Night in the Woods Beginner's Guide: Daily Routines, Side Trips, and Choosing Friends
Edition: For PC (Steam) after the Weird Autumn update. Guides count the total days differently, so chapters and events are also listed. This does not cover every sketch or branch. Sources checked: October 14, 2026. The steps have not been reproduced through gameplay.
Before making plans with a friend, work through the conversations at home and around town. Even the same person's story can advance on a new day, so record yesterday's conversation separately from whether you finished today's.
Daily rounds before choosing a hangout
- Talk to your mother before leaving home, and check the places you can examine in the house. If there is more to a conversation, do not stop after the first exchange.
- In town, stop by the front steps where Selmers sits. Once the rooftops or church become accessible, check the people there too.
- Finish your side trips for the day before making plans with Gregg or Bea. Do not put them off assuming you can freely return to daytime exploration after accepting a hangout.
- When you get home, check your father's dialogue and any option to spend time together before going to bed. Take the same route the next day and look for changed conversations or newly opened paths.
People to talk to and where to look first
| Person | Where to look | What to check |
|---|---|---|
| Mother | At home; also check the church once you can reach it | Whether today's conversation or invitation is still available |
| Selmers | On the front steps of a house along the way from home into town | If she offers to read a poem, accept and read it through to the end |
| Mr. Chazokov | On the roof above Selmers's house, on days when he is there | Whether you can join him to observe the sky before exploring town |
| Lori | Near the statue early on; check the rooftops later too | Do not assume her conversations are over just because she is not at street level |
Show early places to examine (locations and answers)
From returning home to the first daytime outing: add notes about home and town
- Once you are back home and free to move, enter the storage room and examine the stacked boxes. Remember this check, as it connects to later family conversations.
- On the first daytime outing, keep talking to your mother until you have read the conversation about eels. Do not rush outside assuming one exchange ends the conversation.
- In town, talk to Selmers, then climb to the second-floor side of the house with the wall statue. Examine the statue and check whether a notebook entry was added.
- Examine the blockage on the church stairs and check the statue near Lori. Record that day's changes instead of trying to force your way through closed paths.
Show how to choose friends and examples of progression (branch answers)
Bea and Gregg: follow the friend you want to see after your daytime side trips
- First finish the side trips available that day, such as conversations with your mother, Selmers, and people on the rooftops. Do this before accepting an outing with a main friend.
- Decide which friend's events you want to see this time, and accept their invitation. Do not plan on seeing both main hangouts one after another on the same day.
- Continue the outing through its final conversation, and check family conversations when you return home. If you keep following the same friend the next day, compare the previous event with the next invitation.
- Keep the other friend's events and notebook entries affected by choices as possibilities for another playthrough. This article does not guarantee that a fixed number of choices secures every event.
| Friend to follow | Examples of later events | What to record |
|---|---|---|
| Bea | The shopping mall, a work callout, dinner, and a party outside town | Record whether you spent that day with Bea and which event you completed |
| Gregg | Food Donkey, the parking lot, the woods, and the doughnut shop | Record which Gregg event you finished without confusing it with another day |
Show the side trip that develops through daily conversations (conditions and answers)
From Part 2: listen to Selmers's poems and stay to the end at the library
- Once you can hear poems in Part 2, visit Selmers on your daily rounds. Accept when she asks whether you want to listen, and do not decline partway through.
- Do not stop at simply speaking to her; read that day's poem through to the end. Listening yesterday does not mean you have finished today's poem.
- When you reach the scene where you research with Bea at the library, do not leave immediately after completing the necessary research.
- Check the poetry gathering near the ground-floor desk, accept the option to listen, and stay to the end. For Poets of Possum Springs, check both the daily conversations and this scene together.
Show the rooftop side-trip route (locations and answers)
Early Part 2: visit Mallard, then bring food
Aim for early Part 2, when you can explore town. Some guides call this the fourth day overall, but also check that the church stairs and rooftops are accessible.
- Climb onto the wires from the left of the stairs leading to the church, then move onto the building with the Nuke Possum Springs graffiti. Continue along the rooftops to the right and look for an open window.
- Enter through the window and examine the large bird figure, Mallard, in the room to the left. Check the rats inside, then head back out to find food.
- Talk to the cook at the shop in the underground passage, then proceed to the scene where you take a pretzel. Treat completing this conversation for the first time separately from preparing food each day.
- Once you have the pretzel, return to Mallard through the same window route, examine it, and feed the rats. Merely carrying the food does not count as feeding them.
- Check again on later days while you can still explore town. This side trip progresses through repeated feeding, so record the initial action separately from later changes.
If you lose track of a conversation or side trip
| Problem | Check | How to get back on track |
|---|---|---|
| Someone who was here yesterday is missing | Street level and rooftops, home and church, and the day's progression | Check changes in the places you can reach instead of waiting at the same spot |
| You cannot see the other friend's event | Whom you went out with that day | Record the side you did not choose; do not treat one playthrough as covering everything |
| The day list does not match your progress | Chapter name, morning or evening, and the most recent event | Whether the prologue is counted can shift the numbering, so do not rely on the total day number alone |
| No new notebook entry appeared | Further dialogue, the object to examine, and whether you finished the scene | Talk to the same person and check their response. Do not promise a result using unverified save manipulation |
Frequently asked questions
What should I finish before choosing a friend to hang out with?
First check family and town conversations and side trips such as the rooftops. Finish these rounds before starting that day's outing; do not plan on returning to free daytime exploration afterward.
Can I collect every sketch in one playthrough?
Some notebook entries branch according to friend outings, music performance results, and other choices, so one playthrough should not be treated as collecting everything. This article covers daily routines and selected side trips; it is not a checklist guaranteeing every sketch or a required number of playthroughs.