How to solve the Hybrid Calibration plant puzzle in Spider-Man 2

What the Hex?

Peter Parker meeting Dr. Foster
Screenshot by Dot Esports

Healing The World is the seventh main story mission in Marvel’s Spider-Man 2. Your first few objectives are all just walking around the Emily May Foundation and talking to people. But then you have to complete the Hybrid Calibration plant puzzle.

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Dr. Foster invites you to help him create non-profit genetically modified plants by putting Hexes into hexagonal slots. Fortunately, it’s not as complicated as real genetics, but it’s still a bit of a head-scratching logic puzzle.

If you don’t want to skip the Hybrid Calibration plant puzzle, but you need a little help completing it, then I’m here to help. This guide will walk you through how the plant puzzle works, and how to complete each stage.

Spider-Man 2 Hybrid Calibration plant puzzle solution

The goal of each of these puzzles is to move all of the Hexes from the bottom of the screen into the slots in the middle of the screen. But there are a few catches. The catch is that every Hex has a different number of rods on each side, and where two sides are touching, they have to have the same number of rods.

Screengrab of three connected hexes in Spider-Man 2
Good job! You’re a scientist now. Screenshot by Dot Esports

So, for the first puzzle, follow these instructions.

  1. Move the top Hex to the top-left slot.
  2. Move the bottom-left Hex to the bottom slot.
  3. Move the bottom-right Hex to the top-left slot.

Or, to put it another way, copy the solution in the screenshot above.

Screengrab of four connected hexes and one non-connected hex in Spider-Man 2
Another step towards solving world hunger. Screenshot by Dot Esports

For the second puzzle, follow these instructions.

  1. Place the top-middle leaf in the top-left slot.
  2. Place the H in the middle slot.
  3. Place the water droplet in the right-hand slot.
  4. Place the bottom-left leaf in the bottom-left slot. I did this, and it worked, but it looks to me like the sun should fit in the same slot too.

You don’t have to worry about the symbols on the Hexes until the third puzzle.

Screengrab of five connected hexes and one non-connected hex in Spider-Man 2
I’m guessing this is where you got stuck, right? Screenshot by Dot Esports

So, this time there’s an additional catch. Not only do you have to fill the slots and make sure the rods match, but you also have to make sure your solution includes at least one leaf, one sun, and one water droplet. I needed a bit more trial and error with this one.

From left to right: top-middle sun, bottom-left water droplet, top-right leaf, top-left sun (or bottom-middle leaf, I think), bottom-right water droplet.

Solve the third stage of the Hybrid Calibration plant puzzle, and Dr. Foster will congratulate you on your beautiful work, freeing you up to continue your tour of the facility. Are you glad you didn’t skip it?

Author
Image of Gavin Mackenzie
Gavin Mackenzie
Gavin Mackenzie has been playing video games since the early 80s, and writing about them professionally since the late 90s. Having been a writer and editor on various British magazines including PLAY, GamesTM, and X360, he's now a freelance guides specialist at Dot Esports.