The Eyepiece

The Eyepiece in The Rooms 1, 2, and 3

The Room Three

**The Eyepiece** is a major device and game mechanic used extensively in all The Room games. It is a device that uses a lens created from the Null that allows the wearer to see, interact and manipulate things that are otherwise hidden. Eyepieces can also be outfitted with different lenses that expand on their uses.

## Lens Properties

There are a number of eyepiece lenses to be found throughout the games, and many have unique features.

### Standard

There are two main properties that all lenses are known to have to a certain extent, regardless of their additional properties.

#### See Invisible Ink

All lenses will allow the player to view secret messages or markings made in “Null paint”. There are generally no clues to reveal that the paint is there until the eyepiece is worn. Such markings may be deliberate, such as written clues and glyphs, or seemingly random, such as handprints and paint splatters.

Certain lenses may only allow the player to see certain colors of writing. In The Room Two, the player begins with a red lens that allows them to see red writing. In The Lab, after receiving a second, green lens, they are able to see writing in green that they formerly could not.

#### See Through Shimmering Surfaces

Certain puzzles will exhibit a rainbow sheen on their surfaces, prompting the player to use the eyepiece to see through them. The shimmering surfaces behave in many different ways when seen through the eyepiece. Generally, they have a few known features. They may cause stationary images to move, or they may reveal hidden aspects of moving images. Some allow the player to see through solid objects and interact with the contents inside. They may also show illusions that the player can interact with.

This feature is exhibited by every eyepiece lens, but may have only certain of the listed properties depending on the situation. For instance, in The Room VR: A Dark Matter, the player does not have the ability to manipulate objects inside of solid surfaces until they receive an additional lens from The Craftsman.

### Tune Room Glyphs

This is a feature seen in the epilogue of The Room and used throughout The Room Two. In each instance of its use, the player must use the eyepiece in order to see Null crystals floating at the center of the room. Viewing these glyphs from the proper orientation, the player is able to open a doorway to the location of the next chapter.

The ability to tune room glyphs is introduced in The Room's epilogue, when the player is still using their original lens, meaning that lens had some tuning properties inherent in it already. They are able to see Null crystals of a blue color, and they must tune two separate Null glyphs before the first doorway opens. The replacement lens that is given to the player by A.S. in The Room Two - The Crypt allows the player to see red crystals. Later, A.S. provides a second lens, which allows them to see green crystals as well.

### Superzoom

A Superzoom lens allows the player to enter small apertures in order to interact with the environment on a miniature scale. When an aperture can be entered, a number of small crystals can be seen floating outside it. There is also an audio cue for such openings; a soft ringing sound.

The Superzoom lens is given to the player by The Craftsman in The Room Three as a supplemental lens to their own eyepiece. Collector Hydrus’s eyepiece has the superzoom capability, suggesting at least one of its two lenses serves this purpose. In The Room VR: A Dark Matter, the player gains a Superzoom lens from The Craftsman in the Chapel.

### Dollhouse Superzoom (Seal-breaking)

This unique form of Superzoom is only seen in The Room: Old Sins. Collector Hydrus’s eyepiece allows him to crack the seals and enter the rooms of the Waldegrave Manor dollhouse. Doing so allows him to move around the rooms of the Dollhouse as if they were life-sized. Later in the game, he is able to enter deeper and deeper into the reality of the Null using this feature, eventually finding the Null crystal at the center of the Dollhouse.

### Solve Star Puzzles

The Star Puzzle is a unique form of puzzle seen in The Room VR: A Dark Matter. It is a feature of one of The Craftsman’s additional lenses, which is found in The Witch’s level. The lens allows a player to look into a miniature floating “nebula”, which will expand into a number of stars and other astral bodies when seen through the eyepiece. The player must move a sun-like shape across a number of dots into a black hole. The puzzle may morph through several iterations before finally being solved.

## Occurrences

### In *The Room*

The lens in The Room was created by A.S. In his journal, he describes creating a lens from the Null, which he used to see into other realities. Use of the eyepiece eventually took a toll on A.S., as he describes having unsettling visions and dreams after wearing it. This eyepiece is a dark purple, almost black color, and has the Standard properties only. It shatters at the end of the first game, as the player moves through the Null doorway to The Crypt.

### In *The Room Two*

Because the original lens was shattered at the end of the first game, the player gets a new lens with a red hue at the beginning of The Room Two. A second lens of a green color is given to the player by A.S. to help the player escape The Lab. In addition to the usual Standard properties, these lenses allow the player to tune room glyphs. The lenses only allow the player to see crystals and writing of the color they were designed for.

### In *The Room Three*

The Room Three is the first game to have a lens already on the eyepiece at the beginning of the game. The lens on the eyepiece is different from the lens found at the end of The Room Two, which implies the protagonist has somehow acquired a new lens in between the two games. The starting lens has the Standard properties. After the player is brought to Grey Holm, The Craftsman provides the player with a lens with the Superzoom capability. The Superzoom lens has a metal casing that clasps onto the end of the original eyepiece.

### In *The Room Old Sins*

Compared to the one used by the protagonist in the original trilogy, Hydrus has a perhaps more sophisticated eyepiece. It is collapsible, and features a more compact and cold design overall, with the iron shells having an almost silver color. There are two cyan lenses, one large in the front and one smaller behind, and a blue crystal or bead supported by four needles in between the two. It has the Standard, Superzoom, and Dollhouse Superzoom properties.

### In *The Room VR: A Dark Matter*

Unlike the eyepieces in the mobile games, this eyepiece is a set of goggles with a lens for each eye, rather than the mono-lens design found in the previous games. This eyepiece and its lenses were created by The Craftsman and gifted to The Detective as part of his scheme. They were also presumably given to each of his previous victims. The lenses in A Dark Matter are all a dark green color. Each lens builds off its predecessor, giving the user new abilities with each eyepiece collected. The first lens is built into the eyepiece, and allows for the viewing of Null paint. The second allows the user to see beyond shimmering surfaces. The third adds Superzoom. The fourth allows the user to complete the Star Puzzles.

## Trivia

* The Room is the only game where an eyepiece lens has broken.
* The Room VR: A Dark Matter is the game where the most eyepiece lenses are added, with a total of three additional eyepiece lenses being found in the game.
* The Room VR: A Dark Matter is the only game where the eyepiece is portrayed as a set of goggles. However, the icon used to toggle the eyepiece on and off is shown much more similarly to the original version of the eyepiece.