The efficient way to see both Papa endings is to take the long Stay route first, then reload the decision and choose Leave. Everything before the prompt “Choose carefully: stay here with Papa or leave” is shared. Stay opens the attic, VHS, rope, woods, and telephone sequence; Leave ends the visit quickly. The reference run returns to the decision after the first credits, so you do not need to repeat the outhouse key, stove, medicine, or fuse errands.
This route was checked against the Windows launch release available on August 12, 2026 and a matching 48:57 no-commentary recording. Spoilers begin immediately. If a later build changes an interaction, trust the current objective in the Memory Book before a fixed location in this guide.
Protect the Stay-or-Leave checkpoint
The only decision that separates the two recorded endings appears after the power repair and the disturbing dinner sequence. Do not choose Leave first if you want the cleanest run. Select Stay, finish the long investigation, let its ending complete, then use Continue or Load Game to return to the choice. The verified run does exactly that before selecting Leave.
| Choice | What it opens | Use it for |
|---|---|---|
| Stay | Mother’s room, attic code, two VHS tapes, tied container, woods, phone | Ending 1 in the reference recording |
| Leave | Exit the house and return to the car | Short Ending 2 after reloading the choice |
The video chapters place Ending 1 at 43:52 and Ending 2 at 47:40. Those are recording timestamps, not an in-game timer. The game does not display descriptive ending names in the evidence reviewed here, so this guide keeps the neutral Ending 1 and Ending 2 labels rather than inventing names.
Get the front-door key from the outdoor toilet
At the house, check the windows until the protagonist remembers where Papa kept the front-door key. The objective then points to the outdoor toilet. Walk around the property to the small outhouse, search inside, and take the Front Door Key. Return to the main entrance and use it on the locked front door.
If the key is not interactable, the usual missed trigger is the window memory. Circle the exterior and inspect the lit windows before searching the outhouse again. The objective should explicitly change to looking for the key; entering the correct building before that memory can leave you staring at the right prop without the route advancing.
Inside, read Papa’s first note. It gives the next two jobs: light the stove and bring his medicine from the kitchen. Pick up the lighter in the house before going back outside. The firewood is stored beside the outbuilding, under the covered stack shown below. Take a bundle inside, place it in the stove, and use the lighter.
Place the medicine before solving the blackout
Go to the kitchen for Father’s medicine, then carry it to his bedroom and put it on the nightstand. Merely collecting it is not enough: the objective closes only after the bottle is placed at the bed. That placement is the progression check that leads into the blackout.
When the lights fail, inspect the wall-mounted fuse base. The replacement is a screw fuse lying on a shelf among the dolls. Pick it up, return to the empty socket, and install it. You have succeeded when the power returns and the story moves to Papa’s disappearance. If the lights stay out, make sure you collected the loose fuse rather than repeatedly interacting with the empty holder.
Search Father’s room after the repair and follow the new note and voice cues. The dinner scene is a story gate, not a free-roaming puzzle. Let each interaction finish and keep checking the current Memory Book objective. The Stay-or-Leave prompt appears only after this sequence has completed.
Choose Stay and sleep in Mother’s room
At the doorway covered with writing, choose Stay here with Papa. The quest confirms the choice and sends you to Mother’s room to rest. Use the bed. After waking to a noise from above, the game directs you to investigate the locked attic door and look for something that leads to its code.
You cannot solve the attic immediately by guessing at the keypad. First inspect the locked cabinet in Mother’s room. The protagonist points you toward Papa’s workshop for a tool. Go to the workshop, collect the wood chisel, return to the cabinet, and pry it open. Read Mother’s letter inside; besides advancing the family history, it clears the next investigation state.
Read the child’s door for code 2472
The classroom blackboard is deliberately conspicuous, but its arithmetic is not the four-digit attic answer used in the verified run. The working code is written low on the child’s marked-up door, under a boxed “DON’T FORGET AGAIN” message:
Attic door code: 2472
Return to the keypad beside the attic ladder and enter 2-4-7-2. A correct entry changes the lock indicator and opens the route upward. If it stays red, clear the input and enter all four digits again; do not turn the blackboard sums into a different combination.
In the attic, read Fred’s material and inspect Mia’s drawings until the objective acknowledges that the room is hiding something. Search the floor and storage area for the VHS cassette. The protagonist calls attention to it with the line about wondering what is on the tape, which is the reliable confirmation that the next stage has started.
Play Dinner Time, then find the tape under Mia’s bed
Take the first cassette downstairs to the television and VHS player. Insert the tape labeled Dinner Time and watch it through the objective change. Walking away while the footage is still running can make the next clue appear to be missing.
After the first tape, follow the noise and inspect the newly available clue. It points under Mia’s bed. Go to her room, crouch or angle the camera toward the floor beneath the bed, and collect the second cassette. Return to the television, eject Dinner Time so it goes back into the inventory, and insert the second tape. Its label is obscured in the reviewed footage, so the important distinction is its location, not a guessed title.
The second recording reveals the next interactable container. If your objective still says to find what is on the second VHS tape, the playback has not registered: confirm that Dinner Time was ejected, the under-bed cassette was inserted, and the second clip reached its end before leaving the television.
Use the kitchen knife on the tied container
Inspect the rope-bound container after the second tape. The protagonist states that something sharp is required. Return to the kitchen, collect the Kitchen Knife, and use it on the rope. The container yields Papa’s flashlight and a letter. Read the letter rather than grabbing the flashlight and immediately leaving; the completed interaction is what redirects the search outside.
The next objective is explicit: Find Papa. Follow the path behind the house. Leave through the back area and take the wooded trail. Keep to the path and use the flashlight to read the ground and rocks; wandering around the front drive takes you toward the car but not toward the Stay-route discovery.
Find Papa, return to the house, and use the phone
Follow the trail to its clearing and inspect Papa and the papers there. Do not turn back as soon as the scene becomes clear. Wait for the objective to update to returning to the house and calling someone. That text is the proof that the woods encounter registered.
Retrace the same path, re-enter the house, and interact with the telephone. Continue through the resulting hospital and memory scenes without reloading. The closing message and thank-you screen complete Ending 1 in the verified run. Returning to the menu too early risks missing the point at which Continue or Load Game is allowed to place you back at the branch.
Reload the branch and choose Leave for Ending 2
After Ending 1 finishes, resume the game. The reference route loads at the marked doorway with the same stay here or leave objective. This time choose Leave. Walk out of the house, follow the exterior route to the car, and complete the brief final sequence. The closing line “I just can’t do it” appears before the recording ends.
If Continue places you earlier than the doorway, follow the current objective forward; do not replay optional inspections. If it places you after a choice with no way to reverse it, use the most recent pre-choice save or checkpoint available in your build. The evidence verifies a replay point in the recorded launch route, but it does not establish that every later patch or platform build exposes identical save-slot controls.
Use the objective text to recover a stalled route
- Still outside: trigger the window memory, then search the outdoor toilet for the key.
- Stove task remains: confirm that both the firewood and lighter interactions completed at the stove.
- Medicine task remains: place the bottle on Father’s nightstand; carrying it does not finish the errand.
- House remains dark: take the loose screw fuse from the shelf with dolls and install it in the empty wall base.
- Attic code quest remains: open Mother’s cabinet with the workshop chisel, read the letter, then use 2472 at the ladder keypad.
- Second VHS task remains: follow the under-Mia’s-bed clue, eject Dinner Time, insert the second cassette, and let playback finish.
- Rope will not cut: collect the Kitchen Knife from the kitchen after the second tape has exposed the container.
- Woods route will not close: inspect the clearing until the quest specifically tells you to return and call someone, then use the phone inside the house.
Verified walkthrough video
The embedded run is Papa: FULL GAME Walkthrough | ALL Endings by Ultimax Gameplay. Its title, channel, 48:57 duration, August 1, 2026 publication date, and the two ending chapter markers were independently checked before embedding. It matches the supplied local 720p file used for the route review.
Release boundary and official link
Papa is a Windows single-player psychological horror game by VimmGames, released on July 31, 2026. This walkthrough reflects the launch-period route reviewed on August 12, 2026. The captured Steam news feed contained no game announcements, so no unverified patch number is attached to the steps. Check the official Steam page for current release information.