Servant of the Lake Walkthrough

Servant of the Lake unfolds over a single weekend at the Vanderboom estate in the 1830s. You are Harvey, the newly hired house servant, and most of the game is a chain of ordinary duties that slowly turn surreal. The walkthrough below is distilled from the official ~1h40m walkthrough video — the key tasks in order, with the puzzle codes called out where they matter.

Day 1 — Friday: Arrival & the Household

• Sign in. Arrive by carriage, pull the curtain, and step outside. The maid has you sign the contract — dip the crow feather in the ink and sign on the line.
• Breakfast for Aldous. In the kitchen: put the pot on the stove, then add the milk and oats. The sugar is locked in a box; the code from the family painting is 243. Open it, add the sugar, and light the stove to heat the porridge.
• Wake Aldous. The bedside box opens by sliding the patterned tiles to match the design underneath — inside is the razor. Attach the recovered clock hand and turn the grandfather clock to 7:00 (small hand on VII, large hand on XII). Shave him, serve the porridge, open the window, feed the earlobe to the bird for the key, then add the berry and keep feeding him until he is full.
• Do the morning exercise, then dress Aldous — mirror the toy soldier's exact step sequence (Left, Right, Down, Right, Right, Down), then put on his shirt → vest → bow tie. Full moves on the Exercise puzzle page.
• Guests arrive. Alexandra and William show up by carriage. Serve Alexandra her tea (mind the sugar and milk), then join the living room for William's toast and Aldous's family speech.
• Night watch. Do the corridor rounds — put out the candle / ring the bell as instructed — then it's bedtime. Day 1 ends.

Day 2 — Saturday: Secrets & the Hunt

• The attic. Aldous sends you to rummage the old family belongings for a parchment of highest importance — stay quiet so his brother and sister don't hear.
• Wake William & coffee. Make strong coffee; William reveals the Elixir rumor and asks you to retrieve two hidden watches — one from William, one from Alexandra — discreetly, and he'll reward you.
• The hunt. Out back, rest the rifle on the tree stump to aim, shoot the meat, then clean up with the butcher's knife.
• Alexandra's bath. Fill the tub, add soap, take off her hat, and comb and brush her hair.
• The three timepieces, portraits & the wine puzzle. Take the three timepieces down to the cellar. Use each one on the cleaned family portraits to reveal hidden alchemical symbols, then solve the wine puzzle in the cellar — rearrange the bottles against the correct symbols — to open the panel into the Lady of the Lake's cave and find the book (this is what unlocks the late game). Alexandra's watch comes from her bath; keep William's hidden until you have both.
• Secret — Balcony Disposal. After the timepieces, go upstairs and turn right to the balcony; drag the bucket of waste over the railing and drop it into the dark below.

Day 3 — Sunday: The Elixir & the Escape

• Find Rusty. The family cat has disappeared — go fetch it.
• Brew the Elixir. In Aldous's secret lab, decipher the recipe from the book by sorting the symbols on the board, then brew the base Elixir.
• Repairs & dinner prep. Fix the broken chair, repair the "Two-faced Liars" portraits, and repair the statue, then prepare soup (with the hidden ingredient), potatoes and cake in the kitchen. Fetch the wine and glasses for the dinner table.
• Prepare the family: Aldous gets his hat, tie and rifle — the rifle is hidden under the 5th step from the bottom of the stairs ("tap twice on the hat, listen to the crow" to retrieve it); Alexandra gets her mother's necklace and hair ribbon; William his bow tie.
• Final dinner. Fill everyone's glass and serve the appetizers. The family turns on each other over the Elixir and the night goes violent.
• Blood Moon & escape. The Blood Moon rises and the Lady of the Lake returns. Stop Alexandra from using the Elixir on baby James, rescue the baby, drink the survival potion, and escape by carriage with James. You become the True Servant of the Lake. The full meaning is on our Ending & Lore page.

Flower Puzzle

The garden Flower Puzzle is the trickiest single brain-teaser in Day 2. It uses a mini-triangle combination rule — the top flower of each triangle is formed by combining the traits of the bottom-left and bottom-right flowers. We break it down step by step on the Flower Puzzle page.

Exercise Puzzle

The Day 1 "Waking up Aldous" exercise is a short motion puzzle where you copy the toy soldier's exact step order. See the Exercise puzzle page for the move sequence and the linked achievement.

Secrets & Easter Eggs

• Balcony Disposal (Day 2) — throw the waste off the balcony.
• You've Found Him — the hidden true ending, unlocked by reaching the secret sanctuary and completing the late-game sequence.
• A known launch bug: quitting to the main menu and reloading can make items from the previous chapter vanish and soft-lock some players. Patch is in progress — save often.

Stuck elsewhere? The Achievements page lists every unlock, and the Demo guide covers the free Steam/mobile demo if you haven't bought the full game yet.