Hello, and welcome to my first Steam guide. This guide contains minor spoilers, as far as sharing the locations of items. Specific plot points are not covered or addressed. It's more a listing, as opposed to an actual walkthrough.

The first section of the guide covers the locations of Sam's journal entry triggers - these are the items that prompt Sam's voiceover when interacted with. The entries are arranged in the order they appear in the journal list in the game, which is chronological, and the player generally encounters the objects in the same order. There are two cases where this isn't the case, and I've pointed these out in the guide to avoid confusion. While most of these items are easily found and fairly straightforward, some of these objects can be easy to miss - hence the inclusion of this list.

The second section of the guide covers the locations of collections. In a game like Gone Home, it's difficult to address exactly what a collection is, because the game doesn't specifically keep track of anything extra. Some sets of items like the band buttons and the cassette tapes make sense given their importance to Sam as well as the strange places they end up in. As a result, I've included these two categories of objects. I may add other groups of items to this guide as time goes on.

The third section contains the two easter eggs that I know of.

And, finally, the fourth section is a short but sweet achievement guide.

Thanks for reading, and hopefully you find this guide useful.

Journal Entry 1: August 20th, 1994 "At the New House": The mover's invoice in the file folder on the table in the left side of the foyer, near the door to the bathroom. (Open the folder first.)



Journal Entry 2: September 6th, 1994 "First Day of School": The slip of paper in Sam's school bag, located in the first door on the left of the first-floor hallway that leads to the basement.



Journal Entry 3: September 13th, 1994 "Big Gold Star": The "Making Friends" book in the TV room, to the left of the TV.



Journal Entry 4: September 15th, 1994 "Default Friends": The slip of paper in the pocket of the jacket that's hanging in the music room's closet.



Journal Entry 5: October 3rd, 1994 "Best Laid Plans": The note in the third drawer of the dresser in the hallway, right before the door to the basement.



Journal Entry 6: October 4th, 1994 "Hanging Out With Girls":The cassette case in the bottom doors of the bookcase in the hallway, between Sam's room and the main stairs. (In commentary mode, there's a Fullbright disk directly above it.)



Journal Entry 7: October 22nd, 1994 "Dealing With Roots": The bottle of red hair dye on the floor next to the bathtub in the hall bathroom.



Journal Entry 8: October 29th, 1994 "Lie-to-Mom-and-Dad Situation": The note in the drawer of the desk halfway down the back wall of the "sitting room." (It should be the only object on that wall with a drawer. The easel is almost right in front of it.)



Journal Entry 9: October 29th, 1994 "Adjusting to the Dark": The Missfits flyer found in the secret panel in the library. (This is generally the first secret panel the player finds, as the secret passage containing the map of the secret panels exits into the library.)



Journal Entry 10: November 1st, 1994 "There Was Nothing Wrong": Lonnie's picture hanging next to the basement key in Sam's locker (The code is 0501.)



Journal Entry 11: December 8th, 1994 "It's Different Now": The pink slip of paper on the table across from you as you enter the first basement room. It's partially hidden by the box. (This room isn't labeled on Katie's map.)

Journal Entry 12: January 12th, 1995: "Ship Date": The letter lying on the box just past the furnace, across from the trunk in the storage room.



Journal Entry 13: February 11th, 1995 "I Can Sing": The set list stuck to the wall in the servant's quarters, between the "bed" and the creeptastic hallway with the safe in it.



Journal Entry 14: March 11th, 1995 "Stick With the Group": The creased postcard on the table right in front of you as you enter the junk room, next to the stack of old newspapers.



(The next two entries are in a different order chronologically than when you encounter them. I'm keeping them in the order they're listed in the game, but keep in mind that as you move through the secret room, you'll encounter "Getting Lonnie" before "The Nunnery.")

Journal Entry 15: April 5th, 1995 "The Nunnery": The "Inside Edition" TV listing scrap on the small endtable next to the couch in the hallway, across from the exit from the secret passage. (Note: you have to close the folder on the table to see it.)



Journal Entry 16: April 10th, 1995: "Getting Lonnie": The letter from Sam's school on the larger table of the secret room.



Journal Entry 17: April 22nd, 1995 "A Very Long Phase": The smaller pink slip in the folder on the dining room table. A 'zine is nearby.



(Again, the next two entries happen in a different order chronologically than you encounter the objects. Keep in mind that you will encounter "Daniel" before "Just Gone.")

Journal Entry 18: May 1st, 1995 "Just Gone": Lonnie's JROTC hat, hanging on the handlebars of the bike in the garage.



Journal Entry 19: May 19th, 1995 "Daniel": Sam's story on the kitchen table.



Journal Entry 20: June 3rd, 1995 "Dedication": The crumpled flyer in the opened secret panel next to the table at the end of the hallway, just past where the hallway splits to go to the laundry room.



Journal Entry 21: June 5th, 1995 "Life Moves On": This is the map on the tiny table at the far end of the greenhouse, next to the door outside.



Journal Entry 22: June 6th, 1995 "In the Attic": Picking up the attic key in the hidden room under the stairs triggers this entry.





Journal Entry 23: June 6th, 1995 "I Said Yes": The drawing on Sam's sleeping bag in the attic.



That's all of the journal entries.

As I mentioned, "collections" are mostly player-driven enterprise in Gone Home, because the game doesn't track these items. The two groups of items that make the most sense to me, though, are the buttons and the cassette tapes/cases, but I have a save file that has item collections for the major characters gathered together, such as Lonnie's items, Sam's books, and Katie's postcards.

That said, the buttons and the tapes sort of feel as though they're intended to be treated as "collections" by the developers, mosty due to the way they're scattered about the house - the buttons have a tendency to end up in strange places, hence their inclusion here.


I've found seven buttons so far. What I've noticed is that most of the bands that have other references in the game - like a pamplet or a cassette - also very likely has a button. For a while, I thought Girl Scout ought to have had a button as well, but then I realized that Girl Scout is the name of Lonnie's band - which likely wasn't popular enough to have had a button of its own.

The trick to finding buttons is to pay attention to areas where Sam's other belongings are scattered - there is most likely a button nearby.



Heavens to Betsy (white button with black lettering) - Stuck to the back of Sam's bookbag in the hall closet.



Bratmobile (black button with red lettering) - Found face down inside of the coffee table in the TV room.



The Miss-fits (black button with white lettering) - Found face down on Sam's desk in her room.



X-ray Spex (white button with pink lettering) - Found on the floor between the "bed" and the endtable in the servant's quarters.



Wipers (black button with white lettering) - Found stuck to the corkboard in the secret room.



The Gits (red button with black lettering) - Found face down on the right side of the long side table in the dining room, beneath a window. (I'm not entirely sure what kind of table this is, except they're all over the house)



The Slits (yellow button with black lettering) - Found on the floor of the laundry room, between the washing machine and the wall.






There are six tapes that I know of. The tapes can be inserted into any tape player and played, giving you something to listen to aside from the ambient sounds for a little while.

A good rule of thumb is that if you see a cassette player, odds are there will be a cassette tape somewhere nearby - usually in the same room.

"Role Model" by Girl Scout (yellow tape) - Found next to the tape player on the little table immedately to your left as you enter the TV room.



"Cool Schmool" by Bratmobile (black tape) - Found in the top drawer of the dresser in Sam's room, right below the tape player.



"Nothing Can Stop Me" by Heavens to Betsy (black tape) - Found on the chair in the corner of the "sitting room" (as labeled on Katie's map), to the left as you enter.



"Self" by Girl Scout (green tape) - Found in the dark corner of the servant's quarters, next to the radiator - immediately to the right as you enter.



"Terrorist" by Heavens to Betsy (black tape)- In the secret room, the end table near the corkboard has two pillows on it - one is on the lower surface of the table, the other is on the floor next to it. The tape is under the pillow on the lower part of the table.



"Some Special" by BRATMOBILE (blue tape) - Immediately to the right upon entering the kitchen, you'll notice a table with a tape player on it. The tape is in the drawer.




There are two cases that I know of. I used to think each tape had a corresponding case, but I haven't been unable to find any other cases as of yet.

Bratmobile - Pottymouth Album: This case is found while collecting journal entries. It is the source of Journal Entry 6 "Hanging Out With Girls."



Heavens to Betsy - Self-titled Album: This is found on the floor of the sewing room, under the table that has the secret passage map.

In a game filled with 90's references, almost everything can, arguably, be an easter egg to those of us who grew up during that time. However, these specifically refer to special things that the player can do.


At the end of the Journal Entries section, I mentioned that we found all of the entries.

Well, almost.

Journal Entry 24: August 30th, 1994 "Meow, Meow, Meow": Once you reach the garage, looking up into the rafters reveals something curious.



There's a tiny purple ball up there, but how do we get to it? Grab a can from the recycling bin and toss it up there to knock the ball down. Originally, I mentioned that you can grab any item in the house, but a commenter noted that only the items in the recycling bin in the garage are coded to fly far enough to hit it. (Sure enough, the developer's commentary confirms this.)

Take the ball with you all the way back to Sam's room. On the back of one of her doors is a plastic hoop.



But if you look at it with the ball in hand...



Either shoot the ball through the hoop (harder than it looks) or "use" the ball on the hoop to get the final journal entry.




The commentary mode explains this far better than I can (if you haven't played commentary mode yet, you really should) but everyone remembers Christmas Duck, the fellow hiding the key at the beginning of the story.



While most people just chuck him back into the closet (or across the room) it turns out that isn't really where he belongs. When you finally gain entry into the attic, you may notice this weird bowl (it's right behind you after climbing the stairs)



But if you look at it while holding Christmas Duck...



All is right with the world.

At some point in 2019, Fullbright added 10 Steam achievements to the game. Thanks to popular request, I've now decided to add an achievement guide to the, uh, guide for more completion. Many of these achievements are earned through a play through of the game, but some of them require essentially sequence-breaking the game.

Gone Home: Complete the game.

Easy. Simply play the game to completion, and use the green journal on the small table at the far end of the attic to play Sam's final thoughts and roll the end credits.

Letters to Katie: Completed the game having found all 23 of Sam's journal entries.

If you've followed my guide above, you should have this one in the bag.

Meow Meow Meow: Found Mitten's secret diary.

This involves using the purple ball found in the garage on the hoop in Sam's bedroom. For details on how to do this, see the Easter Egg section above.

Nesting Instinct: Returned Christmas Duck to his rightful place.

Complete CD's journey by rescuing him from the cupboard at the beginning of the game and taking him home to his basket in the attic. See the Easter Egg section above for details on how to do this.

Wet Bandit: Turn on every faucet in the home at once.

In a move calculated to give Sam and Katie's mom a conniption fit, find and turn on every faucet in the house. This isn't as bad as it seems, but it can be a bit misleading - one may assume that the achievement wants every sink turned on, but there are faucets on the tubs, too.

By my count, there are 8 faucets in the house, displayed here in the order the player ought to encounter them during their exploration:

One is in the front room bathroom, to the left as you enter the house.



There are no faucets in the left wing of the house.

Moving upstairs, Sam's bathroom has two - one on her sink, and the other on her bathtub.





Moving across the hall, there are three - two in the parents' bedroom, and a third on their bathtub.





Heading back downstairs and into the basement, you may think that the lone sink in the servants' quarters would have a faucet... but no. That sink is broken.

The "right" wing of the house has two, but not where you would think: the kitchen is torn apart and missing a sink, leaving one in the far bathroom, across the laundry room...



And, finally, one in the laundry room itself.



This Old House: Open the secret bookshelf in the guest room from the outside.

Normally, this secret bookshelf is opened the first time the player comes up from the basement - moving left leads to the lever that opens this, while moving right goes into the secret room where Sam and Lonnie made their 'zines.

However, this bookshelf can also be opened from the other side, enabling the player to essentially skip needing to assemble Sam's locker code to get the basement key. To do this, look in the closet where the family has stacked most of Katie's possessions, and look up in the corner:



It's hard to see (at least until you mouse over it) but there's a button up there. Pressing this will cause the secret bookshelf to swing open and net you the achievement.

Intuitive: Guess the combination to Oscar's safe before finding the code.



We all remember this safe in the creepy hallway you find the code to it when you open the secret bookshelf into Katie's room. However, opening the safe - using the combination 1963 - before picking up that code will unlock this achievement.

Why 1963? There's a whole secondary story regarding the girls' father and Oscar that is only alluded to through Oscar's letters, some of the details in that hallway, and an item stored in that very safe. It's not hard to piece it together, but 1963 is a very significant year for Oscar and Terrence, and explains why Terrence is fixated on the Kennedy assassination - which also occurred in 1963.

Behind the Scenes: Activated all Commentary Nodes with the Developer Modifier enabled.

When starting a new game, there's a button on the lower left of the screen that allows you to turn on modifiers for the new play through. Turning on the commentary mode causes a bunch of floating Fullbright markers to appear around the house. A guide isn't really needed for these, as the locations for nearly all of them are fairly obvious - with one exception:



One of them is hiding inside of this box in the room marked "sitting room" on Katie's map, and tends to be the one that most players will miss.

Speedreader - Completed the game having found all 24 journal entries, with no modifiers enabled, in less than 10 minutes.

Not much to say about this one. You may want to make a few practice runs (and keep my guide handy) but this just comes down to knowing where Sam's journals are and hitting them as quick as you can - no exploring, no stopping, just activate each one as you come to them and keep moving.

Note that this says 24 entries, meaning you need to get the optional one as well - so while you're on your way back upstairs to open the attic, make sure you grab a can from the recycling bin and knock down the purple ball in the garage so you can use it on the hoop in Sam's room.

Homerunner - Completed the game in less than one minute with no modifiers enabled.

This is it. You're going to experience Gone Home in it's purest essence. The key here is you're doing this without modifiers, so you're doing this in the dark. You can't turn on the lights, there's no time.

What gets you access to the attic? The key underneath the main staircase, where the girls did their Oscar seance. What gets you into this room? The map found in the greenhouse, right?

Not so fast. If you already know where this door is, you actually don't need to use the greenhouse map to be able to activate it - all that does is name the panel and allows you to activate it from further away. You can use this panel at the beginning of the game if you get right on top of it:



This one is all practice. Open the front door, open this panel, grab the key, head up to the attic, and tag the green book at the end. This is made more difficult in that Katie doesn't sprint - she's not in a hurry, but you are.

Good luck.