Tenebris Somnia - Walkthrough Cheat Sheet
Tenebris Somnia is a 2D retro survival horror game with live-action cutscenes, released October 16, 2026 for $19.99 on Steam (Windows). You play Julia, searching a dream-logic apartment building, a film school and a place called Desiderium for her missing boyfriend Ivan. This page is the quick reference: all four endings and exactly what locks them, which puzzles change every playthrough (so a video can't help you), the fixed answers that don't, and the one save-point trap that can soft-lock your convenience.
The ending is decided by one thing: once you forge the Aurifer knife near the very end, killing even a single Relicta ghost with it locks you into Magnum Opus (the "bad" ending). Sparing all of them gives Solve et Coagula. Save at the flame right before the sealed hotel door, finish one branch, reload, do the other - that unlocks the two New Game-only endings.
All four Tenebris Somnia endings
Two endings are available on a first run; the other two only appear on a new game after both of those are recorded.
| Ending | Condition | Final fight | When |
|---|---|---|---|
| Solve et Coagula good | Obtain Aurifer and kill zero Relicta with it. They flee from you anyway, so this is the default. | Lacuna, in the Septimo Arte cinema. Julia loses Aurifer - use the Revolver/Shotgun. | First run |
| Magnum Opus bad | Kill at least one Relicta with Aurifer. One is enough; you don't need to hunt them all. | Hermes - hands from the floor, then a face that inhales. Finish it with Aurifer. | First run |
| Renuntiatio secret | After both endings above, start a new game and use the Apartment Key on the building's exit door at the very start. Julia simply leaves. | None | New game |
| Vivus Ex Mortibus true | New game after both main endings. Take the Bible from the table by the ground-floor entrance, perform its three rituals (below) to earn three Iron Crosses, open the church. | A possessed woman, fought beside a priest named John, on a pentagram with rising red spikes. | New game |
The three Bible rituals for Vivus Ex Mortibus
Each one must be done before you solve the normal version of that puzzle - once the normal solution is in, the ritual is gone for that run.
- 1Floor 2 pressure plates
Use the Bible before copying the TV symbols. Start on the Mars (male) symbol plate and walk six full counterclockwise laps around the plates. The room turns red, enemies spawn, kill them for Iron Cross #1.
- 2Floor 1 projector-room lock
Before entering the real four-digit code from Ivan's phone, use the Bible at the keypad and enter 6666. Clear the red room for Iron Cross #2.
- 3Cinematography classroom camera
Use the Bible, plug in the yellow RCA cable, cycle camera scenes until enemies appear - before you go through the Copper Key door. Iron Cross #3.
- 4The church
Take the blue door left of the Floor 3 elevator onto the street and use all three crosses on the marked church door. Stay off the woman's lunges and green shots, kill her red summons, hit her between summons. When John falls and the floor becomes a pentagram, thread the gaps between the spikes.
Puzzles that are different in every playthrough
This is why the YouTube walkthrough "didn't work". The rule is fixed, the answer is rolled for your save. Read the rule, then look at your own screen.
Floor 2 symbol floor plates (TV puzzle)
Rule: after you put both batteries in the Floor 3 remote, the Floor 2 living-room TV shows a sequence of symbols. Step on the plates in that order. Random: the symbol order. Don't copy anyone's screenshot.
Bar bell and glass pitcher (Floor 3 street)
Rule: ring the counter bell, remember the pitch. Pour bottles into the giant pitcher, tap it with the Wrench, compare. Empty bottles take liquid back out. When the notes match, ring the bell to crack it and hit it for the USB Cable. Random: how much liquid it needs - go by ear, not by a bottle count.
Elevator color sequence (to reach Floor -1)
Rule: the dark TV room in the film school shows numbered colors I, II, III...; Julia writes them in the Old Book. With the Black Candle lit in the elevator, visit floors in that order: blue = Floor 3, green = Floor 2, red = Floor 1, white = Floor 0. Then -1 appears. Random: the order. If -1 never shows, re-read your Old Book and redo it - a wrong floor restarts the sequence.
Lead Fly tile paths (Floor 1 theater, Desiderium)
Rule: walk the tile route toward the small fly statue; each correct tile adds sulfur coating, a wrong tile resets it. The first path is shown to you; the second in the hall must reproduce it. Random: the tile layout.
Poem photographs (Floor 3 study, late game)
Rule: the poem's opening line tells you which set of four photographs goes into panels I-IV. Random: which poem you get. The four variants are in the fixed-answers section below.
Fixed puzzle answers (same for everyone)
In route order. Most "stuck" moments are an item you walked past, not a logic failure.
Blood, Iron and Light - the sealed Study door (Floor 3)
Glass (bedroom nightstand) + blood from the broken bathroom mirror + Developing Chemical (fridge). Wrench (behind the shower curtain) breaks the lowest bedroom window board. Use the mixture in the strip of sunlight: that's Auritsatio, and it dissolves the red seal.
Second battery won't come out of the washing machine
Use the Glove (clothes rack in the Floor 2 study) at the kitchen fuse box. Touching the fuse box bare-handed doesn't stop the machine.
Key stuck in the A.S. office door
Slide the X-Ray under the door, push the key out with the Scissor Blade, pull the X-Ray back with the key on it.
DEVORA poster
Join both Scissor Blades, cut one piece from each of the six cardboard cutouts in the chair corridor, rebuild the face in the empty frame, then burn it with the Lighter. The Bathroom Key is behind it; the bathroom has the Mop Handle.
Projector-room padlock (Floor 1, Door A)
USB Cable (bar pitcher) + USB Adapter (top of the Door B staircase) = USB Charger. Charge Ivan's phone in the Floor 3 study and read the four-digit code off it. The code is per-save but it's shown to you - and copied into the Old Book.
Dining table plates (Door B set)
Black Tape over the upper-left plate, Plate with X (first theater box, after screening canister 1) in the empty setting directly below it. The middle doors open to the green Square Stone.
Equipment Storage electricity
Lower-left switch on until the grille is fully up, switch off, cross between the blue cable's pulses, hit the right switch for the Piece of Cable. Repair the upper-left switch with it, flip it, then flip the lower-left again - the mannequin drops and exposes the RCA Cable.
Cinematography camera scenes
With the RCA Cable attached, cycle scenes: stand in the white outline until it fills; break the glass pane; take the Copper Seed from the blue bird; plant it in the green hallway vase upstairs for Copper Poppies; give the poppies to the kneeling figure; keep cycling until a Copper Key is on the chair; show the green doorway and use the key on that door.
Cow Skull door
Canister 2 (Floor -1, next to young Ivan) screened at the projector opens theater box 2 with the Cow Skull. Hang it on the hooked door in the side corridor off the Door B staircase - that's the Fumus arena.
Cursed canister (Film History classroom)
Try to take it twice (two teleports), talk Sanguis dry in the lobby for the Silver Key, Silver Bottle from the Floor 2 bathroom cabinet, fill it at three save flames (see the trap below), Pentacle Stone opens the red-marked Floor 2 lobby door, use the full bottle at the moonlit window by Julia's statue = Purified Water. Pour it on the canister before picking it up.
Photo development (five steps, in order)
1) Red Light Bulb (White Bulb + the blood table in the final film set) into the lower-left lamp. 2) Chemicals (sealed Floor 3 bathroom) into the trays. 3) Photo Roll on the north table = Negative. 4) Negative, then Photo Paper, at the enlarger = Printed Photo. 5) Printed Photo into the trays. The developed Photo goes in the empty frame on the Floor 3 bedroom nightstand for the Hexagonal Stone.
Poem photographs - the four variants
| Poem opens with | I | II | III | IV |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| "You're dead" | Cross necklace | Feet | Sunglasses | Black veil |
| "He nestles in her hand" | Hand with ring | Ear with earring | Shiny dress | Pearl necklace |
| "I'm dreaming" | Lips with lipstick | Sunglasses | Ear with earring | Black dress |
| "Adorned with the blue of silver" | Feet | Shiny dress | Closed eyes, long lashes | Black glove |
Forging Aurifer (the knife chain)
Lapis Fictus Knife (Ivan's statue, after Auritsatio #2) → fuse box in the Floor 2 kitchen = Melanosis Knife (power dies) → down the elevator shaft ladder, mercury pool by the TV = Viridis Knife → Lead Key from the wall hole → Floor 2 production lobby north door → sealed hotel door in moonlight = Aurifer. Save at the flame right before that door.
Route outline in one screen
Where each candle takes you and what each floor is for.
| Section | Unlocks with | Goal |
|---|---|---|
| Floor 3 apartment | Apartment Key | Old Book, Auritsatio, Green Candle, first fight |
| Floor 2 apartment + A.S. studio | Triangular Stone (blue door) | Revolver, canister 1, batteries, TV plates, Mop Handle |
| Obscuratus | Mop Handle closes the blinds | Red Candle + Lapis Fictus Pill |
| Floor 3 street / bar | Triangular Stone again (Floor 3 blue door) | Four bottles, USB Cable, later the Iron Pipe (Screwdriver) |
| Floor 1 theater + dining set | Lit Red Candle in the elevator | Projector, Plate with X, Square Stone → White Candle |
| Floor 0 film school | Lit White Candle | Photo Paper, Shotgun, RCA Cable, Copper Key, Black Candle, color sequence |
| Floor -1 | Lit Black Candle + color order | Canister 2 → Cow Skull → Fumus → Pentacle Stone |
| Cursed canister 3 | Purified Water | Cold Chisel → final film set → Red Bulb → Photo → Hexagonal Stone → Vitria |
| Desiderium | Sanguis chase, you lose your gear | Black Bulb inverts colors, recover belongings, Lead Fly, three statue defenses, Tin Key, Green Candle |
| Finale | Memento + Auritsatio #2 → knife chain | Aurifer, then Septimo Arte for Lacuna or Hermes |
Boss tactics
Obscuratus
Invisible while the candles burn. Snuff every candle, shoot while it's exposed, repeat when it relights them. Shooting the invisible form just burns ammo.
Fumus
Move while the red protection symbol is under it, attack when it vanishes. Red floor circles spread over time - and if you cross one holding a loaded gun, Julia can turn it on herself. Unequip before deliberately stepping through.
Vitria
Phase 1: bait the vertical strike, step back, Pipe it on recovery. Phase 2: it's shielded while the red symbol shows; find the tentacle visible only in the mirror, hit that spot, shoot during the stun to crack the mirror. Inside the mirror your controls are reversed. Mash interact if grabbed by the throat.
Sanguis
Not a fight. Put ordinary mannequins between you and his charge (red ones survive it), then lure him into the big retracting blade as it extends.
Lacuna
Guns only. Stay out of tentacle range, keep moving when she vanishes (landing attack), step in during the fly swarm. Phase 2: watch the cinema screen to spot the fake Julias, avoid her trail, kill screen-flies with one quick hit.
Hermes
Hands rise from marked symbols - break them, watch the eye flash before each line blast, use the screen preview to find the gap in the sweep. Phase 2 face: back off when it inhales (being swallowed is instant death), attack after, finish with Aurifer.
The save-flame trap
Filling the Silver Bottle permanently extinguishes each flame you draw from. Pick flames you're done with.
FAQ
How long is Tenebris Somnia?
Roughly 8-10 hours for a first run with some puzzle wandering. Seeing both main endings is quick if you keep the pre-Aurifer save; the two new-game endings need a second run, though Renuntiatio takes about a minute.
Is Tenebris Somnia on PlayStation, Switch or Mac?
At launch it's Windows only via Steam ($19.99). The developers are Andrés Borghi and Saibot Studios, published by New Blood Interactive. The live-action cutscenes were shot by an Argentine film crew.
I'm out of ammo - is that a soft-lock?
No. The Iron Pipe (bar bathroom, needs the Screwdriver from the projector stairs) one-shots most small enemies, and every boss has a melee window. Studio lights in the statue-defense arenas can be struck to burn nearby attackers.
The Relicta ghosts run away - can I still kill one for Magnum Opus?
Yes. They flee but can be caught in corners and corridors; a single Aurifer kill flags the bad ending. If you want the good ending, don't swing the knife at anything white.
Which ending is canon?
The game doesn't say outright. Vivus Ex Mortibus requires both main endings and the hidden Bible rituals, and resolves threads the others leave open, so most players treat it as the true ending.