First Steps into Rotwood

Right at the end of the Rotwood Outskirts area, you’ll enter the sewers. The path here is quite straightforward. You have to walk straight in, and you’ll find a desk where you can save the game and access the storage. If you go up from there, you’ll find two doors, each locked behind a different medallion.

If you go down, you’ll find your partner stuck behind the other side of the sewers. Now, depending on whether you’re playing as Natalie or Jack, your partner is either Marcus or Katla, respectively. You’ll have to control your partner. Pass through the sewer’s green liquid, but be wary of the green zombies that pop out. These green zombies require exactly two attacks from your knife to be killed.

After you’ve made your way across, you’ll find a gate locked behind a switch. Opening this gate will lead you to a puzzle where you’ll have to balance the liquid in two tubes by adding or draining a fixed amount. Once you’ve solved the puzzle, you’ll gain one of the two medallions based on the character you’re playing as. There will also be a lift, but the switch on the lift is broken.

As soon as your partner picks the medallion, they’ll immediately come to you and hand it over. You can then unlock one of the two gates based on the medallion. If you’re playing as Jack, you’ll be able to access the Radio Station, and if you’re playing as Natalie, you’ll end up in the Meat Shop.

WRot Radio Station: As you enter the Radio Station, you’ll find a puzzle where you have to match the waves on a device. Once you do that, it will unlock the gate, and you’ll have to fight against a unique boss to gain access to the Rotwood Downtown. Defeating the monster will drop the Radio Station key, which can then be used to unlock the main gate outside.

Barlow’s Meat Shop: After exiting the sewer as Natalie, you’ll be able to enter Barlow’s meat shop. There’s a door that leads you to a room behind the main shop just after exiting the sewers. You’ll find a tape here detailing a locker code. You can also save your game here and access the storage. Once you’re ready, you can head out and enter the main shop. There’s a puzzle here that requires you to interact with the skulls of different animals. You have to press the buttons on the skulls in this order: Cow, Deer, Pig, Goat. After you do that, the main door will open. There’s a safe room ahead, but after that, you’ll have to fight against another unique boss. Defeating this boss will cause it to drop the Barlow’s Meat Shop Key, which can be used to unlock the gate outside the meat shop to access Rotwood Downtown.

Here, you’ll find three altars in front of a locked door near the intersection. You have to find three unique canes and place them inside these altars to unlock the gate, which leads to the Rotwood Cemetery. Now, these canes are hidden in different places. One of the canes is in the Rotwood School. You can find the second cane in the Crimson Reels cinema, and the third cane is in Bethany’s Curse and Crafts. There are plenty of enemies here, but you don’t have to kill everyone. Save your bullets because you’ll be needing them against bosses and in scenarios where there’s no choice but to kill the zombies. However, it’s best to just run past the zombies that are roaming around in the open in the Downtown areas.