Achievements Guide and Walkthrough Hints (Thomas Route)

The guide describes how to obtain all achievements in the game, including some hints and instructions for the related quests and escape routes.

Early Access Note

The guide is published while the game is in early access. The latest version of the game used in this guide is

V1.3.84.5-RC.

If you find any inconsistencies between this guide and your playthrough, it may be due to the versions being different (or also me making a typo). In any case, feel free to reach out in the comments pointing out which parts are outdated or incorrect, and I will update the guide.

Side note: Stat buffs

For some of the achievements and challenges of the game, one requires to have higher stats than the ones assigned. To raise the stats, one can either equip clothes or consume foods or medicines for a temporary raise in stats. Here is the list of clothes, items, medicines, and foods that do that.

(Note that the negative body effects of medicines can be avoided if you have Drug Tolerance skill from bonding with Gray the Tree Frog, and the effects of food and medicines is longer if you have Rumination skill from bonding with Bill the Buffalo.)

General

• Jewel Scarab (+1 to all attributes, +5 stamina, +2 body, +2 mind, 2 hours)
  
• Energized!: The skill is obtained by going to sleep before midnight for three days in a row, and is activated with 3 strength skill points. When the skill is active, the status is obtained by going to sleep before 2:00 the previous night, and gives +1 to all attributes for the day.

Alcohol

Alcohol items do not affect Charisma and deal -2 Intelligence while in effect, unless you have the Love and Wine skill obtained by reading respective book in the library, in which case you get Charisma +1, or the Drunken Master skill obtained by bonding with Old Lee the Panda, in which case you get +1 Intelligence instead of -2.

• Beer (also +10 mind, +6 base attack power, 2 hours)
  
• Cold Beer (also +15 mind, +6 base attack power, 2 hours): obtained either by working at the roof site and exchanging Good Conduct Credits with the guard, or by putting a normal beer into a freezer at the barbershop overnight
  
• Champagne (also +10 mind, +9 points of shield at the end of the turn when fighting, 2 hours): obtained only during the boxing tournament act
  
• Liquor (also +10 mind, +12 max health, +6 base attack power, 2 hours)
  
• Premium Liquor (also +20 mind, +12 max health, +6 base attack power, 2 hours)
  
• Rubbing Alcohol (also +10 mind, +15 max health, -10 body, 2 hours)
  
• Wine Gourd(Alcohol) (also +20 mind, +3 health at the beginning of each turn during a fight, 2 hours): obtained by filling the empty wine gourd with water and waiting. The empty wine gourd can be bought or stolen from Old Lee the Panda.

*The +1 Intelligence bonus is only available if you have a relevant skill, see the Intelligence subsection for more.

Strength

Food and Medicine

• Mushroom (+1, also -5 body, 2 hours)
  
• Stimulant (+2, also +50 stamina, -5 body, 2 hours)

Clothes

• Belt (+2, also is a lanyard)
  
• Sports Belt (+1, also +30% agility experience when gaining strength experience, is a lanyard)

Agility

Food and Medicine

• Soda (+1, also +20 stamina, 2 hours)
  
• Limited-Edition Soda (+2, also +20 stamina, 2 hours): can be found, for example, in the fridge in the Staff Block
  
• Premium Cigarette (+1, also +10 stamina, +2 focus points, -x body, 2 hours)
  
• Golden Fleece Cigarettes (+1, also +1 Intelligence, +10 stamina, +2 focus points, -x body, 2 hours)
  Here, x is based on the amount of mint, mint rolls, and cigarettes consumed this day.

Clothes

• Basketball Shoes (+1)
  
• Running Shoes (+2)

Effects

• Comfort: Obtained after using a toilet when your digestion is at least 5, results in +1 Agility for 2 hours.

Intelligence

Food and Medicine

• Caramel Bar (+1, also +5 mind, 2 hours)
  
• Sedative (+2, also +10 mind, -5 body, 2 hours)
  
• Golden Fleece Cigarettes (+1, also +1 Agility, +10 stamina, +2 focus points, -x body, 2 hours)

Clothes

• Gold-Plated Watch (+1, also -20% to time taken when performing dice roll actions)
  
• Necronomicon (+1, also unknown abilities, -7 to max health)
  
• Digital Watch (+2)
  
• Fancy Watch (+1, also +2 points when picking a lock)

Charisma

Food

• Chewing Gum (+1, also +2 mind, 2 hours)

Clothes

• Polarized Sunglasses (+1, also +20% to stamina recovery when resting)
  
• Punk Sunglasses (+2)
  
• Geek Sunglasses (+1, also +2 points when performing Technology actions)
  
• Height Increasing Insoles (+1, or +2 when talking to someone shorter than you, -2 points during exercise actions): can be found in one of the lockers in Staff Block.
  
• Green and Red Bandanas (+1): gives the Charisma bonus only after acquiring the skill for reading Man Style from the library in General Building.

Other Items and Effects

• Scented Soap (+1, also +10 points in the shower, 24 hours): used when showering.
  
• Toothpaste (+1, also +2 body, 6 hours): used when brushing teeth. Effect will end if you consume food or medicine.
  
• Special Cologne (+1, 24 hours): can be obtained (once!) upon accepting a respective quest at the barbershop.
  
• Filthy Fur (-2): The status takes effect after not showering for 2 days. Removed by showering.

Extra: Reputation boost

Certain equipment can add to your current reputation level:

• Platform Shoes (+1)
  
• Leather Shoes (+1)
  
• Tournament Trophy (+2): Obtained by winning the three fights of the tournament in the special act.

Extra: Max health

These items can raise your max health:

• Liquor (+12, also [-2/+1 Intelligence, +1 Charisma*] +10 mind, base attack power +6, 2 hours).
  
• Premium Liquor (+12, also [-2/+1 Intelligence, +1 Charisma*,] +20 mind, base attack power +6, 2 hours).
  
• Potato Pizza (+1 permanent, also +3 satiety, +30 stamina).
  
• Mushroom (+10, also +1 strength, 2 hours).
  
• Rubbing Alcohol (+15, also [-2/+1 Intelligence, +1 Charisma*] +10 mind, -10 body, 2 hours).
  
• Multivitamin (+5, also +10 body, 2 hours).
  
• Super Calcium Tablet (+2 permanent, also -2 max energy permanent): found in the lockers in Staff Block.
  
• Voice of the Forest (+5).
  
• Molar Necklace (+8, also Wild Instinct and Health Absorb skills when fighting).
  
• Great White Shark Poster (+1 per hour asleep, lasts until next time you go to sleep).
  

The Fool and The World (Prologue)

These two achievements can be unlocked in the prologue, during your first conversation with Angelo (the Eraser). The Fool is awarded for refusing the money, and The World is unlocked if you choose to take it. In the latter case, the game will instantly end, and you can restart the playthrough. Make sure to not skip this scene to get either achievement.

Temperance (Reed's Visit)

Complete "Reed's Visit" story episode that takes place during your first visit from Reed (the lawyer).

Some tips for how to get to this story point:

• Before the visit, you will first need to call Reed from the prison payphone, and then talk to Bruce (the guard) to get visitation privileges.
  
• For the first quest, you will need to first obtain $100 for the call + the service charge. You can of course work in the laundry to get the money (you can earn about $30-45 per 30 minutes by ironing if you do not have a skill equipped that allows you to earn extra), but the faster way is to do gang quests. Specifically, the Black Claw Gang quest to remind two prisoners to repay their loans. The Sharp Tooth Gang quest to plant a package in a cell is very hard to do before lunch of Day 1, since there are too many witnesses around the cell, and the Big Foot Gang quest requires spending 6 hours in segregation, which I recommend doing overnight.
  
• If you decide to do the Black Claw Gang quest immediately in the morning of Day 1, I recommend to first apply for the laundry room job and go to the infirmary to get the health certificate and loot the cupboards there. That way, you will obtain Lumber, which, if equipped as a weapon, will boost your chances of passing the charisma check when talking to the prisoners about their debts.
  
• For the visitation privileges, Bruce will ask you to steal the ledger from Ceasar, the leader of the Black Claw Gang. You can either do as Bruce says and steal the ledger (requires crafting a lockpick, but you can also take $100 and 2 ground coffee from the same cupboard where the ledger is): this can be done no earlier than the evening of Day 1 since in the morning Ceasar will be next to his cell. The alternative is to go to Ceasar with this so he gives you a fake ledger; you still get the visitation priviledges, but instead of rapport with Bruce you get reputation with Black Claw Gang. The choice here is mostly important for The Hanged Man achievement that triggers much later in the game (see the respective section of the guide for details).
  Whichever you choose, it is possible to complete this quest by Day 1 and get the visit from Reed in the morning of Day 2.

The Lovers (Maggie or Beth Relationship)

You get this achievement by getting together with either Maggie or Beth. I got achievement for getting back with Maggie, so this is the only route that I tested.

You can talk to Maggie using the payphone in the evenings starting from the first day of the game. Raise affection level by choosing "Small Talk" (takes 20 minutes) and sending her love letters: if you write and send the letter on the same evening after the call, then Maggie will receive the letter in time for the call the following day. A pencil can be found, for example, in the mailroom, but also bought from Billy or fellow inmates. You unlock the option to write letters to Maggie after calling her for the first time.

In calls with Maggie, you can also borrow money from her or ask her to send you things from your apartment (starting from day 2, or your second call), but this deducts affection points with her.

To get back with Maggie, you need to accumulate 60 affection points, but the charisma check becomes easier if the amount of points is 80. After this, the number of points spent on favors from Maggie (lending money and sending things) will be halved.

You first meet Beth on your initial health check-up (necessary to work), and you can write her letters, as well. The difference is that you need to hand them in when you visit her at the infirmary (a letter is considered a loved gift, but you can also give her other items just like with the inmates). To go to the infirmary after your first visit, take a laxative and ask Bruce for the permission to go. Make sure to do it in the morning before lunch during work hours, as Beth is not present during dinner time. As with Maggie, you need to accumulate 60 or 80 rapport points to enter a special relationship with her.

After you are together with Beth, you can visit her on Tuesdays, Thursdays, or Saturdays 'for free' (without taking a laxative), and also exchange her now affection points for medicine.

Wheel of Fortune (The Lost Card)

Awarded upon retrieving the card from your wallet in the storeroom.

Some tips on how to do that:

• To help you reach the storeroom, Reed sent you a mail. Ask Billy, the guard next to the mailing cart, to get his ok to look in the mailing cart. Perform multiple agility checks (the amount can be halved by either solving a sliding puzzle or using DIY Maestro skill obtained by reading a book of the same name in the General Building), and read the letter in your cell. Once you analyzed the photo, look closer at the gift that Thomas is holding. You will get the idea to heat up the photo.
  The most efficient way to do so is by using the iron in the laundry room: you simply need to do the ironing job once more, and then look at the iron again for Thomas to make the connection. Alternatively, one can craft a lamp from one rubbing alcohol (can be found, for example, in the infirmary during your initial check up), one cloth, and three matches (those are easily found in trashcans or traded from inmates).
  
• To access the storeroom during the night, complete steps 1,3-5 in The Moon section of this guide of exploring the sewers (build the bridge). Out of the two corridors on the other side of the 'sewer river', take the closest one, which leads to the area with two ladders going up. The leftmost one leads inside the storeroom.
  When using this access point, there is no time limit on exploring the room, no need to go through the storeroom corridor, or even get a mailroom job at all, so you can skip to the very last step of this section if you go this route. The trade-off is that it is only available during the night.
  
• To access the storeroom during the day, you will need to obtain a permit to work in the mailroom. This can be done in multiple ways:
  
  1. Talk to Billy, the guard next to the mailing cart, who will sell it to you for $300. It should be an achievable sum with the available gang quests, but at such an early stage you also might want to spend all that money on, say, pillows and blankets. (That said, if you already spent enough money in Billy's store, then you will get an advantage on the challenge to haggle for a 50% discount.)
     
  2. After uncovering this option you can also talk to Bruce, who will offer the permit for 50 Good Conduct Credits. This is also very much doable, especially if you did not spend any credits yet.
     
  3. After talking to Bruce, you learn that Willian the Tortoise is the one who has the permit. You can either steal it from him or simply ask to borrow it. I always found that the latter option is a fairly easy charisma check to pass, and is the most efficient way to obtain the permit out of the four.
• Once you are in the mailroom, you will need to build up rapport with Owen, the mailroom guard, up to 35 to gain access to the corridor leading to the storeroom.
  
  1. Your first opportunity to get a headstart with that is in the first dialogue with him: Choose 'Is it b*llsh*t?' and 'Yes, sir', gaining you +5 rapport each.
     
  2. Do one round on the mail sorting machine (preferably without failing to get more rapport points), examine the door leading to the storeroom corridor, and talk to the guard again to unlock the option to smash cockroaches in the room (each giving you more rapport points, not to mention the Good Conduct Credits and money you get after smashing five of them).
     
  3. After that, keep sorting mail, remember to step away from the machine to make sure no new cockroaches have appeared, and, once you have 35 rapport with the guard, talk to him to unlock the mail inspector job. In total, two-three rounds of mail sorting and a smashed cockroach should be enough to get the necessary rapport.
     For the mail inspection job, I recommend equipping Myopia Glasses: with them, the initial inspection before going into the corridor can take as fast as 10 minutes!
• From the storeroom corridor where you come in 20 minutes at a time as a part of the mail inspection, there are two ways to enter the storeroom: either by solving the sokoban puzzle with the shelves on the left of the room, or by learning the code for the electronic lock.
  
  1. The former one can be bypassed by either reading the book DIY Maestro in the General Building during the recreation and then equipping the respective skill, or by trying to solve the puzzle a little and then approaching it with Intelligence 8.
     
  2. The code can be either entered by cheating (it is 2481), or you can learn it in-game by exploring the documents on top of a cupboard in the corridor and learning that the code has to do with the guard's favorite sports player. By talking to Owen, you learn that the player in question is X Factor, and then you can either talk to him some more to learn the code, or read a book about X Factor in the General Buiding during recreation, or break into Owen's locker on the second floor of the staff block during the night (see Laundry Room Escape Route section of this guide for more information on how to access the area). The electronic lock can also be hacked, which is possible if you obtain this skill by reading the programming book.
  I personally prefer the sokoban puzzle (more specifically, bypassing it), since this entrance does not take an extra minute to unlock each time, unlike the door. Also, having this access point is a requirement for a later CD-ROM side quest from the Black Claw Gang, so might as well do it right away.
  
• In the storeroom, you will need to figure out which box is yours. To solve this little puzzle, read the property log on the desk (1 minute) and take note of the entry relating to 1220 (your inmate number), as well as the chart on the wall on top of the screen that explains which shelf corresponds to which letter. Checking the box will take another minute. Be warned that after you have found the card you will automatically teleport to the payphone and dial Reed, so if you really want to make the most of your 20 minutes in the storeroom corridor then do the other things first.

The Empress (Fallen Angels)

Awarded for completing 'Fallen Angels' story episode during Reed's second visit.

The visit will take place two days after finding the card in the storeroom (see Wheel of Fortune section for tips on how to achieve that).

The Reed flashback episode is quite straightforward: you first need to talk to everyone in the club, including the dancer on stage (you have to walk onto the stage for that), return to the bartender, play a mini-game to find the King card, try to access backstage rooms, go to the private room you explored before to get the performer makeover, and go backstage once again.

The Pope (Hall of Redemption)

Awarded for completing the 'Hall of Redemption' quest, i.e. obtaining Iris's address from Anderson.

Tips on how to complete the quest:

1. First of all, you will need permission to work (volunteer) in the inner hall of the chapel during recreation. For this, you will require 50 rapport with Anderson. It can be raised in the following ways:
   
   • Go to the chapel when Anderson is present (Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Sunday) and pray. This takes 30 minutes, will give you +5 rapport, and restore some mind based on how well you roll.
     
   • Once you learn the prayer, you can talk to Anderson to unlock his shop of church items. Buying the book will give +20 rapport, while buying one of the amulets results in +16. Regardless of rapport, I think buying an amulet is a good idea to resist nightmares, as well as for some other checks in the game. And buying the book may seem like a waste of precious inventory slot, but it actually could not be more opposite, since you can modify the book at a craft table to create an extra secret compartment in your cupboard! (This can only be done once.)
     
   • Starting from Day 7, a donation box will be placed in the chapel. Donate when Anderson is present for +5 rapport ($1 - $49), +15 rapport ($50 - $99), +25 rapport ($100 - $199), +35 rapport ($200 - $299), +45 rapport ($300 - $399), or more. You can also steal the money back from the donation box at night if you know how to access the chapel.
2. Once you have the job in the inner hall, examine the pawprint lock and everything around to progress the quest. You can access the room on the top floor in various ways, most of which boil down to asking one of the inmates to share a crafting recipe for a paw print copying device (materials: empty pack from instant noodles, quick-drying glue, iodine, and rubber gloves). There are also a few other ways of getting to the top floor, and if you would like to pursue those instead, you can skip to step 4.
   
   • Ask Walter the Skunk for his expertise. You must bond with him, and then he will share the recipe.
     
   • Ask Bernard the Capybara for his expertise. He wants you to transfer him 50 of your Good Conduct Credits. Bruce will allow the transfer only if you complete a special quest for him, which is to place a note under the bench near the chapel during recreation. He will also award you 20 credits for completing the quest. (Note: You can also get +25 rapport points with Bernard if you complete the transfer after finding out a different way to access the room.)
     
   • Ask Robert the Lemur for his expertise. He will tell you about the videogame Return of the Odyssey that he installed in the General Building which includes the recipe. Beat the game during recreation to figure it out. This game is only available if you asked Robert during this quest, and beating it also unlocks a skill like other videogames. (Note: Once you learn about the game from Robert, you can play it for the skill even if you progressed the quest in some other way.)
     
   • Ask Rudolph the Reindeer for his expertise. He will give you a phone number of a detective he worked with who knows the recipe. Call him from the payphone, pretend to be a casting director, and fish the recipe out of him.
     
   • Ask Caesar the Chimp for his expertise. You will need to accept and complete the gang quest that will become available, which is Secret Mission (befriend Fernando the Anteater, Phil the Otter, Noodle the Raccoon, and Whitey the Rabbit). In addition to $50 and 10 Reputation with the gang, he will tell you the recipe. The gang quest also becomes available later if you do not trigger it with this conversation.
     
   • Ask Alex the Lion for his expertise. Similar to Caesar's route, you will need to complete the Special Mission gang quest (retrieve the baseball from the storeroom), and you learn the recipe, as well as get +$100 and +30 reputation with the gang for completing the quest. The gang quest also becomes available later if you do not trigger it with this conversation.
3. If you learned the recipe for the pawprint copying device in the previous step, you will next need to convince Anderson to do the ceremony for you:
   
   1. Trim all four patches of grass in the inner hall. Use scissors for best efficiency (can be found, for example, in one of the cupboards in the General Building).
      
   2. Talk to Anderson and request the ceremony. He will ask you to collect $1000 on church's behalf. Ask your fellow inmates to donate (charisma checks, every inmate will only donate once), or donate the remaining sum yourself through inventory menu. The money is collected into a bag, but through the same menu you can also take the money for yourself.
      
   3. Bring the money back to Anderson, and he will agree to do the ceremony anytime you ask him.
4. Alternatively to steps 2 and 3, you may access the top floor of the chapel in one of the following ways:
   
   • Ask Franklin the Zebra for his expertise. He will offer to make a device to hack the pawprint lock instead of copying the pawprint. He requires the handheld console (can be bought from Billy, the guard next to the mailcart) and the digital watch (can be mailed by Maggie for 50 affection points with her). After handing in the materials, Franklin will provide the hacking device after the next morning's headcount, and you can install it on the same day during recreation (do not forget to bring your disassembly tool!). Come back the next day Anderson is in the chapel to see that the device has copied the pawprint, and go to the room.
     
   • (My favorite one) Go to the chapel at night. To do that, you will need to disassemble your toilet to gain access to the pipe area (which you have likely done by now to form your escape route), and lockpick the door to the left: you will need to succeed two lockpicking checks in a row, so make sure you have the focus points, and buff your agility for this. It will also be very helpful to equip Fancy Watch, which you can find in the sewer area once you built the bridge (go left from the big door and the craft table where you assembled the bridge to get an option to cross here instead of on the other end of the sewers, and loot the box on the other side). As a very helpful extra, bond with Phil the Otter to acquire Janitor skill which lets you craft snap guns. Unlocking the door gives you access to the area between Main Building and recreation yard.
     Alternatively, you can follow steps 3-8 of the Moon section of this guide (Laundry Room Escape Route) to drain the sewer river, and then you can access the same area outside of recreation yard through a hatch that unlocks in the sewers.
     Once outside, move the trash can to the right to climb onto the General Building roof (you can also search the trash can daily for items), and then observe the cables connecting it to the chapel (Thomas will only make the connection after you have obtained access to inner hall and investigated the door leading to the top floor). You will need Strength 8 to be able to climb to the chapel roof, which is easily achievable if you are energized (went to bed before 2am the night before), have a belt (for example, sent by Maggie), or have taken a stimulant. After climbing to the roof, you can enter Anderson's room.
     The downside of this route (other than all the required preparation for it) is that, after confronting Anderson, it will not be possible to loot his coat pockets, and the coat will be gone the next time you can access the room. The pockets contain $75 and 2 chewing gums.
5. Once you are in Anderson's room you will have many options to investigate, but you only need to examine the photo on the desk and instruments near the bookshelf. Basically, you only choose the options that do not take any in-game time.
   
6. Confront Anderson once the investigation is complete.

The Hanged Man (Caesar quests)

To get this achievement, you will need to make some specific choices during the game that (as far as I can tell) result in Warden Clark and Captain Bruce both staying in their roles (possible alternatives are Bruce being promoted to warden or Billy promoted to captain).

These are the choices that worked for me (although these are not the only way to do it):

1. During The Prince of Justice quest (see Temperance achievement), steal Caesar's ledger instead of giving Bruce a fake one. From my playthroughs, it seems like giving Bruce the fake ledger will always result in Bruce being demoted, which prevents the achievement and the respective cutscene from triggering.
   
2. Complete Caesar's Secret Mission quest. This is available either as a gang quest after you complete The Hall of Redemption main quest (see The Pope achievement), or, alternatively, this comes up as a side quest if you ask Caesar for his expertise when figuring out how to bypass the pawprint lock.
   
3. During the fight in the cafeteria on Wednesday of the third week (Day 17), help Caesar and succeed (survive a fight with Jumbo for at least 10 rounds or beat him before that). It seems to me that if you steal the ledger and do not help Caesar, then Jumbo wins both the fight and the war, and Bruce gets promoted, preventing the cutscene from triggering.

The achievement is then obtained on the morning of Day 19 (Friday of the third week), before headcount, so if you are planning to escape then make sure to not do so before that.

In the steps above, it is implied that Thomas has to ignore the tournament to be in prison on the day of the riot, however there have been reports in the comments of this guide that it is possible to get the achievement by doing the first two steps, going to the tournament, and returning back to prison on Thursday.

The High Priestess (Hall of Redemption continued)

Awarded upon meeting Iris, the visit that happens two days after you confront Anderson and call Reed to relay the information about Iris's location. Make sure to call Reed after you learn the address: unlike 'The Lost Card' quest, you are not automatically teleported to the payphone.

Justice and The Emperor (Escape + Key Endings)

For these two achievements, you need to complete the Main quest: more precisely, meet Iris (see The High Priestess achievement) and receive the key to Selina's apartment where the evidence is hidden. Then, you will also need to escape before 21 days are out with any escape route in the game. With these conditions met you will end up in the broadcasting room with Angelo and will be presented with the choice to either play the recording or not. Justice is awarded for the former, and The Emperor is the result of the latter.

Some tips on the final level in the broadcasting room:

• Along with the recording, the janitor cart might contain other items you had on you when you escaped. Make sure to take and equip or consume whatever you may need for the following negotiations, checks, and the final boss fight. You may have to loot the cart a second time after you pick up the recording.
  
• That said, the final boss fight can be avoided, and most of the checks can be either considerably simplified or bypassed completely by doing the following:
  
  1. Push the camera in front of the news table to the far right (then you can push it once you are on the right side of the room and someone is approaching from the door).
     
  2. Turn the lights to the left (so that you can use to blind whoever is on the left side of the room).
     
  3. Change the displayed image on the screen to OB van (you can refer to the van during negotiations).

Death and The Hermit (No Escape or No Key endings)

Unlike Justice and the Emperor achievements, for these two, you should fail to complete the Main quest, or to escape in 21 days. More precisely,

• For Death, fail to escape the prison within 21 days.
  
  
• For The Hermit, do not reach the point of the Hall of Redemption quest when you call Reed after talking to Anderson (see The Pope and The High Priestess sections), so that you do not have the key to Selina's apartment. However, you do need to escape before 21 days are out, otherwise you get Death achievement. You can use any escape route in the game to do so.
  

Pentacles (Normal+ Difficulty)

Awarded for clearing the game on normal or high difficulty. As far as I can tell, any completion of the game counts except the bad ending for taking the money in the prologue, although I only checked it with the Justice ending (i.e. escaping with Selina's apartment key before 21 days are over and playing the recording in the end).

If you are struggling with beating the game on any difficulty other than easy, just remember that the normal difficulty still has Memory Recall, meaning you can reload as much as you like, for example to attempt particularly hard checks. If you can beat the game on easy, you can do the normal difficulty run as an ng+, so that your relationships with inmates and skills are transferred from your last playthrough(s).

The Moon (Laundry Room Escape Route)

Escape before 21 days are out through the sewers (accessed from the laundry room).

1. After using the toilet for the first time, investigate the leak and start disassembling. You can do that after lockdown/after your cellmate Sam goes to sleep at ~22:40, unless given a sleeping cookie. Alternatively, you can move to a single cell on the second floor, in which case you can start right at 22:00, but you will need to craft a rope to get on the first floor of the pipe area. You can keep up the night activities until 2:00 (with the respective skill equipped) if you want to have the 'Energized!' status the next day (you obtain the skill by going to bed before 0:00 for three consecutive days and activate it for 3 Strength skill points).
   Note that you do not need to have the dummy for merely disassembling, but only require it once you are finished with that and want to enter the pipe area.
   
2. While you are doing all of the 'night steps' listed below, you can also explore the laundry room during working hours (wearing Makeshift Mask recommended, which can be crafted using a cloth, 2 shoelaces, and 4 disinfectants, and you learn how to do it once you first open the door into the area). In the detergent-mixing room, take note of the cupboard against the top wall with a 'key' under it. Move it (by either passing a strength check or by lockpicking it and spending 30 minutes to remove the detergent from it) to reveal the hole in the wall. Go back to the ironing area and observe the pipes leading to the room behind the detergent mixing room, and solve a mini-game (or bypass it with DIY Maestro skills) to find out that the room is actually the sewer room. This observation can only be made during the day, so make sure to complete this step before you are ready to go to the laundry room at night.
   
3. Once you are in the pipe area, examine the hatch to go to the sewer area. You can either pass a strength check or apply 10 rust removers to make the check easier on your attempt a day later. It is recommended to equip Makeshift Mask in the sewer area.
   
4. In the sewer area, you will need to first fix the lights in the room to the right of you. You will have to solve a sokoban puzzle (or bypass it using DIY Maestro skills obtained from reading the book in General Building), and play a little generator starter minigame.
   
5. With the lights on, explore the area to the right to conclude that you need to build a bridge, and the area on the left to find boarded-up doors (you will need to solve another mini-game to cross there). Read the journal on the table next to the doors, and pull the boards out (equip a club and gloves to help with the dice rolls). Once all three boards are out, make a bridge using a hammer (you can steal one from the shelf in front of the guard in the mailing room, or take one from the woodworking bench in the shed on the roof; the hammer is also a club which is useful for pulling the boards before that).
   After the bridge is built, I recommend going to the left of the sewer area again to notice that the bridge can be used there as well. You will find Fancy Watch, which is very useful for lockpicking checks.
   
   
6. Cross the sewer river in the place to the right of the sewer entrance. There will be two corridors accessible for you. For this escape route, you will only need the further one, leading to the staff block.
   
7. The hatch from sewers to the staff block is covered by a shelf. You need to move it during the mornings while working in the staff block: follow steps 1 and 2 of The Sun section of this guide for how to do that.
   
8. Exit the staff block through the window on the second floor, and go back into the sewers through the hatch. You will then need to open another chute to remove the cloggage and the 'sewer river'. The water will finish draining on the next day.
   
9. When the sewer river is removed, move down and explore newly unlocked passages; the one furthest away from the pipe area leads to the central garden.
   
10. Sneak past the guards in the central garden by performing two agility checks: they are quite hard but you only need to pass them once. On the other side of the garden is the laundry room.
    
11. The laundry room door has to be lockpicked every night you want to go there, unless you copied the key from Lester's locker on the second floor of the staff block (Phil the Otter's bond skill and a bar of soap is required). Equipping Fancy Watch is highly recommended for lockpicking.
    Also take note of the trashcan to the right of the door, which can be pulled out to access a box with some very nice loot in it: the polarized sunglasses (my preferred eyewear of the game), a soda, and a beer. Make sure to move the trashcan halfway back into the passage so that you also get the option to search it daily.
    
    

    
12. If you have not yet completed Step 2 during the day yet, now is the time. Once you learn the purpose of the room behind the hole in the wall, you will be able to dig through it both during days and during the nights: to dig during the day, you must convince whoever is mixing detergent to leave, and close the door behind you; to dig during the night, you have to lockpick the laundry room entrance. For digging, hammer is again a helpful instrument (even in its worn state it gives +5 points to dice rolls). You may also want to wear either Makeshift Mask or Gas Mask which you can find on the second floor of the staff block.
    
13. Once the digging is complete, you need to apply 10 rust removers to the hatch to enter the pipe leading out of the prison territory. Conveniently you can mix the rust remover right here in the adjacent room, and equipping a club is recommended to do that more efficiently (and again, hammer is a club).
    

    NB! The next step is the final step of the escape route. Make sure that the conditions for the ending you are looking for are met before proceeding (i.e. you either do or do not have the key to Selina's apartment).

14. You can escape the next day after the rust remover has been applied, and only during the night. Make sure that your body is as high as possible (you are likely to lose about 50), and that you have plenty of stamina (100 is required, but you also need stamina for lockpicking and moving the cupboard). Crawling through the sewer is a strength check, so you could consume or equip strength buffs as well (but maybe not things like mushrooms that affect the body negatively). Finally, at the end of the crawl will be a boss fight, so make sure to equip yourself accordingly (take note that you should equip a mask before entering the pipe, but might want to take it off during the fight to equip something else), as well as bring any healing items you may want to use, or body-restoring items to elevate weak body condition should you get one after the crawl.

The Sun (Conjugal Visit Escape Route)

Get Billy the guard's help for your escape before Day 21.

Note: It seems to me that, by following this quest, you can get locked out of the Special Act in Boxing Escape Route (see The Strength achievement section of this guide), making that route impossible. I do not know exactly what the cut off point is, so be careful about following through this quest if you also want an invite to the tournament.

The first two steps do not have to be done first necessarily, but seeing as step 4 becomes available only on Day 9, it makes sense to do those before that. In general, most of these steps can be done out of order (i.e. finding evidence before you know what kind of investigation you need it for).

1. Apply for the Staff Block job through prison applications by talking to Bruce, the captain (50 Good Conduct Credits). When you try to do that, Bruce gives you three quests, each solved by talking to an inmate. Upon completing the quests, you will have the job without spending the 50 credits.
   The three quests are:
   
   • Talk to Alex the Lion to convince him to give up the job for you. He will do that in exchange for completing the Chameleon Courier gang quest (meet the courier a few days later and pay her the $300 Alex gives you, or convince her to take less money). Note: You might to want Barbara's help at later stages of this escape route, and you will need to pay whatever you did not pay here for that.
     
   • Talk to Tony the Camel to convince him to give up his application. He will agree if you pay him $200, although you can also try to haggle to pay him only $100.
     
   • Talk to Sam the Donkey to learn how to fix pipes. A dice roll challenge will become available when talking to him: you need to accumulate 50 points to learn the skill. If you already have Repair skill unlocked by bonding with Sam, the checks become significantly easier.
   Once all the three quests are complete, return to Bruce, and the job will become available to you.
   
2. During the nights, follow steps 1, 3-6 in The Moon (Laundry Room Escape Route) section of this guide to access the hatch leading from sewers to the staff block. Once you have attempted to access the building during the night, you will get an option to remove clutter from the shelf and move it from the hatch. To do this, finish mopping the floors in any area of the staff block, and then go to the broom closet (with the shelf and the hatch) to rinse the dirty mop. You will have 15 minutes of free movement time while the mop is rinsed to move the shelf. You can remove the clutter from the shelf first to make the strength check for moving it easier, but you will not find any items when uncluttering, so there is no reason to do it if you are strong enough pass the check as is.
   
3. Soon after you obtain visitation privileges (see Temperance (Reed's Visit) section of this guide), the Chameleon Courier Sharp Tooth Gang quest becomes available to you. Make sure to take it and to complete it.
   
4. On Day 9 (Tuesday of the second week), the Poopy Pendant quest becomes available in the barbershop (located in the recreation yard). The quest requires you to find the Pendant in the septic room in the sewer area, to which you gain access after completing step 4 of The Moon (Laundry Room Escape Route) section of this guide. Accept the quest, and explore the tanks.
   Out of the five tanks, one (middle left) contains the Pendant, and the other (top right) has Lisa the Accountant's body which you need to find to progress in this escape route. You can open the tanks either with brute strength, or by finding/crafting a special handle. One part of the handle can be found in the septic room, and the other can either be crafted in your cell, or is found after completing step 8 of The Moon (Laundry Room Escape Route) section of this guide, when the sewer river is drained, in the rubbish to the right of the passage to the central garden. Both parts of the handle are important items and do not take up space in your inventory.
   
5. To figure out where the tarp comes from, go to the corridor leading to the storeroom during the day (see Wheel of Fortune (The Lost Card) section of this guide) and examine 'the work log in the mailroom' which is found on top of the cupboard on the right from your workplace in the corridor (you will have to search the documents to be able to read it, if you have not done so before). It is important to do this step during the day, since the documents are too dark to read at night.
   
6. During the nights, break into Billy's locker located on the second floor of the staff block, and read the documents you find there.
   
7. Use scissors (for example, found in the General Building) to cut out the evidence part from the tarp during the night, and then come to the General Building during the day to craft a collage masking the evidence. Then write a letter at your table in the cell and send the collage with it. You may talk to Billy on the next day.
   

   NB! The final step of the escape route will come the next morning after a conjugal visit is arranged. Make sure that the conditions for the ending you are looking for are met before proceeding (i.e. you either do or do not have the key to Selina's apartment).

8. Billy will share an escape plan you can use, but you need help from a woman you can trust. You have two options:
   
   • Ask Maggie, your (ex-)girlfriend. To do so, you will first need to get back together with her, see The Lovers section of this guide for tips on how to do that. Call her for the conjugal visit, you can set it up as early as the next day.
     
   • Ask Barbara, the chameleon you met during the Chameleon Courier quest which you have to complete for Alex the Lion to secure the Staff Block job. Pay Alex $150 to learn Barbara's number, and call her to arrange the conjugal visit. She will ask you to pay whatever you did not pay her during the Chameleon Courier quest (from $0 to $300), and $500 extra. You need to ask Billy to wire the money, and you can try to persuade him to pay half or all of the money (both result in -10 rapport with him).
     On the next day, the sum will be paid, and you can call Barbara again to set up the conjugal visit the morning after.

The Star (Roof Escape Route)

Escape before 21 days are out through the roof.

Many of the steps in this preparation can be done in any order and even in parallel.

1. See Step 1 of the Laundry Room Escape Route section of this guide.
   
2. During work hours (can be done before the toilet disassembly is complete), apply for the roof jobs with Bruce (the cost is 30 Good Conduct Credits), and examine the area on the 'second floor' to think about possible ways to cross to the left side of the roof. In particular, examine the asphalt pulling work station and think about combining the rope and the chimney to get the idea to Lasso the cable between the two parts of the roof. Alternatively, think about combining the two extension platforms on either side of the gap to unlock an option to jump from one side to the other (requires Agility 7, but only one time). This investigation has to be done during the day, while the actual crossing to the left side of the roof must be done at night.
   
3. During the nights, once you are in the pipe area, climb onto the rack to the right of the room, and make the jump to the 'second floor' platform (requires Agility 7, but only one time; then you can jump without checks). Alternatively, if you move into the single cell on the second floor, you already start on the platform, no jump needed.
   Try to climb up the stairs on the left side of the platform, and observe that you can go through the vent to the roof, once you turn off the ventilation.
   
4. During recreation, read the three books of the fiction series Game of Kings in the General Building. Note that book reading progress does not carry over to ng+, only the obtained skills do (and the knowledge needed for the escape route is not associated with the skill).
   
5. Once you have found the night entrance to the roof through the vent, go to the roof during the day and examine the panel at the far right of the roof. To turn of the vent you need, flip the third switch from the top. Now you can access the roof at night!
   
6. On the roof during the night, put your plan to cross to the left side of the room into action (either by lassoing or by jumping). You will need to first find a way down (and a more convenient way up) before proceeding further to the left where the water tower is. If you are not finished with the books yet, you can climb the tower only to feel the breeze (and restore some mind) and think about 'turning into a bird'.
   
7. Once you have finished reading the books and can climb the water tower, do the latter to get the idea of building a wing suit in the way the third book describes. The materials you will need include:
   
   • For each of the two wings: a bed sheet (buy from Billy, the guard near the mail cart, or you can also take the one provided with your bunk bed at the cost of slower stamina restoration during sleep), two screws (can be either found or bought from inmates, or screwed out of the benches during recreation using a coin), three shoelaces, and three dowels (each dowel can be made from lumber with the woodwork bench in the storage room on the roof).
     
   • For the tail: a bed sheet, two small iron plates (easily found or bought from inmates), two shoelaces, and two dowels.
   For the dowels, I recommend starting to collect lumber pieces as early as possible and make dowels out of them, since the dowels stack in threes while each lumber takes up its own space. Also, if you do not have many secret compartments I recommend to put off the construction of the three pieces of the suit until the day of the escape, since each piece has violation of 10 and cannot be stored normally, but also inconveniently takes up space (and violation points) in the pockets.
   

   NB! The next step is the final step of the escape route. Make sure that the conditions for the ending you are looking for are met before proceeding (i.e. you either do or do not have the key to Selina's apartment).

8. During the night, climb up the water tower with the three pieces of the suit in your inventory.

The Tower (Infirmary Escape Route)

Escape before 21 days are out through the infirmary.

For this escape route, you will need to access the Consultation room in two different ways: both through the sewers at night and during the day through the main door. On top of that, you will need to learn the recipe and draft a corrosive solution. There are multiple things that can be done for all of these steps, and they can be done in parallel.

1. Throughout the route, I recommend to stock up on painkillers. The reason is that the final step of climbing the tower is a quite difficult strength check, which gets harder the more max health you have (-1 point per 20 max HP), and each painkiller takes away 2 max health. So, as long as you can avoid the final boss fight (see Justice and The Emperor section of this guide), you can safely take a bunch of painkillers to ease the final climbing checks without any negative consequences.
   
2. To reach the operation room during the nights:
   
   1. Do all the steps 1,3-5 provided in The Moon section of this guide to build the bridge in the sewer area.
      
   2. As you cross the sewer river, there will be two corridors accessible for you. For this escape route, you will only need the closer one, leading to the storeroom and the operating room (rightmost one).
      
   3. Once in the operating room, move the bed so that it is under the hatch in the ceiling, and climb there to observe that it leads to the Consultation room on the second floor. Note that the bed can be moved not just to the left and to the right, but forward and backward. While you are in the room, you can loot three cabinets for various meds, as well as the Heavy Key, which unlocks the pharmacy with even more meds.
3. To be able to access the Consultation room from the operation room during the night, you will need to apply corrosive solution to the drain in the Consultation room. You can learn the recipe to craft the corrosive solution in either of those ways:
   
   • Read Lifeopedia in the General Building during recreation, and activate the respective skill. Additionally you will learn how to extend the use of several limited use items, like soap, toothpaste, and batteries.
     
   • Bond with Walter the Skunk and activate the respective skill. You will also learn how to craft more advanced meds like stimulants and sedatives. Note that his Bond check requires you to have max health at least 90, while the checks during the escape in this route actually get harder the more max health you have. Stocking up on painkillers and taking them before the final step of the escape plan should lower down max health sufficiently for it not to be an issue.
4. To apply the corrosive solution in the Consultation room during the day, you will need to be alone there for some period of time. This can be achieved in multiple ways:
   
   • Go to consultations with Beth during her working hours. At first, the only way to go to the infirmary is during the first visit to get a health certificate (this is when you can take note of the drain and the view from the windows for the first time during the 10 minutes of free movement time), and then by taking a laxative and asking for the emergency treatment: in this case Beth will leave you for 10 minutes and return with a painkiller and a shot for your self-incurred diarrhea.
     
     It is also possible to arrange visits on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays without taking a laxative: for this, you will need to build up rapport with Beth by chatting with her on every opportunity and giving her gifts (a love letter that you can write for her in your cell nets a lot of rapport points), and confessing your feelings for her when the rapport is high enough (the minimum is 60, but if you have 70 then the check is easier). Then Beth will write up a fake chronic condition for you so you have an excuse to visit her regularly. To get her to leave the Consultation room for 10 minutes of free movement, you can ask her to bring you medicine of your choice (this costs affection points with her, similar to asking Maggie to send you items over the phone).
     
   • Go to the infirmary after Beth's working hours by taking a laxative, which will give you 1 hour of free movement time, and break into the Consultation room. This can also be done in multiple ways:
     
     • Learn the code by getting it from Beth. First, search her emails during your free movement time to find out that the code is her birthday, and then build up rapport to 60 with her to first confess your feelings for her and then keep raising affection to 60 to ask her when her birthday is.
       Note that, unlike the code for the storeroom in The Lost Card quest, this code changes between playthroughs.
       
     • Hack the lock. You can learn to do that by reading the programming book in the General Building during recreations, and bonding with Jimmy the Giraffe will give you +2 points when attempting (his Bond check is to read the same programming book).
   Once you are alone in the Consultation room and have crafted the corrosive solution, apply it to the drain in the upper left corner. Take note that you will need to apply it several times, and each time it takes 5 minutes, so you will likely not be done in the 10 minutes of free movement time during one consultation. But, of course, you can also do it over the course of several days.
   
   Congratulations! You can finally access the Consultation room at night.
   
5. Apart from applying the corrosive solution to the drain, you will also need to remove the bars from the right window of the Consultation room to go outside by disassembling (do not forget a suitable tool!). If you have already applied the corrosive solution, then you can do it both during the day and after lockdown.
   
6. Once the bars are disassembled, you can go outside. To reach the tower, you have to either jump to the part where it is (requires Agility 8), or lockpick a door and go around through a roof shed (lockpicking it once is enough, you won't need to do it each day).
   

   NB! The next step is the final step of the escape route. Make sure that the conditions for the ending you are looking for are met before proceeding (i.e. you either do or do not have the key to Selina's apartment).

7. To climb the tower, you will need 100 stamina and a lanyard (I recommend getting a belt from Maggie which also gives you +2 strength). Additionally, when climbing, you will perform strength checks to reach the top, as well as agility checks to avoid either the search lights or, if the search lights check was failed, the snipers. All of these checks are quite hard: climbing check gets harder the more max health you have, and avoiding the sniper's bullet will result in the sniper trying even harder (meaning a harder check nest time), while getting shot will lower your health and climbing ability, not to mention taking too many shots mean game over for you (you will not have an opportunity to heal yourself). So my recommendation is to equip clothes and take all foods and meds that raise your strength and agility, have Energized! and Comfort statuses (by going to sleep before 2:00am the night before and using a toilet 2 hours before the climb), as well as take the painkillers to lower your max health and possibly disabling various abilities you have that raise max health or lower strength and agility.
   If you are going for Justice / the Emperor endings though (see respective section of this guide), and you want to avoid the fight, make sure to not go too overboard in maxing out strength and agility at the cost of intelligence and charisma, since you will still need those to pass checks.

The Devil (Barbershop Escape Route)

Escape through underground waters with the help of the Devil (the shark).

1. Complete steps 1 and 3-8 from The Moon (Laundry Escape Route) section of the guide to gain access to the Staff Block during the night and drain the 'sewer river'. Additionally, you will need access to the operating room, see step 2 from The Tower (Infirmary Escape Route) section of the guide.
   
2. In the Staff Block during the night, search the shelf next to the TV and find The Fish and the Mermaid movie. Watch it in the General Building during recreation, and equip the Charisma skill you obtain. This is how you 'learn' the mermaid language and gain double rapport points with aquatic creatures, including the Devil.
   
3. In the sewers, go to the low level where the 'sewer river' used to be, and explore a corridor to the south-east of the entrance to the sewer area from the pipe area. You will find a tucked away 'corridor' with a crack in the brick wall. Use a digging tool (for example hammer, see Laundry Escape Route on tips how to get one) and (optionally) rubber gloves to break the crack and enter the room behind it. In that room, go up the ladder.
   
4. In the barbershop, a fight will ensue when you try to examine anything in the room. This is one of the hardest fights in the game from my impression, but winning it is not necessary (penalty for losing the fight is losing ~40 body).
   
5. After the fight, a dialogue scene will lead you to the underground waters, which are accessible through the manhole in the room behind the crack in the sewers wall. You are introduced to the Devil, and the escape plan forms, for which you need the following:
   
   • Befriend the Devil: You need 200 rapport points with him to ask him for the escape assistance, and you start with 20 (assuming you watched the movie from step 2). Every night after midnight, you can come to play with him (once per night, takes 30 minutes), gaining you ~30 points depending on how you roll and your Charisma, and you can also give him snacks. From what I tried, the Devil seems to only like Spicy Ramen, gaining +10 rapport, and Goldfish, gaining +30. The Goldfish can be fished out of the bowl that you can get for your cell starting from Day 13 (Saturday of week 2) for 20 Good Conduct Credits, and you can re-apply for a new goldfish as many times as you want. The only in-game food items I did not try are Caramel Wafers and Champagne which I am sure the Devil hates, and Limited-Edition Soda is also a hated item.
     Note that you will need to craft a rope the first time you come to see the Devil by yourself.
     
   • Breathe underwater: Go to the pharmacy (locked off area of the infirmary) where the big oxygen cylinder is stored. You will get the idea to take the small oxygen cylinder from the operating room, which you can pick up at night. Then return to the pharmacy to fill it up. The key to the pharmacy can be found in the operating room as well, and, while you can arrange a way to enter the infirmary through operating room/consultation room during nights as in Infirmary Escape Route (The Tower achievement), it is sufficient to simply go into the infirmary during the day by taking a laxative, either before lunch or after recreation, just make sure you have the key for your first visit and the small oxygen cylinder for the second one.

   NB! The next step is the final step of the escape route. Make sure that the conditions for the ending you are looking for are met before proceeding (i.e. you either do or do not have the key to Selina's apartment).

6. Once you have both the oxygen and 200 rapport with the Devil, visit him for the final time after midnight and ask him to take you out of prison (there is no waiting/preparation time involved, you can ask immediately after getting 200 rapport even if you did not have them at the start of the evening). The escape itself is a minigame on a timer: you have to complete the level as the oxygen runs out, and when it does, your health is starts depleting, with a game over if it reaches zero. Thus, I advice you to make sure you have 100 body to maximize the timer.

The Strength (Boxing Escape Route)

In this route, you will need to participate in the four boxing matches organized by Big Foot Gang over the span of the first two weeks. After successfully winning all of them, on second Sunday (which is also the Honey Festival, Day 14), the warden summons you to his office and offers you to participate in a boxing tournament in a neighboring city. To make the escape with this route, you should agree, and then win three fights to win the tournament.

Note: It seems to me that you can get locked out of this route if you are simultaneously pursuing the Conjugal Visit Escape Route (see The Sun achievement section of the guide), but I do not know what the cut off point exactly is. So, better to not mix the two if you can avoid it.

For the Big Foot Gang matches, it does not matter if you spike your opponents's food in the cafeteria, as they will still participate in the match in a weakened state. I did not check if you are invited to participate in the tournament after winning on technicality (i.e. your opponent not showing up because he is in the infirmary or in the seg), but I also think it is in general much easier to just fight your opponents in the ring than figure out how to assault them or somebody close to them to accuse them and put them in the seg outside of the ring during the day.

After winning the four fights, you will meet with warden and agree to participating in the morning of the second Sunday (Day 14), and then you will be collected after lockdown at 22:00 on that day. There is one fight per day starting Monday, three fights total.

NB! In this route, you leave the prison on the evening of the second Sunday (Day 14), with no possibility of working on the main quest after that. Make sure that the conditions for the ending you are looking for are met before proceeding (i.e. you either do or do not have the key to Selina's apartment).

Before leaving the prison, you will be frisked: no weapons are allowed, and you will not need them for the fight. You also do not need any special tools to make your escape, although one of the checks can be made easier if you are wearing rubber gloves. Your tournament room also has a table where you can craft and repair (if you unlocked this skill), so you can bring some materials with you, and also clothes or healing items you think you may need for the fights. You will be fed three times a day, so it only makes sense to bring food for getting attribute boosts, not for managing satiety. The room also has a shower you can access at any point, a free soap (you can bring some mint to craft a scented soap for charisma boost), and a sink where you can brush your teeth if you brought your toothbrush and toothpaste (also can be done before fights for charisma boost).

Every morning, you will get your breakfast and a tape with your opponent for tonight. You can watch then use their skills in action, and also pause the tape to read all the skills and the actions they have. Overall, if you are on NG+ and have maxed out some relationships with the inmates you should be fine, but here are some hints:

• The first fighter, Lakota the Bison, has a Bone Crusher move, which takes one turn to charge up, and will strike with damage equal to 20% of his max health, which is 100. This move can be interrupted if Lakota receives 20 or more damage while the move is charged up. So make sure your attack power is high to negate that move.
  
  

  

  

  
• The second fighter, Apache the Condor, has a very high Dodge Change (=45%), as well as some nasty abilities like striking with his wings so you get extra damage. However, his attack power in itself is not high, and he is not good on defense. So use Concentrate at the start of the fight, and try to land a hit, as long as you do you will make good progress. It's a good idea to have abilities that inflict bleed so he keeps losing hp even if he dodges some hits.
  
  

  

  

  
• The final fighter, Rex the Monitor Lizard, has a Fury Unleashed skill that increases his Hit Rate and Crit Chance every time he misses or you hit him, until he gets a crit. So basically, you want to finish this fight as soon as possible so he does not get to benefit from this too much.
  
  

  

  

  

  

After all fights are won, you are invited to a VIP lounge, where you will be given the tournament trophy. After a scene, you will be left in the room alone for 30 minutes, which is when you can make your escape through the vent in the upper right corner. Use drinks tray and a footstool to reach the vent, and then perform some reasonably simple checks to disassemble the vent (use your trophy as a club). After a QTE in a scene that follows, you will have made your escape.

The Chariot (Gang War Escape Route)

Escape on Wednesday of the third week (Day 17) when the gang fight breaks out during lunch.

For this to work, you will need to complete three Sharp Tooth Gang quests:

1. Chameleon Courier: Meet a courier in the coming days after accepting the quest. Alex will give you $300 to pay her and will award $50 after the quest is complete, but depending on your charisma and negotiation skills you can pocket $100, $200, or even $300 of the money intended for the courier. Although be warned to have the money on you just in case you fail the check and will be forced to pay the money you don't have.
   
   
2. Prisoner, Cook, Artist, Spy: When the kitchen job opens, apply for it (make sure to have enough Good Conduct Credits by then), and explore the cellar. Most of it can be done by bringing flour downstairs during the work hours, each trip giving you 10 minutes of free movement time (you have to try to go to the cellar without the flour first to unlock this possibility). However, you will also need a way to go there outside of your allowed working hours. For this, you will also need to investigate the restroom in the kitchen area (to the right of the exit to the Main Building), and unlock access to the kitchen games room (which can be done way before that by investigating the back door during lunch, asking the cooks for the password while having a reasonable reputation, and paying a $200 membership fee to be able to enter). Then, you can go to the game room during lunch and ask Bricks to let you use the restroom, which he will allow for a fee of $20.
   Once you enter you will have 15 minutes of free movement time in the kitchen, which you can use to investigate the locked off corner of the cellar. You can unlock it either by lockpicking, or by using a key which you can buy from the barbershop in one of his earlier quests. This key can also be handed over to Bruce to complete one of his quests, but if you have bonded with Phil the Otter and activated his skill then you can make a copy of the kitchen key: that way, you can do both the captain quest, and keep the copy to enter the locked off area of the cellar without lockpicking it.
   In addition to investigating the cellar for this quest, you can also eat the ingredients stored there to gain satiety points and permanently raise max health (you eat them right away, they are not stored in the inventory), or you can also bottle Premium Liquor (provided you have the space for it) to gift, sell or drink later. Each of these actions takes 10 minutes, so you can do at most one per day.
   When you are done investigating the cellar, go to the General Building to paint a picture of it and bring it back to Alex (you can find some paint in the cupboards right there in the craft and paint room of the General Building).
   
   
3. Special Mission: Bring Alex the Lion the signed baseball. It is in one of the locked safes in the upper part of the storeroom, which you learn to access from The Lost Card quest (see Wheel of Fortune achievement). Lockpick the safe (not a very easy check, Fancy Watch recommended), and collect the baseball and anything else you like. The baseball is an important item, so it does not take space in your inventory.

NB! In this route, you escape during lunch of the third Wednesday (Day 17), with no possibility of working on the main quest after that. Make sure that the conditions for the ending you are looking for are met before proceeding (i.e. you either do or do not have the key to Selina's apartment).

If all these quests are completed, on Wednesday of the third week (Day 17) you should:

1. Go to lunch. When the fight starts, escape to the back door into the game room.
   
2. Inside, Eddie the Opossum and Kevin the Koala will mention that Alex the Lion ran further to the kitchen. Choose to follow him into the kitchen.
   
3. You will encounter a knocked out guard. Once again choose to continue into the cellar.
   
4. A boss fight will ensue after Alex explains his escape plan. You must win the fight to use Alex's plan to escape yourself.

The Magician (Mirror Escape Route)

Escape on Thursday of the third week (Day 18) by performing the ritual from an urban legend you can overhear.

NB! In this route, you escape the prison on the third Thursday (Day 18), but you will not be able to work on the main quest after the lunch of the third Wednesday (Day 17) and on. Make sure that the conditions for the ending you are looking for are met before proceeding (i.e. you either do or do not have the key to Selina's apartment).

1. In the evening of Monday of the third week (Day 15), listen to the conversation of Henry the Black Bear near the movie poster to learn the Crazy Thursday story.
   
2. On Thursday of the third week (Day 18) after lockdown, look at the mirror in your cell while having a paring knife and an apple on you. The apple can be redeemed for Good Conduct Credits during dinner (make sure to do it on Tuesday at the latest, since no dinner will be served on Wednesday or Thursday), and paring knife can be either bought from inmates or sometimes found in the kitchen cupboard which you can check daily.
   
3. Peeling an apple is an action in which you will need to accumulate 50 points over multiple dice rolls, each roll taking 5 minutes. To escape, you will need to finish peeling the apple at midnight exactly.
   To help you pass the time in a more precise way than resting for 30 minutes at a time, it is handy to learn, for example, how to exercise in your cell (an attempt takes 5 minutes and you can stop without finishing the bar) by reading a respective book in the General Building.

Note that you do not necessarily need to bond with Chris the Lynx to learn the skill which allows you to look in the mirror of your cell for charisma practice; simply knowing the legend is enough. However, a charisma practice takes 10 minutes, which may be useful for getting the last peel at midnight exactly.

Acknowledgements and Conclusions

Thank you for reading this guide!

While this is an original work of mine, the following guides that came before have been a great source of reference for me while beating the game and verifying the steps to obtain the achievements, as well as for checking certain details about requirements for various smaller checks and tasks when reaching the respective point of the game by myself would have been too time consuming for me.
So, if you like my guide, consider popping over to these guides, and leaving a like and giving a points reward for the Steam guides as well.

• An achievements guide by Syakudo (in Chinese):
  https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3076289245
  
• An escape routes guide by yswc:
  https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3080501459
  
• The Sun escape route guide by Beanbag:
  https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3304330959
  
• The Devil escape route guide by White (in Chinese):
  https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3331353198
  
• Neoseeker[www.neoseeker.com] quest guides (including side quests, which are not covered in this guide) by Wolfwood.
  
• Back to the Dawn Wiki[backtothedawn.wiki.gg], which in particular contains helpful information about various game items or fellow inmates and their Bond checks.

If you have found a mistake anywhere in the guide, or some steps are unclear to you and you cannot reproduce them, please reach out to me by leaving a comment below. I will answer when I see it and try to figure out how to help, and then will edit the guide so that others do not run into the same issue.

[tonyastark]

@Tystefy INSANE!! This must have been added with one of the patches that came out after I started just skipping all the scenes with Reed. I love this game for details like this. I actually want to play the game again now after playing it for 300+ hours already to see this, wow. Thank you for sharing!

[Tystefy]

There is another way to get the palm print capture kit. I stumbled into it entirely by accident and was pleasantly surprised.

1. During your second in-person visit from Reed (at the end of Hold Mail), he'll mention how it was his secretary, Selina, who noticed Reed was being tailed. You must pick the dialog option related to her. Reed will talk about how strangely skilled she is.

2. Anytime you call Reed's law firm when you aren't supposed to, Selina will pick up. Remembering her uncanny resourcefulness, you get the idea to ask her how to make the handprint kit. She tells you the exact recipe for free, claiming she read it in a detective novel.

[tonyastark]

@Danma, very happy to hear! I have spent quite a lot of time in this game while working on the guide, and I am glad to see it pay off with other people enjoying spending their time in the game as well :) Very excited to do the same when Bob's route comes out this year!

[Danma]

I was gonna stop playing after my 5th run but then I saw this guide! Love the game so much but it feels so repetitive trying to get the achievements blindly. I still got 7 achievements left and thanks to you, I'm gonna enjoy the game more! You, sir! Is a man of respect!! Both of your guides are life savers! 100% here I cooomeee!!

[tonyastark]

@shaneman927 You're welcome, and congratulations on the achievements! I did not realize you can get hanged man while being away for the tournament, but I have to be honest, that achievement is quite the mystery to me still, at some point I just kind of gave up on it and wrote down exactly one way to get it in the guide that worked for me :'D But interesting to know!

[shaneman927]

I’ve also got a secret newspaper for completing the strength route while letting Alex Escape. If this happens the newspaper will show a mugshot of both Alex and Thomas and talk about how two convicts escaped during a riot. I think it’s pretty cool. I’ve let Alex escaped before and got and haven’t seen this. This only shows up while doing strength from what I’ve seen. It should be it’s own achievement

[shaneman927]

I went to the strength route and came back and still got the hanged man achievement. I did everything but save Caesar during the riot. Don’t know if this is because I went the strength route and the game was being nice or because you don’t have to save him. Also thanks because this guide got me 100% strength being the second last and hanged man the last. I thought I would never get 100% in a game like this. Can’t wait to see bob’s story

[tonyastark]

@Creamy1 Congrats on 100% completing, glad I could help! And yeah, obviously bed sheets, thank you for pointing it out :D

[Creamy1]

the crafting recipes for the wings + tail use bed sheets instead of blankets

[Creamy1]

hi, your guide really helped me get 100% completion rate. btw, for the star escape route, the crafting recipes should be using bed sheets instead of blankets.