The Quarry: How to Find All the Clues

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How to Uncover All the Clues in The Quarry
Pathfinding
Freakshow Fire
Hackett History
Camp History

In order to figure out just what’s going on in The Quarry, its cast of 9 hapless camp counselors have a little detective work ahead of them. With some searching, you can find a series of clues about Hackett’s Quarry, the family that owns it, and the six-year-old accident that’s somehow involved with it all.

Here’s how to find all the various memos, blueprints, suspicious details, and other assorted clues strewn throughout The Quarry.

More The Quarry Guides:

How to Uncover All the Clues in The Quarry

This guide is written under the assumption that you, the reader, have already cleared The Quarry at least once. Discussion of how to get all of the clues involves major spoilers for much of the game’s plot, as well as several possible plot branches that you may not have been aware of. (Seriously, there’s a lot of The Quarry that’s hidden behind what looks like failure. Also, a lot of failure.) Stop reading now if you haven’t at least watched Movie Mode.

Many of the clues in The Quarry are easy to find or automatically given to you. A relative handful are extremely well-hidden, however, especially the last two under the Freakshow Fire category, and you’re almost definitely going to miss several on your first run. The first clue you find unlocks the What’s This? trophy/achievement, and getting them all in a single playthrough unlocks Meddling Kids!

A majority of the clues also feature some hidden information when you first find them, as labeled on their menu entries by at least one box with a question mark. This information can be revealed by finding other clues, picking up evidence, simple progression through the game, dialogue, or triggering optional scenes.

The first time you find a clue that matches another one, you receive the It’s All Coming Together trophy/achievement. This happens very easily; the earliest you may be able to get it is by finding the Harum Scarum Poster in the Prologue, then picking up the Damaged Memorabilia in the general store’s back room in Chapter 2.

Pathfinding

In order to have a chance to find all the clues in the game in a single playthrough, you have to take a few specific actions along the way. This list is by no means complete (the game’s events are more manipulable than you might think, especially in its second half), but it includes all the most relevant, important choices that I’ve found in my time with the game so far.

Chapter 1, Abigail: help Emma break the door on Room 10 (above).
Chapter 2, Nick: opt to go to Shady Grove over Rocky Road.
Chapter 4, Emma: she must survive the treehouse chase sequence and make it back to shore.
Chapter 5, Kaitlyn: you have to deliberately screw up one of your QTEs while you’re hiding from Bobby. The full process is detailed below.
Chapter 7, Laura: do not go back to sleep immediately after she bandages her eye.
Chapter 8, Kaitlyn: if Emma was infected in Chapter 4, drive her off before she can kill anyone, especially if Abigail has already died.

It’s worth noting here that, due to the route choice in Chapter 2, you can do an all-clues run or an all-tarot run, but you can’t do both at once. While there may be a workaround I haven’t found at time of writing, it appears that one tarot card is exclusive to the Rocky Road route in Chapter 2, while one clue is exclusive to the Shady Grove route.

The available clues in The Quarry are split up into 3 categories, as listed below. The numbers assigned to each clue correspond to how they’re organized in your in-game status menu.

Freakshow Fire

Six years ago, something terrible happened in the woods near Hackett’s Quarry, and it’s never really stopped. The 9 clues in this category deal with that event, where it happened, and the ramifications it had.

#1: Harum Scarum Poster

This can be found nailed to a tree in the woods during the Prologue. You can miss it, but you’d have to do so on purpose, as there really isn’t anywhere else to go at this point in the game.

#2: Escapology Trunk

In the woods during the Prologue, stick to the left side of the clearing to find this old trunk at a dead end.

#3: Broken Cage

As you explore the woods in the Prologue, keep an eye on the right side of your screen. You can veer off the path shortly after you find the previous clue and walk into the charred ruins of a sideshow attraction. Inspecting the sign gives you credit for this clue.

If you’ve already gotten the jumpscare where a woman runs across the screen in the foreground, you’re a little past the area in question.

#4: Newspaper Headline Scrap

In Chapter 1, as Abigail, help Emma break into Room 10. This clue can be found on the floor inside the cabin, between the two bunk beds on the left.

If you break open the door but miss the clue, you can also pick up and read it in Chapter 5 when you pass back through the same area as Dylan.

#5: Damaged Memorabilia

As Emma in Chapter 2, check the back of the set of shelves that’s directly in front of the door between the general store and its back room. It’s easier to see on your way out.

#6: North Kill Gazette

While Jacob is searching the boathouse for towels in Chapter 3, read the newspaper on the table on the first floor.

#7: Charred Sheriff’s Badge

When you have the chance to leave your jail cell in Chapter 7, go into the main area and up the stairs. The second door on the landing leads to an abandoned office, where you can find this clue on top of a cardboard box. It’s the only interactive object in the room.

#8: Discarded Signage

This is difficult to spot. It’s in the scrapyard in Chapter 9, which is big, dark, difficult to search, and has an invisible point of no return in a high-traffic area.

Starting from the garage, push the button to open the gate to the inner area. Go through it, turn left, and go all the way to the edge of the lot until you can cut through two tunnels that have been made out of old buses. On the other side, you can take a staircase up to a platform made out of shipping containers.

At the top of those stairs, turn left, go to the far end of the platform (you’ll find the Judgement tarot card along the way), and descend the stairs. The trick here is to not go too far towards the stairs up to the crane, as that automatically advances the scene; instead, turn right and take a U-turn to examine the big pile of colorful wooden debris.

#9: Ticket Stub

This is unquestionably the single most hard-to-find clue of the lot. In order to get it to show up at all, you have to deliberately flub a specific quick-time event, which starts a short chain of events that can trigger this clue’s appearance five chapters later.

While you’re playing as Kaitlyn in Chapter 5, while you’re sneaking up on Bobby, pass the first QTE to dodge his flashlight beam, then screw up the second one. Kaitlyn will trip, and end up in a face-to-face confrontation with Bobby.

You can either pass or fail the next QTE, when Bobby throws a vial at you. When he picks up a nearby table, it triggers a combat scene. Go ahead and blast the table out of Bobby’s hands; he’s basically a backwoods Tyrant, so a little buckshot won’t bother him enough to take him down.

Kaitlyn will escape, losing her gun in the process, and Chapter 5 will proceed as normal.

Now, in Chapter 10, when Kaitlyn returns to the lodge, you can find this clue on the second floor near the blocked staircase, inside the shattered photo frame.

If you’re wondering how you were supposed to know about this, it’s an entirely legitimate question. Like a couple of other obscure plot branches in The Quarry, though, this version of the Kaitlyn vs. Bobby confrontation is shown in Movie Mode. That’s the only reason I knew this was here.

Hackett History

These clues deal with the background of the Hacketts, their time spent on the land around the quarry, and what they’ve done to cope with their curse.

#1: Family Photo

While you’re exploring Chris Hackett’s office as Dylan in Chapter 2, examine the framed photo on Chris’s desk.

#2: Ranger Box

As Nick in Chapter 2, choose to go to Shady Grove. As you enter the area, turn left, go straight until you hit the cliff face, then turn right and follow it to the fence. This closed trunk can be found nearby.

This appears to be exclusive to this scene in this chapter. While Abigail revisits Shady Grove at the start of Chapter 3, and can even collect the next clue if you missed it, the Ranger Box isn’t there at the time.

#3: Trail Camera

From the previous clue, go straight forward and look for this attached to one of the younger trees in the copse at the end of the trail. It looks like a rusty birdhouse, and if you get close enough, you can sometimes hear it whirring.

Unlike the Ranger Box, you can also find and get credit for this as Abigail in Chapter 3, but it’s a lot harder to spot at night.

#4: No Swimming Sign

Right as you gain control of Jacob in Chapter 3, at the boathouse, turn left and examine the interaction point against the safety rail.

#5: Old Camp Photo

From the previous clue, turn right and cross to the far side of the boathouse, to the cluttered seating area, and examine the framed photo on the column.

#6: Police Car Keys

In Chapter 4, as Emma, take the high road to get to the treehouse. Before you open the door, inspect the windowsill.

#7: Box of Matches

In Chapter 4, as Emma, take the low road to get to the treehouse and inspect the smoldering campfire.

If you successfully cure Max’s lycanthropy in Chapter 9, you can find and pick up the box of matches during his short scene in Chapter 10, but it won’t count as a clue at that point. Max, presumably, already knows why they’re there.

Achievement Note: You can get both of the previous clues in a single trip through Emma’s first scene in Chapter 4, but it requires you to explore both paths (and sit through every single available second of Emma’s soliloquy). Go down the low road until you pick up the box of matches, then double back to the stairs, cross the bridge to the treehouse, and grab the keys off the windowsill before you open the door.

Alternatively, you could go high, take the keys, then go back downstairs and head down the low road for the box of matches. Whatever you do, do not open the treehouse door or climb the ladder at the end of the low road until you’ve found both clues.

#8: Triggered Bear Trap

In Chapter 5, as Dylan, when you enter the camp cabins area, walk straight forward, past the “Shooting Stars” signboard, and inspect the bear trap on the ground in front of the fence next to the pool house.

#9: Scrawled Limerick

In Chapter 7, read the etchings on the wall of the jail cell, either early on or once you’ve gotten the door open.

#10: Bizarre Yet Bonafide Podcast

Once you escape from the cell in Chapter 7, enter the sheriff’s office and try to use his computer.

Leave, go up the stairs, and go into the first and third doors on the second-floor landing. In the meeting room, read the greeting card tacked to the bulletin board, and in the office, check the calendar on the far wall.

This will let Laura work out what Sheriff Hackett’s birthday is, which is also his computer password. (This also works if you sequence-break it by checking the calendar and card first.)

When you return to the office, Laura will open Hackett’s email, which includes an episode of Bizarre Yet Bonafide, the podcast Ryan was listening to in Chapter 1. In addition to serving as a clue, this unlocks the trophy/achievement of the same name.

#11: Old Quarry Tools

In Chapter 8, after Laura and Ryan fall into the quarry mines, check out the stack of old tools on the ground near the base of the left-hand staircase.

#12: Miner’s Lunchbox

From the previous clue, backtrack to the pool Ryan and Laura fell into and circle around to the far side. There’s an old lunchbox on the ground here with a letter in it.

#13: Rum Still

In the basement of the Hackett House in Chapter 8, when you gain control of Ryan, go into the room to his left and inspect the two big metal tanks.

#14: Scrapyard Note

In Chapter 9, as Dylan, climb the stairs in the scrapyard’s garage and read the invoice on the table against the far wall.

#15: Hunting Trophy Wall

As Laura, in Chapter 9, check the preserved skull on the wall near the piano. (You’ll always end up in this particular room during Laura’s chase sequence, but choosing to Run will get you here straight away.)

#16: Hackett Family Tree

From the previous clue, go up the stairs, through the closest doorway, and cross the hall to the office. Inspect the framed document on the far wall.

#17: Chalkboard Doodle

Despite the name, this is a whiteboard doodle. As Kaitlyn, in Chapter 10, go into the classroom on the second floor of the lodge and inspect the drawing on the board.

#18: Inscribed Jewelry

From the previous clue, climb the nearby stairs and look on the floor near the couch. For those of you playing our home game, this is the third valuable possession (counting the silver shells in the storm shelter) that we’ve found in or around the lodge that was accidentally dropped by Bobby Hackett. That boy ain’t right.

#19: Ancestral Portrait

In Chapter 10, as Kaitlyn, go to the lodge’s second-floor balcony and interact with the oil painting on the back of the chimney.

Checking this also counts as the “vantage point” that Kaitlyn is looking for. Be sure to pick “Keep looking” in the following choice. Otherwise, she’ll skip straight to the ensuing confrontation and you’ll miss your window for anything you’ve yet to find in the lodge.

Camp History

Even after two months, there’s a lot that the counselors don’t know about Hackett’s Quarry. Here are a few things you can find that illustrate its history, its secrets, and its shockingly high body count.

#1: Bloodied Collar

You can’t miss this. Laura automatically picks this up as you explore the storm shelter during the Prologue.

#2: Hunting Notice

In Chapter 1, as Jacob, read the sign on the other side of the fence in the lodge’s parking lot. This sign is either absent or hidden in the darkness during the Prologue.

#3: Camp Plaque

Read the sign on the exterior wall next to the lodge’s front door.

You can see the sign in the Prologue as Laura, but it isn’t interactive until Chapter 1 when you play as Jacob.

#4: Camp Song Recording

In Chapter 1, when you’re exploring near the camp cabins as Abigail, pick up the old tape recorder at the base of Room 08’s stairs.

If you miss this the first time around, Dylan can also grab it when he revisits the area in Chapter 5.

#5: Information Signpost

Interact with the big stack of trail markers in the picnic area by the camp cabins. You can pick this up in Chapter 1 as Abigail, or in Chapter 5 as Dylan.

#6: Lodge Renovation Plans

When you’re exploring the storeroom as Emma in Chapter 2, check the rolled-up document on the shelves in the back corner by the Staff Only door. There’s a beam of sunlight shining directly on the shelf in question that can make it easy to overlook the prompt.

#7: Counselor’s Ledger

After you interact with the trap door in Chris Hackett’s office in Chapter 2, regardless of what you choose to do with it, Dylan will automatically pull this clue out of one of Chris’s desk drawers.

#8: Letter to Camp Nurse