I don't want anybody to outright tell me the answers to the number and letter systems... but, can somebody who has beaten the game without looking up hints just tell me something?

How many artifacts did you find before you understood numbers and letters?
I've found the counting artifact, and the writing artifact, and I just found the skull. I still haven't found the fourth one, and I refuse to look up any hints, FAQs or anything.

The puzzle to get to the skull seemed to include what appeared to be numbers, but I solved it and still didn't have a good idea of what numbers those symbols meant.
I have a theory that the lines inside the boxes represent the hands of a clock, but it doesn't make any sense when we get to the ones with three lines... plus the fact that I went through those doors multiple times even though I thought the numbers listed on the treasure maps were supposed to be some kind of order.

I still can't figure out the bell puzzle, or what the pillars with the small block inside them means, and again... I don't want anybody to outright tell me, but, how long did it take you guys? Am I missing an important piece of the puzzle by not having that fourth and final artifact?

Dude. I don't even know where to start. I have a thread in this forum that chronicles my journey to unravel the mysteries of Fez. It shows all my dead ends and logical missteps and leaps in logic that just happened to arrive at the correct solution.

I actually beat the game (2nd ending) without understanding the number system. There are things in the world that prove certain parts of the counting system. There are other things that can be used to deduce the rest of the numbers. There are things to test out your number theories.

Is that good enough?

I didn't use the artifacts for anything. They were useless to me, but I've heard that people used them. I used other elements in the game to solve stuff.

I've been looking at a few places that might help me solve the number system. One being that room in the first town with all of the tetris shapes posted on the wall... and knowing about the pillars with the tetris stuff on them, it looks like there's a certain sequence that they go in, and considering there's usually 8 and there's 8 of them posted on the walls (including the one that you can only really see in first-person view)... but I already tried inputting a few different combinations, and none of them worked. So I just assumed I would have to learn the number system elsewhere before I could solve that one.

Another room is the observatory, I wrote down the shapes in the stars at night, but I can't figure out the order they go in.

Maybe I just have to take a longer look at that stuff, but it seems like all of the puzzles i'm going up against rely on the number system or the writing system... and I don't understand either and it's getting super frustrating (in the best way possible).

I am pretty lost in that game right now.

If you want you can go into my old topic. The opening post has pictures I took that I felt were relevant at the time. The solution to the number system is in those pictures. Don't read anything. Just look at the pictures I took of the game world.

You can try and run through the game world yourself and find these locations or you can look at my pictures as they are what you need to look at to know how to START to understand the numbers.

http://www.giantbomb.com/fez/3030-24768/forums/trying-fez-again-i-think-i-know-what-i-dont-know-h-573734/#

@golguin:

Thank you for that. Yaknow, I actually saw that chalkboard in your 6th photo previously, with the three steps for turning the tetris peices on their side and it let me figure out that part of the game... but I guess I was so excited from that revelation that I just completely bypassed the numbers that were clearly there. Good thing, too... because I would have never went back to that room since it's gold on my map, lol.

Now that I'm pretty sure I know the symbols for what 1, 2, and 3 are, I at least have something to go forward on :)

@vigorousjammer: Using hints from that thread, you should be able to get it. That was a fun little adventure of problem-solving to be a part of with @golguin.

I am familiar with every part of FEZ(besides apparently the secrets Fish says still aren't figured out); so, feel free to ask any questions and solicit any hints! It's a delightful game, and it's nice to help someone out in any way I can. :)

I'd say the classroom, counting artifact, and first town boiler room are enough to figure it out. Though, if you can learn the trick to how the numbers are made, that can help, too. Most people brute-force it using the information on hand and then figure out the logic behind the number symbols.

There is a way to confirm numbers 1-4 in the world by solving a puzzle, but only if you keep track of what you're doing. If you do it by trial and error and don't take note of what you're doing you'll miss it.