You’re running through Yaesha, dodging those annoying root flyers and trying not to get skewered by a Pan warrior, when you stumble into the Imperial Gardens. It’s beautiful. It’s also incredibly frustrating. If you’re like most people playing Remnant 2, you’ve probably spent twenty minutes staring at a stone plinth with glowing blue symbols, wondering if you need to find a secret note or just start guessing.
Stop guessing. You’ll be there all night.
The imperial gardens puzzle remnant 2 isn’t just a random gate; it’s a test of your spatial awareness and your patience with Yaesha’s vertical map design. Most players make the mistake of looking for a single solution sheet. There isn't one. The solution is literally written on the walls of the ruins, but the game is very clever about hiding them in plain sight. You have to find four specific stone tablets scattered around the zone.
The Mechanic Behind the Imperial Gardens Puzzle
The core of the Imperial Gardens revolves around a circular dial. You’ve seen these before if you played the first game or spent time in the Forbidden Grove. This one is different because the "clues" aren't in a book. They are etched into stone ledges that you can only see from specific vantage points.
Honestly, the map layout here is a bit of a maze. The Imperial Gardens is a sprawling, multi-level ruin. To solve the dial, you need four symbols. Each symbol is found on a small stone mantle. The trick? You usually have to look down over a ledge or look across a gap to see the blue glowing etchings.
Don't overthink the order yet. Just find them.
One symbol is usually near the entrance area, tucked behind a crumbling wall. Another is often found up a flight of stairs near the middle of the map. The third and fourth are deeper in, usually requiring you to clear out a few elite enemies before you can stand still long enough to actually look at the environment. Because Remnant 2 uses procedural generation, the exact physical "spot" might shift slightly between rolls, but the logic remains identical. Look for the stone structures that look like mini-altars.
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Finding the Symbols Without Losing Your Mind
If you’re struggling to find the four symbols, stop looking at the ground. Look at the corners of the ruins. One of the most common spots for a symbol is behind a breakable wall or down a hidden path that leads to a cliffside.
Once you see a blue glowing symbol, write it down. Take a picture with your phone. Seriously. Trying to memorize four abstract Pan hieroglyphs while being hunted by Root Horrors is a recipe for a headache. You’re looking for things that look like a "V" with lines, or a weirdly shaped "O," or something that resembles a stylized tree.
The symbols are always the same set of four, but their orientation on the dial matters. You don't need to find them in a specific "order" (1, 2, 3, 4) because the dial just needs all four symbols present in any of the active slots, provided they are aligned with the top pointer.
Opening the Central Plinth
Once you have your four symbols, head back to the center of the Imperial Gardens where the dial sits. Interact with it.
You’ll see several concentric rings. You need to rotate these rings so that your four symbols align in a vertical line pointing toward the top of the dial. It doesn't matter which ring has which symbol, as long as all four of your discovered symbols are represented in that center row.
When you get it right, the ground will shake. The plinth will sink or open, and you'll get your reward. Usually, this is the Crossbow, a high-damage single-shot weapon that is a beast for precision builds. If you already have the Crossbow from a previous roll or a different dungeon, you’ll likely get Scrap or a different material, but for most first-timers, this is the "Crossbow Puzzle."
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But wait. There’s actually more to this zone than just the dial.
The Secret Blood Moon Room
This is where the imperial gardens puzzle remnant 2 gets really interesting and where most guides stop talking. If you happen to be in the Imperial Gardens during a Blood Moon—you’ll know because the sky is a sickly, beautiful red—a secret trapdoor opens in the floor near the entrance of the puzzle area.
If there is no Blood Moon, the door stays shut. You can "force" a Blood Moon by warping in and out of the zone (using the world stone to go to Ward 13 and back), though it’s a bit of a RNG grind. If you get lucky and that door is open, head down. You’ll find the Full Moon Circlet, an amulet that grants 3% Ranged damage as Life Steal when at full health. It’s one of the best sustain items for high-DPS builds in the game.
Common Mistakes and How to Avoid Them
- Looking for symbols outside the Gardens: The clues are never outside the Imperial Gardens transition gate. If you've wandered into the Expanding Glade, you've gone too far.
- Ignoring the "Fake" Symbols: Some walls have decorative carvings that look like the puzzle symbols but aren't glowing blue. If it isn't glowing, it isn't a clue.
- Missing the elevator secret: There is an elevator in this zone. Like many elevators in Remnant 2 (looking at you, Endaira's End), you can step on the plate to trigger it and then immediately hop off. As the elevator rises, look at the tower's interior. Sometimes symbols are hidden on the passing walls.
The Imperial Gardens is actually a masterclass in how Gunfire Games rewards players for looking up. Most players are so focused on the loot on the ground or the enemies in their face that they miss the environmental storytelling. The Pan who built these gardens were obsessed with the sky and the sun; it makes sense their locks are tied to sightlines.
Beyond the Crossbow: What Else is Here?
While you're hunting for the dial solution, keep an eye out for the Mantagora. This is the giant, flying boss that circles the entire map. It doesn't usually attack you unless you shoot it first.
It’s a "patience boss." You have to chip away at its health whenever it flies over your head. Killing the Mantagora drops the Momentum Mutator, which is arguably one of the top three mutators in the entire game for crit-based builds. Since you’re already running around the map looking for puzzle symbols, you might as well be taking potshots at the giant bird-thing in the sky.
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If you find a stone platform that looks like a dead end, look for a ladder. The Imperial Gardens is incredibly vertical. I’ve seen people spend an hour looking for the fourth symbol only to realize it was on a roof they could have reached five minutes in.
Step-by-Step Optimization
To handle this area efficiently, follow this flow:
- Enter the Gardens and immediately check the sky. If it’s a Blood Moon, run to the trapdoor first to grab the Full Moon Circlet before you do anything else.
- Clear the perimeter. Don't try to solve the puzzle while enemies are active. Yaesha enemies have a long aggro range.
- The "Ledge Hunt." Walk the outer edges of the ruins and look down. Three of the symbols are almost always visible from a higher elevation looking down onto a lower terrace.
- The Elevator Trick. If you are short one symbol, find the elevator, trigger it, and stay on the ground. Watch the shaft as the lift goes up.
- Input the symbols. Alignment doesn't require a specific ring-to-symbol match. Just get all four in the "North" slot.
If you’re playing on Apocalypse difficulty, be careful. The Imperial Gardens often spawns "Thorn" elites that can teleport and ruin your day while you're squinting at a wall.
Final Practical Takeaways
The imperial gardens puzzle remnant 2 is a gatekeeper for the Crossbow and the Full Moon Circlet. To finish this quickly, remember:
- The symbols are blue. If it's not glowing, it's not a puzzle piece.
- Check the elevator shaft. It’s the "hidden" fifth location for symbol spawns in certain map layouts.
- Verticality is key. Get to the highest point in the ruins and use a scoped weapon to look at the floors of distant, unreachable rooms.
- Blood Moon is a separate trigger. The dial won't open the Blood Moon door; only the sky box state will.
Once you’ve unlocked the plinth and grabbed the Crossbow, make sure to finish off the Mantagora. Leaving that zone without the Momentum Mutator is a massive waste of time, especially since the boss is basically a "freebie" if you have a long-range weapon. After you've cleared the dial and the bird, you're officially done with the Gardens and can move on to the Ravager or the Many-Faced God, depending on your world roll.
Head back to Ward 13, upgrade that Crossbow, and slot the Momentum Mutator. You'll notice a massive spike in your burst damage immediately. If the symbols still aren't showing up, try toggling your flashlight; sometimes the lighting in Yaesha can be tricky with the blue glow of the stones.