"Study Room" puzzle guide

A low-spoiler guide on the puzzle hinted by the diagram in the study room, explaining the goal and every individual solution. Currently working on including the next steps, after solving the study room's puzzle.

Overview

In the "Study" room, there is a blackboard with an image of the manor layout and some words. The spot corresponding to the entrance room is labeled as "Face - Ace", and contains an E. Across the room is a letter and note, notably showing some similar words being crossed out and added together. These are hints for a part of an elaborate, manor-wide puzzle. I've managed to solve this first part, though I'm not sure on the next step. This guide is for people looking for help on the first section.

In case you're not bothered with puzzle spoilers, looking for confirmation, or just unsure, here's what the puzzle is about:
in most rooms across the manor, you'll see two unusual, seemingly-random paintings/drawings. Through enough playthroughs you may have noticed that the two paintings in the entrance room, a depiction of a playing card with a queen of diamonds and a depiction of a playing card with an ace of clubs, are always the same; through this you can realize that the paintings are not random and rather based on the room's location on the grid (you can easily test this by checking the rooms immediately adjacent to the starting room across two runs; they will always have the same paintings). Next, via the hints in the study (notably, the "Face - Ace, E" written on the blackboard), you can find that each tile's paintings correspond to a word, where "subtracting" the two words from each other will return a single letter. Note that some pictures are reused, and can have different meanings in different contexts. Solving for each tile's letter, and plotting them on the map, will reveal a clue for the next piece of the puzzle. .
tl;dr?
The paintings in the manor correspond to the location of the room on the map. Each painting corresponds to a word, and the single different letter between the two paintings in a room is your solution. Find every letter, and place them on their location on the map to reveal a clue for the next section. .

Quick note on my process (SPOILERS)

Beyond this point, though I will be covering the answers with a spoiler bar, be wary of spoilers.

In order to make this process easier on myself, I gave each individual tile a name. Imagine that the rows of the manor (the left-right, horizontal rows) are ordered by number, with 1 at the bottom, and 9 at the top. Then, imagine that the columns of the manor (the up-down, vertical columns) are ordered by a letter, with A at the left and E at the right.

For a reality check, with this logic, the entrance room will be C1 and the antechamber will be C9. If you enter through the entrance room and go left, you'll be at B1. If you go upwards from B1, you'll be at B2. Like a chessboard (or battleship board, etc).

I drew out the grid on a piece of paper, which helped a lot. If you want to do this yourself and use the guide to check your answers, I seriously recommend drawing things for your own sanity.

Solutions:

I'm going to label each individual solution using my aforementioned grid system. Keep in mind that the antechamber, room C9, has no corresponding letter. It can be considered as a space.

A1: Dessert - Desert = S
A2: Plane - Plan = E (solution given on a couple in-game depictions of the map grid)
A3: Crow - Row = C
A4: Card - Car = D
A5: Tube - Tub = E
A6: Grain - Rain = G
A7: Spine - Pine = S
A8: Crate - Rate = C
A9: Chief - Chef = I Thank you to users euuan (for the solution) and Burnstar (for the painting words).

B1: Pray - Pry = A
B2: Stair - Star = I
B3: Tier - Tie = R
B4: Coat - Cot = A
B5: Pilot - Plot = I
B6: Coast - Cost = A
B7: Time - Tie = M
B8: Boat - Bat = O
B9: Flight - Light = F

C1: Face - Ace = F (solution given on chalkboard)
C2: Bridge - Bride = G
C3: Road - Rod = A
C4: Stage - Sage = T
C5: Tiger - Tier = G
C6: Planet - Plane = T
C7: Paint - Pint = A
C8: House - Hose = U
C9: N/A; antechamber room

D1: Pine - Pin = E
D2: Bath - Bat = H Thank you to users euuan (for the solution) and Burnstar (for the painting words).
D3: Clock - Lock = C
D4: Fire - Fir = E
D5: Chart - Cart = H
D6: Stage - Stag = E
D7: Flan - Fan = L
D8: Crown - Crow = N
D9: Wheat - Heat = W

E1: Stag - Tag = S
E2: Cart - Car = T
E3: Peak - Pea = K
E4: Sand - And = S
E5: Tent - Ten = T
E6: Coast - Coat = S Thank you to user Sugarbeez for correcting an error I had here!
E7: Plane - Pane = L
E8: Plant - Plan = T
E9: Create - Crate = E

Application of the solutions:

Placing each word in its spot on the grid, the following phrase is created:
If we count small gates, eight dates crack eight safes .

This refers to eight "safes" (a term used loosely, considering we "count small gates"), unlocked with "dates", on the map, with (big spoiler, you're better off finding out yourself) a red letter and one of the rubies from the stolen red crown in each, which respawn every day - making all* of the safe locations an extra guaranteed gem in whichever room/location in which they're found . Note regarding the reward: The orchard "safe"/gate does not contain a letter or a gem, and the drafting studio "safe" does not contain a gem .

Below are the places where the painting puzzle solution can be applied, and how to solve it. They're not in any particular order, though I'll come around and order them "correctly" later on. I believe I have the intended method of solving each application, though I originally had to guess for some.

1:
Location: The locked orchard, outside of the manor past the large metal gate to the right of the front door; this is the "small gate" that the painting puzzle refers to .
Solution HINT: A certain red room contains a photo of the garden, from prior to Simon's arrival. I'd start there. .
Solution: By re-activating the lights in the Dark Room and using a magnifying glass to view the photo of the garden, you can see, etched in the now-cut tree, a heart containing "11-28"; the safe code is 1128. November 28th. .
NOTE: There is no letter or gem, here. You can see the stand where a gem once was, in the shed, though it's gone. The Great Alzarra has a dialogue about the red letters, where he mentions that there is one we'll never find; this is it. Your true reward here is the garden, which grants extra steps and is linked to another secret .

2:
Location: The drawing room .
Solution HINT: First, check out the portrait of Sinclair. What's unusual about it? Consider that he's depicted in the same room you're in now. As for the safe code? This part's tricky, a new clue on what to do can be discovered elsewhere. .
Solution: Don't feel bad if you missed this one; I had to look it up, myself. It turns out, though, the "A New Clue" book offers help; the page about ciphers and riddles shows a correlation between the words "gates" and "gaits" (i.e strides). If you switch those words in our original clue, "if we count small gates" becomes "if we count small gaits". Therefore, we can count small strides to solve this one. Of the portraits in the room, an arrow measures how far each individual is stepping. The lavishly-dressed lady and the man with the umbrella have the shortest strides. There are four portraits of the lady, and fifteen of the man. Thus, the code is 15-04 or 04-15; April 15th .

3:
Location: The office .
Solution HINT: Check out the half-open cabinet behind the desk. The piece of paper will subtly clue you in; think about the relevance of "dates" in each solution, and the related decor in the room .
Solution: The one "book" not written in red, "March of the Count" is our clue. March is the third month of the year, so the first part of our date is 03. As for the "count" part? Look around the room, there's a bunch of busts of the count. Three in total; 03. 0303. March third . Thanks to user Rinda for clarifying the intended solution method.

4:
Location: The shelter, one of the "outside rooms" .
Solution HINT: This one's obvious. The hard part is pulling it off. I'll save you the trouble, though; the time locked safe is NOT looking for the real life time. You gotta find the current time and date, in-game. A few specific rooms can help you deduce that, if you're clever enough .
Solution: The den has a clock, which tracks the in-game time. The vault has a "calendar", which tracks the in-game day. Alternatively, the drafting room has an actual calendar on the wall which details when "day 1" takes place in-game - you can use the date to derive whatever day you're currently on. Just set the timelock safe to sometime ahead in the day, go do stuff and return later.

5:
Location: The boudoir, behind the "privacy walls" .
Solution HINT: The only hint in the room is the photo on the makeup cabinet. This one makes more sense once you know that "dates" help you crack each safe .
Solution: The photo shows a Christmas celebration, so the code is the date for Christmas in MM/DD format. 12-25 / 1225; December 25th, Christmas .

6:
Location: The study, in the obvious safe .
Solution HINT: The clue is in the room, though it's pretty subtle. You'll be extrapolating a little information. Note that it doesn't have to do with anything used to solve the original painting puzzle.
Solution: On the chessboard in the room, the queen rests on the position "D8". We can take this to mean December 8th, i.e 1208 .

7:
Location: This one's tough to find. Big spoilers. The underpass, in the large gear room on the second/upper layer. You'll have to reach the upper layer by drafting the boiler room and sending steam power to the large red box on the bottom floor. You'll know it works when it's lit up in blue. Then, come down to the underpass and enter the diverging pathway on the left wall of the tunnel, just before the metal gate. If you've powered it correctly, the door should open, letting you access the top floor .
Solution HINT: I'm not sure if there's an intended solution, but here's what clued me in; though this one is in letters, you'll notice that the fourth opening can be set to "8". Considering the regular month/day code formula, see what you can do with the first three letters.
Solution: The code is MAY8, i.e May 8th. It's the only date you can spell given the parameters of the lock .

8:
Location: Drafting studio, in the mini-safe on one of the mockup rooms .
Solution HINT: First off, you're going to need a means of interacting with the tiny safe. 'Just need the right tools. For the code, another hint is baked into our original clue. Look at the calendar and think about the message we derived from the paintings.
Solution: As the clue says, we "count small gates" and look for "dates". There are 8 gates in the apple-orchard depicted on the calendar, and it's for the month of November. Thus, November 8th. 11-08 or 08-11.

Note (for people who've already solved all eight and aren't wary of minor spoilers): Considering that Alzarra shows the accessible safehouse door and describes it as a "door you'll never reach", I'm inclined to believe the third red letter (stolen from the orchard) is accessible, given that he uses similar language to describe it as a "letter you'll never find". Knowing this game, its secrets, and its love for the number 8, I figure that letter is available somewhere. Don't tell me if you know about this one, because I'm aware the secrets in this game go FAR deeper than just what's in the manor, but I'll add to the guide if I figure it out myself .

Conclusion:

Thus, if you're feeling stumped, this guide should have helped with this particular puzzle in this game full of crazy elaborate puzzles. As I figure out what the next steps are, I'll continue to add them.

Thank you to everyone for the help with the paintings I didn't/couldn't find, and for proposing theories and suggestions for other puzzles below. You're all very helpful and committed to this huge bunch of puzzles, which is awesome.


Thanks for reading! Hope this helped :)

[Kindness Leon]

As of recently, the guide is updated with all painting puzzles and all eight safes.

[Kindness Leon]

Aye, figured that one out but I've just been too lazy to update the guide haha

[ballgownzombie]

I can help with a safe that's not listed here! I've listed the solution in full, so if you don't already know this will be a decent spoiler for that puzzle.
Location: the drafting room
Solution: In the drafting room, the tiny safe has a red letter. The date can be found by combining the small gates of the calendar with the month to make November 8th (if my memory serves, might be a different day)

[Kindness Leon]

You're right, it should be "Coast - Coat" = S. I mistyped it. Thanks for pointing it out!

[sugarbeez]

you´ve got E6 wrong in the list section of yout guide. There it says E6=A and later when you decipher the whole sentence you use E6=S.

[Kindness Leon]

Ohhh that's super cool. I think that'll be my last safe. I'll update the guide once I solve it for sure !!

[bradmo]

I haven't opened it yet, but in the studio, there's a paper model of the office with a tiny paper safe. if you have a magnifying glass you can put in a code. i havent checked yet, but its likely the office code

[Kindness Leon]

Ohh y'know what, you're totally right. I should've thought of that. 3 busts of the count.

[Rinda]

Small Gates busts in Office show the key for safe inOffice?

[Kindness Leon]

Yes, totally fair. That's part of why I made the guide; English is my first language and even I had trouble with some of these (notably stage - sage and fire - fir , which I suspect is the one you're having trouble with. I hope the guide can help :)