Nancy Drew: The Captive Curse

A complete walkthrough for Nancy Drew: The Captive Curse, played on the Junior Detective difficulty. Nancy is called to Castle Finster in Bavaria, where a monster out of local legend has been seen prowling the grounds. Senior Detective solutions are collected at the end.

A note on versions

This guide was translated from a Russian localisation. The German words the puzzles turn on are German in every release, so they carry across unchanged. Two things were corrected against the English release: the glockenspiel notes, where Russian and German notation write B as H, and the save folder name. The card and character names in Karl’s game were localised, so those are described by the Grimm fairy tale each is drawn from rather than by their Russian names.

Before you start

• Read the book What every detective should know to get to grips with the game’s features, including the new functions of your mobile phone.
• Read the case materials in the folder on the desk all the way through. You can also read the comic on the right of the desk.
• The inventory works as in previous games, with the main interaction icons along the bottom. All movement directions are given from the point of view of someone sitting at the monitor, unless stated otherwise.
• To begin, click the plane ticket.
• You can save manually at almost any point. Saves live in your Documents folder, in a subfolder named after the game.

Titles you can earn

All optional, with no effect on the investigation. Names are translated back from the Russian, so exact wording on the English release may differ.

• Beta Tester — play at least eight games of the card game with Karl.
• Card Collector — win eight card decks from Lukas.
• Easter Egg — find all three Easter eggs.
• Brave Forester — enter the forest at least ten times and explore all of it.
• Keeper of History — find the lost red scarf and return it to Renate.
• Souvenir Lover — buy eleven souvenirs from the gift shop.
• Head of Security — click the buttons under every monitor on each visit to the security room.
• Dungeon Dweller — visit every place marked on the map.
• Food Supplier — buy the full set of treats and give them to Renate at least twice.
• Treasure Hunter — find every one of the lost coins.
• Well Explorer — pull at least ten souvenirs out of the well.
• Herald of Danger — press Karl’s and Anja’s alarm buttons on every visit to the security room.

Coins are everywhere. They glint, and there is a title for collecting all of them, so examine everything as you pass. This guide points them out as they come up.

Castle Finster: arriving

Watch the opening video. Go to the gates and press the signal button to the right of them. Before you are even inside you get a small task: find two identical images.

Puzzle: matching pictures

Click the bucket lowered to you on a rope and study the drawing. Mark the two identical little figures, then put a tick in the centre of the drawing to confirm. The gates open; go forward along the arrow.

Go in through the front door. In the hall, turn onto the stairs on the right. On the landing, pick up a coin and go up to the first floor.

Follow the corridor to the very end. On the little table with the candlestick, find another coin.

Turn around and open the door on the left. Go forward along the arrow. Talk to Ned Nickerson, then carry on. At the top of the landing, turn right into the corridors and follow the carpet runner.

In an alcove is a coffee table and a pair of armchairs. Take the book The History of Castle Finster and read it. Note the letter H scratched into the table.

Go forward and turn left. Approach the door with the German sign for Bürgermeister beside it.

The burgomaster’s office

Go in and you see Karl hurriedly hiding something in his desk. Talk to him about everything, then agree to play his card game. Choose a difficulty and play.

Note: the difficulty has no effect on the walkthrough, only on how much money Karl pays you for a win or a loss.

The card game

Open Rules in the bottom right corner to learn it. The rules are simple, and two thirds of the game plays itself. Winning comes down to picking the right card in a duel.

Each card has coloured circles with numbers in its corners. When your token lands on a coloured circle, bring your cards up with the cursor and pick the one with the highest number in that colour. Land on red, for instance, and you are matching strength, so play the card with the highest number in its red circle. A game or two and it will be second nature.

After winning, take the bag of coins from the desk. Then look around the office.

Go to the wall with the painting of a reading sparrow and examine it. Then go to the alcove where game cards are standing on a set of scales.

Puzzle: the card scales

Take the book underneath the cards, the game’s guide, and read it right through. Note the page with the professor sparrow, which shows a picture of a key, and note that the last card is still in development. Put the book back and try to examine the cards; they fall on the floor and the burgomaster asks you to put them back in their places.

Your guide is the three level lines visible on the wall behind the scales: the pans of cards have to sit level with those lines. The game guide told you which type each character belongs to.

• Monsters: the sailor girl with the red braid; the grey wolf, from Red Riding Hood; the gold-spinning gnome, that is Rumpelstiltskin.
• Heroes: the donkey king, from The Donkey; the professor sparrow; Bonaparte the sea-hare, from The Sea-Hare.
• Mages: the magic mirror, from Snow White; the golden hunter, from The Gold-Children; the little button witch.

Translator’s note: the English release words these card names differently. Match by the fairy tale character rather than the exact wording.

Set the matching cards on the scales according to that list. A sheet with a note in German falls out from under the scales. Leave translating it until later, since you have no dictionary yet.

Go to the large painting of the professor sparrow and turn it around. Take the hidden key.

Talk to Karl again and start helping him design the last card, answering his questions however you like.

Note: helping Karl make the card earns a title at the end. The card also then takes part in later games, so you get to see the results of your advice.

The castle corridors and Nancy’s room

Leave the office and go along the corridor. In an alcove is another coffee table with a casket on it. Examine it: you have to lay out a pattern, and clearly not all the coloured glass is here. Put it back and carry on along the corridor. Come out on the landing and go up one more flight.

Go forward and approach the door labelled Nancy Drew, the room the castle’s owner has given you. Go in and look around.

Go to the bedside cabinet and take the pocket German dictionary. Take the German note from your inventory and use the dictionary on it to get a translation.

Go to the shelf with the mantel clock. To the left of the clock, find a leaflet with the schedule of festival events. Leave the room and go down to the ground floor.

The banquet hall: meeting Renate

Cross the hall and go to the light-coloured doors under the balcony where your room is. Open them and you are in the banquet hall.

Go forward and take a blue piece of glass out of the largest stained-glass window.

Turn around and go to the left wall. From the alcove, take the newspaper and read it. Note the bottom left column of German-to-English word translations. You can photograph it, though it is recorded in your notebook automatically. Between the jugs on the right, spot a glint and take a coin.

Turn around and go to the elderly lady in the armchair by the fireplace. Meet Renate and talk about everything. She hints plainly that she would not say no to something sweet. Turn around and leave.

In the corner to the left of the stairs, spot another glint and pick up a coin. Go up the steps and through to the left screen. Go straight twice and turn left, then left again and go forward. Up the stairs, forward three times, and turn left. Go forward along the red carpet, through the doors, and turn left again.

The foyer, gift shop and courtyard

Go down the stairs to the little clock tower. Take another coin and open the doors at the bottom. Inside is a keyboard instrument, a glockenspiel, on which you have to play a melody. You do not know which melody yet.

Turn around and go to Lukas. Ask him everything and agree to play his game, in which monsters are disguised as cows. Lukas explains the rules himself.

Puzzle: the monster game

The game has two rounds. In the first you play the monsters, hidden among the cows. Monsters kill the cows around them, and the cows standing next to a killing get frightened and goggle their eyes. Move your monster and the frightened cows onto empty squares so your opponent cannot tell which of the moved cows is really the monster.

The trick: after you kill a cow, move the monsters onto squares next to the dead cow and move the real cows further away. Or move the monster and the cows the same distance from the dead cow. Your opponent will then nearly always pick a real cow as the monster.

When either all the monsters or all the cows are dead, you swap tokens and hunt for the monsters among Lukas’s cows. Playing as the farmer, point at the tokens that moved to squares next to the dead cow: that gives you a good chance of picking the real monster.

Note: win and Lukas gives you three cards, and you can question him about the castle and its residents. Collecting a full deck earns a title.

Afterwards ask Lukas everything; you learn about secret passages in the castle. Turn around and go to the coffee table.

Take the book of Grimm’s fairy tales and leaf through it, then put it back. Take the round object with plugs from the table. On the lower shelf to the right of the sofa, take a coin.

Go through the arch on the right into the gift shop. Look around: on the bookshelf, find the Grimm villains book; turn right and read another book about monsters. Pull out the little drawer the monster bust stands on and experiment with the buttons. Then talk to Anja, the castle’s custodian, about everything. Buy souvenirs if you like; eleven earns a title.

Turn around and buy a cake for Renate from the automatic patisserie: click the arrow, choose the cake picture, then press the coin slot. Buy all the other treats the same way.

Note the book on the shelf. Open it and take the first drawing, showing a sun, a crescent moon and a meteor.

Leave the shop for the foyer. Question Lukas again: you learn that if you give Renate something sweet she falls asleep straight afterwards. Then go through the double doors into the castle courtyard.

The courtyard

Answer Markus’s call, though there is no hurry to call him back yet.

Go to the well and click the bucket; it goes down and comes back up with a souvenir from an earlier game in the series. Using the well often earns a title.

Turn around and find another coin. Go to the stairs and take a coin from the windowsill on the right. Go up to the gallery and along to the very end.

By the door, take the blunt secateurs and turn around. Look right and find another coin.

Go down to the courtyard, then down the steps to the basement. Knock politely, but nobody wants to talk to you.

Turn around and examine the sheet of paper on the steps. Pick it up: it is a note test, and it tells you that the colour and position of the notes stand for letters. Keep it.

Go up the steps and turn by the cart with the striped awning. Under the wheel, find a coin. Go to the castle gates and look right. Go up the steps and find another coin on the lintel of the door with the blue lantern. Go back down and into the castle through the double doors.

Calling Markus, and the fire

In the foyer, talk to Lukas, and play the monster game again if you want more cards. Leave through the double doors.

Go forward and turn right. To the left of the stairs is a sign; use the dictionary on it. Opposite it something glints: take the coin. Go up the stairs and turn left. In the alcove, find more coins. Head to your room to call your employer on the landline.

Go to the telephone, lift the receiver and click the slip with Markus’s number. Talk through every topic with him, then call Ned and Joe. As you finish and turn around, there is a knock at the door: a worried burgomaster reports a fire in the courtyard, and you are taken straight to the burning plant in its tub.

Turn around and click the well bucket to fill it with water. Turn back to the burning plant, take the full bucket from your inventory and put the fire out.

With the fire out, look at the door on the left. A strange thorn is stuck in it; take it. Pull another couple of souvenirs from the well and head for the gift shop.

Talk to Anja about everything, buy more souvenirs if you like, then go out through the glass doors into the foyer and up the stairs. On the table with the candelabrum, take a couple more coins if you have not already. Carry on through the corridors to the banquet hall.

Renate’s bag and casket

Go to Renate and start a conversation several times, saving the offer of a treat for last. Then open your inventory and offer her the dessert. As soon as she is asleep, click the bag at her feet.

Puzzle: Renate’s bag

You need the casket out of the bag, and it is buried under other things. Move items one at a time and very carefully so Renate does not wake; if she does, you get another go. Left-click takes an item, right-click rotates it.

One working order:

• Take the white markers one by one and stand them upright against the left wall.
• Take the pencil and stand it upright next to the markers.
• Take the light blue case and stand it upright against the right wall.
• Take the ball and put it to the right, next to the case.
• Take the box tied with ribbon and set it on top of the box of crisps.
• Stand the brown casket upright next to the pencil.
• Take the book and stand it upright between the crisps and the brown casket.
• Set the powder compact on the gift box.
• Click the casket.

Save point: Renate’s bag sorted.

With everything in place, take the book The Owl and other tales from the bag. Leaf through it and take the torn-out page. Save your game.

Puzzle: the casket colour code

Click the casket to lift it out. Opening it means guessing a colour code, and the code is randomly generated, so there is no step-by-step solution.

Set a colour in a position and press Start in the top right. A green lamp below means the colour and position are both right; a yellow lamp means the colour is right but the position is not; no lamp means neither. The puzzle is timed, so reload your save if you run out of time.

Save point: Renate’s casket open.

Take the plan of the grounds and study it: the castle has a dungeon. Leave the hall and go to your room, because Markus wants to talk again.

The dress, and the glassworks key

As you touch your door handle a bucket of water empties over your head. Lukas, obviously. Go in and call Markus and Ned.

Turn to your bed, where somebody has thoughtfully laid out a dress for you. Read the note pinned to it, take the dress and change into it. To the right of the mantel clock, take a coin. Leave and go to the burgomaster’s office.

Talk to Karl about everything, and play cards if you want the money. Leave and head for the gift shop to ask Anja some questions. Passing the sitting room, take the coin from the table by the sofa if you have not already, then go into the shop.

Talk to Anja, then turn around and note the glass shelf behind the hanging shirts. Ask Anja about the Bavarian glassblowing tradition. She has the key to the workshop but will not hand it over, so try the burgomaster instead.

Note: you can skip Anja entirely and go straight to the burgomaster for the key.

Talk to Karl and ask about the thorns, which grow in the forest. Ask about the glassblowing workshop and take the key from his desk. Ask everything else, play cards, help with the character, then head for the banquet hall.

Try to talk to Renate: she sends you off to change, because she does not care for your outfit. Go to the gift shop and ask Anja about the dress; she does not know who left it either. Go through the shop and out through the arch to the right of the souvenir shirts.

Follow the arrow, turn right and go down to the grey metal door. Translate the sign with the dictionary, then unlock the door with Karl’s key.

The glassworks

Go in and look around. This is where the entrance to the dungeon from Renate’s plan must be.

Step forward to the shelving, turn left and take the trowel, tongs and crowbar from the workbench.

Turn right, open the upper left cupboard and take the green glass fragment from the shelf.

Turn to the entrance and examine the buckets to the right of the door. Slide the lid off one: another of Lukas’s jokes, and a coin. To the left of the door is a grinding wheel.

Press its big red button; nothing happens, because the power is off. Look at the socket on the wall to the right and put the plug in. Press the red button again, then take the blunt secateurs from your inventory and use them on the grinding wheel. You now have sharpened secateurs. Switch the machine off and go to the furnace.

Use the dictionary on the sign at the top left. Click the furnace damper and slide it right; it shields you from the heat. Press the right-hand door and slide it right.

Note the lever on the floor by the wall marked with the letter A. Take the tongs and use them to lift the lever. A door to a secret passage opens; go through.

The dungeon: first look

Go forward along the arrow. Before the turn, look through the little window on the left. Pull the sheet of paper out from under the door and examine it, noting the letters in its bottom right corner.

Turn and go to the back wall, where you find a bas-relief. Something could turn that circle, but you have nothing for it yet. Examine the hatch cover in the floor and leave the way you came.

The stained-glass casket

Go through the gift shop and talk to Lukas. Agree to take part in his next prank and ask him the rest of your questions. Then head for Karl’s office, stopping at the coffee table in the alcove with the casket on it. You now have the missing coloured glass and can lay out the pattern on the lid, using the finished pattern in the casket’s top right corner as your model.

Puzzle: the casket lid

• Take the turquoise glass and put it in the top right corner.
• Take the violet glass, turn it vertical and put it below.
• Take the dark green glass and put it below that.
• Take the pink glass and set it in the centre, lifting it slightly and covering the previous two.
• Take the light green glass and set it against the right wall.
• Take the yellow glass and put it in the bottom right corner.
• Take the blue glass and set it at the top.
• Take the orange glass and set it in the top left corner.
• Take the last, lilac glass, turn it vertical and set it in the bottom left corner.

The casket opens and you take the first rotor.

Save point: first rotor received.

The hidden notes

Go into the office and agree with Karl that he will turn a blind eye to Lukas’s next prank. Help him choose a character and play cards if you want money. Leave and go to the foyer.

Tell Lukas that Karl will stay in his office. Once the rascal has gone, pick up the note under the armchair and examine it.

Puzzle: the scrambled note

To decipher the text you swap letters within each vertical column. Click a letter to pick it up, then click where you want it. Letters can only be swapped within one column. When a word is right it takes the colour of the paper and its letters can no longer be moved.

Save point: note deciphered.

The deciphered note tells you to find hidden notes around the castle, in these places:

• The portrait of a young lady on the first floor.
• The florist’s initials.
• The book table in the corridor.
• The bell at the castle gates.
• The glass furnace.

Leave the foyer by the stairs, turn left and go up again to the portrait of the young lady. Translate the sign beside it with the dictionary and find the first note on the girl’s shoulder.

Look in on your room on the way. Somebody has ruined your clothes. Upset, call Markus and your friends. Find the page from a book on the floor and note the letters TK at the bottom right. Leave and go to the foyer.

Talk to Lukas about everything, play his game if you like, and go through the gift shop to the glassworks.

Slide the damper across and open the right furnace door. Look at the letter form of the note on the wall. Find the toy snake on the workbench. Leave and hurry to the banquet hall.

Talk to Renate, then offer her a snack. When she falls asleep, look in her bag and open the book of tales. Take the torn page with the letter N in the bottom right corner. Leave and carry on hunting notes.

At the coffee table in the alcove, find the letter form of the third note.

Go into the office, question Karl, play cards, help with the character. Then head for the courtyard, calling in at the gift shop first to ask Anja about the festival.

In the courtyard, look into the well and click the bucket for another surprise. Go to the burnt plant and find the letter form of the fourth note on the door to its left. Take more coins from the cart and go out through the castle gates.

Turn around and look right. On the bell, find the letter form of the fifth note. Time for a walk in the forest.

The forest: the thorns and the tent

Turn around, step forward out of the gates and follow the curved arrow left. In the bushes on the right, find a coin.

Take two steps forward along the arrow. At the forest crossroads, turn right along the arrow, then turn left. Go forward twice. Go left along the arrow again, then one step forward. Turn left along the arrow, go forward twice, and you find a thicket of the same strange thorn you found in the florist’s door.

Take the sharpened secateurs and cut your way through. With the thorns cleared, you find a camping tent. Beside it, find a lantern and pick up a hexagonal plate from the ground. Turn around, find another coin in the bushes, and leave the forest.

Go left along the arrow, then right, then right again. Under the tree on the right, find coins. Go straight, then turn right along the arrow. Go straight twice. Under the tree on the left, pick up coins. Turn right along the arrow, then left. Go straight twice and you come out at the castle gates.

For the title you have to enter the forest at least ten times and explore all of it.

The glockenspiel and the security room

Go into the castle and in the foyer go to the little tower in the alcove. Open the doors at the bottom and you find the glockenspiel.

Puzzle: the glockenspiel

You play the lettered notes in the order the note gave, and the letters found in those five places are:

• Portrait of the young lady on the first floor: G
• The florist’s bell: D
• The book table in the corridor: B
• The bell at the castle gates: G
• The wall of the glass furnace: A

So the melody is G D B G A. The bottom row runs C D E F G A B C from left to right, positions 1 to 8, so play keys 5, 2, 7, 5, 6. Recall the hint sheet you found on the steps in the courtyard for how the colours and positions map to letters.

Translator’s note: Russian and German notation write B as H, so the Russian original gives this melody as G D H G A. On the English release the third note is written B.

Done correctly, a hidden button appears on the door panel. Press it.

Save point: hidden button found.

The security room

Take the coin from the pipe and sit in the leather chair. Look at the photograph of Lukas.

Use the dictionary on the writing on the telephone receiver, then on the text in the niche to its right. Click the niche so your mobile phone drops into the slot: you will now get the castle security system’s alerts. To the left of the receiver, find a coin. Press the phone in the slot again to take it back.

Read the instructions for switching on the video surveillance and follow them. Examine the central panel: you need to turn the power on.

Take the red handle with the plugs from your inventory, fit it into its socket and turn it to on. Open the panel cover. The instructions say each button press adds 25 percent charge.

Puzzle: charging the cameras

Look at the charging panel on the left, where differently coloured lamps below act as hints. Working back from the end result, the green lamp, immediately to its left is a yellow lamp with a blue rim and a red dot in the centre, and further left a yellow lamp with a red dot in the centre.

Press any yellow lamp and watch what changes on the monitor and the panel. From there, press only the yellow lamps with a blue rim until all the other lamps shine bright green. There are many valid orders; one is 2, 9, 11, 15, 5.

Save point: surveillance cameras on.

Watch what Renate is doing in the gift shop; that is worth a look later. Examine the panel on the right: it is an Enigma cipher machine, familiar from earlier games. Leave it until you have all the rotors. Take the coins from the microphone on the right.

Press the alarm buttons named for Anja and Karl to draw them away from their posts, then hurry to the gift shop.

The stencil, and the clock

In the shop, go to the souvenir table under the hanging clocks. Take the light blue sheet of paper and examine it: it is pierced with holes, and there is writing in the bottom left corner. Examine the clocks that interested Renate, though there is nothing obviously special about them.

Go to Anja’s work station and look behind the counter. Try the locked desk drawer and leaf through the book on the desk.

Note: remember the book’s title. It may come up as a quiz question at the end.

Step away quickly before Anja catches you, and head for the burgomaster’s office. Stop at the coffee table with the history of Castle Finster on it.

Puzzle: the stencil

Open the book, take the holed sheet from your inventory and lay it over the pages. Read the words in the order the number of dots beside each hole indicates, and you get: third clock from the left, 7-2-1.

Go into the office. Karl is away but may return at any moment, so be quick.

Note: if Karl does catch you in his office, go down to the security room and press his alarm button again.

Go to Karl’s desk and translate the writing on the calendar with the dictionary. Leaf through the book on organising festivals and take the coins from the desk. Leave before he returns.

Easter egg 1

Go back to the casket of coloured glass in the corridor and stack the glass pieces on top of each other in the top right corner. One working order:

• Take the turquoise glass, turn it vertical and lay it in place.
• Lay the small violet glass on the turquoise.
• Lay the light green glass on top.
• Then the yellow glass.
• Then the lilac glass, turned vertical.
• Then the red glass, turned vertical.
• Then the orange glass.
• Then the blue glass.
• And last, the small dark green glass.

With every piece stacked correctly the casket opens and you take a metal egg, which still needs finishing.

Go to the glassworks and to the work table. Take the metal egg from your inventory and put it in the clamp. Turn to the lit furnace, take the clamp with the blank from your inventory and use it on the closed furnace door. Put the finished metal egg in your inventory.

Go to the gift shop, go to the wall clocks and click the third clock from the left. You conclude that you need a winding mechanism for it.

The monster in the courtyard

Note: at some point an announcement sounds in the castle that the monster has appeared.

Hurry to the security room, press the hidden button and go in. Sit in the chair and you see the monster on the left monitor, calmly walking the courtyard. Click the buttons under every monitor, then leave and head for the courtyard to see it for yourself.

You follow the monster automatically. When the castle grilles suddenly drop, step forward along the arrow and watch the monster close up. Once it has gone, turn around and find the second grille is also down: you are trapped. Turn right along the arrow.

Slide the small panel aside, take out the key and use it to open the lower panel.

Puzzle: the sliding stones

Three stages, freeing a path for the blue, green and red stones in turn by sliding them into their sockets in the right corner. Every move slides a stone as far as it will go. More than one solution exists; these work.

Blue stone

• Stone 1 up.
• Stone 2 left.
• Stone 3 left.
• Stone 4 up.
• Stone 5, the blue one, right into its place.

Green stone

• Stone 5 up.
• Stone 9 right.
• Stone 5 down.
• Stone 1 down.
• Stone 2 left.
• Stone 6 left.
• Stone 5 up.
• Stone 9 left.
• Stone 3 down.
• Stone 5 down.
• Stone 4 left.
• Stones 3, 7 and 8 up.
• Stone 9 right into its place.

Red stone

• Stone 3 down.
• Stone 4 up.
• Stone 12 right.
• Stone 1 down.
• Stone 7 left.
• Stone 12 left.
• Stones 4 and 5 down.
• Stone 2 left.
• Stone 6 left.
• Stone 8 up.
• Stones 4 and 5 up.
• Stone 12, the red one, right into its place.

Save point: grilles open.

The grilles rise and you take the scrap of fabric the fleeing monster left behind.

For the title, wander the night forest a while. Under the roots of one of the trees, find coins, and remember that spot. Return to the castle and go to the security room.

Karl’s desk, Anja’s desk, and the second rotor

In the foyer, note the stilts that have been left there. They only appear after the monster’s courtyard appearance and your escape from the trap at the gates.

Question Lukas and go into the security room. Sit down, click the buttons under the monitors, find Anja and Karl, and press their alarm buttons to send them away from their posts. Hurry to the burgomaster’s office.

Go to Karl’s desk, take the old key you found behind the painting and unlock the drawer. Read the love letter, examine the combination lock on the briefcase, and slide the pencil case aside. Underneath is the key to Anja’s desk; take it.

Go back to the security room and press the alarm buttons again. When you see on the monitor that Anja has left, hurry to the shop.

Note: if Anja is at her post, ask her all your questions first, then use the alarm buttons to get her out.

Go behind the counter, unlock the drawer with Anja’s key and take the clock key. Read the two printed messages from Markus, then close the drawer.

Come out from behind the counter and go to the clocks. Wind the clock with the key, then put the circular cursor on the dial and move the hands to 7:21, the time from the stencilled message. Take the second rotor from the hiding place.

Save point: second rotor found.

The Enigma machine

Go to the security room, sit down and read the instructions for the decoding machine. Push the little lever on the right all the way up and lift the panel cover. Fit both rotors into the socket and close the rotor cover. Now you need the right code to set them.

Press the brass plate marked Krolmeister in the top right of the screen. You see an enlarged decoder, and at the top right the sheet showing a sun, a moon and a comet that you found in the gift shop book. The initial letters of those bodies in German are the code.

If you read the newspapers in the banquet hall, the German words are in Nancy’s notebook.

The first letters are S (Sonne), M (Mond) and K (Komet). Put the cursor to the right of each window on the rotor’s toothed wheels so it becomes an arrow, and click until the letter you want appears. Enter all three in order.

Then type the text from the sheet, pressing the letters shown in the drawing in turn, ignoring spaces and punctuation.

If you mistype, tear off the tape by clicking it and start again.

Click the tape and you get the numeric code for the burgomaster’s diary. Take the tape. Press the alarm button to draw Karl out, and hurry to his office.

The diary and the safe

Go to the desk, open the top drawer with the old key and click the briefcase. Use the arrows to enter the decoded code 8 – 2 – 6 – 1 and press the button.

Translate the writing with the dictionary and read Karl’s diary. Page all the way to the end so Nancy comments on the fairy tales written in coloured inks.

Go to the shelf under the card scales, where the game guide stands.

Puzzle: the safe code

Open the guide, find each Grimm tale named in the diary, note the colour its character was written in, and write down the matching number:

• The Sea-Hare, blue: 5
• Rumpelstiltskin, orange: 13
• The Gold-Children, red: 15
• Snow White, blue: 11
• The Donkey, green: 9

So the safe code is 5 – 13 – 15 – 11 – 9.

The safe is to the left of the desk. Open the panel and enter the code, pressing enter after each number so the green lamp above lights.

Save point: Karl’s safe open.

Take the documents from the card index, translate them and read. Sunny Joon’s CV is even in there, a nod to earlier games. Anja’s CV says she was a manager at a company called Castle Staffing. Leave the office and go to your room.

Anja’s story, and the second Easter egg

Go to the landline and call Castle Staffing; the number was recorded on your list automatically. The employee flatly refuses to give out information about the castle’s staff. So call Markus, report everything, and he promises to speak to Jordan. Call Castle Staffing again and talk to Jordan about everything: Anja was not a manager at all, she only delivered the post. Call your friends with the news too.

Easter egg 2

Dial 666-78-37 on the telephone and you are invited to find an egg in the forest.

Go out through the castle gates, follow the curved arrow left, step forward and follow the curved arrow left again. Find the active spot, take the trowel from your inventory and dig to the left of the garlic necklace. Take the second Easter egg.

Go right along the curved arrow, then left. Under the tree marked on Renate’s map, find five coins if you have not already. Return to the castle.

In the empty gift shop, note the unusual necklace. Go to the security room and check the monitors; all quiet, so go and walk the night forest for the title. Look carefully at the plants for more coins, then return and go to the gift shop.

Anja is behind the counter now. Ask her about the necklace, then tell her about your call to Castle Staffing and confront her with the deception. Then go to the security room, where the left monitor shows Anja leaving the castle for the forest. Why does she go there?

The monster inside the castle

Leave the shop to follow Anja and a message reports that the monster has got through the security system and is inside the castle. Hurry to the security room.

One monitor shows the monster standing by the glassworks. The rest show an empty castle. Go and look at it.

Go through the gift shop and straight on to the glassworks. Step inside and turn around: an overturned bucket of sand, and some very odd footprints. Follow the monster’s tracks up the stairs.

On the landing you run into Lukas in costume and expose his latest prank. Through the windows you see the real monster. Leave Lukas and hurry to the burgomaster’s office.

Talk to Karl about everything: he needs proof the real monster exists. Go to the banquet hall and talk to Renate about everything. Afterwards find coins on the green armchair to the left of the fireplace. Go to the gift shop, tell Anja the news, and go out to the foyer.

Talk to Lukas, who feels no guilt at all and even offers to help catch the real monster. Head for the courtyard.

The well and the labyrinth

Go to the well and look in. Take the lantern from your inventory and hang it on the well hook, then go down the arrow into the well.

Puzzle: the hexagons

To open the door into the labyrinth, arrange the hexagons so every pair of touching edges matches. Hexagons can be swapped: put the hand cursor on one, click and move it. To rotate, put the cursor on the right for clockwise or the left for anticlockwise. The top left hexagon is fixed, so start from there.

The puzzle is randomised, so there is no step-by-step solution.

Save point: well puzzle solved.

The labyrinth

Light your way with the lantern and go forward. At the blue wall is the first fork, left or right.

The author’s suggestion: wander the labyrinth yourself with the map you find later, which is far more fun than following directions. For anyone who would rather not, here is one route.

From the entrance, go five steps forward. At the fork by the blue wall turn left and go forward to the dead end with the old newspapers.

Read the notes and look at the lower columns of German word translations. Photograph them with your camera, or note them down. Pick up the coin and turn around.

Take two steps forward to the animal skull, then left along the arrow to the animal skull on chains. Take a coin from its eye.

From that skull turn left, step forward and turn right. Go forward towards the boulders and take another torn page.

Easter egg 3

From the stones turn right along the arrow. Take two steps forward and turn right again. On the wall you see a metal box set into the stone. Go to it and put Karl’s key and Anja’s key into the keyholes, then press the safe door. Take the third Easter egg.

The labyrinth, continued

From the safe go straight, left, and on to the red shield on the wall. From the shield turn right, take three steps forward and find a coin in the corner.

Go left, right, straight, and turn into the passage on the left. In the dead end, find a coin and the red scarf Renate told you about.

Turn around and go forward to the blue wall. Turn left, go straight, right, and three steps forward towards the stones. From the stones go right, then straight, with chains hanging on the wall to your right.

From the chains go straight twice, turn right and go to the red box on the wall. Take the second coded drawing from it.

From the red box go right, straight, left, straight. Move left and go straight towards more boulders. Find the active spot on the boulder and take the labyrinth map from behind the stone.

Turn around. Go straight, left, straight, right and you are back at the red box. From there go left, straight, right, straight, right, straight, with the chains on your right again. From the chains turn into the left side passage, go to the wall with the tree design and turn left towards the barrel. By the mushrooms at the wall, find five coins.

Take the crowbar and open the barrel. Inside is the fabric the monster’s costume was made from. Turn around and take two steps forward, keeping the tree on the wall to your left. Turn left along the arrow and go to the white door. Open it and you are in the forest.

The forest: the necklace and the photograph

Go left along the arrow and make two right turns. Go forward along the arrow to the large boulder and find the active spot on the ground beneath it.

Take the trowel and dig in several places. In one hollow you find a buried antique necklace.

Turn around, go left three times and one step straight. Turn around at the white labyrinth door.

Take Renate’s plan of the castle from your inventory and study it. You note aloud that Renate knew exactly where the monster would appear, and the plan clearly shows the tree it appears beside. Go there and get Karl his proof.

Important: without studying the plan again, the active spot on the boulder will not be there.

Route to the tree from the white door: left, right, left, right, forward, right, forward.

Look left along the arrow and find the tree under whose roots you found five gold coins. Settle down to wait.

Hidden, you watch the monster begin to pace past the tree. Take out the camera, set the focus where the monster’s head will show best, and press plus to zoom. When the monster is in frame, click take photo, then save it.

With the photograph saved, find the third coded message on the boulder. Return towards the white door.

You could go straight back to the castle from the boulder, but this route goes through the labyrinth to find another way out of it.

From the tree turn right along the arrow, go forward, right, then straight to the labyrinth entrance. Open the white door.

Through the labyrinth to Nancy’s room

Go straight, right, straight, keeping the tree on the wall to your right, and turn into the left passage. Go straight to the chains, then left. Go forward, turn right, go forward. Go right along the arrow, then straight, with the red box on the wall to your right. From the box turn into the left side passage, then straight, left, straight, left, straight. Turn into the left side passage, then straight, right, straight.

Move right towards the red arrow on the wall. Go up the steps, turn right along the arrow and open the door into Nancy’s room.

Returning the scarf, and the photograph

Go to the telephone and talk to Markus. Call Frank and Ned with the latest news. Leave and go to the banquet hall.

Talk to Renate about everything, returning her lost scarf and giving her a treat. Then go to the burgomaster’s office.

Talk to Karl and show him the photograph of the monster. You get a finished game card. Play cards if you want money for souvenirs. Leave and go to the gift shop, talking to Lukas in the foyer on the way.

Ask Anja about the necklace you found; it really is a genuine antique. Buy any souvenirs you still need and hurry to the security room.

Decoding the last two messages

Sit in the chair and check the monitors; all quiet. Open the decoder cover and click the bronze plate.

The drawing shows a mouse, a dragon and a unicorn: in German, Maus, Drache and Einhorn. Set the initial letters M, D and E in the three windows to the left of the rotor wheels. As before, type the text from the sheet and take the decoded tape.

Click the second sheet. Its drawing shows a bat, a castle and a knight: Fledermaus, Burg and Ritter. Set F, B and R in the three windows, type the text, and take the second decoded message.

Save point: all texts decoded.

You can clear Anja and Karl from their posts with the alarm buttons. Leave the room.

In the foyer, talk to Lukas, who has a bad feeling about all this. Then go to the glassworks.

The dungeon: the medallion

Close the left side of the furnace with the damper and open the right door. Use the tongs to lift the lever under the letter A. The dungeon door opens; go forward.

Go to the bas-relief on the wall and fit the medallion into it. Turn the medallion clockwise and the hatch in the floor opens. Now turn it anticlockwise and the door to the labyrinth swings open. Leave that door open and leave the dungeon.

Go to the landing to look more closely at the portrait of the Freiherr’s daughter. Find the portrait, look at it, and decide to find a copy of the original painting.

Hurry to the gift shop and buy the postcard reproducing the painting. Take it from your inventory and peel off the price sticker. As suspected: the original has the letters EN in the corner, perhaps the artist’s initials.

Check your task notebook. If everything is done, go out to the courtyard and fish artefacts from the well until Karl rings your mobile, or wait in the forest, or simply stand in the courtyard and wait for his call.

Lukas goes missing

Go to Karl, who reports that Lukas has suddenly disappeared. Leave and go to the foyer.

Go to the table where Lukas usually plays. You look at the marks automatically and conclude the boy was taken away by force.

Talk to Anja, who is very worried and also asks you to find him. Go through the gift shop to the glassworks.

Go to the cupboard where you found one of the coloured glass pieces and look at the floor to its left. Pick up the game token and listen to Nancy’s comment. Open the dungeon door and go in.

Go forward and look behind every door. In the far cell you find a frightened Lukas, begging for help. Click the bolt on the cell door.

Puzzle: the cell bolt

This one is played against a moving bar, so timing matters.

• Press buttons 3 and 4 to sink the first two columns of rods.
• Click the dark red bar so it starts moving right.
• Wait until the bar passes the second column of pins and nears the third, then press 2.
• Once the bar clears the third column, press 1.
• Wait for the bar to clear the fourth and fifth columns of hidden pins, then press 2.
• Once it clears the sixth column, quickly press 3 then 2.
• The bar should reach the right-hand edge.

Save point: dungeon cell bolt open.

Lukas bolts out of the dungeon and the door slams behind him. Trying to open it is useless. Turn around and head deeper in, since you left the labyrinth door open, but it does not go to plan.

The cell: the escape puzzle

You come round in the cell you just freed Lukas from. Turn right along the arrow and you see familiar symbols on the wall, the same drawings as on the postcard and the torn pages.

Puzzle: the symbol stones

Work out the order from the pages, each of which pairs a picture with letters:

• The postcard shows the necklace on the girl’s neck, with the letters EN.
• Page 11 shows a rock, letters ME.
• Page 17 shows a well, letters TK.
• Page 19 shows a shield, letters OM.
• Page 25 shows an open hatch, letter N.

Find the stone with the necklace on the wall and click it, then press the stones in the order the pages run. The letter pairs spell out the word you need next.

The stone wall slides aside, revealing another puzzle. Click it to activate.

Puzzle: ENTKOMMEN

Try to move one of the letters on the right into a cell of the polygon and you see that a letter placed in one cell immediately moves to the next cell clockwise. From the letters you have to spell ENTKOMMEN, shown on the left, which is German for “to escape”. You can start from any cell; the rule is simply that letters move clockwise into the neighbouring cell. If you go wrong, press the arrow at the top to reset.

Save point: dungeon trap open.

Leave along the arrow. The wall closes behind you and you go forward. You will have to get out through the labyrinth.

Out of the labyrinth

From the stones go left, straight, straight, right, straight, straight, straight, right, straight. From the chains go straight, straight, right, straight, right, straight to the red box. From the box turn into the left passage, then straight, left, straight, left, straight. From the stones turn left, straight, right, straight to the stairs. Go up and turn right along the arrow.

Try the locked door. Turn around, go back down the stairs and one step straight. Turn right into the side passage, then straight, right, straight. From the skull go straight, left, straight, right, straight. From the stones turn right, then straight, straight, right, straight, left, straight to the red shield. From the shield turn right, go straight, straight, and turn into the left passage.

By the foot of the stairs you see a bag that was not there before. Search it without hesitation: leaf through the book about the Castle Finster monster and read the forged letter dated tomorrow. Close the bag and go up the stairs.

The finale

The monster appears from round the corner.

Note: work out for yourself who was behind the masquerade and name them. Getting it wrong the first time costs you nothing; you always get a second chance.

Notice that the monster is standing on the hatch cover. Put the inactive cursor on the bas-relief and wait for it to turn red. The moment control briefly passes to you, quickly open your inventory, take the medallion, fit it into the bas-relief on the wall, and turn it right with the circular arrow.

Watch the closing video. Save your game, answer one of the quiz questions and look over your titles.

Wait for the credits to finish; there is something amusing at the end.

Senior Detective differences

Puzzle: matching pictures

Same task, a harder image.

Puzzle: Renate’s bag

Same principle, a tighter packing problem, and more than one valid arrangement.

Puzzle: Renate’s casket

Randomised, so no step-by-step solution. Note that on this difficulty a column can contain two of the same colour.

Puzzle: the casket of coloured glass

• Put the small blue glass one step right of the bottom right corner.
• Put the orange glass in the top right corner.
• Put the large light green glass tight against the right wall, directly under the orange.
• Put the large blue glass in the bottom right corner.
• Put the large red glass in the top left corner.
• Lay the large turquoise glass on the red, one step in from the top wall and one step in from the left wall.
• Turn the small lilac glass vertical and stand it in the bottom left corner on the small blue glass.
• Lay the small dark green glass beside the top of the large light green glass.
• Put the large violet glass one step up from the bottom left corner.
• Set the large yellow glass horizontally, three steps right of the bottom left corner.
• Set the last large violet glass vertically, two steps left of the top right corner.

Take the first rotor from the cache that opens.

Save point: first rotor received.

Puzzle: charging the cameras

Press buttons 9 and 15.

Save point: surveillance cameras on.

Puzzle: the sliding stones

Blue stone

• 7 right, 9 up, 11 up, 8 left, 3 down, 9 down, 7 left, 10 up.
• 1 and 2 right, 5 up, 8 left, 6 down.
• 2 and 7 left; 3, 9 and 6 up.
• 12, the blue stone, right into place.

Green stone

• 10 right, 11 down, 9 left, 4 up, 2 right, 3 up.
• 12, the green stone, one step right.
• 11 down, 2 left, 4 down, 5 left, 4 up.
• 6 and 7 up.
• 12, the green stone, right into place.

Red stone

• 9 right, 2 up, 3 left, 4 up, 5 down.
• 1, the red stone, right.
• 11 down, 4 down, 3 right.
• 10 and 2 down; 3, 7, 8 and 9 left.
• 1, the red stone, right into place.

Save point: grilles raised.

Easter egg: stacking the glass

Same principle as on Junior Detective, stacking into the top right corner. The rule: lay the light glass first and the dark glass on top of it.

Puzzle: the well hexagons

Randomised again, so no step-by-step solution. On this difficulty the central piece is the fixed one, so build outwards from there.