Complete Walkthrough: Darkness Within

A complete walkthrough of Darkness Within that'll give you full score and all the steam achievements.

Introduction

This guide was written in the hopes of giving those enjoying the game a means of uncovering all hidden secrets and easter eggs. The guide will also contain all the information necessary to complete all 30 achievements associated with the game. By the time I finished the run used to write this guide, I had found all documents, all clues, all secrets and all easter eggs.




So beware, all the spoilers are in this guide.

The pronouns You and Howard will be used interchangeably, as you (the player) for the most part steer Howard (the character). For simplicity’s sake, the guide will cover the game in a certain order of events even though it can certainly be accomplished in several different ways.

Gameplay
Before you begin the game properly, I advise you to get comfortable with the controls (the game is a mouse point-and-click adventure). Most of your actions are performed by left-clicking your way around, while right-clicking brings you to your inventory which is displayed as a bar at the top of the screen. Items can be examined and used from here either by right-clicking them or using the microscope lens icon to the right. The brain icon opens a new panel called the think frame: here you can combine items, clues you have found and so on into clues that’ll help you move forward. You take the items you want to combine, put them in the slots on the right and press the gear to try and combine them – Howard will tell you the result.

Settings Adjustments
If you want to be able to find all clues you will have to make an adjustment to the difficulty settings. You need to put the option “Underline” to “Always”. Something else to note is that you should only underline one instance at a time – underlining several instances before pressing the think cogwheel will probably end up yielding nothing.

Remember to Save
Also remember that there are 50 save slots available to you, and they can all be labeled and overwritten. It gives you a lot of flexibility if you feel the need to revisit a prior point in the game.

On with the show!

The First Nightmare

You, Howard, start out in a hallway with four doors. Two at either side of you and two down the hall.

• Start out with testing the doors beside you and find out they are locked.
  
• Take two steps down the corridor and look at the graffiti on your right. Click on it twice and Howard will comment that he’s seeing two faces in it.
  
• Continue down to the end of the hall and click on the larger graffiti there for another observation from Howard.
  
• Enter the door on your left. You’ll step into a ‘beautiful room’. Pan down, and see a man on the floor.

Howard's Apartment

You wake up from a nightmare and are lying in your bed. There’s a phone ringing close by.

• Get out of the bed and glance down at the nightstand. You can click yourself closer and then take the cellphone lying beside the radio.
  
• Answer the call from Arthur. Listen to the conversation between Howard and his coworker. The conversation will give you a dialogue (so you can listen to it again later if you need to), as well as your first clue.

Achievement “In Pursuit of Loath Nolder” unlocks.

• Click yourself close to your nightstand again so that you can see the answering machine and the radio, as well as the top drawer. The radio is also usable: you can turn it on/off, and change music tracks. Quite neat.
  
• Let’s look inside that drawer. There’s a book of poems there labeled “I and My Night Mares” written by Edward Pickman, Howard’s favorite poet. Page through it and take special care in the poem called “Time of the Triumphant Witch” – it’ll be an important one later.
  
• Next up is the answering machine on the nightstand. Check your messages and there’s none to listen to despite Arthur having said he left several.
  
• Give Arthur a call from your cellphone and ask about it.

Achievement “Something’s not right” unlocks.

Time to look around the rest of the apartment.

• On your left, past the TV, is a door leading into your walking closet. Head inside and then open the bottom drawer of the cabinet inside. Under one of the clothes is a gun and a ring you can examine and Howard will comment on them.
  
• Back out in your bedroom, make sure to inspect the clock on the small side table and the dreamcatcher hanging from the ceiling fan if you haven’t already.
  
• Exit your bedroom through the second door here.

You’re now in a hallway.

• Take the door to the left and peek around your bathroom. There’s a few things to examine inside. Afterward you can go back out into the hall.
  
• The drawer here is your next objective; zoom in on it and open the drawer. Open the box inside and take the car keys.
  
• And then leave your apartment through the last available door and head down to the end of the hallway.

Howard will automatically leave the building and head over to his office.

Howard's Office

Since our job is to investigate the escape of Loath Nolder right now, let’s get around to it and set some ground work which help us later. After you’ve spend a bit poking around the office, that is.

• Go to the desk and zoom in on the in-out tray to the right of the keyboard. There’s a document there you can examine, holding a crime record, and register of death regarding Clark Field who Loath Nolder is said to have killed.
  
• A big part of the gameplay is the capability of inspecting documents and underlining words or a string of words to find clues. That’s what we’ll be doing here. To underline words, click the pencil icon in the lower left and then hold and draw to make a red line under the words you want to check. When done, press the gear icon in the lower left to have Howard process it. Remember to only process one word or string at a time: marking two different instances of words will yield you nothing.
  
• On the Record of Death (the first page you’ll see), you can underline four things: Clark Field, Date of Birth: 03/11/1976, Died on the October Day of 21 and Suffocation. The last one doesn’t give you a clue to use, but is one of the game’s many hidden clues to collect.
  
• Click on the visible bit of the second paper to get it to the foreground. Here you want to look down under the Details of Offence section and underline the first instance of packet. That concludes all the clues for this document.
  
• The last thing for us to do in here to make sure that we collect the crime scene photos lying beside the red phone.

After that, we’re ready to leave.

The Map

You’ll now be presented with a map which will be your means of travelling between locations. Right now, you’ll only see your apartment, your office and Loath Nolder’s office marked on it.




Click the photo of Loath Nolder’s Office to travel there.

Loath Nolder's Office

This place, along with a few others, is one that we’ll have to revisit several times across the storyline to collect additional pieces of information to advance the plot.

• On the right wall from where you enter is a calendar, examine it closer and get a clue.

Achievement “The onlooker sees all” unlocks.

• Next up you should walk behind the desk and pick up the letter opener lying beside the red phone.
  
• There’s a news article about earthquakes and an archeological discovery to examine, and you can also open the desk’s top drawer.
  
• Take a read of the Wellsmouth: Myths and Legends of an ancient town book lying inside, and give the paper with a list of symbols a quick gander.
  
• Now, Howard did say things had changed since last, so let’s compare the scene with the crime scene photos taken from your office. Open your inventory and right-click on a photo to examine it. The trick is to place yourself at the spot where the person taking the photo could have been, look in the right direction and then examine the photo depicting that screen – as you zoom in Howard will eventually make a comment that he does or doesn’t see anything changed.

The solution to this puzzle is having Howard standing at the side of the desk and facing over toward the lamp and the door leading to the archive. Take the picture corresponding to that scene, examine it and zoom in – Howard will throw a line that something looks off.

• Once you have found the erring scenery, walk over to the lamp, and examine the painting on the wall. Howard will unhook it and you can click on it once to turn it around.
  
• Open your inventory and take the letter opener close the inventory again. Hover the it near the lower right corner until it pulsates.
  
• Click once and you’ll use the letter opener to cut out a hole. Take the envelope from the painting. If you underlined packet from the crime record in our office, the related clue Clark Field’s Packet will get updated now.
  
• Open the think frame. On the left side, you can see a list of all your collected clues, as well as dialogues you can listen to again. On the right side is the clue combination interface.
  
• Take the letter opener and drop it into one square. Take the envelope and drop it into another. Press the gear icon and you’ll see the envelope being opened.
  
• Take the letter, Clark Field’s notes 1:4 and the key.
  
• Read the notes, though we must progress a little in the story before we can underline anything in it. We can process the letter though, so let’s do that.
  
• After you’ve opened the letter, underline and process the following strings: Jonathan, bought a house, the police, Clark and Address: North End Street No: 43 Northwood.

This’ll give us what we need to advance the plot, and it’ll unlock a new location on our map: Clark Field’s Residence.

Achievement “Field Agent” unlocks.

Clark Field's Residence

Make it a habit to look around every new room you enter and closely examine every object you can – I will only remind you further on to look at critical objects, but it’s good to at least have checked everything once.

• As you enter the mansion, you have a door to your left which is locked.
  
• There’s another door in front of you, a flight of stairs and two doors to the right. Head to the two doors to the right.
  
• Check the one that should now be at your left; it’s blocked by something.
  
• Go through the other one and you enter a living room. Look left, and cross the room all the way over to the fireplace.
  
• Look at the picture of the two brothers on the mantelpiece.
  
• Look down on the armchair on your left, and take the Clark Field’s notes 2:4. Give the notes a read.
  
• Go back to the foyer and take the flight of stairs up to the next floor. Round the table over to the left and reach two doors.
  
• Keep left and enter a bathroom. There’s a few things to examine in here but not much else.
  
• Head back out to the open landing and enter the other door – again mostly a messy room.
  
• Make sure to take the rope from the small table and then go back outside.
  
• Go back toward the stairs and notice the clock at the far wall with a door at either side of it. Enter the bedroom left of the clock.
  
• Look to the bed and read the partially burnt book that details Soul Metamorphosis. We’ll be getting back to this one later.
  
• When done reading you can pass the bed over to a set of drawers. Open the top one and take the rusty key.
  
• Exit the bedroom and enter the last door.
  
• This is the library. There’s a ton of objects in here to examine so take your time trying to find everything.
  
• Take note of the wooden statue on the floor at the other end of the room and its odd backside.
  
• When you’re done head on to look at the in-out tray on the table. There’s a document atop it that you can read, which details several recordings Clark Field made. Go to the last page and underline the name Christopher T. Dreaden This will give you a clue we need.

Achievement “Dread Me” unlocks.

• We can’t do much else with the document right now, so let’s leave it and return to it later. Exit the library and go back down to the first floor.
  
• The only place we’ve left to look this visit is the cellar. Go through the door below the stairs.
  
• On your way down, make sure to look at the shovel in the corner. It’ll give you a clue we need.
  
• At the bottom of the stairs is another door leading into a small room. Howard will mention a strong scent, which yields another clue.
  
• Look at the bottles on the right wall, it’ll give the Hamal smell clue too.
  
• Also, don’t miss the cloth hanging beside the door you just came through, which has some slimy substance on it.
  
• Use the rusty key you got on the metal door beside the electrical panel and head on inside. The most noticeable thing in here is the well covering most of the floor space.
  
• There’s a ladder on the right rim of the well, but Howard will tell you it’s broken.
  
• Make sure to look down the well three times to trigger Howard making note that he can’t get down because the ladder won’t hold him.
  
• Once you got that out of the way you can look at the ceiling and inspect the pipes there – and then take the rope from your inventory and tie it to them.
  
• Before you climb down, make sure to grab the lantern beside the broken ladder.
  
• Climb down the rope.

Achievement “Descent into Darkness” unlocks.

About two or three clicks down, Howard will tell you he’s out of rope and can’t go down further. Fortunately, there’s a hole in the well’s wall you can climb into.

• Crawl as far in as you can and you’ll soon enough reach a blockage.
  
• Left of the blockage is a gap with smoke pouring out of it, which Howard will comment on when examined.
  
• The same goes for the ceiling close to the blockage – as well the ceiling gives you a clue.
  
• Pan right and look down, and you’ll see a digital scheduler on the floor you’ll want to take.

There’ll be a short sequence were some strange noises are heard from the gap which will unsettle Howard and make him want to leave. Heed his wish and climb out of the well. Once you leave the well room, the door will automatically be locked by Howard. Keep heading back up to the first floor. Howard will now say he’s not feeling so well, so let’s leave the house for now and go back home.

The Second Nightmare: The Madness

You stand outside your apartment. Howard will say there’s something in the air, which yields you a clue. Go back into your apartment, enter your bedroom, and lay down to sleep. This will start the second nightmare.

• You’ll wake up from hearing someone knocking incessantly on the door.
  
• You’ll notice the radio is on. Turn it off and then head over to your bathroom.
  
• Open the medicine cabinet and see a dead insect inside it.

Achievement “Shattered Psyche” unlocks.

• Time to deal with the door knocker. Exit your apartment. There’s no one there.
  
• After a bit of monologuing click down the hallway twice to get some additional lines from Howard.
  
• Head back to your bedroom and find the radio on again. Turn it off. The knocking starts anew.
  
• Afterward, take a glance at the clock.

Achievement “Sometimes time flies backward” unlocks.

• Exit your apartment again and find no source for the knocking this time either.
  
• Click down the dark hallway twice and then go back to your bedroom.

A sequence will start as you click on the bedroom door.

Howard's Apartment

Once you’re out of hospital, you’re suspended from your job as a police detective thanks to a nervous breakdown. Yet you decide to solve this case regardless. You’re in your bedroom and Arthur will call and leave a message on your phone.

• Get out of bed and make way to your bathroom.
  
• Open the medicine cabinet to the left of the mirror. Click on the bottle and Howard will automatically take his medicine.
  
• Now it’s time to check out that digital scheduler you found. Open your inventory and right-click on it to view its interface.
  
• There’s a problem: it asks for a password you don’t know yet. Enter any four numbers and it’ll ask if you forgot it. Press space to get a clue to it.
  
• The reminder you get is: When will the triumphant witch be reborn?
  
• Now go back to your bedroom. In the top drawer of your nightstand is your book of poems. Picking up the book will give you a clue. Now, open it and go to the poem “The Triumphant Witch”.
  
• Underline the following sentences, one at a time:
  
  • They will die when they’re eighteen and this will be your woeful prize
    
  • Six children have died with the sign of the witch on their brow
    
  • And his chamber was changed; there were mirrors all round displayed
    
  • He was carving the sign – XI – to his brow with an old rusty blade
    
  • Everything started for me in the first of April, 1699
• Open your think frame.
  
  • Hold and drag the following clues and drop them in the right squares: Mirrors and XI sign. This will give you the new clue Reverse the sign.
    
  • Now take Reverse the sign and Six Children and process, this will yield Three Children Left.
    
  • The last to combine is Three Children Left, 18 Years Old and Date of Harold Gallow’s death. This will give you The Witch’s Date of Rebirth, which is 1753.
• Now right click on the digital scheduler again. Enter 1753 and you’re in. Now you’ll face another problem: it asks you for a date. We’ll have to find some dates to look up first.
  
• Before we put away the scheduler, let’s enter two dates unrelated to our quest: 05/31/37 and 08/20/90. These were the date of birth and death of Lovecraft, and will unlock an easter egg.

Achievement “In Memory of H.P. Lovecraft” unlocks.

Clark Field's Residence

Now that we’re done at home, it’s time we revisit Clark Field’s home and scrounge up some new leads.

• Go upstairs and look around the open room here again. You’ll notice a red briefcase on a bench past the overturned footrest. Go over and open it, and read the documents to learn a bit about the hallucinogenic drug called Dversahe.
  
• Open your think page. Drop the clues A Strong Scent, Hamal Smell and Something in the Air. This will get you the new clue called Hallucinations.
  
• Turn around, and head into the library. It’s the room to the right of the clock. On the other side of the table is a locked briefcase you need to inspect closer.
  
• You’ll notice its locked, and if you click on the lock and button on the right Howard will wonder to himself what number could be the combination. Let’s find out.
  
• Remember the in-out tray in this room? Go to it and open the document with the recordings, this time we’ll underline some more things for clues: I was just 22 years old, Cassette no.1 and In Ivar’s place.
  
• Open up the think frame again. Before we solve the locked briefcase problem there’s something else we need to do first.
  
• Put the clues Clark Field’s Death and Shovel with wet mud on it in the squares on the right and process them. This will give you the clue Someone dug somewhere else.
  
• This might be an error, but there is strangely not a means to get the locked combination using clues we got. Instead, we’ll have to think it up on our own. Clark’s date of birth was 1976, and the important event in his life happened at the age of 22. This makes the date of the even 1998 (1976+22).
  
• Put 1998 in the case’s combination and press the button to unlock the briefcase.

Achievement “Open and Shut Case” unlocks.

• Take Clark Field’s notes 3:4. In reading the notes you’ll learn about the meeting at Ivar’s place with three other strange people.
  
• Take Cassette no.1, and then open your inventory. Take Cassette no.1 and use it on the tape recorder, and then click on the tape recorder.
  
• You can listen to a track by pressing the arrow button on the bottom portion of the screen. The two double arrows let you switch which track you want to listen to. The important track to hear is the no. 8 one, which will give you a clue you need: the date they were at Ivar’s cabin.
  
• Once you are finished, press the leftmost button to return the recorder.
  
• Open the digital scheduler again and enter the date you just got: 07/05/11. This will give you the directions to Ivar’s Home, and add another pin on your map.

Achievement “Calendar Boy” unlocks.

Howard will now say that he’s not feeling well. It’s time to go home and get some sleep again. So, exit the house and Howard will automatically drive back to the apartment.

The Third Nightmare: Beneath the Well

After the initial sequence of Howard falling into the well, you will regain control again by the time he stands up in an unknown corridor.

• Turn around and look down. Examine the collection of bones closer. Take the bone and the torch.
  
• Take the torch from your inventory and use it on the blue fire to light it, giving you some better illumination.
  
• Turn back to the corridor and continue down it until you reach the door. It’s stuck. Take the bone from your inventory and use on the door. Howard will say it’s too big to use.
  
• Turn around again and walk back until you reach the larger stone halfway through the corridor, and examine it closer.
  
• Take the bone and use it on the rock. Howard will use the rock to splinter the bone.
  
• Go back to the door, and now use your splintered bone on it. This will make the door open.
  
• Enter the room and take a closer look on the hooded statue. Inspect the ring on his hand.
  
• Take the ring, and Howard will say it looks familiar: it’s his family ring.
  
• On the far wall is a metal cover. Walk over to it and open it to see a gear mechanism and five loose cogwheels on the bottom.
  
• Take the cogwheels.
  
• The following puzzle is solved by arranging the cogwheels to join the two large cogwheels already on the mechanism.

• After you’ve placed them we need to find a means to run the mechanism. You’ll notice a small metal plate with a hole in it to the left.
  
• Climb the flight of stairs and there you’ll see nine crypt recesses with a locked metal plate above each opening.
  
• Go to the end of the narrow hall and find a handle lying on the floor (it can be difficult to spot). Take it and go back down to the metal panel.
  
• Take the handle and use it on the hole on the left side, and then use it.
  
• If the puzzle was correctly done the cogwheels will turn and you’ll hear an opening sound.

Achievement “Like Clockwork” unlocks.

• Go back upstairs to the crypt hall. The metal plates above each crypt recess is now open and can be examined. Under them are a symbol each.
  
• At the last, ninth, recess, you can see that the symbol is the same as the one on Howard’s ring.
  
• Take the ring from your inventory and use it on the symbol.
  
• Pull out the coffin in the recess and open it.

Howard’s Apartment & Office

Howard wakes up from his nightmare. He realizes he’s slept for two days, which yields you a clue.

Achievement “Sleeping Sickness” unlocks.

• Go to the bathroom, open the medicine cabinet and take your medicine.
  
• Howard will notice that it tastes different, yielding you a clue. He takes the bottle.
  
• Open your inventory and right-click on your cellphone. Look up Arthur’s number and give him a call. Howard will ask him to have the medicine analyzed.
  
• Turn around and look down to the trashcan. Take the note. It has a cryptic message for Howard about a meeting at a cabin at midnight, from someone named Gerald.
  
• Exit your apartment.

You’ll automatically go to Howard's Office, and have the bottle left on the desk. After you’ve done so, exit the office and select Ivar’s Cabin on the map.

Ivar Bergen's Cabin

On your way to the cabin, you’ll catch sight of a man by the side of the road and decide to stop over. Go and talk to the man. After you are finished talking, turn around. You’ll hear something, turn back and realize the man is gone. Take the paper from the ground and read the quatrain.

Go back to the car to continue to the cabin.

Before you enter the cabin, you can look around the yard a little.

• Enter the cabin, and take the first door to the left into the bedroom.
  
• Examine the blank piece of paper on the dresser.
  
• To your left is a bucket. Take the paint brush lying beside it.
  
• Go to the foot of the bed and look at the floor. There’s a trapdoor there, but it’s locket.
  
• Exit the bedroom and go through the second door, entering the kitchen.
  
• Look at the dining table, and then at the cupboards.
  
• Open the cupboard’s left cabinet and take the can of thinner.
  
• Besides the stove is a wooden stick with a metal hook. Take that one too.
  
• Examine the metal pot on the stove.
  
• Now exit out into the hallway again and go up the first flight of stairs.
  
• If you look up the ceiling you’ll notice some off-colored boards. Click on them twice, and Howard will comment it might be a trapdoor but he can’t reach it.
  
• Open your inventory, take the wooden stick with a metal hook and use it on the trapdoor.
  
• Pull down the ladder and then climb up to the attic.
  
• In the attic, turn around and examine the preserved sea life first.
  
• Between the shelf with preserved sea life and the furnace stove is a bench. Behind it is a curtain. Examine it closer, then pull it aside to reveal a small alcove with a book inside.
  
• Read the book which details a trip to a cannibal tribe’s jungle village. Underline the word deformed.
  
• Walk over to the telescope and use it. You’ll be watching the Northwood Mountains. Pan around the camera until Howard discovers a cave, then leave the telescope.
  
• Now go look at the table. First inspect the note on the right.
  
• Underline the following: things, the crypts below a tomb, and Samuel William Poer. These will yield you clues.
  
• Examine the pile of books on the chair, open and read the top one about talisman preparation. Underline the following for clues: Pleiades.
  
• Now exit the attic, and then take the second flight of stairs up to the loft.
  
• There’s not much we can do here yet. But look around the room, you’ll notice two locked roll top desks.
  
• Now go downstairs again and try exit the cabin. You’ll be stopped by an unknown man who asks if you got his note.
  
• Select the option “You left that note?”. This dialogue choice will only appear if you unlocked the Dread Me achievement earlier.

Achievement “Persuader” unlocks.

• He gives you a keyring and tells you to come back tonight.
  
• Leave the cabin once done talking, and Howard will decide to revisit the cabin later.

We’re done in the cabin for now, so head back to your apartment and go to bed.

The Dream

This dream is a more pleasant one. Look around, and then pan up to the sun and click on it. A sequence will start and at the end of it Howard will wake up and realize it’s close to midnight.

Leave your apartment and Howard will automatically go to the cabin.

Ivar Bergen’s Cabin

Howard will note that the meeting is probably going on, and you’ll be asked if you want to continue to investigate the cabin or not. Press yes, and then head on inside.

There’ll be quite a lot to do here this time around and it can get a bit confusing, so take it one step at a time.

• Enter the bedroom through the left door, and walk over to the trapdoor.
  
• Take the keyring you got from the strange man and use it to unlock the trapdoor, and then climb down.
  
• Head all the way down until you reach a locked door and a doorway. Go through the doorway to the left and all the way in past the curtains.
  
• Look around the space, and then examine the cabinet on the right wall. There’s four sculptures inside you can inspect.
  
• The top right one, depicting a man on a throne, can be turned around to reveal three defaced symbols on the back.
  
• Turn around and look at the golden map making machine next.
  
• When done, look at the red cabinet. It’s locked, so we’ll have to come back to it later.
  
• Leave the room, and then take two steps down the corridor. Don’t mind the first two doors – you’ll not be able to enter them.
  
• On your right is an eye symbol painted on the wall. Click on it for a clue.
  
• Afterward, continue down until another set of doors. Enter the right one.
  
• Look at the box to your right, open it and inspect the old rifles inside it.
  
• Turn around and look at the fence door – it’s probably electrified.
  
• Now inspect the buttons at the far wall, and press the red one to turn off the electricity.
  
• On the left side of the panel is some putty. Take it.
  
• Enter the fenced off section and examine the large crate.
  
• Leave this room, and enter the other room.
  
• There’s a small room here with two more doors on your left and right.
  
• Examine the prison cell on the left, and have a talk with the crazed prisoner locked inside.
  
• Try enter the right door: it’s too dark in there.
  
• Take the candle from the chair, and then enter the right prison cell.
  
• Examine the jacket and click it twice: the first one will give you Clark Field’s notes 4:4 and the second one will give you a key.
  
• Time to do some research in Clark Field’s notes!
  
  • Open your inventory and right-click on Clark Field’s notes 1:4. Underline strange smells which will give you a clue, and genius loci.
    
  • Now right-click on Clark Field’s notes 2:4 and underline wide chamber and a piece of the ladder to be broken off.
    
  • Now right-click on Clark Field’s notes 3:4 and underline secret meeting place, fauns, as da noite, Franz Mesmer, Nyx, and my digital organizer. Only the first one and last creates a usable clue.
    
  • In the last one, Clark Field’s notes 4:4, underline I have noticed some great changes in the behavior and appearance of Ivar.
    
  • Open your think frame. From it, drag the key and the Clark Field’s notes 4:4 into the squares on the right, and process it. This will give you the clue Ivar Bergen killed Clark Field.
• Okay, we’re done researching for now. Exit the prison cell and head back out into the corridor. Howard will automatically put the candle back first.
  
• Go to the door at the end of the corridor and enter. Howard will say it’s too dark to continue, so turn around and try to leave.
  
• You’ll be stopped by a shadowy figure who says he’s Loath Nolder. Talk to him, and eventually he’ll warn you to leave immediately. This will yield a clue.

Achievement “Friend or Foe?” unlocks.

• Exit back into the corridor and head for the staircase. Eventually Howard will stop when hearing that someone’s coming.
  
• You need to find a place to hide: your options are either the room before the prison cells, or the room with the fenced off area. Either works.
  
• Once inside the rooms, wait until Howard prompts that the coast is clear.
  
• Head back up and leave the cabin.

Leaving Ivar’s Cabin will again make Howard go straight back to his apartment. Head in and go to bed.

The Fourth Nightmare: Mushroom Cult Cave

Howard wakes up inside an icy cold cave. He’ll refuse to go outside if you try.

• Scattered around the cave are five stone tablet pieces. Pick them up.
  
• Open your think frame.
  
• Drag all five pieces to the squares on the right and process it in order to puzzle together the stone tablet.
  
• Take a closer look on the four-horned instrument at the end of the cave. Howard says it looks like a didgeridoo.
  
• Look at the stone tablet: It’s the notes for the didgeridoo.
  
• To solve the puzzle, you need to play the didgeridoo according to the notes on the tablet. You can see the solution in the image below.

The nightmare will end after you have done this.

Achievement “Instrumental” unlocks.

Howard's Apartment

After waking up and getting out of bed, Howard will notice three days has passed.

• Try to exit the apartment. Howard will pause, and comment about that medicine analysis.
  
• Call Arthur, and receive a clue about the medicine.
  
• Now, exit your apartment and head back to Ivar’s Cabin.

Ivar Bergen's Cabin

Looks like nobody’s there now, so let’s explore a little more.

• Enter the cabin, and head to the right into the kitchen.
  
• Examine the metal pot again, and go to your inventory.
  
• Take the can of thinner and use it on the metal pot.
  
• Take the paint brush and use it on the metal pot to get the softened paint brush.
  
• Now climb the stairs back up to the loft. You can now unlock the roll top desks using the keyring.
  
• Go to the big roll top desk and open it up.
  
• Examine the strange blue lamp, and then pick up the three sticks from the pencil holder.
  
• Take the old map. Examine it and turn it around to see drawings on the back.
  
• Give the pigeon holes a closer look, and read each of the letters from left to right.
  
  • In the first letter, underline I.B and police friends.

Achievement “Trust No One” unlocks.

• In the third letter, underline Marco Polo.
  
• In the fourth letter, underline kd78gt8 and I.B.
  
• In the fifth letter, underline I.B.

Time to deduct what the odd code we just found is. It’s an encrypted phone number where a few of the numbers have just been switched for the corresponding letter in the alphabet. Let’s try call it.

• Use your cellphone, and type in the number 5378488. This will yield you a clue.
  
• Now call Arthur and ask what address the number belongs to.

Achievement “Man of Letters” unlocks.

• Afterward, go and inspect the other roll top desk. Unlock it and check inside.
  
• Take the metal key on the shelf.
  
• Read the note and underline the following: wooden sculptures Mr Curwen obtained from Africa, and I.B.
  
• There’s another note on a shelf above the first but it has no clues to underline.
  
• Take your softened paint brush and use it on the inkwell to the left.
  
• Now head back downstairs, enter the bedroom and go down the trapdoor.
  
• Go through the first open doorway to the left, open the cabinet and pick up the statue with the man on the throne.
  
• Turn it around so you can see the symbols again. Take the putty from your inventory and use it on the symbols to get a putty mold of the symbols.
  
• Open your think frame. Put the putty mold of the symbols and the inked paint brush in the squares on the right, process, and get the inked putty mold.
  
• Now put all that away and turn around to face the red safe and the map marking machine.
  
• Look down on the safe, and use the metal key you found in the roll top desk top open it. There are a lot of maps inside, and after clicking several times Howard will say he doesn’t know which map to take. This gives a clue.
  
• Go back up to the bedroom and look at the empty paper on the dresser.
  
• Take the inked putty mold from your inventory and use it on the paper. Then take the marked paper.

Leave Ivar’s Cabin for now.

Loath Nolder's Office

Time to revisit Nolder’s office.

• Go around the desk and open the top drawer.
  
• Look at the paper with the symbols and underline the line containing the eye symbol and the letters WMT.
  
• Now continue to underline the other three symbols with the WMT abbreviation beside them.

You can now leave the office.

Ivar Bergen's Cabin

And we’re back at the creepy cabin again. Go inside and head straight down to the room with the red safe and map marking machine.

• Open the red safe.
  
• Click on the maps and Howard will automatically find the one you need.
  
• Now switch to examine the map marking machine on top of it.
  
• Take the Map from the map cabinet and use it on the machine. This places the map in the machine, making you able to put down marks on it.
  
• Remember the symbols? Open your think frame and check each of them. They contain what Howard writes as an “ID” which in reality is a coordinate. We need to mark each of the locations of these coordinates on the map now.
  
• On the right side of the machine are two large wheels, you can use these to move the marker along the X and Y axis.
  
• The coordinates you need to mark is the following:
  
  • Symbol 1: 05.05 and 05.05
    
  • Symbol 2: 00.03 and 01.04
    
  • Symbol 3: 07.06 and 00.08
    
  • Symbol 4: 09.04 and 02.04
• After setting each set of coordinates correctly, click on the center square and it’ll list the intersected coordinates and then ask if these are the correct ones. Double check, and then press yes.
  
• If done correctly the finished map should look like this:

Achievement “Map It Out” unlocks.

• Take the marked map.
  
• Open your inventory and right-click on the marked map. Click on each of the marked locations. Howard will wonder where three of the locations are as they have old names, which yields you three clues total.

Leave the cabin.

Loath Nolder's Office

Let’s see if we can find out something about those locations.

• Go around the desk and open the top drawer.
  
• Open the book Wellsmouth: Myths and Legends of an Ancient Town.
  
• Underline the name of the town was later changed to Windlapse. This will give you a new clue.
  
• Open the marked map and click on the eye symbol. Howard will make a comment on that it’s now called Windlapse. Next up, click on the mark below the eye, and Howard will comment on it again, wondering where this is supposed to be. It’ll give you a clue.

Exit the office.

Clark Field's Residence

With a lot of new items and new clues, we can investigate Field’s house more thoroughly.

• Directly as you enter through the front door, look to your left and face the locked door.
  
• Use the key you got from the jacket in the prison cell to unlock it, and then enter.
  
• Look around the small hallway, and then go through the door opposite the one you came from.
  
• Check the newspaper articles on the dining room table, and then examine the fireplace.
  
• Go around the table and enter the door on the far side.
  
• Take a look around the room and then examine the wooden sculpture to your left.
  
• This one is similar to the one in the library upstairs, but it’s backside compartment can’t be opened.
  
• Go back down to the gloomy room past the dining room, and examine the wooden sculpture again. Turn it around to view the backside.
  
• This is a puzzle that can be hard to get, but easy to solve. The goal is to open the circular cover on the body by adjusting the size of three sticks hidden in the cavity by using the six white holes on the face. Imagine the six holes arranged as three vertical columns of two holes each. Each column can only have one stick.
  
• The solution is using the three sticks you got from Ivar’s place and put them in the top left, top middle and bottom right holes.

Achievement “Not Standing Still” unlocks.

• When done with the puzzle, open the compartment and take the colorful insect and the rolled leaf.

Exit back into the dining room. Howard will collapse and black out.

The Fifth Nightmare: The Desperate Man

Howard wakes up facing a sunlit hallway.

• Turn right and enter the door there. You’ll end up in a familiar hallway.
  
• Take two steps forward, and then look through the crack in the door.
  
• Click on the figure on the bed, the blue circle and the ceiling fan.
  
• Check the other doors, then return to the sunlit hallway.
  
• Go down the hall and enter the left door.
  
• In the beautiful room, look through the window and then turn and click on the cabinet atop the dresser at the back of the room.
  
• When you open it, you’ll be presented with the next puzzle: a ring one.
  
• The goal of it is to have all the indentations of the three rings you can turn to align with the indentations in the stuck rings at the top.
  
  • Clicking on the top of a ring will turns it clockwise, and clicking on the bottom turns it counterclockwise.
    
  • The rings do not always turn at the same speeds.
    
  • Clicking on the outer ring makes the outer and middle ring turn in the same direction, while the inner ring turns in the opposite direction.
    
  • Clicking on the middle ring makes all rings move in the same direction.
    
  • Clicking on the inner ring makes the inner and outer ring move in the same direction while the middle ring turns in the opposite direction.
• While there is no hard solution, one strategy is to arrange the rings in a staggered position close to the top, gauge the speed of the rings and then move them into position. The solved puzzle looks like this:

• You’ll hear a click when the lock is opened.

Achievement “Lord of the Rings” unlocks.

• Go back, and open the cabinet. Take the dreamcatcher.
  
• Exit the beautiful room and enter the door across the doorway.
  
• Look around the destroyed room. Look outside the window and see a vortex in the sky.
  
• Use the dreamcatcher on the vortex.

Howard's Apartment

Howard wakes up, and realizes four days has passed.

• You’ll get a call from Arthur, who reveals some very needed information. You’ll get to know that Wholestone is nowadays called Rowley, and the address you asked for is to a man called Edward Braunbell who lives there.

Achievement “Househunter” unlocks.

• Open the marked map and click on Wholestone, Howard will denote that its now called Rowley.
  
• Go to the bathroom and look toward the counter. You’ll see a pot with an unknown substance there.
  
• Howard will be very distressed. Take the pot and use it on the toilet.
  
• Howard will automatically leave he bathroom afterward.
  
• Exit the apartment.

Now it’s time to wrap up some loose threads.

Ivar Bergen's Cabin

We’ll get a few of the last achievements done in here before we move onward with the story.

• Enter the cabin and go back up to the loft.
  
• Open the big roll top desk and examine the pigeon holes.
  
• Open the second letter from the left. Underline 28-11-2011 for a clue.
  
• Open the fourth letter from the left. Underline EB and old fool. The latter yields a clue.
  
• In the same letter, underline the little building in the garden is under our control. This will yield another clue.

Achievement “Poor Braunbell” unlocks.

• Open your think frame. Click on the Encrypted Phone Number dialogue clue and listen to it.
  
• Put the Encrypted Phone Number dialogue, Police Friends and the Old Fool clue in the squares on the right and process them. This will give you Arthur may be one of them.

Achievement “Backstabber” unlocks.

• Turn around and open the other roll top desk. Open the letter about Mr Curwen.
  
• Underline sculptures in the second paragraph. This yields a clue.
  
• Let’s head back downstairs. Enter the bedroom and go down through the trapdoor.
  
• Head onward to the prison cells and have a chat with the mad prisoner again.

That wraps up everything we needed to do here. You can leave the cabin now.

Clark Field's House

We’ve got a few things to finish off here as well. Let’s get to it.

• Once you enter the house, take a right and head over into the living room door.
  
• Inside the living room is a locked door on the left wall. Go to it and use the key you got from Field’s jacket in the prison cell.
  
• Enter the secret laboratory. Look around and examine the glass objects.
  
• Look toward the blue open cabinet. Check the newspaper clip, and open the box and check the two newspaper clips found in there too. There’s also a letter to Mr Asimov.
  
• Examine the worktable and the various instruments lying around.
  
• Go to the end of the room and look under the worktable. There’s a box there you can open. It contains more letters from JO, and several pages of inhuman beings.
  
• Turn around and look on the floor. Examine the drawing and the pot.
  
• Inspect the cabinet blocking the door.
  
• Now, look to the large jug. Open it and see it emitting foul-smelling smoke.
  
• Go back across the room, and go through the curtains here. You’ll enter a small office-like alcove.
  
• Examine the drawing on the floor.
  
• Look at all the papers on the desk, and the book.

Time to go back to the bedroom upstairs.

• When you enter the bedroom, examine the book on the bed again.
  
• Underline: mushroom cults, soul metamorphosis, and Dversahe.

Leave the house.

Edward Braunbell's Mansion

You’ll arrive at the outskirts of the mansion, and while there’s some possibility to look around there won’t be much to explore as most of the gates are locked. Make your way to the small building, which is at the path to the right of the mansion itself.

• Before you enter the building, look to your left and click on the raven until it speaks.

Achievement “Nevermore” unlocks.

• Turn back to the door and click on it. Since Howard knows nobody will be there, he’ll just try the door and find it unlocked.
  
• Take a look at the various objects in the room.
  
• Climb the stairs to the left once you’re done and through the door at the end of the landing.
  
• In the tiny hallway, look at the dresser on the left and take the muddied flashlight.
  
• Open the dresser’s top drawer and move the paper, take the paper lying under it. Open your inventory to look at it, and turn it around to see 287 written on the back.
  
• Go over to the door at the end of the hallway, as you approach it Howard will hear and react to some sound. We’ll ignore it for the time being.
  
• Enter the door and climb up to the tower.
  
• Examine all the items in here – some of them are up on high shelves.
  
• Turn your attention to the two letters in the cushioned stool at the center of the room.
  
  • In the letter to “My old friend”, underline wooden sculptures for a clue.
    
  • The other letter holds no clues, but please read it nonetheless.
• To your right is a locked chest. Examine it closer and see a combination lock. Enter the numbers 287] you got off the paper into it.
  
• Take the two blue seal pieces.
  
• Read the book labeled Children of Dis. Underline the following: eye-like symbol and musical instruments.
  
• That’s all there’s to see in here. Let’s see about the origin of that sound we heard earlier. Head back down to the small hallway.
  
• Look down at the area between the dresser and the plant. There’s two boards there you can click. Click on the rightmost one first, and then the leftmost, and Howard will comment that it sounds hollow.
  
• Click on the dresser to push it out of the way, move the carpet and see a trapdoor.
  
• Climb down the ladder into an underground area.
  
• Behind you is a dead rat.
  
• At either side, one step forward, are two locked grilled alcoves. Try open them, though it won’t work.
  
• Go to the end of the hallway and try the door. It’s also locked.
  
• Look to the left. The grilled alcove here isn’t locked. Open it and take the blue seal piece and the key.
  
• Take the key from your inventory and open the door.
  
• Enter the temple and look around. Both the statue in front of you and the seated saurian ones are familiar. There’s a symbol on the floor that’s identical to the one on the backside of the old map you found.
  
• Open Clark Field’s notes 2:4 and underline statues for another clue.
  
• Go around the right side of the aisle with the statues and enter the door there.
  
• Examine what you can in the room, there’s sarcophagi on the walls and in the center of the room is a palanquin.
  
• Open the palanquin and take the five discs and the metallic turn-key.
  
• Go back out into the temple and around on the left side of the aisle to another door.
  
• This door has an empty seal on it. The goal of this puzzle is to place the three blue seal pieces you collected correctly, and then turn it using the turn-key. A clue to it is on the back of the old map you took from the roll desk in Ivar’s cabin: the bottom picture shows the end position of the star and the symbols on the points.

• The solution is the following:

• When you are done, take the turn-key from your inventory, and use it on the seal. Turn it three times so that the hooked end comes on the top right side. The door unlocks.

Achievement “Open Sesame” unlocks.

• You enter a cave. If you didn’t bring the muddied flashlight from before, Howard will say it’s too dark to continue. If you did, he’ll take it out and use it right away.
  
• Go forward as far into the cave as you can. A sequence will start and at the end of it Howard will faint.
  
• You’ll wake up back up in the hallway. Unblock the trapdoor again and go down to investigate a bit. The seal door will be blocked, stopping you from trying to look around the cave again.

Leave the house and go back home.

Howard's Apartment

Head to your bedroom and check your answering machine. Someone has left a message there – listen to it.

Achievement “Hidden Message” unlocks.

Before we move on, we need to find out where to go next.

• Open up the think frame. Combine the clues The Tombs with The Marked Place in Wolfsprey. This will yield you a new clue and a new location to go to.

Achievement “Tomb Finder” unlocks.

• Open the map again with the markers. The symbol on the far left is now thought to be a cemetary. Clicking on Redtown will have Howard guess it represents Clark Field’s house.

Now you can exit your apartment and head over to the cemetery.

The Witch Cemetery

You can start off your visit here by going through the left and the right gate. Howard will on both occasions say the place is too huge to search without knowing where to go first.

• Let’s head through the north gate instead then, and take a left around the building there until you reach a locked gate.
  
• Go down the path to your left which leads into Northwood Forest.
  
• Go back to the front of the building and enter it.
  
• Examine what you can inside, and end with inspecting the shelf to the left.
  
• Click on the books twice. Howard will look for the name Poer but won’t find it.
  
• Go up the stairs and through the door into a back room.
  
• Look around the room. You’ll notice some off-colored boards at the foot of the stairs. Lift them up to reveal a secret compartment with a book inside.
  
• In the book underline the following: ring inscribed with a snake figure, registers and put into a secret section under the steps.
  
• Put away the book and turn toward the stairs. There’s an off colored section you can examine. The board seems to be stuck though.
  
• Go up the stairs. You can examine the broken end of the stairs as well as the open ceiling.
  
• Take the dagger from the floor.
  
• Go back down to the stuck board under the stairs again. Use the dagger in your inventory on it to pry it open.
  
• Click on any of the books twice and Howard will take the right one. Underline the name Poer in it to get the clue you need.
  
• Go back to the first area, and then take a right turn and go through the west gate.
  
• Go forward until the first intersection, turn left and go to the next intersection, turn left again and go forward as far as you can.
  
• Look to your right and see an open tomb leaking poisonous gas.
  
• Go back to the first intersection, take a right turn instead and then go forward as far as you can.
  
• Turn left and look at the sign on the left of the mausoleum door twice.
  
• Enter the mausoleum and look around.
  
• Go down the steps and find a panel on the floor.
  
• Opening the panel reveals a puzzle you’ll have to solve.
  
  • The puzzle is based on the process of Soul Metamorphosis you have read about in various documents. According to the burnt book in Field’s home it starts and ends with the sun. This requires you having paid attention to the research found regarding Soul Metamorphosis to solve.
    
  • The five discs you took from the palanquin represent each step.
    
  • The clue to what images should be on the three small discs was found on the backside of that statue in the cellar below Ivan’s cabin. Think of them as a triangle.

• You can change the pictures in the small discs by rotating the five larger discs.
  
• The solution to the placement of the five discs: the sun, a human body, the eye, two human bodies and a half-eclipsed sun. And the solution to the three small discs is: spiral, eye, scale.

• If you solved it correctly you’ll hear a click.

Achievement “Line Them Up” unlocks.

• Open the door and enter the room beyond.
  
• There’s nothing to really see in this corridor after the little sequence finishes. Take the first door to your left.
  
• The room is filled with tombs. Check the names at the foot of all of them, and inspect the cracked wall.
  
• There’s a locked door and a locked gate at the other end of the room.
  
• Go back out and through the opposite door.
  
• Rinse and repeat here – just make sure to take the rope in here with you.
  
• Head back out into the corridor and go all the way down to the door at the end of it.
  
• Go through the door and enter another small hall. Just pass through the following door.
  
• In here, look to your left and check the Wolfsprey symbol painted on the wall. You can also inspect the four urns.
  
• Go through the gate and into the well room.
  
• You can walk around the left side and look at the statues and look at the well. Howard will say it’s dark.
  
• Going back to stand in front of the gate and clicking the well will make Howard hear a voice calling his name from the darkness. Clicking on it again will make Howard express an urgent need to find whoever is calling him.
  
• Take the rope you found and use it on the gate.
  
• Climb down into the well.

The Bottom of the Well

You’ll recognize this place as one of the nightmares. There’s not much else you can do but to follow the voice calling you.

• Climb the stairs and go all the way to the last recess.
  
• Pull out the coffin and open it up.
  
• Take the medallion.

Achievement “Family Business” unlocks.

• Go inside the recess.

A sequence will start playing, and then the credits will roll. Past the credits you can view your score for the game.

Congratulations! You have finished the game. :)

I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did.

[Myrmidon88]

Huge thanks for that guide! It helped me a lot to make it through the game and get all of the achievements/know all the story! That's really nice of you to take the time to do that ! Well written, easy to follow guide!

[d i n k y ㅇㅅㅇ]

Love the guide, thank you. I'm struggling so bad with underlining tho, it's being so annoying, seems to really not want to underline when I reached Ivar's cabin. From there on It's just been a massive struggle :(

[Dwight Fairfield]

Thank you for this amazing guide!

[Jack]

Thank you very much for this guide! I'd never have had the patience for this game and never got any enjoyment without it. The guide helped me enjoy the story.

[Kittymonster]

@Mama Schwamph - During my playthroughs, I noted that some letters are very, very temperamental when it comes to underlining them and I've just ranked it up to being glitchy.

I had a similar problem but at a later place (I didn't get it to work until my 2nd playthrough) and all I can really say is that you need to keep trying to underline them until it works.

You can try different approaches such as underlining more than the exact words, the entire sentence etc and see if it maybe helps.

[мaмa Schwaмph]

Great guide! I'm confused however with the achievement “Trust No One”. I've followed your guide but my letters are not fully written and I can't mark or find the words needed like you described it. Also watched a youtube walkthrough but his version of the letters are longer then mine.. I assume it means I've forgot to look at something way back in order to get the whole letters? GOING INSANE!!

[eveame]

Thanks for this huge and awesome work!

[Revenger23]

Great Guide Thank you

[LostToTheZone]

Thanks for your very detailed guide.

[HOWDOISHOOT]

Actually nevermind I just missed this:
Open your think frame. From it, drag the key and the Clark Field’s notes 4:4 into the squares on the right, and process it. This will give you the clue Ivar Bergen killed Clark Field.