Victoria's Trace Achievement Guide

[Stupendous Man]

So after much hassle trying to find a proper Guide for this achievement, I decided to make my own with the information I found due to trial and error.

Day 4: While the quest will be in your log for all of Act III, it is possible to fully complete this quest/Achievement on day 4. Starting at 7:30-8:00 A.M., you will hear piano music upon entering on of the following districts:

Backbone
Flank
Maw
Spleen
Atrium
Bridge Square
Marrow

Find the house where the music is coming from, for the first 3 it should be one of the houses with only one entrance. Find Capella and speak with her, and offer to keep an eye out for more players.

The next House will activate around 10:00-10:30 A.M. (It all depends on how quick you got to the first one, but it seems to be about 2 or so hours later) This will be in any of the above districts, potentially even in the same house you found Capella in. Go upstairs and find the person playing the piano and talk to them.

The next house will spawn around 2:00-3:00 P.M. (Same time difference as the last house). This house like the last one will spawn in any of the above districts, including the same ones you found the other houses in.

The third and final house is a bit tricky, as it didn't appear for me until around 8:00-9:00 P.M. Not sure if I was just doing something wrong, or what, but it should spawn around that time. Again, this house follows the same rules as the other houses.

Finally, Head to Capella's Wing and speak to her to end the quest. She has a lot of dialogue on Day 4, so you might have to talk to her several times to get the Achievement.


Important Note: Capella needs to be Vaccinated on day 4, so most players will visit and talk/vaccinate her on Day 4. If you talk to her after finding at least one person playing the piano, but BEFORE you find all of them, the quest will end prematurely and you will not get the achievement. Therefore, I recommend Vaccinating her either at the beginning of Day 4, or the end otherwise you can miss out on this quest/achievement.


I hope this guide was helpful, and thanks to all the folks below who helped update/correct this guide. :)

[OpelinaPo [gr0mel]]

Thanks for this man! I've been breaking by head over this quest.
Also, I can confirm it can spawn in the Marrow.
Thx again

[Stupendous Man]

Originally posted by gr0mel NameHa:

Thanks for this man! I've been breaking by head over this quest.
Also, I can confirm it can spawn in the Marrow.
Thx again

You're welcome, glad you found it useful.

[Pheex]

After wrestling with this quest for longer than I care for I reloaded a Day 4 save.

All three spawned in the same house as Capella for me, playing the same piano in the same house in the same district (The Maw)

The times you mentioned were spot on though, thanks.

[Unseen]

Guide looks very helpful. And pheex that sounds easier but also lucky. Any idea how you triggered that?

[Pheex]

I'd been searching for the final house for about 3 IRL hours. I ended up reloading a save on the early morning on Day 4, before 7:30 just to finish this quest and see the story.

as I only wanted to finish this quest and nothing else, I slept until 8 am, went looking for the piano music at the start of the quest and found Capella playing piano in the Maw district

After talking to her I went straight back to the factory, slept (really short) until 10 am, went looking for the first proper house and it was the same house in the Maw. went back to the factory, slept until 2 pm, found the second piano in the same house again, back to the factory, slept until 9 pm and bam, same house again :P

[Unseen]

Sounds interesting, its funny how different the outcomes can be in this game. I'll look out for the piano music see how it works on day 4 wonder if it'll be any different.

[Pheex]

Yeah it must've been weird luck. The first time I tried to do this quest, I got Capella and the first piano on Day 4 both in different houses but close together, the second piano on Day 5 in a different district, and as mentioned I searched for about 3 hours reloading saves on Day 6 to get the third house. It never spawned, even though I had the Backbone and the Flank districts in healthy condition and without a previous spawn.

Thus I ended up going back to Day 4 and got them all on the same day in a repeat spawn on the same location. Really weird.

(I'd usually go with the flow without reloading but this quest really intrigued me and I *had* to see the end.)

[Unseen]

Yea I know some people say achievements aren't important and it shows on the % for most of them. But I still want them all I only get all achievements in games I really care about and pathologic is one of my fav series on steam. I also wanna start marbles nest after path2 but some say it should actually be done first.

One thing I was wondering if the games progress recording works in reverse sometimes. See first time through the game I was messing around and dying a lot and I picked the deal dialogue because I was just wondering about different outcomes. I read up on it and yea didn't wanna do the deal so i reloaded back to the train save. So I went through the whole game and worked hard for one of the endings but I got the deal instead. Even tho I reloaded after getting the deal to a previous part on the save file.

I believe this game remembers some progresses throughout all save files on the same profile even if you go back but I'm not sure if that works with everything. I wondered if that would work with the shadows, like if you miss a shadow you could just reload it and it'd count or something.

[Pheex]

Oh wow really? That must've been a let down to get the deal ending again =(. Actually thinking about it now, the game does remember your deaths across the entire save even if you reload and since the deal becomes available after what was it, 7 deaths across the save maybe it's fixed to that profile then even on reloads? Since the death stage is more or less disconnected from the story save?

(Just speculating here, I unfortunately don't have the answer either)

[Unseen]

Its cool this is that kinda game where you can enjoy replays and doing multiple playthroughs it actually gets a lot easier once you know what you're doing. Just like the first 1, which really I always start at the first one of a series if I can. Pathologic1 was amazingly good for its time, and I know people had criticisms about it being janky or whatever. But I don't really see combat or other things as that important if a game has as many options, dialogues, music, etc that path1 had. I could compare it to elder scrolls morrowind not in style, or gameplay.. But how much stuff you can actually do and how many different choices and outcomes are available. Path2 expands on the gameplay and choices, but I do think Path1 had a bit more going on with the atmosphere, music and how much could be said with the npcs. Its good to play both as they both have a different story, but essentially the same plot so it allows different outlooks. Like for example Rubin seems very different in both games.

The deal ending was pretty welcome for me as I seen the other endings in path1 and that one was a bit different. Its kind of a snide and insulting ending which I actually was amused by myself. Mark and the executor were especially pissy about it lol. And the stranger kind of added another element to the game to me like who the hell is he? Could he be this games representation of satan? Is he the one behind the plague, has haruspex and him been doing this to other towns in this nation? Did it just so happen that this town was the one haruspex was from so it made him break from the cycle this man may have put him on? Just a thought of course the game is suppose to be abstract and none of its really that connected but its still fun to me to think of some connectivity and an overall canon and world.

One thing I'd really like to see is a 3rd pathologic and they kinda hint at the town going on because of the kids, mainly capela and khan. Would be interesting to see pathologic a few years in the future of the town. Changeling is also a character I could see going on with the main story. But of course that's just something I think would be cool not saying it would ever happen as I just wanna see the bachelor and changeling games.

Started a new file tho and gonna make sure and avoid the deal this time, but I never really felt the need to adjust the slider. The plague isn't that big a deal with the right equipment on. If anythings really challenging about this game to me, its that times more against you than anything. And the thugs at night can use gang tactics which can overwhelm you quick if you're not careful. Its not like path1 where you could just jump behind a wall and dodge a knife or go in a house.. They can really mess you up now and make it so its even hard to get away. Makes it so you kinda gotta play with a more stealthy and armed kinda play. Keep the knife and the loaded pistol ready and make sure your gears good, and dont walk right down the center but sneak around homes and keep to the shadows watching for suspicious people. It gives you a sense that, haruspex isn't the vicious predator but a bad dude who also has to follow the rules and his own mortality. Make the right choices and not just go around killing npcs for fun or breaking laws. I like that about pathologics world that you are held accountable for the bad you do and people remember it.

In particular the guards who are worse than the thugs, get on their bad side and killing them becomes routine and not good for your rep but what else can you do sometimes? All you can do is pop that guard.. I would like to see an update where firearms worked more like the knife.. The whole cutting someone and making them back off or you can rob them makes sense. But a pistol, if you shoot someone one time and they don't die they should put their hands up or worse. React in a painful way and scream stop or please or something. Nobody is gonna run through a pistol shot. And rifles and shotguns if you aim at a lone thug they should put their hands up immediately imo. Not if they got backup but one on his own, yea they really should make the same knife effect with the hands up for that.

Sorry about the long rant but I just really think that'd be a cool feature with the firearms. If knives enforce that much fear in an enemy guns should be even more so.

[Pheex]

haha yeah, always gives me a good chuckle when I see some guy fistfighting a flamethrower :P

good luck on your next playthrough! :D

[Unseen]

Well I got the victorias trace achievement and it turned out more like the OP cept a little different. Just kept to the non infected districts listening for the music. Doing odd jobs for the town, ended up not finishing it till past dark. Did it all in the same day tho.

Your experience seems really unusual pheex. It wasn't how I got it, the starting house never activated after the first one much like the OP said it would. And looking for the house for 4 irl hours seems really odd as it took me maybe an hour or so.. Then getting them all in the same house seems extra odd. Might have something to do with rolling back the save but I did that too cause I wasted to much time trying to save a baby. Already got the baby achievements so I called it off to save time and the plague districts don't even help you find the music anyway.

Not sure why it went that way for you tho.

[Jaydee8652]

To weigh in on how likely it is to have them all in the same building, 3 of the 4 were in a house near The Shelter for me, was really convenient because I could skip time as needed.