A bit stuck

[coveredinsnow]

I'm stuck and can't figure out what to do next :(

I've not Googled anything (except for one thing; it's under the second list of spoilers) or read any of the posts here because I don't want to get spoiled, but I was wondering if anyone could steer me in the right direction with some non-spoilery hints...

These are some of the things that I know are puzzles but I can't seem to figure out the solution to:

1) The safe in Scott's childhood bedroom. I've unlocked his chest as well as his basement at the cabin, but the safe is still there.
2) Charles' safe behind the painting.
3) Chares' desk drawer.
4) Charles' chess (?) puzzle (?) - there's a pawn with 2 and a horse with 5 written underneath. I've been looking for a chessboard, but I can't find one.
5) The music box in Trisha's room

Some of these might be red herrings, but I'm leaning towards at least one or two of them being needed to progress...

These instead are things I wrote in my notes, but at this point I think are more red herrings:

1) Getting tools and a shovel from the photolab. I've been playing for 4 hours and I've not found a single way to open that ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ door, so MAYBE it's not meant to be.
2) Aunt Cecilia's apartment. While I do remember (or think I do) a door locked with a keypad instead of a normal lock, I think this might be Mandela Effect because this is the only thing I Googled out of sheer frustration and other people remember a door but can't find it anymore.
3) The time capsule behind the cabin or behind the playground. Maybe it's actually there, but I don't think this would be extra relevant to the story. Unless maybe the time capsule has a key to some door or something.
4) The pictures found in Steven's room - there's a chest and a sort of closet with a cross depression on one side? The closet feels a little too Tomb Raider-y, and the chest I just can't find tbh.

This is what I think happened, but I'm missing key pieces so some of it is just speculation:

Sofia was Scott/Vincent's mother, which would also make Scott an actual Roberts
+ would be the reason why Vivian didn't want Trisha to date him.

Scott confronted Vivian about the night Sofia died, and maybe there was another accident, or an altercation, and it ended poorly.

However it seems a little too unoriginal so I'm totally happy and ready to be proven wrong.... I just need to find the next clue!

[lourencm]

Firstly, I can confirm that most/all of what you are trying to solve is in fact, solvable. The game has a habit of blocking paths to things that will only unlock much, much later in the investigation.

Not sure how many clues you want, so I'll just drop this one for now:
For the safe in Scott's bedroom, closely inspect the wooden airplane on his desk

[coveredinsnow]

Originally posted by lourencm:

Firstly, I can confirm that most/all of what you are trying to solve is in fact, solvable. The game has a habit of blocking paths to things that will only unlock much, much later in the investigation.

Not sure how many clues you want, so I'll just drop this one for now:
For the safe in Scott's bedroom, closely inspect the wooden airplane on his desk

This was SO helpful, thank you!

I felt like a moron because when I first checked out the room I picked up the toy and even made a note of the date... and then absolutely did not connect that it was the solution to the safe.

I untangled quite a few things from the list above, except now I have more questions than answers, but I'm not done looking around yet...

I am definitely struggling with the chess puzzle though. I found the clue, but I'm struggling to figure out where the bishop is, or even if it exists at all - maybe I just need to have 3 out of 4 digits and just try each number on the last digit.

I had to stop playing though because I'm exhausted and brain dead, so I'll continue my exploration tomorrow. I might pop in asking for another hint, unless my brain decides to figure it all out on its own!

[gungadin22000]

Nice writeup, interesting to see that your path through the game is entirely different from the one I took.

Keep in mind: not every clue and puzzle is required to be solved to finish the game. I beat it at 88% and had several clues I couldn't work out at the end.

[coveredinsnow]

Originally posted by gungadin22000:

Nice writeup, interesting to see that your path through the game is entirely different from the one I took.

Keep in mind: not every clue and puzzle is required to be solved to finish the game. I beat it at 88% and had several clues I couldn't work out at the end.

Interesting! I hadn't considered that!

I think at this point what I'm trying to do is find conclusive evidence as to who murdered Vivian, because the evidence I have now points to Bernard, but it seems TOO easy, as all the clues scattered around for this were quite easy to find.... I haven't finished exploring the sewers yet, so we'll see what I find down there!

What path did you take? Or what did you do differently?

[coveredinsnow]

Okay, I definitely need another hint, please, because I'm stuck again. I even made a map of the town with lucid paper, colour-coordinated it, and used one of my work whiteboards to brainstorm.

At this point I'm the Pepe Silvia meme.

This is what I untangled from my first post:

1) The safe in Scott's childhood bedroom (thanks again for the help!).
2) Charles' safe behind the painting.
3) Charles' desk drawer (I Googled this. I'm not proud of it but I was trying to kickstart something bigger... I didn't).
4) The music box in Trisha's room.
5) The pictures found in Steven's room - got both the "chests" (I'm a dumbass) and the secret room with the fancy Tomb Raider mechanism.

This is what I currently have on my to-do list:

1) Searching the drains for Steven's key; I need a tool, and while I have a hammer, I'm pretty sure the tool I need is a wrench or screwdriver - which leads me to...
2) The blasted Photolab. Mrs Peterson is supposed to have the key, and from reading a diary somewhere I am assuming that she's buried in the section of the cemetery that I cannot access - which leads me to...
3) There's a section of the cemetery that I cannot access. I think that the key might be in...
4) Father Matthew's desk drawer, which I also cannot open.
5) The time capsule, which is in the cemetery but I think I need the shovel to get it (unless it's in the part of the cemetery I can't access). The shovel is in the Photolab. Back to point 2 lol.
6) There's a locked door in Dorothy/Sofia's house.
7) The box in the tree stump requires a code, which I thought would be the one etched on Sofia's pendant, but it's not. Still haven't found a use for that code.
8) I saw a typewriter at some point, started singing Taylor Swift, and promptly forgot where the typewriter was. I'd like to find it again and see if I can test for the wonky E that Steven writes about. I do remember clicking on it at the time, but nothing happened, so I thought it might just be for show.
9) At this point I'd like to meet Aunt Cecilia; maybe we could have tea and talk about a good therapist for her nephew.
10) There's a locked gate in the sewers that is "bolted from the other side". I can see that in the basement of the church there's a door that looks like the one found in the hospital after you exit the sewers, so I'm assuming you can actually visit that part of the sewers. How, that's anyone's guess.

There are a couple of things that are bugging me, but I can't tell if I'm misunderstanding what is written or just reading too much into it.

1) Dorothy mentions in 1972 that Sofia is Matthew's cousin (or so she thinks), but then in 1973 she posits that he might harbor romantic feelings towards her. I get the same vibe tbh, so I'm wondering whether Scott was actually Charles's son... but idk. I can't find journals from Matthew's side, or anything similar, so the only thing that sort of stuck with me is how the Bibles in his study are all title-side down. As if he stopped believing in their content. Idk. Just pure speculation.

2) Andrew was prescribed Aprazolam, which is an antianxiety med. He got a 2x day prescription for 0.25 mg (2 weeks). The bottle in his bathroom is for Xanard (which I think is supposed to be Xanax, so we're still consistent with the Aprazolam), 250mg 1x day. Maybe the dosage just increased as the therapy progressed, as it's normal, but the bottle says antidepressant.

As someone who is very familiar with both antidepressant and antianxiety meds, I wonder whether there's something there or whether it's just your normal medication misinformation.

3) Andrew, Henry, and Vivian were all present at the time of Sofia's death, and they were all killed afterwards. Someone cleaning up, or getting revenge? The clues point to Bernard, but they're very "easy to find" - the knife display, the broken ax display, the fact he's left-handed, the anonymous person shoving you towards him... but who else could it be? I thought about Father Matthew, but I'm not quite sure yet.

4) In Steven's notes, he mentions that someone lied in their alibi deposition. I've been rereading them, and I'm not sure who it was. I don't see anyone confirming that they attended the fundraiser, and the only one with the unconfirmed alibi is Derrick (not sure whether there's anything there - but for a while I thought he might have set fire to Andrew's house because of the bbq instructions I found in the garage... which were probably put there exactly for that reason).

That... was a lot.

tl;dr - can I please have another smol hint?

[lourencm]

1) Searching the drains for Steven's key; I need a tool, and while I have a hammer, I'm pretty sure the tool I need is a wrench or screwdriver - which leads me to...
2) The blasted Photolab. Mrs Peterson is supposed to have the key, and from reading a diary somewhere I am assuming that she's buried in the section of the cemetery that I cannot access - which leads me to...
3) There's a section of the cemetery that I cannot access. I think that the key might be in...
4) Father Matthew's desk drawer, which I also cannot open.
5) The time capsule, which is in the cemetery but I think I need the shovel to get it (unless it's in the part of the cemetery I can't access). The shovel is in the Photolab. Back to point 2 lol.
6) There's a locked door in Dorothy/Sofia's house.
7) The box in the tree stump requires a code, which I thought would be the one etched on Sofia's pendant, but it's not. Still haven't found a use for that code.
8) I saw a typewriter at some point, started singing Taylor Swift, and promptly forgot where the typewriter was. I'd like to find it again and see if I can test for the wonky E that Steven writes about. I do remember clicking on it at the time, but nothing happened, so I thought it might just be for show.
9) At this point I'd like to meet Aunt Cecilia; maybe we could have tea and talk about a good therapist for her nephew.
10) There's a locked gate in the sewers that is "bolted from the other side". I can see that in the basement of the church there's a door that looks like the one found in the hospital after you exit the sewers, so I'm assuming you can actually visit that part of the sewers. How, that's anyone's guess.

Looks like you are very close to the end of the game at this point. I can throw you this clue:

#2 You need to gain access to Dorothy Patterson's hospital room. The key is in Henry Johnson's office.

[coveredinsnow]

I actually came here to update the post because I found it before reading your comment! I don't know how, but I completely missed the locked door AND keycard the first time around...

I went into Dorothy's room, got the key, opened her bedroom, opened Sofia's box.

I got the 19th century key from the drain, and now I'm trying to understand where to use it as it doesn't work in any of the
places I thought of.

Can't find the time capsule even with the shovel, so I'm thinking it actually is behind the closed off section of the cemetery.

But the one with the faulty E seems to be Charles, however i can't find the typewriter itself... Scott's diary mentioned the existence of a secret room in the mansion, and at this point I'm wondering if there's ANOTHER room besides the one in Charles's study...

Father Matthew's alibi also doesn't check out, as he didn't go to the retreat... or maybe I mixed up the dates, I need to double check.

[lourencm]

The time capsule is in cemetery section you already have access. Look directly at the ground around a large rock in the corner

You need to open Steven Moss' lockbox in the reception at Anne's Courtyard to get you on the right path for how to use the key

[coveredinsnow]

Finished it!

I noticed I made a mistake veeeery early on, I didn't find Father Matthew's bedroom key in Steve's cabin... so that prevented me from figuring out the code to Sofia's present.

I absolutely forgot about the picture in the lockbox, like completely went out of my head.

I also noticed I missed another thing in the hospital, Wanda's house key... and I missed the buried knife in Bernard's house.

I'm at 95% so I know I'm still missing something, I feel like maybe I'm missing how Scott died, idk if we get to know... but I'm guessing it was Derrick anyway lol

This was such a good game :D

[lourencm]

Wasn't it! :-)