This is a spoiler-light walkthrough for the Haruspex’s route of Pathologic 2 for the PC.

Preface

This is a spoiler-light walkthrough for Pathologic 2 for the PC. Because of the open-ended nature of the game, this guide does not account for all possible game states. I’m still discovering new things after four playthroughs, so feel free to let me know about anything I’ve missed or gotten wrong. Detailed comments that describe the steps to trigger overlooked game states are useful to me; general or vague comments are not. Generally, this guide details my view of the optimal path through the game—but there are many valid playstyles besides my own.

This guide designates when quests first become available; those that are first available between 12:01am and 7:29am are found in a Day’s “Early Morning” section, while all others appear under “Quests” and “Points of Interest.” Points of interest detail various vignettes and sidequests often designated by circles on the map, while Quests detail main tasks designated with unique icons on the map and the mindmap.

In a way, this guide is antithetical to the intended experience of Pathologic: one that involves overcoming overwhelming odds and accepting failure. Ice-Pick Lodge has finely tuned a truly oppressive yet thought-provoking experience, with a core narrative about human connection with one another and with the world around us. If you use this guide at all, I hope you do so sparingly.

Because Pathologic is a mystery narrative at heart, I’ve written this guide to be as spoiler-free as possible. To communicate certain questlines, however, some spoilers are inevitable.

Steam’s character limits have forced me both to split this guide up into more sections than I would have cared for and to combine sections that would otherwise be distinct. I’ve done my best to make the guide navigable despite those restrictions.

Because of the nature of Pathologic 2, this guide refers to depictions of death—adult, child, animal, and otherwise—suicide, mutilation, gore, epidemic, and a number of other sensitive topics. Please view at your discretion.

As for updates, I hope to continue exploring certain uncommon game states and to write an index with more specific trading information—prices, barter values, and the like—and other useful reference information. Specific recommendations are helpful.

Map, Inventory, People, and Mindmap

Map

The map is essential to navigating the Town; it’s easy to get lost in its winding streets. As you explore and receive new quests and hints, your map will fill up with various markers to guide your progress. You can also right-click on any point of the map to place a custom marker.

Quest markers will have a unique symbol, while points of interest will be designated with a circle. Drinking Twyrine will reveal points of interest marked by swirls. You can click on Quest markers to view the corresponding mindmap entry.

Shops are colored yellow on the map; buildings specific to quests and points of interest are colored brown. As you discover the homes of main characters, their houses will be colored red. Those of dead characters are colored grey. Characters at risk of infection will have their houses outlined in orange, while those who are infected will have their houses outlined in red. Hovering over these buildings will give you a tooltip showing the name of the building and its inhabitants.

Hovering over individual districts will show the name of the district as well as your reputation there—hated, unwelcome, indifferent, respected, and so on.

Once the epidemic begins, you’ll mark infected districts in red and burned districts in grey as you find them. Any infected districts you found on the previous day will automatically be marked as burned the next day. Starting on Day 5, you can barter for a map of all the current infected districts with a teenager at the Soul-and-a-Half Fortress in the Warehouses.

While walking around Town, you can hold Ctrl to “Concentrate,” which will show you the direction of your map markers relative to you.

Inventory

Pathologic 2 uses a grid-based inventory system. Items can’t be rotated, so you’ll need to be proficient at inventory Tetris; you can often shuffle around items that take only one slot to fit others that take two or more. You can also split stacks of items by shift-clicking the stack in question.

You start out with a fairly limited inventory, but will get an upgrade during a quest on Day 2. Later that day, you’ll get access to the ability to upgrade and expand your inventory with various sewing resources.

People

This screen shows you all the main characters you’ve met thus far, as well as your relationship with those characters. Depending on their statuses, there will be a designation under their portraits for whether they’re in danger of infection, are infected, or are dead. If you’ve given a character prophylactics, a checkmark will appear over their portrait as well. As your relationship with certain characters changes over the course of the story, some portraits may relocate to different sections of this screen.

Mindmap

In place of a traditional journal or quest log, you have the mindmap—a collection of thoughts and memories strung together to form Artemy’s impressions of the story and his desire to finish certain tasks. Quests are outlined in red on this screen; clicking on them will show their corresponding marker on the map. Missed opportunities will be displayed in yellow. Note that a missed opportunity does not necessarily mean that you did something wrong; certain choices or story beats will naturally cut off different opportunities.