Midwich Elementary School

After the opening crash and the vision of a fleeing figure down a blood-marked alley, you black out. You come to in a coffee shop with police officer Cybil Bennett, who hands you a Handgun before the town's first attack forces her hand. Search the coffee shop itself for a Kitchen Knife and the town map, and note the notepad — this is Silent Hill's save point, and you'll want to use every one you find from here on.

Head back into the alley where you blacked out to find a message Cheryl left behind, then follow the trail west toward Levin Street. A doghouse beside a house there hides the House Key. Inside, a second map reveals three padlocks blocking your way forward — and three keys hidden around the block:

• Lion Key — in a police car's trunk on Finney Street.
• Scarecrow Key — inside a mailbox behind a boarded-up doorway on Ellroy Street.
• Woodsman Key — under the basketball hoop of a fenced-in court, down an unnamed alley.

With all three, return to the house and continue through to the backyard, which opens straight onto Midwich Elementary School.

Inside the school, grab the area map posted by the entrance, then check the reception desk — three bloody notes there each name a different time. Head to the courtyard clock tower: it currently reads 10:00, with a locked door and two empty slots on either side.

Cross to the opposite side of the courtyard, go through the Hall, and take the stairs up to 2F. In the Lab Equipment Room, grab the Chemical, then use it in the room next door on the hand resting on the table to receive the Gold Medallion. Slot it into the tower — the clock advances to 12:00.

The 12:00 note points to "a place with songs and sounds" — the Music Room, back up on 2F along the same hallway. A message on the chalkboard inside sets up a piano puzzle: several keys are silent, and pressing them in order (counting whites and blacks separately, left to right) drops the next medallion:

1. The 2nd white key
2. The 6th white key
3. The 5th black key
4. The 5th white key
5. The 1st black key

This produces the Silver Medallion. Return to the clock tower and slot it into the other side — the clock reads 5:00.

"Darkness brings a suffocating heat" points to the Boiler Room in the basement. Head back up to 2F, find the stairwell in the bottom-right of the map, and follow it all the way down. Flip the switch on the machinery inside, then return to the clock tower one last time — the door is finally unlocked.

Everything is different now — the map's earlier markers are gone. From the courtyard's north exit, reach the Storage Room for a Rubber Ball, then loop back through the Hall to the opposite hallway. Grab a Drawing from a classroom desk, and unlock the connecting hallway door on your way through so you don't have to backtrack through the Hall again.

In the reception hallway, the room behind reception now opens with the Drawing. Through it, the men's restroom hides a Shotgun on the wall — grab it. Continue to the stairwell, go up to 2F, and climb to the rooftop.

A gutter puzzle sits in the floor: drop the Rubber Ball into the first hole and open the valve beside it. This frees a Key, which falls down into the courtyard below.

Head back down to the courtyard for the dropped Classroom Key, then return to 2F. The Locker Room holds the Library Reserve Key — use it in the Library Reserve room, but be ready for a scare. Once it's over, examine the body there and continue through to the 2F classroom hallway, using the Classroom Key to cross it and reach the stairs.

Descend all the way to the basement Boiler Room again. The machinery has changed — two valves need specific adjustments:

• Right valve: turn left, twice.
• Left valve: turn right, once.

With both set, the path forward opens — straight into the school's first real boss fight.