There are numerous quests to complete in Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma, including those that progress the main story quests, Azuma quests that get you trekking across the landscape, and various other side activities related to relationship building and beyond. Once you reach Autumn Village, the Mechanical Maze is likely the first puzzle-style quest you'll encounter as part of the Mikoshi Hunt main story quest. Not only does the Mechanical Maze offer a bunch of tricky door puzzles, but it also presents enemies that can slowly diminish your health with debuff effects.
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If you're stuck and feel like you're going in circles, this handy guide details how to complete and get past the Mechanical Maze in Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma, including its door puzzles and boss fight.
How to Start the Mechanical Maze (Mikoshi Hunt Quest)
You can unlock the Mikoshi Hunt quest in Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma once you reach Autumn Village as part of the main story. To get to the Mechanical Maze in Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma, you'll first need to travel north of the Autumn Village Outskirts on the Autumn Region map to cross the bridge to the fortress.
Once inside, you'll need to work your way to the top to get past the various enemies and obstacles using the Sacred Fan until you reach the entrance to the Mechanical Maze at the top of the fortress, as located on the map above. Before heading inside, there is a handy Dragon Save Statue to save your progress and a campfire cooking station to prepare for battle by crafting meals for healing and managing your inventory.
Before entering the Mechanical Maze, it's also best to locate and equip a defensive accessory in the Gear menu, such as the Antidote Earring if you don't have a debuff item equipped to stop health and Rune Point draining damage like poison. The Antidote Earring provides +100% poison resistance, so it will protect you from HP and RP-draining enemy poison attacks inside.
You can find the Antidote Earring recipe located at the Red Shrine southwest of the Autumn Region map near the Remote Shrine Dragon Statue warp point, and craft it via the Forge option at a Blacksmith using the following materials:
- x5 Silver - found by mining ores across the Autumn Region.
- X5 Bronze - mining ores across the Autumn Region.
- X5 Poison Powder - a possible spawn drop from defeating enemies like Flower Mushsprites around the Autumn Region.
- 1,500 Gold.
Mechanical Maze Door Puzzle 1 Solution
On entering the Mechanical Maze, press the red button next to the door ahead to open it, then head across the bridge, defeating the Tanuki enemies that appear and grabbing the loot at both corners. In the next room, defeat the group of Tanuki to get past the fiery red barrier. On the left, destroy the hanging wall scroll on the wall to reach and open the chest inside.
Although the door on the other side of the room is locked, you can move forward by destroying the second hanging wall scroll behind the two Lucky Cats opposite the one where you found the chest, leading to the next area, as shown in the video below:
As also shown in the video above, continue forward by jumping across two sets of turning cogs to reach the next room on the left, being careful not to fall down the gaps, and watching out for the Earth Spider enemy on the second cog set. Take out the Takumi and Lantern Loony enemies in the room ahead. Afterward, use the Sacred Fan on the yellow fan mechanism to spin it and open the door behind it, taking you into another kill zone with a red barrier.
Defeat the Tanuki, Paranormal Parosol, and Lantern Loony enemies to break the barrier, letting you cross another bridge and to a large main part of the Mechanical Maze map with five cogwheel rooms.
There is also a Frog Statue to interact with on the left of the main room as part of the Azuma Frog Statue Fanatic quest, giving you the Mechanical Vase Recipe and a Red Shrine nearby that rewards you with the Talismans of Gales and Twisted Headband Recipes.
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How To Open the Door with Red Lights (Mechanical Maze Locked Door and Cogwheel Puzzle)
This part of the Mechanical Maze map is perhaps the trickiest to navigate, with five cogwheel rooms and a locked door with four red lights to get through. To open the door, you need to locate and press four red switches to turn all lights on the door green. Although there are five cogwheel rooms, the only one without a red switch is the room with the chest marker, which is optional to open, as pictured below.
While you can complete either side of the room to open the door with the red light, starting with the two cogwheel rooms on the right side of the map can be easier by following the steps below:
- To unlock the first cogwheel room, enter the large room on the right and take out all the enemies inside so that the red barrier inside opens. You'll see this door has a single red light on it. To open it, break the hanging wall scroll at the end of the same large room to reveal a cogwheel room inside.
- Next, jump across the spinning cogs and climb the ledge on the wall at the end to find and press another red button, opening the door with the single red light on it. It's a tricky area to navigate, and it's easy to fall down the bottom accidentally, so it might take a few attempts to get right.
- The locked room with the single red light is now open and lit up green, letting you enter and follow the same steps as before to reach and press the next red button. Two more red buttons to go!
Next, head across the corridor to the left side of the Mechanical Maze map and interact with the Red Fan Mechanism in the middle of the room to rotate the position of the room. Instead of going into the cogwheel room with the chest, turn around and defeat the two Takumi enemies down the corridor behind you, as shown in the video below. Afterward, use the Sacred Fan Dance on the two fans on either side of the room to open the door ahead, taking you into another cogwheel room.
Once again, cross the cogwheels and climb the wall ledge inside to reach and press the red button, turning another light green on the main door. It might take a few attempts with the cogwheels seemingly not pausing in this room, so don't worry if you have to try again as you'll respawn nearby.
To find the final red button, head back into the room with the Red Fan Mechanism and rotate it one more time, as also shown in the video above. Head south to the final cogwheel room, where you'll find the last red button on a wooden ledge on the left side of the room this time. Once pressed, all four lights on the main locked door should now be green, opening the door to the final Mechanical Maze area — a boss fight!
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Mechanical Maze Big Boss Tanuki Fight
Head through the unlocked door with lights and through a few sets of sliding doors to reach another Dragon Save Statue, where you can save your game before the upcoming Big Boss Tanuki boss fight, plus a campfire cooking station and a Rune Lantern to replenish your Rune Points. If you haven't already done so, it's also best to upgrade the Sacred Fan in the Skills menu before beginning the fight. That said, during the fight itself, you will also unlock Tengu Winds, which you can use with the Sacred Fan to take off a massive chunk of the oversized Tanuki's health.
Other strategies you can try to beat the Big Boss Tanuki include shooting with your bow from a distance and alternating Sacred Weapon attacks, such as high-damage ones with the Sacred Sword, as shown in the video below.
After beating the Tanuki boss, you complete the Mechanical Maze and finish the Mikoshi Hunt quest, taking you back to Autumn Village to proceed with the main story after a cutscene.
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OpenCritic Reviews
- Top Critic Avg: 81 /100 Critics Rec: 81%
- Released
- June 5, 2025
- ESRB
- Teen / Fantasy Violence, Language, Mild Suggestive Themes, Use of Alcohol
- Developer(s)
- Marvelous
- Publisher(s)
- XSEED Games, Marvelous
WHERE TO PLAY
- Engine
- Unreal Engine
- Franchise
- Rune Factory
- Number of Players
- Single-player
- Steam Deck Compatibility
- Verified
- PC Release Date
- June 5, 2025
- Nintendo Switch Release Date
- June 5, 2025
- Nintendo Switch 2 Release Date
- June 5, 2025
- Platform(s)
- PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, Nintendo Switch 2, Nintendo Switch, PC
- OpenCritic Rating
- Strong
