Scorn is a puzzle-filled horror game, it's the sort of game that focuses on creating a psychological horror scene rather than action-packed sequences. The storytelling is all in the gameplay, there are no cutscenes, no direct tutorials, there is no speech, it's up to the players to explore, try to understand, and come to their own conclusions.
Each act in Scorn plays an important role and adds to the desolated world in its own way. There are five acts in total and this guide will walk players through the first part of Act 1. Act 1 is divided into two parts unlike any of the other chapters ahead.
Trigger warning: This guide contains descriptions of acts of torture.
Act I-I
The first part of Act 1 has no combat whatsoever, it revolves completely around puzzle-solving. It's a better way to ease players into the game and also to showcase what's to come since altogether there certainly is combat in Scorn, the game's priority is puzzle-solving.
As soon as the game starts and the intro finishes playing out, the player will be able to control the character as soon as they stand up after waking up. This first area of the map is quite small and it works like a pseudo-tutorial (it doesn't actually tell players what to do, but it's a simple puzzle that's there so players can get the hang of the game's controls). Check out this guide for a full description of how to make your way through this first area and unlock the door at the end to reach the main room.
The main/spiral room has various exits that lead to other areas within the floor, it also has a tower with a spiral ramp leading up to it. The entirety of the first part of Act 1 will occur on this floor (either in this main room or in the other rooms and corridors). The main objective is to open the locked door on the eastern part of the spiral room and reach the second part of Act 1.
The Crane Puzzle
To reach the next puzzle, players will have to go to the large locked door and then turn right. As soon they go down the corridor, two strange machines can be seen but there is nothing to do here for the time being. There is a lever in a nook on the walls on the right, it has holes for the character's fingers and players will have to use it to activate the platform and make it ascend - it works just like an elevator. At the top, they'll have to walk until they reach the end of the corridor and then step forward onto the balcony.
Now there will be two contraptions to work with, to progress the Crane Puzzle must be solved. In terms of difficulty, this puzzle is nothing alike the puzzle that had to be solved to open the first door - it's much more complicated. It's quite long so there's a separate guide with the solution, to know more and learn how to solve it check out the How To Solve The Crane Puzzle in Act 1 guide. After the puzzle's been solved, players have to head back down to the main room. The creature in the pod can be found over the crane device directly in front of the control panel on top of the spiral tower.
Now that it's there, players will have to fetch him using the crane which can be moved when using the terminal in front of it. Once they've approached the terminal they can interact with it to start using it.
First, players must press "up" to move it up to where the creature is and then select "use." This will bring the creature down to ground level. Then, they'll have to press "down" and the crane will put the creature in the cart.
This part seems to be glitched and sometimes it's not possible to press "down" after getting the creature to ground level. If this happens, exiting the terminal and returning seems to fix the glitch.
Now players will have to push the creature onto the next station, the one on the left. It's a bit gory and it will definitely make you feel sorry for the poor thing. Once the creature is directly beneath the strange piece of equipment and in front of the terminal, leave it there and activate the terminal. The machine will come down on it and squish his body terribly.
This is the first torture that will be inflicted on the creature. Once the machine has stopped, players will have to keep pushing the creature to his next stop and keep doing harm to the creature in order to progress in Scorn. There are only two options here depending on the room they decide to take it to:
- Option 1: Players can kill the creature
- Option 2: Players can torture the creature without killing it
Achievement hunters will have to do both since this is the only achievement in the game that requires a do-over of a specific part of the game and can't simply be done by playing through it. Thankfully, redoing it won't be too time-consuming.
Option 1: Killing The Creature
Option 1 tends to be the most popular, perhaps not because it's seen as an act of mercy but perhaps because it's the first room that players can reach with the cart. And, if players aren't aware that they can bring the creature to another chamber, they might simply go into the first and get it over with.
To get the creature to the first room, players have to access the railing control panel up in the spiral tower and move the rails so that they lead to the southern room. It should look just like this:
Players will then have to keep pushing the creature until it's reached the destination. This room is the same room where the elevator to reach the crane puzzle was. In the room, the rail will eventually come to an end and that is when to stop pushing. A little farther back there is a terminal that players can use to control a claw-like machine. They will have to connect to the terminal, press 'use', and then guide it to the right and use it yet again to place the creature in the seat.
Once the creature has been correctly placed, players have to go up to the switch in front of the terminal and activate it. This will cause the power shovel machine to dig into the creature's back and separate it from its shell (the pod). The damage inflicted upon it is too grave which will lead to its unfortunate death.
After the shovel has tossed the creature into the hole, the player will have to go up to its remain and collect its hand - this is how achievement Hand To Hand is unlocked.
After grabbing the creature's hands, the player should use the other exit to leave the room, it will take them to the large door. To continue, they should keep moving forward and take the corridor on the left of the door. Then, turn left and interact with the contraption on the wall.
The character will place the creature's hand inside and it'll get the same wooden implant stuck into the hand's flesh. With this new addition to the inventory, the large door can now be unlocked by placing the hand on the left terminal and activating the right terminal manually.
This time it won't close behind the player since the hand will remain stuck there.
Option 2: Torturing The Creature But It Lives
The second option allows players to get the Extraction achievement. To do this, players can't go right into the first room when pushing the creature on the cart. They will have to access the rail control panel and move it so that the first two rails are connected to the inner circle and the last rail leads to the northeastern room, the one on the left of the large door. The rails should be positioned as such:
The player then has to push the creature all the way to the other side of the main room until it reaches the extraction chamber. Using the contraption in the middle, the creature can be moved onto the seat on the right. And, after it's been positioned correctly, the player has to activate the lever next to the seat.
A saw will descend from the machine and start inflicting damage on the creature. Although at first, it seems that it might've killed it, it has simply removed it from its shell and it will slowly stand up. Players will then have to turn around and go to the corridor on the right, the creature will follow the character.
Approach the contraption on the wall to make the creature stick its hand inside. The same wooden implant that the character has will be put on it. Players will then have to keep going in the same direction as before to leave the corridor and encounter the large door. Then, they'll have to make the creature stick its hand into the left terminal and open the gates using the right terminal. The creature will stay behind and players can move on to part two of Act I. The game will save progress here, this is the only instant that it happens without having to start a new act.
Scorn is available for PC and Xbox Series X/S.