Servant of the Lake runs on three in-game days, and each day is split into Morning, Afternoon, Evening and Night. You are a hired servant at the Vanderboom estate for one weekend, and the game gives you a chore list rather than a map — the route through the house is the route through the story.
Start with Day 1 if you have just bought the game. If you are stuck on one screen, skip the route entirely and go straight to the puzzle index, where each puzzle has its own page.
How the days are structured
| Day | Theme | Time blocks |
|---|---|---|
| Day 1 | Waking and serving Mr. Aldous, then hosting the family reunion | Morning, Afternoon, Evening, Night |
| Day 2 | Coffee, cleaning, the hunt, and helping with the bath | Morning, Afternoon, Evening, Night |
| Day 3 | Assisting with alchemy | Morning onward |
Days cannot be skipped and most chores must be completed in a fixed order. When a scene refuses to advance, the missing piece is nearly always an item still sitting in the room — sweep every surface, drawer and pocket before you re-attempt the puzzle itself.
The three rules that unstick most players
Order matters more than logic. Several sequences — waking Aldous, serving tea, the lullaby — only accept one exact order. Doing the right actions in the wrong order looks identical to doing the wrong actions.
Failing is sometimes the point. A large share of the hidden achievements fire when you deliberately do a task badly: performing the morning exercises wrong, letting the goat eat the bouquet, giving the champagne to the baby. Grab those on your first pass so you do not need a second run.
One code is not knowable. The three-digit luggage code in the garden is randomised per playthrough. You get it by shaking the baby basket and listening. Any guide that hands you a fixed number for that lock is guessing. Everything else — the wine cabinet, the alchemy cabinet, the attic chest — is fixed and is listed on our all codes page.
Do not want the answer yet?
The hint index gives one nudge per scene and stops there — no codes, no sequences — with the full solution a click away if the nudge is not enough.
How long will it take?
Around four to five hours for the main route, by player estimate — see how long is Servant of the Lake for what that number is based on and what pushes it up.
Where the demo fits
The free demo covers the opening slice of Day 1: the courtyard, the hallway and Aldous's bedroom. Those solutions carry over to the paid release unchanged, so the demo walkthrough doubles as the first section of the full route. Everything past the bedroom is exclusive to the full game.
The mobile Lite build follows the same opening. If you played Lite and moved to PC, you can start at Day 1 Afternoon.
Achievements while you play
There are 49 Steam achievements. Roughly half are story achievements that unlock simply by finishing each block of the day; the rest are hidden ones tied to optional interactions. Our hidden achievement page lists the triggers in the order you encounter them, so you can pick them up as you go rather than replaying.
The final achievement, "You've found him!", cannot be started until after the credits. It sends you back through all three days re-entering specific answers. That full route is documented separately on the "You've found him!" page — it is heavily spoiler-tagged for a reason.
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In this section
Day 1 Walkthrough — Aldous's Routine and the Reunion
Every Day 1 step in order: the enforced wake-up sequence, the 1753 wine cabinet code, attic stars 4-2-3, and the achievements you only get by failing.
Day 2 Walkthrough — Coffee, the Hunt and the Bath
Servant of the Lake Day 2 walkthrough: roasted coffee for Aldous, waking William, the perfect hunt, the bathing tile puzzle, the cellar and pest control.
Day 3 Walkthrough — Assisting with Alchemy
Every Day 3 step across all four blocks: the alchemy maze, the fish brooch, the chandelier rope, the fork, and where the 6294 cellar code actually belongs.
Full-Game Walkthrough
The complete Servant of the Lake route from the courtyard to the post-credits secret, with every fixed code and every missable achievement flagged.
Lite & Demo Walkthrough — the free opening
Servant of the Lake Lite walkthrough for the free opening slice: the courtyard cups, the porridge, the forced wake-up order, the bowl insect and the exercises.
Hints — Nudges Instead of Answers
Stuck on Servant of the Lake but do not want the answer? One nudge per scene, with the full solution a click away if the nudge is not enough.
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