Can't quite figure out how to unlock the basement in this stealth puzzle game? We'll show you how to evade the neighbor and unlock all his secrets!
After hours of flipping switches, breaking windows, hiding in closets, and picking up every object known to man, you're probably more than a little stumped on how to complete Hello Neighbor's Act 1 segment.
If you are having trouble getting into the basement and figuring out how to proceed past all those stubbornly locked doors, we've got you covered with a step-by-step guide to the neighbor's security system.
Note that we're going for the most direct route to solve the main puzzles and not diving into all the various secrets for every achievement. If you want to fully experience the game, be sure to explore the whole house instead of heading straight for the basement!
Hello Neighbor Basic Controls
For those just jumping into the game and getting frustrated by the lack of explanation on the game's controls, there are a few basics to keep in mind. You can have up to four items in your inventory at once, with old items you pick up disappearing and going into previous inventory slots.
After the opening segment, press and hold E to pick up any object that makes the reticle become a larger circle, then hold the right mouse button to aim and release to throw. The longer you hold, the farther and harder it goes. If you only right click without holding, objects won't actually break windows.
Knocking over the neighbor with a coffee mug
Objects can also knock over the neighbor, so keep something like the bowling ball or even a cup in your inventory for situations where you can't hide. If you hold down the right click for a stronger throw, he'll be knocked off balance for a few seconds so you can get away.
Hiding under beds or inside cabinets only works if the neighbor didn't specifically see you enter the room, so you need to get ahead of him when he's chasing you.
Hello Neighbor Act 1 House Exploration
Your goal at the beginning isn't to explore all the rooms in the house, but rather use boxes and get up on the roof where you can access the top floor.
Before heading to the neighbor's house, open the closet beneath the stairs in your house to get four boxes for free. Its easier to grab them here than to get the boxes in the neighbor's yard where he might see you through the window.
Free boxes!
Because of how wonky the controls are and how easy it is for boxes to slide off the roof, I recommend breaking out the second floor window before you even go up there.
Just grab something like the ball or even the weird eye painting off the wall in your house and chuck it up at the window from near the fence. After that's done, make sure there are at least two boxes in your inventory and climb up the leaning yellow shelves to the left of the front door.
Break this window!
Head to the top yellow shelf and drop two boxes on top of each other. Jump on the box tower, then turn left and jump onto the brown section of roof nearby.
From there, jump across to the roof/awning section above the porch. If you have trouble getting across, drop another box so you can jump from a higher vantage point.
From there, walk forward and jump across the white lattice to the brown awning in front of the window you broke previously. Inside the bedroom, throw a box (or any object in the room) at the painting of the flower next to the door to open a secret passageway.
Who needs keys?
In the purple room, grab the gold key sitting next to the door and then unlock it so you can get through easier. To your right, look for a keyring on the wall and grab the red key. This one will let you open the trunk to the red car back down on the lawn.
Go back out the window in the bed room and head down to the car. Unlock the trunk to get the magnet, which lets you steal metal objects from a distance.
Ain't no junk in this trunk!
With the magnet in hand, grab several boxes and head around to the back of the house near the area with the ladder (blocked by a shoddy fence completed with some boards).
Look for a small open window that's positioned up high enough that you can't quite reach. Set down a few boxes in front so you can jump up and see inside to the work shed area.
Making your own path
I found it easiest to create a step ladder using a large box as a base and two tiers of small boxes to actually get up high enough.
You can't use the magnet to grab the wrench just yet, but you can pull the silver lock pick off the top left side of the shelves (near all the pots of glue).
After grabbing the pick, go inside the open window on the side of the house (the one with the black wire running inside) and open the door to your left.
Knicking the lock pick
In the hallway, you can now use the lock pick to open the door to the left of the staircase. That door leads to the shed where you stole the lock pick.
Now you can physically grab the wrench off the wall instead of using the magnet. Head back outside to the exact same place where you previously made the box tower and stole the lock pick.
The wrench is ours!
Use the wrench on the makeshift fence that is blocking access to the ladder right next to the shed window. Climb up the ladder to get to the roof and run across a wood plank until you can look down and see through a hole in the ceiling.
Jump down the hole to enter that room that was previously locked and couldn't be accessed. Now you can pick up the red key on the green table that was seen in the game's opening cinematic.
Head back downstairs to the main floor and you can now use the red key to unlock the basement. Huzzah, the first part of Act 1 is complete!
Jumping through the roof
Hello Neighbor Act 1 Basement Guide
After running down the stairs, open the old timey washing machine up against the wall to reveal a secret passage into the next area.
Open the door to discover a rather disturbing room where a whole fake world has been created to fool someone (anybody else thinking of the opening segment of Prey?).
Pull one of the paintings of an open window off the wall to exit the fake room stage and access the rest of the basement.
There's more than just dirty laundry in there!
There's a wall breaker you can turn off, but don't do it just quite yet. Instead, flip the nearby wall switch to open the grating to another room and gain access to very large area to explore. You are looking for a section with a red light bulb and a marionette near another grate.
Flip the switch to open the grate and you will see a large open room with a fence. Behind the fence is a generator and some sparking wires that can't be reached. Near the fence, pull the chair off the door and head into the next room.
To your right on the wall is a section of black bricks which you can break by throwing any object.
If it seems suspicious, always try breaking it!
Through the broken wall you can now access the sparking lever and the generator, but don't do that yet since you don't want to get electrocuted.
With the wall broken and all the grates opened, go back to the beginning and flip the wall breaker you ignored earlier. This turns off the sparks so the switch can be safely used.
Now you can turn on the generator to power the final exit, which is back on the opposite side of the fence (in the room before the hallway before you broke the brick wall).
Flip the switch on the green lit exit door and get ready to run! After a chase you end up at a door covered in colored locks that you don't have keys for. All appears to be lost...
What the heck? I don't have any of those keys!
Although it seems like the end, this frantic chase to nowhere is actually just the beginning! Special thanks to YouTuber Razzbowski for a handful of the screenshots above.