'Mass Effect: Andromeda' Decryption Guide: How to solve Remnant puzzles

Mass Effect: Andromeda is full of ancient alien technology from the Remnant, and you'll find that in interacting with this tech, plenty of puzzles are waiting for you to solve them. It's all part of Mass Effect: Andromeda's decryption puzzles. How do you work them out? Here are some helpful tips and tricks to get you through it all.

Mass Effect: Andromeda decryption guide: Tips and tricks to clear the Remnant puzzles 

If you find yourself face to face with Remnant puzzles, you'll be looking at something which resembles an alien Sudoku board. Essentially, that's what you're dealing with here. However, the rules are a little different. After testing several Remnant puzzles myself and leaning on tips from publications like VG247, it appears there's a few important ways you can emerge victorious without exerting too much effort. Just keep these tips in mind going forward. 

First all, you're looking at a grid with several different symbols on it that you won't recognize. They're all Remnant glyphs, and you'll see several different variants of them. You can't repeat more than one glyph in any row, column or division — basically the same rules as Sudoku but with symbols. It's really not that much different, so don't stress. 

First off, when you start a puzzle, take note of all the glyphs that have been filled in before you begin. Check and see if any rows are missing glyphs. If you're able to definitively fill one of them in, go ahead and do so. This will at least secure one of the spaces so you have a little less work to do. 

When you select an available space that's empty, you can actually check through all the glyphs available to you to use. Some of them kind of look like items or even letters. If it helps you can write down the glyphs for future reference, or even take a picture to save yourself for glancing back and forth. It's easier to retain what you need to select for the empty space this way. 

Sometimes, you need to look over the puzzle at a glance and see what all is there. There may be several more of one glyph than another, and if you see a pattern you might want to check it against the glyph you were planning on filling a line with. If you're careful you can solve the puzzles like this with trial and error.

However, you don't always have to resort to the decryption the game pushes you toward. If you find special keys, you can actually use them to bypass the decryption mini-game entirely, much like you were able to in the previous Mass Effect games if you weren't so great at hacking into terminals. Make sure to save these if you find them in Remnant ruins or elsewhere for when you just can't pass a certain puzzle. They can come in extremely handy. 

More Mass Effect: Andromeda news, updates, tips and tricks

For more on everyone's favorite space opera, check out the rest of what Mic has to offer. Here's a story about the horrifying harassment campaign carried out against a former BioWare employee, a guide on romancing Keri, a guide to romancing Reyes and a quick explainer on the different types of health in Andromeda.