Darkness Within Hidden Secrets Guide

This is one of my favorite games. But finding all of its secrets and understanding the complete story can be extremely challenging. To help with this, I compiled these notes on my last playthrough. I haven't done a test run, so there may be a few errors here. Please let me know if you find any. But I hope people can use this document to help them better appreciate the game. I've organized it in a way that I think will make it as accessible as possible without becoming a walkthrough. As a result, expect that many of these items will not be active yet when you first try them. I know this might seem like an annoying organizational choice, but I really don't think this game could ever be fun if experienced using a walkthrough. This format, I hope, will allow you to find everything while still truly exploring everything by yourself. I believe I have found and included everything in this document. However, as you can see from my final score, there seems to be a glitch in how the game counts which makes this difficult to say for sure.

Game "Score" Obtained While Writing this Guide

As you can see here, it appears that there is some problem with how the game counts Hidden Clues. And, I suppose possibly, normal Clues as well. Please let me know if you feel I have missed something! But it seems possible that this guide reveals everything there is to see.

Documents

There are 37 documents in the game. To be able to underline some of the hidden clues you need to adjust the "difficulty options" in the game options so that you can underline everything at all times. Even with that setting changed, many of the clues can't be underlined when you first encounter them. In those cases, you either need to accomplish something else first (often an optional game task) or simply progress deeper into the main story.

Howard's Apartment:
1) "I, and My Night Mares"
a. “they're eighteen”
b. “Six children have died”
c. “mirrors”
d. “-XI-”
e. “1699”

Howard's Office:
2) Clark Field's Homicide Report
a. “packet”

3) Register of Deaths
a. Full name
b. Clark’s Birth Date
c. Clark’s Death Date
d. Suffocation

Loath Nolder's Office:
4) Wellsmoth Daily
(Nothing to find)

5) Symbol List
a. Symbol 1
b. Symbol 2
c. Symbol 3
d. Symbol 4

6) Wellsmoth Myths and Legends of an Ancient Town
a. “the town was changed to Windlapse"

Clark Field's House:
7) The Case of Alphonso Rugger
(Nothing to find)

8) Soul Metamorphosis Book
a. "Dversahe"
b. "mushroom cults"
c. "soul metamorphosis"

9) Sound Recording Notes
a. “I was just 22 years old”
b. “Cassette No: 01”
c. “Ivar's”
d. “Christopher T. Dreaden"

Ivar's Cabin:
10) Map and Places Note
(Nothing to find)

11) Dversahe Mixture Sculptures Note
a. “wooden sculptures that Mr. Curwen obtained from Africa”
b. “sculptures”
c. “IB”

12) Dear I.B. letter
a. “police friends”
b. “IB”

13) John D.'s letter to My Old Friend
a. “28-11-2011”

14) Hi, friend. letter
a. “Marco Polo”

15) I.B.'s letter to Brother
a. "'EB'"
b. "kd78gt8"
c. "little building in the garden is under our control"
d. “old fool"
e. "I.B."

16) DeG's letter to I.B.
a. "I.B."

Ivar's Cabin's Hidden Loft:
17) Loath Nolder’s Diary
a. “deformed.”

18) Summoned Ones Note
a. “"things"”
b. “the crypts below a tomb”
c. “Samuel William Poer”

19) Talisman creation book
a. “Pleiades”

Clark Field's House's Secret Alchemy Room:
20) Disgusting Discovery!
(Nothing to find)

21) Ghouls In the City Cemetery (Second Page of Disgusting Discovery)
(Nothing to find)

22) Ghouls Again!
(Nothing to find)

23) J.O.'s letter to Mr. Asimov
(Nothing to find)

24) J.O.'s letter to Brother (Hidden in a box near the blocked door)
(Nothing to find)

Clark Field's House's Locked Wing:
25) Gunshots in the Northwood Forest
(Nothing to find)

The Tower Room at the Braunbell residence:
26) Loath Nolder’s letter to My Old Friend
a. “wooden sculptures”

27) Loath Nolder’s Letter to Edward Braunbell
(Nothing to find)

28) Children of Dis (In Edward Braunbell’s mansion’s Tower room, in the locked chest)
a. “eye-like symbol”
b. “musical instruments"

Cemetery:
29) Cemetery Registers
(Nothing to find)

30) Cemetery Watchman’s Note
a. “a ring inscribed with a snake figure”
b. “registers”
c. “secret section”

31) Cemetery Registers (Hidden)
a. “Poer”

Inventory Item Documents:
32) Clark’s letter to Jonathan
a. “Jonathan”
b. “bought a house”
c. “the police”
d. “Clark”
e. “Address: North End Street No: 43 Northwood"

33) Clark Field’s Notes Part 1
a. “strange smells” (03/24/2011)
b. “genius loci” (03/24/2011)

34) Clark Field’s Notes Part 2 (found in Clark Field’s house)
a. “wide chamber” (05/17/2011)
b. “statues” (05/17/2011)
c. “a piece of the ladder to be broken off” (05/17/2011)

35) Clark Field’s Notes Part 3 (found in Clark Field’s house, in his briefcase)
a. “secret meeting place” (06/09/2011)
b. “my digital organizer” (07/18/2011)
c. “fauns” (07/15/2011)
d. “as da noite” (07/15/2011)
e. “Franz Mesmer” (07/15/2011)
f. “Nyx” (07/15/2011)

36) Clark Field’s Notes Part 4 (found in Ivar’s prison cell)
a. “I have noticed some great changes in the behavior and appearance of Ivar”

37) Edwin Pickman poem fragment
(Nothing to find)

Hidden Thoughts

There are 23 hidden thoughts in the game. Finding many of them can be challenging, as they often require elaborate combinations of other thoughts. However, unlocking as many as possible will be of great help in understanding and appreciating the game's story.

Howard's Apartment:
1) No Messages. Once found, Arthur can be called and asked about this point.

Howard's Office:
2) Underline ”packet” in the homicide report.
3) Underline "Clark’s Death Date."

Clark Field's House:
4) Wet muddy shovel
5) Someone dug somewhere (Revealed by combining 3 & 4)
6) Collapsed ceiling
7) Strong scent
8) Harmal smell
9) Something in the Air
10) Underline "Christopher T. Dreaden" in the Sound Recording Notes
11) Hallucinations (Revealed by combining 7, 8, & 9)
12) Someone Made the Ceiling Collapse (Must have found 5, then underline "wide chamber" in Clark Field's Notes Part 2)
13) Did Ivar Try to Hide Something? (Must have found 12, then underline “I have noticed some great changes in the behavior and appearance of Ivar” in Clark Field's Notes Part 4)
14) Clark Field also Hallucinated? (Must have found 11, then underline "strange smells" in Clark Field's Notes Part 1)

Loath Nolder's Office:
15) Underline "Don’t go to the police" in the letter in the packet
16) The Packet from Clark Field (Find both 2 and the packet itself)

Ivar's Cabin:
17) Mr Curwen (Must underline “wooden sculptures that Mr. Curwen obtained from Africa”)
18) Wooden Sculptures (Must underline "sculptures")
19) Ivar Burgen Killed Clark Field (Must combine Clark Field's jacket key -- TIME SENSITIVE; THIS ITEM MAY BE CONSUMED BEFORE YOU THINK TO TRY THIS – with Clark Field's Notes Part 4)
20) The Prisoner May Be Edward Braunbell (Must talk to the prisoner, get 19, then underline “little building in the garden is under our control” in I.B.'s letter to Brother. After obtaining 20, talk to the prisoner again.)
21) Underline "Police Friends" (Must have found 15)
22) Underline "Old Fool"
23) Arthur may be one of them (Revealed by combining 21, 22, and Arthur's Phone Number Dialogue)

Ivar's Cabin's Hidden Loft:
24) Needed Things (Must underline "things")
25) Magical Description (Must underline "Pleiades")

The Tower Room at the Braunbell residence:
26. Children of Dis' Symbol (Underline "eye-like symbol")
27. Underline "Wooden Sculptures"

[Tomoshi6i]

Thank u so much. Ur save my game. *_*

[Methode ♕]

Thanks for the help. I hadn't competed the other game task yet, when I did that I was able to get the achievement

[lake.kubilius]

Hi WhitteRabbit, generally, solving all "I can;t underline XXXX" problems can be solved by the suggestion I made to MooN _ShinE three lines down. Have you tried all that?

[Methode ♕]

I can't seem the underline Police Friends for the Trust No One challenge. Any tips on that?

[lake.kubilius]

MооN _ShinE: To be able to underline some of the hidden clues you need to adjust the "difficulty options" in the game options so that you can underline everything at all times. Even with that setting changed, many of the clues can't be underlined when you first encounter them. In those cases, you either need to accomplish something else first (often an optional game task) or simply progress deeper into the main story.

Good luck!

[MооN _ShinE]

how to underline the old fool words in the latter?i tried to make it but it wont(

[lake.kubilius]

I think 10 big stars is as high as it goes!

[THE TENTH]

First playthrough: 8h 7min, 8 big stars and 3 little stars (I missed an hidden clue and 3 easter eggs)

Second playthrough: 3h 34min, 10 big stars and 0 little stars (didn't miss a thing)

[lake.kubilius]

But how many big stars did you get? I think the big stars are worth more. In other words, five big stars and eight little stars is much "worse" than eight big stars and five little ones.

[THE TENTH]

I thought as well that speed mattered and I've actually got those results after a sort of speedrun, completing the game in 3h and 34min.

What's weird is that I've got 3 stars on the lower row on my first playthrough, completed in more than 8 hours