MachineGames’ latest release has players donning the iconic fedora in an adventure that blends exploration, puzzle-solving, and intense combat across some of the world’s most mysterious locations. If you’ve found yourself stuck on a particularly tricky hieroglyphic puzzle or struggling to take down that mercenary boss in Bangkok, you’re in the right place. This walkthrough covers every chapter, every major puzzle solution, and all the boss encounters you’ll face on your journey to uncover the secrets of the Great Circle. Whether you’re hunting for collectibles or just trying to push through the main story, we’ve got detailed strategies for each section of the game. Expect specific solutions, combat tactics, and navigation tips that’ll keep you moving forward without all the trial-and-error frustration.
Key Takeaways
- Master Indiana Jones and the Great Circle by understanding core mechanics like the whip system, stamina management, and environmental takedowns rather than relying on direct combat.
- Stealth is the preferred approach for most encounters—use crouch-walking, distractions, and ledges to avoid alerting guards and progressing through chapters like the Vatican prologue and monastery infiltration.
- Solve major puzzles by consulting your journal frequently and examining environmental clues: the hieroglyphic wall requires photographing statue bases, the orrery needs celestial body alignment based on astronomical charts, and the water-flow puzzle follows dragon carvings on walls.
- Collect all 28 ancient relics and 42 adventure notes across five chapters to unlock extended epilogue content and character dossiers that reveal the antagonist’s motivations and conspiracy backstory.
- Boss encounters test learned mechanics across three phases—dodge and counter with melee, manage environmental hazards, then target weak points with the whip and revolver in final phases.
- Prepare for each chapter’s unique demands: Vatican emphasizes stealth fundamentals, Egypt requires weight puzzles and stamina management, Himalayas demand precise climbing, Bangkok splits temple puzzles with street exploration, and the final chapter synthesizes all previous environments and mechanics.
Getting Started: Essential Tips Before You Begin
Before diving headfirst into the adventure, understanding some core systems will save you hours of frustration down the line. The game doesn’t hold your hand much after the opening sequences, so knowing these fundamentals makes a real difference.
Understanding the Game Mechanics
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle operates on a hybrid system that rewards observation and preparation over button-mashing. The journal is your best friend, it auto-updates with sketches, photographs, and notes that provide puzzle hints. Check it often, especially when you’re stuck.
The whip isn’t just for swinging. You can disarm enemies, pull objects, and interact with environmental elements. Look for glowing points in the environment, these indicate whippable targets. The camera mode lets you photograph clues and documents, which then get added to your journal for reference.
Stamina management matters during climbing sequences. The meter depletes faster when Indy is injured, so prioritize health items before tackling vertical sections. Fast travel unlocks after completing the Vatican prologue, letting you revisit earlier areas for collectibles you missed.
Combat System and Stealth Strategies
Combat favors scrappy improvisation over polished technique. Indy’s punches have weight, but he’s not a superhero, taking on more than two enemies at once usually ends badly. The revolver has limited ammo, so treat it as a last resort rather than your primary weapon.
Stealth is almost always the better option. Crouch-walking reduces noise, and you can peek around corners to mark enemy positions. Bottles and rocks create distractions, throw them to lure guards away from patrol routes. Tall grass and shadows provide concealment, but only if you’re crouched and moving slowly.
Environmental takedowns are clutch. You can kick enemies off ledges, shove them into walls, or use the whip to pull them into hazards. The stun punch (hold melee button) staggers tougher enemies, opening them up for follow-up strikes or a whip disarm.
Blocking and dodging are mapped to the same button with different timing. Tap just before an attack lands to dodge: hold to block. Dodging costs no stamina and repositions you better, but blocking lets you counter immediately. Mix both based on enemy type, brutes require dodges, while knife users can be blocked and countered.
Prologue: The Vatican Heist
The Vatican serves as your tutorial section, introducing core mechanics in a relatively forgiving environment. You’ll start in 1937, sneaking through the hallowed halls to recover a stolen artifact.
Follow the marker to the East Wing. Guards patrol in predictable patterns here, wait for them to turn away before moving between pillars. The first stealth section is mandatory: if you’re spotted, you’ll restart from the last checkpoint.
In the Archive Room, you need to find three manuscript fragments. They’re on different shelves, marked by subtle golden spines. Use the camera to photograph each one. The journal updates with a puzzle: arrange the fragments to reveal a date.
The solution is 1521, the year of Martin Luther’s excommunication. Enter this on the vault lock in the adjacent room. Inside, you’ll face your first combat encounter against two guards. Practice your dodge timing here: these guys telegraph their punches heavily.
The prologue ends with a chase sequence through the Vatican gardens. It’s mostly scripted, but you’ll need to vault over obstacles and slide under gates. Missing a vault restarts you a few seconds back, so the penalty isn’t harsh. This section establishes the game’s movement vocabulary for later, more complex traversal challenges.
Chapter 1: Secrets of the Pyramids
Egypt opens the game wide, giving you a semi-open hub area to explore. The main objective is reaching the inner tomb complex, but optional content abounds if you want to collect relics early.
Navigating the Tomb Complex
The entrance to the pyramid is located northwest of the dig site camp. You’ll need to solve a weight puzzle involving stone blocks and pressure plates. There are four blocks scattered around the entrance area, two are buried under sand and require you to whip away debris first.
Arrange blocks as follows:
- Left plate: Two blocks (the heavier ones with hieroglyphic markings)
- Right plate: One block
- Center plate: One block
This opens the main gate. Inside, the tomb splits into three paths. The left path leads to optional treasure but also has spike traps. The center path is the main route. The right path loops back with a health upgrade if you solve its mirror puzzle (reflect light beams using movable bronze shields).
Stick to the center for now. You’ll descend into a flooded chamber where the water level rises and falls on a timer. Wait for the water to drop, sprint across the exposed floor, and climb the ladder on the far side before it refills. Timing is tight but consistent, don’t second-guess, just move.
Solving the Hieroglyphic Puzzles
The main chamber features a massive hieroglyphic wall with rotating discs. You need to align symbols based on clues from three nearby statues. Photograph each statue’s base, the journal automatically highlights the relevant symbols.
The solution pattern from left to right:
- Ankh (life symbol)
- Scarab (transformation)
- Eye of Horus (protection)
- Djed pillar (stability)
Rotate each disc until it clicks into place. Many players have reported getting stuck on this puzzle because walkthrough resources suggest the solution is in the journal, but it’s easy to miss that you need to photograph all three statues first. Once aligned, the floor descends, revealing the path to the inner sanctum.
The chapter boss is a Guardian Construct, a stone automaton with slow but devastating attacks. Circle-strafe and dodge its ground pounds. After each attack combo, it pauses for 3-4 seconds, that’s your window to whip the glowing weak points on its back. Three cycles of this and it crumbles.
Chapter 2: Into the Himalayas
The Himalayas shift the game’s pacing dramatically. Expect more vertical exploration, brutal weather conditions, and tighter stealth sections.
Mountain Climbing Sequences
The ascent begins at base camp. The path is linear but demands precise input. White chalked handholds indicate safe grips: reddish-brown ones crumble after a second. Plan your route before starting each section.
Key climbing segment (the one most players fail): About halfway up, you’ll encounter a section with swinging platforms. Wait for the platform to swing toward you, jump, then immediately jump again to the next handhold. Don’t wait on the platform, it swings back too fast.
Stamina drains faster here due to altitude. There are three rest points marked by small caves. Use them. If your stamina bar turns red, you’ve got maybe five seconds before Indy loses his grip.
The ice wall near the summit requires the climbing axe, which you pick up automatically during a cutscene. Swing it into the ice, climb, swing again. The rhythm is slower than normal climbing, be patient.
The Monastery Infiltration
The monastery is hostile territory. Guards are alert and patrol in pairs. There’s a side entrance through the kitchen that bypasses the main courtyard entirely, look for the wooden cart you can climb near the western wall.
Inside, you need to reach the Elder’s Chambers on the third floor. The main staircase is heavily guarded, but there’s a dumbwaiter in the kitchen that takes you straight to the second floor. From there, climb the exterior wall using window ledges.
The Elder gives you a cipher wheel needed for the next area. Before leaving, grab the yak hide journal from his desk, it’s a missable collectible that unlocks lore about the Great Circle’s origins.
Exiting triggers an alarm regardless of your stealth performance. Sprint to the zipline at the courtyard’s north end. You’ll slide down into a cutscene that transitions to Bangkok.
Chapter 3: Bangkok Underground
Bangkok’s urban environment contrasts sharply with previous locales. The chapter is split between street-level exploration and underground temple networks.
Temple Puzzles and Hidden Passages
The temple entrance is hidden beneath a noodle shop in the market district. Examine the dragon mural on the back wall and press the eyes in this sequence: left, right, left, both. The wall slides open.
The underground temple has four chambers, each requiring a different relic to unlock. You’ll find these relics in the above-ground market area:
- Golden Lotus: Inside the antique shop (requires lockpicking, hold the button and rotate until you hear a click)
- Jade Monkey: On the rooftop pagoda accessible via the fire escape behind the hotel
- Bronze Bowl: In the fortune teller’s tent, hidden under a rug
- Silver Blade: Guarded by thugs in the back alley near the docks
Place each relic on its corresponding altar. The altars are marked with elemental symbols that match etchings on each relic. Fire, water, earth, air, it’s straightforward if you examine each item in your inventory.
The central chamber puzzle is trickier. You need to redirect water flow through a series of gates. The puzzle solutions circulating online often skip the visual cues the game provides, but here’s the intended approach: follow the dragon carvings on the walls, they point toward each gate you need to open in sequence.
Open gates in this order:
- North gate (dragon facing upward)
- East gate (dragon facing sunrise symbol)
- South gate (dragon facing downward)
- West gate (dragon facing moon symbol)
Water flows to the center basin, lowering the platform and revealing the passage to the boss arena.
Boss Fight: The Mercenary Leader
This guy is fast and uses a combat knife with a longer reach than your whip. The arena has explosive barrels on the perimeter, use them. Lure him near a barrel, dodge his lunge, then shoot the barrel.
He has three phases:
Phase 1: Standard knife attacks. Dodge backward twice, then counter with two punches and a whip crack. Repeat.
Phase 2 (at 60% health): He throws knives between melee rushes. Keep moving laterally and use pillars for cover.
Phase 3 (at 30% health): He gets desperate and charges more frequently. The timing tightens, dodge at the last possible moment. After each charge, he’s vulnerable for about two seconds. That’s when you land your heaviest hits.
Defeating him nets you the Temple Key, which opens the path back to the Vatican in the next chapter.
Chapter 4: Return to the Vatican
You’re back where it started, but this time with full access to previously locked areas. The Vatican serves as a hub for gathering the final pieces needed to locate the Great Circle.
Secret Archives and Ancient Clues
The Secret Archives entrance is in the Apostolic Palace, behind a false bookshelf in the library. Pull the green book on the third shelf from the top, it’s labeled “Codex Vaticanus.” The shelf swings open.
Inside, you’ll navigate a series of narrow corridors filled with documents. You need three specific manuscripts:
- The Shepherd’s Map: On a desk in the first reading room
- Letters of St. Ambrose: In a locked glass case (use the key from the monastery)
- The Meridian Prophecy: Hidden behind a loose stone in the western wall (whip the crack to pull it free)
Combine these in your journal to reveal coordinates pointing to the next location. The game doesn’t spell this out, but the coordinates correspond to a real-world location, though the game’s version is fictionalized.
Before leaving, there’s an optional combat encounter in the catacombs beneath the archives. Four guards ambush you in a tight space. Use the doorway as a chokepoint, let them come to you one at a time. The narrow corridor negates their numbers advantage.
The chapter ends with a cutscene revealing the final destination and the main antagonist’s plan. It’s a short chapter, mostly serving as connective tissue and lore dump.
Chapter 5: The Great Circle Revealed
The final chapter takes place in a hidden location that won’t be spoiled here beyond saying it’s a synthesis of all previous environments. Expect callbacks to earlier puzzles and mechanics.
Final Puzzles and Ancient Mechanisms
The entrance hall features the game’s most complex puzzle: a massive orrery representing planetary alignments. You need to position five celestial bodies according to clues scattered throughout the chapter.
The clues are in murals depicting historical events. Each mural has a date, and you need to research what celestial events occurred on those dates using an in-game astronomical chart (found in the observatory room to the right of the entrance).
Positions for the orrery:
- Mercury: First position (closest to center)
- Venus: Third position
- Earth: Fourth position (with moon attached)
- Mars: Sixth position
- Jupiter: Eighth position
This configuration matches the Great Circle’s alignment date. The mechanism activates, opening the path to the inner sanctum.
The inner sanctum has a gauntlet section with respawning enemies. Don’t try to fight them all, sprint through. There are three gates you need to trigger in sequence while avoiding combat. Hit each switch and keep moving. Health pickups are sparse here, so conserve resources.
Boss Fight: Defeating the Main Antagonist
The final boss is a multi-stage fight that tests everything you’ve learned. Stage one is straightforward melee combat with patterns similar to earlier human enemies. Dodge, counter, repeat.
Stage two introduces environmental hazards. The floor starts crumbling in sections, stay mobile. The boss gains a ranged lightning attack that travels in a straight line. Dodge perpendicular to its trajectory.
Stage three (final phase): The boss becomes empowered by the Great Circle mechanism. Weak points glow on his armor. You need to whip these weak points to expose them, then shoot them with your revolver. There are four weak points:
- Left shoulder
- Right shoulder
- Chest plate
- Helmet
Destroy all four and he staggers. Rush in for a melee combo during this window. You’ll need to repeat this cycle twice. On the second cycle, he’s more aggressive, attacks come faster and the weak point windows are shorter.
After defeating him, there’s a final quick-time event where you need to deactivate the mechanism before it collapses. Press buttons as they appear on screen. It’s forgiving, you can miss one or two and still succeed.
The ending plays out based on collectibles you found (or didn’t). Collecting all ancient relics and adventure notes unlocks an extended epilogue scene.
Collectibles and Side Content Guide
Completionists will find plenty of optional content spread across all chapters. None of it is missable permanently since you can fast travel back, but grabbing things on your first pass saves time.
Ancient Relics Locations
There are 28 ancient relics total. Each chapter has a specific number:
Vatican: 3 relics
Egypt: 7 relics
Himalayas: 5 relics
Bangkok: 8 relics
Final Chapter: 5 relics
Most relics are hidden in side rooms or behind optional puzzles. The game doesn’t mark them on your map, but they emit a faint golden glow when you’re within about 10 meters. Turn up your brightness if you’re having trouble spotting them.
Notable relics:
- Vatican: The Papal Ring is in the Pope’s private chapel, accessible only after completing the main story
- Egypt: The Golden Scarab is buried near the sphinx, look for disturbed sand
- Bangkok: The Emerald Buddha replica is on the temple roof, requiring some tricky platforming
Adventure Notes and Lore Items
These are separate from relics and provide backstory. There are 42 adventure notes scattered throughout the game. They’re typically found on desks, in journals, or as photographs.
Some notes unlock additional journal entries that provide puzzle hints for future areas. The note in the Himalayan monastery about lunar cycles, for example, hints at the orrery puzzle in the final chapter. Publications like IGN have compiled full collectible lists, but there’s satisfaction in finding these organically on a first playthrough.
Collecting all adventure notes in a chapter unlocks a character dossier that provides insight into the antagonist’s motivations and the history of the Great Circle conspiracy. These dossiers add significant narrative depth that the main story only hints at.
Achievement and Trophy Guide
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle has 50 achievements/trophies across all platforms (PC, PS5, Xbox Series X
|
S). Most are tied to story progression, but about 15 require specific actions.
Missable achievements:
- Pacifist Path: Complete the monastery infiltration without being detected. Save before entering and reload if spotted.
- Whip Master: Disarm 20 enemies using the whip. This requires conscious effort, you won’t hit it naturally.
- Relic Hunter: Find all 28 ancient relics.
- Scholar: Collect all 42 adventure notes.
- Photo Finish: Photograph 50 unique subjects. The game counts people, landmarks, and puzzles.
Combat achievements:
- Brawler: Defeat 100 enemies using melee only. Guns don’t count.
- Quickdraw: Get 10 headshots with the revolver. Aim for stationary guards during stealth sections.
- Environmental Hazard: Kill 15 enemies using environmental traps (ledges, spikes, explosive barrels).
Puzzle achievements:
- Code Breaker: Solve all puzzles without using hints. The game tracks this internally, if you consult your journal during a puzzle, it counts as a hint.
- Time Trial: Complete the orrery puzzle in under 2 minutes. Skip the cutscenes and have the solution ready.
Speed-run achievement:
- Fortune and Glory: Complete the game in under 6 hours. This requires skipping all side content and most combat encounters. Not recommended for a first playthrough.
The platinum/100% completion sits at around 20-25 hours depending on skill level and how much you use guides. No achievements require difficulty-specific runs, you can tackle everything on the easiest setting if you’re just hunting trophies.
Conclusion
MachineGames delivered a love letter to classic adventure games with modern polish. The puzzle design rewards observation over brute-forcing solutions, and the combat, while occasionally clunky, stays true to Indy’s scrappy, improvised style. If you got stuck on the hieroglyphic puzzles or that mercenary boss gave you trouble, the strategies above should get you through.
The collectible hunt adds real value for lore enthusiasts, and the extended epilogue is worth the effort. Whether you’re rushing through the main story or hunting every relic and note, the pacing holds up across the 15-20 hour runtime. Now grab that fedora, crack that whip, and finish what you started.
