Silent Hill f: Altar puzzle solution

Silent Hill f, like any good Silent Hill game, is filled with puzzles for the player to solve in order to progress, get new items, and learn more about the world. The first puzzle in the game comes during your first visit to the Dark Shrine, a strange, dark realm overseen by a mysterious man in a fox mask. 

In this puzzle, you’re tasked with placing specific items of great spiritual significance onto specific pedestals in an altar, but figuring out what goes where can be a challenge, especially on higher puzzle difficulties. 

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In this guide we’ll walk you through the solutions to the Altar puzzle in Silent Hill f, including the solutions to the puzzle on Story, Hard, and Lost in the Fog difficulty. 

Silent Hill f Altar puzzle: Story difficulty solution

You will have five items in front of you — a fan, a gourd-like vessel, a dead rat wrapped in a leaf, a kimono on a dead bird, and a dried fish wrapped in paper. Each item has a cord tied around it, tied with a specific knot. There are also corresponding knots symbols on the pedestals, which is where each item should be placed. 

The solution to this puzzle on Story difficulty is to place the dead rat on the top left and the dried fish on the top right. The kimono should be placed on the bottom left, the vessel on the bottom middle, and the fan on the bottom right. 

Silent Hill f Altar puzzle: Hard difficulty solution

The Hard version of this puzzle ups the difficulty somewhat, requiring you to take a much closer look at the items in order to match them up with symbols on the pedestals. The pedestals are emblazoned with the following symbols: a tree, a flower wreathe, a bamboo plant, three flowers, and three leaves. 

Each of the items you need to place relates to these symbols, or has these symbols printed on them somewhere. The fan, for example, has bamboo iconography printed on its wooden sides, so it goes on the bamboo pedestal. 

The solution to this puzzle on Hard difficulty is as follows: 

• The fan has bamboo printed on it, so it goes in the bottom left pedestal, marked with bamboo. 
• The vessel has a flower printed on its base, so it goes in the bottom center pedestal, marked with three flowers. 
• The dead rat is wrapped in a kudzu leaf, so it goes on the bottom right pedestal, marked with three leaves. 
• The kimono has a blossoming flower print on it, so it goes on the top right pedestal, marked with a flower wreath. 
• Finally, the dried fish has very subtle tree detailing on the paper covering the fish, so it goes in the top left pedestal, marked with a tree. 

Silent Hill f Altar puzzle: Lost in the Fog difficulty solution 

Lost in the Fog difficulty ramps the difficulty of this puzzle even further, removing the clues on the pedestals themselves and replacing them with a riddle that you have to solve to know where to place each item. The riddle is as follows: 

Kudzu, respected by all and a leader of the people, was wed to Pine. 

Plum, loved by all and always at the center of any group, was wed to Bamboo. 

Chrysanthemum, who had no mate, spent their days studying under Kudzu, and became known as the “Sage of the East.” 

Let the prosperity of our clan be eternal. 

This is a classic kind of puzzle that asks you to figure out the position of the items based on the clues in the riddle. The item representing Plum, for example, must be placed on the bottom center pedestal, as it is “always at the center of any group.” 

The solution to this puzzle on Lost in the Fog difficulty is as follows: 

• Plum is the kimono, which is adorned with plum blossoms, which goes on the bottom center pedestal. 
• Bamboo is the fan, which is adorned with bamboo markings, which goes on the bottom left pedestal. 
• Chrysanthemum is the vessel, which has a chrysanthemum flower printed on its base, which goes on the bottom right pedestal, as it “studies under Kudzu” in the east. 
• Kudzu is the dead rat, which is wrapped in a kudzu leaf, and thus goes in the top right, because Chrysanthemum studies under it in the east. 
• Pine is the dried fish, which is tied with pine needles, and it goes in the top left position, next to its spouse, Kudzu.