Pokémon Unbound gives you the option to tweak the difficulty of some puzzles in the game.
The easy puzzle difficulty setting is what you get by default, so that’s what we focus on in our complete game walkthrough. But if you opt for the challenging puzzle difficulty then this page details all of the harder puzzle solutions at this difficulty setting.
Cube Space Puzzle
Pokémon Unbound’s main story eventually leads you to the Ruins of Void. Here you’ll eventually be sent to the Cube Space, which you must navigate and escape from. Below is a step-by-step guide on how to get through this area on Challenging Puzzle Difficulty.
To start, walk directly east until you step onto the teleporter in the middle of the final platform.
Then go north and then step onto the teleporter to your east.
Follow the path north, but don’t step on the first teleporter you see. Instead ignore that one and just continue following the path going east.
Go east when the path splits into two, and that will lead to the teleporter that you want to use.
From here, go south.
Again, ignore the first teleporter you see to continue moving south beyond it.
Step onto the second warp tile you find, and you’ll be sent to the northwest part of this entire cube space area.
From here, step off the teleporter and then step back onto it to be warped to a different area.
Finally, walk north to find Marlon and your father, starting a cutscene that leads to you escaping from the Cube Space.
Dehara City Gym Puzzle
The Dehara City Gym puzzle must be completed to challenge the city’s Gym Leader, Galavan.
The puzzle gets a little bit tougher on Challenging Puzzles Difficulty, and this more difficult puzzle includes more backtracking than the vanilla gym puzzle.
Start by walking into the gym and using the descending platform to your right.
From here go south and bend around to go up the first corridor (shown below) and follow the path up to the switch that you want to interact with.
You’ll also have to face Super Nerd Ezra in the process.
After interacting with the switch, backtrack to your original platform and return to the gym’s entrance.
Then take the descending platform directly to your northeast to go to a different section of the gym.
From here just ride the platform to go to the room’s northern part.
You’ll find Worker Humphrey here which should be an optional battle.
Fight or avoid him, but either way you want to take the platform in the northeast corner.
Then the only thing you can do here is step on the southern platform.
Follow the straightforward path west, past Guitarist Luca. Take the next platform you see.
Then take the platform directly to your right to ascend to a higher floor.
Interact with the button you see. Then backtrack to the last platform to return to the lower floor.
This time, take the path north where you’ll find a different platform – step onto it.
Defeat Scientist Giselle and then walk past her to reach a platform towards the western side of the room.
Here you’ll want to interact with the button, then backtrack to the platform east of Scientist Giselle and take it.
Now the southern path should now be open so head that way.
Ignore the first platform you see after entering the newly opened area, and instead step onto the platform just north of Scientist Jose.
Then in this new area there’s another platform you want to step on.
Turn on the bulb to your west. Then return back using the same platform you used to get here.
In the normal gym puzzle you’d usually return to the starting area, but for Challenging puzzle difficulty you want to backtrack to go back down to Scientist Jose.
Then follow the path down & around to step onto the east-most platform.
Disable the switch here. Then return to the lower floor.
Now step onto the platform directly to your west to return to where Guitarist Luca was.
Follow the path toward the next platform, and continue backtracking by going on the straightforward path.
You’ll shortly reach the platform east of the gym’s entrance.
When you get here, take the western platform to descend.
Disable the switch that’s just north of Super Nerd Ezra, then backtrack to go back to the gym’s entrance again.
Go to the western side from the gym’s entrance and take the moving platform. Then step onto the platform at the end of the path.
Walk east until you spot a platform you can step onto in the southeast part of this area.
Turn on the bulb to your north, then backtrack to where you just were.
Return to the western platform that you came down from. This time you want to walk north instead of taking the platform to backtrack to the entrance.
You’ll spot Gym Leader Galavan accessible at the end of the path, ready to battle.
Distortion World Puzzle
You will raid the Vivill Warehouse during the final stretch of Pokémon Unbound’s main story. After finding the password to unlock a door, you’re sent to the Distortion World along with Jax.
This weird location is filled with wacky quirks that you must master if you want to escape, including some boulder puzzles that are especially hard in the Challenging puzzle difficulty.
To start, follow Jax to a larger platform than the one you’re on.
Step onto the tile in the center to warp into a different area.
Next follow the path going east.
A narrow platform will seemingly be floating sideways, but you can still get on it to continue forward and step onto the warp tile at the end of the path.
Go south to meet Jax again, who asks you to look for this area’s exit.
Follow the path east until you reach what seems to be the path’s end. Step onto the final tile at the end of the path to spawn a platform that you can step onto to continue forward.
When the path splits, follow the path north to move forward.
The path will soon split again. Go north toward what seems to be a dead end to spawn another platform that you can use to continue.
Follow the path going east until you spot another dead end to your south.
Like before, go down that southern path and step onto the final tile to spawn a platform that you can use to keep moving.
All Boulder Puzzles
You’ll eventually reach a boulder puzzle where your goal is to push a boulder onto a switch. This marks the first of a few boulder puzzles you’ll need to solve in the Distortion World area.
Start by pushing the right boulder two spaces west.
Then go down and follow the southern path around to reach the left boulder.
Push the left boulder four spaces east – this will force the right boulder to move east with it.
Now all that’s left to do is to go around again & push the left boulder one space north to solve this puzzle.
With this puzzle solved, follow the southwestern path to reach a platform with some water.
Use Surf to reach the other side, where you’ll spot another boulder puzzle.
You can’t do anything with this puzzle for now, so push the boulder west enough for you to pass and go to the southwest corner of the platform, where you can jump to the west platform. Once you get there, step onto the tile that’s surrounded by rocks and you’ll get warped to another location.
From here, follow the southeast path forward.
Continue east and you’ll shortly reach an area with two boulders.
Just push the southeast boulder one block so the other one falls through the opening.
Then backtrack to the west platform you originally came from, and then go south this time instead of walking toward the warp tile you came from.
You’ll find another boulder at the end of the path, with a switch to the east. Don’t worry about the blue flower-type obstacles blocking your path. You just want to navigate the boulder so that you can physically touch the obstacles, prompting them to disappear until you walk too far.
Then backtrack to the warp tile that you initially came from after solving this boulder puzzle.
This time, jump to the west platform and then follow the path south.
Continue forward until you reach yet another boulder. Push this one east two blocks to connect it to the other boulder.
Then push it west two blocks.
After that, push it north two blocks. The other boulder should automatically follow the same movements.
Then go to the other boulder (on the right) and push it east one block so that it hugs the rock to its right.
Finally, return to the left boulder and push it north, east, and north again. This should cause the right boulder to be placed on top of the switch, solving this puzzle.
From here, backtrack yet again all the way to the platform with the warp tile.
Continue east, and you’ll notice that there will be two boulders here this time instead of the one that was originally here.
Now we can solve this boulder puzzle:
First, push the right boulder north two tiles.
Then push the left boulder east two tiles so that the right boulder moves in the process.
Return to the right boulder and push it two tiles east and then two tiles south.
This will connect it with the new boulder that’s sitting to your right.
Finally, push the left-most boulder here three tiles north so that the right boulder is placed on top of the switch.
With this done, backtrack to the westernmost boulder and go north toward the water that you used Surf on some time back.
Continue to the northwest corner of the platform after the water platform, and then step onto the dead end spot to summon a platform to move forward.
Follow it and walk south after reaching the narrow platform, then eventually follow it west to keep following the path.
Step onto the tile that’s surrounded by rocks on the new platform.
This will warp you to what’s essentially this puzzle’s final area.
You can now just follow the linear path forward, using Surf on the way.
To wrap up this puzzle you’ll eventually bump into one more boulder blocking your path.
Push it south enough so that you can pass, prompting Jax to appear and lead you to this area’s boss.
Hoopa Tile Puzzle
The Ruins of Void section of the game tasks you with solving a sliding tile puzzle, where you must slide & arrange tiles to form the picture of a Hoopa in challenging difficulty mode.
This requires so many precise steps that it’s actually easier if you follow a video showing you how to solve this puzzle on Challenging difficulty.
With this being said, the puzzle is significantly easier in normal difficulty since the individual tiles can be picked and dropped at will. But if you want a challenge then that video should offer a clearer solution than what we could offer in written text.
