How to beat Trace

Trace is a free point-and-click puzzle game available on Coolmath Games. In this game, you must solve a series of puzzles to escape. I highly recommend you try to find the way out yourself, but if you are struggling, then this guide will help.

Trace Walkthrough

This short guide will cover the essentials of how to clear each room in Trace.

Bathroom – First Room

You have to solve the pentagram puzzle several times using various pictures found throughout the rooms in Trace. Do the following in order:

• Cyan arrow pointing at red
• Red arrow pointing at pink
• Pink arrow pointing at blue
• Blue arrow pointing at green
• Green arrow pointing back at Cyan

As soon as you solve the one above, interact with the puzzle again and do the next pattern.

• Cyan arrow pointing at blue
• Blue arrow pointing at red
• Red arrow pointing at pink
• Pink arrow pointing at green
• Green arrow pointing back at Cyan

Now for the last pattern. Interact with the puzzle yet again.

• Cyan arrow pointing at red
• Red arrow pointing at green
• Green arrow pointing at blue
• Blue arrow pointing at pink
• Pink arrow pointing back at Cyan

This will open the cupboard under the sink. Open it and grab the little red block with a key symbol on it. Now, face the door that leads outside the bathroom and insert the new key into the puzzle at the door. Once you do, a sliding puzzle will appear. Do the following.

• Slide the smaller pieces around so the top yellow piece moves as far to the left as possible, along with the red key icon.
• Bring all the pieces on the lower right of the puzzle upwards where the key was and then bring all the lower left pieces to the lower right. You are making a way for the key to get to the bottom left of the puzzle.
• Slide the little purple cubes around, making them go above the red key icon until the key icon reaches the bottom left of the screen and eventually into the green field.

Now you are out of the room.

Study – Part One

Ignore everything in the room and simply make your way to the little pyramid next to the picture of the planets. You need to light up each of the holes of the pyramid using a different color. Use this pattern from top to bottom:

• White
• Red
• Pink
• Yellow
• Clear (no color)

The edges of the pyramid should also be lit using the following colors, from left to right:

• Green
• Orange
• Cyan

The top of the pyramid will pop, revealing a key. Grab it. Now interact with the bottom cupboard under the pyramid puzzle you just did and there will be another puzzle where you get to slide planets. Slide them like so:

• Orange planet – bottom
• Green planet – top
• Blue planet – middle
• Red planet – top
• Grey planet – middle

Press the button, and a little latch will open with half of a cipher. To get the other half, we need to play with a toy giraffe. Go to the desk with an old computer and open the top drawer with two Xs on each side. Grab the giraffe toy. Now you have to bend the Giraffe’s neck like in the picture shown. Press the button, and the giraffe will… umm… well… “give” you the second part of the cipher (yuck!). Take the second part of the cipher and combine it with the one you got from sliding the planets up and down.

Study – Part Two

Go back to where you exited the bathroom and interact with the giant painting of a bunch of people building the tower. Click on the painting, and it will reveal a symbol puzzle. The code is always the same, but with the two pieces of the cipher we got earlier, we wouldn’t be able to solve this one.

Use the following pattern from left to right:

• Hourglass with the missing bottom
• An eight
• Third symbol (looks like someone is flexing an arm)
• A squiggly line (looks a little like a bow for firing arrows)
• The identical wines next to each other (the bottom symbol)

This will reveal a red button, but you don’t have to press it just yet.

Now, we need to press various red buttons around the room. So press red buttons around the room in this order:

• Red button in front of the aquarium
• Red button that powers the fan on the shelf (the fan will spin when you press it)
• Red button that powers on the PC monitor on the desk (the monitor will light up)
• Red button in the cupboard underneath the pyramid puzzle we did earlier
• Red button for the cipher puzzle we did just a moment ago (the one that was under the picture of a tower)
• Finally, the red button on top of the little gray box, on top of the table 

After you press the button on this box, it will open, and you’ll get a scalpel and a green key.

Right underneath the table where the box is, is the first place we’re going to use the scalpel. Use the scalpel on the piece of rug that’s just under the table. Remove this patch, and you’ll find an arrow puzzle. Simply make a pattern of arrows so they point toward the end, like in the image. Inside, you’ll find a Beatles song reference (Yellow Submarine) and a puzzle piece.

Now, stand up, walk over to the green door, and use the green key we got earlier to open it. On the terrace, walk over to the table, and there will be an unfinished puzzle. Place the puzzle piece on the table to trigger the next event (you don’t have to finish the puzzle).

Back in the study, move to the right side of the couch where the potted plant is. Use your scalpel to make a hole in one of the sofa’s arms. Despite destroying a perfectly good sofa, you now have the final key.

Go back to where the bathroom entrance was and use the pyramid key to re-enter the bathroom. Now, use the final key to open the big, bright lock on the door. The toilet will open, revealing your exit.  Good job, you escaped! Don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone I helped you.