Nancy Drew: Warnings at Waverly Academy

A complete walkthrough for Nancy Drew: Warnings at Waverly Academy, played on the Junior Detective difficulty. Nancy goes undercover as new student Becca Sawyer at an elite girls’ boarding school where someone calling herself the Black Cat is driving the candidates for valedictorian out one by one.

A note on versions

This guide was translated from a Russian localisation, and four details needed correcting against the English release: the Waverly site password, the word you search in the library catalogue, the IP address, and the name of the student who uploaded the stolen paper. All four are given here in their English-release form, checked against published English walkthroughs. Everything else applies to any version.

Before you start

• Read the book What every detective should know to get to grips with the game’s features.
• New this time: you can roam the corridors at night, hiding from the vigilant prefect in the various alcoves, and you have a multifunction phone with a camera you can take photographs on.
• The inventory works as in previous games, with the interaction icons along the bottom. All movement directions are given from the point of view of someone sitting at the monitor, unless stated otherwise.
• Read the case materials in the folder on the desk all the way through, then click the plane ticket in the folder’s bottom right corner to begin.
• The game is loosely divided into four days, and you can work at your own pace and in your own order.
• You can save manually at almost any point. Saves live in your Documents folder, in a subfolder named after the game.

Achievements

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

• Brilliant Player — best score at the card matching game.
• Bibliophile — for a love of the library catalogue.
• Serial Offender — for breaking the academy rules.
• Easter Egg — top secret.
• Ears Pricked — for keeping up with all the gossip.
• Night Scout — for conducting night-time searches.
• Duellist — for constantly competing with Leela.
• Virtuoso Musician — for diligent practice on the piano.
• Head Chef — for serving the students quickly.
• Paparazzi — for taking lots of interesting photographs.
• Socialite — for frequent visits to the neighbouring rooms.
• Know-it-all — for answering the quiz question correctly.

Day one

Watch the opening video. This time Nancy works undercover: new student Becca Sawyer arrives at the academy.

Meet your roommate Corine Myers, who brings you up to date on recent events. After talking to her, look around your room.

Turn around and go to the desk where your handbag sits. Read the note from Rachel Hubbard. Take the photograph of your friends Bess and George out of the bag and stand it on the desk.

Leave the room and turn right. In the corridor you run into Izzy Romero, the student body president. To cover her embarrassment, Izzy offers to connect your phone to the academy network.

Go forward and look at the door on the right, Mel Corbalis‘s room. Read the note on the door, knock politely and go in.

Meet Mel. In conversation she gives you the phone number of her roommate Megan, who was the victim of the latest incident.

Look at the hand-embroidered sampler. It reads “Read much followed by Moore”, and the word Moore catches your attention because it is misspelled. Version note: the Russian localisation embroiders a different misspelled word here. On the English release the word to remember is Moore.

Leave Mel’s room and carry on along the corridor. From the hall turn left and knock on the left-hand door, where Izzy Romero and Leela Yadav live; nobody answers. Turn around and knock on Rachel Hubbard’s door.

Meet the eccentric Rachel and get your first job: photograph all the candidates and put the pictures on the website. Out in the corridor, turn around and knock on the room of Paige Griffin, the deputy head, but she will not let you in. Return to the hall and go to your own room.

Talk to Corine, then photograph her. The camera phone comes into your hands automatically and you only have to press Take photo. Leave and go into Mel’s room. After a short conversation, ask permission to photograph her, take the shot and save it, then leave.

Go down the left-hand stairs. Go forward, look right, open the door and enter the library. Go left to the computer and click the monitor, then click the Waverly site icon.

You need a password. Click Forgot password? and you are told the student body president has it. Turn around and go to Izzy at the desk at the back of the library.

Talk to her, try to get the password, and photograph her too, saving the shot. Izzy will only hand the password over in exchange for help assembling a model of a DNA molecule.

Puzzle: the DNA model

The rules: adenine always pairs with thymine, and cytosine with guanine. Each pair attaches to a deoxyribose, which together with the phosphate residues forms the chain.

Take the model elements from your inventory and start building. Pay particular attention to the brown balls, the phosphate residues, which are the links in the deoxyribose chain: the light patch on each brown ball must be on the left. If it ends up on the right, you have made a mistake and the model will not join properly. The highlights on the large balls, on the other hand, must be on the right. Right-click rotates a ball.

Save point: DNA model assembled.

Go to Izzy and hand over the correctly assembled model. She gives you the promised password: WAC35NE136.

Version note: the Russian release uses a different password here, because the localisers translated the acronym. On the English release it is WAC35NE136.

Return to the public computer. A message arrives on your phone; read it, press Next and read the message about your own arrival at the academy.

Take the list of candidates Rachel gave you out of your inventory and study it carefully.

Important: if you do not study this list, the conversation with Megan about the photograph will not come up and you will not be able to play against Leela.

Click the academy site icon, enter the password and confirm.

Read all the available information, noting the merit and demerit points, and read every notice. Be sure to read the notice about incidents, which describes how one student got into someone else’s room using a student pass, and the notice about a missing library book. You can earn an extra merit point by playing the card matching game on the site, though it is better to do that a little later.

Return to the main menu and click Search catalogue. Type Moore into the search box and press Search: the library does have such a book.

Step away from the desk, turn around and go to the bookcase. Behind glass you see The Story of Four by Madeline Moore.

Go to the New arrivals stand and note the nameplate with Corine’s name: your roommate is the librarian’s assistant, so ask her for the cabinet key.

Important: if you do not look at that nameplate, the conversation with Corine about the cabinet key will not come up.

Leave the library and go right. In the ground-floor hall you notice a piano. Go to it and run your fingers over the keys, noting the gold star stuck to one of them.

For the achievement, practise on the piano as often as you can.

Go forward, turn right and enter the common room. Talk to Leela Yadav about everything, then photograph her.

Go out to the hall, take out your phone and call Megan Vargas, asking her everything about the incident.

To get Megan’s photograph from Leela you have to beat her at air hockey. It is not hard, and Leela then promises to fetch the photograph from her room.

Note: if you lose to Leela three times in a row she will still fetch Megan’s photograph for you.

Canteen duty

Go behind the canteen counter to the left of the entrance and take the duty instructions from the counter, reading them carefully.

Look at the order. If it lists toasted bread or a doughnut, take it from the basket on the upper counter and drop it into the toaster from above, then press the lever at the side to toast it. Take the toasted piece, put it on a plate and layer the ordered ingredients on top: ham, tomatoes, salad or cheese, in the order and quantity written on the order. Close the sandwich with the second toasted half.

From the refrigerated cabinet on the left take a carton of milk and put it on the tray. From under the upper counter take a packet of muesli, biscuits, nuts or crisps and put it on the tray. Press Done at the bottom.

If the order lists a pie, take it from the top shelf of the refrigerated cabinet and put it in the oven. Close the oven door and wait for the sound signal, and for the green light on the door, both confirming it has heated. Take it out and put it on a plate on the tray.

If anything goes wrong while preparing an order, throw it in the Rubbish on the right and start again. The chocolate is on the upper counter between the bread and doughnut baskets. If an order says nothing about toasting, take the bread or doughnut from the basket untoasted, put it on a plate and assemble the sandwich with the ordered ingredients.

When every order is done, a KEY drops onto your counter. You do not yet know what it opens, so take it anyway. You come out from behind the counter automatically.

Turn around, look right and go to the store cupboard. Open the door and find it dark inside. Switch the light on with the switch to the right of the door and an active spot appears on the shelf; click it and take another KEY from the top shelf on the right.

Important: without switching the light on you cannot take the key, because you cannot see it in the dark.

Turn around and leave the common room.

The rest of day one

Your phone sounds; read the message. Go up to the first floor, into your room, and ask Corine about the missing book The Black Cat. Visit the students’ rooms in turn and talk to Mel and Rachel, photographing whoever you have not yet, then leave.

Go down to the library and talk to Izzy, asking everything you have accumulated. A message reminds you about canteen duty, so go to the common room and feed the hungry students.

Finish the orders and go to Leela, who is in a worse mood. Ask about Megan’s photograph, which you now have to earn with another game.

Playing Scram

Scram is like darts with different rules. You throw darts at the sectors listed in the table on the right. Leela goes first and tries to block the highest-scoring numbers by throwing darts at them; the numbers she blocks go out on the table and are useless to you. Then it is your turn, and you should aim for the highest numbers still available.

For example, if Leela’s first three throws knock out 50, 25 and 20, then throw all three of your darts at 19, the highest number now left. In the second round Leela scores and your job is to block the biggest numbers so she cannot beat you. Each time, try to knock out the three highest remaining numbers in the table on the right.

Win and Leela hands over Megan’s photograph at once.

Note: if you lose three rounds in a row she generously shows you the photograph anyway, and from then on it can always be found in that spot without asking her.

Photograph Megan with your phone and go behind the counter to do your duty. This time you have to fill a teacher’s order very quickly; when one of those appears the others are cancelled so they do not get in the way. Finish the remaining orders, then hurry to the library.

Easter egg 1

Go to the computer, click the Catalogue tab and type the catalogue number ISBN 4755568135314 into the search box, then press Search. The book is in the Reading Room section. Step away, turn around, go to the stairs and take that book off the shelf. Open it and take out the Easter egg.

This catalogue number comes from the Russian release; if it does not work, check the number in your own game.

A message arrives saying lights-out is coming for the senior students. Leave the library and go up, reading the message that arrives.

Carefully go down to the ground floor without being seen by Paige. Take some night-time photographs for the achievements, then just as carefully return to your room.

Take out your phone, choose Clock, set your wake-up time with the arrows and press Set. In the night you hear a piercing scream and Paige’s voice demanding that nobody leave their rooms.

Day two

Get up when the alarm sounds. Corine is already at her desk. Talk to her and ask about the key to the rare books cabinet; she will give it in exchange for her technical drawing homework.

Puzzle: the orthographic views

Take the folder she offers, then take it from your inventory to view. Left-click the correct projection and place it in the right position.

Hand the finished assignment to Corine in conversation and receive the cabinet KEY.

Go down to the common room and do your canteen duty. When the orders are done, hurry to the library to upload the photographs.

Take out the instructions Rachel gave you and study them, then follow them exactly. Connect your phone to the USB port.

Click the icon and go to the academy site. Choose the Academics tab and click the empty space labelled Our candidates. Click a photo placeholder and press Upload on the right. To move to the next photograph, put the cursor to the left of the Next button and click when it becomes an arrow, then choose the next photograph. All six photographs must go on the site.

Then go to the rare books cabinet, unlock it with Corine’s key, take out Moore’s book and read about the academy’s founders. Look at the photograph up close and note the memorial plaque in its bottom right corner; click it to study the plaque closely. Put the book back, turn around and leave the library, heading for Rachel’s room.

On the way you get a message from Paige Griffin awarding a merit point for updating the site.

Go into Rachel’s room and get another assignment about arranging the candidates’ photographs. Leave and go down to the canteen. After the orders, hurry to the library.

On the way you get a message saying Mel plagiarised her art history paper. In the library, connect your phone to the USB port, go to the site, click Academics and choose Our candidates.

Study Rachel’s instructions carefully and left-click the photographs into place accordingly. Place the coloured captions correctly too, until you hear Nancy comment approvingly that it is all correct.

Note: if there is no comment from Nancy, look for a mistake in the photographs or the captions and fix it.

Go to Izzy and ask her everything. Read the message that arrives; the gossip is now about you. Leave the library and go outside.

Take a step forward and turn around. Take out your phone and photograph the front door.

For the achievement you need 30 photographs, so photograph anything you like along the way.

Go forward along the path and look right. Click the memorial plaque and conclude that in the photograph the stones were fitted tightly together, so you must do the same.

Puzzle: the memorial plaque

Press the plaque to study it closely. Put the cursor on the bottom right stone and rotate it into the correct position. Then hold the bottom left stone with the right mouse button and rotate it into position. Do the same for the top left and then the top right stone.

When the stones sit as they did in the photograph, a cache opens. You watch helplessly as Casper, an albino squirrel, carries something from the cache up his tree.

Save point: memorial plaque assembled.

Take Rita Hallowell’s old diary from the cache and read the entries. Zoom out. Take Ned’s incoming call and discuss the news. Carry on, walking round the house, always turning right.

Look at the closed cellar. Open the padlock with the key someone dropped onto your canteen counter and open the cellar hatch. Go down and press the switch on the left to light the cellar.

Go to the cardboard box full of books and click it. Read the information in the book America. Land of Adventure, paying particular attention to the arrangement of the states, which you will need shortly. On the right, examine the huge furnace. Turn around and look at the wall: it is boarded over, and the boards carry star shapes.

Leave the cellar and return to the academy’s front entrance. Look right and take the left-hand path this time. Look at Casper the albino squirrel. You cannot climb the tree, so you will need another way to follow him.

Go into the academy building and note the cutlery locked in a display case. Read that the antique menu is with Leela. In the hall, open the cabinet of sports trophies and examine them.

Go to the common room and ask Leela about the antique menu. As always you will have to play one of her games to win what you need. With the prize in hand, examine the menu. Go behind the counter and do your duty, then head for Mel’s room.

Talk to her and she asks for help. Take the paper Mel wrote and study it, noting the IP addresses written in the left margin. Leave and go into Rachel’s room.

She approves of your work on the site and immediately hands you a new task: photographing the symbols of the academy and of the USA, then uploading those shots too. Leave and hurry to the library computer.

Puzzle: the IP address

Go to the academy site, open the Academics tab and click Resources in the left column, reaching the Paper World page. Enter any of the IP addresses from the margin of Mel’s paper, for example 1586.122.2, and click find IP address. A table of the last five IP address combinations appears.

Remember what Mel said: in the address you want, no digit repeats. Beyond that, the address uses every digit from 0 to 9 exactly once. Click the right numbers so the address below reads:

69.57.284.103

Press find by IP and you learn the paper was posted online a day later by one Jacob Pryce.

Version note: the Russian release transposes two digits of this address and spells the name Price. The address and spelling above are the English release’s.

Talk to Izzy again and ask about Jacob Pryce. Leave the library and go to the common room. Ask Leela about Jacob, then play one of her games if you want the achievement. Go behind the counter and feed the students, then go to the academy hall.

Puzzle: photographing the academy symbol

Go to the front door and turn around. Take out the camera phone and point it at the floor with the academy symbol. To get a usable shot for the site, the symbol has to be centred in the frame. Zoom in 30 times in three stages, using the plus button, pressing the down button in the camera’s top right corner as far as it goes after each stage:

• Zoom in 10 times with the plus button, then press down as far as it goes.
• Zoom in 10 more times, then press down as far as it goes.
• Zoom in 10 more times, then press down as far as it goes.

Save the shot. Go to the library, sit at your computer and press Search catalogue. Type dinner in the search box and learn that the book about festive dining is with Rachel Hubbard.

For the achievement you need to search the catalogue often. You can type any letter and press Search, which turns up books belonging to characters familiar from earlier games in the series.

Leave the library and go to the common room. Take the egg from your inventory, click it on Leela and offer a game of air hockey.

Note: if you have already played and collected five coloured bats, you get a white bat as a bonus.

After the game, go behind the counter and fill the orders. After 11pm, take a walk round the academy at night. Go down to the common room and you hear Paige approaching; the cursor becomes a figure of a girl. Turn around and hide in the dark store cupboard where you found the key. Return to your room, set the alarm for 8am and sleep.

Night: the oak tree

You wake to an odd tapping at the window. Pull the curtain aside and see Casper the albino squirrel outside, apparently inviting you for a walk along the branches of the old oak. Watch carefully which branches the squirrel jumps along, then repeat his route. Climb out of the window onto the branches.

Move along the lower part of the tree first, then the middle part, and finally jump along the branches at the top of the old oak.

Reach into the squirrel’s hollow and take out a STAR. Voices from below catch your attention: stop and watch a strange ritual beneath the oak.

Climb down, return to your room and shut the window. Set the alarm for eight again and sleep.

Day three

After the alarm you accidentally drop your phone under the desk. Reach down for it, take the phone, and underneath find a note from the Black Cat. Also take the wooden map piece shaped like the state of Oklahoma from the floor.

Read the message about your merit point for canteen duty. Turn to the exit and find a second note from the Black Cat under the door, addressed to you personally.

Hurry to Mel’s room to cheer her up. In thanks, Mel gives you an old newspaper cutting; take it and read it by clicking it in your inventory. You have seen a trophy like that in the sports cabinet. Leave Mel’s room.

Go to Rachel’s room and ask for the book. Rachel will help, but only in exchange for a favour: she wants her own maths exercise book back, which she lent to Mel.

Return to Mel’s room and ask about Rachel’s book. Mel is embarrassed: she left it in the library. Leave and hurry down to the canteen.

Fill the teacher’s order very quickly, and a message awards you a merit point for fast service. Go back behind the counter, feed the students, then talk to Leela.

Leave the common room and open the sports trophy cabinet. Take out the Great Odyssey trophy and photograph it, then save the shot. Go outside, take a step forward and turn around again.

Photograph the academy’s front door, now lightly dusted with snow. Take the left-hand path and photograph the old oak where the albino squirrel lives. Under the oak, pick up a woman’s hair clip.

Return indoors and read the latest piece of gossip about yourself. Hurry to the library.

Puzzle: the lost property box

Go to the new arrivals stand. Open the book about numbers and refresh your memory of Roman numerals and their Arabic equivalents.

Go to the box of forgotten items to the left of the new arrivals stand, labelled Lost property. It has a code lock, and Roman numerals are written on its left side: MMDCXLI, which is 2641. Enter that code.

Take Rachel’s exercise book from the open box and go to Izzy with the hair clip. She tells you who it belongs to. Finish the conversation, leave the library, go up and give Rachel her algebra book.

Take the book and return to the ground-floor hall, heading for the cutlery display.

Puzzle: the Victorian cutlery

Take the book from Rachel and leaf through it. Find the description of the cutlery that would be laid for the dinner described in the festive menu. Inside the book you also find somebody’s lost student pass; take it, remembering the notice about someone getting into another girl’s room with a borrowed pass. Leaf through to the end to note what other cutlery was laid in the Victorian era.

Unlock the display case with the key you found in the store cupboard and open the door.

Recall the entry in Rita’s diary and study the antique Victorian menu you won from Leela:

• Oysters — oyster fork
• Consommé — soup spoon
• Turtle meat — turtle fork
• Beef fillet — steak knife
• Sorbet — sorbet spoon
• Roast chicken — poultry knife
• Cheese — cheese fork
• Vanilla ice cream — ice cream spoon
• Sugared oranges — orange spoon
• Coffee — coffee spoon

Note that the pieces in the display are not in the order given in the book, so match them by their pictures. Press them in turn following the festive menu. From the cache that opens on the right, take a gold STAR. Close the case and go up to Mel’s room.

Ask Mel directly about the hair clip, lean on her a little, and learn about the secret society Blackwood.

Read the message that arrives. Remembering the lost pass, decide to use the situation.

Izzy and Leela’s room

Go up to the first floor and use the pass on the door of Izzy and Leela’s room, opposite Rachel’s.

Go to the desk, examine the photograph of Izzy, then turn the portrait over and find a small KEY behind it. Note the photograph of Jacob standing on the desk too. Go back to the door, turn around and look right.

By the sports bag, under a pile of other things, find the missing Edgar Allan Poe book. Open it and you see a list of the writer’s works. Put the book away and turn around.

Look right. Open the little chest by Izzy’s bed with the key you found. Examine the contents and find the cloak of the leader of the Blackwood society.

Leave their room and go down to the library. Go to the rare books cabinet and put the stolen book back.

Before you shelve it, note the list of stories inside that book; you need it later.

Close the cabinet, go to the computer and read the notice about the changing weather on the site’s front page. Go to Izzy and ask her directly about the words of the ritual.

Read the message awarding merit points for returning the missing book. Leave the library for the academy hall.

Puzzle: the piano

Opposite the piano, by the wall of pictures, note the table lamps with white shades. Click both shades and you see drawings of keys with labels on them. You need to understand what they mean, so look for a music theory book in the library.

At the computer, click the catalogue and search for Music theory. The book The Musical Notation: Piano by Virtuosi is in the library and it is with Mel. Leave and go up to her room.

Mel will hand it over if you bring her milk and a pie from the canteen. Go down, serve the students, and make Mel’s order last: put a carton of milk on the tray, heat a pie in the oven and take the order with you.

Go up to Mel’s room and give her the food in conversation, receiving the music theory book.

Leave and go down to the hall. Take the book from your inventory and read it: it gives the ranges, Coloratura Soprano from C4 to F6 and Low Bass from C2 to F4. Look at the page of Rita’s diary: first the low bass, then the coloratura. So the lampshades record a melody to be played on the piano.

The notes on the shades are:

• Right shade, the low bass: D2, A2, B2, D3, F3, A2, C2
• Left shade, the coloratura: E6, A5, B5, C5, E5, B4, C5, G4, C4

Use the book to work out which keys those are. C4 is the key with the star on it, which anchors the rest.

Play the melody on the left half of the piano first. Then, without zooming out, turn the cursor to the right so it becomes a yellow arrow, and carry on playing on the right half. Played correctly, a cache opens in the piano.

Save point: piano cache open.

Take the gold STAR with a cat on it from the cache.

You get a message saying Corine and Izzy are friends, with a photograph of them together. Go up to your room and talk to Corine, who is delighted and insists the photograph is genuine.

Read Izzy’s denial when it arrives. Go down to the library and try to talk to Izzy, but she is too upset about the faked photograph.

The site now carries a notice that the missing book was returned by an unknown user. Unknown? Then what were you given a merit point for?

It is time to look into the locked classroom, but trying by day earns you ten demerits from Paige. If you have time before lights-out, spend it as you like: play the card game on the site, play Leela’s favourites, or go up to your room and set the alarm for 11pm. If you hear a scream in the corridor, stay in your room and reset the alarm for midnight. After it rings, go down, cross the hall, hiding from Paige if you must, and stop at the locked classroom door.

The locked classroom

Use the student pass on the slot in the door and go forward. Turn around and notice the framed picture of a raven on the column to the left of the door. Study it closely.

Easter egg 2

Go to the left picture with the raven. Press the eye three times, the wing twice and the tail once. A cache opens; take the Easter egg.

Puzzle: the raven

Click the picture and recall the entry in Rita’s diary: wedge-shaped tail, large beak, fluffy feathers on the breast below the beak, long flight feathers. Press the parts of the raven in that order. The picture turns and you hear a sound.

Puzzle: the map of the United States

Turn around and see the wooden map of the states has collapsed. Rita’s diary also says the map of the USA must be reassembled.

Recall the arrangement of the states described in America. Land of Adventure, the book from the cardboard box in the cellar. The wooden Oklahoma piece you found under your desk joins the other pieces automatically. Left-click the wooden pieces on the panel at the left and carry them to their correct places. The pieces do not rotate.

If this gives you trouble, a real political map of the United States works as a hint.

Save point: map of the USA assembled.

Photograph the assembled map and save the shot. Return to the raven picture and take the STAR with a raven from the cache.

You notice Rachel walking past the classroom carrying a tray, and you find yourself outside her room automatically. Open her door with the student pass, press it and go in.

Nobody is there, but you catch one of the panels closing. Go forward and look left. Click the panel.

Puzzle: the panel

Guide the counter from the centre through every star in the drawing, crossing each star only once. The panel slides aside, revealing a secret passage.

Enter Rachel’s secret refuge. You are not seeing double: you have simply learned a small secret of the Hubbard family. When the conversation ends you find yourself back in your own room.

Day four

As always, the morning starts with canteen duty. When your duties are done, go into the library and read the notice about worsening weather on the site.

Despite the prohibition, go outside and to the snow-covered oak, whose photograph can go on the site. Turn around and go to the cellar. Open the hatch, switch the light on and go down the steps to the puzzle on the wall.

Easter egg 3

On the board where all four stars can be arranged vertically, place them from top to bottom in the order cat, beetle, monkey, raven. Take the Easter egg from the cache.

Puzzle: the Poe stars

Recall the list of Edgar Allan Poe stories from inside The Black Cat, which Rita’s diary also points to. Number the list of his works by year in chronological order. You have four stars showing a bird, two animals and an insect, all of which Poe wrote about. Work out which numbers those stories carry:

• No. 6 — The Murders in the Rue Morgue, where the killer is an ape
• No. 13 — The Gold-Bug
• No. 14 — The Black Cat
• No. 15 — The Raven

Put the stars showing the monkey, beetle, cat and raven into holes 6, 13, 14 and 15 respectively. A cache opens and you take out an old plan of the cellar you are standing in.

Take out the photograph of Rita and study it; you photograph it with your phone automatically. Turn around, leave the cellar and go back inside to the library.

Uploading the last photographs

Look at Rachel’s instructions; you already have all the shots she listed. Press the USB port and connect your phone.

Go to the academy site, open the About us tab and click Why Waverly? on the left. Click each photo placeholder in turn to upload your pictures.

Note: the order of uploading and the arrangement do not matter, because Rachel will rearrange them her own way regardless. It also makes no difference whether the front door and the oak are photographed with snow or without; choose whichever you prefer.

Upload all the photographs. Leave the library and come straight back to see whether Rachel has left any comments. Done correctly, the photographs are placed on the site automatically.

Save point: photographs uploaded.

If there are comments under a shot, something needs redoing. A message awards merit points for updating the site, and the demerit log shows you have accumulated 13 merit points. When it is all done, go upstairs.

On the way another message arrives about the Black Cat’s antics. Go into Rachel’s room and talk to her, getting your last assignment.

Go to your room and ask Corine for her essay. Naturally you get it only in exchange for another favour: like Mel, she wants food brought to her room. Take the second note from the Black Cat from under the door and leave.

Hurry to the canteen and feed the students, then make up Corine’s order: a toasted doughnut with cheese, an apple, juice and chocolate. Return to your room and hand her the bag of food in conversation, receiving a flash drive with the essay.

Hurry to the library and talk to a distressed Izzy, whose paper has been wiped from her hard drive. Turn around and go to the computer.

Take the flash drive from your inventory and connect it to the USB port. Go to the academy site, open the Academics tab and click the notice about the Golden Quill competition, then upload Corine’s essay.

A folder with the essay appears on the monitor; open it and read the essay. A message awards another merit point for updating the site.

Go up to your room to talk to Corine, but she is not in her usual place. Go to the desk and look through the papers. Under the papers on the right, find a note with the single word Cellar, and a second note carrying Izzy’s password and a formatting procedure. Why does Corine have those, and where has she gone?

Leave the room and call Ned. Go into Rachel’s room and ask about the note from the Black Cat, then decide to go down to the cellar.

Important: if you are collecting achievements and have anything outstanding, do it before going to the cellar, because you cannot come back.

The cellar, and the finale

Leave the building, go to the hatch cover and click it. Switch the light on and go to the furnace, noting a strange noise on the other side of the wall.

By the furnace, to the right of its door, find the plan of the cellar. You compare it automatically with the old plan from the cache behind the boards. Studying both, you work out that there must be another room behind the furnace, which the old plan shows clearly, and the strange sounds are coming from behind the boiler.

Turn around, go to the exit and try to leave, but you cannot. You will have to find another way out.

Puzzle: the Dupin furnace

Open Rita’s diary and read the passage about Dupin: “One day, behind the Dupin’s grate, the words of the black forest incantation will open what was thought lost.”

Recall the words of the Blackwood society incantation that Izzy told you: “Three is good, but five is better. Nineteen will beat four. If seven can be a measure, then only two will open the grate.”

Look at the new plan, on which all the taps are numbered. So you press them in the order the incantation gives, on the valves it names: taps 3, 5, 19, 4, 7, 2.

Find those taps on the furnace in front of you and turn them in that order. Done correctly, the furnace grate swings open and you can climb inside.

Save point: Dupin furnace open.

Go forward twice along the arrow and you see the girl who has been playing the Black Cat. After a short conversation she runs off, taking the treasure she was hunting, and the doors of the secret room slam shut, trapping you.

Puzzle: the pendulum

Click the large stone in front of you. A blade begins descending from above, exactly as in Poe’s The Pit and the Pendulum, so you need to stop it.

Around the central circle with its mosaic of stones are four empty circles with intricate patterns on their grilles, each pattern different. Press one of the circles, then pull the handle at the bottom of the central circle, and the stones matching that grille’s pattern are removed from the centre.

When the stone mosaic in the central circle is clear, the pendulum stops and the door opens. Climb the stairs and watch the closing video.

Answer the quiz question and receive your award. Be patient and wait for the credits to end for several extra amusing clips.

Senior Detective differences

The one puzzle that changes is the journey through the tree, the night-time route along the oak’s branches, which becomes longer and more demanding. The method is identical: watch which branches Casper jumps along, then repeat his route exactly, working through the lower, middle and upper sections of the tree in turn.