How to solve the Unidentified Ruins puzzle in Warhammer 40K: Rogue Trader

(Image credit: Owlcat Games)

Recent updates

January 29, 2025: We confirmed that this puzzle solution is still valid despite various updates and the release of the DLC.

The Unidentified Ruins puzzle is one of the later challenges you'll encounter in Rogue Trader while exploring the many mysteries of the far-flung Koronus Expanse. You'll find this puzzle in the Latotian's Passage system, but you're unlikely to encounter it until you access those near to your capital world of Dargonus.

This puzzle is tricky if you don't know what to do, requiring you to redirect a beam of energy into a certain pattern. It's well worth it if you've got the time, since the reward is a powerful force sword that grants extra damage to your psyker characters. If that's something you'd want, here's how to solve the Unidentified Ruins puzzle in Rogue Trader.

How to solve the Latotian's Passage puzzle

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Rogue Trader Unidentified Ruins puzzle - Redirecting the beam — Interact with each device twice and then follow the beam to the next(Image credit: Owlcat Games)

Once you make your way through the ruins on the dead world in the Latotian's Passage system, you'll come to a big alien device, surrounded by several smaller devices. There's also a decorative face on the wall that you need to unseal by solving the puzzle.

Your first step should be activating the pedestal at the centre via a Warp lore skill check, which will project a beam of energy into the sky. Then you should clear the rubble that's covering the pattern next to the main device—simply walk close to it and select the "Uncover the pattern" option.

This will reveal a star shape on the ground that you need to recreate by directing the beam of energy between the alien devices. The simplest way to do this is:

Once the central pedestal is active and firing the beam up in the air, interact with it twice.
Follow the beam to the next device and activate that twice, before repeating this process three times.
After all devices are active with the beam moving between them, a chest will appear in the mouth of the face on the wall.

Remember, if you accidentally mess up this order, you can reset the beam by interacting with the central pedestal until it's firing up into the air again. Your reward for solving the puzzle is the Ancient Force Sword—a decent melee weapon that deals additional +psy rating damage, making it perfect for a hybrid melee psyker like Henrix.

Sean's first PC games were Full Throttle and Total Annihilation and his taste has stayed much the same since. When not scouring games for secrets or bashing his head against puzzles, you'll find him revisiting old Total War campaigns, agonizing over his Destiny 2 fit, or still trying to finish the Horus Heresy. Sean has also written for EDGE, Eurogamer, PCGamesN, Wireframe, EGMNOW, and Inverse.