Sun Palace Mechanism

Sun Palace Gear Puzzle Solver & Walkthrough

Interactive solver for the Sun Palace gear puzzle in Pokemon Light Platinum DS. Click any intersection of a radial line and a circular track to drop a gear, or drag a gear from one intersection to another. Pick the target line you want to align on, choose which lever the ladder blocks — the secret tunnel keeps line 1 Rotate and line 2 Move Outside usable — and press Solve to read the exact lever sequence that places four gears on the target line and advances the central pillar.

Required Order L3 L2 L1 L5 Align lines in this order to complete the Sun Palace.
After each alignment — climb up to the floor above the gear chamber and press the switch on the back wall. That switch is what rotates the central pillar and shifts the ladder. Repeat for every line in the order above.

Target Line

Blocked Lever

Gears Placed

0 / 6

Moves

0
Click an intersection to place a gear. You can place up to six.
MAIN

Lever Sequence

Place at least four gears and press Solve. The mechanism will print the levers to press in order.

Track Colours

  • Red — rotates clockwise
  • Green — rotates anticlockwise

Secret Tunnel

Line 1 rotate and Line 2 move-outside are linked underground. Either one stays usable even if the ladder picks it as the blocked lever.

How to play
  1. Click an empty intersection to drop a gear, or click an existing gear to remove it. Drag a gear to slide it to a new intersection.
  2. Pick a target line from the pill row and pick which lever the ladder blocks.
  3. Press a lever button at the rim or press Solve to let the solver compute the lever order.
  4. Rotate moves red-track gears clockwise and green-track gears anticlockwise. Outside / Inside step every gear on that line by one track.
  5. The puzzle is solved when the target line holds four gears, one on each track.

About the puzzle

What is the Sun Palace gear puzzle?

The Sun Palace is an ancient ruin on Route 412, a vast desert gorge in Pokemon Light Platinum DS hidden by perpetual sandstorms. The ruins surrounding the gorge are said to hide a thousand-year secret, and the gear chamber inside the palace is the lock on the way upward.

The chamber holds a pillar-and-gear mechanism: a central stone pillar surrounded by four concentric tracks and five radial lines. Small blue gears sit at the intersections of those lines and tracks, and a wooden ladder leans against one of the radial lines, blocking the lever beside it.

Your goal is to manoeuvre four gears onto a single highlighted target line — one gear on each of the four tracks — then throw the main switch on the pillar. Doing so rotates the pillar and shifts the ladder. After four such alignments the ladder settles between lines 5 and 4 and rises to the upper platform exit.

Order matters. The Sun Palace requires the alignments in a fixed sequence: L3 → L2 → L1 → L5. Solve line 3 first, then line 2, then line 1, and finish on line 5 — the ladder settles between lines 5 and 4 and the route upward opens.

Mechanics

How the levers move the gears

  • Rotate (line 1). Pressing the Rotate lever steps every gear on the board by one radial position. Gears on the two red tracks move clockwise around the pillar; gears on the two green tracks move anticlockwise.
  • Move Outside (lines 2 and 5). Every gear on the selected radial line moves outward by one track. A gear already on the outermost track stays where it is, and no two gears can occupy the same intersection.
  • Move Inside (lines 3 and 4). Every gear on the selected radial line moves inward by one track. A gear already on the innermost track stays where it is.
  • Secret tunnel. The line 1 Rotate lever and the line 2 Move Outside lever are linked under the floor. Even when the ladder is set to block one of them, both remain usable.
  • Main switch (two-stage). The floor switch in the centre of the pillar becomes active only when the chosen target line holds four gears — one on each track. Pressing it arms the mechanism. To actually rotate the pillar and shift the ladder, the player must climb to the floor above and press a second switch up there.

Walkthrough

Step-by-step: using the solver

  1. Place six gears. Click an empty intersection on the board above to drop a gear. Click an existing gear to remove it, or drag a gear to slide it to a different intersection. You can place up to six gears.
  2. Pick the target line. Tap one of the L1–L5 pills. The highlighted radial line is the one that must hold four aligned gears at the end.
  3. Set the blocked lever. Use the “Blocked Lever” dropdown to choose which lever the ladder is leaning against. The line 1 Rotate and line 2 Move Outside levers stay usable thanks to the secret tunnel.
  4. Press Solve. The mechanism searches every legal lever sequence using breadth-first search and prints the shortest order of presses that gets four gears onto the target line.
  5. Auto-play or press each lever. Use the Auto-play button to watch the solution animate, or press the levers manually one at a time. The current step highlights as you go.
  6. Throw the main switch on the gear chamber floor. Once four gears are aligned the central main switch lights up. Press it to lock in the alignment.
  7. Climb to the upper floor and press the pillar switch. In-game, the floor switch only arms the mechanism — it does not rotate the pillar by itself. Head up to the floor above the gear chamber and press the second switch up there. That one actually rotates the central pillar and shifts the ladder to its new position. Repeat until the ladder settles between lines 5 and 4 and rises to the upper platform exit.

FAQ

Common questions

What order do I align the lines in the Sun Palace?

The puzzle requires four alignments in a fixed order: line 3 → line 2 → line 1 → line 5. Solve line 3 first, then line 2, then line 1, and finish on line 5. After the fourth alignment the ladder settles between lines 5 and 4 and rises to the upper platform exit.

Where is the Sun Palace in Pokemon Light Platinum DS?

It is an ancient ruin on Route 412, a vast desert gorge hidden by perpetual sandstorms. The gear chamber with the central pillar mechanism sits inside the ruins surrounding the gorge.

Why can I still press the line 1 Rotate lever when the ladder blocks it?

The line 1 Rotate lever and the line 2 Move Outside lever are connected by a secret tunnel beneath the floor. The ladder can never block them — that is by design, otherwise some configurations would be unsolvable.

How many gears do I need on the target line?

Exactly four — one on each of the four tracks of the target line. With six gears total, the remaining two sit elsewhere on the board.

Why do gears on different tracks rotate in opposite directions?

Track colour controls rotation. Red tracks (tracks 1 and 3) rotate clockwise when the Rotate lever is pressed. Green tracks (tracks 2 and 4) rotate anticlockwise. A single Rotate press moves every gear by one radial position in the direction set by its track.

The main switch will not press — what is wrong?

The main switch only activates when the highlighted target line holds four gears, one on each track. Until then it stays dimmed and the pillar will not advance. Check the gear count on the target line first.

I pressed the main switch but the pillar did not rotate. What now?

The floor switch only arms the mechanism — it does not rotate the pillar by itself. Climb the stairs to the floor above the gear chamber and press the second switch up there. That upper switch actually rotates the central pillar and shifts the ladder to its new position. You will repeat this loop — align gears, throw the floor switch, climb up and press the upper switch — for each of the four alignments needed to reach the upper platform exit. The required order is L3 → L2 → L1 → L5.

What does the orange arc on the floor in the puzzle reference image mean?

It indicates the direction of the rotational arrows on the inner red track in the original puzzle artwork. In the solver above, rotation direction is reflected by the brief spin animation on each gear when the Rotate lever fires.

Can two gears sit on the same intersection?

No. Every move that would place two gears on the same intersection is rejected automatically. When the levers cannot move a gear (edge of the board, or another gear in the way) that gear stays where it is.