How to solve all the School puzzles in Silent Hill f

Silent Hill f's School section is one of my favourite parts of the whole game. It brilliantly merges horror, action, and some fun puzzles together, so you get a taste of everything in this short section. With that said, the School puzzles in this part may throw a spanner in the works, so here's a guide for getting you through this section, girl locker codes and all.

Arriving at the school with Shu and Rinko, you go to the back gate, which leads to a mountain pass—your supposed escape route from the horror that is encroaching on Ebisugaoka—only to find that it's locked. Instead of hopping over this shoulder-high obstacle, which is what I would've done, Hinako and her friends opt to enter the school in search of the key.

While Shu and Rinko rest in one of the classrooms, you get voluntold to head out into the school and search for the key so you can escape into the mountains and hopefully outrun all the red spider lilies. Thus ensues the wild hunt for the back gate key.

How to solve all the School puzzles in Silent Hill f

Here are the solutions to every stage of the School section in Silent Hill f, based on your difficulty level:

All Silent Hill f Stairwell solutions

The first step is to walk down the hallway until you reach the entrance by the shoe cubbies, and then head into the teacher's office opposite to look for the key locker. But that's locked as well because nothing in this life can be easy.

• Story difficulty:
  • Find the locked drawer in the faculty office.
  • Go to the classroom opposite the lockers to find a scrumpled note (next to the front right desk).
  • Head outside via the window and go to the rabbit hutch.
  • Pick up Sakuko's hairpin from the basket in the rabbit hutch.
  • Head back to the office and unlock the drawer.
• Hard difficulty:
  • Head to the western staircase and interact with the noticeboard halfway up the stairs.
  • Go outside via the ground-floor classroom window.
  • Walk along the flower beds towards the west until you find a patch of blue/purple flowers.
  • Search these to find the key on the floor.
• Lost in the Fog difficulty:
  • Head to the western staircase and interact with the noticeboard halfway up the stairs.
  • Go outside via the ground-floor classroom window.
  • Walk along the flower beds until you get to the steps of the front entrance.
  • Go up the stairs and turn right until you reach several flower pots.
  • Search these to find the key on the table.

Warning: There'll be a few enemies lurking around out here; it's best to just dodge and avoid them. Run back inside the classroom if need be or hide in the rabbit hutch; they won't follow you in here.

Once you have the key, go up the stairs to the second floor.

All Silent Hill f Secret Box puzzle solutions

After reaching the second floor, you'll head into Hinako's old classroom (second door on the left), and you'll immediately get trapped in here. Time to find a way out.

Find Hinako's, Rinko's, and Shu's desks, and then head back to Rinko's and interact with the wooden box. This is a puzzle box which you'll have to open. You can use the letter in your journal to figure it out, but here are the answers to each difficulty if you're in a rush:

• Story difficulty:
  • The first answer: Slide the wooden panels so only the strawberry and cherry are visible.
  • The second answer: Slide the wooden panels so only three notebooks are visible.
  • The third answer: Slide the wooden panel so only one sakura flower is visible.

• Hard difficulty:
  • The first answer: Slide the wood panelling so only the following are visible—strawberry, apple, yuzu, grape, cherry, and pineapple.
  • The second answer: Silde the wood panelling so only all four images of journals or notebooks are visible.
  • The third answer: Slide the wood panelling so only all three images of sakura are visible. This will give you a key to the second-floor classrooms.

• Lost in the Fog difficulty:
  • The first answer: Slide the wood panelling so only the following are visible—strawberry, apple, yuzu, grape, cherry, and pineapple.
  • The second answer: Slide the wood panelling so only all five images of journals or notebooks are visible.
  • The third answer: Slide the wood panelling so only all four images of sakura are visible. This will give you a key to the second-floor classrooms.

All Silent Hill f locker codes

Once you get out of Hinako's old classroom, search the other two rooms on the second floor to find: The Old Annex Main Gate Key, a note revealing "TT's" locker combination of 377, and a letter explaining that the key for the cabinet will be in Ayumi's locker. Unfortunately, bashing it in with your pipe won't work, so you need to figure out her locker code.

Head to the Old Annex and search through the hallway and two classrooms to find the following notes:

• Note between lovers part 1: In the hallway to the left
• Note between lovers part 2: In the classroom to the right
• (Ayumi) Asakura's Textbook: In the classroom to the left
• An Origami of Grievances about Aoi: In the classroom to the left
• Note from a male student part 1: In the classroom to the right
• Note from a male student part 2: In the hallway to the right

With these, you can help piece together the code that all the kids are using at school to remember their locker combinations. Three out of the four codes that you need to get stay the same no matter what difficulty setting you're playing on. These are as follows:

• Aoi Takeshi: 401 - Inside, you will find an Origami of Grievance giving a hint to Suga's locker combination.
• Suga Yosie: 505 - Inside, you will find Shriveled Abura-age (Trade for faith at a shrine).
• Tsuchiya Taiko: 377 - Inside, you will find a Dried Carcass (Trade for faith at a shrine).

The only code that changes is Asakura Ayumi's, the locker containing the key to the cabinet. Her clue will be in the same place, but her secret code will change. Here are the answers for each difficulty.

• Story difficulty: 534
• Hard difficulty: 865
• Lost in the Fog difficulty: 399

Once you've sorted through all the lockers and feel like there's nothing left to see in the school, head back to the teacher's office, get the key from the cabinet and walk over to where you left Rinko and Shu, and you're done.