Maps and rooms / GUIDE 09
A Complete Downstairs Search Route
Downstairs contains six of the villa's twelve hiding places. A full sweep is useful even with only one AI hider because random assignment can put that character on either floor. The goal of this route is complete coverage with a clear stopping point. It is a suggested inspection sequence based on the actual room connections, not a guaranteed fastest route or a promise that the winning target will be downstairs.
Begin in the lower corridor
You start in the lower corridor, just above the stairs and elevator. Enter the reading room through the lower opening on the left. Stay aware of the desk near the room's right side and the sofa lower down. These objects block movement, but neither is the reading room's hiding place. Your target is the bookcase along the upper-left part of this room.
Head for the clear floor below the reading room bookcase. Wait until the prompt names the shelf, then press F once. You do not need to push your character against it. If the name does not appear, take a few small steps toward the standing marker in the illustration. A completed search marks the spot whether it was empty or occupied. If the round continues, leave the cleared shelf and move to the next room.
Clear both living room spots
From the reading room, use the gap in the dividing wall to reach the living room above. The opening is on the left side of the house's central structure, around the space between the two wall segments. Move through the open section and avoid trying to squeeze through the solid wall beside it. Once inside, check the living room cabinet from the open floor in front of it.
Next work around the table and sofa to reach the clear floor in front of the sofa. This is the second living room check. The cabinet and sofa are separate spots, so clearing one tells you nothing about the other. After both are marked, the upper-left room is complete for this round. Any hider assigned there has either been found or was absent from those places in the first place.
Cross to the kitchen and storage side
Leave the living room through the upper corridor opening, cross the corridor, and enter the kitchen and dining room through its upper opening. Walk around the counter and dining table toward the cupboard near the room's upper-right corner. Approach from the open floor below the cupboard. The counter and table are obstacles rather than additional searches, so do not spend time pressing F at them when no spot prompt appears.
Continue into the storage room through the right-side opening in the horizontal dividing wall. Check the boxes from their open side, then move closer to the wardrobe and check that too. These two markers are relatively close. Read the prompt as you move because the name in the prompt tells you the target. Standing between them can select a different spot from the one you expected visually.
Finish the sweep deliberately
After those checks, downstairs is complete: reading room bookcase, living room cabinet, living room sofa, kitchen cupboard, storage boxes, and storage wardrobe. Return through the lower right corridor entrance. If the round is still active, remaining hiders must be upstairs because AI hiders do not relocate during a seeker round. This conclusion depends on actually checking all six, not simply visiting every downstairs room.
Use the elevator or stairs for the next phase, then confirm the 2F indicator. The circuit can be reversed if that feels easier, and you may choose to search upstairs first in another round. What makes the route useful is its room-by-room accountability. If you time out, compare the result's remaining locations with your notes and checkmarks. A named downstairs remainder means you missed an interaction or confused scenery with a usable spot, not that a hider secretly moved behind you.