Resident Evil 7: Biohazard - How To Solve Every Puzzle

Puzzles are back in a big way. The creepy mansion of Resident Evil 7 features plenty of those progress-halting brain-scratchers that the old PS1-era Resident Evil titles were known for.

Like those puzzles, nothing is particularly hard. We’re not dealing with The Witness here — but the extra stress involved makes even the most basic mechanisms a nightmare to solve. If you’re stuck, check out all the puzzle solutions available in the list below.

And don’t worry, those obscure puzzles from the RE7 demo? They aren’t in the full game. You’ll only have normal puzzles to deal with. I mean, as “normal” as any RE puzzles are.

How To Solve Every Puzzle | Solutions Guide

Main Hall – Projector Puzzle

To escape the Main Hall and avoid Jack’s deadly axe, you’ll need to use the light projector on the plinth in Main House 1F, Main Hall. Before doing that, you’ll also need a special item — the Wooden Statuette.

Get the Wooden Statuette from the drained bathtub in Main House 2F, Bathroom.
Place it on the pedestal in Main House 1F, Main Hall.
Adjust the statue so that an eagle shadow silhouette appears on the painting. Confirm when you’re close to complete the puzzle.

That’s all it takes! When Jack appears, simply run and slam every door behind you to lose him, giving you plenty of time to solve this puzzle.

Main Hall – Dog’s Head Door

Once you reach the Main Hall, you’ll find the door to the yard. Unfortunately, the door is locked. You’ll need to explore most of the Main House to get your hands on all three Dog’s Head reliefs. Here are all the locations.

Blue Dog’s Head: Main House 2F, Recreation Room — Hidden in the large book to the left of the bar.
White Dog’s Head: Main House 1F, Living Room — Take the Clock Pendulum from the Main Hall clock and insert it into the Living Room clock.
Red Dog’s Head: Processing Area, Morgue — Get the Dissection Room Key from the Incinerator Room and get the last Dog’s Head in the Morgue, leading to a boss fight.

With all three dog head reliefs, you can open the door to the yard.

Incinerator Room – Locked Chamber

The first room of the Processing Area contains the Dissection Room Key. You’ll need this key to progress, but the key is locked inside one of the incinerator chambers — the far left one, to be exact. To open it, check out the memo pinned above the sink. It will offer some clues.

Open the chamber door with the bloody hand print in the center of the row.
Open the chamber on the far right corner.
The left-most chamber will now unlock.
The Dissection Key is located on the gurney inside the left chamber.

Watch out! When you open the left chamber, a Moulder will slide out and attack. If you’re fast, you can grab the key off the gurney and run for it, slamming the door in the Moulder’s face. They can’t easily chase you, so you can leave it… or finish it off with a few bullets to the head.

Master Bedroom – Clock Puzzle

In the Main House 3F, Master Bedroom you’ll find a clock to the left of the bed you can interact with. The note gives a pretty big clue. If you’re having trouble, the answer is actually pretty simple.

Set the clock to [10:15]. This is the time every clock face shows in the Main House.

Input the time, and the bed will slide away to reveal a secret path into the basement workshop. Be prepared, you’ll have to fight your way out if you go down! Don’t miss out on the keycard required for the Testing Area.

Kid’s Room – Secret Attic Button

To reach the Attic, you’ll need to find the hidden button that lowers the ladder. This puzzle is available after collecting the Snake Key. There are two clues to solve this puzzle — you’ll need to read the documents for hints, but the solution is very simple.

Find the lamp and interact. Rotate the lamp until you spot the red button underneath the shade. Press the button to lower the ladder.

Upstairs, you’ll find the Happy Birthday tape, the Model Axe, the Model Shotgun, and a statuette puzzle. Simply place the statuette on the pedestal until it matches the axe-wielding man. The other items are a little trickier. The Model Shotgun allows you to re-collect the Broken Shotgun, and the Model Axe has another use.

Yard – Secret Shadow Projector

Here’s a completely hidden puzzle that’s in a familiar place — the yard! Behind the tall grass and weeds, to the left of the flashing door to Lucas’ Testing Area, there’s a secret projector with numbers scratched into the wall next to a sealed treasure chest. To open the chest, you’ll need to solve this puzzle.

To solve the hidden projector puzzle, place the Toy Axe on the pedestal. The Toyy Axe is found in the Main House 3F, Attic accessible through the Kid’s Room.
Turn the Toy Axe so the shadow resembles a “7”.

For successfully completing the puzzle, you’ll gain a free Stabilizer drug. This drug increases your reload speed permanently.

Party Room – Happy Birthday Videotape Puzzle

This puzzle is found in the attic, accessed above the children’s room in the mansion. Once the tape is put into the VCR, you’ll be able to start solving the puzzle. Complete the entire thing in 5 minutes or less, and you’ll earn the “Out Before Dessert” achievement / trophy.

Take the candle from the mannequin near the start. Take the candle with you into the cake room — the water sprinkler will put the candle out. The goal here is to light the candles on the birthday cake, but that’s impossible for now.
While in the cake room, you’ll want to do two things:
1. Open the present box with the combination and take the Straw Doll.
  - The combination is always the same: Hanging Noose, Bell+Bird, Fetus.
  - To discover the combination for yourself, take the looking glass from the bathroom, wash it off and look through it at the televisions screens.
2. Take the Winding Key from the barrel.
Activate the kitchen stove and use the Straw Doll on the open fire to reveal a hidden dummy finger.
- While at the stove, re-light the candle.
Burn the rope locking the door to the right of the televisions with the candle. In the balloon room, collect the small yellow-ish balloon near the cabinet.
Use the balloon on pipe at the wall with the reaper painted on the side. The pipe will expand and pop, and violently deliver a Quill Pen. You now have all the items you need to solve the puzzle.
Return to the strange mannequin and give it these items in order:
1. Dummy Finger (Left Hand)
2. Quill Pen (Left Hand)
3. Winder Key (Torso Mechanism)
Go to the backroom and enter the code “LOSER” into the padlock.
Take the Valve Handle and return to the cake room. Use the handle on the pipes to the left of the door to shut off the sprinklers. Now you can re-light the candle one last time, then use the candle to light all the smaller birthday candles on the cake.

Party Room – Testing Area Redux

Returning to the Party Room puzzle, you’ll have to solve it a second time. And this time, you’ll want to solve the puzzle without dying. There is a way, and let’s go through the steps. Because you’ve solved the puzzle once before in the video, you can skip most of the steps and avoid a burning death. Here’s what you’ll need to do.

Take the candle from the mannequin. Go to the cake room, where the water sprinklers will activate and put out your candle. The goal here, like the last time, is to light the candle.
- The trick is — DO NOT take the Winding Key from the cask. We won’t need it.
Turn on the oven and re-light the candle. Burn the rope on the door to the right of the television monitors.
Enter the code “LOSER” into the padlock.
Get the Valve Handle and return to the cake room. Insert the handle into the pipe to the left of the door, and shut down the water.
Now you can re-light the candle for the last time. Place the candle on the birthday cake to complete the puzzle.

Okay, that doesn’t quite complete the puzzle. There’s more — Lucas is a sore loser, and drops a time bomb into the room. Quickly grab the bomb and insert it into the wrecked wall to the right of the cake. Take cover and wait for the bomb to blow. Now you can finally escape the Testing Area.

Lounge — Wrecked Ship Paintings Puzzle

There’s a completely optional puzzle available in the Wrecked Ship, late in the game, but if you want to access more sealed chambers and rooms in the area, you’ll want to solve this challenge. After finishing the VHS tape, go down to Wrecked Ship 2F and enter the Lounge. There are six paints — three sets of identical paints, with one on each side.

To solve this puzzle, simply match each identical painting.
- The landscape is right-side-up.
- The red/blue painting should have the blue above, red below.
- The yellow painting’s purple blotch in the upper-left corner.

You’ll gain three (x3) Corrosives for your trouble.

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