Silent Hill f: Shrine Vault puzzle solution

Throughout your time in Silent Hill f’s spooky world, you’ll spend a great deal of time solving puzzles. Some of these are simple environmental puzzles that you don’t need to think too hard about, while others will have you solving riddles plucked from the most annoying bridge-dwelling trolls you’ve ever seen. 

One early puzzle in Silent Hill f is that of the Shrine Vault, which comes right after the Altar puzzle and sees you exploring a monster-infested area to gather symbols that can be entered into a combination lock. 

In this guide we’ll go over the solution for the Shrine Altar puzzle in Silent Hill f, including the solution for all three difficulty levels: Story, Hard, and Lost in the Fog. 

Silent Hill f Shrine puzzle: Story difficulty solution 

To open the shrine vault, you’ll need to know which three symbols are needed to unlock a combination lock that’s locking off the vault. These can be found on ema – small wooden panels hung up on racks around the area – but you’ll need to check specific ema to get the right combination. 

On Story difficulty, the three ema you’ll need to find are that of the crane, the serpent, and the tortoise. There are three lots of ema racks in the area — one in the south, one to the west, and one to the northwest. 

The southernmost ema rack is home to the tortoise, which you can find by interacting with the racks. Simply locate the tortoise ema and flip it over to learn the symbol representing the tortoise, which will be recorded in your journal for easy access.

Head back up to the shrine guarded by two fox statues, then head west to get to the northwest ema rack. Here, you’ll find the serpent ema, which you can flip over to get its symbol. 

Finally, head south towards the westernmost ema rack, where you can find the crane ema. Once again, flip over the ema to record its symbol in your journal. 

Once you have all three symbols, head back to the vault, where you will need to enter the three symbols in order from top to bottom: first the crane, then the serpent, then the tortoise. 

Silent Hill f Shrine puzzle: Hard difficulty solution

The hard difficulty version of the Shrine puzzle sees you seeking out ema based on text given to you by a creepy doll: 

Lightning cast down from the heavens split asunder the decayed tree. 

From the earth grows kudzu, the prophet of eternal prosperity. 

Head down to the southernmost ema rack, where you’re looking for an ema adorned with a decayed tree — it’s fairly easy to spot, because the whole ema is painted with scenery. Flip it over to collect the symbol in your journal. 

The northwest ema rack holds the lightning ema — like the decayed tree, it’s the only ema that’s entirely covered by its illustration, which is a dark cloud with a bolt of lightning over waves. Flip it over to record its symbol. You’ll also get the combination lock dial needed to enter the full combination. 

The westernmost ema rack is home to the kudzu ema, which is adorned with two lavender flowers with broad leaves. Flip it over to record its symbol in your journal. Here, you can also find a note pointing to a special omamori, which is hidden behind the ema with the large orange cat in the same area. 

Once you have all three symbols, head back to the vault, where you will need to enter the three symbols in order from top to bottom: first the lightning, then the decayed tree, then the kudzu. 

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

Like the hard difficulty, the Lost in the Fog difficulty version of this puzzle has you solving the puzzle using a piece of text given by the creepy doll, the relevant part of which is as follows: 

The Yokai of the Carriage had their heads removed. 

The Yokai of the Umberella, their arms. 

And the Yokai of the Kettle, their legs. 

Head south to the southernmost ema rack, which you walked through earlier to get to the shrine. Here, you’re looking for the Yokai of the Carriage ema, which is a strange-looking caravan with two heads. Flipping it over will reveal four symbols, all of which will be recorded in your journal under the Yokai of the Carriage section. 

Head up to the shrine and then up to the northwestern ema rack, where you need to find the Yokai of the Kettle, a running man with three legs who has wisps running from his head and feet. Flip it over to collect the next set of four symbols for your journal. 

Finally, head south to the westernmost shrine, where you’re looking for the Yokai of the Umbrella ema, which is a strange triangle-shaped creature with four arms and a long, gruesome tongue. Flip it over to reveal the final set of four symbols, which will be recorded in your journal. 

Head back to the Shrine Vault, to the east of the shrine itself, and interact with the combination lock. Open your journal to view the symbols you’ve collected — there will be four symbols for each Yokai. 

The key to solving this is to look at the creepy doll’s text again. You’ll see that each Yokai had a certain body part removed, and you’ll need to count the relevant body parts on the Yokai referenced, then select the symbol in their respective sequence and enter that into the lock. 

• The Yokai of the Carriage had its heads removed, and it has two heads, so the second symbol in its sequence is the correct one. 
• The Yokai of the Umbrella had its arms removed, and it has four arms, so the fourth symbol in its sequence is the correct one. 
• Finally, the Yokai of the Kettle had its legs removed, and it has three legs, so the third symbol in its sequence is the correct one. 

Enter the symbols from top to bottom into the combination lock and confirm to unlock it and progress with the game.