Hello Neighbor 2 throws players into the shoes of Quentin, a reporter investigating the disappearances in Raven Brooks. Unlike the first game’s single-house focus, the sequel sprawls across an entire town filled with suspicious neighbors, locked doors, and environmental puzzles that’ll have you scratching your head. The AI-driven neighbors adapt to your tactics, making each playthrough feel different.
This walkthrough covers every act, puzzle solution, and collectible location in Hello Neighbor 2. Whether you’re stuck on the Mayor’s basement puzzle or hunting down those last few diary pages, this guide has you covered. We’re working with the current build as of March 2026, including all post-launch patches and quality-of-life updates that tinyBuild has rolled out.
Key Takeaways
- Hello Neighbor 2 walkthrough guides you through five acts across Raven Brooks, each with unique puzzles, collectibles, and adaptive AI neighbors that learn from your tactics.
- Noise management is critical to stealth success—crouch-walking on carpet, avoiding sprints within 15 meters of neighbors, and closing doors behind you dramatically improve your detection avoidance.
- Essential tools like crowbars, lockpicks, and umbrellas are reusable or limited-use items that unlock major progression paths, so prioritize keeping them in your four-slot inventory.
- Collectibles include 12 diary pages and 5 golden key cards hidden throughout all acts; collecting them all unlocks achievements, bonus rooms in town hall, and additional lore content.
- Advanced strategies like creating sound distractions, exploiting vertical spaces, and manipulating the environment let you turn the tables on neighbors and optimize your routes for speedruns or challenge modes.
Getting Started: Controls, Mechanics, and Essential Tips
Before diving into Raven Brooks, it’s worth understanding the core mechanics that separate Hello Neighbor 2 from other stealth games. The control scheme is standard across PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X
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S, and last-gen consoles, though PC players get the advantage of precise camera control for those tight squeezes.
Movement is your survival tool. Crouch-walking reduces noise significantly, and you’ll want to abuse this constantly. Sprinting alerts neighbors within a surprisingly large radius, roughly 15 meters based on community testing. Jumping and landing on hard surfaces creates noise spikes, so always look for soft landing zones like grass or carpet.
The inventory system holds up to four items at once. You can’t pause to rearrange during chases, so plan ahead. Dropped items stay exactly where you leave them unless a neighbor picks them up, which they will if they spot something out of place.
Understanding the AI and Neighbor Behavior
The neighbors in Hello Neighbor 2 use an adaptive AI system that learns from your patterns. Break in through the same window three times? They’ll start patrolling that route or even board it up. This isn’t just marketing talk, the game tracks your entry points and adjusts patrol paths accordingly.
Each neighbor has specific trigger zones and patrol behaviors. The Mayor, for instance, spends most of his time near the basement entrance during the day cycle. If you trigger an alert, neighbors will search the immediate area for about 45 seconds before returning to their routine. They also investigate environmental changes like open doors, moved furniture, or lights you’ve turned on.
The detection system uses line-of-sight and lighting. Standing in shadows doesn’t make you invisible, but it significantly reduces detection range. If a neighbor’s eyes glow red, you’ve been spotted, time to run or hide in a closet. The detection meter fills faster when you’re moving or in bright light.
Essential Tools and Items You’ll Need
Certain items appear across multiple acts and serve as universal keys to progression. Learn to recognize these on sight:
Crowbar: Opens boarded windows and pries up loose floorboards. Reusable and essential for at least four major puzzles. Usually found in garages or tool sheds.
Lockpicks: Single-use items that open basic locks. They break after one use, so stockpile them when possible. Most acts have 3-5 available.
Umbrella: Slows your fall, letting you access lower areas without taking damage. Critical for the Museum and Taxidermist sections.
Binoculars: Lets you scout interiors from outside, planning your route before entry. Reduces trial-and-error deaths significantly.
Camera: Required for certain objectives where you need photographic evidence. Can’t progress without it in Acts 2 and 5.
Keep a crowbar on you at all times once you find one. The other three slots should rotate based on the current objective, but always prioritize mission-critical items over “nice to have” tools like wrenches or toy rifles.
Act 1 Walkthrough: Investigating the Mayor’s House
Act 1 serves as your tutorial while introducing the main investigation mechanics. The Mayor’s house sits at the north end of the starting area, a two-story building with a locked front door and several entry points around the perimeter.
Finding the First Clue and Entering the House
Your objective starts with photographing the Mayor through his window. Head to the left side of the house where you’ll find a ladder leaning against the fence. Move the ladder to the house’s east wall, positioning it under the second-floor window.
Climb up and use your camera to snap a photo of the Mayor through the window. This triggers the next objective: find evidence of his involvement in the disappearances.
For entry, the back door is your safest bet. Circle around to the rear yard where you’ll find a gate key hidden under the red toolbox near the shed. Unlock the back gate and you’ll spot a window with a missing pane, that’s your entry point. Crouch through and you’re inside the kitchen.
The Mayor patrols between the living room, kitchen, and hallway on a roughly 90-second loop. Wait for him to move into the living room before proceeding. You need to reach the basement, but the door requires a key.
Solving the Basement Puzzle
The basement key hangs on a hook in the Mayor’s upstairs bedroom. The stairs creak when you walk on them normally, so crouch-walk up the left side where the boards are more stable. This detail comes from extensive testing by stealth game communities, showing that hugging the left bannister reduces noise by about 60%.
In the bedroom, grab the key from the hook next to the dresser. You’ll also find a lockpick on the nightstand, pocket that too.
Return downstairs and unlock the basement door in the hallway. The basement puzzle is straightforward but easy to overthink. You need to power on the circuit breaker, which requires finding three fuses scattered around the basement.
Fuse locations:
- On the metal shelf to your right as you descend the stairs
- Inside the cardboard box near the water heater
- On top of the electrical box itself (bit cheeky, that one)
Insert all three fuses into the circuit breaker panel on the wall. Flip the main switch, and the hidden door behind the shelf unit unlocks. Push the shelf aside, it’s on wheels, and enter the secret room.
Inside, photograph the evidence board and the documents on the desk. This completes the primary objective.
Escaping the Mayor
The moment you photograph the evidence, the Mayor gets alerted regardless of his position. The game forces a chase sequence here, it’s scripted, so don’t feel bad about getting caught earlier.
Your escape route is back up the basement stairs, through the kitchen, and out the back window you entered from. The Mayor is faster than you in straight sprints, so use the furniture to break line of sight. Vault over the kitchen counter, and as you round the corner, he’ll take the longer route around, buying you seconds.
Once you’re out the window, sprint toward your house (marked on your HUD). The Mayor won’t follow you past his property line. Achievement unlocked: “Breaking and Entering,” and Act 1 complete.
Act 2 Walkthrough: The Museum Mystery
The Museum sits in central Raven Brooks, a three-story building with a suspicious amount of after-hours activity. Your goal is to investigate the curator and find evidence linking the museum to the missing persons case. Many players cite this as one of the trickier acts due to the vertical level design.
Accessing the Museum and Finding Key Items
The Museum’s front door is locked after 6 PM in-game time. You’ll need to find an alternate entry point. Head around to the alley on the building’s west side where a dumpster sits beneath a first-floor window.
Climb the dumpster and you’ll notice the window is locked from inside. Here’s where that crowbar from Act 1 comes in handy, if you didn’t grab one, there’s another in the garage three houses down from the museum. Use the crowbar on the window to force it open.
Drop inside what appears to be a storage room. Immediately crouch, the curator patrols the hallway just outside. Wait for footsteps to fade before exiting into the main hall.
Your first objective is finding the curator’s office key. It’s on a keyring in the gift shop, behind the register. The gift shop is on the ground floor, east wing. Time your movement when the curator is on the opposite side of the building.
In the gift shop, vault over the counter and grab the keyring. You’ll also want to grab the museum map pinned to the corkboard, it reveals the locations of several hidden rooms.
Navigating the Museum’s Upper Floors
With the office key in hand, head to the second floor. The curator’s office is the first door on your right at the top of the main staircase. Unlock it and enter.
Inside, you need to access the computer, but it requires a password. The password hint is on a sticky note attached to the monitor: “First exhibition year.” Check the plaque in the main hall downstairs, it reads 1963. Enter this on the computer.
The computer reveals a camera feed showing a hidden room in the basement. Your new objective: reach the basement and investigate. Many game guide sources note this section has a common softlock if you don’t grab the umbrella first, so let’s grab that now.
The umbrella is in the third-floor storage room. Take the stairs to the top floor. The storage room is locked, but you should still have that lockpick from Act 1. If not, there’s one in the janitor’s closet on the first floor.
Pick the lock and grab the umbrella from the coat rack. Now backtrack to the second floor and look for the open skylight window above the main exhibit hall. You need to jump down into the exhibit, using the umbrella to slow your fall and avoid damage.
Land on the dinosaur skeleton platform, it’s the only spot that won’t trigger noise alerts. From here, navigate to the basement access door hidden behind the “Natural History” exhibit backdrop. It’s a fake wall: walk through it.
Downstairs, photograph the evidence in the hidden workshop: taxidermy tools, personal belongings from the missing persons, and a map marking the Bakery. This completes Act 2 and unlocks the next investigation location.
Act 3 Walkthrough: The Bakery Investigation
The Bakery investigation ramps up the puzzle complexity. Located on the town’s south side, this two-story building with a large industrial kitchen is home to the Baker, who has some explaining to do about strange deliveries and midnight operations.
Breaking Into the Bakery
Unlike previous acts, the Bakery has decent security. The front and back doors are locked with deadbolts that require keys from inside, classic catch-22. Your entry point is the ventilation shaft on the roof.
Access the roof by stacking boxes from the adjacent alley. You’ll need three wooden crates: two are in the alley already, and the third is behind the dumpster. Stack them against the wall below the fire escape ladder.
Climb up and cross the roof to the large ventilation unit. Remove the grate (no tool required, just interact with it) and drop down into the shaft. Follow it until you drop into the storage room.
The Baker patrols the main kitchen and front counter area. His patrol is tighter than previous neighbors, so you’ll need to be more cautious. Noise discipline is critical here, the industrial kitchen has tons of metal surfaces that amplify footstep sounds.
Solving the Oven and Freezer Puzzles
Your objective is accessing the basement freezer where evidence is stored. The freezer door has a combination lock requiring a four-digit code. The code is split across four recipe cards hidden in the kitchen.
Recipe card locations:
- On the prep counter near the industrial mixer, digit is 3
- Inside the office desk drawer (requires lockpick), digit is 7
- Pinned to the corkboard in the storage room, digit is 1
- Inside the oven (yes, really), digit is 9
The oven is off, so you can safely open it and grab the card. But, opening the oven triggers a sound cue that alerts the Baker if he’s within 10 meters. Wait until he’s in the front counter area.
The combination is 3719 (in the order you naturally find them). Enter this on the freezer door lock and enter.
Inside the freezer, you’ll find more evidence linking the Baker to the conspiracy: shipping manifests, a hidden safe, and photographs. The safe requires a key that’s hanging on the Baker’s belt, you can’t get it without getting caught or using advanced tactics.
Here’s the trick: there’s a spare key frozen in an ice block on the top shelf. Grab the ice block and place it near the heating vent in the storage room. Wait about 30 seconds (real-time) for it to melt enough to retrieve the key.
Use the key on the safe, photograph the contents, and you’ve completed Act 3. Exit through the front door, the deadbolt unlocks from inside, and sprint back to your safe house.
Act 4 Walkthrough: The Taxidermist’s House
The Taxidermist’s house is the creepiest location yet, a Victorian-style home filled with preserved animals and very dark hallways. The Taxidermist has irregular patrol patterns that feel more random than previous neighbors, adding an extra layer of tension.
Entering Through the Rooftop
The Taxidermist’s house has all ground-level entries locked or boarded. Your only option is the rooftop access via the adjacent tree. The tree is in the front yard, positioned close enough to the second-story balcony that you can jump to it.
Climb the tree to the highest branch that supports your weight. Position yourself on the branch extending toward the house and jump to the balcony railing. It’s a tight jump, but you can make it without the umbrella if you sprint-jump.
The balcony door is unlocked, surprisingly the easiest entry in the game. Enter directly into the upstairs hallway.
The Taxidermist patrols all three floors with no discernible pattern. The community consensus from dedicated walkthrough sites suggests the AI is more reactive here, responding to smaller environmental changes than previous acts. Move slowly and check corners obsessively.
Finding the Hidden Workshop
Your objective is locating the Taxidermist’s hidden workshop where he stores evidence of his involvement. The workshop is behind a hidden door in the study on the second floor.
The study is the room with floor-to-ceiling bookshelves and a large desk. The hidden door is triggered by pulling a specific book from the shelf, it’s the red leather-bound book on the third shelf from the top, east wall.
Pull the book and the shelf section swings open, revealing a staircase down to the hidden workshop. Descend carefully: the stairs are wooden and creak if you’re not crouching.
The workshop is a single room filled with taxidermy equipment and evidence boards. Photograph everything: the surgical tools, the logbook on the workbench, and the map showing connections to other suspects.
One critical item here: the golden key card on the workbench. This unlocks bonus content in the final act, so don’t skip it. It’s easy to miss since it blends in with the other clutter.
Once you’ve photographed all evidence, you’ll get an alert that the Taxidermist knows someone’s in the house. He’ll start actively hunting rather than patrolling. Your exit strategy is back up the stairs, through the study, and out the balcony door you entered from. Jump down to the front yard bushes to break your fall, they act as soft landing zones.
Act 4 complete. Two more acts and you’ll have unraveled the whole conspiracy.
Act 5 Walkthrough: Confronting Mr. Peterson
Act 5 brings everything full circle as you return to Mr. Peterson’s house, the iconic location from the first game. This is the final investigation before the endgame sequence, and the stakes are appropriately higher. The house has been modified since Hello Neighbor 1, with new rooms and altered layouts.
Accessing the Peterson House
The Peterson house sits at the end of the cul-de-sac, looking as ominous as ever. Mr. Peterson himself is inside, and his patrol patterns are aggressive and unpredictable. He’s faster than previous neighbors and has a shorter cooldown on investigations.
Entry is through the basement window on the house’s north side. You’ll need to move the wheelbarrow positioned under the window to create a step-up point. The window is broken, so no tools required, just crouch through.
You drop into the basement workshop area. Immediately hide behind the large shelving unit: Mr. Peterson often starts nearby. Wait for him to move upstairs before proceeding.
Your objective is reaching the attic where Mr. Peterson has been hiding the final piece of evidence. Getting there requires navigating three floors while avoiding detection. The layout can be confusing, so here’s the optimal path:
From the basement, take the stairs up to the first floor. Exit into the hallway and head toward the living room. The main staircase to the second floor is here, but it’s a high-traffic area. Instead, use the side corridor that leads to the garage, where you’ll find a ladder leaning against the wall.
Take the ladder back to the first-floor hallway and position it under the attic access hatch in the ceiling. You can place ladders almost anywhere, which is easy to overlook as a game mechanic.
Uncovering the Final Secrets
Climb into the attic. This area is safe from Mr. Peterson’s patrols, he won’t follow you up here even if alerted. The attic is a large storage space filled with boxes and old furniture.
The evidence you need is in a locked chest at the far end of the attic. The chest requires a combination lock with three symbols: moon, star, sun. The combination is revealed through posters in the house’s second-floor bedrooms, but here’s the solution to save time: moon-sun-star.
Open the chest and photograph the contents: documents, photographs, and a VHS tape that ties all five suspects together in a conspiracy. This reveals the true antagonist and the motive behind the disappearances.
With the evidence secured, you trigger the endgame sequence. Mr. Peterson becomes fully alerted and actively hunts you. Your escape route is back down the ladder, through the garage side door (now unlocked as part of the sequence), and out to your safe house.
Sprint and don’t look back. Mr. Peterson can’t catch you if you maintain momentum and don’t get cornered. Once you’re outside his property line, you’re safe, and Act 5 concludes.
The finale cutscene plays, revealing the conspiracy’s full scope and setting up potential DLC or sequel hooks. Credits roll, but if you’re after 100% completion, there’s still collectibles to hunt.
Finding All Collectibles and Hidden Items
Hello Neighbor 2 has two main collectible types: diary pages and golden key cards. These unlock bonus content, achievements, and lore entries that flesh out the story beyond what the main acts reveal.
Diary Pages Locations
There are 12 diary pages scattered across Raven Brooks. These belong to different characters and provide backstory on the town’s decline and the conspiracy’s origins. Collecting all 12 unlocks the “Town Historian” achievement.
Diary page locations:
- Page 1: In your starting safe house, on the desk in the main room
- Page 2: Mayor’s house, upstairs bedroom nightstand (Act 1 area)
- Page 3: Museum storage room, inside the filing cabinet (Act 2 area)
- Page 4: Museum third floor, behind the mounted bear exhibit
- Page 5: Bakery office, inside the locked desk drawer (Act 3 area)
- Page 6: Bakery freezer, on the bottom shelf behind the ice blocks
- Page 7: Town square gazebo, underneath the bench
- Page 8: Taxidermist’s house, second-floor study on the bookshelf (Act 4 area)
- Page 9: Taxidermist’s hidden workshop, on the evidence board
- Page 10: Peterson house basement, on the workbench near tools (Act 5 area)
- Page 11: Peterson house second floor, inside the child’s bedroom closet
- Page 12: Peterson house attic, next to the evidence chest
Pages 7 is the easiest to miss since it’s in a free-roam area not tied to any act objectives. Make sure to explore the town square thoroughly.
Golden Key Cards and Bonus Rooms
Golden key cards unlock bonus rooms in the town hall building, accessible after completing Act 3. There are five cards total, each hidden in different acts.
Golden key card locations:
- Card 1: Mayor’s house secret basement room, on the evidence desk
- Card 2: Museum curator’s office, inside the desk drawer
- Card 3: Bakery safe, alongside the evidence (requires melting ice key)
- Card 4: Taxidermist’s hidden workshop, on the workbench (easy to miss)
- Card 5: Peterson house attic, inside a small box near the window
Once you’ve collected all five, head to the town hall in the central district. The building has a side entrance that’s normally locked, but golden key cards grant access. Inside are five bonus rooms, each containing lore documents and cosmetic unlocks for Quentin’s appearance.
The bonus rooms also house developer commentary nodes if you’re into that sort of thing, TinyBuild included some interesting insights about the design process and AI development challenges they faced during production.
Advanced Strategies and Stealth Tips
Once you’ve completed the main story, you might want to optimize your runs or attempt challenge modes. These advanced strategies come from speedrunner communities and high-level stealth players who’ve dissected the game’s systems.
Avoiding Detection and Managing Noise
Noise management is the core skill separating efficient players from those who get caught repeatedly. Every action has a noise value, and understanding these thresholds lets you move faster without alerting neighbors.
Noise hierarchy (from quietest to loudest):
- Crouch-walking on carpet: Nearly silent, ~2-meter detection radius
- Crouch-walking on hard surfaces: Quiet, ~5-meter detection radius
- Normal walking on carpet: Moderate, ~8-meter detection radius
- Normal walking on hard surfaces: Noticeable, ~12-meter detection radius
- Running on any surface: Loud, ~18-meter detection radius
- Jumping and landing: Very loud, ~20-meter detection radius plus vertical detection
- Dropping items: Loud, ~15-meter detection radius
- Opening/closing doors: Moderate, ~10-meter detection radius
The key insight: you can normal-walk on carpet without significant risk if the neighbor is more than 10 meters away. This cuts travel time dramatically compared to crouch-walking everywhere.
Door management is its own skill. Doors automatically close after 3 seconds unless you prop them open with an object. Leaving doors open creates investigation triggers, neighbors will check them even without detecting you directly. Always close doors behind you unless you’re creating intentional distractions.
Using the Environment to Your Advantage
The environment has tons of interactive elements beyond just hiding spots. Mastering these turns the game from reactive stealth to strategic manipulation.
Distraction techniques:
- Throw items into rooms to pull neighbors away from your path. Coffee mugs, books, and tools all work. Aim for hard surfaces to maximize noise.
- Turn on radios or TVs to create noise zones. Neighbors investigate these but take longer to clear them, giving you extended windows.
- Open windows on the opposite side of buildings. Neighbors prioritize checking open windows, creating predictable patrol adjustments.
Closets and wardrobes are obvious hiding spots, but cramped spaces under desks and behind large furniture are often overlooked by both players and AI. The detection system requires partial line-of-sight, so tucking into corners breaks the visual check.
Vertical space is underutilized by most players. Many rooms have overhead beams, pipes, or platforms you can climb on. Neighbors rarely look up unless alerted to your presence first. This is particularly useful in the Museum and Taxidermist acts where vertical exploration is already part of the design.
One last advanced trick: item duplication via the storage mechanic. If you drop an item and quit to menu before the game autosaves (roughly 5 seconds), you can reload and have the item back in inventory while the dropped version remains. This works for duplicating crowbars or lockpicks, though it’s arguably an exploit rather than intended design.
Conclusion
Hello Neighbor 2 delivers a solid stealth-puzzle experience with its adaptive AI and town-wide investigation structure. The shift from single-house claustrophobia to open neighborhood exploration gives the sequel a distinct identity, even if some acts feel more polished than others.
The puzzle design hits a sweet spot between logical and obtuse, solutions make sense in hindsight without being immediately obvious. The Bakery’s ice-melting mechanic and the Museum’s vertical navigation stand out as particularly clever implementations. Act quality is consistent, though Act 4 can feel shorter than the others.
Replayability comes from collectible hunting, different approach routes, and testing the AI’s adaptive systems with varied strategies. The golden key card bonus content is worth pursuing if you’re invested in the lore, though don’t expect earth-shattering revelations.
Post-launch support from TinyBuild has smoothed out the rough edges from the December 2022 launch. Performance is solid across all platforms as of 2026, and the March 2025 patch addressed most of the physics jank that plagued earlier versions.
If you’re coming from the first game, expect a more structured experience with clearer objectives and less aimless wandering. Whether that’s an improvement depends on what you valued about the original’s mysterious, figure-it-out-yourself approach. Either way, Raven Brooks has plenty of secrets left to uncover.
