The cage combination in Tales Beyond The Tomb – No Witnesses is 7-3-5. The next easy place to stall is the factory: cut the chained access, climb the yard route to the upper level, use the four numbered safe controls in the order 1, 2, 3, 4, and take the Blue Key. This walkthrough connects those puzzle answers to the motel, stealth, chase, and nine Steam achievements, with spoilers from the opening victim to the credits.
This route is checked against the June 19, 2026 Steam release, the game’s nine official achievement descriptions, and a 77-minute full-game recording. Steam describes the episode as a 50–90 minute story with multiple playable characters and optional microphone detection. No later balance or route patch was present in the captured official news feed as of August 13, 2026, so recheck on-screen prompts if a newer build changes an interaction.
Choose a collection run before a no-death run
Trying to make the first blind playthrough do everything adds avoidable failure points. A safer two-pass plan is:
- Route and cleanup pass: learn the bear traps and hiding timings, score 1,000 in both motel arcade games, sweep the purple-balloon checks, take the optional Ashley shot, and let the credits finish.
- Brutal pass: repeat only the required story route, keep the motorcycle clean, and avoid optional detours once they are already unlocked.
Microphone detection is optional. If it is enabled, real sound can feed the stealth system, so mute the room and avoid speaking while the microphone meter is active. For a Brutal attempt, turning the option off is the lower-variance choice. This does not remove the need to obey the game’s hiding prompts; it only removes real-world noise as another way to expose the character.
Clear the opening vignette and protect Biker on the road
The opening victim establishes the interaction language. Follow Find something to open the padlock, search the immediate enclosure rather than pushing down the road, and use the highlighted tool on the lock. The sequence is short, but it matters on a no-death run because it teaches the same close-range item targeting used by the later cage and factory chains.
Once the story switches to the motorcycle group, the achievement condition is stricter than simply reaching town: Biker requires the ride without hitting anything. Keep the bike aligned early and make one deliberate move around each stopped vehicle or barricade. Do not scrape a car while correcting back toward the center. There is no reliable visual damage counter to rescue a doubtful attempt; if contact is visible or audible, restart from the available checkpoint before investing time in the motel.
The ride finishes at the gas station. Talk to the attendant to advance the objective, but sweep the right side of the building first for the earliest purple balloon. The motel is the next major hub, and leaving it too quickly is the easiest way to create an extra cleanup visit.
Finish the motel jobs before opening room 106
Talk to the receptionist and take the assigned room key. Room 106 is the group’s initial destination, but the useful rule is to follow the active objective and the door that accepts the current key; nearby numbers are easy to misread in the dark.
Before the story closes the hub, make four checks:
- Right-hand exterior stairs: pop the purple balloon beside the motel staircase.
- Hungry Baby cabinet: play until the live score reaches 1,000 and wait for the Steam unlock before walking away.
- Trash Carnage cabinet: reach 1,000 in the shooting game. Prioritize clear shots over speed; the score on the cabinet is the only result that matters.
- Vending machine: buy the sodas when the objective asks for them, then return to the room path to trigger the next story state.
If an arcade score passes 1,000 without an unlock, finish the current minigame state before exiting it. Do not assume a partial score carries into another cabinet session. The official achievements name the two games separately, so one 1,000-point run cannot satisfy both.
After the group realizes something is wrong, the objective changes to finding a way into the room. Search the reception/office route for the Master Key, then take it back to the locked motel door. The success signal is the door interaction and the shower-room clue, not merely picking up a key. Once that scene advances, the story removes the group from the motel and starts Amber’s captivity route.
Read the UV clue and enter 7-3-5 at Amber’s cage
The crowbar is not the answer to the cage’s combination lock. Collect the light source, inspect the victim note and body-part arrangement, and scan the marked wall with the UV/blacklight view. The clue orders the results as HAND, LEG, ARM. Solving the three marked equations gives:
HAND = 7, LEG = 3, ARM = 5 → code 7-3-5.
On the three-dial lock, align the center row to 7, 3, and 5. The number above and below each center digit is just the adjacent position on that wheel. If the lock does not release, check that you did not read 6-2-4 or 8-4-6 from the neighboring rows.
Leaving the cage starts the episode’s first sustained danger section. Look down before committing to narrow gaps because the bear traps blend into the ground. Take the purple balloon on the right near the traps, then use the locker or cabinet offered by the route when the killer closes in. With microphone detection active, stay physically quiet while the meter is present. Move again only after the threat passes and the objective points away from cover; stepping out merely because the screen stops shaking is not a safe cue.
Cut into the factory and take the roof path to the Blue Key
At the abandoned factory, the first chained opening needs a cutting tool. Search the ground-level work area and stacked construction material for the bolt cutters, then return to the padlock. If the tool prompt does not appear, re-center on the chain rather than the gate frame.
Inside the yard, a note explains that the Blue Key was locked in an old safe. The locked blue-sector gate is the destination, not the place to search for the key. Use this loop instead:
- Find the movable/access ladder by the containers and climb to the first raised surface.
- Cross the container, pallet, and catwalk line toward the upper brick structure.
- Enter the roof-level room and locate the black safe tucked among the old machinery.
- Use the four top controls in ascending order: 1 → 2 → 3 → 4. Aim at each control’s arrow hotspot, not just the painted number.
- Confirm the safe opens and collect the Blue Key; its blue key icon is the readback that the route is complete.
Drop back to the yard and use the Blue Key on the matching sector door. If the key icon is visible but a door refuses it, you are at a different factory barrier—follow the blue-sector markings instead of trying every gate. The story then changes perspective and turns the factory from a search space into a weapon and pursuit sequence.
Separate Obscure from the survival route
Obscure has the official condition “Kill Ashley.” During the later gun-controlled scene, shoot Ashley when the game gives you the opportunity. That action is best treated as cleanup, not as the choice to carry into a first story run or a Brutal attempt. Take the unlock, then use the available restart/scene route for the survival path rather than improvising around the altered outcome.
For the required armed section, watch the character switch and objective text before firing. Advance through the factory yard, clear the immediate threat when the weapon is active, and keep away from blind corners where a death would invalidate Brutal. The episode later returns control to Amber for the final hiding and chase sequence.
Use the hide prompt, then commit to the final chase
When the objective explicitly tells Amber to hide under the table, do it immediately. This is not an exploration window. Keep the microphone quiet if that option remains enabled, wait through the search, and leave only when the story cue hands control back.
The last outdoor pursuit is a commitment section: sprint the marked route, avoid cutting across dark ground where traps can sit outside the flashlight center, and use the cabin-side cover the sequence presents. A purple balloon can be checked on the left behind a bush near the cabin during this chase. Do not stop for a long search on a Brutal run; collect it on the cleanup pass.
After the ending, do not press the skip input. The end is tied to finishing the episode, while SynthWave explicitly requires the credits to continue. Leave the credits running until the game exits them on its own.
Use six balloon checks to satisfy a five-balloon achievement
Steam’s official requirement is five popped purple balloons. The readable community route lists five positions, while its only comment adds a possible container-side balloon during a biker-controlled segment. Because those records conflict, the reliable plan is to sweep six candidate checks and stop when Steam confirms the fifth pop:
- Right side of the gas station.
- Right-hand staircase at the motel.
- Right side after escaping captivity, near the bear traps.
- At the wicker cabinet used before a killer-hiding sequence.
- Beside a container during the later biker/factory character segment.
- Left side behind a bush near the cabin in the final chase.
The sixth entry is a coverage check, not a claim that the achievement requires six. Check Steam after each pop. If Purple Balloon unlocks at five, keep moving; if not, revisit the remaining candidate through scene cleanup rather than risking a no-death run.
Nine-achievement checkpoint list
| Achievement | Checkpoint | Failure signal or safe response |
|---|---|---|
| Biker | Reach the gas station without motorcycle contact | Any scrape or collision: reload before the motel |
| Hungry Baby | Score 1,000 on the motel Hungry Baby cabinet | No unlock: finish the current cabinet state and retry there |
| Carnage | Score 1,000 in Trash Carnage | Trust the live score, not an assumed number of targets |
| Purple Balloon | Pop five; use the six-position sweep above | No unlock after five remembered pops: check the unused candidate |
| Obscure | Shoot Ashley in the gun-controlled opportunity | Keep this on a cleanup branch, outside the clean story run |
| Blood | Continue through the late story confrontation | Story progression supplies the checkpoint |
| The end | Finish the episode | Do not abandon the run during the final sequence |
| SynthWave | Let the credits run without skipping | A skip input can forfeit this pass |
| Brutal | Finish from the beginning without dying | A death ends the attempt; restart rather than relying on a checkpoint |
Scene selection is useful for isolated collectibles and scoring tasks, but the official wording for Brutal is a full finish without a death. Do not assume that jumping into a late scene preserves a valid no-death flag. Run that achievement from the beginning after the route and traps are familiar.
Release and verification boundary
This guide covers Steam App 4483120, developed and published by 616 GAMES, released June 19, 2026. Identity, feature, duration, media, and achievement names were checked against the official Steam page and Steam’s official achievement page. Puzzle order and route transitions were checked against the supplied local full-game file after its title, 77:03 duration, and YouTube author metadata matched the recording below. A removed Steam community guide was used only for bounded achievement cross-checks; its warning state and balloon disagreement were not treated as official facts.