Oooh, I needed something like this. I’ve plateaued in this game, with no real idea of how to proceed, and I dislike resorting to full walkthroughs.
I got to room 46 today. Spoilers for those who haven’t.
I’m a little dissappointed in how little it seems to matter. I haven’t done the run after yet, so I don’t know if there’s major (or even minor) changes, and I have a fair number of puzzles left undone so I’ll probably keep playing, but… was that it?
Major spoiler with regard to Room 46 (I would recommend reading it, though, as I don’t see any way you’d reasonably figure it out on your own)
The first time you reach Room 46, it ends your day and the credits roll. All that seems to do is unlock a fun new floorplan you can draft. But the SECOND time, you can go in and look around. It has some interesting things, but no major game changers.
I’m just a bit into the post-46 stage, but I don’t think there’s ever a point where the game radically changes; it’s always about starting the next day from scratch and hoping to draft a combination of rooms and items that will allow you to solve something you haven’t solved yet.
The website I linked a couple posts above lists 168 discrete things you can find/solve/achieve in the game, and when I found Room 46 I was at 40something, so there’s still a LOT to do.
Also, you can sometimes do things that will have permanent effects; you can get an allowance, which gives you a certain amount of gold at the start of each day. There is one area you can find that will always give you two jewels to start with. There are room upgrades you can do, like the Nook having two keys instead of one, or a room always having a couple jewels. None of these are very significant in and of themselves, but they do add up. On a recent run I had over 120 gold pieces, but was never able to draft any shops that sell expensive stuff. 
Anyone managed to draft the Full House (45 rooms) yet? I got to 44 on a recent dream run:
(minor spoilers for the existence of some rooms)
I had the Blessing of the Gardener from the Shrine active, so I had 9 Courtyards in my draft pool. I also had the Courtyard, which cost a gem to draft, upgraded so that it always had 2 jewels. I also had drafted the Kennel, which automatically unlocks all doors in any rooms you dig in. Also, I got lucky in that all 9 of those Courtyards appear to be identical, which in this case meant that they all contained a locked trunk. And I had a shovel and sledge hammer.
So, I was constantly able to draft rooms that had three unlocked doors and contained significant amounts of goodies. By the time I ran out of room, I still had dozens of keys and jewels left over. (And PS: I still wasn’t able to draft in such a way that I could get into the Antechamber!)
Not reading much of the rest of the thread for fear of spoilers, but I just picked this up yesterday and unlocked room 46 today on day 13. However, I think I’m missing the majority of the game. Spoilers for dangling threads I have:
- Found multiple safes (boudoir + office) but don’t know how to open them (office code might be related to the march of the count book?)
- Know that red handwritten notes are real, but haven’t found any.
- Only ever opened the antechamber from the west
- Never found a boiler or used the laboratory
- don’t know what to do with the decoded periodic table clue
- have unlocked cavern, west path, and orchard, but not the 4th
- have gotten to the reservoir through the basement and fountain, but that’s it
- have never combined items in the workshop
- don’t know what the painting hint in the commissary is saying
- don’t know what the alzara clues mean
- found the luxury gift shop but everything was wildly too expensive for me
- don’t know what to do w/ the cloister (hint in the orchard + spots to dig, but can’t get to them)
I suspect this won’t hold my interest enough for a 100% run, but I’ve enjoyed it so far.
You have done 25% of the game. Room 46 was an extended tutorial.
You’re doing great for Day 13. Work on solving the picture code; there’s a room that contains a safe that has hints for that.
It’s not the opposite? I appreciate the sentiment, but prefer no hints please. Unless I get desperate and ask I suppose.
On day 22:
I figured it out and the bottom half of the map says dates crack eight safes (the s in safes was a picture of flan and sand though so I’m not sure what the synonyms are supposed to be such that you get an S remaining.
I’ve also unlocked the car, powered on boiler, turned on the machine in the lab, found all the sheets of music, fully drained the reservoir (what do you mean all the boxes are locked!?), and found like 6-7 permanent upgrades (new + upgraded rooms), and 3-4 contraptions.
Lost on the a fair amount of the upper rank picture puzzles, the gallery; office, study, and drawing room safes, and a ton of other things. Mostly trying to get the lighter with enough steps to head back to the tomb right now, but don’t have an over arching plan.
Holy shit it took me forever to do the fenn aries puzzle box.
Also, I have a ton of notes for the locked boxes at the bottom of the reservoir, but I’ve decided I’m just going to open them all, screw the clues. If the sanctum key is the only real prize though, that’ll be funny as that was like my 3rd box I opened.
Ok, so the painting code says If we count small gates, eight dates open eight gates .
For the safe in the boudoir, this is fairly straight forward. I have found safes in the drawing room, study, and office. Are the needed clues within those rooms like the boudoir was?
Another question, the clocks in the den are annotated, do those mean anything?
Yes, the safes in those three rooms can all be opened with information in the rooms, keeping the phrase from the painting code in mind. (Actually for one of them you may need some information from another room, not sure). Never noticed any notes on the clocks in the den, I’ll check it out.
Oh man, I was kinda hoping there were necessary clues outside the rooms. I feel like I’m doing ok overall, 3 sanctum doors unlocked and 1 solved, progress in the tomb, chess solved; these are revealed really early though and no such luck. Hmm, thinking cap on I guess.
Ok, well office and study seem easy in retrospect, especially since I called out the office clue in my first post in this thread. Drawing room will have to wait.
Ok, got the drawing room safe, but apparently not the intended solution.
So, earlier I was wondering about gate / gait and if there was some wordplay going on and I was counting up short gaits per wall and attempting the different orderings of that. Then I decided that the umbrella the man was carrying meant April (April showers…), and there are 15 of them, so 0415. Apparently the intended solution is 4 kinda small gaits and 15 very small gaits. Or maybe both are intended? I’m not sure I fully buy either.
I am very impressed at your skill in this game. I had to look up the answer to the drawing room safe and can’t imagine ever figuring it out on my own.
I’m trying to be stubborn about this game. There was one puzzle (well, at least one I can remember) that I looked up the answer to in The Witness that I’m half annoyed I didn’t give more attention to. Half because after looking it up I don’t think I would’ve gotten it anyway. And 100%ing that game is for the insane.
I do like how some things you’ll notice early won’t make any sense until much much later. Super productive day 44.
- I drew all 44 rooms
- found 2 sanctum keys
- solved 1 sanctum puzzle
- used the power hammer I’ve been storing in the coat check to break the secret garden wall (there’s one in the greenhouse too, but didn’t draw it today)
- went back to room 46 and got the crown and found another puzzle
- discovered that there’s a back to the closed exhibit room/ way to get the crown in it (my layout required me to run too far to do it in 10s though)
- finished 2 puzzle boxes
- bought an axe and killed the gem cost on the attic
- used the boiler to route power to the sanctum to open a door + find red letter 1 + secret blueprint.
Still a lot to do! Red crown, greenhouse wall, tomb, 6 sanctum puzzles, 2 more safes, map puzzle in room 46… thawing the freezer.
Boy have I really slowed down in progress, and getting a little frustrated . I thought the paper crown was going to have a sanctum key underneath it, but nope. Figured out the statue puzzle in the tomb, which is super obvious in hindsight.
Know there’s a sanctum key in the clocktower, but unclear how to get it. I do have the beginnings of a chart for the rune puzzles in the sanctum, but only have the symbols + names locked down. Decent on the colors, but basically nothing else. I believe I’ve read all the books in the library, (the New Clue seems to be mocking me, it didn’t help!) including the purchased ones from the shop. That + a couple of the classrooms are all I’m going on so I think I’m missing something particular.
Missing 2 red envelopes with no leads. Unclear what the computer room is for. I think I’ll try to translate the letter in the tomb + head back to the secret lair in the reservoir to try to find the key there, but kinda frustrated about what to do next.
I’ve really been struggling. No progress for probably like 20-25 days outside of 1 upgrade disk. Looking for the gentlest of hints I found this site that asks spoiler free questions (as much as possible) and then suggests very gradually things to look into.
The first thing it told me to look into was the treasure trove. I’ve been in there plenty of times (~15?) and I must have misread one of the notes. Anyway, based on the note colors you can deduce that 1) the real treasure is inside the room and 2) the real treasure is outside the house. Ok… so it turns out that if you donate the right about of money to the shrine, then end the day in a given room, you’ll be able to draft that room in the outside shed the next day. Never in a million years would I have gotten that.