The Lighthouse

Navigate the mysteries of The Lighthouse in Dear Esther. Follow the walkthrough to uncover clues, decipher strange symbols, and piece together the island's secrets.

I emerged from unconsciousness. The waves sulked alongside the shore. I dared to return to the sea, afraid of what I would discover on this island. Darkness engulfed me. A voice.

"Come back..."

Before me there was a lighthouse, into which I ventured to discover a state of decay. Furniture lay strewn about as if hurled in a fit of some distant madness. On the right, the remains of an office, and beyond that the remains of the base of the lighthouse. A can of phosphorescent paint in the corner. Someone, whose identity is beyond my faith in memory, used the paint to cover the wall in a strange... formula. Scientific notation? I gazed at the connections of elements as if time itself would whisper the answer to me.

I looked into the bathroom across from the entrance before I returned to the air outside. Music notes, beneath old green folders. The storage shack next to the lighthouse contained no answers either. More paint cans and silence.

What was my purpose, Esther? I looked into the distance along the shoreline. There, on a seaside peak, emerged a red light. It glowed, vanished, and then glowed again--consistently, repeatedly. A beacon. Laughter in the distance. I turned toward it and took but a few steps before discovering two paths. I chose that which led me to the shore. The eternal embrace of the ocean.

The sands were as barren as the rock cliffs beside them. A few crab traps lay long abandoned. A black rock threatened to stop my progress, but the rift to the right allowed me to continue to the other side. The remaining beach would not take me far. Islands along the horizon barely shown through the mist, but my path led me to the crag in the cliffs to the right. Before I could walk further, a design in the sand emerged. A strange arrow... a map? I could no make no sense of it. Then the realization that someone else had been here, but far more recently than I had imagined.

I continued into the crag. There, on the polished granite surface, I found a marking. Another arrow pointing past the top of the surrounding cliffs. Someone else realized that this place would lead nowhere.

Back to the path that led inland. I followed steps carved into the side of the cliff until it turned at a switchback, toward the beacon. It felt almost too easy, didn't it? There it is; go forth. The path, however, was not so simple. It turned right again into a field of obelisks. Stone spirits scattered among the island's sparse and withered vegetation. I followed the path nonetheless.

What was that? A cave? Shelter from the storms. A wrecked boat lent little hope to the cause. I waded across the water, noting the lighthouse again. It felt like I'd traveled nowhere, slowly.

I discovered bizarre paintings on the walls of the sea cave. More of the strange, cellular designs. Some semblance of coherence, but it disturbed me. To whom did these designs make sense? As I walked out to follow a slow stream, I thought it was a riddle. Pieces of a grand design beyond my field of view.

The new path led up again, to a cluster of obelisks and tombstones. I did not feel well, surrounded as I was by their gazing faces. There was a book on chemistry among them. Next to it, another carving of white chalk. A purposeful pairing. Strange that the book's bindings showed none of the weathering of its surroundings.

I continued up toward the high ground. Perhaps there I would glean some new insight, or at least find the red beacon once again. My heart fell as the ground descended. I conceded to the darkness.