How to solve the spinning ring puzzles in Starfield

Here's how to solve the spinning ring Temple puzzles that you may have come across in Starfield's main story missions. They're easy to solve once you know how!

Joshua Boyles

09th Sep 2023 11:26

Images via Bethesda | Tbull on YouTube

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Once you’ve made your way through a few main story missions in Starfield, you’ll eventually come across a Temple Puzzle - and these spinning rings can be a bit tricky to solve if you don’t know what you’re looking for.

Solving the game's Temple puzzles will help you on your way to uncovering more about the universe, so you’ll need to solve them to advance the main story - so here's how and the rewards you'll receive.

SPOILER WARNING: This guide contains heavy spoilers for the main missions of Starfield, specifically for 'Into the Unknown'.

How to solve Temple puzzles

When you walk into a Temple in Starfield, you’ll enter a circular room without any gravity whatsoever. As such, you’re able to use your jetpack to boost around the room at will.

Shortly after entering, you’ll see the circular rings in the centre of the room begin to spin and rotate. A companion may comment on how they seem to move with how you move around the room. While this is somewhat true, it’s not how you solve the puzzle in these Starfield Temples.

Instead, you need to stand at the edge of the room and look for a collection of golden star particles that swirl together into a tall, oval shape. Once spotted, use your jet boosters to manoeuvre yourself into the swirling light particles, and you should hear an audio cue that signals when you’ve done it successfully.

When you touch the swirling light particles, you’ll see that the rings begin to spin at a much faster rate. You’ll now need to look around the room once again for the group of light particles. They disappear and reappear elsewhere in the room if you’re not quick enough, so it may take a few tries to get to them all successfully.

After you’ve found and touched the golden swirling lights five or six times successfully (the number of times needed seems to change per temple), the rings in the centre of the room will spin at their maximum speed and line up to create a big circular portal in the centre of the room.

All you need to do now is enter the circular portal and you’ll trigger a cutscene to finish the puzzle room.

Using the power reward you get for completing the Temple puzzle in Starfield

What's more, every Temple puzzle that we’ve found in Starfield so far has all been solved in the same way, so once you know how to complete one, you know how to complete them all.

Starfield's spinning ring puzzle rewards

The reward for completing the Starfield Temple puzzles is a Power, which can then be used in either combat or traversal.

The first power you unlock is the Anti-Gravity Field, which when used causes all nearby enemies to float in the air as if they’re in zero-G.

Completing subsequent Temple puzzles will reward you with further Powers, so it’s definitely worth seeking them out to unlock cooler abilities.

The main missions in Starfileld will take you to many more, but if you’re struggling to find them, speak to Vladimir on The Eye. He’s capable of showing you how to find additional Temples on other planets via Signal Anomalies.

For more guides, check out our Starfield homepage, where you'll find rundowns of the best ships to unlock for any scenario, which locations are best for outposts, and the best mods to download.

About The Author

Joshua Boyles

Joshua is the Guides Editor at GGRecon. After graduating with a BA (Hons) degree in Broadcast Journalism, he previously wrote for publications such as FragHero and GameByte. You can often find him diving deep into fantasy RPGs such as Skyrim and The Witcher, or tearing it up in Call of Duty and Battlefield. He's also often spotted hiking in the wilderness, usually blasting Arctic Monkeys.

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