Tape 3: Happy Birthday
Main House: This tape can't be found until about midway through the game, probably what would be labeled as act 2 of 3 if this game was separated by acts. You will come across it through natural progression, so don't sweat it too much. When you have to go to the child's room on the second floor of the main house, you'll have to up to the attic. Once you climb the ladder up to the attic, there'll be a closet right in front of you. Open it and you'll find the tape.
Bonus: If you complete the next tape in 5 minutes, you'll get an achievement/trophy! The tape can be replayed once you complete it, so you don't have to worry about doing it your first time.
This tape will require you to think a bit. If you want to figure it out by yourself, scroll down to the next tape below! It's not super hard but it may take some time for you to figure it all out. Once the tape starts, you'll be locked in a dark room with a candle. Walk around and get a feel for the area. Your goal is to get the lit candle to the cake without the flame being extinguished by the rigged up showers in the doorway.
Once you've walked up to the cake for the first time, you can begin the puzzle. First things first, you'll want to move over to the box on the wall in the cake room that's opposite of the cake. It has a lock with a series of pictures on it. The combination can be found by fishing a telescope out of a toilet next to the clown. You'll need to wash the telescope off by walking under the sprinklers while holding it. Then aim the telescope at the wall of screens across from the kitchen. If you're too lazy to fish the telescope out, the combination is the man about to hang himself, the gravestone with the bird on it, and the baby (you can find an image below). The box will open and a figure made of straw/wood will be given to you. Take it to the stove in the other room and turn it on. Light the figure on fire and it'll reveal a finger. Take the finger over to the clown you saw when you began the tape. Put it on his left hand (your right).
Next, go back to the stove and light your candle. Take the candle into the room with the door that has a rope on the doorknob. Burn the rope with the candle. This next part might seem slightly overwhelming but it's pretty easy. You're now in a room filled with blown up balloons and you must find one small, deflated balloon! The balloon you're looking for is right next to the white table/desk looking thing on the right side of the room.
Take the balloon and exit the room, right across from the cake room is a wall with a hole in it. There should be a pipe protruding from this wall with air or gas coming out of it. Put the balloon over it and blow it up until it pops. Congrats, you now have an ink quill sticking out of your chest and a nail in your hand! Take the quill to the clown and put it in his right left hand (your right).
Go back to the cake room, go to the barrel on the table and take out the wind-up spring. Bring it back to the clown and put it in his chest. The clown will then grab your arm and carve the word LOSER into it. Travel back to the balloon room and go to the door at the end of the room. Enter the word LOSER into the lock, grab the valve off the wall, and return to the cake room.
Once you're back in the cake room, look left and put the valve on the pipe and turn it. The water should now be turned off. Light your candle with the stove (you'll want to back up when you start the stove again) and put it on the cake. The rest of the tape is completely scripted and there's nothing you can do to prevent it. You may want to remember some key details from this tape as they may come up again in a later puzzle despite this tape being optional.
Tape 4: Old Videotape
This one is literally unmissable. This is part of the story and I'll let you play through it on your own to see what happens. You won't need much guidance as it's a pretty linear section.
If you played all these tapes to completion, you should unlock the Be Kind, Please Rewind achievement/trophy! If you're looking for more Resident Evil 7 guides, we have a guide showing all 20 locations of the Mr. Everywhere bobbleheads that can be found in the game! We'll have more guides for the antique coins and more coming soon!
For some strange reason, Resident Evil 7 has an obsession with VHS tapes despite the game being set in 2017. Come on, we all know even the Baker family would own a Blu-Ray player or at the very least a DVD player! Despite their weird reliance on VHS tapes, they have a unique purpose! They serve as hidden/secret playable levels that give additional story and gameplay but you have to do some legwork to get your hands on these tapes.
We've made a small guide for all VHS tape locations so you can quickly find all of them without needing to do any extensive searching. You will come across most of them when progressing through the story, but just in case you overlook one you can find all of the locations below! You'll also find some walkthroughs of the tapes in case you need any help!
Tape 1: Derelict House Footage
Guest House: The first tape in the game is found in the guest house (the first building you enter in the game), go through the kitchen and up the stairs and it'll be sitting on a table to your right. Take the tape downstairs and into the room with the static TV. Walk up to the TV and place the tape in the VCR. It is very important that you play the tape here because you will lose the tape shortly after this point and you can't return back to the guest house.
If you played the demo for the game, this tape will look very familiar. It is the exact same tape featured in the demo. There's no puzzle solving here, just follow your fellow Sewer Gators through the house and that's it!
Tape 2: Mia
Main House: Once you've been introduced to the Baker family, you're free to explore the house. After unlocking the door to the foray, you'll see a set of stairs Go up them and go to the door on the left, take a left and then a right and go to the rec room on the right at the end of that part of the hallway. The tape will be sitting conveniently to the left of the TV. Pop it the VCR and you'll be put in the shoes of Mia, the main character's wife.
Bonus: If you make it through this tape without being spotted, you'll net yourself an achievement/trophy!
This tape is also pretty easy, but it's very creepy and tense. You're being chased by Margarite Baker through the creped old house so you must outthink her and hide from her to escape. We can't tell you exactly where she'll be, but if you see her lantern or shadow crouch down behind a box, table, or anything! If you have a PSVR, you can tilt your body/head to peek out from behind an object to see where Margarite is so you have a slight advantage. You're not invisible while doing this though, so don't stick out too far or for too long or she'll spot you. Your goal is to make it to the room with the shadow puzzle of a spider. Once you're in there, walk out to the balcony and search for the figure you need to complete the puzzle.
There's no way to explain how to do a shadow puzzle, but we can give you a tip! Don't focus on the actual object because it will never look like a spider. Look at the shadow in the background and twist and turn until it somewhat resembles the spider. Once the passageway opens, crawl through and make your way for the crawlspace on the other side of the room. Margarite typically appears here so you may need to duck behind the boxes in that part of the room.
Once you make your way through the crawlspace, you've finished the tape!
Next Page: Happy Birthday tape and Tape 4.
