Paranormasight: The Mermaid’s Curse: How to Solve the Metal Box Puzzle

Paranormasight: The Mermaid’s Curse is a masterclass in atmospheric mystery, tasking players with piecing together cryptic clues to progress throughout a story that follows multiple protagonists and a mystery full of twists.

And progressing through the narrative requires more than just reading; you will need to scour your files, recall subtle dialogue hints, pay attention to every tiny detail, and interact with the environment in clever ways to overcome the game’s many roadblocks.

A prime example of this occurs during the chapter Treasure Hunt — Part 2. Playing as Arnav Barnum, you follow Avi and Circe to the location revealed by the treasure map from the previous chapter (called Treasure Hunt — Part 1). There, they discover a mysterious and seemingly cursed metal box that demands a very specific solution to be pried open – but doing that is not that simple, so we have a quick guide to help you through it.

In the Treasure Hunt — Part 2 chapter, Avi and Circe arrive at the treasure's coordinates only to find that the ama diver (pearl-collecting professional) hired by Ikoma to retrieve the item has vanished out of thin air.

Circe immediately senses a cursed presence on the diver’s abandoned boat, suggesting a grim fate for whoever touched the object. Despite that, it is up to you to handle the item: a metal box etched with strange symbols. And you have to do that in this place, since the answer is hidden in plain sight in the landscape.

So let’s begin with our guide! Once you gain control of the camera, pick up the box and examine its four sides. You will notice that each side features a silhouette that resembles a distant island. Coincidentally, the area around Avi and Circe is dotted with islands, and the secret is to align each face of the box with the corresponding island in the background.

Finding the right orientation for most sides is quite straightforward, but one specific face serves as a clever trick. That’s because it shows two distinct islands in the box sketch: Kaishima and Taishima. However, one of these two islands doesn’t exist anymore in the present, meaning you have to remember and imagine its position.

So, in order to solve this part, you must point that side of the box toward the empty space next to Kameshima where Taishima once stood. You can check all four solutions to the puzzle right below:

Opening the box triggers a significant reveal for Avi and Circe, but I will stop there to keep the story’s biggest twists a surprise!