This guide is just a series of simple general hints on how to play the game in order not to miss anything by accident. The Seance of Blake Manor is a very forgiving game, but it may still feel frustrating running around the manor in search of the next step because you missed a piece of information or one of the characters maps is incomplete and you don't find what completes it.

This guide does not provide specific hints for any point in the game nor does it reveal any major plot points. However, I can't promise knowledge of these hints won't taint your experience as you might be able to predict part of the game flow. So, if you want to go into this very special experience blind for the first time, you can stop here, complete the game, and come back for your second playthrough. If you still prefer to have a bit of a feel for the system before going in, keep reading.

These tips focus more on the general UI and gameplay of the game rather than story progression.

• The Seance of Blake Manor has a timer that advances 1m with most actions, and time is your main resource. However, don't fret, there should be enough time to explore everything, so don't be afraid to actually spend it
  
• When a new hour starts, make sure to pay attention first to any events or exploration activities that happen only at that time, if any. You should have time to spare once you're exhausted everything, but what you don't want to do is to spend your time exploring and miss an important event
  
• The talks in the drawing room spend quite a bit of time (21m), but are interesting to attend for two reasons:
  
  • They provide interesting lore that may help guide your investigations, but most importantly-
    
  • They let you access the Drawing room and talk with many characters that would otherwise be locked behind the closed door during that hour
• When you are absolutely sure you don't have anything else to do and want to move on, use the hourglasses around the manor to advance to the next hour (However, it's a better use of your time to go find any character and talk with them about secondary topics or other guests
  
• Usually, using Confront on a character doesn't cost any time unlike normal actions, so you may want to try those first if you have them available, as they may unlock further actions

• Some conversation topics may appear deceitfully unimportant. I won't say all conversation topics are always useful, but take into account that you may still get new hints or conversation topics from topics that are old or seem obvious. It may feel frustrating going through all conversation topics without anything on the mindmap changing, but sometimes it may pay up
  
• You may talk about characters about other characters, but you need to select the tab at the top of the topics list to do so (The Evidence tab shows only non-people conversation topics)
  
• Analysing before talking is always a good idea as you unlock extra conversation topics

• This is not a stealth game, but characters may still get furious at you and the game will end if you're found somewhere you shouldn't be. Still, the crouch button does nothing to hide you, so you can walk and run and nobody will care
  
• Make sure to use your ears before trespassing into guests rooms or other forbidden spaces
  
• Moving between rooms, opening drawers and other containers, and generally any action that doesn't specifically spend time is safe to perform. So, don't be hasty, look everywhere in the room
  
• LOOK EVERYWHERE. Don't forget to look up, or under things, not everything you need to find is at table height. Use your Detective Sight (Space) to make sure you're not missing anything

• Keep an eye on the Mindmap, as it tracks your progression in the game. If you're unsure what to do next, the answer is usually here. Pay attention specially to the "Current Focus" on the top left
  
• Sometimes the Mindmap can be a bit confusing on what exactly you can do next. In those cases:
  
  • The incomplete leads appear in a lighter color, these usually let you know what your next step is
    
  • Check not only the nodes, but the Connections as well. There's sometimes hints on what you can do to advance when selecting the connection, and their color and shape also lets you know how strong the connection is
    
  • If you still don't know, make sure to reread any related documents (Some Document nodes link you directly to the related Document item), as well as check who that node can be talked with (if a black silhouette with a lock icon appears on a character, you may need to do something with that character to bring up that topic, but it won't say which character until you unlock that relation)
• Make sure to go back to the general Mysteries view pressing Esc in the Culprit view and pay attention to those too
  
• The culprit discard selection is utterly useless gameplay-wise, but it may still help you keep track of which people you still need to investigate further

• Pay attention to the map. The Blake Manor is quite extensive, so it's not difficult to get lost or miss some hallways. You may also be able to find extra info about character locations if you have their timetables filled
  
• If you can't find a guest, most probably they're in their room, in a talk or having a meal, so you won't be able to interact with them anyway. Make sure to ask them about their timetable (or check it in their rooms) beforehand.
  
• As for the staff, they spend most of their time working in inaccessible areas, so you need to make sure when they're available to talk to them. The manager is the exception, you can always summon him with the reception bell
  
• The tracing puzzles can be a bit unwieldly to solve with the default mouse controls, specially for low DPI settings. If you're having trouble, there's an option in settings to complete them by just clicking the nodes in order

These tips may be a bit more revealing about the flow of the story, I'm making an effort not to spoil any plot points, but if you want to go in blind you should skip them anyway until you get stuck

• The game happens along a three day span, but day 1 is a very short sequence where you arrive to the manor. The thick of the game happens on Day 2 and Day 3
  
• As I said previously, you have more than enough time to complete the game. In fact, you can only save (completing their story) about half of the characters on day 2, and have to wait for day 3 to save the rest anyway.
  
• Except the talks, which you can access only in the first 10 minutes of an hour, most events that happen at a certain time it seems they can be accessed during the whole hour.
  
• Some game actions take longer than 10 minutes to complete. If you start them when the current hour is about to expire, you may lose the chance to attend a talk in the Drawing Room.

• In order to complete a character story, you must unlock their Mind Map until a certain point by profiling them and investigating what they've come to the Manor to do.
  
• Don't bother trying to fully solve a character until you can enter their room
  
  • Be careful with this though. There may be some things you can learn about some characters only on day 2
• Some stories can only be completed together. If you're stuck with a character, it's possible you need to complete a different character as well
  
• Some characters require you to ask about them to other characters. Pay special attention if the "Profile XYZ" Node is not complete
  
• Day 3 Spoiler: One of the characters becomes unavailable during day 3. If you're trying to complete that character's Mystery and are getting stuck missing some nodes, you need to go back to day 2 and talk with them to get them (or just accept it and move on)
  
• Endings: In order to get the good endings you need to save enough characters by the end of day 3. Conversely, in order to get the bad ending (and the Run! achievement), you need to NOT save enough characters
  
  • Unlock all endings: If you want to try to generate a save that allows you to get all endings easily, try leaving the "Act" actions for all characters incomplete until the afternoon of Day 3. Then complete the game without completing anyone to get the bad ending, and act on everyone to get the good ending. The special worst ending con be done on either
    
  • To prevent Game Over before Ending: Furthermore, in order not to die on day 3, you need to gain access to the Private Residence, which requires you to complete "The Basement" Mystery and participate on the Silent Dinner at 8pm
    
  • To prevent Game Over before Ending II: At a certain point, you will need to name a culprit, and if you fail you get a Game Over. As I mentioned earlier, the discard functionality is pretty useless as you can nominate anyone even if they are discarded, it's only just a visual aid for you as a player. If you have completed all characters' stories the culprit should be pretty obvious, but if you're still in doubt use the hints unlocked by the different story mysteries to discard possible candidates. If you solved them all, only two characters should remain, and from recent story events only one makes sense as the culprit

• Locked Areas: There's some areas of the game locked until day 3. Specifically, the Cemetery and the Basement, so don't bother trying to find a key on day 2.
  
• Guests Rooms: You need to look for keys in order to enter guests' rooms, and this should be your first priority on day 2. However, one of the keys you need is inaccessible until day 3
  
• Library: There's a lot of lore content in the library, and most of it is free to read. However, there's also a lot of story related topics, so make sure to have a look once in a while as well
  
• Basement: You need to wait until 12pm on Day 3 to explore the basement, but you can't fully explore it until 3pm. However if you haven't found a key to the basement by that time you lose the chance to enter, so you need to explore it in two phases
  
  • Furthermore, if you don't complete exploration of the basement by 8pm on day 3 you get locked into a Game Over route. There's time enough, but don't forget to pay at least a second visit to the basement
• Dungeon: You gain access to the underground dungeon on day 3. However, to fully explore it, you need to complete 2 characters' Mindmaps and get to the point of Confronting them.

• The puzzles can be brute-forced without finding the hint about their Sigil, however, you don't get the lines shown, so it's quite trial and error.
  
• If you're stuck: These puzzles are a type of Eulerian Path, so if any nodes have an odd number of connections (1,3,5) it means they are either the start or the finish point; otherwise any point you choose should work (that point will be start AND finish)

• You only get the option to deduce about them once you unlocked enough nodes, so when they're offered yo you they are always solvable. Just pay a bit of attention to the grammar, as the tense of the verb and the plural on the nouns must match with the rest of the sentence. If you find yourself stuck, just do a bit of trial and error, there aren't that many possible cominations
  
  • There's ONE specific case where you REALLY need to be sure what you put there, otherwise it's a Game Over. No trial and error there