picture and take the KEY. Note the hand reaching from behind the curtain in the picture on the left.

The cupboard

Open the upper cupboard with the key. From the lower shelf take the KNIFE, read the Psychological report on Dale Vandermeer, and take the PICTURE CAPTION. Take the EYEBALL from the jar on the top shelf. On the middle shelf, move the books into one stack on the right from largest to smallest, never a larger on a smaller. Open The Complete Guide to Mental Health and study its hint pages; take the PHOTO. On the lower shelf, open the report and put the photo on the “Patient photo” page.

On the picture to the left, attach the caption, then place the objects where the sketches show them, and take the EAR. Give the reflection the KNIFE, click the mirror twice so it opens its own skull, and take the BRAIN. Click the red curtain, put the KNIFE into the outstretched hand, click again and take the HEART and the knife back.

On the top shelf, distribute the heart, eyeball, ear and brain among the jars so the liquid stands at the same level in each. Read the label on the right-hand jar: “For further information call A. Vanderboom.” Open the middle unlocked drawer and use the knife on the fish, down to the bones. Swap the vertebrae so the drawings along the spine match and take the TRIANGULAR KEY. Open the right cabinet’s top drawer with it for the MAGNIFYING GLASS, and the left cabinet’s top drawer for the phone book. Find A. Vanderboom’s number with the glass, 36772, and dial it. He says to watch channel 412 for the “real mind”.

Following the magnifier

On 412, a magnifier icon appears on the leaflet the detective picks up. Look at the leaflet through the glass for channel 492. On 492 the icon is on the folding screen; examine the screen through the glass for 879. On 879 it is on the box you took the key from in chapter one; look through the glass for 278. On 278 it is on the fish drawer; open the second drawer from the top on the left, look through the glass and take the GLOBE KEY.

Open the globe. Click the arrow under the small screen in the bottom right to see the places you will travel, and plot the route on the map. Open the lid and click the brain inside three times. Arrange the circles so the insects cannot reach the centre. Zoom out, click the brain four times and take the PRESENT MIND. Put it into the reflection’s skull. Turn right to Mr. Crow in the armchair and click him: he would like a coffee.

Coffee for Mr. Crow

Take the CUP from his hand. Open the Psychological test on the floor for the CASSETTE and the SEED. In the phone book, study the diagram of the Rusty Lake coffee maker. Play the cassette in the recorder: Vandermeer sees “a moth, a crow, a murder, fear, his own crippled soul”. Plant the seed in the vase in the right corner, fill the cup with water from any jar on the top shelf and water it. Take the COFFEE BEANS. Put them in the centre of the windmill and turn the sails for GROUND COFFEE. Fill the cup with OIL from the leaking projector. At the coffee maker, pour the oil into the lower tank, fill the cup with water from a different jar, pour it in, add the coffee, light the burner with the cigar, fill the cup and give the COFFEE to Mr. Crow.

He spits it over the test. Talk to him: he suggests meeting your “dark memories”. Read the test’s pages, matching each picture’s symbol to what the cassette said. Open the lower cupboard door and enter those symbols on the safe for the BULB. Screw it into the device on Mr. Crow’s table and turn the handle. Take the printed heart and put it in the Love slot. Turn again for each new picture and sort them into the slots, left to right Love, Fear, Confusion: Love, Confusion, Confusion, Fear, Love, Love, Fear, Confusion, Fear, Love, Confusion, Fear. Take the PSYCHOLOGICAL FILE and the PAST MIND. Mr. Crow finds the coffee too bitter. Put the file in the report folder. At the mirror, swap the present mind for the PAST MIND; the room turns pink.

The birthday

Talk to the parents in the armchairs, waiting for the party. They ask for decorations. On the garland above them, arrange the flags so each pair forms a picture. Turn right: order the next garland by the number of coloured circles, from none upwards. Turn right: order the next by the number of segments, from none upwards. Talk to the parents, who want the magician, Mr. Eilander, called. Find his number in the phone book and ring: he is “already here, at the door”. Look through the keyhole: a magician in a rabbit suit approaches and vanishes.

The parents say he is hiding. He is behind the red curtain and vanishes again; look in the mirror, touch him, gone; open the globe, touch him, gone. Behind the television: touch him, then watch how many fingers he shows and press the antler with that many branches, repeatedly, until he vanishes. The parents say to try channel 369. Watch it, then look at the screen and move it: click the magician and his head drops into his body. Follow the pointing finger to a pocket or to where the head should be, repeatedly, until he vanishes. Mother suggests “opening the present”. Click the gift on the table: a rabbit leaps out and kills the parents, as in Cube Escape: Birthday.

Look in the box and take the NEWSPAPER ARTICLE for the report folder. Bloody writing has appeared on the walls. Look in the box again and slide the furniture tiles on the lid to match the words written above each piece in the room. Take the FUTURE MIND and put it in the reflection’s skull; the room turns yellow. On the table by the armchairs, take the envelope and from it the KEY, FLYER and SEAL, and read the letter from Mr. Owl, who asks for it to be sealed and returned. Use the seal on the envelope and melt it with the cigar. Take the LETTER. Put the flyer in the report folder. Check the hint in the Guide, then take the future mind out of the reflection and leave the skull empty. Click the red curtain, put the letter in the hand, click again and take the OWL STATUETTE. Unlock the bottom drawer of the left cabinet with the key for the FILM. Load it into the projector.

Arrange the frames into one continuous picture, starting from the frame with part of the title “PARA…”. Switch the projector on, turn left and lower the screen, sliding it until the wing line on the screen sits on the wing line on the wallpaper. For each following frame, align the picture with the detective’s tie, the dark outline, the corner of the chest, the outline of Mr. Crow’s head, the detective’s nose and lips, the mountain line, the upper lip, the face. Remove the screen and move the picture aside. Take the OBITUARY, open the shutters and take the BROKEN SOUL STATUETTE. Put the obituary in the report folder, which is now complete.

Note TV in the obituary’s corner and the underlined 207. Tune to 207: Laura approaches, and gradually only her eye remains. Click the eye to open it, click again and the pupil turns; turn that way, see Laura, click her, she leans; follow. Keep following pupil and Laura until she vanishes and leaves the WOMAN STATUETTE.

The shutters and the clock

Look at the shutters: some pictures carry a dot, some a cross, and dot and cross are the hour and minute hands. In the Guide, a page puts the deer’s head at 12 o’clock and the window at 6. Following that round the room, the globe on the left is 11, the chest at right angles to the deer is 3, and the door is 9. Set the clock by the left shutter, hour hand to 11, minute hand to 9, and take the COIN. Set it by the right shutter, hour to 3, minute to 12, and take the SUGAR CUBE.

Put the past mind into the reflection and open the gift box; open the box on the left with the coin for the MAN STATUETTE. Put the present mind in, drop the sugar into Mr. Crow’s cup, click it and take the CROW STATUETTE. Put the future mind in and talk to Laura in the armchair: “make the right move”. Put the statuettes on the chessboard so that no two share a row, column or diagonal, and note the symbols that appear. Compare them with the documents in the report, set them on the coded cabinet and take the cassette Harvey’s Songs. Play it.

The parrot is on the windowsill; click it, then click Harvey on Laura’s shoulder: “Johnson!” Touch Laura: she speaks of “Harvey’s egg”. Find Johnson in the phone book, 54253, and ring; parrot food will be delivered “in the future”. Take the BIRD FOOD from the window, feed Harvey, click him twice and take the EGG.

The three minds

Following the Guide, take the future mind out and leave the skull empty. Click the curtain, put the egg in the hand, click again and talk to the man holding a cube. He cannot think: open his skull with the knife. He asks to be shown the present: put in the PRESENT MIND, click, and Mr. Owl’s head appears. “Finding the crippled soul is the last trial.” Take the WOODEN CUBE. Touch the head; the man asks for the past. Put in the PAST MIND, touch, and a young man appears: talk to him and take the IRON CUBE. Touch the head; the man asks for the future. Put in the FUTURE MIND: a fish head. Talk to it and take the GLASS CUBE. Set the three cubes into the chest.

Take the BLUE VIAL from the cabinet and let the reflection drink it. A dark silhouette appears: touch it, and the room changes.

The forest again

Touch the moth to watch the world change; touch the one by the door and pick up the KEY it drops. Unlock the door and go out. Follow the arrows on the tree trunks to the detective’s body at point 1 and take the MAP. Go to point 2, the X: Mr. Crow with a knife; take the KNIFE. To point 3, following the running man; talk to the detective, yourself, and memorise the route to point 4. At the tree whose branches point the next route, pick up the BROKEN SOUL STATUETTE and go to point 5, where Dale hangs: the second statuette. To point 6, following the man with antlers, past the headless deer; talk to him and take the third. Head for the exit at point 8, calling at point 7 on the way for an Easter egg. At the gate, set the three statuettes in the niches and go on.

Come up behind Laura and cut her throat. Take the BLACK CUBE.

End of chapter two.