I remember standing at the red gate as the wind flapped a map against my knees. You can hear teammates shout over the cliff while the drawbridge sits quietly closed. I stayed, watched, and mapped the shortest set of moves to pry it open.
Gulls circled above the cliff — How to solve the drawbridge key puzzle in Big Walk
I’ll walk you through the steps I used with a four-player group. Keep your messages short, call out positions, and move fast when a switch needs holding — timing is the quiet enemy here.
Where are the gourds for the drawbridge key?
There are four gourds clustered near the starting area because the rest of the island is still sealed off. When you spread the map, the island becomes a crossword under your hands; every clue fits into the next slot once someone reads it aloud.
Gourd 1
Start at the red gate where you first enter. Hug the left-side path down the cliff until you find a blue building. One teammate needs to enter the locked room and memorize the symbol pattern on the wall.
Outside, the other players place the matching wall panels and flip the switch. Confirm the pattern twice before pressing — misplacing one panel wastes valuable time and forces a repeat.
Gourd 2
The next gourd hangs from an L-shaped yellow crane near the main cliff path. To reach the switch that drops it, stack four players: three form the base, the fourth climbs and jumps to hit the button. Plan who climbs and who holds the base before you start.
Gourd 3
Head to the right-side cliff for this one. There’s a telescope beside a switch — one player must hold that switch to power a distant red box. Use the telescope to track the red beam, then follow it into the cave to claim the gourd.
Gourd 4 — How many players do I need?
The final gourd sits in a green tower to the left. This one demands perfect teamwork: all four players must flip their switches simultaneously. Use voice chat on Discord or a quick YouTube short to coordinate your count — nothing fancy, just a clear “3…2…1…press.”
When you’ve gathered all four gourds, return to the case. One player activates the release switch while the others place the gourds into the matching slots. That gives you the raw key — but it still needs shaping.
Sunlight picked out the rusted gears — How to use the key to open the drawbridge in Big Walk
With the raw key in hand you’re not done. The game forces one more small ritual: shaping the key with five shaping devices scattered nearby.
How do you shape the key?
There are five devices that reshape the key. Three sit close to where you retrieved the key; two are on the shoreline rocks. Insert the raw key into each device and activate it in sequence until the key takes its final form — the devices act like stages in a smithing line, so don’t skip one.
The shaping devices effectively make the key fit the drawbridge mechanism: the key turns into a sculptor’s clay as you progress through each station, so move methodically and don’t swap order mid-process.
After shaping, head to the drawbridge. Place the key in the recess and turn it. If one player holds the access panel open while another rotates the key, you’ll save several seconds; that split-second is often the difference between a clean run and a reset.
I recommend checking Steam community guides or a short Moyens I/O clip if you need a visual; speedrunners on YouTube have posted tight runs that show the exact device order if you prefer to mirror their moves.
So — will you accept the chaos of a four-player coordination test, or lobby for solo-friendly design in the next patch?