Let's start this off as if you are a fresh player, already struggling, and just want directions.
We'll start with the main menu, if you click on Story, you can view previously seen cutscenes.
If you have selected "no" when the game asked if you played the halloween edition of it's previous game, then you will see that it is barren.
Go to settings and you can change ... very little. You can also reset your progress, if you want a fresh start.
Alright, let's go to Play.

This is the Dream Selection screen. I'll explain more later. Let's do the first Dream a couple times first.
But before that, we should talk basics. Might as well start reset my progress, while I'm at it.
...
There we go. Let's begin.

Let's start this section with the controls.

With that, let us go onto the hud.
Note: further images may be scaled down to fit Steam's 2MB limit

Hopefully, this is fully readable for everyone.

Now, next up is the map.

As you can see, only paths you have gone too are shown.
when you are near a key item, it will be marked on your map.
Keep in mind, not all items are key items. Food, sticks, rocks- not key items, even if they are useful.
If you are in need of these items, either hunt them down when you need it, or memorize their locations for later.

alright, let's see here ... let's discuss common Items next.

a rock: good for throwing. Doesn't do much damage or stun on threats, but it can still be fun to do.


a hear- OH GOD: ... uh ... why is it still beating. I think this it's still a little too soon to talk about this one.


a threat: dammit, still not the one I should show next. ... AH-HA FOUND IT.


a stick: your only hope for defense at the start of a Dream. ... damn cursor.


an apple: found on the ground and can heal you in different amounts depending on how big of a bite is left, if only there was a better way to find fuller apples ... hey wait ... is that?


well, look at that, an apple still up in the tree. you could probably knock it down with a rock
you may need to adjust your aim. mine seems to veer to the right of the reticle.


an ... apple?: this one will heal you but also make you sick. over time you will lose health and will need to eat more just to survive. Unfortunate because the more you eat, the more poisoned you'll be. Though, you might get better if you eat something healthy.


rotting flesh: THIS IS NOT THE SOMETHING HEALTHY. maybe if you were some kind of zombie.

alright, that's all for the common items. I think it's finally time to go into the walkthrough. In every Dream, I will give you the walkthrough to escape with a default ending. It's possible to beat the game without seeing one or two of them.

Let's start with the default ending for this Dream.

As you can see, our beloved yandere is resting in pieces.
Let's see if we can put her back together.
If you place the heart inside her, she will talk about how Yui has the key. Saiko would like to help us but is not in fit condition to do so. Time for jigsaw puzzles.

You will see these icons as you explore the forest. you will need the following to make her complete.
1 foot (green)
1 arm (purple)
2 eyes (blue)
and 1 or 2 rotten flesh (red) in case she gets hungry while you are putting her back together.

There are 2 ways to do this. Wake her up now by inserting her heart, or wait till you have everything and bring it back to her.

If she is awake, she will become a target of our new enemy, Yui, and can be used as a distraction to run away. You could also get the achievement for saving Saiko by shoving or attacking Yui while she is trying to stab Saiko.
My issue with this though, is that Yui will keep stabbing Saiko, and while she does come back, it will take a minute. And if you are chased by Yui while trying to give Saiko another body part, she will just get stabbed again.

If you have trouble giving Saiko a body part, it could be she is wandering to find you or something.
If she is blind, you'll need to sprint a little bit so she hears you and comes back to you. She may not take any parts if she is hungry too.

So, let's assume that you went about and got these plentiful body parts and fed Saiko as she got hungry.
oh and if Yui is giving you grief, just find a stick. Move backwards or circle around a tree while she is attacking you until she gets tired.

Then you just uh ...

GET HER WITH A STICK

Once Saiko is put back together, she will be able to help you.
Find Yui and get Saiko to help you out. Yui and Saiko will go at it but Saiko needs to get behind Yui to grab her, so shove Yui a bunch until Saiko can do it.

Grab the key on her hip, quick as you can, and make a break for the door.

Watch the cutscene and continue to the next section.

Now to really start the walkthrough.
First things first, grab the heart but this time, don't give it to Saiko.
we will need a heart of someone who cares for us.

Run around the map until you start hearing ominous, low pitch, owl hoots.
Follow it till you find the shrine.

Once here, a voice will speak to you. I'm not gonna bother copy pasting what he says, frankly, I wish he talked less. every 30 seconds he's got something to say. whatever, anyways...

Take the heart

Throw it into a fire

As a reward, the shrine will open and gift you a new and very handy item.

a hammer: good for oh, 4 uses? give or take?
but we only need it for 3 uses.
Find Yui and give her a stern talking to ... and when that obviously fails, give her 3 whacks.
You can strike Yui without tiring her out but she has a decent chance to dodge your attacks. Keep track of your stamina and try to best her.

Once all is said and done, get going.
The next shrine task awaits you, in (Hell)

More Dreams have been opened up. But before selecting another one, let's go over a couple things.
Dreams are connected. If you complete a task and get rewarded, that reward will be in the shrine, waiting for you, in all the dreams.

Another thing, when you complete a task for the shrine, more often than not, the voice will open the exit for you. No extra work required.

There are a total of 4 Dreams. Awake, which we did, Hunger, Hell, and ******. huh ... that's strange.

We'll get into that 4th one later. For now, Let's continue on.

Let's start by discussing the new common items and icons for this Dream... and what's gone.
Bad news, no apples
Good news, Mushrooms
Bad news, good mushrooms more rare than good apples

ICONS

We'll talk about the orange one later.
The blue owl icon is where there is an owl hooting away ... I think it's mostly to distract you from where the shrine really is.
The white one is where you can find the new item.
And red is the exit.

ITEMS

Red Mushroom: a healthy snack


Blue Mushroom: a poisonous snack


oh uh ... don't worry about him right now.


Axe: very nice weapon, however, it won't help you as much as you think it will against the new threat.
It is, however, very handy for escaping. But we'll need about 4 of them.


There are 4 branches to be cut down, don't worry about that very bottom one, it's fine. We aren't playing pokemon.

To escape normally, we will have to run around the dead forest and fine enough axes to bring to the exit.
The exit is somewhere hidden away from the entrance you came from. but one thing is certain, it will always be at the edge of the map. Never the center anywhere.

Before the exit, though, we have to deal with psycho killer yangire rabbit.

AKA, Hatsune Elissu

This thunder thigh stalker has some tricks that will get you gutted very quick.
She is very quick, she can cut you to ribbons in seconds.
She simply chooses to toy with you instead.

common trick she uses is the ol'

run behind a tree gag

she will seemingly vanish as you go around the tree. But this is an Illusion [cdn.discordapp.com]
Had to use discord, no way a gif was gonna be small enough. May take a while to load, its about 50 MB :\

Next trick is the ol'

creep from the trees gag

This is a 2 parter however. Here's another giant size gif. STACKING[cdn.discordapp.com]


It is VERY hard to hit her with an axe but if by some luck you can, this is how she looks stunned.

She also has 2 moves that can insta-kill you.

She makes this stance before disappearing after you get up from being kicked down.
However, it is very similar to the stance she uses before lunging forward and decapitating you.
The other instant kill move is her THROWING her axe.

But dealing with her isn't just negatives on top of negatives.
She will sometimes offer her axe for the entertainment of you struggling to fight back.



one other thing she may do is give you an apple if your health is below 30.


alright, that is all for the most part. For the rest of this section, just go find the axes, maybe get one from Elissu, and make your way for the exit.

As of typing this, I FINALLY GOT ONE OF THE HARDER ACHIEVEMENTS IN THIS GAME
Yangire Slayer

... anywho, onto the task at hand.

First things first, get yourself to the shrine as carefully as you can. Thought she has some insight to finding you, no matter how far you are from her, she still has to see you to actually be aggro. It can be very difficult to lose her, once she's on your tail, but there is a small, albeit, not always consistent to work trick. The tall grass is thin, and can be seen through.

You can also use the map. If she is off to the distance but would see you if not for the fog, then she would show up on the minimap. You have to be facing her though. you can hide behind a tree and try to find her axe JUST A GLIMPSE, see too much of her and she sees you. If you walk around the tree just right, you can evade her ... or get a free whack. But she looks around a lot, so wait for her to start moving in a linear path again, instead of trying to find your last position.

BREAKING NEWS
Turns out you can BLOCK in this game. If you have a hammer or axe, you can use ALT to block an attack. It will break in about 4-5 hits and seems to break instantly to her dropkick attack. But it can very well help you survive longer.

Also, it seems that while she runs off to hide, there is a small chance you can get away and try hiding again. If you can wrap around a tree again, you could lose her.

Alright, back to the task at hand.
Once you are at the shrine, grab the hammer, we will need it.
Remember this?

We are now going for the orange icons. There will be pieces of a teddy rabbit there, nailed to trees.



This is what they will look like. It's tricky to do it with Elissu chasing you but she gets slower the closer she is to you, so you can pick at the tree a bit. oh yeah, the hammer will need to be used 4 times to pull the nail out. You can get 1-2 picks before she's close enough to attack you, but sometimes she stalls or is busy trying to give you her axe. Up to you, if you want to risk it.
The hammer is a left handed item and the doll parts are right handed items. YIPEE you can keep the hammer on you while you return to the shrine with the doll part.

Once you find every part of the rabbit and put it together at the shrine, you can pick him up.

Isn't it ... adorable?
Wait ... WAIT A MINUTE! This rabbit has committed horrific amounts of TAX FRAUD!
Go up to the cage in the shrine, like RIGHT UP against the cage, and then hold either of the drop keys.

The shrine will move the doll to the wall and in exchange, you will be rewarded WITH IMMORTALITY.


It seems that it only takes effect in the next cycle, it's always finicky with me. But whatever, we have to leave anyways to use it for its story based intentions. TO THE EXIT

Saiko is back but she is starving. She will relentlessly chase you, if she sots you. There is some good news though.

Rotten Flesh, a meal fit for a zombie. If you find one of these, hold onto it on your way to the shrine.

Once you get to the shrine, go ahead and pop an immortality potion, for the hell of it. Then, grab the hammer. We're gonna hunt down Yui and get her key to blow this decayed popsicle stand.

If Saiko and Yui are near eachother, Yui will back away while Saiko goes in for a bite. Fruitlessly.


Well, at least there is a window of opportunity. Yui tends to stand still after shaking off Zaiko (get it?)
You can somewhat clip into her during her animation from behind. The moment the animation is complete, you will be flicked back a little, that's the time to strike.

Once she is down, it's time to grab the key, but Zaiko needs to be shaken off, otherwise you won't be able to. If you can lead her away and give her rotten meat, that will do the job.

Grab the key and bail.

Alright, this is by far the EASIEST dream to run through for story. Go to the shrine and pop an elixir of immortality.

And now, Feed yourself to Zaiko. If you think Yui will ruin things, feel free to knock her out and proceed with the feeding.

...
....
Okay, you may need to kick Zaiko off a few times, she can be a little slow, so you gotta reset her.
...
There we go.

Wait, WHAT DO YOU MEAN RETRY, I DRANK THE oh whatever, I'll just do it again.

THERE WE GO. Revive time.

Saiko is back and its ... morning?
Is this it?

We are gonna be free. It's time to get out of here.

Quickly, Saiko, let's find the door, one last time.


home ...

What did you think? Cringy enough? I really wanted to make it cringy and old-school-anime-plot like. Why? I don't know. I've been rewatching the classic Sailor Moon series, so that might be why.

Anywho, new realm, new challenges.
Challenge #1, Yui. Her and Elissu will be after you at the same time, so you will need to- oh...


Um ... good job.
Okay, next up, get to the shrine and receive new orders.
wait, what's that on the tree.

ah yes, new item ... well, new interactable.

These will be marked on your map on your way to the shrine, so feel free to explore a bit, could save you from a little bit of hassle. But be careful of Elissu. Don't want to get Insta-killed now.

OH AND DON'T FORGET TO BRING A STICK ... assuming you can find one in this mess.
...
alright, so once you are at the shrine, set the stick on fire with the blue fire in front of the cage.

mmmm, qwithpee. ... god, what's wrong with me.
whatever, just, go set the stupid charms on fire.

They will only be at dead ends and the big tree cluster areas.
Your fire is on a timer but everytime you set a charm on fire, your flame will be reset.
Take too long and you'll have to revisit the shrine. But all is fine, just gotta watch out for- and I'm dead.
well, guess I gotta restart. Good thing I don't lose progress on how many charms I burned. Gotta beat up Yui again ... although, what were to happen if I put Yui near Elissu.

There we go, let's see wha- ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥!

... Wish you'd do that at a later point too, but I guess that would've made it too easy ... you'll learn what I mean later, assuming you care to get all the achievements.

Okie-dokie, lets finish the charms.

Once, you've charred them all and returned to receive your prize, you'll be handed the least shrine like item.

A smartphone: useful for 3-4 things. Let's take a closer look.

pft, creep.

Sadly, 911 and 110 do not work, so either we aren't in america or japan, or we have awful service here ... in the uh ... middle of a dead forest.

oh-ho-ho, now this is useful. If you turn this on and open your map (you can lower your phone, it'll still work) you will see every marker on the map show itself. Doesn't do GPS but at least you get a rough idea of where things are. Sadly, doesn't ping threats.

eh, not that useful really. Let's flip it.

YEESH, nevermind, next one.

pft, loser got no friends.

Alright, that's all for now. Find your way to the exit, the voice of the shrine has opened for you.
Use the Tracker to find your way out, if need be.

For our newest task, we will need a rock. But not just any rock, no, we need a rock with the essence of the voice of the shrine.
Take a trip that way anyways. We need the phone too.


Once we show up, he will offer the rock but turn on the phone's tracker app real quick.
... oh, what's that in the minimap

Looks like we've located our target, heheh ... wait ... where is it...

It's not here? ... wait, is- OH wow, that little-

Okay, so he is in there, let's go get our rabbit. Just, remember to keep an eye out for Elissu.
It is imperative that she doesn't interrupt us while we handle the animated rabbit doll.
...
AH, I FORGOT THE ROCK WITH ESSENCE, Gotta go back real quick
...
I can hear it squeaking ...
THERE

oooo, you gonna get it. TAKE THI- ...

It's just ... floating there ... guess I'll uh ... restart then.
................................................
TAKE THIS

There we go.

Plushy obtai-YEE

Looks like something out of a FNAF game ...
Alright, just gotta make sure not to drop it. It could get up and run away to a different treeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee- Elissu just flipped off my shoulders and made me drop the rabbit.
... TAKE THREE
...........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
okay, finally got it back to the shrine
here you go creepy voice.

and now if you direct your attention behind you

We have captured the shadow of our Yangire friend.

oh ... she doesn't seem happy.

Just gonnaaaaa, YOINK
so ... wanna get like, some food later or som- oh

... well ♥♥♥♥ you, too.

Alright, now that we have the key, we can finally open the cage.

Yes, we open the cage

Then we TAKE THE STRENGTHENED RABBIT DOLL

THEN, WE HOLD THE RABBIT DOLL
THEN we do nothing else
go on, get outta here, get to the exit, we'll talk later ...

You know the drill, straight to the shrine.
OH WAIT, FIRST THINGS FIRST, DO NOT TAKE DOWN YUI.
It is IMPERATIVE she stays conscious.
okay, now go to the shrine.


Here we go.

Let's give it to Yui.

...
hmmmm, ah there she is.

oh ... OH. OH MY GOD, HOLY ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ ♥♥♥♥
yeesh, that was gnarly.
oh, and one final reward.
A beast, able to be summoned to dispose of threats.
(threat must be standing in front of you for it to work.)

This is it ... we are at the end. This time for real.
Let's get to the exit.

... Saiko is waiting.

Story Related or Achievements obtained while following guide:
I am her White Knight
Heartless
Hammering Yui
I have no choice
I have been bitten
Escaped from Elissu
Breaking Barrier
I escaped
Demonic Doll
I Need this Immortality
Bound for Eternity
Burnt Paper
Voodoo Doll
Demon Unleashed
Finally Escaped

The Rest:
Immortal
-die at least once to revive and escaped dream hell
as it says on the tin. just set up your exit and use the elixir.

Extreme Shiki
-Complete Extreme modes of both hell and rotten mode
also as it says on the tin, just much harder.

She needs her head
-Put head back on Saiko when it falls down
This event may or may not happen. After you drink the immortality elixir and let Zaiko eat you, there is a chance her head falls off at some point. this may be connected to the hand holding trigger.
If you can't trigger hand holding, get her close to some rotten meat and she will pick it up to offer it to you. Take it and eat it, and the hand holding prompt will show up. From there, I guess it's RNG.

Air Strike
-Call shrine demon for help removing elissu or yui
after you unleashed the voice of the shrine and get his phone number, use it on either of the threats (i don't think zaiko counts, haven't tried) and make sure they are in front of you when you do it.

Is it poison?
-take apple from elissu
get down to about 30 or 20 hp and let Elissu walk up to you. she'll either decapitate you like Lacemaker or she'll give you an apple

Yangire Slayer
-Defeat Elissu in combat!
...... unfortunately, as it says on the damn tin. I'll go over this later along with Extreme Shiki.

This is not easy. But from how others said they did it, and how I did it on complete accident through panic when Elissu invaded the shrine she usually backs off from, you just spam hit her with the hammer.

She normally walks away from the shrine, perhaps that can be used to your advantage.
Don't force it too much, one slip up, your back gets turned, she'll hit you with that back stab insta-kill.
There really isn't much info I can give to help. Just do your best.

UPDATE:
Turns out she is a total pushover. well, kind of.
All you have to do is go to the shrine and pick up a hammer. This next part is easier if she is already chasing you. Have her follow you up to the cut off point for the shrine, where she starts backing away from you. As SOON as she starts running, give chase until you find her looking around in a panic.
I would make sure you are hiding while chasing her, to the best of your abilities, but make sure you stay close.
From there, just give her a bump on the head and repeat.

Save this and edit as you go through Extreme, as you will not have a map of your own, otherwise.
be sure to pause while you do. The game will not auto-pause on alt+tab's

I use snagit's editor to do my edits. For best accuracy count the paths to the next intersection as a box itself.

To make sure you understand, I'll upload my edits, as I go.
Let's start at the beginning.


dodododoooo, oh a fork in the road. do I go straight or right?
let's go to the right.


again? okay, let's go right again


Nothing here, but a charm to be burned. I'll mark it make my way back. This time I'll go the other way.
I'll also delete these orange lines I made to remind myself of potential paths.


AH-HA THE SHRINE.
I'll mark it with a blue circle and check out the other paths.

Oh, a large cluster of trees area. oop, there's another charm here too. (where is that damn stick)
I'll mark this dense area with an orange circle. a thing about these areas is that it always has 4 exits.
Though some of them are dead ends, like the northern one is. I'll go ahead and mark my map preemptively


okay okay okay, I could do this for the whole thing, but let's face it ... I already died 3 times, while making this map, and I just kind of made it up.

do your best, hopefully Yui and Elissu won't be too harsh on ya.

So I found out that the phone call function of the mobile has another use. In game cheats.
By dialing those number, you can teleport to exits, spawn Yui, amongst other things ...
and those phone number cheats are ....
forgotten.

Developer Habupain put them in a discussion I glanced that but I don't have the copy paste anymore.
But now there is something for you to mess with.
What I do remember is that the number were less than 7 digits ... I wanna say either 4 or 5 digits long.

Habupain, if you are reading this, maybe drop one just to prove I'm not a liar.

UPDATE:


AS IT IS SAID
Dialing 5555 (a total of four 'FIVES' for those with trouble reading numbers) will get you a neat ACHIEVEMENT DISABLING item.
if more is found, left in the comments, or read in discussions, I'll try to add them in here.

UPDATE
we got a list of cheats thanks to BerserkerXeno finding them in the Saiko discord server.
These cheats are done by getting the phone and calling specific numbers, however, cheating WILL DISABLE your ability to get achievements until restart.

[5555] spawns Keef Mask (Basically helps ward off Elissu)
[3495] spawns hammer
[7658] spawns axe
[2034] spawns bat
[9548] spawns knife
[2299] spawns gun
[5543] spawns scissors
[4398] changes Elissu outfit to nurse
[4399] changes Elissu outfit to maid
[0909] Teleport to shrine
[9898] Spawn meat in front of you (hand/feet)
[9494] Spawn heart in front of you
[9393] Spawn Yui in the forest
[9191] Spawn mobile in front of you
[9090] Teleport to exit gate (Hell and Rotten mode)
[9999] Teleport at the start gate

I might add more sections like story line and lore theorizing but for now, I'm tired of typing. I was doing this yesterday and today.

I JUST saw that Habupain uploaded a video walkthrough so good thing I didn't do video as well, otherwise I would've felt completely useless for making it. Some people like text, others like video.

Hope this helped everyone, I'm going to try and beat Extreme Rotten now.


..... I died again, screw this, I'm playing Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth.