History Main / WaitingPuzzle

* The text adventure game ''Timequest'' by Creator/LegendEntertainment has a puzzle where you are required to meditate. Simply typing "wait" results in a message telling how your character fidgets around while passing time, and the proper way to do it is to type something like "sit still". Or, if you simply wait around twenty seconds without typing anything, that accomplishes the same thing. Therefore you might easily ''accidentally'' solve this puzzle while you are trying to think of what you are supposed to do!

* Another NES game, ''VideoGame/DestinyOfAnEmperor'' has you waiting beside ZhuGeLiang until he wakes before he joins. Any attempts to move or talk will reset the timer.

* Unlocking the last five tracks in the sound test (basically the FinalBoss theme and all the tracks that only play during the ending) in ''VideoGame/BatenKaitos'' requires the player to get the Shampoo magus and then hold onto it for ''336 hours of real time'' (when you could easily finish the entire game in less than a quarter of that unless you're trying to go for OneHundredPercentCompletion.) Obviously, the best solution is to just leave the game running for two weeks. Or you could just look up the tracks on YouTube if you're that desperate to hear them.

* A "test of patience" in ''VisualNovel/SummerRoseCourt'', a fan game for ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}'', requires the player to wait for a little while instead of picking a choice. You get a few chances before failing; Nora briefly breaks the fourth wall to help out if you don't figure it out the first time.

* One of the branching pathways in ''VideoGame/WarioLand II'' is unlocked when the player, rather than hitting a button to wake up in the first level, stays asleep for 10 seconds and having the villains carry Wario out of his house.

* The DOS-version of ''VideoGame/PrinceOfPersia1'' has an odd waiting puzzle, and considering the whole game is a TimedMission you generally don't want to spend time loafing around. [[spoiler: At then end of the twelfth level, you first have to SheatheYourSword to defeat your own shadow, by some considered a GuideDangIt. Directly afterwards, you have to walk or jump straight into thin air, which appears to be sure death, if not for ground materializing beneath you. How is this a waiting puzzle? If you make this jump before the melding is complete, you will instead simply fall to your death. Of course, you'll have to trial and error this at the end of a fairly long level.]]

* In ''ProfessorLaytonAndTheLastSpecter'', Luke warns you that you can't do anything to solve his puzzle. The trick is he means it literally; don't do anything.

** ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim'' also has a few. One of the Thieves Guild missions involves taking the [[{{MacGuffin}} Skeleton Key]] back to [[OurGodsAreDifferent Nightingale]]. After getting to her inner sanctum you have to fall into a death trap hole and wait for two or more minutes until finally the game pulls out the key and unlock the floor.

* A couple GuideDangIt moments in ''VideoGame/DarkSoulsI'' have to do with this. To return to the tutorial level, for instance, the player has to sit curled up in a bird's nest for thirty seconds--a giant crow will then pick the character up and fly away. Joining the Gravelord Covenant, meanwhile, requires you to sit in an easily overlooked empty coffin for 30 seconds ''with a specific item in your inventory'' to be transported to Gravelord Nito and pledge allegiance to him. Oh, and if you just follow the plot and enter Nito's chamber normally, he will attack you, rendering his Covenant LostForever (until NewGamePlus).

** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVI'' has one of these as well. You can leave the FloatingContinent as soon as you reach the airship... [[spoiler:and you'll [[LostForever leave Shadow behind on the falling island.]] He arrives at the airship with 5 seconds remaining in the clock.]]

* To get [[spoiler:Mordack's wand]] in ''VideoGame/KingsQuestV'', you must wait in the library adjacent to Mordack's bedroom (out of the line of sight of the door) until [[spoiler:you see him get in bed and go to sleep, at which point you can return to his bedroom and steal it off his end table.]]

** In a way, [[spoiler:the fights against Papyrus and the Mad Dummy are this, assuming you want to solve things peacefully. For Toriel, you explicitly have to Spare her multiple times before she stops fighting, but for Papyrus and the Mad Dummy, you just have to wait and survive their attacks until they give up or something else happens. Doubly so for the Mad Dummy as this is the ''only'' way you can beat him - he's immune to your attacks and cannot be Spared.]]

* In the beginning of ''Videogame/FarCry4'', the player is told by BigBad Pagan Min to sit at the dinner table and wait a while as he goes off to interrogate a prisoner. If the player actually waits long enough, [[spoiler:this triggers a secret ending in which Pagan returns and takes you to rest your mother's ashes all the while casually revealing several major plot points, all without getting involved in the civil war]].

!!Examples:

* ''VideoGame/LaMulana'' has a bunch of these:
** Unlocking Baphomet's ankh requires waiting around in the Twin Labyrinths room diametrically opposite (and not directly connected) to the BossRoom.
** The most annoying part of a multi-part puzzle in the Confusion Gate requires waiting for a {{Mook}} to random-walk into a conspicuous piece of scenery.
** Getting the Ocarina requires pausing the game in a certain spot while holding the pregnant statue and waiting for Lemeza to go to sleep.
** Near the end of BrutalBonusLevel, one must wait about a minute to get a colored block to appear. It must be done 3 times.
** This is how the ankh jewel in the [[BuildLikeAnEgyptian Temple of the Sun]] is obtained. The player idles underneath the eye of Udjat.

* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasy'':
** The PuzzleBoss fight against Gogo in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyV''. He is a mimic — if you attack him physically, he'll counter with an overwhelming physical attack. If you attack with magic, he'll counter with an overwhelming magical attack. The only way to beat him is to do absolutely nothing for nearly a minute before he gives up, which may be irritating since you're, at the time, racing against a clock and trying to avoid being drown fighting underwater.
** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVI'' has one of these as well. You can leave the FloatingContinent as soon as you reach the airship... [[spoiler:and you'll [[LostForever leave Shadow behind on the falling island.]] He arrives at the airship with 5 seconds remaining in the clock.]]
** Getting 100% completion in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyX2'' requires you to allow MrExposition to finish telling a very long, not especially relevant story. If he senses you're losing interest -- for instance, if you press the button to hurry his dialogue -- he stops. You have to put down the controller and wait him out.
** Several of the hunts in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXII'' require you to stay in one area for a set amount of time before the marks appear-- generally long after you've had enough time to clear the area of enemies several times over and leave.
* ''VideoGame/{{Braid}}'' has a hidden secret that involves a cloud drifting for up to ''two hours'' to get from one side of the level to the secret.
* One of the branching pathways in ''VideoGame/WarioLand II'' is unlocked when the player, rather than hitting a button to wake up in the first level, stays asleep for 10 seconds and having the villains carry Wario out of his house.

* In ''VideoGame/TheGuardianLegend'', one of the corridors is unsealed this way.
* Another NES game, ''VideoGame/DestinyOfAnEmperor'' has you waiting beside ZhuGeLiang until he wakes before he joins. Any attempts to move or talk will reset the timer.
* In ''VideoGame/ChronoTrigger'', Crono gets arrested fairly early in the game. You can either wait three (in-game) days until your execution or you can attempt to escape by ticking off the guards. It is considerably easier to wait three days due to [[BigDamnHeroes some well-timed intervention]].
** An earlier example: While Marle is getting candy at the Millennial Fair, don't move. Specifically, don't move away from her, but it's way easier just to wait 15 seconds.
* At one point in ''VideoGame/ChronoCross'', while you are infiltrating Viper Manor, a guard asks for a password and a dialog box pops up with a few plausible-sounding choices. The ''correct'', choice, however, is to not pick any of the options and just wait a few seconds instead, as the correct password is silence.
* In the original ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil'', Barry will accidentally drop the rope he was using to hoist up Jill and leave to find another. If you played through Chris' game first, you might be tempted to just move the tombstone and head into the basement, but that guarantees Barry will not survive the game. If you want him to live, you ''must'' wait; he'll come back.
* A couple GuideDangIt moments in ''VideoGame/DarkSoulsI'' have to do with this. To return to the tutorial level, for instance, the player has to sit curled up in a bird's nest for thirty seconds--a giant crow will then pick the character up and fly away. Joining the Gravelord Covenant, meanwhile, requires you to sit in an easily overlooked empty coffin for 30 seconds ''with a specific item in your inventory'' to be transported to Gravelord Nito and pledge allegiance to him. Oh, and if you just follow the plot and enter Nito's chamber normally, he will attack you, rendering his Covenant LostForever (until NewGamePlus).
* Almost any time you're captured and imprisoned in a ''Franchise/MetalGear'' game, one of the options to escaping is to wait for someone to bust you out.
* In ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid3'', you can defeat one boss just by waiting out the battle due to the boss being so damn old. Alternatively, just save, change your [=PS2's=] internal clock to a week in the future, load your save, and pat yourself on the back.
** Similarly, you can "defeat" a later boss by just waiting while underwater, thus drowning yourself. It's a ''MindScrew'' boss, but it's expected given the series title.
* One of the microgames in the ''[[VideoGame/WarioWare WarioWare Inc.]]'' stage of ''[[VideoGame/SuperSmashBros Super Smash Bros. Brawl]]'' requires you to stand completely still for a few seconds, in the middle of a fight, to receive a bonus. It is a re-creation of a genuine microgame from the series proper.
* One of the three penultimate bosses in ''VideoGame/NeverwinterNights: Shadows of Undrentide'' is invincible unless you wait for its magical defenses to go down. If you walk too close to it before that happens it starts [[ZergRush spawning zombies]] and is ''still'' invincible.
* The final stage in ''VideoGame/{{Depict1}}'' [[spoiler: puts the player back at the start of the game]]. Entering the level goal nets you a BadEnding, but if you wait near it for a short while, it will disappear and you will be able to proceed to the game's ''real'' finale.
* In ''VideoGame/EarthBound'', the 'password' to Belch's base is standing in a waterfall and doing nothing for three minutes.
** Later on, the only way to complete Poo's Mu training is to sit in one spot and ignore the [=NPCs=] urge you to get down. Fitting, as "Mu" means "Nothingness".
* In ''VideoGame/PokemonRubyAndSapphire'', in order to get to Regice, you examine a wall that has a message in Braille, and then wait for two minutes.
** For this one, you may even open the door while decoding the riddle itself.
* In ''VideoGame/{{Alundra 2}}'', this puzzle exists in a cave about halfway through the game. After reading the hint sign for progression, the player must jump in the air and float in place for a while (with the help of a relic) so that the door to the next room opens.

* In ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiIIINocturne'' there is a variant of this in the Fourth Kalpa of the Labyrinth of Amala. There is an old man inside a maze, and he asks if you want to hang out for a few minutes and slow down for a bit and wait. Answering either 'Yes' or 'No' will make him kick you out of that section of the Kalpa. [[spoiler: Waiting three minutes, then answering 'Yes' will make him thank you, and let you through to get a very nice item.]]
* In the video game based on ''VideoGame/TheDarkness'', there's an achievement for sitting on the sofa with your girlfriend until she falls asleep, and another for watching the entire movie on the TV.
* You get ''thirteen'' achievements in ''VideoGame/AchievementUnlocked'' for not doing anything after starting the game.
* However, even that is topped by ''Don't Shoot the Puppy'' Flash game, in which ''any'' interaction with the PC (no even involving the Flash object in the browser) will shoot the eponymous puppy for an immediate GameOver.
* In ''VideoGame/{{Anachronox}}'', to get [[RobotBuddy PAL-18's]] best weapon, you have to let him play in the Moon Burger ball pit for FOUR HOURS. And even longer (seven hours total) for the Shadow Bracers. And since you can't leave the area while he's playing...
* In ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOracleGames The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons]]'', there is a minor waiting puzzle in one of the later dungeons. There is an Armos Knight blocking the way forward, but as a nearby Owl Statue advises, if you just sit there for a bit he'll move.
* In ''VideoGame/SpiritualWarfare'', there's an old woman on the casino strip who quotes a Bible verse about how you should wait patiently if you want what you don't yet have. If you take her advice and stay put for about 15 seconds, a car will pull out and drive off, revealing a hidden shop where you can get more '''[[MundaneMadeAwesome Mighty Grapes]]'''.
* ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid'' has a set of VR missions including mystery investigations where you have to pick out a murder suspect out of a lineup based on evidence in the room. The last mission only has the victim's corpse and no suspects. Wait for ''ten'' minutes and the victim will just stand up, showing that there's no mystery to be solved.
* The Newgrounds game ''[[http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/499695 OCD+]]'' is based on taking this to its logical extreme: ''K'' requires the player to hold the K button and do nothing else for a full hour, while ''SHUT'' is a 14-hour timer. [[spoiler:Well 15-hour, it did say '''estimated''' time of arrival]]
* ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIVOblivion'' contains a few. One mission requires you to wait and do nothing while a huge bear is attacking you. Also, a master of Alteration magic requires that you wait underwater near him for three in-game hours (six minutes of real time) before he will offer training. Although if the player is an Argonian he will give the training for free since Argonians can breathe underwater without needing to use magic
** ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim'' also has a few. One of the Thieves Guild missions involves taking the [[{{MacGuffin}} Skeleton Key]] back to [[OurGodsAreDifferent Nightingale]]. After getting to her inner sanctum you have to fall into a death trap hole and wait for two or more minutes until finally the game pulls out the key and unlock the floor.
* In ''ProfessorLaytonAndTheLastSpecter'', Luke warns you that you can't do anything to solve his puzzle. The trick is he means it literally; don't do anything.
* In ''VideoGame/TheTowerOfDruaga'', revealing the item on Floor 21 requires standing still for several seconds.
* To get [[spoiler:Mordack's wand]] in ''VideoGame/KingsQuestV'', you must wait in the library adjacent to Mordack's bedroom (out of the line of sight of the door) until [[spoiler:you see him get in bed and go to sleep, at which point you can return to his bedroom and steal it off his end table.]]

* One of the secrets in ''VideoGame/{{Hydorah}}'' requires you to randomly wait in a particular boss room for a while after you defeat the boss.
* ''VideoGame/{{Fez}}'' has a clock with ''four'' hands, which take one minute, one hour, one day, and one week, respectively, to complete a revolution. Each hand nets you a prize when it hits "12:00". Good luck with that.
* The fanfic ''FanFic/HitmanMiami'', written as a walkthrough for a fictional game, parodies this by having the player wait at a bus stop "for thirty-five real-time minutes". Later on, this is parodied again:
-->The player must now watch the warehouse for hours on end, waiting for when the non-stereotypical Sikh businessman named Eddie Smith comes around. This may take anywhere from five to eight hours, so it's in the player's best interest to buy a good novel before playing this mission.
* A variation occurs in ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsII'', during the DuelBoss fight against Xemnas. The battle begins with Sora and Xemnas running up/down a building towards each other, mirroring how Roxas and Riku did the same in the "Another Side, Another Story" secret movie. A Reaction Command "Clash" will pop up, which will do no damage to Xemnas when used. Wait a second, though, and the command will change to "Break Through", which deals a little damage. Wait another second and it changes to "Finish", which causes Sora to slam Xemnas into the side of the building and do quite a bit of damage. Since most players will hammer Triangle as soon as they see the prompt, this counts as a WaitingPuzzle and a bit of a GuideDangIt as well.
* There's a quest in ''VideoGame/TheLordOfTheRingsOnline'' where a character asks you to look for boars in a certain area. A 30 minute timer starts ticking down when you accept the quest. Usually, if you don't complete a timed quest in the allotted time you fail and can't try again for a while, so you might be worried if you haven't found any boars when time is about to run out. However, there ''are'' no boars, and you're not ''supposed'' to find any; you just have to spend 30 minutes in the area to convince him you tried.
* One of the quests in the Ancient Arabia section of LegendMUD involves giving a belly dancer a bottle of perfume in exchange for a status award and some pretty decent basic equipment. Unfortunately, you have to give her a bottle for ''each'' item in the five-piece set and it can take up to several ''hours'' for her to randomly make an offer to trade. Savvy players tend to set up a macro triggered by a phrase from her offer dialogue, "follow dancer" and then go read a book or something.
* One level of ''VideoGame/{{Karoshi}}'' traps you in a pit you can't escape from; you must wait one minute before a block falls and crushes you. It's fine in the original game, but its sequel has a 'speed run' in which you complete the first game's levels as quickly as possible, which turns this level from 'filler level' to 'absolutely maddening'.
* In ''[[VideoGame/GanbareGoemon Goemon's Great Adventure]]'', one entry pass is collected via standing under a waterfall in a certain town for a certain period of time. Just do that, and it appears.
* ''VideoGame/RuneScape'': The quest ''Recruitment Drive'' has one of these. But rather than simply waiting in the one room, you need to wait without moving at all. And there's an hourglass on the nearby table [[SchmuckBait just begging to be picked up]].
* ''VideoGame/MassEffect3'' gets an optional one in the ''Citadel'' DLC when James Vega challenges Shepard to break his record of 182 pull-ups; the player is totally welcome to do this with an [[ActionCommand interrupt]] for each one. [[spoiler:The reward is a short cutscene, and that's it.]]

* In ''VideoGame/HarvestMoon'': ''Magical Melody'', getting one of the notes requires you to remain still for five minutes of real time.
* One of the endings of ''VideoGame/TheWitchsHouse'' involves this. To get it, [[spoiler: after the game starts, simply wait where you are for one hour. The roses will wither and die, and you leave.]]
* Idle RPG chatrooms are counterintuitive chatrooms,where you gain experience (and levels) for not saying or doing anything in the chat room. Typing anything in the chat room will typically cause you to lose all experience you've gained since the last level.
* To get the good ending of the online game ''Seven Minutes'', you have to wait [[TitleDrop seven minutes]] in the starting room [[SchmuckBait after touching that cool-looking blue flame]]. Leaving the starting room at any point locks you into the bad ending no matter how many rooms you try to clear after that.
* This is half of a puzzle early in ''VideoGame/IllusionOfGaia''. One room in the Larai Cliffs has a floor of gold tiles, and when Will plays his flute, one tile glows. Will must then stand on that tile for several seconds before a door opens in the southern wall.
* ''VideoGame/LegendOfGrimrock'' has several waiting puzzles where you must "rest" in the correct tile for a door to open. Although woe if you decided to rest for the first one (you could have just waited 15 seconds) as right behind the door is a pack of fairly strong enemies.

* In the beginning of ''Videogame/FarCry4'', the player is told by BigBad Pagan Min to sit at the dinner table and wait a while as he goes off to interrogate a prisoner. If the player actually waits long enough, [[spoiler:this triggers a secret ending in which Pagan returns and takes you to rest your mother's ashes all the while casually revealing several major plot points, all without getting involved in the civil war]].
* ''VideoGame/JackKeane'' has a part where you have to pass a trail of "Time and space". You can either wait it out or [[spoiler:just hit the space key]].

* One of the secrets in ''VideoGame/{{Anodyne}}'' requires you to wait until a rabbit inches across the screen in order to unlock a gate. If you move at all, the rabbit runs in the other direction, so you have to stand perfectly still...for nearly ''two hours''.
* ''VideoGame/TheWitness'': A few optional puzzles require you to wait on a moving platform of some sort while other elements of the puzzle move in and out of view. [[spoiler:One requires you to complete the Challenge (or obtain the reward through other means), and wait through the entire reward.]]

* Unlocking the last five tracks in the sound test (basically the FinalBoss theme and all the tracks that only play during the ending) in BatenKaitos requires the player to get the Shampoo magus and then hold onto it for ''336 hours of real time'' (when you could easily finish the entire game in less than a quarter of that unless you're trying to go for OneHundredPercentCompletion.) Obviously, the best solution is to just leave the game running for two weeks. Or you could just look up the tracks on YouTube if you're that desperate to hear them.

* ''VideoGame/{{La-Mulana}}'' has a bunch of these:

* ''VideoGame/Undertale'' has one in the form of the FinalBoss of the [[KillEmAll Genocide]] run, [[spoiler:Sans. His "special attack" involves doing absolutely nothing, trapping you in his turn forever, without letting you have yours, since he knows that on one of your turns you'll kill him. The solution is to simply wait until he falls asleep, then push the box over to the FIGHT command so you can finally kill him. If you try to move the box before he falls asleep, he just resets your position.]]

* To return to the tutorial level in ''Dark Souls'', the player has to sit curled up in a bird's nest for thirty seconds. A giant crow will then pick the character up and fly away.

* One of the microgames in the ''[[VideoGame/WarioWare WarioWare Inc.]]'' stage of ''[[SuperSmashBros Super Smash Bros. Brawl]]'' requires you to stand completely still for a few seconds, in the middle of a fight, to receive a bonus. It is a re-creation of a genuine microgame from the series proper.

** ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim'' also has a few. One of the Thieves Guild missions involves taking the [[{{MacGuffin}} Skeleton Key]] back to [[OurGodsAreGreater Nightingale]]. After getting to her inner sanctum you have to fall into a death trap hole and wait for two or more minutes until finally the game pulls out the key and unlock the floor.