I try to take it by steps to unlocking the banners with symbols to avoid too many spoilers. Here is a full walk-through to unlock any room in the house and how to win the game.
The Hotel Room – How to Leave
1. In this room, you pick up a camera. In order to access the camera or any items you pick up throughout the game, hover your mouse to the top of the screen for the drop-down menu. Select the camera in the drop down menu (not the bottom left icon) and snap a picture of the empty frame hanging on the wall to the left of the room by the bed. You’ll receive a picture sending you a creepy message, which triggers the onset of a fog and a drop off to sleep for Navid.
2. The hotel room has changed when you wake up. You are able to leave, but take note of the changes to the room- you’ll be returning here, as you’ll return to all the rooms at least once, to interact. Leave out the door and enter the next up the flight of stairs, Navid will recognize it as Raha’s childhood home.
You enter into the foyer of Raha’s home. There are three floors to the house which you will need to unlock and explore. From left to right, you’ll encounter a locked door with dangerous wires; the kitchen; you’ll pass the living room, and into a stair well with covered statues; at the end, two more doors, and locked door with symbols and a clock at the very end which you will recognize from your dreams.
1. Walk forward, and enter into the kitchen. Here is where you are able to grab the fork as well as a fly swatter.
2. You’ll be able to pick up a note on the living room floor. To the far right you are able to access a room leading to the basement; you are not yet able to enter, it is too dark. You can see the paintbrush on the window sill to the left, grab it. There is also another note here in the bottom right corner.
All the rest of the doors are locked, but you’re able to go upstairs. You’ll notice a broken transistor radio. You pass by the grandfather clock and are able to peer into a bedroom, but this will remain locked for now too. This is Iraj’s and his wife Fariba’s bedroom. On the floor next to Iraj’s bedroom and the boarded door, you will be able to pick up a safety glove.
3. If you continue onto the left, you’ll notice someone has tried to block the hallway. There’s a door locked by the darkness, which you will be able to access later. To the left of this door, you receive your first symbol which you will need to write on the first banner to banish the darkness. As described on the wall, you will need a paint brush and your blood.
4. It’s time to use the safety glove you have picked up. Go back downstairs and to the very first locked door. Use the gloves from your inventory to switch on the light and investigate the bathroom through the peep-hole. You won’t be able to enter the room, but you’ll notice a dead body and a broken bottle. As you walk back to the right through the house, you will begin to hear chanting.
5. You will have to go upstairs and interact with the transistor radio to shut off the chanting. This results in the sound of a door opening. Go downstairs to investigate the changes to the house. You are now able to enter the bathroom, and interact with things inside. You get a scrub brush off the bathroom sink, and you cut your hand on the broken bottle on the toilet, resulting in blood on the floor. It will be this blood you combine with the paintbrush to write the symbol. You can pick up another note from top of the hamper.
6. After you’ve combined the paint brush with your blood on the floor, you get a bloody paintbrush. Return upstairs to write the first symbol and banish the darkness.
Raha’s House – Second and Third Banner Unlock
1. Although the darkness is lifted, the door at the left-most of the house remains locked. However, a little bit to your right, a door is now lit up and ready to explore. Enter in and it reveals another bathroom, sealed by darkness.
2. To acclimate you to the game, the next symbol is an easy spot. It’s right there in the bathroom. After you’ve written this on the banner inside the bathroom, you will have already banished your second bit of darkness.
3. The second banner is unlocked and now you can interact with items in the bathroom. There’s a newspaper on the toilet by the bloody bath; there is liquid detergent on top of the washer; when you investigate the bathroom sink, you will notice a screwdriver you cannot pick up. The game says that it is too rusted to be useful. You notice something shiny on top of the bathroom mirror, but it is out of reach. Here is where your fly swatter comes into play, landing you a key.
4. Take the bronze key and go downstairs. As you do, you will notice that the house has once again changed. Giant red letters appear on Raha’s door, which you’re able to investigate. Directly to the right of the stairwell you use the key to unlock the door. It’s a study/computer room, shrouded in darkness. Here is the third banner, but you’ll notice, there is no symbol painted inside. Though, you do find a surprise.
5. This causes us to recall what we’ve grabbed from the unlocked upstairs bathroom. Combine the liquid detergent with the scrub brush to create a soaked brush. This is going to help us find the symbol needed to unlock the study. As you’ll recall after leaving your hotel room, there is a musty sign on the way up to Raha’s door. This is where we’ll uncover the symbol.
Go and write the symbol on the banner in the study.
Raha’s House – Fourth Banner Unlocked
1. Grab the paperclip off of the desk. There is also a newspaper on the bookshelf. The paperclip unlocks the dresser in the hall right beside the study. When you use the paperclip on the table, you will receive men’s perfume. You take note that this is the perfume Iraj wore.
3. Fariba is Iraj’s wife, and the one holding the door shut to the upstairs bedroom with the noose. You take the men’s perfume and spray it on the door. This tricks her into thinking you are “him”, Iraj, and the door unlocks.
4. As soon as you investigate the room with your flashlight, you will notice a symbol reflected in the mirror.
Take note that the symbol is not written on the mirror, but on the wall behind you. You will need to write the symbol flipped horizontally.
**If you get stuck with the spirit in the room, remember to point your flashlight directly in front of you, do not tilt it around**
1. Two items of note in the dresser to the far left of the room. This will be the marriage certificate which provides an important clue for later (take a picture, you cannot take the clipping with you)- and a light bulb.
2. Take the light bulb and screw it into the room leading down into the basement. This will provide you with two things, but only one you’ll notice- and that is access to the basement itself. The second is that you’ve just illuminated the next symbol you will need to dispel the darkness in the basement.
6. When you investigate the window in the room leading to the basement, it mentions the study. Return to the study and back to the window – you’ll now be able to see the symbol painted on the wall.
Return to the basement and draw the symbol.
Raha’s House – Computer Passcode, Leading up to 6th Banner
1. The light bulb goes to Iraj’s room upstairs but you’ll be prompted to notice there is no lamp shade. You can plug the power cable into the pc in the study, but you will be locked out by a passcode which is Iraj’s birthday. To receive this date, you will first need to discover the lampshade.
2. Return to your hotel room. Use the box cutter on the hollowed out floor to retrieve a shovel blade, a gun, and a clue as to where the bullet is.
Combine the wooden handle with the shovel blade. You can use this shovel in two places, the first step would be to use it on the broken tiles in the kitchen.
3. In the broken tiles you will uncover the lampshade. Take the lampshade to the bedroom and a message will be scrawled revealing the 5th anniversary of Iraj and Fariba, as well as the fact this coincides with Iraj’s birthday- so we can now unlock the computer in the study. They’ve been married since Iraj was 30 years old, this is their 5th anniversary, take the date and subtract 35 years- the passcode being: 1954-02-25.
4. You will listen to some messages on the PC, which triggers an event upstairs in the bedroom. You hear the phone ring, and when you answer it, you hear a woman wailing- and then are able to reenact Saeed’s dream in the mirror. This triggers the passcode for our next steps, so memorize it.
5. Taking the shovel to the basement, you are able to use the shovel to remove the mound of dirt- revealing a well and a door handle. There is something shiny at the bottom of the well, but you cannot reach it. The door handle goes to the upstairs room at the very end, near the piano. This will be where the 6th banner is.
To END – 6th Banner Unlock and Ending Explained
1. Walk to the end of the room. This will trigger the doll to begin playing the violin. Leave the room, and you will notice a new message scrawled in blood above the piano. “Come Play With Me,” it invites. The violin playing is the clue. You will need to play 4 notes on the piano, in descending order.
If you get stuck, I hover my mouse in the above picture against the first key to play. Click every key to the left until you’ve had the four notes play.
2. Entering back into the room, you see the symbol for the room’s banner- it was hidden behind the doll playing the violin. Write this on the banner and banish the darkness. Here you grab pliers, and are able to cut open the doll and remove the bullet. There is also a newspaper.
3. Combine the bullet with the gun to create a loaded gun. Use the pliers on the fork to bend it, rendering a bent fork. You’ve just recovered the items that will help you to reach down to the bottom of the well in the basement.
Go back outside and walk all the way up to the top of the stair case. Use the gun on the chain, and attach the chain to the bent fork. This creates a grappling hook. Take this and use it on the well in the basement; you will retrieve a metal box. It has a locking mechanism on it of four symbols. If you have forgotten the passcode, you can find it upstairs in the mirror– or you can view it here down below:
4. From the box you receive scented candles. Good job, you are about to finish the game! Take the candles into the downstairs bathroom, where Iraj had been shot and you had cut your hand on the bottle. Take the candles and put them in the holders. Nothing seems to happen. Do it again, and the lights will go out- your flashlight along with it.
Don’t worry, you don’t need your flashlight. Explore the darkness. You will see the hall from your dreams, with a light at the far end. When you click the final banner before you are ready, you can run to this light to stay alive.
5. There are 21 symbols on the wall- and this is a huge clue. You write the right symbol on the final banner to end the game. So what is it? Check out the bottom-most left letter. Look like an A. I drew more of an ^ and the banner unlocked.
