How to solve the clock puzzle in Madison (walkthrough)

 Madison is a first-person horror game with a lot of interesting puzzles. One of the most difficult is the puzzle with the clock. In this guide, we will explain how to solve it.

Once you get the key to the clock and can go down to the third separate basement of the house, you will find out what Albert was doing in the last days of his life.

Note. The puzzles in Madison are random, so the solution will be different for each player, but the method of solving will remain the same.

Where to find tools

Before you can proceed with the time puzzle, you will need an important item. You may have already noticed the cuckoo clock placed around the house. When interacting with them, you can pick up the item, but this requires a clock key. The clock key obviously unlocks the clock door. When you find yourself in the workshop, you will need to find a notebook in one of the drawers in the far corner of the room. 

Notepad gives two clues: “3 to the left. 12…” If you've been in the bathroom, you probably remember a similar notepad. Reading it, you will receive a message: “... to the right. 8 to the left. Put them together and you have a safe combination: 3 left, 12 right, 8 left. Use the combination on the green safe in your grandfather's office. When you open it, you will find a clock with two tabs on the back.

Hints

The clock you found in the safe matches the pattern of the cuckoo clock that followed you everywhere. If you place the found clock in any cuckoo clock, they will match. You can pick up any cuckoo clock face, but you can only move one at a time.

We need to go back to the basement. Watch the clock and notice that all the clock faces on a particular wall are in sync. That is, if you are facing the stairs, all clocks in that direction will show 4:20. Stand facing the door at the other end and they will all read 1:30. The cuckoo clock will be different.

Puzzle interpretation

The goal of this puzzle is to have all the cuckoo clocks match the time on the wall behind them. To do this, you need to go back a little, since the dials are outside the room. You will have to memorize the location of all the cuckoo clocks around the house, as this is the only place where you will find suitable clock faces.

Then you need to bring them back to the workshop one by one in order to set the correct time. Then you change clock faces and so on. Fortunately, this is not a very big house, but you still have to run.

Solution

The cuckoo clock is found in the following locations:

• the first corridor, hanging on the wall in the kitchen
• right in front of your grandfather's office
• in the attic

Once again, you can't carry more than one watch face at a time, so if you read our guide completely before trying to solve the puzzle, you can save time and take the 4:20 clock outside the office right after you get the first watch face from the safe...

As for where the clock goes, here are the times starting at the wall with the door locked and going clockwise: 1:30, 5:10, 4:20, and 6:40. Place the matching clock faces in the right spots and the whole room will start going crazy. Take a photo of the action to keep it going. And then the door will eventually open. There is another clock in the closet. They are hanging on a hook and will be needed for the puzzle in the father's room.