Hillthorn puzzle guide

At Jeremiah's house, investigate the front door until you have Flimsy Door and the table. Investigate the flimsy door with the axe to break it, then explore the broken door. The hanged body gives you the mask. The achievement guide and the missing-door Steam thread support the door chain. The Lost & Found achievement independently confirms the mask objective, rather than every step.

Players say the door is gone if you leave after the bear and come back later the same day, around 11 o’clock (the post does not specify am or pm). The developer answered that thread. Go back at once, or try the next cycle. The axe itself comes from the village lonely house. The chapter context is on the village section.

The trunk is on the ranger's car outside Hillthorn, and only on the lethal branch. After the leader falls, investigate unconscious Olivia with the axe, confirm the kill, and leave alone. Outside, the dead ranger has the car key. The trunk plus the key is the bear mask. That mask is what lets a later cycle save Jeremiah. Rescuing Olivia closes this trunk for that cycle. The End the Cycle row is the same route.

Read the arrows as one path, starting at Winding Trails: Left, Forward, Right, Forward, Left, Forward. Ignore the lines that join the arrows. Treating them as six separate turns, or repeating a direction the way Jeremiah's house does, sends you back to the woods. A Steam thread of three players is the direct source. The achievement guide calls that destination the Suspicious Spot, where the cache contains the antidote and paralytic. This is a clue found in the manor, not the way into the manor itself. More manor context is in the walkthrough.

You need both halves. The left half is in the church basement. The right half is on a table in a house in town. One half is not a route. From Winding Trails the combined path is Right, Forward, Left, Back, Left, Back. A player who continued from an extended demo said both halves were missing. I leave that as a possible bug report, not as a new route.

In the ritual cave, the scaly wall beside the altar bleeds if the axe is in the second investigation slot. Two players on one Steam thread say nothing else changes it, and no item or ending comes out. I will not promote that to a puzzle solution.

After an ending, the office debrief has a matchbox. Removing one match is the only reported interaction. Main-game matches light torches and burn the church. This single match has no confirmed use. One thread, so the status stays at one source.