I would highly recommend playing this on a NG+ round where you have already acquired most of the weapons and armors that can be purchased. I find that the Hillside Revolver, and the M520 Stalker are great all-rounders for any larger enemy or boss, while either the basic sword or Isabella Flora's sword and shield that be be purchased from Pier are good for most normal enemies. That said, this is also a good run to go for the "Save the Dolls!" achievements, that requires only bosses are killed, and not common enemies, as that would save you time to run past these grunts while going around the map, and using your NG+ weapons to deal with the bosses. For running around, the "Straight Jacket:", that can be found by using the teethstone on a door in the underground area, gives you lots of defense and lets you sprint headlong as its main attack. It's useful for moving around fast, and is easy to acquire than certain other high defense items, though the extra movement can be negligible in a lot of places around the mansion.

Reference for where the Straight Jacket can be found.


As far as I am aware, pausing with the Escape button does not count as time passed in the game, but I would not "pause" on the inventory screen. Getting killed, regardless if it you press "continue" or "quit", adds to the time on that save. So for this situation, be prepared to ALT+F4 the game if you are about to die and cannot avoid it to spare your time. I'm not sure if cutscenes add to the overall time of the save, but I would recommend skipping all of them, especially if you've seen this all before.

The main body of the guide will begin after you have walked off the train platform, talked to the old man in town, and chased the fleeing vagrant to the ditch, where you are assaulted by three baby-dolls. It's quickest to just let them defeat you, and enter the horror.


The only house you need to investigate


The path to take after speaking with the Old Man inside the house

To begin the first act...

Run around the balcony, entering the first door on the right, and speak to Pol. Get acquitted with your NG+ weapons/armor.



After this, run down stairs into the kitchen and grab the letterblock in the pantry

Head into the dining room, entering the first door on the left. Grab the letterblock at the very top of the stairwell on the cupboard

Return to the main hall, running down the hallway to the left of the unbarred double doors in front of the staircase

Solve the slide puzzle in the middle of the room. As shown in this video... https://youtu.be/ubHOqKyJjR0?si=ZDNVLMRpkePNw8gy pressing [Right, Down, Down, Left, Up, Up, Right, Down, Left, Down, Right, Up, Up] will solve it and give you the Left Hand Key.

Return to the main hall, and go up the main staircase. Unlock the second door on the left with the Left Hand Key. Grab the last Letterblock from this room.

Return to the room where we got the Left Hand Key from the slide puzzle. Use the letterblocks to spell "FUN" on the chained door.

Through the door, run left, and past the swinging pendulums. Run to the center of the circus, and then left

Enter the first door on the left (The Operations Room), and solve the Crank Puzzle involving the Mannequin on the table. This will give us the Cage Key.

Leave the Operations Room. Run to the end of the same hallway, and use the Cage Key. Push and pull the iron cages out of the way to traverse the maze

From here, enter the first door on the right (beware of clown) and grab the Green Cone Hat from this room

There's a safe room at the end of this hallway, but there is nothing needed for progression there. Though, it's a good idea to equip the gear we would like to use for our imminent fight with Edminston, rather than having to spend a minute or two backtracking here. If going for the "Save The Dolls" achievement, this room is no use, since you must kill the BDSM mime to interact with Pol or Charlotte.

Return to the circus center, and go to the right hall. Use the Cage Key on the stardoor. "Dream on", and grab the Yellow Cone Hat.


Return to the hallway, going through the door at the end past the giant monkey. From here, enter the first door on the right, and pick up the Red Cone Hat from the couch in the den. Beware a specter for the next little while.


Now that we have all the Cone Hats, we best prepare for an encounter with Pier Edminston. I equipped with the Stalker M520 shotgun and the HIllside Revolver, alongside the military uniform for this fight.

Return to the Circus center, and head up through the curtains. Place the corresponding cone hats on the busts; the order from left to right is - Green, Red, and Yellow. Once in the arena, I try to position myself between the boxing gloves and mallets, and a little off the wall, to avoid getting hit. Though, I brought a medkit to be able to take some hits

Grab the pulse meter, and then take a fall. After falling down the shoot, run all the way back and unbolt the door at the end of the hall.





Run back through the pendulum trap to the circus center, and then head right and through the door at the end. Then again, all the way to the end (Unlocking it with the Cage Key), until you're in the room painted with sheep and a clock. Use the Pulse meter to get the 4-digit code. It's random every adventure.


Return to the Circus center, to the left hall. Enter the second door on the left (beware of clown).
Enter the code from the Pulse Meter into the sheepbox. It can be difficult to determine the starting order, so shifting the code around may be necessary. I read my code out as "1341", but I had to end up shifting the starting number to the last "1", to enter the code "1134", which worked to unlocked the sheepbox.


Grab the clock pointers, and run all the way back to where we just came from. Use the clock pointers on the clock and set the time to "8:10" (As determined from the sheep on the wall, but as far as I can tell it's always 8:10) and grab the Eye Key.


Leave the circus, and head back to the Main Hall. For the next while now, we are finally done with the circus.

Back in the main hall, head upstairs through the main staircase. Use the Eye Key on the first door on the right. Head towards the barred door in the corner and skip the cutscene
After the cutscene, a T-handle should be dropped near the sofa behind you. Grab it. Before exiting the way we entered, we may as well unbolt the door back to the saferoom.
Head to the dining area, then take the stairs up to the first floor. Use the Eye Key on the door at the end of the hall.



After going through the door, run all the way left and enter the single door on the left.


Use the T-handle on the engine in the room. Crawl inside it, and skip the cutscene.

Solve the Bolt Trap puzzle once you fall down through the grate. This video helps a lot
https://youtu.be/1SQhncfe4Lc?si=Yrigs-zHUKSAJsLK

Move towards the camera, and enter the bathroom at the end of that hallway just infront of the bars.



Look into the mirror and take note of the fish color and how many there are (For me, there were 4 orange fish, 3 blue, and 5 yellow). A hostile fish will appear behind you after this revelation.


Leave the bathroom, and head and run all the way around the U-Shape hall. Enter the room at the end, and pull the lever in the back corner. This will lower the raised bars we saw just a moment ago. The door just before this room is a safe room, I would recommend changing into the wetsuit if you have it, or unequipping your current outfit, so that we have full mobility in the water for this next bit without having to do too much backtracking.


Run all the way back around, up the little stairs, and back to the ground floor. Enter the door immediately to the left in the dining room to go up the stairs.

Enter the door at the end of the hall in the middle of the stairwell, and then enter the middle set of three big double doors. In the corner is a piano, where you can enter the combination learned from the bathroom mirror underground. Grab the Fish Key, and 180 out of there.


Return the way we came to the underground flooded area.

Head right, and down the stairs. Use the fish key at the double doors immediately down the stairs, and enter.



Move straight, enter the double doors. And then swim straight, and enter the set of double doors on the right.




Traverse the maze. Here's how I moved through it, mostly without incident.
https://youtu.be/pDLQaBal_SM?si=G2d_0_fBcLQBLjQk

After entering, run up to the statue and take the medallion from her stone clutches. Then fight for it. I brought the Stalker M520 (15 shells) and the Wilson M1 (90 bullets), wearing the Wetsuit.



Once the Edith is dealt with, leave the room through the door near her throne for a quicker exit. Head all the way back to the double doors we entered the flooded area from, and then move up the small staircase. Move to the very end of the hallway, use the Fish Key on the door, and enter it. Grab the Locked Journal on the ground


Room where the Locked Journal is.


Return to the library next to the first safe room. Insert the Locked Journal into the row of books, and solve the puzzle to obtain the Tree Key. This video helps a lot
https://youtu.be/HyEd1yOqmd8?si=KAaCmDc9aGHIDkSC

Now, we'll move outside, and towards the final act of our journey.

While we're right next to a safe room, I would highly recommend to equip some decent armor, a sword, and a powerful gun before heading outside. I wore the Iron armor, and equipped the Sword and Shield with the Hillside Revolver.

I found this outside area very tedious and a little confusing to write directions for, so hopefully the written words helps more than it hinders.

Return downstairs, and use the Tree Key on the door behind the staircase, and head out into the yard.



From the perspective of the center of the yard, head left, and then straight ahead past the goblet-looking pot.

Check behind the tree to the right of your character to discover the mechanical dial puzzle.
To solve the mechanical dial puzzle, move the fourth Cylinder left, the third one left, and the second one right. This will give the Apple Key.

Quick video demonstration
https://youtu.be/EmnJYgfJACg?si=_UNeqRZdyoxhfVgE

Exit this path, and then go right, using the apple key on the first barred door you see. The path ahead only goes on way, so move to the end and pull the lever.


Return to the iron gate where we entered, and go right from there. At the end, we'll be back in the main yard, where we'll unlock the other iron gate with the Apple Key.


Again, this path only has one way. Explore it, and pull the lever behind the tree.

Proceed back to the main yard, and go through the most left path, then left again.

Go down the path completely, and once past the loading screen, take the left entrance, and pull the lever. Head back to the center.

Once back at the main yard area, enter the iron gate straight ahead, and push the lever behind the tree in. Head back to the center, and take the center-left path, entering the iron gate. Once at the end of the trellis maze, the iron bars on the right will be lowered, and Isabella Flora will need to be put down. She is down the only path available, behind an iron gate locked that needs to be unlocked with the Apple Key.



A sword only can be used, and Flora will not use her area of effect or ranged attacks, but it is a lot slower (and less costly) than using 15-20 rounds from the Hillside Revolver and gunning her down, quickly reloading with the military uniform. Expect to take some hits if you're caught in a reload.

Take the Right Hand Key from Flora, and return inside the building. Run to the elevator room at the opposite end of the foyer. Ride the elevator down, and use the Right Hand Key to unlock the door. Now run back upstairs to the elevator room again, and take it again. It should go up this time.


Go straight ahead, grab the Warrior Disc from the Pegasus statue, and run back to the elevator. Head to the second floor from the stairway in the dining room, and insert the Warrior Disc on the left statue, and the Poseidon Disc on the right statue, and enter the double doors.



Once in, unbolt the door ahead, before turning towards the camera and running the only available path. Skip the cutscene revealing the minigun-wielding-peagsus. It's safe to begin sneaking at this point behind the creature, hiding behind the wooden furniture when need be. Once at the other end, head through the door, and pull both levers.


Leave the room, and head past the lowered iron bars and back towards the pegasus statue in the church(?). Enter the door next to it, read the note, and grab Chemical-A in the back left corner off the shelf. Exit the room, and face off against Albertus Alverus. Focus on dodging before damaging, and the fight should be guaranteed. Some things I've noticed is that his arrows seem to move from left to right diagonally, so it's usually safer to dodge by strafing left. Also, after his big explosion attack damages half of the area, moving to that area too soon can have you still take damage from the blast even if you have dodged it.


After grabbing the bag of toothwheels, run back towards the double doors that we entered from, and head down to the first floor door on the stairwell.


Take the right set of double doors, and the right door again to enter the long hallway.


Enter the door on the right at the end with the Right Hand Key. Once in, take note of the Strange Drawing to the left of the bomb blueprints. This is a random code for every adventure.You can unbolt the door directly behind you for a quicker exit.


After taking note of that, move to the underground circus area again, and return to the Operations Room where we solved the Crank Puzzle. Chemical-C is in the back in the shelf. Unfortuantely, we did not understand the importance of this chemical when we were in this room earlier.



Run back to the top floor. A quicker route is available through the door on the upper-floor in the library, next to the original safe room.




Once through this door, head left/up and aroud, until you see the door in front of the wooden furniture. Enter it, and use the code from the Strange Drawing as the proper order to light the candles. Grab the winding mechanism


With all three bomb components, we'll move back to the room with the blue prints and assemble it. I'd recommend visiting the safe room before bringing the bomb back up the Finger of God statue on the top floor. I brought the ol' Reliable Hillside Revolver, M520 Stalker shotgun, and the Bullet belt, though the Military Uniform is my second choice. Keep laying fire into the Dollmaster so that he cannot manifest anymore dolls, and the fight is much easier.

Plant the bomb in front of the Finger of God statue, and let the violence commence.

And with that, our journey ends...



Any critcism, or ways to improve the guide, is greatly appreciated. It's probably simplier to demonstrate what exactly to do for a speedrun in a video, but I appreciate text-only guides, and hate having to reference videos often for things of this nature. I really tried to keep everything as concise as possible, while also trying to be thorough and leave no confusion about where to go, what door was being referenced, and so on. I'll update and improve the guide as needed.