Puzzles

Locked Briefcase Puzzle (Hotel)

Location: Lake View Hotel, Room 202 2F
Requires: Thinner: Inside the basement elevator.

Contents

Intro

As you can see, the locked briefcase requires a four-letter combination, and no, it's not Mary. The combination is random each time but it always makes up an actual word. You may notice there's only a certain selection of eight letters on each dial (from left to right):

m e s p
l a r n
k x m l
h v l k
d u e e
t p c a
o o w t
n i v r

Solution

What you'll need to do here is spell the matching four-letter word that unlocks the briefcase. Examine the suspicious photos all over the bed and James will find one specifically of the briefcase's dial, but the combination is crossed out with black ink.

If you check your inventory, you'll find a useful item. Use the Thinner to remove the ink on the photograph and reveal the combination. If you don't have it yet, it's in the open elevator in the basement.

From playing this game several times, you'll generally notice a pattern in these random four-letter codes. It will usually be a dark, depressing or negative word with a couple outliers. Below are all potential solutions:

damn dull kill mist
dark dust lock null
dose hell lose over
down help love town

From the pattern, you might be able to sometimes determine the code without even using the Thinner, especially if you're good at rearranging jumbled letters into words, or if you just try all these listed here.

Once the combination is revealed, examine the case again and input the combination from the photo to open it.