Hey everyone.
In this guide, I will show you how to solve the Metheus puzzle, and how to claim the reward for doing it. Read on if you're interested.

If you successfully solve this puzzle, you will receive two skins from the Timeless tier as a reward for your efforts:
"Ancient Cane" and "Ancient King's Chest".

Here's a full list of things you'll need to do in order to tackle Metheus:

- First and foremost; you need to have the Cyclum puzzle solved. It was made available again by the creators on 4th of October, 2017, allowing all players to obtain the reward needed to proceed with this puzzle.
Here’s a link to Konrados232's guide, where the guy explains how to solve the thing:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=680086720
If you've got Cyclum solved, move on to the next point.

- Find yourself a partner. Yes, to solve the Metheus puzzle, you’re going to need two coordinated people.
This puzzle requires you to be in constant contact with your partner (who needs to have Cyclum solved too, obviously).
- Find some free time. As Metheus is much more difficult than Cyclum, you'll need at least an hour to solve it, as well as a lot of patience, either for yourself, or your partner.
- Pay attention. Please read all the steps in this guide carefully. Pictures alone are not going help you with solving this puzzle.

Well, I hope you're ready, because this is gonna hurt.
Let's do this!

1) Go to this link: https://metheus.dontstarvetogether.com
2) It will take you to this website. Click on the "Log in through Steam" button, and proceed as usual. I am going to assume that you don't need my help to log in.
3) You will see a fragment of the cave, probably somewhere Atrium.
Now, that is why it is important for you to have Cyclum solved. If you had come here without the other puzzle solved first, you'd find yourself in a pitch black room. But now that you have obtained the torch, you managed to stick it into its place on the wall, and you can work on the panel to your left.
Well, go on then, give that bad boy a click.
4) You should see a control panel, which should look more or less like this.
On the panel, you will get: two lines of codes, two sets of "keyboards", and the central part, with the sophisticated-looking, circle-shaped stone relief.
(Your codes, as well as the keyboard layouts, obviously will be different from the ones on this screenshot! Each person gets a completely unique code assigned to them)
5) Now, find a way to exchange the codes with your partner, for example via screenshots.
6) Decide with your partner who gets code of which colour.
And now listen to me carefully, because I had one too many individuals get me to lose faith in humanity on this part with their lack of reading comprehension skills.
After you've come to an understanding in the colour business, punch in the code of your partner that is not in the same colour as the code that your partner has picked for themselves.
So, for example, if your partner had picked your yellow code, you get to type in their black code. Or vice-versa; If they picked the black of your codes, you get their yellow code. Nice and easy, right?
After you're done with their code, do not click anything until they finish typing your code in. Remember, you have to coordinate!
7) Once both of you put the corresponding codes in, click on the blue "ring" in the middle part of console. You will know that you have done it correctly if the segments of the stone relief light up as shown below.
















8) After a moment, the site will refresh. Congrats! You have just solved the first and easiest part of the puzzle!

(Beware, this is the part where it actually gets tricky, so if you were having problems before getting to this point, I really can't help you anymore)

1) After the site refreshes itself, you'll notice a striking change; a second torch, seemingly out of nowhere, has appeared to the right side of the cave. This is actually your partner's torch, and now the puzzle knows it's got two people trying to crack it. You're doing great, keep it up!
Now, click on the panel, to your right.
2) The second panel will show up, and on it: a line of code, another "keyboard", 6 slots for inserting the symbols, a row of 6 tiny bulbs, and a square button on an oddly familiar-looking stone relief (things get a little more interesting here; each person will see a different kind of code, and a different set of symbols on their keyboard).
It will look more or less like this:






OR like this:










3) Make screenshots of the codes and send them to your partner. Now hold your damn horses and listen to me for a moment, don't touch anything yet, because this is the dangerous part of the puzzle.
Did I get your attention? Good. We can move on.

4) Now you'll have to type in the codes, BUT NOT in the order shown.
Moreover, if you fail too many times, the website will reset and, along with frustration, you will both get completely NEW sets of codes.

But, don't worry, you've got me with you! I will guide you trough the easiest way of doing the second part, also known as "the brute force method".
Warning: Prepare for a convoluted rant...

Let's say that your partner is the Player 1 and you are the Player 2.

Player 1: Fill all the blank slots with Player 2's first rune.
Player 2. Press the button.
Player 2: Fill all the slots with the runes which Player 1 DOESN'T HAVE. After you get it done, put Player 1's first rune into the first slot. Press the button to check if this is the right place. If not - move it (DO NOT ADD MORE OF THE SAME THING) to the second slot, and press the button again. No dice? Move it again to third slot and press the button, and so on. Keep trying with every slot until first "bulb" is lit up.
When this happens, inform the Player 1 in which slot putting that rune worked.
Player 1: Remove Player 2's first rune from every slot, except the one specific slot in which Player 2 left your first rune. After taking them out, fill every REMAINING FREE slot with Player 2's second rune. Press the button.
Player 2: Put in first free slot Player 1's second rune, then press the button. If this isn't the correct place for it, move it into second free slot, and press the button. Juggle the rune, just like you did with the first one. Keep doing it until the second "bulb" is lit up. When that happens, inform the Player 1 in which slot putting the rune worked.
Player 1: Remove Player 2's second rune from every slot, except for the one in which Player 2 left your second rune (remember to leave Player 2's first rune be, don't you dare touch it). After taking them out, fill every free slot with Player 2's third rune. Press the... etc.

Wash, rinse, repeat. Keep forcing your way through all this until all the bulbs are lit up.
If you've done it correctly, the button will lighten up, now to resemble the chest that's waiting for you at the end of this.








5) After a short moment, the website will once again refresh. Congratulations! You have made it through the second and most dangerous part of the Metheus puzzle!

If you are reading this, congratulations.
Many people before you simply couldn't crack the step above, but you've proven yourself to be better than them. And that is an achievement in itself, even if you've tackled it years after it was released and years after I've left this game...

1) After the page refreshes, no apparent change seems to take place. But that's because we'll not to be working on the page this time...
2) If you haven't already, download and install Don't Starve Together. Launch the game and create a server - it's gotta have caves enabled.
3) Launch the server. Make sure that your partner is there with you, and can join in, too.
4) Now head for the nearest entrance to the cave system underneath and dig it up.
5) Go down those ominous-looking stairs - obviously well-armed and equipped.
6) Find the ruins, and fight your way through to the Ancient Pseudoscience Station, in the centre of the ruins.
7) Right next to it, there should be a mysterious Ancient Chest, looking exactly the same as the skin you get as a reward for solving Metheus, and the familiar-looking one you've seen on the relief on the second panel.
8) Open it. Does the inside look familiar? No? Well, let me remind you. It looks like the place for slotting in the runes back from the second panel.











9) What's going on here? Don't panic! You have to put a few items in the chest... But which ones?!
10) Go back to the Metheus page, click the right console and check your symbols. But what for?! I'm going to explain all that right here, right now.
11) The grid where you slotted in runes for the code on the second panel represents the interior of the newfound chest; take note how they both have 6 slots. Each rune represents a defined item, and each square, the amount of that exact item that goes into the chest.

In other words, the order of symbols from the second console, as you set these, will show you the order in which you have to put those objects in the chest.
The striped squares reveal the quantity of the object in each slot, and the runes indicate *what* that object is.

To spare you unnecessary browsing on the internet, I am leaving you with this handy cheat-sheet for deciphering the possible symbols from the panels:


12) Put the objects in, by their respective order, quantity and substance. Note, however, that some non-stackable items can not be put in quantities larger than one, so don’t sweat it if by a coincidence you end up being told to shove multiple into a single slot.
(Or you could also just spawn the items and the chest in, using the c_give(“”) and the c_spawn(“sacred_chest”) commands, respectively. But come on, where's the fun in that?)
13) Close the chest. Both of you must be nearby, alone. It won't work otherwise.
14) The chest will shake a little, menacingly, and then the lid will fling up: a bunch of shadow creatures will fly off into the dark abyss.
An ominous message will then be displayed: "Your presence has been noticed."
15) Leave the server. You're almost done!

But still, we have one more thing left to do. And by that I mean...

1) After leaving the server, log back into the game, and into the Main Menu.
2) You'll be greeted by two gifts to unwrap - your "Ancient Cane" and "Ancient King's Chest" skins.
3) Enjoy your new skins. Well done! You have made it through this one hell of a puzzle!

1) One last time, go back to the Metheus page.
2) You'll discover that after having solved the puzzle, the wall in the background has mysteriously vanished, revealing the Ancient Gateway from the Atrium. Click on it.
3) You will see an animated short (about Charlie).
4) After the short (or at any point during the puzzle), you can inspect the obelisk in the centre of the room for some sweet, juicy, vague backstory of the ancient civilisation. Make of it what you will.

In this section I would like to thank the people who somehow contributed to the creation of this guide.

I would like to sincerely thank Konrados232 for making the Cyclum guide, and for helping me with solving the puzzle initially.

A thing worth noting is that the whole puzzle can be reset (by clicking the blue "ring" from the first panel). That way, you can help others who are having trouble with it.

Here's a collection of some small details that you can find hidden throughout this puzzle. They are quite interesting, so if you like, you can go have a look and see if you spotted these yourself!

- The relief seen in the center of the first panel has exactly the same shape as the Ancient Gateway found in Atrium.
















- In a neat little reference to the Tragic Torch skin, in the smoke of both torches you can find outlines of the various so called Nightmare Creatures.




- The clickable obelisk in the middle of the room is actually the same obelisk as the one in the Atrium, but the latter is destroyed.